Was he afraid? Absolutely fucking not! But was being caught by Uchiha Sasuke who, loathe as he was to admit it (seriously, it was like swallowing acid) had beaten him last time and no doubt grown stronger since, highly likely to land him some dingy Konoha cell? Absolutely fucking yes!
And like bloody screaming hell was he going to be subjected to that, or some kind of little pissbaby ‘rehabilitation program’—or worse, therapy. Oh yeah, he’d heard that was the new in thing in the Leaf. Maybe that was why Sasuke himself seemed so relaxed, so waxen, so Nothing. Sure, he’d been a little like that last time, too—but back then, Deidara could smell the hatred, the killing intent, the absence of anything besides his goal. It had crackled in the air so deliciously, making his hair stand on end, and for all it had made him feel so woefully overlooked, it had at least been an admirable quality in a foe.
But now? Now he was probably just some subdued Konoha hound mopping up the mess, wasn’t he? There was no sign of his little bitch squad from back in the day, after all. And if he was correct in his suspicions, then this guy would see the likes of Deidara put in a cell.
So he ran. With one hand chewing furiously on clay while his other arm swung to knock aside a few unfortunate townspeople here and there, he needed to make it to an open spot where nobody could interfere with his flying C1 mount. Even this plan, admittedly—compared to his recent track record that had kept him well under the Five Nations’ radars—wasn’t subtle… but there was just something about coming face to face with an Uchiha that lit a rocket under his ass.
And there was also something about that pointed goading that wormed its way right beneath his skin, just as it was supposed to. He skidded to a halt where crowds gathered in the busy marketplace, very much in his way, and he tutted to himself sharply before his darting gaze fixed on the other, luridly cyan. Clearly neither wished to cause too much of a stir, but Deidara was hardly averse to it either.
Actually… he was getting a little excited.
❝Afraid?! Of you?! Pffaahahaha! Get real!!❞ Deidara hollered, grin so manically livid that people began to take note of the distinctly unhinged energy about him and avoided getting too close. ❝I’m not here for a catch-up, mm. I’ve got a job to do. So if you don’t fucking mind—❞
With a single hand seal concealed within his sleeve, his jutsu was prepared… and it wasn’t exactly the initial escape plan, either. Having yelled at the Uchiha, several likenesses of the Iwa-nin split suddenly off in numerous directions while the clay clone in the middle of the crowd launched itself towards Sasuke himself, intending to smother him in clay and hinder his movements. Meanwhile, the real Deidara was off elsewhere, leaping up some low canopies to pass one gaggle of punters and dip into a less populated alleyway, where he ran aimlessly through a warren-like network of paths until he came across a communal space lined with dumpsters.
And god, it fucking reeked.
But he had no choice but to catch his breath and calm down before he took flight, otherwise the altitude would surely do him in.
Truth be told, Sasuke didn’t exactly want to put Deidara in a prison. Or subject him to therapy--the thought didn’t even cross his mind; Sasuke wouldn’t subject his worst enemy to therapy against their will. Though he didn’t discount Sakura’s work, and he thought it was valuble, the idea of talking about his emotions and past to a stranger was so abhorrent to him, he couldn’t consider making someone else do it. Either way, there were a lot of reasons why Sasuke wouldn’t put Deidara in a prison, actually. Deidara had always just struck him as someone who was not really... malicious, so to speak. So not a huge threat, in terms of Deidara going around murdering everyone. Also, Sasuke didn’t really feel like a prison would be effective to keep Deidara anyway, at least not permanently, so what was the point? Besides, if Deidara wasn’t doing anything dangerous or wrong, he didn’t need to be stopped.
So why was he following Deidara now? Mostly out of boredom. It wasn’t often he found someone that was, well, interesting, a bit of a challenge to fight against, and entertaining, when it came down to it. Sasuke didn’t have much to do right now, and so... why not? He could make a detour from his current self-assigned mission to investigate.
He knew an attack was coming, of course it was, but Sasuke was ready. Darting through the gap in the crowds that was left as Deidara pushed the unfortunate people out of the way, the Uchiha followed quickly, not bothering to apologize either. When Deidara came to a stop, turning to look at him with a wide grin on his face, Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
A job to do. Interesting. Who was Deidara working for? Not overly concerned by the clay Deidaras, Sasuke, jumping back, briefly watched the direction Deidara ran off in before paying more attention to the clones. Drawing Kusanagi, he quickly lead the clones to a more secluded area, so they wouldn’t blow up on anyone, not sure if that was what Deidara intended. Imbuing the sword with lighting chakra, he fought the clones and destroyed them quickly.
Now to find Deidara. He went off in the direction the Iwa-nin had gone, and came to some dumpsters. With a smirk, before Deidara could escape again, Sasuke used Amenotejikara to swap places with the dumpster Deidara was hiding behind, appearing right beside him. No more than a second later, Sasuke quickly pulled out a sealed scroll, opened, and activated it, causing chains to wrap around Deidara--that is, if he hadn’t had a chance to escape in the second it had taken for him to do that.