[Red Sands: In Search of the Scarlet Dawn]

There was a storm named Sasori in the dwelling she was quickly coming to think of as home. The feeling lingered long after that fateful breakfast and long after that seemingly honest question had been asked. What’s wrong with her? A clear cut reminder of just how different she was, since that strange phenomena known as reincarnation and memories of another soul cycle. It was almost funny how she’d tricked herself into thinking she was over it all.

How easy was it to forget that she’d seemingly died and was living a new life different to everything and anything she had truly known?

Not that easy, it seemed, and Sakura could only sigh and stare at the books stacked at her desk, knowing then that she wouldn’t be able to sit and read through them all as she’d wished to. Her thoughts would sooner eat her alive than allow her to do something so mundane.

“You didn’t answer my earlier question, you know.” Were the words which greeted her as she stepped out of her room. She stiffened at the sound of the voice she would never probably be able to forget fully. There were lines on this Sasori’s face – proof he was a living, breathing human being rather than a puppet made to live forever. He was flesh and blood rather than porcelain and clay, and that was a stark change, or so she tried to reassure herself. Sasuke was different. Why couldn’t Sasori be so vastly different as well?

“Excuse me?” she mumbled, wracking her brain back to their breakfast table conversation – if that could be called a conversation, that was. She had barely contributed to that conversation beyond saying what was ‘wrong’ with her.

“Who do I need to kill?” Sasori asked, and there was no joke hidden away in those brown eyes of his. “You used to be all too eager to tell me which of your insipid classmates would get what was coming to them… yet now…”

“You know why I’m acting so different to how you remember me,” she stated, folding her arms across her chest. “I told you, after all… and you don’t need to kill anyone – not that I could even point you in the right direction. I don’t remember whatever it is that happened.” She scowled at the reminder of that; the ongoing war of the answer to that question as to whether she just couldn’t remember being tormented to the point of undergoing Negative Mana Reflux, or as to whether something else entirely had happened. She hated being in the dark – hated that insidious feeling that her mind was working against her, when that was usually her last bastion of trust and stability.

“Pity, that,” he murmured, and Sakura could only step around him, hairs on the back of her neck standing up on end as Sasori fell in step with her. “Where might you be going right now, darling niece of mine?”

“What business is it of yours?” she shot back, pausing in the wake of the silence which followed, part of her acknowledging that, perhaps, she was being a bit too harsh on the man she called uncle. “I’m, uh, not used to people butting into my business,” she tried, earning herself one perfectly sculpted red eyebrow arching up.

“You’re not used to people butting into your business… then what do you call those infernal little imps – your brothers, I mean – if not people?” he demanded, and Sakura could only blink at the realisation that her brothers were annoyingly good at sticking their noses in where they didn’t quite belong.

“Uh…”

“You seem to have some issue with myself personally, or perhaps you aren’t too fond of newcomers. I suppose I am a stranger to your… unique… perspective,” he acknowledged, and Sakura was hit with the wave of realisation that her uncle Sasori was actually quite rational. It was almost alarming to think that about anyone named Sasori, more so one who was the spitting image of his counterpart in the world she remembered.

“I’m going to exercise,” she said matter-of-factly. “Nothing interesting.”

“Apart from the fact that I have never seen you, of all my delightful relatives, exercise before,” he said. “Otherwise, yes, very uninteresting.”

“I don’t think watching someone run around the training grounds and wave a sword about is particularly interesting,” she grumbled, thinking of the embarrassment she would feel at Sasori, of all people, seeing her sweaty and comically out of breath. Not least because she’d been able to defeat him in one universe, and she had the distinct feeling that she would be incapable of doing so that time around. Her fitness had improved from the shambles it had been in when she had first arrived, yet it was a far cry away from what she had once been capable of, and Sakura was hardly about to deny that very fact which felt as though it might as well have been staring at her in the face.

“Shame, and here I was thinking I’d try to impart some of your mother’s homeland dagger techniques to her beloved only daughter,” Sasori said, sounding so infinitely disappointed then that she couldn’t help but wince at how utterly unsubtle he was being. “Pity. It seems you aren’t interested in them.”

“I wouldn’t be opposed to learning some dagger techniques,” Sakura shot back, salivating ever so slightly at the thought of smaller, more easy concealed weapons and the proper techniques to use them with. Kunai and shuriken couldn’t be used the same way, similar to the differences there were between single bladed swords and double-edged blades. She would be a fool to turn down lessons in a weapon she had never used before.

“Would you now?” One red brow quirked up, a sardonic expression carving itself out on her uncle’s face. “Excellent. I suppose that means I’ll get to spend more time with my delightful niece who’s so happy to be interacting with her darling uncle,” he said, and then his hands were on her shoulders, pushing her towards the familiar path to the training grounds.

“Some daggers as gifts for your delightful niece wouldn’t go amiss,” she remarked, somewhat reluctantly allowing herself to be directed towards the training grounds she had already been heading for. Only it seemed as though she no longer had a choice in the matter of her training. Yet more training, no matter who it was with, could only be a good thing for her.

“I must say, this personality of yours suits you,” he said, and Sakura could help the way those words made her heart waver, as with anything which mentioned what she had once previously behaved like. Idly, she wondered if she would ever overcome that feeling of longing and disgust which all too often liked to plague her whenever thoughts of the past came to the forefront of her mind.

“You prefer me over whoever was here before, eh?” she grumbled, unable to stop the tinge of sourness that brought to both her voice and her mood.

“That would be highly illogical, seeing as you’re still you.” A hand ruffled her hair, and Sakura blinked, unable to compute the motion with Sasori. “Somebody simply dared to harm you, and believe me, darling niece, I intend to find out exactly who and deal with them as scum like that should be dealt with.”

“And if I told you not to?” she asked, wondering what his answer would be to that. “To leave it alone? Would you?”

“Of course not,” he said flatly.

“Not even if I said that it’s because I’d be more than happy to take care of things myself?” she questioned, stopping alongside her uncle in the corridor, harsh green eyes meeting the brown ones which widened in surprise.

Laughter belted out through the air, and Sakura couldn’t hide the shiver which ran down her spine at the glint of madness in his eyes. So similar to what she had seen, despite the fact those eyes had been nothing more than a doll’s eyes, supposedly glassy and lifeless. Sasori, no matter the universe, always seemed to defy expectations. “My,” he murmured. “I would love to say that you take after your mother, but that streak of viciousness is more something which would belong to me. Mebuki was always the sweet one, you see. The one who got me to stay my hand. I always thought her daughter would be more like her… like mother, like daughter, or so they like to say. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have my expectations subverted.”

“You’re still going to teach me daggers, correct?” she demanded, doing her best not to show just how perturbed she was by the sudden outburst of emotions from her uncle.

Sasori grinned – an expression she had honestly never seen before on his face. “Come along, darling niece. There’s much for you to learn.”

She stared at the two daggers she had been gifted as promised, taking a moment to stare at the sheaths they were in – all leather and decorated tastefully. It was a far cry away from the simple yet effective kunai she was used to. Then again, she could hardly be surprised by such a thing at that point in her life in that strange distorted mirror of a world. She felt their weight in her palms, freezing in the midst of posing with her new daggers as her second eldest brother walked into her room.

“I guess I should have knocked?” he mumbled, and Sakura felt her cheeks heat up at that.

“What are you doing here?” she grumbled, sliding her newly acquired daggers carefully back into the sheaths, hating the bright red blush she could feel spreading across her cheeks to the very tips of her ears.

“Aw. Should I be offended that my darling sister forgot about the lessons that her dear older brother promised her?” Ren asked, tilting his head, looking oddly coy as he played with the ends of his long pink hair.

“What are we learning today?” she demanded, staring at him, previous embarrassment forgotten even as her brother beckoned her closer with a finger.

“Come along, my dear student – it’s library time,” he said. “Which means it’s mostly theory we’ll be covering today, what with how father might actually murder me if I did anything to his precious library.”

“It’s our library, isn’t it?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow at her brother, somewhat grateful for the fact it would be a theoretical lesson. She was exhausted enough form her uncle’s brand of training earlier that same day.

“I suppose, but father is the one who’s been expanding our repertoire of books most recently. Neither myself nor Ichiro have been able to contribute much to it just yet.” He tilted his head. “There’s a thought. Maybe I should figure out a research topic and publish a book or a paper on it?” A grin curled at his lips, even as he skipped towards the library and its moderately concealed entrance.

“Wouldn’t you have to write a book before you published it, brother?”

“Right you are, sister,” he said, looking relatively unfazed by the idea of writing an entire book and publishing it. “But for now, I’ll settle for teaching you some more about mana pathways, and mana breathing.” He pushed open the door to the library, ushering her inside.

A shiver ran down her spine, the shadows of the library seeming to loom that much darker and longer as sunset funny settled into the room. “Where abouts are we headed?” she asked, waiting for Ren to lead the way to whatever sector of the library he thought best.

“Come now, sister. Surely you’ve visited enough times to know where the magic or mana section is?” he asked, stepping around her and plunging through the towering shelves of book. “It’s where we always go whenever I have something new and interesting to teach you in this library.”

“You’ve made your point,” she grumbled, following him along to the purple-carpet section of the library. The place both she and Ren usually made themselves comfortable within.

“And what an excellent point it is,” he said, cheery grin fixed in place. “Come. Sit,” he ordered, indicating then to the armchair closest to him. “We might as well have a discussion and a question session so that you can learn all there is to learn about the chosen topics.”

“Mana pathways and mana breathing?” she asked, watching as he nodded with a grin, waiting for her outpour of questions. “I know a little about mana pathways already from the book you gave me.”

“Any questions?”

“None so far,” she said. “It seems pretty easy to understand. I’m more interested in learning some more about whatever this mana breathing is. It sounds like a technique.”

“Well, you’re right in that respect – it is a technique,” he explained, sinking back in his own armchair ever so slightly as he came into what she had long since learnt to be his element. “A meditative technique to help with clearing the mana pathways and circling your mana. I figured they go hand in hand—”

“REN!” their father’s voice echoed throughout the house, and Sakura could only blink at that. Her father didn’t sound angry, so she supposed Ren hadn’t done anything which merited being summoned for a scolding.

“Uh oh,” her brother mumbled. “Looks like I’m being summoned. Sorry, Sakura. If I’d known this was going to happen I would have rearranged this promised lesson of mine.” He frowned at that, looking so disappointed then that she actually felt the slight need to reassure him.

“If father’s calling for you, then it’s probably serious. Go,” she said, shrugging and trying to look as unbothered as possible – never mind the fact that she was rather disappointed she couldn’t learn anything else from her brother that evening. “I can explore the library for something interesting to read until you can find some time to teach me more.”

“I’m still getting used to you being such a good student… and so understanding,” he muttered under his breath. “Thanks, sis,” he said, and Sakura found her hair being ruffled a second time by another family member. Truly, it was slightly unnerving how much her family members liked to use the word ‘darling’ and how prone they were to ruffling her hair. “I’ll drag you back to the library another time – or maybe I can teach you how to perform mana breathing, now there’s an idea.”

“Mhm, ‘kay. Now go and see what father wants,” she said, watching as her brother hurried out of the library, the door behind him closing with a click which sounded rather final and eerie. “Let’s find me a book to read,” she mumbled to herself, wandering down an aisle of shelves and sighing softly as nothing seemed to catch her eye. She didn’t want anything too dry to read, and all of the titles she was seeing looked to be just that. She ran a finger across the titles of the many tomes, quietly revelling in the fact that there was no dust on them – something, perhaps, to ask Ren about, the next she saw him. Somehow, she had little doubt he would have an answer for that. Or perhaps Ichiro would? She tilted her head, eyes narrowing on the title of the book her finger had found itself resting on.

Daemons Most Foul: A Grimoire.

She blinked, acutely aware then, that at some point she had left the purple section of the library and had entered the dark red section. She paused for a moment, silently debating whether or not she wanted to read that book, something niggling at the back of her mind at that, even as her hand found itself pulling the tome free from the shelf. She set it down on the reading ledge, flipping it open and staring at the shadowy creatures drawn on each page with a gruesome detail to them. Her gut churned at the sight of those pictures, and she could only blink as a drop of red splashed down on the page.

Her hand went to her nose, the pain she felt there suddenly becoming that much more acute, even as her fingers came away stained in red. “What?” she mumbled, tasting copper as she stumbled back away from the book, the shelf it had come from suddenly seeming that much more ominous.

A growl rent the silence of the library, her heart leaping in her throat then, the frantic thud-thud of her heart making her hands tremble. Something was there. The shadow she could see, cast by the light in the centremost corridor, told her that she was no longer alone in the library.

Shadows moved and twisted, seeming to bubble as she idly wondered exactly when the amber sunlight had turned to grey. The world darkened, as if a cloud had blocked the sun, and she swallowed thickly at that. She needed to get out of there. Sakura wasn’t certain where the thought came from, fear making her heart beat that much faster, panic making her gasp despite the way she tried to rationalise exactly what was going on.

Yet she had no clue as to what was going on.

She thought of a door, carved with an unfamiliar sigil, part of her wondering why it made her heart beat that much quicker, fear suffusing through her.

Movement caught her eye, and she froze, abruptly spotting one of her brothers walking down the centremost aisle – the one she wasn’t on best terms with, no less. “Itsuki?” she called, relief seeping through her amidst the cold and darkness which was slowly beginning to seep into her bones. Even if he wasn’t on the best terms with her, there was someone else there in that library which seemed so ominous all of a sudden. Or maybe it was all a figment of an overactive imagination?

She reached out for her brother, freezing as something gelatinous and inky dripped onto her arm. “Oh,” she murmured, staring then into her brother’s blank white eyes. “Itsuki,” she pleaded, shivers curling down her spine as she dared to look up then just in time for a wave of inky black rain to descend upon the both of them. “Itsuki, wake up!” she screamed, voice lost to the din around them, even as her brother only blankly looked up to the ceiling and smiled.

Dizziness hit her, each black drop that landed on her skin making the world spin that much more. Blackness tinted the corners of her vision, part of her only able to watch as that gelatinous rain seemed to climb up her arms, its true intent unknown, before the darkness consumed her whole.