[Red Sands: In Search of the Scarlet Dawn]

Why bother? That insidious voice whispered to her in her head as she sat in the library, reading a book on the sly about demons. She didn’t know whether that voice was real – whether it was something of her own mind’s making, or whether it was that thing inside her, affecting her in ways she hadn’t thought possible.

She didn’t know which she would prefer.

Being a puppet was bad enough on its own without whatever was inside of her quite possibly whispering to her mind as well. Yet her puppet strings only came to tug when she was around others more so than when she was alone, she had come to figure out. Though that did nothing to change the fact that those puppet strings still existed, whether she liked them or not.

“Demons feed off mana and blood,” she read aloud, heart pounding in her chest as she wondered whether or not she was being watched. Whether or not she was a ‘threat’ to the demon which had somehow slipped by the wards that were supposed to be protecting her home. Yet she didn’t understand enough about warding – didn’t understand enough of the logic of that world – to be able to work things out by herself. And by herself she was, cut off and isolated from help by her own body itself. “The main reason that humanity cannot coexist with such beings.”

Shudders ran down her spine, a familiar drop of black liquid heralding the arrival of what she presumed to be the main body of the demon. Her hairs were stood up on end, she noted, as was always the case whenever the bulk of that slime demon – or whatever its proper name was – was nearby. A sign that it was there to torment her, or whatever it was that the creature wanted from her. Was it already feeding on her mana, as the book said? She didn’t know, and it grated on her.

What do you want? She wanted to demand of that black, gelatinous blob which shouldn’t have been nearly as menacing as it was. That was, if she was at the strength she had once been at. Yet she wasn’t, and a part of her bubbled, simmered, and festered with rage. She wanted to crush that blob into nothingness, ensure that sole red eye never opened again, but it was the puppeteer and she merely the puppet who danced to its whims. The same whims that would never wish for its own self-destruction.

“Soon,” it promised, inky tendrils seeming to pet at her hair almost tenderly as she sat there on her stool, books on demons piled up next to her, and she could have sworn the thing was smiling at her – the fact it didn’t have teeth or lips not withstanding.

As quickly as that monster had come, it left, a puddle of viscous black goo vanishing into the floorboards without a sign of its passing. Part of her slumped in relief at that, the other part of her frantically wondering about what it meant by soon. Soon what? Soon she would become its dinner? Soon it would be finished with whatever it wanted there? She could only grit her teeth and fume to the best of her ability. Helplessness was not something she enjoyed feeling – not after she had grown from the genin in the Forest of Death she had once been.

The door to the library clicked open, part of her cursing at the only person it could be. Phantom strings tugged at her limbs, a smile which wasn’t of her own making curling at her lips gently, even as her eyes remained focused on the book in front of her. Demons could possess living hosts or corpses – the fresher the better, she read, feeling a familiar green-eyed stare fixing upon her and the books she had stacked up beside her.

“Sister,” Ren greeted.

“Brother,” she replied, it being something she was allowed to say. Certainly, she couldn’t beg for help – couldn’t tell someone about the demon possessing her and Itsuki or just speak about demons in general. Whatever was suppressing her free will had only – or, perhaps, could only – restrict her in certain ways barring a complete overtaking of her body. It wasn’t particularly smart in terms of acting ordinarily, at least for a human. That was why she had a sliver of hope that her brother might spot something odd and investigate.

Yet he hadn’t known her as she was for too great of a length of time, and he seemed to be treading on eggshells around her.

“I thought you said you had given up on your researching of demons,” Ren said gently, fingers drifting towards the books she had selected out, twitching as though he wished to take them off her hands.

“I wanted to read,” she answered, the familiar weight of a restriction coming to rest on her tongue as she thought of what she wanted to tell him about the reason behind her frantic interest in all things demonic.

“But why those books?” he asked, frowning as he took in the numerous titles she had absconded with from the shelves. “I thought you would have been more interested in magic… mana and its many uses.”

“Then evidently you don’t know me very well,” she said, wishing she could have said something besides that going from the crushed look on Ren’s face. Those words would only make him that much more unsure of what her brother truly knew about her. She tilted her head. Maybe whatever offshoot of that demon within her had more sense and cunning than she thought? “Why are you here, brother?”

“It’s a library, dear sister,” he answered softly, gesturing to the towering bookcases around the little reading section. “Am I not allowed to come and read?”

She stared at him, willing herself not to say anything before she turned back to her book with a sigh. It didn’t seem that he would be figuring things out anytime soon. Yet she couldn’t simply wait around to be rescued. She was a source of food to the monstrous being roaming their household, and her family weren’t spared from being the exact same thing. Soon, it had promised, and Sakura had no idea what was coming her way. There was no time to wait around, she had long since decided, her brain still trying to race to figure out a solution.

Yet to do anything, she first had to be free of the thing possessing her, and she had yet to come across any clear-cut method of self-exorcising herself just yet. Anything she had already scoured seemed to require another person who had loosened their holy gate who was also aware that she had been possessed. Could Ren use holy magic? She frowned, knowing that he could definitely use water and earth. Ichiro, on the other hand, could definitely use holy magic to some degree. Whether it was enough to exorcise a demon was another question entirely. One she couldn’t ask her brother, thanks to her irritating state of being possessed.

Movement caught her eye, the seat opposite her pulled out as a stack of books on magic were levitated down on the table opposing her.

“Do you have any questions, sister?” Ren locked eyes with her across the table.

“I thought you weren’t answering them when it came to this?” she spoke, eyes darting to her stack of old-looking books. They were thick, pages having an unfamiliar weight to them, the words sometimes handwritten rather than printed. Something which pointed to it being an uncommon book, one not as mass-produced as the rest.

“Well, seeing as you’re not heeding my advice, and I can hardly ban you from the library…” he trailed off, shaking his head, and Sakura almost wanted to feel angry at the idea of her brother trying to ban her from the library – the one place she might be able to find answers. Yet she couldn’t muster the will to. A side-effect of her ongoing possession, or so she liked to think: an unending pit of exhaustion and stress. “The least I can do is ensure you are learning the correct things. There is some outdated information in those books, particularly Hikari Namikaze’s Treatise on Demonic Possession.” Green eyes narrowed. “There seems to be a very specific topic you’re going for… There’s more to demons than simply their ability to possess you and I.”

Sakura sighed softly, knowing then that a hopeful hint had gone straight over his head.

“Is this to do with those hallucinations of yours?”

Her fingers gripped the edges of the next page that much more precariously, knuckles turning bone white as those puppet strings tightened their grip on her with vengeance. “No,” she said flatly, eyes fixed upon the first line of the newest page she had turned to.

Specific demons have preferences for the host they wish to possess.

“Are you sure about that?” Ren asked, those green eyes still staring at her ever so earnestly.

As a general rule of thumb, it can be said that lower-ranking demons prefer to possess corpses; the fresher the better, whilst higher-ranking demons prefer to overtake a living host, subsuming their will wholly.

“If you’re here to read, then read,” she stated, sighing softly as those puppet strings slackened their grip on her as the conversation drifted away from the forbidden topic of demons. “I have not seen anything out of the ordinary recently, and I can be certain that I am sound of mind,” she said, musing then on the fact that she had been possessed, was, in some ways, the proof she had sorely needed to be certain of her own sanity. It was almost morbidly amusing what her standards had become.

“Very well, sister,” Ren murmured, a soft sigh escaping him then, and Sakura felt her shoulders sink in relief. Her thumb traced over the words she was reading, hairs on the back of her neck prickling under the green-eyed stare she was still being subjected to.

Anomalies, however, do exist – exceptions to every rule, so it is wise to take heed.

Nevertheless, a single demon has a single preferences, and once it has made itself known, you can be certain that it will seek out its preferred kind of host, barring all other options failing.

“Living hosts,” she mumbled under her breath, committing then, the fact that the demon she was currently possessed by undoubtedly had a preference for living hosts. Something niggled at the back of her brain at that, an idea she couldn’t quite grasp a hold of just yet.

“Something you need help with?” her brother asked, one pink brow raised in question, even as those green eyes watched her far too warily for her liking.

“No,” her mouth moved for her, and her gaze returned to her book once more, reading on and on long into the afternoon. She wasn’t allowed to ask for help, nor was she to agree to receiving it. Part of her had already grown numb to the well of frustration that churned.

“Ah, there you are.” Dark eyes fixed on her as she exited the library long after Ren had come and gone once more. “It’s almost like you’ve been avoiding me,” her uncle remarked. “Though I suppose spending some time with the other brats has been enjoyable enough – when your father hasn’t been bothering me for my opinion on those matters which have been keeping him locked up in that study for some days now.”

She glanced over at Sasori, part of her barely resisting the urge to sigh at the sight of him smirking at the blatant interest in her gaze at the mention of her father. “He’s been missing most meals besides dinner,” she said, folding her arms.

“Then perhaps you ought to bring him tea and see what the matter is,” he said. “Then again, perhaps not. They do seem to be very cautious with you right now, not that I don’t understand why.” Brown eyes glanced down the corridor.

“What exactly is going on?” she asked, folding her arms and pinning her uncle with her best stare, grateful then, that those puppet strings hadn’t tightened and started pulling just yet. She was free for the meantime, yet the feeling of those strings never left her, odd as they were to try and describe. It wasn’t like they were physical strings, after all. Otherwise she would have already cut them and freed herself.

“Demonic activity,” Sasori answered succinctly. “There have been increased reports of activity on the very fringes of the Haruno Territory. Nothing for you to concern yourself with, but there is a mystery at hand, and your father may very well soon be leaving the estate to attempt to solve the issue at its source.”

At once, the restrictions came upon her, the mention of the word demon bringing them to the very forefront of it all.

A smile which wasn’t hers curled at her lips, her eyes – the only thing she could really move right then and there – fixing on the walk ahead of them.

“Nothing to say to that?” One red brow quirked up. “I am well aware you’ve been quite frantic about the topic… until very recently, perhaps,” he murmured, one finger tapping at his chin as he side-eyed her.

“No,” she said placidly, something hope welling up behind that façade of normalcy the demon possessing her tried to wear. Would the strange Sasori of that world be able to tell? Then again, he hadn’t known her for as long as her brother’s had – as she was right then, that was.

“Curious,” Sasori remarked. “Tell me when you would like you next lesson in daggers. I have a duty to pass your mother’s teachings onto you.”

“I am quite busy,” the thing controlling her stated. “I will have to get back to you later on that much. If you will excuse me, I should be back off to my room now.” Her feet carried her away, hairs on the back of her neck prickling beneath the weight of the brown eyes she could feel boring holes into her back.