Blood In The Sand

Rena rushed through the Hidden Sand, wanting to get as far away from the Sand Siblings as she could. Why couldn't anything have a clear-cut answer? Why did everything have to be so complicated!? She was so frustrated, so done with everything that was going on, that she realized; it had been a long time since she relied on people. Someone other than Gaara, that is. She just wanted someone to talk to, and Suno and Tsukiyomi never turned her down for that.

Thinking back, Suno and Tsukiyomi hadn't really been around recently. Sansa had said something about training them, but all she could remember was that Suno was meant to be a medical shinobi. She remembered a greenhouse somewhere in the northwestern part of the Hidden Sand.

It took a few stops to ask for directions, but she finally found herself at the giant, glass doors of the Sand's pride; their medicinal herbs. Although Rena didn't understand much about the village's history, she remembered small parts of what she'd been told every now and again.

As she pushed open the door, she saw Suno, standing beside an older woman. She hid further behind it- which was stupid, considering the fact it was all glass- and peeked over the edge.

Suno, on the other hand, stared down at what he was trying to heal with empty eyes. It'd been days since he'd been home. His frustration bubbled to the surface as he felt like he was worthless; if he couldn't do this, something as stupidly simple as this, what was he really worth? Even in the Chuunin Exams, he barely managed anything. Tsukiyomi took all the weight upon her shoulders.

He'd never really come to peace with the way he'd been created. He was envious of Tsukiyomi. Even though she barely had any emotions, feeling nothing at all is better than being unable to feel anything for anyone but your creator. The only person he cared about was Rena. Did he even want to? If he wasn't forced to, would she really be someone he wanted in his life?

What he was wouldn't let him answer that question. He had no choice. Free will was an illusion. All this time, he'd been trying to grasp other people, pull them closer to him, break his heart free of the chains that Rena had placed on him.

The light in the area was dim. The candle in the room flickered as Suno's head pounded. He grasped it, glancing up to the table. Should he feel sick at what he saw? It was just a corpse, after all. Even when looking at it, he didn't see anything he should care about. It didn't occur to him that it was wrong, or that it shouldn't have happened.

And these memories…

Were they real, or illusions?

If they were real, they couldn't have happened yesterday. He didn't exist yesterday. Who was he? Who did he want to be? These questions were automatically answered in his mind.

He was Suno Akagari.

He existed to protect.

Nothing that would come before, or after, would matter as much as his mission now.

His head thrummed painfully again as he tried to collect his thoughts and form a cohesive sentence in his mind, but his brain was pounding against his skull as if it was begging for escape.

There was so much pain, all over his body.

"Don't move. You'll tear open the stitches." Suno glanced up at the purple-haired girl, her gaze cold.

"Why am I here? I feel… wrong. Why am I alive? This…" The girl pressed a finger to his lips. The closer she got, the stronger his urges got. He realized, quickly, that this is the one he is meant to protect. To serve. "M-Master…" The word stumbled out of his mouth before he could stop it. She was taking over his senses and he didn't like it.

"You're not just a puppet, Suno. You're different inside. Special. I had to put you together with all these different kinds of parts. It wasn't me that brought you back to life, though." On her cheek… was that a tattoo? It was a black spot. He reached his hand up, trying to wipe it off, but it wouldn't smear. "Akito made you different. You're not a false being, Suno. You're real. I disbelieved in what I could do, but Akito's power is intoxicating. Maybe this is my purpose. I lost so much, Suno, that I need something to fill that hole."

"What are you…? Who is Akito?"

"Oh, Suno. You're a part of him. He is a man-made god, just as I will be. Just like my family intended for me."

"I don't understand… it hurts…"

"Rest, Suno. All pain fades with time."

Suno still didn't understand what the Rena of then meant. She was cryptic, barely explaining anything, never stopping. Even then, that was his only chance to rest. Any other request for stopping for anything was denied.

And then, she died.

He'd collapsed. It was as if the world stopped, infinite darkness where he wasn't conscious, and a minute later, he reawakened.

Fifteen years later.

It was as if no time had passed. Only dust settled on his perfectly preserved skin and the first thing he saw was a pair of dead brown eyes staring back at him. Master Sasori had reawakened them in advance, somehow aware of Rena's state. He was taught to speak again, how to walk. Things he had somehow temporarily forgotten, but he learned fast. Tsukiyomi lagged behind, but she was stronger than him. Faster than him.

He had asked Sasori about her, but all he said was that it was better Suno didn't know.

"Who is she?"

"Nobody. Not anymore, at least."

"Why won't you tell me who she really is?"

"Because that's up to Rena, not me."

"Rena would never tell me anything."

Sasori paused for a second, deliberating. "Tsukiyomi was the daughter of a foreigner who fell in love with a member of the Hyuga Clan."

"What…?"

"You have no history. Your body is a bunch of parts and a makeshift soul, Suno." Sasori's words cut deep. "Tsukiyomi was a part of a war over forty years ago, thought dead. Honoured by the Hidden Leaf, but forgotten to time. The only ones who would recognize her are most likely only in the Hyuga. Nothing about her changed. All I did was hollow out some of her body and add more parts. I used a forbidden technique that Rena gave me, brought her back to life without her memories. Tsukiyomi is someone." Sasori turned to Suno. "You are nobody. Nobody misses you. Nobody remembers you. You are all alone in this world. Even if you die, nobody will cry for you. You'll be laid to rest either in an unmarked grave or fed on by crows in a ditch. Is that the answer you were looking for?"

Suno couldn't respond. Although he felt nothing for the man in front of him, he was sure he was supposed to feel hatred. Hatred for saying such cruel things, being so smug about it.

But he couldn't, because Sasori was helping his master. Sasori wasn't hurting his master, so Suno's mind couldn't be upset with him.

Rena herself was an oxymoron. She was supposed to be dead. He remembered her as cruel and uncaring, her desires self-serving at best. Her loyalty to her family was steadfast. He'd never met her family, though. Not until recently.

Yet, when a smaller, younger version of the woman he used to know appeared in front of him, he was afraid. Afraid that he'd go back to being a mindless puppet with no answers, walking around in the dark as choices were made for him.

But she was different. She was just as scared as he was, broken, unable to form cohesive words. As she trembled, in his arms, his senses went wild.

Protect.

Protect.

PROTECT.

And for once, he saw value to the words in his mind. He could actually see himself doing so. The person before him wasn't the person he once knew. He couldn't describe it, but he welcomed the affection he felt for his master. She didn't order him to do anything. She showed her emotions, and it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

All he could do for her was take away her pain.

She stopped trembling when he tampered with her memory. She'd been so afraid, but she'd gone so quiet. He blurred out all of the painful moments, made them hard to remember. Pain didn't have to heal with time. Time was bullshit. If this child was going to die like his previous master, then he wanted more time. More. He didn't want to waste it trying to fix her a different way.

And he was right to do so. The bounce in her step, the happiness, all of it was worth it. She spent a little while with them back at the cabin, with Sasori. He swore he felt… happy. Happy at what looked like misery, at Sasori's expense. Maybe it was just an illusion too, being able to feel freely, but he wanted to believe in it.

He wanted to protect her smile at any cost. It was different to serve someone who was like her, rather than an insane, crazy person who clearly had mommy issues. Of course, there'd been someone who hadn't shared his enthusiasm.

Tsukiyomi.

He couldn't just tell, it was in her actions. She was eager to retrieve her previous Master. Whether she knew it or not, he swore she was changing, as proven with Su. He hoped he was right because being wrong meant that she'd do whatever it took to get their old master back.

He still didn't understand how it was supposed to happen, another thing Sasori didn't explain. All he'd said was, "She won't have the will to resist it. Her mind is weaker than her true self. She'll become a magnum opus again." He didn't get it. But, Rena would have to change… for her to be able to retain her will.

[The Spinning Song - Lizz Robinett]

He felt fear, fear of her being unable to change, fear of life going back to the way it used to be. Fear of being unable to feel for anything but himself and Rena. "Suno, you need to pay attention!" The harsh voice of his teacher cut through his thoughts as he pulled back his hands from the injured squirrel, which had been writhing in pain.

"I'm sorry." He didn't mean it, truly.

"You seem to be stuck in your thoughts. You need to learn self-control. Your mind isn't here, in the moment, where it should be when healing any living creature. What you're doing now only leads to you overwhelming and harming the creature with your unsteady chakra." His teacher, Yukari Ikoma, walked up to him, placing her hands over his. She was immune to his flirting, so he stopped somewhere along the past few days. "It looks like you're more focused on putting it out of its misery than mending its wounds. Even so much as a slight change in your strain of thought can make or break the healing process. Our chakra isn't magical, even if others may think so. It's a tool, meant to be controlled. That also means it can be used as a weapon. We shape the form of this tool. It takes the form of Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, and more. The most important lesson I can teach you is that you're just as capable of hurting the people you want to save if you don't get into the right frame of mind." Yukari was one of the few better medical nin in the unit. After Chiyo's resignation, she became the go-to. She was competent- nothing legendary, though. A good teacher, in Suno's opinion. It was just him that was the problem. Although Suno had chakra, he didn't know much about it. He didn't know much about this world. It's like all the spots that should've been filled with knowledge were blank. Yukari's hands rested on his shoulders as she gave him a soft smile. "I know you can do this, Suno. You have the potential. I am positive that you have large reserves of chakra, you just have trouble focusing. When you need to focus, take a deep breath, in and out, and think of yourself in a beautiful place, with no sound."

"This is stupid."

"Come on, close your eyes."

He shut them. He was trapped in darkness. He didn't like it.

"Think of a location that you've seen in a picture, or in a book, or on a poster, that seems peaceful. A place where you'd like to go. It could be a place where you've been before."

He thought for a moment, before settling on a small waterfall. Stepping stones allowed for passage along the slowly-moving water.

"Now, imagine it without a single sound. You could hear a pin drop."

The leaves of the trees that offered shade over the pond blew in the breeze, swaying back and forth gently. "I can't hear anything, happy?"

"Don't speak. Now, imagine a hummingbird coming right up to your face. It'll flit around, from side to side, before gradually becoming slower."

His imagination began to slow, the flap of the hummingbird's wings slowing as the blur turned from unintelligible to the outline of the bird's wings. He watched in awe as it moved at a regular pace, its wings resembling a fairy's."Let the background fade. Focus solely on the hummingbird, and nothing else." And like that, the background faded away, the only thing remaining the floating hummingbird.

"Now, open your eyes." His eyes slowly opened. Was it just him, or was the world around him brighter? He placed his hands over the squirrel, gathering all of his chakra in his hands as he hovered them over its body. After a few moments, it got up and scampered away. He watched in awe as if it hadn't been wounded in the first place, it climbed up one of the trees in the greenhouse. He could feel a warmth in his chest, and a smile stretched across his face. Usually, he only felt this way if… As he turned around to look at the door, he swore in the distance he could see a flash of purple, but it was gone as soon as he'd noticed it.

Was it just another illusion?

"Suno, are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Can you teach me more?"

Rena couldn't disturb Suno. He was working way too hard for her to bother him! She didn't know where she could find Tsukiyomi, either. It was like, with each passing day, she got further away from the people she wanted to be close to. She didn't know how to close the expanding gap. It felt like there was a hole in her heart and she had no way to fill it.

Sansa dashed through the Hidden Sand, following the path of the man she hated. Kinju was faster than her, for sure, but that was only because he was riding on a literal cloud of blood, ducking and weaving as Sansa was lead on a literal goose chase. As he went in circles, hanging upside down, with one hand in his pocket he gave Sansa a wave and a cocky grin.

"You asshole!"

"You know what they say about not being born a Hikari. You're cursed with lesser blood." Kinju turned down another alley, but Sansa wasn't having it. She ascended to the top of a building, knowing that catching up with him would mean she had to use the knowledge of this terrain better. And, more importantly, chase him out of the village before beating him to a bloody pulp. As she followed him, another joined the fray, floating beside him. His blood was a white-bluish hue. Sansa realized who it was instantly.

If he was here, that was bad. She wasn't so sure she could hold her own against him. Maybe Kinju, for sure, but Yuuto? He absorbed knowledge at a ridiculous rate. The only difference between them was that while she could think up tactics on the fly from the beginning, the longer he stayed in battle, the more dangerous he got.

Not to mention, if threatened enough… the entirety of the Hidden Sand would be in danger. Without a Kazekage or even a ninja that could do the same amount of damage that Sansa could, the village could potentially fall within ten minutes. If Gaara was stronger, he would definitely be able to help, but he was at fledgling level at the moment.

The only other answer to her problem would be Akito.

She shook off the thought. That monster would just be more of a problem. Although it held a vicious hate for the Hikari, that doesn't mean it'd cherish working with Sansa. She looked down at her body, opening her shirt a little.

A black paw-print was tattooed on her collarbone. The sign of the contract with Akito. It was a shitty thought, but if she used it, she wouldn't be able to contact Akito again for reapplication of the contract…

Which meant this would be her only chance. She'd kept herself from aging for long enough. Everyone had to die sometime, and Akito's presence in the food chain warped things unnaturally. Maybe this was fate's way of saying it was time to grow old again.

What was she thinking? Fate had no bearing. Either way, she'd protect the Hidden Sand, even if it was at the cost of her 'immortality.' If she could call it that. All she knew was that Akito's mark was a one-and-done. If you kept it on you, then you wouldn't age past a minute. It's not like it gave you anything else. It wasn't true immortality. You still felt pain. You could still get hurt. You could still die to any mortal blow. It didn't make you any less human.

She'd lived for over two hundred years already. That was more than enough time. More than enough suffering she'd caused other people. Now that Rena was reaching the point where Sansa can train her to withstand what was coming without any distractions and hardships, maybe it was time to finally use Akito's cursed, unnatural power for something other than self-gain.

Sansa wished that she could've told Baki about Akito. She could tell him about anything else, but Akito was unique in the sense that even Sansa had no idea what he was. He'd seen the form of the monster, but what they called him was God.

She'd come to understand that he wasn't a tailed beast. Only those in the Hikari, a few in the higher ranks, were permitted to see him. In fact, after Rena's birth, nobody even mentioned that God of theirs anymore.

Sansa held the crying child in her arms, the seal on her back fading into a skin-color. It cried and cried as if it was in pain, unable to stop its own rain of tears. Sansa didn't understand much. She'd been serving Lady Owari for fifteen years now. Was Sansa born in a room just like this, to a mother who didn't want to look at her child?

A woman who sent someone to leave her on the street and hoped that someone would pick her up and take her home?

Maybe she was lucky Owari found her. Sansa wondered if the child would be loved, or hated, like she was.

All she knew that was despite the beast in this small child's blood, she didn't want the girl to have parents like Sansa's. Sansa wanted to reach above and beyond and be something better than her parents were.

Still… she feared what was inside the child. It was unnatural. A tailed beast at least fit in with the land, but this thing was a void of negative energy, consuming tears like children ate candy. Even as the baby cried, the tears sizzled and burned away, the pain of the heat only causing it to scream more. "Is she going to be alright?"

"That's up to her, Sansa. I gave her our beast. She just needs to survive its gift."

Owari had been a reckless mother. She refused to accept the child until it survived. Thankfully, by some miracle, Rena did. Sansa only hoped that same miracle would allow her to live in this situation.

【 Miku-tan】 [2011] [ENGLISH] E? Aa, Sou.

She grabbed a kunai, and, drawing her arm back, threw it at its mark. It zipped past Yuuto's cloak, which he removed, letting float gently down into the crowd below as he turned. "Hey, Doc, watch the road!" Kinju called, but Yuuto was much more graceful and fluid in his movements as he ducked and weaved, all while his eyes never left Sansa.

He'd already had more than enough time to explore, didn't he? And from that, he probably filled in the empty spaces of the map with a sensible hypothesis.

Although his insane ability to map the area was concerning, there was more to be worried about from him. As his mouth began to form silent words, a grin stretched from ear to ear, more emotion than he had shown in years.

"I

Found

Her."

Sansa's burst of speed may have been attributed to the loss of the seal on her chest as waves of black consumed her legs, her chakra being infected by the inky darkness. Her knee slammed into the man's face, his glasses cracking and falling from the sheer force as she twisted her body around his and attempted to choke him out.

It definitely wouldn't be good enough as he reached into his lab coat and procured another pair of glasses, replacing the ones he'd lost. A true Hikari couldn't die to the loss of air. Drowning, maybe, but even then it was unlikely.

After all, all they needed was oxygen- and they could control their blood. Maybe if she could hang on for more than a few minutes, she'd be able to kill him, but the tips of his hair fringed gold and she let go, dropping onto a nearby rooftop and getting some distance. She could see the glint of his changing blood in the sunlight. All of the colour blue was sucked out of his body, replaced with a pure white. He pushed up his glasses and Sansa moved just in time before the wave of white blood crashed into where she'd been.

If his heart was beating any faster, anyone in the vicinity would be able to hear it.

Even she couldn't fight a Blood Sage. His self-control had to be infinite. After all, there'd only been three known Blood Sages in the entire clan, of which Rena hadn't achieved yet. It was too dangerous if used too soon before one had control over their sense of self, desires and wishes. Sansa saw the man before her as a threat to the entire Hidden Sand and yet she knew she couldn't do anything about it if he decided to attack them all.

Kinju flew beside Yuuto. "Do you really need to use that on her?"

"I'm not going to not eliminate a threat just because you want to fu-"

"I don't!"

"Keep insisting that, see if I believe you any more than I did the last time."

"Didn't Owari want to keep her alive, or something?" Yuuto stared at Kinju, his eyes communicating what he thought was too stupid to say in words. "What?! I'm not actively trying to defend the enemy or anything, it's just that Sansa is clearly weaker than us so we shouldn't even bother. If Lady Owari sees her as an insect, she's an insect, right?"

"..." Yuuto sighed, the blood from his attack on her flowing back into his wrists. What he couldn't put back in, thanks to his extremely fast production, he just dumped on passerby's, who screamed when a white, sticky fluid rained down from the heavens. "Happy?"

"Won't that make them sick?"

"Fuck if I know. It's not usually toxic to other Hikari."

"Other Hikari aren't usually able to poison each other with their blood."

"I dunno, maybe, I guess? Never used it on people I thought were unworthy."

As they continued their chat, although Sansa wanted to catch up on them, she felt like the dispersal of his Sage Mode was a warning. If she continued to chase after him, would she be all right? Would the Hidden Sand be okay? If she let them get away…

She still had more than enough power leftover from Akito's mark. As it all moved back into the seal on her body, she hoped that they'd just leave the Hidden Sand alone. It wasn't prepared for another war, should they take insult to her attacking them.

"She stopped chasing us." Kinju looked back, stopping midair as he stared back the way they came.

"What, you want to stay?"

"Why do you think she stopped? Does she think we're not worth her time or something?"

"No, probably the opposite. She knows more about us than anyone else. Only someone stupid would risk getting into a fight with two people equal to or greater than their strength. Sansa probably let us go in hopes that we'd just leave rather than terrorizing her people."

"You know, I figured you'd be much angrier since she broke your jaw."

"It's nothing that can't be fixed. If I couldn't control my body, I'd be more concerned." Yuuto shrugged. "What annoys me more is that she's probably going to take what I gave Rena."

"What did you give Rena?"

"Something that would help her be more of a Hikari."

"Didn't you tell her not to give it to anyone else?"

"I figured by telling her it was valuable, she would know not to go around giving it away. It would kill anyone who tried it." Yuuto shrugged. "I have experiments to do. I need to find a new test subject on our way back, so don't complain."

"I figured you'd say that. Can we at least stop at a-"

"No."

"You're the only person who wouldn't be scared of telling me no." 

"I'm positive that nobody is scared of telling you no." Yuuto drowned out the sounds of Kinju's words as he thought back to the moment where he'd taunted Sansa. Normally, she would have just brushed that off. In her older years... she was getting softer, wasn't she? That would spell her end if she didn't rein that in. Yuuto didn't want to damage someone who could be an asset to their cause, nor leave Rena without someone to guide her into her strength in this world. 

Now that he thought about that...

Wasn't it just the same for him? He was getting progressively softer, not striking a killing blow, hesitating?

"Maybe I'm getting sick."

"Blood rejection?" Yuuto glanced at Kinju. "No? It was a good guess, you have to admit."

"The last time I had blood rejection, you were the doctor. You told everyone they had the beginning symptoms of blood rejection, causing mass panic in the clan. It was just a common cold making its rounds."

"Shouldn't have trusted me to play doctor, then." 

Yuuto wanted to tell him he was wrong, but he made a good argument. Instead, Yuuto sighed. "Shut up, Kinju."