Exultation
Subaku no Gaara was ready for the bloodshed that would follow in the wake of the Invasion- an invasion Akashina Hatake knew very little about- and it pleased him.
Facing off against Sasuke Uchiha, Gaara was very pleased when he could give the signal to attack. But, to his surprise Akashina knew what it meant, and her next action surprised the Suna nin, and infuriated Gaara. The young, stubborn kunoichi screamed
“Tou-san, Nii-san, get Kaa-chan and Nee-chan out of here!” an angry Suna nin whirled around to gut her, with a cry of
“Traitor!” Only to have the gleaming blade of the Hatake Inuzashi cut off his hand, and Amaya to slit his throat with an enraged snarl. Aisha leaped, taking out the nin that had aimed for her mothers’ back, her own catlike roar echoing through the stadium.
Kakashi, Katsuro, Tenzou and Team Seven headed in a different direction, trying desperately to cut off the effectiveness of the Invasion.
Teams Gai, Kurenai and Asuma were also working to defend Konohagakure, but, their opponents were ninja who trained in the desert. It was amazing so many of the Konoha shinobi survived, let alone won.
Gaara, however, had stopped the moment Akashina screamed. She’d been by his side, stubbornly loyal, since before Yashamaru died. How could she? How could she betray him? He asked her that, too, later, when the battle was done and he was clapped in irons. Golden brown eyes blazed with angry fire. “My clan, with the exception of Haruka-baa-chan, is in Konoha, Gaara. I’ll be lucky if I ever see them again!” Her impatient declaration is cut off by an observing Sandaime, without whom they might not have won.
“Akashina, what do you mean you might never see them again?” His great granddaughter looks at him with haughty exasperation and retorts
“I am a traitor in Suna, and unknown in Konoha! I am…alone.” The realization rolls bitterly off her tongue, her grip on her own kodachi- the Inudachi- tightening until her knuckles are white. Her mother, Inuzashi in hand, and her sister, with her own sword- Katsugan- walk toward her. Kakashi, her father, walks beside her nii-san, both with blank expressions. Hiruzen scrutinizes her.
“You, little one, will remain in Konoha until your parents deem your debt fulfilled.” Disbelieving, Akashina looks askance of her mother, who sheathes her katana and calmly beckons
“Here, kitten.” Before opening her arms. The girl runs to her mother, taking in her scent of roses and sword oil, before her fathers’ scent of dogwood and oleander enters the mix. She sobs when her otoutos’ scent of fresh grass, her elder sisters’ and said elder sisters’ husbands’ commingled scents of tulips, oleander and musk surround her.
She will still swear her allegiance to Gaara, she knows. Not now, when he is still fighting to claim his fathers’ title and his own sanity, but later, when she can return to Suna, she will lay her sword at his feet and now he too knows- no matter her sworn allegiance, her clan comes first. It is her mothers’ curse, this loyalty to her people, but it is her fathers’ gift that she is so choosy of who are her people.