Chapter 3

When Akina decided to start her journey that early morning, she didn't expect that three kilometres from Fan-Fan Street was another village to stop by. She clearly remembered that she didn't saw any signboards on the road earlier, indicating that there's a village in the particular area– a village in the middle of the forest with highest walls surrounding it and have the tallest gates she'd ever seen!

She's absolutely awed at the place as her feet walked from the dusty ground to the cobblestone on the entrance area.

"This is suspicious though." Akina thought to herself as she scanned the area. "There's a bustling village in the middle of the forest that was as large as the Land of Fire's capital and yet, nobody put a damned sign on the road about this village."

As the twelve years old entered the village, she doubt that this is like the villages she'd visited before. And because Akina was lost in her thoughts, she'd failed to notice a ninja approaching her from behind.

"Ojou-san, please state your purpose here." A brown-haired Chunin with pale and lavender eyes asked the twelve years old girl.

Akina quickly spun around to see who it was– her eyes were wide in shock, and internally she's panicking.

"I didn't even notice that he's there!" She exclaimed to herself.

Seeing the girl's shocked yet quiet reaction, something clicked in the mind of Hyuuga Daisuke.

He smiled and kindly offered, "Or are you here for the Chunin Exams?"

Uzumaki Akina, who wasn't that familiar when it comes to the shinobi system and haven't had the faintest clue what the "Chunin Exams" is, started to mentally curse herself,

"What the heck is the Chunin Exams?!"

"If you are here for the examinations, please show me your country's traffic pass and your village's hitai-ate." Hyuuga Daisuke informed the now impassive-looking girl.

Country's traffic pass and village's hitai-ate… Akina just wanted to hit her head to the nearest wall or tree. Of all the places she'd to be at now, why must it be a shinobi village? Why the heck she didn't realise the clues in front of her? She'd heard of this before! Hidden Villages were most ninja resides. When will she have a break from all of these?

Akina internally sighed before staring at the brown-haired ninja, who's waiting for her reply. She cleared her drying throat and slightly dipped her chin before replying.

"I am a wanderer and I'm only here to observe the examinations." She hoped that she'd said that right and didn't sound suspicious at all for a twelve years old girl.

The least she wanted right now is for a shinobi-filled village to suspect that she's a spy.

She stubbornly stood her grounds, refusing to be intimidated by the man with pale eyes and girly-look as he scrutinised her, looking for any traces of malicious intent from her. Then, Daisuke decided that she seems fine, so he gave her the visitor's pass of the village, welcoming Akina with his warmest smile.

Akina thought that despite looking at her kindly, she could sense the underlying threat from the man that definitely says: Welcome to a shinobi-filled village. Do something suspicious. You die.

After receiving the visitor's pass from the girly-looking man, Akina politely thanked him. As she walked further to the main street of the village, she decided that she needed to find out the name of the hidden village first and then, she will gather information about the so-called "Chunin Exams".

When Akina turned around to walk further inside the village, Hyuuga Daisuke activated his Byakugan and saw that the twelve years old girl was slowly building up a large amount of chakra in her head. The Chunin began to feel nervous of his decision, but he assured himself that if the girl caused trouble inside their village, ANBU will deal with her.

Akina slightly grimaced at the thought that if she's not in a henge, her red hair will definitely stick out like a sore thumb in this village. As she walked at the centre of the village, different kinds of food from various restaurants and stores around her had wafted through her nose, making her mouth watery and leaving her hungry. She sighed while clenching her fist. She needed to gather information first about this village and the examination before anything else. She couldn't afford to stay in this foreign place, knowing that there's a possibility that this village could be one of the enemies of her clan before.

All of a sudden, Akina stiffened at the familiar scent that entered her nose. She knew that delicious smell too well! She snapped her head to her side and saw a store that sells one of her favourite foods: Korokke.

At the sight of her favourite food, stars and sparkles almost appear around Akina as she eyed the crispy and golden potato-goodness. She took a deep breath and mentally berated herself.

"Okay… information about the village first and then, the examination before buying some Korokke… Korokke… Damn it! Korokke first before any information gathering!"

And the foolish girl made a beeline to the store to buy the deep-fry potato covered crumbs.

xxx

Despite being paranoid earlier when she realised that she's in a shinobi-filled village, Akina was feeling quite foolish at the moment. She's indulging herself to one of her guilty pleasure of a food, happily humming to a quiet tune while munching a piping hot Korokke as she stride through the streets of Konohagakure no Sato.

That's right! She learned the name of the village she was currently staying at without breaking any law. Well, after buying Korokke at the store, Akina didn't need to gather the information she needed. The old lady who sold her favourite was a talkative old woman. When she politely greeted her, the vendor enthusiastically welcomed her in the store- where Akina learned the name of the village after the old woman mentioned it. And when she mentioned the words "Chunin Exams", the old lady doted over her grandson who couldn't participate in the exam. Apparently, Konohagakure is the host of the Chunin Exams or also known as the Chunin Selection Examination. It's a yearly test that occurs twice a year, and any eligible and willing Genin who wanted to advance to Chunin may take the examination. So Akina reasoned to herself that buying her favourite food wasn't for naught after all. She felt a little but at ease in the village after learning that it was the hometown of the author who wrote her favourite book: The Tales of a Gutsy Ninja.

As she took the last bite and nonchalantly rounded the corner, Akina thought that she heard something. She noticed that there's a bunch of people in the middle of the street, two were at the tree behind the wooden fences. The dark-haired boy with a duck butt-like hairstyle was coolly perching on the branch while the dark red-haired kid was hanging upside-down on the other higher branch.

Her pair of silver eyes quickly widened in surprise when Akina recognised the dark red-haired kid.

"He's the red-head kid earlier with a weird large gourd!" Akina thought to herself, "He's a ninja?!"

"I was at fault." The seemingly older guy in black cat-like clothing apologised, raising both of his arms in surrender. "I'm sorry." He added and repeated, "I'm really sorry."

She saw the red-haired boy whipped his head to the dark-haired boy and said in a monotonous voice, "Excuse them, you guys."

To avoid getting involved with them, Akina decided to silently cross the street. As she crossed, she saw how the red-haired boy dissolved in the swirling grain of sands and materialised in front of his two companions. Her silver eyes met his teal orbs for the second time that day as he spoke to his companions. If Akina was completely stunned at this, she tried to mask it well. She immediately looked away from his unpleasant eyes and continued crossing the street. For the last time, Akina glanced at them before going to her destination.

She's not aware that she's smiling at the thought of seeing him apologising for the trouble his companions may have caused to the locals earlier. Akina thought that maybe he's not bad despite having those unpleasant eyes like her older brother… oh how wrong she was for saying that so early.

She found out his true colours on her second day in the village after she found a place to stay while in the village for an affordable price, which happens to be the same place the Sand Siblings are staying at.

xxx

Gaara patiently sat on the bench near Kankuro, who's pacing back and forth in the empty lobby of the Mitsuba Hotel & Family Restaurant. They're both waiting for Temari, who's still in the bathhouse, and has the key to their room. It was then that Akina just came back from getting water at the common room. When she passed by the brothers with a glass of water at hand, Kankuro didn't see her and accidentally bumped her when he turned around, and forehead met bare chin.

"That hurts!" Kankuro said as he nurse his chin.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Akina apologised, but he grabbed her collar.

The sudden movement had made the glass slipped from her hand and crashed on the floor. The two failed to notice that some of the water flew to Gaara's direction, soaking his hair.

"Watch where you're going–"

"Let her go, Kankuro." Gaara interrupted.

When Kankuro glanced at his brother and suddenly felt horrified, loosening the grip on the girl's collar after seeing his brother's soaking hair. Gaara is also clearly annoyed at what happened.

Akina followed the older boy's line of sight and her lips parted in surprise when she saw the dark red-haired boy. She didn't realise that he's even there. Then, she saw his soaking hair and quietly gasped in shock.

"I-I'm sorry!" She quickly apologised to him, and mentally scolding herself for drawing attention.

A deafening silence reigned in the empty lobby after those words escaped from Akina's lips.

Now, Gaara is not a pathetic person who will kill someone for spilling their water on him, but he recognised the girl. He had marked her before as his prey, thinking that she's strong because of the massive chakra he could sense in her as a sensory-type ninja. Or this girl just didn't know how to control her chakra. He didn't know, but he'd been itching to kill somebody and she's here giving him the opportunity.

He glared at her as he stood from the bench, willing his sands to wrap around the girl's form.

"Die." He calmly said.

Seeing the sands around her body, Akina's eyes widened in shock and her breath quickened. It wasn't the threat in her life that's making her tremble. In fact, it didn't even register in her mind that the dark red-head boy in front of her wants to kill her. Because that exact moment, she remembered her brother's death after seeing the moving sands. It reminds her of the sands in the harsh desert in the Land of Wind.

Lost in her thoughts from the barrage of traumatic memories, Akina unconsciously ran a special moulded chakra in her chakra network, activating a technique for the first time in her life. And all of a sudden, a thick and spiky golden chain came out from her abdomen where the centre of her chakra network is. The chain pierced through the sands that were wrapped around her form and rapidly moved to Gaara's direction.

It was too late for the sands to defend Gaara from the moving chain and even if the sands shield him, it will just go through. When the thick and spiky golden chain made a contact to Gaara, the sands around dissolved on the ground. And the second after the sands dissolved and the chain wrapped itself around his form, Shukaku screamed in his mind. Gaara wanted to clutch his head or do something just to stop the painful headache-inducing screams, but couldn't because of the thick and spiky golden chain restricting his movements.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"I'm going to kill you!" Gaara shouted in pain and rage, repeating the loud scream of the Biju inside his head.

Then, Shukaku went silent and retreated to the back of his mind, which confused Gaara, but was relieved that the screaming stopped; though the headache from Shukaku's screaming haven't subsided yet. Gaara looked down at the spiky golden chain around him and scowled at the girl in front of him who looked like she was in pain too.

Suddenly, the thick and spiky golden chain dropped Gaara; the sands cushioned his fall.

"I'm going to kill you…" Gaara weakly panted.

Silver met pale blue-green orbs, and the girl snorted at his threat.

"If you're serious at your threat to kill me, you should do it properly and not in this pathetic state." She commented as she tried her best to stand up.

In her still jumbled mind, Akina frustratingly scolded herself for not zipping her mouth shut from saying those things that will only provoked him. Though, it's really no use if he wanted to kill her for real. That way she'll die to lessen the burden and pain in her life.

She'll like it more… probably.

And speaking of pain, Akina glanced at the thick and spiky golden chain coming out of her abdomen. She just noticed then why her body's feeling numbed from the heavy pain. She suddenly became aware of the pain inflicted in her body by this weird chain: she felt her chakra coils burning. Her muscles limping and becoming numbed. And her body thoroughly weakened after realising what she'd done.

She gave a short glance between a weakened Gaara and Kankuro before she decided to leave, the golden chain slowly disappearing, but the heaviness of it still remained in her body.

"Nii-chan, please protect me." Akina thought as she walked away from the brothers with the rattling chain and aching body. "I might have activated the special chain of our clan that you were talking about, accidentally."

Kankuro was shocked at what just happened. He didn't dare to move as he stared at the ebony-head's retreating form.

"She's bold and daring," To attack Gaara like that. Kankuro told himself more than his brother, who's slowly standing up.

Gaara, who felt lethargic had saw through the girl, so he corrected his brother's statement.

"She's just a coward with a death wish." Gaara said as he glared at the girl's back for weakening him.

"Let's kill her! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

It was strange for Shukaku to be silent for a while, but Gaara didn't think of the Biju's sudden silence as the girl's doing. He suspected something but it's not concrete, so he decided to keep his suspicions. Though, that girl didn't disappoint him. He'll make sure to squeeze her to death; her blood will absolutely mix with his sands.

Tears spilled from her cheeks as one of the masked men loomed over her small trembling form with a sharp kunai at hand. She shut her eyes closed and raised her arms to protect herself even though it's futile as the kunai slashed through her forearm. She cried in pain as she held her wounded arm, her own blood spilling from her little hand. When she stared at the blood in her hand, she felt suffocated and sands suddenly wrapped around her form. She closed her eyes and darkness surrounded her.

"You don't deserve to live, Akina." She heard the voice of her mother. "You killed me."

She whimpered at the words of her father, "Why are you even alive? You should've died that day with us."

"You should've died with mother and father, so I wouldn't have died protecting you, Imouto." She chocked in sobs as she heard her beloved older brother.

"It's all your fault that we're dead, Akina."

Akina covered her ears as her family chanted those words at her in the darkness. When she opened her eyes, she's back in the desert, screaming in despair with her brother's katana in her hand and his almost unrecognisable corpse lying next to her. She only stopped screaming in despair when the racoon-eyed boy emerged from the sands that were soaked in blood.

He looked at her blankly before calmly telling her, "I'm going to kill you."

Then, black sands rose from the ground and swirled around before wrapping around her. When her brother's katana fell from her hand, she heard a high-pitch voice screamed.

"Why?!"

When Akina turned her head halfway, she saw her younger self screaming behind her.

"Why are you so coward?! Just kill yourself already!" The ten year old Akina screamed. "You hypocrite! You said you wouldn't run away anymore, but you just run and run, and run for the past few years! And you said that you will be true to yourself?! But looked what happened! We killed Okaa-san and Otou-san, and now we killed Nii-chan! We deserve to die! You deserve to die!"

With that, her brother's katana plunged through her chest and felt the sands suffocating her with the metallic scent of blood.

Akina woke up, gasping for air with ache in her chest and abdomen. She was sweating like a pig too; her red hair, sticking on her forehead and nape. She slowly sat up on her futon and grabbed the canteen of water near her. After drinking water from her canteen and stabled her breathing, she took the folded towel near her futon and wiped off the sweat on her face and neck. When she's done, Akina laid again on the futon and stared at nothing.

It's been five days since she activated the special technique of her clan. Akina just stayed in her occupied room and laid on the futon to rest her body, especially her chakra system, occasionally getting up – with comforter all over her form like a ghost to hide her hair – to receive the food and water from the kind owners who learned that she's sick. The couple are kind enough to bring food in her room and offered to bring her to the hospital, but Akina politely refused. She feared that Konoha will learn about her if she get anywhere near those establishments. Fortunately for Akina, the couple thought that she's just afraid of doctors and hospitals.

When she turned around to lay on her side, she felt the pain in her abdomen and mostly in her chest, where she felt her younger self stabbed her in her dream, and when she remembered her dream, her hands clutched the edge of the comforter as she bit her lips.

After her parents were killed by those masked men, Akina didn't remember much of what happened that day. All she knew was that after she got injured for the second time, her brother stained his hands with blood for the first time in his life in order to protect her and their lives from the murderers of their parents. Though, she vaguely remembered getting sick for few weeks. When she got better, she learned that it was from the infection from the wounds she received in her neck and forearm. Apparently, her older brother tried to heal her injuries, but did it messily, so it got infected. It was all pure luck that a medic stumbled upon them and healed her.

She caressed the scar on her neck and forearm. She knew it's already a fading scar, but she could still feel the tissue that patched the skin together.

Akina sighed as she closed her eyes.

After she fully recovered, that's where her brother started to slowly change. She remembered how often they have to disguise themselves when they travelled around and that he's often gone, leaving her alone with talking owlets, Shirofuku and Bokuto. Then one day, her brother suddenly decided to tell her about their origin; the tragedy of their clan's obliteration. The reason why they're hiding in the first place and for what reason their parents died before her brother sealed their red hairs, turning it into the colour of white like the snow.

Akina softly chuckled at the thought how ridiculous she'd looked before with her white hair and silver eyes. She must've looked like a yuki-onna or something similar.

She was about to go back to sleep when she felt a trickle of sands slowly wrapped around her neck. Her eyes widened and she panicked. Her lilac bag where her barrier sealing tags were far away from her futon, and she could feel the trickle of sands slowly thickening.

Akina quickly sat on her futon and moulded chakra. She concentrated chakra to her hands and made some hand seals of: Dog, Boar, Snake, Ram, Horse and Tiger before slamming her hands on the tatami mat-covered floor, and sending a thread-like chakra that formed into a triangle around her.

"Sealing Art: Triangle Barrier Seal." She shortly muttered after the triangle formation.

Then, the thread-like chakra expanded and formed a triangle prism barrier that shielded Akina's body. The thickening sands around her neck dissolved inside the barrier as she continuously moulded chakra and kept both of her hands on the floor to maintain the barrier.

"Come out, Sandy boy." Akina quietly said while her eyes darted around her.

When a shadow suddenly creeped behind her, Akina turned around to face him and was greeted by a calm yet disturbing face of the red-head boy, sitting on the window frame of her room.

She sighed before she asked him, "When will you stop being a creep? It's starting to piss me off! Seriously, it's not funny anymore."

For the past few days, Akina suspected that he was stalking her. She frequently saw a creeping shadow appearing behind her before disappearing like those cheap horror movies they show in cinemas. She thought he has a weird sense of humour, and at first Akina found it funny, but the creeping shadow is getting old now and it's starting to annoy her. And she just had a nightmare of him, killing her.

"I'll stop," He started as Akina looked at him in complete surprise. Honestly, she didn't expect him to answer her. "If I killed you and after mother tasted your blood."

Akina frowned in confusion as she stared at the ginger head in front of her. What? Did she heard him right? His mother wanted to what? Taste her blood?

"Mother and I sensed the amount of chakra inside you." He added, confirming Akina's doubts before.

Her lips parted in shock before she shook her head, "You're crazy."

"And by killing you, I will redeem myself." He obviously ignored her as he continued, "I won't lose my very existence!"

After he said those words, Akina didn't know how she should react. In the end she'd looked at him with a mixture of sympathy and fright, which earned Akina a scowl from him after seeing those emotions in her eyes. She immediately changed her expression to an uninterested one. She tried her best to pull this in order to deceive him that she's not afraid of him. The truth was she's scared of him. Because although Akina has a death wish, she still has self-preservation and instinct to survive, and she didn't want to die in his hands. Akina already knew that he's creepy and dangerous, but now she suspected that he had a homicidal disorder too. And if she looked at another possibility, he could kill her on the spot if he's really serious about killing her. His unpleasant eyes were the proof of that and it's really frightening her.

Then, her silver eyes travelled to his wild red hair.

"Are you an Uzumaki?" Akina asked before she could stop herself from asking him.

Damn it! Why can't she control her mouth sometimes? This isn't the time for this. Though, her question seemed to confuse him. The movements of his sands outside her prism barrier halted and he blankly stared at her because of her ridiculous question. Seeing his confused reaction, Akina felt a slight disappointment before she waved off her hand.

"Forget it," She told him still waving off her hand, dismissing the topic. "The door and window is open, so you could leave whenever you wanted."

After Akina said that, she laid on her side with her hands still touching the floor before she closed her eyes. She tried to sleep again, which she failed to do because she could feel Gaara's unnerving stares. She opened her eyes and was met with his terrifying eyes as the moonlight shadowed the rest of his features.

"Aren't you tired? 'M tired." She mumbled to herself as her eyes started to become droopy and her arms and side aching from its awkward position.

Few minutes later, Gaara finally decided to leave her alone, but not before threatening her again.

"I'll kill you next time." She heard him say.

She slightly opened an eye to peek at him and saw how he left in a swirl of sands.

When Akina was sure that he had left, she released the technique and felt tingling in her aching arms, but the sudden surge of pain in her weakened body had made the tingling in her arms tolerable. She thought that maybe it was the after-effect of using her chakra for the first time since she accidentally used the special chain five days ago. Akina curled in a ball as she felt the burning pain in her chakra coils, and her body trembled in pain. As she cradled herself in the comfort of the futon, she forgot that the red-head boy may have noticed her vibrant red hair.