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Konohagakure is beautiful.
Hidden by the lush forests of fire country, protected by ancient trees, with the first rays of the rising sun plunging the village in what looks like flickers of living fire, Konoha is one of the most beautiful places Akashi has ever seen.
He watched the sun rise above Suna hundreds of times while he was still there, watched it rise above the dunes and hills and rocks of the Land of Wind when he wasn't. It's a raw kind of beauty, the first glow of the day illuminating a landscape that is as deadly as Konoha is lavish, but he finds that now – at 41 years of age, because their birthday was yesterday, and when will he ever stop thinking of it as theirs? – he can admit that Konoha doesn't look any less breathtaking, and maybe he would have liked growing up here, beneath the trees.
It's too late now anyway. His home is the dirt, sand and dry heat of Sunagakure. He is too old to anchor himself to another place in the same way he is bound to his village.
The dye came out of his hair almost completely. It still has a touch of brown, but nobody who hasn't seen him before will notice, and otherwise he looks the same as he did when he first set foot into Konoha less than two weeks ago.
Inuzuka Arai is too good a ninja to not hear the barely-there sound of his sandaled feet touching down on the gravel, especially with how her father's clan is renowned for their good senses.
Her head whips around immediately, dark red hair glowing around her face like a halo. It has the same color as the Inuzuka clan marks on her cheeks, but her skin is Kumo-dark, and her eyes shine like polished black beads.
She is feral.
Akashi heard it said before of course, but it's different seeing the Hokage with his own eyes; it's different feeling the blade of her katana whizz past his ear when he leaps to the side to avoid her first swing. He didn't think she'd be that fast.
"I knew you'd come," she growls, her dark eyes tracking his every movement as he slowly inches towards the forest side of the mountain, away from the cliff.
There's nothing he can reply, nothing he can say to a woman who has become his enemy by necessity only. He can't apologize, can't say anything to ease the betrayal, and he won't lie to her face because she deserves better than that.
Instead he charges, blurs into motion few can match.
Just for an instant he can see the confusion in her face, the bewilderment about why he is coming at her with nothing but his bare hands, but it's gone in a blink and replaced by equal means of determination and bloodlust.
Her swordsmanship is impeccable, the best Sasori has ever seen. It's a unique blend of a Konoha-style katana and Kumo's famous sword fighting style, quick and with every strike meant to kill.
He dodges a large swipe, brings his arm up to block a knee to his left side, and lets his momentum carry him downwards to miss another slash by a hair's breadth. His right hand catches his fall, and he pivots to swipe at her standing leg with both of his, intending to topple her over.
The blade that she stabs down vertically cuts clean through maybe a thumb's length of his pants, but is deflected by his shin. She hisses unhappily, and her second of inattentiveness is all it takes for him to twist, bring his right leg around and kick at the blade of her sword.
She manages to grab the weapon with both hands in time however, and then goes flying across the plateau from the force of the blow. The stinger of his scorpion vanishes as Sasori chases after her form immediately, ready to deliver another blow to her side the moment she manages to make both her feet and hand stick to the ground with chakra.
His foot connects with her ribs, but only for the barest of touches before she has rolled away from him, a well-placed sword stroke keeping him at bay long enough for the Hokage to regain her footing.
Before he can advance any further she's in the air and leaping for him, holding her sword in a two-handed grip unlike any he has ever seen.
Sasori slams his hands down on the ground in front of him, "Earth Release: Earth Style Wall!"
The wall is only moderately big since he can't risk to draw unnecessary attention, but it still gives him a few seconds of respite from his relentless opponent.
It's ironic how good an adversary for him she is, being a main taijutsu and kenjutsu user, because if she would channel lighting chakra into that blade of hers she would have a fair chance of killing him – as it is however, the only thing Sasori has to do is bide his time.
Somewhere on the other side of the country Sakae has killed the daimyou of fire country by now.
The wall suddenly splits in the middle and a blow with enough force to behead a man twice misses his head, but he sees his own fiery red hair falling to the ground from his peripheral vision. They almost match each other in speed and agility, weaving around and beneath each other in a choreography that could as well have been a lethal dance.
By all accounts she should kill him. This is her village, she will have reinforcements soon, she's using kenjutsu against an enemy that carries no weapons and isn't a ninjutsu expert… all the variables are in her favor.
He trips her over by feinting hand seals and aborting them halfway through for an uppercut with the right, but when he brings his elbow down on her spine he curses and skips to the side, the log she substituted for almost crushing his foot as he tries to get distance between himself and the Hokage who is suddenly coming from his right.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
She's too close, and Sasori pinwheels, hissing when the heat of the fire ball singe's all the hair off his left arm. The flame doesn't actually touch his skin, but he'll still have a burn to show for that.
The wound makes him lose focus for only an instant, but that's all the time his opponent needs. She changes her grip on her sword again, pushes off the ground, and howls, for lack of a better word, "Passing Sword Fang!"
Suddenly she is spinning around herself in a speed Sasori can only marvel at. He sees the gleam of her sword reflecting the sunlight, and something that might be claws or fangs or both, but then he doesn't really have to know what it is to know that it's deadly. He braces for impact.
A clawed hand grabs his left upper arm, a foot connects with his abdomen painfully and the blade of her katana comes down perfectly at his exposed jugular.
The force of the collision sends the both of them flying.
The tail of the scorpion vanishes.
Her blade drags uselessly along his skin.
He clenches his right hand into a fist and hits her chest where he knows her heart is.
Their bodies land in a heap on the ground, rolling a few meters before their momentum is exhausted. Sasori is lying with his back on the stone, the lifeless body of the Hachidaime Hokage collapsed on top of him. She lost the grip on her sword when she died, the weapon lying two feet away, blade now dull.
"Don't tell anyone about this, Akashi." His father's words ghost through his mind.
Akashi pushes the corpse off himself and slowly gets to his feet.
Gaara was right of course. A weapon like the one he wields can only be effective if his enemies aren't aware what he's capable of. That's why he's Sasori, a man that kills with one hit.
It's a miracle anyway. His mother's parents were civilians. His father's linage is another matter of course, but even then ninja traits rarely survive cross-breeding with civilian blood, not unharmed at least, not like this.
Carefully he lets his chakra cloak dissipate, pulling the chakra back inside his body. Her blows were powerful enough that any hit could have shattered his bones into a dozen pieces without it.
Kekkei genkai. Not one, but two. How the sand had always came to Akaya, more easily than to their father even, how it had clung to her, protected her with only a thought.
That was the kekkei genkai they had shown the world, the obvious one nobody could deny. His hadn't been apparent, not from that young an age at least, not until his sister had lost control and he'd walked out of sandstorm without a scratch.
A bijuu's cloak, uncle Kankurou had once called it and not even his mother had tried to deny it.
He leaves Inuzuka Arai's dead body were it lays, setting off to the tedious task that is circling around the forest outside Konoha until he is sure that his trail is cold, before sneaking back into the Uchiha compound unseen.