Konoha's Red Dragon

Sand

Aki laid in bed that morning, the sun was barely up, just enough to send a weak ray of sunlight through her curtain-less window. She felt tingly when the small ray hit her face, slowly crawling over her opened eyes as she breathed out softly.
Static was edging her mind, dulling the sounds of the barely waking village. The shinobis guarding, patrolling. The morning bird song was nice to listen to. Brows furrowed as she thought about stuff.

Then she felt like she was forgetting something.

She knew she dreamed often, but she could never remember her dreams. The voice said it was never her time to remember them yet. But she always felt tingly, like her mind wasn't quite a part of her body in the mornings. Just barely clinging to her physical being. It wasn't the worst feeling, at least she didn't think so.
There were worse things out there.

The tingly, static of her mind gave way to calm breaths and relaxed limbs. Eyes half lidded as she enjoyed a quiet morning at dawn.

And then footsteps came up to the village walls. She didn't know them. That was new. And they weren't native to the forests, that was for sure. They were cautious in their steps to make sure they didn't trip over anything, didn't know how to move through leaf litter as quietly.
Even civilians from the leaf knew how to walk over roots and on the leaf covered ground well. Not as well as shinobis, but remarkably well for civilians.
Their heart beats were another thing she didn't recognize. It made her a bit anxious.

They smelled kinda dusty, like sand from the river bed, but dry.
A summer breeze and old paper for one. That one was the girl, Aki at least thinks. She would need to see her to prove it right.

One of the boys, the oldest she's pretty sure, smelled like wood and paint. Specifically wood paint and... Something acidic?

Both smelled very faintly of blood. Normal for Shinobi.

The last one was a bit... odd. Like a raccoon, but a dog at the same time. She thinks they're called Tanuki's? why would he smell like a tanuki? He also smelled like sand, and blood.
A whole lot of blood, it was something that she had to dig through to get to the other more faded scents. It honestly kind of scared her.

She was used to smelling blood on shinobis, especially the older ones that went through the war. The third Hokage was absolutely covered in it, so was her sensei. But this was different. More malicious, more scared, confused, controlling. Recent.

The static receded quickly after that, but the calm still lingered and the floaty feeling was still on the edge of her consciousness

She got out of bed, going through the motions of changing into her clothes. Under armour, plain shirt, plain hoodie, pants with a belt and then all her kunai and shuriken.
Forgoing breakfast, she headed out of her house by her room window.

She had people she wanted to watch.

<->

Aki tilted her head from the tree branch she was on. There were three Shinobi in her village. They don't belong to her village. Their walking with little fear.
None of the Konoha shinobi were attacking them either.
They were watching them closely, tensed and ready for a fight, anxiety rolling off them in waves with twitchy hands.
Aki blinked, focusing on the scent of the three, matching them to the faces and listening to their bodies. They were tense, blood rushing a little quicker as they walked leisurely.

She stared, shifting on her tree branch as she observed them. One girl, two boys. Family, no doubt. The smallest, the redhead with the horrible eye bags, stopped walking. He blinked and looked up at Aki. She blinked back. Static blared briefly when he moved his hand.