Red Strings of Fate

Chapter ONE

Chapter ONE

Thirteen year old Akasuna no Sasori looked down, into the blank green eyes that stared back at him, just as unblinkingly. He instantly recognized the girl standing before him.

There was no one in the whole of Sunagakure who didn't know the prodigal daughter of the Third Kazekage. Not only was she daughter of the strongest Kazekage in Suna history, but she too, had inherited her father's famous Magnet Release, and already knew how to control Iron Sand.

Not only that, but she was often seen around the Ichibi Jinchuriki, who was the youngest son of the current Kazekage. It probably gave the villagers relief that the young boy was being watched over not only by the ANBU, but a highly skilled girl trained personally by her father.

Sasori, having been a trusted Shinobi of Suna, knew of her too. However, he had never really crossed paths with her...

Were the eyes of children who didn't know war supposed to be so dark?

Still, out of everyone that could have caught him, it was a young girl barely seven. Had the skill level of Sunagakure's shinobi dropped by that much?

Sasori mulled over his choices on what to do with her. He was aware that there was a possibility that someone would come by and see him.

He would have to say, now that he was standing in front of her, he could see that killing her would be a pity. While very bright, her colorings were very exotic and rare, and though he had wondered a few times, considering her age, as well as her father, it had to be natural. If only he had come across her when she was a few years older...

She would make a very beautiful puppet, he decided. Not for combat, but something like a China doll, to be kept on a shelf.

Knowing that he couldn't waste any more time, he pulled out a senbon. He couldn't risk damaging her.

"Do not take this personally, doll. You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

She truly was unfortunate. Out of everyone, she had been the one to come across the scene of her own father lying limply over the shoulders of a very well known, trusted Shinobi.

The girl blinked, then opened her mouth. "Is he...dead?" She asked.

Sasori blinked, surprised at the formal tone the girl's voice had taken on. It was really unlike her age.

He could see the unconcealed childish curiosity in her eyes and became curious himself.

"He is." He said.

"You killed him?"

Sasori nodded.

The girl raised her hand, and in the next second, the senbon flew out of Sasori's hand and into hers.

"Why?"

"What is it to you?" Sasori wondered why she wasn't screaming for help, or crying for her father, or something.

The girl levitated the senbon between her hands. "Strength was everything to father." She said. "If he lost and died by your hands, it just means that you were stronger than him."

Sasori chuckled. "I see." This girl was really interesting. She talked of her dead father with close to no emotional attachment and spoke to the murder of her father as if he were no more than someone she had met on the street.

He was really considering keeping her.

"Why don't you come with me?" Sasori asked, knowing that he would be taking her either way.

"Go with you where? Aren't you a shinobi of Sunagakure?" The black sand that had fallen lifelessly to the ground after the Third had died floated into the air, swirling around the two of them. It then moved and shifted into a chair, which the girl placed herself on.