Konoha's Red Dragon

Sand

Something in his gourd shifted, growing, roiling and grinding against itself.

The air around them rises in temperature, a familiar feeling of sparking fire building in Aki's stomach. Flowing to her hands, palms lighting up with a soft purple glow. Magma started to drip through her veins-

"calm."

Aki paused and tilted her head, the boy blinked in surprise and he faltered. Hairless eyebrows- he had no eyebrows..?- dipping down. He looked at her, body relaxing the tiniest bit and his hand dropping back down.

"Gaara, you coming?"
The other boy asked, turning around and giving Gaara an odd look. The girl turned too, raising an eyebrow.

They both smelled wary. Edging on scared.

"Yes."
He muttered, voice tired, scratchy, dry. Like he didn't have any water for a few days and hasn't talked in weeks. It made the static in Aki's head stronger, trying to block out the sudden jolt of anxiety it caused her.

With one last glance, he walked away with his siblings. The other two didn't seem to notice her.

One thing was for certain.

He was not well.

<->

Aki kicked her legs faintly as she sat on the railing of the bridge, looking at the water. The sound was nice, the trickle of it as it seeped into the dirt and grass, running over the smooth pebbles with soft gurgling.

The other three talked behind her, or... argued behind her.
Something she didn't have the brain power or attention span to pay attention to today. Trying to block out the increasing amounts of foreign heartbeats. All were jumpy, anxious, excited. It made it hard to focus.
Static edged her hearing, narrowing it down to the three behind her, the one walking up to them and the water bubbling under her.

"Sensei! Sensei! We saw other genin in the village that weren't from Konoha!"
Naruto chirped, bouncing up to their sensei and hugging him round the waist. Aki looked over and stared with slightly clouded eyes.

That would explain why they smelled faintly of blood and sand

"Aki, come on," Sakura pulled at her hand and Aki blinked, refocusing on the conversation as she hopped off the bridge rail.

"there is reason for them visiting Konoha, Naruto. The chunin exams are taking place in about three weeks." He explained, messing up Naruto's already messy hair. "And I've nominated you four for the chunin exams."

Naruto cheered and Sasuke smirked, both smelled happy. Sakura cheered, but she smelled more uncertain and wary than anything. Kakashi watched them, observed them and Aki leaned back.

Chunin exams. Interesting. So that's why those genin were entering the village.
She tuned out the rest of Kakashi's explanation, she could pretty much understand based on the name itself.

Chunin exams, most likely for genin's that are looking to be chunin, probably a series of tests and it'll need a team, or at least team work.

Actually.....
Didn't she hear about it throughout her years in the academy, weren't they held in different ninja villages each time they came around?
She's pretty sure it happened once or twice while she was in the academy, or something.

But that wasn't important, what was important was: Did she think she was ready to be a chunin?

She didn't know honestly. Sure there was that mission at wave . They managed to survive.
Only barely, and it was mainly Kakashi that had done the heavy lifting. They had just managed to not get killed.
Not to mention she was still figuring out how to get good control over that new fire... thing she did. She lit herself on fire a few times in the past weeks actually.
But she was getting the hang of it.

Her musings were interrupted by Sakura pulling on her sleeve again, a conflicted look in her eyes.
The two boys had gone and Kakashi was a little ways off, probably listening for them.
He always did like to listen to his students when they didn't know he could hear them.

Aki tipped her head to the side, a silent what?

Sakura looked away in response, nervous. Blood rushing to her face in a blush, as she took a deep breath.
"I was wondering if you knew what you were gonna do for the genin exams?"
Aki shrugged, bringing her hands up to say something, but paused and sighed.
"I was just- I was curious, was all," she mumbled, shuffling in place. Aki stared and continued to ponder, tilting her head the other way and then back again.

She pointed to Sakura, then herself, repeated a few times and then finger spelt go.

You go, I go.

Sakura smiled gently, but still looked uncertain, scrunching her qipoa up in her fists. "I don't know though, that's the thing. I want to go, but I don't know if I'm strong enough to."

Aki thought about it, and nodded. Sakura wasn't the strongest, and when they did go on the mission, she had mainly stepped back to protect Tazuna. A strength in its own right, and discipline in another because that was their original mission. But outside of spars, she didn't have any real combat experience.
They don't try to kill each other in their spars and she has yet to face that. Or, at least head on.

Aki blew air out through her nose, grabbing Sakura's shoulders and smiled.

She willed Sakura to understand that she could do it if she wanted to. If she failed, she failed. There was nothing wrong with that. If she didn't want to, she didn't have to.

But if there was a will, there was a way.

Sakura blinked at Aki, before giggling and bringing the shorter girl into a hug, burying her face in rust-red hair as Aki turned her head to the side. Arms wrapped around Sakura's upper back.

"Thanks, Aki."
She hummed, letting go of the hug, (Aki didn't want to let go. It made warmth unfold in her chest. It made her feel safe-) and took a step back.
"ya'know, for a mute girl, you sure can say a lot,"
Sakura teased, a smile lighting up her eyes as she started to jog away with a small wave and cheerful goodbye.

Aki stood there for a second, blinking in surprise as she processed the words and tried to figure out what that meant. Was that a good thing? Bad thing? She was mute, she couldn't say anything. Sure she had her hands but-

She shook her head. That was a sentence to unravel and think about when she was in bed and the village was quiet and asleep.
And the few people that were up were quiet and guarding the walls.
When the night animals came out and the crickets sang and the wind hollered unbidden.

With a final confused glance and a small wave in the direction of Kakashi's heartbeat, she jogged off.