Konoha's Red Dragon

Violet flames

Aki sighed quietly from her spot in her tree. It had been a few hours since the reveal of Zabuza being alive, and the start of their tree climbing exercise.
Naruto and Sasuke were still trying to get the Chakra control down, Sakura had been the first to get it, taking to it like fish in water. She had practically run up the tree as easily as she could on the ground and had continued to tease Naruto about it. It was all in jest.
After a few minutes of trying, Aki had finally got it. Then she did it again, and again, and again, until she could do it just as well as Sakura could.

Now the little redhead was kind of bored. She was sitting on her tree branch, Sakura next to her as Aki practised her signs with the girl. They stumbled through some of them, but they were also half distracted by the boys, who were currently failing miserably.

Kakashi was sitting under the girls' tree, happily reading his book. It was a calm day, the sun was warm, there was a small breeze that carried the scent of salt water, old pine and wet soil. Aki could hear the waves lapping at the beach, the construction of the bridge underway and the breathing and heartbeats of her team and sensei.

The only thing that was amiss was the scent of fear.

Thick and cloudy, swirling like heavy mist after rainfall, it was ever present too, no matter how far Aki went into the trees to explore, the scent still followed her. Like a cloud of depression, anxiety, the ever looming threat of something happening and the knowledge that you couldn't stop it no matter how hard you tried.
Most people on the island smelled of it, so strong it almost made her tear up, of the mourning that followed most Shinobi around, something civilians shouldn't have. Aki sighed, chewing at her lip, sharp teeth peeling skin.

That was another thing, the few words that she couldn't get rid of. "That's a kiri trait," was the words Zabuza said when she had snarled at him. Her teeth were sharp, pointed and jagged, like a dog or cat or one of those scaly creatures that lived in swamps, alligators or crocodiles or something. She had read about them in a book from the library once, and she couldn't help the comparison she did of their teeth.
But would she really believe something Zabuza, an enemy nin, had said off handedly? She huffed in frustration, Sakura stilling in her hand movements and tilting her head to the side. "Hey, are you okay? You don't seem to have all your focus here-"

"Girls, can you come down here for a second?"
Kakashi called up, his book shut but still in his hands, he was looking up at them.
Sakura looked away and to their teacher with a small nervous smile,

"coming, Kaka-sensei!"
And she pushed Chakra to her feet, walking down the tree before hopping off and kneeling beside their teacher. Aki jumped off the branch, landing in a crouch beside the pinkette and tilted her head.
"I was debating on if I should save this for later, but you're both particularly good at tree climbing." He started off, purposely slow, quiet but cheerful and Sakura's eye twitched,

"Save what for later?"

"Water walking. It'll give you both something to work on, a little bit of a challenge while the boys continue with tree walking."
He finally said and Sakura looked quite wide eyed, nervous but excited, her heart rate jumping slightly and she nodded quickly.

"Sure! Come on, Aki!" She grinned and pulled Aki up, beginning to march off, before pausing and looking at Kakashi.
He got up slowly, using the tree he was leaning on as leverage and snatching his crutches from the ground. Their walk over to the beach was slow going, but they got there eventually.

"Sooooo, what do we do?"
Sakura asked, looking up at him as Aki waited patiently, her head turning every which way, the sounds were different here. Everything muffled by the water, waves pushing and pulling, the moving grains of sand, the little hermit crabs-