He had only been to Suna once, just barely skirting the borders on a mission that had gone instantly awry. There were a few things, though, that he remembered: blinding sun, grit in his teeth, bloodied sand stinging his eyes. Half of a yellow flower poking through a dune.

It was difficult to pinpoint when the miscommunication occurred and the fighting began. Sand and Leaf charged at first with a feigned, disdainful malice of the kind brought on by a change of orders, not of heart. It was disbelief that spurred their motions, turned one eye away, until a misplaced kunai blossomed into flesh and TenTen went down, withering into the sand. And oh, he was a falcon then, eyes sharp and wings fast, talons scything into tenketsu with vicious jerks. He spun their playthings away and the chakra keened around him—flat palmed blows had them laughing one moment and aspirating the next.

Once the blood had clumped patches of sand in dark slicks, he gave pause, gaping at the bodies already half-buried in sand. Chest heaved. Something was crawling along the back of his throat. The byakugan surrounded him in death, in bodies whose skin would bake if left for more than a few days and be preserved in eternal, papered agony.

Whatever hardened the corners of his eyes, drew his brows together and curved up the corners of his lips, snapped. Hair unfettered, he was helplessly retching against the backdrop of his most recent memory when she arrived, eyes widened like her fan.

There's been a mistake, she said, and he couldn't help but agree, wiping stickiness from his lips and sinking into one of his stances. She almost looked alarmed when he regained control so quickly, so eager to dispatch another unto his fists.

"It's too late," he returned, something hoarse tearing at his vocal chords.

"I've killed them all."

He couldn't help but notice that she looked desperate, wild, determined but unwilling to defend herself against such an unwound opponent. Byakugan noted the words trying to spill out of her throat, but couldn't hear, could barely see...

He had only been to Suna, once, just barely skirting the borders on a mission that had gone instantly awry.