A/N: 'Lo! I'm back again, since I had a day off with nothing to do. Hehe. Also, I had noted that in chapter two, I wrote that Keimyou's eyes were dark blue. It's supposed to be maroon, a different shade of red, so i'll try to edit it. And yes, that would mean someone in the family had pink pupils. How cool!

Jenvaati: Actually Iwashi was my OC, but there IS another man called Iwashi in the anime, though I can't remember from where. The sandstorm idea is good, and fog was like mist, which I've seen too much of already.

Here's chapter 4, enjoy!


Hurting

Blood was being spilled. Her hands held a kunai, shaking with anger.

Seki's forehead creased into a frown.

She heard someone cough from behind, without hesitation, flung her weapon at the approaching enemy.

Enzeru fell with a soft thump, on the wooden floor.

Drops of sweat rolled down Seki's face, her blanket suddenly feeling very warm.

The fire slowly burned itself out in her eyes, as she realized who the last victim was.

Her mind woke up.

Seki turned her head, letting out a soft groan. Her eyes remained shut, but she was tossing and twisting, entangling her legs with the thin blanket that covered her.

Everything was covered in red.

No one was moving.

"Houseki...

Seki's hands waved helplessly as her nightmare went on behind her closed eyelids.

...Bakemono!"

"NO!" Seki yelled and sat up straight, the visions of her dream slowly fading away. Placing a hand on her chest, Seki felt the garment soaked with sweat.

Not blood, sweat.

Relieved, Seki sighed and jumped off the bed. Sunlight streamed through her bedroom window, chasing away the shadows of the night. There were no birds chirping outside as the desert heat crept in as well, but the quiet scene of the village gave Seki even more energy. She grabbed a new set of clothes and headed to the bathroom to wash up, greeting Keimyou as she passed by the kitchen.

Inside the bathroom, Seki took a look at herself in the mirror. It had been almost a week since she had arrived in Sunagakure, the bright desert sun had given her a slight – very slight – tan, which Keimyou had commented that it gave her a warm glow. Her cheeks were less gaunt, seeing as she now had regular meals unlike during her journey here. Her red eyes had their sparkle back, especially when she was training. Seki ran her fingers through her hair, which was slowly reverting back to it's original light brown color. The orange dye was slowly losing it's effects, but Seki had been too caught up in her training to re-dye it.

Training.

Seki's eyes grew wide as she remembered today was the last training she had with Keimyou, as he still had a business to run. She brushed her teeth and washed her face before changing out of her night clothes into another sleeveless polo t-shirt, it was lime green this time, and green and brown cargo pants that had somehow shrunk while washing so that it fitted her perfectly, despite her skinny structure. Seki then flew to her room to get her sling bag and weapons holster, and finally arrived at the dining table, devouring her breakfast as fast as a normal girl could.

"Woah, Seki. Give your gullet time to swallow!" Keimyou patted her lightly on the back as she choked at his words. Seki followed his instructions, and after gulping down a cup of milk, she grinned at her uncle, "Let's go!"

Keimyou shook his head, half glad it was the last day he was training with her, at least on weekdays when he was working. The two walked out of the house and traveled for a few minutes to a surprisingly dense forest, grown specially under the Kazekage's orders, so that the shinobis of Sunagakure could train. Seki marveled at the area it covered, even though she had came here a few times already. It was a strange sight since Sunagakure was still in the middle of the desert. Seki wondered how long it had taken for the forest to grow this large, and decided that they must have used some chemicals that hastened it's growth.

"Alright, I'm going to get all the puppets out this time, so prepare yourself."

"Hai," Seki nodded her head and waited in the middle of the forest, for Keimyou to collect the puppets he had made specially for her training.

-

Gaara heard the soft sounds of footsteps from the top of the roof, indicating that Temari and Kankurou were already awake. He decided to by-pass Temari's home-cooked (home-blown, more like) breakfast and disappeared from his spot.

He seemed to materialize out of sand again, in front of the so-called jungle the Kazekage had proposed, in order to better train their shinobis for different terrains. In spite of this, hardly anyone came here as Gaara often used this place as his personal destruction zone when he wanted to destroy something. The trees grew exceptionally fast due to one of many Chiyo's chemicals, hence anything he demolished in here would grow back the next day anyway.

Today Gaara felt the need again, albeit the reason was unknown. However, as he neared the middle of the jungle, he heard voices, a female and male, interrupt the stillness. The male one seemed to be leaving and the female stayed silent after that. Intrigued, Gaara leaped to the top of the trees and tried to find the source of the voices. He finally saw someone, sitting in a clearing while glancing around, as if waiting for something to happen. The person had brown cropped hair with a hint of orange at the ends. Her face was tanned slightly, with pale pink lips and red ruby eyes. Gaara peered from the top of his tree at the familiar girl, as the memory from several days ago surfaced in his mind.

"Why? You were amazing back there."

Gaara saw that she now looked more refreshed than before, undoubtedly after having proper meals, and her eyes now glimmered with excitement and impatience. As the bushes started to rustle beneath him, Gaara continued to observe the girl fight off the approaching dummies with amazing speed and agility. The same speed that managed to keep up with him that night.

-

Seki felt someone's eyes boring into her head, but did not have time to look up and find the person. A rustle in the bushes caught Seki's attention as the first of Keimyou's puppets came into view. Swiftly flicking her kunai at its head, Seki quickly flattened herself on the ground as a series of arrows shot through the air above her. She dashed and jumped on top of the first puppet she had attacked, her palms thrust out in front of her. Suddenly, a strong wind blew the hiding puppets from within the bushes, causing them to smash against themselves.

At that moment, the puppet under Seki's feet shifted and the head shot itself from the body. She hurriedly jumped off to the side, and frowned as the puppet was dislocating its arms and legs. The head hovered just above the other limbs as they all sprouted daggers and zoomed towards her. Seki's red eyes widened at the sight, calculating the distance between the limbs before leaping off the ground. She dodged every single dagger and finally grasped onto the kunai that was still lodged in the flying head. She waited until the other limbs had aimed themselves towards her before letting go, breaking the flying puppet's head instead of her own.

Three more puppets jumped out together from behind, so fast that Seki barely managed to activate her wind shield. Two of them broke apart at the impact of the shield, and Seki saw the third jump over her head and land in front of her. Its stomach seemed to open up, and before Seki could realize what was inside of it, three spiked balls shot out, slicing her left shoulder and elbow, as well as her right thigh. Seki gritted her teeth and sprinted away as it started to shoot out more spiked balls. She gripped her bleeding shoulder and opened her left palm as wind started to circle and form a huge ball. As soon as the ball grew to almost human size, Seki pumped it towards the shooting puppet, slamming it against a tree and breaking itself into minuscule pieces of wood.

Just then, Seki saw almost five to ten more dummies leap down from the top of the tree branches. They were relatively smaller than the rest, but Seki knew that what they lacked in size, they made up for in speed. Smirking, Seki jumped away from them as they slammed onto the ground. She flinched at the strength the little puppets had as she saw holes appear under them and clasped her hands together when she reached the tree branch she had jumped for.

"Kaze Hari!"

Seki called out and flicked her fingers towards the dummies. Invisible needles shot from her fingertips and glinted for a mere second in the sunlight before they pierced through the puppets with amazing accuracy and broke them into pieces. Seki took a moment to catch her breath and immediately took out some bandages from her pocket to tie them haphazardly over the wound on her thigh, which seemed more serious than the ones on her shoulder and elbow. Blood continued to flow, albeit it was slower than before. Seki suddenly felt the hairs on her neck stand on end as she noticed that nothing had happened for a while.

Is he trying to surprise me?

Gee, ya think?

Seki softly dropped to the ground on all fours, like a cat, and narrowed her eyes. She couldn't see or hear anything suspicious, but her senses tingled with uncertainty. She placed her head on the ground, and heard nothing. Which meant either Keimyou had stopped for now, or that he had already started what he wanted to do.

Seki chose the latter and slowly reached for a kunai...

CLANG!

Seki whipped her head around to see a streak of gold flash past her eyes. The next second later she saw a metal arrow on the ground, glistering under the light. Her red eyes quickly spotted the many puppets surrounding her, hidden behind the bushes. Seki thought of using a certain jutsu to end this training, and developed a theory along with it. She smirked, happy for the warning and started to do some seals. The puppets chose this moment to leap out, all of them shooting arrows from all directions. It seemed as though Seki was trapped, and there was no time to activate her wind shield...

"Futon: Rensei Taifuu!"

At her words, air started to spiral around Seki's fingers and enlarged as it shot towards the green canopy. Seki struggled to keep the typhoon under control and watched with satisfaction as the typhoon continued to grow and suck in all the arrows as well as the puppets. She slowly lowered her fingers until they were horizontal and watched with amazement as her theory unfolded before her. The typhoon had followed her fingers and were now drilling through the mass of trees and rocks that stood in her way. Seki felt her chakra level deplete even faster and willed the typhoon to calm. As the wind slowly died down, a path of fallen trees and broken rocks lay before Seki.

And at the end of it, was Keimyou standing at the outskirts of the forest where he had been controlling the puppets from.

Seki grinned as her eyes started to close, and collapsed with exhaustion from the destruction she had done.

-

Gaara looked on as Keimyou dashed towards Seki, a worried expression painted on his features. He soon left however, not wanting to observe the display of affection from Keimyou towards Seki. Gaara's mind played over and over the scene of the typhoon seemingly sprout out of Seki's fingertips, the whole destruction she had caused with it without even taking a step, the frown on her face as she tried to control it.

She was strong. With enough practice, she could be one of the strongest kunoichi in the Land of Wind.

Gaara landed on the ground outside of the forest, walking slowly back to the place he lived with Temari and Kankurou. He thought back about his actions, wondering with uncertainty about the feelings starting to grow from within his stone cold heart.

-

Seki's eyes fluttered, squinted and then squeezed themselves shut against the strong light coming through the window. She sat up slowly, feeling around the bed she lay on.

... Bed?

Seki opened her eyes, shocked to discover that she was on the bed she slept on just a few hours ago. She jumped off the bed and dashed to the kitchen, only to find a note from Keimyou explaining what had happened and that he had went back to work. Seki sighed heavily and slumped on a chair in the dining room. She had wanted to train more, but her stamina is still weak.

... a streak of gold flash past her eyes...

... metal arrow on the ground...

Gold, Seki thought to herself. Seki knew whatever the gold object was, it had defended her against the metal arrow. She racked her brain for something, but her fatigue caused nothing too logical to pop in her mind. Going back into her room, Seki wondered what she could do for the rest of the day. She dug into her sling bag and pulled out a rather crumpled black and white picture, the edges so frail it tore at the slightest touch. Seki stared at it wordlessly, her eyes outlining the figures she had loved and cherished. They were people who loved her as well, people she spent her 10 years as a child with.

People she killed.

Shaking her head furiously, Seki pushed the thought out of her mind and crushed the photo to the bottom of her sling bag. Her fingers brushed a metal cylinder and she quickly took it to the bathroom. Shaking the cylinder, Seki looked into the mirror and picked out the highlights that were fading away fast. She expertly sprayed her dye on her hair, the orange color soon bringing out the bright red pupils she had.

Unknowingly, her mind soon drifted back to the conversation with Keimyou about her father.

"After Yashamaru was killed, your father couldn't take it. Which explains his agreement to the mission..."

"What mission? What does it have to do with Gaara?"

Seki's hands slowed and she let them drop to her side. Although she had promised her uncle to ask him when she was ready, her anger was boiling at the fact her father was killed so easily. Getting out of the bathroom, Seki stuffed the orange dye into her bag, slung it over her shoulder and headed out of the house, towards the Kazekage office building.

-

Kankurou groaned once he was out of the office. The Kazekage really had a way to torture every one of his subordinates. Sort through all their files for a Raion clan? Give me a break! Kankurou thought angrily and heaved Karasu to a better position on his back. He was not excited about his recent assignment, hardly knowing the purpose for it and why he, of all people, was chosen.

Karasu needs a little tuning after the previous mission. I could drop by Keimyou-sama's shop after this. Hopefully he has some...

"Kankurou-sama?"

Kankurou's head snapped up at the girl's voice and found himself blinking at the brown-and-orange head kid who had overpowered Gaara's sand shield. The lime green shirt and cargo pants showed off her figure pretty well, even though she was still on the skinny side. Kankurou nodded his head belatedly, remembering her call, "Aa. Seki-chan, is anything the matter?"

"Iie, I was just looking for the Kazekage."

Kankurou snorted, "Yeah, right. Like he'd give you the time of day."

Seki blinked curiously, "Anou, why not?"

"The Kazekage only meets important people or shinobis."

"I am a shinobi! I'm a genin of Suna remember?"

"Yeah, but he gives them missions, not requests," Seki noted the bitter tone hidden in Kankurou's voice. She looked into his eyes and saw hatred, and anger. Her eyebrows creased neatly together.

"Anou, Kankurou-sama?"

"Hn?"

"Why are you so negative about your father?" Kankurou visibly stiffened and his stare became icy, as well as his tone.

"Why should you care?"

Seki shuffled her foot, unsure of what to say. She cleared her throat, "Keimyou-san, told me about, your brother..."

"Did he tell you about my mother?" Seki shook her head.

"Then go ask him!" Kankurou snapped. He turned on his heel and left Seki staring after him, wondering what was going on. Kankurou walked briskly down the stairs, his head flooding with memories he did NOT want to see. Not right now.

"... Your mother sacrificed herself for the village..."

"... Get away! You're a bakemono too!"

"... Temari, Kankurou, I hate this place..."

Dammit! I'm still seeing it. Why the hell did she have to poke her nose in it? To think I thought she would be nice. Kankurou fumed as he got to the ground level, and stormed out the entrance.

Why did Keimyou-san tell her anyway? I hate brats, I hate her, I hate Gaara... GAH! Why the hell am I walking?!

As if on cue, Kankurou suddenly did a shunshin and disappeared when Seki was about to catch up with him.

-

Chikushou! Where'd he go now? He must be pissed at my lack of manners, poking in people's business like that.

So you do know you have a lack of manners, eh?

Shut up, I'm trying to find him.

He wears purple face paint and a cat-eared headdress. I can totally see why you can't find him.

Seki shut out her thoughts as she leaped onto roof top after roof top, searching for the purple faced shinobi. Logically, his headdress shouldn't be hard to find, however, Seki couldn't see anything distinctively purple or cat-eared. She finally stopped in front of the square, panting heavily. From the corner of her eye, she saw a few villagers running past her. Straightening her back, Seki glanced around to see people rushing into their homes, closing windows and doors, the unique sound of a lock clicking into place sounding off in several of the houses. A chill went down her spine as the place became eerily quiet. She backed away slowly, as if there was something in the square coming to get her. She broke into a backwards run, then realizing the direction she was going and turned around...

... Smacking head first into a pile of sand.

Very, hard, sand.

Seki felt something warm sliding down the side of her face. Raising her fingers, she felt it and brought it to her eyes.

Blood.

Everything was covered in red.

Red.

Seki's hands started to shake, and she slowly looked up. Someone stared down at her, or more like, her wound as it continued to leak the red, sticky liquid. The sand moved around warily behind him, a huge contrast to his flaming red hair as the sunlight was cast upon it, making it shine a brilliant gold color.

Gold.

Her hands stopped shaking as the person in front of her took a step forward. She didn't flinch or crawl away. Instead, Seki stared right into the eye of the person she – sort of – crashed into. The cold, teal eyes glimmering with excitement. He took another step towards her, closing the gap until their feet were only a few centimeters from each other...

-


A/N: Ah, cliffhanger. Serves you right for not reviewing. pokes tongue out

Kaze Hari – Wind needles
Futon: Rensei Taifuu – Wind release: drilling typhoon

Can you figure out the connection at the last few paragraphs? If you can, good for you! Now review!

Sayonara!