Sands of Time

Gaara sighed and stared at his window. A month. For a month he had been Kazekage. The entire time he had been wondering where Robin disappeared to. For a month Uzumaki Robin had been a missing-nin.

"Kazekage-sama . . ." Gaara looked up to see his sister enter the room. "The reports on Akatsuki you asked for." She put down several scrolls. Temari turned to leave but her brother's voice stopped her.

"Temari . . ." She turned to look at her brother. ". . . . as a sister . . . . do you think I'm obsessing about Uzumaki Robin's disappearance?" Temari was silent for a moment, choosing her words carefully.

"I do think that this matter is out of your hands. Robin is a grown woman. Not only that, but she is of the Leaf. We have no jurisdiction there."

". . . thank you." Gaara turned away from his sister, expecting her to leave.

"But you loved her." Gaara snapped back to see his sister smiling softly. "You can't help the way you feel. Don't worry, I'm sure she'll show up."

"What are you saying, Hokage-sama?" Tsunade sighed as Hatake Setsuko stood in front of her.

"I want you to find Uzumaki Robin. She's got to be somewhere. As Uindo Bensha you might be able to use the wind to find her." Setsuko closed her eyes and nodded.

"A . . . knowledge chant might work."

"Good. Can you do it right now?" Setsuko sighed and nodded once more. She took two steps back and held out her hands.

"Powers of wind. Powers of all. Grant me the ancient ways. Bring forth to me the once lost mysteries." The wind picked up but abruptly stopped just as it started to swirl around Setsuko. Setsuko looked around, confused.

"Well?"

"Something is blocking the wind. That's all I know."

Naruto smiled as his girlfriend Hinata came into view. She had grown so much over the two years they had been together. No longer were there nervous habits. While she was still quiet and often shy, she had grown into a beautiful young woman.

"Gomen, Naruto. I was training and lost track of time." She smiled at him, making Naruto smile in return.

"That's alright, Hinata-chan." He shrugged, a sad look dancing in his eyes. "I was lost in thought so I didn't notice." Hinata caught the sad look and gave him a hug.

"It will be alright. Robin will come back." Naruto returned the hug before Hinata pulled away as they began to walk down the street.

"So . . . how was training?" Hinata smiled at him once more, a slight blush adorning her cheeks.

"Neji-nisan said I've almost beat him. But I just think he was being kind." Naruto gave her a pointed look.

"Geez Hinata, don't be so hard on yourself. I bet you could beat the stuffing out of him if you wanted to!"

"What are you yelling about dobe?" Naruto felt his eye twitch slightly as he turned to face Sasuke and Sakura.

"Sasuke-bastard!" Naruto shook his fist at Sasuke who merely rolled his eyes. A sadistic smirk crossed Naruto's face as he crossed his arms. "I'm a jounin and your a chuunin still. That makes me your superior. I deserve respect." Sasuke gave Naruto a wry glare.

"What you deserve is-" He was cut off when Sakura stomped on his foot. He bit back a startled cry and glared at Sakura. She indicated that Naruto wasn't looking at him but behind him. Sasuke turned to see an ANBU team heading toward the Hokage tower.

"Naruto . . ." Sakura trailed off, unsure how to comfort her former teammate. Naruto smiled sadly and waved it off.

"Iie. I'm sure that Robin is fine." Naruto scratched the back of his head before looking up at the sky. "I . . . . I've got to get home. Yoko said something about training." With a puff of smoke Naruto was gone. Hinata stared at the spot Naruto had been standing in.

"Poor Naruto. He's taking Robin's disappearance so hard." Sakura sighed and looked at Hinata.

"How's the rest of his family?"

"From what I heard from Naruto, Yoko spends most of her time mediating, hoping to get a vision, Akira spends any time he isn't working with his teammates and jounin instructor in his garden, and Tenshi has been devoting herself to the interrogation squad. I don't know about the other three." Hinata shook her head. "It isn't fair. Robin taught me so much! She even helped me learn to summon dragons but she's been branded a traitor!" It was rare for the quiet Hyuuga to raise her voice but she did so anyways. When she realized what she did, she placed a hand over her mouth, blushing from her outburst. Sakura gave her a comforting smile.

"I know. Robin has always been so devoted. There's no way she would throw it all away!" Sasuke nodded in agreement with the two.

"I don't think she would ever do anything to betray the leaf. It just isn't like her."

"Hai." Hinata whispered softly as thoughts of Robin filled her mind. "I can't believe Hokage-sama branded her a missing-nin."

"Neither can we." The three turned back to see two jounin walking up to them, Hatake Kakashi and his wife Setsuko. Setsuko pointed to a local tavern most ninja hung out in. "Let's talk in there. I'm hungry."

Naruto watched Yoko mediating in front of a fire.

"She's been like that for a hour." Naruto looked over his shoulder at Tenshi. "They don't need a genjutsu specialist today." Naruto nodded, accepting her reason for not being at work the interrogation squad. Naruto looked back to see Yoko still chanting under her breath and her eyes closed as she faced the fire.

"She won't give up until she knows what is happening with Robin, will she?" Tenshi sighed and shook her head, placing a hand on her younger cousin's shoulder.

"Iie. She feels guilty. She feels that she had a hand in forcing Robin to became the 'Emotionless Executioner' all those years ago. This is very personal to her. It makes her feel even worse to know that when we came to Konoha she gave you more attention than she did to Robin. She feels as though she played a large role in driving Robin away." She looked at Yoko's still form and sighed once more. "To make matters worse, Yoko can't see anything connected to Robin right now. All she knows is that Robin isn't dead."

"Nothing?" Sakura asked, amazed. Setsuko nodded slowly.

"I was surprised myself." She stirred the hot chocolate she had ordered. "While the wind has denied me information before, it was never blocked like that. Before it could even cause a serious breeze it stopped." She sighed before drinking her hot chocolate. Kakashi shook his head in amazement.

"From what I've heard, Gaara has been sending a lot of resources in order to find her or even a trace."

"Well, they were in love." Sakura commented softly as she stared down into her cup of water. "I hope she shows up soon."

"We all do." Setsuko whispered.