SD: o.o ahhh! Gomen gomen! I can't believe I just abandoned the story like that for so long! Please don't hurt me! . I've just had a lot happening lately, going to university, moving out of halls and into the city as well as a bunch of other stuff that I won't bore you with. Here's chapter 4! I hope you enjoy!

Ancient Wind

Chapter 4 – A Promise Made is a Promise Kept

Keifumi stood motionless as she stared at the sand shinobi. She had not expected him to show up, nor had she wanted him to come now. Her stared at her for a long time, red eyes boring into her before slowly stepping toward her.

Naruto was in front of her in the blink of an eye, kunai drawn. „What the hell was that?"

Gaara stopped, raising an eyebrow in mild amusement. He glanced over his shoulder at the lifeless woman lying behind him. „Did you think it would be a better idea to let her continue trailing her?" he nodded to Keifumi who gently pushed Naruto to the side.

„Gaara...I left Suna for a reason..."

The red haired boy stopped a few feet from the wind girl, narrowing his eyes. „You were put in my charge...you're quite the stupid one,"

Sakura watched the exchange of attempted reasoning an insults go back and forth. Looking at Sasuke and Naruto a little, she realised her teammates looked just as puzzled as she was. Why had Keifumi been in Suna before? True, the wind clan had been known to collaborate with the Kazekage, but why Gaara?

Keifumi finally sighed. „Alright already, you win," turning back to the group, she realised that she, once again, owed them an explanation. „Can we...go isnide again? I don't think it'd be a good idea to talk about this here..."

Sasuke made a face, but turned and followed the others without complaint. This girl was too careful for her own good. How could she possibly avenge her family if she always played it safe? She was going about it in the entirely wrong way.

This time, Kakashi led the way to his own apartment. He ignored their wandering looks. They wouldn't find his porn stash no matter how hard they tried, he'd hidden it well.

In reality, none of them were looking for their teacher's 'Come Come Paradise'. Not even Sakura, who helf a reasonable amount of respect for her sensei, had expected him to live in a tidy little apartment. They group was soon distracted from their new surroundings as Keifumi cleared her throat. Gaara had remained standing behind her.

„This is getting out of hand," she sighed, shaking her head. „I've been here, troubling you all long enough. Gaara is my, I suppose you could say, body guard,"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, slowly looking from the sand shinobi to the wind girl. Gaara, a body guard? Since when?

„Suna and my clan have been working together for years. Perhaps not always for the same cause, but their continuous collaboration has created a sort of ancient friendship. We...respect each other," although she didn't look at any of their faces, she could feel them staring at Gaara in shock. Who ever heard of Gaara respecting anyone?

Naruto scrunched his face, pointing at the two of them. „What, are you two going out?"

Sakura promptly whacked him over the head. „Didn't you listen to what she just said?!"

Gaara cleared his throat. The entire room fell silent. „The Funabashi Clan has its roots in Suna,"

Keifumi nodded, glad for the momentary silence. „My family lived in Suna during the time of the first Kazekage. Before the second one came into power, we had developed our technique and it became an ability that only my family could master. As I said, the technique can only be learned if the user has the mind capacity to master and control it. The only reason is became a bloodline limit was because my family was keen on arranged marriages. The Funabashi men only married women with a high IQ, it's still like that...or was,"

Kakashi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. „So if someone like Shikamaru was part of your family, Sakura would be an ideal wife..."

Sakura's eyes widened. „I don't want to marry Shikamaru!"

Naruto had to grab her and hold her back as she flailed and waved her arms in rebellion. Kakashi sweatdropped, relieved that the Kyuubi kept him from feeling the kunoichi's wrath. Sasuke sighed, ignoring them as he sat quietly on the couch, arms crossed. He, although considering Sakura a valuable teammate, could not imagine her as being anything else to him. Although she clearly wished it.

Keifumi slowly got to her feet. „I should get going, I've stayed here too long. If Gaara's managed to find me, then it won't take long for him to find me either,"

Naruto jumped to his feet. „What?? But you can't just leave, it's dangerous!"

Gaara looked at Naruto evenly. He had respect for the blonde ninja, but he believed that this was something Suna could deal with on its own.

„Thanks for the concern Naruto-kun, but it wouldn't be fair on Konoha if I was caught here. There's too much at stake. Besides, that's what I have Gaara for," she smiled as she patted the taller boy's cheek, receiving and annoyed sound from him. The redhead though, didn't move an inch. Keifumi could be a little too playful for his liking sometimes, but at least she took this mission seriously.

Kakashi put a hand on his pupils head, forcing the boy to sit back down. „Keifumi's right. Let her go Naruto. She's managed thus far and with Gaara at her side she'll manage just fine,"

Keifumi smiled and bowed to them. She hadn't expected to make any friends. As far fetched as it might sound, even to her, she had a feeling that, had she been born in Konoha, had she grown up as a kunoichi in the fire country, she would have been able to count on Team 7 to back her up. But this was not any of their business, this was something she had to do alone.

Gaara and her quickly made their way out of Konoha. Keifumi walked ahead, the wind playing with raven hair. Clasping her hands behind her back, she looked at the silent boy walking a little behind her. „Ne...Gaara-kun...?"

„Hmm?"

„Why did you come after me? I said I didn't want any help. There was no reason for you to come and help me...you have your own life ahead of you after all. You want to become Kazekage, don't you?"

The jinchuuriki closed his eyes a moment, pondering over the kunoichi's question for a few moments. He had been asking himself the same thing on the way to Konoha. He had asked himself the same thing when looking at the limp body of the spy that had been following her, and he had asked himself that question again when he left the safety of Konoha with her. The answer was simple. „I made you a promise I don't intend to break,"

A faint smile touched her lips and she nodded, looking up ahead again. She remembered the night after the fire had wiped out the only survivors of her clan. Gaara's team had found her. She recalled that the cold heart vessel had opted for leaving her behind for dead, but Temari would not hear of it, informing Kankouro that he would be transporting the half dead girl with one of his puppets. Once they had reached Suna she soon came to loathe the sand user, but her continuous escape attempts had somehow brought them closer together. He was, after all, the only one of the team who could ever find her again and she respected him for that.

Gaara slowly came to a halt, turning to look at, what they had left as, a peaceful village. He frowned when seeing that it was clearly no longer the case. „...Keifumi...Konoha has visitors that I think you should meet."

The remaining Funabashi came to a gradual halt. „Has he sent another shinobi after me?" there was no wind raging about the village only utter silence. Konoha was a bustling village and barely any sounds were carried to her from the wind. She clenched her fists. They were getting better. Without another word she promptly turned on her heals. Reaching the village of Konoha was her target yet again.

SD: Puh...well, there you have it! I wrote chapter 4! Again, a relatively plain chapter I know, but we're getting there, slowly but surely. It took me a while to remember exactly what was going on anyway. I hope you enjoyed it! Oh and sorry about the odd quotation marks...I'm stuck with a german word processor at the moment and it doesn't seem to like me much.