~Kalen~

Kakashi was wasting my time, I had to keep moving and here he was staring at me, it was hard enough getting in here.

'The longer I'm here, the harder it will be to get back out.'

"Well? Yes or no?" I asked, agitation lacing my voice this time.

"What happened?" He asked finally, looking down at my sister with concern, "She's unconscious, I wasn't gonna get her here willingly." When he didn't answer I told him what happened.

"Akatsuki are after us, turns out they really want Alai. Nema is luring them away while I bring her here. I don't have much time, I have to leave..."

He blinked for a second before his eyes widened.

"You can't leave, they're after you too."

"That doesn't matter. I have to lose them, if we both disappear then they'll figure it out...Besides, she'd kill me if she knew I let Nema run off like that. Maybe you were right Kakashi, she needs a safe place to stay for a bit."

It took me a moment, but I put Alai in Kakashi's arms, I hated knowing I wasn't strong enough to do this without Kakashi's help, or anyone's. I pushed her brown hair out of her face before I turned away.

'I won't say goodbye..'

"When she wakes up, tell her I said to keep 'his' promise until we come back."

I knew Kakashi wouldn't say much, I pictured him nodding.

"And Kakashi..."

"Hm?"

~Kakashi~

Kalen looked over his shoulder and warned me. "Don't let me regret trusting you." Before he jumped into the rooftops. A moment later he was out of sight and I was looking down at Alai Tyiadain wondering if I should set her in the house or take her with me to the Hokage's.

Then I thought of her and her brothers record.

"...Better take her with me."

This would make the explanation easier anyway.

~Hirozun Sarutobi~

I could hear Naruto yelling through the streets of Konoha below, meaning that Team 7 was back from their mission. It had taken a bit too long for a simple escort mission, so I had begun to worry if something had gone wrong.

"I'm here to report on our mission Lord Hokage..."

'Perfect timing.'

The Jonin had a thing for being late, but never when it came to reporting back. I turned to face him when I saw his back turned to me. He was putting something up against the wall. What it was though surprised even me.

"Is tha-"

"She's not gonna be happy when she wakes up, a warning from our dear friend Kalen."

It's been five years, but I could still tell it was her, Her face and hair color had stayed the same, and that memorable necklace hung safely around her neck. The only thing different was her outfit, and that her hair had gotten MUCH longer.

"And Kalen?"

"Long gone by now..."

Of course, catching the two of them was harder than anything I've faced. I had never come across her myself, but I'm sure not even the yellow flash could manage to keep them restrained for long.

"Care to explain why our famous Guardian is 'long gone' while his world is currently unconscious against my wall?"

As Kakashi briefed me on his entire mission, including the part where he talked to Kalen, I sat there silently taking it all in.

"He's smart as always.. he even helped us keep her calm once our princess wakes up." I commented once he finished, he nodded slightly before saying. "Keep 'his' promise until we get back.'"

"Are you prepared to watch her?"

"I was prepared five years ago, but then she took off with Kalen."

"That is why we can't leave her alone, if we know our little escape artist at all, she's going to make a break for it the second she gets a chance."

The room fell silent for a moment as we looked at each other with understanding. It was then that Alai's groan echoed through the room.

"Ugh, what happened?" she asked as her eyes slowly opened.

"You took a short nap."

She froze when she heard my voice.

~Alai~

'That voice, there's no way I can be hearing this right now! I was with Kalen and Nema just a moment ago!'

I looked up and sure enough, the fifth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village was standing behind his desk with Kashi right next to him. I was in his office no doubt. I said nothing as I looked around the room, I needed to get out of here, but if I moved at all, they would know what I'm planning.

"We know your planning an escape, just hear us out."

"Haha, if you know me this well, how come you have problems catching us? Does that mean we're masters?" I joked before making a break for the windows, one of my two options. But before I could reach them, I heard Kashi's voice.

"Kalen brought you here..."

I stopped in my tracks, 'Kalen? He took me to Konoha?'

"The Akatsuki are after me" I suddenly found myself discovering the reason as to why I was here. "Do they seriously think I won't go after them!?" I ranted.

'Seriously, I know how he can get, but he HAD to have known I wasn't going to 'hide' in Konoha until they took care of things.'

"Kalen told me to give you a message when you woke up. "Keep 'his' promise until we come back.""

I stiffened at what Kashi said, I was thinking that he would tell me to be safe or lay low. But he's that desperate to keep me safe that he'll let me keep that promise. I thought about this for a moment before shaking my head.

"I'm guessing you'll be taking precautions to make sure I stay within your sights?"

"You know that already."

"ANBU?"

"For right now, I think we can trust you enough to stay with Kakashi."

'So yes..'

I had no doubts that I was gonna be with Kashi the moment I realized I was stuck here. Who else would be trusted to watch me? I looked up to Hiro.

"Fine, but I'd like to train."

"What?" Hiro asked, confused.

"I don't want to be useless, I'd like to train, if that's at all possible Kashi."

Kashi chuckled slightly, "I expected as much, but you'll be around my team, is that alright?"

"That's perfect actually."

'This way I can cover everything at once.'

"Everyone who isn't Jonin level will believe that you are a temporary member of Team 7." Hiro announced.

"Sounds fun! secret identity!" Both men smiled lightly before Hiro brought us back to the point.

"Alai, if we ask what your promise is to whoever 'he' is, will you answer?"

I laughed slightly before turning around and walking out of the Hokage's office. As I left I waved to my two friends behind me, answering the Hiro's question with "Not likely." Before opening the door, I didn't like keeping things from those I care about, but it's what's best. The less they know about that promise the better. I closed the door and sat down next to the office, waiting for Kashi and Hiro to talk some more.

"Kalen, Nema...I hope your alright." I silently prayed.

~Kakashi~

"She's mysterious, when she wants to be." I stated, breaking the silence. The Hokage nodded slightly before replying.

"She's fragile though. Fragile and important, Keep her safe Kakashi."

"I intended on it even if you hadn't asked me Lord Hokage."

"Your are a Guardian of hers after all."

"I haven't gotten to keep my promise these past years."

"Now is the time to keep it then.."

I took the end of his comment as permission to leave. I could sense that she was sitting outside of the door, waiting for me.

'Time to play babysitter...'

~Alai~

The door opened, revealing my Guardian. I stood up and looked over to him. "Where are we off to?" I asked. Kashi started walking toward the exit.

"Well, I need to head back to my house, I suppose we can get your sleeping arrangement settled."

"And those would be?" With Kashi being a professional Jonin, I kind of doubted that he had spare rooms.

"We can make a bed in the main room for you."

"Works for me, any rules I should know about?"

He smiled before saying, "No waking me up, and no taking off." I laughed in response.

"Your a simple room-mate, awesome!"

~FF to Kashi's house~

Kashi's house was what I expected it to be, small yet comfortable, for one person that is. We had to set up the couch near the window in the living as a bed. From the door, you were standing in a small kitchen, the doorway to the living room was on the other side. There was an opening in the wall, so you could see into the living room. Underneath the ledge of the opening was the couch/my temporary bed. Kashi's bedroom was in a small hallway on the right side of the apartment with a closet and the bathroom.

Kashi had been reading his book on the couch as I took a shower. When I came out I looked down at the book with curiousity.

"What's the book about?" I asked, peering over his shoulder, he tensed for a moment before he turned the book away from my face.

"You wouldn't like it." He simply answered.

I'm curious now, of course. :D

"How would you know? Come on Kashi, what's it about? At least give me a genre!" He ignored me.

...

'Ok, now it's on.'

I looked at Kashi for a moment before I snatched the book out of his hands. He reacted and managed to take it back, but not before I managed to get an idea of what it's about.

"OH WOW! KASHI WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU READ!? YOUR SO GROSS!"

I threw the pillows at him along with a few random objects. I didn't care to look, I just picked it up and chucked it. Kashi ducked everything and went back to reading, but obviously keeping an eye on me. I scoffed and opened up the window, it only took a moment to notice that his head was already gripping my wrist.

"I'm gonna sit on the roof, I'll keep the window open. I'm not leaving...Promise Kashi."

He let my wrist go after a moment and nodded his head before turning to go back to the couch. I knew he'd be making sure my presence didn't vanish. I managed to sit outside for maybe, an hour? Before Kashi had me come back in. He told me he was going to bed but he also made sure to let me know that he 'set up' the house. Meaning I wasn't leaving, I gave up and said good night while getting ready to sleep. My bow was placed in between the couch and the window with my knife in it's usual place beneath my pillow.

A habit Kalen made me get into. He wanted me to protect myself but once we found out there was a bounty on my capture, he became even more protective.

~FF til morning~

I woke up to the sounds of Kashi coming out of his room.

"Light sleeper, as always."

It made me smile that Kashi remembered so much about me after all this time.

"So what's on the agenda today?" I asked as I got up, stretching my limbs while I watched him move around the house.

"Training today, since we just got back yesterday, I want to give them a day or two to rest up before they get anymore missions. Plus it'll give the team a chance to get to know their newest member."

"What kind of training?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"Haha! Well you should probably figure that out Kashi!"

"I'll think about it, It's nice to see I'm still Kashi to you though."

"You'll always be Kashi, Why would I do something so silly as call you what everyone else does?"

"That wouldn't make any sense now would it."

"Of course not, I have to be different. ^.^"

"Never a dull moment, I won't have to worry about you will I?"

"No, since Kalen's letting me keep my promise then I don't see why I can't stay until they return. Besides, if I'm there, I might just get them into more trouble than it's worth. Kalen always does things for a reason."

He nodded before telling me we had an hour before we had to leave so I started to get ready. After he finished eating he stood up and said, "OK, we're late, so we're going to have to use a jutsu to get there."

I visibly twitched. "I thought you said we had an hour?"

"Well you see, we're already two hours late, hehe."

He laughed while rubbing the back of his head. He then held out his arms, waiting for me to walk up to him.

...

...

...

"...I'm not letting you touch me, you read gross books."

"You also know that your like a daughter to me and if anything happened to you Kalen would kill me."

"You might be lying, you could kidnap me and my brother and Nema would never find me."

"Oh he would."

"You could have already killed me, or at least mentally scared me."

"And you think you wouldn't be able to hurt me before that happened?"

...

"Fair enough, let's go."

He kept one arm held out as I walked up to him. He did some hand signs and rest a hand across my shoulder blades. I felt my body being tugged somewhere as I was brought to his meeting place. The feeling was weird and made me feel like I had whip lash.

When the smoke cleared we were standing in a training field with his team staring at us.

"Hey there!" Kashi said cheerfully, Naruto instantly registered that his sensei was now here. So he jumped back yelling "YOUR LATE AGAIN!"

As Naruto was pointing accusingly at Kashi, the girl (who's name I think was Sakura) joined in.

"YOUR ALWAYS LATE KAKASHI-SENSEI! WHAT EXCUSE DO YOU HAVE TODAY!?"

"Sorry, I had to get our new guest."

'So I'm the excuse...right' _

Naruto stopped pointing at Kashi and finally looked at me. At that moment he decided it was a good idea to point at me.

"Where did you go before!?"

I looked over to Kashi before looking back over to his team.

"I'm sorry for not saying goodbye properly, we just thought it would be easier that way."

Kashi, who had moved his hand from my shoulder blades to the top of my head. "She won't be going anywhere this time. She's trapped under our supervision." He smiled through his mask. Sakura looked around before looking to me.

"Where is your brother and Nema?"

"Yeah! what was his name? Kalen right? and that Nema guy."

"I just said that Naruto..."

"HEY! I'm just trying to find out what happened to...what's your name?"

"NARUTO! That's rude! You should have remembered it when she told it to you!"

"He didn't remember, because she didn't tell him.." Sasuke announced from the back of the small group.

"Yeah! She was in the mirror thingy! I never got to ask her what her name was!" Naruto shouted as he realized that he was given an excuse.

"Hn, It's Alai." The young Uchiha smirked as he announced.

"Alai?" Naruto tried to pronounce the name correctly before he realized that Sasuke knew something he didn't. "Hey wait! How come SASUKE knows her name?"

"Hey you remembered my name." I smiled.

"Because I asked her dope."

Naruto looked like he was going to attack Sasuke when Kashi stepped in and broke up the fight.

"Anyway, Alai is here to help me train the three of you."

'I'm what? ok then...' .

"WHAT!? How can she train me?" Naruto protested, Sakura then stood forward a bit adding, "But Kakashi-Sensei, she's not a ninja!" Kakashi then laughed and led us all to the entrance of the forest, ignoring Sakura's captain obvious comment.

"This training session will be similar to our first survival exam together, you goal? Capture Alai, but there's a catch, you have to get her back to this spot in order to pass. Work quickly, because we don't have all day."

"Doesn't she get a few minutes head start?" Naruto asked quietly, Sakura nodded while Sasuke just looked in silence. Kashi laughed.

"Alai..."

I looked over to show that he had my attention, waiting for him to say something. Instead of saying anything though, he took out that book, THAT book to be specific. I twitched and snatched it from his hands.

"YOU! Are not allowed to read that around me. Now...you were saying?"

He sighed at the thought of not reading his precious book. He then look at his team before making eye contact with me again.

"They need to practice on their ability to think quickly and efficiently. Be good and know I'm watching you."

I laughed before answering him in the sweetest tone I could use. "Was I under the impression that you weren't?"

He looked to his team, ignoring me. "Get ready you three, and..."

"WAIT!" Sakura shouted.

"Yes Sakura?"

"Are we allowed to use weapons?"

"Yes."

Kashi then grabbed his book from my hands and put it in the front pocket of his vest.

"Now...go!"

It wasn't even a full second after Kashi said go that I ducked low and bolted for the closest tree. Swinging up into it's branches and leaving them behind in shock.

~!~ Hi Guys! Just taking a moment to say that I don't own Naruto and all that Jazz, the original storyline and characters all belong to Kishimoto and his entire team.

For some reason I keep laughing whenever I read the "Oh he would" comment, the tone is like a lolz moment. ANYWAY.

Remember to comment :D cus you guys love me so much. -DawnxAingeal~!~