"Gaara!" Ayami called as she peered around another corner. No sign of the redheaded child. "Where'd he go?" She scratched her bright green hair and closed her matching eyes. The girl sighed as she continued looking for her friend. "I told him I would be right back..."

Ayami spun around when she heard some rowdy noise that seemed to be coming from kids. She took off running to the source of the sound, trying not to trip over her full length robes. "Gaara?" She called pushing her way through the small group of kids, who were yelling at her friend. She turned to face them, "Leave him alone!"

"Well, tell him to stop messing with us!" A boy told her, taking a step back.

Ayami turned to look at Gaara, who looked at her with confused eyes. "All-all I did was... Give them back the ball..." He pleaded with the girl.

"He wasn't messing-" She turned back to the kids, only to receive a face full of sand. She wiped her eyes in time to see the group running away, while they shouted names at them.

"Ayami!" Gaara hurried to her side.

"Its okay, Gaara, I should've known what they were thinking. You okay?" The girl opened one of her eyes while shooing sand from her dark skin.

Gaara nodded, "Yeah" Then he looked down at his feet. "Uh... A-ayami?"

She brushed the sand from her robes and looked up at him. "Yeah?"

"Um... Why did you do that... For me?"

Ayami raised her eye brows, then laughed. "Were suppose to look out for each other, right?" He gave her a small smile and nodded. The girl giggled and walked over to the ball, the group of kids had decided to abandon. "Lets play!"

"What do you mean?" Ayami gasped. The two children were sitting outside of one of the candy stores in town, trying to escape the glares of others.

"Father has been sending them... A lot now..." Gaara confessed as he looked at the candy in his pale hands.

"But why? That's not fair!" She stated.

"Because of... Because of the monster inside me. No one wants me around anymore" Gaara's voice broke and he wrinkled his forehead.

"I want you around! And so does Yashamaru" The girl told him. Then she saw how sad he looked. "Really, Gaara. I... I dont care what you have inside you, you didn't ask for it... So its not your fault"

Gaara looked back at her green eyes. "You really feel that way... Ayami?" She nodded solemnly. "But why?"

"Cuz I'm just like you remember?" Ayami laughed. "No one likes me either. Cuz of the Kekkei Genkai I have" It was her turn to look down at her dark hands. "No one wants me around either. That's why Kirume-san took me in. I dont even know where I came from"

Ayami's Kekkei Genkai allowed her to read the minds of those around her. When her family abandoned her in Suna, an elderly Kirume adopted her. When she was old enough to talk, she asked people how they could speak without moving their mouths. This caused the young child to be labeled as insane and creepy, making her an outcast. The Kekkei Genkai also gave the girl massive headaches when it activated randomly.

Gaara happened across Ayami when she was in the middle of fighting off one of these headaches. He'd asked her if she was okay and tried helping her get home. The whole time all he wanted to do was help; he didn't have a single thought of her being a freak, though he'd have to had heard about her.

"I bet you come from somewhere great..." Gaara said quietly. "Somewhere better than here..."

Ayami's smile returned. "Well, at least one thing good happened since I came here" Gaara looked up at her. "We got to be friends!"

Gaara looked at her for another second. "Yeah" He smiled back at her. "Can I ask something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"When you hear me... Can you hear the monster too?" Gaara looked back down at the sand. But he caught her nod from the corner of his eye. "Does it scare you? Even a little bit?"

"Nope, not at all" Ayami declared, "That thing cant hurt me, you wont let it"

Gaara nodded happily. "Hey, you kids! Get from in front of my store!" A tall skinny man yelled down at them when he located the two youngsters. "Go on, I said get!" He started making his way toward the duo. Ayami stood and grabbed Gaara's cloak pulling him along as they made their escape.

It had gotten darker, and the children were almost to Kirume's small home when it happened. Three masked men appeared before them, ready for the attack. Gaara and Ayami both froze, to scared to move for a second. They turned to look at each other, before the boy regained movement.

"A-ayami! Run!" Gaara commanded as he pushed his friend. "Go now!"

But the boy hadn't acted fast enough. The Kunai knives where already in the air, flying at them. The sand immediately blocked all assault toward Gaara, however the young girl was out of its range of priority. By the time Gaara had reacted to the situation, the greenette kneeled in the sand, bleeding from her stomach and panting.

"Ayami!" The boy cried, rushing to his friend. His sand acted for him, disposing of his attackers quickly. "Ayami..." Gaara said, placing his hands on the girls back. She fell forward at his touch with a sigh. He called for his sand, making it carry her the little distance to her adoptive mothers house.

Gaara began to bang on the door as soon as he reached it, screaming for Kirume to answer. The boy looked up at the old pale face of the raven haired woman and begun to tell the tale, but he was quickly pushed aside when the lady saw Ayami on the brink of death.

She cradled the green haired girl in her arms, rocking back and forth. "What did you do, monster?" She shouted at the young boy, who stood in the doorway in shock. "Leave and never come back! How could you do this? Leave!" Kirume cried, tears running down her cheeks.

"But I-I..."Gaara took a step toward them, wanting to help.

"I said go! Leave!" The old woman yelled, throwing her hand at Gaara.

Slowly, Gaara began to obey, turning and running in the opposite direction. Back to his uncle. Back to where it could make sense.

"Yashamaru, it hurts..." Gaara cried as he stood before his uncle. The young man looked down at him, looking sad too. "It hurts, but... Theres no wound... I'm not bleeding..."

Yashamaru looked down at Gaara, still silent as ever. He'd heard about Ayami. "Is this what pain is?" Gaara continued, searching for a reason.

"The pain you feel... In your chest is... A heart wound" Yashamaru said at last. "Theres no antidote you can take for a heart wound, its not the same as a flesh wound. Sometimes it may never heal"

"But-but... How do you make it go away, if theres no antidote?" Gaara begged to know. The small boy clutched his chest.

"Theres one thing that might do the trick..." Yashamaru looked at the picture of his dead sister, then back at her son. "Love" Gaara asked what love was. "Love is... The feeling of wanting to serve someone close to you... To make them as happy as possible... Well, I guess I'm not giving a very good example, am I?" The young man chuckled. Gaara relaxed and thanked his uncle for the insight.

The next day, Gaara tried to say sorry to the group of kids, only to be rejected again. "Wheres your other weird friend?" They laughed at him, knowing the story.

That night Gaara went up on the roof of his home to think. "Love...?" Gaara pulled some sand into his hands, studying it intensely. Was there love in his sand? He didn't get much time to think about it. Kunai knives were being thrown at him again, he turned and blocked the weapons. In his current state, Gaara decided to deal his attacker a fatal wound. But his heart stopped when he saw who his assassin was this time. His uncle lay up against one of the walls of the home, blood pouring from him.

"Y-yashamaru!" The boy ran to him in horror. He kneeled beside him and started apologizing and crying, trying to dismiss the assault as order of his father.

"No, Gaara... I willingly accepted the mission" The young boys eyes widened. "I hoped that k-killing you... Would avenge my sister. I never truly loved you... Although I did honestly try... Your the reason my sister is dead, and that little girl, Ayami... She was shipped back to her real family today"

Gaara gasped, his mind racing and his chest twisting into knots. "Ayami...Y-yashamaru..." He bowed his head and starting crying even harder.

The young man activated several exploding tags. "This is it, Gaara. So, please die" The explosion was easily blocked by his sand, but that didn't stop the effect on Gaara's heart.

He'd lost the only people who seemed to care for him. Yashamaru never had, but Ayami... She did and now she was gone. Because of him, because of this sand. Gaara cried out into the night. He used his sand to carve the kanji for love into his forehead, deciding there was no such thing for him, that he would walk this earth alone. Only live to fight for himself, to make his existence know to all who crossed his path. To him, there was no one else.

"Where... Where are we going?" Ayami asked, her breath still wavering as she was carried in strong careful arms. Her wounds had been patched up and the pain was numb.

"Were going home, little A, to Kumogakure" Killer B smiled at her. "After your mother left you in Suna, A spent a lot of time looking for you"

"A?"

"Yeah, your father little A" Killer B laughed. "You really have no idea who you are... I'm sorry. Your mother didn't think highly of our family, she took you away without even telling a single person. But I found you! And were gonna fix this"

"Can I come back? I gotta come back to Suna!" Ayami asked, thinking of Gaara and what he must be thinking. "Please!" She broke into a cough.

Killer B stopped walking and looked up at the sky. "Of course, little one. You can go back as soon as your ready" Then he continued walking.