A/N: If you have not read the original Silver Falls Asylumstory I suggest you do that first or none of this will make sense to you! For those of you that have done so, welcome back! This is a GaaraXSakura story.

Not every parent has the same ideas on how to protect their offspring, however, they could probably agree that the most important thing is to, under any circumstances, protect. For those of you that are parents, ask yourself this: How do you protect your child from something you cannot see?

As a young mother, the idea of such a tragedy befalling the family was frightening to say the very least. Walking around on pins and needles became a daily routine for Sakura as she constantly watched her daughter to see if she exhibited any of the traits her father had struggled with all of his life. Praying to whomever would be listening that her daughter would just have a normal and carefree childhood..

Things of the past were never brought up, not even once mentioned, out of fear that she would get the idea that having abilities was a good or normal thing. Though Gaara's abilities were scary, they could be both a good thing and a bad thing.

Shinka was six years old when the inevitable happened. She had witnessed her first ever paranormal encounter. Her father was literally a walking beacon for the dead, after all. Spirits came to him and he assisted the good and dispelled the evil. He was no priest by any means, he owned a hardware store. Over the years Gaara had embraced his gift and did with it what he could, anything to keep his life from returning to a horror story.

Shinka, now nine years old and sitting at the dinner table, witnessed a transparent silhouette of a woman wrapped around her fathers shoulders begging him to help find her killer. The nine year old stared at her. Who was she? What was her story?

"Shinka, why are you staring at me like that?" She hesitated, "No reason. Sorry.."

"Don't sound so hateful, Gaara."

"I didn't mean to-" He looked down at his small daughter. She was pale, much like him, and shared his very red hair color as well. Her eyes were a neon green, much greener than his or Sakura's. She was an...odd.. type of child; Always quiet, never making much of a fuss, never asking for anything, and always staring. She made excellent grades. Shinka was a smart girl. Her social anxiety was what worried him, however, as a man that suffered from social anxiety most of his life the last thing he wanted was for his daughter to have any of his problems. "I'm sorry, Shinka. I didn't mean to sound like that."

She was a tense child, although he had never once disciplined her, she always acted as if she were ready for someone to strike her. She made minimal amounts of eye contact and sometimes she would stutter if she wasn't sure of what she was going to say or if she was just nervous. Shinka lacked confidence from a very young age.

"It's okay.." She stared down at the wooden table and twiddled her thumbs on her lap beneath the large mahogany table.

Her very pregnant mother placed a plate down in front of her, "Eat or you'll be late for school." She nodded her understanding and quietly ate her waffles and toast. "Here is some jelly." Sakura spooned out a decent amount of grape jelly, her daughters favorite, onto her plate. "What would you like to drink?"

"Some water, please." As her mother turned her back, she stole little glances at her father and the transparent woman occupying his shoulders. Did he not notice her?

Something like this was usual for Shinka, though she never spoke to any of the lingering transparent people, she had definitely seen her fair share around the house and even at school. Noticing her small glances, Gaara opted into conversation, "How is school coming along these days? I don't hear you talk much about it anymore."

"Good." She picked at her waffles with a fork.

"No one is bothering you, right?"

"Right.." Sakura placed her small glass of water next to her plate, "There you go, sweetie."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She gently rubbed her head. "No, no one is picking on me anymore." Shinka reassured as she fixated her eyes on her plate.

"You're not lying to me, are you?"

"Gaara, let her eat. Don't start that this early in the morning, you know how that kind of talk bothers her throughout the day." Gaara reluctantly let it go as they finished eating.

"Come on, I'll take you to school on my way to work." Sakura stopped just short of getting her keys, "Are you sure? I was going to.."

"Go lay down and enjoy your maternity leave. You look like you're in pain."

"Well, I am six months pregnant so... You're not wrong." She remarked a little sarcastically and Gaara smiled. "We'll see you this evening." He kissed her cheek and then her lips before heading down to his truck with Shinka in tow. He lifted her into the truck and shut the door once she was buckled in, before climbing in and starting it up. "Are you cold?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Alright, so tell me what you think you're going to be doing today?" He inquired as he backed out of their driveway. It wasn't the same driveway as before, he and Sakura had already moved twice since Shinka was born.

"We are having a spelling contest today."

"Spelling? You should do great with that." He shifted the stick into gear and pulled onto the road. "Yeah, I guess so.. but we have to stand up and spell it out loud if we want to get a prize.."

"Ah, what's the prize?"

"A bag of suckers."

"What flavor?"

"Mystery flavor.." Shinka looked up at her father and shook her head in disapproval. He agreed, "Yeah, that's not worth it."

They shared a liking for the grape flavor of literally everything. When faced with foods that didn't have this flavor they were both equally awkward about their secondary choice. They drove Sakura crazy.

"How are your grades? Having trouble with anything?"

"Not really.." She twiddled her thumbs once more, "I don't think my Earth Science teacher likes me.."

"Why do you say that?"

"He always yells at me."

"What over?"

"Last time he said I was breathing too much." Gaara grumbled to himself, "Maybe he's breathing too much.."

"Huh?" Shinka looked up at him through her neon green eyes. "I said next time just tell him if he wants to yell at you for stupid shit, he can try yelling at your daddy. Okay?"

"Just like that?"

"Yes."

"Word for word, just like that?"

"Yes, word for word."

"Okay." Shinka nodded and readied her school bag as they pulled into the large parking lot. Gaara pulled up to the front of the school and parked before getting out and walking her up to the front door as her mother always did. "Try to have a good day, alright?" She nodded and hugged his neck tightly. "Thank you, daddy."

He watched her walk in before heading back out to his truck. Shinka went to the restroom first, as always, and as she was washing her hands she looked in the mirror at herself. She found herself eyeball to eyeball with a very familiar face.

"Please help me find the man that killed me."

The woman who was once wrapped around her fathers shoulders was now occupying hers. She was speechless, she had never been this close to a transparent individual, much less touched one. "I'm sorry, I can't.." She began to sob around her shoulders and Shinka cringed, "O-okay! Okay! I'll help you, but we have to wait until after school, okay?"

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome.." She released a sigh and headed off to class with this strange being attached to her shoulders. She was so heavy, Shinka wasn't sure how in the world her father managed to pack her around all day. She wasn't sure how, but she figured some sort of transfer must have happened when she hugged her father outside of the school. This was just great..

Sorry everyone, I had to re-edit and update! Maybe now we can get things going! xoxo