She watched him from the shadows. She could see the sorrow and pain in his eyes. It was a pain that she knew well. Being alone and unwanted, not having anyone to turn to. The people who were suppose to protect and shield you were the first to throw you into the line of fire and laugh as they watched you burn.

He couldn't be much older than her but he was so much smaller. He looked so small and fragile, like a light wind could blow him away. It made her want to protect him something that she hadn't felt before. And if the rumors that flow through the orphanage were true, he was the last person in the whole village that needed protecting, least of all from a slip of a girl like her.

This time when he just stood and watched as the other kids played, much like she did. When the ball rolled toward him, he took it as an opportunity to try and make friends or at least play with someone for a change. He used the sand around them to lift the ball up for him to grab it.

"Umm.. can I play?"

The children stood frozen for a few seconds, unsure how to respond. Their parents have told them to avoid the Kazekage's youngest child for as long as they can remember. Not to mention the number of times that his powers have hurt or even killed some people who have got to close. They didn't know if they should run and hide or stay and do as he said for fear of his powers.

One of the older boys finally had the courage to yell,"No, you freak! Come on guys we need to get out of here." before he took off and ran like the coward that she was beginning to think the village was full of.

The happiness that had began to spark in his eyes died out with those few words and the pain and sorrow slowly began to seep back in.

This time she was determined to talk to him. She wasn't going to let him walk away with that kicked puppy look. Her mother use to tell her that her heart was simply too big and that it made her want to save every hurt or pained creature that crossed her path.

Well, today that creature was none other than Gaara Sabaku, youngest child of Lord Kazekage, jailer of the village's monster.

"If you want, I'll play with you, but you can't use your sand. It's way too easy for you to hurt me with it."

With that she took the ball from his shocked, frozen fingers and walked a few feet and hurled the ball as hard as she could at his face.

Naturally the sand moved to protect it's master uncaring of the rule that the young girl had made. For it had been made to protect him, with a will that wasn't its master's. As it stopped the ball, more rushed to attack the girl that had dared attack it's child.

Her eyes grew wide. She knew that something like this could happen if she throw the ball but the temptation was just too much for her to resist. She snapped her eyes close and turned to the side and raised her arms to protect her head as she waited for the sand to slam into her. After a few minutes and she still didn't feel the crushing power of his sand she slowly opened her eyes to see that the sand had stopped mere inches from her face. She moved her head to the side to see past the spear of sand to the boy it protected.

Gaara had to use every ounce of will that he had to pull the sand back. His little eyes were closed tight in concentration. With his hands out like he was trying to pull it back.

"You stopped it. Thank you Lord Gaara." was the softly spoken reply to his act.

Never before had someone thanked him, or try to play with him. Well his uncle would try to but that was different.

He opened his eyes and looked at the girl that was the first to try and come into his little circle. She wasn't much to look at if he was going to be honest. She had long brown hair pulled up into a high ponytail. Her nose was a little too big for her face, and had a small pouty kinda mouth but that could just be because she was pouting at the moment. But the one thing that really stood out was her eyes. He had never seen anything like them before, they were violet like the sky just before the sunrise.

"Maybe ball isn't the safest thing to play. Maybe we could build sandcastles or play tag? If you don't want to do that, we could have a race to see who's the fastest."

Gaara listened as she talked, not really paying much attention as he moved over to the mound of sand that served as a "sandbox". He figured that would be enough of a clue as to what he wanted to do. The two sat in a comfortable silence as they built. Slowly a little village began to take shape as they worked. Gaara used his sand to shape the buildings and mold the streets and the young girl by his side used her hands and fingers to build up large piles of sand for Gaara to shape.

The moon was bring to peek over the highest point of the village walls when Gaara realized that they had in fact been playing in the sand for hours. His uncle would be coming to find him before long, if he wasn't already looking.

She looked over at him when he stopped shaping the buildings, by this point they had a small city made. He was sporting a troubled look. His eye kept shifting between her, the sand, and the rising moon.

"Is something wrong, Gaara?"

His eyes widened in shock. This was a first for him. Never before had someone outside of his uncle cared to know what was troubling him. He wasn't really sure how to respond. Was it proper to tell one's troubles to a new friend? If so how long did one talk to them and did one tell them all? These thoughts kept drifting around in his head adding to his worries.

She could tell that she had shocked him by asking. So she waited until he processed what she said and thought of how to respond. She was young but she was an observant and patience child her short time at the orphanage had taught her that.

When it became apparent that he wasn't going to be able to get the words out, she took it upon herself to figure out what was bothering her new friend, her only friend if she was going to be honest with herself. By the way he kept looking at the rising moon she guessed that it had something to do with how late it was. As his eyes shifted to look at her once more, this time locking with hers, his whole face turned as red as his hair. It was kinda cute, the fact that she thought that was a shock. She looked away, chuckling. Today was full of surprises and shocks, but she had guessed that it was getting late and he didn't want to leave her and their little sand village.

"It's okay, Gaara. If you need to return home. I know it's late, I wouldn't be surprised if someone wasn't out looking for you or me at this point. Plus I'll be here tomorrow and we can play again."

As she stood, she smiled and put her hand out to help him stand. She burst out laughing at the look of pure joy on his face when he seen her offered hand, like no one had ever wanted to touch him before. He reached up and grabbed her hand to pull himself up when he heard his uncle calling his name. He must have been out much later than he originally thought.

She dropped his hand and told him it was okay go and repeated that she would be here tomorrow to play three more times before he ran to where his name was being called. As she watched him go she raised her hand to wave again knowing that he would turn back to see if she was still there.

"GAARA!"

He'd been yelling for his nephew for what felt like hours. He was beginning to worry that one his brother-in-law's attempts was successful and it was killing him inside. He couldn't bare stand the thought that he could have lost his sister's precious baby boy too.

"Un…"

"Uncle"

"Uncle Yashamaru!" is what he he heard right before a little red blur slammed into his side.

He grabbed his nephew and held him close thankful that he was alive and well. Before long Gaara began to wiggling signaling that he was done.

"I made a friend! We played in the sand and I was even able to stop my sad from hurting her!"

The joy and happiness that radiated from him was contagious. Yashamaru began to smile down at his charge as he told him all about this new friend of his. He learned that she was a bit bigger than him and wasn't afraid to throw balls at him. She always wasn't very good at building, but could draw small details well. She had violet eyes and brown hair. She wasn't scared of little Gaara at all. She seemed to be a sweet little girl, or she had a death wish.

"So, Gaara all that's well and good in all but what's your new friend's name?"

One question was enough to bring the cute little boy to his knees. How could he have forgotten to ask her what her name was? You really couldn't say you were friends when you didn't even know their name.

"Tomorrow. I'll ask her tomorrow."

I haven't stopped writing Golden Love, have part of the next chapter wrote but with story had been bouncing in my head. I blame my Co-writer and Beta Jaxrond, she wanted to do a new Naruto Story, Unwilling Sword, and so this was born from that. Also if you haven't guessed my new OC's name is not in this chapter, (I'm guessing some of you check). If you can guess what it is before shes named in the next chapter or two there will be an omake written by me or Jaxrond. Shes super excited by this story and has told me has a lot of idea for them. Anyway hope you enjoy and please reveiw.

HINT: her name's in the title