As they ran through the village it was a small blessing that the storm had driven the villager inside, that way they could not ruin this moment for the happy redhead who was dragging them along. Seeing the heartbroken, attention starved child so happy made the girls hearts sing and anyone who took that from him was liable to end up going... Missing. They stopped before a round sandstone home with a high wall around it, the top of a swingset peaked over the top from the yard beyond.

"Uncle Yashamaru! Uncle Yashamaru come quick! I found two girls stuck out in the storm, can you help?" The door opened and a blonde man stood there looking concerned.

"Gaara?" he said confused for a moment at the scene before him, before moving to usher them inside and bringing them into the living room. "Who are these young ladies."

"They're my friends uncle, thats Lily and That is Orchid. They were lost outside the village in the storm..." He continued to ramble on about how they had fallen out of a sand dune and hit the village wall, about the talk they had had on what friends were, how they thought his sand was cool and were not afraid of him. He told his uncle of everything they were going to do for each other, consisting of looking out for eachother, playing and the like. Meanwhile Yashamaru was cleaning out the wounds on the Lily's arms, smiling when she blushed at the mention of her and Gaara playing together. Growing slightly concerned when that same blush made the other girl frown at her friend.

Yashamaru's POV

"Where are you two from, I am sure your parents are worried sick." I spoke in a concerned tone as I tried to decide if these girls were a threat to my nephew or the village, I found it odd that anyone from anywhere near here was not afraid of Gaara, given the boys already well established reputation for bloodshed. The fact that, from what Gaara had said, it was if they didn't even know of it at all made him worry that they were from another village sent in to spy. They looked at each other and shared a look that put me on edge, maybe they did know. The look in their eyes reminded me of a look I had seen in war vets before, eyes that had no place on a child, eyes like Gaara. Full of pain, and a cold understanding of life's harsh reality.

"Our parents are dead." She said in a cold tone no child should have. I glanced at Gaara and he was wide eyed but before I could say anything in condolence for the girls the Orchid continued "We were being abused by the man who 'took us in'. He locked us in our room when we were not expected to play the part of dutiful daughters, or household servants. We were starved and beaten. That man... was my mother's boyfriend, we are pretty sure he killed her for her money, but could never prove it. I mean come on, who is going to listen to a six year old over a grown adult. He let us go to school but only because Lily here was the school nurse's daughter once upon a time. You see, Lily's mother Rachel was dating that man back before my mother came into the picture, the evil bastard, he adopted Lily here when him and Rachel decided to get married. " The black haired girl elbowed her friend, who glared and sighed picking up the already depressing horror story. No wonder they had such pain in their eyes.

"Mommy died in a traveling 'accident' a few days later. Leaving me with a large sum of money that was handed over to my legal guardian because I was too young. None other than the bastard himself. Orchid and I have been best friends since then, we would do anything for each other and have. That is why when I saw my chance, I made plans to escape they were not very good but, well I'm not that great at the whole covering my tracks thing. He was furious when he found out, he beat us harder than I ever remember being beaten before, I was terrified screaming at him to stop, we were both bleeding..." She tapered off crying now, Orchid pulled her into a one armed hug Lily burying her head in the smaller girls chest and decided to continue herself as she rubbed circles on her back motioning to Gaara to come over. He did and sat next to the girls Orchid showing him how to trace comforting circles on the girls back. As she collected herself before continuing, sickened by the fact that there was more and I was more than surely not going to like what came next anymore than I had the prior events.

"I remember losing control of my body. My vision having gone red, it was acting all on its own." At this Gaara paled in recognition, he knew what that was like. It had happened to him at the park not too long ago, his hands were shaking as she continued. "I am still not sure what had happened to him after I blacked out. That was nearly a month ago, I think? The last thing of him I remember was a particularly bad beating, Lily had passed out and he was not letting up I feared he intended to finally kill us. Something I could not accept, I had to protect her even if it cost me everything. I remember wanting to escape so badly, then the shadows around us swallowed us whole and dumped us in the desert. We picked a direction when the storm started and we just started walking. It was quite a while later that we fell off the sand dune and Gaara-kun found us." Orchid finished somberly wiping the tears from a now quiet Lily.

I had no idea what to say, but I kind of found the bit about the shadows a stretch to believe. They were what four maybe five? And yet they were claiming to have been able to control the shadows, a coveted family jutsu of another village entirely. If it was true perhaps one of these girls parents was a Nara? If that was the case they could be a huge benefit to Suna if he could just prove it and the dark haired girl, Orchid was it, certainly seemed intelligent enough to be a Nara spawn If she could prove her claim then Suna may have just gained a Nara Prodigy if she was already that capable. The Intellect of that clan was almost as infamous as its clan's abillity.

"Orchid, Lily, I find your story truly saddening but I need you to show me that thing you did with the shadows. If what you said is true and you can do that I should be able to bargain for your citizenship here in Suna." I gauged them carefully as they seemed to decide if it was a good idea to share that, they nodded to each other.

Lily moving to stand by Gaara taking his hand in hers and smiled, "watch this." She whispered pointing to her friend.

I watched expectantly, while also not really sure if I expected anything at all. Just then the shadows beneath the girl began to darken, twitch and squirm. Some coming a few inches off the ground only to snap back just as fast.

Normal pov

Orchid closed her eyes in concentration and sweat began to bead on her head she smiled and jumped off the couch into the pool of shadows beneath her only to reappear behind Gaara mistakenly startling the already frightened boy, I mean he did just see the shadows eat his new friend after all. The sand reacted automatically to the cause of his momentary fear, only making the fear worse as he had gone from being startled to afraid he would hurt his friend.

What happened next startled everyone, Gaara's sand lashed out like normal tring to remove the cause of the boys distress. Lilys hands shot out releasing a bright flash into the room just as Orchid threw her hands up over her head to try and block the impending attack, eyes clenched shut from the light. The shadows created by the flash loosed from a frightened lily's hand and lept up with Orchid's movement creating a thick black shield around her tiny scared form.

The sand could not seem to get in and soon gave up as Lily managed to calm Gaara down, assuring him that she would not be upset at him, and that it seems they all had more in common than they had thought.

Poor Yashamaru was in shock, what the hell were these girls. He had to talk to the Kazekage about this! This could be the boon they had been hoping for, and it seemed as if the little silver haired girl called Lily was able to calm Gaara down. He had to report this! He ran out the door while the kids were distracted.

The shadows lessened and soon faded from view, as the confused girl looked around. The first thing that reached her ears was Gaara whimpering now on the other side of the room. His eyes full of relief when she was okay, she knew he had not meant to harm her it was something she remembered from the manga that just kind of happened when he was scared or angry.

"Gaara-kun, are you okay?" Orchid asked softly.

"Y-you're not scared of me now?" he stuttered death gripping his knees.

"I tried to tell you silly. She is not like THEM." Said a slightly put off Lily from next to him.

"Oh hush Lil'. Gaara, why would I be afraid of you?"

"Cause I almost-"

"But you didn't did you." She cut him off voice firm but still kind.

"No."

"And you didn't mean to do what you did, if anything it was my fault for startling you. I'm Sorry." She said her hard voice taking a gentle tone as she slowly moved closer, Lily already had an arm around him comfortingly, when Orchid got close enough she did the same and we just sat there in silence until we all eventually fell asleep.

Thats how Yashamaru and the Kazekage found them less than an hour later, all snuggled together on the couch like a group of kittens. The Kazekage could not believe his eyes, here was the son he would likely have to put down, curled up on the couch two girls clutching him protectively in their arms, and embrace that was in fact returned by the boy.

He, on a sick whim, raised a fist to them and made to strike them and he would have. Suna had no place for the weak. Sure enough there was suddenly a black and a white rope like tendril wrapped around his raised arm as his son's sand whip was around his throat. He smiled darkly already making plans for his new weapons, and took a step back as the tendrils released him. The children had not even awoken. The fact that the boy was comfortable enough to sleep around them was huge. He turned and nodded to Yashamaru handing him a packet of papers that were to be filed in the morning before he left.

If one were to look, they would see they were citizenship papers, with the legal guardian being the Kazekage himself. Hence the reason poor Yashamaru's face had just gone white. He wanted to cry, he had hoped to take them on himself as he had with Gaara and instead he was being forced to turn them over to his brother-in-law a man known for his stone cold training.

Training regimens that had been sold to Danzo for his Root Group by one of the former soldiers now gone rogue, not that the Kazekage knew that. Something the girls were sure to experience first hand shortly unless something happened.

"Fuck. Well that backfired royally..." he sighed as he went to cover the kids up and head to bed himself.


(An: Gaara is four-ish, Orchid is a whopping 5 1/2, and Lily is six)