Made of Fail

Chapter One
Well...Fuck.

Tallant awoke first, unused to the sudden chill she was experiencing. With a soft moan, she pulled her sleeping bag over her head to block out the sun. Wait… Sun? In her still-hazy state of mind, she struggled to understand why there was a sun in Romi's basement. After a few minutes, however, she was able to wake up enough to realize that she was not in Romi's basement, or that she was dreaming. It wasn't cloudy, like a dream; it was much too vivid. And…the forest canopy above her looked…drawn. Sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes to make sure she wasn't dreaming, she blinked a bit. Then she screamed.

A tall, slim figure emerged from the tree line. It was Sara. But…Sara was short and curvy…right?

With a yawn, Tallant flopped back down. "I need my coffee before I can deal with this," she moaned. Unexpectedly, Sara didn't smile. She almost looked…apathetic. "So you're awake," she said shortly. "I was wondering when you'd wake up. You got knocked out from the travel. I'm not surprised Romi slept through it. She's like the dead." Sara nudged Tallant with her foot a little. "Get up. I've got coffee."

"I've decided that I'm dreaming," she said, her voice muffled by her sleeping bag. The now tall-and-slim Sara narrowed her eyes. "That would explain why you're not still freaking out," she admitted. "But you're not sleeping. I'm going to explain everything once Romi gets up." Silently, Tallant propped herself up and gratefully accepted the coffee, taking a sip…and spitting it all over Tall and Thin Sara. "I wasn't expecting that," she muttered.

"It's made from dandelion roots," Tall and Thin Sara said. "It's really not coffee, more like a substitute, and I can't get milk and sugar out here." Tallant made a face, but drank it anyway. She needed the caffeine before she could properly freak out.

It ended up being maybe another hour before Romi could wake up. Tallant stayed quiet the entire time, her mind having been turned off in shock.

As soon as Romi woke up, she knew something was wrong. She shot out of her sleeping bag, stumbled, and ran headfirst into a tree before she woke up completely. Her facial expressions changed as her mind worked – she immediately dismissed the whole 'it's a dream' idea, as it took a lot of effort in her real dreams to figure out she was in a dream, and as soon as she did, she woke up nearly immediately afterwards. It was also obvious she wasn't in her house (duh), so she turned to Tallant and Tall and Thin Sara.

"Why are we in a cartoon?" she asked shortly. Tall and Thin Sara stood up. "Good, you're awake. Now I can explain." Romi, relaxed and sighed, letting her head sag down as she sat next to Tallant, clutching at the girl's arm.

Tall and Thin Sara sighed. "I'm not really the Sara you know." Romi snorted. 'No shit,' she thought to herself. Narrowing her eyes at the tiny brunette, Tall and Thin Not-Sara continued. "In actuality, I have no single 'true' name, but I have been called many things over the years. I can't tell you exactly who or what I am, but I'm sure you won't care after what I'm about to tell you." She paused to allow this to sink into their brains.

Romi scoffed. "We don't care who you are, dumbass," she said. "You're our best friend!"

For the first time since they awoke, Not-Sara smiled. "I'm sure your opinions will change soon enough." She allowed the two to get comfortable, Tallant on her sleeping bag and Romi in her sleeping bag, before she began her tale.

"As you may have figured out, I'm the one who brought you here. I won't tell you the 'how' yet, but I will tell you the 'why'," she said, silencing them with a wave of her hand. "And if you want the full story, don't interrupt me. I'm in no mood to deal with whining right now – or ever.

"In the beginning, two hundred years before the Rikudō Sennin and the rise of the modern ninja, there existed two clans with powerful kekkei genkai. They, like the rest of the ninja of the time, worked as mercenaries as they farmed the land. These clans were the Yin and Yang, and they were constantly at odds with each other, competing for territory and clients. In effect, they were about as friendly to each other as the Uchiha and the Senjū clans, but those two came later.

"The Yin and Yang clans had a secret, though, and that was what their kekkei genkai actually were. The clans were actually hanyō, and their kekkei genkai was such that no matter how many times they bred with full-blooded humans, their hanyō blood would never dilute. Being half human, they were shunned in Makai, the home of all demons, and, had any humans known they were half demon, would have been shunned in this world as well. Of course, even though they had the same kekkei genkai, they were birthed from demons at opposing ends of the spectrum, making them natural enemies. Add this onto the fact that they had the same kekkei genkai in the first place, and you've got instant distrust, one always expecting the other to stab him in the back."

Not-Sara took a deep breath. "The leader of the Yin clan at the time was…my best friend. She took both her heir and the heir from the Yang clan and sent them to a different dimension, entrusting them to my care. I stayed with the two, manipulating events to that they would, through several rebirths, become good friends with both each other and me before I would bring them back here when the time was right – which happens to be, as of now, two hundred years after any remaining traces of either clan died out."

Romi and Tallant's eyes widened at different times, each when they figured it out. "We're from the Yin and Yang clans," Tallant whispered. Not-Sara grinned. "Bingo. You're a Yang, Romi's a Yin. Oh, and Tallant and Romi aren't your real names, of course – your original names were in Japanese."

"What was the point of this?" Romi said angrily, having been silent up until that moment. "Why the hell did she send us away? And why are we back here now?" Not-Sara shrugged. "Calm down, Ro," she said. "You guys know I'm not good with the whole maternal instinct bull, but she knew that the clans were going to get wiped out anyway and she wanted to save you two."

Romi wasn't about to let up, though. "If this is true, then how come we both have our kekkei genkai after being reborn? We've got completely new genes by now!" Not-Sara smiled again. "You're smart as ever, Ro," she said lightly. "I had a part in that, allowing you to retain your kekkei genkai even after being reborn. But I think that's enough Q&A for now. Right now, we're going to get you two settled. You're going to live in this forest for quite a while."

Neither Romi nor Tallant talked after that, each absorbed in their own thoughts, but Sara seemed to have reverted back to her not-so-normal self, have a coronary at bugs, chattering away mindlessly, and jumping around, cackling madly.

They spent the day gathering food, making crude weapons and altogether making their little territory habitable. Really, Sara couldn't have picked a better place for them to live. A waterway was within walking distance, with a natural hot spring in a cave a little ways upriver. They were far enough away from the river that they wouldn't drown if it happened to flood, with grass all around and tall redwoods surrounding them – not as big as the natural energy-enhanced giants of the Forest of Death, but big nonetheless. There was game everywhere if you knew where to find it, and the repetitive chirping of the birds was soothing.

It wasn't until sunset that either Romi or Tallant broke the silence. Surprisingly, it was Romi who did so.

"You were wrong," she said suddenly, staring at the fire pit they'd built. Sara and Tallant looked up. "Hm?" Romi looked up. "I said you were wrong. No matter what, you're still our best friend." Tallant nodded in agreement, bringing a smile to Sara's face.

The next couple of days were hell for both Tallant and Romi. Neither had fully wrapped their heads around the fact that they'd never see their families again either, but that was Sara's fault. She kept them so busy that they couldn't think, teaching them kage bunshin (being hanyō, they both had more than enough chakra to do so) and making the poor Bunshin work their asses off to learn stealth and chakra control.

Tallant's chakra control was actually pretty damn good, but her stealth was crap – it was the opposite for Romi. But Tallant did seem to take to the healing jutsu pretty well, while Romi showed promise in fūinjutsu, or sealing. They practiced these every day with their shadow clones, and after six months they were pretty damn good at what they did.

The worst part of this, however, was late at night, if for some reason they weren't dead tired from training and surviving in those godforsaken woods, when they would be free to think of their families and cry. Were they looking for them? Thinking of them? Did they remember them at all? Were they crying too, thinking about them that very moment?

On those nights, the two would cry themselves to sleep.

Romi was having an especially rough time of it. Back at home, she needed medication for a mental disability that manifested itself as schizophrenia, but was in a class of its own. It had no specific name, but she called it 'Anesthesia-Induced Anxiety'. Ever since she was a baby and was put under anesthesia to sew her toe back on (don't ask), she had an anxiety disorder so bad, she made up new worlds to escape to when things got bad – which was all the time.

And now, without her meds, it was back.

Oh, it was easier to stay in the real world now, since she understood it and all, but that didn't stop her anxiety levels from shooting through the roof for every little thing. She forgot things constantly, stared off into space, and had panic attacks.

She could control it better now, though – she'd created a seal that sent a stream of chakra into her spinal cord to forcibly calm her if she was getting agitated. Well, perhaps 'create' wasn't the best word. In actuality, she took two seals, mashed them together, and voila! It was painted on the back of her neck, and could be removed only if she wanted it gone.

Tallant's…well, talent grew as she calmed Romi down during the times before she created the seal and whenever her panic attacks grew so great that the seal failed by using her medical techniques to give the effect of the medication she used to take.

Their living area was much more comfortable, since they now had a tepee made of animal skins as their abode with pieces of smoked meat hanging from the ceiling, a fire pit just outside, and kunai and shuriken targets painted neatly on some of the trees around them (Sara had stolen the weapons from some unsuspecting ninja – she never did say how). Romi had been dying to get her hands on something else, something that she could use in close combat, but Sara said that she'd have to wait before she could get a personalized weapon. This caused her anxiety to skyrocket, and Tallant had to calm her down again.

Along with this training, Sara had taken to teaching the two of them Japanese. Seeing as how Romi was already bilingual, she caught onto it a bit quicker than Tallant – even so, they were at about the same level and preferred speaking English…something Sara didn't allow them to do until they learned Japanese; which sucked, especially when they got mad and needed to curse something out.

It was around this six-month mark that Romi first felt it. It had actually been growing inside of her for months, waiting for the right time to show itself. And at the six month mark, it decided that its carrier was strong enough. Then it burst free.

It had started out as a normal day – Romi and Tallant woke up and watched the sunrise in silence before warming up their voices, then their bodies. Then they made ninety-nine shadow clones – Tallant had thirty-three work on healing jutsu and thirty-three on genjutsu, while Romi had thirty-three work on stealth and thirty-three on fūinjutsu. The remaining sixty-six clones worked on kunai and shuriken handling, while two originals worked on basic taijutsu.

Both Romi and Tallant sucked at taijutsu, so they had to work pretty damn hard at it – they just weren't suited to the basic style they used, but they knew the importance of having a strong base, so they didn't complain…much.

Around midday they stopped and cancelled all their clones, shaking off the mild headache they were so used to by now, and ate lunch – they'd been lucky enough to find some unfertilized birds' eggs, so they took those out and had small omelets along with their regular lunch of a hodgepodge of berries and flowers. After lunch, they worked on their other weaknesses – Romi in chakra control (by training in minor healing jutsu – if it didn't blow up, she was getting better) and Tallant in stealth.

It was while Romi was practicing her healing jutsu when it burst free. She was working on maintaining her healing jutsu when she suddenly collapsed, her chakra fluctuating wildly, which made her jutsu blow up in her face. Sara held Tallant from rushing forward and helping her sister in all but blood. "Don't!" she hissed. "She's fine. She just needs to be left alone."

Meanwhile, Romi was floating. All around her was darkness. Then she opened her eyes.

She was in space. All around her were stars, burning giants. There were flashes of lightning traveling from star to star, and whenever they passed close enough to her she heard disembodied whispers. Around two of the stars were planets of various colors and sizes, each following their well-beaten path around their chosen sun. Each planet had its own feel as she got close enough to them. One gave her a strong, thumping feeling in her chest, almost as though someone was banging loudly but slowly and steadily on a drum and sent the vibrations to her, letting the beat thump in her chest and send little bolts of electricity down her limbs. It was a big, smooth planet with blue-grey color and traveled slowly in its orbit.

Another planet was smaller and was much closer to the sun, zooming much more quickly. This one was an angry, pulsing grey with different shades mixed in and random flashes of different-colored, bright lights throbbing along its surface. This planet gave Romi a much more anxious feeling, like she was going to have a panic attack. She got away from that planet quite quickly.

All of this, however, formed a galaxy orbiting a black hole. This black hole grabbed Romi's attention the most. It would nearly have sucked all of her presence in, had not another presence grabbed her away, dragging her far enough away to gather her bearings and shake off the yearning. The presence was almost ghost-like, as was her own. Neither of them had a body, as they were simply an invisible cloud of consciousness. The stranger gave off an angry, worried feeling, making Romi's conscious give off an apologetic, guilty vibe. Neither could talk, but communicated using feelings and emotions.

The stranger's conscious seemed to poke at her with a tendril of its mind, and Romi did the same. As soon as both tendrils touched, both of their conscious minds were enveloped in a bright light.

The next thing Romi knew was an aching pain settled over her entire body, focusing at the joints, the spine, and mainly her head. She gave out a light groan and sat up, ignoring how the aching pain turned into a sharp, stabbing pain as she moved. "She's awake!" She heard – or rather felt – Tallant say; it increased the sharp pain in her head enough to make her whimper lightly. The tiny brunette felt a hand touch her head and the pain suddenly disappeared, allowing her to open her eyes without hurting.

She then closed her eyes again with a cry. The colors! It made the back of her head hurt again. Had her head not been hurting and had she been more aware, she'd have noticed that this was the first time she'd been able to see perfectly since she got here, having lost her glasses during the inter-dimensional travel.

The hand touched her head again and the pain disappeared. Opening her eyes more carefully this time, Romi looked up into Tallant's worried face. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. This time, she clapped her hands over her ears and mewled in pain – this time, her temples hurt. With a sigh, Tallant sent some more healing chakra into Romi's system.

Sara entered her line of sight, the sudden movement making the back of Romi's head twinge again. "You've merged with your hanyō side," she said, answering the unspoken question. "You entered the physical representation of your mind, or your 'mindscape', where it had been locked away since you were forced into your other dimension. Since you got here, it was slowly let out. You suffered no terrible side effects, but you'll be in pain for quite a bit – maybe a week. It'll take another month for the headache to go away, and you'll get migraines if you're too over-stimulated. For now, go to sleep."

And everything went dark again. She wouldn't wake up for another week.

Meanwhile, Tallant had her gently laid down in their tepee and put her in her sleeping bag, standing over her worriedly, like a mother hen. Her shoulder-length brown hair was tied in a low ponytail with a piece of string, but a stubborn piece of hair stayed in her face, letting her fiddle with it – which she did.

Sara gave a small smile and put her hand on the smaller girl's shoulder, making her jump a little. "She'll be fine," she said. "Her brain's just trying to adjust. Her chakra control's gonna be shot to hell, though." Tallant didn't laugh.

Her smile falling, Sara guided Tallant out of the tepee.

True to Sara's prediction, Romi's pain was gone when she awoke a week later, and the migraines didn't stop for another whole month. After the month was over, Romi's training schedule doubled as she needed to learn how to use and control her new demonic powers. Her demonic chakra tempered her anxiety enough that it didn't interfere as much with her life. Her looks also changed a bit as well – her teeth, once chipped and ground down, became whole again and her canines lengthened, as well as her hair growing longer and sleeker. The most noticeable change was the fact that she had three whisker-like marks on each cheek.

But she needed to relearn chakra control, which sucked, and was now twice as hard as her chakra levels had doubled. She hadn't had the time to enter her mindscape since she'd merged with her hanyō side, either.

As their first year of their new life drew to a close, she and Tallant found themselves accepting their new role – they were still heartbroken and lonely from being ripped from their families, but they were able to push these feelings away and focus on their new life. Finally, Sara would let them explore the elemental countries.

They were closest to Konoha, as they were in the Land of Fire, but they decided to visit Takigakure no Sato, the Waterfall Village, first. It barely took a day to get there and when they did, they appraised the front gates. They definitely weren't as grand as the ones in Konoha, but then again, they didn't need to be. Taki took great pride in never having been successfully invaded, being surrounded on all sides by waterfalls, hence the name. If Romi's memory served correctly, the jinchūriki of the Shichibi no Kabutomushi, Fū, had lived here but had been chased out and became a missing-nin. Of course, Romi was the one who knew nearly all there was to know about the Naruto-world.

"Hi!" Romi chirped happily in Japanese, approaching one of the chūnin guards. They looked up at her. "Returning or visiting?"

"Visiting." The first guard showed the three girls to the customs office, where they got through without many difficulties (unless you counted having your weapons and scrolls confiscated until you left a difficulty, but hey, it wasn't too bad) and got a map of the area. Having done some odd jobs around the Land of Fire, they had a bit of pocket money, so they got some clothes other than the pajamas they came with and the animal skin clothing they'd made. Romi was in a black t-shirt and those navy blue pants all the ninja wore, as well as a fanny pack and a bucket hat – she went shoeless unless she needed to go inside, in which case she put on her zori, or sandals.

Tallant had gotten a tight purple t-shirt and the same navy blue pants and sandals as Romi, while Sara simply wore her classic leggings and baggy-but-thin sweater over a loose t-shirt along with the standard zori.

The buildings in Taki were carved out of the rock, hidden underneath the waterfalls that made the village memorable. The sound of rushing water was never too far away, and the place remained lit by some sort of illusion that made the rock ceiling look like the sky. Half the village was aboveground as well, with the buildings made out of the same stone from belowground, but they were both the same – it had a city-like feel despite its small size, and everyone was bustling around. Romi and Tallant, not having been around this many people in the past year, quickly shied away from the action and walked out to a less-populated area, shadowed by Sara as their 'bodyguard' of sorts.

In this less-populated area, the three could slowly walk back into the heart of town, getting acclimated to the city once more as they conversed. Sara was being her not-so-normal self, acting like a child with a mental disease on a sugar high (which she was, in a way…just not the sugar-high child part. She was more like a mental disease), so it was up to Romi and Tallant to keep her in line. Needless to say, the trio gained a lot of attention.

They stayed for three nights in the trees in the training grounds. On the third day, they ventured upon the orphanage, where they were greeted by the smiling faces of the workers. "Are you here to visit or are you looking to adopt?" the receptionist asked. She was a plump blonde with a smiling face and rosy cheeks. Her name tag said 'Kyoko'.

"Actually, we are here to adopt. We'd like to adopt a certain person."

"Do you know his or her name?"

"Fū." Suddenly, the receptionist's smile dropped. "Oh, you don't want to adopt her," she said in a hushed voice. "She's…dangerous. Wouldn't you rather a normal child?" Romi shook her head, still keeping her pleasant smile. "No thank you, we'd like to see Fū, please." The receptionist nodded slowly and picked up a microphone. "Karin, would you please bring Fū to the front desk, Fū to the front desk," rang out over the intercom.

Sara, Romi, and Tallant sat down in the waiting area for maybe two minutes before bringing down a green-haired child with orange eyes and tan skin who looked to be about one year old. "Kyoko, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, we have three young ladies here who are looking to adopt." The woman went slack-jawed. "What? Who'd want this?" she asked in mild disgust. Suddenly, she was interrupted by a short girl with long brown hair that went to her waist. "Hello!" she chirped. "May I please hold Fū-chan?"

The woman slowly handed over the green-haired child and Romi held her close. "Sara, could you help me with the paperwork?" she said absent-mindedly. "I'd like to adopt her."

Karin and Kyoko went through the paperwork in a sort of daze, their brains having been shut off due to the fact that the monster had actually been adopted. They never noticed that the three adopters didn't live in the village – or in any for that matter. They'd get severely chewed out later – not that it was technically their fault, Sara mused as she dispelled her mind-numbing genjutsu. At least this way Fū could live a happy life.

The jinchūriki of the Seven-Tailed Rhinoceros Beetle dozed softly as Romi held her in an animal-skin sling that hugged her to her front. She, as well as Tallant and Sara, were running through the desert in an attempt to reach Sunagakure no Sato by the end of the night, before the sun came up and beat down on them. The freezing desert nights and scorching hot desert days had given Fū a bit of a shock at first, but she was quickly taken care of, warmed up, cooled off, hydrated, and changed as needed. Even Sara, who was deathly afraid of babies, seemed to be smitten with the young girl…except when she needed changing. That was a task Romi didn't mind doing at all.

Fū seemed to be unsure of all the attention she was getting, but decided to go with the flow. Adults were so weird.

Suna's customs office was much more…intense, shall we say, than in Taki, but again, they got through without too much trouble. The first thing they did when they got inside was fill their canteens up with water from the pump and then fed Fū – she really liked the fruit they kept from the forests – before going to the playground, where they let Fū down to play in the sand. Romi kept an eye on her new daughter as Tallant and Sara scanned the area for Gaara.

It had been quite simple to get Fū, as she was adoptable, but Gaara would be an entirely different story. They'd be lucky if they simply befriended him. Tallant was quite worried about this whole thing. How the hell were they going to be able to even get close to the kid? As the overprotective, full-time mother hen of the group, she was a natural worry-wart. Someone had to take up the mantle. Taki would probably be after their new little green-haired baby, the Kazekage would be immediately wary of anyone befriending Gaara, and .

That was when she caught sight of a little boy with brownish-red hair and dark circles around his eyes clutching a teddy bear. Taking a deep breath, Tallant got up and walked over to him before crouching down until they were eye-level. "Hello," she said softly. "I'm Tarantu. What's your name?" The little boy's eyes widened and he looked at her quizzically before answering with an eager smile. "Gaara."

"Well, then, Gaara-chan, would you like to come play with me? My friends are being boring." She winked at him and the two began to play together.

Gaara was ecstatic. He was playing! He was playing with someone! And she wasn't running away from him, either! He was simply vibrating in happiness! For once in his life, he had someone who wasn't terrified of him or running away – other than Yashamaru, of course, but even Yashamaru didn't play with him, saying that it would be 'inappropriate'. But now, now he was actually playing! Gosh, it was so much better than sitting by himself and watching others.

All too soon, the sun set and Yashamaru came to take Gaara home. The effeminate man took Tallant aside.

"I'm glad to see that Gaara-sama is making friends," he said with a smile. "I haven't seen you around before. Are you new here?" Tallant smiled at the elder man. "Yes, we just arrived today. We're visiting." She looked over at Gaara, who was playing with Fū and smiling like there was no tomorrow. "Gaara-chan is very sweet. He doesn't seem to be too socially adept though… It's almost as though he's not used to playing with others."

Yashamaru glanced at Gaara out of the corner of her eye. He and the little green-haired girl seemed to be getting along very well. "Actually, that's true," he said, his smile returning to his face. "People don't like Gaara-sama very much, as he's a bit…unstable at times. However, he doesn't seem to have shown any negative signs yet today, so I'm glad. His father, Kazekage-sama, was quite displeased with his recent behavior."

Tallant gave Gaara a soft look, which didn't go unnoticed by the sandy-haired blond. "Poor thing. If he doesn't have friends, of course he's going to be unstable. He needs a lot of love, of which I can see he hasn't been getting much. I'm sure you've been showing him love, but he needs someone to play with as well, not just a guardian."

Fū had taken a great interest in Gaara's sand, which swirled around her in thin ribbons that she tried to grab. Romi and Sara were keeping a close eye on the proceedings, ready to step in if it was getting too dangerous. Tallant smiled at their antics. "Gaara-chan seems to have quite the mastery over sand, and at such a young age, too. Is he a prodigy, or is this simply the product of being trained intensely?"

Yashamaru grew quiet as he observed the young boy through half-lidded eyes. "He… It's a little bit of both, I guess. He was born with this…talent, but still has trouble controlling it sometimes."

"A kekkei genkai, then?"

"Something like that, yes." Tallant nodded and smiled softly as Yashamaru called Gaara over. He ran up to the two adults. "Gaara-sama, it's getting late. Your father will worry if we're out too long." The small boy nodded, and then turned to Tallant a bit shyly. "Will you…be here tomorrow?"

Tallant nodded, smiling. "Of course, Gaara-chan – you'll remember what I told you, right?"

"Hai!" With a chuckle, the olive-skinned girl kissed his forehead, making Gaara's eyes widen in shock. "Good. I'll see you tomorrow, then." Then she and the rest of their small family left, all waving goodbye to Gaara and Yashamaru.

The turquoise-eyed boy slowly raised a hand to touch the spot in his chest that always hurt, a persistent ache that turned sharp whenever he saw someone look at him in fear or anger, or when he saw people expressing love to each other. Not only had the pressure eased, but he felt a sort of bubble in his chest, making his entire body feel light and airy. It wasn't a bad feeling; in fact it felt very good. It was just weird, seeing as he'd never felt it before in his life.

"Y-Yashamaru?"

"What is it, Gaara-sama?"

"…N-Nothing."

Sara, Tallant, and Romi and Fū sat in a circle in one in one of Suna's many training grounds. "Gaara's very sweet," Tallant said softly, staring off into space. "I'm really quite worried about him. We need to find a way to help him control this kekkei genkai of his." Knowing that the Kazekage probably had spies keeping an eye on them even now, they had agreed beforehand that they'd keep any suspicious activity to a minimum – and that involved not speaking about Gaara's 'sandy little problem'.

As Tallant continued thinking, Romi was trying to get Fū to fall asleep. "Fū, musume, baby girl, sweetheart, please go to sleep. 'Kā-chan needs to sleep, and she can't do it if you're too hyperactive." The green-haired baby didn't seem to hear her, though, instead attempting to escape her adoptive mother's grasp to go explore. Eventually, Romi let her go, but kept an eye on her to make sure she didn't go too far, which she immediately did and had to be brought back.

"See, this is why I'm terrified of babies," Sara said matter-of-factly. "They're fucking…devils in disguise."

"Oh, you be quiet, Sara. And don't you dare curse in front of my baby – you're setting a bad example." Tallant ignored the two as they continued to argue, instead thinking about the day's events. The Kazekage would have definitely heard about Gaara's new playmate by now, and was probably formulating a plan of action concerning them. This was especially worrisome, as they had no idea as to what the man would do.

It was with these uncertain thoughts that Tallant fell asleep.

The very next day found Romi haggard (as usual since she'd gotten Fū, since the little jinchūriki refused to sleep through the night), Tallant worried, and Sara…well, Sara. They returned to the same park as yesterday to find Gaara and Yashamaru already there and waiting. As soon as the little brunet/redhead caught sight of Tallant he rushed over with a grin. "You're here!" he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her legs. "You're here, you're here!"

"Gaara-chan!" Tallant said happily, returning the boy's hug, making both a blush and a goofy grin spread across his face. "Did you do what I told you?" Gaara nodded happily. "Yep!" Last night, instead of sitting and doing nothing, he'd taken his new friend's advice and meditated. He'd gotten to a sleep-like state, but since it wasn't sleep, Shūkaku didn't bother him. Also, instead of killing someone in anger, he'd gone back to that meditative state and felt his anger dissipate. The Ichibi went completely silent after that, and he enjoyed a significant decline in their conversations.

Tallant ruffled his reddish-brown hair and the two began to play. Yashamaru kept a very close eye on the proceedings, gathering more information on their interactions for the Kazekage. This pattern continued for the rest of the week. Then the full moon approached.

Romi and Sara made sure Tallant knew what she was doing. This was the most dangerous time for her, but in a way, she had the most likely chance of surviving this encounter, since the bond between them would most likely keep Gaara's awareness from wavering. The night of the full moon, Tallant made her way to Gaara's room and found him trembling on the roof, his sand floating and trembling in the air beside him.

Tallant approached slowly, and it was a testament to the intensity of Gaara's fight with the Ichibi that he didn't notice someone was there until she laid a hand on his shoulder. Instead of instinctually killing the person who surprised him, the sand demon immediately quieted and its host was able to reassert his dominance before passing out from exhaustion.

The brunette took the now peacefully-sleeping Gaara back to the training grounds, careful to keep skin contact between them. Sara had, a week before, informed Tallant of her clan's demon ability when she finally merged with her hanyō side – the Yin family had the power of light and life, which, when in contact with the bijū, which were creatures made of hate and darkness, burnt and weakened them. At the moment, however, she could only keep a monster as weak as the Ichibi at bay, and only for a few hours at a time – even when she used all her chakra. Thank goodness Romi and Sara let her use their chakra.

She only hoped that she could pull off their plan.

Gaara awoke the next day a bit groggily, trying to figure out what was happening. His mind was much to fuzzy for him to formulate thoughts, so he had to wait a few minutes as he fully awoke, not being used to waking up at all. He sat up and felt something slip off of him. Someone had covered him with a blanket…and he wasn't in his room…or on his roof…and…

Oh, no. He fell asleep, didn't he?

Now fully awake, Gaara jumped up, tripping over his feet a little before regaining his balance and looking around in terror, expecting to see destruction all around. Only…he didn't see that at all. The village was completely whole. That was when he noticed Tallant, half-asleep and lying beside him. "Gaara-chan," she said drowsily. "Did you sleep well?"

"Wh-what…" he started, but Tallant had fallen asleep. A few feet away from her lay a sleeping Romi and a fully-awake Sara, who smiled at him. "Tarantu-chan has a special power that helped you sleep peacefully. She's out of chakra right now, but your 'friend' won't be bothering you for a few more hours, at least."

Gaara stared, wide-eyed, at Tallant. "She…" The child was in shock, but very little of it was because of the fact that he was able to sleep. All of the stories that Yashamaru had read to him indicated that what she did was something that only a mother would do for her child. But…he wasn't her child… Did she want to be his mother? He'd always wanted a mother…

That same bubbly feeling he'd become so familiar with in the past week resurfaced, this time stronger than ever. A lump formed in his throat, and he found he couldn't speak. When he tried, all that came out was a hiccup – then the tears began to flow.

Sara simply turned away as Gaara cried himself out on Tallant, allowing him some privacy as she kept an eye on Fū, ignoring the many Suna ninja hidden (poorly, in her opinion) around the area, keeping their eyes on the small family.

It took some time for Gaara's tears to dissipate, but he eventually calmed down and leaned his head on Tallant's chest, feeling her heartbeat like a metronome, soft, yet strong and steady. He…felt happy with it. It soothed him, this new feeling, and it grew stronger by hearing her heart beat in time with his. "Okā-san," he whispered, feeling it out. "Mother." He liked the feeling of the word on his tongue much more now that he had a solid image to go with it – it made the bubbly feeling in his chest vibrate with joy, instead of giving his chest the empty, aching feeling he'd come to know so well.

All his life, he'd been taught by the best, having his head filled with the same thing – how to best kill a person, where their weaknesses were, the placements of their organs, et cetera. The heart, he'd always been told, was nothing but a muscle, an important muscle, but just a muscle nonetheless. It was protected by flesh, bone, and muscle, but if you could get to it and make it stop working, he could effectively kill a person. It existed as nothing more than an organ used to pump blood around the body, keeping things alive and working correctly.

So…why did everything always seem to revolve around the heart? It hurt when he saw others get the love he so desired for himself, it felt achingly empty when he looked at a picture of his dead mother's smiling face, it constricted painfully when others ran from him in fear, and now…

Now it expanded and filled him with such warmth that he didn't know what to do. This foreign feeling had grown inside him for about a week now, but this time it enveloped him so strongly that he could do nothing but listen to this organ, this organ he knew of only through its basic function, and sit in silence as all he learned about this 'heart' fell apart in his very being, and be rebuilt again in a completely new way.

"Okā-san…"

A/N: That's the end of the first chapter! Go me! Yeah, I know you guys hate me, but…I don't give a crap! Review if you want (reviewreviewreviewreview), but remember I eat reviews. So if you don't review, I starve to death, and if I starve to death, this will never get updated. So it's your choice.