For a whole year Kiku didn't see Gaara, not in passing, not at all. She had tried a few times to wait at the playground. She'd sit all alone in the hopes that maybe, just maybe he'd show up and she could explain to him what happened the night of her birthday. She didn't understand how everyone could treat him so badly, and the thought that he probably lumped her in as one of them hurt the girl deeply. She wasn't like them at all.

Kiku started to listen to town gossip, something she never cared for before. She was small and not easily noticed so she heard a great deal of what the adults talked about. She used it to get information on Gaara. He had become a great talk among the town. After her 6th birthday there were five more attempts at Gaara's life, or so she heard. None of them suceeded...something she was greatful for. Then those rumors suddenly stopped.

Kiku never had a seventh birthday party. Three weeks before, her family recieved a letter from Konoha. Kiku's aunt and her husband had been killed...they left behind four children. Four cousins that Kiku had never met. She had never seen her mother cry so much in her life, not even after father's death. Her twin sister's death hit her mother hard, and she soon left Kiku and Kimi in the care of a neighbor while she traveled to Konoha. She was gone for over a week. She sent her daughters letters with some alarming news.

Two of the girls' cousins, the boys Kenji and Kei, were Konoha ninja, and therefore had to stay in their village. The girls, however, had never passed the academy and were to be sent to live with Kiku's family, as they were their only relatives. Nobody thought the boys could handle the care of their sisters, and Kiku's mother was their only option.

The week of Kiku's birthday, her mother and cousins arrived home. There were two girls following sorrowfully behind her mother. The older one, Kana, was 15, with light brown hair and green eyes. She looked like her father, much like Kimi resembled hers. Her personality matched Kimi's closely as well. Kiku did not like this cousin one bit. Her own twin brother was a ninja, but she had quit the academy because she said it wasn't ladylike and wanted to be more like her namesake, Kiku's mother Kanako. The thought sickened Kiku. Kana had given up the life of a ninja for the boring life her family led. Kiku just couldn't understand her.

The other one was a year younger than Kiku, and when she first stepped out from behind her mother Kiku could have sworn her eyes were failing her. The expression on the little girl's face told Kiku that she thought the same thing.

"You look like me..." the youngest cousin whispered, stepping forward to inspect Kiku. She grabbed Kiku's face between her small hands and turned it to each side carefully. She finally let them drop and stepped back shaking her head.

"Nope, your eyes are different...hair too." She smiled just slightly. "Not a very good transformation jutsu." She folded her arms across her chest. "Couldn't pull off copying Okarina, now could you?"

"T-transformation jutsu?" Kiku looked the girl over. Okarina was a tad bit shorter than her, but her face looked almost exactly the same. However, where Kiku's eyes were a pure and pale blue, hers were leaning more towards green. Her hair was dark purple just like Kiku's as well, but where Kiku's curled, Okarina's lay flat. Okarina was right, almost the same but not quite. They both had their mothers' faces apparently.

Kana nudged her younger sister.
"Okarina...she doesn't know what you're talking about."

Okarina, cast a look at her sister, then looked at Kiku, then back to her sister.

"How can she not know transformation jutsu? That's basic...I mean, you're kidding right?" Okarina laughed like she was hearing a joke. "Next thing I know you'll tell me she's never heard of shadow clones."

"...what's a shadow clone?" Kiku looked at her cousin curiously. She was a little odd.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Okarina! Hush! Auntie never forced her daughters to attend ninja classes so of course they don't know that stuff."

Okarina put a hand on both Kiku's shoulders and looked her dead in the eye.

"Do you know what chakra is?"

Kiku nodded her head "Doesn't everyone?"

The small girl smiled wide and gave Kiku a hug. "Oh thank goodness! You're not hopeless! I can make you a ninja yet, we'll both be one, you'll see. It's tons of fun!"

"Okarina!"

The girl jumped and looked at her aunt.

"...sorry auntie..." she mumbled. "I forgot..."

The little girl walked past everyone and up the stairs silently. Kiku looked to her mother questioningly.

"Kiku...go show Okarina-chan to your room."

"Yes mother."

Kiku walked up the stairs to join the girl, her new roommate for the next few years. Kiku's home had three guest rooms, and her mother had given one of them to Kana. However she felt she needed to keep the other for actual guests, in case she had anyone important stay the night.

Since Kiku's room was relatively large for a little girl and both children were roughly the same age, Kanako had moved another bed into her youngest daughter's room so that Kiku and Okarina could share. Her things arrived before she'd gotten there. Kiku really hoped she could deal with her, or the next few years could be absolutely horrible.

As the two entered their room and closed the door Okarina looked at Kiku curiously.

"Which one is my bed?" she asked, looking at the identical pink sheeted beds sitting across from eachother. Kiku's mother liked things to match and had gotten the same set as hers for her cousin.

Kiku pointed to the one on the right and Okarina went over to it, laying out on her stomach and burying her face against the pillow. Kiku sat on her own bed and watched her.

"I was going to be a ninja, you know." Okarina said, turning her face to look at Kiku. "I was going to be one just like my mom and dad...I was gonna be an anbu. They were going to be so proud."

Her eyes filled with tears and they slowly made their way down her cheeks. "I practice real hard, all the time, but I guess it doesn't matter now. This isn't fair!"

Kiku felt sorry for her. She knew that nobody from Konoha would be permited to take Ninja classes in Suna... no matter how young they were.

They would never trust her...Okarina would be forced to live a life much like her own. They would both be forced to live the boring life of a civilian while simply dreaming of accomplishing something greater. It wasn't fair, Kiku agreed.

That night, Kiku went to sit with her cousin while she cried. When she finally stopped and the two curled up together in Okarina's bed to sleep, Kiku finally felt like she had made a real friend. Her first real friend since Gaara. Though the thought made her happy for a moment, a sense of sadness crept in, overshadowing it.

Now Kiku had someone to relate to...had Gaara finally done the same? Or was he still alone and miserable?