Rai POV

Today was my 5th birthday and I wanted to go outside and explore the Sand village more.

"Granny I want a popsicle." I say as I see the stand there as she smiled at me.

"Very well which one do you want?" She asked as we made our way there and from the corner of my eye I saw a red haired boy sitting by himself on one of the swings just looking at the people.. he looked sad.

"The red one I can pop into two." I say as she nodded and bought the one I wanted handing it to me after opening it.

"I'll be right back granny." I say before running to the boy that looked my age.

"Hi." I say making him look at me as I give him a smile and pop the popsicle extending my hand to him with the one half before sucking on the other side.

"I'd take it before it melts, it's pretty hot out." I say as he slowly extended his hand taking it in his hand and licking it.

"What's your name?" I ask again taking a seat on the swing next to him.

"Gaara.." He said looking surprised.

"Oh you're the kid all of the other kids talk about huh? They say you're a monster.." I say as he looked down making me frown. He didn't look like a monster.

"You can scream and run now.." I hear him after a few seconds making me glare.

"I don't think you're a monster Gaara." I say causing him to look up at me surprised.

"What?" He asked.

"A monster should look scary and be heartless.. you're non of those things. You look sad and broken but that can be fixed." I say smiling at him and extending my hand towards him.

"I'm Rai your new best friend from now on this day represents both my birthday and the day we became friends." I say grining at him.

"You.. you want to be my friend?" He asked and I smile moving my hand further taking his hand in mine and shaking it.

"Why not? If they wanna bully one of us may as well bully both of us." I say before letting go of his hand and we both ate our popsicle.

"Hey.." He said making me look at him and before I knew it a sand rose was created in his hand making me blink.

"Wha?! That's amazing!" I say looking at it.

"Happy birthday." He said making me smile and hug him.

"Thank you." I say before pulling away and looking at where granny was but she just gave me a small smile before walking away.

"Hey, are you going to start at the academy too?" I ask looking back at him.

"Uh, yeah." He said blushing a bit making me giggle.

"Me too.. at least I'm gonna have a friend there. I've gotten a little tired of kids judging me just because my father betrayed the sand village by leaving.. I don't even know him and they call me a traitor." I say looking into the sky.

"I've never seen you around." He said and I chuckle a bit.

"Granny usually keeps me inside to make sure I don't get hurt by other kids or people seeing as some of them don't like me." I say glancing at him before sighing.

"You wanna see something cool?" I ask changing the subject and he nodded I pull the small bag I always have in case I wanna practice which is regularly and pull out a small puppet placing it on the sand before I started to make it dance a little.

"Wow." He said as I smile and nodded.

"Granny has been teaching me, she said it sorta helped my father when he was growing up so it may help me as well. Still I have a long way to go and honestly I want to use this technique differently as well." I say pulling the puppet to my hand and looking down at it.

"Hey Gaara.." I say causing him to look in my eyes.

"Let's get strong together.. let's be able to protect each other in the future." I say as his eyes slowly widen before he nodded and so did I.

"It's a promise then." I say smiling at him.

Third Person POV

The little red head was growing to be a beautiful girl and a genius. The little girl had somehow figured out how to use some of her kekkei genkai but she couldn't understand it. It was like she turned the gravity around for things but that wasn't it and she knew it. Yet again she was only 9 years old, she had time to figure it out and her grandmother had been teaching her the basics of puppetry.

She was about to graduate from the academy as well having the best grades and best friends with Gaara kids usually ran away from her as well but didn't have much care for it.

Little did lady Chiyo know that the small girl whom she had left to go to the park was sitting alone after having hurt one of the kids with the ball accidentally.

"Awe you poor thing." A voice said behind the small red head as she turned around in horror.

"Why don't you allow me to help you?" The man asked but the small girl was having a very bad feeling from him.

"I'm ok, there's no need for that." Her voice was smooth and thankfully her fear didn't show on it.

"Too bad, cause you'll be coming with me." In a second the girl tried to run but she got knocked out quickly.

"Troublesome child." Said the man glaring down at the little girl before dragging her towards the gates.

"You don't belong here." He said with a glare. Not much people knew she was Sasori's daughter but he knew and by order of the Kazekage he was throwing her out of the village and into the hands of scientists with a twisted mind similar to that of Orochimaru.

"It was nice doing business with you." The man in a science cloak said smirking as he handed money to the man who had knocked out the poor child. The man took the money throwing the girl down and walking away to report to the Kazekage that he had succeeded.

"You are going to be our price possession." The man said giving a creepy smile before carrying the girl walking towards the secret laboratory.