They stared curiously at each other. Tamashī and Gaara. Two kindred souls of the same sad fate and lonely origin. So this was the boy she was to soon be engaged to hm. Tamashī thought to herself. Is this the girl father spoke of? Is she the one to which our alliance was to be made? Gaara thought. Their curious staring match was interrupted as her father grabbed Tamashī's arm and roughly pulled her forward.
_____________________Time Skip_____________________
Tamashī's father slammed his hands on the wood floor beneath him as the Kazagage refused to his offer. He wanted to marry Gaara and Tamashī but he refused to give his name the excessive amount of money and recognition he craved. Both were greedy men, both willing to go to extremes to get what they wanted, both bearing an insatiable hunger for power, both refusing to give in to the other. The Kazagage had Tamashī's "father" executed before her eyes in his office. He turned to her.
"You may choose to leave this village or stay. However, if you leave you will be forever labeled an enemy to this village, and if you stay, you will marry Gaara when you both come of age."
Such a heavy weight of responsibility. But it didn't matter. This was no different than the maturity that man forced upon her, no different than the heavy responsibility already stacked upon her now seven year old shoulders. Still, she could not decide. That boy interested her. His soul called to her. She could feel the tailed beast within him. He called out to her like a son would call to his mother; it was impossible to ignore his agonizing pleads. Yet at the same time, she wanted to return to the land of fire. There was the village that she had come from there. He had told her so. He told her everything her "father" wouldn't. When she was near him the two tailed beasts within her reacted to his own tailed beast like a brother would to a sister. She could not marry him because his soul was kindred to her own. But she would befriend him. The night was dark and chilly. But she didn't mind. Tamashī rather enjoyed the cold. She allowed her tailed beast to lead her to Gaara. What she found was something that she would never forget. Gaara killed him. But that wasn't the worst part, the worst part was being told that he had never really lived him. As he breathed hus last breath, Gaara cried over his dead body. Over and over he asked why and begged to have a re do. Tamashī ran up to him and hugged him. Sure she was slightly scared, but she had two tailed beasts within her and she didn't believe he would hurt her. His sand lashed out, but it dropped centimeters from her heart.
"Shh. It's alright. You don't have to cry anymore Gaara. We can have each other. I promise I'll never leave you. No matter what I'll always be with you. Even when I'm not." She cooed. Even though they were the same age, she saw him as her little brother, she saw him as someone she had to protect.
"A-aren't you afraid of me?" He sniffed.
"Yea. I'm scared. But it doesn't matter. You need a friend and I need a friend. You can be my brother. It's okay if I'm scared of you because I know you'd never hurt me and if I needed to I could defend myself." She explained. He turned around and fisted her shirt as he cried into her chest. She held him. Neither one of them knew that soon, this comfort they sought out within each other would soon be ripped away.
(A/N: the picture is Tamashī's two tailed beasts, the dark eight tails is Kurai o-jū and the light ten tails is Hikari o-jū.)