Gaara and Lao walked into the restaurant and sat at a wooden table in a corner, near the Shin girls and their companions. Lao sat  with her back turned at her sisters. She put her white hood on so that her fire-coloured ponytail wouldn't attract her sisters' attention.

Gaara sat at the opposite side of the table, so he could watch Lao's sisters and their companions. Lao chose these positions in order not to get caught by her sisters' eyes and, by Gaara's eyes, watch them carefully. It was a good disguise for espionage - her sisters wouldn't really care about Gaara's watching them since he was a very reserved guy and they wouldn't expect him to talk about them to Lao Shin, but if they caught Lao watching them, they would surely leave the place.

Lao grinned when she noticed that the Shin girls didn't really pay attention to them. Her plan worked perfectly.

A waiter came up to them and asked:

"What would such a wonderful young couple like to have?"

Hearing the words "young couple", both Lao and Gaara grew red.

"We're not exactly..." Lao scratched her head.

Gaara chuckled. He looked at the waiter:

"A bottle of red wine, please."

"Fine. And you, miss?" the waiter turned to Lao.

"Um," Lao felt confused, "Nothing... Thanks."

"Alright."

The waiter went off. Lao sighed in relief.

"Good that you ordered red wine. It will be a good disguise."

"Disguise?" Gaara raised an eyebrow.

"Well, just sit and watch." Lao winked.

The waiter brought the red wine. Gaara poured it into his glass. The glass was brought for Lao as well. She took out a small wooden bottle, and poured a strange red liquid out of it in her glass, which had exactly the same colour as the wine. Gaara widened his eyes, for he guessec what it was. Lao put the wooden bottle back into her small bag she had hung on her waist.

"No way..." Gaara murmured.

"I'm sorry... But I'm really thirsty, so, I hope you won't mind..." Lao smiled and sipped the red liquid.

"No... no, it's fine..." Gaara regained his calmness and sipped his wine.

"Gaara, I need to ask you a favour..."

"Yes?"

"Please, keep an eye on my sisters and those suspicious guys..." Lao frowned, "I don't like them."

Gaara nodded. He began to carefully watch the girls, who seemed to be having fun. He widened his eyes and whispered to Lao:

"You have four sisters, don't you?"

"Yes. What's wrong?" Lao asked.

"There are only three here."

"What?! Can you tell me the colours of their cloaks?"

"Green, red, and light blue."

"Darn it! They ditched Mao off?!" Lao went furious, "I knew it! Yesterday they laughed that Mao and I could never attract any man_" she grew red, realising what she had just blurted, "I... I mean..."

Gaara smiled:

"It's fine. I have a sister too. I know what girls are concerned about."

This made Lao blush even more:

"Sorry..."

"No problem."

"Anyway, I have to listen to what they're talking about there."

Lao lent ears to the conversation of her sisters and their companions. Gaara listened to them as well.

"Oh my, that's really funny, Oroka! So, you guys are travellers too?" Tao laughed, "That's impressive!"

"Yes, we are," the leader of the boys said, "Oroka, Yowai, and I travel across the world. We are looking for a very interesting jutsu."

"What kind of a jutsu?" Gao asked.

They went silent for some minutes. Then, Oroka's, the boaster's, voice sounded:

"Well, I'll tell you secretly, girls: it's called Black Eye: Hell Horse Release."

Lao widened her eye in shock:

"Oh, no..."

The sisters widened their eyes too.

"But, that jutsu!" Dao exclaimed, "How can you obtain it, even if you find it?"

"That's simple, my dear," Oroka smiled, "Our boss wants the wielder of that jutsu. When we find him, we will release Hell Horse out of him and the boss will have it. We want it for our boss. He's everything to us."

"Yeah, it's he who saved us from being rogue ninjas. Now, we're rich and powerful." Yowai grinned.

The sisters were frightened. Lao's hand on the wooden glass was shaking. Gaara couldn't miss her nervousness.

"What's wrong, Lao?"

Lao didn't answer. Her eye stared at the floor frozen. Gaara guessed something wasn't right and looked at the three boys, who had sly grins on their faces.

"I think you beauties might know where that Hell Horse wielder dwells," the leader of the boys smirked, "considering you all have its energy!"

The boys leapt up and dashed at them. The Shin girls screamed and moved back. The clients and waiters cried and started leaving the restaurant as the boys went on the direct offensive.

"Wind Style: Whirlwind Prison!"

Oroka blasted a huge amount of wind at the three girls and imprisoned them in the cyclone circles. Tao, Gao, and Dao tried to break free, but could not, for their styles were not effective against the wind. Furthermore, they were too scared and confused to properly react. In the past, they often had a worthy leader beside them to help them, but now they were alone, and the eldest of them, Tao, was imprisoned too.

Lao, seeing her sisters in danger, leapt up and cried:

"Stop!"

"You ugly girl, what the heck do you want?" Oroka scoffed.

"It's not them who you're looking for. It's me. I wield the technique you want!" Lao frowned.

"Lao! No!" Gao cried from inside the whirlwind, but she was being suffocated and could speak no more.

"Oh, so you're the one!" the leader grinned, "The Hell Horse demon..."

"It's called Diyuma, you fool, and if you want to see that technique so badly, I'll gladly show you!" Lao snarled.

"No, Lao! Your injury! It's not healed! You won't make it!" Dao cried but could speak no more as she too was being suffocated.

"Let my sisters go! You're torturing them in vain. You cannot kill them even if you try," Lao said, "This is our fight."

"Well then, we'd gladly test your abilities..." the leader chuckled, and made his hand signs: "Fire Style: Great Dragon Flame Jutsu!"

Gaara widened his eyes - he wielded such powerful fire attack?!

Lao cried:

"Black Eye: Diyuma Release!"

A white shield of soul energy burned up around her, covered her and protected her from the fire attack. The energy blew from below her, and her hair that was covering her right eye rose up high. On her face, appeared a burn scar, to reveal her right eye, which was completely black, with a pure white eyeball. Opening this demonic eye, she closed her normal left one. Now, she didn't resemble a beautiful and playful young woman anymore, but a beast in human skin.

Gaara was shocked - so that was why this technique was called "Black Eye", and, that was why Lao was called a demon!

"Lao, stop, you won't make it! Stop!"

The sisters were crying, and coughing, being suffocated by the whirlwind at the same time. But Lao could not hear them anymore. She opened her fanged mouth, and a horrendous shrill of a demonic horse-like creature mixed with a demigod's bellow emerged, making such a horrific sound that the Shin sisters screamed in terror, and the boys widened their eyes in dread. They had never in their lives heard such an infernal roar!

The white energy around Lao went so strong that even wind began to blow around her. It shattered parts of the wooden walls and the wooden chops started floating in the air.

The leader of the boys was startled - this was only the slight power of Diyuma spirit this demon girl held within! Gaara too, was no less terrified, to see that lovely girl turn into a dreadful beast in a mere second.

As Lao was ready to make her blow while roaring like an infernal beast, she felt terrible pain in the center of her body, right where Sasuke had struck her before. Her infernal growl turned into a dreadful squeal of an imp mixed with a shrill of a wounded witch. She grabbed her stomach. Blood poured off her mouth. She fell to her knees and collapsed to the ground. Her hair covered her right eye, which immediately closed, and her left eye reopened. She was done.

Seeing her collapse, the leader of the boys widened his eyes in surprise, but then chuckled:

"That was all? Pathetic!"

The boys laughed at her state. The sisters meanwhile gasped for air, and cried:

"Lao! No!"

"There must be... some way out of this!" Tao fought to get free.

All the three of them got paralysed.

"Oh, no, I cannot move!" Gao exclaimed.

The leader and Oroka grinned:

"Good job, Yowai!"

Yowai had made hand signs of a Shadow Possession Jutsu.

"No problem, Bosu." he chuckled. "I can hold these weenies. You finish that girl off and let's take her to the boss."

"Got it." the leader, Bosu, turned to the collapsed Lao.

Lao weakly looked up at him. She tried to resist, but couldn't move even a single muscle. She was totally drained. If she was left like that, she would die. The wound on her belly was wide open. She was full of blood, both on her belly and in her mouth. She groaned. Seeing her sisters suffer, a tiny tear fell from her left eye. Bosu chuckled:

"Look at you... Mighty Diyuma, huh? You're but a miserable ugly slut. Time to bid your life goodbye! Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"

The immense blow of fire went straight at Lao. She watched the huge orange flame rush towards her, and recalled:

The burning wooden house... Cries of babies - the shrieks of her little siblings... The scream of her mother, which quickly ceased.

"Mommy!"

She screamed in the darkness, but all she could see was ominous black smoke. Her father had collapsed to the ground, with his right eye closed, and his left eye full of exhaustion. He was desperately reaching his hand out to her. The evil laugh of a devilish monster rang in her ears...

She closed her eye, prepared to die and take her poor siblings' lives with her. She felt pain in the heart, for being unable to protect them, for not being a good "Little Mommy", as the dearest Shao Lin, her brother, called her... for not having a mighty companion beside. If only a man could help her to pull it off, for all this time! Help her maintain her family... She would be so much stronger! But, as it seemed, she was destined to be lonely forever... to be single, with her heart ripped in half, the other half of it never to be found.

She could hear her sisters' desperate shrieks...

Something overshadowed her. Instead of immense heat and burn, she felt coldness and relief.

She reopened her eye and widened it in astonishment - a huge sand shield had protected her! It had taken the flame attack, leaving her alive!

Bosu frowned:

"What the_"

A tall red-haired young man stood before the collapsed Lao Shin, with a sand gourd girt on his waist, and watched the boasters with piercing eyes.

"No way..." Tao murmured.

Bosu freaked out:

"Who the heck are you?"

"I am Gaara of the Desert, and I hereafter declare: no one touches this woman, Lao Shin. Not while I am around."

Lao's eye glimmered with gratitude: so, this was the one - her rose...