Inochi, Gaara and Yashamaru came back later at night, as the hospital's procedures took a lot of time. Inochi did not feel tired or weak at all, instead she felt as if her leg got more stronger.

"That jutsu is so awesome. I need to learn it" Inochi started to plan how to steal the seals, as she had already memorised the hand signs.

That night, Inochi sang Gaara a lullaby as usual, the same lullaby that she used to sing to Naruto back in Konoha.

- "Umi neesan" Gaara said after Inochi finished with her lullaby "I want to apologise to those children too"

- "Okay, we will go tomorrow" Inochi was going to make Gaara apologise to them anyways, but was delighted that Gaara came to the conclusion by himself. "Rest for now" Inochi kissed Gaara's forehead and went to a separate room.

Inochi took out a page to write another report on Gaara. Till now she had only sent one report on him, which only contained unimportant information. However Inochi stopped before her pen touched the paper

- "I haven't heard from Shin for weeks. Atleast for the first mission, I got scolded. But this time, no one is doing anything" Inochi let go of her pen and stuffed back the paper inside her satchel. "Maybe Danzo san has forgotten about this. Should I try my luck?" Inochi soon decided to wait for Shin's letter asking for any report on Gaara.

Next morning, Inochi and Gaara promptly left with a medicine box to the boy's house whom Inochi saved from Gaara's sand.

Inochi and Gaara did not get a warm welcome, just as expected. They were going to be turned back from the door itself but Inochi just held the door open against the feeble strength of some woman who appeared to be the said boy's mother. Inochi forcefully entered the house, and asked if the woman would spare some minutes to chat with her.

- "Miss Kumimono san, I will call the forces against you and this demon" The woman shouted while backing off.

- "Here" Inochi handed the woman a bag of gold coins. And as Inochi hoped, the woman took Inochi's bait.

- "Miss Kumimono, I know you are bribing me, but I would really appreciate if you left this beast outside" The woman gave a disgusting look at Gaara, who had his head hanging low all this time.

-"Ma'am, we are here to apologise. Could you please call your son. It will be enough if he just stands across the hall" Inochi pleaded.

The woman was against this idea but soon accepted it as she was given another bag of money. "Thank god people still take bribes!!" Inochi prayed for more luck.

The boy who came running as he heard his mother's call, stopped dead on his tracks as he saw Gaara.

- "Mother, what is he doing here?" The boy, namely Shigeru, asked in shock.

Before his mother could reply, Gaara kneeled completely, touched his head to the ground and politely said

- "I am sorry".

This action, although very genuine, did not do much effect on the mother and the boy.

"I am sorry Gaara, but fear is a very big obstacle in this case" Inochi thought as she knew that persuading families who had experienced the wrath of the one tails would not be that easy.

-"I am sorry too, as I failed to stop Gaara sama" Inochi bowed too, next to Gaara.

Shigeru and his mother, Mrs Shimura were not much persuaded, but still they were dumbfounded by such a gesture.

- " Gaara sama wanted to deliver this medicine to you, so as to treat any bruises you might have incurred during yesterday's incident" Inochi pushed forward the medicine box.

The woman took it, and gave it to his son. Both of them looked over to Inochi and Gaara, who were still bowing.

- "First get up, Kumimono san, Gaara sama" It was the first time the woman ever addressed Gaara by his name plus honorifics."Why are you doing this suddenly. The Kazekage used to come and apologise to us after any attack, but he never did so with local rampages. Moreover Gaara sama never accompanied him"

- "Gaara sama had been locked up inside his residence, and he is rarely allowed to go outside" Inochi took a breath, before putting out theories that she herself made up "I think because Gaara sama rarely goes out, he gets antsy when he does, which leads to the one tails escaping out. Plus, whenever Gaara sama gets overwhelmed by negative emotions,it serves as a vulnerability to the sealing jutsu"

Gaara looked at Inochi with full admiration, as he believed every word she said. The facts weren't outright wrong, but it couldn't be denied that Inochi came up with them at the spot and were thus a lie.

-"So what do you want to say, Kumimono san?" The woman was still a bit confused with what Inochi was trying to suggest.

- "My point is, Gaara sama needs support. He needs friends and neighbours who can love him and whom he can depend upon. Only then will he be able to contain the tailed beast"

- "Wait, no-" The woman wanted to reject the offer just when a voice came from behind.

- "I will be Gaara chan's friend" A little girl, named Matsuri said confidently.

- "Matsuri, what are you saying" Shigeru tried to shush his younger sister.

- "YESTERDAY" Matsuri emphasised "Gaara chan was only trying to hand Honda-kun the football, oneesan. If we hadn't run away, nothing would have happened"

- "Matsuri, do you even-" The woman tried to interrupt her kid.

- "Gaara chan was the one who saved me from falling off the walls, it was not the Kazekage" Matsuri was in verge of tears, as she was scared of going against her mother.

- "WHAt?" Inochi, Shigeru and his mother, all three were confused.

- "Gaara sama, what is she saying?" Inochi asked Gaara, who was also shocked at the information.

- "Umm" Gaara hesitated. " I think she is telling about the incident months ago when Yashamaru took me to the village borders for picnic" Gaara looked at Matsuri to confirm if he was right or not. Seeing Matsuri's beaming smile, he assured himself that maybe he is telling the correct incident. "There I saw a girl falling off from the walls, and I wanted to save her. But I was very far away, so I just wanted to reach out, and suddenly the sand beside me rushed to her and caught her" Gaara narrated the story slowly, as it was his first time talking around so many people.

-"Why didn't you tell me about it?" Inochi asked, almost feeling betrayed.

- "I.. I don't know. I did not control the sand... It just seemed to move... and I did not even know who I saved"

- "Wait" Shigeru interjected. "Then why did you say it was the Kazekage then, Matsuri?"

- "I thought it was Kazekage because I thought only he could control sand like that in our village. But yesterday when I saw Gaara chan's sand, I realised it was him. The sand that saved me was not golden in colour"Matsuri said, still shouting as if to make herself feel heard.

- "Mrs Shimura, this is what I was saying. Gaara needs to be around people to learn how to control it. He needs to learn and respect his emotions, which for the last 6 years were suppressed and no one could realise what he actually needed". Inochi was now desperate to make Mrs Shimura give into her proposal. "Gaara really needs friends, Mrs Shimura" Inochi pleaded. She also discreetly clicked her tongue as she realised that she forgot to use honorifics.

Mrs Shimura was torn as she was concerned about her and her children's safety.

- "How do you propose you will stop Gaara sama from changng into the tailed beast when he is with other children?"

- "Just how I stopped him the other day" Inochi wanted to give some more points, but she did not have any as she couldn't really tell Mrs Shimura that she was actually a ninja, especially a sharingan bearer. So Inochi lied "I have a friend, who is great at sealing technique. He also went with us on our trip plus he is in the Kazekage's elite shinobi forces. He will be nearby, and I promise you, no harm will come over any of the people around Gaara" Inochi stared straight at Mrs Shimura's eyes "I promise you with my life"

Mrs Shimura was still not sure, just when Gaara stood up and went towards Shigeru. He still did not make eye contact, but asked in a low voice

- "Do you like ships, Shigeru san". Saying this, Gaara built a miniature ship out of his sand in a few seconds. Shigeru who was at first confused at the sudden enquiry, now held an amazed look.

-"WOW" Shigeru and Matsuri said together. They both came closer to Gaara to get a better look at the ship. "Even the details are so cool" Shigeru pointed out.

-"Look there are even people on it" Matsuri said while trying to look inside the ship.

Mrs Shimura and Inochi were witnessing the friendly banter Gaara himself initiated with Shigeru and Matsuri.

-"Well it looks like he can control his tailed beast when he is happy" Mrs Shimura spoke while turning back to Inochi. "Look Kumimono san, I will allow my children to be friends with Gaara sama, if and only if you assure me of their safety AND that other kids don't start distancing themselves from my kids"

Inochi took a gulp. Safety of the children was not as worrisome as the second part of Mrs. Shimura's terms. Inochi was able to persuade Mrs. Shimura only because of Matsuri, but wasn't sure if other parents would agree to her offer. She nervously thought about it for a moment.

-"Yes ma'am I understand" Inochi said in a determined tone while hiding her true worries. She knew she had more than enough ways to persuade the other parents, thanks to her sharingan, but she wanted the village to genuinely come in terms with the fact that Gaara was not their enemy.

-"Ok then. Shigeru! Matsuri! Come here. Gaara sama, you too. Kumimono san wants to talk to you" Mrs Shimura called out the three children. "They are in your hands now, Kumimono san" Mrs Shimura said while standing up from the couch. "I have got to applaud you Kumimono san, despite being so young, you are taking over such a big responsibility" Mrs Shimura took a pause. Before going into another room she looked back and said "All the best !" and held up a big assuring smile.

Inochi stood up, being completely overwhelmed by the sudden support. She bowed at a perfect 90⁰ and said as loudly as possible

-" THANK YOU MRS SHIMURA SAN!"

Inochi took Gaara, Shigeru and Matsuri outside the house and to the Kazekage residence.

-"Wow!!! So big" Shigeru was amazed at how beautiful the residence was, although Gaara, Inochi and Yashamaru were only allowed to use a small part of it.

- "Do you really live here Gaara chan?" Matsuri asked Gaara who was still very quiet.

-"Hmm yes" Gaara said while nodding. He was still pretty much hiding himself behind Inochi, but Inochi did not do anything as she did not want to overexert Gaara.

Inochi let Shigeru and Matsuri roam around the house, inspecting different things, with the plants capturing their interest the most. The plants were a hobby of Yashamaru, that Gaara picked up too. Inochi never liked such kind of a habit, as it was too much of a responsibility. So she was more than happy to see that the two children found a common topic to discuss with Gaara.

Soon, Inochi sat them up in Gaara's room and told them some things.

- "Shigeru san, Matsuri san... I don't know if you want to be Gaara sama's friend or not.."

- "Yes we do!" Matsuri said interrupting Inochi.

- "Yeah, all this stuff is so cool!" Shigeru continued as both of them started off with their own conversation.

Inochi smirked as she knew that starting off with a negative sentence mostly gives a positive reaction, a trick based on reverse psychology. But anyhow, she was quite sure since they entered the residence, that Shigeru and Matsuri took a liking to Gaara and his lifestyle. "Making friends is so easy when you are young and outgoing"

- "Excuse me" Inochi cleared her throat "I need to tell you some terms and conditions, Shigeru san, Matsuri san" Both of them now shifted their focus to Inochi. "Gaara sama is the jinchuriki of the tailed beast. It doesn't mean he is the beast, but rather he will be able to control the beast in near future. For him to do so, he needs support and guidance. He will be guided by me and some of the shinobi close to the Kazekage. However, he would need huge amount of support, where you two come in"

- "So this is like a mission?" Shigeru said as his eyes twinkled.

- "You can say that, however only the first part of it is a mission. The second and the most important part, is just pure friendship and care" Inochi pulled Gaara near her, who was till now standing at a corner. "Gaara sama, do you want to say it?"

Gaara fidgeted for a bit, before asking Shigeru and Matsuri with a earnest smile

- "Shigeru kun, Matsuri chan, will you two be my friends?" Gaara put forward his hand for a handshake

Shigeru and Matsuri excitedly shook his hand and the three of them turned to Inochi

- "There's a hard part to this too. That is to persuade the other children to accept Gaara sama. Do you think, you three together can complete this mission?" Inochi now had a playful tone, almost copying some teacher so as to give off the vibe of an actual team being sent to a mission.

- "Yes MA'AM" Shigeru saluted Inochi. Seeing him, Matsuri who was two years younger than both of them, and Gaara who had never saluted to anyone, saluted Inochi too. Inochi returned the gesture after which the four of them fell into a pit of laughter.

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It was already well into the fourth month of Inochi's stay at Suna when Gaara atlast started making a few friends. Shigeru was in fact, a great leader of the group. His aura closely resembled Obito's, friendly and goofy. However he had the stance of a leader, which made it a bit easier for him to persuade other kids to play with Gaara.

Persuading the parents was Inochi's part of the mission, which was undoubtedly more difficult. Grovelling at someone's feet came pretty naturally to her, as she did not really care about filmsy stuff like pride. However, some of the slurs really drove her to the edge. She came really close to using her sharingan to manipulate the villagers, but stopped her as she did not want to create any false illusion for Gaara.

The hardest part of all of this, was obviously training Gaara to control his beast, which did not, at all, come easily. Inochi couldn't just freely teach Gaara and none of the sand shinobi knew much about controlling a tailed beast either. In case of Naruto, he was perfectly sealed with the nine tails at the cost of Minato and Kushina's life, but Gaara's case was imperfect. Inochi wanted to teach Gaara chakra control despite having an alias of a commoner, so she pretended to take notes from books as well as her friends, Yura and Sajin.

The one thing she got out of such a pretense was a perfect jutsu to communicate, that Yura had created. It depended on the physics of summoning jutsu, that through a space that Yura and another person would create with the help of their scrolls, their message would travel back and forth, only if it is written via chakra. It was a secure way to send someone any message, as the pathway depended on the chakras of the users that no one else could infiltrate unless they shared the same chakra in their body, which was very rare. It was a very simple technique, which made Inochi feel dumb as to why no one else came up with it earlier, despite the summoning jutsu being in use since the start of shinobi era.

Yashamaru was the one to convey the message to Yura everytime Inochi had any doubts or wanted to share her progress, as Inochi was supposed to not be a shinobi. Her actions many at times raised a few questions about her identity, the closest being a granny seeing her making a mud clone, but Inochi quickly made her forget everything using her sharingan.

Another month and a half passed, as Inochi entered the sixth month of her stay. According to her everything was going well, Gaara had made a lot of friends with his skills of controlling the sand, but has also made a lot of people become more scared. Quite a few villagers accepted him, while the others atleast stopped pelting stones at him whenever they saw him outside.

Inochi had herself learnt a lot of things, as she practiced her skills almost every night and frequented the library to learn new jutsus only known to Suna. However, the one thing she missed was informing the Kazekage about the progress of Gaara regarding his acceptance by the villagers.

Even though Gaara was now surrounded with people, he did not make a great headway with his beast. He would be in control when he was playing, but would lose it the moment he would fall asleep. Inochi knew that chakra control was probably the thing Gaara needed to learn but couldn't as he did not have any better guide. Inochi was a good shinobi, but was bad at teaching especially while keeping her false alias. Gaara was a perceptive child, amd Inochi was sure he would find out her true identity if she ever got lax with hiding it. Thus, Gaara's progress on the basis of controlling the beast remained quite the same, which was enough information for the Kazekage to give into the pressures by the council. He thus, issued the order he himself dreaded the most:

The order to kill Gaara.

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It was like any other day at Suna, Inochi was buying her vegetables from Mr.Kuro and they were having their normal pleasantries.

- "Oh so Yashamaru sama excels at cooking gourds?" Kuro san laughed as he had presumed that Inochi was the one to cook the food.

- "Yes, and radishes too. I HATED radishes but after my six months of stay here, I am loving it." Inochi chuckled. She was now completely moulded into a Suna citizen, plus she had a comparatively easy life here than in Konoha.

Not that it was the easiest living in Suna, with Shukaku trying to go on a rampage every moment and her reluctantly writing useless reports on Gaara while pretending to not be a shinobi, it was still easier than going on kill sprees in almost every ANBU mission and getting told off by a man wrapped in bandages (DANZO). Inochi used to hate the idea of such a life when she first became a genin. She thought it would be boring to live a life without blood, sweat and tears, but now, she somehow felt as if this was what she needed, a break to come out of her own shell of insecurity and madness.

Inochi thanked the shopkeeper and headed towards the park where Gaara and his newly made friends were playing 'catch the sand' where Gaara would propel balls of sand into the air and the kids would have catch them before the balls disintegrated into normal grains.

- "Gaara sama! let's go home! Yashamaru san would be coming early today!" Inochi called out to Gaara . Just as she was looking over Gaara running towards her, she felt an excruciating jolt of pain, as if she was being stabbed through her stomach by a sword. She felt exhausted, and out of breath as numerous thoughts swirled inside her mind.

- "What the-" Inochi held her head as if it were going to burst, before collapsing completely to the ground. "No.." Inochi breathed out as her vision got blurry and she found herself completely paralysed in pain and shock.