Ch 1

"Gaara, come on!" An eccentric blond called. Behind him a red head followed, trying to keep pace, but not completely succeeding.

"Ahh, Naruto, should we be doing this? Our parents said to stay." Gaara responded. He shuffled his teddy bear back and forth in his arms as he looked around nervously.

"Don't worry so much! We'll be fine. Besides it getting boring waiting back there." Naruto exclaimed as he continued making his way through the busy Suna streets. His direction was firmly set on the training grounds his family had been shown on the tour they had been given earlier.

At the time he had just wanted to sit and watch as a pair of jonin sparred, but his mother had dragged him off. They had ended up sitting in a room with the Kazekage's children. But the novelty of the Kazekage's children and waiting room had quickly worn out on the young blond, so in a fashion that was common for himself, he had taken off to bigger better things (in his mind anyways).

His sister, Natsura, had declined and stayed to talk with Temari, who also wasn't interested. Natsura thought she was such an adult because she was a few minutes older than him. Kankuro had been busy messing around with a doll so Naruto hadn't bother asking him, which left Gaara who, although rather shy had wanted to come.

Now here he was, determined to make it back and enjoy the entertainment he had been deprived of earlier. At his back was the quiet red head that everyone was steering clear of.

Weaving past people and building with ease, Naruto grew giddy as he turned a last corner. "Huh?" was his intelligent expression as he was confronted by just another street. "I swear it was right here!" He shouted frustrated. Stomping his foot, the blond entered at momentary position of self reflection as he attempted to redraw his mental map of Suna.

Behind his Gaara had just caught up and was attempting to catch his breath, he wasn't used to all the running he was now engaging in. "Nar-u-to" he managed to wheeze out to the other boy. "The trai-training ground. It's-"

He never got to finish as Naruto suddenly snapped out of his thought process, turned around, and went running where they had just come from. He gave no heed to the red head he had left in his dust, instead focusing on the task at hand.

Gaara, after taking another moment to collect himself, attempted to give pursuit of Naruto. But it quickly became apparent that he wasn't going to keep up. He did his best but the boy just didn't have the energy to keep up with his blond companion, who after a few minutes disappeared from sight.

Disheartened by his abandonment by the blond, Gaara was left without anyway of catching up to the other boy, but after taking moment to think about his predicament he came to the best possible solution. Turning around again, he began walking in the correct direction of the training field.

Meanwhile Naruto was still running up and down street after street in an attempt to reach his goal. It took three more tries, but eventually he made it to the training ground with the help of a chunin who had been helpful enough to give directions, not that Naruto would tell anyone that he had needed help.

Upon arriving, the blond found Gaara patiently waiting for him. Taking a seat next to the red head, Naruto began watching the spectacle that was in front of him. Unfortunately for him, gone were the jonin that he had seen early, they had been replaced by a team of genin who were receiving instruction from their jonin sensei.

XXXXX

"It was very kind of you to offer my village such favorable terms Hokage-sama." Expressed Rasa, the Kazekage, as he exited his office in the company of the Hokage and his wife.

"Of course!" Replied Minato to his counterpart, "It is only fair that we treat our allies with the respect they deserve. Hopefully this will help bring our villages closer together."

It had been a long and grueling process, but the two military leaders had been able to create a much more fair and appealing treaty over the course of two hours. When the Hokage had sent a message to the Kazekage about a meeting to revise the treaty the desert dweller had been skeptical of the sincerity of the Konoha leader, but when Minato had even offered to come to Suna in person to work out the specifics, the red headed leader had been at least hopeful. And now, after the whole process had been concluded was very confident in the future of this new Konoha/Suna alliance. And while Rasa himself had been a strong advocate of an independent Suna, the treaty and the Fourth Hokage had been incredibly persuasive.

Now all that was left was to have a public signing in a few days. That itself was all fluff, but would do much to help the people of Suna accept the treaty and Konoha in good faith. For now there was just the pains of organizing the event and putting into motion the necessary changes to conclude their part of the treaty.

As the three adults entered the waiting room, they found that the amount of children left behind had diminished. Kushina was the first to react, "Natsura, where is your brother and Gaara?"

Looking up from the game she was playing with Temari, the young (but still a few minutes older that Naruto) blond responded absently, "They went off to that training ground we saw earlier." She didn't see why her mother bothered being surprised by her twin's actions. He was never where he was supposed to be.

Kushina let out a sigh and began making her way to the door in order to retrieve the boys, but was stopped by Rasa. "Why don't you let those two enjoy themselves, they'll come back when they have had their fun." He reasoned, while secretly hoping that Naruto would be able to befriend his son, a feat that no child had yet accomplished.

Kushina wasn't convinced, but when her husband sided with the Kazekage, she relented. Gathering the rest of the children they left and made their way to the Sabaku residence, where the Hokage's family had been invited to stay while they were in Suna.

XXXXX

Later that night, the families, san Naruto and Gaara were gathering for dinner. It was a noise affair, but separated into two distinct areas, with that adults on one side of the table and the remaining children on the other. But this balance by age was interrupted when Natsura shouted, "Where's Naruto?" Not hat she particularly cared, but she was hoping that bringing attention to his absence would get him in trouble.

But before any of the adults could respond there was a commotion at the front door. Furious pounding and shouts of "Kazekage-sama!" rang throughout the house. Rushing to confront the potential problem, Rasa opened the door to find a worried chunin looking at him frantically. "Sir, there has been an attack by the sand people!" he exclaimed loud enough for everyone in the house to hear him. Minato instantly appeared next to his counterpart.

"Will you accompany me, Hokage-sama?" he asked the man next to him.

"Oh course Kazekage-sama. Lead the way." Replied Minato and they quickly left with the chunin.

Back in the house, Natsura turned to her mother and asked, "What are the sand people?"

"The sand people are nomads that refused to join Suna when it was founded by the first Kazekage. They don't get along well, and fighting often breaks out between the two sides. They have become fewer in number since then, but there intimate knowledge of the desert has kept Suna forces from being able to completely eliminate them." Kushina explained, though she didn't mention that she was just repeating what the Kazekage had said about them in the treaty negotiates earlier. Minato had agreed to lend forces to help hunt down the Sand people.

XXXXX

Arriving at the seen of the attack, Minato and Rasa are confronted by many shinobi hurrying about. The nearby wall that surrounded Suna had a large noticeable hole in it, but it was already under repair.

The chunin quickly led then to the shinobi that was directing the efforts of all those around. "Pakura, what is going on?" the Kazekage asked as soon as he arrived.

Hearing her leader, the jonin in question turned to him, though tensed up when she spotted the Hokage with him. Shaking herself, she redirected her attention to her village leader, "The sand people broke through the wall here and began attacking those in the area. I was nearby when I heard an explosion and came to investigate. I found a genin team and their sensei had been killed, but no other casualties. Quickly engaging I was able to drive them back out of the village."

Nodding his way through her report, Rasa quickly took control of the situation. "Pakura, assemble a squad and give pursuit. Don't let them get away." The woman bowed and proceeded to leave to follow through with her orders. At this point the Kazekage turned his attention to the Hokage.

"I can see why you would want to end this threat to your village. If such activity has really been going on since Suna's founding then I can understand your disire for assistance." Minato said as he observed the four bodies of the shinobi that had been killed, along with those of three mummified sand people.

The Kazekage couldn't help but concur passionately, "Indeed. They have plagued our lands for too long. But this attack is strange. They don't have the strength to fight our entire village, so what was the point of even coming. If they truly wished to strike fear then they could have attacked closer to the general population, not out here. "

"Maybe they intended to wait until dark and were surprised to find that genin squad in the area?" the blond next to him offered.

"Perhaps. It is also possible that they were just attempting to lure out some of our shinobi to strike them down in an ambush." The Sabaku thought out loud. With this in mind, he call out to another jonin that was nearby. "Pakura has left with a pursuit squad, form two more squads and follower her in case she requires assistance." The jonin nodded and moved out.

"Do you believe them to be in danger?" Minato asked.

"No, Pakura is very capable. But it doesn't hurt to be sure." He replied before taking a moment to look around. "Hey Hokage-sama, isn't this the training ground that we toured earlier?'

The blond too looked around before both men came wheeling about with wide eyes, both think about their sons.

XXXXX

It had been three days since the attack by the sand people. Both Minato and Rasa were in the Kazekage office. The mood was melancholy, Naruto and Gaara hadn't been seen since the attack.

Upon the realization that where the attack had taken place was also the location that the two boys had last been, a frantic search and been launched across the entire village and many more squads had been sent out to hunt down the sand people party that had attacked.

Unfortunately, Pakura had returned empty handed, at least as far as the two boys was concerned. She had managed to find part of the group that had instigated the attack and slaughter them, but the sand people had split up and the rest were nowhere to be found.

In the village everyone had been pushed to search for the two boys deep into the night. The search had then been followed up the next morning by an even bigger one, but again there were no positive results.

Now these two father were sitting around mourning. Today was supposed to be a day of great triumph, as they were going to sign the treaty officially, but that had been scrapped for the time being.

Suddenly the Kazekage slammed his fist down, shaking his desk. "This is unacceptable! Hokage-sama, I believe we need to update this treaty of ours."

"I completely agree. We should move up the time table. I would be willing to begin the campaign against the sand people immediately." Minato replied, thought his voice was much more tempered.

Both were surprised momentarily by the quick agreement, but silence again ensued as they both were unsure of how to present their next thoughts. But how could they, said thoughts were rather brutal, though realistic. As, with Gaara and Naruto gone, neither could claim to be in control of a biju, but to acknowledge this point felt like it was to abandon their sons.

The Hokage was the first to break the awkward silence. He took a deep breath and began speaking, regret lacing his voice, "With the disappearance of our sons… neither of our villages-"

"Has a biju." Rasa finished, showing that he had been thinking the same thing. "Other with see this a great moment of weakness for both of us." He concluded.

Minato nodded in agreement, "I think we should strengthen the terms of this treaty."