My other twin

by Angevelinka

Namikaze Minato is banished from his own village and stays in Suna on services of Fourth Kazekage. Everything seems to be fine, until one day he spots a crying toddler in the dark cellar. Obviously, nothing can go wrong there, right?... Angst, fluff.

1. Number One

It wasn't anyone's fault, not really.

Only- no, wait. It totally was! It was Yashamaru's fault for not being there and doing his job. It was the kid's fault for not being there to warn him about this. It was the High King and Lord's fault for being a crazy bastard and messing with things he didn't know a thing about, and Suna's fault for being in the middle of the desert where so much heat made his brain go all muddy and sleepy, and the fact he had needed to deliver those papers and Baki as usual was nowhere to be found, and Konoha's fault for betraying him, and sensei's and his Hokage's-

It was his own fault for sticking his hands where he shouldn't have, damn it.

'And why exactly don't you come with a warning?'

The baby looked up at him with large eyes of the limpid color of green peppermint candy and drooled a bit more over the necklace it had taken to his mouth.

It had been another perfectly normal day in Suna.

Naruto hadn't let him sleep at all because he had was teething (and the teeth looked pretty fucking sharp, not-at-all-milk-like teeth for a baby that had been born less than half a year ago) and of course, those frozen baby toys he'd heard so much about apparently were some sort of mythical technological insanity in this God-forsaken village so he had no option but to stay up and try to distract the poor thing as much as he could. Because, like his mother, Naruto didn't seem to get the least bit of peace unless he was constantly the center of attention.

Come morning he had left his son with his sitter reminding the teenage girl he knew where she lived, where her extended family lived and the things he would happily do to all of them should anything happen to Naruto at all, then left to go see what sort of missions he had for the day.

Day was spent, as usual, with him running errands back and forth like some sort of newbie chuunin because the Lord and Master didn't trust him with anything harder (maybe he did notice that even high level jounin like Baki spent more time in the academy on training genin groups than taking missions, but if the village wasn't getting enough income - that was a certain kage's work to fix, and guess what? He wasn't one anymore, so though luck…)

The combination of raw heat, lack of sleep and being treated like a personal assistance without even being paid nearly as much as one had began to work on Minato felt like a foolproof path towards killing migraine; so by the end of the day he was almost looking forward to anyone making some sort of comment toward his person and what might or might not have happened in Konoha to suddenly decide to give their Hokage away just so he'd have an excuse to beat something to bloody pulp.

And Baki, the spoil sporting bastard that he was, seemed to be perfectly aware of this. Before he could go to the briefing room to make himself as painfully noticeable as possible to the largest crowd available so he'd start some cathartic brawl, had caught with him and ordered to send some papers to no one more and no one less than the resident Majesty.

He couldn't say no to the man, who, besides being more or less the only person he had gotten even remotely close in the couple months he had been there (close enough to stop wishing instant death on him for the sole fact he existed, at least) was also his direct superior, and so he had obediently gone away to the biggest one of these weird roundish houses Sunians seemed love so much - and knocked.

When no one answered, he figured he'd just let himself in and drop the papers off, except when he did get inside he was startled by the loud wailing coming from one of the rooms. Without stopping to wonder why the walls would be soundproofed, he'd left the documents on the first piece of furniture remotely acceptable for it and followed the sound towards what seemed to be the cellar.

It was dark, it was dusty and the walls looked like if they needed a fresh coat of paint kind of badly. And in the middle of the relative mess, there, for all appearances, was some sort of stone basinet-thing with a tiny bundle of moving cloth. He knew what it was even before he reached in to remove the blankets, but he stopped to stare all the same.

It was a baby. A very small, very sad crying baby with a small tuft of shocking red hair on top of his head.

'Oh… hey. Hey, little baby.' he had cooed gently, reacting without stopping to think at all- it was a baby, it was crying, no one else was around- what else was he supposed to do? He hadn't slept enough for weeks and the heat made his mind fuzzy after so many hours, it was the father in him who reacted without much prompt.

The baby immediately stopped the wailing, and looked at him. For a long pregnant moment it seemed to be surprised by the fact Minato was there, or maybe surprised at the tone of voice in the silent room. But then, the lips wrinkled once again with a nose and it started crying again, bawling just as loud as before. Only this time it kicked on the dull grey blankets that were already kicked far down the strange cradle and moved the hands up fruitlessly. It was more than obvious it wanted something from him.

The blond winced. One at home and now this?

'Oh, please don't- Yashamaru?'

He knew the chuunin from having occasionally seen him at the debriefing room, more often than not with a cute little blond girl or Desert God's personal mini-me clinging to his proverbial skirts. If there was a kid in this house, it was obviously his job to take care of it.

Alas, there was no answer, and not even the faintest trace of chakra he could feel. If Yashamaru was in home, he was doing a mighty good job of hiding. He'd have to try and resort to reason.

'…coward. Oh, please baby- please stop? I have a headache.'

Red-haired baby didn't seem to be very inclined to be reasonable. So Minato did the only thing he could think of doing.

He didn't think much of the location, because Minato himself had his room in the cellar- it was the place furthest away from the sun and thus his favorite place to exist when he didn't have to be out slowly baking himself alive. To him, it made perfect sense to leave his son where he wouldn't have so much danger of him getting sick from temperature change. In the hypothetical case Naruto could get sick, that is.

He didn't think much of the sand, either. It was Suna. There weren't places in Suna where one didn't have sand- maybe the hospital. And that was a big stretch of maybe.

He *did* think that if this baby belonged to someone important, getting touchy-feely with it might be misinterpreted as him attempting kidnapping or worse, to follow his made-up reputation after getting exiled from his village, but at this point of the day, getting stabbed to death by confused bodyguards seemed preferable to another second of the distressing crying.

He picked the little thing up, cradling him to his chest, shushing him and, as always, needing to squash that tiny and oh-so-male creepiness he felt whenever he realized how small and breakable such small children really were.

'Why so sad? if anyone has reason to cry here it's me.'

The baby had immediately caught on his shirt once his chest got close on the arm length of a toddler and almost glued itself to him like a magnet. The body shook with a loud wail for a moment, but once Minato spoke, the face that was first hidden in his chest rose up, looking at him like at something very interesting. A bird, or maybe the swirly toy or something just as unimportant but so very, very eyecatching. It let out a wail again, but this time it sounded more like if the kid was unsure if to continue on crying. He breathed heavily though, his face was all covered in snot, so he probably had closed nostrils.

The blond smiled tentatively when the baby stopped, then made a face at the second wail. It wasn't as bad as before though, maybe he could be convinced to get to sleep or something?

'Aw… baby, are you sick?'

At the beginning he had thought someone had been crazy enough to tattoo the baby's eyes like some clans did, but up close he realized the weird marks around the baby's eyes were a dark brown, not black. Bags under his eyes? Did people catch the flu in the desert? The idea the child might have something worse than just feeling lonely briefly passed through his brain, things like quarantine and stuff, but he couldn't muster the energy to worry about it beyond of maybe Naruto might catch it. Mortality had stopped being such a big issue some time ago, in ways he tried not to contemplate too often.

What now? He couldn't exactly leave the baby back down- it'd cry again. And if it did have something, he had to ask, he didn't want to risk his son's health.

'Come on, let's get you cleaned.'

The redhead had never stopped looking at him for a moment as the second wail slowly silenced into nothing at Minato's words. Now the pale green eyes had just observed him, still with the same kind of childish awe and surprise as it breathed through the mouth. He hadn't let go of his shirt for a moment, nor did it try to change positions. It only looked at him, all tense.

Ah, blissful silence.

'Thank you, that's very considerate of you.'

Adjusting the meager weight, he took the baby out of the room- if the baby did have something and the whole house had to be quarantined or something… Well, he'd consider it karmic retribution the Kazekage had coming since he decided to accuse all other villages of stealing his sensei.

It took some snooping around the place until he found some baby towels and managed to convince Little Red to stay still enough he could clean his face, and by then, he was exhausted.

'Do you always get left alone like this?' Talking to a pre-toddler probably wasn't very high on the list of checkmarks for sanity, but the baby seemed to like it well enough. 'Just doesn't seem very nice- then again, child abuse in Suna. How shocking.'

He tossed the soiled towel to the trash and just sat down for a moment on the side of the bathtub just closing his eyes and stroking the baby's back. He was small, warm and deliciously quiet. For a moment he thought he'd fallen asleep already, but when he opened his eyes again, Red was staring at him just as wide eyed as before.

'You know, you are very nice, I think I like you.' he said, smiling lightly and stroking a soft cheek. Maybe if he found some place he could like, crawl and collapse a little while before going home, just for an hour… 'Oh, hey, look, a bathtub. Guess it pays to be royalty- are you thirsty, baby? Cause I'm really thirsty.'

Now he just needed to find a glass that wouldn't have poison or scorpions or exploding tags on the rims and water. And he found it very quickly – it was all hidden on the lower shelves of the fridge in the kitchen, described as 'drinkable water' (right behind the 'water with toxic strange-name-in-latin' and next to 'do not drink this' which glowed bright magenta). All clean glasses were held in the cupboards made of sand and glass, along with the plates and bottles for little children.

Baby had still kept observing him like if he was something utterly fascinating beyond belief. It blinked from time to time and moved its head a bit to the sides when the blond started filling the glass to look at it also, but beside that, almost nothing in his shape had changed. He had only squinted an eye when Minato brushed his cheek and closed them both when he was brushed with towel. It didn't react to the back stroking, though all the little muscles had began to finally loose the tension once Minato started petting his back. So now it had been quiet, observing and relaxed – despite his hands that still were curled tightly on his shirt.

This had finally changed when the blond had rose the cup filled with glass to his lips.

Baby had looked at him drinking even more curiously, watching his Adam's apple going up and down, and then suddenly it rose up slightly on the hold and reached for the glass with one hand, little fingers slipping on the slick surface.

'Daa-'

It was first sound that was emitted from it after it had stopped crying.

'Oh, you speak?' he asked, smiling down at the baby and leaning down to give him a light little push with his forehead. 'And here I thought you didn't like me- want a drink?'

He held the glass up, clearly showing the content, close enough for the baby to look at it but not really reach it- it had taken less than a week for Minato understand the local's fanatism for the liquid. Maybe in Konoha you could afford to waste water, but in here, every drop counted, and messy kids would be better off with sippy cups that would minimize how much of it ran down their chins.

The kid had once again squinted it's eyes at the small push, but it didn't react to this with anything else than with a little sound that could mean anything – surprise, annoyance, happiness or just a sound from the vocal chords – and it looked at the glass again, trying to reach out for it.

'Daa-' it said again and then it looked at him, backing down to his previous position with just a tight hold and staring.

'Bubu.'

And it waited.

'Got'cha there. Let's find you something to drink from.' It took considerable less looking around that the towels had caused, because there was a bottle with its detached rubber nipple waiting for him right next to the sink, in the drying rack.

Carefully, given how he was balancing a small baby on one arm and babies -in his limited experience- tended to make the wrong movement and the wrong time as if they liked the idea two or three feet down head first; he passed what was left of the water on his glass to the bottle and added another finger or so from the drinkable bottle, then closed it, offering the newly made bottle to the little redhead.

'There you go baby- water on the rocks without rocks or ice.'

Baby reached out for it with one hand – and watched fascinated as the water in the bottle swirled and puffed up a trail of thin smoke, the temperature of the water rising to the room's degree. Then it had simply steered it to his own mouth and started sucking from it in quick, but calm gulps. After third or fourth sip it had leaned on his chest and looked at him, the bottle now being more touched by his hand than held. The wide opened eyes had finally toned down when the eyelids fell lower. It looked now to be a bit lost in thought, but for the most of it – appreciative.

'Smart baby.'

Adjusting the baby so he was a bit more laying on his back across his arm, which was kind of hard because he didn't seem to want to let his other hand go, Minato decided he might as well sit down and wait until the little thing was done. It wasn't like if he had anything better to do.

There was a library and he probably could do some snooping on it, but it seemed to be so very far away, and it seemed like such a waste, such beautiful silence interrupted only for little baby breaths...

Only a moment later it was interrupted by glass hitting the floor. Suddenly, half of the floor was covered in white substance, shards of the broken bottles and the wet material bag that looked very much like a shopping utensil.

'What the hell are you doing?' shrieked the blond man in apron, looking at him from the distance, half white from horror, even if the light from the outside still shone on his cheeks 'Drop him! Drop him now and back away as fast as you can!'

Minato probably had half dozed off with his eyes half open (harsh technique only shared and learnt by the most suffering of single parents) because he hadn't really taken notice of the other, so he was reasonably startled when suddenly the girly man appeared out of nowhere making a mess and screeching like a banshee.

'…what's wrong with you?' he asked, obviously horrified by the mere suggestion, holding the little redhead closer 'I'm not dropping a baby!'

'What is wrong with me? Are you crazy?' shrieked the blond guy with high pitched tone, now even more paler, looking like if he was about to hyperventilate 'Do you have any idea what you just did? Who allowed you to go to the cellar? Who let you in here- and throw it away I said!'

And with that he had stepped closer, but then backed away, like if he had sudden change of heart. Gaara let out the dummy out of his mouth with a wet 'smack' and for the first time looked at someone else, moving his head on his neck a bit higher so he could see him. The blond man had opened his mouth, pointing at the baby, then at him.

'I-I swear, I'm not responsible for anything-…'

Then he had vanished from the room as he had ran somewhere else in the house. The steps could be heard up the stairs, then down the stairs as he kept running around for who knows what reason.

'I'm not throwing the baby away!' the blond replied, immediately feeling like grabbing the chair and maybe breaking it on the pretty man's face- okay, maybe he was a bit high strung, and maybe he was getting the male equivalent to that scary materialistic feeling, but what sort of human being asked you to toss a baby like a maggoty orange? He didn't make any sort of attempt to stop or follow the man, instead shrugging lightly and giving the baby a light tap on the nose.

'Jeez, you know that creep? Maybe it's better you were alone.'

Green eyes had crossed for a moment, then closed as the baby let out something similar to a huff, maybe even a very light sneeze. But when they opened, his fascination had been shifted around again – this time he found true love for sure – this finger looked so tempting like no thing other things before. He followed it with his eyes and then even proceeded to reach after it, though without such urgency as he did with the water earlier. When his hand was reached out on the right level, he closed his palm into a small fist – and suddenly something exploded above their heads on the other floor.

'Holly hell!' yelled the blond guy somewhere in the other room. 'It's starting again, it's starting, it's starting-'

And he was suddenly back in the room again, with the two of them, thick gloves on his hands, reaching the elbows.

'Give me the kid.' he said with a shaky but stern voice. 'Quickly.'

Minato stared at the man blankly, not making the least bit of an effort to look like if he was inclined to go through the petition.

'Uh… no.' and he turned a little sideways, keeping more of his body between the baby and the man 'I don't think I am.'

He didn't know what sort of crazy things parents did in this village, but in Konoha, you didn't give babies to creepy girly men who liked to play with explosives just because they asked you to.

'Give me it or this monster will shred you to pieces!' yelled the other man, his very thin calmness vanishing in instance. 'You don't know what Kazekage-sama will do once he knows that Gaara had killed yet another stupid nosy chuunin! Give me it if you value your life at least a bit!'

The nervousness of the man had gotten to the kid too as it had stopped playing with Minato's finger and looked up with widened eyes behind the blond. The other man, seeing the opening, had lunged for the kid, a kunai appearing in his hand in defense.

And this was entirely too close home a thing to do, entirely too much like so many things that had gone too wrong too fast. And that's why Yashamaru went straight past dispelling smoke only to feel a kick on the middle of his back. Minato straightened carefully, the baby still held close.

'I'm not a chuunin.' he said calmly, his tone maybe a degree or two above glacial. 'And if you value *your* life you won't ever try to have a go at me when I have a baby in my arms again.'

The other man had only looked up at him with fright and hadn't moved up from the fall. Not a chuunin? Oh shit.

'Are you… are you here to steal him?' he muttered. Great now if another village stole their unstable jinchuuriki the Kazekage would go ballistic. Not to mention that he'd kill him, and what would there be left of him and Karura in the village in the end? Nothing. 'You don't know what are you doing… It will kill you in the middle of the way…'

Minato stared at him blankly.

Girly man… didn't know who he was. Clearly, some sunanin were imitating the wildlife and living under rocks.

'Yes, I'm going to steal him.' he said in his flattest, most blank tone. 'That's why I cleverly sitting in the middle of the well-illuminated kitchen and giving the baby a bottle. Clearly that was part of my brilliant part of escape.'

Yashamaru smiled at that, with a very unsure move of muscles. Oh, he got it. This man was simply out of his mind. Maybe he lost his child somewhere and went crazy and once he had heard crying Gaara something had to click in his brain and he got inside to play with it. Such things happened. But wasn't the walls supposed to be soundproof?

Either way, it was a miracle that he was still alive.

'Okay… I understand…' he said, slowly getting up, this time not letting go the man out of his sight 'That was very nice of you, Gaara surely doesn't get treated like that very often… but now that you have done it can you please give it back to me? I will put it back into the cradle.'

Minato looked from the man, to weird glove things he held on his hands. Okay, maybe the baby was sick, given how the man was acting and the things he said, but still.

'With due respect… you aren't the first person I'd trust a baby with.'

Which was really strange, because the two or three times he had seen the man on his way, the other two kids always seemed to look well looked after. Maybe he just had a thing against redheads? Kushina had gone through a lot of that when they were little. Yashamaru winced at those words. Oh, yes, he was the stubborn one. Why make it any easier on him, right, gods?

'I know that I may not look like it, but you have to give it to me.' he said with the calmest tone he could muster up in such situation. Gaara looked vaguely interested in everything and quite calm – unlike when he left him to buy him milk – but that didn't mean he wouldn't want to throw a tantrum in any given moment 'This is really important. The baby can't stay with you like that.'

With that, he took a tentative step forward, trying to look as little threatening as possible. Who knew what that 'not chunnin' man could do.

'Please. It matters a lot to me.'

'Okay, sure.' Minato said agreeably 'I'll give him to his parents.'

And then have some words with them about proper way of taking care of their kids.

'Oh, that-' said the blond, sweating even more now as he curled his hands into fists and held close to chest 'I really can't- I'm not sure it's a good thing…'

The Kazekage was out on a walk with his other kids having 'family time'. Those were one of those things that weren't specified to bits so he couldn't really tell when they would be back. Sometimes they were gone even for the whole day and it was useless for him alone to search for them. He jumped from one feet to another, looking at the redhaired baby and the man glaring at him distrustingly. It didn't seem like he had any other choice.

'I'm sorry- I will be right back.' he said, pointing out the 'right back' with his finger 'Don't move from here… don't move at all… or… just wait.'

And with that, he had ran through the kitchen door. And if the man was dead once he would get back? Well. It was his choice to do this, right? Nobody really missed the crazy ones anyway.

Minato gave the other man a slight nod and waited for him to go away before shaking his head lightly. He looked down at the baby, who was clinging to him as calmly and docilely as he had from the beginning.

Taking hold of the bottle, he offered it to the baby again, resuming his seat on the chair.

'Little Red, you hang out with the weirdest crowd.'

Yashamaru heard that, but he didn't react to it. Thanks to his luck, the first thing he saw when he turned around the next building was the kazekage himself with both of his kids.

'Kazekage-sama!' he breathed out, not really out of breath yet 'Oh, thanks gods, Kazekage-sama!...'

'Good evening, Yashamaru.' said the other man, nodding to him as he slowly walked down the road 'Don't sweat yourself, we're only back for couple of things and we're going back at the very same moment.'

'Father wants to show us how to catch a wild desert dog!' piped out Kankuro, jingling with his legs as he was the one sitting on the arm of the kage. Temari simply walked hand in hand with him.

Yashamaru smiled, begging for mercy. It was a bit unfair he had to interrupt this time that happened now at even rarer and rarer occurrences.

'I'm sorry, but there's a problem.' he muttered and lifted up Temari without even asking for her opinion. Beside a little yelp, the girl hadn't opposed. 'We have to hurry up. Please.'

Daichi slowly rose up his eyebrows, then frowned.

'Problem?' he asked, his voice cold as ice suddenly 'What problem?'

And the last one was an angry bark. Holly hell, the problems with that brat again? And he was having such a nice unstressful time! It was the last thing he wanted to hear about. Yashamaru winced and bowed as deeply as holding a kid let him.

'Please, come with me.'

And they had spun into a run.

In house, Gaara had only looked up at Minato, the content gaze once again shown in his eyes as he had started sucking on the water. It was warm and cuddly like that and he could drink water all he wanted, so it felt almost too good, something he hadn't experienced from… he didn't know. His concept of time still wasn't formed within his head. But now was good after long time of bad.

He smacked his lips as he finally let go of the bottle and let out a small burp, feeling now sated and full. His eyes slowly drifted open and close, blinking drowsily. He felt safe. From everything.

The sand on the floor rattled like if the wind blew through it, even if there was no wind inside the house. Then it jumped at the step of invisible and unheard elephant, because there was no possibility something like that could happen without something big falling nearby. But it did and there was nothing big falling around. Minato immediately was up, holding the baby up close and looking around for the source- curious, but still calm.

Gaara opened his sleepy eyes at the jump, not really trying to spot anything, unlike Minato. After a moment of looking up at the blonde, he let out a sound that seemed to be a cross between 'muu' and 'naa' and put the thumb into his mouth.

The walls shifted.

'Yeah, okay, this is weird.' the blond said, moving away from the walls, still keeping the baby as close as possible. Did he know why the building was acting like if it were on an acid trip? No. But Minato was a very pragmatic person. Why wasn't really that important- at least not until he was somewhere safe when he could actually afford to wonder about such things.

'Baby, I think we are going to be waiting for your parents outside or something- so when I get accused of kidnapping, please try to put a good word for me, okay?'

The baby didn't even try to look like if it heard what he said, as even steps Minato took toward the door were lulling. Its eyelids had dropped a level, then two and then…

And then the door had opened with a bang, startling it. At the same time, the shower of sand fell down from the ceiling, covering the ground with a thin layer of dust. Strangely, baby didn't seem to be even touched by a single grain.

Minato covered the baby as much a she could from the sudden sand downpour, not understand what the hell was going on and wondering if maybe he should just teleport back home or something- he could drop the kid with Baki, he'd know what to do.

'There he is! Right there!' sounded the known voice of an already panicking blond, though not as nervous as it was before. 'Look out, the sand is already everywhere!-'

It seemed like great idea and a sensible plan, except he didn't think the parents would appreciate it- and sure enough, Yashaidiot was back and already accusing him of something or other- his nearly gone headache started throbbing back in place.

Additional pair of footsteps could be heard as someone else moved in silence, but then, it was overpowered but two quick steps of someone else. A moment later, two little kids, a boy and a girl had ran into the room, both looking sad and angry.

'It's all your fault again!' screamed the kid with a very simple paint on his face 'I hope you die, die, die, die!'

The girl had only threw something that looked like a stone from the outside at the man, but she missed with aim and hit the wall behind him instead. Maybe it was because her eyes were full of tears. Minato sidestepped running kids- oh, look, so that was where the other little kids were- what was going on here anyway? Gaara had woken up and looked at both of them, his look drowsy and a bit annoyed, not really seeming to be interested. The answer soon followed.

'Kids! Outside!' barked an angry male voice, making both kids turn on their heels and run out of the room (not without giving the baby a harsh glare one more time) and then a kunai with a very long exploding tag had landed on the opposite wall, sizzling with a very loud, unnatural for such things disturbing buzzing that made the baby shift in the hold. At first lightly, then more, as sign of annoyance had showed upon the roundish face. Soon, highly unpleasant smell followed, making the redhead let out a stressful wail.

Obviously, the smell of sea salt mixed with chlorine and marron glace didn't get on well with its nerves.

'Out of the house, now-!' sounded in the background along with the door closing and then the room was entered with two things. First one was a very strong flashlight made of some sort of crystal, that fell on the baby's face, making it squirm at the bright light and make a litany of unhappy sounds. The second was the persona of Fourth Kazekage, whom had looked extremely grief at the situation.

Minato noticed it wasn't an exploding tag right away- exploding tags kind of exploded, after all… and even if the smell wasn't the most palatable of things, it was better than the torn limbs. Carefully, he cradled the baby close to shield him of the smell as much as possible. Just as he was about to make the seal to teleport away, the last thing he expected to happen occurred.

'I'm waiting for explanation.' The redhead said simply as he shone the light on Minato's face for a second and got it back on the redhead again.

'Oh, God, not you…' he groaned, voice low and creaky.

Apparently, his migraine was back. And look, it brought friends. How thoughtful.

How many times had he talked with the man? Two. First to say hi when his sensei and the other ANBU had first brought him there with the Hokage, second maybe an hour or so after. It was a lovely social meeting including the whole of Suna's council informing him how according to treaty and deals some more legalistic written bullshit Suna now legally owned him and if he moved out of the village without permission or ever left Wind country at all, ever, for any circumstances, period, they had Konoha's permission to treat him as missing nin and kill him on the spot or bring him back for torture.

Understandably, High Lord and Master of the village wasn't high on his list of favorite people- maybe a step or two below his own village, but just barely.

He plastered a big, pleasant and very fake smile on his face and gave the man a slight bow.

'Ah, sorry, Kazekage-sama. That wasn't really supposed to come out loud.'

The man's eyebrow had twitched, but ever so slightly. He didn't bother to even change his position, only angled his hand more so it would hit Gaara's eyes with disturbance. The baby let out a tired wail, something that sounded like 'let me sleep' if it came from anything older than it. Then it started blubbing, bit by bit. Daichi didn't seem to be bothered by that at all.

'What wasn't supposed to come out loud?' he muttered, watching the blond holding the kid like if it was something dear to him 'What do you think you're doing with my son?'

Minato looked back at the baby, automatically reaching to push the flashlight thing away because the thing was blinding him from the reflection only- well… The Kazekage definitely didn't have green eyes, but he hadn't seen an exact plethora of redhead in town- and the man might not have Kushina's strange berry-like coloration, but that dark brick-like color probably gave him ample qualification to fit the troupe. The babies was somewhat redder, though, but still-

'I thought you only had two kids.'

'And I thought I have forbidden anyone to enter private rooms of my house to everyone beside my own family.' answered the man curtly, lightly angling the light so it once again hit the baby straight in the face, making it protest audibly against such treatment. Something had moved on the other floor, making for a brief second catch the man's attention, but not for long. He looked at the blond again. 'As far as I know, neither you are my family nor is his place in the public hall. What are you doing with this?'

The younger man didn't seem excessively preoccupied by the Kazekage's tone, only narrowed his eyes lightly and automatically started stroking the baby's back again.

'If by 'this' you mean 'this' baby, it was crying when I got in. And I got in because that's what my orders were.'

And Baki's order's had been oh so very specific, in the sense that they were simply 'deliver this to Kazekage-sama's house'.

The Kazekage had only sneered at him.

'It shouldn't be any of your concern if it was crying or dancing cancan. By taking it you had breached my privacy and put yourself in the grave danger putting me in the very uncomfortable situation of breaking the contract I made with your village, Hokage-sama.'

The last word was taunting and actually very sarcastic – Daichi didn't hold very much respect to the blond man once he became a soldier on his services. It wasn't because he had lost his title, no – actually, this, he found both respectable and courageous; it meant that the man was aware of that he didn't deserve it and that he had guts to become an exile to his own village – something a lot considered an instant death as there was nothing worse than being homesick. And of course, nothing more shameful, especially for a kage.

But then, he couldn't respect him for that; it was all because of the ambiguous reasons this had happened. He heard about Nine Tails, of course he did and he swallowed it as he had bad experience with that alone. But it still wasn't a good reason for him. Namikaze was a hero, not a criminal – he saved the village. There was no reason for him to get away from his home now. And he was quite a lad, so there was also no reason to not try to find someone to help him with some personal issues too. But all he did was getting away and living alone. Daichi considered trying to seduce him, one time or another, when he would have time and occasion (which he had all the time since he had him on his services). But not now.

He looked down at the baby.

Gaara was still sniffing and obviously uncomfortable as the buzzing sound pierced ears of all of them, not to mention the fact that the room was becoming more and more unbearable with the smell, but he had managed to turn around and hide his face in the chest of the blue-eyed nanny and his flashlight was useless now. With a quick move he put it down on the desk, making the baby startle at the sound. He couldn't let him calm down like that.

'I don't remember Baki commanding people to take care of crying babies in case of boredom. I could accuse you of spying.'

'Minato.' the blond replied in the same exact tone, as if all he had said afterwards or his obvious anger were completely unimportant. 'Namikaze Minato.'

Because if the redhead wanted to play dense with him, then so be it, he had the superior genetic advantage having been born a natural blond.

'Yes, Namikaze Minato.' said Daichi distractedly, then frowned even more. The man was simply avoiding the confrontation. Then be it. 'Don't you have anything else to say to that?'

The blond's smile widened a fraction of an inch.

'I'm very sorry, sir.'

The redhead looked at him in complete silence, his face growing cold and distant. He wasn't sorry and it was obvious.

'Don't think that because you were a hokage you will avoid the consequences.' he muttered, reaching out his hands 'Breaking into the private possession, taking kage's son without permission, meddling with the top secret information and even putting yourself in the dangerous position – this will cost you a degradation or two. Now, give me the brat.'

And this time it took effort, actual conscious effort not to burst into completely inappropriate laughter. Degradation? Degradation of what?

How could he be any more degraded than this? They had taken everything from him, every little thing that mattered had been painfully torn from him- they had taken away from him his lover, his title, his role, they had thrown him away from his home and to this living oven- this Behemotic monstrosity of heat and sand that didn't seem to ever *end*.

And he was going to die here. No matter what he did, no matter what happened, he would never be able to go back where he belonged. Wordlessly, he shifted his hold on the tiny body and gently tried to pull it away.

Gaara at first didn't move, as he just kept laying there, slowly calming down in the warm embrace, even if the smell was still unbearable. But at the pull, green eyes opened wide and looked up at him, startled. The breath had immediately grew more rapid, making the tiny lungs work faster.

It didn't understand what was going on, but the movement was clearly indicating that it was being taken away from the source of its comfort. Automatically, the small fingers clasped on the shirt like claws and when he was pulled at that, his face squinted, becoming pink in frustration.

It didn't want to be taken away from the comforting hold. The other things were much, much worse and it didn't know anything else.

'Naa!...' and there was the quiet, but steadily rising voicement of protest. The sand from the floor had jumped suddenly up and down and started jiggling nervously.

Kazekage's eyes had widened.

'Take off the shirt. Now.' he said and caught the baby without a trait of gentleness, like a tool to give it support for the man to take the thing down. Gaara protested at that also with a louder wail. Two paintings fell off the wall as the sand punched at them without any reason and explanation.

Minato didn't listen, pulling away from the man automatically in an effort to protect the baby. What the hell was going on? Earthquake? Did one even get earthquakes in here? But no, the sand was jumping in weird patterns- so it couldn't be wind either.

Jutsu? There was the legendary iron sand, but it didn't smell or look like iron- or at least didn't looked, because if he were able to smell anything over the growing stench, he deserved the Inuzukas to formally adopt him or something- no; it seemed like perfectly normal sand.

Perfectly normal sand rippling on the floor and punching at the walls.

'What the hell.'

The redhead had looked at it with the corner of the eye and wasn't very happy also. The sand was getting nervous and the whole situation was becoming strained. The blond was also not helping, as he didn't even go by the orders as any ninja did, but simply decided to be distracted by what he saw. Without losing a moment he lunged back at the kid and grabbed it, pulling at the weak hands with much more strength that it was actually needed (ah well, at the worst he will just tear that awful shirt anyway…), but when he thought he had succeeded, the sand had suddenly shot from the floor and knocked him in the chin, making him fall backwards.

And then, instead of dancing on the floor, it had started accumulating on the blond. Obvious choice; Gaara was now hanging only on his hands on the material of the shirt and cried like if he was being skinned alive.

Gods, what a day. But he couldn't help but only sit and stare.

When the sand attacked the redhead, Minato immediately jumped back, still shielding the toddler- the Kazekage could take care of himself, baby couldn't. At the very least this solved the question of if he had taken something he shouldn't have and was having the acid trip of his life- as far as he knew, hallucinations didn't knock other people on their ass.

The problem with the not-hallucination was that it suddenly decided to make a very passable imitation of a shark and go at him- at which point Minato decided this particular headache would live to the name of Kazekage-junior.

The sand clashed into a puff of smoke, not even giving it time to dispel but smothering it to the floor while the blond reappeared next to the Kazekage, grabbing him under the arm and pulling him back up, fully intending to drag him somewhere where the walls weren't plotting their demise.

The sand didn't let him though. It immediately lunged at the linked hands and tossed the kazekage like a doll, making him literally kiss the wall, even if he had managed to reach his hands and legs to only land on the surface – and then it had started covering the baby, pushing it tightly against the man's chest and weighting it to the floor like if it had gained weight in extra tempo. Surprisingly, the more sand was there, the quieter the redhead child became.

Minato tried to shield the baby as much as he could, but the problem was that the sand was *everywhere* so there was no running away from it. He tried to stand, but when he did, the sand weighted down on him more, and in this position, the first thing it would squish was the frail tiny ribcage.

'I'm getting out of here-' he announced out loud for anyone who cared, which right now probably was just the main jail or in residence.

'No!' No, stay where you are!' shouted the other redhead, pointing at him with a finger as he tried to stand up from the fall. It would go smoothly, but his long robe didn't really help. 'If you will go out in the open, he will suffocate you!'

And without even waiting for an answer, he had ran close to the big ball of sand that formed on Minato's hands and put a paper seal on it, dodging a punch that aimed at his back.

'Release!'

And all the sand in the room froze in the blink of an eye. But it didn't come off. Gaara had only looked up at the blond and then patted at one frozen trail of sand with curiosity.

'Daaa.'

It didn't like when sand froze, but seeing something like that from close was always so much interesting it couldn't help but try to do something to it. Without a word, baby rose up and gnawed at it with toothless gums, drooling all over Minato's shirt. The blond looked back, blinking fist at the sand, then at the baby. After a moment or two of quiet contemplation, he turned to look at the redhead.

'At the risk of sounding like a spy plotting village domination- I wouldn't say no to some explaining.'

Daichi had only winced at that and then had only looked at the baby with a tired glance. A moment later he had simply took the chair from the nearest table and sat on it, relaxing for a moment. It seemed like if he intended on doing it for longer than a minute or two.

'Gaara.' he said, pointing at the frozen ball of sand 'Meet Hokage-sama of Konoha.' he muttered. Then he pointed at the an. 'Namikaze Minato-san' he moved the palm toward the kid that kept playing with the string of frozen sand, but still looked after his finger. It seemed to be prone of following moving things very much 'Meet One tailed Shukaku, the jinchuuriki of Suna.'

Actually, he should have done it the other way – first introduce kid to the older, but he really didn't feel like it. To put it simple - screw savoir vivre.

Minato stared, his brain seeming to take a mercifully long time stringing the significances with their corresponding significant.

'The baby is a jinchuriki.' he said after a moment, his voice almost academic in its calmness. The redhead had only made a gesture of hand, obviously wanting to say something, but his words failed him. There was no other way to really put it.

'The baby is a jinchuuriki.' he repeated. 'That's why you don't snoop around here.'

'You sealed a bijuu in your baby.' The blond continued after a moment of quiet contemplation '…and the seal you used was shit.'

'Old shit.' The man corrected him. But how he was supposed to know it was shit? He had never used anything like that before and really… who did? The research Second Kazekage did was incomplete and since he had died suddenly no one ever was there to pass on his league. He was moving like a blind in the dark. He did the best he could. In the end it wasn't enough. Somehow, he didn't feel like telling all that to the blond. What was done was done, and he had already suffered for many of his sins since then. 'Nobody knows what went wrong and nobody can't help it. Don't judge me.'

'You are despicable.'

Daichi had shifted on his seat, looking at the blond. The man didn't seem to be reacting but he thought he heard something… But then Gaara had gurgled upon the blond, wanting his attention, and it was much louder than what he…

Heard?

It was probably his own mind judging him again for all he had done. Slowly, his face bleached into a dim grey. He was so sick of himself sometimes at the moments like those.

'It was a mistake.' Daichi said instead 'But I live with it. And I will either burn your memory or seal your mouth shut under the threat of taking your life. Gaara is a top secret information and I'd rather hold him in hiding as long as I can. Forever, if it's possible.'

'I see.'

Minato wasn't looking at him. He wasn't looking at anything in particular. He didn't really seem to be paying attention, either, his words more like a way to let the man he was listening just so he wouldn't have to diver his attention from… well, wherever it was now. And it was far away, to what had happened in this country several months ago.

He had heard, of course, everyone had heard - Suna had tried to get a jinchuriki to raise their village's prestige and manpower. Almost all villages had one or two, and yes, some were missing and some were lost, but they still belonged to their countries. Suna didn't have a large enough army, and the war had wiped its resources and left it embittered with most nations. It wasn't a good political situation, and maybe if they hadn't been living in the middle of the biggest oven in this side of the globe they would have gotten invaded several times over in the past three years.

As it was, no one seemed to really care about this village in this very accurate version of hell. Especially not potential clients. Supply and demand wasn't a very hard concept - Suna had very few, very high quality shinobi at their disposal, and that made it a lot more expensive that, let's say, Konoha, who nearly tripled its population and- before the Kyuubi attack, at least- had several ninja at different rank and a system that made efficient use of practically every level.

It was much cheaper to hire two Konoha chuunin for a simple bodyguard job than get a Suna jounin. The more people heard of this, the more they migrated to cheaper alternatives, to the point that Suna's reputation was hardly worth a mention. It had been a matter of time before the village sunk into depression for purely economical reasons and disappeared into a big pile of sand.

And then, Suna suddenly had a jinchuriki. Yes, really, they did! A bloody deity born from demented wind and sand that fed on blood of its enemies. The legendary perfect protection.

On a minor note, the Kazekage's wife had died.

How old was this baby again? Because Minato wouldn't have been surprised if he had been born the very same day his mother had died.

This man had willingly used his wife to bargain with unnatural monstrosities and allowed them to possess his son. Maybe it was a good thing he was pinned down like that. If he hadn't, Minato might have probably made a very serious attempt on the Kazekage's life.

'Now what.' he said instead, voice a low monotone.

The man had only shrugged, for a moment looking like if he had given up on the world. Then he had pinched the bridge of his nose and made a scowl at nothing in particular.

'We can go to the cellar and try to get him off you, and then lock him until he calms down.' he said, looking at the baby 'Or we can wait when he decides to let you go and then carry him to his… oh I forgot that you have his cradle here.' he said, gesturing at the blond's hands. Then he sighed.

'This can't last for long though, the seal will only work for a few hours. And if you let him sleep, he will turn fully into a monster and will go on a rampage.'

He smiled at this like if he had something very nice and touching, almost warming, but his nostrils worked like if he had went through the marathon.

'I can't freeze sand on him endlessly. This takes too much chakra.'

And he really didn't know what to do about that man. Nobody could know about it in the village or the panic would strike. People will emigrate – or they will begin a strike and then either he slaughters them or high classed Anbus will come for his life or maybe Gaara would just have a feast of the year. Either way, civil war would be a clear end of this village. And people really were not far away from rising their voices. Even for raw humans, like Sunanins, the life became really hard to bear last years.

The blond nodded again, but it was just for show. He was listening this time, but at the same time he wasn't really paying attention to what the other said. There was a baby in his arms. This baby was pretty much what every nightmare he had had in the past half year amounted to - a small, unreasonable little container for a monster itching for some carnage.

Kushina hadn't been turned into a jinchuriki until the last one had been reaching the end of her natural life, and even then, her clan had trained her for it- Kushina had been prepared for the burden that had been showed on her. She had already had extensive training on sealing methods and a basic understanding of how to control chakra. She had basic training as a ninja and members of her family and professionals at her disposal in case anything went wrong. Babies didn't even have a notion of how to control their sphincters.

Sealing methods varied in all the villages, but in general, people knew well enough to wait until the future container had a chance to learn something as basic as to how to control the unnatural chakra pouring into their system. But he could understand the basic thought process behind the idea of possessing an infant. It was simple, while the host grew, it would do so with a natural and instinctive understanding of how to use the bijuu. It was simple, and in theory, efficient. It was risky as hell. He had no other option but to seal their own monster into his son, and if there had been any other way, any alternate option at all- if he had had any chance of housing the thing himself instead of burdening their child with it- Minato would have done it.

Because if they had missed anything, if they had miscalculated to the slightest detail, if there had been the slightest margin of error… Well. This baby was what would have happened. Slowly, he leaned his head back on the floor with a small, quiet thump, blue eyes staring at the ceiling unblinkingly.

'These things only happen to me.'