Chapter 4

The three days passed by as one might expect. Well-wishers passing by with gifts, clan members holding their own private ceremonies, and the village gossiping about who the new child might resemble more. Soon enough though, Temari was ready enough to head back to her own home, the baby girl safely nestled in a knitted blanket.

"Doesn't look like much," Shikadai Nara, son of Shikamaru and Temari said. He held the baby girl in his arms for the first time. He was largely unimpressed, green eyes looking at the tiny girl as if she were little more than a nuisance. He didn't know what he was expecting when the few day old infant returned home with her mother. He hadn't been around babies before, especially not one with eyes that seemed to prefer staying closed rather than open.

"Babies don't," Gaara told the boy. He'd seen Mariko several times already, and found the baby satisfactory in both health and appearance. "You were not, either, I recall."

"Kind of smells too," the youth said while crinkling his nose. Older brother and baby sister were seated by the window, but he knew whatever he'd caught a whiff of, it hadn't come from the garden.

"Do you mind?" Temari asked her husband.

"Yeah, I'll do it," just as Shikamaru was set to stand, the Kazekage stepped forward.

"Allow me," Gaara asserted quietly, hand raised to stall his brother-in-law. "I'm due back into Suna tomorrow."

Ever so gently he took the baby from his nephew. Mariko opened her eyes at the exchange, blinked once, her still baby-blue eyes squinting as if deciding if she should cry or not. Then, feeling the secure warmth of her uncle, decided she was content enough to snuggle into him instead. Gaara began his short trek up the stairs where the baby's room was, and where he was sure to find changing supplies.

"Heh, he's really father material," Kankuro laughed, almost losing his grip on his screwdriver. "Too bad he's avoiding marriage. I really wish he would settle down, the village elders are getting restless."

"I really wish you wouldn't build puppets at the kitchen table," Temari said from behind her cup of tea.

Ignoring his sister, Kankuro continued on. "It would be easier if he could find a nice voluptuous woman to keep his attentions. Honestly, the man's a saint, I'm surprised he hasn't done any skirt chasing."

A blonde eyebrow twitched. Her tea was the only thing keeping her from really losing her temper, and being cut down to one cup a day tried her sanity even further. She liked her caffeine, and hated parting with it. Either way, she hit him in the head with her spoon. "I said get that god-damn puppet off my table, you ass!"

Eyes wide, he moved his newest un-named creation. "Better?"

"Much," Temari said pleasantly, as if she hadn't just hit him.

"Last you wrote, there was a betrothal lined up." Shikamaru said with clear confusion. used to his wife's temper he merely ignored her momentary rage and gave her his spoon instead. "Did that Fall through or something?"

"It does seem a little weird for Gaara to get married," Shikadai said with a shrug.

"That's the Kazekage to you, runt! He may be your uncle, but you're a Konoha ninja, show him some respect." Temari shouted at her boy, crossing her arms. "Geeze, it was better when you at least called him your uncle."

"Uncle Gaara, then." Shikadai said, unsure if his mother would smack him around or not. "It still seem weird."

Kankuro took a breath, eyes drifting to the tools that he was beginning to put away. "Maybe, I'm not the best judge. Too bad your Konoha'a boy, or else this wouldn't be a problem."

"What do you mean?" Shikadai asked, his fingers lifting to his forehead protector. It might have had a leaf on it, but he liked Suna just as well. "This is a problem?"

"Nah, nothing like that, kid." Kankuro said, offering his nephew a smirk from along his purple painted lips. Resting his face in his cloth clad hand, he mulled over Suna's greatest dilemma. "If that were Suna's symbol on your head, Gaara wouldn't have to get married. Someone has to provide an heir though, and it falls to one of the three sand siblings to do it."

"Just because he might get married, it doesn't mean he'll produce an heir," Shikamaru said worriedly. "That's what we were so worried about when it came to the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. For the longest time, Choji was afraid he'd never get a girlfriend, let alone have a wife and kid. Ino had a hard time even getting pregnant, and that bothered her more than she admitted."

"Ino did say something about that, didn't she?" Temari recalled it so vaguely now. A long time had passed, well over a decade truth be told. "Well, the formation has Shikadai, Inojin, and Chocho now to carry on the name."

"Suna isn't so lucky," Kankuro said darkly.

"Do not worry about Suna," Gaara said as he walked back into the room and sat down, admiring his young niece. "I will be around a long while longer, and even if I am not, someone will be."

Temari was amused, since Gaara was a rather strange man. He didn't seem like a very kind or loving person, but he truly was. To those who knew little of him, he appeared indifferent to the baby in his arms. To those close to him, he was clearly mesmerized by her. "She is quite taken with you, Gaara."

"Oi, it's not a baby that he needs to appease." Kankuro bit out, lifting his puppet back onto the table without thinking. "Gaara, get out there and seduce a girl already."

"And with that, I'm going to go train until dinner." Shikadai muttered uncomfortably, excusing himself from the kitchen.

"I'll go too," Shikamaru muttered, not wanting to get involved with the three-way stare down taking place in his home. "Too troublesome to stay here right now."

The three sand siblings, a trio left to their own devices, sat quietly until Gaara finally spoke. "I will take Naruto up on his offer. Joint citizenship, that sounds like something."


Gaara, although once feared for his mere existence was a man who seemed to gather the attention of a great many people. Some looked to him in awe, others timidly. Very few, those who could not let go of the past, looked to him with great distain. He was neither concerned nor pleased with any of those outcomes. He didn't have the time to worry. As his time as the Kazekage, he had come to accept that the adversities of life made him a better man.

It was why he could stand proudly beside Naruto, looking out over Konoha with the respect that the hidden village had earned. Gaara held it highly in esteem, all because of Naruto.

"You can't tell me you're not worried about it," the Hokage said, bringing up the matter of progeny. "From what I hear, they're trying to twist your arm. I've also heard they're going to start bugging Kankuro next."

"Indeed, no rumor," Gaara nodded as he considered this. Leaning forward on the red railing that surrounded the outside of the building. "I am very much unconcerned. The situation, as it stands, remains uncertain. I don't have time for a proper courtship, there is far too much to do. I must admit, I am not the economically savvy man that my father tended to be."

"Well don't know if that's the right way to do things. Maybe you should be more worried about family stuff," Naruto said while scratching his head. He wasn't entirely sure one way or the other, and frowned deeply. "We're not getting any younger."

"No, we're not," Gaara agreed, "for which we can be thankful. I'd hate to go back to my youth. Dismal experience, if you ask me."

"Ah, well yeah, maybe you're right. I don't like thinking about that, but, it was also important. It made us who we are today, I'd say the past had to be that way. Perspectives and all," the blond man said while scratching the back of his head. "We're not old, either, so there's time for you to settle down a bit."

"A joint citizenship ticks a lot of boxes, but, even so, what you're implying…" Gaara shook his head. Naruto was a brazen one, always had been, and Gaara suspected that he always would be. "Mariko is still Konoha born, and besides that, a woman would face even deeper adversity in Suna."

"More adversity than what we faced?" Naruto merely grinned, his smile bright, his conviction tried and true. "Gaara, we're stronger for it."

"That, I would not deny," Gaara murmured, "I wouldn't wish that kind of loneliness on anyone else either though. Most certainly not my very own niece."

"Also," at that moment, Naruto's expression dimmed, "I can't say this kind of peace will last forever. I can't control the other villages, but I would like it if Konoha and Suna remained like family even after we are gone. If we could do that, I'd be happy."

"Hmm." Gaara concluded as he watched the sun fade behind the mountains. "Yes, that would be ideal."