Author's Notes: I've had a few people ask me whether I'm going to change Gaara's name.

I won't. Gaara is a gender neutral name, as most japanese names are. Even if it wasn't, I'm not sure I made it clear enough, but everyone thinks Gaara's a boy – including her parents. The prequel explains it better, it's called Building on a Lie. You'll only have the full explanation for it much later, on the sequel.

This chapter is mostly on Naruto's POV, it will probably be the only one. I just wanted to give you a feel of what's going on inside his head right now.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Making Plans

She wasn't surprised to see her siblings awake in her room, but she was weary. They both looked up in concern when she arrived, then did a double take. "Gaara? Where have you been?" Temari wondered, eyes wide as she eyed her new clothes.

"I was talking with Naruto. We had several things to discuss." it was partially true, though they spent more time in each other's arms than really talking.

"You were... talking... with Naruto." Kankurou said slowly. Gaara's eyes narrowed as she glanced at her brother, wondering what he was trying to get at. There was clearly a hidden meaning to his words, but she couldn't tell what.

"Yes." she agreed as she moved to get a glass of water from the jug. "There were important things we needed to discuss." she said quietly.

"Couldn't you have waited until morning? And... are those his clothes?" she eyed her brother neutrally.

"No. My old clothes were getting uncomfortable, so I acquired new ones." Naruto gave them to her, but Kankurou didn't need to know that.

"Uncomfortable how?" Temari wondered as Gaara sat down, sipping from her glass.

"They were too tight." her sister stared at her. Her brother lifted an eyebrow as he ran his eyes over her body appraisingly.

"You put on weight." he noted, not for the first time. Gaara only shrugged. "We should hit one of the public training grounds."

"No." Temari told him firmly. "Gaara's still ill. Don't push his health." she warned.

"Temari, he'll turn into a ball at this rate. He's already well on his way into achieving that, really." he shook his head. "Tch. What did Naruto have to say about your moobs, Gaara?"

Temari flushed, looking outraged as she cried out, "Kankurou!" Gaara watched them warily.

"Moobs?" she wondered quietly, not knowing the meaning of the word.

"It's nothing! Kankurou just needs a kick on the ass." Temari growled, raising to her feet and grabbing their brother by his ear. Kankurou whined as she dragged him away from the room by the appendage.

Gaara watched the closed door for a few seconds, then shrugged and went about her day. She had a lot of things to do – most of which consisted on preparing herself mentally for exposure to Sakura Haruno. She had no doubt Naruto would round on her for that at the earliest opportunity.

Naruto cursed himself when Gaara turned into sand as he tried to grab her wrist.

Why did he have to tell her that she was abandoning them? Acting like a jerk wouldn't convince Gaara he wanted nothing but her wellbeing. "Stupid, stupid." he groaned, smacking his own head.

He sighed and went to take a shower, his head full with the events of the last twenty four hours.

Everything was mind blowing. Not only finding out Gaara wasn't a guy, but being told that everything he remembered about that drunken night was real. Gaara had really been one of the hottest women he had seen. She had really told him she loved him. They had really...

Naruto flushed. He hadn't ever been nearly as kinky with Hinata, much less his other flings and serious girlfriends. Gaara and him really had gone wild that night, and it had been damn good. Last night he had gone far more gentle and careful with her, because of her stomach, but Gaara didn't seem to mind, nor get irritated with him. Sakura was always irritated with him when he tried to treat her more carefully lately.

"God, thinking about Sakura so soon after thinking about sex is disturbing." he shuddered. He didn't know when exactly that happened, but Sakura was like a sister to him nowadays. He couldn't see her in that light at all.

But Gaara... Damn, Gaara looked like a guy when she was hiding her body under layers of clothes, but naked, she was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. She had a confidence while she was naked that he had never seen another woman possess. It was startling to think that a woman that confident was actually afraid of letting others know she was a woman.

Then, there was her pregnancy. A smile curved his lips at the mere thought. He had seen how scared Gaara was about all this, but... He couldn't help feeling delighted about it. He was going to be a Dad! He was going to have two children!

He also had called Gaara on thinking of abandoning their children. He grimaced and rubbed his face – he was an asshole. She was terrified about all this, and everyone thought she was a guy, of course she would think of something like that. Calling her a negligent parent over that was a horrible idea, specially knowing how much of an ass her own father had been. Naruto just hoped his insult wasn't eating at her right now. Knowing Gaara, it was impossible to know, really. His friend could brush some things off as if they were nothing, but sometimes some silly thing would eat at her for years. He needed to fix this.

He barely ate anything – he just downed a toast and a glass of juice and was already out of his door. He made two clones – one to keep up with his work, and another to track down Sakura. He went after Gaara himself.

Gaara was his... her stoic self when she opened the door. Naruto kept himself from flinching – she was definitely mad at him. She had been anything but stoic last night.

"Gaara, I'm sorry..." he whispered, quietly. "I shouldn't have said..." Gaara's eyes widened, and she grabbed his hand and pulled him inside the small apartment, locking the door behind them.

"Naruto!" she warned in a whisper. "There are ANBU watching us." she reminded him urgently.

"Hm..." he hesitantly nodded. "I'm... sorry." he finished lamely, hoping she understood what he was sorry for. She watched him with a neutral expression for a few seconds, then slowly shook her head.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. You are right, I'm renouncing my fatherhood. You would make a far better father to them than I could ever be." Naruto wanted to argue heatedly against that. There were so many things wrong with that sentence. "I... would like to be their uncle if you would allow me to."

"No!" Naruto said quickly, strongly, and he saw pain in Gaara's eyes at his exclamation, despite the fact her expression remained neutral. He quickly amended. "You're not their uncle, you're their mother, Gaara. They need a mother."

Gaara frowned at him. "Naruto..."

"After all the shit we grew up with, our children deserve to have both of their parents, don't you think? It's not even like you don't want to be with me." her neutral expression was completely gone now, it was the first time he had seen her frown that hard.

"That's impossible, Naruto." she told him firmly, her tone cold. He could see fear in her eyes... Fear of discovery.

"I won't tell anyone but Sakura, I promised you I wouldn't. But even as a guy, that doesn't keep us from being together." Gaara crossed her arms over her chest, a defensive gesture. It highlighted her breasts and her stomach, and Naruto felt the sudden urge to touch her belly again, to feel their babies alive inside her. He curbed the urge.

"I don't see what you're trying to get at." she said after several seconds of silence.

"We want to strengthen the alliance between Suna and Konoha. What better way than have both leaders marrying each other, no matter their gender?" Naruto asked. Gaara's face became slack.

"Naruto, that wouldn't work." she sighed, after a few seconds.

"Why not? It would be a fool proof alliance!" he defended his idea.

"You would be fusing our villages together. Our ninjas would have a whole lot to complain about that." she pointed out.

"I wouldn't. You would still be Kazekage, and I would still be Hokage, and we would both defend our village's interests. The only difference would be in the fact that neither of us would accept any kind of hostility to the other's village." Naruto explained his thoughts.

Gaara grimaced and reached up to place her fingers between her eyes. She was feeling a headache again. He had seen the gesture very often the previous day, and he had heard Temari complain about Gaara's constant headaches.

"It wouldn't work that way. Our council would complain about each decision we took, claiming we were showing favoritism to the other's village. The other Kages might feel threatened about such a strong tie between both of our villages, too."

"The Konoha Council already complains about everything Kakashi does, I'm sure they will do the same to me. It's not like that would change a lot either way. Is your Council always happy with you?" Gaara's scowl was all the answer he needed. "What we need is people's support. That's the only reason I'm becoming Hokage at all, Gaara. It's because my ninjas and civilians believe in me. We only need to convince them that our marriage would bring advantages to both of our villages. The council would be forced to accept our decision once that happened." He hesitated then.

He had thought that far, but he didn't know which advantages would these be, besides guaranteed peace between both of their villages. But he could see from the analytical look on Gaara's eyes that she was already seeing several advantages he hadn't seen. "You can think of advantages?" he asked hopefully. Gaara looked startled up at him. A small sigh escaped her lips, then.

"Yes. Several, though to be truthful, the advantages to Suna would far outstrip Konoha's. We do have knowledge your ninjas would appreciate, as well as gold, silver, iron, and several other metals we can make no use of that we can share with Konoha." Naruto was surprised at her words.

"Gold and silver? Wha... Why is Suna so... poor then?" he asked slowly, carefully. The corner of Gaara's lips twitched, but he couldn't quite tell if she was grimacing or smiling.

"Unprocessed ore is worth a lot less than the pure mineral, and we don't have the water resources to waste on metallurgies. It can't help my people in any way the way it is. Konoha does have water to waste on it, and my Council would feel more at ease allowing another village to explore our land if the final profit was shared equally between us, instead of having us get the mere pittance for which the brute material is really worth."

Naruto's eyes widened as he heard her explanation. Once she finished he grinned. "That's brilliant. I'm sure the greedy idiots of the council would love that excuse... of both our councils." Gaara chewed on the corner of her lip, looking thoughtful.

"We have fertile lands, too, which are only out of use because we don't have enough water for plant life to thrive. A non-profit alliance with Konoha would allow both of our countries to become fully independent from other countries in food production. Konoha doesn't have enough fertile land dedicated to agriculture in order to keep your people fed without importing food from other countries. In Suna, it's even worse."

Gaara looked up blankly. "Such an alliance between our villages would make both our villages mostly, if not completely self sufficient if we ever faced another war." she finished grimly.

That... wasn't a cheerful thought, but as far as it went, their people would be very happy to hear that. The other Kages... might not be as happy. He could understand why Gaara looked so grim.

A sense of deja vu hit him, but he was confused as to why. He quickly brushed it away.

"W-Well... That's good news! We have plenty of reasons for this to work out just right. Do you still think it might not work?" Naruto asked with a grin.

Gaara looked distracted for a moment, and Naruto watched her hands with intent eyes when he saw her move them to cup her stomach almost fondly. That was clearly an involuntary gesture, and it triggered on Naruto a strong feeling he couldn't name.

"It might work." she agreed slowly. "But we need to be very careful about how we put this into play. If it backfires once, we won't have another chance. I think our worst issue will be with the nobility of Land of Fire and Land of Wind... But my country's nobility already sees Konoha as their main source of ninjas more than Suna." she finished quietly. Naruto grinned at her. Before he could tell her how happy he was that she agreed with him, both of them felt the presence of Gaara's siblings approaching the room.

Gaara's hands jerked away from her stomach as if she had received a shock, and she stood tense as a board, her face once again neutral, as they waited for her siblings to arrive.

"G... Naruto." Temari looked at him with surprise. What made him curious was the expression on Kankurou's face, though. It looked... smug might be the word, though it was hard to tell with the face paint.

"Hey! Sorry to invade your apartment, I just came to pick Gaara up. There are some things we need to talk about." he explained cheerfully.

"Talk... huh?" Kankurou wondered, smirking, throwing them a lewd look. Naruto gaped at him, floored at the wild conclusion the man had clearly just jumped to.

Before he could embarrass himself trying to stutter out a response to that, Temari drove a punch into her brother's head that made even Naruto wince.

"Ignore him, Naruto. I'm sure you have important things to discuss about our alliances." she punctuated each of her words with a glare at her brother. "We'll talk to you later." she grabbed Kankurou's arm and made to leave.

"Ah, don't leave! We can't stay here, secrecy is somewhat important. I'll be taking him to the Hokage tower." he motioned for them to stay. "If you would follow me?" he asked Gaara hopefully, reaching out with his hand. Gaara nodded once and held his forearm, and he transported them to the cave he had been born in.

"You need to talk to me again?" Gaara wondered quietly as she looked around.

"...My clone is bringing Sakura here. Holy shit!" he turned to Gaara, eyes wide. Gaara looked alarmed towards him.

"What?" Naruto shook his head strongly.

"I just... never imagined... Kankurou." he stuttered, feeling mortified at the very obvious, suggestive look his soon-to-be brother-in-law had thrown them.

"What? What about Kankurou?" he turned on her, and gaped when he saw she looked clueless.

"Y-You didn't notice?" he stuttered. She just stared blankly at him, not deeming to grant him with a response. He didn't know how to explain to her that her brother had suggested they had left together to do far more sordid things than talk... Which was true, really, but damn, that man was perceptive. "Kankurou... erm... thinks we're having an affair." he explained slowly.

Gaara looked baffled. "Come again?"

"The way he talked, it's as if he thought we came here not to talk but... erm... be naughty instead." he finished with a nervous laugher, scratching his cheek.

"...He thinks we're having sex?" she asked bluntly, and Naruto felt his cheeks burn.

"Yes." he agreed, laughing shakily, scratching his cheek. "He's... sharp."

She grimaced. "I shouldn't have told him I slept with you." he nearly choked on his own saliva.

"W-What?" Naruto squeaked, his voice embarrassingly high pitched.

"The night we got drunk. It was Kankurou who was feeding me alcohol to loosen my inhibitions. I'm almost certain he added some drug to my drinks in order to enhance the effects of the alcohol, or I wouldn't have gotten drunk that fast. He knew I would stop drinking before I reached my limits if I was aware of them."

Naruto looked horrified at her. Her own brother had gotten her drunk so she... That was unbelievable. Gaara continued. "He was hoping I would take to bed one of the women he brought with him, but... I brought you to bed instead." she finished and pressed her lips.

"Oh." he suddenly remembered Kankurou didn't know Gaara was a girl. Getting your brother smashed so he would get laid sounded far more acceptable than doing that to your sister... But, still, after seeing the consequences of that, Naruto couldn't help but think Kankurou had done a rotten thing no matter what gender Gaara was.

"I told him I slept with you to make him feel guilty. It worked. He hasn't tried to get me drunk again at social events." she finished with a heavy sigh.

"...and he thinks we're having a fling." Naruto finished. After a few silent seconds, he grinned. "That's... kind of perfect. If your siblings think we're both gay, no one will question your willingness to accept marriage to me."

Gaara frowned. "But you're straight." she pointed out.

"Well... It won't be hard for me to get others to believe I have a crush on you. I mean, your expressions are pretty hard to read most of the time, but I wear my heart on my sleeve." he pointed out with a grin. Gaara stared at him, and he was surprised to see doubt in her eyes. She didn't agree with him.

...Okay. Most people couldn't read him that well, not enough to notice his mask... But Gaara was Gaara. She was a jinchuuriki like him, and she had lived a childhood much like his. He offered her a weak smile, which she returned faintly.

"When is Sakura Haruno going to come?" Gaara asked quietly, after a few moments of silence.

"...I don't know. My clone needs to get her alone and explain everything to her first. It might take a while." he shrugged. Gaara shifted on her feet, as if standing up was starting to become uncomfortable. "Do you want to return home with me and wait for her there? Once she's here, my clone will disperse and I will know."

Gaara stood silent for a while. When Naruto was giving up getting a response, she slowly nodded and walked up to him, placing her hand on his arm. He nodded and took them both to his home.

The look on Gaara's eyes shifted, then. They weren't the neutral gazes, nor the all-knowing look that he was used to seeing on his friend far too often. Naruto was starting to get used to that look – it was the expectant, confident gaze Gaara only glanced at him with inside his bedroom.

Naruto couldn't resist it – he lowered his lips to her and kissed her slowly. She kissed him back, still inexperienced but not at all hesitant.

Man, he loved that woman. Maybe not as much as she loved him quite yet, or rather, just as much but not quite in the same way. But hell if he didn't enjoy tumbling the sheets with her.

It was surprising, really. If he considered everything he knew of Gaara, she was supposed to be a virgin, at least in the sense that she had never slept with anyone but him. She didn't act like that at all, though – and Naruto had slept with virgins before. He hadn't enjoyed the experience, he liked women who were sure of themselves, like Gaara, much better.

If only she was that sure of herself outside the bedroom. When she was acting in her capacity as a Kage, she was just as confident and strong as right then. But when it came to her social life... to revealing to others she was a woman, her confidence seemed to crumble like the sand she manipulated.

In the bedroom, she seemed to be fully accepting of her true gender. She wasn't bad at having sex. She sometimes fumbled, but that was something most people did when they were getting together with a new lover for the first few times. It didn't look like she was completely clueless about what she was doing.

Once they were relaxing in his bed, with Gaara firmly within his arms, he wondered out loud. "Have you really never had sex with other people before?"

Uncertainty filled her eyes as she looked up at him. "Yes... Am I doing something wrong?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing at all. That's exactly why I'm curious." she blinked, surprised. "I mean, virgins are usually scared and they don't really know what to do..." he trailed off when he realized just what he was telling Gaara. Before he could backtrack and apologize profusely for being an idiot, she hummed.

"Well, I've read a lot on the subject." she said after a few seconds, and though she tried to seem completely shameless, he could read some hesitancy on her eyes. Naruto boggled at that.

"You... You read porn?" he squawked. Gaara shrunk at his words.

"Yes. I was aware I would never become intimate with another person, books and sex toys were all I expected to have my whole life." her gaze was challenging, as if daring him to reprove of her.

Naruto squeaked when his brain caught up to something else altogether. "Y-You use sex toys?"

"I'm human, Naruto. I have needs, too." she looked away, this time clearly embarrassed.

"It's not that I'm telling this is wrong! I'm just... surprised. In a good way." he explained quickly. She glanced at him again, askance. "I-I mean...! I like using sex toys." and he really wished he could take the words back and drown in them right at the moment.

But Gaara looked at him in wonder. "I suppose we can use them together."

Naruto thought he was going to die for a moment. Then, he burst out laughing. "T-That would be great!" he said quickly, before she thought he was laughing at her idea.

She hadn't mistaken him, though. When he focused on her, he saw the beautiful little smile he always enjoyed seeing on her lips.

Sakura had been angry with Gaara for not visiting a doctor before, but she hadn't found anything wrong with their children, and Gaara was mostly healthy. Sakura had left her with a prescription for several vitamins and told her to drink more water – which, to Naruto's surprise, Gaara didn't seem to be happy about.

At least, he was surprised until he remembered his friend lived in a desert.

He took to getting Gaara to drink water every time they met during the day. It wasn't like Konoha was really lacking on that aspect. He insisted every time Gaara refused, until she accepted the glass.

Sakura nearly killed him three days later, telling him too much water was dangerous, when Gaara started getting sicker. They settled on a healthier middle ground.

The rest of the week went by very quickly, with the arrival of the other Kages and the pile of paperwork Kakashi and him were buried deep under. His sensei had given him a sadistic little smile when he told him he would be happy to let Naruto deal with all of it on his own once he was officially Hokage.

He couldn't really complain about him. He remembered Tsunade had just dropped everything on Kakashi's hands and taken a year long vacation during the change in their rules. He knew that, because Kakashi had told him then, "You want to be Hokage someday? Time to get some practice at it," and he proceeded to bury him on Tsunade's backlog of paperwork.

He doubted Kakashi would leave him to flounder, even after he began to wear the robes and Kakashi stopped wearing them.

Which was why he needed to tell him what exactly he was planning to do with Gaara.

Kakashi watched him in a long silence once he was done explaining – the censored version, of course, in which Gaara was male and not pregnant. "That's... a daring plan." he broke the silence slowly. "But you're not considering something quite important for the Elders of both villages, which this arrangement would forfeit."

"What?" he wondered, worried.

"All Kazekages of Suna have been heirs by blood of their past Kazekages. If you got married, you would cut his line short. You... You're Naruto, not to mention one of the last living Uzumaki within Konoha. Your bloodline is a very powerful asset to Konoha. They will want children from both of you." Naruto glanced at him, surprised.

But... Well, they were going to need to make way for introducing their children sooner rather than later. He grinned at his sensei. "Gaara already thought of that. We have two female friends helping us with that, and we're going to have heirs less than three months from now." he finished in a whisper, silently declaring that a secret. Kakashi stared at him.

"...Well. The Kazekage is smart." Kakashi drawled. Then, his eyes narrowed. "And sneaky. You've both been planning this for a long time, and you didn't make me aware of it."

Naruto chuckled nervously. The plan had been conceived a week before, but considering Gaara was already well into the sixth month of pregnancy, there wasn't a way to admit to that. So, he took up the blame.

"We wanted to be sure everything looked good before telling anyone else. You're the first person we're telling." he offered. Kakashi sighed heavily.

"And you choose to inform me on the day of the passing of the hat. Smart of you." he raised an eyebrow. Naruto scratched his cheeks, forcing a grin.

"I didn't intend it that way..." Kakashi snorted and shook his head.

"I believe in you. You're so clueless that it worries me some times. At least if you and Gaara do marry, he'll teach you some things. He's a political prodigy." he felt proud of Gaara at his teacher's words.

"Right? He thought all of this up on his own. After I told him of the initial idea, that is!" Naruto announced cheerfully.

Kakashi steepled his fingers and touched them to his covered lips as he studied him closely. "...Why the interest in being together with him? You're not gay." Naruto's face went bright red.

"...Ah. T-That is..." he stuttered. He couldn't tell Kakashi that he wanted their children to have both their parents with them. Understanding crossed Kakashi's eyes, and for a horrifying moment, Naruto thought he had realized Gaara wasn't a guy. Maybe he had read it off his mind they were going to be parents.

"You have a crush on him." He fought not to sag in relief at his teacher's words. He turned his face away, and ended up giving the impression he was embarrassed. "I didn't see that coming... But it sort of makes sense. You do understand each other in deeper ways than anyone else ever could." he looked up surprised, to see his teacher grinning at him. "I hope your plan works. For its sake, I'll pretend you told me about it an year ago." he finished, leaning back against his chair.

"T-Thanks, Kakashi!" Naruto sighed in relief.

"Just don't pull this sort of shit on me ever again." he told him in a warning tone. "And here I was thinking I would get a life long vacation from the seat." he looked confused up at him.

"...What's that supposed to mean?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"Where are you both going to live? I would think not in Konoha, considering all their past Kages are dead, and both Tsunade and I are still alive." Naruto hadn't considered that. At all.

But the answer came to him easily. "We're going to use Shadow Clones to be in both places at once." Kakashi started. Then, he looked pensive.

"With the absurd amount of chakra both of you have, it might be an option... But a dangerous one. Other ninjas might exploit it by trying to attack both villages at once, to try and take you out."

"If they do, we have people like Temari, Kankurou, Tsunade baa-chan and you to help us. Not to mention Kurama." Naruto pointed out.

"I hope that will be enough, because other countries won't be happy with the kind of strong alliance both of you are suggesting. But, to be truthful, both Suna and Konoha councils would be stupid to refuse. It would make both our villages stand much stronger against possible hostilities."

Naruto grinned at his former teacher. Other ninjas really respected his opinions, having Kakashi on their side was a great sign.