As expected, Minato was unable to sleep, despite the tiredness he felt. He always had issues with sleep, and normally managed with four or five hours a day, as he almost never slept during night, and maybe the odd nap here and there to supplement it when he was about to collapse because he was too tired. It was three forty in the morning. He thought he slept… Maybe, at least it had been two-something in the morning as he watched the red lights of his alarm clock, so he must have dozed off at some point…

…why did he care if he had managed to sleep or not? He wasn't able to sleep now. And he would simply be unable to fall asleep until he did what he had been kicking around since the Sabaku's had left. Picking up his newly found pair of classes and setting on the coffee machine so it would warm up what he already had prepared, the blond took a few minutes to make himself the coffee to his tastes, then sat down at his laptop and turned on the Mozilla Firefox. He already had the main page for the Akasuna institutions, and then it as just a matter of following the instructions to get to the map. He knew from the directions where they could be, as there was only one institution up north, as for Temari's…

It took him two other cups of coffee before falling asleep on the couch.

#+#+#+#+#+#

He managed to find the address after turning his bag upside down and going through the assorted papers until he found the right one. It took him only a few more minutes to figure he needed two buses to get to the department complex, and about half an hour to actually get there, considering it was Sunday noon and there was hardly any transit. What took him the longest, it seemed, was to get the courage to actually drop the envelop through the mail slot.

In his department, there were several slots right at the door and you had to open them with a key. On his first visit, he hadn't noticed the ones in the old, gritty building Gaara's family lived in, they still had the slots right at the bottom of the door itself. If he wanted to leave the pages, he'd have to slide them through. The problem was how to do it without the people inside noticing, because he didn't want to talk about it. Really, he didn't. At all. Maybe later in the day. Or tomorrow when the man came to pick Gaara, but definitely not now, because it would be too awkward, too sudden, too scary-

'…do you want me to do it?' Minato nearly jumped out of his skin at the shushed voice of his son, who had left the safety of the stairs to come to his back and look at him with an expression clearly stating he was taking way too long for something silly.

'No! Go back to the stairs!' he said urgently, his voice barely a hiss as he shot a nervous look, as if there were agents watching their every move. Maybe snipers and a S.W.A.T team while at it.

'You are taking forever.'

'Naruto!'

'But you are!' his son answered in the same hissed tone, shaking his hand emphatically. He pointed at the stairs until the kid finally turned around and went back to them, and then finally moved down the hallway to stand in front of the door. It was almost. People on Sundays were either sleeping, eating or preparing some sort of brunch. The man had seemed ready to die yesterday, so there was absolutely no reason for him to be awake at this hour,. And if he went to church or temple or whatever, he should still be there. He just had to slip the paper…

He couldn't help but turn around and shoot another terrified look, as if the saffron-haired man would materialize out of the wall possibly holding a baseball bat with nails driven through. All he saw was his son nodding at him excitedly. With a sigh, he managed to cover the last three meters and drop the package through the slot as softly and noiselessly as possible. After which he ran for the stairs, grabbed his son by the hand and ran with him all the way to the top of the building, where he was left panting while and exited Naruto grinned at him and patted his back.

'It was only four floors, daddy.' The little boy said as his father picked him up and sat him on his lap, clutching at him.

'I know.'

'Stop smoking.'

'Maybe after the next book, love.'

'You are gonna keep on writing?'

He made some sound that could be taken either way and just clutched the boy closer, waiting. It would probably be safe to go down in another twenty minutes or so.

Nothing happened for several minutes, and after a while, Minato started to relax despite himself. He supposed because Naruto wasn't scared at all, and his son's moods had this wonderfully soothing effect on him. Somehow, he found himself telling the little blond on his lap about the story again.

'And I think them going back home for the exams would be a good idea, but maybe it would be better to leave bits for the next part? I had a great idea, but I don't know if that would be overdoing it… Either way, it might be too bloody for a sequel…' he sighed, resting his head on the top of Naruto's head, as usual feeling indecisive.

'I think it sounds real good, daddy.' his son said, as usual, not seeming to mind the clinging. 'Those ninja sound real cool, and I like how the girly-boy was super strong.'

'You think so…?' Well, he had simplified the goriest scenes for the kid, but the target of the book was for kids over the age of thirteen, and if he went overboard with the violence his editor would have him correct it, anyway, so there wasn't much to worry about, but the gender confusion might be a little overboard for the sequel, even if had been years since the first book and-

It was then that they heard Gaara's dad yelling for them (well, him), and Minato clutched Naruto to him not at all like Gaara clutched his toy, his whole body tense.

'Mr. Uzumaki! Mr. Uzumaki, it's me… Daichi!...' Of course he was… who else would it be…? Good thing they had waited this much, even thought they would have had time to run to the bus stations if they had left immediately after delivering the package, at least now they were sure- he stopped when he noticed that the body he was holding was trembling.

'…Naru?'

He looked down in a panic, pulling his son closer- he had never meant to scare him this much, he hadn't even thought… His son was laughing. The little blond with faded scars on his cheeks had both hand on his mouth and that odd, mischievous and foxy expression on his face, little shoulders shaking with every giggle he tried to contain.

'…Naruto.' He frowned, giving the kid a small shake for worrying him, and then hugging him to his chest tightly as he oddly enough felt laughter bubbling up his chest. The mood was just contagious. He never ceased to wonder how much like Kushina Naruto was. Everything for her was a joke or an adventure or both, and it was just easy to forget the fact he was a paranoid broken mess with her around. What would he have done without either of them…?

'Shh, daddy…' the little boy put a finger to his mouth and grinned widely. 'We are playing hide and seek.'

And who better to do it with than a little fox?

#+#+#+#+#+#

Clack. That was it. Clack. Nothing more, nothing less. But alas, it was enough to make Kankuro stop from playing with Kuroari and look up from the centre of his bed.

His dolls never made such sounds. Never, even when he played the most quiet way with them or made them jump like crazy. And in this silent morning, every sound could be hearable and distinguished. The chirping of birds outside, the soft breathing of Temari from other room and two steady snores from under him – one, coming from dad's lungs (the thing that just stayed with him after he started smoking and didn't go away when he stopped) and second, from Gaara's as he seemed to be a parrot even in his dreaming (it was good he stopped repeating everything after him once he got his teddy, it was annoying. But some things just stayed). And the small, almost inaudible 'clack'.

Kankuro rose his head from his position, waiting for the sound to become closer or louder – but nothing of such sort took place. More, the sound didn't repeat itself even. And that was more than intriguing for kid his age. Curious, he left his dolls on the top of his bed and climbed down from it, doing it in silence to not wake any of figures sleeping beneath his bed. It wouldn't do him any good, to wake them for no reason.

Lucky Gaara, though. He was forbidden to sleep with dad since Gaara was born, because the little brother was very nervous and woke up every hour or so and didn't let him sleep. He agreed with that, at the beginning – who would want to sleep with such a crybaby? But as Gaara's dreams steadyfied, he started to reconsider the matter – the touch of mom's warm body, her breasts and hair was more than calming and sleeping alone didn't give such opportunities. He tried to ask mom to do that once again, but it was already too late, dad forbade them all to get close to mom because she was very, very unwell and could make them sick too. And then she was gone.

Dad's chest was not so cushy as mom's after that and he had this annoying habit of laying his hands across them and suffocating them all, but when mom was gone – it became the best thing on the world. But big kids didn't sleep with parents. Temari seemed to be proud of the fact all the time, he didn't. He never really felt he was big enough to be called a big grown up. But as dad said so and Temari repeated, he played along.

Clack, clack, where could the clack be?... Could it be that the mouse had finally gotten trapped in the mouse trap he made? He checked all three of them, including the one with fake cheese in the bathroom, but no, all of them were empty. He sighed, disappointed. Maybe it was the color of the cheese?... But he didn't know how to make it more yellow. But maybe because it was not gaining that green shade when cheese was laying out for too long… But if not mouse traps, then what could it be?

He checked the newspapers (they were all in order as he left them), walked around the kitchen (but nothing fell off the drawers) and even bravely peaked into the bloody room (but only a bit – nothing seemed to change there) but he found nothing out of ordinary. And just when he was about to give up, he noticed it. The brown light envelope that lied on the floor of hallway.

Someone has written a letter.

He picked it up, wondering who could do that as it was delivered on Sunday, where postmen didn't usually bring letters, but there was no address on it. Only one big writing 'To Sabaku Daichi'. Which meant dad. And if it was for dad, it probably meant it was even more important and not his to touch. Unless he was the one to deliver it. And since it seemed to be important, dad probably would be more than happy to get it now. He ran back to his room.

'Dad! Dad, wake up!'

Sabaku Daichi slept well. His dreams were nonexistent and Gaara was not shaking him awake. He had a tiring day but the rest was hard and healing, so he embraced it with both arms. And just as he was getting a full handful of that healthiness, the dream bubble popped over his head like a shabon made of soap.

'Dad! Dad, the letter! Someone wrote a letter!' he heard over his ear as he stirred, being touched up by lukewarm hands and climbed up by the owner of the voice. He opened one eye. Kankuro?...

After a moment second, much more warm body stirred and climbed him up, making him feel the weight and waking him up by doing nothing. It was this special ability of his youngest – stare until he stared back. It was an obligation to be made. No exceptions of the rule.

'Whaizzit…' he asked drowsily, looking at them from his position with still dream between his eyelids and cotton in his ears 'Has something happened?...'

'A letter, dad! A letter! Someone wrote it!...'

'Ah, a letter…' he said, not really understanding what was going on as he took it from his middle kid's hand, not noticing that Kankuro used up the occasion to get under the cover and hug himself to him. He even stroked his head back, feeling another one gluing to his side. He hugged Gaara with his elbow as he stared at the brown envelope. A letter…

'Wait, what?...' he said, sitting up on the bed, not really making the kids glue away as they just kept on being hugged to his sides. 'Who brought it, Kankuro?...'

'I dunno.' said the kid shrugging, looking at him with those mini-me eyes. He stared back, rubbing his own head out of drowsiness and glanced at the writing. 'To Sabaku Daichi'. Wait, he knew that handwriting… but from where?...

He opened it with quick determined moves and took out the contents on the bed. Maps. Maps and time schedules and the markings over it – with points that wrote 'ten cents' (which made no sense) and some lines leading straight to Akasuna School Complex. And from there to…

…impossible. He shook the envelope, to get out all the pages out of it and got another print and a small note. He picked it up, reading it out loud. Kids listened quietly like if he was casting a magic spell.

'Time schedules of buses that get straight to the point, the marked things are kiosks with tickets…' he looked at the map. Yes, it would suit the way he remembered from his car '…think about it, let me know if you think it could work…' Signed – Uzumaki Minato & Naruto (with squiggly lines).

'What does it reads there?' said Gaara, pointing at Naruto's name, but he didn't listen to him, pushing the kids away and getting out of the bed.

'Kankuro, how long it has been since you found the letter?'

'Dunno…' said his first son 'Maybe a few minutes?...'

'Good. Stay here!' he said, running out of the room while trying to get on his mules and opening the exit doors with one hand as in the second he still held the note. The kids shouted the agreement at him, though he didn't really pay attention to that as the locker has clicked, announcing the success of his doings. So he opened the doors and ran out of his house, running down the stairway until he reached the next door and ran out on the chilly morning in pajamas only, searching for the blond.

But with no effect. He turned left and right, not spotting anything that looked like a yellow tuff of hair and ran forward, expecting to meet them on the way – they couldn't have gone very far, right?

'Mr. Uzumaki!' he called out, hoping to get attention of the blond who probably was somewhere close but hiding from his gaze 'Mr. Uzumaki, it's me… Daichi!...'

But all in vain. After fifteen minutes of senseless running, he came back to his house, all chilled out and a little wet as the puddles on the ground didn't dry up yet and he kept on running without looking where he was stepping. He closed the door and let the note fall on the table as he went to the kitchen to fetch himself a glass of water after such running. Now that was something to think about…

That was a strange gesture. Not bad, but a little… weird. He would have never expected for the blonde to come to his house and get him such things on Sunday, the day after they talked. Especially after looking so unhealthy the day before. Was he doing it well? Could it be that Minato was a sociopath who slowly spiraled down until he was inside someone else's family and called someone's kids his own? He lived almost alone. And with big money. Now that he thought of it, the things he had in there were a little too expensive for what he said he were doing… as far as he remembered the salary of an average translator was not as big as one's who could buy such things.

What did he know about the blond after all?

Sure, the gesture was nice and how good it would be to know that his kids were fed and taken care of after the school, especially by someone like Minato, but… He wasn't sure now.

'Daddy?'

He looked down. Ah, there she was. A sleeping beauty of the house. Just got up and had this sleepy face that reminded him of Karura so much. Back in times it could hurt him, but now it was just a little sad, but sweet image. It meant Temari was a result of love between him and the woman he married.

'Can I have some water?...' asked the said result and didn't protest when he gave her his own cup, drinking up what was left. He looked at the clock. As crazy as it was, it couldn't be lying – it showed ten past ten a.m. Far too early for the tiredness he felt and for kids to be up. Without a word, he took Temari with him (along with the cup from which she drank still) and got her to the boys' room where Kankuro and Gaara still sat on the redheads bed, looking through the maps and markings with interest. That also picked up interest of Temari as she gave him the cup and climbed up to the bed to look at the papers.

With a sigh, he let the glass stand on the night table and took the papers from them, even despite their protests as the new object brought new spirit of searching for the hidden gold of pirates (as he heard from their talkings). He ruffled Kankuro's head as he climbed up the bed with them and covered himself.

'I'll show them to you again, but later.' he promised, feeling the nice warmth coming back to him 'Now, be quiet and let me rest a bit. It's Sunday. Go play quietly in the other room or listen to radio in kitchen, but not too loud, because I need to rest…'

He closed his eyes, hiding his face in the pillow and waited for the kids to move out from bed. But neither of them moved. He opened one eye.

'What is it?' he asked looking at indecisive faces of Temari and Kankuro 'I said you can turn on the radio…'

'Can't we stay here?' He blinked.

'Aren't you rested already?...'

'Not much.'

'I could sleep some more.'

'Please, daddy…'

He looked at Gaara, who muttered the last sentence, looking at him with big green eyes from behind the teddy and he sighed. Kids.

'Okay, okay.' he said, lifting the cover and letting his kids crawl under it Gaara has immediately glued himself to his side just like before that night, and Kankuro almost copied his gesture, though he didn't dare to be just as needy. Temari, on top of him, seemed to gain weight yet again, even when she was not eating much as of lately. Kids grew fast after all.

'Be quiet and let me rest, okay?'

They all nodded, looking at him with those childish eyes, so he looked around, looking into every pair of them, until he closed his own and let himself rest. Kids loosened up after a few moments, curling up closer and soon, all three of them were away in Morpheus lands. Safe.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'Do you think he is asleep?'

'He can't be. It's already past first p.m.'

'But his eyes are closed.'

'Do you think he died?'

'No! Daddy, don't die, daddy wake up!'

Daichi woke up being roughly pushed by his side by a panicked Temari, just when he was about to decide this day started almost too peacefully for his usual standards. Then he decided he was wrong. And when was in the middle of grumbling at all of them as they stood there, looking at him like if he actually rose from the dead, he remembered the letter and decided it actually started a little too nervously. He looked at the clock.

Ah. Five past first p.m. Ideal time for eating the soup he didn't have, meat he didn't bring and dessert that didn't exist. Just perfect. After washing his face and brushing his teeth with toothbrush (thankfully, he still had the new tube of paste in the drawer) he came out, turning on the radio for Kankuro and letting kids search through the cupboards in searching for anything edible to eat (it was amazing what they could find while he, even if he searched for days, couldn't) and dialed the number to the blond. Thank gods, his kid stole ('bought' as he kept repeating) Inuzuka's cell phone. It was nothing good to hold it by himself, but he was reluctant in giving it back – without it they would be cut off the communication.

And besides, first p.m. was probably quite decent time to call a neighbor to ask for a few things. Like weather, anonymous letters of good charity send through mail on Sunday morning, how's health, messages left on early morning on his doormat, if the pipes worked right, map with signs scribbled on it, the view point on the result of yesterday's football match he didn't watch… Oh, did he mention the letter he got this morning? Yes, exactly. Without superfluous words he dialed the number and waited. Beep. Beep. Beep…

Naruto looked around his father's backpack until he caught the vibrating little blue cell, looking in the kitchen's direction and to his oblivious father, who seemed to have turned peeling an eggplant into a life or dead mission. How come he heard it from his own room and his father didn't? he was probably planning something up. The older blond was always off into his little world when inspiration hit him, and if the piling papers being printed, read and quickly corrected were anything to go by, Minato was at his cusp.

'Daaad…?' Nothing. If anyone had expected that to prepare parmesan eggplant would be turned into a task worthy of a NASA scientist, well… '…DADDY!' His father jumped, the half-peeled vegetable falling from his hands despite two attempts to catch it mid-flight and fell on the floor.

'What?' he asked in a panicked tone, turning to stare at his mini-me at the door, taking a moment to double check for broken bones, missing limbs and large amounts of blood before his heart managed to slowly crawl down his throat. 'What is it?'

'The phone's been ringing for a while, you should keep it on you, daddy.' The little boy said, picking the half peeled vegetable and tip toeing up to drop it in the sink, then giving his father the ringing phone and using the handles of the drawers to hoist himself up enough to turn the water on, hanging from the edge of the sink as he patted the eggplant to clean it.

Minato was once again alternatively horrified and amazed at the ability Naruto had to climb up potentially lethal surface. Not that the sink was, but as easily as he got there, he could go up to the stove. He let him there for now, though, keeping an eye as he rubbed the half-peeled eggplant and opened the door, surprised at the name that appeared on the screen.

'Yes…?'

'Goode afternoon, Mr. Uzumaki, good to hear you made it home safely.' Creaked in the phone with digitalized voice. 'I hope I'm not interrupting anything important?...' The saffron haired man smiled, reopening the envelope yet again and looking at the maps. They really were done with precision and probably the best way of the shortest and safest ideas for the small kids to travel. He knew, because h recognized the signs and colors on the digitalized paper. They had the same thing in office where there was connection with interweb. 'Because I believe my problem needs some discussion as well and I'd rather not wait with it.'

'Good afternoon.' The older blond replied, a slightly confused smile on his lips as he wondered why the man had taken so long in calling. Not that he minded, in the time he had between their adventure and getting back home he had calmed quite a bit, thanks to Naruto's uplifting mood, and after his daily pill, he really felt a lot better than the mass of nerves he had been. Now he just felt rather silly about what he had done, but understood he wouldn't have been able to act any other way. At least the man didn't sound mad. And he had told him to call him to discuss it.

'Not really, I just started lunch for my termite…' pushing the little boy gently away and making him drop to the floor, he finished cleaning the eggplant and resumed peeling it, keeping the cell against his ear by pressing his shoulder up. 'I'm sorry for meddling like that, but I remembered about it this morning, and as I needed to go withdraw a few books from the library, I thought I should pass by. I thought you would be sleeping.' It was a very reasonable lie. The library was only about seven blocks from the Sabaku's house, and considering where he lived, he would need to take the green line of the bus to get there either way.

Daichi hesitated for a moment. Library? They had a library somewhere around his house? He had so little time to live that he barely looked around his own house. But now he remembered the landlord speaking something about it…

'Thanks for a thought. I wasn't, really.' he muttered, swallowing his saliva in his mouth, feeling how all went a little too dry there. He had no idea how to handle such situation. Had they got themselves a stalker or a guardian angel or… he really didn't know if there was any way to point at any possible answer 'But I… appreciate the gesture. Though I'm afraid my kids live a little too far away to make such a journey by themselves.'

There. Let's see how the blond would react to that.

Minato nodded absently, making a face when that caused him to almost lose the cell and had to fight to readjust it in place.

'I was wondering about that, but I guess you are right…' thought he couldn't help feeling funny about thinking that he deemed them old enough to stay on their own without any sort of supervision. '…I'm sorry, it really wasn't my place. I just felt a little worried about thinking about them alone all day. I know you work a lot. I'm sorry.'

Daichi smiled at the answer. Yes, it sounded good enough for him. But still, blond's act was pinpointing something more at this point of life. You didn't just go and get through the whole town just to leave such envelope in somebody's flat. So either blond was hopelessly romantic or unconsciously paranoid. Or scared of him. Which sounded funny, because if anything, it was blond's wealth that made him usually look down and not up.

'When they're home, at least I'm sure they're not being taken to another state and making underage porno videos for perverted people on the internet.' he said, letting the papers fall on the table.

'Dad, I found a potato!'

'That's good, Temari.' He said, covering the speaker t not share such things on a phone with anyone outside the family circle '…so I'm afraid…'

'Dad.'

He looked down at the serious stubborn face with surprise. It was first time Gaara called him anything else but 'daddy.' He blinked. Gaara didn't even move an inch.

'Teddy says he wants all of us to go.' He muttered, looking at him like if he was daring him. Daichi frowned.

'Gaara…' he started, but the redhead immediately moved closer, making a saddened face.

'Daddy…' Daichi tsked 'Mommy says it's good for us.'

Oh, there we go again. He moved away from the kid, almost making him lose his balance and walked up to the window.

'…I'm afraid Kankuro and Temari are too young to travel alone from such faraway places to your home alone so I must refuse, I'm sor-' He stopped, looking down again. This time three pairs of eyes were staring at him with this annoying stubbornity – 'please daddy, pretty please, or else…' kind of. He opened his mouth.

'Daddy!'

'Dad!'

'No!' …and it seemed he was not allowed to even speak anymore. He sighed. Now he was beginning to lose his humor. And that was not pretty.

'When they're home, at least I'm sure they're not being taken to another state and making underage porno videos for perverted people on the internet.' There was about one or two seconds of pause at that, and then the sound of the cell phone nosily falling on the floor. Minato stared at it as if I had turned into a particularly leggy and hairy kind of bug.

'Daddy…?' Naruto was staring at his father worriedly, attracted by the noise of the device hitting the ground. Minato stared at it, then at his son.

That's what the man thought of him… That's what he had sounded like? Of course that's what he had sounded like! How else would anyone sound- 'Why don't you live your tiny, delicious kids with me the whole day long, you don't know me, but I'm a perfectly trustworthy stranger, hur hur hur, and while you are at it, why not dress them up in edible underwear?'

He grabbed the cell phone again, nails hitting the linoleum painfully, though not breaking.

'I'm sorry.' he rasped, his breath unusually fast. 'I'm so sorry- I-I didn't think- I never meant—' of course he hadn't. But God, what was he, stupid? Would he had left his son with a stranger that showed out of nowhere like that? What planet did he live in? He felt stupid. Stupid and embarrassed and dirty and- 'I'm sorry, please, forget what I did, I won't meddle anymore.'

He tried to turn the call off, but he couldn't hit the right button. At the failed third try, he closed it.

Daichi winced. Three pairs of eyes stared at him with such stubbornness he knew that this wouldn't end well if he made them loose the opportunity to go to Uzumakis again. He knew why – the food and the playing was all they lacked in their empty life and even if they were siblings with small years difference, nobody could provide much if it was only a circle of them. Family was family, but friends were friends. He knew that very well. But then, security was much more important than that.

He knew it was a little exaggeration from his side – if the blond wanted to use them, he would have never gone to help Gaara in the situation he was in two days ago. People were not that good and the coldness reached many of those who didn't care. If the blonde wouldn't care – Gaara would be left home bleeding until he would get back there. But then, the whole thing was just… a little strange. Why didn't he tell him about it? He was about to ask it, shunning the stares down with turning his back to them, but when he closed the dial to his ear… Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…

…was all he heard. What?... Why did he reconnect? He said something about being sorry, as he heard, but he was too distracted with kids to notice and then there was only signal. He slowly closed the phone. So, it seemed we get back to the bad, old plan A. Everyone on his head. He turned to the kids.

'He changed his mind.' he said curtly, giving the phone to kids to inspect it and he went to the kitchen to prepare the found potato. Good they weren't all that hungry after the yesterday's filling. Though he was pretty sure that the digested food in kids stomachs was probably long gone. But at least they were starting with a carte blanche. It was easier to start counting down the days till getting the payment from the middle of the month instead of the beginning. He looked at the clock.

And it was about time to give Gaara his medicine too. With one swift move he tossed the potato into boiling water and looked at the kids, searching for the vial with drops.

'Tomorrow we will be doing everything like always. Be sure to be ready to be up before six. You know the drill.' The three of them nodded reluctantly, but it was visible they were not in the best humor. But there was nothing to do about it now. The life had to go on. Just like the drops had to go out from the bottle. But at least drops were free…

The next day started with a routine he knew better than he knew the map of this town. He was sure of it like he was sure there was almost nothing in his wallet and without opening his eyes he could count down what would happen. Tuesdays were Tuesdays, there was no unoriginal Wednesdays. Thursdays were more surprising than anything (mostly because of new schedule on the streets when it came to changing lights) and Fridays were always boring like a carousel on vertigo, but Mondays were stale like a pile of bricks. They never changed.

Like here – he heard the struggling of Kankuro on his bed as he tried to dress up in the darkness and the nervous breathing of Gaara who hadn't slept for most part of the night and was having an unpleasant dream. Temari was too far away. This would last for few minutes. Then the clock would ring. -Rrring!- There. Now Kankuro would be startled that he didn't manage on dressing up quick enough and grumpy he had to do it anyway and go to school. Temari would get up in an instance and march to boys' room, switching the light despite Kankuro's state and…

'Hey! Get out, I'm naked!'

'I'm your sister, dummy.'

'That doesn't make you any less girl than you are! Get out of our room! Get out, now!'

'I will get out when I'll get my underwear.'

'Why don't you just take it the day before? You do it just to get in and peek at boys parts!'

'What are you talking about, stupid? I don't have to peek on you to know how boy's parts look like, I washed Gaara before-aah!'

'You saw! You saw me naked!'

'It's because you didn't cover yourself up!'

'How am I supposed to dress up under the cover? You're stupid!'

'You're perverted! You're naked in the presence of girl!'

'You just said you're my sister! I didn't invite you in! You're the perverted one!'

'No, you are!'

'You are!'

'You are the one!'

'You ar-'

'Mooommyyy!'

...and there was the end of his rest as the half woken up Gaara would immediately start crying and make the other kids panicked and startled. If he would ignore him, the other kids wouldn't get dress up in time trying to calm the redhead down and they would not do it even as he would coddle him. On other days he was there first to wake up Gaara, which never turned into a crying fit, but the arguments of Kankuro and Temari over his head usually resulted in such bawling. He tried to not make it happen a few times, but somehow it always ended like that, even if the kids would just securely do everything as planned on other days. Almost like if Gaara had planned to wake up crying on Monday just to get a hug. And, knowing him, that was more than possible.

With a tired sigh, he got up from the bed to get into the kid's room and lay on the other bed for another few minutes, just hugging the redhead as the words never worked here and all he seemed to want was to be close. He always felt uncomfortable as Kankuro and Temari were always watching his back then, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't spoil all of them – he had enough of problems with one fragile kid already.

And besides, with all of them on bed it wouldn't be as restful as it was only with two. Because he was already used to sleeping with the kid on his own bed, so such a position was just another moment for closing his eyes. Once the kid calmed down enough to get up – he hadn't got such occasion till the very late evening at the end of the day. So he used it well.

After that, everything went as planned – no food, no socks, no peace, no working clock and panic again, kids being already too late, him being already too late and all of them running out too late just to find out that the car was not starting after whole day of standing not used and losing another fifteen minutes for warming up the radiator. Then there was traffic jam, Temari being a little late, Kankuro being more late, Gaara not having the 'late-not late' schedule and him being largely late for usual standards but not so bad for his own standards of lateness.

Only that he was on black list and he couldn't be late at all. Thankfully, his boss and half of people in the room were also not present. The season of flu was starting to reap the weaker to their bed. It was good, of course, but then it was not good at all as he remembered he hadn't bought vaccine for kids and it was yet another thing to have laying around his head and be worried about. As he sat down behind his desk, he looked at himself in the faint image of himself in the dull surface of the stapler. How come he was not sporting a massive amount of grey hair yet, he had no idea.

Then the long day of hard work would finally begin. And would last forever. But now at least he was sure, that his kids were in the secured, places, watched by the people who would mean no harm to them (except Mr. Gekkou, as Kankuro said, but he doubted that Hayate-sensei was doing everything on purpose – if anything, he was probably bitter at life for his never-ending sickness). So he could work. In peace.

Temari didn't think like her daddy.

Rarely, of course, but still. Her day at school was spent like usual – she raised her hand when she knew the answer and raised it higher when other people also knew it and was chosen to do it or not. Usually it was nothing big, in her eyes everyone were equal and everyone could answer the questions if the teacher let them – there was no competition there. When she knew, she knew, so it was all right. Except for the time where pineapple head knew it too.

Then she raised her hand twice as high and when he was chosen to answer the question, she didn't stop on standing up from the table just to be noticed above everyone – even when she was said to not to do that. Maki-sensei already knew about the strange competition thing that was going on between them, so when she chose Shikamaru (that was the name of pineapple head, but to her it didn't suit him as much as what she called him) she also chose her to answer the question. And then it turned into the brave race for the winning – for her, as the boy usually didn't even try to think, he just wrote on the blackboard when she had to stop and think. Almost like if she had the computer in his head or something. But she couldn't lose.

Not because it was a big thing. It didn't even start from anything big. At least that what Kankuro said (but he was stupid) and also Gaara (but he was a baby) and Sakura and Tenten too (but they knew nothing). Because it was a thing of a honor.

She had to show him, she was much more capable of being better than him in anything as a girl, than he could be. Because it was so, so embarrassing when she had the skirt lose that button on the first day of school and she had to hold it up to not let everyone see her panties, but then when she tripped once and let go of the schoolbag she was barely holding and couldn't get it on without holding it up he showed up and somehow figured it out and took her bag and held it for her for whole day after every lesson even if she said she could do it alone when she really couldn't and he seemed to know that and…

Hinata said it was kind of cute, but what could she know. Her cousin carried her bag with her because he was her family and for that he cared for her. And that lazy boy who said 'it was too troublesome to let her carry her own bag for she was a girl and he was a boy and it was boy's duty to help a girl' was not a family and he didn't have to do that at all, reducing her to little, helpless girlified girly girl!... She had to show him she was better than him. That she could do without such a boy. Or any boy at all.

She wrote the solution first, as she was successful this time, but he didn't seem to be crushed by the fact she won. More, he just looked at her part of the blackboard with something akin to surprise and turned to her mumbling something about girls being 'too troublesome'. Somehow, she didn't feel victorious even as she did smile at the teacher who praised her. Next time she would have to be quick enough to tell a solution of his side of blackboard too.

Alas, there was next time, but she lost to him then as he just explained everything before he got closer to the equation. She wanted to take revenge after that, but then the bell rang and it was the end of her day in school. Which meant long sitting in club-room or library. Daddy was always very late on Mondays. That, or… She took her schoolbag in her hands, opening it and rummaging through it, until she took out the crumpled sheets of papers out. The map of the town with stark naked signs of the bus stops and kiosks…

She could either sit in the library and buy herself a dry bun in the school's cafeteria, or she could not buy anything and got to the signed dot on the map and get a ticket and…

…with gods' help she would be in the place after at least forty minutes, as it wrote on the map. She knew it would mean disobeying the rules and getting herself in danger as in case of getting lost – nobody would know where she was, including herself. And policemen were not always everywhere ready to help such a girl like her.

But then, she already broke the rules with taking the map form the envelope when the rest of her family was desperately trying to find the green sock with yellow teddy bears for Gaara who just sat on bed in one and didn't realize that through the whole time he was sitting on the desired piece of clothing until daddy would move him aside to look behind the bed.

And also, that would make her look bad in daddy's eyes as she was the one to not get Gaara safe and her duty was to be a good girl when the boys didn't know when to be good for that she was the oldest from them all. But then, if this wouldn't happen then nothing would ever change, she was sure of it. And she desperately wanted the situation to change. And why not with the blonds - they were nice and all. She didn't understand why daddy suddenly got so reluctant. But daddy was always a little too insecure and needed a push, as mommy said. And if anything, she knew that the last person on this world to be wrong was her mommy.

So, when she came out of the building, she didn't head to the dimly lighted room with books and toys, but to the green booth on the lively side of the fence. The money was more than enough for two tickets. Just enough for her and Kankuro. Because it was obvious that the map lead to the another building in district of Akasuna territory and the ticket she had was not for exact vehicle but for time – she had an hour from the moment she checked it. That would be more than enough for her to grab Kankuro and get him on another line to get to their destination.

And as she thought, she was not wrong. The bus didn't seem to be as scary as she thought it might be, nobody tried talking to her or taking her anywhere so she just rode it till the low female voice announced the 'Pinocchio Street' and she could get out. Much to her surprise, almost tripping on Kankuro. With a ticket in his hand.

'What are you doing here?' she asked, ash he grabbed her and get them on the bus she just hopped out of 'How?...'

'I bought it.' he said, shrugging and readjusting his bag that belonged to her when she was younger. '…like usual, don't ask.'

She was about to ask that, but she shut her mouth. Nobody really knew how he got his money-less or too-high-price-less shopping go inside this school but it was probably all having some connection with the fact he was nonstop carving in wood and nobody in home really saw what he did, beside those three yucky monsters he kept on getting everywhere with him. Even now, the little Karasu's head was still visible from insides of his bag. Eew.

'But how did you know I was going to arrive for you in this bus?' Kankuro laughed out loud, checking his ticket in the yellow beeping machine. She frowned. Why was he laughing at her? 'Silly Temari, I didn't know.' he said, getting the paper inside his pockets and looking at her. He was again all smeared with those purple lines from that crayon he used for who knows what in this school he went to 'I just copied the map at night when nobody was looking and decided to go to the point shown on there by myself.'

'And you didn't want to get me with you?'

'Didn't think you would agree to break a rule.' She pouted at him, but she knew he was right, so as the new station was announced, her mood was gone like if it wasn't ever there. They had to be careful. Because they never did something like that. They get out at the Hashirama's Street and crossed the Great Waterfall's Boulevard as it was signed on the map, just to get into the next bus in the nick of time. This time it was much more stuffed than the one before and they had to keep close to not be pushed out of it or to be parted. After another few stations they finally reached the Tail's Street, which was already familiar to them and that was signed as the end of their journey.

Well, almost – they had to reach then number nine of the whole place. But that was nothing big as every house was already numbered. After a few minutes of walking, they finally reached the known building. It looked just as it was looking at the very early part of the day and the very late too. Astounding. Nothing like their own old block of flats at the dangerous part of the town. They looked at each other. There was no getting back now. Kankuro, being the more courageous one, stepped on his toes and ringed the bell. And then, with the hearts in their throats, pounding a little too loud and clammy hands, they stood in the silent breezy weather, looking at the door – and waited.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Monday was a weird day. Because after that call, Sunday sucked, bad. Daddy, who after the initial scare had gotten into one of his rare really, really good moods had been okay and perfectly happy until The Call. And not just because parmesan eggplant, which Naruto didn't really like or dislike, but Minato loved, he was happy because he felt good about what he had done and that was a really, really rare thing. Then The Call happened and ruined everything.

He knew they had moved because Calls had happened. Lots of Calls (Calls with big C's, because they were different from normal calls normal people got) and they always scared his daddy enough to get him screaming and calling Ero-Sennin and Ibiki-san and having the other pills... That's why the phone was over the refrigerator now. He wasn't supposed to pick it up, even though he could reach it. His daddy had told him that if anything ever happened, he should call him on his cell phone and never give that one.

He wasn't sure what the 'anything' could be, but he just nodded and didn't ask, because if his daddy got too nervous he'd want to have the other pills and he had told him to never let him do that, just the ones his sikogist gave him so he wouldn't be sad… but even after yesterday's sad pills his daddy had been sad. Really, really sad, and he'd even had two of them. He hadn't taken two in a while, not since they had moved. Not that it was bad, two sad pills a day if he was really sad wasn't bad, even Anko and Ero-Sennin had told him so, but he hadn't been that sad in a while and The Call was at fault, even if there hadn't been yelling this time… So it couldn't be the 811 woman.

His daddy hadn't slept, either, because while it was normal he'd still be wearing the same clothes from the previous days when he woke him up, it wasn't nearly as wrinkled as when his daddy fell asleep in the couch. And he'd made food, not just breakfast. He'd cooked food, which wasn't really rare, as he usually froze stuff so he could use it in lunch and dinner's through the week, but he never did it in the mornings, because that's when his daddy was the most sleepy. He usually did it in the afternoons while he played with Gaara.

Gaara… His daddy had Gaara's dad cell phone number in his cell. He knew because he had heard them talk before.

Those were the things Naruto was mulling about that morning at kinder, drawing spirals on a paper while they waited for the kids that were always late to get there so they could start telling them what to do, and he was so distracted by his own thoughts that he didn't notice when Gaara got there, which was the reason he didn't run to give him a hug as he usually did.

Gaara entered the kindergarten without expecting anything weird. More, he expected everything to be more than usual, because he had his green socks with yellow teddy on his legs, and that was more than sign of luck. Especially when he also had his teddy with him (and he always did). However, it didn't happen just as he expected. Just when he entered, many kids looked at him strangely and after he made a few steps, he was suddenly surrounded by many kids who seemed to be very curious about his state. He blinked, looking at them.

'Gaara-san? What do you have here, Gaara-san?' asked in a quick speed the braided boy, pointing at his forehead. Other kids looked at it also. He patted it.

'Ah, it's nothing. I've got an ouchie.' he said, making sure it was not going to slide down, The pale boy smiled at him.

'Has it happened when you were making pee-pee?'

Other kids laughed. Gaara didn't see anything funny in it though.

'It happened when I tried to reach the book about mousie.' he said with serious face. The pale boy didn't change his mimic though.

'But I bet that mousie had a wee-wee.' Gaara shrugged. Why would it matter if the mousie had a wee-wee? He didn't think animals had any anyway. He looked around, searching for the usual blond haired kid, but when he didn't saw him in the circle, he moved forward until he spotted him in the corner. Leaving the curious boys in the place he stepped closer and plopped down on the other side of drawing, looking at Naruto.

'Hello.'

Naruto finally snapped out of the trance where he was drawing swirly suns with swirly eyes and swirly mouths, that looked more like a monster than anything else, but that was okay because he had made him and monsters didn't eat their makers- an realized his best friend was right in front of him, so he smiled at him.

'Hi, Gaara.'

Gaara smiled back at him, propping his teddy higher so he could also see what was on the paper and looked down.

'What are you drawin'?'

'Nightmare.' The boy crumpled the paper, not wanting anything to do with it, and propped himself into a sitting position, staring at the older boy seriously for several moments. Gaara looked a little sick, so he probably hadn't slept very well again. Maybe because of the call too, and daddy had said… he'd said…

'It doesn't look like one.' Because it looked like strange things he couldn't imagine dreaming about as he never really had such dreams – his nightmares were of completely other kind, with him not having anyone at all and being left alone. But maybe Naruto dreamed about something else… Asuma-teach always said that everyone were a little different so probably they dreamed different dreams too. He looked at Naruto. He didn't seem to be very happy as usual.

'Are you coming home today?'

'Why wouldn't I come home?' he asked. Naruto made strange questions.

'Daddy said you might not and told Asuma-teach to call your daddy to ask later.' the blond said, expression worried. 'Is it because your daddy didn't like my house?'

Gaara blinked, looking up, then down. Daddy didn't seem to dislike Naruto's house, but then, he didn't seem to like it very much too… but daddy never spoke too much about anything. He didn't really remember as he was trying to get his attention more than look if he liked being there. But then, after getting that strange envelope he seemed to be very vivid, which didn't happen very often and then he wanted to cancel their visits, but Naruto's dad turned off the phone…

'Daddy said your daddy changed his mind.' he said truthfully, playing with plushy paws of his teddy 'I don't know what does it mean, but he didn't seem to be very happy when he called.'

'So it was your dad!' Naruto suddenly shot up, eyes narrowed in anger. 'His Call! He was the one that messed everything up! It's his fault my daddy is sad again!'

Gaara jerked back, losing his balance as he let go of the teddy and stared at the blond with widened eyes. He didn't understand such reaction in one a bit.

'My daddy said it was your daddy who changed his mind.' he repeated dumbly, not knowing what to say. To him it made very little sense in whole, and now even less. 'Does that mean he decided to be sad?'

'My daddy wasn't sad until he met yours! He was okay and because of him he's sad again, and it's not his fault!' Naruto wasn't angry *at* Gaara, but it didn't look like it from the way he was behaving. 'My daddy took stuff to your house so your daddy would leave your brother and sister with us but then he called and messed him up again! Now dad maybe will want to move again!'

Gaara just sat on the floor, looking at the blond in silence. He didn't see blond being sad when he saw him, but maybe Naruto saw something he couldn't? Many people said his daddy was a cruel man, but he knew better because when he hugged him, he was warm and the best in whole world. So maybe Naruto's dad was sad when nobody saw? But why would he be sad because of daddy? Daddy didn't seem to dislike the blonde man…

'I don't want you to move.' he said in a small voice. He didn't understand why would the man want to move because of such a call that was done – where daddy was not even shouting, but if Naruto said so…

'Daddy…' he searched for words, trying to find anything that could describe the strange situation where the older man just suddenly ran out of the flat and when he came back, the matter was not talked anymore. But he didn't find any 'Daddy… just didn't understand.'

It was more like he didn't understand, but maybe, just maybe, if he didn't then maybe daddy didn't too? Even if he always knew what was best.

The blond's aggressive stance slowly changed to one of sadness, just staring at the redhead in the floor, before his attention was called around by strange whisperings- the usual stupid form always were looking at them and whispering, so he shook a fist in their general direction. When he looked back at the redhead, he just sighed and sat down on the floor in front of him.

'I don't want to move away, either. You are my best friend, and if I move, I won't see you at school anymore.'

Gaara nodded, saddening with every passing second. He didn't want Naruto to move away either. He never had such a friend before and he wouldn't want him to go away, like mommy. Mommy was taking very, very long before coming back and not that he couldn't wait, but it was… long. And if Naruto was to go away for the same longness that would be also very long and very, very sad, because he wouldn't have anyone. And having pictures in teddy was not as nice as having real personas near at all.

'I don't want you to not see you anymore.' he muttered with saddened voice and crawled over to hug Naruto. Maybe if he held onto him very, very tight and just wouldn't let go, Naruto wouldn't go away? And if he did at least he would take him there and show him the way so he could meet him somehow.

'You're my best friend too.'

When it appeared than the blond and redhead had decided not to jump for each other's scalps like the last time, the rest of the kids quickly lost interest on the pair and went back to playing while the teacher finished speaking with one of the parents that had showed late. Naruto just hugged Gaara and stroked his head over the bandage lightly.

'Do your stitches hurt?' he asked, inspecting the bandage as if he could get to see through it if he concentrated hard enough.

'Not much.' It did hurt a little and it was a little annoying when he tried to sleep, but lack of sleep was nothing unusual to him, so he didn't count that up as anything important in that matter. However, he did like how Naruto patted him on the head. Any kind of body-close caress was a good one for him, as long as it was not hurting him. In exchange, he moved his hands over Naruto's back lightly, like If he was trying to pet a furry animal. He didn't have much experience in that though, because he stroked a stray cat maybe twice and the same amount of dogs at the same time. Kankuro's friend had a doggie, but that doggie didn't let him touch itself. So he tried to do the best as he could, knowing he couldn't do it too well. 'Why would your daddy want to move away now?'

'Because If he gets too sad, he'll get scared. That's why we left home and came here.' Naruto looked at the teacher, who was finally calling up rounds to go do something with some pastel colored dough, though he made no move to let go of Gaara or move towards the group. 'I don't want my daddy to be sad anymore. He was really sad before we left.'

Gaara looked at Naruto, then turned his head to look at the teacher, not really ungluing his head from the warm body underneath . What was Naruto saying was far more interesting than another attempt at drawing things.

'My daddy is sad too, but he doesn't move away.' he said consolingly, seeing how the teach clapped his hands to move them all together in one circle and how another one noticed them not moving and started coming closer 'We did move once, but I don't know why. Why would your daddy be scared or sad? You have nice home.'

'Sometimes he gets bad calls. From bad people.' The other boy snuggled against the redhead. 'But I don't think she knows we moved. She's never called where we are.'

'Why can't you tell her to not call you back then?' The redhead didn't move, though his eyes observed the man in silence. He didn't really like him. He was too pale to not be ghost and yet, he still was alive. That was too creepy to like him.

'What do they want from you?'

'Come on, kids-s, move' said the older male, crouching in front of them and holding out a hand 'We are going to draw the family portrait. Don't you want to draw you mommies and daddies?' Gaara didn't respond, looking at the hand. It was all white too. He could do that, but then, he could also not do that. It wouldn't make much difference if he did draw them.

The blond sighed, finally letting go of the arms he had wrapped around the smaller boy and moved up, offering him a hand.

'Let's go draw, maybe a picture will make daddy happy again…' But he doubted it. When daddy got really sad, it took very big things to get him out of it. As for if Gaara would be coming home or not… Well, he would know, right?