The crack inside the bathroom could be heard as the walls shook and started shedding paint and stone. A moment later the walls on the both sides of him started cracking and opening, forming the similar opening to the one in the bathroom, with the same presence oozing from it, still observing, still following. Something close to laughter could be heard from it, but it was muffled like if it was coming from six feet underground and as if the laughing one had mouth full of cotton. The same was with following scream and following talk, too hidden to be understood. Gaara opened his eyes wide, observing the cracks, then hid his face away, not looking at either side of it. The ANBU hiding behind the mask of spider didn't even try to react in any visible way. A second later two personas showed up, one of them being unknown ANBU in a mask that didn't resemble any animal and Kazekage himself, who caught both of them into standing position. He looked to the side, then at the soldier laying on the floor.

'Heal him.' he muttered 'She is as good as dead.'

The person behind the mask nodded and kicked the still breathing body away, applying the green chakra to Minato's neck, from where it started spreading. The woman on the floor gurgled something, but nobody paid attention to her.

'What is this?...' asked Daichi, looking at the holes on each side of the walls, not even trying to get close to any of them '…are you trying to destroy my house now?...'

In an answer, an eye opened in one of the holes and looked directly at him. Daichi, despite standing still, looked like if he was about to collapse. Then he looked away.

'I don't understand anything, but that's nothing new.' he said most likely to himself 'Let go of the brat, Namikaze.'

The hand that had been clutching at the wall moved the man's chest, clutching at his shirt and smearing blood, almost unnoticeable on the dark material. He didn't release Gaara, actually cradling him close to his chest and forcefully pulled at the Kazekage closer, hiding his face against his shoulder and keeping Gaara between them.

'Don't look at it.' he said, his voice cold and coherent despite how shaken his sounded. The pain was awful, worse than anything he had felt so far, but it did shake him out of the drugged haze his mind had descended into. 'It's a flytrap.'

'The only thing that's trapping me in this room now is you.' said Daichi looking down at the body that pulled at him so suddenly, but not unexpectedly at all. He lived through too much and too long to not recognize such movement from the movement going for a kill. There was a very thin line though. He smiled lightly, not letting the notice of the fact that Gaara slowly quieted down slide. He rose his hands and pulled Minato against himself, feeling the structure of his body and the smell of his sweat, his fear and his blood. The medic healed him even though he had it harder to reach to the vital point.

'I'm taking you to bed now and if you want to take these things with you it's only your choice.'

It would be hard to determine if it was the healing chakra or the hold, but the fact was that the blonde relaxed against the shorter body almost immediately, not clutching at it as much as leaning.

'It'll follow.'

It had followed them out of the bathroom. He wondered if there had ever been a crack there to begin with, considering how underpowered the real sand was, but all of that seemed too complicated right now. Daichi looked at it, indecisive. It will follow?... Why would it follow? But then – why wouldn't it. The answer was pretty obvious, and it was so wrapped up in its own current misfortune it didn't even try to push him away, even if he was all around him. Gaara was a magnet for all bizarre things that happened to him so far. He sighed, trying to wonder what to do. He couldn't exactly leave them here, but making Shukaku follow them was not wise also.

'Let's go back to the bathroom then.' he said and pushed Minato slightly. He didn't know what chances were that it would stop or… anything, he didn't even know what this new thing could do, but he really didn't like how catatonic the body on the ground looked. He thought of treating it again, but the only specialist medic he had in the house had both hands broken and the man with him was just learning and if he wasted energy of his on something like that… Suna still had too many victims of current happenings. He wondered if it was possible to rewind his own birth and choose more wealthy country to be born in.

When he answered negatively for that, he simply took both bodies in front of him in his hands and pushed them into the bathroom again. The presence in the walls, indeed, followed. The day was indeed getting funnier by every passing minute.

'Don't look at it!' the blonde stressed again, allowing the redhead to pull him back into the bathroom even if it was one of the last things he wanted after what he had seen inside of it. If the creature would just follow, there wasn't much point to trying to escape, though. And it wasn't like if the monster meant them harm, other than trying to lure them into it- so far it seemed content with whispering creepily in what Minato suspected was the spoken version of the seals he'd recently been working with.

'Didn't someone else go in…?' he asked after a moment, pulling away from the Kazekage's broad chest to inspect damage on the sniffling baby on his arms. 'I think someone- what are you doing?'

Minato swatted at the ANBU on his back, just fully registering his presence now.

'Go check on spider, I'm not hurt.'

Despite his words, when he finally looked up enough for the blonde bangs to part, there was a small, bright splotch of red on his left eye. The medic immediately removed both of his hands from Minato, looking positively confused, but made no step forward the body laying behind the floor. Daichi gritted his teeth lightly and caught the blonde's chin. The dot in the eye surely looked like 'something' after such a period of healing chakra induced to all inner organs.

'He is hurt, heal him.' he muttered and looked down at Gaara. The redhead had seemed to slowly calm down, but much quicker than before. It seemed that the ointment worked miracles, but that didn't stop from the hole from existing. He wondered if it was even a process he could rewind. He blinked and looked down in the blue eyes, moving Minato's face to the side. He had very nice skin for someone living on the desert, almost no signs of dry net or greasy pores.

(a nice buy)

The corners of his lips twitched a bit.

'You're top priority here, so don't try to act like a hero. It will only slow everything down.' he said 'Black widow is already dead, and if she isn't, then maybe she can keep up with that pace until someone has free hands for her. Soldiers have to be strong or die strong.'

Minato pulled away from the redhead, not liking this whole being examined like a gift horse, even though that was what he essentially became for this mane. He swatted at the kid –ANBU without a defined mask meant they were trainees, regardless of the village - and gestured at the door, adjusting the baby in his arms as he did so.

'Priority is not to lose soldiers unnecessarily. She was alive-' as she indeed had been identified by the redhead as a female. '…a moment ago. Heal her if you can.'

'In my case priority Is to not lose the most important things, I'm not comfortable with wider range.' said the redhead, but he waved his hand at the undefined mask to move out of the room. 'But if you won't settle down until I say so, then all right. But only this once.'

'How generous.' the blonde said ironically, lips lifting into a small smile, How nice to know he was so appreciated in this little spot of sand in this sea of sand and heat, now it only it were for himself and not the money he represented…? 'If you are so concerned you can heal me yourself, aren't you a qualified mednin?' he didn't wait for an answer, given he didn't feel he needed actual healing of any kind. Instead he focused his attention in trying to get Gaara unglued from his chest and coax him to look up.

'Gaara?' he stroked the by now dry fuzzy head, feeling a tiny ear shell gently. 'Come on Little Red, you are going to pass out if you press so hard.'

'I can heal your eye, but it will also get permanently blind. My methods of healing are methods that go well on a war, not under delicate emergency.' muttered the redhead and simply let go of the both of them, moving to the side. The smaller one of them let out something that could be identified as shout of protest, muffled by a material of Minato's shirt, but it was nowhere as loud as at the beginnings of it. Then, a smurfy sound of a nose being cleared from the snot and only then a scrunched, red face of the redhead showed up, finally silencing down – but only in voice. It was more than obvious it was only a pause, not a stop.

'Heal my eye? My eye is fine.' Minato could see just fine through both of them, and as the older man let them go (had he been grabbing at both of them all this time?) he stood up, gingerly making sure to keep his back to the cracked wall, and looked at himself in the mirror. 'Ah…'

What the hell. Had he hit himself with anything?

'Someone went into it.' he said again, pulling back a little to look down at the baby. 'I'm sure of it- hi baby.' he brushed a hand under a dark-smudged eye, ignoring whatever mess might have been left on his shirt. Naruto also thought whatever he was wearing was there for him to wipe his various fluids on it. He'd soon learnt the less he thought about it the better.

'There you go,' he cooed, moving his hand to the other eye to brush away the fat tears. 'Feeling any better?'

Gaara, of course, didn't respond. The only answer he gave was a blink of an eye, followed soon with a moan, that changed the intensity in another cry. It sounded even more tired now and only a bit stubborn, like if the redhead actually wanted to prove something with it.

'If something went into it, then it had to be Uchiha genes, I've never seen a healthy eye to look like that.' said Daichi as he laid one hand on the burns on the wall. They seemed to be a through made stamps in the paint and concrete sand. 'And I know nothing of anyone missing yet, so I'm not checking for anything to not check if the demon can walk out of there if I show him how.'

'I meant it- can you stop touching that?' he didn't know why he bothered, but the fact was that he did walk closer even if everything told him it wasn't a good idea. He hesitated for a moment as if he wasn't very sure what to do, then reached for the older redhead's wrist, pulling at him away. It made him feel slightly ridiculous, but the truth was the Kazekage looked like the kind of guy who would take anything more forceful as a challenge and dig his heels just to make a point.

'I'm sure that thing ate one of your ANBU and hasn't spat it out yet. And it almost killed Spider, and did this to me from just staring at it too long. I'd rather not be blamed if it eats your hand.'

Daichi stumbled back a few steps and looked down at his wrist. He didn't really expect to be grabbed at, not here, not now. It was quite a daring movement considering most of his ANBUs would try to touch him only at grave danger. He didn't see it here by far.

'But you seem to be very concerned about my hand.' he said, his voice genuine and velvety soft 'Should I take this as an invitation?'

The little redhead on the other hand didn't really oppose to anything. He had hiccupped and stopped with cry one more time only to continue three seconds later. Something shifted in the hole, but from this position it was hard to see what it was.

'Yes, take it as you will.' Minato said with an easy smile, the slick meaning being either completely missed or completely ignored - it was hard to tell with the younger man. 'I'd take is as an invitation to stop sticking parts of your body you might need in the future into place you aren't sure might be too likely to give them back.'

Satisfied with the level of attention, Minato finally released the wrist and took several steps away, getting practically as far away from the hole as the limited dimensions of the room allowed. Once satisfied with the distance, he picked Gaara up at a higher level, frowning at him lightly before pressing his forehead against him, giving him a soft nuzzle.

'Gaara, baby, far it be from me to make unfair accusations, but I'm starting to suspect you are doing this only for attention now.'

In an answer Gaara let out something that could be considered a very annoyed gurgle without really stopping his crying so it sounded like 'uannurgannngle!' and arched his spine up as much as he could, so his middle was far much higher in the air than his body and legs. Then he simply laid back and got back to crying that subdued into an irritated kind of sobbing.

Daichi was once again near the hole, trying to prod pink burns, even if Minato stated something else less than twenty seconds ago. The sand fell out of it, making the whole thing shift in a closing manner.

'It seems to be stopping.' he muttered.

'Fantastic, would you stop poking it before it decides to come back?' the blonde might have sounded less corrosive if he hadn't been trying to stop Gaara to do a backwards summersault from his arms, which amounted to him trying to wrap an arm around a baby that suddenly seemed to be made from live rubber. 'Finally.'

He adjusted the baby again so he was resting against his shoulder and started bouncing him lightly, trying to get him to stop. While he did so he took a distrustful glance towards the healing crack in the wall, shivered, then peeked out of the bathroom to see if the trainee had managed to save the androgynous ANBU or not. The trainee indeed tried to do something with the body, lank face and movements of it indicated he knew what he was doing. The body, however, looked just as immobile and dead like before. White mask looked back at Minato without the slightest sound.

'She has flowers in her veins.' he said with a slight surprise in his voice and looked back at the body. In answer, one eye of the girl slowly turned to the side and hid into the skull. Gaara looked back at that and finally, his voice died at the show. Slowly, he put finger in his mouth and started sucking. Hard.

'I don't think it's coming back. Where are you going?' could be heard from the inside, followed by the steps. Soon enough the redhead looked through the door. 'Why are you still both here?'

'…what sort?' Minato asked without thinking, only then noticing Gaara was looking in that direction. He quickly turned halfway around so his shoulder was on the line of sight and started running fingers over the baby's back.

'Nothing, your magical crack wall makes things sprout on people's veins and organs to shrivel, still feeling like going up there to poke at it?' he said, moving away from the redhead to let him have a go at the lovely sights the hallway offered them. How long had the woman been inside that place? A minute? Less? 'Check where the rest of your ANBU are. I think you'll find yourself one short.'

In the meantime, he better take advantage of the fact Gaara had gone quiet to put a clean diaper on him and some clothing. He didn't want to spend another minute in this place if he could help it.

'I don't know the brand.' uttered the body and looked at the redhead. The eye of the girl got back to the place. This time the pupil was different color. Daichi frowned at that and flicked his finger. Both the medic and the body disappeared in the fumes of sand dust.

'If someone is missing I will know.' he said and looked at Minato and the baby 'You better look after him for it to not happen again.'

And with that, he got back to the bathroom to look at the last bits of closing hole. They were tinier than average finger now.

'It's never happened before?' the blonde looked at the older man quizzically, then at the closing crack, and went back to tying the ends of the diaper, before picking the clothes the man had left beforehand and helping the baby's little limbs through all appropriate holes. Gaara squealed at that, first with annoyance, then, as Minato accidentally tickled his foot with surprise, and in the end with something that could be close to laughter, if only Gaara knew how to laugh. But with his completely passive still face and lack of 'h' letter in words it looked more like a shout of an offender. He made no problems with slipping to new clothes though.

'I have no idea what it is.' said Daichi under his nose as he started scratching the pink sand from the wall to the clean diaper he managed to catch from the pile of clean clothes 'Weird things happen around here all the time, but this was the first.'

A moment later the diaper changed into nicely sealed square, that could be mistaken for a nicely foiled reading paper. He hid it in his shirt pocket.

'You surely are a magnet for troubles… Minato.'

The blonde smiled absently while he finished fixing the baby's clothes and took him back in arms, sighing lightly in relief. Okay, done. It just had cost a ninja missing in action and possibly another one, how could the Kazekage allow it?

'If that's what you think, you should have met my beloved.' he said absently, looking around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything, then picking the shirt he'd discarded earlier. 'It really would have expanded your definitions.'

If this had been his problem, Minato would have told him to get a many security shots of what had happened as possible (he wanted to think there wouldn't be any records of whatever went inside the bathroom, but at least the hallway should have been easily caught by the camera on the recorder he'd seen there). He'd tell him to keep an eye on the spider ANBU, give her to some professional to check her state, figure out what the hell had the trainee meant with 'flowers' growing in her veins (he was sincerely hoping he meant the shape of broken blood vessels and not literal flowers), maybe check if there was some sort of communication with the missing ANBU and figure out who was the one who had ran off. Obviously this wasn't his problem (regardless of the fact said problem was literally attached to him), and so he didn't say anything. It wasn't life if the man would listen to him, and like hell he was going to so much a simply helping for free, because this man was sure to try and exploit any sort of kindness out of him.

And it wasn't like if he could afford him either way.

'Hungry baby? Let's see if I can finally figure out how to stop messing up your food.'

Gaara was very much keen on that, even if – as it came later – he was simply playing with him, because once he had actually got bottle in his hands he decided to check for how long Minato would actually be his loyal servant and pick it up from the floor, regarding he would drop it every few seconds. After seeing that indeed, it took him whole three tries (and third didn't work), Gaara got bored and started observing flies on the ceiling. Since then the time decided to change the pace and slow down to occasional rush ups. Gaara did his best to become a very steady boring baby and just gurgled something from time to time while clocks ticked, flies flew and more or less known people marched through rooms now and then. One of the more known ones had been Vulture who threw the piece of raw meat at Minato for no particular reason and when he saw that sand caught it and methodically started devouring it, walked away without word. The others had contained a small group of blank masks without shapes, all of them small enough to look like group of genins, princess Temari running back and forth with one of her pigtails left lose and a pair of two ANBUs – one of them looking quite muscular and quite old with grey hear and jerboa mask and the other seemed to be either sporting very long bangs or facial hair, because they grew from under every part of gecko mask. They passed him without a word, even if Gaara actually got interested with them and tried to grab their attention with hand waving at their direction. There was even a brief appearance of Yashamaru, who showed up wearing strangely feminine bed gown, as he dragged the very plain doll behind him with a trail filled with cups of herbs. The doll moved like if it was about to die, but it seemed to be the best of its abilities considering Yashamaur's hands looked like if he wanted to let people forget that hands didn't look like fingerless worms. It was even more creepy considering his band aids weren't anything but a single layer on skin. He also had passed without a word.

It was only after all that weird unsynchronized dance when the Fourth Kazekage decided to show up, in new shirt (that looked exactly the same as the old one, with the slight difference that this one was actually covered with plastic and it shone in the light) and sat down in one of the chairs with a face that would make god Mars squirm. He sat down – and kept quiet. For a long time. It took only Gaara's sudden shout toward the fact a fly tried to sit on the still sand and got trapped in it the very first moment it touched it. He looked at both of them.

'Black Widow has Sturt's Desert Pea in her veins.' he said, glaring the hole in the carpet 'A whole bunchload of flowers clogging the blood system everywhere. If it wasn't for the fact it was her ability to widen her veins, she'd be dead.'

Another morbid pause.

'I'm missing an ANBU member.'

Pause.

'Jackrabbit contacted us recently and said it's complicated.'

Pause. Daichi looked up at Minato.

'Actually, that's all he said. It's complicated.' Then his gaze fell on Gaara. 'I don't know what does that mean but I don't think he will be able to survive longer than a month without water. I'm not sure if to dismiss him yet or not.' Especially as there was no exit from where Jackrabbit supposedly was now. It was hard to tell what to do in such situation at all. He'd have to risk opening the gate once again and really, who could guarantee this would end up well at all? He didn't know. Gaara looked back and let out a bubble of saliva trail up his chin.

'…how much for taking care of the host until Armageddon breaks?'

Minato took everything with equanimity, waiting until Gaara finally decided to get bored of playing fetch with him and start praying proper attention to his food. Once sure he wouldn't have to bend over for the umpteenth time, he got back up to get the notes he had made on the speed run trial Wren and him had gone through days ago and started going over them, comparing them with the one the Kazekage had 'corrected'. The ones he had tested on the baby hadn't worked as he had wanted them to, but they had been more or less on the line of idea he had been planning. The redhead had supposedly corrected just grammatical mistakes, and all of the sudden they had a man eating crack. He didn't know anyone apart from Yashamaru, and for some reason he only seemed to get angrier at him for asking after what had happened, so Minato set to work largely undisturbed. When he saw the familiar Vulture mask, the man didn't say anything to him and the blonde, who had no idea if the ANBU had told anyone how it had been him who helped him out of the locked room and had no interest on getting him in more trouble, also pretended not to see him.

In fact; all that accounted for distraction in the following hours was Gaara, and compared with Naruto, it hardly seemed a bother. The baby was perfectly happy to be left to his own devices, provided said devices were within Minato's reach, because he wasn't anywhere inclined to go further than from his lap, and only if the blonde got tired of holding him against his chest. Every now and then he'd point at something, to which Minato would make some sort of acknowledgement and the baby would go back to staring at everything with fixed interest, apparently satisfied with the level of attention, which worked well for everyone involved. Minato had only paused to make himself some tea and dispatch a clone to check on his own child when the Kazekage came back to the table. This time it didn't seem to upset the baby, probably because of the distance kept, and the redhead seemed perfectly content with glaring at the table like if he could induce it to confession with threatening aura alone.

Given he was being pointedly ignored, Minato only picked up his notes (the new ones, because he was sure the redhead had already copied everything that could be copied from the old ones, not that they'd serve them much as heavily coded as they were), and started looking at them over the tea. It wasn't until the redhead started talking that he looked up, eyes widening a fraction over the shared news, before going down to look at the notes, then back at the redhead. The truth was he wasn't surprised the Kazekage was asking. He had a fighting chance with the monster (or at least he had a higher survival rate that half of the ANBU he had met so far) and the 'host', as his father so adoringly put it was obviously attached to him. And he didn't think the man could keep a village that lost three or four ninja weekly merely on bodyguard duty.

'…are you asking me to be a babysitter, or try and fix the seal on your son?'

'I wouldn't mind both if that's possible.' was the short answer. Strategically, Daichi covered his mouth with hands. 'Because I need both.'

Minato took a sip of his tea, wetted a finger on it and offered to the baby, leaning back on his chair.

'Body guarding a Kage's son is A rank Mission. Taking care of a jinchuuriki is an S class one. And my fares as seal master are anything but cheap, how do you expect to pay for all of that?'

The redhead looked at him, then at the floor. A single thin wrinkle showed up between his furrowed brows, something that wasn't there fairly often. Then his gaze fell on Gaara who sucked on given fingers with curiosity. He wondered for a moment… he wondered what Karura would do.

Maybe if it was Temari… or Kankuro, she'd be protective. But here…

He wasn't making this up. He was sure this was a lost case.

'I don't have enough blood in my veins to pay for everything.' he said simply and kept on looking at the floor. 'I don't want you to body guard my son, he is hardly anything but that. I want you to take care of jinchuuriki and make at least a temporary seal.'

'Temporary seal won't work more than two or three times, and that if you are lucky.' the blonde pointed out coldly, not seeming to be particularly moved by the man's words. Suna was a dying village and he had already known there was no way that the redhead could pay him. 'I don't know what sort of seal you used to put it into the baby, but it's not balanced. Until it is, everything you try at mass scale is bound to work for a limited time only.'

'I don't want you to lecture me because I was sleeping on my sealing classes but I want you to make one that would work and the one that I could afford.'

The blonde leaned on the table, one hand holding his chin up while the other kept Gaara from toppling over from his lap.

'You can't afford me.'

Cold and blunt, but the redhead certainly deserved it, and Minato had no intention (and certainly no reason) of sugarcoating it for him.

'But I am willing to work for only my fees as ninja, if you are willing to pay me as ANBU and seal master in other ways'

The redhead, who felt cold sweat for a short painstaking second, shuddered a bit, getting out from the emotional wall he had hit just by solely one sentence.

'What other ways?' he asked, quietly counting on the fact Minato would only fill the space Jackrabbit left behind and be satisfied he can visit the palace of Wind country for free. The blonde smiled. It wasn't a particularly sweet smile.

'Several things, actually.' he said, and crossed his legs, making Gaara a head or so taller, and now perfectly able to peer over the table's edge, straight into his father's line of sight. 'To start with, I need full access to all record with anything related to Shukaku, the previous jinchuuriki's of Suna, video tapes of everything worth mentioning that ever happened, and all and every document that had anything to do with all of this. That's a lot of access to classified information, and I will need permission for all of that. And I will need people helping me with it, so to start with, I will need Wren at my disposal.'

'No.' was immediate response. This request was more than overbearing, it was overstomping everything. It was like giving keys to all closed spaces in a bank to the ordinary robber. Even if Namikaze was an ex-Hokage, he'd have to assassinate him on the spot once he'd have to leave back to Konoha.

Then money would stop flowing.

'No.'

'Oh, but I just started asking,' the blonde said, sounding very much like a little kid who had just at on Santa's leg for his list of presents and hadn't even gotten into the first half of it. 'I might be good, but I'm no miracle worker, Kazekage-sama. Before getting to work, I *will* need to do research, surely you understand this.'

'You don't need research on all that.' was Daichi's answer as he locked his arms tightly over his chest 'You're the genius sealing master, the Yellow Flash who had enough time to become the legend and seal the strongest of all chakra monsters by seeing him once in his lifetime. You saw more than you need already, you don't need classified informations.'

The blonde's smile twitched. It didn't disappear, but it dimmed down to something closer to a sad grimace.

'...and it costed me my lover's life, Kazekage-sama.' he said softly, leaning back on his chair and wrapping his other arm around the baby in his lap also, one hand absently touching the baby's and rubbing. 'And all I have left is my son. I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to make a sacrifice out of myself.'

'You can sacrifice Yashamaru.'

Gaara protested loudly against getting moved from the table as he actually liked looking at what was happening there in new perspective, but he quieted down immediately at the rubbing that was made toward him. A moment later, his eyes slowly started to close.

'…you really are a despicable human being, did you know?' he asked brightly, like if he had just played the man a compliment. It was amazing, how could the man just offer him the life of a member of his family just like that.

'I'm not sacrificing Yashamaru. I'm not sacrificing anyone anymore. Not even you.' he sighed, looking down at the baby, and noticing the lack of reaction, he actually sat him up on the table, pulling the table closer so he could wrap his arms around the baby and keep his back to his chest to satisfy his need for constant closeness.

'Either way, it wouldn't work. I told you, I don't know what sealing method you used, why the hell you think I asked you for that information? I sealed the Kyuubi in the Uzumaki clan's style, your local pet doesn't respond to standard sealing. Unless I know what I'm working with, nothing I do will work.'

'A village without a leader is not a village so if you'd sacrifice me, you'd sacrifice every member of Suna to nothingness.' said the redhead, observing his third child in it's whole bodily capability. Gaara, who had sat maybe ten times in his whole life – even if he should've been walking by now –looked to be stunned by how the world looked now that he actually was looking at it from such position. He immediately looked up to see Minato and rose up his hands to try to touch his face that looked so close… and yet so far. When he only managed to brush his fingers on the chin, he turned his gaze to Daichi, who answered with sour grimace. 'And if I did give it to you, you'd have to deal with consequences of brain cells lose. And take that thing off the table.'

'That 'thing' is getting sleepy, so I think I will keep it here because if it holds his attention it won't fall asleep.' the blonde said calmly, going as far as to lean closer so it could almost be said he was leaning on the baby's shoulder, if there had been any way it could have held up his weight. 'And I already told you, I'm not sacrificing anyone.'

Gaara noticed the closure and turned his face to him, only to see Minato's cheek. After long pensive three seconds he decided that it wasn't the most interesting thing to look at, even if he liked how it radiated of warmth and Minato's minatoness. Instead, he turned back to look at the man who gave him flesh and blood and without thinking, he let his head fall to the side, so it glued perfectly well with Minato's cheek. Tiny hair on the adult's skin didn't seem to be a bother at all. Daichi closed his eyes. He saw too much of Gaara acting like a child and too much of Minato acting like if the child actually wasn't a ticking bomb. He didn't know if to feel more of a pain or of fear, so he decided on none and just turned himself to his own feet .

'I can give you access to some things.' he said slowly 'And only under supervision of ANBUs.'

'That's not good enough, and it's only the tip of the iceberg on regards of what I ask for.' the blonde said, giving the baby a little playful push of cheek, before looking up at his father. Hm, icebergs. What a nice image.

'You don't even know what are you asking for.' said Daichi just as slowly while Gaara just looked back with surprise at Minato's cheek, not understanding where this push came from. After seeing that there were no changes on Minato's face, he simply got back to previous position.

'Oh, I know.' the younger man said offhandedly. 'Classified information. Secrets of the village worth decades, not to mention family secrets… But none of that changes the fact those are the things I need to work.' And like it or not, the Kazekage had to know that.

'If I could do miracles, I'd just charge you extra, you know. Sadly, I can't.'

Daichi didn't answer. The joke didn't seem to be funny for him, especially that Minato didn't get it. He might have been asking for all that mentioned and even more, but every single one of them simply put his neck into state of divorce when it came to his head and body. If he could do miracles, he'd own money, good kids and Juubi and would concentrate on trying to regain the paradise lost he always wanted to see when it came to dry sands. But with how his hands were always occupied, he didn't have time to even think about it anymore. It seemed he was left with no choice. He had to agree, because Gaara left him no choice.

'Fine, I agree.' he said, quietly counting how many months was left until Minato would have to leave Suna. If he could delay, it were six. This ship seemed to be destined to go down. Third would be disappointed.

'What else?'

'The sealing method itself. I barely understand what I'm working with, so I need to be taught. Really taught, not letting me guess what I'm doing while you and Wren mock me for my grammar mistakes. And since Wren doesn't know enough, I expect to be taught by the best.'

And since, as the ANBU guard had told him, was only taught down ruling family… The red-haired head slowly rose from the ground, looking at Minato with eloquent disdain.

'You want me to be your tutor?'

Minato looked up from letting Gaara catch his finger and smiled sunnily.

'Are you the best?'

'I'm the only one who knows whole language of ancient Suna.' answered the man bitterly. Sure, Wren was amazing when it came to learning, but some things weren't meant to be seen by his eyes. Sadly, just as skilled other ANBU died recently. 'So yes, you could say I'm the source of clear truth.'

'Then yes, I want you to tutor me.' He'd probably end up regretting this in the future, but for the immediate time, it was nice to see the redhead squirm as badly as Minato himself had tried not to do while this man and his council discussed with Minato's the terms of their ownership. 'Also, if I'm going to be taking care of this baby, I expect I will be told how to actually manage it. Just so we can avoid things like the milk incident.' Because if he messed up because someone told him he was doing it wrong AFTER he could help it, he was killing someone.

'I don't know what do you expect but if you have questions just ask them. By now you should know how this thing works.' Said the redhead and cracked his neck. 'I'll try to be as much use as I can.'

Not that it meant much help. He himself spent with him less time than his ANBU squadron or Yashamaru – he was a leader and he had to make far away journeys, sit through paperwork, train and take care of annual events. And since he started dreading the presence of demon he left at any given occasion, unless it meant the end of the household.

'Is that all?'

'I'll ask the usual group that takes care of him; that should be Vulture, Lark and Thorny Devil, right?' that sat well enough with Minato, who generally had found he got along well with all of the ANBU trio and would much prefer dealing with them than the antagonizing redhead on daily basis. At the question he chuckled a bit, pulling Gaara back upright when he started leaning a bit too much to the side.

'Those were my conditions; I haven't told you what I want as payment yet.'

That got back the redhead's attention to him immediately. His eyes shot daggers, and very sharp ones at that.

'You must be kidding me!' he hollered, almost like if Minato had just punched all air out of his stomach. 'I thought this-'

He closed his mouth immediately calming his features.

'…tell then.'

The blonde barely squinted a little at the loud volume and covered the baby's ears, giving his father an unimpressed look and waiting to make sure he was done with the yelling before carefully removing them.

'You are asking me to risk my life on daily basis because it suits your needs, what did you expect? Would *you* charge any less?'

Daichi didn't answer, bewildered and just an inch from the storm that happened just behind his eyes. What would he do? He'd charge the man until he'd hop out from the last pants and then charge some more until there was no dignity left. But that was because he yearned money like every desperate beggar in need. He couldn't think clearly and didn't know what he would do if he actually didn't need money for itself. So he just tightened his lips. The ex-Hokage stared at him knowingly, and giving how the lack of answer was as good as a verbal one, continued.

'For one thing, since I have no idea how I'm going to be able to get this baby off of me yet without it collapsing your village, I want someone of trust taking care of my baby. And I mean actually take care of him, not the way you have been caring for this one.'

He held Gaara up for demonstration, avoiding a sticky finger that was trying to worm its way into his eye. Daichi's pupils moved fast toward Gaara, almost with animalistic speed. The baby seemed to e unaware of how close to blowing up his father were and so, he let out another impatient 'A-uh.' That seemed to be indication he was indeed, very occupied and focused on what he was trying to do, and now it was trying to touch the shiny orb of an eye. As it got away, he changed the course of his doings and out the sticky finger in one of Minato's nostrils.

'Deal.' was drawled from the man like if talking put him into sever pain. Minato immediately pulled away, at the same time lowering Gaara's hand and giving him a troubled look. He couldn't remember, but sincerely hoped he hadn't partaken in such unhygienic activities as a child.

'…Akasuna no Chiyo-sama. She was the one who sealed the bijuu in this baby, wasn't it?' he asked as he rubbed his nose lightly. There were several shinobi legends coming from Suna, such as Pakura with her deadly kekkei genkai, Sasori of the Red sand or the by now infamous Third Kazekage with his Iron Sand. There weren't, however many famous shinobi from Sand who dedicated themselves to sealing. And if the man had admitted himself not to have been in charge of the process…

'I would like to meet her.'

That made the sharp gaze turn toward Minato. For a moment they sported something akin to genuine surprise, then they closed over the extended tiredness. Oh, not her. Only not her. He avoided her for the last years of his life and she made it easy on him with not coming out from her cave, but this… this surely would make her curious enough to start jumping around the whole town (and his office) again.

'…no!' he said, but it sounded more like a stubborn yell of spoiled brat than a command of the kage. Gaara turned toward him at that sound and then stilled for a moment, looking completely taken aback by it. Then he looked at Minato and fell nose first right into softness of his cheek. As it seemed, Minato's face left Gaara with endless possibilities of fun. The tone definitely wasn't what he would have expected, nothing like irate denials that had practically come nonstop from the man's mouth so far. Before he could ask, however, Gaara decided to make a dive for his face.

'Oh, what is it with you?' he asked warmly, the tone oozing affection while he gathered the baby close and nuzzled against him. It was only after a moment of this sugary treatment completely unbecoming of a ninja supposed to be famed by his cold blood and shrewdness that he turned again towards the baby's father, the child still held close.'Why not?'

Gaara let out a noise of satisfaction and closed his eyes with a deep satisfied sigh. Being close and treated with such voice was more than soothing and he wanted to take everything from it. Slowly, his muscles let go one after another… and once again he started nodding off. Daichi, who was looking at the ceiling, didn't notice that.

'She is an old witch that knows nothing and even less.' said Daichi with a posture that still didn't dismiss the bratty side of him 'She lost her mind and sits whole day by the fishless pond of water along with her brother trying to see if it's possible to catch a fish on the desert. Meeting her is a waste of time!'

'Oh?' Minato leaned back in the chair, pulling Gaara to his lap once again while he regarded his father with interest. He had no idea what about this conversation was making the man act like this, but such juvenile reactions from such a masculine man could almost be considered cute. If they had come from any other person in this galaxy, that is. 'Might be so, but Tsunade-hime dislikes her because she is an amazing doctor and Jiraiya-sensei admires her as a seal master. I am very interested in meeting her, and if she did create this seal, it's only for the best that I do, don't you think? '

The man looked at him with the highest disturbia in his gaze and bit through his lower lip like if he wanted to bite it off. The blonde had a point here, he couldn't deny him that. He still was sure that he didn't want to dig this hole from underneath himself.

'She was.' he said finally and leaned back on his own chair also. Maybe if he showed her to him from affair he wouldn't be so persistent anymore. The fact someone tried to fish on the desert was a clear sign that someone went nuts. Minato wasn't sure what was the redhead agreeing to, and it became apparent after several moments that no further clarification would come from him.

'…is that a yes, then?'

'Yes, but you will be disappointed.' answered the man, already thinking about how to weasel out of this. Probably the first idea was the best. Not getting too close would be the best. 'Are you done with your ridiculous requests?'

'Unless you have something to add?'

'Not at all.'

The blonde nodded, taking what was left from the tea. It was lukewarm now, and he wished it might have been colder, but it was mint tea after all and he doubted 'cold' was anything he could expect with such a stifling environment.

'Agreed, then. Will you be preparing the documents or you'd rather have my familiars prepare them?'

'I'll make them myself, thank you.' said the other, not even trying to stand up from his chair. If anything he looked like if he was trying to change the table in front of him into gold with mere eye rays. 'I'd rather have control over the process of papers if I am supposed to sign them.'

Minato thought of warning the man about trying to cheat him out of either payment or what they had just discussed, but in the end just shrugged and shook the baby in his arms lightly when he noticed he was nodding off. If he did, he'd work on it when it happened, he had already gotten more than he expected out of the man, and it would be wise to leave him alone for the time being. Now he just needed to convince the redhead he was worth his money. Somehow, he had the feeling it wouldn't be too easy.

Daichi watched him retreat and only then finally stood up from his chair. His hands itched him so he couldn't and didn't really want to sit in one place. After a brief moment of watching the sunset he finally exited the room. He didn't care if Yashamaru really had his hands broken or not. He needed a punching bag and he was going to get it. Minato was free to practically forget the Kazekage existed on the following weeks. If he had had time to wonder why was it that he had maybe crossed paths with him once or twice when that the man that supposedly lived in the same house, he would probably have assumed it had to do with reparations.