Minato waited several moments for the older man to speak, busying himself with the process of finding a teabag, opening it, refilling the sugar, but as the man just ate silently, it became obvious he would have to ask.

'So, this moving…'

'Yeah. Business trip.' said the redhead around the mouthful, if possible bending even more over the plate. 'Trading of places and so on.'

Minato felt his insides twisting.

'So it's... a permanent thing...?' It had to be for couple weeks, there was no way anyone would ask a man to rearrange where he lived with his whole family from one day to the next. Billionaire enterprise or not. It couldn't be, he didn't even want to think what losing Gaara now would do to Naruto.

'Yeah.' said the man with the same tone, darting his eyes from his position toward the man for a millisecond. 'It will be probably another town if not state. I don't know yet. The company is having troubles now, so everything is a mess.' And if there was some lie told here, it surely wasn't the last sentence – Sound company was still at tight, which still came out bad in his salary. He was not sure how he would deal with losing this job either, though probably money from dismissal would last for a few days. Besides, he didn't really lie so far. Excluding that trip of course.

'Oh.' the blond said softly, slowly leaning back until his back hit the chair, seeming to carefully adjust on the furniture as if he didn't really trust it to hold his weight, his eyes set firmly on his teacup. The redhead took another spoon of rice into his mouth, feeling how guilty started to nibble at him. He really didn't want to leave right now like that. Gaara had finally adjusted to the kindergarten without bursting into tears every time he had to leave him alone, Kankuro found a class with a friend who had dog and wasn't afraid to give it to him to play and Temari's classes were actually taking care of her famine part of duties which he really didn't have idea about how to teach girls like that (and for the most of the time it was her teaching him or finding his mistakes once she started learning them anyway).

Not to mention that even he did found someone to whom he could talk to, even if it was a pure accident and if that 'talk' still was more about monosyllables and weather than hanging out. He also didn't want to leave and also wondered what kind of harm would the lack of food and good friend would do to all of his three kids, in which Gaara seemed to be the most fragile, and, unluckily – the most vulnerable when it came to tearing the bonds with the Uzumaki family. He felt his throat tightening even more as all the food weighted down in his stomach heavily.

But he couldn't tell them, or else Yashamaru would find them. He was sure that even if the man swore to hide it in the deepest depth of his mind that he was running away in the dark from him, at one point of a gun toward Naruto he would tell it out like at confessional. He couldn't risk it.

'I'll send a postcard.' he lied, though he very well knew he couldn't. But he really wanted to believe he could.

Postcard. Not even I the same city, Gods… Minato eyed the line phone resting on top of the fridge with something that could only be considered panic his first impulse being to call Sarutobi-sensei in a panic and ask him what the hell he could do because he couldn't tell Naruto that his best friend, the first person he had grown to attack himself seriously since arriving to this continent was going so far away he might as well no see him again.

Winter zonetime. It was five hours aged, which made it right now first AM. He rose his cup to his lips and took a gulp, yet strangely didn't seem able to wet his suddenly dry throat at all.

'That's… it's sudden.' the blond said, solely out of saying something. How could this have happened? No one had told him anything, there had been no hints, Gaara hadn't so much as mentioned- 'Do the kids know?"

The redhead finally rose his eyes up, his chewing rate slowing down.

'No.' he murmured with a frown 'I was planning on telling them later.'

Minato didn't envy him that. It had been hard enough to let Naruto know they'd be leaving their home, and he had been only three then. It was hard to realize he had already spent over half a year living in this place without having a breakdown or going mad. Till now a little sadistic spot of his mind provided, the blonde taking another sip of the hot liquid, this time in hopes it scalded it alive.

'It's really sudden.' And the award for intelligent commentary of the year goes to Namikaze Minato. He would have started laughing if he hadn't felt so miserable.

'Yes.' answered Daichi pathetically, knowing that he was also not winning Pulitzer with this. However he knew that if he started getting into details, he could also get his lie more complicated and thus, harder to maintain. He looked down at his plate 'I think so too. That's why I'm in hurry, so little time and so much to do…'

He blinked and once again moved his hand over his neck as he really felt uneasy and still too tense.

'Don't you have spare boxes for things? I don't know if I will be able to get them from market at such time. I will pay you.'

For a moment, Minato felt like lying and saying he didn't. Not because he cared for the boxes- he didn't have any sort of particular lingering attachment to cardboard, but if the man didn't have them, then he wouldn't be able to run away immediately because he'd have to go and actually buy the things. And then he wondered why his shrink had called him childish.

'Yes. I have some left from when we moved.' he pushed the barely touched tea a little further in the table and got up, reaching somewhere over the fridge and feeling around until he found the keys he needed, recognizing the keying because it was one of the basic ones shaped to pop open bottles.

'They are probably full of dust, though, I hope you don't mind…' Opening the door, he followed the same hallway that lead to Naruto's room and his own, past the laundry room, and finally to the door at the end of the aisle, using the key to unlock it. He knew he had one or two empty because that's where he had kept the winter clothing and with the summer one being considerable thinner, it hadn't taken up nearly enough space. He also knew he had a bad with another three or four still in their flat forms, but he wasn't sure as to exactly where…

He hadn't so much as opened the door and reached in to switch on the fluorescents when he realized that on the slight coat of dust of the floor there were suspicious sets of footprints that he had the feeling didn't belong to him. He certainly hadn't worn shoes sized 5 in over twenty years.

'Naruto!'

'What?'

'Did you get in the last room without asking?' There was a long, drawn set of silence from the living, followed by dubious and not really very convincing 'No….'

The older blond rolled his eyes, thinking he should be thankfully that Naruto really hadn't learnt to lie accurately yet, but that didn't mean he liked the idea of Naruto in this room alone much. Not that there was anything dangerous, just stuff that the blonde might mess up or take if given the chance, but Naruto had the uncanny ability to destroy a room if given the chance to. At simple sight nothing seemed out of place.

The 'last' room, as the blond had called it, was a normal room of dimensions somewhere between Minato's room and the one the little blond slept in, only it looked considerably larger solely by the lack of furniture. There was a couch pushed against the wall, covered with some fabric to keep it from accumulating dust, a coffee table that clearly didn't belong with the rest of furniture the blonde kept in the house (it looked far too unused and it was a different type of wood) and a square, rather unlikable armoire wedged in what little space was left of that wall. Other than that, the rest of the room was empty save by the couple boxes strewn across the floor and a few dusty books strewn across the coffee table.

There wasn't nearly enough dust to clearly make out where had Naruto been going, but he was willing to bet it had involved jumping on the couch, where he could have fallen on the table and broken his little neck- yeah, he was going to change locks again. Probably start hanging the keys around his own neck.

'Careful.' he told the older man as he started moving the boxes around to see where he could have left the unused ones. 'It's kind of dirty.'

The man didn't answer, as the batch of boxes already got tripped accidentally by him and he had to catch them to maintain their balance. Something clunked from the inside of it, but it didn't seem to get broken. His hands, however, and also partially his sweater were now covered in light gray dust.

'Sorry.' he mumbled, looking around. He had never been there before, so he was a bit curious about what's hiding inside the rooms, but so far it only seemed to be a normal storage room, without any unlikely bodies hiding in the closets. He bended down to make some dusty shoe stand up the way how it should, as it seemed to be tripped out of order and spotted a dusty boxes covered in stickers from Chiquita bananas.

'Aren't they those?' he said, pointing at the founding, that piled up in the corner. 'They seem empty to me.'

The blond had stopped, looking down at a box marked as 'Kushina' with a distracted expression. Back when he'd started therapy Sarutobi-sense had told him that it would be better to get rid of most things that had been Kushina's to help him process her passing better or something like that, he had said. Minato had listened and gotten rid of almost everything, though he hadn't really found it very relieving and it certainly hadn't helped make the weird feeling that his wife had gone and was never coming back when he constantly felt like if just yesterday she was red-haired tornado constantly turning the house upside down. So yes, he had done as his shrink had instructed, but he hadn't really managed to get himself to give her clothes away.

It wasn't really any sort of particular attachment – without Kushina to fill them, they really didn't feel like anything special, but the matter was that Minato had always liked how she dressed. Kushina favored bright, somewhat gaudy clothes with weird patterns – the sort of thing Minato would have never in his life dared to wear and while he did want to give it away so someone else might use it, he didn't really like the idea of someone he didn't know using it. He didn't know if it was selfish or possessive or plain silly (he hadn't actually confessed to Sarutobi having kept such things, feeling a little too embarrassed to do so) but while he didn't mind the clothes getting used, he didn't want to give them away and not knowing where they were. He wanted to give it to people he'd know would like them.

In the end, he had let Anko go through Kushina's dresser and take everything she wanted, and before leaving he had let his neighbor, who had a daughter around Iruka's age take whatever else she could find. Even so, there were a few things left, and it suddenly occurred that some of the few things he had left might be good enough to actually fit Temari, if she didn't mind using them in dress-like fashion- "Hey, would you like…" he had only begun to ask when he turned and found the man looking at him in a way that confused him for a moment before realizing he had probably asked something. "…Sorry?"

'The boxes' repeated the man, pointing at the previous direction 'Are they empty?'

He followed the direction the man was pointing, taking a moment to actually focus on the boxes.

'Ah, yes... They should be, at least.' he looked back at the 'Kushina' box, debating on asking if the man would like to take a few of them, but quickly lost the drive to. He didn't think the man would be appreciative of the gesture . Either he'd think he was a feral for suggesting his daughter use such clothing, or he'd think he meant he didn't like what Temari wore or something like it.

'Okay.' muttered the redhead and moved away some part of other boxes, that stood on his way, only to bend down and gather the things in his arms, until the covered his whole torso and head standing one on another. 'How much for that much?' he asked, tilting his head a little so he could look out from the tower that covered his front view.

The blond blinked at the older man, immediately darting forward to take half of what he was carrying off his arms, clearing the immediate field of vision for the redhead.

'Oh, you can just take them. I won't need those anytime soon.'

The man frowned at the answer, but he slowly turned toward the exit anyway. He was a little surprised by the help, but didn't protest against it. It was quicker that way anyway.

'Are you sure?' he asked hesitantly one more time. As far as he knew, even such things had price on this world. The blond just smiled, though it wasn't a very happy smile. Just thinking what use would those boxes be getting was enough to depress him.

'They're here accumulating dust."

The redhead blinked, then shrugged lightly, as much as his hands allowed him.

'All right.' he muttered as he proceeded to move out of the storage room. If that was fine with the blonde, he was not going to argue with him. He had less money than he could spend either way. Minato followed him, clearly intending to help him carry the boxes all the way through.

'You sure you have enough room for these in the car?"

'I will put them in the backseat and on the front one.' said the man as he stepped over some other box and finally got out of the room 'I take only as much as I can take within the car, if something won't get in the boxes, we will lea-' he bit himself on the tongue. Damn, he didn't think that much and almost let it slip '-let it be mailed to us later. It's a bit sudden so we're taking only the things we need the most at first.'

Minato stared at the man. He had noticed the slip, though he wasn't very sure what to make out of it- was the man really that pressured with work? Maybe it had been an ultimatum?

'I, uh, meant for the boxes and the kids."

The man turned his head toward the blonde, a bit surprised.

'They will be holding the lightest boxes on their knees.' he answered simply 'They can do that.'

'Ah...' the blond nodded. That couldn't be very comfortable, but considering he had shared a two room department with one bathroom with six other people, he didn't think he had much room to argue. Daichi looked at the blond for a minute longer, expecting or maybe waiting for him to say something more, but then he simply moved toward the entrance of the house. The man looked really down about that they would be moving out and it in itself felt… nice. Sad, but nice. It was a good feeling to know that somewhere, somehow, their existence would leave a void when removed.

'We really should be going now. Thanks for the meals, it was really good… Temari! Kankuro! Gaara! I hope you ate your food because we're going!' As on a command, the clinking of dropped spoons and forks could be heard and the kids showed up at the nearby's door.

'Get dressed.' was the simple order. And when the kids actually started getting dressed, he pointed at the blond. 'And when you're done, take a box, each one of you. We will be needing those.'

Temari had only blinked at that, but Kankuro's face fell.

'We're moving out again?...' he said in a vulnerable tone 'No, dad! No! You said that this time would be the last time!'

'It's not like if I have much choice left.' said the man as he moved his weight from one leg to another 'It's a greater good that demands it. We need to move out.'

'So, we're not running away this time?' said Temari as she zipped up her coat. Daichi smiled at her through tightly shut lips, feeling a sudden urge to rise his hand to threaten her silent. But alas, both of his hands were occupied so he couldn't have any of it.

'No, we're moving out because daddy's boss said that we have to.' Which, technically speaking, wasn't a lie. Orochimaru did cause the decision about moving out of their current place after all. It was a bit far stretched, but it wasn't a lie. 'So better start thinking about what you need to pack, because when we get home we will have to start doing it right away.'

'That's not fair… I don't wanna…' mumbled Kankuro as he wore one of his shoes 'And school? What about school? I have to get results from my geography's test!'

'You're not going to do it. You will also change schools.' said Daichi with tired tone, already feeling the headache coming. There it went again, as it did before. And the time before that. Minus Gaara, that was.

'What? Then I won't see Akamaru anymore?' shouted the boy, standing up, even if his shoes weren't properly laced yet 'And Kiba? No, dad! No!' Temari's head hung even lower now.

Daichi smiled even more tighter. Somehow, he felt that he should be concerned by the order his son mentioned his friends, but he didn't feel really compelled to tell him that people meant more than animals now. So instead, he had only breathed out heavily, readjusting the boxes in his arms.

'You will find new friends.' he said. He looked at his unhappy daughter 'You too, Temari.'

'I know.' said the girl apathetically, not stopping with doing her clothes 'It's the enemies that won't be the same there.'

Daichi frowned at that, but Temari only shrugged, not showing that she was keen on continuing the subject. What was that? Enemies? Was Temari bullied at school? But before he could open his mouth to ask, his third kid joined the conversation, by simply clutching on his leg with a force of nut crusher.

' Where are we going?' he asked, looking at all of them with wide eyes. Only now Daichi noticed how bewildered his looks became. 'Daddy!...'

Daichi sighed one more time.

'I don't know.' he muttered. 'Please, dress up, it's late.' And not to mention that the situation was becoming as uncomfortable as his arms started to hurt at the one position over the too large boxes. 'We have to go-'

'No… nooo!' squealed the little redhead as he hugged himself onto the man's leg, almost making him lose the balance 'Don't leave me! Daddy, don't leave me alooone!...' Daichi rose his eyebrows up in a surprise. Wha… no, what?

'Nobody is going to leave you.' he said, surprised as the green eyes managed to soak completely in tears already, his leg sharing the fate of them partially 'We're going together. All of us.'

The scrunched up face immediately smoothened, making Gaara look only more wet and flushed out of sudden.

'All of us?' he asked, not letting go of him still 'With Naruto? And his dad?' Daichi almost could feel how the eyes of his other kids rose up and shot into his back, waiting. That was becoming more absurd than he thought.

'No.' he said as he turned around to look at all of them at the same time 'We're not taking them with us. Only our family, which means me, Temari, Kankuro and you.'

'And mommy?' piped the kid immediately. Daichi felt how his teeth cracked a little as he clamped them tight.

'No. Without uncle Yashamaru.' he said in a voice that meant he didn't want any protests. In his state it came out rather weak than authoritative, but it still made the two older kids resume their dressing up (which they were ending on doing anyway), despite their moods. Gaara on the other hand, once again broke into the waterworks, clinging to him even more, if that was possible. He felt his balance tipping dangerously to the left.

'Then… then… then… how we're going to see mommy…' he started, hiccupping '…and Naruto… and his dad…'

'I don't know!' Daichi finally roared, losing the rest of his patience 'I don't even know if we will see them again at all! Shut up and get dressed!' That resulted only in Gaara breaking into the full cry right in front of him. It seemed that he had to drop the boxes after all and dress the kid by himself, because at such state, Gaara's will was close to none. 'Sorry about that.' he muttered, ashamed.

Minato also shifted under the boxes- they were empty, so they didn't weight much at all, but they also were big, and made carrying them difficult, so he didn't want to even think about the kids taking them down the stairs.

'Listen, I can ca-'

He didn't get much further, because Kankuro chose that moment to make the absolutely worst question in history of terrible questions to ask in front of Naruto. He should have known hoping no one would ask about the boxes was asking too much of the universe, but if he had really stopped to think about it, he would have been willing to climb down the window and risk being though of a thief and shot down than being there at the moment.

'Ta….Tatusiu…'

The older blond immediately stopped listening, instead turning to look at his son, who was looking at him with light blue eyes that suddenly looked entirely too big on his face, the vague traces scars on his cheeks seeming to stand out all the more because of it. The blond looked at him as if he expected an answer, back at the family discussing not five feet away from him, then again at him, and Minato felt his stomach start to twist uneasily in undoubtedly modern artistic shapes as he saw the way realization slowly washed over his son's face.

Minato had known from the moment the redhead had told him they were moving this wouldn't go smoothly, but he hadn't stopped yet to try and figure out what he was going to say to Naruto on regards of it. In some little, dark corner of his mind, Minato would have had to admit the only thing he could think of doing was pretending not to know what had happened until Naruto's kinder itself announced Gaara was gone, and do his best to console his son then. But until that, at least a week would have happened, Naruto would have had days to accustom himself to not seeing the redhead and it would hopefully (very, very hopefully) be enough to help him fare with it better… But now… Now with Gaara and the other kids here-

'Lisku….'

'Dlaczego?' the little blond asked thickly, his eyes becoming increasingly shiny, cheeks taking on a reddish hue as the tears slowly welled.

'Naru-' Suddenly the boxes didn't look so bulky. In fact, if he had some tape around, he'd consider crawling in one and taping the lid shut. Daichi looked up, looking even more puzzled and lost as he quickly stood up. It was obvious he was feeling very uncomfortable by the fact that Gaara was crying alone, and Naruto's expression only made him flush with even more embarrassment.

'We… we will be off. I'm sorry. That's life. We will call. See you. I mean, goodbye.' he rambled as he almost broke out one of his fingers until he remembered he was supposed to carry the boxes. Then he took the ones he dropped and looked at his older kids taking ones from him. When Gaara didn't do anything beside crying, he caught him by the hand and dragged him around.

'I. um. The boxes.' He said, pointing at Minato's hands. 'Can I…?'

At the sound of his voice, the older blond turned to look at him, his expression clearly oozing panic. At the loss of eye contact, Naruto bowed his head and drew his fist to his eyes, seeming nonstop stream of words in Fire country dialect streaming from his mouth. The redhead looked back at him, completely at loss. He was not understanding what was the little kid saying, though he had the faint idea that he did not like what was announced just now. What was the strangest that Mr. Uzumaki was not doing anything to console him and just stared at him with something akin to panic. One would think it was not his kids and that he had never calmed a kid before. Now that was awkward.

Daichi learned long time ago, that kids that weren't his were not his business and that asking people for doing something with them which they didn't do was like latching himself into the cave of angry madmen who didn't have the prey to beat on. And here, he didn't feel that he was on such friendly terms with the blonde he could tell something to his kid. Especially as Gaara, whom he held by the hand, now started to squeal, as he wanted to move out of the grasp and obviously hug Naruto. He couldn't let him do that, as he knew that drama that would follow with separating the both would take it to the whole new level. And at some point he would just start screaming at both of the kids, and that would be really a bad move toward someone to whom he owed so much.

'The boxes.' he repeated pleadingly, hoping that the man will snap out of it and will do something with the crying kid. 'Please?'

Apparently knowing himself heard wasn't strictly necessary to want to express his opinions, because Naruto kept talking in that funny language that seemed to consist entirely of too many z's, p's and d's while sobbing. Maybe he didn't do it as loud as Gaara had demonstrated to be, but by no means was it less enthusiastic. By now the tears were enough to actually roll all the way down to his chin and drop on the floor. It was probably his mind, but Minato would have sworn he heard every imaginary plic-plic they made on the linoleum.

'Ah… Y-yes…'

Daichi looked at him with stone hard gaze, then at the kid and finally, almost rudely, took the boxes by the force and moved away from them.

'Goodbye.' he said once again 'Wish you well.' he said, through the blood gurgling cry that Gaara emitted for 'goodbye' and opened the door, almost tripping as he had to drag the kid with one hand and hold the boxes by another. The other kids didn't really help, but he felt quite independent now. He waited as they went out and shot one last glance at the flat, feeling bad that the last memory he had from them was a crying little kid and a parent at loss and closed the door. Now it was only running away that was left. No biggie.

Minato flinched a bit as the boxes were forcefully removed, but it was purely a physical reaction, his mind had shut down to a unstoppable message relying that his son was once again miserable and there was nothing, absolutely nothing he could do that would make it stop or fix it. For once it hadn't been directly caused by him, but that didn't change one iota the fact that he couldn't fix it. It took him a while to slowly reach for his son, absently wiping dirty hands on his jeans to try and touch the shaking shoulders, but as soon as he brushed them, Naruto looked up at him, his expression absolutely miserable. It was only a second, but whatever Naruto saw on his father's face wasn't what he needed. He darted under Minato's arm.

The little blond ran for his room, sobs hitching up for a few seconds before becoming muffled again when he buried his face in his pillow and started openly wailing. Minato was left kneeling in a suddenly overly lit (overly lived on) living room, staring at the used plates, used napkins, the numerous fingerprints on the glass. Naruto would cry himself to sleep, that much was obvious. All he had left to do was wait for it to happen, then pick him up and maybe bring him to his own bed, where Naruto would sleep and Minato wouldn't.

Carefully, he leaned backwards until his back hit the edge of the sofa, his neck resting against the curved edge. He arched it slightly so he could rest his nape on the piece of furniture, aware of a complaining ache somewhere between shoulder and chin, and he carefully turned that section to try and relieve the feeling. It creaked, but nowhere nearly as loud as Sabaku's had.

#+#+#+#+#+#

The engine of black geo metro stopped before the known windows, always dark and unwelcoming. Daichi noticed the cough the engine provided when he finally parked his car under the street lamp. It was some time after he did the control examination of the thing, but he was sure that as far as all went, his car was the last thing that needed repairing, as it was the first thing he had under control when everything started falling apart.

He breathed out deeply and let himself rest for a moment on the wheel, even if one of his kids was crying out loud and making up for the lack of noises on the street, the other was developing another level of hate toward him and the third kept on looking down, searching for invisible breasts (or at least he hoped it would be that way in this moment, but bad jokes didn't lift his mood at all). The place reeked of dirt, crime and blood that was never properly scrapped of the walls and it was main reason why it was so cheap and available all the time. If only he had more opportunities, he wouldn't live at such place, not with kids where the nearest park was three kilometers apart and he lived door apart from a mafia member. If only. But now it didn't really matter in the end.

Nothing really did.

'Okay, get out.' he commanded in a tired tone, not even using much force. His kids listened to him, even if neither of them stopped what it was really doing. So much noise at such time at such place just begged for troubles, but it was a fear he was used to live with already.

'Grab the boxes and we're going.' he muttered. After a moment they were all arranged and ready. So it was going good so far, especially as no light has lit up in the dark windows, which could mean that they didn't tick the nerve of anyone yet. But when he was almost sure they would get home without a problem, the door nearby flashed bright and opened, revealing the face of a man who by no means, had to get a good teaching at places where no man would want to be.

'Hey, you! Redhead!' he yelled, pointing with rather muscular arm at him as he started going toward them. As Daichi noticed, he had a bottle of rather high class alcohol in the other one. It couldn't end good.

'What is it?' he asked, stopping obediently. He didn't want to make an impression that he was running away. He quickly calculated the possibilities. If he was alone, he could drop the boxes and run, but with three kids, it was out of question. So instead, he stood a bit more firmly, trying at least to not look scared. The children hid behind him.

'Yeah, I knew it was you! I recognized you from that kid's screeching!' said the man with a bit tipped voice, obviously ignoring the question, as he waved with the bottle toward Gaara. The kid hid himself behind the box, changing his crying into muffled pitiful sobs. 'Gotta adore that heavy hand of yours! My old man also liked to beat me up from time to time! I swear I did shut him up at last!' he laughed creakingly, making Daichi's hair stand out on its ends. He swallowed quietly and looked around nervously. Now, like on a command, the lights in the rooms started lighting up, one after another.

'What can I do for you, Mr. Takaoka? He asked with uneasiness. The man just couldn't stop laughing, it was obvious that he already drank more than he had to. He glanced back, making sure that nobody was walking him up behind. There wasn't. 'It's a bit late, so if there isn't anything…'

'Oh, but of course!' boomed the man suddenly, making the kids jump and startling Gaara so much he quieted for a moment 'There sure it is! But I wonder what it could be! Maybe you will remind me, cause I had so much to drink this evening…'

Daichi had stood quietly, already knowing what it was all about. But he let a few moments pass, watching the man basking in his own so-called wiskiness. Then he moved in place uneasily.

'If it's about rent, I already said I will pay-' he started, but the bottle that was suddenly waved right in front of his nose surprised him enough to bite his own tongue.

'Ah yeah!' roared the man as some curtain moved with the scraping sound and the window opened, revealing some dark male figure, smoking a cigarette. Daichi was sure it was not done only because smoke waved off nicely in the cold air. 'I remember now! The rent! You're already late three months! When I will be getting deh money, ah?'

Daichi grimaced lightly. Gods, he hated such situations.

'I already told you, that once I'm going to get paid in work…' he started, but the man once again cut him off.

'Yeah, I heard it for billions of times already! We're all short on the cash, food and stuff. But you never have the money, not for once! How am I supposed to trust you, Sabaku, huh? Tell me, how am I supposed to trust you?' Someone snickered up above. He looked down at the ground, counting sheep. Dark, red, rage ridden berserk sheep of abasement.

'I will pay up.' he repeated, feeling how his voice tensed up from emotion, even if he tried to keep it calm 'I already said I will.'

'I doubt that! Somehow I doubt that!' screeched the man, once again flailing his arms around 'Aren't you losing your cash off somewhere? Like casinos, some dirty misdeeds I shouldn't know about? Is your dad hitting the bottle too many times? I swear, I hate those drunkards fathers!' yelled the man, looking at the trio. Gaara seemed to become even more afraid of him now and the rest of the kids didn't look happy either, but no one dared to say anything, beside glaring unfriendly at him. They didn't like him. He always threatened them so much and dad was always in such a bad mood after.

The man didn't seem to mind the fact they were not answering his questions. Instead, he took the nice long swig of the liquid from the bottle and burped with the rum smelling air. Daichi stopped even trying to say anything. It seemed that the man didn't even care about what he said.

'I will pay.' he only muttered, and looked at the kids. When they looked back, he inclined on moving and passed around the man with quick steps.

'You're not planning on running away, eh?' yelled Takaoka, moving his arms around 'You'd better not be planning on sneaking out with those boxes you hold, Sabaku, you hear me? Eh?'

The sharp tug on the arm stopped the man from walking. Daichi grimaced inwardly at the sharp smell of alcohol that suddenly burst right into his face, when the other man grabbed him by the collar and looked him right in the face.

'I asked if you heard me!' he roared right into his face in a manner that made the kids behind him squeal with fear. He opened his eyes as he instinctively expected to be hit on the cheek.

'Yes. Very clearly.' he answered as calmly as he could. The face of the man got even closer, the smell got hard to bear. Oh gods, he thought, I feel sick…

'Good! Then hear me out more!' growled Takaoka, pointing the chin at him with a smile that was more canine like than friendly 'I want the payment for the last two months by the end of this week or there will be no more 'Mr. Nice Uncle TeeHee', clear?' Daichi closed his eyes. The man was too drunk, and yet, not drunk enough. 'Clear?' was roared upon him once again.

'Yes.' he muttered quietly. A moment later he was let go. What did it matter anyway. He was not even planning on staying to the end of this week. Or to pay those money actually.

'Great! That's great we understand each other so perfectly!' laughed the man again, patting him on a shoulder like a good friend, which was obviously more a show off of the strength that could provide that muscular arm. Because those pats almost hurt. 'I even decided to let go of the last month for awhile! You see how good I am? It's all about that I need the money, you see… that's how it is! No hard feelings here! Now go home and lull your kids to sleep like usual, good daddy!'

The croaking booming laughter was all that sounded after him when Takaoka left the place. Once the door closed, the lights in windows started to go off, one after another, like lamps on the Christmas tree. Daichi looked up. The curtains of the flat of grey smoking man were shut tight, along with the window frame. Probably a very winter-resistant mosquitoes got on his nerves.

'Let's go.' he finally said, moving inside the old, smelling with old cement and piss staircase. This evening they didn't manage to pack much of things. He just felt too tired with the way world got on his bones. The dreams he dreamed when he finally managed to put the kids down and wind around the redhead who seemed to be reluctant to be near him at all were grey, dull and didn't give any leisure. But that was the way life was for him.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato didn't sleep at all through the night. As predicted, Naruto had cried himself to sleep, and when he'd gone to get him, the little blond had wrapped his arms around his neck and hadn't let go. Minato didn't mind. Whenever Naruto did something to reject him, he seemed to fold on himself and be unable to do anything until he finally got through that his son hadn't *really* meant it. And oh, once it was over and the feeling was gone, he could think and act and do all those things he should have done when they had been actually needed, but it always worked like that- way after the damage was done. At least he hadn't had an episode himself this time.

Just thinking like that made him feel sick about himself -yeah, you didn't completely fail as parent this time, only about ¾, go you, father of the year- he didn't even want to try thinking about work. Or sleep. Just yesterday he had slept so well, how alien and far away it seemed now. He didn't manage to disentangle himself from his little ball of sunshine until it was time to get something done for breakfast, maybe even clean the mess left from yesterday if he was able to muster enough strength for it. He briefly thought about asking Naruto if he wanted to stay at home today, but the immediate surge of panic at the idea had him scurrying for the kitchen.

Have Naruto there all day after what had happened? Dealing with it was beyond Minato's abilities, as it had been so lovingly illustrated yesterday. It was better for Naruto to go somewhere among normal people who would actually be of some help and Minato- well, he'd do his best when Naruto came back from kinder. He wasn't sure what he felt when he realized that he had begun preparing enough food for both Naruto and Gaara, but it distinctly felt like when he'd caught a football thrown at full force with his stomach, barring the physical pain. It wasn't a very pretty feeling. It wasn't a very pretty situation, either.

Gaara was such a sweet kid, he didn't want to think about never seeing him again, but what could he do? It was hard situation for everyone involved, and he felt a little sick at thinking that if he was this stressed with just Naruto, he didn't want to be in Sabaku's shoes with three unhappy kids plus the details of moving to go through. It was this last thought that had him reach for his cell phone, tiredly beeping through the list of numbers until he found the redhead's. He hesitated a moment or two, looking at the clock- a little too early, barely twenty minutes till eight in the morning. He really should hurry and get Naruto up and dressed.

Instead, he pressed a few numbers in quick succession, looking unhappily at the screen. Good luck. Yeah. He hoped he had it. He hoped all of them did, because it was obvious they weren't very happy here. He couldn't help feeling a bit guilty, as if he could have somehow prevented this from happening somehow, but as his new shrink had so tactfully put it in their last session, Minato wasn't the center of the world. This would have happened weather he had been there or not, which didn't make the fact it was happening at all suck any less.

He thought about it for a moment, then erased the period at the end- when it came to im'ing, it always felt like if whoever bothered to write periods at the end of short sentences was mad with the person receiving it- . Now the sentence seemed a little senseless. He thought about adding a smiley face at the end. He felt more or less around Naruto's age just from thinking about it. But what could he do? He couldn't just end it like that. It's not that it was bad, it just seemed a litte-

'Ta…Daddy…?' He startled, accidentally pressing some button and turning around.

A very sleepy blond peered at him from the door, one little fist rubbing at his eye, and Minato winced. An unfortunate side effect to having Kushina's eyes was that when he had cried a lot, it showed. The blond's eyes looked red and puffy, not that having inherited his father's eyes would have helped any. Nature wasn't very kind to those lacking in melanin.

'Lisku…' he made an automatic gesture with his arms, and before he could think of withdrawing it, Naruto padded to him and climbed to his lap, settling on him heavily. The mass of knots that had been his chest since last night loosened a little bit as soon as Naruto nuzzled into his neck. He looked at his cello, wincing when the screen happily announced that the message had been successfully sent, but internally shrugged. What was Sabaku going to do? Drive back a thousand kilometers to threaten him with a baseball bat on regards of instant messaging etiquette or how he shouldn't try to contact him before office hours?

'…Daddy?'

'Hm…?' The older blond tensed, fearing a similar reaction to yesterday. Naruto had just kept asking why was Gaara going away, and where and why and why again. Asking if it was because Gaara's dad didn't like him- Why hadn't he been able to say anything to him last night? He should have just hugged him and told him it wasn't so. It never occurred to Minato that Naruto was thinking that if someone as important as Gaara could leave, then maybe his father also could. It wouldn't surprise him either- they had ran away from home because the 811 lady had made his daddy afraid, and Naruto knew he often caused the same reaction on the older blond. Maybe his daddy's new shrink would tell him it would be better to get away from him so he could finally be happy.

Warm, slightly chubby arms wrapped around his neck as Naruto draped himself on him like a baby koala, his legs going around his midsection.

'…dzień dobry.' Minato sighed, feeling guilty relief crept up on him. He drew the little blonde closer, tucking his head under his chin and rocking him a little.

'Dzień dobry, Liseczku.'

#+#+#+#+#+#

All the worry about the message that was sent was baseless – Daichi managed to get a hard, long sleep that night, but once he opened his eyes at four a.m., he couldn't close them back at all. And gods damn, he tried.

But even if he counted every possible sheep in every possible way, it seemed that the joke was on him at every rate, especially as the kid that kept getting away from his hands was now tucked to his chest like a little bird, and slept just as soundly. It felt somehow relieving to see that, but at the same time he felt a little envious. The outside still looked like a deep black night with only tint of grey that was nowhere near the sunrise - but even that woke him up. After an internal struggle of long fifteen minutes Daichi finally decided to stop playing the game of tag with himself and he (carefully, very carefully, to not touch his youngest in any harsh way) got up.

After that, everything went like a routine. Washing up, shaving, warming up the kettle for tea, wearing clothes, eating something dry and rather quick that tasted like a piece of wood soaked with old fat and so on. When his stomach was finally filled with hot liquid that smelt and looked like tea and tasted like water it was five past five a.m., and that meant two things. First: he did everything in the tempo of a turtle, which was refreshing to his everyday rush. And second: he had nothing else to do before he would have to wake up the kids.

So, to not waste time, he decided to go and pack up for moving out. Not that he had much, but the time was priceless now, and the quicker they were ready, the better it was for them. He doubted that Yashamaru expected him to be so drastic, but since he knew that with his brother-in-law everything went down the drain in the proper time given, he would like to be further away from him, than closer when he would finally catch on that something wasn't right.

After removing a pair of ties from his closet and tossing them carelessly into the only half filled box he sat down and started taking out the socks from the shelf. After that went books from the lowest part of the bookcase (to another box) and half of the shelf of the books that stood a bit higher. Then he bumped his knee on the 'Piper of Hamelin' and all papers securely stored behind it fell onto the floor in paper-like rain. It would be very artistic, given that all front ones were stained old smeary brown drops of Gaara's blood.

Terrific. He actually didn't have time (or rather, didn't even try to find it) to sort it all out – he was supposed to send the request for the proper attorney. Now, with all copies looking like a fair proof from the place of crime, he was rather tempted to toss them out. But then, he knew he wouldn't really know what to copy when the right time would come. And now wasn't the time. With a sigh, he cleared the papers and put in the box, right below the 'Crime and Punishment' and above the 'Piano Tabs for maniacs'. Gods only knew what he kept on dragging with himself with all those housings. Then he looked at the floor.

Nope, it was already stained with hemoglobin so much, that even if he tried to pour tears on it, it wouldn't vanish. It didn't matter anyway. Such 'ink splotches' happened around the place all the time. With another add of his better pair of shoes and the pack of suits, he stood up and went to put away the boxes that were already filled.

As far as he knew, it was easier for him and the kids to take them to the car when they stood near the entrance, even if once he had almost smashed his face on the wall when he tripped on them. It went nice with remaining ones; Temari did it just right – packed her clothes, books and bathroom tools, leaving the things she wouldn't need in the end (though Daichi was sure she would try to store them in her schoolbag later) but Kankuro's box, who seemed to be angry enough to just throw everything at once at the extra speed seemed to be just a disaster.

With a sigh, Daichi emptied the thing and refilled it again, this time actually adding the underwear and leaving out the old football that wasn't even used by him, as neither of his friends actually took interest in it. He decided, that if he would find some remaining place in his own boxes he would take it, but if that wouldn't happen, he would just leave it off. Kankuro probably wouldn't even remember about it later.

He took the things and stored near the door also. Then he went back to look up his youngest son's things. This one seemed to be only half filled and most of the stuff was rather emotionally ridden than of any practical use. That meant drawings, some broken crayons, jacket from Mr. Uzumaki that had to be given back anyway ad of course and the dirty teddy that didn't seem to be so dirty now, but not clean much too (which he was sure that Gaara would take in his hands anyway, so there was no need to let it take the free space).

With a sigh, he removed the toy from the box and went to the closet to take out the clothes and actual meaningful remnants that could mean nothing now, but later would be insufficient. When he had ended packing them up to the redhead's box, the clock ringed out the alert standard alert. He looked up. It was actually nearing the seven a.m. now. See, the time actually passed quickly when he was having a good time.

With a little crack in his heck he got up, folded the drawings into the side of the box and lifted it up, ready to take it to the hall. The jacket and the teddy were left in the room as things that would be taken by hands.

'Temari, Kankuro, get up.' he said as he passed by their room. The unhappy grumbles and moves could be heard in response. 'Get up, it's seven a.m. already.'

'Right.' answered the nasal voice of Kankuro who was most likely hiding himself under the cover to fall asleep shortly. He looked back, but didn't do anything – Temari was already up and he knew better than to actually interrupt her 'sister duties' as she called them from time to time (and which included waking up her younger brother). Instead, his attention was caught by the broken TV. It wasn't theirs, so it was not a loss, but he wondered about the other receiver, which was the radio. It was not a big things and he could probably ease it in the shelf in his car, but as with all things considered, it was always the way that you took more than you brought.

He entered the bathroom and took off the towels, leaving only his own.

'I'm packing those, use mine… are you up?'

'Yeah-ah.' answered almost in unison from another room. Daichi nodded to that inwardly. Temari did her job well. And just when he ended up dragging Gaara's box into the hall, the redhead owner of it crept behind him, looking at his hands nervously.

'Teddy? He chirped, clutching at his leg for support 'Where's the teddy?'

'In your room, guarding the jacket.' he murmured as he left off the thing on the floor. 'You can bring them-.'

The two feet already paddled away from him and when he turned around, Gaara was high on his speed getting back with teddy in his arms. The jacket, of course, was not interesting enough to take care of it.

'…here.' he ended the sentenced rather hopelessly and quietly proceeded to get it on his own. It was too early to start the quarrel over the simple things. 'Sit down, I will prepare breakfast shortly.' Which was a farfetched lie, but hey, he tried to act as little pathologically as he could in the situation given, all right? When he finally managed to make the tea and some kind of scrambled eggs (sadly, from a whole part of twelve eggs he bought only three were not rotten. And he was not sadistic or stupid enough to feed anyone with something smelling that bad) with tomatoes, Temari and Kankuro showed up, already washed up and dressed, with rather unhappy faces. Kankuro was holding the cell phone he's got from his friend and seemed to be preoccupied with some kind of cell phone video game.

'Put that thing down. It's eating time.' he said, when he got the last plate to the table and sat down.

'A-huh.' said Kankuro, showing he heard him, and resumed in playing. Daichi waited for a second, but when nothing happened, he grimaced.

'I said: put that thing down, we're eating the breakfast.' he repeated, already annoyed by the behavior of the kid. Usually Kankuro was an obedient child, but sometimes he seemed to just test his nerves. Usually n the worst possible moments. 'Kankuro!'

'In a moment.' said the boy and he shrank a bit lower on his seat, the beeping sounds filling the whole room. Daichi felt the vein on his forehead pulsing red.

'Give me that.' he commanded, getting up and reaching for the phone. Kankuro immediately looked up and moved his hands away, out of his reach.

'No!' he shouted 'Leave me alone! At Naruto's home we can play at the table!'

'You're not at Naruto's!' he shouted back and reached out even further, making the kid almost fall off the stool.

'Give me back my phone!'

'It's not even yours!' shouted the kid and jumped up from the chair 'It's mine! I only borrowed it to you! Go away!'

'How dare you speak to me like that!' was angrily shouted at him.

'How can you just make us move out like that!' was shouted back, not less fiercely by any means. Temari's and Gaara's eyes kept moving to each one of them in pattern of audience watching two tennis players 'I don't want to move out! I want to stay here, with Kiba and his dog!'

'Stop talking about this stupid animal! Sit down in this instance!' said Daichi, bashing his hands on the table. 'Sit down and eat! We're moving out and that's final!'

'Naruto's dad would never move out from here!'

'I'm not Naruto's dad!'

'Well, maybe you should be!' Daichi felt all his blood getting away from his face.

'What did you say?' he roared three tones louder and higher than he should. Kankuro finally shrunk before his own eyes, covering at the tone 'Dare to say that again to your own father you little, ungrateful'!'

'Daddy…'

'…childish brat! I feed you with my own fucking blood and you dare to say such things to me-'

'Daddy!...'

'-what would your mother say if she heard your way of talking, huh? Is that how you talk to the person who feeds you and takes care of you in every damn second of their life? I swear, without all of you-'

'Daddy!'

'WHAT!' he roared, turning toward Temari, making the girl's eyes round up in fear. Her lower lip trembled down a bit as he kept looking at her, so he closed his eyes and sighed. Once again, he got ahead of himself. 'What is it, Temari.'

'Some… something…' she squeaked out, but it seemed that he scared her out too much. Her eyes started watering up even more. 'Someone…'

'The telephone rang.' finally said Gaara, awfully calm for such a tense atmosphere. He looked at him, and then at the cell. It seemed blank to him, but he decided to check it up.

This time Kankuro didn't utter even a word of protest when he grabbed it and stood up. The thing was indeed, empty. But then he heard the actual ring. It sounded like the pack of papers near his ear. He slowly turned around.

'Boo.' he heard in a smooth, too optimistic tone 'I came by to drop off the monition. And since the door were opened, I decided to invite myself in.'

'Mommy!' squealed Gaara happily, almost too happily. And of course, by then, the telephone really rang.

'Good luck!' it wrote on the small greenish screen. It was signed by Mr. Uzumaki.

Oh yeah. Luck.

He needed it like nothing else in the world now.

#+#+#+#+#+#

They were late, but not really by much. Minato was pretty glad he had decided to move so close to the kinder, because if he'd had to take his tired and unusually clingy kid anywhere further, he wasn't sure he would have so much as bothered. Naruto was extremely docile in this state, but he also seemed to lack any sort of initiative. When Minato had told him to go change, Naruto had just stared at him until he had picked him up and done it himself. His son acted like a toy whose battery was running out and was slowly winding down.; and Minato desperately wished it was simply a combination of him being tired after all that had happened the previous night and the early hour, but if Naruto kept acting like this by tomorrow, he was taking him to the doctor for a checkup. Just to be sure.

Minato carried Naruto to the kinder (not because the boy had asked, because Naruto was uncharacteristically quiet) but because he wanted to do something to make Naruto feel the least bit comforted about what was happening. The little blonde for once didn't complain about being carried on his hip instead of his back and just snuggled on him until he had to put him down. Of course, Asuma asked. Forget the Spanish inquisition, no one expected the crouching kinder teach.

'is Naruto all right?' he took the boy from the blonde's arms, giving him a look before depositing him on the floor, where Naruto stood instead do the usual speeding towards the warmer room.

'Yes, he's just tired.' Minato said as he immediately reached for his packet of cigarettes to shook one out. 'He might be coming down with something.'

'Gaa-' Whatever he was about to say died when he caught his father quick shake of the head- his daddy didn't want Asuma-sensei to know. He ducked his head, face hiding even deeper into the fake fur of the parka, making him look all the more like the character from South Park. It wasn't normal. Minato didn't think his son being this quiet- an obviously upset little kid Naruto's age should be wailing on the floor and kicking things, and rightfully so.

Asuma looked at him suspiciously, but Minato was looking at Naruto and fighting to find his lighter at the same time, so for once he didn't have a chance to add something else to his list of 'reasons to be paranoid about'.

'Did something happen with Sabaku?' The blond shook his head, thinking that the truth was that something big *had* happened, only the way Asuma asked for it meant if they had had another discussion, so he wasn't really lying to him. Sure, he could have told him that Sabaku was moving, but then he'd start getting questioned, and he was nervous enough as it was.

No, if Asuma wanted to know, then it would be Asuma who would eventually call Sabaku when he saw Gaara was skipping, and then Sabaku could have the pleasure of telling him himself. Sounded like a plan. It also sounded horribly cowardly.

'I'm going then… call me if anything happens, please.' Kneeling down to the boy's height, he pulled back the hood of the parka, freeing messy blonde spikes he gently smoothed. 'Call me if you are feeling sick, okej?' The blond nodded, his hands twisting a little on the orange fabric.

'I'm not sick.'he mumbled, leaning on his father to give him a last hug. Minato nodded and squeezed him tight enough for the boy to let a little squeak. 'Take care of yourself-'

'You are coming to pick me up?'

Minato stopped in the process of remove g himself from the little blonde. Naruto was looking up at him earnestly, his eyes still tinged red, the blues of the iris standing out all the more because of it. Minato hugged him again, nosing the bright yellow hair.

'Of course I will, Naru. You are my only little fox.'