Chapter 21, this will be age two to five. A lot of this will be about the kids meeting each other for the first time, you know like play dates and what not. They'll meet Hinata and Kiba first, the Ino-Shika-Cho kids, so on and so forth. Well that's all, thanks for reading a please review.

Before any of them knew it, it was time for their first play date. The Hyuuga's wanted to have Hinata come over for a play date with her mother Haira. They decided to have Tsume bring Kiba with them as well, as he had already met Hinata and it might make her more comfortable since she was so shy.

Rin and Anko were set to help Haira and Tsume run this little shindig. All of the kids were three years old at the moment and were talking decently. Granted you couldn't always understand what they were saying, but for the most part they were able to figure out what the kids wanted.(That's my way of saying that when they talk and leave out words, I'm doing the on purpose. Three year olds tend to leave out words when they talk.)

The play date was tomorrow, and Rin was very eager to see just how the kids would handle it.

Rin opened the front door to find Haira and Tsume waiting with HInata and Kiba. Kiba looked excited, while Hinata was hiding behind her mother's leg looking very nervous. Kiba grabbed her hand and ran inside, "Come on Hinata, we go play!"

Rin laughed as they ran past her and Anko followed to show them where the kids were. Tsume shook her head, "He's an excitable one isn't he?"

Haira didn't seemed to mind in the least, "Maybe, but Hinata needs a little push. Kiba's good for bringing her personality out."

Rin's mind went straight to Naruto, who had become the most lively member of the group as his personality started to come out. She had a feeling he'd help with bringing Hinata out of her shell as well.

Anko lead Kiba and Hinata to the living room where the kids were playing. The moment they came in Naruto ran up to them, "Hi, I'm Naruto. Who you?"

Kiba was happy to see someone just as enthusiastic as he was, "I'm Kiba, this Hinata. You wanna play?"

Naruto nodded happily and brought them to Mito and Kakashi who had just gotten done with a round of hide and seek. He had taken to wearing a mask after his parents told him the man he was named after did. He almost looked like a black haired version of the first Kakashi with a little more meat on him. Kakashi grinned at them, "I'm Kakashi, I'm a good boy!"

Mito laughed and Anko looked at kakashi curiously. He said that constantly and she had no idea why, it was a little strange but for the most part she shrugged it off. Mito looked at Hinata and gave her a big smile, "I'm Mito."

Hinata shuffled her feet nervously, "My nam-me is Hina-Hinata."

Mito was overjoyed to have another girl to play with, "We playing hide and seek. Come on, you hide with me."

Anko watched as Naruto counted and the other hid. She had a feeling that these guys would be great friends.

They played like that for the next few hours, eventually getting Hinata to overcome her shyness to really get into it. They played tag after hide and seek, promptly followed by lunch. After lunch they went over to Kiba's house and played with some of the Inuzuka puppies, which they absolutely loved. After about an hour of that they had to head home. Kiba and Hinata were sad to have their new friends leave, but promised to see them again as soon as possible.

Obito, Jiraiya, and Tsunade listened happily to their kids stories about the days activities. They were glad to hear the kids hit it off so well, it was always good to have friends. Not to mention it would make things easier if either of them ended up on a team with the kids.

The kids had another play date in a week with the children of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. If they could become friends with them then the only clan that they would have to make friends with left would be the Aburame's. Considering the kids were almost guaranteed to be on bad terms with the Uchiha's, being on good terms with all of the other major clans would make things much easier. Granted, they would never force them to be friends with anyone, but it would still makes things easier if they managed to be friends with the other kids.

The Ino-Shika-Cho kids were absolutely ecstatic to go on the play date...well ⅔'s of them were anyway, the Shikamaru kid didn't really seem excited about anything. Ino was just super happy to have Mito to play with as there weren't many other girls for her to play with. Choji was happy to find that Naruto ate as much ramen as he did. Kakashi was just happy to play with anyone, even Shikamaru. Shikamaru was absolutely stunned that someone his age was willing to some of the games he liked. Most of the kid who were as old as him couldn't even understand the games he liked, but Kakashi was actually willing to learn.

Only one problem arose when Ino asked, "Where's Naruto's mommy and daddy?"

Obito and Jiraiya, who had been watching the kids, weren't sure how to answer that. Naruto knew his father was the Fourth Hokage and they had even showed him pictures of his parents. But these kids were a little young to understand the concept of death. Jiraiya was about to answer when Naruto ran out with the picture they had give them, "This my mommy and daddy!"

Ino looked at the picture and Shikamaru who saw the hat the man in the picture was wearing said, "Your dad was the Hokage?"

Naruto smiled happily, "Yup, Uncle Obito says that he saved the villagers, but he died."

The kids had all heard the word death before, but none of them actually knew what it was supposed to mean. Other than that the play date went on without any other issues. The kids, just like with Hinata and Kiba, hit it off very well. In just two weeks they were going to go to hidden Sand with their parents for a political meeting. They didn't know it yet, but they'd make some new friend there as well

The kids weren't exactly perfect on the way to the Sand, but they could have been much worse. They did the classic 'Are we there yet?', about a dozen times. They had to tell Kakashi to put various scorpions and spiders down quite often. After a while Jiraiya summoned a toad to keep kids occupied.

This visit wasn't really for any particular reason, just a general how's it going type of thing. The Leaf sent someone to go visit the Sand at least once every month or two. Now it was their turn to to bit the bullet, no matter how much they didn't want to. They would spend a few days visiting with the Kazekage, then go home. Hopefully the kids could find a way to keep themselves busy.

Naruto and the others had been wandering around the Kazekage's mansion for an hour, with Rin following them making sure that they didn't go somewhere they weren't supposed to. The kids weren't all that impressed with it, the Senju eastes were much bigger. What they were really looking for was someone to play with. Kakashi looked around to see a small red haired boy who looked about three, the same age as them, talking to a blonde man. Kakashi grabbed the others and ran to go talk to him with Rin chasing them.

He ran up to the boy, "Hi, I'm Kakashi and I'm a good boy!"

The boy with red hair wasn't sure how to respond, "I'm...Gaara. This my Uncle Yashamaru."

Naruto was next, "I'm Naruto, nice to meet you!"

Naruto stuck his hand out to shake Gaara's hand but Gaara didn't shake back. He looked at his uncle as if to say 'can I?'

Yashamaru nodded and Gaara shook Naruto's hand, followed by Mito introducing herself. Yashamaru wasn't sure if he liked Gaara getting close to other kids, but he knew who these kids were so he didn't want to insult them. The blonde was the son of Fourth Hokage and the other two were major members of big clans after all.

Kakashi saw a picture of the Fourth Kazekage on the wall and looked back at Gaara, "You looked like the Kazekage."

Gaara nodded, "He's my dad."

Naruto grinned, "My dad was the Fourth Hokage!"

Gaara was surprised to hear that, he wounder if there were any other similarities between them, "Did he...did he seal one inside you too?"

Yashamaru looked appalled, "Gaara, don't ask that!"

Naruto looked confused, "One what?"

Gaara looked at the ground, "A demon."

Naruto thought he knew what Gaara ment, "I have fox inside me."

Rin didn't know Naruto knew that, "Naruto, who told you that?"

Naruto shrugged, "Uncle Jiraiya before I came here, he said that there was someone like me here. Is that Gaara?"

Gaara couldn't believe it, "I have a tanu-tanu…"

Yashamaru finished, "Tanuki Gaara."

Gaara frowned, "Yeah, that."

Naruto was psyched he had someone so similar to him, "This is great. We're gonna be real good friends."

Gaara wasn't used to that word, "Friends, you really want to be my friends?"

The all nodded and Gaara finally smiled, "Do you want to meet my brother and sister? They don't usually talk to me but I want them to meet my new friends."

Mito thought that sounded great, "Okay!"

Gaara lead them off to find his siblings while Yashamaru watch in disbelief, "Gaara's actually made some friends…"

They soon found Gaara's brother and sister. His brother, who was four, was named Kankuro and his sister, who was five, was named Temari. Both were pretty surprised to see that Gaara had made some friends. Neither of them hated their brother, they actually felt sorry for him, but their father told them to stay away from him. Maybe now that he had made some friends their father would be more understanding.

Before long they were happily playing with one another. They played ninja and board games for about two hours until Gaara asked Naruto a strange question, "Naruto, do you go to bed at night?"

Naruto was confused at the question, "Yes, don't you?"

Gaara shook his head, "No, everyone says it's cause of the Tanuki. Uncle says it's cause my seals bad."

Naruto scratched his head, "Uncle Jiraiya is really good with seals. Show it to him."

Gaara thought that sounded good, "Ok, we ask him later."

They went back to playing, Temari and Kankuro having a real play date with their brother for the first time.

Jiraiya looked at the seal with a deep frown on his face, "This seal is a joke. I mean, it's pretty good for an average ninja, but this'll never hold back a tailed beast for crying out loud!"

The Kazekage didn't like the sound of that, "We had our finest sealer create it."

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, "They your finest sealer is an ameture. If you'll allow me, I can fix this seal. The boy will be able to sleep and he want her the tailed beast's voice in his head. He'll probably be able to use some of the tanuki's power too."

Gaara looked very hopeful at that, "Really!"

The Kazekage liked the sound of him being able to control the tanuki's power, "Alright, as you wish. Would you like to wait till after dinner to do it?"

Jiraiya shook his head, "Nah, the ground works already there, I just need to fix the finer details. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes."

The Kazekage walked away with Kankuro and Temari following him, "Since Gaara's gonna be able to control his power now, we can see him more right?"

The Kazekage supposed it might be a good idea to get Gaara more attached to the hidden Sand, and if his brother and sister could do that for him why not, "Of course. If you'd like we can have his room moved to the one next to your's."

Kankuro and Temari couldn't believe it, they finally had their little brother back!

The next two year followed a similar pattern. They would go to the Sand once every month or two to visit Gaara and his siblings. His life had improved greatly thanks to his seal being fixed. Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro even got to come for their birthday parties too. Naruto and the others had also met Shino, who was a little strange but still very nice. Mito really liked slugs so they hit it off well and Kakashi and Naruto could get along with almost anyone. It had been a great few years for the group that's for sure.