"I'm on a mission with raccoon-daddy! I'm on a mission with raccoon-daddy! And we gonna go kick some ass! Yeah!"

Minamaru's sing song voice was the only sound that followed the duo as they made their way through the borders of the wind country. If Gaara was aware of his adopted son's singing, he didn't let on, his eyes focused forward through the sand storm they were experiencing.

That didn't mean he hadn't thought about dropping the barrier so the younger boy would have a mouthful of sand if he continued singing. He reigned in the desire and continued forward through the howling winds, his mind calming somewhat in the familiar surroundings.

His adopted son continued his annoying mantra.

"I'm on a mission with raccoon-daddy! I'm on a mission with raccoon-daddy! And we gonna kick some ass! Yeah!"

Finally, Gaara turned his head to sharply pin the boy down with a reprimanding gaze. Minamaru fell silent, hurt in his eyes as his red, orange, black, and purple hair was only gently touched by the roaring winds. Demurely, he put his hands behind his back, tilted his head down, looking altogether innocent under the Kazekage's accusing gaze.

"We're on this mission to find the origination of the assassins after Lee and those that participated in the male reproduction experiment. We are not out here in the middle of a desert storm for you to give away our position to any enemy lying in wait."

Minamaru pouted, his eyes becoming larger as he put the puppy dog look to work.

"But you'd sense them before they'd hear us, raccoon-daddy. There's nothing to worry about."

Gaara turned his back once again in the multi-colored haired boy. For a moment, his eyes narrowed, then he stopped moving. Behind him, Minamaru stopped as well, looking to Gaara curiously. The kage spread his legs slightly apart, raising one hand that clenched slightly as he directed his palm in a certain direction. Once he was certain he was on target, his fingers bit suddenly into his palm.

Minamaru tilted his head, certain he had just heard something over the howling wind that beat the barrier around them. Gaara calmly put his arm back to his side, continuing forward.

"Now there's nothing to worry about."

Minamaru's mouth formed a small 'o', before he began following again, humming beneath his breath the same mantra.

This continued for what could have been an hour, though they couldn't be certain with how they were unable to see the sun. It remained blotted out by the sand storm.

It was as the storm died down that Gaara stopped abruptly once again, his eyes sweeping from left to right as if he could see through the flying grains. He held out an arm in a signal for his adopted son to stop, who did so immediately, his grape colored eyes gaining an edge. Gaara turned his eyes momentarily to him.

"We're going to go meet this group. They're moving around us towards Suna. They're either harmless, or another group of assassins."

They darted towards the unknown group, remaining in the light cover left by the remaining gusts of wind that blew about some grains. Gaara fisted his hands, his expression not changing a squint, then the sand rose once again. The cover became heavy once again, the wind almost nonexistent at this point.

The unknown group certainly had no idea what had just happened, they observed as they stood unnoticed in their midst. They had already been taking their sand gear off by the time the storm Gaara had created reached them. Now their goggles, boots, and covers were blown out of reach. They could only reach blindly through the sudden storm to try to locate them once again.

Safely within the barrier surrounding them, Gaara read the scroll he had confiscated from one of the stranger's pouches.

In it, Lee's name was first among the long list of names for anyone that had had a part in the Male Pregnancy Experiment.

The redhead's eyes were emotionless as he silently rolled it back up and placed it in a pocket on the inside of his red overcoat, watching the floundering men the whole time. Behind him, Minamaru waited patiently for an order to be handed out, his hands clenched at his side in anticipation of the verdict of innocent or guilty.

Gaara's eyes flitted to him again, then he lifted his right hand. Slowly, he began to curl his fingers into his palm once again, sand rising in a tornado around the five or so men.

At the last moment, his eyes widened in shock. There were five 'poofs' from within the circle he had created, then the jutsu that had made it seem as if the enemy were there disappeared.

These shinobi were more skilled than the last three attempts that he had heard of as of yet.

He spun around, his fingers spread apart, attracting a wave of sand after it, to catch the kunais that flew suddenly at him from within his own barrier. Behind him, Minamaru went into a defense stance, setting about a jutsu to bring down the two ninja that were suddenly before him.

Between Gaara against the three shinobi circling him, it became a dance. The Kazekage was a motion of limbs, each move followed by an attack of sand. They ducked, came in, retreated, swerved, as well as flipped to avoid being hit. Regardless, one ninja flew backwards, nearly ripped in two by the powerful slash of sand that had attacked him.

With Minamaru against his two opponents, it seemed to be more of a game. The pouch that Minamaru held securely around his waist as others would hold their kunais was opened. His fingers dipped into the opening, then came out, followed by a string of glittering shards of glass. With practiced, quick movements, he took down one of the two almost instantly. The other was more difficult. Despite the small size of the shards, as well as their deadliness with how they cut through the skin instantly into another's organs, causing internal bleeding or fatal damage, the other opponent refused to be caught. His dance was elegant as the Kazekage's as he ducked closer and closer to the Jounin till Minamaru was startled to realize the other was directly in his face.

In a last ditch attempt, Minamaru took a kunai out of his desert coat, his eyes wide as he acted on instinct. The kunai caught the enemy in the throat…

Just as he caught Minamaru in the gut with a kunai of his own.

Unable to contain himself, he screamed in surprise as well as pain, gripping the heavily bleeding injury as he released the dead ninja. He dropped to the sand as the wound became almost instantly numb, his breathing coming out quick as well as harsh.

Gaara momentarily looked to his adopted son, then took a quick double take. When he turned back to the last opponent who was standing, his face was twisted into a sneer. With no time left for him to play their games, he became serious instead of languid.

Seconds later, Gaara was opening the only healing jutsu he had ever cared to learn, one he had had to after it first occurring to him that his husband was going to continue coming home injured. The chakra over Minamaru's gut wound became a light green as it worked to heal the worst of it from the inside out. As he finished, his blue-green eyes assessing of his effort, then wrapped his arms around the unconscious boy, lifting him up off the desert floor.

The desert storm died as they disappeared in a swirl of sand.

Left behind were five bodies. One of them had only microscopic wounds, the body closest to that had a slit throat. Further away, a man nearly ripped in two faced the sun, though it couldn't be told if he stared in horror or blankly because of his mask. The other body left behind had lost her mask in the battle against the Kazekage; her face was stuck in a scream with her body pointing at odd angles.

The last man that had been left standing? There was nothing left, unless the blood and gore counted.

Within hours, their burial was placed far beneath the sand domes, scorpions coupled with the snakes and lizards of the dangerous deserted land…

Gaara stepped casually into his own home, appearing as if nothing different had happened on this mission that happened on any other mission…

If the blood soaking the front of his desert wear could be considered normal, which is sometimes was, or the unconscious Minamaru in his arms… which was not considered normal.

"Gaara! Roo-roo! Welcome home my battle worn men-… WHAT HAPPENED TO MINAMARU?!?"

Lee, standing at the foot of the stairs with his eyes wide as saucers, had Koi securely supported in one arm, while his other hand clenched on the stair case railing. He paled as he stared at his benumbed son, then looked to Gaara with horrified eyes. In his arms, Koi whimpered uncertainly, aware of the heavy atmosphere, but not sure how to react to it at her extremely young age.

Gaara, in a comforting manner, met his husband's eyes.

"He's fine. He hasn't woken up yet, that's all."

Lee, despite his husband's sincerity, still darted forward to check up on his son himself. With his one free hand, he whispered it across Minamaru's skin, his eyes serious and searching for any damage. His fingers came across the scabbed wound in his son's gut and stilled.

Lee looked from Gaara, to his adopted son, back to Gaara, then to his crying daughter. With a relieved sigh, he held his baby up to his lips and gently kissed her.

"Your bubba is going to be just fine, my blooming rose! He was traveling with the most wonderful company!"

As he continued to whisper to her, she quieted, her blank black eyes staring at her 'mommy's' face. Lee smiled, somewhat shakily, as he met her eyes.

As this occurred, Minamaru began to stir in his adopted father's arms. Slowly, he opened his eyes, still holding a lingering of pain. He blinked a few times, clearing his vision, before he looked up to who was holding.

Instantly, he smiled brightly.

"Hi, raccoon-daddy!"

His voice was somewhat hoarse from the brush with death, but he seemed to be trying to ignore the earlier activities.

"Did we kick their butts like I said we would?"

After a moment's hesitation, Gaara nodded.

As Minamaru smiled proudly, Kanaye came lazily down the stairs, stopping abruptly when he saw his boyfriend in his father's arms. In a flash, he was by their side, his eyes steely as he looked at his father as he took his lover from his arms.

Lee's expressive eyebrows shot up at the display of anger, then looked to Gaara to see his expression. Despite his stern face, Lee could sense his confusion as Kanaye turned his back on them, opting to walk back up the stairs to their room. Over the redhead's shoulder, Minamaru waved at them, not attempting to escape his boyfriend's hold.

"I call Koi tonight!"

Lee began giggling as Gaara's face changed to stern to calculating. Gently, he swayed his body, coercing his baby child to go back to sleep with her green spandex baby blanket. Her finger twitched, grabbing onto his lengthening hair for a moment, then she closed her eyes, falling to sleep easily in her 'mother's' arms.

He waited patiently for Gaara to question him.

After two minutes of standing silently before the front door, Gaara turned to his lover with debate still a whisper through his blue-green eyes.

"Was he jealous that I was holding his lover?"

Lee's shoulder began to noticeably shake, trying to keep quiet so as not to wake up his daughter. He looked to husband with fondness in his obsidian eyes.

"No, no, he was not jealous, Gaara-love. He knows that you would never be that way inclined in Roo-roo."

Gaara's eyes narrowed, not liking that he was unable to understand his son's strange behavior.

"So why was he angry?"

Lee reveled in the moment. It did not happen often that he knew something his lover did not. As a matter of fact, he could not remember the last time that had happened… It was only with times like these, where emotions were involved, that he knew more than the other.

"Do you remember that time when Gai-Sensei carried me back after I had accidentally stumbled across the enemy with no back up? Do you remember how furious you were, not because Gai-Sensei was holding me, but because you knew that, had you been there, it never would have happened?"

Gaara's jaw subtly clenched at the reminder. That had been two weeks before their relationship had begun. He had admitted to having wanted to be the one on the mission with Lee when he had awoken hours after being entered into the hospital. At the time, he hadn't understood why he had felt that way, aside from the fact that he was protective of all of his closer friends, having had few as close to him then as Naruto and Lee had been as well as his two siblings.

His eyes rotated from the stairs he had been staring at to Lee.

"So he was jealous."

Lee's eyebrows drew together, not sure how his husband had got that. He began to shake his head, but was stopped as his husband continued.

"He was jealous that he wasn't the one there for his lover."

Put into that sense, Lee had to nod his head in agreement, somewhat sad his moment of higher intelligence had ended so fast. He quickly gained back his enthusiasm as Gaara took Koi from his arms to look down at his daughter.

"… He thinks he could have done better than I could…"

Lee blinked in surprise, then tapped a finger against his chin, considering it.

"In a sense… He believes that he could have saved our firefly from any damage with the power of his eternal love… He has never before been on a mission with our firefly to suggest otherwise…"

Lee squeezed his eyes shut, his body trembling slightly as he bit at his bottom lip. Unable to contain his joy, he squealed in delight, directing the 'good guy pose' towards the stairs Kanaye and Minamaru had disappeared up some time ago.

"Yosh! With their unbreakable bond, they shall be able to defeat any problem that should arise! As long as they stand side by side, nothing shall rip them apart! For always, they shall-!"

Lee, after a startled moment, leaned into the lips pressed against his own, a red hue rising in his face with how their daughter was pressed lightly between their chests. When tongue was introduced, Lee drew the line, pulling away from his devious redhead.

"Gaara! Not in front of Koi!…"

Then he took a step back to inspect his love. He had blood splatters over his chest and some over his face. As always, the sand had not remained attached to him, but the faint tang of sweat was on the air. For once, it was not Lee.

Lee smiled again.

"Let us go take a shower, neh?"

He took Koi back from Gaara, brushing his lips momentarily over the other's.

"I will put her in her crib as you do start the shower, alright?"

Gaara, his eyes at half mast with the promise behind the words, wordlessly nodded. They broke apart, Lee going upstairs, Gaara taking off his bloodied overcoat before moving to the bath room to begin the small shower.

"Kana- Mmph!"

Minamaru arched into the seductive mouth nipping along the new scar, his hands clenched at his sides.

Contrary to what most people might believe, both boys remained virgins. If it wasn't Aya barging in on them, it was their 'mommy', or someone else; whether by accident or purpose, they never told. They had been limited to oral, hand, or making out.

Aside from that, Kanaye was not going to have sex with a 13 year old. Yes, oral, hand, in addition to making out, were just fine. Minamaru was younger than most when they became sexually active, Kanaye refused to be singled out as a pedophile or as a later regret if the younger boy suddenly matured to realize it had only been a crush. Of course, the redhead would not easily accept that, but he wouldn't become a stalker like Hito, nor be haunted by sex life together.

In this case, it seemed he was trying to make Minamaru cum by just touching him… which might just work if he kept rubbing the younger boy's nipples.

The sinful mouth traveled from his new scar to his navel, his tongue dipping it, before he continued upward. Once he reached Minamaru's chest, he removed his right hand to lavish the taut bud with his mouth instead. Minamaru whimpered slightly, squirming underneath the attention.

He kept forgetting why telling Kanaye that his nipples were sensitive was a bad thing. Unfortunately, moments like these reminded him. As soon as he began crying out, Kanaye abandoned his chest altogether, moving back down to nip one set of abs with his teeth.

As Minamaru grabbed at his long red hair, pulling him back up to may more attention to his hard nipples, Kanaye bit down on the petal pink bud, growling slightly while doing it. Minamaru gasped, then pulled the older boy closer, arching more fully into the contact.

"You"

Kanaye kissed the other's collarbone, before biting it punishing.

"lied"

He licked at the opposite bud, before nibbling somewhat hard on it.

"to me."

In his own defense, Minamaru moaned before he was able to answer the older teen.

"I said I'd come -Oh!- back!"

Kanaye looked unbelievingly at the other boy as he continued to rub the other boy's erection through his pants with his one hand.

"I don't think coming back, carried by my father, counts as coming back unharmed."

Kanaye's obsidian eyes narrowed dangerously as the other began to pant, cupping the bulge he was holding carefully.

"Your first A rank mission, and you couldn't even stand on your own as you were carried through the front door."

Minamaru gritted his teeth, and looked up at Kanaye with anger in his own grape colored eyes.

"I can walk now! Ah!… Oooohh…"

He threw his head back, his hands grabbing onto Kanaye's shoulders and tightening as Kanaye began nibbling on his nipple again.

The younger boy's admission amused the red head, if the raised eyebrow, as well as the slight quirk of his lip, were any indication.

"Can you now?"

He sat up, his in-home kimono parted to the belt that held it modestly over his own growing problem. Looking down at his flushed lover, he smirked, then he rolled off of his lover, onto the his feet on the floor and turned back to his frustrated lover.

"Well then, stand up and walk to me."

He moved away from the bed till he sat at the chair close to their balcony window that was across from the bed. Once he sat down, he crossed his arm over his bared chest and stared inquiringly at the blinking boy still on the bed.

After a moment of catching up on what was happening, Minamaru glared at his boyfriend.

"Hey! That's not fair! You kn-know I can't walk like this!"

Kanaye smirked noticeably this time.

"You just said you could walk now. Whatever changed your mind?"

Minamaru hmphed, his eyes a purple orchid with his arousal. Just to prove the smug bastard wrong, he forced his quaking body off of the bed, where it fell not to gracefully to the ground, but still managed to land on his feet (he was still a ninja after all…). Unsteadily, he walked to his lover, more fazed by his erection and his excited body then his earlier wound.

As he made his way to Kanaye, attempting to do so with no problem whatsoever, the redhead didn't even blink, nor did he look away from his younger boyfriend. When Minamaru was finally within reach, looking as if he were hyperventilating, Kanaye snagged him, pulling him onto his lap where he captured the other boy's lips.

Minamaru moaned, curling there like an overgrown cat. Distractedly, he grabbed Kanaye's belt, beginning to untie it-

"Roo-roo, can you watch Koi if she awakens before-…"

Kanaye cursed, his head falling back against the back of the chair. Minamaru stared disbelievingly to the side of the chair, looking at his 'mother' out of the corner of his eyes. Lee himself was red as a flag, eyes impossibly wide as he stared at the spectacle before him.

An awkward silence was held till Kanaye spoke to his horrified chichi.

"Chichi, could you please leave?"

Slowly, his chichi nodded, his mouth set down in shock, not blinking once as he stepped back out of the room. Very, very quietly, he closed the door behind him.

Kanaye and Minamaru remained in their position for another number of minutes, Kanaye looking at the ceiling, Minamaru to the ground.

Finally, Kanaye sighed, picked Minamaru up, then walked to the bed where he dumped his lover. Minamaru bounced till he was comfortably sitting on his bum, looking up at his frustrated lover with humor and horror still.

Silence reigned once again…

Then Minamaru grabbed Kanaye by his belt, pulling the other onto the bed to where the redhead was lying down, rubbing at his eyes still. Minamaru cuddled his head against Kanaye's chest as he had made a habit of doing, not quite sure that making another attempt to make out in the same night would be so smart…

They had tried that before. Usually, the same thing happens that had happened the first time. So he made no inclination of it, allowing himself to loll away into slumber as Kanaye eventually began to stroke his hair.

Silence… Then,

"Does he know what the mission was?"

"Hm?… I don't think so… Raccoon-daddy's certain that mommy would never read his mission files, so he never bothered to tell him… I think he has a way to get out of answering it if mommy asks…"

Kanaye nodded three times, his eyes remaining closed as he stopped rubbing them. He took a deep breath, then wrinkled his nose.

"You smell of sweat and blood."

Minamaru snickered, his eyes half open as he came closer to the edge of awareness.

"You weren't complaining about it a moment ago, Kan-love…"

"Of course not…"

Kanaye drifted his lips through Minamaru's multi colored hair.

"It turns me on…"

Minamaru snorted. Against his hair, Kanaye's mouth twitched up in a smirk.

The position was held like that for another thirty or so minutes. Kanaye continued to stroke Minamaru's hair until his hand went limp in sleep. Minamaru kept smiling even after he had lost all awareness.

Lee refused to tell Gaara why his face was so red when he met with him again.

Ha! You thought I was going to do smut, didn't you? I thought about it… then the fact that Minamaru was 13 bothered me too much to actually do it. Beside that, ridiculously spaced out name fairytales has a specific way she wants their first time to go about like.

If anyone would like to know, and have not checked the reviews for this story, Minamaru is three years younger than Kanaye. He was born on August 13.

No, I'm not skipping Christmas… I'm only skipping it for this year in the story. I have too many ideas in my head to hold off till it's closer to Christmas. I don't want to put the Christmas chapter in so early, either. Trust the author, it's for the best.