Hey, check it! I finally got it out! Actually, my roomie left tonight and is going to be away for 9 whole weeks and I was feeling incredibly lonely. So I decided to pick on Gaara. Although, he's not as Snarky in this chapter as he probably should be, but oh well. Lots of Kizuko in this one, so I apologize, but I felt I needed to get this particular snag out of the way. Also, no lemon yet…but there will be!! Next chapter, I swear!

Which I will try to get out sooner than this one got out, but I find that one of my biggest problems is that I don't have any friends around here that are both into Naruto and like GaaNaru. So I can't discuss plot or character ideas with anyone and get feedback from that that makes me want to write. It kind of sucks. Anyone out there into FoD enough that they'd like to kick around ideas with me?

Oh yes!! Also!! I'VE GOT FANART!!!! How freakin' awesome is that?!!! FoD has it's first official fanart!!! Go check my bio page to find the link since ff.net is pissy about links within stories. (btw, if someone knows how to do that PLEASE email me and let me in on that particular mystery of the universe)

Go look at it and see how utterly gorgeous it is and tell Aki how awesome an artist she is!! What are you waiting for? GO!! LOOK!!


Naruto awoke to the strangest sensations.

For one thing, the small body that should be curled up next to him on the futon was missing. For another, he was completely surrounded by warmth. He hadn't been held much in his twenty odd years of life, but he remembered that this is how it felt. It was nice. Yawning, he nuzzled into the blankets below him and realized the blankets were kind of bony and had a heartbeat. Oh…Oh!

Blinking sleepily, he looked up at the face above him. Slender hands brushed some wayward hair out of his eyes. The blonde gave a small smile.

"Hi there."

There was a soft snort. "Isn't the correct response 'good morning'?"

The blonde yawned and stretched. "Actually…I think the correct response is this."

With that, he slid an arm around Gaara's neck and pulled the Sand nin down for a kiss. And then promptly pouted when the redhead made a face.

"What? You were all Mister Physical last night."

"Last night you didn't have morning breath."

"Oh bite me."

If Naruto were a smart boy, he would have noticed the gleam of mischief that entered the green eyes above him. But then again, this was Naruto.

"If you insist."

Gaara seemed to have remembered that one particular spot on the blonde's neck from the previous night and gave it a light nip. Blue eyes went wide, glazing over and Naruto gasped. Morning breath or no, he pulled the other man down for another kiss. Had he not been otherwise engaged, he probably would have noticed the soft sounds in the other room.

"Mmm…"

Had he not been occupied he probably would have the small footsteps within the main room that were fast approaching the door. Gaara, on the other hand, had lived through most of his formative years on the look out for assassination attempts. It tended to make one paranoid and aware of their surroundings.

Being the nice somewhat homicidal ninja that he was, he broke the liplock just as the door creaked open and a small voice called out in horrified shock. "Papa?"

Gaara found himself practically shoved across the room, as Naruto immediately broke out of his dazed state.

"Kitling! You're awake!" The blonde began straightening his clothes in an attempt to not look thoroughly molested. Gaara smirked, even if he had been shoved away.

Suddenly the little girl's lip began to stick out and she began sniffing. Gaara wasn't quite sure what was going on…surely she wasn't…Naruto, having a few more years experience at this sort of thing, knew an impending crying fit when he saw one.

"What's wrong, Kitling?" he asked his best diplomatic voice.

"Papa wasn't there when Kizuko woke up."

"I'm sorry, Kitling…Papa had to…err…make sure Gaara slept alright." The blonde sweatdropped slightly, and Gaara snickered softly across the room. The look the little one gave him then would have scared a lesser man into soiling himself. But, Gaara being Gaara simply returned it with a good glare of his own. The tension in the room became nearly palpable when Naruto gave a nervous laugh.

"Okay, so who wants breakfast?"

Slipping past the other occupant of the room and the little blonde in the doorway, Naruto walked to the kitchen and began rummaging around.

A bit later, the three sat at the table in silence. Kizuko glared at Gaara, Gaara glared back. Naruto looked back and forth between the two and sighed, looking to his rice bowl for the correct way to handle the situation.

The rice bowl was amazingly unhelpful.

Kizuko set her bowl on the table and placed her chopsticks on top of it.

"Kizuko is done."

She slipped down from the high seat and stomped to their room. Naruto sighed again and glanced a Gaara.

"Give us a minute, will you?"

The Sand nin shrugged.

Steeling himself, the blonde walked to the door of the room and then entered. For a moment he just stood there and watched the miniature version of himself sit on the unmade futon, her arms crossed and pouting for all she was worth.

"Hey there, Kitling." He said coming to sit next to her on the futon. She didn't say anything or acknowledge his presence.

"So…want to tell Papa why you're upset?"

Silence.

"Is it Gaara?"

Still silence, but one blue eye stared balefully at him from beneath blonde fringe.

"Ah. Look, yesterday Papa and Gaara had a little…misunderstanding about you, but it's okay now. But Gaara's not a bad guy, really. And since he's going to be staying awhile, it would really mean…"

"No."

The word was so quick and so forceful it cut him short and made him blink.

"What?"

"Not stay."

"Now, Kitling…"

"Not Stay."

Naruto frowned, his voice taking on a serious tone. "Now, Look, young lady. If Papa say's he's staying, then he's staying. Got it?"

"NO STAY!!!"

She was standing up, looking him the eye, her own eyes burning bright with stubbornness. Yet another of the many many things he had in common with her. Naruto may have been a father, but he was also still fairly young and had been alone most of his life. Therefore he was still immature and unaware of how to handle the sitituation at times.

"Yes, he is!!! If I say he's staying than he is damn well staying, so GET USE TO IT!!!!!" he roared back.

"Kizuko hates him!! NO STAY!!"

"WELL TOO BAD!!"

"KIZUKO HATES PAPA!!!!!"

Naruto felt a sharp, sudden pain to his heart. It filled him and he couldn't move, could think, all of his senses shut down and there was just this overwhelming sense of pain that flooded through him. Duller than a rusty kunai, slower than poison, more painful than being exiled. Tears flooded his eyes as he watched his daughter run out of the room and then out of the cabin, the doors slamming in her wake.

Gaara had sat calmly through the screaming match he heard occurring between father and daughter. He had stood, straight as a board, when the little one screamed her last words, anger and shock washing over him. She had run past him without a glance and he had let her, the redhead was more concerned with the other blonde at the moment. He entered the room and found Naruto on the futon, pale with slight tremors wracking his frame. Blue eyes were wide and blank, with tears pouring from them.

"She hates me…she hates me…she hates me…"

He knelt next to the blonde, placing a hand on his shoulder. "No, she's just upset."

"No! She hates me, she said it!! She's my reason…the only reason I…And she hates me! I can't…I can't …" He moved from the futon and began frantically searching the room.

Gaara frowned. "What are you looking for?"

"Kunai. I can't…she hates me, so there's no reason…"

He was really too out of it to notice the sand until it had him fully trapped. He couldn't move, he realized and began struggling in earnest.

"Let me go!! I have to…"

"You," The Sand nin snarled, pointing finger at him. "will not move. You will not find that kunai. You will stay there until I go haul your brat of a daughter back and then you will sit down and discuss this with her like reasonable people, and I know I'm expecting a lot there since you're both Uzumakis, but you will attempt it. She is upset. She does not hate you. And stop fighting that sand! It's not moving until I tell it to, so get comfortable."

With that, Uzumaki Naruto watched helplessly pinned to a wall by sand as Gaara of the Desert stalked out of his home intent on finding his daughter. It occurred to him about five minutes later that he had just watched Gaara of the Desert channel Umino Iruka and decided that the world was a strange frightening place. But is did seem to have a very odd sense of humor.

Gaara stalked through the forest surrounding the cabin, following the girl's trail. It shouldn't have been a difficult thing to do considering that she had never been trained and was upset. Shouldn't have, being the key words there. Apparently being half fox demon gave one an innate sense of how to cover one's tracks. Cursing, he stopped looking around for some clue as to which direction the brat had gone in.

There. A few broken branches in the undergrowth to his right.

Turning right, he continued on until a high pitched shriek and the roar of an animal echoed through the forest a little ways ahead of him. Crap. If he let Naruto's daughter die then he'd never get laid. Racing forward, the redhead came to a clearing and saw the little blonde backed up against a tree being cornered by a wild boar. Of course, because that was just the way his luck worked, the boar decided to charge the girl at that moment. Gaara rolled his eyes.

Kizuko squeezed her eyes shut and cowered as the boar charged forward. It was obviously very angry and decided to take it out on her. Papa…

There was a scream from the boar and some grunting but it wasn't hurting her, she realized. Peeking open an eye, she saw a wall of sand covering her and keeping her from seeing what was happening. It was then very quite and then the sand in front of her began shifting and sliding away. Glupping, she saw the Panda Eyed Lunatic standing in front of her glaring.

"Proud of yourself?" He asked coldly.

She glared at him.

"Come on, your father's a mess." He reached out to grab her arm.

"NO!" She snatched her arm back and backed away from the redhead.

Gaara felt the familiar homicidal urges rising up in him. Can't kill her, won't get laid. Can't kill her, won't get laid. Can't kill her, won't get laid. And so on went the mantra.

"Why not?" he asked through gritted teeth.

She looked at her feet…and was that a sniffle he heard?

"Papa not need Kizuko anymore."

Desert Sun help him, it was. He resisted the urge to rub his temples at the incoming headache.

"And you say that, why?"

"Has Gaara now. Not need Kizuko."

It was as if some one had flicked the light bulb over his head to make it turn on.

"That's why you don't want me to stay? Because you think I'm going to take him away?"

She nodded, glumly.

"Dear Sands, you even got his stupidity." He muttered to himself. And then louder to her, "Okay, I'm only explaining this once, so listen. Your father is never going to leave you. He is never going to not need you. You are his most important person, and he's yours, right?"

She nodded.

"You will always need each other. He almost died so he could have you. I am not going to take him away from you. But."

She finally looked up at him, sensing this was serious.

"He's one of my most important people too."
"Can have?"
"Have what?"

"More than one most important persons."

Now why in the Desert would she…oh, right. It had only been her and Naruto since she was born. He was the only other person she had met. Well, that explained a lot.

"Yes, you can. You can also share most important people."

"Soo…Kizuko can share Papa with Gaara?"

"Right."

"And Papa can share Gaara with Kizuko?"

Twitch. "I…suppose."

Kizuko nodded to herself, pigtails bouncing with the motion. "Right. Tell Papa now."

"And apologize."

She looked at him curiously.

Gaara sighed as he scooped the little blonde up so they would make it back quicker.

"For saying you hate him. It really hurt him. Everyone has always told them they hate him, except for you. And then you said it and it really really hurt him."

Kizuko looked at him with wide eyes, biting her lip as they traveled along.

"Kizuko love Papa." She said quietly.

"Good. Go tell him."

They traveled in silence for a little while. Kizuko then hesitantly placed her arms around Gaara's neck and looked at him intently.

"Gaara…"
"What?"

"Will Gaara be one of Kizuko's most important people?"

"We'll see." He replied, fighting a small smile.

Traveling through the treetops, proved a much quicker way of travel and they soon found themselves back in front of the cabin door. Gaara set Kizuko down and opened the door. The little girl ran to the room where her father was, The Sand nin close behind her. He quietly called the sand imprisoning Naruto back to him and left the two Uzumakis to make up.

"Papa!" She hugged him tightly. "Kizuko love…Sorry. Kizuko mad, but better."

Naruto blinked, and then blinked again to hold back tears as he returned the embrace and holding his daughter close. "…Thank you, kitling. Papa was mad too. And I need to say I'm sorry too. I really like Gaara, but if you don't want him to stay…"

"Stay! Kizuko share Papa with Gaara."

"Really?"
"Really."

"Thank you, Kitling."

"Maybe Papa share Gaara with Kizuko!"

Naruto nearly snorted with laughter. "Er…we'll see, Kitiling. Papa's going to talk to Gaara for a minute, okay?"

Kizuko hugged him tight and kissed his cheek before letting go and received a return kiss on the forehead for her trouble.

Naruto exited the room and slid up to the Sand nin who was staring out the window trying very hard to look like he wasn't interested.

"Thank you."

"Hey, I just did what I had to to keep you alive."

"Mmmhmm. So…I hear I may have to 'share' you with Kizuko?"

" I have no clue what you're talking about."

"I'll bet you don't, you big softie. So much for the big tough 'I'm Psychopath who's going to kill you for fun and profit' act."

"Oh shut up."

The blonde slid an arm around Gaara's waist and rested his chin on the other's shoulder, a convenient place for talking seductively into another's ear.

"I'm just hoping I don't have to 'share' in quite the same ways as her."

"Oh…?"

"Mmm. I think she can have you all she wants during the day, but I get you at night."

"I think that can be arranged."

"Good."

Naruto leaned over and kissed the readhead hard. His right hand brushed lightly against the other's left side and he felt Gaara twitch suspiciously. Curious, he repeated the motion. The same twitch occurred. The blonde grinned evilly.

"You're ticklish."

"I most certainly am not !" The sand nin replied a little too quickly.

"Oh, yes you are!" Naruto crowed. He produced two shadow clones and pounced on the hapless redhead.

"Kitling! Come help me!"

Kizuko raced out of the room to see three of Papa hold down a scowling Gaara. She looked rather puzzled until the one on top of Gaara looked at her and said. "Gaara's ticklish."

Identical foxy grins of evil crossed their faces.

Gaara wondered as he tried to fight off the Attack of the Blondes without much violence what the hell he had just gotten himself into.