Gaara struggled with holding his son. He was so small and fragile. He was too aware that he could break him even with him being a demon vessel. It had been a few days since the memorial and a few weeks since he had been released from the hospital, but he was still not comfortable holding his son on his own. An infant was interesting, but he was also constantly aware of how small and breakable the tiny human was.
His wife found this most amusing at his expense.
"Gaara, you can handle him for a few minutes." She told him, patting his shoulder. The small buddle sat in his arm where she set him. "I just need to take a shower and dry my hair. I will be right back out."
"Shouldn't we get Matsuri or Temari..." Hinata stopped him.
"We can't call them every time I need to put him down. He will be fine with you." She promised. "And don't you try to traumatize him," Hinata told Shukaku directly. "Don't wake him." She further instructed, with that, she disappeared into the bathroom.
He had learned a lot about babies since bringing his son home. Not sleeping through the night was common and not the fault of Shukaku as he had feared. They needed near-constant rest or feeding. Breastfeeding was a curiosity for him, the first time he had seen Hinata feed him, he was so confused he accused her of smothering him. He understood diapers, though that seemed to be his brother's biggest fear. He was still unsure of why. The child couldn't sit on a toilet. The child could not sit up.
His sister and his sister-in-law, while she was still in town, went shopping for the necessity they had never bothered to get. They brought home clothes, toys, and the rocking crib that sat by their bed just at Hinata's reach.
She was much better at this than he was. She called it instinct, but when he screamed, she knew what it meant. He always thought it meant he was hurt; he wasn't sure he had the same ones.
One night a few days ago, Hinata woke him telling him they needed to rush to the hospital. Shukaku had woken her to alert her that Kouki was in pain, and it turned out that he had something called a blocked bowel. A common thing in premature newborns, he was told. He was also told that they would have noticed naturally in a few hours.
He silently thanked Shukaku for treating his son far better under the watchful eye of a tempered mother.
Hinata was back to herself, taking care of everything and everyone, just now with the infant not far off from her grip. She took leave, they both did, but she insisted that she was anxious to get back to work. He kept her out of meetings as she still couldn't go long without having to feed Kouki, but he slept most of the day, so having him in her office didn't hinder her work much.
Baki took his place as council head and revealed that he had known about the pregnancy. He explained why he did this to not only keep the attention off them, as well as assure them that they had considered having the council involved once it was safe. He also informed them she had already gone into labor far too early, not many weeks before but also was collapsing. It was plain to see Hinata and their son were in no health to make council meetings anyway. And there was no way Gaara would be making those decisions without her, he knew nothing, and he knew that the council would try to pressure him, knowing that he knew little.
They had rounds of people visit the child, her cousin once he had finished his duty, a few of her friends he knew of, Matsuri's daughter, and an unwilling Kankuro who claimed his son looked like a potato.
The orphan children wanted to see him as well, but Hinata had to decline as an infant's health is weak so young and children are full of ills they could easily pass him.
Hinata touching his shoulder made him jump. He blinked at her as he realized he had fallen asleep. "I told you you would be fine."
"I could have dropped him." He realized as he quickly handed him to his mother. "Or crushed him when you woke me."
"No, your instincts nor Shukaku-san would have allowed that." She took him anyway with a smile. "Shukaku-san don't laugh." She scolded. He looked down at the small tanuki that formed at her ankles.
He frowned. He wasn't sure he was glad to have him back.
"Head to bed. You're tired."
Hinata jolted awake to the sound of Kouki starting to whimper. She quickly rolled over to put her hand in his crib and peered in. He calmed enough with her light touch to keep him from bursting into a full cry. "Let's let your father sleep, hmm?" She hushed. She sat up and pulled on a robe and picked him up, looking at the time. "You shouldn't be hungry yet." She whispered curiously. She looked down at the inevitable sand tanuki that would be at her ankles. Shukaku's form swirled from her ankles to the bed and proceeded to jump as hard as it could on the Gaara. He jumped startled awake.
"Shukaku-san?!" Hinata squeaked, trying to pull him away, but he just ran through her fingers.
"What is it?" Gaara blinked, looking quickly at Hinata and her bundle.
"I'm not sure. Kouki-san just woke up, and then Shukaku..." She looked up at the window at the sand storm raging past the window, making it impossible to see past it. "Why isn't the siren going off?"
Gaara's head whipped to the window, and he rushed to put clothes on Hinata, put down Kouki, and started to do the same. "What are you doing?" Gaara asked.
"You need me to see," Hinata told him as she finished picking Kouki back up.
"You need to be with Kouki, he's not coming." He demanded.
"Someone can look after him for a while. We need to make sure the villagers are safe." She snapped back.
"Hinata," Gaara growled.
"I am not arguing about this, Gaara. Me having a child does not exclude me from duty. Do you understand me?" She snapped louder. "Now, we shouldn't be wasting time arguing."
She rushed down the hall to wake Temari leaving Gaara to trail behind to catch her pace.
The siren tower was clasped in the rubble. Hinata found three nin inside, two injured, one dead. The two injured claimed the storm picked up quickly and tossed one of the smaller structures into the tower. By the time they had activated the siren, it was disconnected.
The backup siren was soon activated on the top of the Kazekage tower. After a few hours of checking walls and pulling people trapped in by the storm, she was feeling those late-night feedings. She hadn't had a solid night's sleep since Kouki was born, and this was most work she had done as she had just got back to training.
The sun rose though you could barely tell. She was meant to have several meetings today.
As they touched down in the tower, she heard the familiar sound of Kouki's crying. "I can't get him to stop. He started wailing after you two left and hasn't stopped in hours." Temari told her wearily.
"He's probably hungry." Hinata sighed.
Temari shook her head. "I tried to feed him a bottle, but he just kept spitting it out."
"Where's Shukaku-san?" She asked, looking around.
"I… thought he came from Gaara's sand." Temari wondered.
"But… that's not the only sand..." Hinata looked back at Gaara, wondering if the sand he used regularly was easier for the baby's chakra to control because she knew Gaara could manipulate more than the sand that he regularly carried. It was just more difficult. "I'll go get some to be sure."
It was an odd request to ask Gaara to dump out of his sand out for her. The floor surely didn't need any more of it. But just as she thought, a small Tankui formed and launched in her hands. "We need a separate container for Kouki." She realized. "At least until he is strong enough to put his chakra in the sand himself."
Gaara didn't seem to understand, but he was too tired and busy, and it was something they could talk about later.
She took the tanuki back over to Kouki. "There is that better?" She wondered, holding the sand beast up to him.
He stopped crying and only whimpered.
"I don't remember Gaara doing that." Temari blinked. "He just kinda started forming sand around him when he was young, and it built up until we got him the gourd."
"I don't think Kouki and Gaara are the same. I'm not sure if it has to do with Gaara being born with Shukaku-san and Kouki being born before, but I think he will need more help controlling his sand." Hinata hummed. "Or maybe it's because he's Hyuga. We have a lot of chakra focused around our eyes when we are born. Maybe he needs time to adjust, but until we figure it out, we should just keep him his own sand."
Hinata smiled down at the ball of sand. "And it's safer to have sand nearby so you can protect him, right?" Hinata had a suspicion that was the real reason Shukaku was making him cry. He didn't feel safe not having any sand to keep near his vessel.
"We are just going to have to figure this out as we go."