Shinycry- thank you for your reviews and to those who just read! Sorry for not updating this fic sooner, my bad. I want to say thanks for the people who reviewed! On to the fic!
Disclaimer- shinycry does not own Naruto

Chapter 3

As they walk outside, a thought occurs to Naruto, bringing him to a halt. When Iruka notices Naruto's sudden stop, he asks "Is there something wrong?"

"Well, I just thought of something. Who's going to be Gaara's dad?"

"…huh?" Iruka stands there dumbfound, not quite getting what Naruto is asking.

Naruto continues on, "He chose you to be his mommy, so he's probably going to choose someone to be his daddy. I'm just wondering who. The only other adult who's going to be hanging around him is going to Kakashi-sensei. But if you ask me, Kakashi-sensei is so not father material."

"Oh, you think I'm not father material? I'm hurt" a voice says from above Naruto. Slowly looking up to meet an eye staring down at him, Naruto jumps in the air with a 'yep'. Naruto's yep is loud enough to wake up little Gaara, who yawns and starts rubbing his eyes with his tiny fist.

"Look what you did? You woke him up Naruto!" Sakura starts smacking Naruto around, trying desperately to get some common sense into the boy. Naruto starts to run in circles as Sakura chases after him, every now and then getting a good whack on Naruto's head.

"OW! That hurts, please OW! Stop that OW! Sakura!"

Already use to the scene in front of him, Sasuke turns his attention to his sensei. "Do you think you're father material, Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke asks.

Kakashi's cheerful reply is, "Why do you think I have no kids?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes, not at all surprise by the answer. Actually he would have been somewhat scared if his sensei did say 'yes' to his question. For once in his life, he agrees with Naruto on their sensei so not being father material.

Meanwhile, Iruka greets Gaara with a warm smile and it gets warmer when Gaara yawns again. 'So cute…' he thinks. "Did you have a nice nap, Ga-chan?" Gaara nods and turns his head to see what the other people were doing. To make it easier for Gaara, Iruka shifts him to his hip instead of having him press up against his chest.

"You know, Iruka, you're good mother material. You sure have the hips for it." Kakashi said as he petted Gaara's head like he was one of his dogs. Gaara looked up to give Kakashi a sour expression before using his small hands to push off the offending hand on his head.

"Leave him alone Kakashi, he just woke up from a nap." Iruka blushes as he slaps Kakashi's hand away which was teasing a puffy Gaara who's now glaring at Kakashi.

"See what I mean, you're so mother material. What a shame you weren't born a woman" now that would have earned Kakashi a kick to the ass by Naruto if he didn't side-step.

After Naruto picks himself off the dirt, he turns to look at Kakashi with angry eyes. "Stop picking on Iruka-sensei and Gaara! There's no way Gaara would chose you to be his dad, bastard-sensei!"

"Naruto, language!"

"Sorry."

"But you know Naruto, Gaara does have a father as well as a sister and a brother." Sakura says. Ever since Tsunade put Iruka in charge of caring for Gaara, Sakura had some questions on her mind she was curious about. But she knows she's going to have to wait until the right opportunity presents itself to ask them.

"Besides, Gaara chose Iruka-sensei to be his mother right when he saw him. As for Kakashi-sensei, Gaara has been around him for a couple of hours now and has made no indication of him wanting Kakashi-sensei to be his father, because like I said before, he already has a father." Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi make a 'oh, that's right' face.

Whenever Sakura mentioned Gaara's father, Gaara would tighten his hold on his mother's vest, which didn't go unnoticed by Iruka. The first instinct that hit Iruka was to comfort the child in his arms. "Ga-chan, what's wrong? You can tell me."

"Me no like my daddy, he's mean. He never let big sister and big brother play with me, he let no one play with me." Gaara hugs Iruka with his small arms and buries his face into Iruka's neck. "But me wanted to play with someone…" If it wasn't for the closeness, Iruka wouldn't have been able to hear the small whisper of loneliness which just broke his heart to hear.

'To have your own father be the one to isolate you is beyond human. What was he thinking doing that to his own son? Obvious to him blood is not thicker than water…' Iruka thought bitterly. "Shh, it's okay Ga-chan. Don't worry about him, you're with me and I'll always play with you. Plus look, you also have Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi to play with you. Right?" Iruka places his hand on little Gaara's head and with his shoulder, encourages him to look at the others.

"Yeah I'll play with you, Gaara! We'll have so much fun together!" Naruto cheerfully says as he jumps on Iruka's right side, opposite to were Iruka is holding Gaara.

This surprises Iruka, knocking him off balance which causes him to stumble forward a bit. If it wasn't for the body in front of him and the arms around his waist, he would have probably squashed poor Gaara.

"Er, thanks Kakashi. I, um, appreciate you catching us and yeah" Iruka really doesn't know what else to say.

"No problem."

Sasuke and Sakura stare at the odd scene in front of them. It looks like Kakashi is embracing Iruka but not really because Gaara's in the middle, trying his best to separate Kakashi from his mother. Plus you had Naruto hanging off of Iruka's back, sticking out his tongue to his sensei saying, "You can let go now, Kakashi-sensei. Hands off!"

"Just making sure he has his balance back which you threw off, brat."

"Sure Kakashi-sensei" Naruto rolls his eyes. Gaara smiles once Kakashi got his hands off his mother and proceeds to hug his mother, looking quite content to have him back to himself.

"I think Gaara here has a mother complex." Kakashi could have sworn Gaara was laughing at him in the inside.

"You're just being silly now, Kakashi."

"Don't you mean stupid instead of silly, Iruka-sensei?"

"Naruto!"

"Sorry!"

"Anyway, it's going to be dinner time soon and you three still need to pack some of your belongings to take to my house." Iruka thinks about it for minute before coming up with a plan. "How about this, Gaara, Sakura, and I will do some grocery shopping" he pauses to see if that's okay with the pink hair girl who smiles a 'yes', before continuing, "while you three guys go get what you need to stay over for a couple of weeks. We'll meet back up here in an hour. This should be more than enough time for you guys." Naruto and Sasuke both know that sentence is more for Kakashi than them.

"From here, I'll take you to where you'll be staying for a while. Does anyone have any questions?"

They all shake their heads in responds, "Good. Shall we get going, Sakura? Maybe we'll get an outfit or two for Gaara. Even though I'm pretty sure I have some clothes already that should fit him nicely."

Sakura's eyes lit up at the thought of shopping for little Gaara, who didn't really seem to care so long as he could be near his mother. "Yes Iruka-sensei! Let's go." And off they went.

Kakashi and Sasuke were about to do the same thing in taking off when Naruto stops them with one of his questions.

"Do you think Iruka-sensei well mind a sandbox in his backyard for Gaara?"

TBC

Shinycry- I know I could have done better in this chapter, oh well. Thank you for reading and please review! If I have at least one review saying for me to continue, then I well. Remember suggestions are welcome. Or if you're curious about something in my story, please feel free to ask about it. The next chapter might take some time or it might not, depends if anything comes to mind. Until then, later…