Gaara's old family had never been too nice. His brother and sister were people he'd never actually been able to spend time with because they'd never been allowed to be together. Uncle Yashamaru had said that it was because his older siblings had to focus on their schooling so they could become proper ninja. But Gaara had never understood just why it was that they had lived in completely different homes…

His new family was not the usual kind of nice Gaara had been told about by his Uncle. But that didn't mean Gaara didn't love them.

"Quick, Gaara! The old man can't catch us!"

"Kiba, get back here and finish your math problems!"

Gaara smiled as soon as he saw the blur that was his best friend, only to have a much bigger shadow follow after him.

Mr. Old Man didn't really like it whenever Kiba tried to run away from his lessons. He wanted Kiba to learn so he could have the proper knowledge to survive later on in life.

Kiba didn't like learning math. He liked learning about weapons, fighting, and how to be a ninja. But math was something he had always hated. And no matter how many times Mr. Old Man sat him down and growled at him to finish his work or else, Kiba never truly took a shine to completing his work.

Beside him, Gaara could hear his newest friend sighing.

Haku was quiet, much quieter than anybody Gaara had ever met before. But he was respectful and kind; he'd helped Gaara make lunch one day when Kiba had pissed Mr. Old Man so much that he had sworn he would cook for none of them.

"Why does he insist on running away?"

Gaara smiled over at him, "Because he's Kiba. He's already smart enough."

The boy with the long hair quirked a thin eyebrow, then asked, "But how can he be smart when he doesn't know how to do math?"

"He just is." Gaara shrugged, then pointed at the happily laughing boy as he jumped from tree branch to tree branch, "See? He's making Mr. Old Man chase after him and is making him really work to catch him. He has to be smart to give him trouble; Mr. Old Man is really smart too."

Just as he said this, Kiba stopped running, stuck his tongue out at his pursuer, and Akamaru yipped from the collar of his shirt. Gaara could tell that the puppy was taunting the man as well.

"You little brat!"

Right when Mr. Old Man was about to put his hands on him, though, Kiba dropped from the tall branch and continued running on the floor.

Mr. Old Man screamed in frustration but threw himself at the ground and continued after the boy.

"Kiba is really smart."

~/~

When Zabuza finally managed to catch Kiba, he tied him down onto his chair, roughly slammed the notebook filled with math problems in front of the brat, and held onto the struggling Akamaru to make sure the pup couldn't free his master.

This was the second time Akamaru helped free Kiba after Zabuza had tied him up. And, while it was commendable to see such a tight partnership, Zabuza didn't think he could tolerate much more of this running away nonsense.

"You have to finish these math problems. If you don't, I'm going to cook Akamaru for dinner."

In the earlier days of their odd partnership, Zabuza was sure that this threat would have caused some kind of distress within both of them. Now, though, Kiba merely sneered at him and growled, "You love him too much!"

The man rolled his eyes, forced his head down so he was looking down at the problems, and walked away from him.

Seated on one of the two beds inside of the small hotel, Gaara and Haku were looking at him with rapt attention.

… This was his life… He was merely entertainment for three children… Why in the world did he even bother?

… Right… Weapons of mass destruction. Loyal weapons. That's what he wanted out of these three brats.

Suppressing the exasperated sigh he wanted to release, Zabuza walked over to them, plopped the growling puppy into Haku's hands, and told the kid to watch after him. He had already learned that, no matter how much he threatened or grouched, Gaara was not someone he could trust with when it came to keeping Akamaru under control. The kid liked him too much to ever stop him from having his way.

These two followed rules somewhat well… Haku was better at listening to him than Gaara, but that was simply because the Suna native was (unfortunately) always influenced by Kiba.

"Did you run your training exercises?"

"Yes."

"Did you finish the work I gave you?"

Once again, both of them nodded.

Turning to look over at Kiba, the man found the kid glaring down at the math problem and hissing at them.

How someone could hate math so much was well and truly beyond Zabuza…

"Once Kiba finishes, I'll have you three spar to see how far you've come."

~/~

It took Kiba three hours to finish the twenty simple problems.

Zabuza was just about ready to call it quits on him and allow him to live his life without knowing how to complete anything related to numbers.

Outside in the forest, Kiba was all energy and excitement. He loved the idea of being able to fight against his friends to see just how much he had learned under Zabuza's tutelage.

Gaara was equally excited, with his bright green eyes showing off how truly eager he was to be able to spend even more time with his friends. Zabuza knew that Gaara wasn't really excited for the fighting- he was a much more peaceful soul than Kiba. Instead, he was eager to be able to see Kiba in action.

(For some reason beyond him, Gaara truly thought that Kiba was a genius and his word was final. This was Zabuza's greatest regret of having allowed their friendship to form.)

And Haku was composed, but Zabuza could see the spark of worry within his eyes. Even though he had yet to fully gage the extent of Haku's abilities, he knew that the kid was extremely powerful- his clan had been potent for a reason, after all. Most probably, he was worried over hurting his friends.

Outside in a clearing within the forest; far away from the hotel they were staying in; Zabuza watched over his students as they fought with each other.

The first spar was between Kiba and Haku and it did not take a genius to know that the oldest of the two was holding back during the whole fight. While Kiba used brute forced to back Haku into a corner, the boy with the long hair merely deflected the attacks and kept up a perfect, yet frustrating defense.

The winner of the match was decided by him after five minutes of a continuous onslaught that lost no energy. Kiba bared his teeth with pride while Haku merely sighed in clear relief.

As he pondered over who he should have spar with Gaara- Kiba would undoubtedly get hurt, Haku wouldn't fight him, and he knew that if he faced the kid, Gaara would begin to worry about his skills and that was not something he needed- a strange chakra signature entered their clearing.

Zabuza immediately turned around to see who was foolish enough to cross his path, expecting to see some cocky and overeager bounty hunter eager to cash in on his head.

What he found, though, reminded him more of a hermit than anything else.

With a large cloak draped over its hunched body, a large figure hobbled over to them. Zabuza was not able to see a face, although he did know that there was a head to speak of from the hood pulled over it.

Instead of introducing himself, the figure walked directly to Gaara.

The young boy looked at him with wide green eyes, a broad smile suddenly appearing on his chubby face.

"Sasori!"

As soon as he heard the name, Zabuza was sent on edge.

This was Sasori? Sasori of the Red Sands?! What in the world was he doing here?

"Gaara… I have been looking for you."

"You have?" Gaara suddenly jumped up, hands wrapping around what Zabuza presumed to be the man's neck. "Oh, Sasori, you've got to meet my family! They're awesome!"

"Who's Sasori?" Kiba called out to Gaara, who smiled over at him and jumped down from hugging the man so he could pull him over to Kiba.

"Sasori's only the best person in the world!" The kid answered animatedly, then pouted softly, "Well, after you, and Mr. Old Man, of course."

Kiba nodded with a smirk, as if proud of his own importance in Gaara's life having been established rather high, and began to walk up to them both.

Zabuza was a good way's away from the kids and the presumed puppeteer. He could run away while the puppeteer was too busy paying attention to the brats… No, he wouldn't manage to get very far if he chose to do that. Sasori was too good a ninja to properly run away from if he hadn't been wounded. Besides, if he did that, he'd have to leave the brats behind. And if he did that, all of his headaches would have been for nothing.

"Mr. Old Man?" Sasori's gravelly, deep, and incredibly inhuman sounding voice rumbled from beneath the cloak, turning his covered head in the direction Zabuza was standing in.

The Missing Nin regretted most of his life choices in that very instant.

But there wasn't much to do.

So he dug himself deeper into his grave.

"Zabuza. Kid refuses to call me by my name."

"Because I have to be respectful!"

So infuriatingly respectful...

"Zabuza Momochi." The man's attention was taken by Sasori once more as the man began to lumber in his direction. "I've heard of you... You took something precious from me. I don't take kindly to-"

"Hey, Sasori, don't be mad with him. I wanted him to take me."

Zabuza frowned at Gaara, but stayed silent.

The kid was trying to save him?

He had to suppress the small smirk that wanted to grow on his face.

Loyal weapons

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