Gaara struggled with holding his son. He was so small and fragile. Gaara 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 Kouki was released from the hospital, but Gaara was still uncomfortable holding his son on his own. An infant was interesting, but Gaara 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," Hinata patted his shoulder after setting the tiny bundle in his arm. "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." Hinata promised. "And don't you try to traumatize him," Hinata told Shukaku. "Don't wake him." She further instructed, and with that, she disappeared into the bathroom.

Gaara learned a lot about babies since bringing his son home. Not sleeping through the night was expected and not the fault of Shukaku, as he feared. They needed near-constant rest or feeding. Breastfeeding was a curiosity for him. The first time he saw 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. Gaara was still unsure of why. The child couldn't sit on a toilet. The child could not sit up.

Temari and Hanabi, while she was still in town, went shopping for the necessities they never bothered to get. They brought home clothes, toys, and the rocking crib that sat by their bed just at Hinata's reach.

Hinata 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 woke her to alert her that Kouki was in pain, and it turned out that he had a blocked bowel, common in premature newborns, he was told. He was also told they would have noticed naturally in a few hours.

Gaara 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 from her grip. She took leave, and they both did, but she insisted she was anxious to return 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 to keep the attention off them and assure the council that they considered having the council involved once it was safe. He also informed them of her labor scare only a few weeks before. It was plain to see Hinata and their son could not make council meetings anyway. And there was no way Gaara would be making those decisions without her.

Rounds of people visited the child, her cousin once he finished his duty, a few of her friends he knew of, and an unwilling Kankuro who claimed his son looked like a potato.

Hinata touching his shoulder made him jump. Gaara blinked at her as he realized he had fallen asleep. "I told you, you would be fine."

"I could have dropped him." Gaara handed him to her. "Or crushed him when you woke me."

"No, your instincts wouldn't have allowed that." Hinata took Kouki anyway with a smile. "Shukaku-san don't laugh." Gaara looked down at the small tanuki that formed at her ankles.

Gaara 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 rolled over to put her hand in his crib and peered in. Kouki calmed enough with her light touch to keep him from bursting into a full cry. "Let's let your father sleep, hmm?" Hinata sat up, pulled on a robe, and picked him up, looking at the time. "You shouldn't be hungry yet," Hinata whispered curiously. Shukaku's form swirled from her ankles to the bed, and proceeded to jump as hard as he could on the Gaara. He jumped, startled awake.

"Shukaku-san?!" Hinata tried to pull him away, but he ran through her fingers.

"What is it?" Gaara glanced at Hinata and her bundle.

"I'm not sure. Kouki-san just woke up, and then Shukaku…" Hinata 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 rushed to put clothes on. Hinata put down Kouki and started to do the same. "What are you doing?"

"You need me to see," Hinata told him as she picked Kouki back up.

"You need to be with Kouki. He's not coming," Gaara demanded.

"Someone can look after him for a while. We need to make sure the villagers are safe." Hinata 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?" Hinata snapped louder. "Now, we shouldn't be wasting time arguing."

Hinata 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 and tossed one of the smaller structures into the tower. By the time they activated the siren, it was disconnected.

The backup siren was activated on the top of the Kazekage tower. After a few hours of checking walls and pulling people trapped in by the storm, Hinata was feeling those late-night feedings. She hadn't had a solid night's sleep since Kouki was born, and this was the most work she had done since she had 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, Hinata 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 feeding him a bottle, but he kept spitting it out."

"Where's Shukaku-san?" Hinata turned her head.

"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 he regularly carried. It was just more difficult. "I'll go get some to be sure."

It was odd to ask Gaara to dump some of his sand for her. The floor surely didn't need any more of it. But as she thought, a small tanuki formed and launched in her hands. "We need a separate container for Kouki." Hinata 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.

Hinata took the tanuki back over to Kouki. "There, is that better?"

Kouki 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 unsure if it is due to 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 they need time to adjust, but we should keep him on his own until we figure it out."

Hinata smiled down at the ball of sand. "And it's safer to have sand nearby so that 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 will have to figure this out as we go."