Gaara was in the bathroom, shaving. White foam covered his jaws and chin. He held onto the sink with his right hand while using the blade on his face with his left hand. Shinki opened the door to the bathroom very casually without saying a word. He stood next to his father in front of the sink. Gaara looked at his son from the corner of his eye. Shinki took the shaving foam tube and poured it on his hands in abundance. He placed the tube back and slapped himself while making himself dirty in the process. There was foam in his hair, on his clothes and all over his face. He then took one of his father's blades and started caressing his face with it because his face was hairy only in his imagination. Gaara stopped to take a good look at him.

"What are you doing?"

"Shaving. I have to look good, just like you. I can't go out in the world looking like this."

Gaara started laughing. He shook his head with his eyes closed and continued doing his job in front of the mirror. A few minutes later, Sakura passed by. She saw the door open and decided to take a peek. She liked to know everything that was going on in the house.

"Aaaaah!" She suddenly screamed in fear and without a warning, so Shinki was scared enough to lose balance. Gaara just slowly turned his head towards her.

Sakura ran to the mirror and took the blade out of Shinki's hand.

"Are you crazy? Do you want to cut yourself? Why did you let him do this?" She asked the last question looking at Gaara with an icy gaze.

"Me?" Gaara asked as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Who else?"

"Mom, don't worry. Nothing happened. I just wanted to be like dad."

Gaara smiled and put his hand on the crown of the boy's head.

"What do you mean nothing happened? Look at how dirty you are. What did you put in your hair?"

"I am like a pig." Shinki laughed with his loud squeaky voice.

"And you're proud of it, aren't you? Do you want to be punished on the first day of vacation?"

"No! No! Please mother."

"Sakura, the sand doesn't let anything hurt him. There was no harm done. He was just playing."
Sakura gave her husband a look, but didn't say anything further. She didn't want to fight right before leaving on their honeymoon.

"Come on, I will wash you." Sakura took the boy by the armpits and placed him in the bath tub. She wiped his face with a white wet towel before washing his hair.

"Close your mouth." Sakura told Shinki because he kept trying to talk in the most inappropriate moments, making water, soap and shaving foam enter his mouth.

Gaara laughed to himself, although he was a little irritated. Sakura liked ending their fun, but today was the departure day and he really needed a vacation. Family trips are the best because he spends time with the 2 most important people in his life, who don't stress him, who take care of him and love him. It is a pride for a man to be able to afford a vacation with his wife and kid with the money he worked hard for. The fact that he can provide this for them is an accomplishment in itself because what does a man work for if not for his family? Where does a man reap the fruits of labor if not from the family?

Both Sakura and Gaara agreed to leave to a place where nobody would recognize them because Sakura wanted him only to herself. She was jealous of all the attention he received in the village before getting married because he was handsome and a strong man.

They all got into the train to the Land of Bears. It was Sakura's idea. It was spring and a trip to the mountains would be the perfect occasion to cool and get a break from the hot humid weather of Suna. But this wasn't what convinced Gaara to agree to this destination.

"Gaara, look! It's the Red Lake! The Red Lake is surrounded by ever green trees. It's a pleasant microclimate and extremely beneficial for physical and mental exhaustion, stress and insomnia."

"I thought we're going on a honeymoon to relax, not treat ourselves."

Sakura sat down on his knees, facing him and circled his neck with her arms lovingly. Gaara wrapped his arms around her slim waist and buried his face in her hair.

"My lion, I thought that if it works, maybe I could give you healthy little cubs much faster and safer."

He bit her collarbone and smiled slyly.

"So that's why. As you wish, my dear. We'll do as you wish."

"I can't wait to carry one of your cubs right here." She said as she guided his hand to rest on her flat stomach.

Beside the fact that it was important for Sakura to stay healthy for as long as possible during the future pregnancy, Sakura thought of how much Shinki likes bears considering his last visit to Konoha. She hoped they would keep the kid busy. For now, Sakura gave him a watermelon slice to keep his mouth busy because the road was long and they all left while it was still night outside. Sakura and the baby stared out the window. Shinki looked like a chipmunk with his jaws full of watermelon. He touched the seat, the window or the table between his seat and his parents' and Sakura had to scold and clean his hands every time. A few hours later, the train started climbing up the mountains on a winding railway. Bears started gathering around the slowly moving train because they smelled the food and they were attracted by the noise. All the kids were glued to the windows, amazed at the scene. One of them asked him mother to give him some food to throw to the bears and that started a trend. Every kid did the same. Shinki threw his watermelon at the bears and when they ate it in 2 bites, he asked his mother for more. She laughed at his joy and gave him a sandwich that Shinki used to lure the bear closer to the window so he could feed him himself. Shinki was the center of attention right now. Gaara profited from the distraction, and took Sakura's hand in his, on his leg. He felt the gold ring on her finger, the sign that showed she belonged to him now. Nobody could have her except him. Along the way, Sakura occasionally fell asleep with her head on the window, but Gaara used his soft palm to guide her head to rest on his shoulder. She slept like that in peace until Shinki shouted in awe, waking her up abruptly.

"Dad, look at these mountains!"

Sakura rubbed her eyes to take a look out the window. She was also caught unawares by the unbounded beauty that surrounded them on all sides. The railway roamed the tallest mountains, at 2042 m altitude. On the right side of the road there was the biggest dam that Gaara had ever seen.

"Stop screaming, son."

"But dad, my ears are blocked."

"Try yawning."

Shinki covered his ears with his hands and opened his mouth wide, trying to yawn. Sakura pretended to push a finger in his mouth and he involuntarily closed his mouth, shaking his head.

"Cover your mouth when you yawn. I was afraid you will swallow me whole. Take a candy. It will help your ears. Do you want one, dear?" She asked looking at Gaara.

"No, thank you. My ears are fine."

"Then I don't need one either, mom."

Gaara sighed and decided to take a candy before a war started. His son followed his lead and Sakura smiled happily. She then started giving them details about their current location because she looked into the place before choosing it.

"Now we are going through the Natural Reservation Golul Alpin situated right next to the glacial lake Balea. Then, there follows a steep descent in serpentines, which crosses the glacial caldera for a length of 13 km."

"What does this mean?" Shinki asked.

"It's like being in a tub full of ice." Gaara gave a plastic explanation.

"So cool!"

"Look out the window, Shinki."

"Waa! What's that?"

"It's the Balea Waterfall. It has 68 steps and is as high as 1230 meters."

"Can we go down the waterfall, dad?"

Both Sakura and Gaara laughed their hearts out.

"This railway crosses over 830 bridges and 27 viaducts, for which over 6520 tons of explosive paper and millions of tons of rock were needed."

"It's not such a big deal. I bet me and dad can make an even awesome railway, right dad?"

The first stop was at the Bear Lake, which looked like a bear stumbled and fell on the ground with all four limbs spread on the ground. There were many hotels surrounding the lake. They unpacked in their rooms and Sakura told the boys to take their swimming suits with them.

"Take what with us?" Gaara asked, not even knowing that Sakura packed swimming suits for him, too.

"Are we going for a swim? Cool! It's the most awesome vacation!" Shinki yelled at the top of his lungs. He started taking off his clothes everywhere: in his parents' room, on the hallway, in his own room. He even managed to get fully naked out of his room and a little girl saw him. She screamed in shock and called for her mom.

"Mommy, there's a naked boy on the hall! Look!"

Before her mom came to look and file a complaint, Gaara quickly sent his sand to push Shinki into his room and close the door. Sakura smiled, but she was also embarrassed.

"Are you in the mood for swimming?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked at him with a look loaded with meaning. Her hands on her hips. Then, Gaara said on a more serious tone:

"Isn't it dangerous to go into the water? We are in the mountains. I don't want you to catch a cold." He said with worry as he placed his hand on her tummy.

Sakura gently placed her hand on top of his and caressed his freshly shaved cheek with her other hand.

"You are worried for me. How sweet!"

"Of course I am. I must take care of you."

Sakura turned with her back to him and hugged herself with his hands close to his chest. Gaara let her make use of his arms the way she wanted to while he rested his cheek on her left shoulder.

"My lion, this is a spa. The lake is heliotherm, situated at 502 meters altitude. It occupies 40.000 square meters and has the highest concentration of salt on the planet. There are 29 degrees Celsius at the surface of the lake and 41 degrees at 1.5 meters in depth. It heats up thanks to the sun rays."

"Mhm." He started placing open-mouthed kissed on her neck while his hand rose to her shoulder, where he took off the right part of her dress, enough to uncover her breast. Before she had time to stop him, he had already cupped her breast in his hand.

"Dear, not now, please. Shinki will be back any moment now."

Gaara grunted as if he was hit by a kunai. Sakura smiled and covered herself. She turned around to face him again and placed a warm kiss on his eager lips.

"Save it for tonight."

Gaara wrapped an arm around her waist and his other hand around the back of her head to give her a long kiss, but he quickly let get go, sensing that she was trying to pull away. Right at that moment, Shinki burst into the room.

Sakura but on a red modest swimming suit in 2 pieces. The jealous Gaara stood right next to her every step of the way, either holding her hand or her waist. The brave kid went ahead of his parents and jumped straight into the water without warning. Gaara really liked seeing him so carefree. Sakura pulled Gaara by the hand, trying to convince him to go into the water with her. There was a little brown haired girl in front of them, on the stone steps that went into the lake. She had inflatable arm bands and her eyes didn't both look in the same direction.

"Let's go in." Sakura said.

"Wait, can't you see there's a line?"

"What line?"

"I am waiting for this little girl to have the courage to enter the water and then I will go in the lake myself." He was counting on that girl never entering the water because she seemed to be staying there for a long while.

Both Gaara and Sakura thought the girl didn't speak the same language as them because she didn't even flinch when she heard them talk about herself. Although, when she heard Gaara will take the courage after her, she squeaked and jumped into the water like a little frog, giggling. Both Sakura and Gaara smiled thinking of how cute she was and that's when Sakura had the idea that she would like it very much if their first kid will be a girl.

"Now you don't have any excuses. Come on."

Indeed, there was nothing he could do to escape her nagging, so he entered the water, holding onto her hand. Shinki had already found some boys to splash and play together. The water was so salty; it made Gaara's lungs feel very heavy. He kept complaining, but Sakura assured him that it was the most clean and fresh air they could get. Still, he couldn't relax in an environment that he wasn't familiar with. However, he was very attentive of her. Whenever a kid swam in front of them, splashing water everywhere, Gaara shielded Sakura's face with his palm because he knew Sakura didn't like getting her face or hair wet. That was why she tied her hair in a bun at the top of her head.

Everything went nice and smooth until they had lunch. The family ate and talked without holding back. Everyone was relaxed, but careful not to bother the others. Suddenly, a woman in a black one piece swimming suit, approached their table. She approached Sakura especially, to question her. The woman must have realized Sakura was from Konoha thanks to her accent. Sakura didn't want to add more fuel to the fire, so she kept her answers short and politely invited the woman to leave. That was when the woman became angry and grabbed Sakura by the arm, whistling through her gritted teeth:

"I know these women from Konoha. A whore doesn't tell me to leave. You shouldn't have come here."

She must have counted on someone to have her back otherwise she wouldn't have dared speak like that to Sakura. Sakura saw black before her eyes and slapped the woman across the face, so hard that her head turned to the other side. The woman's husband got closer, who knows why, but so did Gaara.

"Dad, what's going on?"

Sakura stood up and started punching the woman with her fists and legs and palms. The woman didn't dare do more than shout for help. Her husband immediately recognized Gaara from the tattoo on his forehead, so he was scared to touch Sakura. However, he had to try to protect his wife somehow, so he placed his arms in front of his chest defensively, getting closer to the women, asking Sakura nicely that she let his woman go. Sakura acted like she had her ear plugged. She didn't hear any of the words that man said, but when she saw him before her, she hit him right in the face with her fist, twice. He fell on his back from the force of the blow, holding his bleeding nose. Right when Sakura literally climbed on top of his chest with her legs, Gaara got closer to her, laughing slightly. He pulled gently on Sakura's arm, trying to calm her down.

"Let's go, my dear. I think you made yourself clear. Leave them be."

After Gaara somehow managed to get his wife off that man and pull her towards Shinki, Sakura's eyes stumbled on that woman again and she gave her one last slap that made her lose balance. Gaara held onto her waist and onto her hand to get her to move away before she killed the civilians. The man got up on his feet and ran after Gaara and Sakura to apologize, but he didn't have time to even say a word because as soon as Sakura felt him behind her, she kicked him with her foot again to help him remember her for the rest of his life. His wife ran towards her husband to help him stand up, while Gaara gestured Shinki to follow his lead and get out of there. Gaara was secretly happy that their trip to the salty Bear Lake ended so quickly because he didn't like the idea of taking a bath in the heart of the mountains in the first place. It was a much too dubious climate for him and now he had the perfect excuse to get out of there.

Sakura didn't seem stressed at all. She was actually happy because she couldn't remember that last time she punched somebody. Shinki was surprised and scared because he didn't imagine his mom was so powerful when she didn't even use chakra in her punches.

Note: Thank you very much for all your support!

All the places that I described in this chapter actually exist and they are one of a kind in the world. The railway is actually a pathway for cars through the mountains, called Transfagarasan. Please look it up, it is gorgeous. Bear Lake, and all the other places in this chapter and the next one exist in reality. Please look them up, it is worth the time.

Do you think this story is too long? Should I end it more quickly?