This is a sequel to And Now I'm Stuck Here With You! You probably have to read it before this, or everyone will seem OOC to you. I'm making it a sequel instead of a continuation because the focus is no longer on the Sandsibs, but just on Gaara and the Kazekage.
In case you have not read ANIMSHWY and really can't be bothered to do so, here's a brief summary:
Gaara (pre-chuunin state), Temari, Kankuro get shipwrecked onto a deserted island. We later find out that it was the Kazekage's doing (he ordered the ship to be sunk, even if there were passengers on the boat). The siblings have to learn to survive and trust each other. Crazy stuff happens
Eventually, they get rescued and the Kazekage is pissed, but secretly glad. Gaara becomes nicer (just a little less nice than post-chuunin).
Whoah, doesn't that sound cool? Do you want to read it (shameless advertising)?

So, enjoy this short sequel! The chapters will be slightly shorter so that updates can be more frequent.

A month after the village had found out that Gaara and his siblings were the only ones to survive the shipwreck, the loud fury of Sunagakure had finally died down to a silent glare of hatred whenever they saw the redhead pass. The boy was extremely relieved, since this type of abuse was easier to handle than having people act so violent at the mere site of him that he had to be escorted everywhere by Baki.

Little by little, the villagers relaxed their intense animosity to angry indifference. Life was going back to normal for everyone.
That is, everyone except for the Kazekage.
He couldn't look at his children in the eye without feeling a huge stab of guilt when he saw the disgust and accusations in their gaze. He had tried to murder them. They probably despised him and he didn't blame them.
He couldn't speak to them individually either because they always stood together as a team, now more united than ever. The Kazekage would never admit it even to himself, but he couldn't help being a little scared of his kids. They were so powerful, their teamwork was incredible.

They probably knew. They probably knew that he was the one who ordered the ship to be sabotaged in the first place. He was almost sure that Baki knew as well, but he couldn't confirm it.
Well, he could, if only Yuudai and Reina would admit it. Their brother, Jiro, had been the one sent to destroy the ship, but he had not been able to make it out of the ship alive. Though they were loyal to their duties as shinobi, they openly despised him for all that he had done.
The Kazekage had planned on eliminating them once he got the chance, however Reina had blackmailed the man into keeping them alive. She said that she and her brother had a told the truth to a number of people and, in case of their disappearance, those people would immediately broadcast the truth to the entire village, which would cause a horrible power struggle and most likely end in the Kazekage's execution. Not to mention damage the village's reputation.
If they knew that the leader of Sunakagure planned on murdering a group of civilians and his three kids just to get rid of his youngest son, it would be the end of him.
He hadn't even been able to succeed. His children had been the only survivors. This left him torn between sighing in relief or punching holes through his office wall.

The worst part in all of this was the council. They had been complaining that Gaara was still a threat. That the village had caused an uproar at his return. That all of that resentment could cause them to lose influence. That the population was demanding complete safety. That they wanted him gone again.
The Kazekage had tried to calm his fury and tried not to hit the older council member in the face when they casually threw around words like "failure", "demon", "monster", "brat" or "danger" into his face. It was one thing for him to criticize his own son's lack of control, but an entirely other thing if a bunch of old men insulted his family for the heck of it.
It was his 'single father' side of him resurfacing, though it was obviously too late and bad timing.

So he kept his mouth shut at all of the meetings, hearing the council decide on his son's fate.
"Lord Kazekage, we have come to a decision. The jinchuriki must be eliminated."
The man felt his skin crawl at those words. A naïve part of him was hoping that the council would just leave it all behind them and let his son live in peace from now on. Of course they wouldn't.
He carefully thought of a reply.
"In all due respect... I believe that the boy might have changed. He seems to have gained new control and to have lost quite a lot of his bloodlust. He might no longer be a danger to us. He is going to be taking the next chuunin exams, could be an ideal weapon to show off to the other nations and could prove the power of Suna, which will in turn bring lords to hire shinobi from our village again."

His son seemed... different. He couldn't place how, since he hadn't spent more than a few seconds in the same room as him in the last few weeks combined. It could be the smiles that his siblings would show him or the constant social events they would attend at Reina and Yuudai's house.
He didn't want to send more people to kill his son if he could avoid it. It was bad enough to nearly lose him once. He didn't want to waste his wife's and son's life if the boy could still be of good use to the village.
"I'm sorry, Kazekage-sama. Our decision is final. The boy must disappear. We urge you to use... any means necessary." said one of the old men.
The Kazekage frowned.
"What do you mean? I've tried almost every way. That boy is difficult to kill, and we are running low on shinobi. It would be foolish to waste any more lives on trying to assassinate someone who is clearly superior in power to most in the village."

The looks he received chilled him to the bone. He suddenly had a bad feeling that he knew what they were about to suggest.
"No, Lord Kazekage, you haven't tried every way possible. We all know that there are many capable shinobi who would gladly to their duties. And... We all know for sure that there is at least one shinobi in this village that can control his sand. Do everything you can. For the village. It is your duty."

The man was shocked for a second, before slowly nodding.
He was glad when the meeting ended not long after that, as he had a painful urge to be sick.

Yes. Many would gladly line up to kill his son. However, the people he had in mind were all sickeningly sadistic and would enjoy taking their time, hacking their victim to pieces. Having his boy killed was one thing, but the thought of Gaara being slowly tortured to death, writhing in agony...
It made a sick feeling rise in the Kazekage's gut. No. He could never allow that. Over his own dead body. He had that much humanity left, after all.
Besides, it was still highly probable that Gaara would simply crush the assassins to death with his sand.
That sand. That sand always got in the way.

That reminded the Kazekage of the council's second suggestion. That there was one ninja in the village who could control and disable Gaara's sand. They were correct.
However, that man had been too much of a coward to face the boy himself, after all these years of sending other people to their deaths during the assassination attempts.

That man was him.

He had always known that he could have simply killed Gaara with his own two hands and that would be the end of it. But that was the reason that he had never attempted it. He was scared. He was terrified of seeing that look in Gaara's eyes if he were to ever lift a hand against him.
Despite his horribly emotionally abusive education, he had never directly, physically hurt Gaara before. It was partly because the boy's training mostly required he kept the sand under control and hitting the redhead would have just caused him to lose whatever focus he had.
Truthfully, the main reason was because he had never wanted to.
The looks of terror and disgust were powerful enough as they were. He was already a monster. He didn't want to be a man who beat his kids. Besides, it had never been an issue before the 'incident' with Yashamaru happened. His children had always behaved correctly.

Especially Gaara. The Kazekage's heart clenched when he remember how his son was before he had betrayed him. So kind. So loving. So trusting. Simply a perfect little angel.
An angel who had been taken over by the demon that his father had sealed into him, taking his mother's life. He had corrupted a pure soul and turned it into the killing machine that so many people feared, a machine with Death's eyes.

However, this was why the Kazekage was terrified of meeting Gaara's gaze now. He had seen his eyes. They were no longer hateful or filled with bloodlust. They were now filled with mistrust and determination.
The man could never bring himself to hurt Gaara now. He now reminded him once again of that young, innocent boy he once was. Only stronger and slightly more mature from experience.
The Kazekage could never murder his son with his own two hands.

But he had to.

A few days later, he was summoned to the Land of Lighting by the Raikage for a short meeting. It was about winter. The cold season had arrived, thought the population of Sunagakure noticed nothing more than slightly cooler nights. However, in the Land of Lighting, it snowed. A lot.
That meant that quite a lot of clean water would probably be going to waste, so that was why the Kazekage had asked to meet the leader of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. He was going to strike up a deal, asking for clean water and in exchange giving the Raikage gold. Since gold was the only thing his village currently had to offer.

The Kazekage had refused to have any of his jonins escort him and instead asked the council to let him bring Suna's greatest defense as protection.
After a knowing look, the council had understood his intentions and accepted to let him go in those conditions. If Gaara accompanied him to a place filled with snow and rain, his sand would be useless.
So the Kazekage decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Taking a deep breath and numbing his heart, he turned to the a jonin who had came to him to file a mission report.
"Go find Gaara. Tell him that the Kazekage is requesting him." he spoke cooly.
The man bowed quickly and left, leaving the village leader to decide how he would convince Baki, Temari and Kankuro to let Gaara out of their sights.

I'm surprised that do one ever wrote a story like this before. Or maybe they did but I missed it (highly improbable, since I have read almost all the Kazekage fics).
So, hope you liked it! Review if you feel like it! If you're here from ANISHWY, welcome back! For newcomers, welcome welcome!
And now, to my Geography homework!
XOXO ~~~ HimekoUchia (aaarrrrhhgggghggh *drowns under mountains of exams*)