"No way. You can't palm your kids off on me. You know I hate kids." Kankuro filed a piece of wood while he argued with his sister.
"But we can't just leave them running free in Konoha. It'll only be one day."
"No way. Find someone else."
Temari stomped away to collect her brood and find some unsuspecting sap to look after them.
"I'll take care of them," came a quiet voice from next to the fridge.
Temari spun round to see her other brother. His creepy appearing silently act was somewhat ruined by the carton of milk he was holding. It had a picture of a cow on it.
Temari laughed nervously, "Are you sure? Aren't you busy with kage stuff?"
"My counterpart is in the hospital." Seeing his sister's look Gaara added, "No I didn't put her there. Apparently a reunion with old friends led to her becoming… over inebriated."
"So you don't have anything to do? Nothing at all? You are just hanging around in Konoha?"
"Yes."
"And you don't mind taking care of the kids"
"No."
"And you won't damage them in any way."
"No."
"You're sure you don't mind?"
"No. Go now."
Gaara put his milk back in the fridge. He turned, to see his nieces and nephew scurry into the kitchen. Kankuro was shouting from the living room about not wanting to be disturbed and making creative threats involving sandpaper.
Temari hugged each of her children and said, "You are spending the day with uncle Gaara. You are to do as he says. Be good. Daddy and I will be back tomorrow."
As she left Temari said, "Gaara."
"Yes?"
"Thanks."
The Kazekage stood looking at his sister's children for a moment. He hadn't seen much of them since he was usually so busy.
"Uncle Gaara?" asked his oldest niece Akiko, "Are you the mad uncle?"
There was a crash from the living room and some choice swearing. It sounded like Kankuro had impaled himself on one of his own booby traps.
"Well," said Gaara, "It's all relative."
His nephew Shikakuro, who was the youngest of the three just hid behind his older sister.
"I don't want to stay with you," said his younger nice Marumi. "You look scary. Like the monster in the wardrobe."
"I'll let you wear my hat," Gaara bargained. "It's a very special hat."
"Why?"
"Um...it's blue."
"Ok. Can we get ice cream?"
"Possibly."
Enough people in Konoha knew about the Kazekage to be slightly scared when they saw his little group wandering through the streets. Was he going to eat those children or smush them or what?
He was carrying Shikakuro on his back where he perched on top of his gourd of sand.
The little boy didn't say much yet, but he did giggle and pull his uncle's hair. Akiko strode out in front, being the leader. Unfortunately all her leadership skills went into following a cat.
"It went this way. Hurry up."
Marumi was wearing the ceremonial Kazekage hat. It kept falling over her eyes. She would push it back proudly. Marumi divided her time trying to catch up with Akiko and holding her uncle's hand.
Luckily the cat had a better sense of direction than Akiko and they ended up in a play park. There were a few children playing and a few parents watched from the sidelines.
To Gaara they seemed more intimidating than Suna's council of elders. The kids weren't worried though.
Akiko dashed off to the slide and her little sister tagged along behind her crying "Wait, wait for me!"
Shikakuro was a little too young for the big play equipment so Gaara took him over to the sand pit.
It was a comical sight, one of the most powerful ninjas in the world who specialised in control of sand, was sitting in a sand pit building a very lumpy looking castle.
Marumi laughed as he pushed the sand around or dribbled it through his fingers.
Gaara didn't need his third eye jutsu to know the other parents were watching him. One mother came over with a fake smile and removed her son from the sand pit.
Gaara felt a twinge of old hurts. At least Shikakuro hadn't noticed. To amuse himself as much as his nephew Gaara reached out a hand and commanded the sand to rise. It swirled around gently. Shikakuro clapped his hands at the new trick his funny uncle was doing. He might not have funny cat ears like the shouty uncle, but he was still fun.
With additional sand from the ground (he wouldn't use the sand from his gourd in a children's play park,) Gaara built a child sized sandcastle. It had turrets and a drawbridge and ramparts and everything. Even a little sand flag waved from a little sand flagpole.
Building a habitable sandcastle in a sand pit is bound to get you noticed. The kid who had been taken away by his mother had slipped away from her. He stood in wonder in front of the castle.
"You want to come in?" asked Shikakuro, taking his thumb out of his mouth.
The kid nodded. Shikakuro who was clearly in charge of this castle gave the signal to Gaara to let down the draw bridge. Soon the castle was full of kids.
Gaara clambered out while he still could. He smiled at the horde of disgruntled parents who were unable to reclaim their children from the now heavily fortified sandpit. He went to sit on one of the park benches.
Akiko was sitting on top of the climbing frame defending it from all attackers. She reminded Gaara of her mother. In a few years she'd be wholloping boys twice her size for real.
He looked out for Marumi, but couldn't see her or the bobbing blue and white hat. Standing up he called out her name. He walked over to the other parents.
"Have you seen a little girl? She's blonde and she has my hat."
The most disgruntled of the parents said, "What kind of hat?"
"My Kage hat. It's blue. Have any of you seen her, she's called Marumi. She's my niece."
Living in a shinobi village meant that even the non ninja parents knew that a Kage hat wasn't the sort of thing you bought because you thought it made you look spiffy. Some of the better informed parents started to back away, very slowly. They thought that if the Kazekage decided that it was their fault his niece was missing then things would get… messy.
Luckily disaster was averted when a little voice cried, "Uncle Gaara!"
Gaara ran and scooped up the crying Marumi.
She was trying to talk through her sobs. Gaara shushed her and swayed gently. When he could sort of understand what she was saying he understood it as something like this, "They," sob, "took," sob, "my haaaaaaat!" sob, "I'm, I'm, I'm," sob, "sorry!" sob.
"Did they hurt you?"
"They pushed," sob, "me down and took my haaaaaaaaaaat!" wailed Marumi.
Gaara suddenly got very serious.
"Who?"
Marumi pointed in the direction of the ninja academy.
The disgruntled parents scattered as he scowled and went to collect Shikakuro from the sand castle. Gaara dissolved the castle to cries of disappointment from the children. He picked up his nephew with his other arm and shifted Marumi round onto his shoulders, perched on top of the gourd.
Akiko scrambled down from the climbing frame at her uncle's call.
"Are you going to get those boys who took Marumi's hat," she asked cheerfully as she skipped along beside Gaara.
"We're going to make them apologise."
"Yay!"
"Hey! I want to wear it." One boy with a plaster on his nose snatched the hat from a taller boy. This of course turned into a scuffle, which then turned into ninja-in-the-middle.
"It's a stupid hat anyway," grumped the taller boy, "It's not even a real Hokage Hat."
"Why's it blue and what's this squiggle on the front?" asked a small boy with large glasses.
"It says Kaze," came a deep voice from behind the boys.
A very tall man with red hair and a stare that would scare an inanimate object was looming over them.
The effect was somewhat ruined by the fact he was carrying two small children while another sang out "You're in trouble!" and skipped about.
"Marumi, would you please un-cork the gourd."
She did and thin trickle of sand poured out and swirled around the boys.
One of the boys got nervous and threw a kunai. Gaara didn't even bother moving as it flew wide. Marumi threw the cork and it bounced off the tall boy's head. She giggled.
Gaara put his niece and nephew down and stretched out his arms.
When the boys didn't turn up to their next class and their screams for help were finally noticed, the whole academy gathered round to laugh and watch them being cut out of the sand cocoons that suspended them from a tree. Their stories of a cursed hat and four monsters, one big one and three little ones, were ignored.
Marumi skipped along ahead of her uncle. She proudly wore her hat again.
"That was so cool, Uncle Gaara," said Akiko. "What are we going to do next?" she asked excitedly, clearly expecting her uncle to go on some kind of fantastic rampage.
"Lunch," said Gaara.
Akiko looked disappointed. "Could you at least threaten the waiter a bit?"
Gaara grinned.
The second chapter is almost finished. Some familiar faces make an appearance. Come back and see. I'll let you wear my hat.
Standard disclaimers apply.