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They had returned to the past with the sole intention to save the world from Akatsuki’s destruction.
At least, it had been Gaara’s sole intention. His best friend, however, had other ideas. Gaara questioned the wisdom of Naruto’s plan, but still he helped his friend kidnap their younger selves off their villages, even knowing it was a horrible idea.
It hadn’t backlashed on them quite yet. He didn’t know how, exactly, but he was counting their blessings. The genjutsu seals Naruto had placed on both children were still holding up, and they used the same trick Sakura had taught Naruto to hide Kurama in order to keep others from finding out that both children were jinchuuriki.
Hopefully, that would be enough. He wasn’t confident on his younger self’s ability to keep Shukaku in check quite yet. He couldn’t tell yet – their baby selves were only four years old still, and they had lived with them for little over three years since their return.
“Yuuji! Look here, what I found!” Gaara’s eyes immediately snapped up as he heard baby Naruto’s cry.
Younger Gaara, who they had named Yuuji when they had adopted him, looked up away from the sand castle he had been entertaining himself with building.
Gaara narrowed his eyes when he saw a sea bug in baby Naruto’s – or rather, Shuuichi’s – hands. A silent sigh escaped his lips and he let his guard down, there was no danger to a bug, after all.
Unlike him, the younger redhead looked at it as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. It was a little surprising to watch him, everything seemed to be fascinating to Yuuji. Even while he could understand the baby’s point of view at this stage of his life, when he had been his age, he had understood nothing other than how painful and dull the world was.
Yuuji, however, saw a beauty Gaara sometimes wondered if he would ever be capable of seeing.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Naruto’s voice behind him. “You look distracted.” He looked up, and his friend grinned. “Oh, I sneaked up on you, did I? You were distracted.” he merely grunted, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Naruto’s conclusions.
His friend plopped down on the bench by his side. “I’m all done. I can watch them now, if you want to do anything else.” Naruto told him with a grin.
He had many things to do. At the moment, he wanted to do nothing other than watch the children, though. He remained in place, completely silent, and Naruto seemed content to leave him to his peace.
Shuuichi and Yuuji started laughing about something, which once again caught his attention. Both children were watching the sands of the beach – it looked like the small bug had escaped, and that caused them to laugh instead of feeling frustration.
“Why don’t you help Yuuji-chan to build sand castles? To build up his control, and all?” Naruto wondered in a whisper. He looked at his friend with a small frown. His weapon wasn’t meant to be regarded as a toy.
Before he could word his thoughts, Naruto grabbed his hand and dragged him off towards the children. He didn’t fight the motion, though it exasperated him. “Naruto…” he mumbled.
“Dad! The bug ran away!” Shuuichi exclaimed happily, as if something phenomenal had just happened. Gaara didn’t have time to react to Naruto’s pushing him down before the children did, so he ended up sitting on the sand, with two toddlers climbing on his lap.
“Make us a castle, papa?” Yuuji asked softly, and Shuuichi quickly exclaimed several words that sounded like heartfelt agreement.
“I’ll make you a castle! Papa will make the dragons that guard it!” Naruto announced as cheerfully as his younger self, and proceeded to make four clones who quickly helped him build a small sand castle.
Gaara felt a small smile curve his lips when the squeal and laugher of the children filled the air once he allowed himself to create a small sand creature that flew around Naruto’s little building. He couldn’t deny he felt somewhat proud when a small ball of sand with a tail, commanded by Yuuji, started following his dragon around.
It had been Naruto’s idea to rescue the children… but he was happy now to have helped him. Seeing the happiness on their eyes that neither Naruto nor him could remember definitely felt fulfilling.
– – – Time Skip – – –
Yuuji stared down at the clear lake with a frown, not exactly sure what he was supposed to be seeing. After several seconds, he began, “Shuuichi–”, only to be cut out by a loud hushing sound.
“Shh! Be quiet! You’ll scare him away.” he hissed in a low voice.
“I’ll scare… who away?” he wondered, bewildered. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a splashing sound, and he saw the water ripple without any apparent cause.
“The frog.” Shuuichi clarified with a pout, since it was beyond clear the frog was gone.
“Why are we trying to sneak up on a frog, Shuuichi?” he asked him with pressed lips, exasperated at his friend.
“I summoned him!” he claimed strongly. “I wanted you to see.” he finished with a pout. He studied his friend sceptically.
“You summoned him.” he repeated doubtfully. Shuuichi looked annoyed that he was doubting him.
“Yes, I did! Like dad does! I knew you wouldn’t believe it, so I wanted to show you…” he trailed off, crestfallen. Shuuichi curbed the urge to roll his eyes. “I did it too!” he insisted.
“Of course you did. Let’s go home, papa must be worried.” he turned around to walk back the way they had come. A squeak escaped his lips when Shuuichi tackled him, toppling both of them over to the floor, their fall softened by his protective sand. “W-What?”
“I’m not lying! I’ll prove it to you!” Shuiichi told him from where he was straddling him, then bit his thumb and slammed his hand on the sand covered ground.
The two of them were silent for several seconds while nothing happened.
Yuuji sighed heavily. “Come on, Shuuichi.” he told his friend, pushing him off of him and grabbing him by his wrist. Shuuichi pouted and grumbled his breath as he dragged his feet behind him.
As soon as both children turned their backs, the summoned frog jumped onto a rock nearby and watched them go… Until someone grabbed him by the head. It croaked indignantly.
“There you are, you little pest. Your father is looking for you.” Naruto told him with a grin. Before the frog could reply, it was gone in a puff of smoke. The adult chuckled, then followed the pair of eight years olds into the forest, proud of Shuuichi for having gone so far with summoning arts at such a young age.
Just a little nurturing had made a huge difference for both children. Yuuji had a good grasp in his control of Shukaku, and Shuuichi learned things far easier than Naruto remembered doing at his age.
But, the best of all, they were both actual children. Children who played and laughed, who didn’t have a care in the world, who didn’t understand yet what it was to be a ninja. If Naruto had any say on it, they would remain that innocent for a long time. At least on this point, Gaara agreed with him.
As long as their children were happy, Naruto and Gaara were content.