Aoba looked at his watch. He'd been summoned for some type of important meeting along with all the other jonin. And he was going to be late. He sighed, and continued to pack the large, blue plaid bag that his wife had picked out a few months ago. Finally, he looked from his diaper-clad child on the floor to the child's closet. "Green. You'll blend right into my vest, and Hokage-sama won't even notice."
He rolled his eyes at the ludicrous thought that the highest ranking ninja in all of Konoha would overlook a small, wiggling baby sitting on one of her subordinate's laps. Aoba struggled to poke the child's arms through the creeper's holes and do up all the snaps. There wasn't really any other choice. His chuunin wife had been called off on some diplomatic mission, and he'd been summoned without enough time to go look for a babysitter.
He plopped the drooling baby onto his chest and threw the bag over his other shoulder. Straightening his sunglasses, he made his way to the Hokage's office.
Aoba was, as he'd predicted, the last to arrive.
"Aoba, you're late," growled Tsunade. "Alright, let's not waste any more time. I wanted to start off by going over the events that have recently taken place in Sun-"
A cheerful giggle interrupted the Hokage. She and the other high ranking jonin turned to look at him. Aoba's made a face somewhere in between a sheepish grin and a grimace.
"Aoba…" Tsunade started off quietly. "You brought a baby to an intel briefing?"
"I…couldn't find a sitter in time," explained Aoba, ready to wither into the floor and forget he'd ever existed.
In front of him, Kurenai smiled warmly at the dark haired child in Aoba's arms. Asuma, who just happened to be standing next to her, saw this. A slight panic crossed his face.
"Well, he's going to have to leave," Tsunade said simply. Making her way across the room, she bellowed into the hallways "Kotetsu! Izumo!"
Instantly, the two chuunin appeared. "Hokage-sama?" questioned Kotetsu.
Tsunade plucked the child from Aoba's arms. "I need you to watch this until further notice."
Izumo was on the receiving end of the offered baby. He looked horrified. So did Kotetsu. So did Aoba.
"Hokage-sama-" all three simultaneously began to protest.
She silenced them all with a hand. "You," she said, turning to Izumo and Kotetsu, "will protect this child with your lives. And you," she said, turning to the wary father, "will trust my judgment."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," they replied in unison.
The child in Izumo's still outstretched arms suddenly squirmed. He brought it closer against his chest to keep from dropping it, sighing as a fat little fist bopped him in the head.
Aoba wordlessly handed the blue plaid bag to Kotetsu.
"Alright, now we can get started," Tsunade said, ushering Aoba into the room and closing the door behind them.
Izumo and Kotetsu were suddenly alone in the hall with a baby. "Trade you?" offered Izumo.
"No way."
The screaming only got louder. Izumo and Kotetsu looked at each other in horror.
"What did you do?" asked Kotetsu in a panicked voice.
"I have no idea! Here, you try!" Izumo shoved the baby into his friend's arms. Kotetsu awkwardly rocked the baby to no avail. It still produced eardrum-shattering wails.
Suddenly the door opened, and Iruka appeared. "What's going on in here?"
Kotetsu and Izumo threw Iruka a pleading look. "It just won't stop crying!" Izumo explained, hands now over his ears. Iruka undid the snaps on his chuunin vest and set it on the back of a chair. "Here," he said, reaching for the baby. Kotetsu looked relieved as Iruka gently shushed the child at his chest. Eventually, the wails faded into infrequent hiccups. "There," Iruka said, smiling at the baby. "This must be Aoba's! What a cutie. You look just like your daddy!" Iruka told the child giddily as he tickled the child's round tummy.
Kotetsu and Izumo were pretty sure the academy teacher had lost it.
"Is there a bottle in the bag?" Iruka asked, looking at the plaid bag on the table.
Kotetsu riffled through it, his hand emerging with a blue bottle. He handed it wordlessly to Iruka.
Holding the baby in one arm and the bottle in the other, Iruka gently rocked from side to side. "Aw, you were just hungry, weren't you?" he asked, rolling the child over his shoulder to rub his back.
A few minutes later, Iruka held a sleeping child in his arms. He chuckled quietly. "There, the storm has passed." He held out the baby for one of the other chuunins to take. Neither of them made a move.
Iruka sighed. "I'd stay, but I have a lot of work to catch up on. Really, it will be cake from here."
Still no movement from either chuunin.
"Kotetsu, go lay down on that couch over there," directed Iruka.
"Huh? Why?"
"Just trust me. This will be the easiest thing you've ever done for Tsunade-sama."
Kotetsu walked over to the couch slowly and sat hesitantly. Finally, he shifted and laid back.
Before he could say anything, Iruka plopped the baby, stomach down, onto Kotetsu's chest. Finally, he grabbed Kotetsu's wrists, and gently set them over the child, locking the two securely together.
Kotetsu looked down his chest aghast. Really, all he could see was a head full of black hair, but the head was really, really close to his own. Izumo snickered from the corner.
Iruka finished the last clasp on his vest and made his way over to the door. "Aw, trust me, this is the easiest part. Aoba should be back long before the little guy wakes up." He gave the pair one last smile and left.
Izumo sat on the arm of the couch and looked at the pair. It really was quite cute – a dozing baby, with chubby little limbs dangling off his friend. Kotetsu looked up and their eyes met. He was too terrified of waking the baby to say anything.
Apparently so was Izumo. He shrugged, and pulled a book off the coffee table in front of the couch and began to read.
'Actually,' Kotetsu thought to himself, 'it's not that bad.' The gentle weight and soft breathing from the baby were…almost comforting. Before long, he drifted off to sleep as well.
Aoba rushed from the meeting. It had been hard to concentrate as thoughts of all the horrors that could have befallen his child ran through his mind. Skidding to a halt in front of the door to the lounge, he flew open the door. The scene he found was as if someone hit the pause button; Izumo had whirled around on his chair to gape at whoever had made such a racket, Kotetsu looked up at him wide-eyed from the couch he was laying on, and a plump little baby stared at him with huge, cute baby eyes from Kotetsu's chest.
After a split second of staring, chaos ensued.
The baby wailed, Kotetsu thought, even louder than it had before. Or maybe it was just his close proximity to said wailing.
Izumo had leapt up and was running back and forth between Aoba and the couch, unsure whether to start explaining to the parent or to try to help his friend.
Aoba rushed over to the couch and plucked his child from Kotetsu's well-intentioned-but-miserably-failing pats on the back. Kotetsu was up in a flash, and quickly made his way to Izumo. (If he seemed like he was hiding behind his friend, it was surely just coincidence.)
After some jiggling and rocking from Aoba, the wailing was reduced to a few whimpers and hiccups. Finally, he looked up at his two babysitters.
"So…it looks like everything went…okay?"
Izumo twitched slightly. "Yes sir." Kotetsu nodded in agreement.
Aoba bent down to grab the diaper bag. "You guys really saved me. I appreciate it."
"Anytime," Izumo managed to get out. Kotetsu elbowed him in the side as Aoba's eyes widened.
"Really? You know, my anniversary is coming up, and I'm still looking for a babysitter…are you guys free the Saturday after this one?"
"Oh, you know, we'd love to, but the Chuunin exams are coming up and…" Kotetsu started.
"We're pretty much booked for…a while," Izumo finished up meekly.
"Iruka's probably free though," Kotetsu added, biting a fingernail and trying to look innocent.
"Iruka, huh? I'll ask. Thanks for the tip!"
And with that, father and son left the room, leaving the two friends to fall onto the couch.
"Well, that wasn't too bad…" Izumo said conversationally.
"Speak for yourself. Remind me not to have kids."
Izumo looked at Kotetsu with a serious look on his face. "Kotetsu…don't get yourself pregnant."
Kotetsu rolled his eyes. "Common, we still have to finish reorganizing the scrolls we were working on."
With that, the two walked back to the library, and enjoyed a normal, rest of the day.