A/N: Remember a couple years ago when that Italian parliament member took her daughter to work? Yeah, I do. And it was awesome. Fuck yeah for career women. And I just love the idea of Temari being so fucking unapologetic like 'yeah, I brought my kid to work, suck a dick'.
The first time Nara Temari showed up to a meeting with her five-month old son strapped to her chest, there was a lot of talk. She had come back from her maternity leave a couple weeks ago, and most of them were still surprised she'd come back at all. A lot of gossip circulated between the departments and someone in the registers let it slip that they'd peeked and she was off the mission roster but still listed as a special jounin. It raised some eyebrows, some claps and some frowns – looking at you, Elder Jun. But actually showing up with the baby to work was a new development. Still no one dared approach her with the matter. She was scary enough to begin with, no one wanted to find out what motherhood hormones had done to her temper, and anyway they figured she'd just had a problem finding a last-minute babysitter. They were unsettled, but let it drop.
Until she walked into meeting room number 6, half an hour before the annual Union meeting pushing a stroller. She gave no excuse, and made no mention of it. She parked the stroller against the window on the far wall, removed the baby from its confines, and sat down with the bundle of blankets on her lap. Granted, the baby did not cry at any given time during the meeting, but it did cause a commotion between the other diplomats. Mostly baby-talk and remarks on how much he'd grown, but it was disrupting nonetheless. They were deciding what to do with newly found missing nin, for goodness' sake. They needed undivided attention, seriously. When the meeting had derailed from all those serious, important matters to groans and coffee slurping and scathing remarks about each other's weight gain and loss of hair, she'd declared the end of the meeting, recited the conclusions to the secretary registering the minutes and walked away with her spawn on its stroller, surrounded by her associates cooing at the baby.
The third time it happened, it was the in freaking kage summit. Her colleagues were outraged. It was bad enough when it was just the diplomats and their personnel, but the five kages had been present. Kakashi didn't bat an eye, of course, he never seemed to care much about anything, and the Kazekage was her brother, so they shouldn't have been that surprised when he picked up the baby and spent the hour-long section bouncing the giggly kid on his knee while his sister presided the meeting on the latest hitch in their plans to absorb Amegakure into the union. But it was disrespectful towards the other kages. It was an international diplomatic event of the highest magnitude, history itself was being written in that room, and baby Nara was drooling over the Mizukage's clothes.
That one had taken the cake. By the end of the month the gossip had spread from the foreign relations department to the rest of the Hokage Tower. Someone had anonymously filed a complaint, to which they got no response whatsoever, and its author never asked about it from fear that it'd get back to Temari and result in their murder. But they liked to talk about it they did, especially when one of them felt particularly threatened by her intelligence. It was preposterous. It was unheard of. Unprofessional. Did she not have in-laws to take over? Was this a Suna thing? Would she maim any of them for complaining about it? Surely she must have heard their whispers by now.
At the end of the month it was getting so out of hand that the Konoha Ambassador – Hokuto, bless his soul – got so fed up with all the mumbled grumbling he decided to put an end to it. He'd taken the precaution of checking with her secretary if she was in a good mood that day, and made sure to ask her by the open door of her office, so he had an escape route in case she got violent. He approached her in the nicest, most careful, most polite way. She'd glanced up at him without much importance.
"Shikadai is a very quiet baby, he sleeps the whole thing through, how is that a bother?"
"Well, a baby in the work place..." he'd stuttered. Those green eyes of hers were hard and piercing, and despite their several years of collaboration, he was still worried she would up and gut him one of these days.
"Yes?" she pressed.
He went with, "Is it not counter-productive?"
Her eyes went colder. Hokuto was not a particularly cowardly person, but he felt a chill run down his spine when those eyes narrowed at him. "Am I not doing my job, Ambassador?"
He rushed to apologize. "Yes, yes, of course, Nara-san," he'd squeaked.
"And don't I do it well?"
He nodded emphatically. "Yes! Brilliantly, ma'am!"
"And aren't I the most efficient professional in this entire department as proven by the latest Union reports?"
She had him there. All this time, she had never slacked in her work in any way, shape or form. She'd never once skipped work, she never arrived late, she presided her meetings brilliantly, she delivered her reports on time. She WAS the most efficient professional in the department. The Union had nothing but compliments on her work ethic and competence. And the baby was just about the quietest baby in the world. The most they'd hear from him was a yawn or a giggle, and 90% of the time they wouldn't have known there was a baby at all if they hadn't spotted the stroller. None of the diplomats seemed to mind either, and if he was going to be frank, most of the workers in the Hokage tower found the whole thing sweet and funny. He could chalk up the complaints to half a dozen dinosaurs in the council who pretty much still thought the earth was flat and some of the sexist dickheads in the department.
Hokuto felt a bit like a dickhead himself at the time.
"I... Yes, yes, ma'am, you are," he admitted.
"Then how, exactly, is it a problem to bring my son with me?"
"It's not, ma'am. I'm sorry to bother you. Keep up the good work."
"I expect your report on Kiri's proposal by Friday, Hamada-san."
"Of course, Nara-san."
The baby stayed.