After staring at the little girl for quite a while, his brain finally rebooted, and he had to admit that with his lifestile such an outcome shouldn't be all that unexpected, not even being saddled with the child afterwards, seeing the kind of women he usually associated with.
She was a cute little thing, and he was surprised her mother not only managed to just leave her like that, but hadn't even given her a name, while her mother, whose name he really couldn't remember, had blueish black hair, the girl had a mix of blue and white locks, blending together with quite an unusual effect. For a moment he considered naming her after another little girl with blue hair he had cared for, calling her Konan, but it didn't seem right, as if by doing so he would replace his little student, instead she became Namiko, because her hair reminded him of waves.
He had absolutely no idea of how to raise a child, but it couldn't be that difficult, could it? He'd manage somehow to keep her alive until she was old enough to look after herself.
The first time Namiko saw Konoha she was 5, and wearing an assortment of the most visible colours Jiraya had managed to find, to make it easier to find her again if she wandered away from him, he was there to report personally to the Hokage, before entering his office he stopped at the Mission Desk, and asked aloud "Is there anyone here willing to take a C ranked babysitting mission right now?" After getting a tentative "Yes" in reply he handed her over to a female chunin, Kurenai, before leaving.
Kurenai had thought it was a bit exaggerated considering babysitting the girl a C rank, but she wasn't going to complain. Less than 5 minutes after leaving the Hokage's tower she had already changed her mind, this girl had to be the babysitting equivalent of Tora, how could a 5 year old disappear so fast.
While Kurenai was looking for her wayward charge, academy instructor Umino Iruka was looking for one of his students who had skipped class, while the two escapees were enjoying their temporary freedom running around Konoha, playing pranks on people and generally causing mayhem, it was probably inevitable that sooner or later they would meet, and bad luck on the part of the people chasing them that they did so just before they found them.
"I have an idea to get away, look, Henge! This way they'll go after the wrong person" Naruto had to admit that the much younger girl had a good idea, so followed her example, and soon they were running away in different directions, looking like each other.
Iruka was surprised when Naruto was so much easier to catch, not to mention his reaction when, upon getting caught, just smiled and said "You can't take me back to the academy anyway" when he also was much lighter, he tried dispelling the Henge, and as suspected the person he had caught wasn't Naruto, but a little girl. As he didn't know where she belonged, but she seemed to be running away from someone, he guessed someone was babysitting her, so he took her to the Mission Office, while she protested all the way " Don't worry, we'll give her back to her babysitter as soon as she comes by".
Naruto had seen the advantages in this way of avoiding attention, and soon changed his appearance again, to avoid getting caught by the woman looking for the girl, while Iruka could accept defeat when he saw it and returned to the academy without him (and in the future would learn to deal with this new tactic), Kurenai spent hours looking for the girl she was supposed to look after, before she gave up, returning to report she had managed to fail the mission, with a heavy heart, only to find the girl tied up completely, in the missions office, still the way Iruka had delivered her, and in a foul mood. She felt terrible for failing so thoroughly, and spent the rest half hour before Jiraya returned to get her holding onto her tightly, and keeping a careful eye on her. When asked if Namiko had behaved she had answered that looking after her should be classed a B rank.
The next time they returned to Konoha was two years later, and this time they would be staying slightly longer. This time, when he entered the Sandaime's office with Namiko with him Asuma was there, so he handed the younger jounin his daughter and told him to think of it like a B ranked protection or guard detail, after all he was used to those, wasn't he?
After 20 minutes on babysitting duty Asuma had changed his mind about his nephew Konohamaru, compared to Namiko he was practically a saint, a sweet, calm, polite, cute little angel. Namiko was a brat, and really, really uncooperative, when he had told her so she had answered "My Daddy say I'm perfect the way I am". Then he had taken his eyes off her for a minute, and she had disappeared. After 2 hours of frantic searching he had met Kurenai, and almost wept in relief when she offered to help him search, as well as suggested checking if anyone had dropped her off at the mission office. He also discovered she had gotten the same mission 2 years earlier. They ended up roping several of their acquaintances in to help the village wide search, until Gai found her setting up some fireworks with Uzumaki Naruto, by then it was almost time to deliver her back to her father. "You know, the Academy really sucks, I don't want to go any longer, this boy I met has almost finished it and he didn't know how to do the Shunshin until I showed him" he fervently hoped noone would figure out that Konoha's number one prankster had learnt the Shunshin from her while he was supposed to keep an eye on her.
Kakashi couldn't remember ever having such an easy mission, not even as a genin, and Jiraya had paid it as a C rank. Namiko was a cute kid, a bit restless but intelligent, curious and inquisitive. She had trailed after him the whole morning, holding onto his trousers and chattering and asking questions almost non stop while he read his beloved book. He normally wouldn't have while babysitting such a young child, but considering her father was the author... In the beginning she had asked him why he read 'one of daddy's books' in public, and while it wasn't the first time anyone asked him that she wasn't angry, just curious "Daddy said that people read them when noone can see them, and like reading them because they are considered a for-bid-den plea-sure, but you're not" he thought about his answer, seemed like Jiraya had tried to shield her at least a little from certain things "I read it in public because it's amusing to see people's reaction when I do, people can react quite strongly to someone breaking a social taboo" "Oh... Like when Daddy peeps in the hot springs? You're really cool Kakashi-san".
Asuma and Kurenai were sitting together in a shinobi bar, having bonded over shared trauma, when Kakashi arrived, in excellent mood "Hello!" "Hello, why are you so happy?" "I've just been paid for the easiest mission I've ever had, and as a C rank, all for a morning walking around and reading" "Oh, what was your mission?" "Babysitting Jiraya's daughter" "You call that an easy mission?!" "Does he have another daughter?" "What do you mean? Namiko was perfectly well behaved, trailed after me like a really curious puppy" "Are you joking? She's the babysitting equivalent of Tora, we have both had to chase after her for hours" "She's a little devil, she could give hunter nin problems" Now it was Kakashi's turn to look surprised "She didn't even try to get away from me" "How did you do it?" "Did you use your sharingan on her?" "No, she just thought I was cool because I read Jiraya's books in public"