Chapter 2: Baby Mystery
"You're up early, Shikaku, what's the emergency?" asked a sleepy Hayate as he was yawning. It was around eight in the morning and almost all of the Konoha ninjas were awake except for Kakashi and Iruka.
"Well, take a look on who's laying down on Iruka's side, Hayate." told the Nara, pointing his head towards the Chunin's sleeping form.
"Whoa! Is that a baby sleeping next to him?" whispered Hayate.
"Hmm…looks like it, but where did he get him from though?" questioned Asuma, then as if on cue Anko showed up and said,
"Well, then all that's left to do is to wake him up!" she approached Iruka slowly,
"Umm… Anko that won't be a great idea, you'll wake the baby up too." warned Kurenai.
"Ahh hush, Kurenai, we need answers not sympathy…HEY! Wake UP!" shouted Anko next to Iruka's ear.
Then Iruka jumped out of the bed and fell to the ground, seconds later a woken up baby started to cry, followed by a yawning Kakashi.
"What in the world is wrong with you, Anko?" demanded Iruka, "You almost made me deaf from my right ear, darn it!"
"Serves you right for not waking up earlier." commented the kunoichi back at Iruka.
"Technically, Anko were not supposed to wake until 8:30." clarified by Hayate as he started to cough. Anko pouted and then stared at Iruka, who was quieting down the baby in his arms.
"Shhhshhh…there Gaara, everything is going to be alright, the scary women is gone."
"WHY YOU—" Anko started before Shikaku interrupted her,
"Anko, that's enough, don't cause any more trouble." he said and then was walking towards Iruka, "Care to explain?"
"Well, I was the only one awake last night and was headed to bed before I heard noises outside the window and then I heard the baby crying and found him in a basket that was placed in the bushes." explained Iruka, "After that I found this note that came with it, and decided to bring the little guy in, better than to leave him out there in the streets of Suna." He finished as he found the note and handed it to Shikaku, who read it out loud,
"He is now left in your care. Please take him and adopt him as your own. For he would have a much better life living with you than us. His name is Gaara."
"Hey, what I miss?" asked Kakashi
"Nothing, other than that your little friend here," Anko pointed at Iruka," decided to adopt a baby from Suna."
"Really?" Iruka aren't you a little young to have a child?" asked the copy ninja.
"Well, we're old enough to kill so I don't see how this is any different?" answered Iruka.
"I thought that saying was only implied for—" Asuma started to say, but stopped as soon as he saw Kurenai giving him a dirty look, "Never mind."
The Nara cleared his throat,
"Ahem! Obviously, we still have a couple of days before we leave and head back to Konoha, so that will give us time to investigate."
"Investigate?" all six ninjas said in a unison,
"Yes, that's what I said." he restated.
"But why?" asked Iruka as he was looking at the baby, who fell back to sleep.
"Think about it, Iruka, it's only been yesterday that we all went to question the Kazekage about them creating a weapon of mass destruction…."
"What does the baby have to do with this, Shikaku-sensei?" asked Asuma,
"Don't you guys remember about the rumor that we heard? That the people of Suna put a demon inside the womb of a woman and gave birth to a child, who is the container of the demon, which can lead Suna to have an advantage when it comes to war using the child's "demon" as the weapon." explained the shadow user.
"Why would the people even think of doing that to a poor innocent kid and mother?" said Kurenai.
"It's a troublesome world out there, kid. No doubt people will go to drastic measures to survive." Shikaku replied.
"Like they say 'survival of the fittest'." commented Kakashi, who was reading his little books.
"Says the pervert." joked Hayate as he and Asuma were laughing.
"You're lucky I know you cough boy." stated Kakashi.
"In any event, what are we going to do with the baby?" asked Anko.
"Aww….he's so cute!" cooed Kurenai, "Can I hold him Iruka?"
"Sure, why not?"
As he was giving little Gaara to Kurenai, the baby started to wake up and opened his eyes, seeing the sight of the future genjutsu specialist and gave a small smile to her.
"Wow, the kid has no pupil in his eyes, just like the Hyuugas and their aquamarine, too." complimented Anko, as she was staring at the baby from Kurenai's shoulder.
"Soo….when do you want to question the Kazekage, Shikaku-sensei?" inquired Hayate,
"Today, as soon as he's free from his paperwork." he replied, "I'm also curious at the fact that we only saw two of his kids yesterday."
"What's that got to do with anything?" asked Kakashi, stretching in the couch
"Well, if you've been current on what is going on in the villages around you, you would know that not too long ago the Kazekage had a newborn child and he lost his wife on the same day too." the Nara answered as he started to examine the boy from Kurenai's shoulder.
"So, that just adds another suspicion to the rumor that we've been hearing, huh?" interpret Kurenai, she handed the baby back to Iruka whom laid him down in the bed.
"Yes, that's what I'm saying, he could be the Kazekage's son." said Shikaku
"So, he may be the container of some demon of mass destruction, that's just horrible that a father would do that to his own son." commented Iruka,
'Why would a parent make a child's life miserable, it's wrong!' he thought.
"So, for now, we'll travel around the sand village until we have a chance to meet up with the Kazekage for another interview before we head out to Konoha, as of right now, since you found him Iruka, you'll be taking care of him, understood everyone?" ordered the Nara.
"Yes!" all six Konoha ninjas answered at the same time.
"Good, well then let just head on out." concluded Shikaku after that he disappeared to go out to Suna and look around.
"Are you really willing to take care of this kid, Iruka?" asked Kurenai, she and Iruka decided to talk a stroll at a local park in Suna it was around 1:00 pm, Iruka had the baby strapped on his back.
"Yeah, why not? Besides, if you haven't noticed already, we've been getting awkward stares lately." he added looking around the park seeing the civilians looking at them.
"Hmmm….you're right, maybe it's because were from Konoha and they don't see a lot of outsiders in their town often." explained the female ninja.
'I don't think that's the main reason, Kurenai." thought Iruka. He saw a couple of evil glares from the villagers, some were staring at the baby that he had in his back, 'I have a feeling their staring at Gaara.' then both ninjas heard someone shout,
"Hey, wait up!" Kurenai and Iruka turned around and saw Hayate running towards them.
"You….guys….need….to…slow…down" he said after each gasp for air, he was a good Chunin, but his illness prevented him from becoming the best.
"What is it, Hayate?" asked Kurenai.
"Shikaku….wants (cough) us to meet him by the Kazekage tower stat." he commanded.
"He already got the Kazekage's attention? That fast? Wow, we've only been walking around for three hours." said Iruka.
"He also told me to bring lil' Gaara too since this somehow concerns him." added Hayate. Iruka looked above his shoulders and saw the child with his eyes closed,
"Looks like I have to wake him up….." then the baby opened his eyes and stared at Iruka and gave him a smile. 'That's strange, he hasn't taken a nap all day or slept. Wonder what's wrong with the little guy.'
"What do you know, Iruka? The baby wasn't sleeping after all." commented Kurenai, "Let's go before Shikaku loses his patience."
"He will anyway, Kakashi is here remember?" Iruka mentioned, "I think we should take our time."
"For once I agree with Iruka, Kurenai." agreed Hayate.
"Whatever."
3 Hours Later:
"Damn it, Kakashi, stop being late!" yelled the Nara jounin.
"Sorry, life was in my way so I took a detour." explained the copy-cat ninja.
"My ass." whispered Anko.
"I heard that!" said Kakashi as he turned around and saw Anko.
"Anyways, I had made an arrangement to interview the Kazekage after supper today, regarding to the abandoned child Iruka found last night." Shikaku started before being disrupted,
"That's an hour away, Shikaku, do you think you're ready to question the Kazekage?" remarked Iruka.
"Yes, Iruka but you should worry about that baby than me asking the Kazekage, it appears to be hungry. I'm almost done with the conversation so you can go get him milk or whatever babies eat and drink." ordered Shikaku.
"Yes, I'll be back before the hour ends." claimed Iruka. He disappeared in a cloud of smoke, Anko saw him depart and turned to face the shadow user,
"Hope that child doesn't turn out to be a demon container, or else he's going to have a hard time with him in the future." Shikaku frowned at hearing his teammate's comment and replied back,
"That's if he's allowed to have him as his own, Anko. We might have to give the boy back due to paper work and the sand villagers won't give up a child from their own village to become a citizen of another village."
"I agree, but Iruka seems willing to raise him as his own though." inquired Kurenai.
"Hm? What makes you say that Kurenai?" questioned Asuma.
"We all know that Iruka lost his parents on the same night when the nine-tailed demon-fox attacked our village a month ago, so he feels sad that a little baby was abandoned by his own parents and he feels like the boy needs to know love and caring for others. Besides, today I saw in Iruka's eyes that he truly wants to raise the baby and give the love and care that the boy's biological parents never wanted to give him." answered Kurenai,
"I still think he's young though." Kakashi commented, "He just became a Chunin and won't be home often as he used to, he won't have time to take care of some kid."
"If anybody knows Iruka, it's me," Anko declared, "once he has his eyes into something or accomplishing something, he'll do it and will try his hardest to achieve it."
"Ok, guys we'll talk more about this after we confronted the Kazekage and after we know that their willing to give up Gaara to us." mentioned Shikaku, "Now, let's go get something to eat."
"Someone was hungry, huh." said Iruka as he was feeding Gaara, a bottle of warm milk, "it's a good thing I brought some money with me so I can buy you this bottle and our room already supplied us with the milk." He looked at the baby as he was happily drinking his bottle.
"I wonder why they abandoned you, must be in some financial issues or something—worse." he asked mostly to himself. A couple of minutes passed and the next thing Iruka knew is that little Gaara was done with his bottle.
"Right on time, well hope that warm milk will put you to sleep, you need the sleep, lil' man." Iruka looked at the clock in the kitchen, "It's almost 6 o'clock, and I better go and meet them before they start without me." Iruka wrapped the baby and held him tight to him and jumped of the window and was heading to meet his companions to confront with the Kazekage once again.
"Hey, Iruka, right on time. Unlike some people earlier." said Asuma as he stared at Kakashi.
"What did I do?" sighed Kakashi as he was again reading his little books.
"Forget it, let's go everyone before they question us again." said Shikaku. They all went to the entrance of the building and were on their way to confront with the Kazekage.