Chapter 4

"Dead," Sasuke said into the phone, Kenji slung over his arm like a sack of potatoes. "Little brother, you are dead."

"Look, teme, I have about twenty patients waiting to see me, so what exactly is going to cause my death this time?"

"Gay. You told her I was gay. She thinks I've just broken up with my boyfriend."

"I couldn't very well tell her the truth, could I?" Naruto said, defending himself. "If I'd told her my rich and powerful brother who owns half of Suna City had agreed to help me woo her, I don't think she would have agreed."

"Well, she didn't agree," Sasuke snapped. "She fired me."

At that Naruto took a deep breath. "Fired you?"

"Yeah, but I talked her out of it."

Naruto paused, then began to laugh. "I see. She gave you a way out of all this, but you were too proud to take it, so you used your powers of persuasion to keep your job. Now you don't know what to do with the job, right? Tell me, what did you say to persuade her?"

"The kid likes me."

"What? I can't hear you. We're giving flu shots today, and there's a lot of screaming. Senior citizens' day. It almost sounded like you said that Kenji likes you."

"He does. The kid likes me."

"Why would that horrible child like you?" Naruto half shouted into the phone. "He doesn't like anyone. Has he bitten you yet? Don't tell me he lets you hold him? He only lets Sakura hold him."

"I have him right now," Sasuke said smugly. "And you know what, dobe? I think your Sakura likes me too." At that, he hung up the phone. Let his devious little brother contemplate that one.

Once the phone was down, Sasuke looked at the bundle hanging over his arm. "Is it my imagination or do you stink to high heaven?" Kenji twisted around and gave Sasuke a toothy grin, showing two teeth in his bottom jaw. Suddenly the thought of breast-feeding an infant with teeth went through his mind, and Sasuke shuddered. "Brave lady is your mother. Now, hang on, and she'll be out of the shower in a minute or two."

But Sakura wasn't out of the shower in a minute. Or five. Or ten. And Kenji began to squirm. Sasuke put him down on the floor, but the baby lifted his legs high in the air and began to whimper, all the while looking up at Sasuke with big eyes.

"I am going to kill my brother," Sasuke muttered in what was becoming a chant; then he began to look for changing facilities. Not that he'd know how to use them, but he had seen movies and had occasionally watched TV. Wasn't there supposed to be a tall cabinet that you put the baby on and it had shelves full of diapers and whatever else was needed? On the other hand, maybe if he thought about all this long enough, Sakura would get out of the shower.

But still the shower ran, and the baby was looking up at Sasuke mournfully. Didn't babies cry at the drop of a hat? he thought. But this little guy was a trooper and even a bucket load wasn't making him howl. "Okay, kid, I'll do my best."

Looking about, he saw a pile of plastic-coated diapers under a table, so he figured it was now or never.