What Could Go Wrong?

"Naruto, I really need you to do this for us." Tsunade's hair was in disarray as she fought to keep her daughter from fisting her tiny hands in the blonde strands. "Please."

"Why should I do it?" the orange clad boy eyed the tableau suspiciously – Tsunade holding her daughter as Kasumi tried to pull her mother's pigtails out, giggling, and Shizune walking around the room desperately attempting to quiet down her son. The respective fathers were cowering in a corner – even Ibiki's normally unflappable calm had been disturbed by his son's unceasing screams.

"Because you're really nice and pity us?" Shizune suggested as she walked by. Naruto winced and covered his ears from the wail coming from the small boy.

"Not a chance."

"How about because if you don't I'll make sure you're given every single D-ranked mission for the next six months?" Tsunade threatened, once again disengaging her daughter and holding the five month out in front of her by two hands under the girl's armpits. Kasumi babbled and struggled to get forward and back to her favorite play thing.

"Baa-chan, that's not fair!"

"Take it or leave it, gaki. And what did I say about calling me 'baa-chan'! Just for that –"

"Okay, okay, I'll do it," he cut her off hastily, not wanting to know what her retaliation would be. "Can I at least have Sakura-chan help me?"

"That's actually a good idea," Shizune nodded, as Kisuke finally began to settle down. She didn't dare stop her pace lest he begin screaming again. "It would be good practice for Sakura and that way you would have a tag-team. In case these two get to be a bit much for one person…"

"Right…" Naruto eyed the two babies warily. "So when should we start?"

"How about now?" Tsunade chirped, shooting up from her desk and handing the giggling Kasumi to Naruto. His hair was immediately termed the new plaything and she wound her little fists into it. "I'll go find Sakura." In less than two seconds the blonde woman had disappeared.

"Traitor," Shizune muttered good-naturedly, lightly bouncing Kisuke in her arms as the boy finally began to smile. "Escaping the moment she has the chance…"

Naruto tried to balance Kasumi as she wriggled, looking around the room curiously. "Are you going to ditch me with him too?"

"No, I'll wait until Sakura comes to do that."

"How generous." The blond looked towards where Jiraiya and Ibiki were eyeing the babies like ticking bombs. "Do you want to hold her?"

"No, the joy can be all yours!" Jiraiya offered with a fixed smile. "I'll just…" and he made for the door, Ibiki following suit.

"Wimps!" Shizune called after the two. "Real men would step up to the challenge! Not that there haven't been a few sleepless nights in our house where Ibiki was on duty," she added in an aside to Naruto. "The first time it happened, I thought he was a zombie when I woke up."

At that moment Tsunade came back, a slightly bewildered Sakura in tow. "Shishou, what's so important I had to come right now?" Then her eyes caught Naruto holding Kasumi, and Shizune standing against the wall with Kisuke in her arms. "Oh!" The pinkette made a direct beeline for the raven woman, arms open to receive the boy. "Can I hold him? Please?"

"Of course." Shizune handed the boy over to Sakura, then grinned. "After all, you'll be taking care of him for the next six hours, ja ne!" She was out the door in less than two seconds, grabbing Tsunade's arm as she left and tugging the unresisting blonde woman along with her. Sakura's confused cry of "What?" went unnoticed by the two.

"They dumped the kids on us and ran," Naruto clarified simply, grabbing Kasumi's arm in his hand as she reached for his hitai-ate. "Right now all four of them are probably laughing at us for being suckers."

Sakura began growling low in her throat. "If shishou thinks I'm going to let her get away with this…" Then her attention was diverted as Kisuke began to cry once more.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Shizune asked for the third time. She was beginning to have second thoughts about leaving the children with the two teenagers. "I mean, neither of them have a lot of experience, and we didn't really tell Sakura anything…"

"Relax!" Tsunade told her, sinking further into the hot spring both women were currently in. "It's not as though those two haven't been hanging around us every waking moment since the kids were born anyway, they'll be fine! And we get a few hours to ourselves without crying babies and perverted men." The last bit was directed to the wooden fence behind her that divided the women's spring from the men's, and she slammed a fist into it.

A distinct "Ow!" could be heard from the other side.

"I suppose you're right," the raven answered doubtfully. But that didn't keep her from looking in the direction of the Hokage Tower from time to time as though she expected it to explode any second.

"Why won't he stop crying?" Sakura was at the end of her sanity, Kisuke hadn't once stopped wailing since she had fed him after his mother had left. His diaper was clean, he refused to go to sleep, and she couldn't see any reason for him to be in pain, even going so far as to check him using medical jutsu. The noise was at an ear-splitting level, and she honestly thought she may go deaf in her left ear.

"Beats me, he was crying when I arrived," Naruto shot back, more than a little distracted. Somehow Kasumi had gotten her hands on a small bead, and it was in her mouth. Which she refused to open. He didn't really want to pry it out and accidentally hurt her, risking Tsunade's wrath, but at the same time, if she choked…he'd never see the light of day.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Eyes wide and more than a little disbelieving, Sakura watched as her teammate held Kasumi parallel to the ground, face down, and tickled the bottom of her feet. A shrill giggle emitted from the girl, and something small bounced to the floor.

"Getting this," he told her, standing back up and placing Kasumi down on the Hokage's desk. He really didn't care if all the paperwork got messed up, it was Tsunade's fault for leaving them with the two kids. The small bead he displayed to the pinkette. "Why is there even a bead in this place to begin with?"

Sakura shrugged. "Who knows what goes through shishou's mind. But I can't get Kisuke to stop crying! Want to trade?"

Before Naruto could respond, Kasumi opened her mouth to join her cousin in a wailing contest. "No! No no no! What did I do? What should I do? Ah…ah….I know! Peek-a-boo! All babies love peek-a-boo!" So deciding, the blond boy crouched in front of Kasumi, placing both hands over his face, then opening them quickly. "Peek-a-boo!" And again. "Peek-a-boo!"

The decibel level in the office climbed to a new high.

"It's not working!" Sakura had to shout to be heard over the babies now. "I give up! Let's just find Tsunade-shishou and Shizune and give them back!"

"We can do that?" Naruto yelled back, picking Kasumi up from the desk as she tried to wriggle away, almost falling off and still crying.

"It's our only choice!"

The two women were just changing when they heard the faint strains of baby distress. Reacting to base instinct, they were both outside in under five seconds, peering down the path to see Sakura and Naruto racing towards them, each carrying a burden.

"Here! You take her!" The blond boy cried, sprinting the last hundred meters and thrusting a wailing baby girl into Tsunade's arms. Sakura followed suit with Kisuke, handing him off to Shizune with haste.

"What did you do?" Tsunade snapped, eyes fixed on her daughter as she ran a hand all over the girl, checking for any injuries. The noise level immediately started to decrease as Kasumi quieted, reaching up with a hand to grasp and Tsunade's still wet blonde hair.

"We didn't do anything!" he retorted, exasperated. "They wouldn't stop!"

Sakura was watching Shizune with a disbelieving expression as she cooed at her baby, who also began to quiet down, nuzzling into his mother's arms. "How do you do that?"

"Sure you didn't." Tsunade raised her eyes to glare at the boy in front of her. "She was not crying when I left her with you."

"He played peek-a-boo with her," Sakura supplied helpfully.

Shifting Kasumi to the crook of her arm, Tsunade extended the other and hit Naruto soundly across the head. "You idiot! You scared her! No wonder she wouldn't stop crying!"

"Hey, no fair baa-chan! It's not like we have kids of our own or anything!"

Dead silence. Ibiki and Jiraiya, who were just coming out of the men's side to see what all the commotion was about, stared at the two teammates strangely; Shizune's mouth dropped open.

"Is there anything you want to tell us?" Tsunade finally managed, her tone odd.

Sakura, blushing furiously, grabbed her teammate by the back of his jacket. "We'll just be going now. Ah…good luck." In a whirl of leaves the two were gone.

Shizune looked down at her son, who was now sleeping peacefully, even as Ibiki came over to take the boy. Once they had successfully completed the handoff she looked over at Tsunade. "If they ever…"

"We never mention that again."

"But if they…"

"Never. Understood?" Tsunade pinned all three adults with a death stare. Even the famed torture master cringed a little and nodded. "Good. Now, Jiraiya, since Naruto bailed, it's your turn." Before the unsuspecting Jiraiya could ask what she meant, he was holding Kasumi and Tsunade was headed back inside.

"H-Hey! What do you mean my turn?"

"You're her father, aren't you?" Tsunade shot back from inside the changing room. "Act like one!"

Shizune winced as Jiraiya glared at the entrance to the hot springs. "Act like a father she says. I'm a perfectly good father! The best father anyone could have…" he wandered off muttering under his breath, playing with Kasumi in his arms.

"Let me say how glad I am you didn't pick up that particular aspect from Tsunade-sama," Ibiki's gravelly voice rumbled next to Shizune's ear as he put his free arm around her; the other still being occupied by Kisuke.

She leaned into him gratefully. "You have no idea how glad I am of that too."