.

.

"I don't know what the hell I'm doing, dattebane!" Kushina wails.

The baby screeches. Naruto runs around the house, ping-ponging between his mother, whose eyes are wide and wild and sunken in dark circles, and his dad, whose hair is disheveled and who just looks increasingly distressed and more and more confused.

"Ah ah ah, Ma! Lemme hold her, Ma!" Naruto tries to take the baby but the baby wails louder.

"Why is she crying?!" Kushina says. "She won't stop crying!"

"What do you think, Naruto?" Minato says, delirious from a week of not sleeping. Naruto's eyes widen.

"How the hell should I know?! You're my parents, dattebayo!"

Nighttime. Obito is working in his office when the air shifts, and Minato appears out from nowhere with his flying raijin. "She won't stop crying," Minato says, and Obito stands up, surprised.

"Sensei?"

Kushina shouts from behind him, "It's your fault we don't know what we're doing! You owe us, dattebane!" Obito blinks.

"Y-yeah. Okay..." He gingerly holds his arms out. "Let me see her."

Minato hands Obito the baby, who starts bouncing her on his shoulder.

The baby stops crying. Minato and Kushina peer over her as if Obito did some sort of magic trick. "When they're young they like being bounced like this," Obito says. "The doctors say it's like they miss being in the womb."

He shows Minato and Kushina how to swaddle the baby, folding the blanket so she looks like a little burrito, then hands the baby back to them.

"You know, if you guys ever need a break, Rin and I can watch her," Obito says. Kushina and Minato look up at him, their hair sticking up and their eyes bloodshot and wide.

"Really?" Minato says, and the relief is visible on both their faces. Kushina pushes forward.

"Can you watch her now, dattebane?!"

Obito blinks. "Yeah, sure, let me call Rin-"

"Ah! We can get some sleep!" Kushina starts laughing, then starts crying. "We haven't slept in over a week!"

"Thank you!" Minato says, and he hands Obito a bag of baby supplies; Obito realizes he used the flying raijin to gather some things while Kushina was talking.

"Thank you, Sensei," Obito says, and his eyes tear up at the significance of it. "You don't know how much this means to me, even after everything that happened, you still trust me...

"Sensei?" Obito looks around and realizes he's standing alone with the baby.

"Uh..." Naruto looks around, confused. "I think Ma and Dad forgot me, dattebayo."