Genin Izumo and Kotetsu were lost. They were sure they were still somewhere near Konoha, but which direction the village was in, they had no idea.

Their team, under-prepared for this scale of mission, had fared badly against the rogue ninja they had encountered. Their client was dead, as was their teammate, and the jōnin captain (not their sensei- he had died a few months ago in the Kyūbi attack) had told them to run. So, yeah, the duo was lost and alone, and it was getting dark.

Izumo spotted the cluster of boulders first, Kotetsu investigated while Izumo hung back, ready to jump in if there was a threat.

"It's clear!" He called back. Izumo breathed a sigh of relief. The two boys didn't have anything with which to set up camp, save for Izumo's emergency blanket. They picked the most defensible spot between the rocks, where they found a circle of ashes with a small smooth lump in the center. Having nothing better to do, Kotetsu poked at it. It was warm to the touch. He carefully picked it up and dusted it off. The oval-ish thing was green, with lines like the veins of a leaf running through it. He held it out to his friend for inspection.

"I think it's an egg," he said.

"No shit. What kind of egg is it, though? It's too big even for an ostrich." Izumo said, his curiosity winning out over his innate caution.

"Maybe it's a dragon! Or wait- it was in a pile of ashes, so it's like a- what was that bird in that one old book called?"

"Which old book?"

"The red one we found in that back nook in the library."

"Oh, that one. A… phoenix, I think. A firebird."

"Yeah, that. When they die, they erupt in flames and burn up, leaving an egg behind in the ashes. Maybe this is one of those."

Izumo peered closer at the egg in Kotetsu's hands. "So what should we do with it?"

"Well, it's probably a firebird. So it probably needs fire to hatch."

"But if we're wrong, we'll kill whatever's inside, if it's even alive. Who knows how long it's been out here."

"It's still warm. And I think I can feel a heartbeat."

"Really?!" Izumo reached forward excitedly and placed his hand against it. "I don't feel it."

"It's super slow."

"Oh! I felt it!" Both boys looked at each other in excitement.

"So what do we do? It's too risky for us to light a fire," Kotetsu pointed out.

"Maybe we can keep it warm for now, and figure out how to hatch it when we get home."

Kotetsu nodded in agreement. "We'll take turns keeping watch and holding the egg." He carefully settled the egg in his lap and Izumo handed over his blanket, which Kotetsu wrapped halfway around himself and over the egg. Izumo loosened his knives in their sheaths and perched on top of one of the boulders, staying low to be less visible. "I'll wake you in four hours," he called down softly. He got a grunt of acknowledgement in return, his friend already more than halfway asleep.

After a difficult day, and three hours of night watch, Izumo could barely keep himself awake. Darkness crept into his vision, and his thoughts went fuzzy. Before he could process what was happening, he was fast asleep.

A yelp cut through Izumo's dream, and then Kotetsu was calling his name. Izumo flailed around in half-awake confusion and tumbled to the ground. Now fully alert, he scrambled to sort out his limbs and rushed over to his friend. When he got there, Kotetsu carefully pulled the blanket back, the cracks along the egg's surface just visible in the dim light of false dawn. Izumo stared at it in awe.

"It's hatching!" He whispered. They both watched as the cracks spread along the surface, until suddenly the whole thing exploded with a bang and a burst of flames. The two genin yelped and scrambled backwards, too late. Kotetsu's shirt and pants had been shredded, but the fire had been enough to instantly cauterise the gashes across his stomach and thighs. Izumo had a gash on his ear and burns along his forearms, which he had reflexively thrown up to shield his face. Curiosity won out over pain as the genin moved forward again to see what had hatched.

There, in the middle of the leaf-green shards, lay something that altogether looked a lot like a human baby, if one ignored the fact that they had black downy feathers instead of hair, along with tufty red feathers along their arms and legs. Izumo and Kotetsu crawled closer as the baby's dark eyes blinked open and settled on the two of them. The baby's hand instinctively reached out to the one who was closest, which was Izumo. Izumo and Kotetsu looked at each other.

"Well that was unexpected," Kotetsu announced. Izumo snorted. Kotetsu picked up the discarded blanket and dusted it off. Without needing words, Izumo scooped up the baby and handed him to Kotetsu, who wrapped him up. Izumo then held on to the baby as Kotetsu set about unwinding the bandages from his ankles to wrap up the injuries on his legs, with an extra strip being used to tie his kunai pouch to his belt.

After Kotetsu got to his feet, the two boys stared at each other as the first rays of dawn filtered through the trees.

"Sooooo… now what?" Izumo asked, shifting the baby in his arms.

Kotetsu shrugged. "You're always the one with the plan."

"Well, we could wander around for ages trying to find Captain Genma, who might well be dead-"

"That'll be option B."

"-Or we could make our best guess on where we are and start walking, slowly, until we find something."

"Actually, that should be option B. The other one can be option C. What else you got?" Kotetsu asked, looking grumpy.

"Nope, that's it. There's only two options here." Izumo shrugged. Kotetsu sighed, looking at the sky.

"Hey, wait! The sun is over there! We went west of Konoha, and we couldn't have gone that far off course last night!"

Izumo smacked his forehead. "We are both such idiots. C'mon Kotetsu, let's go walking off into the sunrise."

"Nice and dramatic, too bad we don't have an audience." The genin started walking, their spirits lifted now that they knew which way to go. The baby seemed to sense their improved mood and gurgled contentedly. Two minutes later:

"Hey Izumo?"

"Huh?"

"What do babies eat?"

Izumo looked at his friend like he was an idiot. "They drink milk."

"Okay, but this one hatched out of an egg. Do you think he'd eat bugs? Like a bird?"

Izumo stared blankly ahead as they continued walking. "I don't know, and I have no idea how we'd test that," he finally said.

"Easy, we catch a bug and see if he'll eat it."

"Let's just get back to Konoha and let an adult sort this whole thing out."

"Okay."

The Sandaime Hokage certainly looked his age as the two genin came in to report their failed mission. It was no wonder really, the man had been forced out of retirement in order to try and manage a devastated village. The Hokage listened stoically to their report, told them he'd let them know if Genma made it back, and told them to go home.

"Hokage-sama, what should we do about the baby we found?" Izumo asked. The old man sighed.

"None of the orphanages have any room. You two will have to keep it."

"Pst, Kotetsu, tell him about the feathers," Izumo hissed at the designated spokesperson. Kotetsu opened his mouth, but the Hokage held up his hand.

"I don't want to hear it. It's your problem now," he said gruffly, before sighing and massaging his temples. "I'm sure you two can figure out whatever it is. You may take some time off to let your burns heal up and either find someone willing to care for the child or learn to take care of it yourselves."

Izumo and Kotetsu looked at each other. Kotetsu shrugged. They both turned and left.

Once in their apartment, they both sat down on the futon for a while, trying to process everything that had happened.

"Look like we're dads now," Kotetsu finally said. "Guess he'll need a name."

"Yeah. Wish I was still on speaking terms with my parents." Izumo's civilian parents hadn't understood his desire to become a ninja, and had kicked him out as soon as he had graduated the academy. Kotetsu, who had graduated six months earlier than Izumo, and had been living alone since his parents had been killed in battle, had happily given his friend a place to stay. That had been almost a year ago, and they still had yet to set foot in the master bedroom, having thus far had no need of the space. It looked like they'd be needing it soon.

Kotetsu flopped backwards. "First though- can you get the med-kit?" Izumo jumped up at the reminder of his friend's injuries, leaving the baby on the futon, still loosely wrapped in the emergency blanket. The baby rolled out of the loose folds of the blanket, leaving him on his stomach, face-to-face with Kotetsu. The baby wiggled around a little, then reached out a tiny hand and grabbed Kotetsu's nose. The action startled a laugh out of the teen. The baby smiled back.

"How about we name him Hayato?" Kotetsu suddenly called.

"Well I guess it fits. He does have feathers," Izumo replied as he came back in with the medkit.

Kotetsu nodded. "Also, falcons are cool."

"Hayato it is," Izumo declared with finality.