Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is the property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony Productions.

Author's Notes: This will be a short fic consisting of only 3 chapters. Enjoy!

Saitou's Adventures in Babysitting

Chapter 1

A Tornado Hits the Police Station

He knew something was amidst when the ink had spilled all over the document he had been ever so careful in filling out since early that morning. He had loathed doing paperwork ever since he joined the police force and found it to be the most mundane and utmost irritating task that an officer such as him would be forced to do. Why couldn't this task be handed down to one of the petty officers underneath him? Saitou clenched his teeth at the thought that he would need to redo all that work that he had just started.

He took out another blank form from inside of his desk and swiftly dipped his brush into the ink bottle. He began to write his name onto the sheet of paper when he heard a light knocking on his door.

"Come in," he said without looking up from his paperwork.

A click of the door resounded and opened up. Soft rustling of fabric and a sweet smell of red poppies swept inside of the room. At that moment, Saitou knew exactly who it was that came. He looked up from his paperwork and found his lovely wife, Tokio, looking at him with a small basket in her hands.

"Anata, how are you doing?" she questioned as she gave him a genuine smile. Saitou's eyes lit up at hearing her voice.

"I'm doing well, Tokio. Is there something wrong?," he asked with concern in his eyes.

Tokio nodded. "Actually anata," she started, "I wanted to ask a favor of you."

"Anything," he said. Saitou instantly regretted it when he saw a bush of red hair pop up from behind Tokio's kimono. "What is that doing here?"

Tokio sighed as she motioned for the youngster to step out from behind her.

Yellow eyes narrowed as the boy revealed himself. The short-statured kid had long flaming red hair tied up in a loose ponytail like that of his father's. In fact, the kid looked like an exact replica of the Battousai himself except for his mother's blue eyes. He was wearing a loose off-white yukata and looked up shyly at the policeman while rocking back and forth on his small feet.

"Hello, Uncle Hajime."

Tokio smiled at hearing the young boy address her husband and lightly patted his head.

"The Himuras had asked me to look over their child since they're going on a short vacation this weekend. No one else would be around to babysit Kenji so I agreed to help. However . ."

Saitou lifted one of his eyebrows amusingly, "However . ."

"However, I'm going into town with Eiji and Takuya today, so I was wondering if you could look after Himura's son while I'm gone."

Saitou looked cautiously over at the chair with the young boy seated within it and saw that he was quietly listening to the conversation between the two of them wide-eyed. Tokio looked at the boy with a grin.

"You see how well behaved he is anata? I'll only be gone for three hours, I'm sure he won't be any trouble." Without giving her husband enough time to retaliate, the woman walked behind the desk and gave him a small peck on the cheek leaving him a bit dazed. She then walked back towards the door.

"Bye, Aunt Tokio!" Kenji waved as he bowed down politely. The woman laughed and responded by waving good-bye to him also. Before leaving out the door, she said good bye to her husband. Before closing the door, she turned back and added with a wink, "Oh and anata?"

"Yes, Tokio?"

"Please no smoking around the child," she added while smiling sweetly.

Saitou's mind numbed. A couple of minutes without that sweet nicotine just seemed . . it seemed so . .he couldn't think. He didn't even hear the final click of the door after his wife left. A few minutes later his wolfish eyes landed upon the red-haired child sitting in the chair across from him. The kid had a large grin on his face as he looked around the room. The officer wondered exactly what was going on through the young kid's mind. He never had much experience with baby-sitting someone so young since Tokio had raised Takuya mostly by herself. (A/N: Takuya is Saitou's son.)

Saitou decided that if the boy was going to stay like that, he could at least bear it. He turned his attention back to filling out the police report. He dipped his brush back into the inkwell and began writing his name.

Fujita Go-

His hand started trembling. Damn it! He tried to control the trembling but to no avail. He needed that cigarette. His hand started to mechanically move towards his coat pocket like it so often did.

"Uncle Saitou?" the little boy called.

Saitou clenched his teeth at hearing Kenji's voice. What now did the boy want from him? "What is it?" he sneered, without cigarettes Saitou felt uneasy and was quick to resort to violence. Within his hands were the packet of cigarettes that he so treasured as he looked at the boy across from him.

Kenji pointed to the cigarette pack that the man was holding.

The ex-Shinsengumi captain looked at the object and quickly shoved it back into his pocket. He couldn't disobey his wife! He grumbled under his breath as he went back to doing the paperwork. Filling out paperwork was already bad enough, but having to do paperwork without nicotine was like hell! There had to be something that he could do!

"Chou!"

Tokio had said that he couldn't smoke in front of the boy, but she didn't say that he couldn't smoke when the boy wasn't around. A few seconds later loud stomping was heard and the rustic jiggling of the knob was pulled. A man with gravity-defying blonde hair came in huffing and puffing out of breath.

"Whatcha want boss?"

Saitou's wolfish yellow eyes looked at the man with disinterest as he sternly pointed at the young boy across from him. "I want you to look after Battousai's kid since you never do anything of importance around here."

Chou's mouth dropped open as he looked over at the young boy who was currently grinning at him. This won't be so bad, he thought as he smiled back awkwardly. "Aww. That's mean Saitou. I do lots of work around here!"

Saitou didn't pay any attention to him as he got up and walked out.

The cold-hearted bastard could at least act like I exist! Chou clenched his fists and wrung it at him when the man's back was turned.

"I saw that," Saitou said.

The bastard has eyes behind the back of his head!, he thought. Chou wouldn't have been surprised if Saitou could read his mind. He sighed and then took the young kid's hand and pulled him outside towards his own desk.

"So kid, what's your name?" Chou asked.

"Kenji!" the young boy said proudly.

"The name's Chou," he said as he sat down outside of Saitou's office after closing the door. The boy looked at him queerly with his wide blue eyes.

"Broom-head?" the boy asked while pointing to his unruly hair.

"What?!" he yelled as he dramatically got up from his chair. He absolutely despised that nickname! If anything could piss him off, it was that nickname! But then again the man had always had a short temper, so Chou tried to calm himself down. He didn't want Saitou getting on his case and sending him on some other mission. "No, it's Chou," he said firmly.

Kenji looked up at him innocently, a little confused as he scratched his forehead with a finger. After a couple minutes, the boy attempted to say his name again. "Broomhead?"

"No!" he cried. Chou breathed in deeply as he made another attempt. He looked at the young boy in the eye and mouthed the words while exaggerating each sound, "CH- - - OU"

Kenji carefully repeated what he had said, "Ch—ou."

The man nodded. "Yeah Chou. Got it?"

"Yup! Got it broomhead," Kenji happily said as he clapped his hands.

The man narrowed his turquoise eyes as he looked at the boy. It took all of his willpower to hold back his anger and not pummel the boy. Man, if he was still working for Shishio, he wouldn't have a problem with getting rid of the kid, it was Battousai's progeny after all. But the guy was in hell and he couldn't exact any sort of harm on the boy unless he wanted to be thrown away in one of those cells. Damn police!, Chou murmured underneath his breath. But then again, the blonde haired man shivered, he was Battousai's kid and there was no telling what the father would do if he found out that Chou had something to do with the kid's mysterious disappearance.

Chou eyed the young boy up and down. He knew he couldn't take much more of these insults. From a bratty three-year old for godsakes, the man angrily thought. But I can't leave either or Saitou will have my fucking head. Meanwhile, Kenji watched on the side with amusement at the man's features as they writhed in pain, anger, and indecision.

After a couple of minutes the little boy asked with concern laced over each word, "What's wrong, broomhead?"

It didn't take long for Chou to make a decision.

"To hell with this! I'm not gonna be some nanny for Saitou!" the man said as he got up angrily and walked away.

"Oro?" Kenji watched dumbstruck as the man grumpily left. Then the boy jumped from out of his seat and decided to do some exploring. His eyes brightened up as he saw that the door to Saitou's office was not fully closed. He stumbled into the room eyes brightly lit with mischievousness.

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Saitou took another puff of his cigarette as he walked back into the police station. He felt fully refreshed and put out his cigarette on an ashtray before walking into his office. As he approached, a dreadful feeling began to develop at the pit of his stomach. Where is that broom head and the kid?

His sixth sense told him that something was wrong. It was just too quiet and that Chou was never quiet. Never. He took a deep breath as he opened his door.

Saitou felt his heart skip a beat. His office was in a complete mess. Markers, spilled ink, papers, and books littered the entire room making it seem as if a tornado had targeted the place specifically. The three year old culprit stood in the middle of the room indulging at its sight. Only one phrase repeated in the man's mind.

"Aku. Soku. Zan."

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- To be continued

Author's Notes: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please read and review!