Edit 2020 I reread and reread and decided to rewrite this one.
The days past by faster than I could have imagined, turning to years before I had caught up. Aurora had grown into a very energetic two year old and always seeming to have something to talk about. She was clever and incredibly smart for her age. I might have had some hand in teaching her a few things, that now in hindsight might not have been a great idea, like opening doors when she was one. I did not teach her how to arrange the drawers in the kitchen to get onto the counters though, which had been the lesson to learn on my part. Smaller children were far smarter than I thought.
Currently she was working on how to open the sliding door to the back yard. That was the old door she had yet to master since it was a sliding glass door. She wasn't quite strong enough to pull it, but she figured out the latch on it. Guess I had to set up an alarm on this one now too.
"Aurora, what are you doing?" I asked from behind her, causing her to jump a bit.
"Outside!" she demanded and pointed out the window. She also developed an attitude, which I blamed on Iruka. He'd watched her a couple times over the years, but it seemed to be enough to rub off on her.
"No, not right now, Daddy has work to do. I promise I will play when it's done." I sighed. I was dealing with yet another genin team. Though this one I actually passed and was working on the mission reports we had. I really liked this team so far; they showed great promise with the few missions we had completed. Now the blonde one, Naruto, was complaining that they were all too easy. Brat had no idea what real missions entailed.
"No, out!" she whined and pulled at the door. "Pwease!" she pouted and looked up at me with teary purple eyes. I sighed and picked her up. "Come on, why don't we finger paint." I said setting her at the kitchen table and getting paper and paint for her out of the closet. She grinned and begin happily painting. Sighing, I sat across from her and got to work on the overdue reports.
"Looky!" she cheered about ten minutes later. I looked up and gasped. She was covered in paint; her hair, her clothing and her skin. I nearly face palmed at not thinking about that fact. "It me and you." She beamed. At least it didn't look like she had tried to eat any of the paint.
"Oh…wow, caterpillar…it's…beautiful." I said finally looking at the picture. It consisted of a green, blue and white blob and an orange and purple blob. "Is that me?" I asked pointing to the greenish one. I assumed the orange and purple would be her because of her red hair and purple eye color. Though why she didn't add in her, once, yellow dress into the picture was beyond me.
"Uh huh!" Her smile widened, her face becoming a giant smile. "Dat's you and dats me! It for you fader."
"Aw thank you sweetie." I smiled, forgetting momentarily about the mess she made and how hard it was going to be to make her not look like a walking 'modern art' piece. She may be a challenge, but she was sweet.
"Come on old man! Give us something more challenging!" Naruto shouted in the mission room. Again Naruto was complaining about a mission. I will admit babysitting was a bit too easy, even for three genin. If the three of them could take Aurora on, they could take on pretty much any child. She had to come along on some of their missions and the three of them took it upon themselves to make sure she was safe during them. No one told them too, they just watched her and did their mission, which was impressive.
She'd tagged along today too, sticking to Sasuke like glue on the way here. He seemed to attract the attention of the two year old just like he did with every other girl, but I doubted she liked him like his fangirls did. Of course this caused Naruto to get irritated and tried to gain her attention, but it set off Aurora's sass too. The look on the blondes face when she said he was being creepy was one I'd never forget.
"Chasing a cat, washing dishes…how are these missions?!" Naruto was still on his rant.
"Naruto, all missions are important…" Lord Hokage said going off on a political rant that I spaced off on. I was thinking about how much crap I was going to get from Iruka for asking him to babysit last minute, again. He might have guessed it, since he was here too, telling Naruto that he was being ridiculous. I tried to make eye contact with him, but the look on his face told me I had just missed an important part of the conversation.
"Hear that?! We get to do a C ranked mission, believe it!" I heard Naruto cheer, pulling me out of my thoughts. Both Sakura and Sasuke sighed at Naruto. I sweat dropped and wondered how that had happened. When did Sandaime come up with the C-ranked mission? And how long would I need Iruka to look after Aurora this time? Usually it was only for a few hours.
"Your mission will be to escort Tazuna back to his home land, the land of waves." Lord Hokage stated. "Come in Tazuna." At that moment a drunken old man opened the door and stepped in.
"You're trusting my life with a bunch of brats?" Was the first statement out of the mans, Tazun's, mouth. I knew what was going to happen and grabbed Naruto, covering his mouth so no smart ass comments would come out.
"Nice to meet you…"
I figured cornering him after his shift would be the right time, but he was still upset over everything and lashed out on me. At least Aurora was asleep in my arms and didn't hear what he said.
"Bastard! You didn't even try to stop this from happening!" Iruka yelled, clearly pissed I didn't fight the C-rank mission.
"I'm sorry, I can't stop them at this point." I said putting my hand up in an innocent way. "But I have a favor to ask."
"Oh don't give me that bullshit!" He growled. His face was bright red with anger at this point and I was scared to ask him to watch over Aurora while on my trip. He took a deep breath, letting it go. "Fine…what now?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"Well…my team and I have a mission." He wasn't amused by my stalling, but it was fun for me. To my surprise, he did smile, but there was something sinister about it.
"Want me to watch over your little angel? Alright." Iruka was being way too nice. "You owe me." He smirked. I gulped at that. I knew he had a reputation for making life a living hell if you didn't pay him back. And yeah I had experienced it a few times already, he was ruthless in his own ways.
"Alright, name your price."
"Let me think it over. Have fun on your mission." He kept that smirk as he walked past us. "I'll meet you at your place in an hour to drop her off." He waved, leaving me to wonder what he had planned.
While I was shuffling around I must have disturbed Aurora in her room and was a bit startled by a small yawn behind me. I had laid her down just a few minutes ago, but I seemed to have woke her up.
"What are you doin'?" she asked as she rubbed her eyes. Her shoulder length copper hair was a tangled mess. She needed another bath before I left, the paint for earlier today was still making her cheeks look blue. Iruka might get the wrong idea and think she was sick.
"Getting ready for a mission sweetie." I smiled at her and turned back to finish packing.
"I want to come!" Aurora brightened up, but pouted, already knowing that she couldn't go with us this time.
"No Aurora, this is work daddy has to do." I said kissing the crown of her head. "Iruka will babysit you though." Though I wasn't sure how much I wanted him too seeing as he threatened me.
"Yay!" She cheered. She, for whatever reason, adored Iruka. I found him bland, rude at times, and a bit boring, but he was good with kids. Though he did have quite the temper and that was fun to mess with, too a point, and at times I found him cute. I shook my head to get those thoughts out of my head.
When I turned around I saw Iruka in the doorway with his hand on top of Aurora's head. It threw me off for a second, but I remembered he did have a key now, since he watched her. He was brushing his fingers in her hair affectionately. "Well, are you all packed? Oh and do you mind if Aurora stays with me at my place. Seeing as you'll be gone for quite sometime I'd feel more comfortable there." So what was the point of meeting here?
I nodded. "That's fine." There was something in the way the chunin spoke to me that made me shudder. He was still really pissed off at me. "I can help pack up for her..,"
"No need. I got it." The tanned chunin cut me off and walked off to Aurora's room. Yeah I was going to get it when I got home.
"Why is Uka mad?" Oh great, even my caterpillar caught on to it. I ruffled her hair making it even messier and chose not to answer her.
"Well, I must be off." I called to him with a smile and got out of there before he had the chance to kill me.