Chaos ensues
Coming to his office was accompanied by stares and Minato could not even be uneasy under the scrutiny as him having an additional, shapeshifting kid was something strange and attention-grabbing. Minato was very much a public person, popular among his village and any news about him, any gossip was always going around like crazy. The older blonde was disillusioned about the situation – by lunch, everyone would speak of the boy Shinigami left with him.
‘Good morning Kino-san!’ he said to his secretary and gave the young brunette woman a bright smile.
‘Hi, Kino-nee!’ Naruto greeted the woman as well and with his usual bright smile. Just a moment later Teddy did exactly the same with a checky smile.
She was used to him with Naruto but her eyes were trained on young Teddy. She was too professional, however and she quickly adjusted before looking at him.
‘Good morning Hokage-sama, Naruto-kun and…?.’ she replied pleasantly but inquiringly and shifted through the papers on her desk.
‘This is our guest for now, Teddy-kun.’ Minato informed her easily. ‘He’s under my care for the time.’
The brunette raised a brow at him but didn’t ask anything any further.
‘I have some important documents for you to look through and before lunch, you’ve got a meeting with merchants’ representatives to discuss new law about the import of luxury goods.’ Kino informed him promptly.
Minato liked his secretary. She was pretty enough to make men more pleasant to her when they dealt with her, she was a good shinobi before an injury made sure she wouldn’t come back to the field. She was sharp, coldly polite and pleasant but had no problem dealing with anyone giving her trouble. Himself and Naruto included. She was competent most of all.
‘Is there someone on the list of babysitters for Naruto?’ he asked her when she gave Naruto the file with the paperwork for him to hold until Minato let the two boys down.
‘There’s a genin team of Nara Ensui, they caused a commotion in the R&D department the other day…’ she trailed off when checking on a short piece of paper taped onto her desk. ‘Yes and according to the witnesses it was Ensui-san who was at fault.’
‘Perfect.’ the Yondaime smiled and with sure steps went to his office. ‘They should be here soon, so please send them in at once!’ he smiled one last time at his secretary and the boys waved to her enthusiastically.
‘We’ll spend the day together?’ Naru asked him with puppy eyes.
‘Yeah, and are you sure mom won’t mind, Minato-san?’ Teddy looked at him with a wide-eyed expression but very hopeful.
Minato didn’t know if Shinigami would mind. He hoped, she wouldn’t. It’s not like Konoha was unsafe after all and he planned to inform Ensui how important this babysitting duty is this time. And Minato had his duties to fulfill, he could not just abandon everything to take care of a kid 24/7. He would look after him after his work. And he would make sure the boy would be treated with the same importance and care as his son.
Nothing could go wrong with that, right?
***
Minato was enjoying the peace and quiet that reigned in his office. He has already done everything he needed today and he was now enjoying a cup of his favorite white tea. Soon Ensui would bring the boys to him and he could go home. Only in an emergency, he would need to go to his office again but it happened less and less recently.
Of course, his relaxing hour would be interrupted when he was starting to be hopeful.
‘Do you have some time, Minato-san?’ it was Shikaku who looked into his office and gave the blonde a hard stare.
Not that Minato was surprised by the turn of events. It was a given that two of his best friends would check on him and the rumors sooner or later. He only wanted it to be later rather than sooner.
‘Yes, come in. Fugaku-san is on his way, I suppose?’ Yondaime smiled at the Nara with faked obliviousness and innocence.
He was rewarded with a scowl but Shikaku came inside and sat before him. There was nothing that came under the skins of his friends like obliviousness in the face of things clearly happening. It was for this reason that Minato still did it. They always reacted in the funniest of ways and thought of the best solutions to the problems at hand.
‘You should’ve expected us to show here as soon as we heard.’ the Jonin Commander muttered tiredly and glared at Minato.
It was the moment Fugaku came to the office without even knocking. His expression was hard and stormy, yet it was the glare he was sending the young Hokage that gave away the true scope of his anger. It was the usual occurrence, especially with Naruto loving causing chaos in the village. The unusual thing was that Fugaku was sporting the cat ears protruding from the top of his head and they were very glittery. He had whiskers, too. His clothes were splattered with some glittery paint as well.
Both he and Shikaku couldn’t stop themselves from laughing at the way he looked.
Minato saw many people caught in the pranks his son played and the results were always hilarious, childish but very skillfully pulled off. Creative too. But he never saw Fugaku being on the receiving end of a successful one. Fugaku was just too good for Naruto to catch him. Not that Naruto was not skilled because he was. Jonins were just on completely another level. Chunins however… They often ended up on the receiving ends of said pranks.
The Yondaime never tried to stop Naruto from having fun either. As long as no one was hurt and the damage was not permanent it was good training for everyone in the village to be more attentive and careful. And dodging. You should never forget the dodging.
It was always marvelous to see his shinobi complain that they were caught in said pranks. It was good for their egos to be beaten by a four years old boy. And when he told them that they usually shut up and upped their training. It was a win-win situation.
‘Your son is a menace!’ he spat and sat heavily before Minato’s desk. ‘And what’s about this new accomplice of his? He’s even worse!’
Minato smiled at him innocently.
‘Oh really?’ his voice was joyous. ‘I’m sure Shinigami-sama will be pleased to hear the complaints about her son.’ he said mildly and it immediately set Fugaku from his furious disposition to something more logical.
And if Minato scared the shit out of him just now… Well, no one needed to know, besides them.
Shikaku was still wheezing in laughter and nearly choked when the blonde mentioned the goddess. Not that it stopped his laughter.
‘The fuck?’ the Uchiha clan head uttered, he was unusually pale.
‘So the shapeshifting kid belongs to the Shinigami?’ Shikaku said through his chuckles, at least he was finally calming down.
Minato smiled into his cup of tea and pretended everything was alright.
‘She dropped him on me during the night. She was hunting someone who wanted to harm her son…’ he trailed off thoughtfully. ‘I don’t know if I should pity the man brave enough to piss her off. But Teddy, the kid, was very sweet and well-behaved in the morning. And got along with Naru!’
‘So you were demoted to being a babysitter for a little godling?’ Fugaku ground out sarcastically. ‘Do you know how much chaos those two caused?!’ he groaned and looked up at the ceiling.
‘Do enlighten us, please.’ the Nara drawled with amusement.
‘Ugh!’ he hissed and the Uchiha looked at them again. ‘The police had reports about people turning into canaries, bombs that were smelling somewhat awful, swamps appearing from nowhere, silverware floating and dancing around, glitter that could not be washed off at all and sweets that temporarily turned people into bumbling idiots, making them speak in limericks or walk in a zigzag pattern… And twigs that when picked up were changing into rubber chickens!’ he was complaining loudly and when he ended he slumped in his chair tiredly. ‘We couldn’t even start explaining how it was happening in the first place.’ he added bitterly.
Minato laughed again and let himself relax. Fugaku would be alright, no question about that.
‘At least you now know why!’ the Hokage tried to make his friend look at the bright side of things. ‘The kid is most likely using his powers or something. And aren’t those powers interesting?!’ he said excitedly.
Because doing something like that was a magnificent thing. If only they could do something like that… Oh, the possibilities… If he had something like that on his missions as a genin and chunin back in the day, everything would be so much easier and more interesting.
‘It is a unique experience to see how the powers of deities work.’ Shikaku agreed with a smirk. ‘Especially one so young.’
‘Go to hell.’ Fugaku told them with a straight face.
The silence fell on them and it was quite comfortable. They were all thinking and wondering.
Minato often strayed in his thoughts about the situation. Because it was unusual, more than anything Konoha saw before. And he wondered, how it happened that Shinigami had no one else to leave her kid with? It’s not like he minded all that much, he would just like to have some more time before knowing he would be playing babysitter.
Or maybe she had some other reason. His soul belonging to her could be a part of it. Not like Minato wanted to assume anything and he probably was not brave enough to ask…
He hoped the kid would not complain about his stay in Konoha to his mother as well. It would be bad if the goddess decided to put her displeasure on the village as a whole. Minato thought about how to treat a kid during his day and decided the best way would be to treat him like he treated Naruto. Discipline and all. He hoped he choose well.
‘Do you know how long the kid will stay here?’ Shikaku asked after a moment and Minato rubbed his neck sheepishly.
‘Not really…?’ he said hesitantly. ‘She said no more than a few days. And to pray to her in case of emergency…’
The Uchiha looked like he just swallowed a lemon, his expression was so sour. He wanted to reassure his friend but anything he came up with seemed unsuited to the situation.
‘And we can’t do anything to make them stop.’ Fugaku said numbly. ‘We can irritate the kid of the Shinigami…’ there was something frantic in the eyes of the Chief of Police.
‘I mean… I could try to talk to him…?’ Minato offered weakly and smiled innocently at the sour man.
‘And aren’t you worried about what his mother would say?’ Shikaku asked skeptically.
‘Well… A little, yes. But I have a feeling it won’t end up badly.’ he assured them truthfully.
At this moment Fugaku wanted to say something but was interrupted by a frantic knocking on the door. The men looked at each other before Minato called whatever was on the other side to enter.
Before them appeared a frantic shinobi and he bowed lowly.
‘Um… sorry to interrupt Hokage-sama but Nara Ensui was attacked and admitted to the hospital in a critical state. One of his students, Uchiha Shisui and their two charges, Naruto and the other boy were taken. The other students are unconscious, they fainted upon reaching the jonin lounge to report what happened. They weren’t… in a good condition.’ the ninja before them fidgeted and Minato felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
Konoha was meant to be safe for the kids. Ensui was powerful shinobi and should be able to deal with whatever could happen in the village for goodness sake! And his students were all very talented…
Not only were his ninjas attacked in their home but also his son and his charge were taken. His charge was a kid of a goddess.
Minato started to plan his funeral alongside a plan on how to find the kids immediately.