"Niisan, I think this one is broken."
I could barely hold a snort as I glanced at a confused Hanzou while he picked up Orime and gave her a close look. The baby girl spared him a wide-eyed look, but doing nothing else beyond that. It was definitely unusual for a child but not completely so, not when she was dealing with someone like Hanzou. I could tell she was mostly awed by his mask. I was taking care of Kazuhiko as I realized, much to my eternal dread, that he was being the pest among the two for today. The Hokage had asked us to babysit his little gremlins while he and his wife were out to enjoy a nice and long stroll around the village. Just for enough time to recharge their batteries. Nothing wrong with the request since it wasn't that frequent, but I also had my own unease at the fact I brought Hanzou in this. Yoshiko was sick and stuck to bed with a little bit of fever. Nothing worrying, but she definitely couldn't go around without seeing that worsen. It was kind of odd considering how the Uzumaki clan was known to have people with absurd vitality but… I guess sickness of that kind was unavoidable.
"She is just surprised at your mask. Definitely thinks it is cool."
He blinked at my attempted translation of the little girl's behavior. "Oh."
And the reason why I was a bit unsure about having my little brother helping up was tied to him handling… small lives. Not because he was too 'careless', but quite the opposite. There was a time where someone was allowing other kids to let them hold a duckling, but Hanzou refused to even get close to the little animal out of fright to harm it. So, when he was asked to take on this job, he didn't exactly think this through before he ended up holding someone as tiny as Orime. The little girl's violet eyes gazed at his face in pure interest, something that made him even more perplexed than he needed to. I could only stare at the sight with a bit of uncertainty, while also keeping an eye on Kazuhiko. The little squirt was still tiny, but he had already mastered the mysterious art of the fast crawling. It didn't help that he seemed to know 'where to go' to make my life quite difficult. One moment I am putting him back on the ground as he was behaving a bit fussy and the next one I was actually pacing to keep up with his speed. Seriously, are all Uzumaki/Senju kids this fast with the crawling? What was I missing within their biology that made them like this? Despite my effort to answer to this scientific queries by studying the blitzing crawler that was Kazuhiko Senju as he flawlessly made my life particularly difficult today.
Meanwhile Hanzou was actually getting an easy afternoon. Orime whined just barely and the boy picked up from her reactions to many things what she was up to. His luck further gave him the edge as the girl managed to not have to need a change of diaper. The diaper in this world was different compared to the one I was more accustomed too and… it was even more difficult to handle. Mom was oddly happy to help me out in learning how to change one while exercising with a cabbage. The process, albeit simple to understand, was also tedious and time-draining. Plus, it generally required a lot of effort to keep the kids from doing silly things while I was working on it. Like pulling hair, peeing on me, or even going number two. Number two was definitely the worst to face, even though it had been just one time and I had been able to not get stained by anything. I generally was a good babysitter with kids. Normal kids. I wasn't mentally prepared for the unpredictable nature of two children that were biologically geared to be difficult to handle without some experience built around their specific mindsets and behaviors. Much to my inner annoyance, Hanzou didn't saw any of that. He was spared in his first time busy in it to face the full onslaught of both entering in action at the same time. Sure, I was also lucky since I had to deal only with Kazuhiko, and the toddler was less troublesome compared to his sister, but he was still troublesome when he wanted to 'play around'.
Four hours flew away with ease and I found myself resting on my bed back home once we were done with this little affair. I was planning to enjoy the hour left before dinner in complete peace and away from the twins… when something very unusual and particularly ironic unfolded before my eyes. The first thing I noticed was Hanzou knocking and entering in my room with an uneasy look.
"Uh, brother. I think we have a problem?"
A quick look back at the most recent past denied that possibility. I hadn't pranked anyone, I kept by training and cooking and doing businesses, and I really couldn't imagine what kind of problem I might have created together with my adopted little brother.
"What about, Hanzou-kun?"
The boy didn't say much beyond turning around and show me the reason why he had looked so worried and immensely frightened. To be fair, what I was looking at was perhaps the most unexpected development one could imagine and made me question as to why the Hokage wasn't actually knocking at our door already to check for one of his missing kids. Because I could clearly see a giggling Orime clinging on the back of his shirt. My jaw dropped, I tensed up and… the toddler waved at me. I was surprised by many things. I knew that the girl had currently small and underdeveloped chakra reserves hence why I didn't detect her when she was sticking with Hanzou, the boy's reserves masking hers. Still, there was one thing that remained in my head. A question that I was quick to ask out of shock than else.
"H-How didn't you notice her?"
"S-She is so light, Niisan. I didn't even feel her climb up."
I had so much confusion, but I was glad when the Hokage visited and was understanding of the situation while happily playing with the toddler as if nothing absurd had just unfolded. I could tell this was but the first insane thing my brother and I were going to experience the moment we kept on being the babysitters of these children.
And oh boy, how right I was with that early assumption about their future…