Chapter 1: The Beginning of Genma Shiranui's Mother Hen Experience: How the first five demon brats ended up under his care (finger painting and free food may have had a lot to do with it) and Genma found himself on the radar of three different clans as if he were either a threat or unofficial member of said clans... He wasn't really sure how to chalk it up at the moment when it came to these clans.

..~..~..

It had all started with a moment of what Genma now called lack of logical reasoning. He had been tired; terribly drained after a long mission; hungry because of the mission, and kind of feeling the effects of having to go back to an empty apartment.

He didn't like being alone much. After he had failed- because even though nobody else agreed with him, he knew he had failed his Hokage when the Kyuubi attacked- he had not been able to regain his sense of normalcy. Nights were spent awake and distracting himself from the nightmares that tried to swallow him whole. And days were spent working his body to the bone, hoping to become so tired he'd fall into a nightmare and dreamless sleep.

His plan had mostly worked for the majority of the time. But there were moments in which no amount of tiredness could keep the nightmares away and Genma was forced to relive the moment he had committed his greatest failure and allowed the Hokage to get away from him to sacrifice himself for the village.

For the most part, Genma had been able to keep himself alive with the harsh routine he had decided on. But those that he allowed to be close to him (which were only an extremely few lucky people) thought that he was killing himself slowly. Which was a load of bullshit because, really, he was fine. He was just dealing with his grief over a death that had happened at least three years ago. It was totally normal to grieve for that long. He was pretty sure about it.

... Three years already... He had been seventeen when that great calamity had taken place. Now he was twenty and it seemed as if nothing had changed. Sure, he had finally left that awkward teenage stage of his body that had consisted of him being a lanky and gangly teenage boy to be a sturdy and physically fit young man. But aside from the physical changes, it had felt as if he had never changed at all. He was just as overwhelmed by his dark thoughts and feelings as he had been when they had begun.

Genma had been heading back to his too empty apartment when the chance meeting had taken place. A small drizzle had been coming down, but he hadn't minded too much because nothing much bothered him anymore.

But he knew that not many people shared his thoughts and the matter and so wasn't surprised by the fact that very little people were walking down the streets around him. The drizzle was slowly becoming more than just that, which meant that those few that didn't mind it were beginning to move away.

As the man passed beside a small park near his home, the sight of someone standing in the very middle of the rain made him stop completely. It was an extremely small person with black hair. A kid. Or a very small man... No. A kid.

The kid's shoulders were shaking. His hands were up, hiding his eyes. And he stood completely hunched over inside of the park. The small sniffles and gasps reached Genma after a few seconds of looking at the child in slight confusion.

Why was a kid standing in the middle of the rain in the middle of the street in the middle of the night?

"Dad... Why did you have to go?"

Oh... Shit. Genma's eyes widened as soon as he heard the broken sob and found himself faltering in his steps.

The kid was crying for his father. And Genma had heard that tone before. He'd heard that much pain and sadness in his time. He had been in the kid's shoes years ago and knew exactly what he must be going through.

He had been faced with a daunting choice that day. He could have continued, walked away from the crying kid in the middle of the rain. He would have lived his life like he had lived it up to that point and forced himself to never look back. Or he could have stuck around, walked towards the kid, asked him what was wrong, and been a good human being for once.

For a second, he had actually contemplated walking away and never looking back. But then he thought about how, knowing how he was, he would totally look back and wonder what if he had stuck around. So, with his heart lurching softly at the reminder of how he had been in the kid's same shoes years ago and a small bit of curiosity biting at him, the senbon enthusiast walked over to the sobbing child.

"Hey kid... You okay?"

Long black hair swished around as soon as the kid jumped up upon hearing Genma's voice. And the pale, undeniably identifiable eyes that belonged to the Hyuga clan looked back at the man, rimmed by red, surprise showing clear.

The kid didn't say anything at first. He just stared like a deer caught by hunters. And Genma looked back at him with equal amounts of shock clear on his own face.

But the man soon shook his head softly, giving a small smile.

"It's late." He rolled the senbon on his lips with his tongue, then, noticing that the kid wasn't going to answer, tried a different approach. "Aren't you cold? It's pretty chilly with all of this rain."

The kid sniffled and raised his hand to wipe at his nose. Then he glanced down at the floor, face twisting up as he seemed to want to begin to cry once more. "My dad liked the rain..."

Genma immediately felt bad. He had been in this kid's shoes. He knew how horrible it was to lose a father. He knew what it was like to lose an entire family.

Clicking the piece of metal between his teeth, the man took a few step forwards and scratched at the back of his head. He was hungry and tired. But there was something about this kid that made him feel compelled to act. It just didn't feel right to leave him alone in the rain. He couldn't do that. He may be somewhat numb to life, but that didn't mean he was heartless.

"Hey... Are you hungry, kid?" It was late. He was hungry. And he bet that the kid was too. So it wouldn't hurt to try this new approach.

From the way he seemed to stop in his crying for a second, Genma believed he had struck a chord.

"I'm going to make myself some instant ramen if you'd like. I'm kind of hungry myself too."

What he was doing inviting a kid into his apartment so late at night was beyond him. But the boy's sniffles had stopped and Genma felt that this was a victory in itself, so he wasn't about to spoil it.

The kid took one tentative step towards him. Then he took another. Then he looked up at him quizzically, looked back at the park behind him, then back at Genma before he continued to walk forward.

It took a few minutes to get the boy to open up. But soon enough Genma found out that his name was Neji Hyuga, the odd tattoo-like image on his forehead was a seal of some sort, and he was crying in the middle of the park so late at night because his father had just died a few hours ago and he had run away from the Hyuga Compound because he couldn't stand being around the stuffy jerks (Genma's words, not the boys).

Genma had not known it at the time. But this chance meeting and late night dinner with Neji Hyuga would be the beginning of a new chapter of his life he would have never expected to experience.

Neji came around on the days Genma wasn't busy reeling from missions or away on them. Which really kind of worried Genma seeing how he couldn't have been more than four years old. But the kid was a smart four year old, which may have been why he was allowed to roam alone.

"I do not think that you should be eating so many instant foods, Genma-san."

The boy had opened the door into Genma's apartment without even knocking. He had decided about a week ago that knocking wasn't worth it and Genma didn't have the heart to tell him it was only proper and a cordiality to do so. He was always forced to be the perfect little Hyuga when he was at his home. And he came around with enough regularity that the man just didn't find it within himself to tell him that he shouldn't have so much trust with him so quickly.

He had been busy preparing himself some instant lunch when the boy had walked in. And with a soft sigh, the man resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he turned around to face the Hyuga.

But when he looked down at the black haired boy, he was left taken aback because instead of one head of pristine raven locks, there were two.

The man blinked at the smaller child holding onto Neji's hand with a death grip, then asked, "Neji, who's this?"

"Genma-san, this is my cousin, Lady Hinata."

He recognized the little girl with the short black hair that seemed to want to mold herself into Neji's side. He knew he had seen her somewhere else before. He just couldn't place her at the precise second he looked at her.

"Lord Hiashi wished for the nannies to look after both of us. He wished for me to stay with her at all times while he prepares a few things for the clan." The boy's eyes shifted to the side slightly, immediately telling Genma that those preparation were actually the funeral arrangements for his father without saying a single thing. "But I did not wish to stay with them. So I brought her here to meet you."

With this curt explanation, Neji looked down at his cousin and nudged her softly, "Lady Hinata, greet Genma-san."

He had known the kid was proper. But Genma was kind of surprised by him calling this small girl Lady Hinata. And... Wait a minute. Had he said Lord Hiashi?

Hinata had been busy stuttering out a very shy and troubled hello when Genma gasped and looked at Neji with wide eyes. "Is this your clan's heir?"

With a simple nod, Neji told him, "Yes. That is why I address her as Lady Hinata."

Genma later found himself having to explain to an extremely angered Hiashi Hyuga that, no, he hadn't kidnapped Hinata or Neji and he wasn't going to hurt them. And then he'd found himself having to listen to the man drone on and on about the importance of treating his daughter with the respect an heir deserves, and his nephew with the dignity he was supposed to receive from just having been born into the clan.

After Hiashi had given his seemingly half assed approval to Genma, both Hyuga's came around his apartment with frequency. They both seemed to enjoy spending time with him and being allowed to paint with their fingers, even though he only really had black ink and standard sized paper.

It had been pretty odd, actually. Genma was now in his apartment a lot more often than he had been before. To him, it seemed as if the Hokage wasn't sending him off on as many mission as Genma had gotten accustomed to going. But he didn't find it in his heart to try and change that because Neji and Hinata both came around so often that he had even found himself wondering if he should just have them leave spare sets of clothes in his home for when they got the ink on their clothes and were worried about getting in trouble.

Actually, now that he thought about it, he was even being sent on more missions with members of the Hyuga clan. He didn't mind it. They were polite and mission oriented, and he could admire the fact that they were so serious. But it was kind of odd, considering how he'd only been on missions with members of the clan only a handful of times before Hinata and Neji wound up in his apartment.

Today was one of those days in which the cousins wound up at his door earlier than what the senbon enthusiast had come to expect from them when they came alone. But he knew that they were early because they had knocked on his door, rather than waltzed in like they usually did when alone. Which immediately alerted him to the fact that they weren't alone.

Luckily, he had been making his breakfast and was dressed in a comfortable set of pajama pants and white tank top, so he didn't have to scramble out of bed to open the door.

Usually, when they were dropped off at his doorstep, a nanny accompanied them. Said nanny was the one that knocked. But today was different. When Genma opened the door, he didn't find any Hyuga he didn't recognize. He knew all three.

"Lord Hiashi?" The man was surprised to find the head of the Hyuga clan in front of him. But the stoic man showed no emotions on his face rather than a suppressed kind of annoyance as he motioned for both children with him.

"Hinata and Neji have been arriving back to the compound with clothes stained of black. They tell me it is because you allow them to finger paint."

The last two words seemed foreign to the older man. He even seemed to have a bit of difficulty saying them. But Genma merely nodded softly, wondering if this would be the moment when Hiashi told him to stay away from the kids.

"The black ink is rather difficult to wash off. So I have brought some money for you to use to buy suitable paints for this activity. Please go into the market today with Hinata and Neji so they can help you pick out the best tools for this."

Genma had heard the man's words, seen the man's mouth move as he said them. But... He couldn't believe this was Hiashi Hyuga.

Narrowing his eyes just slightly at the three Hyuga in front of him, Genma took a small step back. "Are you feeling well, Lord Hiashi?"

The man's already hard eyes hardened even more at the question.

"Take the money and the children, go into the market, and buy what I have told you to buy. And some painting smocks would not hurt either."

With the forceful order, Hiashi had stuck his hand out, forced Genma to take a small pouch that jingled just slightly, then turned around and stalked off. Hinata and Neji just stood at the door with small smiles on their face, looking up at Genma expectantly.

The man stood at his door for a few seconds, much too shocked to move. Then he looked down at the pouch in his hands, at the kids, then back to the pouch, and once more at the kids.

"Did... Is he actually letting you guys finger paint?"

Both nodded immediately, Neji answering with, "Hinata's mother convinced Lord Hiashi that it would be best for us to use the adequate materials rather than black ink that will continue staining our clothes."

The brown haired specialized jounin looked down at the boy as if he had just sprouted two heads. But, soon enough, he merely sighed, stepped into his apartment, and motioned for them both to enter.

"Have you already had breakfast?"

Both kids shook their heads, but Genma found that hard to believe. He knew that Hiashi would never allow his daughter and nephew to leave the house without the most important meal of the day. But he had found out that, for some reason, they enjoyed eating the food he made, even though he only really cooked simple breakfasts. Still, who was he to fault them for liking his food? He didn't mind sharing.

"Alright..." He breathed out as he closed the door behind them, "We'll eat, then head out and buy the things."

~/~

Inside of the pouch Genma had found a small note with a message written on it.

'Hinata needs a new bouquet of flowers in her room and Neji needs some more hair care supplies.'

When he had read the message, Genma's mind had gone blank for a second. Then he'd read it once more and found himself frowning. He was being used as the Hyuga's errand boy!

He had found himself thinking about going over to the Hyuga compound and telling Hiashi where he could shove this damned note... But then he'd found Hinata's extremely small hand sliding into his own, which made him feel like a giant because of how small she was, and he'd felt his anger ebb away slightly. And then he'd seen Neji pointing in excitement at the art supplies store and felt all of his anger leave him.

Okay... He could play along for today. His next mission was slotted for the next week and it wouldn't kill him to get out and get some fresh air in his lungs. He only really went out for missions, food runs, or contraband alcohol runs. Getting out with Hinata and Neji shouldn't hurt too much.

Or so he had thought.

After he had bought the paints that were specially designed to not cause too much trouble when clothes were washed, paint smocks, and Neji's hair supplies, Genma had told the kids they would be visiting the Yamanaka flower shop before going back to his apartment.

And the excitement that lit Hinata's face up had been enough to make the man feel that, yeah, sure, he had been used as an errand boy, but the kid was much too cute to see sad and he'd like to see that look on her face a lot more often.

Inoichi had been tending to some flowers at the side of the shop when they had all stepped in. And when he had caught sight of the two Hyuga's in Genma's company, the blonde had quirked an eyebrow but said nothing. Genma had seen that look on the interrogator's face before and couldn't help but feel somewhat judged. But soon enough the man was smiling and treating him like any other customer, so the senbon enthusiast quickly forgot about those feelings.

"What can I do for you, Genma? Looking for flowers for a lady friend?"

He hadn't really known Inoichi all that well. For a brief moment after the Hokage's death, the Yamanaka had offered him a job in T&I to help him stay in the village and make back the money he had lost when the Nine Tails had destroyed his home. But Genma had denied the offer, instead deciding to go off on as many high ranked mission as he could to make the money back.

With a small smirk, Genma moved the hand that was holding Hinata just slightly, which made her squeak and hide behind his leg, still holding onto his hand. "Depends on your definition of lady friend, Yamanaka."

The twinkle in his blue eyes never left as Inoichi looked down at Hinata. If anything, it only seemed to become brighter.

"Buying flowers for a Hyuga?" He questioned in amusement, crouching down so he was at eye level with the girl. And Hinata just tried to become one with Genma's legs, clearly afraid of having to speak with the Yamanaka. "Well, if I remember correctly, Lady Hinata likes lavenders and lilies. Am I correct?"

Genma could feel her body tremble and her eyes close against his legs. But Inoichi soon rose up and looked at him, which took some of the pressure off of her shaking shoulders.

"She comes around every so often for a new bouquet." Inoichi explained, even though Genma really didn't know if he needed to say this, then turned around to call into the back of the shop. "Ino! Fetch me Lady Hinata's flowers, please!"

"Sure thing, dad!"

The voice that drifted in from the back was young and bubbly. And after a few seconds and a few noises of clattering back there, a little kid that looked like the female equivalent of a young Inoichi bounced towards them, a collection of flowers held in her hands.

Inoichi moved over to the register of the shop to ring up the price while his daughter handed the flowers over to Neji. They then began to talk and Genma walked towards the register with Hinata still holding on to him.

The girl could be painfully shy, apparently. Because he had never been out with the Hyuga's, he hadn't noticed this. But now that he had... He believed he should help the kid out.

"Thanks, Inoichi." Genma smiled softly as he handed over the money to the blonde man, who merely waved him off.

"Don't worry about it, Shiranui. We all have things we do outside of the job, it's nothing out of this world."

Even though the comment was pretty straightforward, Genma could help but feel that Iniochi was implying something that he didn't quite catch. But before he could decide on whether he should question him about it or not, the man was interrupted by a shrill squeal coming from behind him, which was then accompanied by the rustling of a bag.

"You're going to go finger paint! I wanna do that!"

It was Inoichi's clone that was screaming all this out. And when Genma looked up at Inoichi's smiling yet somewhat apologetic face, he got a sudden sinking feeling he could not explain.

"Genma-san! Can Ino come back with us?"

Neji was now right beside him, grasping the sleeve of Genma's long sleeved shirt with wide eyes.

"She really wants to finger paint!"

"I really do!"

Oh. Look at that. The clone was beside Neji now, looking up at him with bright blue eyes.

Both kids looked eager and hopeful. And Genma hated being the bad guy in the story, but he sighed and prepared himself to let both kids down.

Although he never got around to being the bad guy because Inoichi interrupted him before he could even try.

"You know, I think it would be good for Ino to go out and have some fun with kids her own age." The blonde man murmured in thought, which made Genma whip his head around to look at him with shock immediately. "What do you say, Genma? Would you mind taking on another kid for today? It'd do her good to get out of the flower shop and have some fun."

The man's eyes were twinkling once more. But there was something odd in that twinkle. Something that wasn't either mischief or amusement.

"Well... Are you sure, Inoichi?" Genma could have said no. But he really couldn't. Not with Neji looking at him like that. Not with Hinata looking at him like a puppy expecting a treat. Not with the Inoichi clone looking at him with eyes as bright as her father's, although a thousand times more innocent.

"Of course!" The blonde man nodded, clapping his hands, "I'll even bring some dinner so they can all share a meal before I bring her back home."

Genma couldn't find it within to say no. Which is how he wound up going back to his apartment with finger painting supplies, hair care products, a bouquet of flowers, and one more kid than he had set out with in the morning.

The Yamanaka really liked finger painting. But not on paper. No, the little blonde enjoyed leaving her artistic marks on Hinata. Not paper. Not on walls, which would be easier to clean. Not even on the canvas Inoichi had bought for her to stop her from painting the young girl. Nope. The blonde enjoyed painting the youngest of the kids he took care of.

Which was the reason why Genma found himself scrambling around the laundromat near his home for the second time that week. Ino had painted Hinata once more, drenched her in all kinds of colors, and now he was forced having to make her clothes at least a tiny bit presentable before one of the Hyuga's came around to pick the cousins up.

All three kids were currently seated on a bench in the laundromat, comfortably eating the cookies Genma had bought them to bribe them into silence.

Hiashi didn't like it when his kids returned to their home with huge amounts of paint on them. He could deal with splotches and splatters. But not with head to toe kinds of paint coverage. And now Genma was trying to get the little girl's clothes as clean as possible in a tight time limit because the damned Hyuga's were always annoyingly punctual.

... At least he had managed to get all of the paint out of her hair and face...

"Ino, this is the last time I tell you, the next time you paint Hinata, I'm not allowing you to come back and finger paint with us!"

He was busy desperately applying detergent to the young girl's clothes and running water over them in the hopes that he'd see less paint. And it was working, in essence, but too slowly. At this pace, the girl's clothes would not be washed and dried before they came to pick her up. And Genma really didn't feel like having to sit through another of Hiashi's responsibility speeches.

"But Genma! She's fun to paint!"

The man sent a glare in the blonde's direction, but just found her smiling back at him. Hinata squeaked softly and burrowed herself into her cousin's arms, who merely patted her head softly.

The senbon enthusiast also sent a glare his way, but Neji had the decency to at least blush. Even though he hadn't done anything to Hinata, the older of the cousins had done nothing to save her from Ino's eager hands. And so Genma also held him at fault for this happening.

"Last time I tell you!" He grunted out before resuming his frantic washing, eyes narrowed at the fabric in his hands.

He could not believe this was what his life had become. Two months ago, he had been fine. He'd been going on missions, living his life like a pretty normal person, and had no problems with running himself ragged. But ever since he had somehow become Hinata and Neji's unofficial babysitter, things had changed.

He wasn't set out on out of the village missions all that often anymore. And this had been okay at first, seeing how Genma guessed that the Hokage wanted him to take a small time to rest. But then, when he did get out of the village missions, they were with members of the Hyuga clan. And now, ever since Ino had been added to his inadvertent daycare service, members of the Yamanaka clan were around more often.

At first, he had chalked it all up to coincidence. But he couldn't really allow himself to think that way anymore. Not with Inoichi being so insistent in him taking care of Ino, even though he was just in the working in the flower shop on the days he left the girl at his doorstep. Not with the way that the Hyuga's now almost seemed to actually respect him, rather than just tolerate him.

And that wasn't even counting the fact that everybody that had once supplied him with alcohol even though he was only a year below the legal limit had seemed to have disappeared. Because even though he was a legal adult in the eyes of the law and had been since he was a genin, alcohol laws still applied to him. No one under twenty one should be drinking. Which sucked, considering all the shit shinobi went through.

He didn't know why things had changed. He just knew that it had somehow been the kid's fault.

"Excuse me, Shinobi-san?"

Genma had been so deep in thought that he didn't notice when the civilian walked up to him. He looked up in slight surprise at being caught off guard, then looked at the dark haired woman and nodded slightly.

"Is anything wrong, ma'am?" He questioned, causing her black eyes to shift down to the garment in his eyes.

"No, not really. Although I did notice you struggling with clothes and wondered if I could help." The woman explained herself, shifting just slightly on her feet undoubtedly because of his attention on her.

She was one of the few civilians that lived around this area. He had seen her walking around with a young girl with hair as dark brown as her own. They were family to a jounin level man that Genma had never gone out on a mission with.

"Well..." The man sighed heavily, looking back at the normally gray clothes that were still overtaken by bright pinks, purples, and yellows. "If you know how to get a large amount of paint off clothes, I would really appreciate it."

The woman smiled reassuringly at him, then made to grab the clothes. "I know exactly how to help you. My daughter, Tenten, enjoys having fun with paints as well, so I've had to figure out a few tricks to keep from having to buy her new clothes every week." Then she turned the cloth over in her hands, nodding to herself, "I should have this ready for the washing machine in five minutes."

"Five minutes?" In so little time? "Really?"

"Yup." The woman nodded, then turned around with the clothes in her hands. "Oh! But would you mind looking after my daughter while I do so?"

Before Genma could truly answer her, the woman was walking off to work on Ino's mess. And when he turned around to look at the kids under his charge, he found that there was one more person than he had expected to find. Two buns at the top of her head, a long sleeved, high collared red shirt, and a hand raised, poised to poke Hinata's cheek.

This must have been the woman's daughter. Tenten, right?

Immediately walking towards the children, Genma wagged his finger in her face, "We do not poke Hinata's face."

The brown eyed child blinked up at him with a blank expression on her face. Then the finger changed trajectory and poked Hinata's arm.

Immediately, Genma knew that he was in for an interesting five minutes as he looked after the kids in his care.

He just hadn't expected that those five minutes would actually turn into the rest of his life.

Ino, Tenten, Hinata, and Neji. Three girls and one boy. Two four year olds and two three year olds.

They all enjoyed being in his apartment. They all enjoyed finger painting and free breakfast and the lunches Takeo, Tenten's mother, would make, and the dinners Inoichi would bring. Days were spent taking care of the kids as little more than a babysitter to the four creative tykes.

They were hellions. Tenten and Ino were much too hyperactive and were always getting themselves in trouble. Just a day ago, he'd been forced to lock all of his weapons up inside of the one lockable closet in his apartment to keep them from throwing those dangerous projectiles at the Hyuga cousins. And said Hyuga cousins were a bit more calmed down, but they still caused him enough grief with their insistence of being in his apartment just about every second of the day, even if it meant running away from the Hyuga compound.

Their habits of running away had won Genma quite a few visits from the Hyuga clan head telling him that his children were not supposed to be running away from their home and that he should send them back whenever they did so.

Genma never really turned them back. He didn't have the heart to do so. Which meant he was stuck listening to Hiashi a lot.

On this day, the four children wanted to go out to the park. They couldn't finger paint anymore because Genma had run out of supplies and had not been able restock on them. And because they were much too active to leave him alone and just be normal children in their own homes, the four children really wanted to go out and have fun outside.

That was the reason why he now found himself inside of the park where he had first met Neji, watching as three kids ran off and played tag, all the while Hinata sat quietly beside him with a stuffed doll clutched tightly in her hand. He was content to just sit there and look at three hyperactive demons while the calmest brat remained silent beside him. But then the children decided that they should try and hide from him, which meant that he had to chase after them before they went too far and he got in trouble with their respective parents.

"Come on, Hinata. We can't let those brats get away."

He moved slowly and with ease. Luckily for him, the hellions were predictable. And he knew that they were just trying to play tag and head out of the park to make it more exciting. But the fact that their legs were so small allowed him to not have to run hurriedly after them when they tried to do something like this.

"Neji, Tenten, Ino, you know you can't wander off like this." The man carried Hinata with him as he followed after the children, who was looking at her friends with wide eyes.

"Hey, who are you?"

They weren't looking at him. Instead, the three kids were looking at someone in front of them, who was hidden from Genma's sight by the bushes.

"My name's Kiba Inuzuka! And you guys have to be quiet!" This was a new voice. Childish like all the others. But presumably male. "I'm trying to prank someone!"

"Ooh! I like pranks!" Ino and Tenten ran so they too were hidden by the bush, all the while Neji turned back to look at Genma with a quirked eyebrow.

"Hey, Tenten, Ino, what'd I tell you about stranger danger?" The man resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the girls lack of sensibility, then walked so he was closer to the bush they were hidden behind.

Both girls were crouched in front of a new boy. He had shaggy and wild brown hair, the distinct red fang marks on his cheeks, and dark eyes in the shape of slits that shined with mischief.

"Yo, you two. Come on. It's about time we head back and eat lunch." He shifted Hinata onto his other hip, moving his hand to motion for them to stand up.

All three kids looked up at him with wide eyes. And then Ino looked over at the Inuzuka and cocked her head to the side. "Want to go with us for lunch?"

"Wait, Ino-" Genma wanted to tell her that Takeo had only made food for five people, not six, but soon the Inuzuka was jumping and nodding happily.

"I could go for lunch! Pranking is fun and all, but I can do it later."

"Come on!" Tenten grabbed his hand immediately, running off with him before Genma could tell her that he couldn't join them.

~/~

Genma ended up giving the Inuzuka his share of the lunch. And with five kids in his apartment, eating at the table, he couldn't help but feel that he didn't really mind them around.

The new kid, Kiba, was loud and brash and told crass jokes. Tenten and Ino both laughed raucously with him while Neji chuckled softly. And Hinata giggled quietly, a perpetual blush on her face as she tried to become used to the new person that had joined her at the table.

He hadn't really noticed the gradual changes to his home as they had happened. He had just taken them as they were without really thinking about the fact that his life was in the midst of changing.

The first big change had come when Neji had first come to his apartment. He'd had to clean up all of the trash that had been laying around his home before he let the kid come inside and had then kept his house clean because he knew how judgemental the Hyuga could be. And if his apartment had been clean when Hiashi had glared at him for the way it looked, he knew that he would never have been allowed to have the kids around if he had allowed it to remain unkempt.

The next change had come when Ino rolled around. There were always flowers in his vases now and plants by the windowsills. He'd never really had flowers in his apartment because he was never around to take care of them. But now that he wasn't being sent off on as many missions out of the village for some odd reason, he was around to make sure they didn't die.

And the next major change had been that he had been forced to bring his dining room table out of storage and actually put it in use. He'd never had it in his apartment before because he'd never used it. But with his counter only seating four people and the inclusion of Tenten and Ino, he had deemed it necessary to bring out the set that could seat six people. With five people eating at his apartment, he knew that he couldn't continue eating standing up while the kids sat.

Now he was pretty glad that he had brought the table out of storage. Five kids and him equaled six, which meant that the table was filled and being used for the correct purpose.

"Hey! No throwing food!" He ended up scolding the small boy that had joined their ranks just today, all the while the boy had his hand raised and ready to throw pieces of food over at Tenten.

"But she just said that I wasn't strong enough to attack her!"

"Because you're not! Boys are weak and girls are strong!"

Genma immediately regretted not having told Tenten and Ino that the kid couldn't come along. Especially after he found his dining room covered in food, his own clothes stained with the thing, and the children covered head to toe and in desperate need for a bath.

"Dammit."

Kiba was smiling even as red sauce slid down his face. Ino was fussing over the chicken in her hair. Tenten was wringing the water out of the hem of her of shirt. Neji was glaring at Kiba darkly as noodles clung to his face. And Hinata seemed to be on the verge of tears as she looked at the toy in her hands, which had sauce covering its whole frame.

"You're all going to have to bathe."

"Never!"

"Hey, Inuzuka, don't-"

But the boy was off and running around his apartment, staining it with all of the food that clung to him. And Ino shouted after him, telling him that he was getting everything dirty... Only to run after him and begin to stain everything as well. Then Tenten took off after both of the other kids, yelling at them that they were being idiotic jerks.

It was when Neji began to chase after them in a fit of rage that Genma heard the knock on his door. And for a second, the man hesitated between stopping the shouting children or answering the door. But then the knocking became more insistent and the man decided that he could deal with the children later.

When he opened the door, he came face to face with Tsume Inuzuka, one of the most terrifying women he had ever met in his life.

"I smell Kiba in here."

The dark haired woman seemed irritated and annoyed. And right when Genma was going to answer, he heard a crash come from inside his house that made him sigh and hang his head.

"Kiba!"

Tsume forced her way into his apartment without any kind of fight from Genma with a dangerous glare on her face. As soon as she had shouted out, all of the pattering in his house halted and when Genma turned to look at the kids, he found all of them standing in their food covered states staring at Tsume with wide eyes.

"What do you think you've done, boy?" Tsume growled, then planted her hands on her hips. "You're going to clean this apartment up until it's spotless!"

Genma would have told her that she didn't have to do to that. But the kids ran off so quickly that he didn't tell them. And when they got to work on cleaning the apartment up, he just enjoyed the fact that he wasn't the one that would be stuck cleaning the mess up.

~/~

"I hear from Inoichi that you take care of kids on your free days." Tsume commented offhandedly as she helped dry Hinata off with a towel, the small girl holding in the whimpers she wanted to let out inside to not anger the already angry looking woman. "That true?"

Genma dried Neji off as he shrugged noncommittally, all the while he heard Kiba, Ino, and Tenten giggling from his living room with some of the toys Neji and Hinata had brought from their house a few weeks ago.

"I don't mind." Genma answered, then grabbed Neji's underwear and pants so he could dress while the man began to brush his hair. "Haven't been out on too many big missions. And they keep me active."

The woman grunted with a nod, then pulled Hinata's dress over her head and stood up.

"So you take care of these four kids often?" She questioned, which made Genma nod at her as he continued to pass the brush through Neji's hair to detangle it. "Good. You'll be seeing more of Kiba, then."

After that, whenever he went on the few out of village missions he was given, it was either with Inuzuka, Hyuga, or Yamanaka teammates. And even Tenten's father went with him a few times.

He hadn't known it at the time, but the child care arrangement would end up much bigger than anybody would have guessed. He had thought that this would be a temporary thing, just until the children got bored of him and move along to their own interests. He had guessed that their parents would eventually move them away from him and towards their ninja training.

He had been wrong.

..~..~..

So, long chapter, am I right? These chapters will be really wrong, considering how I want to cover so much in as little chapters as possible.

Please, be awesome and review. I love reading that stuff!