twin1: Hi, guys! Okay, so this is the first of what I'm sure will be many, many drabbles that are companion to my other fic, Unplanned Paternity. Send in any requests you have for drabbles, and I'l pick the ones that strike my fancy to write. 'Course, if any of you lot wanna write your super-awesome idea yourself, I will totally put it up as well. *laughs*

So, this is the first. The second is already mostly written, so should be put up soon. Please forgive any spelling mistakes - it's un-betaed. In fact, Twin2 doesn't even know I'm putting this up...

...She'll figure it out.

Enjoy!

Drabble 1: Parenting

Two years old

Kakashi winced and moved quickly to pull Naruto away from the cupboard the tiny boy had managed to pull open. Redirecting the toddler, he carefully closed the doors and after casting around for a better solution, used a length of ninja wire to secure them closed, making sure Naruto couldn't get at the cleaning chemicals stored beneath the sink.

He had just done that when there was a crash and Naruto began to wail. Spinning, Kakashi felt a moment of panic when he realised that Naruto had pulled the kettle off the bench and onto himself. Thankfully, the jounin hadn't had time to make a cup of tea this morning, so the water in the jug was cool, but it seemed to have hit the infant on the head as it fell, and Naruto's clothes were soaked through.

"Oh, no," he said, awkwardly picking the boy off the ground. There was a moment of unpractised shifting before he managed to settle a still-howling Naruto against his chest, little feet hooked around his torso and small hands clinging to his shirt. A blonde head was lain against his chest and Naruto choked out a broken "Dad-dy" between two sobs.

"It's okay, Naruto," Kakashi said awkwardly, anxiously checking the bump on the boy's head. It looked okay, but it was awfully red, and there was a lump forming – Naruto was real small, maybe he should take him to the hospital. Practical Parenting had given detailed instructions about looking after a newborn's head and neck because babies couldn't support the weight of their own head and had soft skulls – skulls broken into seven pieces. Seven! Sure, Naruto was older now, and could hold up his own head, but what if his skull was still too soft to survive a blow from a heavy kettle, even if it was glancing? What if he had brain damage? What if he'd fractured his skull or given himself concussion? Kakashi needed to take him to the hospital for that, definitely, but what if they thought he'd done it on purpose? What if they took Naruto away from him? What if-

"Daddy?" Naruto's tears had petered out now, and he was just hiccuping occasionally, though his face was red and blotchy – over the last two weeks, Kakashi had learnt that tears in toddlers came on a whim and left within minutes. "Bobble?"

Kakashi looked at him seriously, taking one last anxious glance at the bump on the blonde head. "Are you alright, Naruto?" he asked carefully. "Are you dizzy? Sleepy? Is your vision blurry?"

The child looked at him, clearly confused, his vocabulary not nearly good enough to understand what Daddy was asking. He extracted one hand from Daddy's shirt and put it up to his head, near the bump that had already stopped hurting, that his young mind had already mostly forgotten. "Ow," he said solemnly. Then he turned begging eyes up at Daddy, whose silver eyebrows were drawn together in a frown. "Bobble?"

Kakashi hesitated, but Naruto seemed fine, and from the fusses he'd seen children much older than Naruto make over even simple things like cuts that needed stitches, he'd assume that the boy would be fussing much more if the injury was serious. Still, the Hatake made a mental note to watch the boy very carefully for the next twenty-four hours.

This decided, he hiked the toddler tighter against his left hip, securing him with an arm, and began to pour full-cream cow's milk into a plastic bottle one-handed, granting Naruto's repeated request. Spinning the top onto it firmly, he stuck it in the microwave for ten seconds and then took a swig of the resultant milk (arms too full to try a more conventional drop-on-the-wrist to test its temperature). Judging it to be warm enough to be comfortable but not hot enough to burn the kid's mouth, he handed the bottle off on the dripping child, who took it with a cheered "Bobble!" as if he was greeting an old friend.

Kakashi's bed had become the designated change table in the last week since he had moved into the one-room apartment with a three-turned-one-and-a-half-year-old, and now he set the blonde down there and rummaged in his backpack for a new (hopefully dry) set of clothes.

Once Naruto was cleaned up and changed, he was summarily dumped in his crib with Oink to keep him company, his 'bobble' to keep him fed and a wooden pallet with several pegs stuck in it that were designed to be pushed or pulled and slide through the holes to keep him occupied. Then the teen turned to rightening his home.

The kettle was unplugged and placed high above the microwave, and Kakashi set about securing any cabinets he hadn't already.

Childproofing things was hard, especially in such a small place, where he had no room to designate even a room to a 'child-free' slot, where he could store his weapons and lethal chemicals. In fact, he could hardly take a step in his limited floor space without having to dodge one of Naruto's (admittedly few) toys.

Naruto had thrown his toy out of the crib, and Kakashi had to rush to stop him from killing himself as he clambered out of the crib in pursuit of it, nearly falling directly on his poor, abused head in the process. More than a decade of shinobi-hood paid off, though, and Kakashi managed to catch the kid before he brained himself.

Parenthood was hard work.

At that exact moment, there was a brisk knock on the door. Kakashi scarcely had time to register the noise before the unlocked door was swinging open, revealing a wild-looking woman with a toddler on her hip and leading a girl of around seven or eight by the wrist. Inuzuka Tsume.

Tsume paused in the doorway, taking in the kid – the kid with a kid, which didn't automatically classify him as 'adult' in her mind. Standing in the middle of his messy apartment, holding the little blonde thing almost defensively, eyes wide with fatigue and something undefinable that the single mother understood very well.

"Hey, kid," she grunted, pushing her daughter into the room ahead of her and planting her son on the ground, uncaring of the mess. She shut the door behind her to prevent escape and strode further therein, grinning at the way the teen almost sulkily reached to set his facemask in place. She wasn't surprised that he hadn't had time to complete dressing that morning – hell, she was a little surprised he was even out of his pyjamas, knowing how those horror-filled mornings went until you adjusted to having to look after someone else as well as you, a skill which could take years to master.

"…Inuzuka-sama. What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked, fighting the urge to back away (where would he go?) Tsume grinned, sharp teeth glinting.

"Word has it you haven't been seen in the two weeks since you got back," she said. "Figured you were struggling – dropped by to help out. I got a whole clan backing me up: seems you're on your lonesome. Anyway. I have food," she brandished her backpack, which she slid off her shoulders in that moment, "-I have infant distraction," she gestured at Kiba on the ground, who was chewing on one of Naruto's wooden blocks, "-and I have free labour." Here, she waved at the elder of her children. "So you sit down… somewhere… bed, I guess, and eat what I'm gonna guess is your first proper meal since you got back, while the little ones play an' Hana here babysits and picks up some things for ya. Then we'll make an outin', set 'em loose in my clan compound where they can't get lost and give you a breather, eh?"

Tsume watched with more than a little amusement as the teenager fought to both bristle with indignation at her gall and sag with relief that someone was taking charge. Kid has no idea how much he's gonna appreciate this later, she thought, thinking fondly of the aid she'd gotten from sisters, cousins and friends after Hana was born, and again when Kiba was a baby. It's about time he caught a break.

Twin1: So, remember to drop in your thoughts, comments, and suggestions for other drabbles. Anything you think I missed in UP the first time through. See you later!