Kurama's Misadventures in Parenting

Freedom

Waking up in the middle of the night to the cries of his previous jailer's son was not how Kurama thought he'd spend his first day of freedom. He should have been on his way back to his favorite mountain and taken a nap after leveling the village to the ground. Yet here he was, in the abandoned Uzumaki compound at the outskirts of the village trying to get the child to go back to sleep. Currently pacing around the room debating whether or not he really needs the rest of his chakra, he already has half he can wait a few more years. However, there's the possibility that the kid could be killed before that due to him being his other half's new jailer. The villagers won't be happy having him around after what happened just a few hours ago.

Turning his head around to face the window, he looks out towards the village. Kurama can still see some smoke and a large amount of his chakra floating around. He can hear the commotion going on, Jōnin and Chūnin running around trying to look for any survivors in the rumble and civilians looking for their loved ones hoping they weren't caught in the destruction. Groaning, he looks down towards the baby and continues trying to get him to stop crying. It's been over 10 minutes and he still has no idea what to do to get the brat to stop. He's tried everything, from telling him to shut up and go to sleep to telling him to shut up and go to sleep. Okay, he hasn't tried everything but he likes to think that he's done everything in his power to stop the crying. He has no knowledge of how to take care of a human baby, hell he doesn't even know how he's going to take care of his own human body. Up until now, all Kurama's done is wrapped him in a light blue blanket he found lying around and laid him down on one of the beds in the house. The blanket may be old, but it's still in great condition considering it's been sitting around the house for over a decade. Right now the only problem he has with it is the Uzumaki crest decorating it, it's an easy fix, however. The cries of a child break him out of his thoughts and he remembers just what he had been doing. He can think of ways to fix the blanket later but first, shutting the brat.

'What do human babies need, is he hungry? Does he want to be held or maybe he needs me to.." Paling at the thought of the brat possibly doing his business on the blanket Kurama glares at him. No way was he going to clean the brat if that was the problem. He's the most powerful being in existence, the strongest out of all the bijuu, a being made of pure chakra by the Sage of Six Paths himself. He's not going to reduce himself to whatever this was, Kami knew what the rest of his siblings would say if they got word of it.

Gathering himself he walked towards the crying child laying on the bed. Looking at him closely now, Kurama could see blonde fuzzes of hair on his hand, whisker marks on his cheek, and a round face, now red from all the crying he's been doing. Sighing he grabs the child and starts rocking him, being careful with his neck. He might have slept for most of his time sealed inside Kushina but he still was awake from time to time. After finding out she was pregnant she spent a lot of time preparing, reading books, buying clothes and toys, and decorating her child's future room. Luckily he was waking while she read a book about infants. Finally, after constant crying, the brat went back to sleep.

Now that he was asleep, Kurama started looking around the room, making sure not to make too many sudden movements that might wake the child up. The few pieces of furniture around were covered in dust but that was to be expected, no one had been in here since Kushina's genin days. There was a bookshelf with a few books, old academy textbooks, and a picture book of the ocean. He remembers Kushina had looked at the pictures whenever she felt homesick during her first few months in Konoha. Next to it was a dresser, all empty except for a few shirts. They were a size or two bigger than what he needed but that was fine. Grabbing them he placed them on the bed where the child had been laying on. On the opposite wall he could see a mirror, walking towards it he hesitated for only an instant before looking at himself.

The first thing he notices is his hair, what used to be orange-red colored fur, is now silky dark scarlet red hair reaching down his waist. His face is nearly identical to Kushina, with a few minor changes. Unlike Kushina's dark violet eyes and pale skin, his eyes are still the same shade of red as before while his skin is light brown. He looks like a child too, one around the age of 10-12 years old. That was going to be an obstacle in his path, he can already feel it. Scowling he walks out of the room and heads towards the front door. Once opening it the night breeze hits his face, smiling he walks and sits down on the grass making sure not to awaken the baby. Lifting his head to look at the night sky, he saw the many stars littering the sky. They weren't as visible as they'd usually be, but that was due to all the smoke in the air. Now that he was able to see all the stars, feel the grass under his hands, and finally get to breathe the outside air, Kurama was happy. Spending the next few hours lazing around sitting on the grass with the baby in his arms, Kurama was enjoying the peaceful morning. That was until the brat started crying once again. He tried rocking him the same way he had done before, however, that didn't seem to work at all. Checking the blanket he noticed that it was still clean. This left him with only one option, feeding the child. Standing up, Kurama made sure to wrap the baby as best as he could to hide his blonde hair. There wasn't much he could do about his blue eyes but he doubted anyone would pay enough attention to call him out on it. Not when they were all still trying to stabilize everything after the attack.

Walking around the village and going unnoticed was easier than he thought. He expected someone to call out to him because of his similarity to Kushina, but he didn't even get a second glance. Now that he knew luck was on his side he started looking around for a place that would sell baby supplies. He also needed to find money, and to get it he would need to steal a purse or wallet. He almost felt bad for whatever bastard had the bad luck of looking vulnerable enough to rob. Ha! Who was he kidding? He didn't feel bad at all. As he walked around he noticed that the villagers had already started mourning the loss of their loved ones, some were fixing the damage that had been done to their homes or shops and others were talking about the incident. He ignored it all and continued searching for anything that would get the brat to be quiet. His search was abruptly stopped when a middle-aged woman stopped him. Glaring at her he noticed she wasn't very tall around 152 cm, she was round with brown hair and brown eyes. She smiled gently at him, her eyes flickering between him and the baby.

"I saw you looking around, is there anything I can do to help you or your younger brother?" Nodding at her question, Kurama almost cried. He might not even have to steal to get money, the lady looked like the generous type. He could use this to his advantage and this could help him get out of the stupid village faster. Not only could he get something out of this, it also gave him the perfect sob story in case anyone asked.

"Baby supplies, is there a shop around that has any?" The woman smiled and waved her hand, signaling him to follow her. Grinning internally, he followed her at a distance. He might be able to get something out of the interaction, but he wasn't stupid enough to be cautious in case it turned into something else. She didn't seem to mind and continued to smile before stopping in front of a random store a few minutes later. It was painted a pale blue and white, the store needed a new coat of paint, he could see the paint peeling in random places. The name of the store wasn't anything special, it just read 'Kyo's Clothing Shop'. As he walked inside he noticed it was a clothing shop targeted towards civilians. The woman walked behind the counter and walked towards the back part of the shop, probably where she lived. While waiting he decided to look around the store. There wasn't anything special, it looked like any clothing shop. Racks on racks of clothes. The section for women had many dresses, skirts, and a big variety of colors while the men section only had dark colors. The baby section, from what he could see, had the only whites, blues, and pinks. He only had to wait a few minutes before the woman walked out with a bag in her hand.

"My daughter was pregnant, she died about a month ago during labor along with her child. Take this," handing the bag to Kurama, she smiled. "I'm not going to be using these, however, you'll need it, baby supplies are expensive and now with the attack, I don't even want to think about the future prices."

"Thank you, I appreciate it." He replied, as politely as he could and even put a bit of effort into his smile as he grabbed the bag. Waving her hand smiling she continued, "Nonsense we're all in this together, we need to help each other especially in times of need." Nodding he gave her another smile before leaving and thanking the woman again as he walked out. Luck truly seemed to be on his side.