the woods are lovely, dark and deep, (but I have promises to keep)

Chapter Eight: he gives his harness bells a shake

It hadn't taken long for the novelty of his return to wear off, and Sakura soon found himself free of the three clingy brats. His eyes flickered over to the bundle of furs which looked to be quivering ever so slightly, scowling when he spied the onyx eyes peering out at him. He sat close enough to keep an eye on the boy – and stop him doing anything stupid, liking running off, and likely setting off half of the very lethal traps set up around the area – but far away enough not to alarm him. The boy wouldn't be able to scent him, what with his chakra-blocked scent glands, meaning he didn't realise they shared the same presentation.

His attackers had all been male as far as he could tell, which meant the boy would naturally be wary of him, the only adult in the area. Which was why he was encouraging the girls to take care of him, given how he figured they would be received much better than he would.

Let him approach under his own steam. All of his other brats adored him for reasons unknown and were probably singing his praises. His ears reddened at the thought. Stupid brats, the lot of them. Still, he was going to make the eldest one sign with the panthers, no matter her apparent intelligence level.

His summons would be fine with her, once she had gotten the basics of chakra manipulation stamped out. Which was how he'd wound up supervising his brats and their training. Again. He had set his heart on getting his wards up to scratch with basic shinobi abilities, and then he would be taking them south – he was hoping to figure out which clan one of the little ones came from, and ideally get her and her friend safely there, so long as they had a reputation for not mistreating omegas, that was. The Uchiha boy was the priority. He didn't particularly want people accusing him of kekkei genkai theft when he was just trying to do his good deed for the day.

Blondie would probably be harder to get rid of, but with any luck Konoha would soon be formed, and he could assign her a training mission there to get her off his hands.

That was the plan.

Though he wasn't holding out too much hope that everything would go according to said plan. Any plans he made usually had a tendency to go waysides. But he would adapt. Hopefully. It was easier said than done.

"Ah." Sakura blinked as the realisation hit him. He had two kids with black hair now, which meant he couldn't keep referring to them as such. He slapped his fist into his palm. "What are all of your names?"

::

Blondie's actual name turned out to be Tsubaki. Yet another floral name. He doubted he would start using it, but it was rather nice to know what name would be appearing beside his own on the summoning contract soon enough. Her resemblance to Ino was slight, but the more he looked at her, the more he noticed it. He tried to ignore the way it squeezed at his chest, silently vowing to not let her down like he had done with Ino. She was an omega, and she was his charge. At least until he found a safe place for her to live... and after he was done teaching her the basics of self-defence. They were similar to the sorts of moves he'd learnt before meeting Tsunade. Hit them where it hurt, and then run away as quickly as possible.

Brunette and her black-haired friend went by Umi and Himari respectively. Though Sakura knew he was more likely to point at the one he wanted to speak to rather than using their names. It would come in handy for their journey though. He had no doubts it would be fraught with peril – what with his ridiculous luck. Really, it was absurd. How else was he supposed to explain winding up with four little omega charges in such a short space of time?

His eyes strayed over to blondie. She wasn't really that little in the grand scheme of things, but she was younger than him by a few years, and as such she was little to him.