Sawada Iemitsu thought that his firstborn child is quite odd.

He still remembered when he was told by his ever-cheerful wife four years ago that she was pregnant. That moment, he felt like he was the luckiest happy man alive in the whole wide world. So he grabbed his wife, hugged her, and spun her around. (He stopped only when Nana made a motion of throwing up.) He then running around town as he yelled out in a complete excitement of 'I'm going to be a freaking dad!'

9 months later on the tenth day of October, his son was born into the world.

As he held his newborn son in his arms, he felt an overwhelming emotions of love and awe. Love for his son and for the woman who has given him the greatest gift for him. Awe for finally becoming a father.

Him!

When he looked at his son's appearance, he immediately noticed the strange marks like whisker on each of his cheek. The second thing he noticed was the baby's blond hair, which is quite darker than his own. And when the baby finally opened his eyelids, he got a pair of blue eyes just like him, but only a slight darker.

But that wasn't what caught his attention the most. No, it was the slight intelligence and curiosity shown in his eyes when he looked up to him. And Iemitsu was sure that he was aware of his surroundings and the person who held him before he grabbed his finger with his tiny fist before he closed his eyes and fall asleep on him.

When the leader of CEDEF (though Nana didn't know that) passed over his son to his wife who sits up straight on the bed with a lovely motherly smile on her face, his mind is busy processing the fact that his son, his son who's not even an hour old yet, has shown intelligence and curiosity!

And he was just a baby! A newborn baby! And Iemitsu didn't miss the strange glint of something in his son's darker blue eyes.

It was like a recognization of some sort. It was quite... unexpected and not normal if someone asks him. Newborn just don't do that. But despite the baby's darker blond tuff of hair and his darker blue eyes than his own, the baby is his. Iemitsu can feel the same warm energy as him within his son. Small energy, but it was there. And Nana would never cheat on him.

'Is it Sky Flame?' he thought.

"What are we going to name him, dear?" Nana's suddenly asked, snapping him out of his train of thoughts.

"Name?" he blinked his eyes as he replied dumbly to his wife's question.

"Of course! We haven't think of a name for him yet." Nana said, eyes gazing to the little bundle of joy in her arms, wrapped in a baby blue blanket.

Iemitsu stared at his smiling wife before he looked at his sleeping son. He grabbed his chin as he thought hard for a suitable name for his firstborn child before he heard something saying 'Maelstrom'.

He blinked and looked at the opened window at the side of the room, letting the breeze of the night entering the hospital room. Probably the wind, he thought.

He shrugged his shoulder and stared at his wife with a smile, who still smiling sweetly at him and waiting for him to say something. 'Maelstrom huh?' he thought, a little bit amused.

"How about Naruto?" he said as he smiled widely at her. "Sawada Naruto."

Nana returned his smile with her very own before she stared down at her baby who cutely slept peacefully in her arms. "I like that. His name would be Naruto then." she cheerfully said.

And as if the baby, now named Naruto, could sense and understand them for discussing about his name, he opened his eyes and yawned cutely (both adults melted at the cuteness) before he noticed his parents, giving them a cute smile and waving his tiny fists to them. It was like his own way to say 'Hello mom and dad. And I like that name.'

Iemitsu chuckled at his own thoughts.

"From now on, your name is Sawada Naruto." the new father said as he ruffled baby Naruto's small tuff of hair. He then clapped his hands together, smiling at his two parents who looked at him lovingly.

Four years later.

Iemitsu sighed as he looked under the bed inside Naruto's room. Finding nothing under the bed, he let out a sigh again.

It was Sunday. And the CEDEF's leader has a total of 3 days off from his mafia life in Italy before he needs to go again. He already booked a flight for tomorrow departure to Italy.

And since it was such a rare time for him to be with his family, he took this opportunity to spend some time with his wife and son. Nana has gone out to the grocery store and decided to let the father and son duo spend the rest of the evening together.

And that's what they're doing now. Few minutes after Nana went out, Naruto asked to play a game of hide and seek, and he happily said yes. Naruto decided that he would be hiding while the older blond would be the one to look for him.

At first Iemitsu was excited to play with his son, but now he kind of regretted saying yes. It's been almost an hour since the game started and he still couldn't find him!

He has been looking at every part of the house but still no sign of his brat. Looking for him was like looking for something that never was there in the first place. Though he has felt Naruto's presence a few minutes ago in his room, leaving him there to look for him inside the closet, under the desk and finally under the bed and still nothing.

Walking out of Naruto's room, which is quite messy, he walked down the stairs and entered the living room. Sitting on the soft cushion that was placed near the short table in the middle of the living room, he took a deep breath and say in a loud voice.

"Alright Naruto! Papa has given up!" Iemitsu yelled out. "Come out come out wherever you are ~"

It was a total silence before he heard a child laughter from outside. 'He was outside?' he thought confusedly. He was sure that he already look for the little tyke outside the house before he felt his presence from his room.

Standing up, he walked towards the traditional Japanese doors and slide one open. He stepped out of the house and followed the sound of the laughing child only to see a tree a few steps away from him and looked up to see his troublesome son sitting on one of the tree branches. He was laughing happily as if sitting on top of a tree branch is a fun thing for him to do.

In alert, Iemitsu walked quickly towards the tree, looking up to his son and raised his arms to him. "Come down now Naruto," he said. "Don't be afraid, Papa will catch you."

Naruto looked at the older blond and laughed as he jumped into his father's embrace, who immediately caught him and sighed in relief.

"Son, how did you even get up there?" he carefully asked the four years old kid.

"I climbed!" said four years old kid exclaimed happily.

Iemitsu looked at his son's appearance and noticed that there's no dirt on him. 'For a kid like him to climb a tree without any dirt is impossible.' he thought, eyes narrowing.

"Really?"

"Uhuh."

Without saying anything, Iemitsu took him inside the house and placed him on the floor. He sat in front of his son who looked at him with curiosity, wondering what he did wrong.

"Listen Naruto, do not climb up a tree without anyone is watching," he said, looking at Naruto with a stern gaze. "For a second thought, don't even climb up a tree or anything that is way taller than you until you a little bit older."

Naruto nodded.

"And whatever happened for you to be up on the tree, never let it happen again." I know something helped him or put him there, he thought.

He desperately wanted to ask the small blond who keeps his head down, about how he ended up there but something holding him back from doing so.

Instead, he asked "Papa has been looking for you. Where are you hiding?"

"Around the house!" Naruto said happily, grinning to his father.

"Around the house?"

"Yeah!" he nodded. "I want to be a ninja who always in the shadow. And ninja has to be quiet and good at hiding!" he explained, showing Lemitsu his white teeth.

"Ninja?" the oldest Sawada ask dumbfoundedly

"Why?"

"Because ninjas are cool and they protect precious people from the shadow. I want to be like that. I want to protect Mama when Papa goes away."

Iemitsu was quite taken aback by what his 4 years old son just told him. It wasn't something a kid to say. Usually when a kid was asked the reason why he or they want to be a certain thing, responsepond will always be 'Cause it's cool.'

'Well, most of them.' His son is certainly not one of them.

"Why ninja? Why not something else? Like a police officer or soldier or another occupation."

"Nope. Ninja!" the child said happily, grinning from ear to ear as Makemake a hand motion that ninja in shows always did.

"What do you mean protecting Mama when Papa go away?" he asked the small ninja wannabe.

"Because that is what I suppose to do. A son protectstect his family in his father's place." Naruto said simply.

Again, that is not something a kid like him to say. 'Is there somewhat ing happened when I was away?' he thought anxiously. And Iemitsu swore that there's a flash of guilt in his son's eyes before it's gone.

"Why would you say that, Naruto?"

"Because in my dreams, my precious people always died leaving me alone. It makes me sad and I don't to be alone." Naruto said again, small tears forming at the corner of his eyes as he clenched his small fist. "Mama and Papa won't die and leave me alone to right?" he asdesperatelytely, looking at Lemitsu with a sad expression.

"Of course not!"quicklyicky hands-one on Naruto's shoulders. His heart ached when he heard his precious son saying things like that. "Papa and Mama would never leave Naru-chan alone!"

"Promise?" Naruto held out his pinky and Iemitsu quickly locked his pinky with his son's.

"Papa promise," he said softly as he hugged his son.

At that moment, Iemitsu didn't care nor is he aware of everything except comforting his son. Not the way he ended up on the tree, his behavior, his way of speaking which isn't like a normal child, the dreams of people died, and certainly not the slight glint in his eyes as his father hugged him.

Somewhere in a place where nobody except one person knows of.

Red eyes gleaming in the darkness as he mused over the interaction between the father and son duo. This would be interesting, he thought.

Eyes narrowed slightly as he feels something strange like an energy of some sort coming from the man that the person he cared about called 'papa'.

Whatever that is, it's not chakra. And whatever the man had within his body, it wouldn't bring any harm to his human. Because the strange energy is attracted to the idiot's chakra.

"Looks like it wouldn't be so boring after all." Red eyes then closed and faded in the darkness as silence took over.

I tried.Please leave a review.