Hello! Bet you didn't expect two chapters in a row, did ya? Well, since it's Naruto's b-day yesterday (October 10th for those who don't know, though most everyone reading this probably knows that by now. I hope.) so I'm going to post another chapter. It may not be that long, it's sort of a filler chapter with a few important aspects, really.

And this is chapter 9, guys. I'm sorry about the chapter 98 confusion. It was supposed to be 9-8. The way I'm posting them, since a lot of things that I'd rather not explain happened, this is the way I'm writing them. The way to tell what the chapter is by the second number. For example, this chapter is 10-9. In this case, the chapter would be 9 because it's the second number. Following me? Cool. So onward, and enjoy!

~Recap~

The red-head looked at the scene with disgust. For some odd reason, Naruto got the feeling that he knew this person. And the red-head knew him, as well.

And apparently, the red-head did not like seeing Naruto hurt. So, with a clap, his two hands touched the wall, and for Naruto, everything began to become hazy. Naruto felt a gentle hand smooth his spiky hair out a bit before he was claimed by the land of sleep. And as he fell asleep, he remembered why the red-head was so familiar.

'Gaara…' Naruto thought before he fell into a deep sleep.

~End Flashback~

~End Recap~

Naruto awoke, but didn't open hiss eyes. He wasn't too sure where he was right now, just that he was wrapped in something warm. And he could hear a heartbeat, too. He kept his breathing even as he listened to the conversation. He was shocked by what he heard.

"What's he like in the future?" Someone, believed it was Tsume, getting to know the Clan Head whenever he had gone over to Kiba's.

"What's he like?" Someone rephrased the question. It was Shika. "Well, in the future, he's the Number One Most Unpredictable Knucklehead Ninja, for starters." Naruto could hear the smirk in Shika's voice. There was laughter, including from the person holding him, who he had now guessed to be his dad. Since his ear was right next to Minato's chest, he could feel the vibrations as Minato laughed.

"Is he now?" Minato asked. Naruto could hear the smile in his voice.

"Yeah, now to mention the Prank Master." It was Kiba who said that. "Man, could he pull a prank. I swear, it was always hilarious to see the ANBU go after him. He still hasn't told anybody how he managed to sneak into their headquarters though."

Naruto almost burst out laughing, but managed to keep his expression and breathing calm. He could only imagine their expressions.

"Wait." It was Minato again. "You're saying that he snuck into ANBU headquarters?" Minato asked, the disbelief layering his voice thoroughly. "ANBU headquarters, where there's always someone awake?" Apparently there was a nod, because Minato snorted.

"Damn. How did he do that? Even I can't do that." Minato said, awe in his voice. Naruto inwardly laughed. He remembered those days. He loved sneaking into the ANBU HQ, because, for some reason, they couldn't catch him. He had believed it was a test of skill to sneak into there. He remembered his favorite prank he had ever done; from a young age, he had been practicing fuinjutsu, and somehow (he didn't remember exactly what seals he did) he had managed to make leaves swirl around the ANBU whenever they had shun-shined. To say the least, the ANBU were baffled as to why that was happening.

Shika laughed. "Yeah, Naruto was really underestimated when we were younger. To say the least, he proved the whole village wrong."

"He was underestimated? Why?" This had come from Jiraiya. He inwardly winced. It had been tough when Jiraiya had died, and seeing and talking to him on a regular basis pushed him to make sure he didn't show any odd emotion, as if he had known the Sage.

There was a silence met with Jiraiya's question; no one really wanted to answer the question, but someone had to, Naruto knew.

It was Hinata who spoke up. "Well," She started. "Besides from personal reasons that you'd have to ask him, his pranks angered many people. People thought that was all he could do, and that's all he showed, considering he was last in the Academy." The silence, but then, oddly enough, Shino spoke.

"Although," He said, surprising the room, as he had not spoken much at the meeting. "With someone as lazy as Shikamaru is, he should have been dead last, not Naruto." At that, the whole room laughed. It was true, Naruto thought. If he had shown a little more of his talents, he may not have ended up dead-last. But the past was the past, and there was nothing that he could do to change it.

It was then that Naruto heard the whirl of a kunai heading straight towards Minato's open chest. For some reason, the ANBU hadn't caught it, and it was approaching at a fast speed. Using his reflexes as trained ANBU operative, Naruto caught the speeding kunai with ease, spinning it even faster than it had been coming at his father, and with sharp accuracy, hurtled it back towards the attacker.

The current Clan Heads were surprised that Naruto had returned that while he was asleep. Naruto, who knew he had to wake up now, opened his eyes. He looked around the room, at the faces that were staring at him, and yawned. He rubbed his eye with his hand in the cute way that little kids do, looking like a little fox cub.

Naruto felt a hand on his head. "Awake now, Naruto?" Mianto asked. Naruto shook his head and snuggled back into his father's chest, deciding that he still needed sleep.

Minato chuckled. "I think you've had enough sleep for now, Naru." Minato used the nickname that he had given Naruto a few months after he had moved in with him and Kushina.

"Yeah, now that you're awake, you can tell us how you snuck into the ANBU HQ." It was Kiba who said this, a smile on his face.

Naruto looked over to Kiba with a sleepy smile. "Can't tell you. Yu-chan would yell at me." Naruto replied with an equally sleepy voice. Everyone heard the face-fault, and looked over to see the ANBU who had face-faulted.

"Neko?" Minato asked. She stepped out of the shadows, facing Minato. "Permission to speak."

She nodded, before she turned her attention to Naruto. "You!" She cried, pointing her finger at him.

"Me!" Naruto replied, smiling at the ANBU.

"Is there something between the two of you?" Minato asked suspiciously, unconsciously holding Naruto closer to himself.

"Not like that, Hokage-sama," Neko laughed a sweet laugh. "But he is to the ANBU. He has taught us many things, except he was a little older."

Everyone in the room, save Naruto and the other ANBU (who were smiling fondly at him behind their masks), was surprised.

"But how was he able to do that?" Neji asked "Unless you had time-travel…" Neji's eyes went wide as he stared at Naruto with blatant disbelief. Naruto smiled at Neji.

"Wait…Then that was how you were able to create the time-travel jutsu, Shikamaru?" Neji asked the lazy genius.

Shikamaru nodded. "Yes. I stumbled upon it by accident while going through his drawers, searching for any sake." He leveled Naruto with an annoyed glare. "Which I did find, you know. Really Naruto, 19 bottles? You're as bad as Tsunade-sama."

Everyone stared at Naruto, jaws hanging on the floor. Naruto chuckled. "19? You must be losing your touch Shika, I had a dozen and a half more hanging around my desk, y'know." If the jaws of the Shinobi could open wider, they would have.

"Anyways, getting back to the subject at hand," Neko started again, regaining the room's attention once more. "Naruto taught us a thing or two, that even we didn't know. It's how the criminal rate went down, Hokage-sama. He showed us different routes throughout the whole village of Konoha which," She added, looking at Minato. "In order to learn, we had to make an oath, making sure that we didn't tell anyone about them."

At this, Minato sent a glare at his son. Naruto looked up to his father. "What? You wouldn't have been able to find them, anyway. Only ANBU can." Naruto explained.

"So you're saying you were an ANBU at one point then, Naruto?" Minato asked, to which Naruto nodded. Surprised murmurs came from the future Clan Heads. The right side of the room (and for those who don't remember, they were the current Clan Heads) looked at the left side.

"We didn't know. We just assumed Tsunade-sama was sending him on B or A-ranked missions whenever he was away. We never guessed that he had gone and joined ANBU." Neji explained, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Naruto nodded. "Yup. I had developed a time-traveling jutsu that allowed me to come back and train the pathetic ANBU, and no, I'm not telling you, Minato." Naruto explained and told Minato without missing a beat.

A pout formed on Minato's face. "Why not?" He asked. "And show some respect to your father, gaki."

"Ha ha," Naruto laughed. "And respect is earned, not given." The wisdom in Naruto's words made everyone in the room stop and think. Exactly what had Naruto experienced to make him that wise?

"Well," Minato said, resealing the cot Naruto had been lying on for the frist half of the meeting. "I believe we've been in here long enough (it'd already been four hours). I adjourn this meeting for the time being. Please go home and rest, and take care if your families." Minato faced Naruto and picked him up, much to Naruto's surprise. "Ready to go home, kiddo?" Minato asked, a warm look in his eyes.

Naruto yawned, made his body to look and feel like an eight-year-old before putting his head on his dad's shoulder, falling asleep again. Minato chuckled. "I guess that's a yes, then." With a wave of his hand, Minato walked out of the room.

For a little bit, the families talked amongst themselves, making small, but pleasant, talk amongst themselves.

And it was brought up in one conversation which had managed to get the attention if the whole room.

"Ino," Inoichi said to his daughter. She turned to him with a questioningly look. "Out of curiosity… What were you going to call me…?" He asked, hesitant at the end.

There was a confused look on Ino's face before she remembered. "Ah! That?" She asked, to which he nodded. "Well," she said with a slight blush. "I was going to call you what I did in the future." She paused, considering whether or not to call her father by what she usually did.

"And that was…?" Inoichi asked. It was painfully obvious to everyone that he wanted to know.

"Well, I called you 'Daddy.'" Ino replied with a wide smile, which melted Inoichi's heart.

"Well, if you want," Inoichi said, trying to get back some dignity. "You can call me 'Daddy.' If you want."

Ino's eyes lit up. "Yay!" She exclaimed, latching onto her dad's arm. Once again, his heart melted.

Smiling a fatherly smile at his daughter, the two went backs towards their home, Ino talking a mile a minute. The rest of the families did the same, except they weren't as bad as the Yamanaka pair.

0o0

Minato, while he was walking out of the meeting room, decided he'd walk home, rather than using Hiraishin. It was a beautiful day out, and he'd prefer to hold onto Naruto longer. He was so excited that Naruto was actually his son. He had loved Naruto like his son before he knew this information, but to actually know it made him feel all warm inside. So, he was going to walk around, carrying Naruto, proud to be his father.

It was when they had made it to the ground floor that people had started to notice the pair. Naruto was still in his pajamas (Minato had put him in pajama pants and a long pajama shirt, much like his own pair, while he was heading downstairs) and had his sleeping cap on. Needless to say, Naruto was very cute, and had such an innocent sleeping face.

Minato was walking down one of the main roads when he was first approached by a villager.

"My, he's so cute, Minato-sama," The villager, who was a kind elderly lady, commented.

Minato beamed. "Yes, he is," He replied with a look of adoration for the boy he was carrying. He then carried on, greeting the woman farewell as he headed towards home again.

As he went home, he was stopped and talked to by the villagers as usual, though most of it was about Naruto, and how cute he was.

It was when Minato ran into both Ino-Shika-Cho trios that had gotten the best reaction out of Minato.

"Minato," Shikaku called, to which Minato smiled. Both generations of Ino-Shika-Cho were there, with Ino still clinging to her dad's arm.

"So he's still asleep?" Chouza asked, referring to Naruto.

"Yes, he's quite tired today." Minato replied in a happy manner.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said, but was smiling at the small blond on the Yondaime's shoulder.

"He's really cute at this age," Ino commented, looking at Naruto. The group nodded, and went onto small talk as they walked.

The group ended up in front of a restaurant, and Minato had been convinced to join them. As Chouza went in to arrange for them to be seated- the restaurant had outdoor seating- the group talked about the meeting.

"Its a lot to take in," Inoichi commented as they sat down at their table.

"It is," Ino agreed. "But, its better to know this now before it's too late, right?" She asked, looking over menu. Inoichi nodded solemnly in agreement. Knowledge was a weapon. A double-edged one.

"What would you like?" Te waitress asked, smiling flirtatiously in Minato's direction, though it had no affect because Minato wasn't paying attention.

The two generations of Ino-Shika-Cho gave their orders, and the waitress asked Minato what he'd like.

"I'll have some pasta," He decided, and the waitress then motioned towards Naruto, who Minato had yet to let go of, mostly because of Naruto's firm grip on his shirt.

"Naru," Minato said in a soft, caring voice, getting the attention of the other people on the outside patio, as well as a few passer-bys. "Come on, wake up."

With a little yawn that made all the females present 'kyah', Naruto opened his eyes, rubbing them.

"Daddy…?" Naruto asked in a small, sleepy voice. The look on Minato's face lit up the whole table. His face was that of pure delight and happiness at have been called 'daddy'.

"What is it, Naru?" Minato asked, that look of happiness never going away.

"Pasta…" Naruto mumbled, yawning again. The waitress wrote that down, and quickly went to deliver the order so the Hokage and the Clan Heads would not have to wait long.

"Like father, like son," Shikaku commented, his eyes leaving the clouds to observe the happy duo. Naruto had woken up to the extent where he could sit in his father's lap.

Ino smiled. It was good that Naruto was getting the attention from his father. God knows that Naruto was seriously deprived of it as a child. Looking over to her teammates, she knew they were thinking the same thing.

If only they could keep the Yondaime from dying… Maybe then Naruto would have a happy childhood. But the three knew that, unless something happened, that Naruto wouldn't get what they deserved.

The three looked at the duo, watching as Minato happily played with Naruto, who was laughing. Yes, if only the kami would give Naruto that one gift, to at least have a father during his childhood.

And when Naruto met their gazes, they, if only for a moment, didn't see the eyes of happy little 8-year-old that Naruto was currently acting like. No, they saw the eyes of their Hokage, who was shedding unshed tears, wishing for the exact same thing.

And that's a wrap! It turned out longer that it was supposed to be though…Not that you guys care, though. xD There was a lot of Naruto-Minato bonding in this, which I personally like. And who doesn't think a sleeping 8-year-old Naruto is cute? Anyways, please review, and Happy Birthday Naruto! :D and I'm sorry for not being able to update it on the tenth. I couldn't get on the internet at all.