Naruto (c) Masashi Kishimoto

Note: Madara's childhood nickname is credited to RogueAngleofSatin my lovely beta. ^^

The boy flinched when the door opened, he looked up from his curled position. Tears stained his cheeks along with smears of dirt, he had a fat lip and a black eye and a few cuts on his cheeks. He had beaten up the other boys teasing him about his name again, and this time it wasn't his mother that was going to deal with him. The boy began to quiver... in fear.

Uchiha Madara shook the unpleasant memory away when he looked at his second son. "Ran," he chided, taking Yuzuki's approach of being gentle and compassionate. "Tell me what happened?" Madara leaned on his desk, interlacing his fingers with his hands. He stared deeply into his son's matching black eyes, as if he could draw the answer out of the boy.

Ran looked at his feet, trying to avoid his father's smoldering gaze. He mumbled something but Madara didn't catch it. "Speak up, boy, I can't hear you," Madara ordered, his voice taking on just a hint a steel. He was mildly pleased to see Ran flinch at the tone.

"I punched someone," Ran muttered, not looking at Madara. The Uchiha leader leaned back with a sigh, rubbing his face. He knew this session would be like pulling teeth with Ran. He sometimes wondered if Ran being so much like him was a bad thing, but those thoughts were few, fleeting and far between. He only wished Ran had been his firstborn.

"Who did you punch?" Madara asked.

"Does it matter?" Ran looked up at Madara with defiance, which caused his father to smirk as he picked up his brush and calmly dipped it into the ink. He began to write, more interested in the smooth ink characters he was making than his son's glower.

Fuck Yuzuki's approach, this will work faster anyways. Madara thought as he continued to ignore his son's question. "Well," he finally drawled after a few minutes, flicking his eyes up at Ran, "aren't you going to answer your father?"

"And I said: does it matter? I'm the son of the clan leader! They should respect me!"

"I don't go around punching people that I don't agree with, Ran," Madara replied coolly. "Now, you know I hate repeating myself."

"I punched Ken'ichi," Ran finally said.

"Why?" Madara asked.

"I don't see why this matters at all! I punched him because he's an asshole—"

"Watch your tongue boy!" Madara snarled, his Sharingan spinning in his eyes. Ran gulped and squared his shoulders. Madara smirked as he retracted his kekkei genkai. Katsuro would've flinched and began to whimper in fear if he was yelled at in that manner, but Ran would glower definitely and Madara liked that. "Now, why did you punch Ken'ichi?"

"Because he's a jerk!" Ran shouted.

"Ran," Madara growled.

"He called me... Pansy," Ran finally muttered.

"Pansy?" Madara arched a brow, studying the boy in front of him.

"It's because of my name! Why can't I have a normal name? I hate my name! I want a normal boy's name! Like Isamu or Tatsuya! Why do I have to be stuck with a girl's name? I get picked on all the time. They call me flower-boy, pansy, roses, anything having to do with flowers! And they ask if I wear dresses and tie pink ribbons in my hair! It's not fair! I hate it!" Ran slammed his fists on Madara's desk. "So, I punched Ken'ichi because I was fed up with hearing it! I told him to leave me alone and he wouldn't! So I beat him up to teach him a lesson!"

Madara gave a weary sigh and looked at his son. "When I was your age, I was called Speckles by the other boys. I would normally walk away, because my mother told me that the better man walks away, but one day they called me Speckles the Coward and you know I'm not a coward, I was then and I'm not now. So, I punched the ringleader and we were soon got into a huge fight. I won, naturally," Madara smirked, "but when I got home, my mother scolded me and sent me to my room. Normally when I got in trouble she never told my father, but this time was different, since I beat up Hiroyuki, the general's son. My father had to step in," Madara stopped his tale and began to work on his paperwork, not bothering to look at his son.

"What did Grandpa do?" Ran asked softly.

"One, that man is not your grandfather. He is simply my sire, he was never my father. I rather think myself as a bastard child than to remember the fact that that man is my blood relation." Madara growled, he noticed Ran flinched but he didn't care.

"Sorry, Otou-sama," Ran muttered.

"Stop with the formalities. We are talking as father and son," Madara allowed his shoulders to relax a bit, "and he beat me. Until I had a reason to cry, as he put it."

Ran gulped, "You... aren't gonna beat me... are you?"

Madara blinked before setting his work down and putting some space between him and the desk. "Come here," he beckoned his child over. Ran obeyed and was soon wrapped up in his father's strong arms. Ran sighed, drinking in his father's familiar scent of pipe-smoke, blood and charcoal. He buried his face in his father's chest as Madara smoothed his hair. "No, I'll never beat you. I'll never do that to you. I'll smack you for being an idiot but never beat you like my father did to me."

"Okay..."

"You and your brother are precious to me, so very precious."

"So... I'm not in trouble?" Ran looked up at his father hopefully.

"I never said that. You are still in trouble. You're grounded for three weeks."

"What? But I won!"

"Okay, three days then. Now off you go," Madara patted his son's back. "Oh and look miserable for your mother okay. I'm suppose to give you a serious punishment."

"Okay," Ran said and opened the door.

"Oh, and one more thing Ran," Madara said.

"Mm?" the boy looked at his father.

"Be proud of your name. Your mother gave it to you. It may be a girl's name, but she chose that because she felt it fit you the best. Your name is a sign of her love for you. You may not think so now, but trust me, it is."

"Yes, Papa," Ran smiled and left his father's study.

"I wonder what Hiroyuki thinks of Speckles the Coward now?"

Nothing much to say. Been having a shitty day today. This is just something that's been bouncing in my head. Also, SotM3 is coming along nicely.

R'n'R

Sanguinary Toxicity