AN: Thanks for the reviews, it seems that people have taken at least a slight liking to this story. I'm going to make sure it's different then TDBRF, because if it wasn't that would just be boring.

Warnings: There WILL be slash in the future, AU, Self-insert OC, Mafia Violence, language from time to time, romance will be on the side but will appear from time to time.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"When people are protecting something truly precious to them. They truly can become...as strong as they need to be!" -Haku (Naruto)

Naturally I was a lone wolf, in my past life I had maybe two close friends but even then I was more prone to keeping to myself then socializing. I saw the world differently then most normal people, heck I could tell my view of the world and it's inhabitants was just plain weird, and that made my peers react negatively to my presence. No, I wasn't all 'poor me' when I didn't have a partner for a school project, I hardly cared that people whispered behind my back and giggled when I was only a few desks away. Words were just words and I had the mental strength to just ignore the supposedly 'hurtful' remarks that were shot my way.

I learned by way of observing the students around me that it was better to be a lone wolf then to 'run with the pack' so to speak. Why would I want to get involved in some ridiculous drama when I could just live peacefully by myself?

Like I said before, the teasing remarks and whispers aimed my direction where usually brushed off, but a good amount of the time when I heard something about 'how I looked like a hobo' or 'I didn't even look like I showered' my temper got the better of me and I ended up in a brawl. My mother was beside herself when she came to pick me up, nearly spiting out fire when she saw yet another black eye or bruise on my face. I would apologize and promise to try and control my anger but we both knew in a few weeks it would happen again. It wasn't like I did it on purpose though, anger was an uncontrollable beast when roused and mine just happened to be half-awake all the time.

The point of all this though, was High School made my view of humans even more shaded. I only had two friends because they were the only ones beside my mother I trusted, I made sure to hold everyone else at an arms length just in case they got close enough to stab me in the back.

So obviously living with Kaito, a cheerful, caring, stranger was very uncomfortable for me. He loved to pick me up and cuddle me, cooing nonsense in my ear and after five or six times of unsuccessfully trying to get away I gave up. He wasn't all that bad, I just wasn't used to the constant close contact.

When I was around one year old he started trying to teach me how to speak and read, which of course I already knew but he couldn't find that out now could he? There were limits to being a genius, not that I planned on looking like one, and magically knowing everything was one of them.

I could see though, that he certainly wasn't supposed to be a teacher. The way he tried to teach me the alphabet was by setting down wooden blocks with letters on them and letting me stare at them, no really he just sat there and waited as if me staring at them long enough would help me learn. There was also the whole teaching me how to speak bit too, first he accidentally bought ones that were in German then when he finally got the correct ones in Japanese he even started getting confused because he was terrible with Kanji.

Apparently my grandmother had been Japanese, thus the reasoning for Kaito's name and my name since he wanted to honor her, but she was raised in Italy. She grew up speaking Italian which meant Kaito grew up speaking Italian and ended up learning Japanese as a second language. He was very fluent, but his way of pronouncing some words was obviously different then people who grew up speaking Japanese.

There was no doubt that if I had been a normal child, I would have had some major problems in school, thank goodness for the small mercies in the world.

As I pretended to learn from Kaito, while mentally wondering how in the world he thought anyone could learn from such techniques, I made sure to show him that I was slight more mentally mature then most children my age. If I played being a normal child for the rest of my toddler-hood I would have gone insane with boredom. As it was I was still holding back, I didn't want to draw any unwanted attention to myself.

He followed up soon after with teaching me how to walk...

"Okay hold my hand Yuu-kun!"

I stared at his offered appendage for a moment and hesitantly reached up, he grabbed my smaller hands gently an excited smile on his face. Eagerly he pulled me up until I was just barley balancing on my feet, instantly I started to fall back as my legs refused to remain firm my eyes narrowing in annoyance. I really couldn't understand how mentally I knew how to walk but psychically my body couldn't hold my weight. I was so used to being able to walk without thinking about it that not being able to was getting on my nerves.

Nearly glowing with happiness Kaito took a slow step back, and I had no choice but to follow him my legs shaking as they tried to comply with a demand they weren't used to. "You're doing so great Yuu-kun!" He cooed as we slowly made our way across the room and out the door. "Your father is so proud of his baby boy!"

I mentally rolled my eyes, ignoring the familiar jolt of happiness that always came after he praised me.

"We should probably stop soon before I fall down the-ACK!"

I fell back onto my butt as he let got of my hands and fell back, watching quietly as he tumbled down the stairs and landed at the bottom face-down with a groan.

"...stairs." He grunted laying there a moment before rolling onto his back and sitting up. He rubbed his head, groaning in pain as a few words of harsh Italian words spilled from his mouth.

...He tried to teach me how to walk.

Okay so maybe Kaito wasn't perfect but at least he entertained me from time to time.

Hiding my face in Kaito's neck in an attempt to hide from the sun, I wondered why out of all the towns in Japan it had to be Namimori my grandmother's parents had originated from. It was all too coincidental for my liking, I couldn't be here just by chance when most of the main characters also happened to be here, someone was really messing with me.

"We just have to but some eggs and then we can head home." Kaito said as he effortlessly held me up with one arm while holding three bags in the other. "Sorry the day has been so long Yuu-kun."

I nodded and peeked over his shoulder feeling bored as I stared at the woman behind us. She was rather pretty with a bright grin on her face and warm brown eyes, the child next to her had a near identical grin on his features as they chatted. I had instantly recognized the child, it was hard not to when I was very familiar with the eye-catching grin that would soon make girls swoon. They had been behind us for about ten minutes, long enough for me to assume they too were going to the grocery store.

I was perfectly fine with staying silent and observing the two together, I had no intention to go out of my way to communicate, anime character or not, with such a cheerful person. I had nothing against Yamamoto but Kaito was enough for me at the moment, I didn't need two model-like smiling men in my life at the moment.

"What do you want for dinner Yuu-kun?" Kaito asked breaking me from my current train of thought.

" 'hat ever you 'ant is fine." I replied huffing when I heard my child-like voice. I preferred to stay quiet most of the time mostly because I hated the way my voice sounded, especially since I couldn't even pronounce my words correctly.

Kaito hummed in agreement and I turned back to watching Yamamoto and his mother. In the manga she was never mentioned or seen so I assumed that she had passed away at some point, she looked nice though in motherly type of way.

As if hearing my thoughts she turned her head and our gazes connected, I froze instinctually as one usually did when caught staring, griping Kaito's shirt nervously. The smile she sent me was so warm, so full of caring and love that it made her eyes nearly shine. I felt a bright blush start to take over my face and instantly hid my face in Kaito's neck, I wasn't interested in girls but I could appreciate beauty when I saw it and she was definitely pretty.

"What a cute little boy you have there, what is his name?" She asked making me internally freak out and Kaito stop to turn around when he heard the voice.

He smiled brightly, dark eyes shining. "His name is Yuuma, but you can call him Yuu-kun." He replied making me cringe and thank the heavens that I was facing away from everyone.

Yamamoto's mother giggled. "Nice to meet you Yuu-kun, my name is Yamamoto Miyako but you can call me Mia." She cooed and I gave a weird hand jerk that slightly resembled a wave before wrapping my arm back around Kaito's neck. "He's so shy, what a darling."

She could think whatever she wanted I wasn't shy, nor embarrassed definitely not embarrassed.

Kaito chuckled. "He is rather precious, what is your son's name? He looks like he's going to be a looker when he gets older just like his mother." I rolled my eyes wanting to hit him, flirting came to him as naturally as breathing and unfortunately he didn't know how to control it.

Miyako laughed in reply apparently completely at ease with his smooth talk. I wouldn't be too surprised if she got it often especially with the way she looked. "His name is Takeshi, he is rather dashing just like his father." Ah there was the little hint to back off, not too blunt but obvious.

" 'Ma why is he so shy? Doesn't he want to say hi?" A boyish voice interjected, and I stilled in my spot high above the ground. I was perfectly fine staying out of this conversation and there he went trying to get me to socialize.

I tried to keep my grip firm on Kaito's shirt as he bent down to place the bags down on the ground, maybe he would get the hint that I wanted to stay where I was. "Why don't you say hi to Takeshi Yuu-kun?" No I guess he was just ignoring the way I clung to his shirt desperately as he had to almost pry me off his neck.

Eventually I was set on the ground, and could only stare silently at the mini-Yamamoto. He was adorable, with a wide grin that lit up his face and chocolate brown eyes, and I wanted to hide behind Kaito's legs but my pride wouldn't allow it.

"Hello my name is Yamamoto Takeshi!" He chirped bowing swiftly. "Nice to meet you Yuu-kun!"

My eyebrow twitched when I heard the awful nickname Kaito had given me come out of his moth so effortlessly. How was he able to talk so well? He couldn't have been maybe four or five, so my age or older, and here I was stumbling over my words. "Nice to meet you." I replied, slowly pronouncing my words so I didn't sound like a complete idiot.

I didn't really know what to say after that, conversation wasn't my forte. Hesitantly I looked back up to Kaito with a 'I did it are you happy?' look on my face, he just grinned approvingly and ruffled my hair making me cringe as he made it even more crazy then before.

"Say do you like any sports?" Yamamoto asked and I reluctantly gave into the fact that, yes I was going to be part of this conversation willing or not.

"Soccer is 'kay." I replied, thinking back to my past life when I had been on my High School Soccer team because I had promised my mother.

The brunet blinked and cocked his head to the side as if analyzing my answer. "Hmm I haven't played that before, my mother likes baseball so I do too!" He closed his eyes and smiled brightly, mentally I cooed at his child-like answer but carefully kept my face blank. The conversation ended there, I really had nothing to say and just wanted to leave before Yamamoto decided I was interesting and invited me to his house or something crazy like that.

"Oh I think he would love to hang out with Yamamoto-kun." Kaito's voice made me turn my head up sharply to glare at his words. He wasn't even affected anymore since apparently Reborn had laid the same one on him many times in his life.

Miyako nodded looking down at us with her eyes nearly dancing in delight. "I think Takeshi would as well, what do you think Shi-shi?"

"That sounds great! We can practice baseball together!"

Did I have no say in this?

Suddenly large hands were lifting me up and I instinctually wrapped my arms back around Kaito's neck, huffing in annoyance and closing my eyes. "I'll make sure to get back to you Yamamoto-san." He said, bending to grab our plastic bags.

"It was nice to meet you both." She replied, voice bright as always. "I'll be waiting for the call!"

"A delight to meet you as well." Kaito nodded in farewell and turned around making it so I was facing their direction, I stared silently at the two Yamamoto's as we walked away, watching as Miyako waved before turning to head across the street.

I enjoyed the silence for a few moments before speaking up. "Am I weally going to be forced to play wit him?"

"Now now, it won't be all that bad." Kaito replied, and I hid my face in his neck huffing once again. I wasn't afraid to mess anything up per-se, though that was a worry, I just was a afraid that I wouldn't be able to live up to Yamamoto's expectations. I knew I wasn't a friendly person, heck when someone only has two friends you know there's something going on, but I didn't purposely try to be so...me. People liked it when others were smiling and making jokes, I rarely did either so I was pretty sure Yamamoto and I wouldn't be all to close.

Not that it bothered me, it just was frustrating when people didn't treat you with the same kindness once they realized you weren't a normal human being.

"He's too bright." I commented dully thinking about the sparkling smiles and loud laughs. " 'sides I don't like people."

"You and Reborn are so alike it's scary." Kaito noted, voice amused but cautious. "I think it would be good if you made a friend Yuuma, people can surprise you sometimes."

I nodded in agrement, deciding it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

Kaito wasn't quite sure what to think about his son. While Yuuma was the cutest thing in the universe no doubt, he also acted like a jaded adult who was paranoid that people would back stab him if they got too close. He couldn't understand what made his four year old son act so cold, and while it could very well be inherited from Reborn he still was unsure.

It took Yuuma two weeks until he finally stopped struggling whenever picked up and even longer to stop glaring while in his arms. He supposed Yuuma could just take longer to warm up to people then usual, which wasn't all too bad since it would help him later in the Mafia. The Mafia was a harsh and cold place where the warm hearted rarely lived, so in all actuality Yuuma would most likely live longer because he wouldn't be as manipulatable.

Still he had hoped to keep his son out of the Mafia business for a long time, unlike what Reborn had done Kaito wanted his son to enjoy his childhood as much as possible. It was important for Yuuma to learn how important it was to open himself up and make friends, they where what made someone stronger not the time you spent training or who you were related too.

Reborn had called him cheesy when he told him this, but it was the truth and the Hitman knew it too. Yes sometimes the people you connected with died, and it hurt you, but at the same time they were what pushed you to get stronger. That was what made his mother stay quiet during the torture she withstood, she had focused on the thought of protecting her son and here he was now with his own child raising him in the same town her parents had come from.

He hoped Yuuma would learn this eventually, while the mafia was very much about violence and strength, the connection with your famigila was also important. The great leaders such as Giotto and Nono fought with their Guardians, they didn't hide somewhere while the battle raged like most were known to do. That loyalty they showed motivated their Guardians to get stronger, and look how strong they were now.

Perhaps the playdate with Yamamoto would end with Yuuma making a new friend, but if he didn't that was fine too, Yuuma had a long time to try and make friends and as his father Kaito would help as much as he could.

AN: I hope I'm portraying Yuuma the way I think I'm portraying him. He's similar but also very different then Haruka, which is my intention. In a way they both represent me, but I feel like Yuuma does more when it comes to trusting people and making friends, which then makes me wonder how people are going to react to his character. Anyways this chapter is a little short, my apologies and sorry for any mistakes.