Disclaimer: You guys all know the drill, I don't own any names, holidays, or inanimate objects you recognize as belonging to the normal human language, except this tiny little plot from there life, which no one else can have.

I prowled forward, my weapon in hand. It was not hard to locate my target and lock him in my sights. Yet I must be very careful in my proceedings. If he caught on to what I was up to, the game was up.

He was sitting by the window of the apartment, staring out into the city, the perfect pose for this. I took my time in lining up my aim, I had to hit him just right, or the shot would be ruined and the game would be up. The key here was timing, if I took to long, there was the chance he would move, or one of the others would call out to him. As the light finally came over the horizon, and shone in his face, I pulled the trigger.

My timing had been off by just one second, the moment the sun had shown he'd turned his face, right in my direction. The blinding flash of white light and the following noise had tipped him off. I tried to make a run for it, my prize still in hand, but he was to fast for me. He advanced upon me with a speed I was only just begging to learn, pinned me to the ground, then picked me up by my foot and dangled me in front of his face like they all used to do when I was three years younger.

"Shadow," Leo sighed, exasperated. I couldn't help but giggle as I stashed my camera behind my back and say, "yes Uncle Leo?"

He put his huge green hand in my face and demanded, "fork it over, now."

I could feel my lower lip trembling as I held on tighter and spoke, "but why? Why is it such a bad thing to get your photo taken? I promise I won't ever let any one but me see them! I just want to make sure I remember you guys!"

My face was starting to tingle from all the blood flowing to my head, so with a heavy sigh Uncle Leo placed me right side up on Daddy's carpet and then sat down so that we were on eye level. He then made the effort of forcing a smile onto his face and explaining, "Shadow, we've been over this. Taking pictures of us is dangerous, I don't think you're careless enough to leave them lying around, but what if something happened to this place and they found those pictures?"

"Photo copy? Internet?" I supplied, trying the same arguments on him that I'd tried with Uncle Don. They hadn't worked on him, but Uncle Leo didn't get on the internet as much either.

Sadly, it didn't seem to be, because he was now shaking his head back and forth with a smile on his face. Then slowly, the smile faded off as his forehead puckered and he asked, "Why wouldn't you remember us? We're not going anywhere any time soon."

I started shifting my feet around with guilt, but at the stern brown eyes looking at me, I confessed, "you don't know that." I was unable to stop my eyes from traveling to the clean white bandage adorned on his upper left arm, I had been glancing at it every five minutes since he'd come home with it on.

Uncle Leo knew exactly what I was looking at, and I saw sadness cloud his face. The same look he always got when he realized how much less innocence I had then other kids, at least that's how Uncle Raph put it. I clutched the camera closer to my chest, making sure he couldn't pull one of his ninja moves and snag it away from me without my noticing.

Expecting him to sigh and explain, again, the importance of secrecy I was pleasantly surprised when he instead stood up and then crossed his arms as he looked down at me. That was his compromise face.

"Alright Shadow, you can keep the picture you just took, but no more for now okay. Instead, how about we save stuff like this for special occasions. Christmases, birthdays, stuff like that."

"And Halloween?" I squealed, clutching my camera with new found joy.

"What, why then? We go as the same thing every year, ourselves."

I giggled as I pointed out, "but I don't, and you guys got to pose with me."

Uncle Leo's shoulders relaxed, and a warm smile I hardly ever got to see graced his face as he said, "of course, even on Halloween."

So I hope you guys enjoyed that, its the first time I've ever written anything about Shadow. (The actual character, not the one I made up.) She's about eight I guess, and other then that...hope you liked it