And we're going again!

Part V. Enjoy!

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Ectoplasm and Chakra

When Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius combined to create the catastrophe that would plague Amity Park for ten years, everyone assumed Danny Fenton died. But the truth was far different. Stranded in a strange land, a world-weary Danny meets a tiny blond boy with a nine-tailed fox on his shoulder and trouble on his heels. It is an odd turnabout to be simply ordinary in a village of the extraordinary… TUE timeline; Naruto prequel.

A Danny Phantom & Naruto Crossover Fanfiction

By: Sholay

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PART V – MADDIE

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Naruto would say "I'm home" when entering his apartment, Danny noticed. Without fail, every time the boy slid open the door and stepped foot inside, Danny would hear this announcement made to an empty apartment followed by a pause, then a quiet sigh.

It was distressing to hear and, one day, Danny took action.

"Hey!" He called from the entrance of his own apartment, interrupting the kid's moment of depression. "You're late! Why are you getting back so late?"

Naruto blinked at him, looking wholly confused at the thought of something being upset that he was coming home late.

"Uhm… I… I was walking around…"

"Well I was worried! You shouldn't be out this late!" Danny strode up to Naruto as he scolded the boy.

A look of irritation came across Naruto's face: eyebrows scrunching down and nose wrinkling in a way that Danny found more amusing than anything else. He had to momentarily fight to maintain his stern composure. "It's not that big a deal—" Naruto started but Danny interrupted him before he could say more.

"Not a big deal?" Danny repeated with one eyebrow raised. "Do I need to remind you what sorts of crazy fruitloops run around at night?" Just using the word 'fruitloop' brought flashes of memory to Danny's mind: vulture ghosts wearing fez hats, the college reunion, the feeling Danny had experienced when he realized Vlad was evil… the expression on Vlad's face when Danny had asked him to rip out his ghost half…

"I can take care of myself!" Naruto huffed, getting upset. "What do you care anyway? No one makes a big deal out of how late I stay out—"

"Well, I do care and I am making a big deal out of it!" Danny put his hands on his hips and looked down at Naruto disapprovingly. He did his best to envision how his mother had looked at him when she caught him sneaking into the house past his curfew.

He faltered with alarm as he realized he could no longer clearly picture the details of his mother's face.

"Well! I can come back as late as I wanna. You can't tell me when I can go out and when I can't." Naruto was saying rebelliously.

"Look, you know when I come back from work. If you get back later than I do then just come in and say 'Hi'. That way I won't worry about you. Okay?" The indignation in Danny's voice had faded, leaving quiet weariness.

Naruto blinked at him, his scowl fading. "You were worried about me?"

"Of course I worry about you, kid." Danny sighed, lowering his eyes. His motivation to play parent to the boy had suffered a severe blow. He wanted to leave… he wanted to lock himself in his room and fervently try to pull up every memory of his mother that he could…

"Really? Oh!"

Danny looked up and was instantly caught by the expression in Naruto's startling blue eyes. The child was looking at him in honest wonder.

That expression was enough to rouse Danny from his gloom. "How about this," he proposed. "You knock on my door to say 'Hi' when you come in late and I'll do the same when I come back late from work."

"Ah… Okay!" Naruto seemed too stunned to say anything more.

Danny surprised himself then, by inviting the boy out for dinner. He wanted to hide—to hide and to wallow in his own grief. He wanted to sleep: to sleep and sleep and forget. But somehow he discovered the strength to put aside that desire, if only temporarily. For such a hapless child as Naruto, Danny found he even wanted to focus on making the boy happy over dwelling on his own unhappiness.

Nevertheless, after the dinner and after he bade Naruto goodnight, the familiar depression sank cold fingers into his heart and mind.

He retreated back to his own room, shut the door and sat down hard on his bed. Immediately, he buried his face in his hands.

Why hadn't he thought to bring anything with him when he'd left Amity Park? He could've brought something of theirs. Anything… His wallet had had a photo of his family in it. But that had been left on a table in Vlad's lab. How ironic that he could imagine that table and the bulge of the wallet so clearly in his mind but not the picture itself.

He could've even taken that stupid picture Sam had had framed—where she had caught him and Tucker hugging in their sleep during the purple-back gorilla incident. Sam couldn't look at that picture without breaking out into a grin or a laugh. Danny couldn't remember what that laugh sounded like… though he remembered the feelings it had elicited within him almost too well.

A knock on his door brought him reluctantly out of his languishing. Pushing himself to his feet, he walked over and answered the door.

"Hi!" Naruto greeted him with a wide grin. "I'm home! I just went out for dinner with a friend and thought I'd check in with you before going to bed!"

"You…you're just…Haah…" Letting his eyes roll heavenward, Danny let out a helpless breath and closed his eyes for a brief moment as he pinched the bridge of his nose. The stinging receded and when he reopened his eyes there was a small, fond smile tugging at his mouth.

"Get in here, you."

:o:

"You know, Sasuke, Naruto's been wondering where I keep disappearing off to." Danny brought up gently one night at the Uchiha house. More than two months had passed since the incident with Danny's father and the ghosts of Sasuke's relatives. Danny didn't sleep over at Sasuke's house as frequently as he had those first couple of weeks but since Naruto had begun visiting Danny's apartment to say goodnight, the teen was finding it more and more difficult to excuse his absences.

"Is it okay if I tell him he can come over sometimes too?"

After a pause, Sasuke nodded.

Naruto, oddly enough, was actually more difficult to convince.

"Why would I want to go over to that jerk's place?" Naruto pouted. "Every time I even touch something he gets all stiff and twitchy. I can't stand stuck-up people like that."

Danny hadn't actually thought Sasuke had been all that rude to Naruto. But then again, he had excused much of the boy's actions as a product of his age and circumstances. Naruto probably couldn't do the same. "Everyone's different, Naruto. Not everyone's got your sense of humour." Or mischief. "Chances are his family was strict with him. They probably kept the place clean and didn't let him touch things. Now that they're gone, he's even more protective of those little things." Danny's eyes lowered as he said this, his insight coming from realizations about his own behaviour.

Not even a week after his parents and Jazz were gone, the GiW had shown up at his house. Under the guise of presenting their condolences they'd tried to appropriate the ghost weaponry Danny's parents had poured their lives into. He had refused—had physically shoved them out the door and slammed it in their faces. When they'd returned the next day with a warrant, Danny had been enraged. Desperate to protect his parents' creations, he had been one flashy transformation away from blowing his secret when Vlad had inexplicably appeared in the doorway, his own lawyer in tow.

Danny had no idea what Vlad had done but the ghost weapons had been filed back under trust with the rest of the estate—to be distributed to Danny upon his coming of age.

Which would now never happen.

Danny felt a twinge of guilt. How strongly he'd fought to keep his parents' legacy intact, only to later abandon it with such callous efficiency.

For the first time, he considered what it might be like to go back to Amity Park, if only to claim his parents' estate. Maybe in three years… when he turned eighteen…

"I guess," Naruto was saying. "But that still doesn't give him any right to act like a jerk!"

Danny tuned back in to the present, leaving his musing for later. "Yes. You're right. And isn't that something you want to tell him in person?"

Watching Naruto do just that later on was one of the more amusing things Danny had yet witnessed in Konoha.

"Ok, now the only reason I'm giving you a second chance is 'cuz Danny asked me to!" Naruto said, wagging a finger in a baffled Sasuke's face. "But if you're gonna be my friend then you gotta agree to be non-jerkish, okay?"

Sasuke blinked.

"I mean, you gotta lighten up about stuff. Maybe smile sometimes. You should come with us to breakfast and maybe let me look around your kitchen sometimes—I'll let you look around my place! Though all I really got is ramen and milk and sometimes the milk makes my stomach hurt…"

Danny made a mental note to check the expiration dates on Naruto's milk cartons.

"And you gotta come with us when we go out for breakfast or something! It's really fun, there's this awesome ramen joint which you had better like! We can also do lots of fun things—maybe I can teach you how to play a prank sometime, or something. You know I once painted funny drawings on Hokage Hill—"

Sasuke gave Naruto an appalled look and Danny snorted. He had always found it funny that, in spite of their claims of being a 'hidden' village, the people of Konoha had carved the faces of their past Hokages into the towering landscape, like some sort of Japanese ninja version of Mount Rushmore. Danny silently gave Naruto props for pulling off such a bold prank. Although, given how seriously the people took that hill, Danny would have wagered that Naruto had spent many times longer scrubbing those rocks clean than he had vandalizing them.

Naruto was still rambling through his list of activities. "Or maybe we can practice forms sometime. I'm taking the entrance exam to get into the Ninja Academy and I've been trying to train but it's difficult 'cause there're no guidelines and I can't find anyone to do it with me…"

Sasuke's eyes had sharpened the moment Naruto said 'Ninja'.

"Huh… That's right, that is coming up, isn't it?" Danny tapped his lips, pretending as though this was news to him. In fact, it was almost all Naruto had been talking about for weeks. "I'd almost forgotten."

"Danny!" Naruto whined. "The entrance exams are huge! They're the only chance we get to become ninja 'cause if we don't pass this year then—"

"I know, I know," Danny glanced indulgently down at the kid. Coming from a place where ninja were firmly a thing of fantastical movies and historical records, he simply did not understand the craze surrounding the profession.

Ninjas were cool, there was no denying it, but even Danny's initial awe had faded. Seeing wave after wave of injured, bleeding, dying people at the hospital had seen to that.

Creepy, suicidal, killing machines who risked their lives gathering immense power only to use it to kill each other?

Yeah… not so much.

Even as he thought this he looked over his shoulder, half expecting Kakashi to pop out of thin air and give him another lecture on life values and ninjas.

There was no one behind him though and so Danny turned forward and continued walking behind Naruto and Sasuke.

Somehow they'd made their way to Sasuke's house during their conversation. Sasuke entered and after a long moment during which they all stood uncertainly around the threshold, Sasuke opened his door further and allowed Danny and Naruto to enter his home.

Sasuke led them to a large room with paper walls and shelves set into an alcove filled with books and scrolls. There were cushions on the floor around a low table. Naruto and Sasuke kneeled while Danny, still unused to that particular sitting posture, folded his legs underneath himself. Danny took a breath, noting the distinct smell of tatami that was slowly becoming familiar.

Naruto was still talking to Sasuke about training for the Ninja Academy entrance exams. "I've been asking Danny to help me, but he's always busy at work… and…" Naruto leaned closer to Sasuke hiding his mouth with a hand. "He kinda sucks at fighting."

"I heard that, you little porcupine." Danny said with a raised eyebrow and Naruto gave him a cheeky grin.

Given his status as an ex-half-ghost-ghost-hunter, Danny typically didn't care about his inability to win in a fistfight. Nevertheless, it chafed to have an eight-year-old say he 'sucked at fighting'.

"Not everyone wants to have super chakra abilities and become a ninja, you know." Danny said and received two nearly identical looks of horror.

"Oh, come on," Danny scoffed with a roll of his eyes and let it go. They were all orphans but that didn't make him their father. It wasn't his responsibility to try and talk them out of choosing 'assassin' as a viable career choice. Danny felt oddly spiteful as he thought this, but shoved that out of his mind. "Well, whatever. I guess you're probably taking that exam too, Sasuke?" Danny looked at the black haired boy who answered by way of a decisive a nod.

"It couldn't hurt to work together. You two could train together." Danny strained to inject any enthusiasm into that statement.

Because eight-year-olds sparring in preparation to take an exam to get into a school for trained killers sounded like such a peachy idea.

Sasuke hesitated for a long moment before eventually giving a shrug of his shoulders.

"That's a yes," Danny translated to Naruto with amusement.

Naruto's grin was beatific. "Great! This is gonna be awesome! Do you know any jutsu? I was working on this one…"

Danny tuned out of the one sided conversation as a memory tugged at his mind. There was something he'd been meaning to ask Sasuke…

"Hey, Sasuke? Sorry, Naruto…" He apologized to the blond boy he'd interrupted mid spiel. "Do you know what a…kekkei genkai is? Actually, do you, Naruto?"

Naruto looked confused and shook his head.

Sasuke, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes at Danny contemplatively. After a moment he got up and walked to the shelves. Danny watched him pull out a scroll with the cross-section of a small tree and carry it to the table in his arms. The boy unravelled a portion of the thing, then pointed to a particularly dense vertical line of chicken scratches.

"Ah… Sorry, I can't read Japanese." Danny said with a sheepish grin.

Sasuke's head tilted and he stared. Then, the black-haired boy looked at Naruto as though asking 'Can you believe this?'

Naruto grinned widely. "I can't read neither."

Sasuke looked like he was inches away from beating both grinning boys over the head with his large scroll. For a long moment he stood still, as though collecting himself. Then, seemingly coming to a conclusion, he grabbed a scroll of clean paper and a piece of charcoal before sitting back down in front of them. He drew a simple line and then pointedly held up a finger. Then he drew two lines—held up two fingers. When he drew three lines and held up three fingers, Danny finally understood.

"Oh! Those are the symbols for the numbers one, two and three, aren't they?"

Sasuke gave him such a look that Danny had to laugh. More and more, he wished the boy would talk. He had a feeling the kid had a sarcastic tongue.

:o:

"Let's go!" Naruto cried, barging into Danny's apartment at an ungodly hour on one of Danny's free days.

Regretting having given the kid his spare key, Danny threw Naruto a rebellious, squinty-eyed expression before promptly turning his back and going back to sleep.

Next thing he knew, something wet was being poured over his head and Danny sprang out of bed, yelling and spluttering as Naruto stood by giggling, an empty glass in his hand.

"Y-you!" Danny mopped his soggy bangs out of his face so he could glare at Naruto properly. "You! Water?! Why?! Gah! Water! Water down my back! Cold!"

Like a whirlwind, Naruto hurried Danny through his apartment. At the little boy's insistence, Danny found himself all but shoved into his bathroom, a bundle of clothes in his hands. With the impatient calls from outside the door spurring him on, Danny was showered, brushed, dressed and respectable in record time. He was still hopping, tugging on one shoe, when Naruto yanked him out his door.

"Hold on! Hold on! I need to lock the door!" Danny exclaimed. This delay was borne with excessive foot-tapping and sighing from Naruto.

Danny was surprised when, instead of dragging him to the ramen stand, or the Ninja Academy or any other location Danny would have assumed to be exciting to the boy, Naruto dragged him to a grassy clearing behind the Uchiha compound.

"What are we doing here?" Danny looked around.

"This is where Sasuke and his family practiced, I think." Naruto cast a sideways glance at Sasuke, who had been standing in the clearing when they'd arrived, hands in his pockets. The pitch-haired boy met neither of their gazes. "It has a meadow and a lake, it's perfect for training."

"You brought me out here for training?" Danny blinked and Naruto nodded happily while Sasuke shot him a 'no duh' expression. "But I thought that was something you two were gonna be working on together. You don't need me for that."

Both boys looked at him like he'd just told them the Hokage only wore his massive cloak to hide the fact that he was out of shape.

"Uh… yeah we do." Naruto said matter-of-factly. "Now, let's start!"

They spent hours in that clearing. Sasuke would demonstrate the forms and stances and Naruto would copy the movements. Danny, although he wasn't actively participating, still found himself engaged by the interaction between the two boys. Sasuke never said a word, but his demonstrations were patient. And Danny had never seen Naruto display such concentration.

Eventually, Naruto was able to practice on his own. As Danny watched him, he tilted his head to the side.

"It isn't too close?" Danny sitting on the grass, asked the silent presence at his shoulder.

Sasuke, who, for whatever reason, had taken up a rather protective stance at Danny's side, was staring ahead evenly. But Danny could see the stiffness in the boy's spine.

At length, Sasuke's shoulders rose and fell in a practiced motion.

That gesture really told Danny all he needed to know because, in reality, he could feel the unrest within himself as well. The clearing was the perfect place for training but it was too close to the haunted Uchiha grounds and too far away from the protection Sasuke's parents held over the main house. Danny could feel the bone chilling disquiet of the dead and so could Sasuke.

"This was a good thing you did for him." Danny said quietly and, though he got no response from Sasuke, he somehow knew the boy was glad for the words.

:o:

"Supercalafragalisticexpialidocious, even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious, if you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious. Supercalafragalisticexpialidocious…"

Danny sang quietly to himself as he lay on his back on his bed, arms folded over his eyes, head propped up by a stack of clothes and his one pillow. The songs were bits and pieces of whatever came to his head. Right now he was working through movies he'd seen as a young kid: old movies that he'd watched with Jazz and then, later on, with Sam and Tucker.

It wasn't the most exciting thing ever but they didn't have television in Konoha and Danny was feeling the loss particularly keenly today.

He didn't want to go outside. Outside he had to deal with people and put on a polite face and pretend he was a useful, functioning member of society. He wasn't useful. Or functioning. He didn't want to mingle. He didn't want to co-exist. He didn't even want to get out of bed.

Danny was sick.

Maybe it was something he'd picked up at the hospital. Or maybe it was a result of his many late night activities. Language lessons at Sasuke's place usually went late. Sasuke was precociously disciplined about going to bed at a reasonable time but Naruto was a ball of hyperactive energy that could bounce off the walls all night if Danny wasn't firm enough. But even on those days that he wasn't at Sasuke's, he found himself reading medical books deep into the night, desperately trying to keep stride with his increasingly demanding job at the hospital.

Whatever. He didn't know. He didn't care. All Danny knew and cared about was that his head felt stuffed and the only thing burning harder than his eyes was his nose.

The headache had hit him sometime last night, early enough that he hadn't gone to bed yet, late enough that he hadn't bothered taking the trip out to the store for medicine. Then his nose had started to drip and it had all been downhill from there.

He got maybe three hours of sleep. Maybe. If he lay down at anything more horizontal than a sitting position then his nose clogged and he couldn't breath.

Now, this morning he'd gotten up and weak legs and vertigo had sent him right back down, where he stayed. He hadn't even bothered to send in a message for a sick-day at work. He couldn't be bothered.

Confined to his bed, the old, depressive fog had settled all too easily over his shoulders. He hadn't felt this lethargic and useless since he'd been staying at Vlad's.

He had been escaping himself, he realized. Work employed the majority of his days and keeping an eye on two manic eight-year-olds took all his evenings and nights. He hadn't anticipated how fanatical Naruto and Sasuke would be about their ninja training, though in hindsight he probably should've expected it, and keeping them out of trouble and in one piece was a constant exercise. Every night he found himself dead on his feet, asleep before his head hit his pillow. He hadn't the luxury of time or space to stop and think.

Maybe culture shock had kept his depression at bay. Maybe homesickness was finally settling in.

He felt like a marathon runner who had tripped over a loose stone only to be overwhelmed by the crowd behind him.

Oh, he hated being sick. Always had.

… Although, now that he thought about it. He hadn't always hated being sick. Long ago when he was a kid and getting sick meant a day off from school, he'd actually enjoyed it. His mom would set him up on the couch with a mountain of pillows and blankets and she'd give him soda and cookies and let him play video games and watch whatever he wanted on TV.

Back then, getting sick was like a free day.

One stark memory that stood out amongst the others was his mom's soup. It wasn't soup from scratch—no, at the Fenton household anything that required more work than a quick reheating in the microwave had a tendency to come out green and glowing. No, the soup she'd always make for him was nothing more than Campbell's tomato soup.

It was silly, Danny knew. The stuff wasn't that great. It had enough salt to cause palpitations and he would normally never eat it. But it had somehow become part of his tradition while sick. Every time he got sick, Mom would make him a bowl of Campell's tomato soup.

All he knew was that right now he really, really missed that soup.

Quietly, Danny sang.

"Gotta keep… one jump ahead of the breadline, one swing ahead of the sword… I steal only what I can't afford. That's everything…"

As some point he'd wormed his way under the covers and curled up miserably on his side, suffering a stuffed nose for the small comfort the position gave him. This bed wasn't comfy like the one at home. This one was too hard. The pillows were of heavy cotton and the covers were thin. At home, his bed was worn to his weight, the pillows were nice and fluffy and easily stackable and all his familiar rocket models and posters decorated his room.

He hated this bed.

His throat itched and he winced, trying to hold it in. But the urge only got worse and he caved, whole body bucking with the force of his wet coughing.

God, even the backs of his teeth hurt from all the hacking he was doing.

He ran a hand through his hair, then winced when his fingers snagged on tangles. His hair was getting long. Yet another annoyance…

Suddenly his head rose. He blinked. Had someone knocked at his door? After a moment of listening to silence, his head lowered again, eyelids drooping. No… he must've been imagining things. Who'd visit him in the middle of the day anyway?

Knock-Knock-KnockKnock-Knock.

So there was someone at the door. He groaned and folded further into himself. Maybe if he ignored them they'd go away.

KnockKnock-KnockKnockKnock-Knock-Knock-KnockKnockKnock.

The noisy percussion was making his head pound. It sounded like someone was trying to play out the bassline of a Dumpty Humpty song. With a whine of unhappiness, he hefted himself sluggishly out of bed, grumbling at the various aches and pains in his body from having spent too long lying around.

Despite the relatively warm room, the moment he was up away from his blankets a frigid chill settled into his bones and he shivered, hugging himself. His legs were cold. What was up with that?

Bedraggled and grizzled, Danny didn't even bother combing his fingers through his hair before opening his door.

"What?" He groused, and was unprepared when a blur of orange and yellow tackled his waist. His weak knees buckled, but he staggered and managed to hold himself upright.

"DANNY!" Naruto yelled happily. "How are you?"

"Wha…?" Danny looked down, confused. "Naruto? What are you doing here?" It was still early afternoon. He hadn't been expecting a visit from Naruto until the evening, if that.

"We went to the hospital to meet you for lunch and you weren't there!"

"Yeah, I'm sick—" Danny started, but his voice was overrun by Naruto.

"So me and Sasuke decided to come and get you!"

"You and…?" Danny cast a surprised look to the door and, sure enough, there was a second, short, messy-haired kid occupying his threshold. Sasuke's arms were folded and he was eyeing Danny's ragged state with obvious disdain.

'You look terrible.' Sasuke's look clearly conveyed.

"Hello to you too, Sasuke." Danny said, voice dry in more ways than one.

"You're sick!" Naruto exclaimed with sudden realization.

"Oh? No kidding." Danny sighed. There was a sudden pressure between his eyes, like a balloon swelling in his head. His eyes unfocused and he leaned against the doorframe.

"You don't look good," Naruto informed him of the obvious. "You should lie down."

"Yeah… I know." Danny said distantly, making his way back to the bed and easing his way onto it, the soles of his feet thanking him as he took his weight off them. Amazing. Only two minutes on his feet and already his back and legs were aching. Either he was getting old, or he was really sick.

He swallowed and grimaced as it went passed something hard in his throat, then lurched forward as a cough surprised him. It was long, painful and left him feeling somewhat nauseous.

Definitely really sick.

"Oh I know! I'll make you some ramen!" Naruto said excitedly and trotted over to the kitchen.

"No…" Danny practically moaned at the mention of food. Abruptly the imagined smell of spicy noodles filled his nose and he was holding his breath and his stomach. "No noodles." He tucked his feet up and lay down on his side.

"What do you want then?" Naruto asked uncertainly.

"...Tomato soup." He answered, voice muffled by the blanket.

"Tomato soup?" Danny could practically hear the grin falling off Naruto's face. "I dunno how to make that…"

Danny sighed, resigning himself. "That's okay…"

"Ok… but… Hey! Watch it!"

Hearing the sudden change in tone, Danny frowned and poked his head over his covers, hoping that he wouldn't have to break up another fight between Naruto and Sasuke. Those two were like water in hot oil.

But what he saw surprised him. Sasuke had pulled out a few tomatoes, then, with efficiency that only came from knowing one's way around a kitchen, the boy rummaged through Danny's cupboards until he found Danny's pot. He pulled that out, along with a wooden chopping board and a knife.

What followed was the most efficient preparation of soup Danny had ever seen.

"Whoa…" Even Naruto was impressed as Sasuke's hand rose and fell in a blur, the tomato looking like it was slicing itself. "You… are just not normal, you know that?" Naruto informed Sasuke. The black haired boy responded by taking a wooden spoon—Danny wasn't even aware that he owned one of those—and smacking Naruto over the knuckles as the blond made to steal a tomato slice.

"OW!" Naruto yelped, glaring at Sasuke. "Why you—" He made to flick the quiet boy in the ear and Sasuke ducked, coming up and rapping Naruto on the head with the spoon.

Hearing the kafuffle, Danny looked up just in time to see Naruto steal a piece of tomato, a vengeful look in his eye.

"Ay!" Danny barked. "Behave!" That brief shout aggravated his throat enough to induce another rough bought of coughing but it did the trick. Naruto swallowed the tomato slice, sending Sasuke a triumphant look and Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned back to the pot.

During one of his walks through market street, Danny had procured a rather beat-up, grungy second-hand hotplate. It wasn't much, but it cheap and allowed Danny to make his meals in his room instead of using the shared kitchen, which was all he'd been asking for at the time.

Sasuke eyed the hotplate with clear and obvious disdain. Nevertheless, he turned the thing on, looking for all the world like he was berating the poor hotplate for it's pathetic existence even as he placed the pot over it. Had Danny been in better spirits, he would have found the sight amusing.

Soon, everything was boiling. Sasuke shook some salt into the pot, stirred, and suddenly there was a steaming bowl of tomato soup being shoved into Danny's hands.

Naruto and Sasuke stayed with him. Naruto told stories and gossiped while Sasuke dug out a pen and pencil and set up a small table on the bed using one of Danny's medical textbooks. The boy drew out a grid on the paper and began silently demonstrating the rules for a game similar to dots and boxes, a game Danny hadn't played since primary school. Naruto didn't take to the game, but Danny and Sasuke played a number of rounds until the teen finally relented.

"Uhh, that's enough. You win." Danny said falling back against his pillow with an arm covering his eyes. He glanced at Sasuke under his arm. "Don't give me that smug look, the only reason you keep winning is 'cause I have a major headache and can only breath through my mouth."

"You're still feeling sick?" Naruto worried over him.

The teen sniffled. "Eh… well, it's better than earlier." He said with a smile. "Having you guys around helps. But… it is getting kinda late." He glanced out his window. It was dark. He hadn't even noticed the sun setting. "Sasuke, you shouldn't be walking back to your place alone in the dark…"

Naruto grinned. "What are you talking about? We're staying here with you tonight!"

Danny didn't know if he was happy or annoyed by this declaration. "You're gonna catch this…" Danny warned.

"Nah! We won't get sick!" Naruto shook his head and grinned with all the confidence of an eight-year old. Sasuke just shrugged and settled more comfortably onto the bed.

:o:

Hours later, Danny lay propped up on his pillows, gazing through his window at the bright stars.

'There isn't much I haven't shared with you along the road. And through it all there'd always be… tomorrow's episode. Suddenly, that isn't true… There's another avenue beckoning the great divide…'

In the piercing silence of his own head the songs did return.

Not wanting to wake his small roommates, he gave the songs no voice, though he couldn't stop them from playing through his mind and his lips moved silently along to music only he could hear.

'All I know is all we had is over… said and done.'

He licked his lips, the memory of the soup still on his tongue. It wasn't Campbell's Tomato Soup but… somehow… it didn't matter.

'Friends never say goodbye… Never say goodbye…'

True to their word, the boys had not budged from their spots all night. Naruto fell asleep curled up against Danny's side and Sasuke had pilfered some spare bedding to use as a pillow as he claimed a free corner of the bed near Danny's feet.

He looked down at the boys. He hoped they didn't get sick from exposure. He really shouldn't have let them stay but he was selfish. It felt nice not to be alone.

A wave of cold travelled from his neck to his knees and he hugged his blanket closer.

"How are you feeling?"

Danny gasped, jostling the sleeping Naruto as he sat up straight.

For a long moment he could only stare at the apparition before him. Then his eyes began to sting and he sniffled as something sharp lodged in his throat.

"Oh, Daniel…" His mother soothed. "My little boy."

She knelt on the bed, and wrapped ethereal arms around his shaking body. He leaned in and sobbed quietly. "Mom…" He said plaintively. For all that he couldn't physically touch her, she still felt there. He called out to her again, not even feeling any embarrassment when the call came out as his childhood "Momma".

"Danny, shh… Danny…" She pulled away, hands coming up to frame his face she gave him a watery smile as tears tracked down her own cheeks. "You'll wake the little ones."

Having momentarily forgotten about Naruto and Sasuke, he glanced down. They were still sleeping and he exhaled in relief.

"Can we go somewhere to talk?" She suggested.

Danny nodded and, after a moment's thought, he slipped out of the bed and headed to the window.

"Not without something to keep you warm." His mother scolded.

He sent her a pained smile, relishing the mild chiding. He'd missed this... "It's summer, Mom." He answered quietly. "It's, like, 70 above outside."

"Doesn't mean I didn't see you shivering in bed. Take a sweater with you at the very least."

Already hanging in the window was his towel. It was large, dry and relatively warm. It was also the only thing on hand so he grabbed it and then hefted himself onto the sill.

He had no balcony, but there was an outcropping of the rooftop directly underneath his window. It was onto this slanting surface that he lowered himself, wrapping the towel around himself like a blanket.

He watched his mother position herself next to him, close enough that, had she been solid, their sides would have been flush. For an indescribable time, Danny's heart was content to simply sit in silence, basking in her presence. He looked up at the stars, but mostly he simply watched his mother, memorizing again her every feature.

She was so many things to him. Safe. Shelter. Home. Love. All those things and more.

She smiled at him and he realized he was grinning widely at her.

"Ha, ha haa…" He let out breathless laughter, throat stinging, eyes screwed shut and still he couldn't stop grinning. Hot tears squeezed their way out of his eyes. "I… I c-can't…"

"It's okay, Danny," She said gently. "Just let it out."

With that permission, he buried his face in his knees, shaking and covering his mouth to stifle the sounds of his release of emotions. Somehow, he felt the warmth of his mother blanketing him. Eventually, his voice returned.

"I-it hurts…" He managed between sobs. "It hurts so much to see you. But at the same time, it's so—"

"I know…" She told him understandingly. "It's okay. Breathe now, sweetie. Don't talk. Just breathe."

Listening to her, he took a deep breath and bore through a short span of hiccups before he finally quietened.

"I wish I could feel your temperature…" She mused. "You do look so much better than this afternoon, though."

"You were watching me?" Danny was startled. "Why didn't you—"

"You had those two adorable youngsters to keep you occupied. I wasn't going to intrude." She said with a smile that made his heart twist.

"You would never be intruding." He protested fisting his hands in the towel. "I would have figured something out. Even if they had to leave—if we could—"

"Now you listen to me, Daniel." She swept in front of him and put her hands over his fists. "I don't want you to ever, ever push away the living in favour of the dead."

Oddly, that comment seemed to cause him more pain than her. "Mom…" He told her frankly. "Talking to you is worth ten times more than any time spent with them."

She was silent and, for a long moment, simply regarded him evenly. Eventually, he dropped his eyes in shame.

"I'm sorry, but… that's just how I feel…" He said. "It's probably not a good thing to say. They…They're good kids. Naruto is a part of my life now. Sasuke is becoming, too… But, still. No matter what they are, they can't replace you. All of you."

"No one is asking you to replace anyone." She told him calmly. "But I think you need to take some time and think about exactly how those boys think of you. And whether or not you're willing to rise up to the responsibilities that comes with the role you are taking on."

Danny chewed on that comment. It was true: he hadn't really spent much time thinking about how Naruto and Sasuke viewed him—so caught up was he with how he viewed them.

"How they… but…" He faltered.

"A bond like the one I saw today between you and those boys… that sort of thing isn't something you can just throw away." Her voice was steady, soothing.

"I'm not going to leave them." He said without thinking. Then he paused as the implications of his own words began to sink in.

His mother smiled at him knowingly. "You've been finding solace in them."

Danny nodded and his gaze dropped. When his mom put it like that it made him sound selfish—as though he was using Naruto and Sasuke as distractions or emotional band-aids.

As though she could read his mind, his mother's eyes softened and her next words drew Danny's eyes back up. "You need to trust yourself. Have faith in your actions. You are as much a balm to those boys as they are to you. I saw it today and you should realize this." Her eyes hardened. "Don't let yourself get wrapped up in you. Don't think about how you need them. Think about how you need to act to keep them with you. Being wrapped up in your own pursuits will only drive them away. I know… " Her gaze grew distant and her last words were a mere whisper in the wind.

Danny immediately shook his head. "You didn't. You weren't. That was me. I was the one with the secrets."

His mother's eyes were sad as she weighed him. "There is no forgiving a parent who makes her own son feel unsafe in his own home."

Danny's mouth felt dry. He wanted very much to tell his mom that it was never her fault. That the accident that had lead to his ghost powers had been his own stupidity. And his decision to run around catching ghosts with delusions of heroism had been his own arrogance. But he knew those words wouldn't help, so instead he swallowed and shook his head slowly. "You didn't know." He said quietly.

"It doesn't matter." His mother responded. "As your mother I still should have seen. I should have noticed something was wrong and I should have given you the opportunity to talk with me." Listening to these words, Danny felt a pain in his chest, like his heart was swelling. It wasn't a negative feeling, but it was something he couldn't put a name to: loss but also a release. Relief that his mother wanted him to lean on her—despair that it was too late.

He let his thoughts drop as she continued speaking. "So I want you to be aware. Keep your eyes open around those boys because raising children is more than a full-time job."

"Ch-children?" Danny choked.

"You throw yourself in and you're not prepared at all. Then they grow up and say they don't need you but it's a mask because they really do…"

"Wait. Wait." Danny raised his hands and interrupted his mom's sudden onset of rambling because he still couldn't get passed that one word. "Children? You said children. Are you saying my relationship with them is—"

"Well, what would you call it then?" She wanted to know.

"I-I… I dunno! Not that. Maybe… maybe… They're like… little brothers, or something. But I—"

"Well, there you go." She smiled at him.

He cut off mid-sentence. "Brother?" More than friends; actual Family? Did he really—? "Do you think they think I—?"

"The only way to find out is to ask." She pointed out.

He sat back, folding his legs and tugging the towel tighter around himself as he lapsed into thoughtful silence.

Eventually, his mother was the one to break the quiet. "So… it's summer…" She said contemplatively. "It's been that long…?"

"Yeah…" He sighed, shifting his legs. It was summer in Amity Park, at least. Here they called it the 'dry season'. "It feels so strange. Yesterday I would've said it felt like years since I last saw you… but right now it doesn't feel like any time has passed at all." Except he still couldn't stop staring at her: couldn't stop memorizing every detail of her face, every flicker of emotion.

She hummed in understanding, but didn't say anything as her gazed passed over him, examining him head to toe.

He blinked. "What is it?"

"Oh…" Her smile was tinged with sadness. "It's nothing. You just… You look different."

"Really?" He queried in mild interest. He hadn't noticed. "How?"

"You look older." To which he answered with a quiet 'Ah', "And also… tired…"

"Ah…" He repeated, looking down. From her tone he knew his mom wasn't just talking about his sickness. Thinking it might comfort her, he smiled and said "Well, this is nothing. Jazz would probably tell you I look a sight better now than I did while I was living at Vlad's."

She looked at him with shock. "Vlad's? And Jazz? Jazz visited you already? But why—? Oh… oh, yes." Her voice wavered. "That's right. The will… Vlad was named…"

"Godfather. Yes. I know." Danny answered with some bitterness. "We were both pretty surprised to find that one out. Though his was more surprised-pleased where mine was surprised-horrified."

Her eyebrows furrowed upward in contrition. Her gaze was heavy with an emotion that made Danny's own shoulders feel weighed down. "I… There are… so many things that I regret now." She told him. "Things I was blind to before. I am… so sorry… Daniel. For not paying more attention… for not noticing what you were going through… for the ghost portal. For Vlad… How could I have missed it?" Her last words were quiet, spoken to herself though Danny heard them just as clearly as the rest. "Your father and I, we were so wrapped up in our own lives, in pursuing our own obsessions that we completely missed…" She trailed off, looking as though the force of her guilt had physically stifled her voice.

He stayed silent in the wake of her admission, not knowing what he was waiting for. Then, it occurred to him: he was waiting for an emotional reaction from himself—a stab of pain or a lifting relief. Nothing came and he closed his eyes with understanding.

"It's okay." He said, looking at her with a small smile tugging at his lips. "I mean it. Really. It true that sometimes I was really upset that you guys never noticed. I mean, the Ghost Gabber was constantly trying to translate my words and still Jazz was the one detaching her hair from the Fenton Weasel."

"Your father was convinced she was overshadowed." She said with a sigh and they shared a quiet chuckle.

"But I understand a lot better now." Danny added. "It's hard to pick up on a secret that someone's actively trying to hide from you, even if that person is family. Maybe especially if that person is family. And most definitely if that secret is something unbelievable." He'd lived in Konoha for weeks and never realized he was surrounded by ninjas. Sure, he'd figured there was something loopy about the population but the word ninja had never crossed his mind. "And I did do my very best to hide it from you.

"And I… never blamed you guys for Vlad." He continued, looking out at the line of houses. His eyes traced a line of laundry waving in the wind. "Sometimes I kinda wished Dad was less oblivious. But in other ways it really helped, so…" He shrugged.

"Helped?" His mother looked at him inquiringly.

"Well, yeah… You know… for… ah…" This might have been a soul-bearing conversation, but Danny still wasn't too keen on letting his mother know about all the ways he'd abused her trust. "Well, when I took the Ecto-Skeleton. Also, it was something I was able to kinda hold over Vlad: that I would reveal both our secrets if he ever tried to… um…" 'kill Dad'. He trailed off, unable to finish that sentence out loud.

"We didn't even notice you were gone." She recalled quietly. "I can't believe… We were so concerned over the ecto-suit being stolen that we never even realized you'd disappeared in the middle of a crisis. We only noticed when Vlad showed up carrying you."

"Yeah…" Danny drawled dryly. "You were so happy that he 'rescued' me."

A horrified look came to her eyes. "Who was it that did that to you? Was it the Ghost King, or—? So help me if it was Vlad—!" Her eyes lit with rage.

"It was the Ghost King." He told her with a fierce, protective expression on her face barely changed and Danny felt warm, safe in the presence of his mom who would would beat anything that hurt him to an inch of its afterlife. "It wasn't Vlad. I didn't even know he was there. No, I was tired 'cause the suit had drained down to zero right as I beat Pariah—the Ghost King. Vlad must've shown up after, taken the suit and brought me home."

The look of alarm hardly faded from his mother's eyes. "Down to zero? You are lucky you…" Then she shook her head, changing track. "Your father and I witnessed some of the fights between Phantom and the Wisconsin Ghost. I think Jack even once mentioned how it was 'funny' that two of the most powerful ghosts we'd come across had the names 'Danny' and 'Vlad'."

"Oh… You saw those fights?" Danny tried to hide a wince. Fights with Vlad had never been his more triumphant moments.

"Yes. They… never ended favourably for Phantom." She looked at him in concern.

"Yeah…" Danny huffed. "Vlad was a steroid-spiked fruitloop. We have since worked out our differences, though." Rather, it was the death of all the reasons they had to fight one another that forced their truce.

"Our trip to the Rockies makes so much more sense now." She decided.

"It does, doesn't it?" They shared a smile.

Danny spent a moment enjoying her company in silence, before giving voice to a question that had been bothering him for a while. "Mom, how much do you… know?" When she gave him a questioning glance he explained. "I mean, you know about me, and you know about Vlad… but you didn't know that I was living at Vlad's, or that Jazz visited…?"

"Oh… yes. Yes… I know only the details I found out after I formed. Through word of mouth in the Ghost Zone. I know about the ghost hunting and that you were Danny Phantom and that Vlad was Vlad Plasmius. I know that you… aren't anymore. Nor is Vlad. Other than that… not much."

"Ah… 'kay." Those were the biggest points of information, though he was surprised she didn't seem to know about his flight from Amity Park. He was also surprised that she hadn't drawn attention to the fact that they were currently looking out on a Japanese village situated in the middle of a remote valley.

Again it was as though she read his mind as she looked out around them before continuing to speak. "I seemed to have missed so much… Why are you here by yourself? Why are you living alone in this place? Why are you looking after these two boys? Where is Vlad?"

Danny winced.

"I couldn't live with him, Mom." He told her earnestly. "I just couldn't."

"Even… even if you couldn't stay with him, surely Angela and Maurice would have taken you in. I can't imagine that even Pam and Jeremy would refuse…"

His memory of the separate confrontations with Tucker and Sam's parents was distant. He recalled in a detached fashion that Tucker's parents had cried and sympathized and offered him a place to stay, which he must have turned down. He remembered, with an echo of pain, the argument with Sam's parents who had turned their grief to anger and directed most of it at him.

"I couldn't stay in Amity Park." He said lowly, hugging his limbs close as he tucked his chin into his arms and let his hair fall over his eyes. "You didn't see me, Mom… I was a mess… I… I wouldn't have survived in Amity Park."

He could feel her eyes on him but couldn't turn and face her.

"Where are we, Danny?" She asked at length.

"Konohagakure, they call it. It's in Japan, I think… It's a bit difficult to say. I didn't really ask Clockwork for many details before he sent me here."

"Clockwork…" She repeated.

There was something in her intonation of the name that had Danny raising his head to look at her. "You've heard of him?" He wanted to know.

She hesitated, then shook her head. "It's not important. Are you happy here, Daniel?"

His mother had never looked at him so seriously. "Some days." He responded. "Not most of the time. But some days I feel like I can be happy." 'And guilty for that happiness', he thought, but did not say. "It's mostly because of them that I feel anything at all." He looked toward his window and thought fondly of how Naruto had probably sprawled across the bed and how Sasuke was likely curled into a tiny ball under the covers.

"You are doing better here than with Vlad, then?"

"Much." He stressed, with a nod. He levelled his own sober look on his mother. "So, so much better."

Then, a thought occurred to him and he couldn't help the wry quirking of his lips. "Although… I would do just about anything for a pizza right now. I am so sick of fish!"

His mother blinked at him, then an affectionate smile lit her face and she chuckled. "Fish is good for you."

"Fish is all I eat here." He grumbled. "At this rate my blood's going to get so thin from Omega-3 that I'll bleed out from a paper cut."

"You've been… studying?" She noticed with in interest.

"Ah…" He carded a hand through his hair sheepishly. "Yeah. I guess. Actually, I kinda got a job. I work at the hospital here."

Her eyes brightened and she looked at him with unmistakable pride. Feeling oddly like he didn't deserve that look, he ducked his head with a self-conscious half-smile.

"Mom," He started, fiddling with his fingers. "D'you think… d'you think I made the right choice? S-Separating from my ghost half… d'you think it was the right thing to do?"

He watched her intently as she obviously gave thought to the question. At length, her head drooped. "I won't lie to you, Danny. I… am glad that that ghost is no longer a part of you."

For an unknown reason, his heart dropped. "Because all ghosts are evil?" He said dully, wondering why he was upset at her response. It was the same as what he'd told himself, after all.

"No."

He looked up.

"It is a difficult thing," She explained. "To have your beliefs turned up side down and thrust in your face, all in a single moment. For so long, I believed ghosts to be driven by single minded obsessiveness, to have minds so twisted and scarred that they are nothing more than semi-sentient ectoplasma incapable of complex thought or sensation. Much of my adult life was defined by those beliefs. But… well… look at me."

She gestured to her translucent body that was floating just over the roof's surface while maintaining a seated position. She laughed ruefully. "I think this is why it took me so long to form… I refused to change my belief, rejected this, what I am now, for so long…"

"Yeah, no kidding." He offered her a lopsided smile. "Even Dad came before you."

"Jack—your father has already visited you?" She asked, incredulous. Danny nodded. "Goodness. I really am the last one to come, aren't I?"

"Not quite…" Danny murmured, quietly enough that even he didn't hear the words. Then, louder, "So what was it, then? How did you form?"

"It was you." She smiled at him. "My need to see you won out. I knew it was only by accepting this form that I could see you and speak to you again, so I did. Maybe that is obsessive. But now, at the very least, I cannot deny that ghosts are capable of deep thought and feeling.

"It was you." She repeated. "The knowledge that you, my sweet little boy had been… had been living… existing… as both…" She faltered, apparently incapable of even speaking the words.

"Half-ghost, Mom." Danny supplied with a small smile.

"Yes. As a half-ghost." She said with conviction. "And that convinced me that my thoughts were wrong. That what I believed was wrong. Because the one thing I know with even more certainty than all of my studies is my children. I know you, Danny. And I know that you, without a doubt, are good. So all ghosts could not be evil because you, my son, are most certainly not. Half-ghost or human, you are a good person."

He was taken aback by the sheer strength of her certainty. The blame he'd put on his ghost-half… all the rage and disgust that had made him disown that part of himself… Had it all been wrong?

First his father's words and now his mother's…

'I thought getting rid of the ghost made me better…' this thought rang through his mind. But it rang hollow. Had he ever really believed this or had he merely willingly deluded himself?

"So, then," His voice was quiet. "Why are you glad…?"

"Glad that you got rid of it?" She supplied and he nodded. "Because I know what you used that power to do. Danny, you were trying to be a hero, weren't you?" At his nod, she continued. "But how many lies did you have to tell? How many classes did you skip? How many times did you come home hiding cuts, bruises, broken bones?"

He lowered his head. When her hand appeared in his view to hover over his chest he looked up into her eyes.

"As your mother, I am intensely proud of that heart of yours." She said and he smiled, feeling almost like he could feel comforting warmth coming from that hand before she drew it back to herself. "But as your mother, I also desire your safety just as strongly. I think of all those many—too many—times I saw Phantom get hurt and I feel a terrible pain. I imagine you risking your life and… and I know that what I know probably only scratches the surface. I have no idea how many battles you've fought. But just the fact that you've fought battles… And then there are other things: I can't imagine what havoc that ghostly energy wreaked on your biological system, let alone the strain on your mind."

"It wasn't so bad…" He defended.

"How about the lying? The hiding? The sneaking out at night? Phantom was sighted many times fighting in the middle of the night. 3am? 4am? 5? Can you honestly tell me that was good for you? For your health? For your studies? For your relationship with us, your family?"

Danny clasped his hands under his nose, holding the towel so that it covered him almost completely. When it seemed that she was honestly waiting for him to reply he gave a small shake of the head.

"That is why I'm glad it's gone. Without it, I can wish for you to have a normal, happy, safe life. I can have more comfort that you won't be risking your life fighting super-powered enemies."

"I see…" He answered softly. He looked down and saw her hand hovering just above the roof, just like the rest of her body. On an impulse he reached out and tried to take her hand.

As expected, his hand passed right through her.

"Danny…" His Mom exhaled.

"It… It was like this with Jazz and Tucker too…" Danny said shakily. "I couldn't touch them either. But back home I could touch ghosts. And even here…" He trailed off, not wanting to discuss his encounter with Inabi Uchiha. "But Dad… he could also use some sort of power. What… what are you guys? How come I can't touch you…?"

"Danny…" This time, his mother said his voice as a quiet, rueful sigh. "I… don't know for sure but…Oh, it's terribly unscientific to guess…"

"Guess." Danny urged. "Please."

His mother looked into his eyes for a moment, before her gazed shifted to the side. "Almost all theory and research points to the cause of a ghost's formation being an intense emotional state right at the moment of death: regret and vengefulness being the most common…"

"Yeah…" Danny nodded. This much he'd known from years of listening to his parent's spiels.

"The stronger the emotion, the more tangible the ghostly manifestation is."

"Ok…" Danny was still not sure where his mother was going with this.

"It leads to reason then that if a ghost is in the process of alleviating the ties it has to the real world… it… the manifestation would… weaken…"

Slowly, his mother's gaze came back to meet Danny's and he felt his own eyes widen as he realized what she was saying.

That this was probably the one and only time he would see his Mother's ghost.

That he'd never see Jazz and Tucker and Dad again.

"Danny... Are you ok?" His mom was leaning as close as she could, looking very much like she wished she could hug him.

Danny realized he'd been holding a breath and exhaled quickly, leading to a short coughing fit before he drew in another shaky breath. He was surprised to realize that he wasn't crying and the ache in his heart was acute, but manageable.

"Yeah…" He nodded, eyes slipping from hers for a moment before rising again. "I think… I think a part of me had already… realized…"

"It's ok. You don't need to say any more."

Danny coughed roughly. Then, boldly, he asked a question that he'd been avoiding for a long time.

"How is it back home?"

His mother was silent and he looked at her. Her expression was oddly shuttered.

"Have you heard anything? What's it like—"

"I haven't." His Mom interrupted suddenly. Then she gave him an odd, sad expression and shook her head. "I haven't been to Amity Park since I formed. I don't know what's going on there."

"But Mom…"

"No, Danny. That's all I have to say about that." His mother's voice was firm, a familiar warning in her eyes.

Danny suspected she was hiding something. He briefly considered calling her out on it—insisting that she tell him more. But another part of him was begging him to let it lie—he couldn't go back to Amity Park now anyway. That part of his life was done. Maybe his mother was lying, maybe she wasn't. What good would it do to pry, especially when she had that look on her face?

Danny didn't want to spend his last moments with his mom arguing.

"Ok," He let go with a smile which she easily returned.

This time, when silence fell Danny could feel the heaviness settling into his limbs. His eyelids were drooping, though he fought hard to keep them open.

"Come now," She hummed with a fond look in her eyes. "I think it's time for you to go to bed."

Danny shook his head in denial.

His mother clucked her tongue. "You're sick; you need all the rest you can get."

"I don't want to sleep." He protested. "You'll be gone by the time I get up."

He saw the smile fade from her face at these words and was sorry for it, but it didn't change the truth.

"I'll always be looking over you, Daniel." She told him.

"It's not good enough. I want to see you and talk to you. Will you visit me again? Can you promise I'll see you again?" His words were intentionally cruel, given what they'd just been talking about, but his mother's eyes stayed calm and the gentle look remained on her face.

She opened her mouth and hesitated before speaking. "I will see you again. I promise one day we will see each other again. Now come," She stood and, with some coaxing brought Danny to his feet as well and guided him back to his window.

"Careful." She told him as he stepped over the sill.

A huge yawn made his jaw crack and tears sting at the corner of his eyes. He blinked the moisture away, then sent his mother a wry smirk. "Mom, I was sneaking in and out of windows for a year back home, I think I—" The toe of his left foot caught on the sill and he gasped as he went stumbling forward, barely catching himself against his bed.

"Are you okay?" She asked and he nodded as he squeezed the sting out his left toes with one hand.

"There you go," She chided quietly. "Now you know why you should always listen to me."

"Or else end up with broken toes?" He whispered back sarcastically.

"That's right." She offered him a cheery grin that made him momentarily stare, a dull pain in his chest.

His bed was largely occupied by two tiny eight-year olds. Sasuke had taken over one corner and Naruto, despite his small limbs, had somehow managed to spread-eagle himself in such a way that he took over the rest of the bed.

Knowing the blond kid slept like a log, Danny didn't have much trouble shifting Naruto back over to one side of the bed. He was more careful around Sasuke, trying not to disturb the blankets next to the boy as he crawled back in to his bed.

He tried to sleep. But after only a few seconds of laying with his eyes closed, he found himself sneaking glances upward. He felt like he was five again, anxious and fearful after a bad dream, making sure that his mother hadn't left him alone.

She must have seen his glances because she offered him a soft smile. "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere tonight. Sleep. I'm here."

The sensation of security those words gave him was difficult to describe. A weight he hadn't realized he was carrying was lifted off his chest. Under his mother's watchful gaze he felt safe for the first time in a very long time.

Sleep overcame him soon after.

:o:

END PART V

To be continued in PART VI – NARUTO

:o: