AN: Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"Good night, Naruto."

With a mother's farewell said, the door was shut and the room was left consumed in the darkness of the night. In his bed, the young Naruto Uzumaki slept as any would in such a loving and caring home: peacefully. Kushina Uzumaki had seen her son off to bed after a long and tiring day, was set to join her husband in bed once she finished the last few household chores.

Within her son's room, she didn't see the shadows lengthen.

She didn't see darkness take shape.

Long dark hair concealed the red mask for but a moment before it moved, shifted as the shadow took form.

Behind such a demonic mask, red eyes took in the crib before their owner.

It was easy to silently pad across the room, to gaze down into the sleeping face of the little boy.

A child, one not even seven-years-old, was set to reach such a milestone by the stroke of midnight tonight.

Hands tipped in claws that had shredded flesh were raised.

Fangs were glimpsed through the empty mouth of the mask.

"Looks like you had a long day kid." A blue hand gently brushed over his blonde hair. "Sleep tight little guy." She took a moment to adjust the swirl covered blanket over him before dropping into the shadows once more.

She emerged outside his room, the blonde man who Naruto had inherited his hair from nearly jumping out of his slippers when she did so.

She, somehow, didn't laugh at him.

"I keep telling you not to do that shadow trick of yours for a reason. It is terrifying." Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, made an effort not to shout, his voice a whisper more than anything with Naruto asleep. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack or something Jade?"

"And have Kushina angry at me when her hubby drops dead?" Jade let out a quiet snort. "Yeah, I'm not trying to get sent off to the Shadow Realm again." One hand was all she needed to take off the mask over her face, hang it on the hook outside Naruto's door. The kid had insisted she always do it when she wasn't out and about, had somehow convinced not only her but his parents as well judging from the headbands hanging on the other two hooks. "Anyway, just wanted to drop in and see what you've got planned for the kid's big day tomorrow."

At the reminder of Naruto's upcoming birthday, Minato couldn't help the smile that crossed his face. A quick way to get the Hokage into a good mood was to bring up anything involving his family.

"After last year, Kushina has officially forbidden me from doing any of the planning." He couldn't help the quiet laugh that came from him.

Jade couldn't help the wince at that little memory.

"Maybe letting your pervert of a teacher give a surprise gift wasn't the best idea you had." Jade could still remember just how furious Kushina had been after Jiraiya's little "gift" to an utterly confused Naruto. She had no idea how she pulled it off but she had been terror incarnate.

Demons, Oni Generals, absolutely nothing she had seen in her life held a candle to how scared she was of Kushina and her rage that day.

"In my defense, he did stick to his word about making it a memorable one. None of us are ever going to forget that mess. I've never seen Kushina make good on her threat to wipe the floor with someone's face before either." Minato shook his head, the fond smile still on his face. "If you really want to know, ask Kushina."

"Will do Flash." Jade shot off a mock salute before she stepped back and into the shadows once more, her red eyes the last to vanish to the blonde. She appeared in the kitchen, Kushina not even jumping at her sudden arrival. Before she could even ask the redhead a question, a wrapped box was being shoved into her pale blue hands.

"Go hide this in your shadow thing. Naruto's been looking for it all day and I've officially run out of hiding places." Without a word, the box vanished with Jade, the woman only taking long enough to hand the box off to one of the Shadowkhan she had found herself commanding again. Words didn't need to be exchanged for the mission to be known, she didn't know how to this day but the Shadowkhan always knew what she called them for.

It was still weird but it was something she had decided was the fault of the magic.

And that sometimes she was better off not questioning things.

She reappeared from the shadow cast by the fridge.

"You look tired." Jade was underselling it. The woman looked like a mild breeze could put her down for the night.

"Ha. I can go for days." Kushina vehemently denied such a claim. Even when the bags under her eyes had bags.

"You need to sleep." Jade took note of the list pinned to the refrigerator, took it down.

"I need this party to be fine." Kushina looked dead on her feet as she slumped against the counter. "After that last one, I really want Naruto to have fun tomorrow."

"And he will." Jade pocketed the list. She stepped up to Kushina, laid a hand on her shoulder. "I'll finish up here. You get some sleep."

She didn't seem to like it but her exhaustion won out, Jade earning a nod of her head. She didn't exactly trust her to go to bed herself so did it for her, the shadows around the kitchen lengthening before Kushina dropped through them and into her bedroom. Before she shut the portal, she could hear Minato almost scream at his wife's sudden appearance from his shadow.

She laughed to herself at catching the man off guard yet again.

Was it mean? Totally.

Was it fun? Amazingly so.

Was she going to keep doing it? Definitely.

"Alright, just what's left?" She went over Kushina's messy handwriting, what she had crossed out over the pass few hours. The list was still rather lengthy but it was something she could manage.

With help of course.

She fell into the shadows herself an hour or so later, her chores completed with no small amount of help from the Shadowkhan as her beck and call. As always, she kept an eye on Kushina through her shadow, one that, somehow, burned that bit darker than all the others in the Shadow Realm, served as a beacon to her no matter where either of the two were. As weird as things had been since she had met her, had entered into this weird deal with the red-haired crying kid, she couldn't say she was completely against it anymore.

Sure, it hurt to be away from home like this, to not know when she could see Uncle Jackie again, when she could see Tohru or Uncle again, but she had to stay positive. She was sure they were working on something to get her back even now, Uncle had something he was working on to find her through the sea of magic she had traveled through.

Until then, she had to make do. For now, that meant keeping Kushina safe, keeping her family safe.

It was a mission she could get behind.

AN: So this is a new story. Want to see where this goes.