A/N: New year equals sick Neon. Bit of an update on things here; would you kindly read this? It would mean the world to this tired old soul.

Strike a Match, Running for the Edge, Apples and Atoms and Doctor of Demons will be updated this week most likely in that order.

Thursdays are, of course usually reserved for "Surpass Your Limits". I'm truly humbled by all the feedback that one's getting.

Foxfire is nearly ready, as is Dance of the Dread and Forgotten Son, Stag, and Shed No Grace on Me. I'm also debating making Vector Prime a story -see the last two fragments- as well as writing DBD -Dead By Daylight- story involving Naruto in addition to working MASSIVE OVERTIME to acquire a PS5 so I can finally properly play Baldur's Gate 3 and Honkai Star Rail.

I'm also doing all this while recovering from long Covid, to say nothing of updating other categories. Slifer and Advent are helping.

And strangest of all, I'm getting requests for me to do a Naruto x Yu Yu Hakusho stories. Why that now?!

So please have mercy on this old soul while I try to figure out things.

Alright then, here we go. The fate of this story depends on you, the reader. Your feedback determines the fate of this tale, and many others.

As ever, I own no quotes, references, themes, or memes. Not a wit or a one! They're tributes to legends far greater than I.

I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time.

Time and feedback will determine if this remains a story. Simple as that.

In other words...its up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know~!

"Breathe."

~?

Twenty-Fifth Fragment

Vander inhaled.

Which was pretty damn remarkable, given he remembered dying.

There had been an explosion, hadn't there? Fire and flames.

A familiar face. One he knew. All too well.

Rage coursed through him.

"SILCO!"

His body surged up with a yowl, but then up became down and he went with it; tumbling out of bed to sprawl against the unforgiving ground. His head struck wooden floorboards, sending stars crashing across his vision.

A sigh echoed somewhere behind him.

"I woulda said I told ya so, but you didn't even give me a chance to say anything." he felt something hoist him up, but he couldn't his helper's face through his blurry vision. "C'mon, up you go. You don't get to die on me that easily. This is my first time acting as an actual doctor and I really don't wanna tell those kids I let their old man die." a jaw-popping yawn echoed above him, the world shifted, and he found himself lowered oh so very gently back to the bed. "I'll never hear the end of it, ya know?"

"Kids...?" His mouth was so damn dry.

"Hmm, hmm." his savior hummed. Judging by the blur of yellow about his head, he thought he might be blond. "Noisy boys. Pretty banged up, but they're alright. I got to them shortly after they died, so there shouldn't be any lasting damage."

Vander's mind fizzled out spectacularly.

Died?!

As in dead? Deceased?!

No, no, no, that didn't...he couldn't have...

He tried to speak, but all that emerged was a croaking gasp. "Vi...! Powder...!"

Someone pressed a cold canteen to his cracked lips, stifling his words. "Slow sips, now."

...not that he had much choice. Vander replied reluctantly and forced himself to comply in turn.

As he polished off the water, his vision cleared long enough to glimpse whiskered cheeks dimpled in a selfsame smile -There was something horribly wrong with his eyes! Why did they look like that?!- before the migraine ruined his sight again. His body tried to move and failed abysmally; he succeeded only in flopping on his side like a fish out of water.

"None of that." a finger prodded his ribs, drawing another groan from him. "You had an awful lot of Shimmer in your veins when you died. Your body absorbed most of by the time I found you; I just sped the process along a bit. Gotta say, you're pretty jacked now. That new strength'll take some getting used to."

Blinking felt like an exercise in futility, bu the forced himself to do it anyway. "Who are you...?"

"Just a stranger passing through." he glimpsed a bandaged hand waving about. "One of your kids, the one with blue hair, I'm pretty sure, she gave me an apple when I first woke up here. I was half-dead then, can you believe it? Me! I've fought gods and demons and I nearly died of hunger!" his host tittered softly at some unspoken joke. "This is just me repaying the favor before Sasuke drags me back home. Ah!" a sudden exclamation made him wince. "I'm being rude, aren't I? "Good Morning. Welcome back to the land of the living."

"The girls...

...are fine." came the reply. "Feisty little things. Something -bandages?- were peeled away from his chest, causing stinging pain and he growled as the baffling blond continued. "They were having it out over your corpse, so I knocked their heads together and locked 'em in a closet until they sorted their issues out." fresh bandages were applied, laced with antiseptc, and oh gods it bit like a bitch. "Had a real brawl after that too, lemme tell ya...no idea how you managed to piss so many people off."

It was almost too good to be true. There had to be a catch. There must be.

"Why?"

"Why not?" came the reply.

Here at last, his vision cleared.

"People should help people." a young man with blond hair and whiskered cheeks stood over him, his eyes a rippling shade of violet-blue. "If I have the power to do so, then I should use it." Nagato gave me these eyes for a reason, ya know? Even if it means steppin' between life and death. Not the first time I've done that...

There he went, being so cavalier about Resurrection.

His drug addled mind conjured three words that would later embarrass him horribly. "Are you...god?"

"Me?!" that seemed to embarrass the blond horribly. "No, no, no!" he waved a hand for every negative. "Not at all! I'm just Naruto, ya know. I've got two kids of my own, ya know? Nobody should go without their parents. That's what you are to those brats, right? Their dad?"

Close enough," he grunted.

"Great." a hand touched his forehead. "I'm gonna put you under for a bit. You've got some nasty internal damage I need to work on with my chakra. Trust me, you don't wanna be awake for this."

Vander tried to struggle, but he was just so damn weak. "Vi, Powder...the kids...

...will be waiting for you when ya wake up," Naruto chided.

How could he possibly argue with that

Vander closed his eyes.

Sleep was sweet.

A/N: Aaaaand scene. Might make a part two for this if folks want it.

Happy ending for one and all...well, mostly everyone.

Hope this brought a smile to your face.

Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story, and others. Meaning folks don't like this, it won't be continued. If the story itself ain't popular/well-received...well, I won't be able to continue it. I'm working two jobs, holidays are here too, meaning I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy.

So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.

As ever, reviews keep this old man alive during this dark and crazy time. I ain't joking.

So in the Immortal Words of Atlas... Review...Would You Kindly?

No previews here. Time for an old man to rest awhile.

R&R~!