So. Was gonna upload this on christmas but Fanfiction was being a little stupid for me. Here it is now.

"I'm not going to go easy on you."

Ethan held a long, wickedly sharp katana in his hands. His ankles were still weak from the incident of falling out of the tree, but that was nearly six weeks ago. Sasuke chuckled darkly, as the tip of Ethan's weapon quivered with indecision.

"The monsters aren't going to wait."

Ethan bit his tongue and lowered his head. This is so stupid... I bet Lucy doesn't have to do this. He swung the sword back and forth a few times, trying to act bored. The moon was high in the sky, stars winking at him playfully between the clouds, as he brooded. "I don't want to. My ankles hurt."

"I don't care."

"You're my father."

The undead warrior shrugged. "And what does that have to do with anything?"

"You're supposed to care. My ankles hurt. I don't want to spar with my awful ankles." He pulled up the legs of his trousers to look at them. They were thin, bony, and inflamed from walking, running, jumping, climbing, and all the other stupid stuff Naruto-san made them do.

Ethan shook his head. Sensei. Naruto-sensei. Or was it -sama?

Oh, just screw it. This is New York not Tokyo.

He jumped when his father touched him, fingers colder than if he'd just stuffed them in a snowbank. Sasuke analyzed them with cold, black eyes and sighed, "Just going to have to bind them..."

"Bind them? How?"

"Watch."

A roll of wide bandages was tossed at him, and he caught them deftly, sitting down, pulling off his shoes. He whimpered softly and got cuffed on the ear for it. Bastard. It hurts... With speed that comes from only familiarity, the bindings were secured tightly to his feet and ankles, cradling his heel, ending about four inches beneath his knees.

"Got it?"

"I think so."

"Good." Sasuke turned away, and sighed gently. "Ethan..."

"What?"

Two hands were placed on his shoulders, "Be careful, okay? Something big is coming." His eyes flashed in the light of the stars, suspended in the darkness. Ethan looked surprised. His father was ... scared? "The Underworld is stirring. Things are getting out. If you come face to face with something - you turn around - and you run. Don't wait for anybody. Don't turn back. You get away. Do you understand?"

Ethan looked around, trying to pull away, "Papa... I..."

Sasuke shook him violently, "Do you understand?!"

Ethan drew up and struck him, scared, one fist whistling through the air and hitting his father straight in the shoulder. "Papa!" His father had gone sprawling in the grass, eyes red and his body coiled like a spring. Ethan mirrored the stance, lowering himself to the grass. His hand travelled to his pocket, reaching for the shuriken he had - borrowed - from Lucy.

"Do you understand?"

"That you want me to run? Yes. But I'm not going to."

"Why the Hell not?"

"I need to protect the others. We're a team..."

"You are my son. They are not."

"And since when did that matter?" Ethan shook his head. "You can't hold onto grudges forever, Papa. You're dead already. Your need for revenge is going to kill you again."

A grunt of acknowledgement was his only response, as his father vanished into the night, taking the katana with him, red eyes the last thing to vanish.

Ethan shook his head, taking his anger out on a stray pinecone, kicking it out onto the concrete path in the middle of Central Park. He now week-ended with Naruto and the girls, but where they went to school during the week, he returned to Camp. Friday and Saturday nights he spent with his father, Saturday and Sunday with his uncle. The routine was less than impressing him.

But, he did have all of New York City to himself. At night, when he snuck out, he could go anywhere. His favourites were Central Park and Times Square, where he could wander around and mix in with everybody. Where he felt like he belonged.

It was three in the morning when he returned to the apartment, scaling the fire escape and sneaking through the girls' room in order to return to his own.

Something was different tonight though, so different it made him curse violently. Their window had been locked from the inside, and his pick was missing.

Naruto's light was on, his silhouette watching Ethan struggle to open the window, arms crossed, spikey hair roughed up by sleep.

So busted... I'm so effing busted...

Suddenly, a whiskered face was staring back at him. Upside down. And glaring. Naruto poked him in the forehead harshly, "Ethan. I've been a ninja longer than you have been alive. No matter how sneaky you think you are. I will know. I knew you were sneaking out since the first time."

Ethan went to respond and he found himself poked again, which silence him. The blond haired man continued, "I have dropped no less than forty-six barely subtle hints to tell you that I knew. You didn't notice any of them. You know what that means?"

A drop of fear settled in Ethan's stomach as Naruto's normally happy eyes flashed with a bit of evil. It had to be evil. The boy shook his head and Naruto grinned, "Well, for one. No more 'sneaking' out. Two. Deception training. For all of you. Because you're really bad at lying and picking up hints. Maybe I'll throw traps into the mix. You'll have to find out." With that Naruto disappeared and the window was suddenly unlocked.

Ethan sighed and slunk through it, locking the window behind him. He crossed the room quietly, avoiding the squeaky boards and the piles of clothes he knew the girls left around. He shoved his hands into his pockets, walking toward the shower.

Don't have to sneak anymore, anyway.

The water was just a millimeter away from cold, the way he liked it, chilling him to the bone. Just to spite the man, Ethan switched Naruto's body wash out for Lucy's, and hid the soap. More training.

Joy.

He scrubbed clean, then towelled dry, before throwing himself into bed, face buried in a pillow. Something wasn't right though... He inhaled sharply, and then threw himself away from the pillow, as it began to pour happy gas into his room. He ran for the door, to find it locked.

Cursing ensued, and then a mad scramble for anything he could use to get the door open

There was nothing. The gas spread quickly but for some odd reason it did not enter the vents or move through the apartment. Soon, enough the room was filled and a distant laughter roamed through his door eerily.

It was hard to take Ethan's threats seriously when they were distorted by laughter, as Naruto sat outside the door and smirked, arms crossed. He absent-mindedly blew a strand of blonde hair out of his face, hearing Lucy stir, and wander out toward the hallway.

She found him on the floor, and looked confused still caught in dreamland, where the lines of reality blur and crash together with fantasy. "Dad? W-why are you out of bed?" She was dragging her feet, exhausted, "Can I have a hug? I'm sleepy..."

He stood up and walked over before leading her back to the room. When they reached her bed he knelt and wrapped his arms around her gently, "Go back to sleep, Lucy."

"Is Ethan in trouble?" She wrapped her small, but strong arms around him, not letting him leave, "Dad...M-my head is fuzzy..."

He dismissed her worry with a shake of his head and he gently ran his fingers through her hair. It relaxed him to comb his hand through her crimson locks. Maybe he wouldn't make them do the extra training. It wasn't necessary right now. Plus, he couldn't really punish Ethan for sneaking out. It felt hypocritical because of all the times he himself had snuck out of the hospital during his younger years. Not to mention shirking paperwork duties. Tsunade hated him for that.

"Go to sleep, Lucy. Your break starts tomorrow and you can sleep in." Those thoughts brought back a slew of unresolved emotions. She didn't respond with speech, instead slumping against him as sleep took her consciousness back into darkness. He laid her back in her bed and covered her up.

Naruto returned to his study and collapsed into his work chair with saddened sigh. Tsunade was dead. At least if Sasuke was to be believed. The information made his chest throb with pain. He loved that woman like a second mother, as his own had regrettably never been present. He liked to believe she saw him the same way though she never voiced it.

"Kami, I could have sworn that woman was immortal…" He muttered quietly to himself. Alas, she was not. 'I wonder who is Hokage now? Probably Shikimaru. Or Kakashi. They'd both be perfect 'cause neither one would want to do it.' Ah. There was the ache again. He should have been the one to inherit the hat from her. That was a selfish thought though. Especially considering he now had new responsibilities. But...'It would be nice to know how things could have been. Or see how they are. I wish I could talk to her one more time. To say goodbye...'

A shiver stole over him, as a blast of cold air drove through the room. The apartment was dark, Ethan's laughter has ceased, turning the warms walls to cold rock and the study chair and desk into tombstones. His world was freezing, silent, and crypt-like, so obviously empty it pained him to endure sitting in it.

A light shone beneath the bottom of the door, illuminating the wood floor, making sure that the stone was driven away, revealing the study. The warm colours, paper strewn everywhere, artwork from the girls pinned up to billboards, old pictures with faded crayon and worn construction paper were illuminated by this light source, shining beneath the door. The only things the rays did not touch was the lonely single bed in the corner of his study, the sheets rumpled and dirtied.

Naruto grumbled under his breath, but pushed away from his desk, and going to turn out the offending light, opened the door. He was startled by Lucy, out of bed again, her eyes exhausted and lined with red veins. She inhaled slowly, and wrapped her arms around herself, sniffling. Naruto picked her up gently, and she buried her face in his shoulder, as he carried her back to bed for the second time.

"Daddy..."

"Lucy?"

"W-Will you stay?" She was shaking terribly, knowing she sounded like the scared little six year old, alone for the first time, missing her mummy. Her eyes were large in her face, and the circles beneath them were dark.

"Of course I will."

She grabbed his hand, and relaxed, as her blue eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed into sleep.

With a soft sigh, he opened the door with his foot, and gently set her down in her bed, checking to make sure his other two girls were safe and warm, before slipping in beside Lucy, pulling her close with one arm. She settled quite happily, until she was curled in her happy spot, her back pressed against his side, her head resting high on his arm, hands clutching to his.

She was getting taller, thinner, more curvy. His free hand began to play with her hair, making her hum happily, as she slept on in peace. Naruto screwed his eyes shut, inhaling shakily, as he fought to stay on his back.

It was hard. So hard...

He wanted to roll over, cradle her against his belly, hips slim, but enough to fill his hands. He wanted to see her hair darken and lengthen, turn curly, her eyes go from blue to amber, for her body to mature.

This was when he missed Aella.

This was why he didn't like staying with Lucy. She was so close to her mother.

He waited for her to be really and truly asleep. When her eyes began to dart around beneath the lids and her grip on him loosened, he slipped out from beneath her, slowly, carefully, keeping his breathing gentle. She slept on.

Naruto returned to his study, eyes dark and head low. He laid back on his rugged bed and began staring blankly at the ceiling, unable to sleep. The crypt returned, and with it, memories he tried to repress.

Hinata.

The one precious night he would always hold close.

And the one broken night where he lost everything.

She started awake, grasping at a kunai concealed in the pouch on her hip. Something was wrong. Her entire body was tensed and aware, as she grasped at her chakra, unsure if she would need to use it. Descending the steps on the inside of her home, tucking her dark hair behind her ears, she snuck along the hallway, looking for her caretakers.

"Sakura...?"

This house was unfamiliar to her, with a dining room to her right, and the kitchen through another archway off that. She crept carefully through the house, searching for Sakura, wanting to know where she was.

When she put a foot in a puddle of something cold and viscous, there was a sharp shudder that travelled up her spine. She looked down and recoiled at the trail of blood that ran from what she thought must be a bedroom all the way to another room closer to the interior of the house.

"Sakura?!"

She ran down the hall, her feet slipping in the trail of blood that seeped into the softwood floor, making it slippery. Bursting through the doors, she found... Horror.

Two corpses lay on the ground, one blonde, the other dark haired, like she was. Her heart froze in her chest, and she fell to her knees at their sides, checking for breathing, for pulse, for anything.

They had died holding hands.

"It's alright Amaya."

She looked up, confused, as a pale hand emerged from the darkness, two dark eyes staring back, into her incredibly light ones. "W-wh...?"

"Amaya - it's okay. The killer is gone now."

"Who are you?"

He helped her to her feet and then stepped backwards, the moonlight illuminating her face. Amaya screamed and recoiled, scrambling backwards into the doorway, as he walked toward her, his face cut clumsily from temple to nose, chest crushed, feet dragging in the trail of blood he left behind. His eyes were void and dark, hair spikes and dyed with gore.

He wouldn't stop laughing.

Amaya pulled back, slipping in the blood and crawling backwards on her hands and feet, screaming as he came toward her, moving jerkily, faster and faster, like some sort of terrifying apparition. Not even her Byukagan could track his chakra. He was a Void, a spot of emptiness, chasing her down like a hunting dog.

He wouldn't stop laughing.

He cornered her, back in the room she had woken up in, his mad giggling off-setting her screaming in a strange, eerie contrast. He grabbed her by the shoulders and began to shake her violently, her head snapping back and forth until he threw her through a wall and into the washroom, having her smack her head against the smooth tile floor, bashing her face against the edge of the bathtub, laughing as she screamed.

"SAKURA!"

She sat up abruptly, throwing the bedding off her body as she trashed to remove herself from the restraints of her dream. Her eyes were running with tears, confused as her mother's journal thumped to the floor.

Amaya thumped back to her pillow, staring up at the ceiling, wiping her eyes. There was little movement in the house now, but she could hear her surrogate snoring lightly down the hall. Her eyes screwed shut and she inhaled slowly before putting her feet in fluffy slippers and wandering into the washroom.

Amaya turned on the water, and gently wet her face, clearing her head and her mind. Looking up into the mirror, she sighed, touching the skin around her eyes. Concentrating, she encouraged the chakra to stop flowing into her eyes.

She was safe.

She yawned widely, catching glimpse of the large canine teeth she had inherited from her father, before she wandered back to bed and fell into it, nearly asleep. But before she did, her hand snuck under her pillow, touching a picture she kept there. One of two people, a blonde man dressed in orange and black, with his arm around a much shorter, thinner woman, with dark hair and light purple eyes. Sakura had shown her, through the material of her purple sweater, where she was beginning to show signs of pregnancy, as the smallest of shadows clung to her navel, in a small crescent moon. They were all smiling.

Amaya smiled too, and slowly drifted off, clinging to a picture of the parents she never met.

Yeah. So this doesn't make sense now to you. Probably. But it will later. That's the beauty of it. I was going to make this longer but I felt like I should just end it there. The next will be longer. Then We'll delve into the event of the third books. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that by the way.