AN: This is an alternative take on the actions in episode one of season six of Natsume Yuujinchou. They directly follow after a scene near the end of the episode, giving it a different ending. Thus, the story will make no sense if read on it's own.

Mostly did it to see how a friend and I would write an alternative ending XD

On the Other Side of the Door

…

…

"In the end, it doesn't matter whether you're a youkai or human. All that really counts is that they're important to you."
― Natsume Yuujinchou

…

…

Stay away. Stay away. Stay away.

Natsume felt when his foot got caught on the edge, where the wood paneling of the hallway met that of the room he found himself in, dark faces and so many confusing singles chasing after him. He stumbled, catching himself and feeling as something brushed the back of his coat before he was out the door.

Why was the door open?

That thought barely registered as he did fall the second time, the step down too steep and his momentum carrying him past it as he tumbled into the grass. In seconds he was back up and running.

He was used to this. That thought bore even less significance as he heard the footsteps behind him, voice speaking, and a strange gust of wind that almost had him falling backwards towards those voices.

The temple was in the middle of a forest but it felt like it took ages for him to reach the tree line. Natsume didn't want to fall, didn't want to slow, didn't want those with longer legs to catch up to him. There had to be somewhere for him to hide but those footsteps were still way too close.

Breath burning as it ran down his throat and into his lungs, Natsume ignored the cuts and stones that were hitting his legs and feet. The shoes he had tried to put on when he had rolled up his pants earlier that day had been far too big.

Why do they have so much fun tricking me? What's the point of all this? How is it funny?

It wasn't a stick or other obstacle that felled him once more, it was the lack of ground beneath his feet.

Yelping as the water quickly ate him up, cutting off his words and his air at the same time, Natsume pushed to the surface, taking in a clean breath.

Right, they said something about a river.

"Natsume!"

"Natsume!"

Natsume ducked down as he took in a breath, doing his best to swim. The river wasn't moving very fast but it was good enough to get him away without being seen and at a better pace than it would be for them to find him.

There were some parts of the river where Natsume could feel that his feet wouldn't touch the bottom, swimming those and trying hard not to splash the water and make any kind of noise. He could still hear the voices in the distance and he didn't want any more of this. If the shadow youkai were right, he had to get away. If they weren't, then at least he didn't have to sit there being scared.

Swimming, apparently, wasn't a strong point of his. Natsume felt himself get tired, more floating along with the river after a point than swimming it. He didn't stop, he wouldn't. Something in his mind knew temples were safe but that one clearly wasn't and the best thing to do was to keep moving.

He was cold and tired by the time he had to get out of the water. Natsume would have kept following it if he could but it ended at a lake of some kind, and the width of it was far too large for him to try getting across.

It wasn't like there was anything on the other side anyway.

Pulling at the grass, he got himself to shore, trying to wring out his heavy, far-too-large, clothes. Throwing the jacket to the side, he worked on the shirt. If he really wanted it he knew where it was.

Natsume's pants were barely staying up as he stood, as dry as could be, and turned back to the water-soaked jacket.

Why did he not want to leave it there?

Sighing, he picked it up and wrung it out as well, tying it around his waste to help keep his pants up.

"Where am I?"

The question didn't answer itself and there didn't seem to be anyone around to do it for him. Deciding that standing out in the open near the lake was a bad idea, Natsume went a little into the trees once more, leaning against one and holding his legs to himself, not knowing what he was going to do now.

It wasn't like he was scared of being alone, or at least, he didn't think he was. It was hard to tell when he literally had nothing to fall back on. There were a few things he was certain of though, like how he knew what youkai were, so he was fairly certain that being alone was nothing new.

Time passed and Natsume did his best to keep his eyes open. He could get attacked at any second and those others were still looking for him. They had human-sounding names and so did the family that they spoke about, but Natsume knew better than to trust the soft words of others. Even the worst intentions could come from those with the kindest of sentiments.

Curled up on himself, Natsume started to shiver a bit as the sun set somewhere off in the distance, over the lake. It was warm enough during the day for the shirt and light coat but the night didn't seem absorb the same warmth.

"Wait, it's a coat?" Natsume knew his pants were too long and his shoes too big, but the coat sleeves came up to his wrists. It must have been some kind of light shirt to begin with and not a coat if he was comparing it to the rest of his attire.

Something else sparked in his mind and he looked down at his hands, blinking. Natsume. His name was Natsume but… but there had to be more to it then that right?

Had he forgotten his own name?

Putting one of his hands to his head, he closed his eyes. Tanuma. Taki. Were those family names or given names? Tanuma sounded like it could be either but Taki was likely a given name. Since she was a girl though that didn't tell him much. Assuming Tanuma was a family name, they were likely addressing him by his family name as well.

Why did Natsume not remember having a family?

"Natsume… huh." That word meant nothing to him aside from a word he was sure of as his name. No images of a father or mother or even another relative came to mind.

The darkness was nice. He let his head rest on his arms, keeping himself as warm as he could as the shadows crept along the forest, making everything around him seem bigger before fading it all in a neutral gray overtone. There were voices but they were hard to hear, going about their own business and leaving him to his. The crickets were louder, drowning out anything that those in the darkness could be saying.

There was a funny smell in the air.

It was something soft, something Natsume almost missed, but it smelled too sweet and too familiar to ignore.

Opening his eyes and turning his head, he noticed he wasn't alone at the lake any longer.

There was a woman there, smoking in the dark, the light of her pipe barely helping him pinpoint her location. The smoke seemed lighter than the color of the night around them as she blew out, a sigh on her lips.

"What a night. I can barely see my hand in front of my face. It's been a while since the shadows have been this strong."

"Mmm." Natsume shifted, trying to get further away from her. She looked human but then, so did the other two.

"Who's there?!"

Those words rang loud and angry in the quiet clearing and Natsume tried to get to his feet, feeling really heavy even though there was no way his clothes were still water-logged.

The grass was between his fingers as he took in a few heavy breaths, feeling the blades brush up against his ankles as well as he used it to keep himself from falling face first into the dirt, his arms shaking from the strain of it.

There were no footsteps, only a presence, and a cold-edge of fear making Natsume try and fail to get to his feet again, falling to the side instead and refusing to just lay there when this had to be a youkai beside him.

"Stay away!" Shouting probably wasn't he smart idea but it was what he did.

"Tsh. Shut up!"

Natsume shut up, pushing himself against gravity's pull and trying his best to turn to the youkai beside him.

No, he should have heard footsteps, and there was no way that it would have been easy to move in the kimono the woman seemed to be wearing.

They stared at each other in the dark for a while, neither moving and Natsume too afraid to say anything with the 'shut up' rule in place even if he had something to say.

Her hand came up to his face and Natsume winced, drawing back a little but unable to go anywhere as it slid under his jaw, forcing him to look up at her as her long nails grazed his cheek.

"No way. Natsume-kun?"

Natsume blinked at her, examining her face closer. She had long hair, a pin sticking out like some of those older women used. Her eyes looked close to the same color and, while he couldn't tell the color of her kimono, he could tell that there were light colored flowers dotting it.

The woman let go of him, tapping him on the head with her pipe. "That can't really be you, can it? This doesn't feel like another curse."

This youkai knows me? Natsume was still afraid to say anything but that fear wasn't very strong anymore. He was used to being scared and, after it wore off a bit, it typically made him angry that he was so weak. Some of that anger surfaced now.

"Do I know you?"

The woman backed up, standing above him and, of all things, started laughing.

"There is no way!" She spoke after a while, laughter still in her words. "Natsume-kun, you get yourself into the worst kind of trouble."

The fear was gone. This youkai didn't seem to be interested in eating him or killing him and he was too tired and the world around him too hot to play her games. The grass felt nice when he fell into it, hearing her call out his name.

Even random youkai he ran into seemed to know him. Natsume didn't know how to feel about that other than sad that he couldn't even remember his own name.

"Natsume!"

He was, however, getting used to people calling out to him.

It was too hard to answer and impossible for him to open his eyes again. He felt when there were arms under his, lifting him up so he was sitting again. He could feel the woman's arm holding his back up, her other hand empty now as it was brushing his hair across his face.

"Ah, you have a fever. You really shouldn't be running around this time of night, spelled or not. You get sick too easy."

"I'm sorry." Natsume didn't know why he said it, or how he had energy for those words and not enough to open his eyes, but they came out on reflex. He shook a little, tears pricking at his closed eyes. Was someone actually worried that he was sick?

"If you're sorry then stop doing it. I have little to no idea how to treat a mortal fever. Come on, stand up."

Her arm moved, picking him up once more and Natsume did his best to stay on his feet, the air too hot still as he pushed his eyelids open and felt his knees give out.

The youkai didn't catch him but he felt her pick him back up again, brushing his hair out of his face once more as a few blades of grass fell loose as well.

"Well, I don't know how to treat you but I can at least get you home. You owe me one for this."

Home? Natsume had a home? He was living with someone, people who could very well be youkai. At this point it didn't seem like he had much choice in where he wound up, even if they were. He was too tired and he felt himself be lifted, carried in the woman youkai's arms.

There were no footsteps, no movement of any kind except for the sound and wind on his face to tell him he was moving forward. It felt nice, restful, and sleep found him before fear could.

…

Natsume woke when his body shifted suddenly, feet touching the ground but his legs not holding him as the woman tried to get him to stand once more.

"Come on, there's no way I'm walking in there when you didn't leave the window unlocked. Knock or something."

"Mmm." Natsume blinked his eyes, a few faint lights from the houses around him in the one before him lighting up the place for him to see everything. The glow was soft but, on eyes that had only been seeing darkness, still far too harsh. He reached out, half blind, and touched the door, hitting it with his palm a few times.

The house was normal enough, from the little of it he could see. Were the Fujiwara's really going to take him in? Or had she taken him somewhere else?

It wasn't as if he could tell who was on the other side of the door.

Nothing changed – nothing more than the youkai holding him shifting a little anyway. Her hand found his wrist and she was so warm that he tried to pull away, guiding him as she helped him knock harder on the door.

Another light, this one behind the door, came on and Natsume has to shut his eyes most of the way, hissing in on a breath. The door opened soon after, blinding him completely as he put his hands up to block it from getting to his eyes.

"Hello?"

The hands were gone and Natsume felt his breath leave him as he tried to make a sound, falling when he wasn't ready to try and stand and hitting the dirt once more.

Keeping his hands in a shielding position, Natsume tried to look up to see who had spoke to him. He could see socked feet and the dark gray of trousers. Anything of the person's face was hidden in a halo of light though his body and voice told him it was a man.

"Oh dear. Boy, are you alright?" There was worry in the voice as the man took a step into the dirt and, yet again, someone else half picked him up. What little adrenaline his body still had it in was up and running and Natsume was able to lower his hands and look at the person before him, who was shielding him from the light.

The man seemed older, gray hair dotting his face and his hair. He looked like somebody's grandfather. Could this be a youkai too?
Too tired and sick to care, Natsume felt himself pass out, his hand small when he felt it, for a moment, clutched in the older man's hand.

…

Shigeru grabbed the boy up, looking around the house and carrying him with as he search for any other children or possibly an adult who could be in the area. Finding no one and the property silent, he went into the house, Touka peeking her head around from where she stood in the kitchen.

"Who was it this late at…"

Shigeru shook his head, his wife eyeing the boy in his arms. "I don't know but…" But the boy had looked him right in the eye and it was hard not to notice that his eyes were the same rusted pottery color that Takashi's were. His hair was even the same strange wheat color.

"Oh my. He looks sick." His wife asked for no further explanation, touching the boy's forehead. Shigeru frowned when he noticed the boy try to turn away, even unconscious. That and his quick breaths were far more than enough to have him worried.

"He feels so warm."

"Come on, lets go get some blankets and set him up in the main room. If his fever is too bad we may need to get him in the bath."

"Of course." Touka took off, leaving him to walk to the main room and wait there while she got everything together, staring at the unconscious child and feeling how damp he was.

The clothes got his attention, now that he had reason to focus on them. He could swear that they were the same clothes Takashi-kun had on when he'd gone to run to the store to get more of the dango that had gone missing. He took off the shirt that was barely managing to stay around his waste as his wife came back in, keeling and spreading out a blanket for him to lay the boy down on.

There wasn't much reason for Shigeru to learn medicine, even as an adult, but the clothes the boy was wearing smelled of algae and he knew at least as much to help take them off of him before covering him up. The boxers were light but they'd be able to control his temperature easier this way if he became too warm.

"Let me go get a basin of water and a cloth. Watch him and make sure he doesn't get worse."

Shigeru nodded, fixing the bed up a bit while they were in no rush, using his hand to wipe away the sweat that was on the boy's face, his cheeks pink with illness.

There was no way this boy could be more than seven or eight. As far as he was aware, Takashi had no siblings, thought he resemblance was uncanny.

Letting his wife wet the rag and place it on the boy's head while he stood back, Shigeru put a hand to his chin, watching. If the fever was that bad they could take him to the hospital, but it didn't seem anything more than a fairly bad fever. There was no cough and, hopefully, the boy's body would cool down in a while.

Touka got up a few times, getting the cooling pad they had under the boy's head and cleaning off his face and hands where it seemed he had gotten himself dirty at some point.

It was at least an hour and a few fights against tendrils of sleep before he and his wife calmed down enough that they were fairly sure the boy's condition was on the mend.

"He kind of looks like Takashi-kun, doesn't he?" Touka stood, smiling at him, and Shigeru found himself smiling back.

"Yes, he does. Didn't Takashi-kun's friends call and say he was sleeping over at the temple with them? I wonder if maybe there's more on your side of the family that we haven't yet met."

"There very well could be. I lost ties to most of my father's side when he died. We were never very close." Touka stood, that smile still on her face, as she went over and turned off the light. "Let's let him rest and figure out what happened in the morning."

Shigure nodded, following her out of the dark room and taking one last look at the young boy who looked so much like Takashi that he would swear they were twins.

Then again, as long as everyone was okay, he didn't really see why it mattered much why they looked so alike or why they were wearing the same clothes. He made sure to keep the door open as they left, just in case he needed them in the middle of the might.

"Get well."

…

Madara waited, watching from around the corner as the humans made their way back to where they slept. It was easy to sneak in the room, they had even left the door open, as he got up onto his back feet and studied Natsume.

It had taken a while to find the Day Eater and even longer to track down Natsume when his scent all but vanished in the middle of the forest. If not for Hinoe, he likely would never have known Natsume was back here.

"You really are a lot of trouble, you know. Be happy that I didn't have you change back right in front of someone who doesn't know." Tracking down the Day Eater a second time had just been downright annoying while he was still trying to look for Natsume. "No pulling my hair out for this. You came here on your own."

There was a moan and Madara peeked his head up, watching as Natsume seemed to shift uncomfortably in his sleep. He waited, but the boy didn't wake up.

"Annoying."

Natsume made a noise again, turning and grabbing him, trapping Madara in his arms as the he squealed, trying to get himself away, though not trying all that hard when he noticed how cold Natsume was.

Madara spoke under his breath, settling in comfortably beside Natsume. "We'll leave when the sun comes up, before they wake. I got that stupid ayakashi to turn you back but you have to tell him you want to. You are such a pain. You owe me a ton of manju for this."

"'m sorry."

The words were whisper quiet and Madara felt Natsume's breath on one of his ears. "Hmpt." With how things turned out so far and Natsume not remembering much, he doubted that he'd remember any better what happened when he was a child once he was a teen again.

Maybe not a ton of manju, but definitely a few, after school, after he was better and his right age again.

"Like I said, annoying," he spoke as he closed his eyes, planning on getting a little sleep himself before absconding with the boy come daybreak.