Blah blah: normal text
"blah blah": normal talking
"blah blah" : someone using demon/hollow powers/arrancar in resurrection speaking
"Blah blah": normal person thinking
"Blah blah": zanpakuto speech
"Blah blah": inner hollow/demon speaking in mindscape
PROLOGUE
It was all over.
The remains of the final battle with Aizen could be seen for miles around within Soul Society. Craters littered the devastated surrounding landscape, occasionally occupied with an unfortunate corpse or two belonging to those who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, this is not where the end begins.
Several miles outside the Rungokai was a cave. Inside lay the nearly dead remains of the team of humans lead by Kurosaki Ichigo, as well Abarai Renji, and Ichimaru Gin. This group however, was missing its orange haired leader.
Three shadowed figures stood on top of a floating platform, each grinning in the presence of success and accomplishment. Kurotsuchi Mayuri half held a limp figure that was known as Kurosaki Ichigo, the visored,substitute shinigami, and the only living zanpakuto wielder of soul society, who was slowly losing that last particular title. Aizen Sousuke had Kuchiki Rukia slumped at his feet and was triumphantly holding the Hogyoku up to the light, while his blind accomplice, Kaname Tousen just looked happy to destroy Soul Society. Each member looked as if they had been put through a blender from the state of their clothes and their bodies, but their smirks counteracted what their bodies presented.
The final battle had reached an impasse, going in favor of the Gotei 13 when Tousen screwed up, until Kurotsuchi and his loyal daughter, Kurotsuchi Nemu, switched sides on the last second, much to everyone's surprise. The man was notorious for being underhanded, but even they did not expect another Taichou to betray his own forces at the last moment. Needless to say tempers were high and morale was low.
This is where the story begins, and ends.
As he drifted through what he would describe as the brightest place in the universe, the only thought that went through Ichigo's mind was: "Was this what Shinji and the others went through? Three hours of this is torture, let alone five! No wonder the they died, I mean sure the guy is as strong, but honestly! This place is driving me NUTS!"
After about seven hours into the extraction of his reiryoku, Ichigo was taking a break from trying to get out of wherever the hell he was in. He was captured, about to die, and on the verge of a tyrannical new world order, but he dealt with his panic and depression four hours ago due to one of his unspoken promises to himself to never follow the path of the emo. He had seen what it did to Ishida and he did NOT want that to happen to him.
He was about to try resurrection yet again and attempt to force his way out of the endless light, if there was an exit, when he felt a huge presence come from right behind him. Whirling around, he turned just in time to see a huge black tear in the middle of, well whatever the hell he was in, rip open and a blonde teenager spill out in an ungainly manner, and land in a heap with a moan of pain.
Ichigo is not the definition of a genius, yes he does have a mask to hide his true skills and yes he's not that stupid, and while good with tactics, he sucked at strategy (although his social skills and obliviousness to romance are indeed what people think they are), he was 115.7% sure that whatever Kurotsuchi was doing to him did not involve some random teenager his age falling through a tear in the air. Gawking at the boy, Ichigo took in his appearance. The youth was in his late teens, roughly 5'5'' tall, give or take a couple inches, with shaggy blonde hair with long bangs that spiked a little,framing his face pulled back into a short ponytail at the base of his neck. His eyes were bright blue with slitted pupils.
Ichigo watched as the teen slowly picked himself up, swaying dangerously during the process. He was handsome with high cheekbones, a defined jaw line, three whisker marks on each cheek. He wore a pair of loose, black cargo pants with many pockets with tan combat boots, a navy long sleeve shirt that had a red spiral on each shoulder. To top it off, the boy wore a khaki green vest with the same spiral symbol embroidered between the shoulders and leather arm bracers on his each arms that covered his palms but left his fingers free. Even though he wouldn't admit it, the guy looked pretty cool from a Ichigo's perspective… like something a person would expect from a manga, minus the swaying of course. Suddenly, the man suddenly stumbled over hurling what looked like his lunch near the observer.
"Ugh, damn Kamui. I guess I should have learned how to actually control it from Kaka-Sensei before he died", the stranger groaned "Now where am I?." Turning to face Ichigo, but still swaying rather dangerously side to side, the new arrival continued, "Oi, you wouldn't happen to know where I am, would you?"
Ichigo, desperately trying to ignore the smell of vomit, stumbled back a few steps, pointed at the unknown boy in an exaggerated way and shouted. This was an improvement compared to ten minutes before, but the boy still wasn't going to take any chances just yet. "Who the hell are you, and how the fuck did you get here? I couldn't even get out!
The new arrival simply turned to face the boy, seemingly making eye contact with the 16 year old, and stared for what seemed like a good hour. " Then he started to laugh and yell to himself. A lot.
"HAHAHA! Oh my Log, I can't even believe that there is someone so similar to me, both in personality and ideals. This is great." Looking around his at his surroundings, the blonde sobered up quickly. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and if I'm correct, this is a technique used to drain the power out of a jinchuriki. Judging by the amount of power you have now, I can safely say that you only have 20% of your power left. If you don't escape now, you will be completely drained in the next twenty minutes.
Ichigo couldn't really respond to what this guy said. Out of nowhere, a complete stranger appears, claiming that he screwed up a technique before completely changing his personality and stating that his power was getting sucked out of him. Turning away from the man he muttered "I've been here too long and am seeing things, gotta get out before Zangetsu gets taken out of me and save everyone." He made a grand two feet before a firm hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. The man glared at Ichigo and he felt something that caused him to fear this man. His presence, his intent… it wasn't human.
"Care to repeat that kid? What do you mean, before the demon gets taken out? What happened?"
Ichigo could tell this was not a question, it was an order. So he did what any person who could think straight and valued his life would do, he explained what happened. Aizen's rise to power, Kurotsuchi's desire for his unlimited growth potential and strength, and his Visored And substitute shinigami status.
Naruto nodded seriously. "Just to let you know, you're going to die and it's impossible for you to get out of your current situation. If you stay like this, your hollow will be extracted from your body, you will die, your friends will die, and the spiritual balance will fall into chaos. If someone stops the ceremony that the scientist is putting you through, the Kyuubi's chakra will rush back to you in a massive surge and cause an explosion that will kill everyone in about a ten mile radius." He crossed his arms and nodded his head sagely as if he had come to a conclusion that didn't affect him or the world in the slightest. "Yep. No if's and's or but's about it. You're friends will die either way."
This stopped Ichigo in his tracks. A multitude of emotions ran through his mind as Naruto explained what would happen, and throughout the entire thing, Ichigo could tell: He's not lying. "Th-that can't be true." He whispered in denial. "My friends! My teammates! My teachers! You mean to tell me that all that fighting was for nothing?!" Down on his knees, the orange hero sank into depression, or was about to when the guest yanked him back up and slapped him in the face with practiced ease.
"Hold on there Mr. Almost-Emo, I said you were hosed This time around. I happen to have some powers other than traveling between dimensions and worlds, thank you very much. One of which will be quite appealing to you if you are interested." He gave the boy a confident smirk that reminded the substitute shinigami of himself whenever he came up with an awesome strategy or technique.
Ichigo looked at the dimension traveler skeptically, "What, like time travel?" in a more than sarcastic tone.
The man made a funny sound as he tilted one of his hands from side to side. Ehh… I guess it is time travel. I can take you to any point in time but your current self of that time will be erased." Naruto stumbled to the side and threw up with a passion. Ichigo managed to jump away in time to not get covered in the stomach fluid, but he could do nothing to get away from the smell. Coughing, Naruto righted himself up again and groaned. "Ugh, kamui makes me sick… As I was saying, I can do something that is like time travel, but not. I'll explain later but for now it would be enough to say it's a one way trip and it only goes back. You will be the only one to remember what has happened afterwards, I can't make it so that your friends remember later. There will be rules though and I expect you to follow my orders when I give them to you since this isn't my first time doing this and I can make sure you don't do anything stupid. Screwing around with the past is unpredictable, and things don't always happen the same way even if you try to repeat everything perfectly.
Naruto, taking all this in stared at the man, who claimed to be able to turn back time. After ten minutes of deliberation, he replied. "What's the catch? There's no way you would do all this for free, I don't even know if I can trust you. What do you want… Naruto?"
I'll tell you my terms after I tell you the rules. This is the first time I've fixed a timeline, so change as little as possible unless you truly believe that it is for the best outcome. I cannot stress this enough. What you know is absolutely useless if it doesn't happen in the first place. That means don't try to pick up Rukia or Orihime the first time you see them, take your time and be subtle, don't try to be Ishida's best friend right off the bat, don't scream about Aizen's plan to invade Soul Society to the Seireitei, and for Log's sake DON'T start showing off. You are still the same orange gangster to their younger counterparts, don't give them any reason to think otherwise.
"So what is your price for doing this?" Ichigo questioned, looking at the blonde as he thought of an answer.
"My one condition is that you have to succeed.", The blonde smiled sadly. "All I want you to do is to save your friends. Do what I was never able to do." Becoming more focused, the blonde spoke again, "I… don't really like using this particular ability kid, it brings back some unwanted memories. I'm doing you a damn big favor by using this power for you… so be grateful."
Ichigo, eager to see how this guy was going to turn back time and save everyone nodded. "I can't believe that I am getting a second chance, and I'm not going to waste it."
Naruto grinned ferally. "Then back up strawberry. you are about to see a legend in action. I've been called several interesting things during my travels, and I can assure you, none were earned simply because they sound as awesome as I am." A rip appeared in the air of Ichigo's prison for the second time that day. "Are you ready kid?"
Ichigo nodded with a determined scowl and walked up to the tear in space and time. "I'm ready." With those words he took off at a sprint.
"Oh yeah, kid!," Naruto hollered. "I forgot to mention that you have to watch your friends die in the most painful ways as you run through to the other side." He waved, "See you on the other side. I hope you can keep your sanity!"