Konoha's Soul Shinobi

Pilot: Death and the Fishcake

He looked down at the blood-covered sword plunged through his gut. "How… how could this…" He coughed up an alarming amount of blood as the sword was viciously ripped out of his body. Pure black reiatsu poured off his body as he reverted back to normal, dropping to his knees. Images flashed through his mind. "Chad…Uryu…Orihime…Renji…Dad…Ru…kia…I'm…sorry." Kurosaki Ichigo died that day. Or should have.

"Do you want to live?"

"What? Who's talking? And why am I not-"

"I will not repeat myself. Do you want to live?"

"Yeah…"

"Good. There is a boy in need of power, in a world not unlike your own."

"What? So… you want me to become his power? His zanpakuto?"

"Yes… and no. All of your power will be given to him. When he dies, I will it give back to you, and you can restart your life. He will, in essence, be you."

"But… something like that is impossible! It can't be-"

"DO NOT SPEAK OF TRIVIAL THINGS LIKE POSSIBILTY TO ME! I AM THE SPIRIT KING, BOY!"

"T-the… Spirit King?!"

"I no longer wish to speak to someone as close-minded as you. Begone, and my will… be done!"

"Wai-"

There was a brilliant flash of light and then…

Only silence.

The boy in question was lying on a bed, bruised and battered. Already, the Kyuubi's chakra was healing his wounds. The blonde looked up at the ceiling, tears in his eyes. "Why? Why do they hate me so much? I'm only eight years old, but every time I leave they find me and do this. It's only a matter of time before they kill me. I need to become strong. So this won't happen anymore." The boy sat up. Uzumaki Naruto was his name. Wincing, he stood, and immediately fell to his knees. "Dammit… dammit!" He clenched his fists as his tears fell. But suddenly… A power shot through him. The wooden floor below him cracked. His windows shattered. And dense, black energy rose off him. His eyes darkened to a navy blue. And a strange blade appeared next to him, formed out of the black power. Naruto screamed, the power threatening to rip him apart. And all at once, the flow of power stopped. Naruto, feeling as if his very atoms were on fire, blacked out.

Naruto awoke in a hospital bed. The reiatsu had completely torn the house apart. The villagers, fearing the Kyuubi escaping, had put him in hospital to watch him. Little did they know that Kurama was dead, obliterated by the reiryoku. The blade that had appeared before was beside him. Naruto tried to get up. "Restraints? Well, I sure get the five-star treatment, huh?"

"Don't bother trying to get up, demon." Naruto's head turned towards the unseen speaker.

"And why shouldn't I?"

"Because, idiot, you're restrained. Lucky for you, I called a doctor soon as you woke up. Pah! If I had a choice, I'd let you rot there."

Just then, the doctor walked in. "That will be all, Mizuki." The speaker, now identified as Mizuki, left without another word.

She turned to Naruto and undid his restraints. "Now, how are you feeling?"

"Pretty good, actually. If you don't mind me asking, how long was I out for?"

"Two days. Hokage-sama also wishes to speak to you immediately."

"Hokage-jiji? Oh, I've gotta go!" He grabs the sword at his bedside. "See ya!" He runs off to the Hokage Monument, all the while earning glares from the civilians. When he arrives, he dashes into the Hokage's office. "Naruto." says the Third Hokage. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" replies the blonde.

"Hmm. Well, this is the address of your new apartment. Would you like an escort?"

"No, I'll find it myself. See you Jiji!" And with that, the boy leaves.

Once he has found his apartment, the boy starts to think. "This new energy… It feels unfamiliar, but yet…What did Jiji say about chakra that one time? That it was… physical and spiritual energy. And that would mean this energy… the only explanation is that it is one of the two. And since physical energy would only increase my physical strength, which would mean that this is spiritual power… reiryoku. That means I could use this to become strong. But if I wish for strength, I'll have to work at it and train." And with that, the boy takes his blade and goes to Training Ground 7. "Now what could I use my reiryoku for..?" "Jutsu! Except I want them to be different, unique. So I'll call them 'Kido' instead. Hmm, but I can't only develop attacks. So I'll separate them into 'Hado' and 'Bakudo'. Also I can pump my reiryoku into my legs for high-speed movement. I'll call that… 'Shunpo'. Alright, time to begin. Naruto charged his reiryoku and shot forward, testing shunpo. "Owww. I need more control, unless I like smashing heads on trees. But at least it works." Now he thought of hado. "This one is the first, so it is not going to be very strong. I want it to push people back a few feet, like a really strong punch." He breathed in and focused. "Hado #1: Sho!" The wooden post Naruto had aimed at shattered. "Yes!" exclaimed the child. "Now, the first bakudo. I want this one to immobilise the arms and legs. Maybe I could make a clone out of reiryoku, since I have much better control of that than chakra. Speaking of which, I shouldn't neglect my chakra because of my reiryoku. Anyway, let's try this out!" Making the Tiger handseal, he shouted "Rei Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto secreted some of his black reiryoku, which formed an exact clone of him. "Alright! Now for the bakudo!" said the real Naruto. "Bakudo #1: Sai!" Immediately, the clone's arms were locked behind his back, and the clone fell to the ground. "Yeah! This is going perfectly!" As the clone dispersed, Naruto finally drew his blade. "It's emanating power… and it feels made for me, exactly. I feel that you already have a name, but I don't know it, so I'll call you my 'zanpakuto' – my Soul-Cutter." The zanpakuto was a regular katana. It had a black hilt, and it's only decoration was a lone green bandage rapped on the hilt. Naruto took up a stance and charged at a training post. He trained endlessly, only letting up for rest and nourishment.

A few weeks later, he was sleeping after an extremely hard day of training when he suddenly sat up, alert. "What is that I sense?" He had developed an acute sense of reiryoku, the biggest beacons for it being his best friend, Uchiha Sasuke, and his secret crush, Hyuuga Hinata. But, this… this was pure malice. He ran to the nearest window to see the winged beast bearing down on the village. (AN: Think Shrieker.) "What the hell...?" said Naruto. He grabbed his zanpakuto, leapt out of the window and made a disk of reishi to stand on. "Hey, Ugly! If you want to attack someone, attack me!"

"Mmmm...Shinigami…" thought the Hollow.

"If you won't attack… then I will!" The boy leapt out at the Hollow. "Hado #1: Sho!" The point-blank range of the attack cracked the Hollow's mask and it was sent flying. Using shunpo, Naruto appeared above the Hollow and kicked it to the ground. It picked itself up and charged at the boy, who was on the ground, but was stopped by a finger to its mask. "Hado #4: Byakurai." The bolt of lightning ripped through the Hollow before it had a chance to scream. A certain raven-haired boy and blue-haired girl watched the battle with shock. Never had they known Naruto had so much power. When he turned towards them, the quickly hid. "I already know you're here. Come out." Sasuke and Hinata stepped from the houses they hid behind and came out.

"He has friends? Well, I better give them zanpakuto as well." said the Soul King. "God knows they'll need it." The Soul King chose two Shinigami that weren't very close to Ichigo for their powers. "I'm pretty sure I just referenced myself…"

"What are you two doing here?"

"Well, I-" started Hinata, before her eyes glowed pink and she collapsed.

"Hinata!" shouted Naruto, who rushed to her side. "For a second, I could've sworn I saw…" His eyes widened.

"Gahhh!" Sasuke collapsed as well. His eyes had glowed red. And before his eyes, energy leaked out of the both of them and formed zanpakuto of their own. "Yeah. It's definitely… reiryoku!" thought Naruto. "We'll start training tomorrow. I've got these two home now." Naruto and the two new reiryoku users vanished, in a reiryoku shunshin Naruto had created himself.

That was it! What do you guys think? Plz review your opinions!