'thoughts'

'Demon'

"Death god"

"talking"

"jutsus"

Ch. 1 Shadō mayonaka

(Shadowed midnight)

Amid the roar of battle and the groans of the wounded, a lone figure stood. Her tan skin drenched in blood belonging to both herself and her foes, she stood defiantly upon her feet despite her obvious exhaustion, her blond hair held natural crimson streaks with the strands tipped in silver, giving her hair the appearance of living flames dancing upon her head as she elegantly fought her opponent. While her moves were fluid yet deadly, she was still wounded by her dark foe, his orange mask long cracked and fallen to the bloody earth and his black coat patterned with red clouds tattered and frayed, the girl stood no better, her own red and black battle kimono torn and stained. Her bright emerald green eyes narrowed as she caught sight of her friend fighting an enemy of his own, another Uchiha and the very same one who had betrayed him. Despite herself she could feel her focus slipping as she worried for her blond, hyper friend. 'Please stay safe Naruto; I'm sorry I can't save you as you saved me.'

Naruto meanwhile was slowly gaining the upper hand against Sasuke, their fight had been long and hard as he and a new friend had encountered the traitor and his ancestor upon the battlefield of the final fight of the Bijuu War. Naruto had been worried for his friend as she had jumped to intercept Madara, leaving Naruto to fight his former teammate and yet for the entire time his focus was split between worry for his friend, who was like a sister to him, albeit and overprotective older sister, but a sister all the same. Naruto could easily remember how he and the other Konoha ninja had found her, broken and on the brink of death within Orochimaru's lab when they had gone there on another attempt to rescue Sasuke. Her name was Mira, the child of the only other survivor of the long destroyed Uzugakure, yet Orochimaru had hunted her family down as she was the last owner of a powerful bloodline, the Shikigan when gave her an affinity for all the main and sub elements. Upon her capture Orochimaru had injected her with the DNA of each of the nine Bijuu, causing the spirit of the ten tailed phoenix to be reborn within her and although it was not sealed, the mighty bird of living fire was bound, and born of her soul. It could never leave her and because of its presence Mira had an unparalleled affinity to fire, and was only able to access the other elements with her bloodline active. She had also gained Chakra reserves on par with Naruto's own, and near instantaneous regeneration. Despite her obvious aptitude in elemental ninjutsu, she found her true calling in kenjutsu, she was a true prodigy of the blade and unparalleled in lethality.

Mira knew she was reaching her limits, despite her skills her blade had already broken under the strain of War's forge, she knew she had to defeat Madara, to stop him from killing all of whom she cared for. 'Hey Yumi we are going to have to do that ninjutsu, we are most likely to die because of it because we are so low on chakra though…'

The deep, feminine voice of her inner demon responded, the voice musical yet tinged with the crackles of fire. 'Very well hatchling, you know your fate and though I would fight talon and flame to stop you I know it would do no good. We go to the ice grasp of death.'

Mira's eye twitched, 'Stop being so morbid, sheesh. It doesn't suit you, you pyromaniac.'

The only reply was the crackling roar of flames, Yumi's laughter. Mira rolled her eyes before she took a deep breath, the smell of death, and blood burning in her nose before she snapped her eyes open, Shikigan blazing a fierce frozen sapphire blue, her pupils becoming a nine point star, . She did three hand signs and yelled "Gen so no Fenikkusu Jutsu!" Fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning swirled into a giant phoenix; the elements pulsing with power as the great manifestation have a piercing shriek before heading straight for Madara.

"No! I will not die by the likes of you whelp! You will DIE!"

The ancient Uchiha quickly flashed through hand signs before giving a shout of "Jigen no Jutsu!"

Mira was too exhausted to dodge, to numb to even try to avoid the large black vortex that opened up beneath her, the swirls of obsidian expanded quickly beneath her and all she could do was watch with a detached interest as she seemed to float above the vortex for a second, watching as her last attack hit her adversary, and when the elements faded immediately upon impact after doing the damage, Yet Madara still stood, much worse for wear, and missing an arm but he still stood.

"MIRA NII-CHAN!"

Naruto watched with horror as his sister in all but blood locked eyes with him for a heartbeat, before the gravity of the vortex finally claimed her, slamming her tired, broken body into the onyx swirls as the dark vapor emitted by the dimensional rip swirled around her limbs, clutching them in an icy embrace.

When only her head remained above, she saw Naruto thrust a Rasangen into the back of the Uchiha, killing him instantly if the hole in his torso was any indication, yet the blond jinnurchiki did not look victorious, he instead stared with despair as he watched Mira sink beneath the portal, which gave a lurch that only she could feel with its creator's death. Soon all she knew was black.

(\(\;;/)/) -spider page break :P

When next she woke, Mira could feel a deathly cold chill permeating her being. It was odd as with Yumi insider of her she could never feel cold. After trying to contact the great phoenix but receiving nothing in reply Mira began to worry, 'Am I dead?'

She remembered the black portal, and Naruto's anguished face, but she could not determine where she was. All was black, with soft swirls of dark grey smoke forming the images of dead trees, their twisted branches seemingly reaching closer towards her with every new formation and breakage of the swirling smoke. Deciding that nothing would get done with her cowering in fear of smoke, Mira got up, noted with slight amazement that she was no longer injured and began to walk, simply picking a direction and going with it. As she walked for what seemed like hours she noticed several things, first was that she never got tired, second was that nothing changed but the smoky trees, third was that the smoky trees never reached within five feet all around her. Finally she had enough,

"Alright, if this is the afterlife then I don't blame Madara for wanting to live forever, it is BORING here!"

Dark, raspy chuckling drew her attention, whipping around to face the sound, her hand went to the non-existent kunai pouch that was normally at her thigh causing her to mentally curse at its absence. But soon all thought of attacking vanished from her mind as she saw the being before her. It was a skeletal figure, black skin stretched taunt over the bones, and pale milky white eyes that reflected her own image within them stared at her. The figure wore a himako black as the deepest night, and a sharply contrasting white hiro with the kanji for 'death' on the back which Mira saw as the figure walked past her frozen form before turning its head back towards her and beaconing her to follow with a boney hand. Against her better judgment Mira followed, she wanted to know who this was and well, to be frank she had nothing else to do. After a few more hours of walking the man stopped, causing Mira to almost bump into him.

"You are interesting young phoenix. Never has one of your kind entered my domain."

Mira was confused, "I'm no phoenix, Rōjin-sama."

The skeletal figure again laughed, "Hmm, a phoenix was born of your soul and is a part of your soul. And even in my realm you do not cower in fear, but complain of being board! You are amusing; I can see why my brother wants you."

Mira blinked, "Amusing? That's good right? You won't keep me here right? Cause I won't be amusing for long, I don't know that many jokes."

Her only reply was laughter, before the skeleton straightened up, "That is why you are amusing, allow me to introduce myself, I am the Shinigami of the Elemental Nations."

At his declaration Mira's eyes widened to astronomical proportions before she paled, "Shit, I am dead."

She was silent before speaking up again, "Ne, Shinigami-sama? If I'm dead then where is Madara? I owe that bastard a good kick where the suns don't shine for making my Otouto cry!"

Again laughter was her answer, and even though it was the god of death himself laughing Mira still felt a tick of irritation at the response. "Worry not, he was sent to where all those like him belong."

"You mean Hell? Darn, looks like I have to get in line."

The Shinigami gave her a toothy and skeletal smile, "Hardly, I have seen your life and your soul, you are a protector, you would throw yourself in harm's way to protect those you care for. Now, don't interrupt, I'm not calling you reckless though you are a bit of a pyromaniac what with Yumi, she was a good influence on you."

Mira idly wondered if she could use chakra now that she was dead, and if she would get in trouble for burning the Shinigami hiro, before she sheepishly realized she was proving him right in regards to her pyromania.

"Now, my brother is the Soul King of Soul Society, a heaven of sorts yet his shinigami fight the fallen souls called hollows. Your purpose is done in this world, you guided and protected Naruto as if he were your younger brother. I ask you now to do the same for another, don't worry I'm sure you will grow to like him in time. And before you ask you may keep your abilities and soon you will be able to contact Yumi again."

Mira blinked in shock, "Ok, this seems oddly generous. So what's the catch?"

Another grin, "You catch on quick, Your only catch is that you follow the orders given by my brother."

Mira just sighed, "Alright, better than staying here, bored out of my mind. Just tell me two things."

The shinigami cocked his head to the side like a curious cat, "Depends on what you ask…"

"Will Naruto be alright without me?"

Though she did not know how she knew, she could tell that the white, pupiless eyes softened, "Yes, though he may grieve he will live a long full life and become Hokage, he will never forget you."

Mira gave a small smile at the thought, "Next is why are you doing this?"

It was at the answer that she received that Mira was the one laughing, "I lost a poker match with my brother."

Mira just could not help it, she laughed till her sides hurt. Causing the death god to get slightly irritated, "Alright that's enough, it isn't that funny…"

Mira just kept laughing,

"Alright, you agreed now get out of here, and you are helping Kurosaki Ichigo, and will be helped by Kisuke, you can tell only him your story until my brother gives you permission otherwise."

With that he snapped his fingers, causing another black portal to open up beneath Mira as she gave a shriek of surprise before falling in.

When she opened her eyes, she saw an elderly man walked up to her. He wore a black himako and a white hiro with the kanji "King" on the back. The man saw her and spoke.

"Ah, it looks like my brother finally paid his bet." the man said kindly. "My name is Daisou Kinto, king of the soul society, a home for all spirits. Just a recap, you are to only follow my orders." Mira nodded and stood up.

"I, Saiyuuki Mira, pledge to you, Daisou Kinto, king of the soul society, that I will follow you to the best of my ability and give my very soul to complete whatever task you give me." Mira stated. He smiled even more and showed his hand. They shook hands. There was a flash of light and when it disappeared, Mira stood there in the same outfit as Kinto. She looked at her sword and it changed slightly. It looked like a regular katana except the hilt was red and black and the guard was like a bloomed lily.

"Sougoi…" Mira said in awe. She turned to him ready to receive here first mission.

"Recap, I will send you to human world. You are to find, learn and help Urahara Kisuke, but my order over rule his. Also you're to watch and protect Kurosaki Ichigo. I have a feeling you well soon see the soul society, but tell no one, except Kisuke, you work for me. Do you understand your orders?" Kinto asked.

"Hai." Mira replied.

"Then until I call you again, Farwell. Oh, and when you find Kisuke show him this." He through a medallion with a phoenix on it, after that Mira fell asleep and disappeared from the void.

~5 hours later; Mira P.O.V.~

I started to wake up. 'I wonder if it was just a dream…WAIT?! Where am I?' I thought looking around the room. It was small, but nice. Then I heard footsteps and the door opened. A tall man with a green and white stripped hat came in. He wore… well green and white. He smiled at me.

"Well, what brings a shinigami here?" the man asked. I answered.

"I am looking for someone. Do you think you can help me?"

"Sure, why not. What's their name? And yours too."

"My name is Saiyuuki Mira, and the man I'm looking for is Urahara Kisuke." The man stepped back a bit. "Are you him?" I asked tilting my head slightly. I pulled out a medallion and showed him. He grew pale and I didn't know why. He snapped out of it and was about to run. "Wait! I didn't mean to scare you. I was just ordered to find you, help you out, and maybe you can teach me how to use the shinigami powers. I just got mine." He looked at me.

"You're not going to bring me to the soul society or kill me?" he asked. I looked at him.

"Nope! But he said that only you can know I work for him." I smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Well then, let's get started. You will have a week in a half to learn both human and shinigami ways. After that I'll sign you up for high school. Ready?" he explained. I smiled at him.

"Yep!"

~1 ½ weeks later; regular P.O.V.~

Mira woke up at 6 am and got ready for her first day of high school. She put on her uniform and packed her bag. The uniform was a little flashy for her taste. After everything was packed she headed for the kitchen. She made eggs, sausages, toast, pancakes, and her lunch. She said good bye to everyone and left.

'Hey Yumi, you there?' Mira thought, trying to connect to the Bijuu, while walking to school. 'Yes hatchling, I'm here and heard everything… So when do we play again?' Yumi answered, Mira sighed. 'I don't know, but no fires tell after school.' She replied and continued to school.

She made it to her new school and came to the door of her new classroom. She sighed and went in. Mira wanted to leave as soon as she did… Or impale them with kunai. They were all staring at me. As she was entering a male flung his body at her. Reflexes kicked in and sent the boy to the ground.

"Are you ok? I'm sorry! My reflexes kicked in." Mira said and helped him to his feet.

"I'm ok. That happens to me a lot." He replied. 'He reminds me of Kiba' Mira thought.

The door opened again to reveal three people, two girls and a guy. 'Wow, girls her are sure different from home.' Mira thought. One of the girls had orange hair with a clip. It looked like a snow flack. The girl next to her had pitch black shoulder length hair. 'Kinda looks like Sasuke if he was female.' She thought. The guy, if he wasn't so tall and had blonde hair instead of orange he'd looked a lot like Naruto… 'I hope he is ok..'

They started to walk in and again eyes on Mira. The orange haired girl came up first.

"Hello, my name is Inoue Orihime. The girl behind me is Kuchiki Rukia and the boy is Kurosaki Ichigo. What's your name?" she asked. She reminded Mira of Ino.

"My name is Saiyuuki Mira, nice to meet you." Mira replied before the teacher came in. After intros and talking they were let out for lunch. Mira walked to a tree and sat down to enjoy her lunch. After she started a group came over to her. She felt their anger.

"Hey chick, we don't like differences." The big male said.

"So?" Mira replied. She saw Ichigo and his group coming this way.

"It means dye your hair or you get hurt." he said in a hateful way.

"Thanks for advice, but I like my hair the way it is." Mira said with a smile and sickening sweet voice. "Now please leave me alone. If you don't, you will find out all the ways fire can be painful." The group was shaking and left.

Mira decided to go inside. After she sat down Ichigo came over, but she didn't see him. He took his hand and touched her shoulder. Her reflexes kick on and Ichigo was on the ground. Mira helped him up and apologized for that. Ichigo said he was fine and walked her to Urahara's shop. After parting ways she did what needed to be done and sat in her room. She was reading a book called "Midnight's Shadow". Then she felt a large amount of ratshi and ran to the window. Hollows were popping up all over the place. She popped a round pill in her mouth was separated from her Gigi, and jumped out the window. She put on her hinge so no one would now it's her.

After thirty minutes she ran into a hollow that looked like a snake. She stopped in her tracks it hissed as it talked. Her fear and anger rose higher. It reminded her of someone.

~~~~Flashback~~~~~~

A giant snake flew from the woods and attacked Mira's home. After ten minutes everything was gone. Mira was crying, her family, friends and home where gone. The pale man that commanded the Snake that did this walked up to her and took her away.

~~~End Flashback~~~~~

Mira unsheathed her sword and ran to the hollow. It was killed. She continued her hollow killing.

"Damn it! Too many…" Mira said under here breathe. She went through some hand signs. On the last one she yelled "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A poof of smoke appeared and a dragon steeped out. It was 20 ft. high and 40ft. long with a wing span of 30 ft.; it was white with yellow and purple marking all over and orange spikes on its spine.

"Need assistance, My Lady." It said bowing.

"Yes Ranite. Please help me with this problem." Mira responded. It started to flap its wings and Mira jumped on. They flew high and started taking down hollows by sky. Mira saw Ichigo fighting, but he was starting to lose. "Ranite, land." She ordered. He did so. "Thank you for your aid." He bowed and poofed out in a cloud of smoke. She looked at Ichigo and saw a hollow coming in from behind. Mira took her blade and jumped in between the oncoming hollow and Ichigo. She swung her blade and hit. It disappeared. She was going to disappear, but Minos came.

She heard Rukia telling Ichigo stop, and Mira remembered; he is part of mission. So she jumped in front of Ichigo.

"Hey baka, listen to the girl!" Mira said. They looked at her in shook. Mira smiled. "Let the big kids deal with this."

"I'm not a kid!" he yelled.

"Whatever baka." Mira smiled again. "Fly into midnight's shadow, Ryuujin Dai!" She through her blade in the air, then a flash of light happened and when it cleared they saw to fan blades. They were identical to each other in every way but color; blades on the tips of the panels and on the sides. Ones blades were black and the panels were red, the other one had the same colors but switched. "Take this big guy, Genso shotto!" Mira through her fans at the hollow. Wind, fire, water, earth, and lightning swirled around them and hit the hollow, who then disappeared into the hole it came from along with all the other hollows. She sighed and turned to leave when Ichigo called out.

"Who are you?" he yelled. Mira smiled, looked over her shoulder and replied:

"My name is… I'm gay."

"Thank you I'm gay." Mira laughed and disappeared. Ichigo thought about what he just said, and grew red, while Rukia laughed. "She tricked me!" he yelled. He knew Rukia would never let him live this down.

~1 month later Mira P.O.V.~

I opened my eyes and looked at the clock and it said 7 am. I yawned and got up. It was Saturday morning. I made breakfast for myself and the others. While I was cooking I thought about everything that happened since I got her. Ichigo and his friends became close to her, Ichigo more than the others. They all reminded me of my friends back at my home. Orihime was Ino, Ichigo Naruto, Chad Shino, Tatsuki Sakura, Uryū Neji, and Rukia was Tamari. After cooking, cleaning, and training it was close to 5 pm. I remember saying yes to Ichigo's dinner invite today. She walked up to Kisuke.

"Ano, may I leave now to go to Ichigo's for dinner?" I asked. He looked at me and smiled.

"Yea, you can go. Just remember what I said." He replied and I left. I made my way to the park to meet up with Ichigo. When I saw him I waved and he waved back. We walked in silence until we got to the door.

"Watch out for my dad." He warned me, I looked at him confused. He opened the door and heard a yell.

"I~CHI~ GO~~!" and a kick came out of nowhere and I got scared.

"NOOO GREENSPANDEX, EYEBROWS, BOUL CUTS, AND YOUTH FLAMES!" I yelled, they all looked at me and I said "Sorry, you reminded me of someone I used to know." They went back to what they were doing. Ichigo came up to me and pointed them out to me as he said their names "The one in the chair is Karin, the one cooking is Yuzu, and the one on the ground is my dad Isshin." We shook hands and sat down to eat. It was a good dinner. Small talk here and there and the food was good.

Afterward we went to Ichigo's room. It was nice. There was a bed in the corner under the window with a white blanket with a blue cross on it, his desk was next to it, and a little lion plushy.

"Nice room." I commented. He nodded his appreciation. I saw a note on the desk and walked to it. It was from Rukia. It read:

'Dear Ichigo, I must go so they won't hurt you. Please don't come for me. Sincerely, Rukia'

"Ah, Ichigo… what's going on? Why is Rukia leaving?" I asked, he ran and read it. I looked at him and he left. 'Bastard, I can help! She's my friend too.' I thought and raced out the window after separating from the gigi. I then felt a massive wave of rashi and ran to the source.

~regular P.O.V.~

She finally found her, but Ichigo was fighting a dude with red hair and tattoos. Mira walked up to them. She could see him breathing hard.

"Well, look what I find." The whole party looked at Mira.

"You?!" Ichigo yelled.

"Hey mister! Please release my friend." The other man had black hair with a weird clip in it and had a pink sword.

"No, she is to be punished for giving a human shinigami powers. That is the law." The man said in an emotionless voice. "That boy also must die." Mira growled. Then she remembered who they were.

"Kuchiki Byakuya captain of squad 6, and that leaves red head, probably your lieutenant." Mira said. She looked over at Ichigo and saw he was tired. "Well, I guess I better start fighting." Byakuya started to walk over to Mira, and then disappeared. Mira relaxed and took her blade out and blocked his. "Fast and strong." Mira whispered. She pushed him off.

"Bakudo #5 Bindis" He said a light came out and bound Mira. Mira smirked

"Ha! You think you caught me? Guess again." And in a poof she wasn't there. He turned around to see her standing there behind him. "I haven't used my skills in a while… do you wanna play?" Mira asked playfully sheathing her sword. Byakuya just stared emotionless.

"Let's party!" Mira yelled, activating her shikigan. She flashed through some hand signs and called her move. "Raiton- Kuroi Kaminari no Jutsu!" Black lightning came out of her hand and straight at Byakuya. Said person dodged it.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura." He said, the blade disappeared into sakura petals, and started to attack Mira. She dodged and when through more hand signs.

"Futon- Kamikaze!" A great wind blew and the petals went away, and before they came back she yelled another jutsu. "Ranton: Raiunkōha!" thunder clouds started to form around her, shrouding her from view. Lightning started to shot towards Byakuya, his eyes widened. 'Who is this? How is she doing this?' he thought. His blades attacked again only to be sent back by lightning and wind. Then he heard her voice again. "No hard feeling, but I will not allow my friends to be hurt, Hyōton- Kokuryū Bōfūsetsu!" A dragon of black ice came out of the cloud, it mixed with the lightning and speed towards Byakuya.

After the smoke cleared, they saw Mira panting and Byakuya surrounded by ice. Just then a hollow appeared, she turned from Byakuya, who was surprised she did so, and killed the hollow. Mira fell to her knees, panting. She got up and faced her opponent, to find them leaving with Rukia and Ichigo dying. She went to Ichigo's side and used the little remaining energy to heal him when Kisuke showed up.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Byakuya… battle… Ichigo hurt…tired… healed…the best I could…almost won…stupid hollows…" Mira said before passing out. Kisuke took them both to his shop and got ready for massive training.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N

Angel- my first OC story! please tell me what you think!