A/N: Before we, by which I mean you, get any further into this story of youthful drama and adventure just know that this story wouldn't exist, or at least wouldn't be coming to the light of day for a very long time, without the incredible series Sealkeeper: He Who Binds; by Syynistyre and the also amazing Bright Orange by Thephantomprince. Both of these are amazingly done Naruto stories that stand out as beacons of hope to FanFiction writers everywhere who hope to do justice to the works that inspired them. Please, give them a read!
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A tick mark was quickly growing on his forehead, a black cat had crossed his path and because of his willingness to follow stupid superstition he quickly rounded a corner to barrel down the street and cut it off. He checked his watch and groaned, it was already way past first bell and bothering to head there now would just land him in hot water with their sensei. He halted, not through his own mean however, as his face had a very close meeting with the wooden boards resting against a small building.
The clatter and rattling grated his ears as his cupped his reddening face and kicked at the dirt. His sneaker dragging harshly across the smooth ground and his stinging smack slowly cooling with the air flow seeping through his hands reached his red face.
"Meow…?"
Ichigo stopped his writhing to peek through his fingers and spy the black as midnight feline staring at him while sitting on its haunches. His hazel eyes narrowed as his lips came together to form a thin frown.
"Oh? You think that's so funny don't you? Well guess what…?" Ichigo turned himself over and lifted his rear into the air to keep his hands and feet flat against the ground, perfect position for pouncing, "well guess what you dumb cat…" Ichigo threw himself forward into a dive to hopefully scoop the little cat into his arms, all the while screaming at the top of his lungs.
"NO ONE MESSES WITH KUROSAKI ICHI-"
His dive missed terribly and the horrible skidding friction tore his palms to hell and back again causing his proud proclamation to drop into a pathetic whimper and near yelp.
His writhing began a new as he started rolling back in forth while blowing cool air into his scratched palms.
The black cat tilted its head and it's right ear proceeded to twitch, and just as quickly it began to screech as a broom landed on its back. It burst forward and past Ichigo but just as it reached the sidewalk it turned and something in its green slitted eyes seemed to claim vengeance.
Ichigo once again calmed himself long enough to see his target escape at an increased pace and resigned himself to deal with whatever bad luck fate deemed him worthy of for today.
"Hey you okay there kid?" asked a tired sounding voice from behind him and quickly Ichigo turned to face a man with bleach blonde hair in a green jinbei with a darker green haori with a white diamond pattern around the hem.
Ichigo turned his head slightly at the embarrassment that was quickly consuming him, "Ugh, yeah! I was...just trying to catch that cat since it crossed my, er, some girls path and it got away before she could do anything." His hasty explanation almost ousted him as a overly superstitious nut case with a thing against cats or possibly an obsession with them.
Ichigo slowly watched the man lean the bright pink broom against the building and pick up his cane before walking over to the small orange haired boy. The whole walk Ichigo couldn't help but feel bad about knocking over all those boards now…
In fact he was so absorbed that he failed to notice the blonde man taking his hands in his own and examining the scrapes.
"I can bandage these up for you if you want." The blonde man offered and Ichigo nearly sputtered. There was no way he could ask anything of the man walking with a cane. The man noticing Ichigo's line of sight turned his head to the turned over and knocked about boards and and smiled, "Oh, is that it? Don't worry about it my assistant can get those picked up while I bandage up your hands."
Ichigo rose an eyebrow at that claim before seeing a muscular dark skinned man with round sunglasses step out of the small shop with a brown leather apron and quickly go to work straightening the knocked down planks.
Ichigo, now with slightly less guilt, shrugged and opted to follow the blonde man into what now appeared to be a shop of sorts. Ichigo became entranced at the sights, a small counter sat right by the entrance and four rows of shelves were present across from that with a screen door acting as a backdrop or furthest wall from the door. The first shelf was an eye catcher if ever he saw one with manga tankobon and the rest of it filled with brightly wrapped candy.
Ichigo wiped at a spot of drool at the corner of his mouth before slowly following behind the blonde man, passed the sliding door and toward small room with a table and four cushions to sit upon.
Ichigo let his autopilot take over and he continued to take in the shop before a chord snap and a horrifying thought came into place. He was sitting here, skipping school, without anybody even the slightest bit aware of just where he had gone and stored himself and was now within the home of a stranger who owned a candy shop…
His train of thought derailed and crashed hard as the antiseptic spray met his palms. Ichigo hissed and tried to pull his hand back to nurse it but it was held tightly in the grip of the blonde man.
"Sorry about that, you seemed so lost in thought I assumed it wouldn't hurt as much," he chuckled to himself.
Ichigo very nearly blew up at him for that but caught it just as a well timed guilt pang struck him. He knocked over those boards and made more work for that assistant guy, and now this store owner was treating his scuffed hands. His orange mess of hair ruffled as he looked down.
"Y-yeah, as if it hurt…" he spoke with false bravado trying to ignore that irritable feeling in his gut.
The blonde man quickly finished wrapping the bandages around the boys hand and smiled, "There, done. Now you should probably stop hanging around mysterious store owners and head to school."
Ichigo failed at hiding his embarrassed stammering and quickly stood before bowing to the man, "Thanks Mr. Hat-and-clogs!" He called out as he ran out of the building and toward Karakura Middle School.
"Hey Kurosaki-chan!" Mr. Hat-and-clogs called after the ginger haired boy that stopped and turned. A small golden orange wrapped candy flew threw the air and smacked his forehead before falling into his hand, "the first ones on the house."
Ichigo beamed for short second before returning to his running out of the small store and toward school.
Tessai came in shortly after the young Kurosaki Ichigo ran out of the house and looked at his old and trusted friend, "Was it wise to simply let him leave? Should we not have run some test on how the Hollow Suppression Barrier is holding up, Kisuke-dono?"
Kisuke chuckled for second before retrieving a fan from his jinbei pocket and covering his smile.
"And what do you think our good friend Yoruichi was up to this pleasant morning?" Kisuke questioned, and as if it on que a black cat dropped from the ceiling and into the table before exploding into a cloud of mist.
Tessai turned and faced the wall as he heard the table shone and shift under the increased weight, he dared to peek and his spine shivered and his knees grew weak at the mere sight of the Shihouin clan heads exposed skin. He couldn't do it and crumbled to the floor with despair at his weakness.
Yoruichi ignores the agonized shop attendant and continued to press Kisuke's face deeper into the ground.
"Youruueechee! Your home!" Kisuke muttered out as her tense knuckles continued to press into his cheek.
"Don't give me any of that crap Kisuke! You hit me with a broom!" She practically roared. Her thighs pressed tightly against his abdomen with his left arm caught under her knee and the other in her right arms grip.
"Only to gain Kurosaki-chan's trust! You don't believe I'd actually whack you for fun do you?" He asked in mock hurt before recoiling as her knuckles pressed harder against his face.
"As if, I bet you only did that cuz you knew I wouldn't pounce on you right then and there."
The two shared a heated stare before Kisuke slowly began to deflate, the head Shihouin gasped and turned to the doorway before a bundle of clothes smacked her in the face.
"Put those on would you, your modesty is distracting poor little Tessai."
Yoruichi sneered before slipping on the bright purple yukata and tying the bright orange obi around her waist. She followed slowly behind the blond man into his office where a desk was placed against the furthest wall with papers and notebooks scattered all over it, resting against the wall was an asauchi, the poor thing was just a husk waiting for some up and coming Shinigami to start pumping reiatsu into it. Her attention turned to the whiteboard Kisuke was drawing a large circle into with the hiragana scribed across the top and bottom for 'sight' and 'within'.
"So do you think chasing me around actually did anything to get a rise out of the kids soul?"
Kisuke capped the pink marker in his hands and set it down and with a soft snap of his fingers the image on the board began to change. Quickly it displayed a small ball of blue fire with a red hue around it and a dark shadow beneath it. Kisuke brought up a hand to cup his chin and tilted his head to both sides for a moment.
"Peculiar. I would have thought that the suppression seal would have lasted for far longer than this." Kisuke turned away from the board, the image still up and fluctuating, to begin rummaging through his notes. He pulled up a vanilla folder with a strawberry sticker on it and quickly started flipping through it. He made several walkthroughs before pulling out a spreadsheet and throwing the rest of the folder over his shoulder and returned to the board where the red hue had slightly encroached on the blue flame and shadow beneath it seemed slightly darker. His bucket had produced a dark border that shrouded his eyes as the sheet slipped from his fingers.
Yoruichi looked to her long time friend in concern, her hand twitched as she considered bringing it up to squeeze his shoulder as a sign of comfort. Before he threw back his head and laughed. Now she considered punching him in the throat for making her worry. Kisuke gave her a long look before sighing.
"It looks as though our barrier has become rather flimsy over the years…"
Tessai stepped passed the door way in that moment with the land-line in hand and the phone up to his ear, "Should I contact Hachigen-sama?"
Kisuke crosses his arms before glancing over his shoulder and at the asauchi resting against the wall of his office before turning back and smiling at Tessai.
"No, not Hachi-kun...but you should call up Isshin-san I may have words for him…"
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Ichigo ran up the steps skipping two even three at a time before reaching the right level...just in time for third period to end.
With a disgruntled sigh he rested against the hairs tail of the steps and caught his breath, he looked up and saw that his third period teacher wasn't here today and had a substitute in his place. He sucked his teeth realizing he missed out on the chance to avoid spending a class period without Masako-sensei. Waving away the thought he approached his classroom and stepped through the threshold and instantly the classes murmuring stopped dead, and all eyes were on him. Ichigo rose an eyebrow and as if all at once it came crashing down around him.
His hands were wrapped in bandages, his uniform was dirty and scuffed, his hair was mess, he had a thin sheen of sweat covering him and his face was still contorted into the scowl he had while he chastised himself for being absent.
A tick mark quickly formed on his forehead as he huffed and stomped over to his desk. It was the desk furthest to the right in the front row, it was in between two windows which meant most of the time the sun was blocked from him which allowed him to take short naps between classes.
He sat down and crossed his arms over the table before resting his temple against his forearm.
He grumbled and stewed for a minute before he began to reason to himself.
'Who cares what they think. So what if I look like a punk, they better leave me alone or else!'
'We care don't we?'
Ichigo snapped up faster than a bat oughta hell and looked around, all the kids that had returned to murmuring froze and stared at him. His hazel eyes twitched erratically as suddenly he got the feeling like his skin was going to crawl off, and without thinking about i this chair felt like it stabbing into his back. He pushed back and into the desk behind him making the boy there, Asano Keigo, squeal in fear and jerk out of his seat at suddenly being bumped.
Ichigo stood rimrod straight and heard that echo of his voice again, but it was different it was closer, it felt too close! Like somebody whispering into his ear, there hotbreath filling the canal and the words stabbing his eardrum and ensnaring his brain. He looked at the spooked Asano Keigo before seeing the surprised and scared and expectant eyes that wouldn't leave him, so he decided to leave. His bag still on the desk, ignoring that little bit of trivia he fumbled out into the hall and rushed down the crowded passage before pushing past some girls and into the boys restroom. He felt cold under the fluorescent lights and the smell of bleach was burning his nose. Pushing off one of the stalls and carefully placing both hands down on the sink counter he stared at his reflection. It was him, obviously, his hazel eyes, his ginger hair, but at the same time the image he stared at felt so...hollow.
His stomach began churning and he regretted snagging that extra bit of toast this morning as he got the irritable feeling that it wouldn't be staying in his stomach much longer. The ceiling lights began to flicker as his breathing started picking up and suddenly the light furthest to the his right went out, leaving the medium sized school restroom half lit and the remaining flickering light above him gave Ichigo a feeling of dread. His wobbly knees kept him from leaving the room for the moment but like it or not he wouldn't be able to spend all of fourth period in here, they already thought he was a punk...wouldn't want them to think he was a druggie too.
'Do we care what they think!?'
Ichigo gasped at hearing the voice again and clutched his ears as the grating ringing returned, his eyes looked up and found his reflection but he froze. Standing there in the mirror wasn't the image of a ginger haired ten year old clutching his ears while bent over and looking like he was about to puke… No, in the mirror stood a ghostly pale version of himself with golden eyes resting upon a sea of darkness his white hair and a chilling smile that added to his relaxed shoulders.
Ichigo twitched for a second more before throwing himself back and out the bathroom, the crowds were lessened but the large gaggle of kids still remained littering the hall stared at him like he'd grown a second head. Ichigo stared at their curious eyes and shook his head until he felt better. He took two breaths and pushed the door open, the bathroom was back to normal.
He let the door swing closed and ran a shaky hand through his hair before beginning a slow walk back to class, his conclusion? To ignore whatever the hell that just was.
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His fingers wrapped tightly around the bag, and then they loosely unwound themselves. His eyes were closed and he was taking long breaths in through his nose and short breath out through his mouth.
"Meow…?" The familiar black cat from earlier purred with its head tilted to one side.
Ichigo opened his eyes and stared at the thing, that was the cause of his recurring rage. After the day worth of class he just had all he wanted to do was get home and drop onto bed and pretend like it was just a dream, but of course he'd run into the source of all his bad juju not five steps out of school.
He sighed and looked at the bag in his hand and then back at the cat that was casually staring at him. He looked behind him to the field of layered brick that led into the school that was still spewing out kids even after ten minutes before back that the cat that he swore was smiling.
'Just get the damn cat already!'
He nearly bent over in pain when he heard the voice but it sounded so compelling he chose to continue ignoring it.
Well, Ichigo after a day like today decided to run after the cat, with any luck he catch isn't and...well he hadn't thought that far ahead yet but he knew he was gonna catch that stupid cat!
As the ginger haired boy ran away from the school and after the feline, another boy had seen this and fearing the worst for the small cat decided follow.
And so the strange conga line was made! A black stray cat followed suit by an angry ginger, and then behind him an average looking brunette. The line continued at full sprint speed for all of three minutes until the cat rounded a corner with Ichigo following suit. Only the cat harmlessly ran through the legs of a man wearing a green jinbei. While Ichigo ran forehead first into the plastic cap at the end of his cane with all his momentum and after making a sound not unlike the distant clap of thunder inside his ear canal, and giving his whole body a numb feeling, causing him to buckle and roll forward and to a eventual stop.
"Ah! K-K-Kurosaki-san!"
Ichigo rose his head and turned at the panic cry and froze. Mr. Hat-and-clogs was standing over his limp body with his cane extended and a casual stance conveying nothing, then he heard the low growl behind him and turned to see the cat he was chasing frowning.
"Dammit Kisuke…" it growled out and Ichigo was stupefied.
"Did...did that kitty-cat just talk?!" Keigo flipped and fell backward onto his rear before a large oni-bat came down on his head and his soul came rolling out of his body with a chain attached to his chest that rattled all the way. Unlike the separation of Ichigo's soul.
Kisuke breathed a sigh of relief before pulling out a fan and shrouding his mouth, "Good job Jinta, now let's get Kurosaki-chan back to the shop, and will bring his little stalker along for free!"
Ichigo shook himself free of his stupor and looked at the passed out...Keigo Asano's...as in plural…
Then again, there were two of him, even if one of them was immobile and lying awkwardly at the feet of a blonde creeper with a red dot on his forehead.
The cat circled him for a second before he swore he heard a chuckle and a golden rope wound itself around his body and made it feel like his spine had been replaced by a led bar. Jinta picked up the body of Keigo, the physical one, while Mr. Hat-and-clogs picked up Ichigo, the physical one, and the cat sat upon the gingers head. They all shared a look before Kisuke produced a small paper tag from his haori pocket and crumbled it in his hand. In a bright flash the group was consumed in light and Ichigo had to keep blinking because he didn't understand what the hell just happened. The alley they had just been squatting in had vanished in the all encompassing white and yellow light and in its place he found himself, still being used as a cat's personal armchair, while in the middle of a barren field. Ichigo felt his lungs start begging for air as he soon realized he had been holding his breath. Ichigo felt a set a firm finger grab his chin and tilt his head up. Kisuke was smiling down at him with the same honest smile from earlier today.
A soft pop happened behind him and his eyes moved the the corner of his sockets as if on autopilot to find the muscular shop attendant had arrived with twin katanas strapped to his back, and twin satchel over his shoulders, and twin...well you get the idea. He slowly began dropping off the twin sets of item off before producing a large hand hatchet from seemingly nowhere. Ichigo was back to square one as now his lungs refused to take in any air. His hands shook violently as the imposing figure with the axe slowly approached.
"A-a-a-a-a-a-Ah! P-p-please! I don't wanna die!" came the helpless cry to Ichigo's right which brought his attention back to Keigo. The helpless ten year old with a chain sticking out of his chest was squirming and snotting himself up as the large man slowly approached.
Ichigo felt his jaw unhinge and the words began to vomit themselves out.
"L-Leave him alone! He doesn't deserve this!"
Tessai stopped for a second and turned his head a half a millimeter to let the suns heavy rays bounce off his round rim glasses and into the ginger boys eyes. Irritatingly Ichigo flinched and looked down at the ground in shame. Tessai brought the axe up and rested the rim of the eye against his shoulder.
"Tell me Kurosaki-san, do you know what is currently happening?" the man asked, and everyone, the two scared children not included, seemed shocked that Tessai would speak up at this.
Ichigo rose his head and looked back over to the still crying Keigo and back at his captors, "Y-you sick bastards are gonna kill us…?"
Kisuke actually chuckled, and the cat on his head sighed while Jinta scoffed and Tessai grunted. They all seemed irritated by the answer but reacted in much different ways. Almost like they all had personality.
"No, Kurosaki-san, we are going to save your life," Tessai said before taking three long strides forward and slamming the axe down atop the chain severing Keigo's connection to his other self…
Ichigo let his mouth drop open as he came a conclusion, "A-are we ghost!?"
The cat upon his head couldn't help but let out a healthy chortle while stomping its paw down on the orange crown he called his head. Ichigo grew flustered at the sudden fit of laughter to the point that he had began ignoring Keigo's panicked murmurings. In fact he was so flustered that for the first time since being bounded he decided to struggle against the binds. Bad idea as it turns out since they just constricted around him a little tighter than before. The group of captors distanced themselves from the bound and panicking kids before the cat brought up its paw and passed its tongue over the center most digits. The golden bindings burst and faded away.
"Alright, time to lay out some conditions and ground rules. Kurosaki-chan, as you may have failed to notice, unlike your stalker, you do not have a chain and instead were simply a soul inhabiting a shell," Kisuke covered his mouth with his folding fan once more, "that means your in for an easier time, however stalker-chan does have a soul chain, which means if he fails to remain in control the chain will consume itself and turn him into a hollow."
Keigo pushed up from the ground and looked at the two meters of chain he had and nearly vomited at the sight of the multiple mouths on the end of one of the links consuming themselves.
"You'll have roughly three to five days to reach the entrance to this room, if you fail to do so you'll run out of supplies and likely die in here. Also in that time stalker-chan must overcome himself and prevent the chains from consuming him."
Ichigo stood there, rather he laid there, flabbergasted. In what world, in what dimension, in what perception of reality, did this have anything to do with saving someone, how was any of this moral to these idiotic bastards! He wanted to rip out his hair if only to lighten the burden on his head.
Kisuke produced another paper tag from his jinbei sleeve and after crumbling it and being consumed in a bright yellow light the four were gone.
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A/N: And there chapter one. Hopefully I didn't give away too much between the lines, and even more hopefully my writing didn't make any of you want to 'Bleach' your brains...not funny? Eh, whatever, I'll work on it.
Anyway, as of posting this, chapter 2 is about 73% done and should be out before the end of December, which my goal is to update all my currently active stories at least one more time before I vanish into the void that is my home country that I'll be visiting for most of January, but after that things should hopefully be calm and steady enough for me to get updates out for all my stories again. Make no mistake I plan on working on these stories while I'm there, but posting them will be near impossible until I get back.
THANKS FOR READING!