Ichigo woke up with a startle, after catching his breath he began to look around himself. He seemed to be on some kind of beach. "How did I get here?" Ichigo asked out loud for himself, before he remembered what had happened before he woke up, his mother had died on that riverbank and he had felt a stinging pain in his chest as if he had been impaled before blacking out. As he remembered this his eyes began to water, she were dead, and it was all his fault. Had he not run toward the girl who looked like she were jumping into the river, then his mother would still be alive.
As he cried he reached for his shirt to use it to wipe his tears, only to find that his shirt seemed to be torn and drenched in something as he looked down on himself and saw his reflection in the sea he gasped.
His shirt were almost ripped in half only holding onto one of his shoulders and exposing his chest. But what truly made him gasp was that his skin were a pale white, as if he'd never been out in the sun before. His eyes had become a sickening yellow color with black sclera, but the biggest change was the large round hole that were not located in the middle of his chest. As any nine year old boy would do in his situation he did the only thing he could think of, he screamed.
Two days had passes since Ichigo had woken up in this strange place. Once he had stopped screaming in panic about his changes he had decided to try and find his way home, his father and two little sisters would no doubt be worried sick about him by now. After walking for almost two days straight he finally found what appeared to be some sort of town, there were buildings that were all made out of stone and seemed to be ten stories tall and were round rather than square. Although it was hard to tell for sure with all the mist that were obscuring his view.
Ichigo entered the village and quickly found what appeared to be merchants standing by different stalls. As he made his way towards one of the stalls he could hear the whispers around him.
"Oh my god look at that kid."
"What's wrong with his eyes, and it that a hole in his chest?"
Ichigo felt the tears start to gather in his eyes but he did his best to hold them back.
"Excuse me, c-could you tell me where I am?" Ichigo asked the old man in the stall.
"You're in Kirigakure kid, how can you possibly not know that?" the old man replied without eyeing the boy.
"Um, Could you tell me how to get to Karakura?" Ichigo asked hesitantly.
"Karakura? Never heard of it before" the man replied, this time looking at the boy.
"What the hell has happened to your clothes kid, and is that a hole in your chest!?" the man exclaimed now that he had actually looked at Ichigo.
"Uh, Uhm I don't…" Ichigo tried to think of a good reply but could not think of anything to say. And he could feel that he was quickly losing the war against his tears.
"Yuuko keep an eye on my stall for me for a moment would you?" the old man asked a woman behind the stall.
"Of course dad." She replied. As the man grabbed ahold of Ichigos wrist and began to lead him into one of the large stone buildings. As they got inside the man quickly went into one of the rooms and started to rummage through what appeared to be a box full of old clothes. As he pulled out a dark blue kimono and a white sash.
"Here put this on, I'll go prepare something for you to eat." The old man said as he handed the kimono and sash over to Ichigo and then walked off to what Ichigo assumed was the kitchen.
Once Ichigo had gotten dressed he made his way to the kitchen, he wasn't sure what to do with his bloody and torn shirt so he folded it into square and put it on the floor next to the room.
As he entered the kitchen he sat down by the table and the old man gave him a cup of tea as well as a bowl of rice. As Ichigo stared at the rice he realized that he hadn't eaten in the past 2 days, and he hasn't felt even a trace of hunger or even a lack of energy. But he quickly pushed these thoughts aside and began eating the rice as he did not want to be seen as ungrateful.
"You can stay here for a while if you want kid, as long as you help out around here." The old man said while Ichigo were chewing down the rice.
"But I still got to get home to Karakura!" Ichigo exclaimed in between bites.
"Mmm." The man said as he walked over to another room and started to search for something.
By the time he returned he were carrying a large piece of paper that he unfolded and put down on the table.
"Point where this Karakura is located on this map kid." The old man told Ichigo.
"My name's ichigo, not kid." Ichigo replied as he put the now empty bowl aside and began to look at the map.
"…It's not there." Ichigo said after studying the map. "Karakura is located in Japan."
"Japan?" the old man asked, "Never heard of it kid, we're in the Elemental Nations." The old man stated.
Ichigo could only look at the man in shock, he might only be nine but even so he remembered that there were no such continent in the whole world, does this mean he's not in his world anymore? But that would mean he'll never get to see his family again.
Ichigo could feel the tears start coming again.
"Hey now kid, don't cry, I'm sure you'll find your way home some day!" the old man said as he tried to stop Ichigo from crying.
Two weeks passed rather quickly for Ichigo in his new 'home'. He had learned that this world was populated by what was called ninjas who'd take on different missions to support and protect their village. Upon learning this he had instantly begun asking the old man and Yuuko for permission to become a ninja so that he could protect them. After realizing that Ichigo would probably never stop the finally succumbed to his will and enrolled him into the academy.
And today was his first day, Ichigo had to admit that he was rather nervous. From what the old man and Yuuko had told him the other kids had already been enrolled since they were about 5 or 6 years old.
As Ichigo entered the classroom to introduce himself he once again heard the familiar whispers about his appearance that he had heard so many times before in the past two weeks.
"Class this is your new classmate Ichigo Kurosaki." The teacher said gesturing towards Ichigo who stood next to him.
"It's nice to meet you all." Ichigo said as he bowed and the teacher told him to go take an empty chair.
"Alright class today we're going to go over the basics of chakra." The teacher stated as he turned around and began to write on the blackboard.
"All right class who can tell me what chakra natures there are?" The Teacher asked as he looked over the children.
"Honoka." He said as he saw the girl holding up her hand.
"Fire, wind, lighting, earth and water." The girl said.
"Correct and-" The teacher said before being interrupted by Ichigo raising his hand.
"Teacher, what's chakra?" Ichigo asked with a dead serious expression on his face.
The teacher looked at the pale orange top as if he had grown a second head before he sighed and began to explain what chakra is to the nine year old, while the rest of the class were whispering and laughing at his lack of such a basic thing.
After what felt like an eternity of boring theoretical lectures the teacher had finally told them that it was time to do some Taijutsu sparring outside. They were put into pairs to have one vs one combat, the winner would be decided by the teacher.
As Ichigo waiting on his turn he watched the other children spar and were reminded of Tatsuki and the rest of the kids in the dojo he used to go to. Once it was his turn he went into the big circle that were on the ground and took a basic stance.
His opponent were a boy with brown hair and took a similar stance. Once the teacher gave the sign the boy leaped into action hoping to take Ichigo off-guard, Ichigo quickly dodged the boy's right punch and countered it with a kick to the stomach. The boy gave out a gurgling scream as he spat out blood and vomit before he collapsed onto the ground.
Ichigo was shocked. He had tried to kick Tatsuki with the same strength many times before but she had easily blocked him before kicking his ass in return.
"Could what ever happened to my appearance have affected my strength as well?" Ichigo thought to himself.
"Winner Ichigo Kurosaki." The teacher said with a calm voice before telling one of the classmates to grab the boy and take him to the infirmary.
