Author Notes: I of course do not own bleach or Naruto and all that jazz. This is my first attempt at a Naruto Bleach crossover but I have an interesting idea and hope you guys will agree with me once you've read it. It's a bit of a slow start but i've gotta have set up. Have fun.

This battle, it seemed, was meant to end as all of their previous clashes had. Whatever jutsu they used, whatever styles they delved into it always came down to a clash of two Jutsu; the Rasengan and the Chidori. A man with raven hair and spinning red eyes charged across the water at speed most would never be able to comprehend, but the blond on the other side of the lake was one of them. He watched carefully as he held out his hand and a screeching sound poured through the valley as a bright white light erupted from his hand and started to spin, the Futon-Rasengan.

Blood was dripping down the blonde's face as he leaned forward and charged at his raven haired enemy. He was certain Sasuke thought this would be like so many of their other fights, where they would smash their jutsu together at point blank in an attempt to prove who was stronger right in the face of the other, but the blond wasn't trying to prove anything anymore. He was there to kill his one-time friend.

They were only 100 feet from each other now, the blond knew that distance would be halfed in a second, he lifted his arm and threw the Futon-Rasengan now turned Rasen-Shuriken directly at the incoming Uchiha's feet. Red eyes widened in surprise, then horror, then rage as he tried to skid to a stop. Unfortunately, at the speed he was going the friction wasn't enough to stop him in time and he slid directly into the incoming mass of chakra.

A terrible scream ripped itself from his throat as he felt millions of tiny blades slice into each of his cells, time seemed to slow down and with each second he felt his life be torn from his body. What felt like hours was merely seconds before the Uchiha fell to the ground covered in blood with eyes that gazed at the world but saw nothing. The blond walked slowly through the expanding blood pool and crouched down by his enemy. He reached out and gently closed the fallen teen's eyes, "Goodbye, Sasuke."

With his piece said the blond took several steps back and did his duty to his village, delivering the fate of all missing nin, he flashed through hand signs before holding his fingers up to his mouth and expelled a white hot flame that licked greedily at the fallen Uchiha's body.

Unbeknownst to the blond an exact copy of the now burning Uchiha with a chain coming out of his chest was standing 5 feet away from him shouting in rage. "How Dare you Dope! I'll KILL YOU! I'LL KILL ALL OF KONOHA FOR THIS!" The enraged Sasuke pulled out his sword and charged at the stationary blond, never bothering to notice the tears in his eyes as he stared at the fire, he brought down his sword on the blonde's neck. And watched it sail on through. There was no tearing of flesh, no resistance, no splash of blood. The sword merely passed through as if the blond were a mirage.

He tried again and again but continuously his blade would merely slide through the blond without causing damage. He threw down his sword and flew through hand signs waiting for that familiar chirping sound to batter his ears as his arm was engulfed with lightning but nothing happened. There was no stench of burnt ozone, no sound of birds and no surge of chakra down his arm. There was no chakra but in its place he could feel something, softer? Less substantial, if chakra had been a block of wood this energy was like rushing water. Sasuke could feel it there but couldn't get a hold on it.

He spent the rest of the day trying to kill his blond ex-teammate or yelling at him. He even resorted to attacking random strangers in hope that he would be able to interact with one of them but nothing seemed to happen. They were almost back to Konoha when Sasuke heard an animalistic roar that he was unfamiliar with. Deciding his current choice of actions wasn't helping he abandoned his blond teammate and went into the forest in search of the sound. It took him several minutes but he was starting to get a small grasp on the new energy, he was able to increase his speed using the tree climbing exercise to leap from one tree to another.

Maybe once I can use this energy I can go back and kill the Dope!

Those thoughts were momentarily robbed from his mind however, when he reached a small clearing. In the clearing was a man with brown hair in a black ShihakushĹŤ wielding a katana and a giant creature that looked like a frog with a mask made out of a bone like substance. The creature opened it's mouth and its tongue flew out with all the amazing speed of a frog catching a fly out of the air, on the end of its tongue seemed to be spikes made out of the same bone like material.

The man with the sword wasn't fast enough and got stabbed in the shoulder, even though he cried out in pain he reacted quickly as the frog started dragging him towards its open mouth. He swung hard with his katana and separated the creature from the end of its tongue. He then leapt high and swung his sword down hard, bisecting the creatures mask. The frog screamed, in an impossibly high pitch, before disintegrating before Sasuke's red eyes.

From Sasuke's eyes it didn't just disintegrate, it changed into a blue energy that was then scattered by the winds, looking at the sword wielder he noticed that when he had jumped there had also been blue energy coming out of his feet. Pulling his blade from the sheath behind his back Sasuke held it up horizontally and used it as a mirror, sure enough his pinwheel eyes remained the same and staring back at him even without any chakra draining to them.

Quietly he went through the hand signs and fed this new energy to the jutsu, it was a minor lightning jutsu meant to incapacitate but when it was used now the lightning was purple and exploded into a small cloud, slightly burning his fingertips. Thinking for several seconds the raven haired Uchiha decided to try, while the man was turned and wrapping a bandage around his shoulder, Sasuke jumped out and rushed at the man while doing hand signs. When the man turned around Sasuke was done and inaudibly cast a compliancy genjutsu by surging energy through his Sharingan eyes.

The man seemed to struggle and shake for a minute before calming and looking at the dead Uchiha with glazed eyes. "Who are you and what was that creature?"

"I am Akashi Yusada, 18th seat of the 12th squad. That creature was a Hollow, a spirit who has lost their soul and has to consume the souls of others."

"12th squad of what?"

For the next three hours Sasuke continually asked questions of the man, apparently he was a soul now and if the chain on his chest disappeared he would become a hollow, little more than a mindless creature. However, if he allowed the shinigami to perform konso, or a soul burial, on him he would lose his identity. His physical traits would be changed and his memory erased, to give him a fresh start.

I don't want a fresh start, Konoha still has to pay for what it did. And if what he said about the Soul King occasionally stepping in to stop events in the real world is true then he let all of this happen. He needs to be made to answer for letting all of this occur.

With his mind made up Sasuke realized his reiatsu, or spirit energy, was running low and he only had a few minutes control left, he had to get to Soul Society and find a way to get rid of his chain of fate without losing his mind.

"Return to Soul Society, tell no one of me."

The shinigami nodded and stabbed his sword into the air, with a simple twist two Japanese style sliding doors appeared in midair and opened to a blinding white light. Once it was open he stepped through, Sasuke slipped through just as the doors were closing and hid in the man's shadow as he headed for Soul Society.

Fortunately for the dead teen the Senkaimon opened within Seireitei, there were only two guards who were easy enough to get past. He was getting faster and faster the more he practiced, he spent the next two days stealing food and resting to recover his energy, but as he did he noticed more and more of his chain was disappearing. It seemed slower in Seireitei, Sasuke assumed it was due to the high density of spirit particles that he was told about.

He was strong enough now; his first stop was to break into the Soul Academy Library and while the information they had was useful it in no way helped his problem. However, there was one important piece of information, there was a library that allowed only seated officers and above. Two more days looking for it and he had the front door, but it was guarded and he had lost half of his chain of fate. He waited for the changing of the guard, killed a guard, burned his body and used a Henge to get close enough to the other guard to kill him as well.

Disposing of the bodies and replacing them with two Henge'd clones took care of his main problem but it taxed him far more than it should have, his spiritual reserves were half of what his chakra reserves had been. He had the feeling that higher level techniques and any that required physical energy would now forever be beyond him.

Several hours later he stumbled across a paper by one, Urahara Kisuke, which hypothesized that by finding one's zanpakto a plus could transfer into a shinigami without undergoing reincarnation within Soul Society. He stole some books on high level kido and other fighting skills and left before someone discovered his infiltration.

Hiding away in a storage warehouse he followed the instructions given in the paper, it theorized about more complicated ways that were possible if one had lost their access to reiatsu but that wasn't his problem. Sasuke sat down cross legged behind some crates and meditated, he had experience entering the minds of others but had never gone to his own.

When his eyes opened he was no longer within a dusty warehouse but an empty battlefield. All around him were bodies and weapons, they were all black and charred as if some great flame had swept through once the battle was over. The dead Uchiha took all of this in with an apathetic gaze, Naruto's mind had looked like a sewer, what did he care for appearances.

At the edge of the horizon he could see a light that seemed impossible, it gave off light but it was of the darkest black. Continuing on for several hours he reached the inferno, now he recognized the flames. They were the flames of Ameratsu, his fire jutsu of choice since receiving the Mangekyo Sharingan from the death of Itachi. In the middle of the flames was a figure kneeling with his head bowed and a dark cloak pulled over his head.

The raven haired teen watched calmly for a moment trying to figure out how to get through the wall of flame. Finally he set his shoulders and stalked forward. The flame licked hungrily at his fingers and legs but refused to burn him. When he stopped before the kneeling figure he heard a deep baritone ring out, "Good. I refuse to have a wielder who is afraid of their own power."

"Good thing I'm here then, this fool would just get us killed again."

Sasuke whirled around with all the speed that had made him terrifying as a missing-nin and found another man standing but a dozen feet behind him. He would never admit it but no one had managed to get that close to him without his knowing in years, and it shook him.

"Who are you?" The sharingan user demanded.

"Perhaps I'm your zanpakto, Sasuke Uchiha."

"If that were true then who is he?" Sasuke jerked his chin at the crouched figure, his eyes never leaving the new figure bathed in shadow.

"Perhaps I'm your zanpakto, Sasuke Uchiha." Parroted the crouched figure as he finally stood, he was taller than either of the other two by at least a foot but the shadow of his cloak still hid his face.

Sasuke blurred towards the shorter of the two figures intent on wrapping his fingers around the figure's throat and choking answers out of him. The recently dead Uchiha may have been a blur but the other figure seemed to merely blink out of existence. He reappeared next to his taller counterpart and merely glared into Sasuke's pinwheel eyes. The older seeming figure spoke calmly, "You have been in this meditation for several hours and your soul chain has only one link left. Find your zanpakto or get turned into a hollow and slaughtered within the walls of the Sereitei."

As the words left his mouth the world seemed to burst into flames, everywhere the fire touched the world seemed to disintegrate under its great heat. The fire was on the horizon now but Sasuke somehow knew it was going to circle in on him fast.

The raven haired teen's fist tightened until his bones creaked dangerously, "Tell me how to find my zanpakto."

"You are in your inner-world, the physical manifestation of your zanpakto would be held in the most precious place in this world."

My most precious place, there must be something around here that is important to me.

Sasuke focused reiatsu to his legs, similar to how he had previously used chakra, he could feel the reiatsu leak off his legs in waves, dispersing uselessly into the air but he leapt anyway and made it no less than 60 feet into the air. Using his sharingan he quickly took in everything in every direction and memorized them. By the time he landed he was dissecting what he had seen and trying to figure out if any of it was important to him.

There were copious amounts of corpses in various states of decay in every direction. There were plenty of weapons lying along the ground but they were mostly blood splattered and in such states of disrepair that they were almost useless to him. The fire was getting closer, he figured he only had another 30 seconds before it reached the center and burned him to ash.

He spun again, letting his eyes take in every detail before suddenly stopping. There!

In less than a second he was gone; sprinting across the battle field heedless of the bodies he stepped on in his way. Suddenly he stopped his eyes going wide as he starred down at one very special corpse. Itachi.

His brother's eyes were closed and a gentle smile tugged at his lips. There were no noticeable wounds on his body; he merely laid there with his hands resting on his chest. Clasp between his fingers was the hilt to a sword. Sasuke smiled softly, "You really have always been there for me Nii-san."

Gently, Sasuke pried the hilt from his fingers and stood watching as the flames came closer. They spread with renew energy as they roared higher and surged towards him. Looking down at the bladeless hilt he wondered if this truly was his zanpakuto. "Why isn't it working?!"

Just as Sasuke was about to leap back towards the two residents of his soul he felt a cold hand close around his wrist. Whipping his head back around his eyes widened as he saw Itachi's eyes open, exposing his fully matured Mangekyo Sharingan, Sasuke could only watch in astonishment as Itachi sat up and slammed the bladeless hilt in Sasuke's hand to his chest. Then gravity seemed to return and Itachi started his slow descent back towards the earth, but while he did a blade emerged from his flesh.

The blade was pitch black and fully secured to the hilt in Sasuke's hand; it was at least 27 inches long with the traditional curve of a katana. When the tip of the blade left Itachi's body Sasuke felt a burst of energy as he was connected to his zanpakto and the world disappeared in a blinding flash of light.

********************************************World of the Living********************************

140 years later

Akai yoru. That was the name of mercenary group acknowledged as the second coming of Akatsuki. This second group of 9 shinobi, each powerful enough to level armies, also had the objective of ending war. The difference between the Akai yoru and Akatsuki was their mandate. The objective of Akai yoru was to stomp out all knowledge of Chakra in the world and with it the power to subjugate, the world's ability to wage war through shinobi. After the Fourth Shinobi war there was peace, but it was a false peace and shattered in but a few short years. The wars that followed lasted decades, entire generations were lost and even the civilian population was slaughtered like cattle before the might of shinobi armies. It was out of these fires of war that Akai yoru emerged 9 of the strongest shinobi that the world had ever seen, their skills and powers honed in carnage and their hopes for the future shattered and blown to the wind.

They began their own war, one with only three sides; you were one of them, a civilian or an enemy. If they came across anyone not a civilian they were exterminated. It took 60 years to eradicate all shinobi and all knowledge of Chakra. Now the nine stand in a clearing outside what used to be the last stronghold of shinobi in the world. Eight kneeled before their leader with kunai in hand watching as their leader, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, addressed them for the last time.

"There is no hope on the battlefield…only unspeakable despair. Just a crime we call victory, paid for by the pain of the vanquished. Yet the shinobi didn't realize this truth. They claimed the battlefield was better than hell. What a joke! It's hell itself! If you kill someone you in return shall be killed. Hatred only breeds more hate and the return to old grudges far left untouched by the sands of time. The widespread sale of death dealt by shinobi is causing this world to rot and as such monstrous shinobi like us deserve to die so that the world may flourish without this curse of Chakra, which empowers and drives mad the soul of man and beast. Only normal humans deserve this world, we exist as parasite slowly spreading our disease as we syphon the power of the earth and dare claim it as our own. With this we shall shut the gates to chakra forever!"

"Hai!"

With their last piece said the eight plunged special kunai into their hearts as they willed the tailed beasts contained within their bodies to be free from and join within the body of their leader. Naruto stood still as the power of the tailed beasts seeped into him, making his muscles clench from head to toe as he struggled not to scream.

Finally, the power became too much and he turned away from the bodies of his last remaining friends and screamed out his pain to the heavens. He didn't even watch as trees for miles in front of him were shattered to splinters, the earth yawned wide and hurricane winds whipped through the now barren planes. Clouds gathered and spun around the screaming warrior as lightning tore the earth around him in every direction.

After an hour Naruto was able to get a hold on the power that was flowing through him but knew it wouldn't last, it wasn't meant to. Slowly, he walked to each of his fallen comrades and closed their eyes.

"Gaara, Yugito, Yagura, Roushi, Han, Utakata, Fuu, Killer Bee. I'll be with your shortly my brothers and sisters. I just have one last thing to do, wait for me."

Naruto turned and his black overcoat swung slowly after him like the wings of a fallen angel before he disappeared with a soft snap of displaced air.

********************************************3 days later***********************

The blond holder of all of the tail beast sank painfully to his knees gasping for air. There was no way to destroy chakra but he could make it harder to use and less potent for anyone who did find it. Painting on the last stroke of the seal he sat back and looked it over for any flaws for several minutes.

In essence it was a space time seal, it would seperate the spiritual half of all the chakra he carried within a pocket dimension that could only be unlocked by The Shinigami. He could think of no reason why the holder of death that had placed the Kyuubi in his body as a child would go through the effort to track down this place and the energy that remained here.

He reached over in the dim light of his torch and grabbed a small blade covered completely with condenced seals. Placing the tip directly against the seal on his stomach he took a deep breath and gave a mighty tug. The blade slid smoothly through his skin and out his back. For a moment the only sound was a soft steady drip as blood fell from his hands still wrapped around the hilt of the blade. Then the room was bathed in a pure white light as the seals activated and forcefully ripped the chakra in half.

Naruto didn't even know how long he laid there on the floor screaming or how long it took his mind to regain conciousness after he could take no more but when he woke up the blade that had been thrust through his abdomin was laying beside him innocently and the wound in his stomach had been scorched closed.

It took several hours before he was able to drag himself to his knees. The hilt of the blade was still warm to the touch as his fumbling fingers closed around it and he slide the blade hilt deep into the wall. The energy surrounding the blade making it move as if the wall was made of water. Once the blade was in place the blond slowly set about going through the 246 handsigns required to activate the seal and lock the spiritual half of the remaining chakra within the blade and in the wall. Once done the walls blackened and turned into a substance harder than any steel that ever was or ever would be made by the hands of living men.

He spent three more days within that room, eating the meager supplies he had brought with him, before moving out to hide the physical half of the chakra in a secondary location. As he left the room his leg gave out and he crashed unaided to the floor. Frowning heavily he reached down and poked his leg, then again higher up the leg until he got the desires result mid thigh.

Well that's discouraging. I had hoped the nervous system would be some of the last to go but I suppose that was just hopeful thinking, it would only make sense that so much chakra running through my body would start to effect my motor control first.

Slowly the blond twitched his leg, noticing that while he couldn't feel it it could still move. With a sigh that allowed some blood to leak from his mouth unnoticed he stood back up and resumed his walk through the exit.

Just hold together a little longer.

Two days later he was looking much worse for ware. His eyes appeared cracked with numerous thick veins running through them and his dominant hand had developed an uncontrollable twitch. Despite this he was able to finish the required seals with his off hand only seconds before both legs finally gave out. Again he crashed to the floor but this time no movement could be coaxed from the lax limbs. Sighing forelornly he picked up another blade and again slipped it into the seal on his stomach with a sharp scream.

This time the wound didn't cautorize, with all but a miniscule amount of chakra sucked from his body it could no longer pretend to function. Using the last of his flagging strength Naruto managed to sit up and place the sword within its stone sheath and fumble through the hand signs. As he reached the last one and pumped the miniscule amount of chakra needed into the room his heart gave one last stuttering beat before going silent.

While one lay on the ground another Naruto with a chain attached to his chest stood in the center of the room.

So this is an out of body experience, he looked around the room he himself had designed with a disinterested gaze, so interesting.

Snorting quietly to himself he tugged lightly on the chain on his chest. Unimagineable pain followed as he once again became acqainted with his old friend, the floor. After a few minutes of trying to catch a breath there was a noise that attracted his attention, the sound of steel on stone.

When he looked up the chain had broken away from his body and now lay harmlessly on the floor. Slowly he stood up and gently pulled the chain up, gently wrapping it around his shoulders like a scarf.

Well i'm certainly not spending the rest of my afterlife here smelling my own corpse. I wonder if the others are out there.

With a destination set he walked to the nearest wall and gently reached out to touch it, his hand sank through as if the hardened material didn't even exist. Walking calmly through the walls of the container he left his body and the past behind him.

******************************************2 weeks later************************

Kami, I hope this isn't all there is to the after life.

Naruto currently stood ontop of his old home. While the faces had long since been destroyed and were gone the Hokage Mountain remained and when he took to wonder was where his feet lead him. None of the people he had ran into had been dead or able to see him. Below him there were dozens of people looking through the wreckage of what had once been his home, but it had been destroyed in the 5th shinobi war.

For a while he had taken to trying to use the energy he found within him but ultimately decided he didn't care. It felt similiar to the spiritual half of chakra but with a slight twist that he couldn't quite decypher.

With a bored shrug he started focusing on it again, trying to move it as he had chakra for so many years. He started with something simple, he gathered it in his center then pushed it out with a pulse, it spread out around his body then beyond the reach of his skin. It washed over the crater that had been his home unnoticed by the people working there. Naruto simply lay there as it the energy continued to go to an impressive distance and wasn't even paying attention to it until a small bit came back to him.

The dead blond tilted his head curiously, for some reason he felt like someone was out there now, about 6,000 yards northeast of the village. Intrigued he lazily flipped to his feet and took off towards the person his senses were locked on. Without chakra his body seemed woefuly slow even if it still moved at a speeds that Olympic athletes would be jealous of.

It took him around 5 minutes to make it to a clearing, within the clearing was a boy wearing all black and weilding a sword. He was going through katas and counting loudly to himself. Naruto took a moment to catch his breath as he leaned against a tree behind the boy and watched him work. He wasn't bad but it was obvious some of the katas were new to him, while others were polished and prestine the more difficult ones seemed forced and were always slightly off.

The boy growled and stabbed his sword into the ground, "Damn it, why can't I do it?!"

Naruto rolled his eyes good naturedly and let a slight smile tug at his lips, this kid reminded him of himself as a young boy.

"What you're doing wrong is you start with your right foot too far back, it throws you off for the rest of your movements by a small degree."

He had turned around and his sword was pointed at the blond with impressive speed.

"Who are you?!"

Naruto huffed once in a dry laugh, "My names Naruto, and you can see me. Interesting. Are you dead as well?"

The boy relaxed slightly, It's just a plus.

"Yes, technically speaking I am dead but I live in Soul Society and am a Shinigami. We are charged with sending Pluses, thats you by the way, to Soul Society to start their new lives."

The blond tilted his head examining the self procrlaimed 'shinigami'. He certainly doesn't look like the descriptions of the Shinigami I know of. What do you think, Kurama?

Beats me, just looks like a normal brat to me. I know he's not the Shinigami who stuffed me into you though if thats what you're asking. I wouldn't even put those two in the same species.

When all the other tailed beasts had dbeen absorbed into the seals Kurama had elected to give up all of his chakra but keep his conciousness with his host. He was fairly certain there was something after death for humans and he had no desires to spend the rest of eternity locked in a dimension with nothing but his siblings for company.

While Naruto was disecting who the stranger was with Kurama the black haired boy had started walking towards him with his sword and was starting to raise it above his head. Over 100 years of reflexes took hold before Naruto could even focus on what he was doing. The kid was now on the ground with his sword in Naruto's hand and the blade pressed firmly against the shinigami's exposed throat. The boy was stunned, he hadn't even seen the plus move.

"If you're going to attack someone don't ever telegraph your moves so plainly, even if they aren't paying attention."

The boy coughed slightly in pain, "I wasn't attacking you. I was going to perform konso so you could go to soul society, the way you do it is by tapping the pommel of your zanpakuto against the plus's forhead."

Naruto held up the blade, examining the hilt for any special seals or weapons but found nothing. He then switched to examining the child shinigami, while out of breath and slightly flushed from embarrasment he didn't appear to be lying or particularly worried. With a shrug Naruto held the sword up with the pommel about an inch from his forehead. "Like this?"

The boy merely nodded in a bewildered fashion, he'd never heard of a soul konso'ing itself and wasn't entire sure it would work, not that he'd ever done a konso himself either.

"O, by the way. What is your name, boy?"

The kid's face flushed red with anger and he was quickly back on his feet and yelled at Naruto with impotent rage.

"It's Byakuya Kuchiki! Not Boy!"

Naruto laughed, he'd forgotten how much he enjoyed conversation with people who were easy to rile up. Moving the blade the last inch he touched the pommel to his forehead, not seeing a blue glowing seal that now adorned his skull. He did notice when he started to feel different, at peace almost.

With a lazy smirk directed at Byakuya as his body started to disappear he gave one last piece of advice.

"You should get home kid, its so obvious you aren't supposed to be out here yet. Wouldn't want daddy to catch youuu."

Naruto stretched out the last note teasingly before he disappeared from the world of the living.

Author Notes:

Hey again guys, hope you enjoyed that but on the off chance that you didn't alot of it was exposition and I wrote it at 4 in the morning so give me a little slack. The reason the Jinchuuriki all lived so long was because of their bijuu keeping them alive and relatively young. Even so they were approaching about mid 60s by the time they died. If you have any questions or comments please leave a review and I'll try to answer them in the next chapter. Have a good one.