Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach

Warning: undecided context. The story might turn by points that could arise discomfort or disinclination for the readers. OOC characters.

Summary: Naruto's & Bleach clash. With his world ending, Naruto goes in search of a new home, which leads him to a place he cannot escape no matter how much he wants. Main circle draws around Naruto & Ichigo.

About the story: It was firstly planned as a simple adventure tale but as it progressed it turned my thoughts into deep twists of ideas. So now, I'm not too sure where exactly I'm heading with it….
Though note: on whim, I might turn this story into a horror, adventure, humor or even a yaoi fic., …but I'm still not sure, so please bear with me. One thing, however, is certain – either way it won't be harem.

Anyways, hope ya'll enjoy it…


Trapped in between

.prologue.

Stepping onto a hollow scull lying among the many thousands of broken skeletons sprawled all over the surface of the earth, a sharp clawed foot weighted its mass and crushed the skull into small pieces.

Eyes of bleeding red darted over the smoke filled space that was once known as the Elemental Nation. Nothing was alive…everything was gone… the only sense remaining was a thick smell of death itself hanging in the air.

Just an empty whistle of the wind and the smell of the dead.

'Gone…' A male of featured eighteen years, looked down on his sharp clawed hands dripping with dark reds of bleeding streams. 'It's all gone.'

Hollowed red eyes slowly lowered down, deep sorrow and remorse flashing in them as they turned back to the deepest shades of azure.

His world and his time had finally come to an ended. He knew it'll come to pass, and he tried to warn them, heeding them to listen…, alas, none did.

'Was it all because of me? Had I not been the one sworn to protect them?'

"Even Gods themselves can't always be expected to save the world, …Naruto." pushing the feeling of dread and guilt away from his shoulders, in favor of soothing whispers in the back of his mind, Naruto stepped over the corpses of no flesh and blood and entered the invisible gates of the proud village he once called home.

With his century ending and new era rising, closets of people dying and strangest of children breeding, Naruto's life had faded behind the existence of a mystical tale. A village's hero who he once was known as had become nothing but a mythical titan among the gods and people who worshipped them.

Walking along the chilly streets, Naruto looked to his right were the ever profitable Ichiraku stand used to stand. If only he could remember that taste he always savored so dearly.

The son of a hero, a child craving for acceptance, an incarnation of a nightmare itself, a jailer of the demon, a rising hero of the lands, and finally the merger of people's fears – Naruto's existence ceased to exist, as the history of a heroic saver and the inheritor of future generation turned into an undistinguishable tale in the books.

Stopping before the crumbled symbol of the Main Tower, Naruto looked up and frowned at the smooth surface of the Hokage Mountain standing tall and proud, always overlooking the whole village as it used to. What was once known as the honorable rulers' mountain was now nothing more than a blank dust of dribbles.

Could the apocalypse of his world really be dropped on his shoulders? Like an everlasting guilt he could not have prevented? Was it truly because of him that people laughed when he said that the world will cease to exist?

"…No."

Leashing out, Naruto slashed his claws over thin air, watching as they struck into the sky and tore it apart, tearing a way through an opening portal that lead into an unknown.

Becoming the last of his kind, more than a Jinchuuriki, more than a loyal ninja of Elemental Nations, the last demon of his lands and the last person in his world, he found no more reason to stay.

Looking down on the rising dust by his bare feet, he smiled as a symbol of his home village was revealed: carved into a shimmering headband buried under the ground. 'The 'last' will of fire.'

Once a proud guardian of the Nation and a being that outlived centuries, his purpose had finally come to an end. His home and his precious people were no more.

A spark of electricity cackled around him, disturbing winds and clouds as the portal began closing down.

With one final look at what once was and is no more, Naruto allowed his lips to form one last grin before he entered the portal; hopes settled on finding a new home…and maybe a place to belong…


.I.

Inside the Twelfth Division's surveillance room, display monitors suddenly started going wild in alarm: signalizing the intrusion of an unknown being entering the Human World.

Quickly entering the room, a woman wearing white robes and up-tied hairstyle jumped into her seat and began tapping the keyboards. Soon a picture appeared on the screen, however, completely shaded in black.

Frowning, she tapped a few more commands but got nothing. "Why can't I see you?" standing up, she pressed a green button over the top monitor and cursed, the picture was still untellable and blurry. Peering down at the widely beeping computer, her eyes skimmed over the printed data of the phenomena's outline.

She went agape, "This can't be possible."

Tearing the prints out, she ran out of the room.

..

"Captain Kurotsuchi!"

"What is it Rin? Can't you see I'm busy?" looking up from his half-dazed patient, Mayuri Kurotsuchi bared his yellow teeth wide, "If you're here to deliver me one of those annoying complain letters, drop a bomb in it and send it back with flowers."

"No-no, captain. Take a look at this," shoving the imprints under his nose, the woman scrunched her nose up as she looked over her crazed captain's experimental patient.

"Hmm… interesting, very interesting." placing the purple mixture down, he looked over the paper keenly. "When was this taken?"

"About two minutes ago, captain. I don't understand, our monitors could not distinguish the image of this…thing but it nearly overloaded the system when it tried to read its energetic substance."

Rubbing his cheek, the orange-eyed captain mumbled to himself as he evaluated their new discovery, "It has a very high amount of spiritual energy, but then again it's not a spirit or a hollow."

"Captain? Should I inform the Commander of this?"

"Don't bother yourself, Rin. I'm going to take care of this myself. In the mean time, look after my pet while I'm out." Stuffing the prints into his robes, Kurotsuchi exited his lab.

..

"Where is it located now?" having read and re-read the imprints of the 12Division's corps findings, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, the Captain-Commander of Gotei 13, passed a thoughtful looked towards Mayuri.

"Right now, it seems to be wondering around the center of the Karakura town, in Mashiba."

..

Leaning lazily in his chair, a slyly smirking man with lean silver-white hair looked over at his monitor as it suddenly started beeping. Pressing a glowing button, he peered closely into the screen. "Hey now little guy, who might you be?" pressing a few more buttons, he looked over the radars that measured 'the little guy's' spiritual pressure and shot his eyebrows up, "Not so little anymore I see." 'Aizen will definitely like to hear about this.'

..

Disguising himself under a jutsu, and concealing his actual image in favor of a simple human, Naruto set on top of the tallest building he found in the small town. Prompting his elbows on his dangling knees, he tapped his fingers over a glass filled with silver liquid – mercury: the favorite kind of a drink for a full-blooded demon like himself. Too bad that he had to use some drastic measures to obtain it, that poor old man will probably never recover after their encounter.

The day Naruto found himself enter the new world was the day he hated the place already.

Not only because people there were very strange, with all sorts of weird devices used at their disposal; and because those same people were currently pointing fingers at him from the bottom of the twenty storey building he was sitting on with strange flickering blue/white/red lights on top of the moving 'metal boxes' around them; but mainly because he simply could not get out. All accesses to opening a portal that led out of this universe were blocked; he was stuck.

'Who is blocking my way out?' he wondered to himself.

Leaving his mercury onto the roof, Naruto stood up, ignoring the women's terrified screams and men shouting for him to 'not jump', and went towards the exit.

Beneath the building, officers and lifeguards radioed to their companions in the building that the suicidal teenager was surrendering and about to exit the roof. …But what they did not know, was as soon as the doors to the roof opened and officials went to seize him, Naruto had disappeared and reappeared behind the gathered mob of people below, leaving them to search for thin air, finding only a glass of mercury (by which help they concluded that the boy was suicidal indeed).

"Che… simpletons." Pocketing his hands in his black pants, Naruto calmly headed into the park.

"Are you sure we came to the right place?"

"Yesss."

"Then where could it be?"

"Urgh! For the last time, I don't know! Quit bugging me about it!"

"What do you mean 'quick bugging me'? We're searching for it together, idiot!"

Looking to his left, Naruto blinked in confusion as two strangely dressed people suddenly passed him by.

Their outer appearance which consisted of a black kosode and hakama, a pair of white tabi and waraji, and a white obi, was not as much of an eye-catcher for him as the two swords strapped by their hips. So far, within this odd town he quickly learned that people did not dress into something as traditional looking as his home people used to, instead choosing to wear too uptight jeans for pants, wavy buttoned up shirts or t-shirts and long jackets. And they definitely did not carry around weapons such as katanas or kunais. Unless a rectangular, flat ringing piece of metal and plastic could be called a weapon, though why place it against the ear and shout at it?

Looking back up at the backs of the two strangely dressed people who began bickering over something he did not quite understand, Naruto frowned in thought. With their garments so close to the ones his home town people used to wear, maybe those two people were the same as him? Or were they local folks just dressing up for a costume party? Though why would they use such a traditional wear?

Opening his mouth, Naruto was about to call them but stopped and blinked as they suddenly turned towards him. He blinked again, they were staring at him but then again they were not.

"Did you feel that?" asked the short, light-brown haired woman, gripping the leathered handle of her sword.

'Well they certainly ain't 'normal' folks even if locals.' Furrowing his brows deeper, Naruto stepped back, sensing the air thicken with pressure as the two raised their guard, as if readying for some kind of an attack. Maybe someone was behind him? Besides, it won't be the first time he's ignored. Looking over his shoulder and finding nothing misplaced, Naruto felt confused.

"Hm. Must be your imagination, Kiyone. There's nothing here." said the man wearing a white headband around his forehead and white shoulder straps.

Bringing his hand up, Naruto waived at them, both tensed again but saw nothing. Naruto was deeply confused now, they could not see him, but they could feel his presence by his movements? Did they even know that they were being surrounded by hundreds of people walking pass? Then again as he looked towards the said people passing him by with awkward glances as if checking his mentality, they seemed to not even notice the two he was waving at. 'Are they ghosts?'

"Tch. What the hell?" dropping her stance, the woman cursed, "I can feel something here but I don't see it."

Hearing that, Naruto looked at his hands. 'Could it be…'

Sighing, the man rubbed his eyes, "Forget it. We've been out here for nearly three hours without any leads towards that damn thing. If what, it probably doesn't even exist. The 12devision must be having their scanners toasted."

"You're right. Let's just head back to the captain and inform that we found nothing."

"Aa…" agreeing, both turned away and disappeared before Naruto's eyes.

'Was that a flash step?' knitting his brows, Naruto looked around himself and the other people. Everything seemed just as normally ignorant as always. 'They didn't even see those two.'

A sudden drop of rain broke Naruto's thoughts and he looked up at the darkening sky, it was beginning to rain.

"Great. Now where on earth am I supposed to hide?" leaving the opened road, Naruto walked deeper into the park and hid under a tree.

It was getting pretty heavy and late, and one by one people rushed through the park away from the rain and towards their warm homes.

Watching the last man ran through the park while holding a case over his head, Naruto leant against the tree and closed his eyes. 'Could it be that my transformation jutsu has some kind of an effect that prevents them from seeing me?' Looking down at his hands, Naruto watched as they turned back into bony skeleton fingers with long claws as he let the jutsu slightly fade off of them. 'Or is it the effect of being a demon? But then why can everyone else see me clearly? Were those guys not human? What the hell is going on?'

A sudden sound of something getting shot towards him made Naruto's eyes widen and he quickly jumped away from the tree.

Not a second latter the tree exploded into thousands of pieces as a bright red light covered its entire being before tearing it out of existence.

Looking quickly towards the spot where the killer light was directed from, Naruto's eyes widened at what they saw, 'It's a person. And he's…flying?'

A fairly short looking young man dressed entirely in white attire, similar to those two strangers he saw earlier, only with longer sleeves, was smirking broadly down at him from his spot in the sky. "I FINALLY FOUND YOU!" he laughed and pulled out a long sword before charging straight on at dumbfounded Naruto.

'But he has no wings! Is that even possible?' gasped Naruto, too wonderstruck over the fact that a person was fly to even have time to dodge from getting pierced.

Sidestepping the flying man at the last moment, Naruto quickly caught his wrist holding the sword and snapped it with a twist, disarming the man from his weapon and kicked him away.

"Bastard!" All the man did was let out a small grunt of pain before he began attacking Naruto in close range with no concern over his broken arm.

"Is that the best you can do?" taunted the short man as he sent hit after hit towards the blond.

Evading and dodging the man's hits, Naruto was still trying to understand what the hell was going on. Why was this man attacking him? Though his distracting thoughts caused him an opening and he was suddenly punched to the face by the other's fist.

"HA! That's right! DIE!" screamed the young man as he quickly grabbed his fallen sword into his left hand and jumped high up in the sky.

Opening his eyes, Naruto forced his weight onto his hands and quickly flipped away before the man nailed him into the ground as he came back from above.

Piercing his blade into the ground, the man cursed as the other managed to jump away before he landed on him. "Shit. Where did you go now?" he yelled, seeing the blond suddenly disappear. Trying to feel his energy, the short black haired smirked. "Ah…clever. Are you trying to conceal yourself again?"

Perched in a high tree, Naruto breathed out heavy puffs of air as he looked back at his hands that he concealed back under the jutsu. It seemed that even the slightest drop of his transformation jutsu that hid his true form would give away the man his location entirely. 'I guess that's why those two couldn't see me then.'

Walking around the trees, the androgynous looking man tried to find his missing target. He couldn't feel its energy, but he could feel its presence very close by. "I can sense your confusion. And I also can tell that you're quickly beginning to understand the flaws and advantages of your power here. That's right, I know you're not from this world. And with that disguise that you're using now you are able to conceal your presence from me entirely, and I can't even find you by your spiritual energy, …however…" turning his head slowly to the right, the man rolled his lavender eyes upwards, "…unlike a Soul Reaper, I can still see you."

Startled by the words, Naruto quickly pushed away from the branch before it was sliced opened by the man's sword.

"A rather jumpy fella, aren't ya." appearing up in the tree the blond previously occupied, the man smirked as he heard loud splashing footsteps near the road. "I got ya now!" Jumping out of the tree, he thrust his Zanpakutō forward and pierced it through the black figure running down the road. However, as soon as he came close to his kill, he realized that it was not the one he was hunting down but a stray civilian just trying to get away from the rain.

The unfortunate man spurted out a gush of blood and looked down at his chest, seeing only blood pour out of it. "Wh-what…is this…"

Scowling in disappointment, the short man ripped his blade out of the bleeding human. "Shit, you're not him. Well sorry, but right now you're in the way." He grit and slashed his sword across the man's neck.

Naruto's body stilled at the moment, unable to see but able to hear everything that happened to the civilian that the man brutally killed, if a well known sound of a blade scrapping against the bones gave him any notion of that. So it was not because of him being abnormal that the short man suddenly came out to attack, he was ruthless by nature.

Flicking his blooded weapon to the side, the man turned his neck to the right, "Still trying to hide from me huh?" outstretching his hand, the man then sneered as a bright red light began forming in the middle of his palm. "Well we'll see about that. Cero!" he suddenly shouted out and a red blast shot out of his palm, nearly covering the entire park area, destroying everything into pieces.

Hidden behind a sculpture, Naruto gasped as it suddenly crumbled before his eyes and he quickly brought his hands forward, forming an invisible shield around himself, protecting him from the intense power.

Pulling his hand back to his side, the man smirked as he saw his target finally revealed behind the dusted area of nothingness. "Are you finally done running…full-blooded demon?"

Naruto paled at the man's sudden annunciation and quick looked down at his hands; the transformation jutsu was still intact. 'Then how does he know what I am?'

Gripping his Zanpakutō, the man pointed it at Naruto, "You have a very powerful energy deep down within you. I can sense it. No Soul Reaper or Hollow has such an intriguing smell. It's very foul. And I want to see it's full extent! Why aren't you unleashing it?"

Naruto glared, 'How does he know all that? It's certainly clear enough that this is not a normal man. But still…' "Why should I unleash something I don't see point in doing?"

"Are you trying to offend me?" Outstretching his blade up, the angered man suddenly yelled, "Strangle!"

Naruto quickly brought his hands up as a huge gust of wind and dust suddenly smacked onto him as the man unleashed some sort of a deeper power from within. Pulling his elbows down, Naruto blinked his eyes wide. 'What the Hell is that?'

Before him was the same little man, only now overtaken by an outrageous form. There were eight enormous tentacle-like things connected to his back, and on his head a white bone cowl appeared. Naruto vaguely remembered seeing something by his head when he came up close. Was that a scull bone sticking out then?

"Do you see any point to use it now, huh?" challengingly yelled the madly grinning man, proud by the other's reaction at his self-noted impressive transformation. "Come on! Show me your strength!" he yelled as one of the tentacles suddenly began storming right at Naruto.

Jumping away, Naruto stared in slight amazement as the white mass crushed into the ground, creating a huge crater. 'What the hell is happening?' Gasping, Naruto quickly looked up and cursed as another tentacle came slamming at him from above and punched him into the ground. Trying to get up, Naruto gasped as that white thing quickly pushed down on him and something sharp abruptly came out of it, piercing him through his left side.

"AHH!" punching the thing quickly off, Naruto rolled away before another of the white tentacles was forced down on him.

Staring at the blond demon trying to dodge his 'Trepadora', the man lidded his eyes halfway, "This is getting boring. Must I Force That Power Out Of You!" he yelled and watched in satisfaction as his tentacle slammed into the demon's face and brought him down again.

Naruto gasped as he was pinned back against the ground and two of the tentacles that suddenly formed into sharp spikes nailed him down by piercing his wrists. Trying to get up, Naruto swore since his hands couldn't budge.

Flying slowly over to the struggling blond still not giving in, the man loomed above him. "Why are you still not letting your power out? Why hide such immensity? Unleash it! Do it before I Kill You!"

Glaring up at the man spitting threats, Naruto felt sweat poor from him as he tried to keep the transformation jutsu concealed. For the benefit of his pride and self-esteem, he did not want to grant the man such pleaser when he himself loathed that power.

The man was starting to get infuriated. Was the demon doing it on purpose? Was he considering him weak and refused to fight on the same level? "Bastard! SHOW IT TO ME OR I'M GONNA BREAK YOUR SKULL!" to emphases the point, he brought his third tentacle up and aimed it at Naruto's face.

Though a sudden gasp halted all of the action and both of the fighters quickly looked to the side of the walkway. A small boy of perhaps five or six years was staring at the transformed man with wide eyes and hands covering his mouth.

Naruto's eyes widened while the man's shone in sickening glee. "A kid? Hell, well this is just the kind of kill I like best. Innocent and pure." Grinning with delight, the man outstretched his hand towards the shocked boy.

Naruto quickly realized what's to come and yelled at the fear-struck child, "MOVE!"

"Too easy." sneered the man and fired the red blast he called 'cero'.

The small child's eyes widened as a red ball of light suddenly blocked his entire view. Covering his eyes with his hands, he's scream was silenced as the explosion occurred.

Dropping his hand down, the man sniggered towards the black area he annihilated from existence and turned back to the full-blooded demon he held pinned to the ground, staring unbelieving at the black space where that child was.

"Now that the nuisance is gone, I think we can proceed."

Baring his teeth, Naruto hissed, "You just killed a child. Without remorse."

"So? Children are weak; they come easy and go easy. No big deal."

"…What are you?"

"Me?" smiling at the attention brought towards him, the man proudly proclaimed, "I'm Luppi. An Arrancar."

'Arrancar?' Not too sure whether it's a surname or some kind of a nickname, Naruto did not care to wonder for long as he curled his numb fingers together. "Well then Luppi. I hope you're just as good with defense as you are with your attacks."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Bringing the man into furry, the blond's features formed into a sadistic grin.

Luppi's eyes widened as something red suddenly shot out of the demon's abdomen and went straight around him, twirling his whole body in a blood-red energy that gripped all of his limbs and tightened them close. It quickly tore through his clothes and began burning against his skin. "WHA-WHAT IS THIS!" screamed Luppi, struggling to escape the gripping power started incinerating his body as it curled around him whole.

"Don't struggle…you'll only die quicker."

Startled, Luppi quickly looked up at a far tree situated a good distance from the blond demon that was pinned in front of him and stared. There stood the same blond. The same blond he was keeping floored on the ground was standing but not a few feet away from him. An exact duplica'. And he was holding the child who he thought he had killed. "H-HOW? HOW THE HELL?"

Cocking his head to the side, Naruto looked away from his clone, who was now keeping a tight grip on Luppi with his chakra, and replied indifferently, "You said you wanted to see my power. So I'm giving you a glimpse."

Luppi's eyes widened as the copy of what he now realized was the original sneered at him and bared its teeth that sharpened the wider it grinned. "See you in Hell, Luppi!"

A burning force suddenly slammed into Luppi's chest and he screamed in grand pain before a huge explosion erupted from within him.

The whole ground shook from the sudden blast, startling people in their way, followed by a huge dusty fog that clouded the whole area up.

Un-shielding his arm from around the child in his hand, Naruto looked behind himself. There was nothing left from Arrancar Luppi, except a small part of his bony cowl. 'Irony.' Jumping then down from the tree, Naruto kneeled on the ground and placed the trembling boy to his feet.

The poor thing was petrified, he was all shaking up, and Naruto doubted it was because of the rain. "Hey." brushing a moist orange strand of hair from his eyes, Naruto spoke gently, "You ok?"

The child's breath hitched and his wide eyes slowly met up with his own. Tears abruptly began falling from the boy's eyes and he launched himself into Naruto's arms without thinking.

Naruto hissed at the close contact but allowed the boy to cling onto him as he wept into his chest.

"Did that man frighten you?" Receiving not much of an answer save a sniff, Naruto awkwardly rubbed the boy's back to try and sooth him, "Don't worry, he won't touch you again. That I assure."

Just when he finally thought he calmed the child down enough, a sudden scream from women nearly tore Naruto's ears out and he quickly looked at a bunch of gathered people staring at them from the side.

"Oh My God! What Happened Here?" they screamed, staring around the destroyed park dumbfounded until spotting a dead figure of that unfortunate man who 'got in Luppi's way'. "My God! He's dead!" half of the attention momentarily snapped back towards blood covered Naruto holding a crying child, and Naruto already knew that things were not going to turn out his way. "He Killed Him!" one frightened teenage girl suddenly screeched, pointing at Naruto with an unwavering agreement from the rest of the crowd. "And He's Got A Child For Ransom! Someone Call The Police!"

And by the looks of it, Naruto was positive that having police on his case won't be a fortunate omen.

'Better bolt.' Gripping the boy closer to his chest and gathering his chakra around them both, Naruto quickly disappeared from view, with no care of being seen or leaving the humans gaping at that what they just witnessed.