A New Life, A New Dawn

By: Onlyafraidoffear

AN: This has been floating around in my head for awhile now and I hope that I did it justice, this is also my first fanfic, so please be nice.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto, wish I did, but I don't.

Orihime remembered.

She's not sure when the memories began bleeding over, but little by little, bit by bit, they trickled back into her consciousness as though they'd always been there, and maybe they had.

The memories of a world rife with war, famine, disease, and bloodshed. And of the little princess who desperately wished for it to end.

She wanted them to stop. Why wouldn't they stop? Couldn't they see what how horrible the world was? What it could be if they just stopped?

She remembered the climb up the trunk of the Great Tree, almost falling to her death more than once, yet still she climbed; until she came to the peak of the Great Shinju and broke the taboo that had remained in place for so long, with her first bite of the forbidden fruit.

She remembered returning, changed in appearance, but still determined in intention. She ended the fighting, she ended the war that had raged for so many years that no one knew when it had started.

She remembered how the people worshipped her; the Rabbit Goddess they named her.

She remembered the pain, the exhaustion, and finally the awe as she took in sight of her newborn sons.

She remembered the pride she felt, when her sons had grown from boys into men, and began to start families of their very own.

She remembered, on her deathbed, calling for her sons and passing her power onto them, entrusting her boys with the future of the peaceful world she'd created, before slipping into oblivion.

She knew that she had once been so much more than her friends could contemplate, knew that if she had retained her powers she could have won the war in an instant, and brought peace again.

But what had once been, could never again be.

Memories were only memories, and the past was the past.

Things never happen the same way twice; she no longer had the powers and abilities she once had, but she was content to protect her friends as best she could, and heal their wounds when she could not.

The purpose of reincarnation was for a new life, a new chance, a new dawn of endless possibilities.

Yet, she still remembered the time when she had been called Princess Kaguya, she would always love her two sons, and she still longed to bring peace to this war torn world.

But now she was Orihime Inoue, and she would do her part to protect her friends and help bring about an era of peace once again.