Story Title: Chasing Butterflies.
Summary: Lost somewhere in the afterlife. NarutoRukia.
Character/s: Naruto, Rukia.
His mind is hazy, filled with years gone by and things that could've been. They slip away from him, like sand in the wind. He opens his eyes and he thinks, 'this is not where I belong' because the streets are unrecognisable. A part of him is missing; he doesn't know who he is anyway, so how can he know some thing's missing? He doesn't know. He can remember a voice screaming out to him, he was falling and she was screaming for him.
Naruto Uzumaki.
People wander the streets, he doesn't know them, but they all look friendly enough. Maybe they can tell him where he is.
-x-
Naruto Uzumaki is missing something, or someone.
There's this hunger burning at him too; the people tell him he doesn't really need to eat, that eating's just for fun; he thinks they're wrong. He wanders the streets searching for that someone.
He remembers being older then he is now.
-x-
He dreams of blood; of a beast larger then buildings watching him from a cage; or maybe he's the caged one. Sometimes in his dreams there's a girl screaming out to him; but the dreams, just like his memories, start to fade away.
-x-
He goes to the academy, after he figures out the reasoning behind his hunger. He's pretty good at this Shinigami business. There's two brunettes in his class that seem familiar, a girl and a boy; he remembers enough to know they're different now.
The boy has a red triangle tattooed on his left cheek. The girl's hair is pulled back in a single braid.
-x-
Naruto Uzumaki is a Shinigami, and Rukia is in his division. She's a Kuchiki, but Naruto still talks to her, he doesn't really care about nobility or status.
He's a fifth seat and she's still an unseated member; but he's been here a long time and she's new, fresh out of the academy.
Tenten is a sixth seat in fifth division; sometimes when Naruto goes with Kiba to visit Tenten, he complains that the fifth division barracks smells suspicious.
-x-
By the time Rukia gets sent for her first mission to the real world Naruto is a fourth seat; he's been to the real world before it's not all that interesting. Maybe it wasn't that interesting because Rukia wasn't there. The world just seems more interesting with the female Shinigami.