Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated or belonging to Naruto, Harry Potter, Bleach, Claymore, or any other associated anime or cartoon. This Fanfiction is the property of Ragdain, as well as all original characters and OC's.

Death Meister

Prologue:

A ghostly shade which she knew to be a mixture of spells including a corporeal Patroness of Hermione as she had seen her at twenty-four appeared beside her. The shade radiated sadness and heart ache but those emotions were dulled and negligible at best. However by the fact that Artemis could sense them at all even with her own extremely intense emotion spoke more than any words could possibly convey. "I know that I am not really your Hermione but I have her memories and I love you as much as she did. I cannot stand the thought of leaving you alone to drift in some dimension of nothingness for eternity alone and so I will not. I will live on as long as you do and be there for you when no one else will or can. Besides if this does kill you then I want to die with you as well, I know that was not my original purpose but I chose this."

Artemis had to intensify her soul of ice to stop from breaking down even as tears froze as they feel from her eyes. Even though she knew it was not her Hermione speaking she knew the feeling were. With a shaky nod Artemis nodded in gratitude and when she had gathered her composure she finally spoke. "I am ready."

Hermione simply nodded then everything went white.

Chapter Two: The Shinigami's Curse

In an expanse of a representation of infinity, Artemis came spontaneously into existence even as she felt her mind and magic separate from heir vessel as it passed on. In that instant Artemis knew that something had gone wrong, by her Arithmancy calculations the spell she created should have either erased her from reality or banished her from existence itself and either possibility should have destroyed her. She knew that she was just a mind encased in a vast sea of magic and that her body had ended up somewhere else and as a result her magic felt of kilter or even 'funky' as the kids now a days said, without her body. She was still capable of experiencing emotion and their intensity had if anything increased as had her reserve of magic, however they were also muted. It was like her body was experiencing emotion but her mind was too far away to feel them properly making them seem dull and distant; like she was experiencing them through a pensive.

She found that as she was even if her emotions were fully outside of her control that they simply didn't have the intensity to affect her any longer, she was finally at peace. She knew that she could rest in this serene existence without trouble but she couldn't allow herself to forget the price which this serene peace came at. She would never see her loved ones again since death would have never come for her or let her into his realm, so it was alright if she simply slept in this expanse of nothingness for the rest of eternally.

Of course as fates bitch the universe simply couldn't leave her alone to die, the gods were never that merciful to one who they perceived to have slighted them. She felt an insistent tug that awoke her from her peaceful slumber and she knew with dread that it was her accursed body trying to bring her mind back as she began to fall. However she didn't want to go and the sea of magic surrounding and protecting her mind sensed her intent. Artemis was easily able to resist her bodies attempt to trap her in it again and in effect stopping her fall by simply willing it to be. However a long thought buried instinct to survive and never give up surged up from the depths of her subconscious, gradually crumbling her resolve and focus. In retaliation she brought the full force of her will against both her body and her instinct. She stopped falling again but decided the father away from her body she was the more likely it was that it would lose its connection to her. So with grim determination Artemis began crawling and scrapping her way back into that peaceful existence, resisting her bodies and instinct's attempt to trap her in that hell again as she went deeper into the expanse. It felt like years as she slowly but surely made her way into the expanse and she could tell that her body was losing its hold on her. Artemis very nearly made it, her bodies call was slowly waning and her instinct to survive was finally giving out, just as she thought she was going to reach blissful inexistence the cruelty of the gods proved to have no bounds.

Artemis sensed an incomprehensible concentration of a dark energy reminiscent of her own magic rising from the depths of the expanse. It was far more concentrated and powerful than anything she had ever experienced in the whole of her entire existence. Its energy felt similar to magic but only to its very foundations and only to the blackest of magic. It felt repulsive and if she could put a 'taste' or 'smell' to it then she would say that it tasted like decaying meat and smelt like death incarnate. The most disturbing thing though was that it was moving towards her through the opaque almost solid ocean of magic protecting her mind and soul. Its disgusting energy actually seemed to decay and erode any and every spell she tried to cast on it while the raw nearly solid barrier of pure magic surrounding her parted to make way even though she sensed that clearly wasn't her magick's intentions. It was inconceivable, no known entity or being could actually force magic itself to act in a way that it didn't want to, not even its own wielder could do that…it would take the power of a God to subjugate magic itself!

The monstrous entity finally reached her mind and soul; she could do nothing but shiver in revulsion as her very soul cried out in terror as the monstrous entity brushed its nauseating energy and alien mind against her Occlumency shields for an instant. In that instant she had a vision of a decaying purple body with white hair and horns dressed in a white funeral kimono; with six balls of ethereal white flames surrounding it, and a knife held between its teeth. A single name that made her soul recoil in shock flashed into her mind, Shinigami.

Then the instant ended and all logical thought was obliterated as pain lanced through her mind as enough foreign knowledge to fill entire libraries surged into the depths of her psyche at the speed of instinct. Even as her mind cracked and fractured from the strain it was already trying to push past the unfamiliar pain as instincts honed over centuries of self experimentation came into play. However Artemis didn't slip any further towards life; her very soul rejected the concept of being trapped in the horror of the living world so strongly that it actually anchored both itself and the mind where they were, and using the magic around it to stop them from falling back to their shared body. Her soul and barely recovering mind both trembled in dread and fear as a sense of malice and sick glee spiked from the Shinigami as it gathered enough of its foul energy to shatter entire worlds before it ripped her soul asunder.

Despite everything else Artemis's mind was human and mortal, the pain from having her soul ripped open was so great that the strain finally became too much and her mind simply shattered even as her magic encased it in a physical shell to shelter what was left.

XXXxxx…xxxXXX

In Death's realm the Shinigami cackled in sadistic glee as it sensed the mind of the upstart soul that dared to defile its pure realm with its intrusion shatter as it used its Soul Cutter to rip the mortal's soul open. However it wasn't done yet, it grabbed the impudent soul as it was being dragged into the land of the living where its immortal body was. Normally it would have eaten the soul on principle alone but the stigmata from one of its alternate personifications made the soul revolting to the extreme, to the point where it was reluctant to even touch it. Still the Shinigami refused to be slighted by a mortal soul that had already slighted one of its other personifications without more punishment then it had already delivered.

With a cruel smirk that stretched the death god's rotting lips grotesquely the Shinigami came up with the perfect punishment especially considering this mortal. Even though it would cost it one of its more coveted sacrifices that it had just reaped and the Yin chakra of the Kyūbi it would be worth it to deliver this especially cruel punishment. Reaching into itself it removed its latest sacrifice before stuffing the soul into the soul of the mortal that intruded upon its pure realm. Next it inserted the sacrificed soul to make act as an anchor to the Impure World no matter which dimension the soul hopped to as long as the anchors prodigy walked the Impure World as well. Then with some reluctance it also removed the delicious Yin chakra of the Kyūbi from its stomach and used some of it as suture to stitch the soul closed. Next the Shinigami used the rest to create chakra pathways throughout the mortals body through its soul so that the mortal could survive in the Impure World. Having chakra pathways created from the Kyūbi's Yin chakra ensured that the mortal's body would never be destroyed, so that it would forever be tied to the pain of life. The Shinigami even added its own brand of stigmata to let any other personification the soul ran into that it had slighted Death twice.

Cackling gleefully at its work the Shinigami finally let the tattered soul and its broken mind fall to the Impure World as it watched on with barely suppressed anticipation. The upstart soul should provide as much entertainment as Jashin's priests which gave it something to enjoy as it waited to be summoned again. After all what was more fulfilling then ensuring suffering that would last as long as it would live that it could always watch?

XXXxxx…xxxXXX

At the center point where Tea Country, Nagi Island, and O'uzu Island meet, a body clad in blue and gold armor and a conical hat appeared from thin air with monstrous crack loud enough to create a sonic boom. As it free fell to the ocean three-hundred feet below its hat was able to miraculous stay on its head even as the woman's staff was ripped from her fingers as her body crashed into the water. However instead of shattering like most bodies would the woman's armor clad body actually bounced on the surface of the water until it had completely bled off its momentum without making a ripple. Then despite wearing what had to be forty pounds of steel the body actually floated without any visible source to keep it up and despite the currents the body didn't float away.

If any civilian had been around to see this startling phenomenon they would have assumed it was a ninja doing whatever it was a ninja did. However if a shinobi saw it they would've sworn up and down that it was the best example of unconscious chakra control they had ever seen before proceeding to get closer to see what it was. As it was there was no civilian or ninja to see the body fall and so no one was there to see it suddenly burst into activity a few hours later when the really interesting stuff began to happen.

XXXxxx…xxxXXX

Three hours later and the sun was finally setting as a cool breeze fritted across the ocean's surface and over the strange body that had fallen from the sky. The woman still hadn't stirred an inch besides what the waves caused. However that changed when steam and smell of cocking meat began to emanate from the otherwise immobile body as dark red chakra began to cover it like red flames. However the bodies own inherent magic and the various defensive spells and charms on its armor prevented the roiling chakra from destroying anything important even as very same chakra healed the wounds it caused at an accelerated rate. The amount of red chakra increased by a factor of 100 every second and soon a single ethereal tail made of the burning chakra formed even as most of it was being condensed into the body while the charms and spells held the worst of it back. This went on for nearly five minutes until a second tail began to form before the first and second tail were completely absorbed into the body to form a chakra circulatory system. It was only then that the damage the body sustained from the red chakra finally began to heal faster than it was being destroyed as the red chakra finally mellowed out and calmed down. It was only then that the body finally drew its first shaky breaths as its heart once again beat with the rhythm of life it had lacked until then.

For a moment nothing else happened as the body began to recuperate but a few minutes after the body had come back to life a small diminutive creature with gray skin, large eyes, and floppy ears popped into existence beside the body. The strange creature looked at the body sadly before it turned around as a spectral being phased into existence behind it looking at the body with the same sad eyes. The spectral being was female with a small figure and long frizzy wavy hair with kind grey eyes. The spectral being turned to the elf-like creature and nodded once, the elf-like creature nodded and with a snap of its fingers it and the body disappeared as suddenly as they came. The spectral woman shook her head sadly and whispered into the cooling twilight air, "Please let us have been in time…"

The spectral woman sighed once and faded away as quietly as she came leaving only the smell of burnt human flesh and signs of dark chakra behind.

XXXxxx…xxxXXX

It took three weeks for Artemis's soul to heal from the damage it had sustained from the hands and cleaver of the Shinigami before anything even happened with her mind. It had been shattered so thoroughly that even with the aid of a mind healer it would be months before Artemis was even capable of regaining consciousness.

Hermione sighed as she looked on at her best friend laid out on a conjured but comfortable bed. Hermione and Artemis's entire mansion had survived the Shinigami's attack on Artemis's soul although it had been a close thing. The House Elf's had been desperately trying to fix the damage to the building while Hermione worked to keep the space the mansion was stored in stable so that it didn't collapse on itself. Since the ritual used warped space, time, and dimensions not even the personification of death could find it without already knowing where it was.

Still it wouldn't have been possible for her to do this if she hadn't gained sentience, Hermione wasn't sure if Artemis meant for her to gain sentience or not but it had happened regardless. She knew she wasn't the Hermione her memories of life were based from but from those memories she had come to love Artemis more than the original Hermione ever had. Because she loved her it caused her pain to see her dearest friend like this and so she had decided to do everything in her power to save Artemis from herself. Before she had been content to let Artemis die and end her suffering but after this it was obvious that Artemis would never die, the gods of death simply wouldn't allow her pass on.

Hermione had gone over the Arithmancy used to create the spell Artemis used to banish herself with all her knowledge and the logical mind of a computer behind her. She had finally had come to the conclusion that the spell should have erased Artemis from existence. It should have erased every action she took from the timeline and every memory of her existence from history. The universe would have fixed this mistake by creating another person to take her place who would have made similar enough actions that would validate history and ensure that what lead to the mistake never happened. It had been the perfect spell for what Artemis had planned and yet some force beyond her comprehension and knowledge had interfered with the spell and warped the magic used to cast it. So instead of erasing Artemis from existence it had instead sent her to an alternate reality and separated her soul from her body for a short time. A cruel cosmic joke by the universe and magic itself it seemed.

Hermione had quickly discovered that a certain type of energy was needed to survive in this dimension but that magic itself acted as a buffer so that magical beings like House Elf's could survive. Wizards who only used magic would have died here instantly; even though they possessed a weak magical aura that could be enhanced by a wand it was nowhere near strong enough to resist this world's basic law. By the time Hermione had figured this out and deemed it safe for the House Elf's to leave to search for Artemis three hours had passed before one of the House Elf's had found her and contacted her. By that time Artemis's body had been warped and an entirely different energy structure now overlapped with her nervous system had been implanted into her. On top of that an entirely different soul had been placed inside Artemis's own creating a strange form of Horcrux.

If that alone was the extent of it then Hermione was sure Artemis could have gotten over it and even overcome it with enough time, but there was more. The Deathly Hollow's which Artemis had dedicated nearly her entire life to destroying had been somehow fused into her body. The Invisibility cloak had been integrated into her skin and could be activated or deactivated with a burst of pure magic. The Resurrection Stone had been fused into her skull with the tip stabbing out of the skin at the exact point of the brow chakra. It was activated and deactivated by activating her Mage Sight. However its power had been altered but whatever it did she hadn't figured out yet. Then lastly the Elder wand had been infused into her bones and vastly increased the amount and power of her magic. The strange energy system in her body also seemed to be increased and enhanced by the wands presence as well.

Of course Hermione didn't think that the addition of more power would even appeal to Artemis since she already had more then she knew what to do with; but to learn that the very items you spent your entire life trying to destroy were now part of your indestructible body was just too cruel. Whatever did this to her best friend was undoubtedly powerful, a sadist, and possibly the being that interrupted the spell Artemis had created. With that in mind but taking into account the fact that Artemis was still alive Hermione had come to the conclusion that the perpetrator was a personification of death. She really didn't know how to stop what amounted to a god form doing anything it wanted so she simply put the matter to the side for further contemplation when she had more information.

The first thing Hermione did was set up a base on this world, while she could just as easily take Artemis into the mansion in her soul it would leave her spirit vulnerable to whatever attacked her before. With that in mind Hermione Apparated to a nearby small uninhabited island and just transfigured the entire landmass into a solid fortress with a single tower at the center and transfigured the outer walls of rock into stainless steel before casting a Fidelius Charm on it. Once that was done she got the House Elf's to furnish it before finally summoning Artemis and laying her in one of the rooms at the center of the fortress.

It was then as she was about to begin the first treatment that Hermione considered whether it would kinder fate to simply leave Artemis's mind broken instead of fixing it. However she simply couldn't bring herself to do it, she simply loved Artemis too much to let her suffer like that especially considering that given enough time her mind would put itself back together, only with a considerable amount of extra pain and confusion. With a mental sigh Hermione began to heal Artemis's fragmented mind with Legilimency and proceeded to begin the first of what would undoubtedly be many treatments. The first thing she did was gathering Artemis's core memories and allowed them to fuse themselves back together naturally. That by itself would take nearly a week and only then would she would begin working on restoring Artemis's ability to talk and count before moving on to the more fundamental aspects of memory. It was a daunting job but Hermione was endlessly patient and her focus absolute, it was one of the good things about having a mind based on a computer she supposed. The arcane knowledge would be the last thing she worked on simply because it wasn't needed at the moment. The alien knowledge implanted in her mind deep in the most primal aspects couldn't be reached to be brought out with a wand to store in a pensive. Hermione would be forced to leave the information there until she could gather further data.

XXXxxx…Three Weeks Later…xxxXXX

Artemis awoke with the worst headache she had ever experienced in her entire life, all the nearly four-thousand years of it. She instantly recalled what had attacked her and shivered violently, she knew that she would have an irrational fear of the entity for years to come but refused to let this new fear rule her life. She had dealt with phobias before and knew that she would simply have to work through it, although she wasn't sure on how to do that when the thing she was afraid of was apparently a god. With a shrug she decided to deal with it later and instead slowly got up and looked around. She was in a stone room with very little else besides the bed she lay on and several crystal shrines like the ones she had built in her room. However she noted that arrangement of crystals no longer inspired good dreams but directly helped with mental healing. The window on her far right showed a large ocean with several nearby islands that she could see from here position even sitting down indicating that she was somewhere very high up. With those observations made Artemis stretched and noted that she was still in her battle armor with her Sugegasa hat on a raised dais next to her bed.

Artemis nodded thoughtfully and silently cast a spell designed to map an area and found that she was in the tallest room of a seven story tower. The magical signature in the magical residue left over from the transfigured of tower indicated it was Hermione's work and correctly assumed that she had rescued her before she had been found by the residence of whatever world she landed in. As if to validate her thoughts Hermione's shade-like figure faded into being in front of her and smiled at her. Artemis sighed but smiled back and asked with a joking undertone, "So doc, how long was I out and where are we?

Hermione raised an eyebrow as if asking if she was serious before she shrugged lightly and decided to play along. "After having your mind broken it took me three weeks to put the pieces back together and restore your vast reserve of knowledge to its former pristine condition. I took the liberty of altering your mental state to perceive your own emotion from a detached viewpoint of the like you experienced in that expanse. It's not perfect and emotions that are exceptionally strong or intense will still be able to affect you. As for where we are, I have yet to determine the exact location on the planet but from what I and the House Elf's have figured out we are twenty miles from the southernmost port city of Tea Country. In terms of technology it's mostly in the range of feudal Japan as is their culture. There seemed to be a few pieces of technology that are more suited to the twentieth century but it's rare and very uncommon. The state of government also seems to be stuck in the Japanese feudal age with at least twenty-four countries that I have counted so far. The military is mostly predominately Samurai with what appear to be…Shinobi or Ninja as the main military force. The Samurai and Shinobi utilize energy they call chakra or more accurately the energy itself seems to be a byproduct of the body's eight chakra pools. This chakra seems to be to have replaced magic in this universe or it may be that that this is one possible future where magic has evolved into chakra, I am not sure."

Artemis nodded thoughtfully before a dark look crossed her eyes and the ambient magic around turned heavy with malice. "What did that Shinigami do to me, it's not obvious and I'm sure that no one else would notice it but I have been in tuned with my magic too long to miss the energy mimicking my Circulatory System. I can feel it energizing my blood and that it has a quasi-sentient element to it like magic but I can tell its alien."

Hermione nodded absently which caused Artemis to twitch slightly, "That would be chakra, the entity that attacked you in the expanse somehow graphed it into your body through your soul so that you could survive in this world. I have my theories but I have as of yet come to a solid conclusion as to why it did this; however that is not the only thing that was added. Congratulations you are once again a living Horcrux…or at least what I suspect would pass as a Horcrux in this world. However unlike the one in your scar this one cannot be destroyed on the physical plan with Basilisk venom. The entity that attacked you cut your soul open and placed the soul inside it before it used the same chakra pulsing in your veins to suture your soul closed. Because of this I have not been able to remove it simply because I cannot generate enough magic to sunder your soul like the Shinigami did and even if I could I wouldn't. Damage to the soul never heals, even now without the sutures of chakra binding your soul together it would have never had healed at all."

Artemis nodded reluctantly, no matter what spiritual death was never an option even if she had to live in a rotting body for all of eternity. The malice in her magic faded into nothing and the dark look left her eyes before Artemis slumped down and asked with resignation, "Tell me what else there is, knowing my luck there is always something else…"

Hermione nodded and with a grimace, "Well the entity designated Shinigami may or may not have also done something to Deathly Hollows that at least ensured that no one else could ever wield them again."

At that Hermione had Artemis's full attention riveted directly on her which made what she had to say all the more difficult. "Apparently the Deathly Hollows have been grafted into your body. The Resurrection Stone has been graphed on to your skull; you can actually see the tip of it jutting out of your forehead where your Brow chakra is located. I do not know if what it does now; its magical energies have been altered slightly and greatly enhanced since it has been connected to your Brow chakra. I have yet to discover the trigger that activates it or what its power now does, it's simply too complex even for me to read its magical energies. The Invisibility Cloak has been fused to your flesh and subtlety enhanced as well but its powers remain basically the same. The trigger to activate it is ironically a Disillusion charm, it hides you perfectly from all the spectrums of light as well as anything you happen to be wearing or holding at the time. The Elder Wand has been graphed onto your skeletal structure and has essentially nearly quadrupled your magical reserves but also constantly drains a third of it and stores the magic produced in the bones. The chakra in your body has been affected to a similar extent and both have increased in viscosity and intensity. Frankly I have no idea how your body is containing all that energy without warping space slightly or imploding but I suspect that the chakra implanted in your body is strengthening your physical body to a super human like state."

Artemis simply stared at the projection of Hermione with incomprehension for about a minute before she suffered a full body twitch that made Hermione wince just seeing it. When it was over Artemis simply nodded and said in a dull deadpan, "Alright, I am officially entering denial; all those graphs you mentioned are now from a benevolent if curious advanced alien race that wanted to experiment on me and in turn took the Deathly Hollows for safe-keeping. That is what you will tell me whenever I ask about them from now on until I am officially prepared to take the news without breaking again. Comply."

All this was said in a perfect monotone and which made Hermione's eyes widen in incredulously disbelief as she realized that Artemis had actually made it a order within her subroutines. Hermione wondered briefly if it was possible for pensive construct to get a migraine and decided that yes, a pensive construct that gained sentience could get a migraine. With a reluctant sigh Hermione made the change before stating in an equal monotone, "Accepted."

With a nod and another smaller but still powerful full body twitch Artemis seemed to come back to herself and looked at Hermione with a feeling of bafflement. "Sorry about that Hermione but I must have blanked out for a moment, can you repeat the last part of that?"

Hermione nodded and said absolute conviction and sincerity, "A benevolent but curious advanced alien race found you before I could and ran a series of experiments on you and in return you asked them keep the Deathly Hollows safe. When they accepted they used a Magiscience beyond my ability to understand to graft three experimental technologies that they invented on the spot after learning what the Deathly Hollows did to simulate them albeit not perfectly."

Artemis looked at her blankly for a moment before shrugging and said with a breath of relief, "Well at least I know that the Deathly Hollows are safe then, I would love to see any wizard try to get onto a advanced alien ship capable of creating technology that simulate the Deathly Hollows instantly."

Hermione nodded smiling in agreement while on the inside she was continuously banging her head on a conveniently placed steel table muttering about delusional idiots. Just outside the stone room all the House Elf's had gathered when their master had awakened, they each glanced at each other nervously not quite exactly sure what to make of what they just saw. The head House Elf glanced around at his extended family incredulously before he harshly whispered with exasperation, "Obviouslys wes didn'ts heres that and no ones heres rememberds that!"

The other House Elf's nodded hurriedly and scampered away to do their jobs while some actually went as far as to obligate themselves in their haste to forget what they obviously weren't supposed to hear.

AN: Sorry about the mix up, here is the new chapter.