Die, Ninja!
Chapter 2 of a crossover by Kuno-Baby.
AN: This story shall have no introduction. Wait. Shit!
(Scene Change)
Time twists and destinies interchange. In one world, Naruto was hated for his failure. In one world, Naruto was hated for his success. In one world, Naruto hated everyone. In one world, Naruto hated himself.
In this world, Naruto was hated for his return... alone.
Naruto trudged back to the village at a fraction of the speed he had hit jumping through the trees on his way to the fight. His steps were heavy, but his heart was heavier. It was late in the day – he had spent a long time cleaning every speck of rock, clearing every drop of water, polishing every cliff face, using his chakra to remove each piece of his once-friend from the battlefield and take back as much of him as possible. He told himself it was so that he could keep his promise to Sakura as much as possible. So that they could bury him properly. It certainly wasn't to remove each trace so as to feel the slightest bit less guilty. It wasn't!
He heard Sasuke's voice, but only out of one ear. That's what made him pause. It was the ear that he had been injured in, the liquid metal entering his skull through the opening in his ear and burning out his hearing until the Kyuubi had restored it a minute ago. The last chunks of his headband had fallen out right before he heard the voice of his dead rival.
He would have thought he was going crazy if it was both ears, but once he realized that the chakra in his ear could affect his hearing as well as his healing he stopped to listen again.
"Dobe! Stop walking! Can't you hear me?" Sasuke was calling from right behind him, his direction hearing picking up once he concentrated chakra into both his ears at once.
Naruto suddenly dropped the cloth-wrapped corpse to turn around and hear its voice. He channeled chakra in his eyes, and the specter of his kill loomed before him, floating slightly above him.
"Are... are you hearing me, finally?" Sasuke's face showed surprise, but the rest of him looked normal, all except for the chain jutting from the center of his body, dropping a few feet from his chest before terminating in a broken link.
"You're... you're dead. How are you talking to me?" Naruto asked, half in fear and half in surprise.
"How should I know? I'm a ghost." Sasuke said.
"Why are you following me? I'm sorry enough that I killed you!"
"What else should I do?"
Naruto and Sasuke were almost up to a fistfight before a voice cut in, reminding them of their mortality or perhaps lack of the same.
"Naruto? Who are you talking to? I don't see anyone with you! Where's Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked loudly from the distant gate. Naruto looked as his feet and at the mass of blood on the ground.
Sakura ran closer, looking around for her crush. "Where is he? What took you two so long. Naruto, where's Sasuke-kun?"
Naruto sat down abruptly, putting his blood-covered hands over his face. "He... I couldn't stop him without..."
Sakura interrupted. "He escaped you? But you promised to bring him back!"
Naruto shook his head. "I brought... as much of him back... as I could." He collapsed all the way to the ground, his head crashing with a thump on the dirt path. Sasuke's body was at his feet.
Sakura looked down for the first time and screamed.
(scene change)
Konoha mourned the passing of its beloved son. Konoha mourned the death of Uchiha Sasuke, prodigy, ninja, and traitor. They did not care that the fox-child mourned alongside them. He was the killer! He was the true traitor! Why, Hokage-Sama! Why is he still free?
Naruto himself wallowed in guilt and misery. The only thing that kept him hopeful was the ever-present specter of his friend.
Sasuke had forgiven him. Even though he'd made a stupid mistake and gotten him killed. Sasuke had forgiven him his stupidity and his failure.
It was a pity that he was dead. They could have become good friends after such bonding.
Naruto had begun to realize that his eyes let him see a lot of things – and after a day of continuously pumping chakra into them, they didn't need any anymore. He permanently began to see ghosts, mostly Sasuke, but the occasional ectoplasmic villager would dance before his eyes, giggling about how "no one could see them..."
It made one wonder about the origin of these ghostly remains. Didn't a ghost need unfinished business to stick around? Naruto knew that Sasuke hadn't yet killed his brother. But what had the old farmer left undone? He seemed pretty happy with his life and his death. It was just strange.
Naruto almost failed to notice that his thoughts had lifted him from his dark pit of depression when a scream again graced his ears.
This time, it was Sasuke.
Naruto looked out his window frantically, seeing a massive black shape grabbing onto his once-rival. It had a massive hole straight through its chest and a massive white mask covering all of its features... other than its strangely human teeth.
It had Sasuke in its claws, and was dragging him into some wavering portal, hanging in mid-air like a gap in the very frame of what was real.
Naruto jumped before he thought. He had always done this, in every endeavor. It helped him a lot – he never wasted any time. If his instinctive approach worked, there were no problems. If it failed, then he'd think of a new method. But only if the jump failed.
His jump took him through the window of his apartment bedroom, glass shredding his jacket and cutting his arms and face, and into the middle of the street. Onlookers glared for a second - that kyuubi brat doing something stupid again – and then he caught Sasuke's hand. Sasuke, the ghost, managed to hold a tenuous physical state for Naruto's grasp, carrying the both of them through the dark portal and away from all they had ever known or loved.
It was a painful trip. Naruto felt like he was taking a dive through a wood chipper like some sort of murdered hooker. When they emerged, it was into a pale world, with nothing but flat land and black hills jutting in the distance. The hollow beast flew yet higher, and bit Sasuke on the leg, causing him to scream in pain. With his scream, he lost his grip. Along with his grip, he lost Naruto.
Sasuke regained his senses in time to see another portal open, and darkness.
Naruto saw the blank sky for another four seconds before he felt an impact and then nothingness.
(scene change)
"Hey, kid, you all right?"
Naruto blinked, then wondered at the feel of grass on his back. The ground in that strange place was bare, he was sure. How'd he get where he was? His trained ninja instinct would not let him wake peacefully into an unknown situation.
"Kid, you even awake? That was quite a fall."
Naruto chanced to open his eyes. He was staring at the blue sky, and at the face of a strange looking guy wearing a bandanna and riding a tremendous tusked pig.
Naruto screamed and stood up.
"Wow, quick recovery. You're a strange lad, you know. Most people are content to walk through that door, but you fell out of the sky. Ha!"
With that, the strange person left, leaving Naruto feeling as if he had been the victim of some sort of cruel prank. He was overly familiar with pranking, anyway.
And on top of that, he was hungry.
"Why!!!!!!" he yelled to the heavens, then wandered in the directions of some towers he saw in the distance. With any luck, they could tell him where he'd ended up and how to get back to Konoha.
(scene change)
Naruto knew only that he was starving and that he was somewhere very annoying. Not only would no one tell him which country he was in (they kept insisting it was the "Rukongai" or something! Where the hell is that!), not a single food vendor was anywhere in sight. Not that he had any money, but theft was on his mind and no one had any food to steal. Did these people simply not eat or something?
He wandered, desperately, stomach growling and head pounding, until he could no longer remember how to even get back to the forested area he had woken up to, lost in the dense series of crudely constructed shacks and stands and poorly paved roads. Eventually, he began to notice that the quality of architecture was improving as he got closer to the towers he had seen in the distance before. But once he was almost there, he reached a giant, blank wall, hugely tall and with only a massive gate and an equally massive guard.
"Is that guy really sixty feet tall?" Naruto spoke aloud.
"Sixty-two!" The giant's voice boomed.
Naruto glanced up, taking in the sight of the black-robed figure. "Um..."
"Yes?" The giant boomed yet again.
"Can I pass through here?" Naruto asked, hopefully.
"Nope." The giant responded.
"Shit." Naruto returned, then turned around as if to leave.
The giant's stare returned to the road ahead and he almost failed to notice as Naruto took a huge leap and managed to slightly clear the wall... only to smash into an energy wall, painfully reflecting his energy and sending him crashing to the ground.
"Ha! You'll have to do better than that to cross the deathstone wall!" The giant laughed, and turned away.
Naruto grunted angrily, his stomach growling with even more anger, and turned to walk back into the maze of strange people.
(scene change)
It had been a full day before Naruto met someone who was actually willing to tell him what was going on. He had been intrigued by the black robes the man wore – similar to the robes of the giant he had met at the gate. The man's long red hair and strange tattoos made Naruto feel as if he were in a ninja village again – good ol' eccentric jounins.
"You're in Soul Society, kid. Maybe you didn't realize, but you're dead."
"Dead???"
"This is the afterlife. You should have been brought here by a shinigami, to let you know what was going on, but apparently they were too lazy... Well, I've got some spare time. The name's Renji. Abarai Renji."
"Uzumaki Naruto. Thanks for helping, but... I have a question. Um... If I'm dead, why am I so hungry?"
"Hungry, eh? Well, the people with enough Reiatsu will still feel hunger to sustain their energy. You might even have enough to be a shinigami yourself! Hey, I'll buy you your first meal, since you're new here. If you can eat enough I'll have your reiatsu checked out."
"Wow! Thanks!"
(scene change)
Renji was sweating heavily as he watched the kid eat. 'Do I even have enough money to pay for this meal???' He thought to himself as he stared open-mouthed.
Naruto was on his twelfth bowl of ramen. Not eating for two days, combined with the strange increase in hunger he had felt since arriving in the weird world, had conspired to allow him to eat more than any normal person and still be ravenous as a starving dog.
"Are you done yet, kid?" Renji asked with a strained voice.
"Umm... I guess that's enough until lunch." Naruto responded with a straight face.
Renji looked at the sun, almost centered in the sky. "It's eleven in the morning! Lunch is in an hour or two!"
"Well I'm hungry!"
"Fine, have another bowl or two..." Renji sighed, waiting for the kid to finish eating. At least he ate quickly...
When Naruto had finished, Renji addressed him seriously. "Kid, you were that hungry after only one day? I think I have to enroll you in the shinigami academy. Come on. First test is getting to the gates of Seireitei in under five minutes!"
Renji bolted off, and Naruto followed him on the rooftops. The ramen vendor only cried as he looked at all the bowls now laying smashed on the floor, the bill unpaid.
Renji smiled. 'Ha! My wallet is intact! Mission eat-and-run successful!'
When they reached the gate, Renji shouted up to the giant. "Hey. It's me, Abarai Renji. Let me through."
The giant nodded and lifted the gate, allowing Naruto and Renji to pass.
(scene change)
"What do you mean the academy admissions are closed!" Renji shouted, angrily.
"Because of the invading ryoka, admissions are closed. Any new student may be a spy." The man at the desk explained.
"Damn. Ryoka in Rukongai? This kid definitely isn't trying to infiltrate – I ran into him by accident!" Renji tried to explain.
"Sorry. You'll have to leave him in Rukongai until the situation is resolved."
"Hmm. Sorry kid." Renji led Naruto back out to the main city. "Hey. I'll tell you one thing, just in case you meet the Ryoka yourself – Ryoka are intruders in Soul Society who are attacking us. You can try and release your Zanpakuto – that's the Shinigami's weapon – by looking for something... how can I put it... sealing into your soul. If you can find that, you'll have something to defend yourself with."
Renji looked around. "Ha! What am I saying? You'll have more luck running and kiding than finding your Zanpakuto with no training! Good luck, kid." With that, he left back through the gate, and Naruto sat down by the wall, bored.
"I hope this thing resolves itself soon... I wanted to ask at the academy about the monster that took Sasuke..." Naruto muttered, trying to sleep to at least relieve the boredom.
(scene change)
Naruto awoke to the sound of a massive booming. He looked up to see that the giant guarding the gate had smashed a huge hole in the ground, creating some sort of fighting ring for himself and some other orange-haired Shinigami. He briefly wondered what was going on before realizing he, too, was stuck in the newly-walled area.
Naruto was suddenly reminded of what Renji had told him when they parted ways. "Something sealing in my soul..." he mused out loud. "I know what was sealed in my soul... but is it still there? Can I find it?" Naruto closed his eyes, willing himself to be found in the series of sewer-like mazes that he had come to associate with the monster sealed within him.
He was there, faster than meditation had ever let him go before. He quickly ran to the chamber of the massive fox, only to see the bars of the cage no longer present.
It growled at him, angry, but did not attack. "You've found me again pretty fast, brat. I assume you need my help once again? I don't know how you're keeping me here without the seal, but I will find a way to make you pay..."
"I was told to find what was sealed inside me, fox! I want you to give me a sword!" Naruto declared.
The fox twisted its head. "A sword? This appeared as my cage dissolved, brat. Take it, for all I care. It's no use to me."
The sword was lying in the corner of the cage room, discarded among the puddles of murky water and the swirls of red chakra. Naruto ran up to it and grasped it in his hand, and suddenly he was watching the newcomer fight the giant again, gone from the world in his mind.
Naruto looked at his right hand, the sword still held between his fingers. "So, it worked. Sweet!"
He didn't have much time to celebrate, because another crashing boom sounded as the giant gate-guard sent his sword against his foe, only to miss and crush a large portion of the street... again.
Naruto held his new blade at the ready, but soon found he didn't need it as the two fighters ignored him entirely. The newcomer eventually defeated the giant, who agreed to open the door. Naruto ran over just in time to see a shinigami with the cloak of a captain throw the giant back with his sword.
The giant was injured further and the ryoka were not getting in any time soon. Naruto held his sword lower, relaxing.
"Hey kid! Who the hell are you?" The orange-haired ryoka-shinigami yelled at him.
"Uzumaki Naruto! Who the hell are you?"
"Kurosaki Ichigo!"
Both glared at one another as Ichigo's companions watched until Ichigo broke out in laughter.
"You're not a shinigami! You're just a kid!" Ichigo said, laughing.
"Hey! I've got this sword, don't I?"
"Well, aren't you going to stop us, then?" Ichigo asked.
"Stop you from what?" Naruto asked, clueless.
"We're here to stop you shinigami bastards from killing Rukia!" Ichigo said, suddenly deadly serious.
"What?" Naruto asked, stunned. 'The shinigami I met didn't seem like the murdering kind of person.' he thought to himself.
"We're going to rescue her, even if I have to fight all of you myself!" Ichigo said, and Naruto remembered his promise to Sakura – that he hadn't been able to keep.
"Fine." Naruto said, looking at his feet. "I bet... you promised to save her, right?" Naruto asked, slowly.
"Uh... yeah." Ichigo said, softer than the brash voice of before.
"I know what that's like." Naruto said, and walked away to think.
Ichigo stared for a second, then turned and walked away with his allies, presumably to find another way into Seireitei.
(scene change)
Naruto, of course, already knew how he would get into Seireitei.
"Henge!"
Naruto became an exact copy of the shinigami who had attacked the gate guard. He walked around the wall until he came to a different gate – with a different guard.
"Gin-taichou!" The guard saluted and opened the gate.
"Thanks." Naruto said, doing his best impression of the man's voice.
The guard looked at him weird, but he was already inside.
"Now, to see if I can find this 'Rukia.'"
(scene change)
"So, where's this Rukia bein' held?" Naruto asked, still in his disguise.
"The execution schedule has been moved up again. She has been taken to the Shrine of Penitence." The guards on the prison answered dutifully.
"Wha'd she do again?"
One of the guards looked at him strangely, but the other answered. "She has been convicted of sharing her shinigami powers with a human. That is a crime worthy of capital punishment."
Naruto had to concentrate to avoid screaming at how unfair that was. He began to walk away, but stopped.
"Uh, where's the Shrine thing again?" Naruto asked, cautiously.
The guards looked at each other, then pointed at the massive spire on the high cliffs above Seireitei.
Naruto nodded and headed for the tower.
(scene change)
AN: By unpopular request, I'm posting this chapter now. IF YOU LIKE IT, REVIEW IT. I hate to think my story is pointless and unloved, and I certainly don't continue it if no-one likes it. IF YOU HATE IT, SAY SO. I want to know these things. This has been a public service announcement from Sears. PS. YOU GUESSED IT.