Story: No Hollow Heart

Author: life is short so am I

Rating: T

Genre: Adventure, angst, humor, hurt/comfort, family, romance and friendship

Chapter: More Death

Warning: Fem!Naruto

Pairings: Naruto/Jūshirō, others

Author's Note (PLEASE READ THIS): Wow this got so many reviews, favourites and follows! You're all lovely! Look, some of you don't really like the Ichigo/Rukia pairing, but honestly it won't be that big of a pairing. It's not relevant now and I haven't made any real plans around it, so I could probably change it to something else, or just have nothing at all. If you want to suggest a different pairing that you'd like, then PM me or tell me in a review.

Summary: The Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, was the first go die. She is also the first to Hollowfy, and after a mere two weeks, she is gone from their massacred village. Thousands of years later, she sits back, chills, and sometimes lends a helping hand to her ridiculous little godson, Ichigo.

Disclaimer: Ha! I wish I owned Naruto and Bleach!


Naruto ran through the hospital. She put her slight stature to good use, dodging around the various people crowding up the halls, "Late!" the woman screeched, "I'm LATE! Move it people, I've got to get to a very important pregnancy that can't be missed! I can't leave Masaki with that blubbering idiot, Isshin! My precious person is way too important!"

Despite her words having no effect on the people around her, she continued yelling as she ran through the hallways of the hospital, "I AM NOT GOING TO MISS THIS BIRTH, DATTEBAYO! Move! Yes you! I'm talking to you with the fork in your neck! Move it, move it, move - oh, I'm here!" Naruto skidded to a stop, her red hair flying every which way.

She burst into the room, paying no heed to the dramatically startled Isshin, and ran straight to Masaki, "Are you okay? Have you given birth yet? Is Ichigo here?"

Masaki gave her a pained and tired, but radiantly happy smile, "Oh, Naruto, you just missed the birth. He's beautiful. Would you like to see him?" She held out her arms, showing her a tiny little baby with a tuft of orange hair wrapped in a blue blanket.

Ichigo was sleeping soundly, and Naruto took a moment to admire his hair. It was so nice and orange! It looked so soft! And orange!

Isshin chose that time to disrupt the moment before Naruto could take the baby, "Oi! Hey! That's my kid! My first son! Why does she get to hold him before I do, huh?"

"Because I'm his godmother!" Naruto slammed her fist onto Isshin's head, and he lunged at her, which resulted in an all out brawl in the middle of the room.

"Calm down, calm down!" Masaki called out in a strained voice, "Don't fight in front of Ichigo-kun!"

Kicking Isshin out the window solved the father vs. godmother problem, and Naruto was happily cooing over Ichigo by the time Isshin crawled back into the room.

He was, after all, her baby godson, and the newest addition to her precious family. She wasn't going to let anything happen to the kid.


"Well," Isshin rationalized, trying to do anything to get the terrifying look off of Naruto's face. "At least you were here for this one."

Naruto turned her formidable glare onto Isshin, whispering so that she wouldn't wake the soundly sleeping Masaki, "Your wife decided that she was only going to give birth to one twin today, and tried to get up and leave once Yuzu was born. The whole hospital could hear her screaming, the thing with the thing and the thing went wrong and she almost died, Ichigo is still quoting some of the swear words that she used, and these chairs are the most uncomfortable thing that I have ever had the displeasure of sitting on," the glare slid off her face as she looked down at the two sleeping newborn girls she held in her arms. "But you're right. I was here."

"Fuck this shit," Ichigo parroted from his father's arms.

Isshin sighed and slammed his head against the wall.

Naruto simply rolled her eyes. "Ichigo, if you don't stop repeating the things that you heard your mom say today then I'm not going to let you hold your sisters."

Ichigo gasped in abject horror. He had been wanting to hold his little sisters since his mom had told him that they were growing in her belly. He slapped his hands over his mouth and nodded his head frantically. "No more bad words!" He squeaked.

Naruto smiled as Isshin watched in amazement. "Good. Now, if you want to hold your sisters, I need you to sit on the ground, ok?"

Ichigo clambered off his father's lap and was obediently sitting on the floor within seconds.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Isshin asked hesitantly. "He's only four…"

"Nonsense," Naruto waved him off, inwardly surprised at the fact that the usually laid back Isshin was being protective. "Four year olds can hold babies if you just show them how. Ichigo's smart, and he loves them to bits already. No way he's going to drop them."

Ichigo squirmed impatiently. "Can I hold my sisters now?"

"Sure!" Naruto grinned. "But you can only hold one at a time. Who do you want to hold first? Yuzu or Karin?"

"Yuzu because she was born first!" Ichigo declared. "That way Karin doesn't have to wait longer for me to hold her!"

"Nice logic," Isshin muttered.

Ichigo, recognizing the tone to his father's voice but not knowing what he meant, stuck his tongue out at him.

Naruto snickered at the look on Isshin's face. "What? No comeback?"

"Goddamn four year olds," Isshin grumbled beneath his breath. "No respect."

Ichigo ignored his father so that he could turn to Naruto and demand, "I want Yuzu now."

Forcing herself not to coo at his cuteness, Naruto gently placed Karin in Isshin's arms before she knelt beside Ichigo. "Alright Ichigo, you see how I'm holding Yuzu? She's in my lap and I'm holding her head up and I'm being very gentle with her?"

Ichigo nodded his head, studying the way that Naruto was holding Yuzu with great intensity.

"Good!" Naruto said encouragingly. "Now, I'm going to give you Yuzu. You have to make sure to hold her exactly the way I'm holding her, ok?"

"Yep!" Ichigo said cheerfully. He stretched out his arms for Yuzu.

"Alright," Naruto said as she carefully placed Yuzu in his arms, adjusting his arms so that he was holding her properly.

Ichigo looked down at her with wonder in his eyes. "Yuzu," he whispered. He looked up at Naruto and Isshin. "She's so tiny, and light, and weird looking," he said worriedly. "Is she ok?"

Isshin smiled at his innocent question. "Yes, Yuzu's just a newborn. She's supposed to be that way, every baby does. Even you!"

"Her skin is all red, and she's wrinkly," Ichigo was still concerned, especially about him looking just like what Yuzu does. "I thought only old people like Daddy were supposed to be wrinkly."

Isshin's face turned red and he opened his mouth to yell, but Naruto elbowed him in the side, mindful of the baby he held in his arms, and hissed, "Shhhhh, Masaki and the babies are still sleeping. If Yuzu wakes up and starts to cry, it'll break Ichigo's heart."

Isshin took a deep breath before gritting out between his teeth, "Brat, I'm not old and I don't have wrinkles."

Naruto snorted. "Not old my ass."

"At least I'm younger than you," Isshin shot back, making sure to keep his voice low so Ichigo wouldn't take any notice of their conversation.

Naruto pulled a face at him, "And yet I don't have wrinkles."

Isshin scowled at her. "Don't give me that! I look young! I look like I'm in the prime of my life!"

Naruto smirked. "And I look like I'm barely into my twenties. I win, dattebayo." Inwardly, Naruto cursed herself for the verbal tic. She had been trying to kick that habit.

"What does dattebayo mean?" Ichigo asked, looking up from where his was playing with Yuzu. "You say it a lot."

Naruto scowled, "It means nothing. And it's among the list of things you don't ever want to repeat if you want to hold your sisters again," she threatened.

Ichigo nodded his head vigorously, "Yes! Ok!"

Naruto sighed and allowed the anger to slip off her face, managing to ignore Isshin's snickers. "Do you want to hold Karin now?" She offered.

Ichigo glanced down at Yuzu then looked back up to her. "Yeah, I'll hold Karin now," he decided before looking back down at Yuzu, "I'll protect you always, because my name means number one guardian," he whispered.

Smiling softly, Naruto took Yuzu from him before Isshin placed Karin into his arms. Ichigo looked just as enamoured with Karin as he did Yuzu.

Naruto shook her head and said to Isshin, "And you were worried about him holding them."

"In my defence I didn't know that he would take his name so literally," Isshin protested.

Naruto rolled her eyes, "Seriously? You know how much Masaki repeats it to him. You seriously thought that he wouldn't begin to think of himself that way?"

"Look!" Ichigo exclaimed. "Karin's awake!"

Isshin and Naruto whirled around to stare at the two siblings. Karin was staring blearily up at Ichigo.

"Awww," Naruto cooed. "Look at her eyes! This one's going to take after me! Just you watch."

"I pray to any deity listening that this isn't true," Isshin deadpanned. Then he furrowed his eyebrows and said, "You aren't even related to her. So my kid is safe from being anything like you."

Naruto, holding Yuzu in one arm punched him with the other. Isshin hit the ground hard and did not get back up. "I'm going to be around so much that it won't matter whether we're related or not," she said haughtily.

"That's Naruto and Daddy," Ichigo told Karin, beaming when her tiny fingers grasped onto his own tiny finger. "They always fight 'n Naruto always wins because she's way better than Daddy."

Isshin gave a muffled protest while Naruto struck a one handed good guy pose.


Naruto sighed as she looked around the room. There were nine chairs - really more like thrones - surrounding a large table, four on one side, five on the other. Each one was a different colour than the other and each one, besides hers, had a person sitting it it. Behind each chair there was their respective zanpakuto spirit - in other words, the Tailed Beasts. It was strange that the Tailed Beasts were sitting there, because they usually just ran off and did whatever they wanted after they had been released. Sitting around and listening to their former Jinchūriki argue was not one of those things.

They were all staring at her, with the exception of Gaara, who was sleeping. Thousands of years later, and he's still catching up on lost sleep, Naruto thought affectionately.

"Naruto!" Fū laughed, standing from her seat. "It's been so long since I saw you! What, twenty years? Thirty?"

Naruto laughed, "Try forty."

"Really?" Fū asked, scratching her chin thoughtfully. "I could've sworn it was less time than that…"

"So," Naruto said, giving Killer B a props as she took a seat in her chair. "What's everybody been up to these days?"

She slid her Zanpakutō out of it's place at her hip and slipped it into the specialized sheath on her chair. Kurama materialized behind her, and she sent him a grin that he rolled his eyes at. He didn't know what the obvious tension in the air was all about either, but he was just as obviously curious. Naruto rolled her eyes. Fū had probably just gotten into a fight with Utakata again.

"Well for one," Rōshi grumbled. "None of us were so busy that we were two days late to the meeting. Gaara was more useful than you, and he was sleeping the entire time!"

Gaara woke with a start at the sound of his name, surprisingly dignified for one who had just been sleeping. "Is Naruto here yet?"

"Eha," Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "I was taking care of Ichigo, Yuzu and Karin?"

"Ichigo, Yuzu and Karin? Did you have some kids that you never told any of us about?" Killer B asked, leaning forward eagerly, along with everybody else. Naruto still wasn't used to him speaking normally after he grew out of his raping phase two centuries ago.

Naruto rolled her eyes. "No," she said exasperatedly. "Seriously, will you guys stop with the kids thing? You know we can't have any. They're kids of a friend of mine. Besides, nothing interesting ever happens in Hueco Mundo. We only ever end up goofing off during these meeting anyways. I don't know why we have them twice every century, other than the fact that it's awesome to see you all."

"Au contraire," Yugito smoothly interjected into Naruto's rant. "Some very interesting things have been going on in Hueco Mundo."

Naruto raised a challenging eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

"If you had been here, you would have known already," Yagura muttered snidely.

"Quiet, Yagura," Utakata murmured. "If we make useless comments, this meeting will go on forever. As it usually does. And you know that she won't change. Look at her. It's been how many thousands of years and she's still wearing that awful shade of orange."

Naruto's head snapped around so fast that she would have gotten whiplash had she been an ordinary person.

"Ohhhhhh," Fū said, rubbing her hands together with a manic grin stretching across her face. "Do I sense a fight coming on?"

"You do realize," Rōshi said slowly, ignoring the frantic head shaking and motions for him to stop by the others around the table. "That your eyes are the exact same colour as the clothing Utakata just insulted?"

Killer B slapped his hand to his face while Yagura slammed his head onto the table and let out a low, drawn out moan of despair. Everybody else had more a little more dignity, but only a little.

Fū's demeanor instantly changed. She glared at Utakata, and the combined force of Naruto's and Fū's killing intent made Utakata sweat, but he still held his ground.

"Now you've done it," Han sighed. "Not only is Naruto angry, and you always know how that turns out, but Fū is mad now too. This meeting truly is going to take forever."

Yugito sighed. She stood up from her spot on the second chair and calmly walked her way across the table to Utakata's seat at the sixth seat. She smacked him across the head, then moved on to smack Fū at the seventh seat and Naruto at the ninth seat.

"You all," she said firmly. "Are being idiots. Utakata, apologize and maybe their revenge won't be as cruel as they undoubtedly plan on making it. Naruto, Fū, stop being pissbabies. You've had worse insults."

Naruto's anger was playful in its nature. She liked to pretend to be angry, simply because she liked to see what everybody's reaction to her anger would be. Except Yugito's, of course. That woman didn't put up with any shit. However good an actor Naruto was, Yugito always figured her out. Had she actually been angry, the woman would have reacted in a much different way. However, this way was the best to calm Fū down, so this was the way she acted.

Fū glared at Yugito, rubbing the back of her head. "He insulted my eye colour," she grumbled, settling back down into the chair grudgingly. "You can bet your lesbian ass I'm planning revenge."

Yugito raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her, already back in her seat. "My being a lesbian has nothing to do with this. And you're one to talk."

"Oh come on!" B said exasperatedly. "We're not getting into this again, are we? Honestly, who here really cares about gender anymore?"

Slowly, Rōshi raised his hand. B gave him a hard look. "And you can honestly say that you've never been with a male before?"

Rōshi lowered his hand, an uncomfortable look on his face. He clearly didn't like discussing his love life. Or perhaps his lack of one.

Gaara rolled his eyes. "And how many of us actually have love lives nowadays? Everybody dies within a hundred years or so, most of the time much less than that. Look at Fū, she hasn't even tried anybody else since her last fling died," Fū pursed her lips together. Usually the woman was set off by anything, but if Grimmjow was mentioned, she just went into a depressive state. She had truly been in love with him.

Ignorant to Fū's internal crisis and everybody else's glares, Gaara continued. "Yugito is the exception, but her partner is a Shinigami, so that's a little different."

Naruto grinned. She loved it when they talked about sexual orientation, which was so much more free now than it had been when she had been alive. When she was alive it had been frowned upon to be anything other than hetrosexual, but it wasn't actually illegal. Nowadays though, it was much better. In some places of the world, at least.

In an attempt to get them all back on track, Yagura said, "Oh come on, you all moan and groan about these meetings taking forever, but when it comes down to it you all are just as bad as Naruto. Seriously, do you want this thing to take months again?"

Utakata, (who had yet to apologise, he had always hated to admit that he was in the wrong) nodded in agreement. "Yes, Naruto still doesn't know what's going on in Hueco Mundo."

Naruto tilted her head to the side, beginning to get excited. If the others had acknowledged it, then it must be a pretty big deal.

Yugito leaned forward, an angry frown on her face. "You know of the Shinigami called Sōsuke Aizen, correct?"

Naruto stretched her mind. She had heard the name before, but she had known so many people in her time and it was hard to remember them all. And it wasn't like she visited the Soul Society all that often anyways. After a moment of dredging through half-forgotten memories though, she finally said, "He's the bastard of a captain that created the Visored and then blamed it on Kisuke, isn't he?"

Yugito clenched her fist so tightly that her knuckles started turning white. "Yes, well, we've learned that his traitorous acts have gone much further than his past experiments. He's been here. In Hueco Mundo."

Naruto's gaze sharpened and all of her amusement drained away. "I have heard of a Shinigami that has been stirring up trouble these past few decades, but I thought it was just the Shinigami that lives in the Forest of Menos was causing all these rumours."

Han nodded, frowning, "It's a logical assumption. I thought that too, at first. But this Aizen… what he is doing goes far beyond simply killing Hollows."

"You know that I don't like to meddle in the affairs of the Shinigami. We all agreed that we'd leave them to their own business," Yugito sighed. "But this time… this time it's different."

B nodded along with her words. "Yugito's right. It is different this time."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "How's that?"

"We've all known that Aizen was a traitor for a long time," Gaara intoned. "He's done many experiments on Hollows and Shinigami alike. Up until now, we haven't known the purpose for that though."

Naruto rolled her eyes impatiently. "Yes, yes, I've got that. Stop being pansies and just tell me already, won't you? And you all say that I'm the one that always takes up so much time during these, geez."

"He want's to overthrow the Soul King," Fū blurted out. She slapped her hands over her mouth the second the words came out. "Me and my big mouth," she muttered.

Naruto's expression darkened against her will. Her fists tightened around the arm rests on her chair. Her Killing Intent was so heavy that the others leaned away from her. B, the only person who was seated beside her froze in place.

Kurama, who had been a silent observer up until then, chose that moment to rumble out, "Oi, brat. That's the most anger you've felt since the last time you visited the Soul King, careful about letting it all out here. This place can handle a whole lot, but the full brunt of your Killing Intent is not one of those things."

Naruto took a deep, calming breath and unclenched her hands from the arm rests, leaving dents from where she had been clutching her fingers too tight. Slowly, her Killing Intent faded away. She covered her face with her hands and rubbed her eyes. When she uncovered her face, she leaned back in her chair and the only evidence of her fury was the trembling in her hands and the terrifying expression across her face.

Collectively, everybody in the room gave a relieved sigh. Terrifying expressions they could deal with. Naruto so angry that she wouldn't even notice the walls caving in on her due to her Killing Intent? That was high up on the list of things they'd like to avoid.

"Naruto," Gaara said.

Naruto refused to look him in the eye. "What."

"I think it's time you told us what happened the last time you were at the Soul King Palace," he said gently. It was surprising that even Gaara, who even thousands of years later, was still just about as emotionally stunted as he had been back in life, was able to figure out that the best thing for her would be talking about it right now. Or perhaps it was thousands of years later that he was emotionally stunted?

"I-" Naruto sighed. "I guess you're right. The last time the Soul King and it met… well, I learned something."


Naruto approached the grave once everybody had left, even the lingering family. She had no want to see them at the moment, and she highly doubted that they wanted to see her either.

She held no flowers in her hands, nor was she wearing black like all the other people had been. Finally, she walked up to the shrine, and sat on the ground in front of it. "Funny," she began, tracing her fingers over the familiar kanji of her friends name. "To think that just a few months ago, you were playing with your kids, laughing at your husband's stupidity, laughing at my stupidity. When I came back, I didn't think you'd be dead. I could have stopped this from happening, you know. You have the most inconvenient timing. Why does everything have to happen when I'm gone, eh Masaki? First all those Witch Trials, then World War One, and now you."

Naruto looked up at the clear blue sky. She wiped the tears off her cheeks and gave a weak chuckle. "I didn't think that it was supposed to rain today."

"Naruto?" Ichigo said from behind her. "It's not raining."

Naruto didn't jump. Without turning around, she said, "Jeez kid, ruin my dramatic scene why don't 'cha."

Ichigo sat beside her. "Mommy's dead," he said in a small voice.

Naruto looked down at him, but the boy resolutely stared at his mother's name on the stone slab. Naruto gave a sad sigh. "Yeah. What're you doing up here Ichigo?"

"I brought him here," Isshin said.

This time, Naruto did jump. "You're getting better at hiding your Spiritual Pressure."

"You're getting worse at sensing it," Isshin retorted.

Yuzu, guided by Karin, sat on the other side of Naruto. The whole Kurosaki family had red puffy eyes as proof to their tears.

Naruto looked back at the grave marker. Again, she sighed then wrapped her arms around her godchildren. "You know what they say. Grief dulls the senses."