Chapter One:
After the three had leapt away from the open area around Kakashi, Naruto sought out Sasuke and said, "I know the purpose of this test and how to pass it." He had leaned against a tree as he had stated that, he was wearing the same outfit as the day before only this time the colors for the wrappings were switched to the color of the previous day's pants and visa versa for his clothing.
The dark haired boy gave his blond companion an odd look before he too leaned against a tree trunk, this one was across from Naruto's, as he said, "and how is that?"
Naruto smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest, he then brought the sole of his right sandal up to rest on the trunk as he said, "the main purpose of the Bell Test is to allow the tester to find out how well a group of people function as a team. Three Genin can take out a high level Jounin, but the Jounin has to underestimate the Genin and so long as the Genin work together. In other words, Sasuke, we need to work as a team to get those bells away from Kakashi-Sensei," Naruto ended by shoving away from the trunk as he uncrossed his arms.
Sasuke thought for several moments before he took a deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly as he looked up at the canopy before he said, "you're right. I rather doubt the academy would put together three man teams just to have one Genin from each team return to the academy. So either the entire team passes or none of the Genin pass," the dark eyed boy nodded sharply as he pushed away from the tree and walked away. He then looked over his shoulder with a smirk as he said, "shall we go find Sakura and convince her that it would be better to work together to defeat our sensei."
Five minutes later, Naruto had finished laying out the plan he had come up with on the way to find Sakura, since Sasuke had already agreed to go along with Naruto's plan Sakura had agreed to go along with it as well. As Naruto's clones were getting into position, Sakura, who was kneeling on the right side of the blond while Sasuke was on the left, turned to him and asked, "why did you stop wearing your old outfit?"
"You mean besides the fact that it's the color of 'kill me now' orange," he asked before he said, "two reasons really. Reason number 1: these," he gestured to his clothes, "are two of the colors that are trademarks of my clan. Reason number 2: someone told me that it's a foolish mistake to wear something that made me vulnerable to an enemy. They also told me that if I couldn't move around in it easily or if it could give away my position to an enemy then I shouldn't be wearing it no matter how much I like the outfit." Before Sakura could say anything about his words, Naruto's head shot up and he hissed out, not literally since there were currently no snakes around to talk to, "the clones are in position. Get ready to move on my mark!"
Although both of his teammates were curious about who had told him that about his clothes they turned to the current mission at hand, 'Retrieve the Bells!' As planned, Naruto's clones attacked Kakashi first en masse, followed shortly by Sasuke and Sakura. While the Jounin was occupied by his clones and teammates, Naruto had grabbed the two bells as well as the gaudy orange book that their Sensei had been reading, inwardly Naruto wondered what was so fascinating about the book since his Ryuu-Okasan also read it. Naruto had made three clones, two had henged into the bells while the third had henged into the book, after he had swapped the clones for the three items he had hid so he could disguise the book into a bell that looked identical to the two bells. He then dismissed the clones and stood next to his teammates as Kakashi was about to tell them that they had failed, Naruto said, "before you say anything, Sensei, you should check your belt.
Kakashi glanced down in time to see the two bells disappear in a puff of smoke, the Jounin then glanced up to see Naruto toss the bells at his teammates while holding the third in his left hand. Sasuke held up his bell and smirked as he said slowly, "obviously one of these three bells is a fake, but can you tell which one of the three bells it is?" He then got a blank look on his face before he said seriously, "either you pass all three of us or send all of us back to the academy. We're a team now and you can't change that."
Kakashi glanced between all three Genin's as she gauged their seriousness about Sasuke's statement before she sighed and said seriously while adopting a grave look on her face, "very well. You leave me not choice but too…"
'I hope Naruto was right about this,' was the thought that ran through both Sakura's and Sasuke's minds as their Sensei drew out her announcement.
"Say that you pass," Kakashi finally chirped with a grin under her mask and causing her visible eye to become an upside down U.
Naruto smirked before he dispelled the henge and the bell in his hand turned into a certain book that he tossed back to the stunned Jounin as he said, "you can drop the jutsu, Sensei, I think you've made your point."
"Mah, I guess I have," Kakashi said while rubbing the back of her head with her right hand, Sakura gave the pair a confused look while Sasuke smirked. With a small puff of smoke the silver haired woman was replaced by a silver haired man, his hair seemed to be stubbornly defying gravity. The man waved at the stunned girl as he said, "yo," before he turned his attention to Sasuke as he said, "you don't seem to be surprised about me actually being a guy."
The brunette male snorted before he said, "everyone in my clan would talk about you. Most of the clan would murmur about how terrible it was that Obito had died shortly after activating his Sharingan but at least he had passed one of his eyes to a worthy person." He then smirked as he leaned against one of the training posts before he commented idly, "that knowledge combined with Naruto being unsurprised by your name and comments made me believe that he had taught you the Oiroke no Jutsu." He tilted his head to the right slightly as his black eyes stared straight into the silver haired man's only visible eye.
Kakashi finally nodded in response to Sasuke's statements before he said, "yeah, Naruto taught the jutsu to me and another Jounin." He rubbed the back of his head again as he said with a wry tone, "it was a good thing he did because it came in handy on a mission that the pair of us had. It let us escape another country undetected and make our way to Konoha without anyone being the wiser that we were a pair of Jounins."
Naruto smirked at that before he asked, "so… What's on the agenda first for our team? I mean, we can't start doing c-ranked missions until you're confidant that we can handle them, so that leaves training and d-ranked missions." As he had spoken he had mirrored Sasuke's pose and had leaned against a training post, he had crossed his arms over his chest as he glanced at their sensei.
Kakashi had dropped down to sit on the ground with his legs crossed into a meditative pose, he had his left elbow resting on his knee and was using his fist to rest his cheek on. He then stared at them for a few moments before he said, "most astute of you Naruto, to realize that you aren't going to be doing higher ranked missions yet." Kakashi closed his eyes and thought carefully as he contemplated how to begin their training before he nodded sharply. He then opened his eye and stared at his Genin team, Sakura had followed the boy's example and was leaning against a training post in between the pair, all three were staring at their sensei expectantly.
"Alright, I've come to a decision," the man said as he rose from his position on the ground, "meet me at the Memorial Stone at seven am tomorrow. After we're done there I'll tell you how we'll be handling your training and missions. Understood?"
All three of the preteens nodded as they chorused, "understood, Kakashi-Sensei!"
The silver haired man beamed at them, once again giving them his customary eye smile, before he said, "good, I'm going to go report about you passing my test and have you marked as my team. From now on you are to be known as Team Seven or Team Kakashi depending on the situation. The Hokage wants me to train you to be the same thing my own Genin team was, so I'll be training you the same way, or as close to it, that I was trained." He then waved a cheerful goodbye as he said, "see you three tomorrow, kids," before he again disappeared in a whirl of leaves.
Sakura stared at where their sensei had been standing before she said quietly, "I wonder why he wants us to meet him at the Memorial stone and what are we are going to be doing there…"
Sasuke shoved away from the post and said while he began retrieving his weapons, "I don't know but most of my clan either spoke of him with fondness or with a great deal of respect. So I'm going to follow his orders even if they don't make a lot of sense to me," as he had spoken he bent down to pick up some Kunai. Naruto had also started helping him pick up his weapons and after a few minutes of watching the two boys Sakura joined them. After all the weapons had been retrieved from the ground the three began the tedious job of searching through them for their own weapons.
After all of them had gotten their weapons separated from the others, Naruto glanced at the sky before he said, "I don't know about you two but I'm hungry. Do either of you want to join me for some ramen," he asked as he put his weapons back into his pouch.
Sakura had bit back her first response of 'hell no,' when she realized that the blond was inviting both her and Sasuke to join him for dinner or at least a snack before dinner. Finally after a few moments to think she nodded as she put away her own weapons and said, "sure, I'm a bit hungry myself. What about you Sasuke, are you hungry," she had glanced over at her dark haired teammate as she asked the question.
Sasuke paused while he was putting way his own weapons at the inquiry and thought it over before he finally nodded in response as he said, "alright. I'll join you but if neither of you minds it, I'm going in my Oiroke no jutsu form." The dark haired boy shuddered as he said in a voice filled with loathing, "I'd rather have a meal without my fan girls attacking me."
Upon receiving assent to his stipulation for joining them, Sasuke used the jutsu and Sakura gaped then pouted over how pretty the Uchiha male had become. His hair now reached his waist while in a high ponytail while his facial features were the same as before they were now softened slightly. He, or rather she, was wearing his usual outfit minus the Uchiha symbol and his arm warmers, his headband was also gone, or rather hidden from sight.
The three Genin's then walked to Naruto's favorite Ramen stand, as they did they began talking about miscellaneous things. Which included whether or not the Oiroke no Jutsu would make the user appear to be a man or if it's user was a female if it would simply turn the girl into an older version of themselves. The three eventually decided that Naruto would teach the jutsu to Sakura and she could test it herself, if she merely turned into an older version of herself then Naruto would create a jutsu to do the opposite of the Oiroke no Jutsu for her.
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While his kids were picking up their weapons, Kakashi had appeared inside of the Hokage's office, he waved at the rest of the Jounin in the room. Genma and Anko were leaning against the wall while Iruka was holding a clipboard, the scarred Chuunin was standing next to the Hokage's desk. Before Kakashi could report that his team had passed his test Asuma and Kurenai had entered the room through the door. The pair blinked in shock at seeing Kakashi in the room and assumed that he had failed yet another team despite it having the last Uchiha on it.
The Hokage puffed idly on his pipe as Asuma said around the cigarette in his mouth, "team Ten passes. I'll have to do some preliminary training before I begin missions with them however."
As Iruka marked down the passing of the team and Asuma's remark, Kurenai said cheerfully, "team eight also passes. Like Asuma-San I plan to do some preliminary training with my team before we begin missions together."
To Asuma and Kurenai's surprise the Hokage had nodded in acceptance before he glanced over at Kakashi as he asked, "and Team Seven. How did they fare with your test Kakashi," Iruka glanced at the silver haired Jounin as he wondered how Naruto had fared in Kakashi's test. Out of six teams, excluding Team Seven, none had passed the Jounin's test, whenever a teacher had complained about that the Hokage had told them that he couldn't force a Jounin to pass a test. The decision to pass a team was solely the responsibility of the Jounin selected to test them and as such not even the Hokage could order the passing of a team.
Kakashi closed his visible eye and sighed before he looked up at them with a grin as he said, "Team Seven passes, mark them down as under the instruction of Kakashi Hatake." As he turned to leave the room he commented over his shoulder, "I also plan to do some preliminary training along with discussions with them before we begin missions." He then left the room to head home, he left four stunned Jounins, a bemused Chuunin and an amused Hokage behind him as he did.
Iruka shook his head as he huffed a laugh before he wrote down Team Seven's results as well as their Jounin Sensei before he said, "it would figure that Team Seven is the seventh team he's tested as well as being the only team he's passed."
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The next morning found Team Seven walking to the Memorial Stone, Naruto yawned as he walked, he was wearing the same type of clothes as the day before. However, his shirt was an ice blue color same with his pants, while his arm and leg wrappings were sea green in coloration. On each upper arm of his jacket was a red circle with the Uzumaki/Whirlpool spiral on it in silver thread, his coat was a charcoal grey with the same orange flame motif as the white coat. It too hung down to his knees, he only had one coat in each color with the orange flame motif along the bottom edge, and all of them were knee-length baring his pure orange one.
Sasuke ran into Naruto, not literally ran into but merely seen the other boy, the dark haired boy was wearing his usual outfit of light colored shorts with a short-sleeved dark shirt with a high collar and light colored arm warmers. Two minutes later the pair ran into Sakura, the two boys blinked at the change to her outfit compared to the day before and throughout her academy days. The pink haired girl still had her headband in the same place as before but instead of wearing her usual dress she was wearing a red shirt that resembled the upper portion of the old dress. She was wearing black shorts that stopped three inches above her knees, on her right leg she wore white wrappings that went from just above her knee to just over the bottom edge of her short's leg.
She was also wearing black leg warmers that stopped two inches below her knees, over her shorts she wore a light pink work style skirt/apron that had slits up the front and back in the middle. She was also wearing full fingered black gloves and elbow covers in the same color as her apron. She glanced at the two boys before she fell into step with them as they made their way to the stone, she had fallen into step while between the pair. To the three preteens surprise, their sensei was already at the stone and staring at it while in front of the Memorial stone sat four incense burners giving off smoke, each of the burners was putting out different fragrances. One smelt of cordite mixed with honeysuckles while another smelt like water lilies and springtime, a third smelled like a combination of the forest and rain while the last smelled like ocean mist.
All three moved forward to stand beside him and watched as he first traced two names that were next too each other before he traced another that was slightly below them before he reached upward and traced a fourth name further above the first. The three read the names in the reverse order that their sensei had traced them in. Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened at reading the first name. The four names read in order were: Obito Uchiha, Rin Nohara, Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze. Sakura bit her lower lip before she asked, "sensei, who are these people to you," she had glanced at Naruto who was tracing Kushina's name and date of death.
Kakashi huffed a sad laugh before he said while he tapped the first name, "Obito Uchiha, my teammate, he died saving Rin and I from an enemy shortly after he activated his Sharingan. My left eye had been damaged in the same battle, Obito ordered Rin who was the medic nin of our team to transplant his left eye into me to replace the eye I had lost while guarding his back." Kakashi shook his head in ironic amusement before he said, "Obito told me to consider it his gift to me for reaching Jounin rank. That eye of his has helped save my life quite a few times over the years," he rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke. "We were able to recover Obito's body later and return it to his clan," Kakashi said before he snorted in amusement.
"The clan considered me an honorary member since I held Obito's eye, according to the clan's elders, the transplant shouldn't have taken since I wasn't a blood relative. Since it did I was accepted into the clan despite not sharing blood nor by being married into it." He then tapped Rin's name as he said, "Rin Nohara, my teams medic nin. She was good at it, Obito adored her and I hope that wherever they are that they're happy, although knowing them when my time comes I'm in for a scolding from them both!"
He then turned a serious eye toward them and said, "I'm going to teach all three of you basic field medical jutsus, whichever one of you shows the aptitude for that branch will be getting lessons at the hospital." His eye flashed with sadness and resolve as he said, "I made a promise to Rin about that and I fully plan to keep my promise to her."
He then tapped the other two names and said, "as for these two, I owe them promises as well. This one is a woman I sometimes called mother," he tapped Kushina's name as he spoke, "it was mostly in jest but I did love her like a mother. I owe it to her to make sure her son is trained to the best of my abilities." Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened as they both realized that Kushina Uzumaki was Naruto's mother and from the date of her death, she died the night that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha.
"And the man, Sensei, what about him," asked Sakura softly as she glanced between Naruto and his mothers name.
Kakashi blinked before he asked while he tilted his head to the side, "you mean you don't recognize his name?" Upon seeing all three shake their heads he sighed to himself before he muttered, "what are they teaching you kids in the academy these days if they can't even recognize his name…"
Kakashi had been forbidden to tell Naruto his fathers name but that didn't stop Kakashi from telling his Genin team what he planned to. "Minato Namikaze was known by two names," Kakashi explained to the raptly listening Genin. "He was known as both the Yellow Flash and as the Yondaime Hokage," all three pairs of eyes widened in shock as they gaped at the name of the Fourth Hokage.
As they stared at the name Kakashi said with a sad tone, "of course, to me, Rin and Obito, he was just Minato-Sensei." At that the three turned their disbelieving eyes onto their sensei and watched as he traced the name again as he said softly, "he gave us the very same test I gave you yesterday." He gestured at the stone as he said, "this is what I wanted to show you, the fallen heroes of Konoha, those who gave their lives in the service and defense of the village." He stared at all three seriously as he said, "never forget those who have passed, for all of our heroes deserve to be remembered."
They then watched as he picked up the four incense burners and sealed them away before he began to walk away from the stone, he glanced over his shoulder as he said, "come on, I have one more thing to show you three." They followed their sensei as he led them to a small secluded cemetery, in the center of the cemetery was a large mausoleum, he opened the door to it and to the surprise of the Genin there were three urns inside. Each urn had a picture in front of it, one picture held a blond haired man with blue eyes and a soft smile on his face, his face was framed by two locks of hair in front of his ears. As Naruto stared at the picture he remembered how his Ryuu-Okasan told him, 'you look just like your father minus his ear tails of course.' Another picture held a red haired woman with dancing grey eyes while on the other side of her urn sat a picture of a silver haired man with dark eyes and an enigmatic smile.
Kakashi bowed to all three pictures as he said to the three behind him, "I can't tell you the name of your father, Naruto, but you deserve to know what he looked like." Naruto gulped and stepped forward to stand next to his sensei, as he bowed to the blond picture his teammates watched as their sensei placed a stick of incense in a burner and lit it before he again bowed to the picture of the silver haired man as he said, "good day, father."
Naruto had glanced at his sensei before he asked, "why are my parents ashes sharing space with your father in your families mausoleum?" The other two Genin also looked at their sensei curiously at Naruto's question, to the pair of them the blonds question was perfectly valid.
Kakashi laughed softly before he said, "your mother was my father's mission partner until his death when I was nine." He traced the woman's features with sad eyes as he said in a tight voice, "his death devastated her and she never told me, I didn't even find out until she had died just how much she grieved him. The third had ended up telling me how close the pair of them were, he likened them to the ocean and a shoreline," Kakashi glanced at Naruto. He then turned his attention back to the three portraits, "I later came to realize that he was a bit wrong about that. Sure your mother was like the ocean and my father the shore the ocean always came back to no matter how often it left but he forgot something."
"What was that Sensei," asked Sakura eagerly as she listened to him speaking about a woman he greatly admired.
Kakashi glanced down to see three eager gazes and the way all three Genin were listening with rapt attention. "Because as much as my father was Kushina's rock and stable ground when she was raging and lonely, the ocean can also be playful and for that she needed the wind. However both water and wind can change a landscape and make if much different then it looked before. I never realized just how much your mother and father influenced mine until after their deaths and I found out just how well they had known my father." Kakashi tilted his head back and sighed before he murmured almost to himself, "your mother and my father had been best friends as well as mission partners, they liked to pretend to hate each other. Most people bought their act, so much so that the enemy was usually startled by their fierce defense of one another."
He then stared at them as he said softly but seriously, "I want the three of you to become that close. My father and Kushina-Okasan went into a mission mere comrades but emerged as partners for life as well as being the closest of friends." Kakashi then led the three out of the stone building and toward the same training ground as the day before. As they all sat down Kakashi said, "several Shinobi who had worked with them told me that they had been so in tune with one another, that one time, despite my father being closer Kushina had killed an enemy. When the other people there later asked my father why he hadn't killed the enemy he had simply replied, 'it was Kushina's kill not mine.' It was because they knew each other so well that he was able to predict that she wanted to kill him that allowed my father to know to leave the enemy be."
Kakashi smirked, but due to his mask none of the three could tell, as he said, "by the time Naruto's mother and my father died they were quite feared by the enemies of Konoha. No one in the village quite knows just how the pair of them gained the monikers of the 'White Fang' and the 'Crimson Blade' but most still know the pair by those names rather than their birth names."
The three Genin glanced at each other and silently resolved that one day the three of them would be more well known than the Sannin, the White Fang, the Crimson Blade and the Yellow Flash. However, before that day could come they would first have to train and become stronger than they currently were.
After another hour of telling the three Genin stories about Naruto's parents, Kakashi's father and his sensei as well as stories of his teammates, Kakashi said, "meet me here everyday starting tomorrow. I'll be putting you through your paces from seven am to noon then we'll take d-ranked missions until an hour before your curfew. This will continue until I'm satisfied with your progress, then and only then will I request a c-ranked mission for you. However if you work hard then I'm sure we can accomplish this in only a month or so, but that depends on how hard you three work, understood?"
All three glanced at each other before they smirked and turned to him to chorus, "yes, Kakashi-Sensei!"
He laughed before he nodded in satisfaction before he rose from his seat and said, "alright then, you three are free for the rest of the day."
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While Kakashi was testing his students, Kushina was preparing for her wedding, she had to not only choose the location of the ceremony but also the reception. The Uchiha's were due to arrive the week before the wedding, most of the attending Shinigami had already arrived along with the Visoreds and the Arrancar. The others from the wizarding world would arrive the day before the wedding and stay only until the day after. She was sitting out by the large lake near a temple to Sobek, she ignored the large reptiles basking in the sunlight, she had been amused to find out that the large isle had a great many temples that weren't dedicated to the Greek or Roman pantheons.
Molly had just about fainted the first time the guardian of Ron's inner world had seen fit to make an appearance, she had come across her youngest son lying comfortably on the back of a huge Nile crocodile. Ron had merely been reading his favorite book while Sobek had been sunning himself in the company of his future wielder. Rukia had been with the red haired witch but she had taken one look at how relaxed the pair were and she figured that the two had already established a rapport with one another. After that incident Molly often either found her son meditating with the reptile or he was at the temple of Sobek.
When Thoth had finally showed up outside of Hermione's inner world, he had shown up as a large white baboon. He had been so large that his back had reached her waist, the first time he had yawned sleepily everyone who had seen his fangs gulped. They had easily matched Sekmet's own impressive fangs when she was in her lioness form, it had caused Hermione and Kushina no end of amusement when the two had come across the pair of Zanpakuto napping in their animal forms. The large lioness had curled up around the slightly smaller baboon and had her head resting on his flank as they had snoozed in the mid-afternoon sun.
As Kushina had finished the few thing that had yet to be planned, she saw Ron making his way toward her, he was weaving through the large predatory reptiles without a care in the world. Actually, according to the house elves who cared for the temple and it's animals, the large beasts had never been more docile then they were now. Once Ron had reached her side he said, "finishing up the wedding preparations, I see."
She chuckled before she nodded as she put away the lists she had made to either hand to the house elves or to Kisuke for final approval. "Yes, unfortunately so it does have to be done even if its tasking at time. So how goes the courtship with Rukia," she idly asked as she picked up her things so she could go speak with Albus about his part in the ceremony.
Ron snorted but nodded at her remark about how the planning had to be done and said as he watched her picking up the scrolls, ink as well as her quills, "it's going alright. So far her brother seems to be approving of the match, he was really pleased when Sobek showed up outside of my inner world for some reason."
Kushina almost facepalmed at that comment by Ron, she bit back her own comment of, 'of course he was pleased, by having Sobek already awake means that as soon as you die you'll already be a shinigami and be unlikely to have forgotten your life in the living world. What that means is that Rukia won't have to hunt all over the Rukongai searching for you!' Instead she gave her fellow red head a smile as she said pointedly, "just be happy that he's warming up to you."
Ron sighed but nodded as he said, "true enough," he then watched her leave, as she left he had called out, "I'll talk to you later, Kushina!" She waved goodbye over her shoulder, he then turned toward the temple and walked inside the building, as he approached the alter the few house elves inside gave him bows. Although his guardian spirit wasn't actually the true god of the temple both the house elves and the Nile crocodiles that called the temple home treated the two of them with deference.
While Ron began to meditate a large crocodile appeared behind him, as it walked toward him it transformed into a man with tanned skin and short spiky green hair. The man tilted his head to the right as he gazed at the man who would someday wield him but for now was simply his companion and friend.
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As Ron and Kushina had spoken to one another, Renji was watching as Ulquiorra was going through the motions of a Kata with a practice sword instead of Murcielago. The red haired man loved to watch the smaller man practice his Katas since the green eyed Arrancar always did so without a shirt on. Renji leered appreciatively at the flexing muscles under silky smooth pale skin, the probationary officer had been informed that by the end of the upcoming school year, if the six Arrancars hadn't hurt anyone then their probation was over and they would be free to do as they pleased. Ulquiorra had already asked the sixth division lieutenant if he could stay with Renji when the red haired man returned to the Seireitei and his duties.
Renji had laughed before he had nuzzled his bat and said, "as if I'd let you be too far away from me, my silly bat, I love you far too much to do that." Ulquiorra had snorted at that comment but smiled in pleased satisfaction, anyone who had seen how Grimmjow was with Uryu knew that the only way anyone was going to pry the panther away from the Quincy was by the archer ordering him or if Grimmjow was dead. The blue haired hollow was fiercely loyal and devoted to the slim male that had won his hard earned trust and love. It had been a sad day for Uryu's fan club when they had realized that the dark haired teen was off the dating market for goo if Grimmjow had any say in the matter.
When Grimmjow had discovered a love of cooking the other five Arrancars had attempted to see if they too could do something almost instinctively. Coyote had discovered that not only could he dance but like the panther and his cooking Coyote's dancing came naturally to him. Lilynette, on the other hand, had discovered painting, her paintings looked so life-like that you almost expected them to move. However none of her paintings moved at all, completely unlike the rest of the Wizarding worlds paintings, someone had remarked that if her paintings moved then they would be ruined. Quite a few Wizarding families had already commissioned paintings from the green haired Arrancar. Mostly landscapes for rooms where the families didn't want any gossiping portraits such as their bedrooms or studies.
Nel, on the other hand, had tried her hand at gardening, to her surprise, she was good at it and even the most dangerous plants all but purred at her attention. To the shock of everyone who had been on it's bad side, even the Whomping willow grew docile when the teal haired woman drew near it. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was an Arrancar because it hadn't behaved the same for any of the other Arrancar when they came close to it.
Tia, during the times that she wasn't busy with the baby dragon or scaring the living daylights out of students who got too near it's pen, would swim in the lake. She didn't know if it had to do with her resurreccion form but she loved swimming and could hold her breath for an astounding ten minutes. Charlie had panicked the first time she'd stayed under the water for more than five minutes, thankfully most of the students had learned not to go near the dragon pen after only two months and the hatchling usually slept until ten am. That freed almost four hours for Tia to swim to her hearts content, at first most of the lakes inhabitants were wary of the shark evolved Arrancar, but after the first two weeks of her swimming in the lake and no one being hurt they all relaxed around her.
Ulquiorra glanced over at Renji and caught the leer, unlike before where he would have blushed he rolled his shoulders lightly which had caused Renji's eyes to zero in on the movement. The dark haired man heard as Murcielago laughed before she murmured, 'he can't take his eyes off you, can he?'
He stretched as he replied to her lightly, 'no I don't think he can,' he felt as the demonic looking spirit stretched out as she rolled onto her stomach in his inner world.
The first time Murcielago and Zabimaru were in the same room, most people had expected the two abrasive spirits would clash with each other but to everyone's surprise they got along just fine. What neither of the spirits bother to mention to their wielders was the fact that the pairs inner worlds had been brushing against each other for a while as their wielders became closer. Not physically close but rather emotionally and mentally close, if it was just physical closeness quite a few shinigami would have shared inner worlds.
Murcielago watched as the snake half of Zabimaru was running around while the female baboon half watched with amused eyes, for some reason the boy got really hyper whenever Renji watched Ulquiorra working out. So her and Saru were used to being entertained by a very bouncing Hebi who acted more like a monkey then a serpent when he was this hyper. The two females rolled their eyes at Hebi's actions before they returned to their naps, both cheerfully ignored the outside world as they snuggled down together. After he tired himself out, Hebi dropped down next to the two female spirits, Saru lazily opened her eyes before she pulled her other half between herself and Murcielago.
Renji finally growled and stalked over to the smaller man, he picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder before he stalked into the house they had been staying at while on Elysian Isle. Lily, who had been walking by, raised an eyebrow at the sight of a laughing Ulquiorra being tossed over Renji's shoulder, she began to snicker when her fellow red head kicked the door shut on the way in. As she continued to walk toward the villa where her, Coyote and Lilynette had been staying since school let out she murmured, "well, those two probably won't be surfacing until dinner."
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Meanwhile, Rabastan wandered around the forest, he had the oddest urge lately to be around trees, plus he thought that it was a bit odd that plants seemed to be growing faster around him. If he had bothered to tell Kushina about the urges or his suspicions she would have told him that it was possible, unlikely but possible, that his Bloodline limit had carried over slightly into his new life. It was extremely unlikely that the Mukoton Bloodline Limit had manifested fully in him since he wasn't blood related to the Senju's even Kushina could only claim a blood relationship to the Uzumaki clan. Rodolphus would have no doubt told them that if someone used the second method of the forbidden Impure World Resurrection Technique and caused them to be summoned then their reincarnations as Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange as well as Kushina Potter-Lupin to be moot point.
Ever since he admitted to Ichigo and Kushina that he was Masaki's reincarnation as well as being Hashirama Senju's reincarnation. Although he still didn't remember his name from that life he only remembered founding Konoha with the Uchiha's and Hyuga's as well as his brother name. Other than those few things, his life before this one was a total blank and Rodolphus only remembered a bit more than that but neither of them could recall what they looked like. If either one of them had bothered to ask Kushina about it she would have told them with a grin, "nothing like you look now!"
As he wandered the forest he heard a voice call out from behind him, "I see you're communing with nature yet again, my love." Rabastan looked over his shoulder at Isshin, once Kushina had confirmed that the younger Lestrange brother was indeed his beloved wife's reincarnation the once silly and excitable shinigami had calmed down. So much so that Ryuken had been startled by how serious the dark haired doctor was once again, however all three of the Kurosaki children were merely relieved.
Rabastan snorted lightly before he said while he looked around amusedly, "well, you know me, I'm always glad to be around nature." He flashed a grin at the other man before he said slyly, "must be the wolf in me," he winked before he shifted into a large black wolf. He then leapt upon his mate and began to lick him enthusiastically, the licks had caused the other man to begin laughing in an uncontrollable manner.
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Kushina watched as Kisuke looked over the scroll concerning the wedding plans, he hummed before he nodded in approval as he handed them back to her as he said, "I have no objections to any of your decisions, my beloved muse." She sighed in relief before she flashed a quick smile at him, she had hoped that he wouldn't object to any of the wedding plans. The last time they had married it had been a hushed affair with few people knowing of it and she hadn't been able to take his last name. The reason for keeping their marriage a secret had been two fold, on one hand Minato knew very well that Kushina had a large and fearsome reputation for a reason but he still wanted to protect her. Second, they had been married shortly after Sakumo's death, there had been only four witnesses to the wedding. Three of those four had been Minato's Genin team and the fourth had been Kushina's baby brother who had merely been happy for his sister.
Later that night as she watched her fiancé sleeping, Kushina remembered the last time she had seen her baby brother, she had been so relieved that he had escaped the destruction of their village. He hadn't come to Konoha to join the ranks but had an open invitation to join it had been signed and sealed by Minato when he became the Fourth Hokage. Most of the survivors of the destruction had settled in Rain, Wave and Mist as civilians, most of the survivors had changed their last names to hide that they were survivors. Instead of coming to Konoha her brother had chosen to wander the hidden countries, she knew that he was perfectly safe. Her brother had been skilled enough to evade anyone who wanted to rob or kill him, besides he had signed one of their villages many animal contracts at the age of five. And his summons adored him so she knew that he would be well protected despite not being a registered nin with any of the hidden villages.
She hadn't been able to tell him that he was going to be an uncle, Kushina knew that if her Kimi-Chan had known about Naruto he would have made a bee-line straight for Konoha to demand custody as was his right not only as Naruto's uncle but also as the Head of the Uzumaki clan. If he had known then her son would have not only grown up on tales of his mother but he would have been taught how to make seals from the moment he could write properly, not to mention having several animal playmates. However, when she had sent out her clones none of them had been able to find him, no matter where or how hard they had looked. It was as if Kimihiro had vanished into thin air but the family tree cave had marked him as being still alive even if it didn't tell them what name he was going by now.
In a week the Uchiha clan would be arriving to witness her wedding, she had also received permission from the King to have Obito and Rin present for the event. None of the Wizarding World guests were going to miss it, not even Minister Bones and her guard. After the wedding they would have a small reception on the beach with all the people who attended the wedding invited to the nighttime gathering. The honeymoon was a surprise for her since Kisuke had asked her if he could plan it, all other parts of the wedding he had left up to her and the other concerned parities.
Kushina glanced out the window at the moon as it shone over the ocean and whispered, "be safe, baby brother, wherever you are and wherever the wind takes you." She then settled down next to Kisuke and after she snuggled into the covers beside him she closed her eyes and slipped into slumber. A few moments after she had fallen asleep, Kisuke unconsciously pulled her closer to him and after he nuzzled her cheek with his, he had tucked her head under his chin.