Chapter 2! Oh, it begins during the Arrancar Arc (For those who were wondering.)

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Chapter 2

Sakura woke up in a very strange alley.

'Where am I? I thought I was killed?'She thought as she looked around.

'I'm not sure… This place feels strange… Are we in another village?' Inner mused.

Sakura looked out from her alley and saw two people walking by in a strange uniform-looking thing.

'Well, I'll just blend in until I find someone who seems like they know something.'

She henge-ed so that her hair was black and she was wearing the same uniform she had seen on the two girls; a grey pleated skirt, white button-up top, and a ribbon bow at her neck. She also masked her huge reserves of chakra just in case.

'I feel a strange… 'energy' coming from multiple places. But I think the one with the most is to our east.'

'Kay, I'll go check that one out first.'

Sakura headed east until she stopped in front of a warehouse. She stopped and frowned. There was a barrier surrounding it, a very good one. She unmasked her chakra the teeniest bit so that she could wrap a thin layer of chakra all around her body. She took a deep breath, then pushed past the orange barrier. She pushed open the door and surveyed the eight people inside, all in various attack forms.

"Hello." She smiled.

"Someone broke through my barrier." Hachi announced.

"What? We just got here, nobody should be able to find us with your barrier Hachi." Kensei frowned. Just then the door slammed open and a short girl with green eyes wearing a school uniform walked in. The eight of them had already shifted into their attack forms.

"Hello." She gave them a huge grin. "My name is Mika. No need to attack, I came here to ask you guys some stuff."

"What stuff?" Lisa asked, her arms crossed.

Sakura closed the door behind her and walked over to sit down on the couch. "I want to know where I am, who you guys are, why I'm not dead, what village I'm in, and a couple other things."

Hiyori also crossed her arms. "Only if you tell us who YOU are."

"Mmmm." Sakura thought over it. "Can you first tell me where I am, what village I'm in?"

"We're in Karakura Town. The Human World." Lisa replied.

"World? So there are different worlds?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah." Kensei snorted. "You can actually find us yet you don't know about the Human and Shinigami worlds?"

"Mmmmyeah… I think, maybe, I came from a third world." Sakura murmured.

"Eh? What did you say?" Shinji asked. It can't be…

"I'm a ninja and my name's actually Sakura." She replied simply. She released her henge so that her hair turned pink again, her ANBU outfit appeared, and her mask popped up on the side of her head. Kensei, Shinji, Rujuro, and Love just looked at each other.

"Follow us." Rujuro turned and headed down the stairs to their training area.

"Sooo…. What you're saying is that the shinigami and shinobi weren't exactly on the best terms with each other so they cut off the gate between their worlds?" Sakura asked, disbelief coloring her words. The 'Vizards' as they called themselves nodded. "Anddd, right now there's a war between the shinigami and these Hollow thingies they kill?" The group nodded again.

It had taken them nearly an hour of sitting in their somehow huge underground training place to introduce themselves and explain the bad history between shinigami and shinobi. Sakura grinned. "Ah. Well then. Can I become one of you guys? A 'Vizard', part hollow part shinigami?" The rest of the group raised their eyebrows.

"It should be possible," Love said, "As long as you have enough power."

"Yer gonna have to be tested, ya know?" Hiyori said. Sakura just grinned even more.

"So, let's say I can punch one of you through a couple of those mountains," Sakura indicated at the mountains they had in their training area, "Could I do it then?"

"Surrre," Hiyori drawled, "Do it on Shinji."

"Why does it always have to be mee?" He whined but got to his feet. Sakura stood up and faced him.

"It's gonna hurt like a bitch." She told him. He just snorted.

"Do your worst."

He stood there and waited. Sakura shook her head, then jogged towards him whilst pulling chakra to her fist. It connected with his cheek and he flew like a rag doll through seven of the mountains.

"Holy shit." Love gaped. Sakura turned around.

"So can I? Please?" She put on her best cutesy face. The rest of the group smirked back.

"Let's do this."

"Sakura, can you make the food please? I don't want to die from food poisoning." Lisa asked, glaring at Kensei.

"Yayyy! Sakura-chan's food is the best!" Mashiro cheered while waving her hands around.

"Got itt." Sakura picked herself up off the couch and started preparing some meat to barbeque.

It hadn't taken long for her to call for her zanpakuto and activate her shikai, it turned out Inner was her sword and she called herself Michiru. The slightly harder part had been turning part Hollow, but not by much. It had only taken Sakura 20 minutes and 34 seconds to suppress her Inner Hollow fully and took her a week to hold her mask for over an hour. She kept her newfound 'reiatsu' tightly masked when she was in the warehouse, just in case some of it leaked out.

She still missed Tsunade, Sai, Shikamaru, and the rest of the people back in Konoha, but she knew them. They would stand strong against anything, they wouldn't waver. And once all the Aizen business was done with, she could figure out a way to visit them. She was pulled away from her thoughts of Konoha by the smell of meat burning slightly.

"We need to make plans to make Ichigo control his Inner Hollow." Rujuro said.

"It'll be very bad if he can't, Aizen will definitely win." Love said.

They had gotten around to telling Sakura about what Aizen had done to Soul Society and the Vizards, and how Ichigo came to be a substitute shinigami. It was pretty interesting stuff, Soul Society and the Hou-Gyoku. Aizen, Gin, and Tousen on the other hand seemed like total creepers. A light-bulb popped into Sakura's head.

"Hey…" She turned her attention away from the cooking meat. "Ichigo is a student, right? Can't I just infiltrate into his school and keep an eye on him and the other shinigami?" The Vizards turned to her.

"Ya know… That's a good idea!" Hiyori said. "Nice!" She and Sakura high-fived.

"Oh my gosh, I get to go to school again!" Sakura squealed while jumping up and down.

"Ew. School sucks. Big time." Shinji scrunched his face up. "I'd feel bad for you but… You and Hiyori punch my face in everyday, you deserve it." He was promptly smacked in the face with Hiyori's sandal.

"Shut up sissy and go get some papers to get her into that school." Lisa said as the daily scuffle between the Hiyori and Shinji began.

"Ne, Sakura, school's sooo boring, why would you want to go?" Mashiro asked while tilting her head to look at Sakura.

"I haven't been to any type of 'school' in 4 years, plus I bet there's going to be super-hot guys there!" Sakura giggled. Kensei rolled his eyes.

"Make sure to keep your identity hidden, kay?" Love asked.

Sakura nodded. "It'll be just like a mission! Except I get to have fun and not kill somebody."

"Ah. Now that that's settled, the meat's ready." Rujuro muttered as he rushed towards the meat. All nine of them blurred as they rushed to battle it out over the barbeque.

Sakura sat on the second floor Indian style. She didn't wear her ANBU uniform anymore, it didn't fit in with what the humans wore when she went out to explore. She still kept it though, and her mask, for the memories. But Lisa and Hiyori had taken her shopping to get a few new clothes. Currently, she was wearing some black booty shorts, black knee-high military boots, a white v-neck t-shirt, and a black zip-up hoodie. She had managed to conceal 4 kunai and 8 shiruken in her boots with a couple more hidden in her clothes. She stopped meditating and went over to where she kept her ANBU outfit; she opened a hidden pocket and took out three pictures.

The first picture was the earliest one, showing the smiling faces of Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto, and herself. The second one had all of Konoha 12 along with their sensei's, smiling and posing for the camera. The third one had been taken two months before her 'death' with Shizune, Tonton, Sai, Shikamaru, and a very drunk Tsunade.

"Are those yer ninja buddies?" Hiyori dropped down beside Sakura to sit with her.

"Yep. They were like my family." Sakura said sadly.

Hiyori noticed her expression as she stared at the first picture. "Were? What happened?"

Sakura sighed. "It… fell apart a little."

"How?" Hiyori asked.

"Well, this guy," Sakura pointed at Sasuke in the first picture, "Was my first crush. Uchiha Sasuke. He was cute, mysterious, and I was a full-out fan girl for him." She shuddered, remembering how dumb she had been. "We were all on Team 7 together, until he decided to leave the village for his revenge at his brother, who had killed all of his clan."

"He just left you guys behind? Just like that?" Hiyori asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Sakura nodded. "So we muddled through in his absence. Naruto went off to train, Kakashi went on solo missions, and I stayed back to learn healing. I think my 'family' started falling apart two years later, when Sasuke came back. He brought his new team back; the ones that had helped him kill his brother: Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo." She laughed mirthlessly, then pointed to the second picture. "I guess my friends liked his buddies more than they liked me, since I never saw them much between hospital shifts and ANBU missions. They didn't know I was an ANBU Captain so maybe they assumed I just didn't hang out with them anymore."

Hiyori frowned. "Ya know, yer friends are just stupid, yer too nice for them."

Sakura laughed. "Thanks, I guess." She picked up her third picture and showed it to Hiyori. "That's Shizune, her pig Tonton, my mentor Tsunade, and my brothers Sai and Shikamaru."

"Eh? Yer brothers don't look like you." Hiyori took the picture and scanned it.

"Yeah, we're not related by blood but we're as close as you can get. When my family broke apart, they became my new family." A tear made its way out of Sakura's eye and splashed onto the floor. "I miss them so much."

"Well, yer a part of our family now, don't cry." Hiyori declared, and patted Sakura's head. "Maybe once we kill Aizen we can ask Soul Society to open the pathway again. If they like us enough."

"Thanks Hiyori." Sakura smiled and wiped away her remaining tears. "Wanna go beat up Shinji?"

"Oh hell yes!" They grinned at each other and went to go find Shinji.