I do not own Bleach, Naruto, any other element that may or may not appear in this story. This story is for entertainment purposes only, not merchandising, branding, or anything else to implicate ownership or a similar function...
Doesn't mean I don't wish I owned either of them.
The Soul Society, a jewel to all but those of a pessimistic bent would see it as it truly was:continuation of what was known as life, however debatable that was at that point. When a human died there are, or rather were, three distinct possibilities as to what happened to his or her soul: they enter the Soul Society, they became a Hollow, a soul given a monstrous form against their will that plagued forever with a hunger for the energy produced by spirits of the deceased, or sadly if their actions in life demanded retribution they went to hell pure and simple. As of twelve years ago, according to the calendar the Elemental Nations lived by at least, all three possibilities vanished by a single stroke of a sword in spite of what it would have meant at the time.
Sosuke Aizen, former captain of Squad Eight who later revealed his true colors as the master and commander of the Arrancar, Hollows given the powers of Soul Reapers, with a seemingly one tracked obsession to supplant the Soul King for the sake of his own ambitions. With them as his army and empowered by the hogyoku, a semi-sentient item which held the power to make the desires of those around it come true, this goal seemed to be very much attainable despite the initial results... In the last battle in what was described as "The Winter War," he was ultimately defeated with combined might of Ichigo Kurosaki's raw power at its peak and the patience that was Kisuke Urahara's trap that could only be sprung when Aizen was at his weakest in his strength of will for the hogyoku to reject him as a host. With his defeat and subsequent capture even his most hateful of enemies contented themselves to only to slowly blink as the he was left to rot in the lowest dungeon conceivable and wash their hands of him.
Yet like his zanpakuto's ability of illusions he only deceived us all with a half truth. For everything he had a plan, even one where it was unlikely he wouldn't be as powerful as he was when he had infused the hogyoku to augment and transcend both Hollows and Soul Reapers. How he did it though is still a mystery that ultimately has no means to be solved, all that is known are the facts:
The Soul Society, ancient as it was, had no true shortage of enemies both within and without. Aside from Aizen and his arrancar however only one force had the power to threaten the Soul Society directly after centuries of gathering manpower and devoted uncountable hours into research for the ultimate objective of complete and utter annihilation: Wadenreich, an army of quincy embittered by their ancestor's defeat at the hands of the Soul Society when they came to blows in the past and have been seeking vengeance ever since. With swift and brutal action they overtook Hueco Mundo, they enslaved the arrancar that were not obliterated in the Winter War and marched on the Soul Society with their supplemented numbers and tactics they marched into the Soul Society.They were pushed back however at great cost— most of the glory that was the Soul Society itself was turned to ash and its armies reduced to half strength under the barest of circumstances. Yet there was a silver lining: heavy as the losses were for the Soul Society, Wadenreich were not without their own significant losses as well and were ripe to for a revolt from its subjugated factions.
With but a single attack the arrancar not only revolted, freed even, but entered a bitter alliance as well with their former enemies.
It was when all their efforts were turned to Hueco Mundo that Aizen made his move. What made it worse however was that not only had he escaped he awakened an army of hidden, failed hollow experiments that he had stashed away along with something that was dearly wished to have been a false discovery: a half-complete hogyoku... By the time the first of the units to be recalled from the front the palace of the Soul King had been breached, and losses were...heavy. What Royal Guardsmen were left were fatally wounded and the aberrations that was Aizen's army were few and far in between that it seemed to they have survived only by mere luck, and Aizen, somehow despite all odds, had bested the Soul King.
His victory was short lived however; whatever role the Soul King played was nothing short of indispensable. With his death and no one capable of inheriting his throne, reality as everyone knew it crumbled away at a shocking rate...
As it stands Neo-Seireitei and its inhabitants are all that is left of the old world from a forced exodus; saved only by chance and a subsequent gamble. Whether it can survive in an unfamiliar world, or better yet adapt to it, remains to be seen.
Neo-Seireitei: From Serrated Teeth
Chapter 2: Discussions
Harribel Manor, District Three (East), Neo-Seireitei, Neo-Seireitei, evening
Neither himself nor her trusted fraccion could tell what's going on in her head when she was utterly silent. All that was certain was that the situation had vexed, for the lack of a better word, her greatly all things considering that she hadn't given an answer of any kind yet. While it didn't necessarily entail a punishment of some kind, it was no less disconcerting all the same. Disconcerting enough to warrant him spending all his more latent nervous energy to into small tasks to distract himself, much to others amusement and fortune.
"I'm sorry to impose but could you clean this as well?"
Mildly aggravated blue eyes met politely mischievous lavender ones that lay behind a sleeve covered smile.
"You enjoy tormenting me when the opportunity arises, don't you?"
"Now, now. A lady can only be entertained by a gorilla-woman and a snarling beast for so long."
"I HEARD THAT!" a shout screamed from down the hall.
"You know I tend to forget how sharp her hearing is," he half mumbled as he looked towards the origin of the bellowing from his seat whilst still polishing a piece of silverware, one of many that were neatly arranged before him on a small table further adorned with a box at the corner of which.
"Indeed. Sadly though it's rather selective hearing if past experience is to tell me anything," the woman sighed from behind her sleeve as the other woman seemed to have gotten into a unintelligible argument with undoubtedly the third of his mother's fraccion. With her still hidden smile the woman of olive green hair, half of which was hidden away by a draped across the right half of her head while held in place by bone clip-like extensions attached to her corresponding brow, turned to him with a necklace offered in her loose clutch. "So would you be so kind, Lord Harribel?" she asked politely yet impishly.
"... Would you mind putting it on the table? I prefer to take on what came first if I can help it."
"Certainly!" Ptt. "And now that I think about it I happen to have a few other pieces of jewel—"
"I think in essence I already answer that question."
"Thank you!"
XVX
Living room, Kurosaki residence, District Four (East), morning ('Day one')
Karin was hardly thrilled but more or less accepting in the end. If anything she was nothing short of grumpy at worst by the time she had walked out the door all the while griping at how short a notice it all had been without much explanation. He was just thankful she wasn't interested in asking questions beyond the more immediate "why me" or "can someone else take her" ordeals they suffered; seems is semi-secret life before it all had enough of an advantage to at least let her know that something was afoot that neither he nor his wife were going to talk about it for the sake of everyone related to them. He wouldn't put it past her to worm around that particular defense though if she was determined enough...
"So how many people can we stuff into this thing again?" he asked blandly at the odd man before him: he was an older man of grayed features now turning white at the roots of his neatly trimmed beard and ear-length mess of hair that escaped the confines of a bandana. He had on a brown vest that covered an old blue long-sleeved shirt that was fraying at the cuffs, further covering them both was an open light gray flak jacket often found on the shinobi outside the walls. Held up by a cord for a belt were brown pants not unlike his shirt in quality and beneath them were his near naked feet encased in blue sandals, again often found on the shinobi beyond their borders. Of all things though he wore a head plate somehow attached to the brown bandana wrapping about his head that was stamped with 魂, "soul," in the middle of it... He was Shojo Matoi, head shinobi of "Hidden Spirit Village" that was formed in more recent times, three years ago to be precise.
How the village came to be, in short, was thank to the more paranoid merchants venturing to Neo-Seireitei had taken to hiring less than legitimate shinobi for a handful of reasons, most of which consisted of either being more readily available or better yet cheaper than those that were a part of a village. Effectively labeled as traitors for all intents and purposes regardless of reason, these men and women, hunted by their own villages as well as others if the almost synonymous bounties placed on their heads were large enough, an unexpected opportunity rose up for the secluded nation and those who were tired of running for their lives, provided of course they could abide to their laws. Though they are resistant to leave their new home in favor of a night's rest in a bed with a pillow that wasn't lumpy due to a hidden kunai, a steady stream of information of the world around them came to them and helped bolster their defenses despite occasionally being at odds with the far more active Stealth Force. Above all else, however, they enabled the denizens of Neo-Seireitei to better prepare themselves for what waited for them beyond their walls.
... And while it would make more sense to send the once rogues to the exam, almost all of the shinobi of the hidden village had bounties on their heads— it would be equivalent to sticking their heads into the mouth of a starved lion if any one of them to go. Hence the... unorthodox decision to assemble a team under such hasty circumstances under more 'secret' circumstances as headache inducing as that was.
"Bare minimum, three people per team," Shojo half mumbled as he nibbled on a rice cracker.
"Yet we can send in more teams, right?"
He nodded.
"So why not two or three?"
"Wasted effort," he answered without a second's hesitation, drawing a intelligent "huh?" from Ichigo. "It's not worth the risk," he rephrased.
"I'm still not getting it," Ichigo grumbled.
"Alright then let me put it this way: sending two teams, perhaps three, in would be as redundant as it is dangerous in my view given our predicament."
Ichigo's features soured and his brow furrowed as the man before him happily munched on the remains of his cracker. His brow pinched incrementally. "Exactly what do you mean?" he murmured.
"I mean," the head shinobi started after swallowing, "is that basically our greatest advantage at the moment is the fact that the world has no idea what you Soul Reapers, arrancar, fullbringers and whatnot have up your sleeves. In the world of shinobi the greatest danger anyone faces is what isn't known about your enemies."
He held up a finger on his free hand as the hand that held the near nonexistent cracker lowered. "With that in mind I say we diversify our team as much as possible: if a village, namely Konoha considering we're doing this in their home town, figures out some kind of particular style of our team to work around in a fight then we might be in trouble later on in the short run; as it stands it's kind of bad enough as it is considering I can't send a team in to do all the dirty work."
"I see..." he rumbled. "I guess that makes sense... any opinions?"
"Yeah," he finished off the cracker, "between you and that hybrid kid, I think we need one of those fullbringers for diverse representation. If we can keep quiet about this then we'll have them guessing on who's who in terms of training and ability with this group of ours."
"Hybrid kid?" Ichigo inquired curiously till his eyes widened slightly in realization for a moment. "He already accepted?"
Shojo looked slightly to the side and scratched the back of his head. "Well... kind of hoping at least. We've got prospects in the Arrancar community though that shouldn't cause too many problems for us on this gambit."
"And as for the fullbringers?"
"Still working on that."
The Kurosaki patriarch sighed and hung his head. "I'm going to head out for a bit then," he uttered as he stood up from his chair and cracked his neck to get rid of the stiffness that had accumulated in it.
"Be sure to pick up some milk while you're out!" Rukia called out from the kitchen.
"Right!" He turned to the head shinobi who had plucked another cracker from the bowl atop the coffee table. "Be sure to let me know if anything changes, ok?"
"Will do," he announced between chomps.
XVX
Front porch
He stretched and rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess Chad might be able to help out," he mumbled to himself as he crossed his yard with newly adorned shoes as he contemplated on who to ask. Orihime certainly had her own life now that wasn't readily abandoned unless he wanted to be on the receiving end of a toddler beat down. Chad, while fitting the bill plus having experience with fighting alongside himself on more than one occasion, had his own life as a father to speak of compared to Orihime's position as a elementary school teacher...
"Perhaps Ishida could...," Ichigo mumbled to himself as he passed the gate only to stop dead in his tracks... Uryu Ishida, though reliable... was nothing short of a hermit since the exodus. Though pardoned, he hadn't associated himself with anyone, niether his old friends or even other quincy, in favor of isolation along the southern forests of Neo-Seireitei where the populace was least present.
"Damn it..." he grumbled just as be began to scratch his head. "Just who do I know that I can ask for help?!" he growled in irritation.
And then a light bulb went off in his head, stopping him in mid scratch and straightening him up from a mild hunching.. "Well it's convenient to say the least," he muttered as he began to saunter away from the gate. He knew of one person that helped fit the criteria, just he wasn't a friend per se... but as he said it was convenient: he was already asked. If anything than it would just help confirm his position in all this at least.
XVX
Pathway, eighteen minutes later
"You know I thought there would've been more of a challenge to this," Ichigo mumbled to himself as he stared in a deadpanned fashion at the very person he wanted to talk to, apparently unaware of his presence by having his back to him as he stared off into a glistening lake as oppose to being found somewhere within the grounds of his mother's estate... with arms crossed no less.
Scratching his cheek, Ichigo looked both to the left and the right to see if there was another familiar, or unfamiliar for that matter, face that may or may not interrupt the soon to be conversation. It was only them as far as he could tell.
At any rate...
"Hey! You got a minute?"
With a upturned brow the blond turned to Ichigo and stared at him curiously.
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?"
"... You're not," he replied neutrally as he returned to his original view.
"Ah..." The orange haired man approached the side the teenager yet kept a respectful distance so not to disturb him any more than he already had. "So what are you doing out here if you don't mind me asking?"
The teenager glanced at him once more without the benefit of turning his head. "... My mother was not fond of the Head Captain's request if that answers your question."
"Ah... How badly is she taking it?"
There was no answer, just the gentle rustle of the almost nonexistent wind.
"That bad huh?"
"... To be honest I'd think she would've received it much better if I stalled my answer over this just a little longer than I had."
"You decided?" Ichigo let slip without a thought before realizing it and in turn palmed his face in mild embarrassment. "Sorry," he mumbled, "what I meant to say is "what did you decide?"
"Oh? You don't believe I'm capable of making decisions by myself?" the younger of the two countered with a raised brow.
"You know that's not what I meant," Ichigo grumbled in conjunction with a deadpan stare. His own brow twitched slightly upon seeing the thin crease of a smirk indent present itself from inside his mask. Both the stare and the smirk were lost however as he returned to his previous view.
"So... you're joining us, am I right?" Ichigo broached.
Though there was no answer, there wasn't a inherent denial in his silence either.
"I see."
At long last the blond moved by tilting his head up towards the near cloudless sky. "To be honest I'm not sure whether she hates me or Head Captain Yamamoto at the moment," he solemnly admitted.
"Hey."
"Hm?" It took a full second after veering his head to look at his companion proper to realize that somehow the older of the two had moved his hand without the former's notice, poised to flick at a moment's notice...
Flck!
And apparently even with skin capable of withstanding the devastating touch of a swinging sword, much to his eye scrunching surprise, he could very well feel the unleash flick strike him just above the middle between his eyebrows.
"Don't be an idiot," Ichigo all but muttered in a reprimand. "I may not know her on a personal level but I know well enough that she loves you." Disgruntled by the flick, the younger Harribel looked away till Ichigo spoke up once more. "Do you remember the time she had you learning from Byakuya, myself, and Kenpachi?"
Though he shuddered slightly at the last name he answered regardless. "I do."
The older man smirked slightly. "Yeah... Not a experience I care to live through again if I can help it either. Still, while I can't really vouch for myself, when she sent you to train under us for those lessons she couldn't teach you, she always found herself a spot to hide herself and stay there the entire time... in fact she nearly bolted from it a couple of times when Kenpachi got crazier than usual."
Even while failing to suppress a involuntary squirm the son of Tier Harribel laid a eye on Ichigo that spoke a silent inquiry. He only offer a slight smile as he answered him. "I found her leaning against the wall of the Kuchiki estate when I was dropping by for Rukia's sake and spied on her a couple times more to see if it was just a coincidence..." He grinned a slightly mischievous grin. "Let me tell you, she was nowhere as calm and collected as she was then when you went through the rounds with Kenpachi."
"Can we please stop mentioning him?" It was all the teenager could do to keep it from outright begging.
"Sorry," Ichigo offered with a waning smile. "What I'm getting at though is that if anything I bet she's just... scared right now. Up until now you've pretty much been living a privileged life and save for..." he grinned slightly, "'he-who-must-not-be-named,' you never been in a life threatening battle before."
Again silence pervaded between them.
"Just give her time," Ichigo spoke up once more. "She never abandoned you then and she won't abandon you now."
"Well, I'm going to head home. Just don't worry your head off in the meantime," Ichigo offered as his hands went behind his head and rested themselves there whilst he turned around and sauntered away. "See you later!"
The teenager turned slightly to watch the older of the two of them depart nonchalantly with a slight smirk. "Perhaps you're right," he murmured to himself as he returned to enjoying the view of the lake. "At the same time though you don't live with her."
"Oh Naruto dear!" His brow violently twitched. A part of was severely tempted to swivel a agitated glare at the approaching, almost sadistic woman known as Sung-Sun still high on her demented binge of teasing him with tasks. "The backyard looks as if it's in need of some weeding!"
In resignation he hung his head and sighed heavily. "I'm on it," he muttered lowly in a defeated fashion.
A/N: Admittedly enough this story had been within my mind for quite some time, years even after reading Shardsby Psudocode Samurai(which regretfully hadn't been updated in quite awhile (10/10/2014 for 'today's' date).Whether or not it will continue remains to be seen unfortunately as things stand (I usually give up hope of an update ever happening after a year had passed as a rule of thumb to be honest so this is more of a personal opinion than fact).While I was actually writing a story that was suppose to be more of a prototype to this one...frankly I just no longer was willing to wait after so long.
I hope you enjoyed it!
Monkeybandit2, making off with your attention! No refunds.
P.S. If there are any Japanese experts out there, would you be so kind as to give my shinobi village a proper name than the one I cooked up for the moment? My standard methods to dealing with this problem had at long last left me high and dry on this one...