Hello all those out there in readerland, Nenacu here for the second chapter of my first fic. Naruto: Trials of life and death. Now for some review replies. I'd also like to thank my first reviewers. 'sniff' you make me so very happy.

Also! Harem is almost definite, but the girls are still up for vote.

Ireadonly-It seems that way eh? Keep in mind that there's still the mission to Suna, so they'll have precious little time to see each other. It will not be a super fast relationship like other fics. He's also just trying to help her gain confidence at this point.

Silver Warrior-If the name seems inappropriate for the ninja world, that's because it is. However, if it's just a bad name in general, I'm sorry. I'm not going to go changing it, because Nenacu is a character in an actual book idea I have. He's just changed up a bit here.

Lonewolfbloodstorm-Me too. Read on my friend and you will see his response.

I still do not own Naruto. I don't own Bleach either. If I did, the two main characters wouldn't be so damn oblivious to the feelings of the women around them. I do own my OC though, so no stealing.

Now, without further ado, I present chapter two.

"talking"

'thinking'

jutsu

"kyuubi"

Chapter two: Results and Sunagakure

'agh.. bright.. Wait, bright? Time to get up..' Naruto propped himself up in bed and looked around, Images of his activities last night running through his head. He and Hinata had a nice dinner and he had walked her back home, leaving with a wave. She had opened up to him during dinner, losing all traces of her stutter.

He cleared his thoughts by shaking his head and geared up as if her were going on a mission. A shinobi could never be too careful. Satisfied that all of his weaponry was strapped tight and that his concealed weapons were accessible with a split second movement, he leaped out of his window, his hakama flowing behind him.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Ino were walking together through the streets of Konoha towards the old team 7 training grounds. Sakura had been told to meet Kakashi there, but hadn't been given a reason. On her way, she had met with Ino who began talking about her spontaneous date with the white haired man.

"So then he walked me home, kissed my hand again and walked away! He must have been teasing me. But he was such a gentleman. I wonder if I'll see him again." Her eyes sparkled at the thought of meeting Nenacu again.

Sakura only huffed, crossing her arms. "You're so fickle Ino. What happened to liking Sauske?"

"As if you're one to talk forehead girl. You're the one who dropped that traitor for Naruto. You haven't even seen him these past three years! Who knows, he could come back disfigured after that training mission and then you'd be stuck with a freak. And who is that!?" Ino was ripped from her thoughts as she saw a blond figure sitting on the middle of the three stumps, idly whittling away at a section of a small log with his kunai.

Sakura, however, immediately recognized the blond hair and blue eyes, though the hair was much longer than before. "Naruto-kun! It's Naruto!" Sakura broke from her conversation to run towards Naruto who had heard her and turned his attention towards the two girls with his fox grin.

Inside of Ino's head there was a small chalk drawn figure of the same shape as the girl hopping up and down while drooling. 'I take back the disfigured comment! I take it back I say!'

Sakura was now standing in front of Naruto, smiling while measuring up the changes that had been made to those she thought would happen. She decided that this was much better than what she had pictured.

"Ah! Sakura-chan! Good to see you again! How have you been? Sorry I didn't write while I was gone. Ero-sennin wouldn't let me, seeing as it would give our position away." Naruto took his regular pose of scratching the back of his neck after he finished speaking.

"It's alright Naruto, I understand. Not even Tsunade-sensei knew where you were at any given time. I'm just glad you're back safe and sound. But hey, Naruto?" At this point, Naruto nodded to show that he was paying attention. "Do you think I've grown any? Become more womanly?"

Naruto took an appraising look at his pink haired friend and nodded, smiling. He was paying particular attention to her 'assets' and her long, smooth legs. "Of course you have Sakura. If possible, you're even more beautiful than before. You've also filled out nicely in just the right places."

Kakashi showed up just as Sakura was about to stammer a reply, saving her from the embarrassment of replying to the compliment.

"Yo kids, well, I guess it's adults now isn't it? This will be the test." Not waisting any time, Kakashi pulled two silver bells from his pocket. "I'm sure you both remember this well enough. Get the bells by any means." As he spoke, he lifted the hitai-ate covering his left eye, revealing the triple tomoedred eye known as the sharingan.

Naruto hopped off of the log with an excited smirk. He had been hoping to test himself against Kakashi at least once more, and here was his chance. He dropped into a low taijutsu stance, placing his right hand on the hilt of his katana. "Looks like you're going to take this seriously now huh? You'd better be careful sensei, my Zantetsu is nothing to sneeze at." Drawing the blade, he channeled his wind chakra through the blade until the normally black serrated edge glowed an eerie white.

"Zantetsu? As in a steel cutting blade? I see, you've mastered the wind element. As always Naruto, you've surprised me." Kakashi dropped into his stance as Sakura pulled her battle gloves on, sending her chakra into her muscles to enhance her strength.

Naruto made the first move, swinging his blade in a wide arc that clove the stump beside him cleanly in two before rushing at his teacher, dulling his chakra so that any direct hits wouldn't be lethal. 'I could just use hiraishin, but that wouldn't be any fun. Let's see if you've gotten better sensei!'

Kakashi rolled under the swing of Naruto's sword only to find himself staring into collapsing ground, caused by Sakura's monstrous punch to the ground. He turned his roll into a quick handspring, avoiding yet another potentially deadly slash from Naruto.

Sakura ducked next to her blond comrade and held a whispered conference, making sure her lips weren't moving in any way that Kakashi, with his sharingan, could interpret. "I don't know quite how strong you are Naruto, but I'm sure you know that this drill is still all about teamwork. You have any plans?"

Naruto quickly went over multiple situations in his head, kyuubi throwing out those what were simply useless, until he came up with one that had the greatest possibility of working. "Yeah, listen to this.." Naruto relayed his entire plan to Sakura and she giggled at one of the more clever parts of it. "So, you think you can pull it off?" Sakura nodded, pulling her gloves tight. "Absolutely, let's go."

Sakura leaped high into the air, coming down on the ground in front of Kakashi with an ax kick that shattered the ground below the two. As Kakashi jumped back to avoid the attack, he found himself caught in a wire trap that was set up by Naruto's clones that he had created with a concealed one handed sign while he had been busy trying to figure out what they were plotting. However, he slipped out of the trap just before it closed on him and saw Naruto in front of him. Naruto had his left hand splayed out with five tiny rasengan orbs hovering above each fingertip.

Wile Kakashi was distracted by the sight of the Rasengan variant, Sakura got behind him and kicked him in Naruto's direction as Naruto jumped forward, making his attack as obvious as possible while yelling. "At the end of Icha Icha Justice!" Kakashi was startled to hear Naruto talking about the other book that he hadn't even had time to open yet and covered his ears, only to realize that he could still read Naruto's lips. "The main character..." Kakashi was torn between the desire to win the fight and the desire to keep the end of his book a secret. After a split second decision, the latter won out and he closed his eyes, opening them after he was sure he should have been attacked to find Naruto and Sakura standing before him with the bells, Sakura had her tongue sticking out cutely.

"Gotcha sensei! Always remember your opponents weaknesses and exploit them whenever possible." Naruto chuckled as he rang the small bell in his hand. "Before you ask how I know the ending to that book, take a look at the author's name." He whispered that last part and brought his index finger to his lips, wanting to keep his writing a secret.

Kakashi stood, brushing the dust off of his uniform as Tsunade and her ever present assistant Shizune appeared from behind a stand of trees, applauding. "Hmm, Naruto, you took it easy on Kakashi to give Sakura a chance to act didn't you?" Tsunade turned her eyes to look at the boy in question who was currently scratching the back of his head.

"Ah, yeah.. I really could have taken the bells beforehand, but I wanted to see what Sakura-chan had learned. I must say, I'm impressed." Naruto turned his fox grin on Sakura whose cheeks tinged a light shade of pink at the compliment.

"Naruto, just how much did you learn while you were gone? I'd never seen that variant of the rasengan, even from the original maker." Kakashi was looking at Naruto while rummaging in his bag to pull out the book Naruto had mentioned during their match. He cracked the cover open to see who the author was. Sure enough, Uzumaki Naruto was printed there. Grinning behind his mask, Kakashi could honestly say he couldn't be any more proud of his student at that moment.

Naruto had just sheathed his sword when the question was shot at him. "Well, I call it the go rasengan. It's designed to create crippling wounds instead of being a killing blow. That way interrogation is possible. I have other variants as well, but I'll keep those for a surprise just in case I have to end up fighting any of you again."

"Well, since I've seen your capabilities, I'm going to bully the council into promoting you to jounin status Naruto. After a few missions, we'll begin sending you out at the lead of other teams. You have the rest of the day off, use it as you like. Report in for missions at the usual time." With that, Tsunade went on her way, Shizune following just in case her teacher decided to make a sake stop.

Naruto looked up at the sky to judge the time of day before turning to his pink haired teammate. "Hey Sakura, it's still a while before it gets dark. How about we go to Ichiraku's and catch up on the last three years? The last thing we need is for our teamwork to get rusty."

At a nod from Sakura, the pair set off for Naruto's favorite ramen stand. The blond could smell the place before he even saw it and was practically drooling at the thought of Ichiraku ramen. He had enough in his wallet from the sales of his own book that he would be able to gorge himself and pay for Sakura without worrying about the cost. In fact, he could probably buy himself a small house and still live comfortably.

Shaking these thoughts aside, he saw that the benches of the ramen stand were full save for two seats and that everybody there seemed.. vaguely familiar. Coming to a sudden realization, his face broke into a wide grin and he ran towards the group of people he now noticed as his friends. He stopped suddenly and composed himself before parting the curtains and sitting on one of the free benches. "Heya guys. Been a while eh?"

Populating that tiny ramen shop was the group of people formerly known as the rookie 9 and team Gai, minus the traitor Uchiha of course. Ino and Hinata, who had seen Naruto earlier, merely smiled as the others greeted their friend in their own ways.

"Yo man, looks like you grew. Bet I could take you down now though." Came the rough, playful response of Kiba as he scratched behind the ear of the giant dog that once was the tiny Akamaru. Shino and Neji merely nodded towards him respectfully. Their quiet, reserved natures hadn't changed too much while he was gone. Choji raised his bowl of ramen as if to toast his friend before returning to his food with gusto. Tenten blushed at his changed appearance quite like his other female friends and Ayame, the owner's daughter, were. Shikamaru lifted his head from the counter and blinked at Naruto before waving and putting his head back down, muttering about something being troublesome. Lee, never one to be silent in the past, hadn't changed at all. "Yosh! My most youthful rival has returned from his training! I feel that I must challenge you to running 300 laps around Konoha so that I may see how your flames of youth have grown! Youth!"

Naruto shook his head at the volume his bushy browed friend seemed to use constantly as well as the constant talk of youth. "Oi, old man, how's business been with your best customer away? Oh, and I'll have my usual."

The owner laughed at his favorite customer's usual energy. "Well, these guys have been coming in almost every day since you left. Something about keeping us in business until you got back. We've been doing a lot better than before you left actually. I expect we'll be rolling in money now that you're back."

Naruto scratched the tip of his nose, grinning. "Yeah, you'd better believe it. I haven't had any good ramen since I left. I'm going to be here every day!" Chuckling, he took another good look at his friends, who were talking with each other happily. "So guys, it's almost like you knew I'd be here, what's up?"

Shikamaru lifted his head from the counter and looked at Naruto. "Ino was with Sakura before your test with Kakashi-sensei. She gathered us all here to wait for you. It was predictable that you would come here anyway."

Naruto grinned at his own predictability and dug into his food as soon as the bowl hit the counter, talking about as much of his training as he could to his friends who were all extremely curious about what he learned while travelling with one of Konoha's strongest ninja.

A few hours and twelve bowls of ramen later, Naruto left Ichiraku for home, wanting to compile some of his research into a couple of chapters for his next book.

The next two weeks passed quickly. Naruto was given his jounin status and began to run missions at the head of teams that always seemed to contain Hinata, Sakura, and Tenten. He was sure that Tsunade was setting it up like that, but he wasn't complaining. He had even taken charge of Konohamoru's team for a couple of days, teaching the younger ninja the art of tree walking.

One warm day, Naruto began to feel uneasy, as if somebody close to him was in trouble. His worst fears were confirmed when Tsunade called Kakashi, Sakura, and himself in for an emergency mission.

"It seems that the Kazekage of Sunagakure has been kidnapped. As allies to Suna, it is our job to lend assistance. That is why I'm sending you three to take care of this. Speed is vital to this mission. It seems that the group known as Akautski has taken him."

Naruto's face turned pale as his fists clenched, drawing blood as his nails pierced the flesh of his palm. The only reason that group would take somebody was if they were like them. He hadn't known that Gaara had become the kazekage, but it didn't matter. His friend was in trouble. "Tsunade-baa-chan, if that's the case then we need to leave immediately. I'm already packed for such a mission. Habit from my training. Allow me to take the lead and have these two follow behind. Also, I request the assistance of team Gai, just in case the situation gets any more ugly than it already is."

At Tsunade's nod, Naruto turned to his companions. "I'm going to speed ahead to Suna. I know the way. Temari should be in Konoha currently. You need to notify her of the situation and get team Gai ready as fast as possible. Temari will lead you. I'll gather information until you catch up." When his team nodded and sped away, Naruto did the same, patting the scroll at his chest to reassure himself that he had his supplies. After speeding far enough away from town, Naruto allowed his true chakra to surface, his azure blue eyes gaining slitted pupils and the marks on his cheeks widening as he formed a single hand seal, concentrating on the seal he had placed in an abandoned house while traveling with Jiraiya. "Hiraishin no jutsu!" Suddenly, Naruto was gone.

The rest of team Kakashi along with team Gai and Temari were blurs as they streaked through the trees towards the far off desert at full speed, Temari leading them on. They had only left a few minutes after Naruto, yet Kakashi had a sneaking feeling that Minato's son had learned his other trick. If that was the case, and the boy was as well prepared as he thought, then he was already in Suna. As if to confirm his thoughts, he saw a spot on the ground that seemed to have been ripped apart recently from Naruto's overzealous hiraishin.

Naruto had calmed himself before leaving the abandoned house he had appeared in, suppressing his chakra once more by forcing his now golden chakra under the surface and temporarily deactivating the gravity seal he had placed on his chest. "Alright, got to see what I can find out. Hold on Gaara, I'm not going to let my family down." He eventually found a half conceous Kankuro and got the name Sasori just before his friend passed out once again from the poison courcing through his veins.

Following the name, he found his way to the doorstop of the elder Chiyo and her brother. He stepped in quietly and found the two sitting by a small pond, Chiyo had a fishing pole in her hands and looked to be sleeping. As he drew closer, he noticed that she was just pretending, probably to avoid contact with anybody but her brother. "Elder Chiyo, I've come to request your help in finding Gaara."

The old woman turned her head to look at Naruto and huffed. "And why should I help a Konoha brat like you? I have nothing to do with this village any more. Just go away and leave a tired old woman alone."

Naruto shook his head. "I apologise elder, but you're the only person who can help us in this situation. A puppet user friend of mine has been heavily poisoned and your help is also requested in that matter. The name of the person who used this poison was Sasori. Does that ring any bells?"

A look of shock crossed Chiyo's face at the name of her grandson. 'Is it really him? If that's the case, than I really do need to help..' "All right brat, show me to this kid. I'll see if I can neutralize this poison.

The rest of the team found their way to the gates of Suna to find Naruto leaning by the entrance, a decidedly troubled look on his face. Upon seeing his comrades, he called them over. "I'm glad to see you all made it without incident. Sakura, you are needed at the hospital. Kankuro has been poisoned, and they can't figure the cure out. Apparently it's some new kind of poison altogether. I will stay here with Sakura. The rest of you, If you are able at this point, should attempt to track Akautski down." He handed a small, folded cloth square to Kakashi. "When you find the place, unfold this and place it on the ground." Kakashi and team Gai nodded and sped off, Kakashi summoning a few of his ninja dogs to aid in their search while Naruto, Sakura, and Temari went back to the hospital.

Several hours later, a cure was ingeniously devised by Sakura and Kankuro regained conciousness. Sakura also prepared three injections of the antidote just in case. Chiyo was becoming more and more impressed with the passion these younger ninja were putting into saving their friend. She would never admit it, but something was changing inside of her.

Suddenly, Naruto felt a mental ping as Kakashi placed the cloth on the ground and unfolded it, revealing a seal that was all to familiar to him. He turned to Sakura with a grin. "They've found the place they're keeping him. Hold onto my shoulder and we'll catch up." Confused, Sakura did as she was instructed. Naruto was about to activate his jutsu when he felt another hand on his other shoulder. It was Chiyo.

"If this really is my grandson, I want to help deal with this. Got a problem with that?" Naruto smiled at the old woman and shook his head. "Not a one. Hold on tight, because here we go! Hiraishin no jutsu!"

Just seconds after Kakashi had set the seal, Naruto appeared in a flash with Chiyo and Sakura. He immediately turned to Kakashi, his face a mask of seriousness. "What's the situation here? It looks like this is a sealed area."

Getting over his sudden appearance, the rest of the group began to explain the situation and the nature of the seal to him. He nodded and tilted his head in thought. "Alright, Team Gai, take out the other parts of the seal. We'll take care of things here."

With a nod of understanding, the group split off to take out their parts of the seal, using Neji's byakugan eyes and the radio transmitters on their necks to coordenate their movements. Once everything was in place, all five parts of the seal were lifted as one and Sakura smashed the boulder covering the entrance with one punch, revealing a sight that Naruto never wanted to see. There was Gaara, prone on the floor with a blond man and one who looked like he had a hunched back. The blond man was sitting on Gaara's chest and Naruto saw that Gaara wasn't struggling for breath. In fact he wasn't even breathing. They were too late, and Gaara was dead.

Well, there's a cliffhanger for you. Now how am I going to do this? Don't worry, I have it all planned out. I just thought that this would be a good place to stop. It's still a wee bit short to my eyes, but hey, if it's a comfortable spot to stop, there's not much more you can do. Just be glad, I wrote this all in pretty much one day.

So, like I said above, the harem isn't completely planned out yet, but it's definitely in. You, the readers, have the power to choose, but I do have the final say in who gets in. Author's privilege and all. Look forward to the real start of the crossover in the next chapter. Until then my friends, please R&R, your reviews feed me.