"Name" The Judge said.
"Naruto Uzumaki" said the boy with a sour expression on his face as he sat in front of the judge.
"Occupation?" The Judge asked.
"Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village." Naruto said proudly, which caused muttering from the crowd all along the lines of "Hidden Leaf Village? Where's that?" "Have you heard of it" "No have you? And what's a Shinobi" Etc. See after dragging the lump from the outskirts of town all the way to the Soul Reaper Headquarters in the outskirts on the OTHER side of town, then I had to shove him into a cell, watch over him until he woke up, and drag him to this stupid court marshal, I swear if I never see him after this it'll be too soon.
"Son," said the judge who looked (and smelled) like a walrus, "do you realize the tremendous power that takes most people years to obtain that you've been handed?"
"I'll show you power" muttered Naruto under his breathe.
"Therefor I sentence you to begin learning how to use that power at the soul reaper academy under the supervision of Kumo Bell (Did he just say my name!?) You must report there tomorrow by noon, court adjourned" finished the judge as he banged his gavel down (He did say my name didn't he)
'Well might as well go introduce myself' I thought to myself as I walked up to him "So your name is Naruto huh, Ramen Boy?"
"What don't tell me your Kumo?" yelled Naruto pointing at me, "Why do you keep following me around!?"
"You think I like being stuck with you!" I yelled back, "Because of you I . . ."
After this we continued yelling at each other for several minutes but I won't bore you with the details (plus our rating won't let me) until Selena came up and (painfully) bonked us on our heads.
"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR!!!" Me and Naruto yelled at the same time while similarly crouching down and grabbing the spot she hit where a bump was rising, then noticing that we both acted in unison we at the same time crossed our arms and looked away from each other with a hmpf.
"Naruto," Selena said sisterly, "We understand what it's like to find yourself in a strange world, how do you think we felt when we first got to the soul society? And Kumo" Selena said evilly as she faced me "Naruto is new to this world so suck up your pride and be nice! Now can we please start over, Ok?" Selena said as she extended her hand toward Naruto. "Hi, I'm Selena Bell"
Naruto's reply to that was simple and swift, he batted her hand away and walked out of the building.
A couple of hours later Naruto was sitting on a rooftop staring at the moon and thinking about what had happened.
"It turns out the afterlife isn't as great as it's hyped up to be." I said solemnly from the other side of the roof, "There are vicious monsters just waiting to pounce on innocent souls preying on the darkest emotions of those souls until they too are twisted into monsters to prey on more souls, this spiral of pain would continue forever if not for Soul Reapers, we send souls of the departed to a Safe haven where the monsters can't prey on them and purify the souls already in the grip of darkness sending them too to there until it is their turn to be reincarnated, Soul Reapers maintain the balance in the world," These are the words the man who raised me and my sister after we came to the soul society, the reason we became soul reapers, a man who spent and gave his life protecting people from the evils in the world."
"Like the third" Naruto muttered under his breathe.
"It is the memory of him and all like him that we fight on, an endless battle, but a battle that must be fought just the same" I continued.
"Fine, Fine, I've heard enough I'll go to this soul reaper academy," Naruto said as he stood up, "On one condition, you treat me to ramen,"
"Sure why not?" I said as I got up an faced him holding out my hand.
Naruto then turned around to face me, with a smirk, "Heh, race ya" he said as he slapped my hand away and started running.
Deep in the forest stood a little girl in a white dress with long black hair, she held a blue jay in her hands semi-transparent like the rest of her body.
"Fly away fly away little birdie" she sung as she pulled out a piece of her hair, "Or you may never fly again,"
With that she stabbed the hair in the side of the blue jay and went into the bird until it was absorbed fully causing the bird's body to twitch until some big and black erupted out of the spot and flapping it's powerful wings heading towards the city while the girl still expressionless letting the bird's limp body fall to the forest floor as she walked into the mist.
"Ah, I ate just enough" said Naruto with a chuckle as he thumped on his newly acquired pot belly.
"Yeah laugh it up ramen boy, do you have any idea how many hollows I had to fight to make that money!?" I said angrily from behind Naruto who gave another laugh as he bounced ahead, 'thirty. . . bowls. . . he must. . . have . . . ate . . . half . . . his . . .BODY WEIGHT!!!!"
Naruto then started to make another smart aleck remark but was cut off as a terrible screech broke through the night sky the likes of which couldn't have been heard since before the ice age.
"What, what was that?" Naruto asked as he looked at the sky his hand on his sword.
"Trouble," I said with my hand on my sword looking around me for where the sound came from, "come on." I finished as we ran towards the direction of the sound.
"Sir!" said the same Soldier who alerted Selena of Naruto's arrival as he ran up to Selena where she was relaxing playing pool in the rec room, "Err I mean Mam!" he corrected himself.
"What?" sighed Selena, 'this guy never brings good news, right, if this is good news then I give him a week of paid vacation"
"Another anomaly like the one before was spotted in the Greenman's Forest area," he reported.
'Well I guess he's not getting a vacation anytime soon' thought Selena as she rubbed her temples "Go tell the other officers, tell them to set up a perimeter around the forest. I'll take my unit and try to intercept the creature, now GO!" yelled Selena as she rushed out of the room her cue still in her hands.
It was the dead of night and he was leaping from tree to tree, looking out on either side of him for a monster that could attack at any time, it brought back memories, it was during the Chunin Exams, he and his teammates Sakura and Sasuke were leaping through the trees of the forest of death following the lead of Kabuto, looking on either side of them for any one of the enemy ninja, man-eating animals, or poisonous plants that where in the forest, but this time his teammates weren't with him and he was following some guy named Kumo Bell who seemed trustworthy enough, but he had thought the same of Kabuto, and they were chasing a monster probably able to rip him limb from limb on a entirely different world, 'If this is a dream I might never sleep again!" Thought Naruto as they continued jumping through the trees. Finally arriving at their destination.
It was a glade in the middle of the forest with a line of telephone poles tangled up in which was a large featherless beakless bird, it was completely black from the claws of it's powerful talons to it's large muscular wings, which were struggling with the telephone wires, except for it's head which was covered in a white skull-like mask, cumulating with a mouth full of teeth the size of daggers, and to top it off in it's chest where it's heart should have been was a large hole that went through to it's back.
"Just don't stand under it and we should be fine" I said with a nervous chuckle as I half-drew my sword.
"Have you fought one of these things before?" Naruto asked.
"No, but from the size of this thing I'm guessing it's droppings could give a mini-van one baaad headache," I said with another nervous chuckle as I slowly walked towards it.
"What's a mini-van?" Naruto asked as he crept towards it too.
"SOMETHING BIGGER THAN YOU!" I yelled as I drew my sword and rushed at the bird followed by Naruto.
Our valiant charge was stopped short as the hollow broke through the wiring and with a flap of its wings blew us back too.
"What is that thing!" yelled Naruto over the wind it was creating.
"Gar. . .Gar. . .uda" The hollow Garuda strained to roar in answer before dive bombing us.
We barely managed to jump out of the way in time but even so we were hit by Garuda's back draft blowing me and Naruto into opposite trees.
"Okay, that's it," Naruto said with a killing intention in his eyes as he walked forward, "First I find myself in an entirely different world, then I have to go to a stupid trial where people I've never seen in my life decide to send me to a stupid school to help protect their world, and now I get attacked by a giant bird, I've tried to accept it but no more! This ends now BELIEVE IT!" finished Naruto with his voice gradually degrading into a growl as he rushed at Garuda his blade glowing orange and heating the air around it, followed by me feinting left and right Naruto ran up to Garuda then jumped up and slashed Garuda's leg, barely jumping high enough but still making it, causing black blood to flow out of the wound and Garuda to scream and fly higher out of possible reach.
"Fine, if that's how you like it, I always was more of a long-range fighter," I said as I clapped my hands together over the hilt of my sword. "Bakudo number 7 shining wire, Bakudo number 12 guide"
Then my spells complete I threw my sword with a string tying it to my forearm and following the movements of my hand it flew up to Garuda and wrapped the string around its neck before flying back to me grabbing my sword in my left hand I struggled not to be pulled back by Garuda as I grunted "Naruto, GO!"
Naruto, understanding what I meant ran up the strings to Garuda's head, but not fast enough because Garuda with a roar broke loose, Naruto seeing this jumped up at the last moment and slashed Garuda across the chest before falling back down to the forest floor below.
"Hey, your not half bad with that thing." I said to Naruto while Garuda flailed about in pain high above our heads, "Where'd you train in it?"
"No where, this is the first time I used something like this, I don't got a clue about what I'm doing or how I'm doing it" Naruto shrugged.
"Of Course you don't know what you're doing, you're not doing it" Growled a voice from nowhere.
"Who said that?" Naruto asked.
"Who said what?" I asked back.
"Someone said that they were causing me to do all this." Naruto replied.
"Oh, that would be your Zanpakuto" I said, taking a slight break to watch Garuda floundering around.
"Zanpakuto?" Naruto asked.
"Your sword, each soul reaper's Zanpakuto is different, each a manifestation of their owner's spiritual power, and each alive, they're more partner then tool," I explained.
"So this sword is alive?" Naruto mumbled.
"Yup" his Zanpakuto said.
"Wait, I know that voice," Naruto said as he thought back to where he heard it. Then a look of realization came to his face and looking at his Zanpakuto he nearly whispered "Kyubi?"
But it was enough, the energy given off by his blade increased dramatically as Naruto's memories flashed through his mind with extreme clarity Graduating from the academy, the bell test with Kakashi, the battle with Haku, The Chunin exam, Orochimaru's invasion of Konohagakure, and all the other events in his life until it reached this point where two words came to Naruto's lips unbidden.
"KYUBI FLARE!" He yelled out and his blade did just that, releasing an enormous amount of energy it glowed white hot lighting up the surrounding area like daylight, then the Zanpakuto widened and changed, how exactly it changed couldn't be seen until the light had dimmed, reveling it to be the relative shape and size of a European longsword, it had a strange almost organic look to it, the blade-edges were orange, while the rest of the blade was a tan color with strange markings engraved on it, the guard was round with eight fox tails coming out of it four on each side, the center of the guard was a tan circle with a strange seal engraved in it that was glowing red, but soon disappeared as the blade cooled off, finally the handle itself was shaped like a fox tail.
"Whoa, what happened?" Naruto asked as he held it away from him.
"It looks like you achieved the initial release, basically your letting more of the Zanpakuto's true form appear in this world, and basically it acts as an upgrade to your Zanpakuto." I explained.
"So, now I'm stronger than you right?" He said with a smirk.
"Not even close," I replied.
"Face it I got my initial release, you don't that makes me stronger then you" Naruto replied still smug.
"Who say's I don't have my initial release?" I said as I put the handle of my zanpakuto into it's sheathe, then spinning the whole thing over my head as I called out "Taifuu Whistle!"
Then I started spinning it faster until it was just a blur before until it started whistling when I swung it down causing a gust of wind to be blown out from me. My Zanpakuto had changed it was now a doubled bladed sword, the blades of it were shaped like scimitar blades and were facing the opposite way from each other with strange grooves running along the blades, it was completely silver, the guards where shaped like ocarinas and looked playable, finally in the middle of the hilt was a circle separating it into two identical sections.
"I still think mine's better" Naruto commented as he folded his arms
"Is that a challenge?" I asked.
"Could be," Naruto replied.
"Just tell me when and where," I said smugly.
"Uh, Kumo, aren't you forgetting something." Taifuu said to me.
"Hey brat, in case you haven't noticed while you two were down here squawking that Hallow has been resting up," Kyubi said to Naruto.
Then in unison we looked up at Garuda who was dive bombing us.
"First to destroy Garuda's mask wins?" I asked.
"Loser treats winner to Ramen," Naruto added.
"Deal" we said in unison before dodging to the side as Garuda pulled up from its dive.
With a yell we charged at Garuda our blades at the ready.
End Chapter 2
Author's note: the two spells Kumo uses were made up by me and as such I own them.
