Authors note: Hello and welcome to chapter three. I would have had this update out sooner, but... well, my computer blew up... I scavenged the hard drive and got a new system now. I'm happy with the response so far, over one thousand views, three hundred author pluses, two hundred favorite stories, ninety story alerts, and seventeen reviews. Keep it up! This chapter continues directly after chapter two, but contains many time skips. So... yeah. Also, Naruto enters the academy next chapter, and your probably gonna say something about the students I placed there... Some of the famous characters will be going same year, regardless of when they actually went, and who they went with. Also, I made a mistake while writing the last chapter, Naruto will be fifteen when he enters the academy, and will be there for three years. So read! YO! Ch. 3 is finally here, for those of you that have already read this chapter, may be thinking "Wasn't this already up?" Yes, yes it was. I was hit by a hacker, and only had about a quarter of Ch.3 salvaged, so now it's reconstructed. It's pretty damn close if I do say so myself, and Ch. 4 is just around the corner. Good luck with finals fellow students!
A Fox in the Wind
Ch. 3
So You Wanna Be A Soul Reaper?
Naruto sighed, the monkey man was going to keep this up, and he couldn't help but blame Shun for doing this to him in the first place. The monkey took his long strides, stopping at the edge of the blue strip, leading to the red area. He looked at the orange clad boy, tilted his head and said "Come, come, you must see what you has to show you." Naruto took a deep breath, and followed the confusing man into the red.
The monkey stepped through, nothing out of the ordinary in his moves, however, when Naruto stepped through, it felt like he was moving through cold syrup. He moved slowly, easing his body through what seemed like a thick liquid, and finally got the last of his body through. The room felt resoundingly cold and the air was heavy, the air was damp with moisture and was hard to breath. However the monkey continued to walk as if nothing was wrong, and seemingly not even taking notice of Naruto's difficulty.
It was a large room, taller than the boy's eyes could see, as the air got too dark to see any further. The room was dimly lit by several torches lining the walls, one placed every several yards. It was roughly rectangular in shape, but the corners weren't... Well, corners, they rounded out where the end of the wall should have been. At the end of the room, opposite to where the two newest guests arrived, was a large cage with thick iron bars reaching up as far as the ceiling, and a piece of paper with the word "Seal" on it stuck to the center bar.
The monkey man began to walk towards the cage, and slowly, Naruto followed, having to grit his teeth at the intense pressure as he went. When the man finally reached the cage he knocked on the bars and shouted "Wake up Foxy, we have a host!" A very loud roar let out, drowning out all other small sounds in the area, and making Naruto cringe. "What could you possibly want?! I've known you for less than a day, and already I'm sick of you being here!"The monkey man visibly frowned, tilted his head to the side, and said "Aww, you don't want you around? Why wouldn't you want you here?" A growl came from the cage, before the same loud voice came out, "What do you want? I may have all eternity, but that doesn't mean I want to spend it talking to you." The monkey looked over to Naruto, and said "You and I is very angry today, I'm apparently angry at myself today."
The blonde boy looked at the monkey again in confusion, but steeled himself as the monkey introduced him "Me, this is you, me, this is you." He said, first gesturing to the cage, then to Naruto, and back again, swinging his long arms. Naruto sighed again, he would never get the way that this... thing, spoke, it seemed to refer to everything as if he was it, and it was him. A large red eye, with a slit for a pupil, appeared behind the bars, and looked first to the monkey man, then to Naruto. It chuckled slightly, and said "Ahh, my host, finally meeting you after ten years." Naruto sighed again, great, this one spoke cryptically as well.
There was a low rumble in the back of the large things throat, sounding somewhere between a purr and a growl. "It's... nice to meet you to?" With mock offense in it's voice it said "Aww, was that a question? And I always sooooo looked forward to meeting you." Great, it was also sarcastic, just what he needed. "Who are you?" Naruto asked after a short pause, curiosity lacing his words, as he took a few steps forward to the large cage, and it's inhabitant. The large being cackled loudly, "Me? I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" It was a loud and flashy introduction, to which Naruto could only respond,
"Who?" the large things ego seemed to deflate quite a bit at the blondes question, but it immediately rebounded, shouting, "The Kyuubi no Kitsune, hated by men, feared by demons, respected by everyone! Ring a bell damnit?!" The orange clad boy placed a finger under his chin and thought for a moment, before responding "Nope." Again, the Kyuubi's ego deflated heavily.
A thought entered Naruto's mind, "If you're so almighty and powerful, what are you doing the mind of a ten year old?" Once again, the boy had deflated the giants giant ego, making the monkey man give another of his loud and apish laughs. "That's not the point..." the giant beast started, starting to breath harder from the anger being built up. The large thing seemed to shrink, slowly turning down to the size of the other two present, before finally revealing the form of a woman.
She had long red hair, hanging loosely down to her lower back, and red eyes that had the same slits as the big eyes. She was wearing a black tunic type shirt, with dark red stripes passing inside the shoulders on either side, and simple black leggings. She was a little taller than Naruto, with long legs and fairly large feet, and a slender body. She wasn't entirely thin though, she did have nice curves accentuated throughout her body. What stood out the most though, were two fox ears resting on the top of her head, and a large fox tail swaying back and forth behind her.
"The point is..." She continued, her voice suddenly sultry and feminine, taking a few steps forward to be directly next to the bars, "That I'm offering you a deal, one that might just be too good to pass up." Naruto took a step forward, his curiosity piqued he asked "And what would that deal be?" The fox lady gave a sly smile and placed her hands on the bars before continuing, "It's very dank, dark and cold in here. This is your mind, you can change it to be more... accommodating." The orange clad boy looked at her, then at the monkey, and with a look on his face that clearly said 'Really?' asked "I can?" The monkey man smiled widely, and with another small laugh said "We is in the realm of you, you is in the realm of we! This is your realm, you can do what you want!"
The blonde boy sighed, he was really getting sick of hearing this thing talk, it was worse than the studying sessions that Unohana and her silver haired vice captain set up for him. He did however, partially understand that 'yes, yes you can,' was somewhere in his words."And what do I get in exchange?" he asked after having to take the time to contemplate the monkeys words. The red headed lady retained her sly smile as she answered "I can give you power, enough to do anything you could possibly want." Naruto's eyes widened at her words, and she smiled to see that she had interested him. Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment, before raising his index finger and saying, "No."
The fox lady blinked, and then shouted "WHAT?! Why would you turn down that offer?!" Rage boiled in her eyes as she glared scornfully at Naruto. "I'll help you, but I don't really want your power... I'd prefer to do it on my own." Her anger dissipated almost immediately, replaced by a look of confusion instead, "Why would you turn down the offer of power?" The boy smirked, and with the same big smile he used to introduce himself, said "Because I'm gonna be the strongest there is, using my own power!" He turned to the monkey man, and asked "How am I supposed to change this place?" The man smiled, and said in his usual way "We are inside of you, what you wants to happen in here, you get!"
"Not very descriptive..." Naruto muttered under his breath, only half getting what the monkey was saying."So if I want it, it's here..." he said in a small whisper as he closed his eyes and thought of a calming place. His mind wandered, reaching all over the soul society, the fourth division barracks, the small clearing behind it, and it finally rested where he always felt calm, the small training area in the small forest. He opened his eyes, and there he was, he did a quick three-sixty with his body, looking around, and noting that the air was still the same heavy, hard to breath stuff it was before. It was a good representation of the training area, except behind them where there was a large blue wall, likely leading back to where Naruto had first started.
He looked back at the Kyuubi, and noted that she was no longer behind bars, but rather had a thick metal bracelet on, with the word "Seal" on it. She also seemed to be taking in her new surroundings, before turning back to the blonde boy and saying "Not quite what I was expecting, but it'll do... anything is better than that damn cell..." She paused for a moment, and took a step towards Naruto, before leaning forward, and saying "Thank you." She then proceeded to kiss him on the forehead, whereupon his world went black again, signifying the end of his time here.
Two years later, October 11th
On the day of October the tenth, Naruto had his birthday, nothing big, only a few congratulations for living another year, and the occasional pat on the back. He had received a few simple gifts, the most notable being a wooden training sword, that had been weighted specifically for him. He had been offered the day off working for squad four, but he refused and continued working. He had been silent most of the day, his birthday often brought back unwanted memories, and needed the silent work to distract his mind.
After a comment from Unohana saying that so much work was bad for an eleven-year-old, and that if nothing else, he should rest, he spent the day staring up at the clouds. Both Unohana and Isame knew of the boys past, and that his birthday was often a sad and humbling time for him. All the same, both joined him towards the end of the day, staring up at the now orange sky, watching the clouds pass by. It was a pleasant silence, as all three of them simply sat there, unspeaking, with the only noise being small amounts of wind, and eachothers breath. When the sun had finally peaked beyond the horizon, and the last bit of sunlight was about to leave, both girls leaned over and kissed the boy on the forehead. All three stood up, and slept easy that night, even Naruto, who snored softly in a dreamless sleep.
Early that morning, likely around two A.M., Naruto awoke to the sight of a tall figure sitting at the edge of his bed. The blonde boy yawned and scratched the side of his face, as he said "Mister Shun? Is that you?" It took a moment for the boy's sleepy brain to realize what his own voice had said, before his eyes shot open and he sat up straight very quickly. He barely caught himself from yelling as he said quietly "What are you doing here?" The tall man in the suit smiled widely as he responded to the sleepy boy, "Well, I figured I'd visit you while I could, everyone's still asleep, so I figured this would be as good a time as any..." The two stared at eachother in a short silence before Shun finally spoke up,
"How'd you like the presents I gave you last time?" Naruto gave a big smile, remembering the two books "I loved both of the books, and I'm almost finished with that jutsu one!" His voice had raised towards the end of his sentence, causing Shun to make motions with his hands to keep it down.
"Geez kid, you're almost finished? What kind of a training regimen have you been on?" Naruto's smile, if possible, got wider at the offhanded praise from the man "I've been working hard every day, and now, all I have left is the last two parts of the book!" Shun's smile turned into a weird grin, one that Naruto had also seen about a year ago... "And what about the orange book?" The blonde boy's face turned a new shade of red, as he tried to get a handful of words out, more thoughts passed through his head, and a small amount of blood began to trickle out of his nose1. The man in the suit had to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing as he made dismissive motions at Naruto with his other hand "I thought so. Lets leave it at that then."
As the blonde boy's face returned to normal, he finally regained the ability to ask: "What was the gift of peace? Now I have a monkey and a fox in my head that bother me every other night..." Shun's smile turned into a bit of a smirk, and then a look of confusion as he rolled things over in his brain "The monkey is understandable... but a monkey and a fox?" He rubbed his chin in thought, he knew that there was supposed to be both the monkey and one other... but his Zanpakto shouldn't have revealed itself for several years now. Seeing his confused look, Naruto, in turn, was confused, he had known Shun to have all answers. The tall man shook his head, deciding to investigate further, presuming that it might have been something common among people from his world.
Shun stood up from the edge of the bed, and walked to stand next to Naruto, and leaving his question unanswered said "Now whats this I hear about two pink buildings?" The blonde boy made his usual show of laughing nervously and rubbing the back of his head, assuming he was in some kind of trouble. The tall man's smile just grew that much wider, as he gave a big thumbs up and said "Reminds me of stuff I did at your age... did you get caught?" The usually orange clad boy, currently in sleepers clothes, had a short look of confusion, followed quickly by a swelling ego and a face full of pride. "No! But by then they had started to link these kinds of things to me..." Shun simply smiled and patted him on the head.
The two conversed more, mostly consisting of Shun asking Naruto about his life, and Naruto giving descriptions of what it was like. They talked about how Naruto was going to the soul reaper academy soon, and Shun told him about some of the teachers back in his day, and requested that if he met a Professor Nobu, he would tell him hello from the man. He asked how Unohana and Isame had been, and if they had been trying to keep him out of trouble. But all in all, they talked about Naruto. The boy had known from past experiences that Shun didn't like talking about his past, and the few times he did he always got a glazed over look in his eyes. It was almost as if even the pleasant memories from his past were painful. That being, Naruto knew to let him speak of it when he wanted to, and tended not to ask much about the mans past.
They talked most of the morning, up until the clock read six-o-clock and Shun said he needed to leave before someone saw him. He ruffled the younger blondes hair and told him he would see him soon before disappearing as he had done so many times before.
Two years later, two nights before entrance tests to academy
Naruto sat exhausted, for the past while he had been attempting the last few sections of the book Shun had given him, but could never get them right. The book had said that anything above the higher ranking "C's" required what it called "Perfect control of the bodies chakra points." Something the blonde boy obviously did not have. In between practicing with his wooden sword, his increased study time with Unohana and Isame, and planning pranks, he didn't have much time to work on his chakra. The book had contained several exercises to help with it, but Naruto being his stubborn self, ignored them. He was quickly growing frustrated, and opted for a change of scenery while he took a break. He left his small clearing and took a walk to his normal place of eating, a small ramen stand that sat fairly clean, in the western end of the Seireitei.
Ramen was the blondes favorite food, he couldn't get enough of the noodles ever since he had been given a cup of the instant stuff for lunch. That was a year ago, and since then all the ramen stands had prospered greatly, one even got enough money to open up a second stand. Surprisingly, this was no exaggeration. At the very least the boy had two large bowls, although his record was twelve, and he ended up working free for a week to pay it off. Again, this was no exaggeration, something that truly scared both the captain and the vice captain of squad four, enough to have given Isame bad nightmares about ramen for a few days.
That being said, Naruto arrived at the small stand, and brushed aside the flaps that stood in between him and his lunch. The small stand consisted of a counter that spanned the length of the building, with several stools lining it. It wasn't painted, but rather kept the natural dark color of the wood it was built out of. There was a large, muscular man behind the counter, looking around his mid-to-late forties, and was well built, but dressed in a white shirt, covered by a white apron, with gray leggings. He had his back faced to the entrance, as he continued cooking his ramen, but still said "Welcome back Naruto, here for your customary five bowls?" Naruto wasn't sure how he knew it was him, but didn't question it as he sat down. It wasn't until then that the blonde noticed another person sitting next to him, dressed plainly in what appeared to be a man's haori. However, it was a she, with long orange hair that went down to her mid-back. She looked to be around Naruto's age, more than likely a year or two older than him, due to her most... obvious... assets.
The man behind the counter turned around and placed a bowl of ramen in front of the fifteen year old boy, who immediately forgot about the woman next to him, and after a quick "Thank you!", began slurping down the noodles with gusto. It was almost comical, seeing the woman sitting next to him slowly and carefully eating her noodles, whilst the boy sitting next to her seemed to be eating at a hundred mile-per-hour. When he was almost finished with his second bowl2, the woman turned to him and said "Geez kid, slow down or your gonna choke..." As she said that, a particularly thick bundle of noodles got lodged in his throat, and she patted him less then gently on the back, trying to dislodge the food.
After she hit him on the back for the third time, the noodles finally got unstuck, and he swallowed hard, making a mental note to chew next time. "Thank you, thank you!" he spat out, turning to the woman next to him and bowing lowly. Not until then did he notice her entire body, and even with the loose men's clothing on, she was enough to make a small amount of blood trickle from his nose, especially since in her actions, her top had opened up a bit more, he quickly wiped the red away from his nose. She looked at him for a moment and smiled before saying "Yeah yeah, just make sure to chew your food slowly next time." Naruto giggled lightly and responded with the excuse "Sorry, got to keep my energy up, I'm going to be a soul reaper soon after all!" he said with a matter-of-factly kind of tone.
She gave him a blank look for a moment before saying, "You too?" The boy tilted his head to the side in confusion before understanding what she was saying. He held out a hand to her, and said "Yup... small world huh? Names Naruto Uzumaki, great to meet you!" The woman took his hand and shook it before responding, "It certainly seems that way doesn't it? Rangiku Matsumoto." They sat there for a moment staring at eachother, before someone cleared their throat from the entrance, making both turn back to their bowls with blushes. "What?" said the man who came in the doorway "I come all the way here to see my favorite blonde knucklehead, and you can't even say hello?" The voice was unmistakably familiar to said blonde knucklehead, but foreign to the woman sitting next to him.
Naruto spun around in his seat at the voice, and shouted fairly loudly "Mister Shun!" said man smiled widely and stepped closer to his younger friend. He stepped in between both Naruto and Rangiku, throwing his arms around the pair of would-be soul reapers before saying "And my my Naruto, who do we have here, did you get a girlfriend since we last saw eachother?" Both the younger blonde and the orange headed woman tried to sputter out some sort of come back to that, but were at a loss for words. That is, until Naruto smacked him on the head, hard, making the tall lecher fall to the ground. He stood up slowly rubbing his head saying "C'mon, you know I was just kidding around... I doubted you could get a girlfriend anyway," he said with the same wry grin, making the orange clad boy want to strangle him.
"But all joking aside, it's nice to meet you miss..." he looked to Naruto for some sort of introduction, and after a quick pause got "That's Rangiku, she's going to be a soul reaper to." Shun's eyes widened slightly, as he secretly ogled the girl for a moment before rubbing his chin and saying "Well, that is interesting. Do you mind if I borrow him though? I was about to show Naruto here something to help him..." The aforementioned blonde was immediately on his feet at the mention of "something" figuring it was bound to be spectacularly amazingly super. Rangiku blushed a bit under his gaze, and reddened even more when she was asked permission for Naruto to leave.
Shun smirked, and put a wad of bills on the counter before grabbing the blondes shoulders, almost immediately disappearing. Leaving a confused ramen cook standing behind the counter, and a confused strawberry-blonde in front of it.
XxX
The blonde duo arrived suddenly in a large clearing He removed the leather sheath from his belt, and sat cross legged while laying it across his lap. "Sit down for a moment." The tall man in the suit said, his voice surprisingly calm, and his face completely neutral. Naruto sat down in front of him, in a similar fashion, and let out a loud breath as he settled down. "Now shut your eyes, and open your mind." Shun closed his eyes, following his own advice as the blonde boy quickly followed suit. In, out, in, out, in, out. Steady. Create the rhythm in which your mind must flow. In, out, in, out, in out. Shun listened intently to Naruto's breathing, and acted quickly before the boy became restless.
Shuns eyes opened all the way, one of his hands came off of his knees, and formed a gun-type shape with the thumb, Index, and middle fingers. He pointed it at Naruto, and made a slow firing motion, the hand flying back slightly as if in recoil. He were placed into a deep sleep, Shun had placed large amounts of Reiatsu into his fingertips, and aimed it at the young blonde, activating his own stores of spirit energy. It was a trick he had picked up when he was much younger, and his teacher had used the same technique on him to awaken his dormant power.
He smiled softly when Naruto fell over, and almost immediately began drooling and snoring loudly. He wouldn't be waking up till the next day, but he would see it worth it when he woke up. Then again, this was the number one hyperactive would-be Soul Reaper we're talking about...
XxX
Black. Pure, pitch, dark, couldn't-see-a-damn-thing blackness was the only thing that Naruto could see. The air felt... familiar, it was that sense of familiarity that you get when you see a face on the street, and you know you know the guy, but the name wont come into your head. It'll rest at the tip of your tongue, and drive you mad, it'll be constantly on your mind for several days, and drive you mad but the name never comes. And that madness was eating away at Naruto, and seemed to be slowly driving him mad.
"What are you doing here?"
The voice was a deep, enthralling, call that seemed to beckon to him with every word, and that sense of familiarity and insanity grew.
"I repeat, what are you doing here Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki?"
Naruto tried to answer, but his mouth felt so dry and heavy. He tried to ask why he had added "Namikaze" to his name. And more than anything, he tried to remember whose voice it was.
"Can't speak? Damn kid. Are you sure that you are me?"
Anger flooded the young boys body, he wouldn't be called weak by... by... who? No, he didn't even know this man... did he? Distractions distractions, he needed to focus. "What am I doing here?" he asked incredulously, the anger palpable in his voice, he was really getting tired of that sort of question. A low throaty chuckle came from all around, it was promptly cut off by a stunning silence, that while probably only lasted a moment, felt like a lifetime for the young blonde man.
"I guess the simple answer would be, to find you."
Naruto clenched his fist, and brought it up in front of him, only to realize that he couldn't see that either.
"You are weak. Do you want power? No, thats right, you wouldn't accept the foxes either. But I'm not the fox, nor am I an external power source... so let me ask again, do you want power? No, let me rephrase that, why would you want power?"
Naruto's voice was dry and raspy, but he was still able to speak, "I want to protect my precious people."
"A simple goal, but no matter, you are apparently not ready for the power. You can't even see my realm, it's almost sad."
Naruto growled at the mans words, he was making him uncharacteristically angry, he was going to kill Shun when he got out of here. He closed his eyes, and the blackness stayed the same, he tried to imagine himself out of here, thinking of himself simply sleeping in his bed, or training in his usual field, but the blackness remained.
"You are weak."
"No..." Naruto almost whispered, trying harder to leave.
"Your friends and family will die, and it will be because of you."
"No..." Naruto said louder, as images of everyone he knew being slaughtered, tears began streaming down his cheeks, the images flashing before him were horrible. Shun lay impaled on a spear held by a faceless warrior, blood dripping out of his mouth and his face vacant and pained.Unohana was standing, a knife placed deeply into her chest, her hands lay over the hilt and her face pained, her body bloody. The images went on and on, as one by one, his friends and family lay in one big bloody pile as the world around them burned in a bright fire.
"NO!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, the images continued flashing, each one more and more vivid and gory than the last. "I AM NOT WEAK! I WILL NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN!" The images stopped. The blackness began to fade, slowly being replaced by colors, all swirling around and around into a big tornado fusion of every color the eye could perceive. And then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. Naruto opened his eyes, and before him stood a white columned room, with a high arched roof. Pictures of men fighting lions and large one-eyed men roamed the walls and lined the columns. Larger than life statues of men and women lined the walls, with swords and shields in cases and holsters sat next to them. But in the center of it all, stood a single thin man, wearing a white robe that wrapped loosely around his body. He likely stood around six foot three, but still would have been dwarfed by at least a foot by Shun, and several feet by the statues that stood around him.
"Welcome Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki, to my realm." The man said, a broad smile on his face, and his arms open, gesturing to the room around him. Naruto had a scowl on his face, and both of his fists were clenched, he just wanted to sock this man, for putting him through all those... horrible, horrible images. Intending to do just that, he took a step forward, only to stop when the man disappeared. The voice came from above now, "Tsk tsk Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki, you can't touch me, in my realm, it simply wont work that way." There stood the man, upside down, on the ceiling of the building, hands folded neatly behind his back, and his smile still large on his face. Naruto's upper lip quivered a bit in a scowl, before he took a deep breath and calmed himself, regardless of the fury burning in him.
"We will meet again Naruto Uzumake Uzumaki, and congratulations for passing my first test." The world went black, and our young blonde friend, once again, fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Two days later, day of entrance test to academy
"Naruto, Naruto! Wake up!" A females voice called out to a violently shaking blonde boy... wait... violently shaking? "I'm up, I'm up!" Naruto yelled loudly as the shaking stopped and he opened his eyes to reveal Isane being the perpetrator of shaking him. "What am I..." Naruto started, only to be quickly interrupted by the tall silver haired woman lifting him up on her shoulder and saying "No time, no time you're late, you're late!" She opened up what Naruto assumed to be the fourth division barracks' door and lept outside. "Where are we going?!" he yelled, squirming slightly under her grasp, only to receive the prompt answer of "No time, no time, we're late, very very late!" Naruto was about to open his mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted by a voice in his head, calmly saying: "You know, you should really just listen to the pretty ladies more often." Naruto stopped squirming, and looked up at Isane, before inventing a new shade of red. This was the first time he had looked at Isane and seen her as a woman, and not a sister... he quickly blamed it on the book that Shun had forced him to read, and looked away.
Naruto didn't have time to think about the voice in his head, as Isane dropped him in front of a building, gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, making him blush again. "Hurry inside, and good luck! Just remember the trick that Captain Unohana taught you... Oh! Here, this was next to you when you arrived!" She shoved something leathery into his hands and shooed him into a room... another dark, dark room. That was something that Naruto, above all, hated.
"You are late Mister Uzumaki," a voice came from the darkness, making this scene feel all too familiar to the young boy. "Hopefully this will not be a recurring... thing." The lights flicked on quickly, making Naruto shield his eyes from the sudden brightness. He looked around, and before him stood a plain white room, with a plain white table in the center, lining the table were four men, and one woman. On the far left, was a man in a simple black haori, with a black stripe going down the center. He wore thin wire framed glasses, and while he stared intently at Naruto, every time a speck of dust became noticeable in the light, or a small sound came from somewhere outside, he would turn and put his full attention on it. Next to him, was a woman in a blue haori, she had a very bored look on her face, and leaned on her arm as she looked sleepily in Naruto's direction. The man next to her looked all business, and wore an air of superiority over himself. He dressed formally in the traditional soul reaper's robes, and had a well muscled upper body, his hands were folded neatly in front of him, resting on the table. The man to his right had his feet up on the table, and had a long piece of thin metal sticking out of his mouth, his hands clasped behind his head. The final man had no clearly distinguishable features, and seemed to just kind of become unnoticeable unless you looked directly at him. His arms rested loosely on the table, and just seemed to be completely relaxed and stone faced.
"Let us begin," the man in the center said, obviously the same that spoke before, "Tell us, why do you want to become a soul reaper?" Naruto's mind flashed back to the images that had been placed in his head, and grimaced a bit before answering "Because I want the power to protect my precious people."
"A lust for power, but an unselfish one, admirable." The man who had his feet up on the table said, still barely having his eyes on the boy, "He's in with me." The man in the center nodded, making a mental note of the man's "vote."
"Next, what do you know about the duty of-" he began, but was quickly cut off by Naruto,
"Excuse me, but what does this have to do with anything?" he asked, his face still completely straight. "I mean, I can understand wanting to know why I want power, but isn't just about every thing else what classes are for?" The man on the far right grunted softly, gaining the attention of the other five in the room, "He shows cognitive ability to question the questionable, something fairly rare, I'd allow him in." The woman on the left spoke up next,
"He has great spiritual pressure for an untrained boy," her voice bored and uninterested, "He could be molded fairly well." The man in the center nodded, making not of the mans vote, and the woman's words. "Well Mister Uzumaki, thats a record, two votes in less than two questions, and you even got Miss Korena to give praise." A ghost of a smile cracked his lips, before quickly disappearing into his normal business like face. The woman next to him scowled and gave the man an evil eye, but kept quiet and rested her chin back on her hand.
"Mister Uzumaki, we ask these questions for many reasons, if you knew them, that would defeat the purpose." Naruto gave a slight nod, his head finally starting to come together from being groggy and awakening so abruptly. "So, why do you think you deserve, out of out four hundred and thirty nine candidates, to join the academy?" Naruto fiddled with the object Isane had placed into his hands, before taking awhile to answer "Because I can promise that I will try my hardest, and be the best there can be!" The man with the wire framed glasses raised a finger hesitantly, and opened his mouth, as if to speak, but nothing came out for awhile. Finally, he got out "The boy... has the fighting... spirit," his voice was somewhat finicky, with an almost overbearing tone to it, "He has... my... v-v-v... v... vote." He lowered his finger, and suddenly lost interest in Naruto, but very interested in the way that the light showed just right so that the dust became visible.
"And he has my vote as well, I trust my colleagues judge in character. I must say Mister Uzumaki, I am very impressed, Mister Okamoto here usually won't give a vote till much later in the 'game,' I believe you've set some sort of record." He paused for a moment, to see if anyone else wished to say anything, before continuing, "And, with four out of..." he started, only to be quickly interrupted by the woman to his left, "Five out of five." Her face was still bored, and all the men suddenly had her eyes on her, the man with the long strip of metal in his mouth fell backwards out of his chair. The quiet and emotionless man next to him casually glanced over at her, but had his eyes much wider than normal. The man in the center, fell out of his usual business like manner, and burst out laughing, a deep throaty laugh that echoed throughout the rooms white walls and undoubtably made its way out side as well. The man finally quieted down, and wiped a tear that had begun to form in his eyes, before finally waving Naruto out of the room, not being able to talk from holding back giggles. Confused, the blonde boy walked back out of the room with a very "What the hell?" type of look on his face.
Holding back his laughs, and clearing his throat, the man turned to the woman next to him and said "Thats the first time in over fifty years that you've even made a positive comment on someone, but he even gets your vote? Why the sudden change?" The woman smirked with a "Humf" and responded with a small smile on her face "Kid's already got his zanpakto." The man on the end of the table, with the wire framed glasses, immediately stood up and ran out the door, presumably following the boy, muttering something under his breath about "Him again."
Authors rant: Thank you all for reading this chapter, and being so patient when my computer decided to kill itself. Not much else to say.
Brownie points: Points have been awarded for the color scheme, and the Icha Icha book. I'm still looking for someone to tell me who Shun is, and someone to get the monkey right. Ten points are still waiting to be awarded for valid harem suggestions. Uhh... thats it, shoo.
