About review question:A question I received in the reviews was: are reiryoku and chakra the same in this fic or are they completely different? I believe that I already clarified that in chapters 2 and 3, more of a hint in 2 but more explained in 3. But to answer again, no they are not the same but neither are they completely different. In the naruto series chakra is the combination of spiritual energy (reiryoku) and physical energy. In the 2nd chapter I also said that Ichigo's chakra levels have hit rock bottom and he will need to train again to get back to his old strength level. He still has a fair amount of chakra when reborn but it is still only a small amount compared to shinobi (more than average civilian) and his old power.
As for pairings, I'm not sure who I would pair him with but I think I might have a few in mind who I could pair him with. If you have any recommendations or just an idea of who you think I should pair him (Ichigo) with please either have it in your review or more preferably in a PM to me. thanks
Ichigo and his brother were currently walking to the ninja academy where they would learn about becoming a ninja. Ichigo of course already had the skills of at least a Jonin (it was actually beyond that but age held him back a little from performing his best in the trial) but his strength level said otherwise as well as some slight tweaks thanks to Kushina pulling a few strings, so the highest placement he could afford in the village at the moment according to Sarutobi was Chunin. However for Ichigo to reach the level of Chunin he first had to obtain the level of Genin and that meant he had to go through ninja academy with Naruto much to his displeasure, not that he didn't like Naruto or that at times he could be a real handful it was just the fact that Ichigo already knew what they taught in the academy thanks to the Akatsuki drilling it into him during the six years of his life that he was with them.
"Hey Sasuke" Naruto yelled out as he saw his friend appear from around the next corner. Sasuke just looked at him before turning away and continuing to walk towards the academy only to look back over his shoulder at Ichigo. Once Sasuke looked over Ichigo he turned back to the way he was walking and sped off trying to distance himself from them a slight look of fear on his face when he turned away. "Hm, I wonder why he walked away so fast," Naruto said failing to notice the ever present scowl on Ichigo's face as he looked off into the distance spotting the academy "Ichigo there it is" Naruto pointed to the academy.
"Hey Kingy, your gonna have to stop scowling all the time like your Kaa-san told you otherwise you're gonna scare away all the other kids" Ichigo's hollow said reminding him of the day he finally met his mother.
FLASH BACK
Ichigo just continued to lie on his side as Kushina cried into his back believing that he was her long lost child. After a while Ichigo had managed to shift out from under her and sit up by himself recovering from his darkened colour via lack of oxygen to his body. While recovering Kushina had a good chance to look him over and take in his appearance. Orange hair, purple eyes just like hers and a rather muscular body for one his age. His facial structure also slightly resembled Naruto's except it was sharper and more defined than Naruto's whose face was a bit rounder like hers. This had to be her son.
"Hello…Kaa-san" Ichigo said smiling at her. "Well this is slightly weird, how am I going to explain I know who she is?"
"I don't think you need to worry about that, just don't allow her to hug us like that again I think you were a dark shade of purple" Ichigo's hollow said.
"You know who I am?" Kushina asked wiping tears away from her face while sniffling.
"Ehhhhh!" Naruto shouted "he's my brother?!"
Ichigo just looked at Naruto again checking him over. "Hmm, overall he looks fairly smart but current conversation antics suggest otherwise" Ichigo observed. "It appears that I am" Ichigo said face unmoving all while observing Naruto.
"How can you say it like it's not a big deal, I just found out I had a brother!" Naruto said while Ichigo observed beginning to snicker at Naruto's actions before blowing out into full-blown laughter. "Why are you laughing now?" Naruto said getting frustrated "are you laughing at me?"
"Maybe" Ichigo said stopping his laughter.
Meanwhile Kushina began to smile at the two in front of her wondering how Ichigo was already managing to tease Naruto so easily.
"So Ichigo," Kushina began "where have you been all this time?" Kushina asked.
"With a group called the Akatsuki" Ichigo said "they're just a bunch of people that claim that they can bring peace to the world but all they do is make war with others and force people to do things that they don't want to do, that is if their not already with the Akatsuki"
"Did they hurt you? Are you ok?" Kushina began to spout questions about his health straight after Ichigo answered her previous question, all while grabbing his face twisting and turning it from side to side trying to get a better look at it.
"I'm ok, now could you let go of me" Ichigo said being rather annoyed with the fact that at the moment he was trapped in his mother's grip.
"No" Kushina said pulling him into a hug again only this time she wasn't crushing Ichigo with monstrous force. "You know you're going to have to stop scowling all the time if you're gonna want to make friends with all the other kids no matter how mature you already seem to act" Kushina said still holding onto Ichigo. "Now what do you want for dinner, you're return requires a great feast of your favourite food" Kushina said. "Please be ramen, please be ramen" Kushina thought.
"Anything but ramen" Ichigo answered to her question "plus we'll have to go out shopping I already ate everything in the kitchen…except the ramen"
"Noooooo, how can an Uzumaki not like ramen" Kushina thought horrified at the fact that her son didn't like ramen.
While Kushina's face unconsciously took up one of the devil Ichigo became very scared. "Ramen's good, we can have ramen" Ichigo said rapidly while nodding his head. This woman was even scarier than Unohana.
"It's so nice of you to say that Ichigo" Kushina said with a sickly sweet voice "ramen just so happens to be my favourite too, and because of your choice I don't have to go shopping today."
"So there was more than one reason" Ichigo thought still horrified about the way his mother was acting towards him and how fast her attitude could change.
FLASH BACK END
"Yeah, yeah, I'll try to stop scowling" Ichigo replied to his hollow "but I think that's gonna be pretty hard to do"
"I guess so, you already have been scowling for one lifetime" the hollow said.
"That barely counts it was only seventeen years, I died way before my time was up" Ichigo said back all of a sudden wondering how his friends and family took his death.
"Don't think about it king, they wouldn't want you holding yourself back because of them" the hollow said sensing where Ichigo's thoughts were going.
"Yeah…you're right, I'll do that, I'd just worry them even more if that happened" Ichigo said to himself.
"…igo, Ichigo" Naruto shouted finally gaining his brother's attention "finally," Naruto sighed "you kinda blanked out for a moment there, come on, we're at the academy"
"Great" Ichigo thought and sighed. Minimum year requirement at the academy was four years due to recent changes in the curriculum at Konoha, no matter how skilled you were, you had to at least attend four years worth at the academy, that meant that by the time this was over he'd be ten. However that wasn't the only rule that had been changed apparently, to become a Chunin you had to do the Chunin exams and could no longer get field promotions. The maximum amount of years you could attend the academy was six years otherwise anyone could enter the academy for as long as they liked ad they would probably end up getting themselves killed eventually.
(Ninja academy)
"Good morning class" a man said at the front of the room. He was a fairly tall man with dark skin and a scar across his forehead (at least I think he does). The room didn't go quiet. "I said" the man said eye twitching "good morning class!" the man shouted.
"Hi/good morning/what's up Iruka-sensei" the class replied all facing him now smiles present on their faces.
"How I bother to keep coming to teach you, I have no idea," Iruka said to himself "alright we have a new student today" Iruka said causing whispering to break out through the class and a very big grin to grow on Naruto's face causing multiple children to turn their heads to him demanding an answer before Iruka said so himself. "In you come now" Iruka said causing the door to be opened by someone.
Into the room walked an orange haired boy with a scary looking scowl on his face. "Hello everyone, my name's Ichigo Uzumaki Namikaze," Ichigo said with a huge smile "now if I see any of you or your parents calling my brother a demon again…I'll kill you" Ichigo said narrowing his eyes, losing the smile and giving everyone a serious look making everyone go wide-eyed.
"Heh…this'll shut them up for a while" Iruka thought only to be sadly disappointed when they all started asking questions. "Shut up" Iruka shouted "ask questions later, now on with the class, Ichigo you can sit next to Shikamaru, try keep him awake for me"
"Not quiet the result I expected" Ichigo thought as he wandered to his place next to Shikamaru.
"There's no way that guy can be Naruto's brother he's way too scary" Sasuke thought looking at Ichigo from his place in the back corner of the room.
(Home)
"How was academy Ichigo, Naruto?" Kushina asked them as they came through the front door.
"Hey are you gonna start saying Ichigo's name first all the time?" Naruto whined.
"I can if you want me to" Kushina said making Naruto's shoulders sag in defeat before perking up again and launching into a conversation with Kushina saying that he was the best at the entire academy and that he would surely graduate in the minimum requirement time.
"Are you sure about that Naruto?" Ichigo said "As far as I am aware you are the only one to miss the target three times in a row and somehow manage to pin Iruka-sensei with a kunai to the tree he was standing next to"
"Yeah well I was holding back so I wouldn't scare off all the other kids like you did" Naruto said, and pretty soon began arguing with Ichigo over who was the better ninja.
(Four years later random classroom)
Ichigo had finally finished ninja academy and Naruto was stuck in it for another two years. "Hehe, sucker" Ichigo thought as he waited for his Jonin instructor.
Ichigo would be getting a private instructor simply because the Hokage believed he was well beyond the other students in capability levels which was true although some students did complain that he was the only one to get the private instructor cough cough Sasuke. He was even above all the other recent graduates as well as the fact that there wasn't a placement available among the other graduates teams. In truth Ichigo didn't care, he was very happy that he didn't have to go with anyone else, although if he did want to become a Chunin he would have to fill in for an either sick or injured team mate from another team or squad as the others liked to call them because it sounded cooler than team.
"How are you going brat" a feminine voice sounded from behind Ichigo.
He didn't have to turn around to tell who it was, the person was always at the dango store after all and they reeked dango as well, in fact Ichigo could smell them right now as though she was eating them while climbing in through the window. "You really could use the door you know Anko" Ichigo said with out turning his head or opening an eye from his seated position in the empty classroom.
"Hehe, big chested sensei" Ichigo's hollow spoke up.
"That's Anko-sensei to me brat" Anko said swallowing more dango finishing off all that she had with her.
"Just like Toshiro in that sense" Ichigo thought while remembering all the times Toshiro had told him to call him Hitsugaia-Taicho. "Yeah yeah whatever Anko, you didn't bring any dango for me" Ichigo feigned being hurt "you could have at least thought about me when you bought your dango"
"Huh…what dango?" Anko said throwing the dango sticks out the window "I wasn't eating dango, I was thinking of how I should train you on my way over while eating a healthy breakfast"
"Sure you were, I can smell the dango you ate from here" Ichigo said making Anko try and smell her own breath to check if it really did smell like dango.
"You've got a good nose, you wouldn't happen to be from the Inuzuka clan would you? 'Cause you sure don't look llike it" Anko said afraid that he would be able to tell where she had been and what she was doing just by scent "I really need to wash" Anko whispered not knowing that Ichigo would also hear that, but thankfully kept his mouth shut to avoid Anko's wrath.
"No, I'm not from the Inuzuka clan" Ichigo said confused at the question she asked him, did she read his file or not.
Ichigo had heard many things about Anko from the other ninja around Konoha and learnt that she can be scary when she wants to but most of the time acts with a casual, rude or brash attitude. He didn't believe all the stories that went around with Anko, in fact he was amazed that she was still as happy as she was with all the things people said about her, she was supposed to have been Orochimaru's apprentice at one point when she was a ninja in training.
"Ok, meet me up on the roof in five, you've gotta tell me what you're good at, what you like doing so we can improve your skills appropriately and maybe a little about yourself…and your name, I forgot to read your name on the file" Anko said making Ichigo face palm at the last part, obviously she hadn't read his file. After that Anko jumped back out the window and ran off somewhere, presumably to get more dango.
Ichigo shrugged his shoulders deciding that she wasn't that bad at first so he thought he to would make a quick visit to someplace, for him it was home. When Ichigo arrived home he walked inside and decided to raid the cupboard swinging both doors wide and almost stepping inside but not before it slammed shut taking some skin off the front of his nose. Ichigo turned and froze to see his mother there. "Hey…what's up?" Ichigo said nervously.
"Shouldn't you be meeting your new sensei Ichigo" Kushina said clearly surprised that Ichigo was at home.
"Yeah, I already have, she said on the roof in five and it's only been about two so I thought I'd come home for a sec find something entertaining to do or get something to eat while Anko went to eat more dango" Ichigo said causing a look of surprise to grow on Kushina's face.
"You have…Anko? As your new sensei" Kushina questioned the authenticity of Ichigo's excuse not sure whether or not Sarutobi had really given Ichigo to Anko to play around with. Ichigo just nodded for his answer. "Be careful around her" Kushina warned "you have no idea what crazy idea she might come up with next, she was once a proctor for a Chunin exam and made some of the participants piss their pants from what I was told, all because she did something really stupid"
Ichigo sweated a bit at this and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah I'll make sure…well look at the time, I better get going now, see ya" Ichigo said vanishing in front of Kushina's eyes.
"Hey we still have another minute" Kushina called out but to no avail as the call went unanswered. "Ahh" Kushina groaned "he better not do everything she says" she said dreading the outcome of having Anko as a sensei.
(Ninja academy rooftop)
"Your late" Anko said as she landed on the roof.
"No I'm pretty sure I came on time" Ichigo said "your just trying to think that I was the late one and not yourself, just like Kakashi"
"Don't compare me to that idiot!" Anko yelled.
"Yeah well, at least he doesn't eat dango for breakfast, lunch and dinner" Ichigo replied from his place on the rooftop.
"Yeah yeah don't criticize me for my eating habbits, I'll have you know that dango is much better than everyone else makes it out to be" Anko said, defiance in her voice. "Anyway enough about dango, what are you good at? Do you have any hobbies, aspirations that I should be aware of? What do you need help in?" Anko said "Anything that else you want to say as well, and then we'll finish up for today cause I gotta recheck your file"
Ichigo just sighed before speaking "I'm a master of kenjutsu, mid level in ninjutsu, low genjutsu, high taijutsu, as well as mid level fuinjutsu" Ichigo said listing off a couple of things.
"Wow…you don't think you could teach me a couple of things then do you?" Anko asked only getting a shrug of the shoulders in reply, "anyway, please do continue"
"I also have several abilities that I think no one else has, sooo that would make it a new blood line limit…yes?" Ichigo said making it sound more like a question then a statement.
"What would these new abilities of yours contain then?" Anko asked interested in what he had to say or show.
"This" Ichigo said pulling a mask out of thin air that seemed to suddenly increase Ichigo's chakra output tenfold and rise his killing intent to the point where most would be falling over from their inability to breath, even Anko had to admit that this was beyond her expectations. "This might count as well" Ichigo said biting his thumb drawing blood and putting his hand against a tattoo on his left arm unsealing a sword and a combat knife which then caused cross like bands to appear on his forearms and chest.
"What's that?" Anko asked confused about when Ichigo unsealed the two weapons from the tattoo on his left shoulder.
"These two weapons were forged from a piece of my soul that split off and formed by themselves, so they are made completely from chakra and a piece of my soul" Ichigo explained.
"No that won't count as a blood line limit, well at least until you have children and they gain abilities similar to your own" Anko said "do you have anymore?" Anko questioned.
"I have chakra chains" Ichigo said casually noting the wide eye look he got from Anko.
"I know just the person who can train you to use the chakra chains" Anko said "we can get Kushina Uzumaki in to help you train with your chakra chains"
"Kushina's my mother" Ichigo said causing Anko's amazed expression to drop.
"No wonder you get all the good stuff then," Anko said with a huff crossing her arms "alright that's enough for today then, meet me by the forest of death training grounds by nine tomorrow morning we'll finish up what we started here tomorrow"
"Is it because you want more dango? You'll become overweight if you eat too much of that stuff you know" Ichigo said only to get bashed in the head by Anko's fist sending him skidding across the rooftop and into the distance.
"That'll teach that brat, me becoming overweight pfft," Anko said before looking over herself analytically. "I'm not really getting fat am I?" Anko questioned herself "Nah, I'll just be the awesome Sensei I am to that brat and cut back on the dango a little" Anko said. "Why am I listening to him?" Anko thought, "Uhh, I dunno, maybe because everyone else keeps saying the same thing to you" Anko started talking to herself, this was getting weird.
NOTES: the sword that Ichigo pulls out of the seal is just his fullbring sword slightly altered to be of closer resemblance to his new zangetsu in the manga. The combat knife is supposed to represent the second smaller blade in the manga. This is not the smaller version of zangetsu suited to smaller Ichigo's needs, Ichigo is simply too young to access his zanpakuto's power, so yes I will be introducing the new zangetsu into my story, it just won't be for a while because I want to see what Ichigo's new zanpakuto abilities are if he has any and his new bankai which hasn't been shown at this point in time or I clearly haven't seen the manga chapter with it yet if it is out.
I made it so there was a limit on the amount of years that one had to be in academy before they graduated because I Konoha had already put in the rule that there were no more field promotions being given out so I decided to make it so plus I wanted to stick Ichigo around Naruto's group of friends, this group includes all the teams that graduated plus Neji, Lee and Tenten's team. If you didn't remember they actually graduated a year before Naruto from the ninja academ so they aren't exactly friends yet.
Also to finish, he should be around high Chunin level now in terms of chakra and strength because of all the training that he did during his four years at academy, stamina and speed is something Ichigo is a natural at though so he is already well beyond Chunin in that aspect about mid jonin, can't have him too overpowered too early now can I (In ninja world of naruto it isn't uncommon to come across very young chunin or jonin level ninjas, take Kakashi for example I think he was supposed to be about eleven when he became a jonin, Itachi joined anbu at the same age and became a high ranked captain). Ichigo's growth rate will slow down to an almost absolute standstill in times where there are no enemies no matter how much he trains simply because he doesn't need to get stronger until an enemy who's stronger than him comes along much like in the bleach series where his strength only grows when faced by enemies that threaten to harm his family and friends or he himself is in serious danger or killed…just like his battle with Ulquiorra, probably the best fight in my opinion in the anime (I haven't watched the movies or any of the fillers this includes the bount arc which was just an anime only arc, it wasn't in the manga)