Chapter 4: My Name

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Disclaimer: Naruto/Bleach belong to Kishimoto/Kubo, respectively.

[Urahara Shop, Karakura Town, Human Realm]

Current Time

Recap:

"Congratulations, young Naruto; you passed the first lesson before it even began!" Kisuke said in a comically jolly manner.

"Huh!?" Naruto blurted out.

After a few seconds Naruto finally composed himself.

"A…..Are you serious?" he asked the "eccentric" ex-captain.

"Of course I'm serious; the first lesson was to learn how to raise your own spiritual energy. When Ichigo was trying to gain, or regain to be more precise, his Soul Reaper powers he wasn't able to move or breathe properly for quite some time, which is supposed to be the case for everyone when they become Pluses; your physical stamina is beyond that of anything I've ever witnessed, however, as you were able to raise your spiritual energy the moment you left your body," Kisuke explained to the young ninja. Naruto gave a wide mischievous smile at this.

"I knew I was more awesome than Ichigo," Naruto said in a mischievous tone, causing a giant vein to poke out of Ichigo's forehead.

"Shut up, Naruto," he retorted, knowing that Naruto was just trying to get under his skin, again; despite his irritation, however, he was glad that Naruto was able to pass the first lesson. Ichigo was still trying to hide it from his friends but they could already tell that his relationship with Naruto was already less of a teacher and student and more of a rival/friend type of bond. This newly formed friendship, which he had made with the others as well, was the reason that they were all anxious, to varying degrees, about the next lesson.

"Anyways…. I suggest that we celebrate this by immediately going to the second lesson," Kisuke declared, and before the blond haired ninja could even react to this, a giant axe severed Naruto's Chain of Fate, separating him from his body. He turned to face the weapon's wielder, a tall, muscular, lightly tan-skinned man with cornrowed hair and a large handlebar mustache which was connected to his long sideburns; the man, from what Naruto learned during his time at Urahara's shop, was named Tessai. Before Naruto could question what was going on, he suddenly fell to the ground and was unable to get up as Tessai had him pinned to the ground.

"What the hell, Tessai!?" Naruto asked in pure confusion and clear pain, at which point Kisuke decided to explain the situation to Naruto.

"This is the Shattered Shaft lesson that I warned you about a few days back," Kisuke said; after a few seconds, Naruto's eyes widened at the meaning of what Kisuke mentioned.

"So this is lesson where I become a Hollow 'if' I fail?" Naruto asked, to which Kisuke confirmed.

"You don't have much time now so I'll give a quick explanation of the lesson itself. Now that your Chain of Fate is severed, the remaining links of your chains will go through something called Encroachment, which is just a fancy way of saying that the links be destroyed, one by one; once Encroachment ends a hole will form in your chest and you'll become a hollow. At that point we'll have to kill you," Kisuke explained; Naruto face suddenly gained an expression of pure terror.

"Then how the hell am I supposed to sto-," Naruto said before a voice interrupted him.

"There's only one way to prevent yourself from becoming a hollow….." Naruto turned his head and was shocked to find that it was Ichigo who was the one who was talking.

"….. and that is to become a Soul Reaper," Ichigo said. Kisuke soon took control of the conversation again.

"That is the purpose of this lesson; in order to proceed you need to claim your Soul Reaper powers. Anyways, it's time to begin…." Kisuke then pointed his hand forward.

"Go," he said as if it were a command. As if on cue a large cylindrical hole formed directly under Naruto and Tessai. Naruto screamed loud enough to force Kisuke and Ichigo to cover their ears until they heard a loud thud from Naruto landing at the body of the shaft. Both men then looked into the shaft to see that Tessai was about to perform a Kido.

"Bakudo #99, Part 1. Kin," Tessai exclaimed. As Naruto was about to get Tessai off of him his arms were suddenly bound behind his back with spiritual fabric and iron shafts. Naruto attempted to break through the bindings but to no avail, as the binding held fast.

"Why are you guys doing this?" Naruto asked as he got to his feet. As he tried to pull himself together he watched in horror as the link of the chain farthest from his chest began forming multiple sets of mouths that began gnashing at the link. Before Naruto could step on the link, which he hoped would slow the process, he heard Ichigo say, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Naruto looked and saw the Substitute Soul Reaper and Kisuke standing at the top of the shaft.

"If you or anyone else tried to stop it the chain will simply bite back," Ichigo said bluntly.

"Then what I am supposed to do, for Kami's sake!?" Naruto roared at him.

"You got to climb out of the shaft before the Encroachment ends," Ichigo said with his usual expression etched into his face.

"And remember how much time you have," he said; Naruto had already been told that this lesson had a 72 hour-time limit. Ichigo and Kisuke walked away from the shaft, ignoring Naruto's rant about him kicking both their sorry asses when he got out of there.

"You'll think he will succeed?" Kisuke asked the orange-haired Soul Reaper. Ichigo scowled at him before he answered.

"Of course he will; stop underestimating my student, Kisuke," Ichigo roared at the former Soul Reaper captain, not wanting his "student" to appear weak in front of the others.

They now sat down as they waited for Naruto to either become a Soul Reaper or a Hollow…

Twenty Hours Later…

…which was too much for the impatient Ichigo to do. He was not the type to wait around idly, so he passed the time the only way he could think of: having a sparring match with Ikkaku, then Chad, and now Renji.

As he attempts to hit Ichigo with the shikai of his zanpakuto, Renji decides to have some small talk with Naruto's "mentor".

"I still don't understand how a something the size of Kurama can be sealed within a person," Renji said as Ichigo easily dodged another series of attacks from Zabimaru.

"Yeah, I actually thought he was going to be the size of normal fox; I never imagined that he would be that huge," Ichigo said, looking around the training grounds; his eyes suddenly widened as if he had realized something important.

"And speaking of Kurama, where is he? And where's Yoruichi for that matter?" Ichigo asked, gaining a shocked look from the 6th Division lieutenant.

"You're joking? You mean you haven't noticed that a giant fox with nine tails and power greater than any of the captains was not around even though you've been here for almost a day already?" Renji asked with some irritation; the others had made comments about Kurama's absence and had assumed Ichigo was too focused on Naruto to even bother mentioning it. Before Ichigo could reply, however, a familiar voice interrupted their conversation.

"Kurama was here the whole time, Renji; you just couldn't see him until now," Ichigo and everyone else, minus Kisuke (who was keeping his eyes on the shaft), Rangiku, and Yumichika, (who were either dealing with hollows or simply enjoying their time in the human world) turned to the direction of the voice and saw Yoruichi standing next someone they had never seen before.

He was a young man, maybe a couple of years older than Naruto, and appeared to be a few inches taller than Ichigo, and had a lean build. He had shaggy black hair the went just below the shoulders, blue eyes, and a calm, serene expression. He was wearing a tattered grey duster with an upturned collar, no sleeves, and nine red magatamas arranged in circular pattern on the back. Underneath this duster the man wore a white shirt, black pants, gray shinobi sandals, and a red sash. He also had what appeared to be a sheathed katana with a round tsuba and a red hilt; the sheath was attached to the red sash. The people in the front of them may not have recognized him by appearance but the energy they sensed within him gave his identity away.

"Ku…Ku….Kurama, is that you?" Rukia asked; the man simply smiled as everyone looked at him in shock.

"You guys already figured that out, huh?! At least that makes explaining things a little easier," the Tailed Beast said in an easygoing voice that was completely unrecognizable from the crude, demonic roar of a voice that everyone remembered from last week; yesterday for Renji and the people who worked in Urahara's shop. Ichigo was, understandably, shocked by this.

"Wait the minute, Yoruichi," Ichigo stammered, "if you said that Kurama's true form was what we saw last week, then why is he-," Ichigo said before he was interrupted by Naruto, who was suddenly swearing at… something.

"What the hell are these [expletive] things?! Get them off of me; I'm already [expletive] tied up as it is," he roared; this got everyone attention since Naruto had been rather quiet for the past 12 hours and, more importantly, the volume of the Naruto's screams indicated that he was no longer at that bottom of the shaft. Everyone ran towards the shaft where Kisuke was already looking at the edge; when everyone got to the edge they cautiously looked down.

They couldn't believe what they were seeing; somehow, Naruto was halfway up the shaft even with the Kido that Tessai used still active. He was now tied up further, however, by six chains that appear to have come out of the walls of the shaft and were wrapped around the young ninja; he is now suspended in the middle of the shaft, struggling to break free from these new bindings while cursing his predicament. Everyone just stared at the scene in disbelief; Yoruichi, Tessai, Kisuke, and Ichigo were especially taken aback by this sight.

"I never thought I'd never see the day," Kisuke said, getting a bunch of confused stares from everyone including Naruto, who was now too constricted by the chains to even move a muscle. Kisuke raised his eyebrows, as if he was not expecting their reaction; a few moments passed before his eyes widened as if he realized something.

"Oh, that's right; Ichigo never got this far, did he?" Kisuke asked rhetorically. He decided to give a quick explanation.

"This is the second stage of the Shattered Shaft; Naruto will, as soon as I say the command, enter his spiritual state and attempt to gain his powers. This is how one is supposed to obtain their abilities during this lesson. Ichigo never got to this point because he was at the bottom the whole time when he was in there," he explained. He turned his attention to Naruto, who looked like he was going to rip him apart.

"Before I say the command, you should know that you are still going through the Encroachment, so you should be quick about it. You've got 52 hours," Kisuke said nonchalantly; before Naruto could go off on a tirade, Kisuke slammed his "cane" into the ground and yelled, "Enter!" As soon as he did a white light enveloped Naruto and the chains; Naruto yelled at Kisuke, saying that he would regret tying him up like some beast, only to realize that he was already surrounded by the blinding flash.

After what felt like an eternity, Naruto opened his eyes and saw a clear blue sky in front of him, and felt a weird sensation; it was like he was lying on something soft and a little cold. He sat up and noticed that he was in a clearing in the middle of a tranquil snow-covered forest. As he stood up he felt a strong gust of wind come from behind; he turned around and let jaw dropped in awe at what he was seeing. The clearing he was standing in was on the edge of appeared to be Hokage Mountain, or at least a version of it that was twice as big as the real one. This place was also different from his home in one other major aspect; the forest on top of the mountain also extended down to the base where Konoha should be and appeared to continue endlessly. Naruto also noticed that there were quite a few birds, primarily hawks and owls, which Naruto found to be very strange; if this was the spiritual state that the asshole Kisuke had talked about, he assumed that anything alive in here would've been either foxes or toads. He tried to think of how he would retrieve his powers until he heard a somewhat familiar voice.

"You've arrived hear sooner than I expected; can't say I'm surprised, though," the voice said; it was the female voice that Naruto kept hearing from time to time and the one that warned him that Cifer was going to attack. He turned around to finally face the source of the voice; what he saw amazed him.

It was a young woman, about the age of his mother, who had a slender figure, fair skin and long hair that was also similar to his mother's, except that it was white in color and instead of a black hair clip she had a snowdrop pinned to her hair. Her eyes were one of two her most distinguishing characteristic, with blue irises and pupils that resembled a cross that looked the Sage Mode/Initial Jinchuriki Form fusion that Naruto had used when he first encountered Nagato and Konan, yellow pigmentation around both eyes, and had an very piercing gaze; the other, and more noticeable, characteristic that made her unusual were the large white wings that kept her off the ground. She was wearing a bright blue kimono with sleeves that went down to just above her wrists, a yellow sleeveless haori, yellow shinobi sandals, and an orange sash around her waist; there was a slight bulge underneath the right sleeve of her kimono that Naruto could only assume was a hidden kunai mechanism. Naruto simply looked on in shock as the mysterious women began to speak.

"Don't tell me that you haven't sensed my presence already?" she asked the young ninja, at which point Naruto regained his focus.

"That's not it at all; I've already heard your voice. I just don't know who you are," Naruto replied; he did know about the voice and that she must be his zanpakuto, but that's where his familiarity ended. The woman sighed at this reply.

"My name is-" she started to explain; Naruto, however, was unable to hear the rest of her sentence due to sudden and strong gusts of wind.

"I can't hear you," he replied, to which the women shook her head; Naruto got the strange feeling that she had expected this to happen.

"I guess you really will have to find your Soul Reaper powers first," she said; before Naruto could question her on that, she decided to elaborate on her point.

"Your Soul Reaper powers are located someone in this world and now that this world will go up in flames it is the perfect time to find that power; if you cannot it before this is fully burnt to the ground, you will turn into a Hollow." Naruto was now very confused.

"Go up in flames? Burnt to the ground? What do you mea-?" Naruto began asking until he noticed that the flocks of birds perched on the trees began to fly away, as if they were trying to get away from something. Naruto then noticed that a few of the trees began to spontaneously burst into large white flames; Naruto's confusion turned into terror as the other trees began burst into similar flames in rapid succession until, in a space of thirty seconds, the entire forest was engulfed in flames. The winged woman decided to clarify further what he should be doing.

"Instead of standing around, gaping at the flames, you should be trying to find your powers. One of these burning trees contains your Soul Reaper powers; you need to find it before the flames destroy this world." Naruto was growing frustrated with this woman; how the hell was he going to find one particular tree when all these trees looked the same, flames included? As considered fighting her to get a straight answer, something caught his eye. Many of the embers that flames emitted were now floating in the air; Naruto eyes widened as he saw a few red embers mixed in with the ones.

'These are like the strings that Uryu and Ichigo use to find me all the time,' Naruto thought to himself. Whenever tried to cause some mischief during the past week, those two would always track him down even when tried to suppress his powers. Realizing that these embers were simply another version of those strings, he began to go in the direction of the red embers which, sure enough, led him to their source.

The embers came from a tree stump in another clearing within the forest; as Naruto had expected, the flames emitted from it were red instead of the white flames emitted from the full trees around it. Naruto looked into the flames and was further surprised by what he saw inside the flames. It looked like the tri-pronged kunai his dad was known for using, except that this one had no markings on the handle. The main prong of the kunai was wedged within the stump and surrounded by the red flames; Naruto realized that this was the 'power' that the woman was referring to. Naruto, trying to play it safe, tried to figure out how to get the blade out of the flames when the woman, who had followed him, made her presence known.

"What are you waiting for, an invitation? Pull it out." Naruto looked at her as if she was clinically insane.

"Are you crazy? That blade is on fire. F-I-R-E! I can't just put my hand in there." At this the woman, who had a calm expression up until that point, scowled at him and began to lecture him.

"Is this the Naruto that defeated Pain? Is this the Naruto that saved Sasuke when everyone else thought he was beyond redemption? Is this the same Naruto that was willing to sacrifice himself to defeat Tobi? Why are you so afraid of something so trivial like this? This isn't who you are, Naruto Uzumaki; the real you would have thrown his hand in those flames, completely oblivious to the danger. Have you let yourself get so caught up in your fears that you've lost yourself in this moment, or have you simply forgotten the reason why you're here, trying to become a Soul Reaper, in the first place?"

Naruto was left speechless by this tirade and was unable to respond until, with another strong gust of wind, a small bundle fell out of one the front pockets of his pants. He picked it up look at its contents: a copy of the group photo of him and the original Team 7 and a copy of the novel written by his late master Jiraiya, "Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi". As Naruto stared at these items, he realized what the woman was trying to tell him.

'Why am I scared?' Naruto thought to himself as the memories of his friends back in his world and the bonds he had already made in this world raced through his mind. After a few minutes of silence, minus the crackling of the flames them, the woman's scowl disappeared as she attempted to talk some sense into him.

"Let me ask you something, Naruto. What are Ichigo and the others going to see once you get out of the shaft? Are they going to see someone who gave in to his doubts and turned into a hollow as a result? Or are they going to see a Soul Reaper, unwavering in his resolve and ready for whatever comes his way? I think they should see a Soul Reaper come out of the shaft; what do you think?"

At this Naruto simply smirked.

"I think they should see a Soul Reaper as well," he said.

"Then stick your hand in those flames and pull that blade out of there," the woman said.

"Right," Naruto replied; as he finally stuck both his hands into the flames, he was amazed that he didn't feel anything out of the ordinary when he should have been in very intense pain. After a few minutes of attempting, unsuccessfully, to pull the blade out of the stump Naruto, using all the physical strength he could muster into one attempt, finally got the blade free. As Naruto sat down on the ground, taking a good look at his zanpakuto, he noticed that the fires around him were abruptly ending as the forest returned to its previous state. The woman now looked at him again; this time, however, she smiled at him.

"I can now answer your first question. My name… is Kenja (another word for Sage in Japanese)." Naruto simply smiled back.

"Kenja, is it? Makes sense to me. And thank you. I promise you that that won't happen to me again," Naruto said.

"Are you sure you can't see going on in his mind, Kurama?" Ichigo asked the tailed beast.

"I already told you this five times; until Naruto gains his Soul Reaper powers the gadget that Yoruichi used to separate us prevents me from communicating with him within his mind and vice-versa. That's also why he hasn't been able to use my chakra for the past week," Kurama said, maintaining his calm demeanor in spite of Ichigo's behavior. Since he and Naruto were so much alike, however, dealing with Ichigo was not that difficult for him.

"Maybe so, Kurama, but shouldn't you at least try to see what's going on before being so sure of that?" Rangiku asked him, to which he sighed in frustration. She and Yumichika had returned soon after Naruto began the second stage.

"I've been trying the whole time Naruto has been down there; how else would I know that it's not possible….. yet?" Kurama said. He turned his attention to Kisuke, hoping that the barrage of repetitive questions would end soon.

"How long has he been in there?" Kurama asked him.

"He's been in this state for about 16 hours, so he's been in the shaft for about 36 hours as of now," Kisuke answered while he still focused his gaze on Naruto, still amazed at this young man's strength. Kurama nodded in understanding. Yumichika decided to ask Kurama something that had been biting at his curiosity ever since he had first seen Kurama's human form.

"Kurama, do you mind if I ask you something?" he asked.

"Be my guest," Kurama said in reply.

"You said earlier that the whisker marks on Naruto's cheeks were the result of your chakra's influence on him when he was born; if that's true then how come you don't have those marks?" Yumichika asked; as a man obsessed with appearances, he had noted the lack of marks on Kurama a while back. Kurama raised an eyebrow at this question.

"That's an unusual question to ask at this time; then again, I can see why you would ask about that," Kurama said before he answered.

"The reason I don't have the marks is-" Kurama began to explain before he felt a strange sensation in his abdomen. He lifted the bottom half of his see what was going on; he smirked at what he saw. On his abdomen an image of the Torii Seal that Naruto used to restrain Kurama after gaining the Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode, a magatama bead, which connected him and Naruto was imprinted on him. Since he had gained his human form the circle part was completely black; when he first revealed this to Ichigo and the others, Yoruichi had to explain the nature of the sealing jutsu because they initially thought the he had been hollowfied. The circle was now, however, changing before everyone's eyes from a black void into a red spiral pattern. Kurama stood in place, motionless, for a few minutes before he flashed a smile; it was like he just realized what had happened.

"We should probably back away from the shaft now," he said to everyone in the room. Ichigo and the others didn't understand what he meant until a sudden surge of spiritual pressure began emanating from the shaft; anyone who wasn't standing up at the time immediately got on their feet now. Ikkaku turned to Kurama, talking with his usual maniacal grin etched onto his face.

"I'm guessing that Naruto finally succeeded?" he asked the tailed beast, to which he nodded.

"I was finally able communicate with him and his zanpakuto," Kurama replied before reiterating his previous warning. "We should back away from the shaft."

Everyone did as he suggested, not wanting to get caught in the explosion that was going to occur. Just as Kurama and the others got a hundred between them and the shaft a massive column of orange spiritual pressure burst from the shaft; if anyone had been within 80 feet of the blast they would have been badly, maybe even critically, injured. As the dust clouds from the explosion settled, Kisuke shuddered at what would have happened to his friend Tessai; if he hadn't gotten out of the shaft after Naruto began the second stage of the Shattered Shaft, he would surely have been killed in the blast. Pushing that thought out of his he turned his attention to the task at hand; he decided to call out to Naruto.

"Naruto Uzumaki, are you still alive?" he asked in an almost mocking tone as everyone else, minus Kurama, were still reeling from witnessing the massive explosion. As if in response to Kisuke's question, his hat suddenly burst into hundreds of tiny pieces; before Kisuke could respond to his hat's "murder", the culprit made himself known with a very strong and well-timed kick to Kisuke's face, which sent him flying a few dozen yards. He managed to get up a few minutes later after being knocked unconscious by the kick; as he checked to make sure that he hadn't broken anything, he heard Naruto's voice.

"I wanted to do that ever since you put me in that damn hole, Kisuke," he said with a mixture of irritation and satisfaction in his voice. Kisuke turned around to see what the new Soul Reaper looked like.

Naruto was now wearing the black shihakusho of a Soul Reaper, though his version was noticeably different from the standard version. The sleeves of his kosode were slightly more form-fitting and extended to just above the wrists, with a slight bulge protruding from underneath the right sleeve. He still wore his black shinobi sandals as opposed to the traditional wooden sandals and both his undergarments and the strap around his waist were orange instead of white; he also wore a strap around his chest that consisted of red, yellow, and orange magatama beads that were lined up with each other vertically. He still wore his black shinobi forehead protector in spite of the many times that thing should been destroyed. In addition to the change in wardrobe, he was now wielding a tri-pronged kunai knife that he held in his hand, which was clearly his zanpakuto based on the ridiculously immense spiritual pressure they could feel emanating from it; the kunai had a small rope attached to that appeared to connect the blade to whatever was hidden in his sleeve. He was now also as tall Ichigo and his hair now reached shoulder length.

Kisuke decided to speak, hoping that Naruto wouldn't try to strike him… again.

"How do feel, young Naruto?" he asked him rather calmly.

"After what happened down there? Not bad, really. However, if you ever try that on me again, Kisuke, and I'll make you wish that I had turned into a hollow," he replied, to which Kisuke nodded. Kisuke then gave a clear explanation of the third lesson, which was basically meant to help the person who obtained their Soul Reaper powers get adjusted to using said powers.

"Well, Naruto, why don't we begin the third lesson now?" he asked, to which Naruto smirked.

"If it involves me fighting you then bring it on," Naruto said, to which Kisuke simply pulled out his paper fan and held it up to his face.

"I will not be fighting you; your opponent…" Kisuke replied as Ichigo approached the two of them with his zanpakuto Zangetsu already in Bankai form, which Naruto had already seen before; Kisuke stopped his explanation as the he could tell that Naruto already understood what was going to happen. Before he could say anything, however, he heard Kenja's voice.

"This one's very powerful; do really think that you're ready to face such an opponent?" she said, though she already knew his answer.

"Face him? I plan on beating him!" Naruto proudly declared; after a few moments of silence, Kenja spoke to him again.

"It would appear you've fully regained your resolve. There is only one thing that I have left to say," she said; when Naruto didn't say anything she assumed, correctly in this case, that he was listening.

"Remember this well, Naruto... if you wish to see your friends back home again…... if you wish to honor the promises that you've made to your parents, sensei, and so many others… and if you wish to one day revive your dream of becoming Hokage... then keeping walking the path that you swore on your blood to follow! No matter how dire the situation or how great the odds are against you, keep moving forward and show those who dwell in the darkness the undying light that is the Will of Fire... because that's who Naruto is! Now call for me!" she said; Naruto gladly obliged her.

"Ride the wind, Kenja!" he roared, at which point another, though less powerful, explosion of orange spiritual pressure engulfed him; the explosion was accompanied by very strong gusts of wind. After the explosion cleared, everyone was shocked to see the change in Naruto's zanpakuto.

It was now a wooden staff as tall as its wielder with the bases covered in steel plating; the plating on both sides of the staff have the Kanjis for staff and wind emblazoned on them while both ends of the staff also have the for seal emblazoned on them. As everyone just looked in on shock, Naruto lifted the bottom half of his staff and further shocked everyone as a powerful gust of wind struck Ichigo and lacerated his left arm in at least five different places.

"I hope you're ready for a trip to your dad's clinic, Ichigo," Naruto said smugly, to which Ichigo smirked at despite his injuries.

"You'll be the one who needs a doctor after this, Naruto," he said as he released a massive amount of his blue-colored spiritual pressure; Naruto responded by releasing massive amounts of his orange-colored spiritual pressure as well as both his and Kurama's chakras, which he now had access to again. They then charged at each other at full force.

"I'M TAKING YOU DOWN, ICHIGO!" Naruto roared just before both their zanpakutos clashed with each other, causing the powerful energies they had both released to explode….

Next Time – A World in Tears