Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach.
"Fish cake-kuuun! Ken-chan wants to see you!" exclaimed a short, pink haired girl merrily.
"Yachiru-chaaaan, I thought I told you I don't like being called that", whined Naruto, sighing. Naruto had finally risen to fifth seat in squad ten, after training hard for around a century. He was still amazed that he could live so long; he hadn't really noticed how old he was until Ikaku had good naturally asked him how old he was before demanding to fight the 'newb'.
Anyways, he still thought it was cool how he had entered into 'group A' during his stay at the academy, but ended up staying there for more than six years.
Eh. It didn't really matter- he had risen pretty quickly from the lowest seat (somewhere around five hundredth to nine hundredth seat? He lost count a while ago, not that anyone could really blame him. There were just too many soul reapers in this world.). It had only taken him around eight-ish decades, which was pretty good by shinigami standards.
Not by Naruto standards though; seriously, who considers waiting around eighty years to only get to fifth seat as good?
What sucked though was that he wasn't able to find a single person from his memories. He could only remember fragments of his memories, but even some of those had faded away during all those years in soul society.
However he could still remembered his childhood, an octopus dude, parts of the Konoha 12, a little about what the Kyuubi was, bits and pieces of the Akatsuki and Team Seven. He had promised himself to never forget those memories about his team.
Even the unpleasant memories.
At times though, he found himself wondering if any of them had even made it to this place along with him.
But since there were so many gaping holes in his memories though, he couldn't understand some stuff. What had happened before Kurama and him became friends? There were even more questions that he had, that didn't have any answers.
He wanted to be a Hokage, but what's a Hokage?
What's so important about Itachi and Kabuto?
And who was Tobi exactly?
"Fish cake-kun! Fish cake-kun! Nyaaaaa!" She stuck out her tongue before quickly disappearing.
'Stupid pink haired kids who like to make fun of me', he grumbled to himself before heading towards squad ten's barracks.
'You know you enjoy it, brat',answered Kurama amusedly.
'Oh really?'
A few years ago, when he first saw Yachiru, he had thought that she was the pink haired girl from his memories. Needless to say, it was embarrassing when he had hugged the pink haired vice captain, only to realize that only her hair color resembled the person from his memories.
Arriving at his squad's barracks, he ran quickly over to where he sensed captain eye patch's reiatsu was. On his way, he saw Omaeda, and after saying a quick, "Hey, what's up?" continued towards small patch of grassy goodness where his captain's reiatsu was.
Meeting Omaeda had just reminded him about how even though he was fifth seat; he still wasn't allowed to go back down to the Maggots Nest and see who exactly was the person down in that cell.
"UZUMAKI, THERE YOU ARE", yelled out a loud voice maniacally. Oh no. He knew that tone. The last time he had heard his captain yell that out, it was to the sixth seat. That same sixth seat had been stuck in the squad two hospital for three weeks, and upon waking up, had felt both ashamed and proud. He was ashamed for having to attend the 'weak' squad two's hospital, and proud for getting to fight captain eye patch.
But then again, Naruto wasn't one to back down from a fight.
"THE GREAT UZUMAKI NARUTO, REPORTING", hollered back Naruto enthusiastically, landing a few meters in front of squad ten's captain.
"IT'S THAT TIME OF THE DECADE: THE TIME TO TEST YOUR SKILLS! COME, UZUMAKI NARUTO." With that said, Kenpachi drew his sword and sped towards Naruto , radiating an incredible amount of reiatsu while laughing like a homicidal wacko who was just told that he could slaughter everyone in the world.
Suddenly, Naruto didn't feel quite so confident or strong anymore.
'You had it coming', pointed out Kurama unnecessarily. Naruto paid no heed though- he was too busy blocking the large, reiatsu emitting sword coming down on his head. No wonder that sixth seat had gotten stuck in the hospital for long.
Grunting, Naruto tilted is sword a bit and side stepped to the right, causing Kenpachi's sword to slide on to the ground, creating a rather large crevice. Captain eye patch obviously wasn't going to joke around in this fight.
Naruto swung his sword at his captain's head but the captain had dodged. Thinking quickly, he lashed out his foot at Kenpachi's head, only to feint and go for his legs. Instead of hurting Captain Eye patch, it ended up causing Zaraki to jump high into the air to avoid being tripped.
"HAHA, IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE, UZUMAKI?" he cackled, before using gravities power to add more strength into his sword as he plummeted towards Naruto, sword ready to strike.
'I'm so screwed if I get hit', thought Naruto frantically.
Putting as much strength and reiatsu into his sword, arm, and legs, he prepared to block the heavy hit. When the sword finally hit with earth shattering strength, Naruto felt the ground give way under him; he was getting pushed down.
Knowing that the captain would be stuck in this position for a while until gravity started to react normally again, Naruto gathered reiatsu ('Chakra', the old fox in him corrected for the umpteenth time) onto his sword free hand. As a swirling ball of energy began to appear, Naruto thrust his hand up at the captain.
"RASENGAN!"
Too bad Kenpachi had already seen the ball of energy being gathered. Right before the rasengan hit Zaraki, he had pushed on final time on Naruto's zanpaktou before pushing himself off of Naruto's sword.
"NOT BAD, NARUTO", acknowledged Kenpachi.
"Thanks, captain eye patch", Naruto said, grinning cheekily. As he was about to put his rasengan wielding hand back down at his side, he realized something.
"HEY, WHY CAN'T I MOVE, DATTEBAYO", wailed Naruto, trying to wriggle himself out of the ground. He had sunk into the ground so much from Zaraki's attack that he couldn't move any of his limbs that were in the ground. So now he was stuck with two hands raised in the air, one which was holding a zanpaktou, and his head above the ground.
"Like I said, not bad, it was pretty fun", said Zaraki, grinning while walking closer… and closer… and closer, towards Naruto. The blonde could already feel a 'but' coming.
"BUT GAME OVER, UZUMAKI", cackled Zaraki, bring his sword up over his head, and then down onto Naruto, not even bothering to hit Naruto with the blunt side of his sword.
'Ah, well. At least it's fast. Maybe I really should start working on those techniques from my memory more', mused Naruto, shutting his eyes.
'Ugh… stupid birds… let me sleep a bit more…', Naruto groaned, tunneling under his blankets, only to find that there was no blanket.
'What the hell?'
Naruto opened his eyes groggily, and groped around for his blankets. Finally meeting the corner of his blanket, he tugged it up and off the floor, before snuggling under the now cold sheets. Sighing contently, Naruto buried his nose in his ramen… smelling… sheets…..
'This doesn't smell like ramen', deadpanned Naruto in his mind.
'You don't remember what happened?" asked a slightly drowsy, but none the less amused, Kurama.
'Hold on… thinking… still thinking… HEY, DON'T SMIRK AT ME, KURAMA! Almost got it… Ahhhh, I remember now!" thought Naruto as it clicked in his mind.
Right. Naruto had gotten his ass handed to him by his captain, resulting in him most likely, staying in squad two's hospital for around… Come to think of it, how long was he out for anyways? Deciding that just laying around here wasn't going to help; he crawled out from the blankets and swung his legs over the side of the bed. A slight shiver passed through him as his bare feet met the cold, wooden floor.
Trying to keep as much skin contact as he could away from the ground, Naruto tiptoed towards the door. Then he remembered. He had sandals for goodness sake; why didn't he just put them on instead of tiptoeing like a ballerina? Going to the foot of the bed, he found his sandals and put them on, relishing in the familiar feel. Walking towards the room's exit, he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
'Let's see… I think I fought Captain Eye patch on… was it October 12, or 13?'
'12', answered Kurama.
'12 it is… Oh, hey, I'll ask that guy!'
"Hey, uh, squad 4 dude; yeah, you with the weird gravity-defying brown hair. Do you know what day it is?" asked Naruto, yelling across the hallway.
The medical shinigami, after hissing at him to be quiet since there were patients asleep, told him the day before hurrying away. Probably because he was scared of the wrath of a member from squad eleven; he had just hissed at one rather impolitely.
Tucking his arms behind his head, Naruto sighed.
"I guess I wasn't out for that long, dattebayo. Only being knocked out for one day after Captain Eye patch pretty much cracked my skull is pretty good actually", Narto mused. Then he shuddered. "But did he seriously have to go and try and kill me 'ttebayo? He could have spliced me in half!"
Pushing away the image of half of himself hopping around and asking others where his other half was, Naruto, after checking to make sure he had all of his stuff, went back into his room and jumped out the window and on to the ground. Not before leaving a thank-you note, of course. You know, be grateful and respectful and stuff?
Hey, just because he's in squad eleven doesn't mean he looks down on squad four.
Tucking his hands into his neon-orange pant pockets (after loads of persuading in the first year after he graduated, he had finally been allowed to keep, and get, his original clothes and forehead protector), he decided to go to his room and put back his zanpaktou. After that experience with Kenpachi, he decided that he should also work on some of his skills from before he got into this world.
Apparently, he was supposed to be dead in order to get here, but Naruto didn't exactly feel dead, and he couldn't quite remember dying. Then again, he couldn't quite remember many things.
Once he dropped of his sword, he headed towards the forest where he had last seen the Henjin; he always did kind of like the clearing and the trees surrounding it, even if that was the place where the Henjin had attacked him. After all these years, he still couldn't figure out why the Kisuke did what he did- this was mostly due to lack of contact and information though.
'Okay… ah, there's a nice looking tree over there', thought Naruto, heading over towards the tree.
Taking out some shuriken and kunai (he had managed to 'borrow' some from the Onmitsukido during all the years he was here) and began throwing them at the tree. After doing this for a while, satisfied, he walked up the tree he had thrown his weapons at. In the past, he had tried to teach some of the shinigami that he trusted how to do this, but none of them could do it.
Something about him using chakra which apparently doesn't usually work when you're dead. Didn't make much sense to Naruto though; here he was, using chakra to walk up the tree right now!
Reaching the spindly top of his chosen tree, he perched on it precariously like how a frog did before it hopped. Which reminded him, why couldn't he summon anything here? He knew that he could summon toads from his memories; in fact, he even remembered the names of his summons and how to summon them! Though when he tried once though, all he managed to produce was a cloud of smoke that sent him into a wracking coughing fit.
"Man, what a nice view 'ttebayo", sighed Naruto, watching the sun slowly turn a warm orange.
He stayed there watching for a while before he heard a far off scream. Whipping his body towards the direction of the noise, Naruto sprang off the top of the tree and shunpo'd quickly across the tree tops, using chakra to further boost himself.
'What happened? Why would someone scream at this time of the day?'
'If it's bothering you that much, hurry up then, Naruto'
When he finally arrived at the place where he had heard the scream, the first thing he saw was a bloody body hanging off one of Soul societies tall, white walls. A body that he recognized all too well.
"Aizen… taichou…?" exclaimed Naruto breathlessly, before his eye caught sight of the shinigami moving around below him.
Dropping quickly down, he roughly shook a nearby shinigami on the shoulder.
"Hey, what happened? Is he okay? Why's he bloodied and hung up? Yo, you listening, dattebayo? What-"
"God damn it, I heard you the first time, now shut up! I don't know what the fuck happened, okay?" answered the shinigami angrily.
Just then, a flock of people dropped down, holding stretchers. They were presumably squad four, which relieved Naruto slightly.
He didn't understand though- who, or what, would have killed one of the captains? They were freaking invincible! He shuddered again at his memory of being pounded by Kenpachi before once again, thanking Kurama for healing him, thus saving his head. (They had once found out a few years ago that Kurama could mysteriously heal Naruto if he felt like it)
Naruto shook his head quickly. Now was not the time to be thinking about these things. Resisting his impulse to demand every shinigami here to tell him what happened, he instead turned around and left towards his room. That way, if he suddenly had an order to go and track down the perpetrator, he could be found easily.
'But why would a Captain get killed at such a peaceful time?'
A/N: Ahhh done this chapter! Well, how'd all you wonderful readers like this time skip? Yes, Ichigo already went to save Rukia if your wondering about that, but from there on out, the plot's gonna be similar to canon bleach, but very different at the same time.
Thank you to my beta'er for this chapter, Real-Dreamer !
Also, Thank you to Sayonara Yasashii Akumu for pointing out a fatal mistake I made :D
(EDIT: I fixed it now)
Random question number 2:
Who do you think would win in a debate between Tsunade and Unohana?