Chapter 7 Look then Run

Naruto ran through the castle halls. Today was the day. She was finally leaving the stone walls and traveling into the great unknown. Well, unknown to her. "Jim!" she yelled, pounding on the bathroom door of his room. "Come on! Are you ready! We need to eat and go! Come on! Don't make me come in there!"

She heard the lock click and she took a step back "What are you doing in here?" he asked. "How did you even get in? You don't have a key."

"I picked the lock." She replied sweetly. Of course she did, why wouldn't she. Jim was starting to think that the entire squad was full of secrets and monsters so this kind of stuff should really stop surprising him. "So are you ready? Come on! Please tell me you're ready!"

"Its 6am in the morning, we don't leave for another 7 hours." He replied, annoyed.

"So are you ready?"

Jim sighed and wiped his hands on a towel. "If you're asking if I'm packed, then yes. But I have to work with Val for a few hours before we can leave." Someone was always getting injured and his help was always appreciated when groups came in.

"Aw." She wined before going to sit on a bed in the room.

Jim went over to his bed to grab a clean uniform. "You're not just going to sit there for 7 hours are you?"

"No, just until you leave." She smiled and fell back on the bed. "So, you want to be a medic."

"We are not talking about this." He said, brushing his teeth. "This is my choice and we are not talking about this."

"Ok." She shrugged. They didn't talk after that. Eventually Jim came out and the two left the room. They walked together down the hall but split up after they got to the stairs. Jim went down and Naruto went up. There was a nice sized training room that she had been using ever since she had burned down the first one. It wasn't entirely her fault, but she had done a significant amount of water damage trying to stop the flames. Atticus was still made at her for that. Speaking of Atticus. "Morning At!"

"Morning Miss Ino."

She snorted "Why are you calling me that?" she asked. Atticus motioned over to the side of them. Over by the door way was a man that Naruto had never seen before, he was holding a clipboard and writing something down. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah," he whispered "unfortunately it is. Best go tell the others to be on their best behavior." Naruto nodded and slipped out of the room. She wasn't the stealthiest person in the world, what with her rainbow sheath and all, but she how to disappear when she wanted to.

As soon as she was out of ear shot she bolted back to the bedroom hall. "Everyone wake up!" she yelled. Flash stepping from door to door, pounding on them. "We have an inspector here!"

Mercury stuck his head out of the door "Ah wha?" he mumbled, his hair a mess.

"An inspector." She said, flash stepping right in front of him. "Some dude from the soul society has come to see us!" Mercury said nothing, did nothing. He just stood there. His eyes weren't even open. "Mercury! Wake up!" she snapped.

"I'm up!" he said with a start, flinging his arms around, almost hitting Naruto in the face.

"Good, now stay up and start looking pretty! We all have to be looking good today so we don't get screwed over." She said and disappeared in a flash of leaves.

"Great, now I have to clean that up." He mumbled, staring at it but doing nothing. Mabey if he stared at it long enough it'll clean itself up.

Naruto flickered through the halls telling everyone she could, including the unseated officers, until she came to the dining hall. There she skidded to the stop and hid behind a pillar. "Shit." She whispered. The inspector was already there, looking at everything! Every dent and broken stone.

"What's the matter?"

Naruto spun around and nearly bumped into Wan. "Wan! God! Don't scare me like that!"

"Why are you hiding?" he asked.

Naruto stuck her head out and looked into the dining room "There's an inspector!" she hissed.

"So?"

"So? SO! He's from the soul society! The frisking Soul Society!"

"Again, so? What can they do?" He asked. "They can't make us go back. There probably just here to make sure we didn't break anything that they paid for. Which we have but Atticus has done a good job covering that up." Naruto stared at him and blinked, once, twice, three times and then cracked smile. It wasn't a big smile, in fact, it was barely noticeable. She looked over at the inspector and ran down the hall. The garden, the garden was the one place he couldn't touch. They didn't pay for that place, it was there before, the castle was built around it. If Wan was right, then she could hide in there. "Naruto wait!" Wan said, chasing after her. "Where are you going?"

"Wan! I need you to gather up everyone you can find and bring them to the garden. Do it as fast as you can, use all the butterflies if you have to!" she yelled and disappeared.

Wan stood there for a second and turned to leave "I don't know what she's planning but ok. Ok." She shrugged and went to the room where they kept all the hell butterflies. They called it the hell room but it was actually kind of pretty in there.

"What are you doing in here?" Vampire Tekking asked.

Wan jumped slightly, not seeing him at first "I needed to send a message to everyone in the castle." He said.

"Then why don't you use the load speaker?"

"I don't want the inspector to hear."

"So put a hell butterfly next to the load speaker." He shrugged.

Wan looked at him, that was actually a pretty smart idea. He nodded and took a single butterfly, careful not to let any land on him except the one he picked up, and left the room to. The radio room was right across the hall so he didn't have to walk far. "Why haven't we used this before?" he asked to no one in particular. There was an unseated officer sitting in the wheelly chair by the control panel but he was playing on his phone. "Hey." He said, "I need to use this." The unseated officer nodded, moving out of the way.

The unseated officer looked up when he heard the message that was being put through the micro phone. Sighing he got up and went to the garden. There he ran into Naruto directing everyone into a hidden room that was beneath the castle. "Naruto!" Amulet called. "Is this really necessary?"

"Yes!" she called. "Is Atticus keeping the inspector busy?"

"Yeah, I saw him going into the training room you burned down and drowned."

"Good." She said "There's enough diverse damage in that room to keep them busy for months."

"Ok, just what are you planning? Why are you so freaked out about this?"

Naruto ran up and grabbed Amulets shoulders. "I have an idea!" she yelled before running down into the dark room. "Soul!" she yelled "Please tell me your ready to leave."

"Really?"

"Yes really! Come on, grab your stuff, we're getting out of here."

It didn't take long for the group to get together with their stuff and left the castle. Naruto never explained herself on why she got everyone into the garden and the others didn't push it. She was a weird person anyways, though Jim was a little mad about being taken away from the medic hall. He had been working with a patient for God's sake.

Soon enough they made it to the town that they were to stay at. It was close to the one the other group was but far enough away for them not to run into each other. They quickly settled in a small apartment they rented for the week and headed out. They four split up into two groups and headed in opposite directions.

Naruto and Jim went to the warehouse district, and Soul and Amber went to the into the city, both groups were in their gigais but had soul candy within reach. The warehouse district was pretty close to their apartment so they figured it was a good place to start.

Naruto kicked a can as they walked down a road. "So what are we supposed to find again?" she asked. Trying to find something to talk about.

"I thought you knew what we were doing." Jim said but pulled out a picture of a shiny black object anyways. "It's called Desert Glass. It's about the size of a fist but it's pretty flat. So it will probably fit in your pocket."

"You're overestimating the size of female pants pockets." She said "Its about the size of my thumb."

"Really?"

"Really." She said. "So that's the thing that I'm not allowed to touch right?" she asked, referring to the object.

"Yeah, direct contact with the skin is not a good idea."

"How much of a not a good idea?"

"Cutting off your hand would be less painful." He said bluntly.

"So a very much a not a good idea." She joked, picking up the can so she could drop kicked it. Putting little Reishi into it so it would go even farther.

"Excuse me." Came a small voice. The two turned to see a sweat looking young girl peaked her head out from behind one of the buildings. She had chin length blond hair and beautiful, but dull green eyes. "Have you seen my brother?" her voice was ridiculously quiet, Naruto had to enhance her hearing just to figure out what she said.

Naruto approached her and crouched down "I'm sorry little girl, you're the first person we've seen since we've gotten here. But we can help you look if you want. What does he look like?"

"He looks like me but taller and male." She said innocently. "He has the same hair as me and the same eyes. He wears a green pants and green coat but has a black tank top underneath."

"Do you know where he last was?" Jim askes, trying to help. It felt weird talking to a human again after being dead for so long, or for however long he had been dead. He didn't really know.

"We were walking back from the mall and we got separated. Please, I want to go home. We promised that we would be back for dinner." She played her pink dress, not looking up at them.

Naruto nodded and took her hand. "What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Lilly and my brother's name is Vash."

"Lilly, that's a pretty name. My names Naruto and that's Jim. Come on, we'll help you." She smiled and lead them out of the warehouse district. "Now Lilly, do you or your brother have a cell phone?"

"No ma'am."

"Well then we just have to look a little harder then."

Meanwhile Amulet and Soul were wandering around the main city talking to the residence looking for anything that seamed unusual. So far, they had nothing. No disappearances. No unexplained deaths or comas. The people in this town we're spiritually special. There weren't even any major hollows in the town. They had dealt with the one on the way into the town and it had been so weak Naruto had literally just walked up and stabbed it and it was dead. The town was boring, their "city" was just a bunch of shops and restraint put together along three streets. They had made literally no progress on finding the object or anything else and Amulet was getting frustrated.

Eventually they decided to take a break and stopped to get a bite to eat at a small bakery. "This is pointless, were never going to get anywhere if we keep wandering around like this. We need a plan." She looked up when she heard the café door's bell ring. It was a habit of hers, to always face the door and know where everyone was, it had been an important skill before she came to the castle.

The man, or young adult, looked lost and frantically looking for something. He walked up to the counter and talked to the lady who was working "Excuse me." The lady called to get everyone's attention. "Have any of you see a young girl with short blond hair in a pink dress wandering around. Her brother is looking for her and they are going to miss their train ride home." No one came forward and the lady shrugged and wished the young man good luck with finding his sister.

"Hey Soul. All the jobs that we looked at." She paused and pulled out her phone "All the towns they take place in are connected by the train." She opened a map that she had made in her free time. It was supposed to show the location of all Shinigami out on a mission but it took a while to get it to work because of the security she had put on it. You started out by opening the text messages, and then you had to go into a fake contact and type a specific message, and it was all rather annoying.

Soul took her phone and looked at the map. They say their two dots and their teams' dots, but if they zoomed out then they could see the dots of the other team in the town over. There were faint lines drawn on the map showing roads and train lines. The train tracks went around and through a pair of mountains. They weren't that big mountains, you could probably hike up and down them in less than a day.

"Hey, I have an idea." Amulet started. "Let's drop our bodies off at the apartment and search with flash step. The people here clearly have no idea of what we're looking for so whats the point of asking them." Soul nodded and the two left.

Lilly and the two Shinigami walked down a deserted road. "What time is it?" the little girl asked.

"Aw, 6.15." Naruto said "Why?"

"The train home is at 6.45. Brother might be there."

"At the train station?" Lilly nodded. "Ok then, show us the way." Naruto shrugged and changed their direction.

It didn't take long for them to reach the station. It wasn't a grand thing, a booth and a plat form really but it did its job. A decent number of people were already there so they helped look around. "Big brother." Lilly spoke when she saw a blond haired man. He turned to reveal a face nearly identical to the girls. "Big Brother!" she cried, leaping into his arms.

"Lilly." He said, holding her close.

"You're welcome." Naruto mumbled.

"Oh, big brother. These are the people who helped me find you." She said in a quiet voice, directing the young man's attention to them.

"Thank you very much for helping my sister out." He said, reaching out a hand. "My name is Vash."

"Just do us a favor. Keep a better eye on her next time, ok? We don't want her getting hurt because she wandered off again." Jim said. The man nodded and the two went to wait for the train.

"Well, we may not have found that thing but at least we did some good today." Naruto said as they headed back to the apartment. They had already texted Amulet and Soul to tell them to meet them there. "We're back!" she yelled, slamming the door open.

"Hey." Amulet said, busy making some tea. "Want some?"

"Oh, yes please." Naruto reached up to take it, only to have Soul get there before her. "Hey!" She wined.

Amulet rolled her eyes and got another mug. While she was in the kitchen her phone rang. "Hello?" she answered, not checking the caller id.

"Amulet, its Atticus. I suspect your mission was a success."

"Uh, no actually." She said, placing down the mug and walking into the other room and putting it on speaker so everyone could hear. "We have yet to locate the object."

"What do you mean. Our sensors show that its leaving town faster than any car could travel. It has to be a Shinigami. Is all your team accounted for?"

"Yes, we're all here. Atticus where is going?"

There was a pause and the sound of a few bottoms. "North west. Its already pretty far from where you are staying so you have to hurry." He said and hung up.

The team looked at her "You heard the man, shed your body's and run. We don't have much time."

"He said north west, right?" Naruto started to panic. "The train Lilly and her brother are on! It's going in that direction! What if she's in danger again!"

"You think the object is on their train?" Jim asked.

"What, who's Lilly?" Amulet asked.

"This girl who we helped out today. She had lost her brother." Jim said "Come on, it looked like a crowded train. We can't let the humans get hurt."

The four ran out the door and flashed stepped towards the train tracks. Soul got there first and entered through the back of the train. They took a step forward and paused once they saw what was on the train.

Amulet, Naruto, and Jim flash stepped in behind their partner and looked around. The train cart was full of bodies "Their not sleeping, are they?" Naruto askes.

Jim went over to examine the bodies "No they are not."

The group went further up the train, only to find more bodies. "Have you seen Lilly yet?" Naruto asked Jim who shook his head. "I'm starting to get worried."

"You should be." Amulet said. "She's either dead, going to be dead, or something else." She turned her head over to Jim. "How did they die?"

"There's a puncture wound on each body but I can't tell what it's from."

They flash stepped from door to door but stopped when they reached the first cabin. Soul reached for the handle but stopped "There's a Bount in there."

"How do you know?" Naruto asked. But didn't get an answer as Soul threw open the door and marched in. There was something different about him, he stood straighter, walked faster.

Just inside the cabin stood Lilly and Vash. There was no one else, no bodies or souls. "Lilly?" Naruto asked, slowly stepping forward.

Amulet pushed her aside and approached Vash. "We know you have the Desert Glass, hand it over."

Vash looked at them without care. Slowly he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket. "This?" he asked, the piece of fabric moving slightly to reveal a black glass object that looked like obsidian. Amulet nodded and held out one hand, the other reaching for her sword. "You can have it." he tossed the black object.

Naruto dove for it, catching it with her bare hands. "OW!" she screamed, dropping the object onto the ground. Her hands started turning black. "Jim, you were right!" she yelled, panicking. Jim rushed forward and placed a sealing kido and her hands as she rolled over and grabbed her Zanpaktou. The black stopped spreading and she went to attack Vash. Her sword sealed in her hands, allowing her to fight.

"Big brother!" Lilly yelled, trying to get out of binding kido Soul had managed to place on her when Vash had dropped the glass.

"That's not your brother you brat." Soul growled, placing their sword over her neck. "That thing isn't even human."

"Let her go." Vash growled, turning his attaching to the reaper. When Soul made no move to do so, he reached up to his arm and unclipped the white cross pin the hung there. "Gewehr." The pin transformed and turned into a small, black, rabbit looking animal. The rabbit sat on its owners hand for a moment before jumping up and attacking Soul only to have Naruto jump in the way.

She swung her sword down "Come forth and give me your powers, Niji no Kami!" she yelled, releasing her Shikai. She quickly decided that her best choice was to use the metal the train was made out of as a weapon. She twisted her sword, the metal around her twisting with it, and stuck the rabbit form multiple angles. She smiled, thinking she had beaten it, only for the rabbit to pulse and she got knocked back, hitting the wall hard. "Ow!" she yelled, trying to get up, only to have the metal around her twist and trap her in place. "Get this off of me!" She tried to use her ability to move the metal but it wasn't working. The rabbit grew in size and started resembling less like a rabbit and more like a monster.

Amulet approached Vash as Jim went to retrieve the object. He was careful not to touch it with his bare hands, instead using the handkerchief that the Bount hand used.

Vash tried to attack Soul but Amulet blocked him. Souls blade leaving a cut on Lilly's neck that started to leak blood "Big Brother." She whimpered.

"Don't worry Lilly, you'll be fine." Vash promised. He turned his attention to the Shinigami and called his Doll away from Naruto and towards Amulet.

The monster not rabbit lumbered forward and held out its hand. The claws grew into long and hollow things before launching them at Amulet. She blocked it with a chair that Naruto had freed, not risking her glass sword against an unknown object. "Jim, free Naruto and get out of here! You to Soul."

"No!" Soul yelled, pressing the blade further into Lilly's neck.

"Yes! Leave the girl and go!" he growled and hit the young girl over the head to knock her out before helping Jim with Naruto and jumping out of the cart. "Why the window?" Amulet asked. Now there was glass all over the floor and stuff flying everywhere.

"Why did you ask them to leave?" Vash asked.

Amulet didn't bother to answer him, figuring her actions would give him enough to figure it out. She held her blade up to a stylized defense position. The blade pointing down and the handle just above her head. "Dance and steal. Shiro Yoko." The blade released a purple mist the spread throughout the cabin and she started to fade from view.

The not rabbit stubble forward and fell. "Gewehr!" Vash yelled. He tried to run forward to attack Amulet, but couldn't find her. Instead he ran into a wall and tripped over some upturned seats. "Dame it! Where are you?" the mist was so think at that point he couldn't see Lilly who had just been a few feet away from him a moment before. "Lilly!" he cried. "Lilly." He said, a little more tired. He could feel his energy being drained from him.

Amulet almost felt sorry for him, but didn't let the feeling get to close to her heart as she flashed stepped out of her position, dispersing the mist, and stabbing the Bount in the heart. She kept her eyes closed as the life slipped away from the young man.

Slowly she pulled her glass blade out of the him and whipped the blood off it. She couldn't even look at Lilly's stunted body as she went to the window of the still moving train and jumped out. Hopefully when the train reached its next station Lilly would be taken care of. And the bodies identified and given a proper funeral.

She met up with the rest of the team and called Atticus. "I trust you obtained the glass." He said.

"Yes, however in the process we had an encounter with a Bount."

"What happened?" he asked.

"After we figured out the object was on a train, we followed. However, when we got there all the passengers had been killed and their souls taken."

"Alright. Send one of your team members back to the castle with the object, and be prepared to fill out a report. I want the rest of you to go meet up with the other team in the town over."

"Got it." Amulet said and hung up.