Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Bleach
The next morning, Naruto woke at the brink of dawn. The reason for this being that Sakura had gotten up at that time and dragged a still sleeping Naruto back into their room. After Sakura yelled at him for a bit to at least write a note about him sleeping outside ("It was an honest mistake, Sakura-chan!") the two quickly grabbed some breakfast and got ready for the day.
"Alright! Let's go!" exclaimed Naruto enthusiastically, tightening his forehead protector. Even though he wasn't allowed to wear his favorite orange jumpsuit, in the end, he was allowed to keep his forehead protector on.
"Don't be so loud Naruto!" Sakura said furiously. "Just because we're awake doesn't mean everyone else is. Come on, let's go. I'll go search Northwards, and you can go Southwards. We'll communicate with hell butterflies, and meet back up here in a week, " she continued, sighing.
"I got it," nodded Naruto.
Sakura nodded back, and then picked up her Zanpaktou. She climbed out of the window first, and then turned to look at Naruto.
"Be careful, alright? We don't know if the chaos in Soul Society from recently might cause something," warned the pink haired girl before she shunpo'ing away with a flicker of her body.
"You too, Sakura-chan," yelled Naruto just before she completely disappeared.
Now, Naruto was alone. Well, not really since Kurama was with him, but physically, he was. Bringing his arms up above his head, he stretched and the proceeded to climb out of the window as well. He breathed in the fresh morning air, and then shunpo'd away towards the southern sides of the districts.
How was he supposed to do this though? Sure, he could just spam clones and send them out to search for anyone that seemed like himself, but not only would that alert everyone even more, it would probably mess with his reishi. Naruto had a lot of chakra, but reiatsu wise, it wasn't as infinite. Eventually, he decided that the best way to go about it would have to be the boring way: one place at a time.
With that decision in mind, the blond haired boy set out to begin his search. He could have just walked along the streets, but roof jumping made his vantage point easier. Plus, it had an added sense of nostalgia. He kept an eye out for the people down below, looking for anyone he recognized and feeling for the chakra at the same time. This went on for the entire day.
By the time the sun began to set, Naruto still couldn't find anyone, much to his frustration.
'Argh! I know it's not gonna be this easy but man 'ttebayo! This is gonna take a while...'
'You've got six more days, brat. Calm down.'
Naruto sighed and then slumped, nodding. There really was no point in being annoyed at his own lack of progress when there were still six more days. Instead, he settled for finding a place to spend the night.
Naruto woke up early the next morning. The sun had only just barely started releasing its' rays from behind the buildings and trees. After stretching, he set out to search again, eating his bought breakfast while moving. By the end of the day though, he had already reached the thirtieth or so district, with the same results as the previous day: nothing. The third day was the same.
Finally, on the fourth day, Naruto was completely annoyed at the lack of progress.
"Auuugh! How hard is it supposed to be to find a few people with chakra!" he groaned, throwing his hands up exasperatedly into the air. He grabbed at his hair frustrated, feeling the strands tug against his scalp as he yanked.
'Calm down, brat. If you can't find anyone in these seven days then look for them another time,' suggested Kurama calmly, one furry and clawed hand holding his head up. 'Rushing through it and being frustrated isn't going to help anyone. It might have even caused you to miss something.'
"Nnnnrrrg... But still, dattebayo!" the blond haired boy muttered.
'Look, something's coming.'
Naruto opened his eyes and blinked once before sliding his gaze over everything. Eventually, he trained on to a single dark-purple butterfly flapping towards him, casting a small shadow on the ground underneath it.
'Is that from Soul Society? Something happened, didn't it.'
He held out a finger and waited for the butterfly to land on it, dozens of possibilities on what might have happened flying through his head already. His eyes widened though as the actual message rang through his head.
"Naruto, I... I found Kabuto. I'll tell you if anything else happens. Just keep looking, okay?"
'Looks like your friend found someone first.'
Naruto's mouth hung open slightly. Kabuto? This wasn't good. Especially if the Kabuto she was talking about was the one who was helping the opposing side during the fourth shinobi war.
'Wait, no... you can't use chakra easily here and it doesn't sound like Kabuto knows any shinigami stuff... And Sakura's strong, I'm sure she'll be fine. ...yeah.'
He knew Sakura wasn't weak. If Kabuto and her fought, Sakura would definitely win, considering the circumstances. The hell butterfly lifted off of his finger and disappeared off into the distance, leaving Naruto alone in the empty alley way. He clenched his fists tightly and squeezed his eyes shut. Then he opened them and exhaled forcefully.
Sakura would be fine, he assured himself. He believed in his friend. With that in mind, he began to search again, trying his best to focus on finding chakra signatures instead of dwelling on Sakura's situation.
It was the fourth day, and she still wasn't having any luck at finding anyone. Of course she knew that things didn't happen immediately though, but maybe she was searching in a little too much detail? By her estimates, Naruto was probably already way ahead of her.
"But slow and steady wins the race," she said to herself, lips twitching up at the sides. Suddenly, she felt something small and familiar burst from her left side before quickly fading away.
'There!'
Sakura slowed down and turned around, meeting another street lined with blue-white buildings. She was sure that it was a chakra flare that she just felt- there was no mistaking it. Whose though, was the question. To say that she wasn't excited would have been a lie. Of course she wanted to see who the flare belonged to. It might even be Kakashi-sensei if I'm lucky, she thought optimistically.
Her sandals thumped quietly on the ground as she entered the street, inducing small puffs of dust. She turned her head, scouring the place with her emerald-coloured eyes for anyone familiar, senses alert for any more small flickers of chakra.
'No, no, no? yeah; no.'
Then she stopped. Outside of one of the buildings, amidst the people looking around the displays of food, was a person with grey hair tied into a low and short pony tail lifting up something. The past kunoichi could feel her eyes widen while her forehead drew together, glaring with wide eyes at the man. Said person turned around and made squeezed his way past the crowd, watching his large cardboard box through huge circular glasses.
"Kabuto," she said lowly to herself, watching him move to the back of the store with his package.
Once he was out of sight, Sakura shook her head furiously from side to side. She had just spaced out; what if she had just accidentally allowed Kabuto to escape? She took a few steps forwards before breaking into a run, pushing past the crowd and escaping to the space between the store and the building next to it. The voices from the crown muted now, she purposefully took one loud step towards Kabuto.
'It doesn't seem like he noticed me earlier. Is he just pretending, or did his skill level really go down?'
"Hold on, I'll be with you in a moment-" he said, putting down the box and wiping his hands on his pants while turning around. He froze mid sentence as he spotted Sakura.
The pink haired girl stared at Kabuto, hands limp at her sides, feet parted, ready to move if necessary.
"Kabuto," she stated growling slightly, this time out loud and not only to herself. She was remembering again; the chuunin exams, edo tensei's everywhere- all of what she could remember about him.
If Kabuto was surprised, he didn't look like it other than cutting his own sentence short and blinking at Sakura. She didn't expect any less. This was Kabuto after all. Suddenly, she wasn't so sure if she should have encountered him. The member of squad four didn't know what to say now.
"...That's my name. Do you need help with something?" he asked, smiling politely at her.
'You... Is he making fun of me?' she thought to herself angrily.
"Kabuto. I am going to have to bring you to Soul Society with me," she managed to say calmly.
He looked her up and down and then back at her face. "You're a shinigami aren't you now? And if I'm correct, a part of squad four who specializes in healing. Are you helping to scout for people with high reiatsu to bring back to Soul Society?"
"Yes. Now are you going to come peacefully with me or not?" she replied, keeping her tone civil. If she let her emotions go haywire, it was bound to end badly.
"I'd rather not go at all, thank you," he replied, smiling apologetically, pushing his glasses up as they slipped down his nose a bit. "I have things to do."
Maybe it was just the way Kabuto answered her, or how he was acting as if he had never done anything bad. It could have been both. Whatever the reason was though, Sakura could feel her annoyance rising along with her anger. She clenched her fists tightly, feeling them shake.
"Well you don't have a choice. After everything you did there, there's no saying what you might do here to," she seethed through gritted teeth. "You will come back to Soul Society with me."
Kabuto simply blinked and looked at her, a genuine look of confusion settling on to his face.
"What did I do? I don't think I've ever even met you before."
Her eyes widened even more as she fixed him with an intense glare. His playing dumb was irking her more than it should.
"I know you remember! Now come with me, we're going!" she said forcefully, voice sounding urgent instead of concise and assertive to her disgruntlement. Her hand shot out and quickly latched on to the grey haired man's arm, enclosing him in an iron grip.
"W... wait! I've already told you, I don't want to go! No... I can't go" yelled Kabuto frantically, tugging his arm as best he could away from Sakura.
She barely moved, even with all his efforts and simply glared at him. She stopped though. A brief image of Kabuto in the chuunin exams flashed through her mind before disappearing just as quickly. Kabuto sounded... he sounded afraid. Like he actually didn't want to. The two past ninjas stared at each other, both with gritted teeth and wide eyes: one with frustration and one with desperation.
"Why?" Sakura said at last, keeping eye contact.
"I... I have a family. A home here! I have friends to stay for; a family to support! Life here isn't as easy as the ones you shinigami have in Soul Society! I don't want to ever disappear from them!" he shouted, his free hand whipping from his chest to the air beside him.
Sakura slowly felt her grip loosen. Kabuto's arm slow slipped out of her grasp, brushing past her fingers. Then his arm was gone from her hand all together.
"...teh..." Sakura flicked her head to the left, looking down. She stared hard at the ground, eyebrows furrowed. Then she spun around on the balls of her feet and began to walk out of the cramped area. "If you do anything... anything at all here, I will find you." Then she turned a corner and squeezing past the crowds, left.
The entire time, she stared at the ground, feet hitting the ground heavily. Now that she was far enough, she hit herself on the head and let out a loud cry of frustration.
I... I let my feelings get in the way. After all these years... He's probably up to something! Why was she such an idiot! Just because of what Kabuto said... just because it... She shook her head furiously from side to side.
"It's... it's in the past... What I should do now, is at least tell Naruto," she eventually decided after staring at the ground long and hard.
With that in mind, he began preparing a hell butterfly. I'm sorry, Naruto.
"Ahhh, I give up 'ttebayo!" yelled the blond haired boy, grabbing his head on both sides dramatically, screaming up at the blue sky. "Kurama, get ready!"
'Oh no. Kid, don't do this. Just be patient,' urged Kurama, not liking where this was going.
It was too late though. The next thing they knew, Naruto was glowing, surrounded by a golden aura. In that moment, he could feel everyone. He could pick out negative emotions from positive ones, and more importantly, he could feel chakra for some strange reason. Instantly, he became aware of three chakra signatures within his range in particular.
'One of them is Sakura-chan's, so the other one near her is probably Kabuto. That means- guh!'
Almost as quickly as it had appeared, his chakra mode dissipated, leaving him to collapse on to one knee, panting.
'What did I say, brat,' asked the nine tails smugly. He wasn't worried though; Naruto still had enough reiatsu left.
"eurg... Yeah, oops. At least I found someone though, dattebayo!" replied Naruto, grinning at his success. "Alright, let's go!"
'Now, hang on a moment. Do you want to end up fainting half way there?'
'Ehe... yeah, okay. I'll go in a bit then.'
Agreement reached, Naruto let himself fall back and sit cross-legged, waiting for himself to gain back some reishi.
A/N: Wow, it's been a year huh. All I can really say is sorry for making everyone wait so long. Either way though, I hope you found this chapter satisfactory :) Thank you to everyone who favourited and followed even when it took me so long to update. Really, thanks.