Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Bleach… attention dear, respected readers!

Double-header part two!

*ahem*… that is all ladies and gentlemen.

(I hope you didn't just click on the arrow to the right of the story title to take you to the latest chapter… because I put two out at the same time. Cheers.)

Chapter 25: Hands of Iron, Heart of Hostility

(Gaara vs. Mabashi)

"Ritz, go!" Mabashi shouted as all of the little mice-sized figures went right at Gaara, who was ready for a fight and vanished in a boom of Sonido. The little Ritz dolls skittered all over the area trying to hit Gaara who was keeping out of their way with his speed, "You're pretty fast." He then grinned as he saw the copies of Ritz hit Gaara and get into his body, "Not fast enough though."

"Thank you." Without mercy or warning, Gaara smashed Mabashi from behind with the pole of his weapon, sending him flying and sliding through the ground from the impact of the attack, "And I may not be the fastest, but I'm more than quick enough to deal with you."

Blood poured from the back of Mabashi's head as his vision was swimming. He stood back up, glaring at Gaara, "Ritz is inside of your body! You shouldn't be able to do anything!"

Gaara merely pointed to the 'Gaara' that had been hit repeatedly with all of the copies of Ritz only for that one to turn to sand, with the flowers representing the possession by Ritz sticking out of it.

With his hand wide open, Gaara suddenly clenched it shut, "Sabaku Sousou (Sand Waterfall Funeral)!" The sand construct of Gaara seemed to implode and crush all of the flowers sticking out of it before the sand floated back to the tip of Gaara's pole weapon to reform his halberd's blade.

While he had been dealing with Ritz, an angry Mabashi got directly behind Gaara and attempted to punch him, actually making contact with the back of Gaara's head, putting a grin on his face until he felt his punching hand throbbing from the impact, "What in the world? What is your head made of, cast iron?"

"It's Hierro (Steel Skin) actually." Gaara said casually. Mabashi wasn't physically strong enough to hurt Gaara with his bare hands. Not a chance, "Are you aware of what an Arrancar is?" Gaara asked, getting a wide-eyed look that he couldn't see from Mabashi until he turned around to face him, "You see, you've actually picked a fight with one. And I don't like showing off particularly, but like I said, I'm in a hurry. The Seireitei, if they're any good would know that we're already here. And I literally won't be caught dead here by them."

The raw Reiatsu began to pour off of Gaara to the point that a wispy yellow aura was visible. While not visually imposing, the feeling of the oppressive power was what mattered. Mabashi backed away before dozens of copies of Ritz formed all around him, "Ritz! Kill him now!"

They never go quietly. And here Gaara was hoping to just capture him. Oh well. Placing a hand over one eye, the dark ring on the other one that adorned them both began to glow red, "Goodbye Bount." He said as all of the little dolls began to attack him, "Cero (Hollow Flash)."

XxX

(Elsewhere in Soul Society)

It was a good thing that Maki looked enough like a Shinigami to walk around outside amongst townspeople. The fact that he had landed outside of an actual village let him just waltz on in and walk around. Now that he and Mabashi were there he needed to use whatever confusion that he and his Bount partner had dredged up to lay low for long enough to find some allies of some sort for Kariya's plan to sidetrack the Seireitei with a rebellion.

Again, something that should have been easy enough since he looked like a Shinigami with a chip on his shoulder and the further away from the Seireitei one went the more likely one would be to find souls with chips on their shoulders for the lack of attention and protection that they were given by the capital.

"Found you Bount-bitch!"

Not even having the time to bristle at the remark from the insufferable brute he knew had referred to him as such, Maki had his Zanpakutou drawn to block against Hidan's strike, only this time he struggled as he was outright overpowered. Getting a glimpse of Hidan he was dressed differently with a necklace looking growth of bone in the shape of an amulet around his collarbone and a black robe with red clouds on it, open to show his chest.

…And on the left side of his chest there was a Hollow hole in the shape of his heart.

"What are you?" Maki tried to shout as people gathered around at a safe distance to watch the fight. That was a mistake, as Hidan's outpouring of Reiatsu began to visually affect the people around the two combatants that were weak, "Are you a Hollow?"

"Close enough!" Hidan shouted before he began to charge forward and drive Maki backwards with brute force as he gleefully pushed him through the wall of a side building. He then jumped out straight through the roof of the building, cackling as he landed on the structure, "You know you're not dead, so stop hiding and come on out and fight! Go ahead and try that Zanpakutou shit again and see what happens!"

"Kouka Hirameke, Nijigasumi (Shine Brightly, Rainbow Mist)!"

"That's more like it!" Hidan yelled as a bright light flashed out of the hole in the roof and every visible way into the building. From behind Hidan he lashed out, seemingly randomly with his scythe until the sound of metal clashing sounded out, "You can't hide from me anymore. I can almost smell the energy wafting off of you from your fruity little invisibility trick."

Right in front of Hidan, Maki reappeared with a pronounced frown on his face. This was the same man he had fought the previous night? He would have known if he had been fighting a Hollow as he would have been able to sense it, but now it was a wonder how he ever missed it. No wonder he was such a bloodthirsty savage.

Still, he seemed cognizant were it not for the sheer lunacy he portrayed openly, "You're standing in the way of justice. Why would a Hollow even care about the Soul Society anyway? One would figure that if any kind of creature would desire a change of things it would be one like you."

"I don't care about this place." Hidan admitted as he glared at Maki, a distinct change from the way he had been fighting before, as if trying to kill Maki made him happy, but actually addressing him got him upset, "I don't care about the Shinigami or whatever blood feud Hollows have with them. And I don't care about your justice or anyone else's. I just care about myself you see. And Hidan's justice says that whoever I want dead… dies!"

The two began fighting again, with Maki trying to avoid Hidan's swings outright while attempting to parry and counter, but Hidan's dexterity with his scythe was simply unnatural.

As they fought and clashed weapons, Hidan continued to talk.

"I fight."

CLANG!

"I kill!"

CLANG!

"It's the only thing that I really care about, and as long as I have that I'm happy!"

CLANG!

"I'd probably be a terrible Shinigami anyway! I'm not much for protecting! I think I'm exactly what I should be as an Arrancar! I like being this way!"

'He's a complete brute.' Maki thought as he got back out of the madly grinning Hidan's long reach, 'If the world doesn't need a Zaraki Kenpachi then this person most certainly has to die as well.' His Zanpakutou formed a brilliant, blinding light and took control of the shadows that he created in the process, sending them at Hidan to attack.

But upon seeing the very first shadow move, something more or less snapped within Hidan. Probably because his last waking and living experience with living shadows ended very poorly for him. They tore up parts of his cloak upon reaching him, but his Hierro was strong and a blunt shadow simply wasn't going to bust through the defense.

Hidan let out a loud scream of lunacy at being attacked by a shadow and shot a red-covered fist right at Maki, "Bala (Hollow Bullet)!" Firing the swift blast of spiritual energy right at Maki from his fist, Hidan simply hadn't had enough yet as he saw the former Gotei 13 Shinigami narrowly avoid the attack. Hidan threw his entire scythe at Maki only to miss again and impale a blade in the rooftop.

Seeing Hidan disarmed made Maki believe he had an opening he simply couldn't ignore and used Shunpo to get close to Hidan for a shock-style speed attack, 'The fool threw his weapon!' He managed to cut Hidan, but didn't leave a mark on Hidan's actual skin, 'What is his skin made of-?' His thought was cut short when he found himself stabbed in the shoulder with a very sharp pike, "Where did you get that?"

"Heh heh…" Hidan chuckled to himself as he felt the blood run down the length of his rather unconventional weapon, "My scythe isn't my only weapon. It's just the best one to use in an open fight. Oh how I wish I could curse you right now… you aren't even worth my Resurrección."

"No… honor." Maki grunted out as he slid off of the blade and touched at his gravely deep wound.

"Honor?" Hidan said before licking some of the blood off of the pike before retracting it and sticking it back inside of his robe, "Honor is for old timers and losers. Which is a coincidence because do you know what I call old timers and losers? The walking dead… just like yourself." With a sharp tug of the cable attached to the end of his scythe, Hidan yanked his primary weapon out of its lodging and back into his hand, arming himself once more.

'No mercy… no honor or values… just like Zaraki!' Maki angrily thought as his Reiatsu began to spike at how similar he felt Hidan and the object of his hatred were. With a swing of his Zanpakutou, a blade of light formed and flew right at Hidan, forcing him to duck and lose some of his silver hair in the process. This irked him as he sincerely missed not being able to die from such a thing.

A flash of light from Maki's Zanpakutou hit Hidan in the eyes and blinded him as he attempted to swing his weapon at his foe. The missed strike resulted in Maki slashing repeatedly at Hidan again and again, pressing his advantage against the visually-impaired Arrancar.

Lifting his arm to defend himself from the strikes, the sleeve of his robe got destroyed, but the concentration of Hidan's Reiryoku was enough to keep him from taking wounds, irritating Maki into striking at him harder and harder until his blade broke on Hidan's shoulder.

Hidan felt the metal give way and smirked, lashing out with his scythe and cutting the attempting to retreat Maki across the chest, drawing much blood from him.

"You're a monster." Maki said, looking at his broken sword and glaring heatedly at Hidan. He tried to retreat with Shunpo in order to comprise a plan, but his first step wound up with Hidan appearing right in front of him using Sonido, "Why does a beast like you get so much power just given to it? You aren't stopping me here." Light reformed the broken blade as he held it in a ready stance to continue battling Hidan.

Admitting to himself that such a move was a nice trick to have up one's sleeve, Hidan started waving his scythe around testingly and took a step forward before multiple twinkling lights surrounded him, "What the fuck is this shit?"

"You're not stopping me." Maki repeated as the lights grew more intense and began to expand outward rapidly. He jumped out of its range with a Shunpo as the light began to form a huge sphere around Hidan, "I'll see you in hell. Saigyoku Nijigasumi (Swallowing Orb of Rainbow Mist)!"

The light sphere then quickly drew inward on itself, crushing down on everything in its center, namely Hidan, as it took out the remainder of the building that they had been battling atop as well, crushing up a huge chunk of it right in the middle.

Closing his eyes, content with the knowledge that Hidan was dead, Maki made to leave the area. He'd have to find a different place to recruit for the cause to take on the Seireitei after raising that kind of a ruckus… or then again it could be good publicity to show that much power.

"That hurt… Bount-bitch."

No way. He completely pulverized him. There was no way that Hidan had managed to walk away from such a thing. He had to be hearing things. But when he turned around, he saw Hidan standing in the wrecked portion of building, his robe now notched down to missing the entire right upper side altogether and with burn marks all over his body.

"That last attack…" Hidan started to say with his head hung low, speaking through his teeth from the burns on his body, "Was that your Bankai?" He asked with a dull purple haze emanating off of his body.

Maki redrew his Zanpakutou and faced down his durable foe, no longer thinking about how he survived, but wondering about how in the world he was possibly going to finish him, "I haven't achieved my Bankai yet."

Hidan let out a grunt of understanding, "Well then I guess I should say I'm sorry, because you're not going to get it at all if that's the case. I'm going to kill you right here, right now."

Despite Hidan's threat and the low and dangerous tone of his voice, Maki scoffed at him in return, "Look at yourself. You're a mess. A good gust looks like it could knock you over right now."

"Well why don't you go ahead and 'knock me over' if you think it'll be that easy?" Hidan said, holding up his scythe once more, "Because I'm coming right for you. Stop me if you can."

Any opponent still standing was a dangerous one, and Maki knew this, but Hidan's face and body language showed that he was completely serious at heading right for him with everything he had. Returning fire with anything less than his best would be not only an insult, but a fool's endeavor. As he fully flexed out his Reiryoku and charged forward to meet Hidan he realized something though.

He had made a serious miscalculation.

And then the two met in one final clash that managed to destroy the rest of the building they had been fighting on. Feeling Hidan's still towering and climbing Reiatsu despite the previous notion that he had already been showing off all that he had, Maki subconsciously backed off. Hidan did not.

And once again, Maki's Zanpakutou broke, only this time it wasn't from Hidan's defense, it was from his offense, and behind that offense came an absurd amount of power that cut Maki diagonally from front to back.

Blood spurted freely from the mortal wound as he was cut from shoulder to thigh on the opposite side and the dark-haired man fell backwards on the wreckage of the roof and did not move again.

Hidan's breaths began to slow down now that the adrenaline began to die off and a cool-hand smirk made its way to his face as he stared down at Maki's corpse, "What? Are you telling me you can't take a little baby scratch like that? I did just last night. Go to sleep Bount-bitch." Beginning to grin widely, Hidan took the blood coating his weapon's blade and drew the symbol of Jashin before pulling out his pike and stabbing himself in the torso, falling to the ground in the symbol as if he were dead.

He lay there even as a set of footsteps reached him and a shadow in the setting sun passed over him, "Having fun down there?" Gaara's voice asked, getting Hidan to open his eyes and scowl at the former Kazekage, "You do realize that by now the Shinigami will be on their way here in droves don't you?"

"They ain't getting here before I'm done with my ritual. Give me twenty minutes and then we can leave." Hidan said, remaining on the ground with his body twisted in a lifeless position, "Now fuck off for a bit and go make some sand castles or something."

Gaara shook his head and proceeded to open a Garganta in the sky before drifting up to leave, "Right… well I'm going home. If you don't catch up in Hueco Mundo in thirty minutes I'll assume you were either captured or killed." Hidan made a gesture of his hand to tell Gaara to buzz off, staying on the ground as Gaara left through the Hollow portal.

"Pssht. No way any Shinigami makes it here this far out anytime soon."

XxX

(Karakura Town – Abandoned Industrial District – Naruto vs. Kariya Jin)

Tornadoes were once again chasing after a terribly grimy and filthy Naruto all over the site of their battle, "I don't get why you just don't kill Yoshino. It would be so much easier Naruto! You always did look at doing things the hard way!" A very beaten up Kariya yelled at Naruto as his wind manipulation came into play.

"Nothing worth doing is easy!" Naruto replied, shouting over the sound of the wind as he stood atop a light post as the tornadoes closed in on him from three sides, "If my first response to any problem was to kill it then I really wouldn't be the same person I was when we met! You should know that! But if you have enough determination, enough time, and you know what you're doing-!" Naruto formed five Kage Bunshin in the air just as the tornadoes seemingly collided with him, giving him enough wiggle room to escape the breadth of the attack and slip behind the floating Kariya in the air, "-You can do anything!"

"You're right about one thing." Kariya said as a crackling noise escaped his wind sword and the blade turned to one of lightning that he lashed out at Naruto with, missing him, but tagging him with some stray static, "With enough time, anything is possible."

'He's got a sword of lightning too.' Naruto thought to himself with a frown, "Of course you have to bite my style. And why wouldn't you? Just why are you doing this crap now? You didn't seem like a scheming sort of guy back when we met. You had ideals of your own… and you believed that we could get peace."

"I believed that I could get peace. That much is true enough." Kariya admitted calmly as if he were thinking back to such a time before his red eyes hardened and seemed to age right before Naruto's gaze, "But you've seen it just like I have. Clearly you have because I haven't heard any rumblings of your attempts to 'help the world' in over fifty years. Peace is a myth. It's not real. The only thing that is real is you and I, and the ambitions that we have are only as concrete as their literal tangibility. A dream we can touch. And I can touch the destruction of the Seireitei. I can see and feel and taste the crowning and the revenge of my kind against the Soul Society and humankind in general."

"We were friends Eugene…" Naruto said, a sad look reflecting in his ripple pattern blue eyes, "It doesn't have to come to this, does it? Ten years. I knew you for ten years back then before I ran and we worked together for the same cause. You believed in it back then. I'll admit that I've changed the way I try going about it, but I'm still trying." He then saw Kariya shake his head in the negative, "What do you mean, no?"

"Maybe at first." Kariya said, "When we first started working together and I saw some of your abilities and how sincerely you believed in your cause I believed myself, but I had already been alive for centuries at that point. I've seen the ways of both worlds. Even if you managed to settle things on this world, once the discovery of those with unique abilities like ours came forward there would be a witch hunt amongst those that were deemed peaceful. However, when I found that you had discovered a Bount, imagine my surprise."

That had been bothering Naruto. If Yoshino hadn't reached out to him about her special circumstances then why did she go to someone else that she hadn't even met before about it? It had to be the fact that he went to her about it. There would have been no other foreseeable way for him to get her.

"How in the hell did you get Yoshino to join up with you?" Naruto wondered aloud, "And how did you ever even figure out that she was a Bount?" Yoshino was very good at keeping that a secret if Naruto hadn't suspected a thing the entire time.

"It was fairly easy to sense one of my own." Kariya said, "I knew who she was from past visits to your base of operations at the time. You were there for years, I had plenty of time to confirm the fact that she was the Bount. I saw her absorbing a soul of the deceased and knew for certain. At that point I had more interest in her than you since I also knew that you were not a Bount. But she was completely enamored with you and would never have listened to anything I said. So I had to get you out of the way to set up a meeting to reveal myself to her."

Get him out of the way. There wasn't any explanation needed for Naruto. Kariya stooged to the Prussian court on Naruto's whereabouts and forced him to leave to get to Yoshino, "Why… why would you even tell me that?" There wasn't any advantage for Kariya to tell him that. There wasn't any reason at all to do so except to make Naruto feel stupid for trusting in him.

"You can't be angry." Kariya commented, observing Naruto's eyes being shadowed by his bangs and his lowered head, as well as his fists shaking at his side, "Naruto when I finally approached her it was several years after you had fled the country. Your disappearance was the last straw as far as she was concerned. After centuries of loneliness she had lost the will to live and I simply gave it to her again. Something better than pining after someone that would never have her."

Their midair conversation could be heard by one person from below. A motionless Yoshino, now awake but without her sealed doll, was able to hear every word now that the winds from Kariya's constant attacks to break Naruto down had faded.

Naruto's mouth moved around in angry motions before finally settling in a slight frown, "Okay Eugene. Last chance. Back down right now, or I won't give you a choice again. I don't like fighting friends, but I've done worse things to people closer to me than you were." Did he tell him about how he ousted him to the Prussian military so that he would finally just fight? A betrayal from 250 years ago didn't sting a badly as Naruto thought it would have since it had been a while, but this was more than far enough.

"We're too far gone to back down now Naruto." Kariya replied, holding up his sword and building his power to the point where he began to radiate red, "I somehow always knew it would come to this when I first saw you in action all those years ago. I never realized the depth of your powers though. I wonder how much power I could gain by taking your soul."

"You still don't know how strong I am… you never did." He took that previous statement as his old friend's final answer to his query. And with that, Naruto formed two clones and lifted his right hand above his head, forming a Rasengan as the two clones added chakra to it, "No one does." A light but visible shuriken-like outline began to take over the Rasengan as a bell-like screech began to emit from it as well.

Kariya lifted his lightning sword up and called down a strike of electricity to hit his sword, giving his entire body a powerful charge of visible yellow power that shot off random jolts that cracked concrete and pavement, turning it to rubble when it hit something, "Blitzkonzert (Lightning Concerto)!" He rushed directly at Naruto with the full force of his attack driving him.

If he hadn't been about to kill someone, Naruto would have smiled at that point. He couldn't have been given an easier target to aim at, 'For someone that used both elements, he never looked for the weakness…' Naruto dispelled his clones and let the wind-based jutsu fly directly at Kariya, "Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken)!"

The Rasenshuriken with its powerful wind coating cut through Kariya's lightning shell with a terrible grating noise before the impact of the jutsu hit its mark. It resulted in a large sphere of wind forming in the air that freely shredded absolutely everything caught within. Through the visible vortex of wind blades, Naruto was able to see Kariya's body take the visible damage, with small cuts forming all over his body, his mouth held open in a yell of pain that made no sound.

Eventually he fell out of the vortex from the sky and to the ground with an audible thud.

Naruto didn't say a word, he just rubbed his eyes and wiped the trail of red on his hand that came from them onto his pants as he walked his way over to where his adversary had fallen. As he walked up to Kariya he could see the man on his back looking at him weakly, "You're crying blood. I would hope that isn't for me."

"It happens every time I finish using Rinnegan." Naruto explained, turning Sage Mode and his powerful eyes off since he could see the lifeforce that was no longer rampant in his enemy, "It just varies from my eyes watering to bleeding from every hole in my face depending on how hard I fight." He simply sat down on the ground well within sight of Kariya and decided to watch him until he expired, "Damn it Eugene…"

"Save it Naruto…" Kariya said with a shallow breath, "I don't need to hear your whole hero's spiel about how it didn't ever have to be this way and how we could have fought together. I've heard it already, so unless you added something to your sales pitch over the last 200 years I don't think there's anything you can say to me that I'll care too terribly about this time around." That managed to get a smirk and a snorting snicker out of Naruto. Silence drifted up between them until Kariya took one last deep breath, "You're never going to stop fighting. I'll tell you that right now. I'm sure you already knew that though. Don't let yourself fall prey to time… the way we did." And with that his body turned to dust on the ground.

A sort of peace settled over the broken up portion of the industrial district. Not even the sound of Naruto's breathing could really be heard as he finished wiping the bloody tears from his eyes, remaining seated on the ground in a sort of comfort.

Naruto didn't change his face from the impassive one he had been sporting for most of the previous conversation. Making three hand-seals, he exhaled a small gust of wind and blew the dust away, watching as it drifted into the sky, "*chuckle* …You still thought you were older than me didn't you? Stupid. I didn't need you to tell me any of that." A quick presence made itself known behind him and because he was quite well acquainted with the person he let it be, "You're soooo late Yoruichi-chan. Did you really have that much trouble?"

"Bite me. Look who's talking Mr. I-like-to-fight-two-against-one. You could have asked Shuuhei for help you know. Those restrictions on Shinigami are made to be broken." Yoruichi said as she stood directly behind him, whistling at how messed up the place was, "And I thought this part of town was a dump already…" She heard him scoff and saw him turn away from her slightly to tease her, "Oh I see how it is." She said slyly, playing along with his little game, "And here I thought I was doing you a favor by getting that Bount woman out of your crossfire. Pretty negligent to throw a damn Rasenshuriken when you were fighting around others."

Oh, damn Yoshino was down there on the ground. And he had the representative of her doll with him so she didn't really have a way to defend herself either. Wow, he almost really dropped the ball on that one. What with the throwing around of tornadoes and whatnot.

"Thanks Yoruichi-chan…" Naruto said, breathing a sigh of relief at the news. He stood up and dusted his pants and tattered remnants of his orange novelty shirt off, frowning at the blood and other signs of battle on his person, "But what about everyone else? I sensed fights going on before I got into mine."

"Almost everyone's back except for-." At that moment a rip in the sky appeared and two figures fell out before heading off in a certain direction, that of the cave at the edge of town, "Oh. There they go. Hidan and Gaara."

Naruto palmed his face at realizing that they were out of their Gigai before thinking about something else, "Wait. Why did they need a Garganta to get back here?"

XxX

(A Few Hours Later – Nighttime – Mother Base – Cafeteria)

"You went where?" It was almost too much. Naruto felt like slamming his head into the nearest sturdy object, but having just gotten out of a fight he would rather not be hit with anything else for a while… and somehow Orihime had remained asleep throughout the entire experience. That girl must have been absolutely exhausted. That was neither here nor there though, "Ugh… I can't even be mad because they would have gotten away if you hadn't done it… at least nobody saw you."

Neither Gaara nor Hidan, who was busying himself by tearing apart a plate of spare ribs, answered, with both of them averting their eyes from the blonde man standing by the door. This of course did not sit well with him.

A raise of an eyebrow and tone accompanied Naruto's next question, "Nobody saw you… right?"

Gaara elbowed Hidan, getting a growl out of him before he finished chewing and decided to sack up and answer, "Well I might have killed the Shinigami Bount-bitch in the middle of a town… or something. One of those district places. No big deal. I didn't kill anyone else." He went to keep eating before adding something as an afterthought, "I did tear apart a whole housing project and some of the buildings around it in front of some people though."

What was a fight without a little collateral damage and an audience?

Instead of headbutting the wall like he wanted to do, Naruto simply settled for biting his knuckle to hold back a yell. After thirty seconds of that, and of Ichigo walking in to try and find a quiet place to do homework Naruto got himself back together, "Okay… did you use your Resurrección?" Both Hidan and Gaara shook their heads no, "Alright, that's something then. If nobody smart saw your Hollow hole then we're still good. You look like a human… until you start fighting."

Hidan happened to take that as a compliment of sorts instead of the insult it was meant to be and continued eating. Meanwhile Ichigo had taken a seat at another table and had started working, eavesdropping either accidentally or on purpose, no one was really sure when it came to how that kid operated, "If these two are with you what would it matter if someone found out that they were Arrancar?"

Sighing to himself and running a hand through his hair, Naruto took a seat at Ichigo's table and eliciting a perturbed look from the aspiring student as if he were asking why out of the dozen tables in the room he chose to sit at that one. Naruto gave him a challenging stare back as if to tell him to just deal with it until the two decided that trying to mad-dog stare the other would be like trying to set a brick wall on fire with eye contact.

"It matters Wonder-boy." Naruto said, leaning back in his chair with the two front legs off of the ground, "If the Shinigami figure out that Hidan and Gaara are Arrancars before I build up some damn goodwill with them I might have a touch of trouble… which means that you'll have some trouble… because I'm paying you. Speaking of which." He then slid an envelope across the table to the confused looking Ichigo.

Upon opening the wallet, Ichigo's eyes widened, "Are you serious? This is over-."

Naruto made a shushing noise and waved him down, "I know what I'm paying you. I made you train with Shinji and the Visoreds. For weeks. Just a single week of it kicked my ass. That counts as a mission and you get mission pay. And your Bount pay is in there too so don't thank me. Today I paid everybody." And with that he threw a pair of envelopes at Gaara and Hidan as well.

Hidan chuckled at getting his money and at the look on Ichigo's face, "So what exactly is a brat like you going to do with all of that money?" He knew that someone like Ichigo probably had never held that much money in his hand before.

Naruto laughed quietly at his own mental joke before sharing it with the others, "…Probably take Rukia out on a date or something." A hardback textbook then slapped him across the side of his head, "…Ow. Orihime?" Another slap with the book that Naruto didn't visually react to other than his head snapping to the side, "…Tatsuki?" Naruto flinched when Ichigo made to swing his scholastic weaponry again, "Come on! All of those girls are cute as hell and you actually ran off to fight an army for one of them! What does that tell you?" Maybe he should have stopped talking from the twitch in Ichigo's eye?

That book was thicker than he thought it was. Maybe he should crack it open and read it sometime? He technically was a student that got grades and everything, and he sucked at genjutsu so no hypnotizing the teacher into passing him.

"Our prisoners are awake." Gaara said to attempt to break the book-based violence that was no longer amusing him after the second hit, casually taking a sip of his coffee, "I do not see why you refused to keep them in bonds or at least under lock and key Naruto."

Hearing that bit of news from Gaara, Naruto stood up and pushed his chair in, "They don't have their dolls. They can't fight their way out even if they wanted to or had anywhere to go. I'm going to go find them and talk to them." He said as he walked out of the cafeteria. Stopping at the door, he turned back around and cracked his jaw while staring at Ichigo, "…If you're thinking about trying Rangiku kid, I think you'll burn through a lot of your money to make that one work." He then rushed out of the room to dodge the book Ichigo threw at his head.

XxX

(Training Ground)

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"

A heartily patched up Tatsuki, changed into training clothes, blew out a miniscule fireball the size of a football before glaring at her work and coughing out some soot. Her lips were singed slightly due to the continued intensity of her training, but she wasn't stopping until someone kicked her out and sent her home. All she had to do was tell her parents she had been training. They knew how dedicated she was to training with her mysterious new sensei.

"Go Tatsuki-chan!" A newly awakened Orihime said, sitting and watching by the lake under a newly planted tree. How such reasonably tall trees got into the training ground that had grass and a lake already when it was once barren was beyond them, but they didn't care. It was nice. Orihime let out a yawn before continuing to speak, "That one was better this time! It didn't fly back into your face like before!"

What a sweet, proactive girl she was. The cheering when Tatsuki knew that things were going slowly was kind of annoying, but her heart was in the right place. She was a really good friend to have when doing something repetitive like that.

Tatsuki sighed and went to sit down with her friend to splash some water on her face, "Thanks Orihime-chan… but this sucks. You could outfight me now. You've got that shield that can stop anything, and a super-fast attack. I thought I was catching up to you guys."

"You're building up the fire the wrong way."

Both girls turned towards the voice and saw Yoshino standing under a different tree nearby Koga as he leaned against the same one. Seeing the two and recognizing the woman as the one that tried to kill her sensei, Tatsuki jumped up and narrowed her eyes at Yoshino but didn't get any more hostile than that. Naruto said that the surviving two Bounts were not meant to be harmed. Urahara had tried to convince one to surrender at the mansion… but he had refused and things had gotten out of hand.

Now there was no more of said Bount… or Bount Mansion either. Urahara's Zanpakutou didn't mess around when he was in fights and neither did Tessai apparently.

Still, this woman had muscled in on her training time, and Tatsuki was pretty bitchy from the day she was having, "How would you know about building up fire for a ninjutsu?"

"My doll is fire-based. I know how techniques form with that material." Yoshino said, her lips not quirking in amusement for a moment at the girl's attitude, but there wasn't much she could do. Koga either. So she simply continued on with the point she was making, "So you can either learn how to make your fireball the right way or it can keep blowing up in your face."

With an ultimatum like that, Tatsuki let out a huff and plopped herself back down on the ground with her arms and legs crossed, "I'm listening lady…"

"Good." Yoshino said in a fake-bright voice even though her face hadn't changed, "Now you need to let the fire stew and build properly. You're releasing it too early and it's not properly given time to fall under your control. If I were you, when you take the breath to let out the flame you should fully inhale like you're doing but then hold it for an instant instead of just instantly letting it go when your lungs are full."

Tatsuki snorted like a bull, but she slowly stood back up and turned towards the lake, slowly rolling through her hand-seals before going with Yoshino's advice, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"

From the dark-haired girl's mouth spewed a wide jet of flames that spanned out over the water like a flamethrower. As the fire flew from her lips, Tatsuki's eyes were wide until she ran out of breath and the jutsu ceased. She immediately turned around towards Orihime with an excited gleam in her eye, "It worked! I did it! I can totally spit fire!" Orihime happily jumped up and began happily dancing with her friend on pulling off the jutsu, "Man, I don't know why Naruto-sensei didn't just give me that advice to start with!" She stopped dancing when she heard someone loudly clear his throat and looked up in the tree that Yoshino and Koga were under to see Naruto sitting in it, "Ah… Naruto-sensei. What's up?" She asked nervously.

"Oh… just listening to my ungrateful student complain." Naruto said, idly playing with a kunai in his hands, "How could I give you advice you never asked for? I only taught you that jutsu a few days ago dear." He noticed her scared expression and shook his head with a smile, "I'm proud of you though. You can ask me for help like you did with the Rasengan. When things are busy like they were it might be the only way I know you need help with something." He dropped out of the tree and landed on the ground by Yoshino and Koga, "Thanks for helping her by the way Yoshino."

Yoshino fixed her eyes on her captive and old friend with her hands on her hips, "I did it because I at least want the people that are going to imprison me forever strong enough to actually do it."

From his pockets, Naruto pulled out both the metal orb that represented Dalk, and the bracelet and finger claw that represented Goethe, "I'm not keeping you here. What's the point?"

"So you're handing us over to the Seireitei?" Koga said questioningly, "Or are you just going to kill us yourself?"

Naruto fixed the large, burly man with a confused stare before looking at Yoshino, "Who do you think I am? I thought you and Eugene would have told them better than that when you found out I was here in this town."

"Well I told them all you were a bastard of a deserter with no sense of honor or attachment, even to someone that you spent over three years with." Yoshino said, intentionally trying to grate on his nerves, but it only served to put Naruto into something of a funk.

"…To be fair, three years isn't that much time to me." Naruto mumbled, crouching on the ground with a stormcloud over his head. He heard Tatsuki snicker at him and shot her a glare, "Anyone less than one hundred years old is not a part of this conversation unless you want me to show you how to really shoot a fireball!" He turned his attention back to Yoshino who was smirking with a raised eyebrow, "Eugene snitched my location out to the military and unless I wanted to turn your village into a warzone I had to go."

Yoshino's smirk fell and she frowned at the point being made, "I know. I heard him when he told you Naruto. You know, he was actually my husband for a time afterwards. There was never really anything there though." She turned away from him and walked a few steps, "I'm not going to just forget about it. But I'm not going to apologize either."

"I'm not telling you to." Placing their respective sealed dolls on the ground, Naruto walked away towards Tatsuki, giving them one last statement to leave on, "I'm not going to kill you or give you to the Seireitei. You can go do whatever you want because your ringleader is gone. You can leave, but if I hear about you again I will be coming to see you though."

Without saying another word to them that wouldn't serve any purpose, Naruto walked over to Tatsuki who had just shot off another fireball to test out that the first time wasn't a fluke, "Well now you can use a jutsu with your element." As someone that also specialized in fighting up close, Naruto could appreciate the sincere smile on Tatsuki's face at learning a move with a little range on it.

"I really wish I could take this stuff back to the dojo…" Tatsuki said, fidgeting in place at the mere thought of going back to that place to show off what she had learned, "Those guys would crap their pants if they saw just a bit of what I can do now." She would have continued, but catching sight of something behind Naruto got her attention instead.

Naruto turned around at Tatsuki's and Orihime's strange looks and he saw Koga bowing on the ground to him, "What the hell are you doing?" Yoshino wasn't even in the room anymore, having left earlier, "Yoshino isn't even here anymore."

"She's still confused… about many things. Give her some time Naruto." Koga said, still on the ground, "I on the other hand have a debt to repay to you. Two debts actually. You saved my student Cain… back before he was lost, back when there was still hope to form him into something to be proud of. And now you've spared me instead of handing me over to the Shinigami. I owe you."

Nodding, seemingly in understanding, Naruto simply blurted out his response, "Yeah, I guess I could see that… You want a job?"

Koga's head snapped up, looking at Naruto in astonishment, "A… job?"

"Yeah, a job." Naruto said cleaning out his ear before wiping it on his pants, "I need someone like you. The kids I have working with me are too young for what I need you for, so how about it? Good pay… a place to stay… I'll keep the Shinigami off of your butt if they come for you… everyone that works here seems to like it."

"You really would like it here Bount-san." Orihime tried to assure him, walking forward past Naruto and looking up at Koga with her big bright eyes, "The rooms are nice! I even thought about moving out of my apartment and staying here. And Naruto pays us really well too."

Koga was taken aback by how bright Orihime seemed to be and looked down at her, confused as to how to handle the situation. He looked to Naruto for some help only to see him grinning at Koga's seeming misfortune, "I guess… I'll see what you have to offer if you're giving me the chance. I feel Yoshino will be back here soon enough as well."

"It's her choice." Naruto said, putting a hand on the larger man's shoulder, "Just like this is yours. If you want to work here we'll be glad to have you… just don't try to pick a fight with any of us again."

To Koga's surprise, he didn't tense up from the contact. That was rare and rather unexpected, due to the fact that he hadn't trusted a human in over 150 years, which was why he had chosen to live miles away from towns in the past, "I suppose it is time I try to start anew. One more try at least."

XxX

(An Hour Later – Hotel Room)

Yoshino let out a sigh as she walked into the dark of her room and shut the door behind her, flipping on the light to find Yoruichi sitting in a chair by the bed, waving at her happily. But Yoruichi hadn't tried to kill her before she knew she was there, and Yoruichi had saved her from the backlash of Naruto and Kariya's battle earlier so she didn't want her dead, "What do you want with me now?"

"Just to talk." Holding up her hands defensively, Yoruichi kept an intuitive gaze stuck on Yoshino as she suspiciously moved around the room, trying to keep Yoruichi in sight and away from any point of advantage over her, "You left the base so fast, it was lucky I had one of our Mod Soul friends pick up your trail before he went back to Kisuke's shop."

"And why in the world would you want to talk to me?" The fact that Yoruichi was a Shinigami didn't particularly bother Yoshino as much as the fact that she seemed to have a rapport with Naruto, someone who had inadvertently jilted her in the past. It irked her a bit, though she would never admit such, "You and I don't have anything to say to each other. Nothing at all."

A sigh came from Yoruichi as she rubbed her temple at how difficult Yoshino was being, "Listen up, you're older than me so I know you don't want to hear a single thing I'm about to say, but I don't really care right now. You almost got yourself killed picking a fight with someone out of a misunderstanding. If you're just going to walk away from him now after this then you're a coward."

Now Yoshino really didn't care for the dark-skinned woman's attitude, and let her know it by fixing her with a glare, "And who are you to tell me that? My own decisions don't have anything to do with you, and if he sent you here to-."

"He didn't send me to do anything at all." Yoruichi calmly cut in, crossing one leg over her other as she sat, "If he knew I was here talking to you about this he would probably be a little upset with me, but too bad because I only listen to him when the mood really strikes me. Other than that I do what I want. And right now I want to know what your problem is." Silence permeated through the room as Yoshino crossed her arms, not answering but still shooting daggers at Yoruichi, "I see… so the problem is me."

"It makes me mad. And it isn't just you, but you're part of the problem." Yoshino said, placing a hand against the wall and turning away from Yoruichi, "He was like me. At least he was when we met. I could see how lonely he was in his eyes, he looked so hollow back then. But now I look at him and he seems content, so much more open."

'Not really that open…' Thought Yoruichi idly, but she didn't cut in and let Yoshino continue speaking.

"I thought that he would need someone the way I did, but he doesn't anymore. He has others he deems important and he has you. And I definitely saw the way you were looking at him when he was fighting." She added with certain emphasis during the last part, "If you didn't think it was prudent to get me away from the battle you probably could have stood there watching him all evening." And looking Yoruichi's appearance over, it was evident that if her hunch was right Yoruichi probably wouldn't or didn't have any problem with netting Naruto like that.

A nod of agreement came from the level-headed Yoruichi, "I do care. I care a lot. More than I thought I would after only five months. And if you want Naruto to think of you as important, well he still does. He protected your life when he assuredly didn't have to. He left you with your full free will and left your life in your own hands."

"Some life." Remarked Yoshino bitterly. The sound of Yoruichi's shoes hitting the ground let her know that she had stood up from her chair and had a displeased look on her face, "You're leaving? And we were just getting to know each other." She said sarcastically.

"Yeah whatever." Having had it up to a certain point with the conversation, Yoruichi felt it was simply time to go before Yoshino got even snippier, "You can yak with your oh-woe-is-me crap. Your life was hard. Yeah, that's true, but now you have a chance to actually make it better. So if you want to just sulk by yourself until the end of time that's your business, but you've been doing that for so long and how did that work out? Even being angry and wanting revenge made you miserable." She reached the door and opened it to leave, "If you really want to be left alone we'll give you that. But if you want to stay with us we can do that for you too."

Stay with them? Since she hadn't seen Koga leave the base anytime after she did, it could be assumed that he took Equilibrium up on their offer, so would it really be a bad thing to give it a try? Before she could think too deeply about it, Yoruichi rolled a shoulder out and cracked her neck, getting Yoshino's attention, "Where are you going now?"

Rubbing her stiff neck, Yoruichi spared Yoshino a smile, "I'm going to go hang out with Kisuke for a bit, then I'm going to go see if Naruto's any good at massages because my back and neck hurt a bit. Being alive for this long had to give him some kind of useful skill outside of fighting, right?" With that she shut the door and went on her way, leaving Yoshino with much to think about.

And that's the end of the doubleheader. I did not leave this chapter with any lingering thoughts for the next time because I figured to have something just wrap up without having a bad guy breathe right down their necks or a new problem surface immediately after just dealing with one for once.

…I can save that for the next chapter after all.

So I bid you all a fond farewell for the time being. And until the next time folks, keep on plugging ahead and keep your eyes open because life likes to hit your blindspot. I know I certainly will be myself.

Kenchi out.