Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach or any related characters or properties.

.:25:.
Starting Off With a Bang

"What the hell, Yoruichi!?" Ichigo yelled, running at his top speed through the Dangai. His friends surrounded him, with Naruto rounding out the back. "If this is the official gate, then why do we have to run for our lives just like the last time?!"

The former lieutenant was cursing his apparent inability to use a Hell Butterfly to get through the Dangai. He supposed that the others had planned for that, as expected.

"We each need a Hell Butterfly to clear the gate safely," explained the cat. "Only a shinigami can handle them! Relax, we're almost at the exit!"

Seconds later, they ran directly through the square gap in the sky, into the warm air overlooking the city. Naruto looked around at everyone, realizing that they were going to fall. He aimed to fire a Kido to stabilize them and give them something to ride, but someone else seemed to have a better idea.

"Santen Kesshun! I reject!" Orihime's shield materialized, its triangular shape extending until they all landed on it safely, stopping their quick descent toward the ground.

"Well, well, well," a voice said as they all tried to recover. Naruto coughed a few times for good measure, before glancing at the source. "And here I had a plan in mind to catch you, for that exact reason. And it involved baseball bats and missile launchers. Good job, Orihime."

Standing on the edge before them was a man Naruto had only dealt with a few times while on business in Karakura Town and its surrounding area. Kisuke Urahara, the infamous former Squad Twelve captain. Naruto wondered what he and Yoruichi had done together to be exiled.

"Thank you, Mr. Urahara!" Orihime said with a smile.

The blonde man looked around at everyone. "I see you gained an Uzumaki, but where is Ishida?" He had an amusing tone, but his expression was slowly turning into anything but.

Yoruichi spoke up after the three humans did not comment. "Uryu Ishida is missing. He fought and defeated Kurotsuchi, but soon after that, he vanished without a trace. His spiritual pressure completely disappeared, but no one expects that he has died."

Urahara frowned. "Did Kurotsuchi take him?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. Squad Twelve had a full search from Squad Thirteen during the days after the invasion. We, I mean, they investigated the ruins of the explosion that killed Lieutenant Kurotsuchi, but there was no sign of Uryu."

Orihime cleared her throat, remembering her and Sakura's encounter with Lieutenant Kurotsuchi and Shikamaru Nara. "I was there, and he wasn't there with me. He left through the normal area, and I fled down a secret tunnel."

"Secret tunnel?" asked Urahara.

"Yeah. There was a tunnel that connected the basement of the Great Spiritual Library to Kurotsuchi's personal lab," explained Orihime. "There was some kind of blade on display, probably a zanpakutou."

Urahara's entire expression changed for a split second, but Naruto took note of it. He wondered if anyone else noticed it. "A sword underneath the Library... Well, I guess the creepy fool needed to do some light reading."

Ichigo looked up toward him after a long moment. "I should be annoyed that you didn't tell us what we needed to know before we left, but I'm not."

The man frowned. "I am truly sorry, Ichigo. I hope you will accept my apology."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "I guess so. I can't begin to guess what your motivations were. In the end, you helped all of us become stronger. You probably saved our lives. For that, we're all thankful, so please, don't apologize."

Urahara nodded. "Okay."

"But I do want to ask you one question," Ichigo added, looking him in the eye. "Why didn't you tell us the truth? Did you think I would get scared and run away?"

Urahara suddenly grinned. "That is exactly right!" Ichigo elbow collided with the man's nose, before he turned away from him.

"Now that just pisses me off," Ichigo said, fuming.

"You were taking it so well! I didn't expect an elbow to the face."

"One other thing," Ichigo began. "I want you to apologize to Rukia when you next see her. And know that she will say the same thing that I'd say. Will you do that for me?"

A solemn moment passed before he finally agreed. "Yes."

Naruto leaped from tree to tree, training his abilities to their fullest. The thick forest was created entirely by him and his bankai, Kusarimori Tenkai. He was getting better at using his abilities without exhausting the limited amount of energy he had for each one. His skill with controlling the chains and trapping targets was top-knotch, but he still needed to work on speed and attack power.

"Was it really necessary to turn my training ground into a forest?" someone stated from below him. Naruto stopped moving, jumping to the ground in front of Urahara. He touched one of the trees to his left and caused the effect of his bankai to retract. In a few moments, the woods had disappeared into his bankai again.

"Sorry about that," he said. "I need to keep getting better. We're on a limited timescale."

Urahara nodded lightly. "That's true. I wanted to get your point of view on what happened. Tell me how you're handling all of it."

"Why the sudden interest?" Naruto barked.

The man frowned. "It's not sudden. I just want to hear from you, get to know you better if you're going to be stayin-"

"I'm not going to be staying with you, Urahara. I don't even think I'll be staying in Karakura Town; this is a one-night thing."

The man smiled. "So you'll be heading back to the Elemental Nations tomorrow?"

"Yes. Yoruichi told you." He didn't wait for him to confirm it. "I just feel like I need to go there, you know. I need to have my seals examined for sure, but I think I'd like to stay there."

Urahara pondered it for a moment. "Seals? Can you show them to me?"

Naruto opened his shirt and channeled a bit of his energy to reveal the spiral mark on his stomach. The man stared at them for a moment, memorizing its shape for future reference. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

When Urahara actually produced a camera from somewhere in his robes, Naruto rolled his eyes and fixed his shirt.

"You're no fun," the former captain whined, putting the camera back in his clothes. "I think it's incredibly interesting, Naruto. The intricacy of the seals holding back all of that power."

"What do you know about sealing jutsu? Or jutsu at all?" He did not intend for it to sound as antagonistic as it did.

Urahara shook his head, trying to make him understand that he meant no disrespect. "Sorry! I know it has to be a touchy subject for you. I just know a little bit from scrolls that I've found. Nothing more than that, and definitely not anything that I can use. No chakra for me; that seems to be something that only people from your home turf can do."

Naruto found his actions a little bit suspicious, but he needed to shrug all that off. "Can you show these scrolls to me?"

"I'll do you better," Urahara said, excited. "You can have them."

The former lieutenant followed the man upstairs after sheathing his zanpakutou. He guided the younger man into the store room, and after a moment, produced a single very thick scroll. He recognized it immediately: it was the Scroll of Seals, where he learned the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu so long ago. "Oh man, this brings back so many memories. But you said there were more than one. Where are the rest?"

Urahara smiled, pointing at it. "When you open that, you probably need to do it in a very large room. There's an entire library inside that thing."

Naruto got the message, but he was tempted to know just how many smaller scrolls were sealed within the larger one. And how Kisuke had actually used the scroll to put more of them into it.

As if to answer his very thought process, Urahara reassured him. "I suppose it would be easier if I knew how to use scrolls like a shinobi, but figuring out the right combination of Bakudo to mimic that skill was annoying." After another second, he cleared his throat. "So do you want some tea?"

It was such an odd change in topic. "Uh... sure."

A human Yoruichi and Tessai joined them, while Jinta and Ururu argued over whose turn it was to sweep. Tessai left to fetch the tea, when Urahara finally asked it again. "So... tell me all about it. What happened?"

Naruto finally began to talk, explaining everything that had happened over the past few months, all of it leading up to Naruto's exile. From helping to extend Rukia's assignment in Karakura Town, to helping the Ryoka save her. He opened up about Momo, detailing all the drama that unfolded around him and her.

"And then she created a Garganta and followed Aizen into Hueco Mundo. Now I don't even know what to do or how to get there."

Tessai sat down his tea. "A Garganta? How was she able to do that?"

"Well, she and I and Lieutenant Kira were working on a Kido spell that could open a Garganta for weeks," Naruto explained. "We ran into a hiccup with the last word of the incantation, because we couldn't get it to connect with the center of the array on the scroll that binds it. Momo must have figured it out, but in all the chaos of the invasion, it never came up."

Kisuke took a sip from his mug, trying to disguise his reaction. "That's interesting, Naruto. You would have done a great thing for the Soul Society, to create a way for them to get into Hueco Mundo."

"Yeah, yeah. But now I can't do it. I don't even think I know how the rest of the incantation goes now." He groaned, wishing that someone would give him a miracle. "I need to save her. I need to protect her from Aizen, bring her back before he does something to her. Every bit of this is my fault!"

A moment of silence passed before Yoruichi placed a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me, Naruto. There's plenty of blame to go around. I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. You are at fault here. But you aren't the only person at fault. Momo shares a piece of it, but most of it all goes onto Aizen's shoulders. He was the orchestrator of the entire affair. I'm almost certain that he's the reason that you even have the Kyuubi in the first place."

Naruto nodded. "That's what Shikamaru was saying. He was on the Dark Ones' side when this whole thing started for me, and now I'm the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki again. That can't be a coincidence."

"No. You're probably both right," Urahara said. "If it weren't just a scam with his hypnosis zanpakutou, there had to have been another jinchuuriki in the Soul Society that day, so that he could frame you for the destruction of Central 46."

Yoruichi suddenly slammed her cup down. "He intended for you to be exiled. This bastard thinks of everything several moves ahead; it's impossible."

Naruto inwardly cursed. Every detail was so carefully crafted to fit a certain outcome. It was like Aizen was weaving fate itself, controlling the probabilities.

"Then he's going to be gathering the rest of the Bijuu, if he doesn't have them already," Jinta stated, summing up their fears.

Urahara grinned. "Well, I can assure you that he doesn't have at least two of them."

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean? I have the Kyuubi, but how would you know about another one?"

The man in the odd hat grinned so wide it seemed impossible and reminded Naruto of Gin, and not in a good way.

She truly did not want to return from the summer break, but the second semester was about to begin. She had a match coming up in a couple months, plus all the stuff that had happened to her recently. Tatsuki twisted the ring she was wearing around her finger.

Keigo was already there, too boisterous for the first day after summer break. Mizuiro was, of course, glued to his cell phone; Tatsuki shared Keigo's confusion about how the kid managed to attract so many high school girls.

She peered toward Ichigo's empty seat, and it seemed like that Sado kid was missing too. And Orihime wasn't here. "Surely they wouldn't miss the first day back." Were they really not back from that place?

"Of course we wouldn't," a voice behind her said, before hugging her warmly. Orihime was always the bubbly one.

Ichigo and Chad stood next to them, and Tatsuki could see their weathered faces. Something had happened to them over the summer. She may not have known Chad very well, but he looked older. More experienced. Ichigo looked like he was trying to hold everything in, giving him an almost constipated look.

"Where's Ishida?" she asked suddenly, knowing that he had gone with them.

Ichigo looked at her with bewilderment. "What do you mean? I barely know the guy. He's probably sick or something."

Tatsuki peered at him. "What's the point of lying, Ichigo?"

Orihime and Ichigo were completely bewildered by her questioning. Of course, they didn't know that she was on to them at all. They didn't know that she could see spirits and interact with them. They didn't know a lot of things about her in the past few weeks.

Chad, however, seemed to pick up on her. "He's missing. We don't know where he is."

Tatsuki had not known him at all, but hearing that shocked her. What had they gone through? What kinds of things had they faced? "Wow. You three have some explaining to do."

Miss Ochi walked into the room and called everything to order, and the teens eventually found their seats. Ichigo was not listening, staring openly at the empty seat and Tatsuki frowned. He probably blamed himself for this very heavily.

It seemed like hours passed when something flared on the horizon, a gut feeling that something was coming. "A hollow," she muttered under her breath. The girl looked around the room, realizing that the spiritually aware had all noticed it. When Ichigo called to go to the bathroom, Tatsuki made her move, instantly disappearing in a puff of smoke.

She ran down the hall, trying to get there first. She wanted to prove herself to her friends, to teach them that she could handle herself as well as anyone else. She'd have to explain the smoke later to Miss Ochi, but she'd take whatever punishment she received for using the Body Flicker Jutsuto get out of the room unnoticed.

She finally managed to get to the hollow, much faster than the last hollow she fought. The creature was somewhat serpentine, with a long body and a round, fanged mask. It had two long arms that ended in scythes.

The hollow laughed heartily. "Oh, so it appears that the humans come to me now. Good. It makes it so much easier."

The hollow rushed at her, but she pivoted around on her left foot to evade the sharp limb, channeled yin chakra into her right fist, and delivered a haymaker to the hard surface of the creature's mask. There was a resounding smack as it crashed against the wall of the next building, thirty yards over.

"A little bit of fight in you, huh? That hurt entirely more than it should, but I'll return the favor!"

The hollow released a mist from the fangs of its mask, spraying the entire block with an acidic poison; it corroded the concrete around the hollow, and she had to back away as quickly as she could.

Tatsuki reached into the waistband of her skirt, pulling a kunai from a hidden pouch. She attached the roll of paper, wishing she had more than one, but this would have to do. The mist was spreading far too quickly, but if she did this right, she'd have an opening.

She made a quick dash to the right, throwing the kunai and paper bomb. The hollow made to dodge it, but it didn't matter. The kunai passed directly through it, landing on the ground in front of the hollow.

"Well, that was useless! Why didn't it hit me?"

"It was never supposed to hit you, so I didn't add spirit energy to it." She made a single hand sign, and the paper bomb exploded, sending a cloud of smoke and fire throughout the area. Tatsuki focused on the ring, her joints and muscles tightening involuntarily, before she leaped forward into the cloud of smoke and fire. She had used the explosion to dissipate the hollow's mist, and as she landed, she immediately punched into the hollow's gut, sending it tumbling down the stairs toward the river.

Tatsuki was lucky that no one had been around, or they could have been hurt by the paper bomb going off. She needed to learn how to draw seals in such a way that they only use yin chakra, or reiryoku, so that paper bombs don't attract attention. She had to use whatever she could find, and this one was preloaded with normal chakra, a mixture of both spiritual and physical energy.

She drew another kunai, getting ready to finish it off, when she felt the familiar presence on the back of her mind. She turned to see Ichigo rushing to the scene, carrying his sword, and slashing into the hollow to purify it.

"Hey, Ichigo!" she shouted, hoping to freak him out. By all rights, she shouldn't have been able to see him. Tatsuki let go of the chakra she had built up, relaxing slightly as some of the power she borrowed returned to the ring. "You're late!"

The redhead stared at her in surprise. "You can see me?"

"Yeah. I did all the dirty work too," Tatsuki said, gesturing to the site of the explosion, where people were already gathering from the noise. "I was just about to finish off that hollow when you got here."

Ichigo was bewildered, but his attention seemed to focus on the kunai in her hand. "Is that a zanpakutou? Did someone give you shinigami powers?"

Tatsuki just laughed. "No on both accounts." She placed the kunai back into the hidden pouch. "I'll let the shopkeeper explain it to you."

Naruto looked at the tiny black ball in his hand, before storing it in his shihakusho. It was a portable gigai for blending into the World of the Living. He would need it if he needed to interact with anyone in the Elemental Nations, barring the Hyuuga clan he had interacted with before.

"I'm thankful for this, but why give it to me? I mean, I'm not going to be there for very long. A day or two, tops, before I head into Hueco Mundo."

Tessai looked as though he was going to answer, but Urahara cut him off. "I have a feeling that you'll want to stay for longer than a couple of days. And besides, do you know of a way to follow Hinamori yet?"

"No, I still have to figure that out. But why are you being so cryptic?" Naruto was starting to get upset playing with Urahara's mind games. He could understand why Ichigo was tired of dealing with him. "You tell me that you think I'll stay longer, and not even an hour ago, you were saying that you know where a second Bijuu is, like you've hidden one away from Aizen."

"Urahara!" someone shouted from the door.

"Oh, look, we have guests," the man said far too quickly.

"This conversation isn't over!" Naruto shouted, following after him so fast that he spilled his tea in the process.

Naruto passed into the front of the shop, surprised to see Ichigo, in shinigami gear, and a girl with short black hair wearing a familiar school uniform. She must be one of Ichigo's friends, but how could she see him? He noticed the ring on her finger, and he couldn't place where he had seen it before, but it was familiar.

"So the cat's out of the bag," Urahara said with a smile. "Or I guess in this case, the insect has escaped the net."

Tatsuki grinned, and Ichigo was pissed. "What's going on?"

"Well, I could give you the full explanation, but I think you and Uzumaki here will appreciate the short version," the shopkeeper said, clearing his throat. "During my exile from the Soul Society, I became interested in a land rumored to be filled with humans with special abilities. Decades ago, I found these islands and attempted to immerse myself in their shinobi culture. I was largely unsuccessful at becoming a shinobi myself, but I did manage to procure a few interesting artifacts." He gestured to the ring on Tatsuki's hand. "Like her ring, and the scrolls that I gave you, Uzumaki."

Naruto didn't know why, but he felt suspicious and a little bit on edge around the seemingly friendly man. He must have found the ruins of the Hidden Leaf and stole things that didn't belong to him. It made him uneasy.

"Cut to the chase, Urahara," Ichigo said. "This is obviously turning into the long version."

"Well, you know this much of the story. Your initial shinigami powers were unstable and caused a lot of changes in the people around you. Several of your friends were affected in ways that granted them special powers suited to their background and personalities."

"Except for me," explained Tatsuki. "I got bits and pieces, enough to be able to see spirits and interact with them. But no powers like Chad or Orihime."

"Exactly," Urahara said. "So in the interest of her desire to protect those she cares about, I decided to give her that ring. And a little bit of training how to use it, using the scrolls from my travels."

So whatever he did to that ring gave her the ability to use chakra, Naruto thought.

Ichigo frowned. "You brought her into this! I didn't want this for anyone! She'll get hurt! Or worse, she'll die!"

"What place do you have doing that for her?" Naruto asked. "She's just some teenager that you don't even know! She'll get in over her head like I did when I was young, and look what happened to me. I died!"

Tatsuki set her jaw and clenched her fist, the ring glinting lightly in the light of the room. "I wanted this, Ichigo. I wanted to protect Orihime and you and everyone else I know and care about. Do you know how annoying it is, to know that your loved ones are out there, risking their lives for you, and you can't do anything in return? That you can't protect them, but you feel like you owe it to them to contribute and save as many people as you can?" She crossed her arms. "I've basically been the protector of Karakura Town since you disappeared in Soul Society. Urahara has been training me with the basics of how to use the Bijuu's chakra and the simple techniques. I want to learn more and become stronger."

Naruto had heard enough to know that this was definitely a bad idea. In a blinding flash of speed, Naruto had Urahara pinned against the wall, anger radiating off of him. He pressed his forearm into the man's throat, gritting his teeth.

"Why the hell would you make her into a jinchuuriki? Do you know how much pain I've lived through, in two lifetimes, because of this burden!? Who the hell do you think you are, playing God like that?"

Ichigo stepped into his peripheral vision. "I know he's a dick sometimes, but step away from him."

Urahara raised his arms in surrender. "If it makes you feel any better, she's not exactly a jinchuuriki."

"What do you mean? Explain yourself!" Naruto could feel the room staring at him, confused about what all of this meant. Ichigo made a move for his sword, just in case of what he'd do, and Naruto rolled his eyes. None of them would ever understand the pain that the Bijuu cause wherever they go.

"All the answers to that are in those scrolls," Urahara said finally. "I wrote out how I did it in there, gave a step-by-step guide on how to do it again. All you need to know now is that the Bijuu is inside the ring, not her body, and she has complete control over when the chakra influences her body."

Naruto pressed harder before finally letting go, backing away and still very much enraged. "You can't just experiment on people like that! You did the exact same thing that Aizen indirectly caused happen to me! I don't care if she wants to use the power or not, she should have never had the opportunity in the first place!"

"Why do you care?" Tatsuki asked defensively.

"Because I've experienced firsthand what this does to people. I don't care if Urahara changed the sealing or something, you still shouldn't have to deal with the consequences!" Naruto walked toward the front door, but Tatsuki grabbed his shoulder.

He twisted around instinctively, trying to throw her to the ground by using her weight against her, but she jabbed him in the ribs hard, stunning him. "Well, at least you can handle the most basic taijutsu."

"That's karate."

"Whatever." He hurried from the room with a dash of Shunpo.

The cold was unbearable, which was unlike any desert she had ever read about before. It was eternally dark, but the light of the crescent moon was enough for the bare minimum of vision.

There was no food, no water. No sustenance. Her body had already started using her spirit energy to supplement nourishment, and she knew she was starving. If she didn't figure something out, her reiryoku would run out and she'd die.

If not for that human girl healing her, she'd be dead already. Her wound was shallow now, and it had already begun to heal itself. She was lucky.

Her senses were constantly there, hyper-aware of what was around her. This was the land of hollows, and if she wasn't careful, she'd get devoured. Every hour of walking, she'd take a few minutes to reinforce the Kido barriers she had placed on herself, as well as create more traps. She had to conserve energy, but she needed to keep herself alive.

This entire ordeal could have been avoided if you had simply waited, Momo reminded herself. If you had waited on others to come with you, you could have still used the spell to follow Aizen, with help involved. Supplies, food, water... All of that would be very helpful right now.

She needed to keep going. She needed to destroy Aizen for what he did. But she had no idea where she was going; she had been slowly walking toward the giant palace on the horizon, and it was still apparently on the horizon. It never got any closer, and despite her progress being slow, she knew she was still making progress. It had been days since she arrived, and the building must have been massive.

Momo was slowly starting to question her decision, her sanity, and rethink her entire life choices in the last several years. Every bad decision, every decision she had made; all of it was under scrutiny in the endless sand.

Why had she ever trusted Aizen over her boyfriend? The man was deceitful and manipulative, and other than the last few weeks, Naruto had been nothing but good to her. She literally screamed aloud, too angry to feel sad, and too sad to feel angry.

"Well, well, well! What do we have here?" shouted a menacing voice behind her. Momo twisted around, looking straight into the face of an Adjuchas-level Menos Grande. "A shinigami catered right to Hueco Mundo!"

The Adjuchas was twice her height, with green reptilian skin and a white mask with purple striped designs. Its claws were incredibly long, glinting in the moonlight, and its tail ended in a drill-like spike.

Surrounding it were several smaller normal-class hollows, probably too afraid to try to usurp the authority of the Adjuchas. It was like it had its own private squad of warriors and guardians, and Momo had never been more afraid.

"Leave me alone!" She shouted, preparing to fight with what ability she had.

"Oh, now. Pathetic begging will get you nowhere!" The hollow leader threw out his hand, gesturing for its army to attack for him. It screeched in an impossibly terrifying way, and Momo backed up several feet.

One hollow passed into the zone, and she snapped her fingers. Instantly, the Kido trap activated, a silver rod of lightning impaling the creature in its chest and dissipating it into spirit particles. She drew her sword and sliced into the arm of the next, cutting it in pieces. One of the six remaining hollows snapped its tail at her, and the barrier around herself stopped it in time for her to stab into its mask and purify it.

"It seems that you have skills! But they pale in comparison to mine!"

Another trap activated, a flame ring wrapping around the lizard-like hollow and burning it completely. She jumped into the air, swinging her sword at the Adjuchas. "Snap, Tobiume!" Explosive energy surrounded her now branched blade, and as the steel clashed against the hollow's claws, the fire exploded in the hollow's direction. The flames were powerful enough to cause the sand to turn to glass within a five-meter radius.

Momo jumped backwards again, activating another Kido trap. A line of yellow light surrounded her, halting the three small hollows trying to get revenge for her attacking the leader, and freezing them in place. She screamed again, swinging her shikai and another fireball erupted to destroy the remaining hollows.

The smoke cleared, and the Adjuchas was still standing. It started to laugh, despite the fact that it was now missing both of its claws. The only reminders that they ever existed were its scorched forearms.

"How pitiful!" Within seconds, white liquid surrounded the place where its hands were. Momo gasped at the hollow's regenerated limbs. "If you wanted to win, you should have destroyed me in one blow! Prepare to be devoured, shinigami!"

It rushed her once more, and she began to chant. There was no other way to avoid it. "Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws. Hado Number Thirty-three: Sokatsui!"

Momo jumped backward onto the top of a dune of sand, firing the powerful spell in the hollow's direction. As it exploded, she swung her sword again. "Tobiume!" The pink fireball followed the blue wave of fire, the combined power incredible.

Momo was running on fumes. She had nothing left. Her skin was pale, a cold sweat pouring down her face. Her shikai faded subconsciously, dropping from her hand. The lieutenant fell to her knees, unable to continue.

The smoke slowly started to clear, and the Adjuchas was still alive. Scorch marks covered its body, and it had somehow used its tail to defend its mask, because half its tail had been burned away. Its group was dead, and it was pissed.

The hollow moved once, and immediately, something shifted underneath them. The sand started moving, and Momo hesitated just enough to realize that she was starting to sink into it.

"What the hell did you do?!"

Momo couldn't focus on the hollow's anger because the sand was starting to spiral. Her explosion must have somehow created a sandpit and now they were trapped, forced to roll around the whirlpool of earth. Momo felt helpless.

The hollow raged, attempting to claw at her from his position, but they were too far apart and it was covered up to its neck. Momo tried to swim around, to keep her head afloat, but the pressure of the sand was too dense to move. She angled her head for the last possible second of air, before the sand overtook her.

Naruto sat in the middle of a park, trying to feel out the portable fake body. He had found some clothes to dress the gigai in: a really simple black t-shirt and jeans and open-toed sandals, and he had left the store with what they would cost in the cash register.

He was in deep thought, wishing that he could clear his mind of all his worries. All of his thoughts came back to Momo, and where she was and how she was doing. Aizen was probably torturing her right now, or maybe she was dying of starvation in some dungeon. Hell, she could be dead, and the thought made him so angry that it overshadowed how angry he was at Urahara.

It had been hours since he left the shop, but he still did not regret chewing him out. He refused to check the scrolls to see how the former captain did what he did to make her a jinchuuriki, or at least, to make her be able to use the Bijuu's power.

It shouldn't matter to him in the long run, should it? He should probably be grateful. If Aizen was indeed gathering the Bijuu and creating jinchuuriki to aid in the fight with Soul Society, then having one less on his side was a good thing.

Kusaritane had been silent all afternoon, and even the Kyuubi had been quiet, despite involving him most directly. He had wondered if asking either of them for advice on how to feel would be a good thing, but he would probably still hate what Urahara did for involving an innocent girl in this.

She would be targeted. If Aizen could figure out where she was, and it was only a matter of time, then he'd cut that ring right off of her finger if it meant making his side stronger. She'd fight back, no doubt. But without training, she'd be a sitting duck and Aizen wouldn't even have to lift a finger to send her to her knees.

He had tried to stomach thinking through Urahara's reasoning for doing it, but it still did not make sense. He wondered if he would ever actually understand why Urahara did it, because there seemed to always be an ulterior motive for him.

"I figured that I would find you here." Naruto turned to see Yoruichi, disguised as a cat, walking up to him. "My nose never lies."

"If you're here to try to get me to agree with him, you can forget it now."

The cat frowned. "Now why would you think I would like what he did? He has his reasons for involving Tatsuki, but I don't agree with them."

"Really?" Naruto was surprised to hear that.

"Yes. Unfortunately, taking away the powers he's given her will be difficult," Yoruichi explained.

Naruto huffed. "You got that right. It'd kill her."

The cat shook her head, licking her paw clean. Seeing her mimick feline behavior was just plain odd. "I don't think so. I know enough to know that he tried to avoid that scenario, that disadvantage. It wouldn't kill her if it was removed, but he never told me how they could be removed."

Naruto just shook his head in dismissal. "All of that is besides the point. If we took the ring off her finger, she'd be powerless."

"It's not that simple. The chakra of the Bijuu has been influencing her body long enough to start creating a chakra network for her."

He rolled his eyes, raising his shirt to show the seal of the Kyuubi on his gigai's stomach. "If she can't remove the ring, then it's no different than putting the Bijuu's chakra directly inside the person. She has to live with it now."

Yoruichi sat in silence for a long moment, her tail swaying in the wind. "Even if we could remove it from her, she would fight us tooth and nail for it. She'd lose, but she wants this. Even if it was done under Urahara's false pretenses, Tatsuki is not going to give them up."

Naruto nodded. He could tell that she was stubborn and enjoyed the power. "From what you can tell, is she any good at using it?"

"I don't know any more than you do on that front, but she'll need to be trained. She wants in on this fight; I know that much. She'll want to be at Orihime's side, at Ichigo's side, when Aizen makes his next move. If she stands any chance at helping, she'll need a teacher."

Naruto knew that was true. "You're serious, aren't you? You want me to do it?"

"I don't think there are any other options. You have firsthand experience, and you should be able to help her directly, the longer you stay in that gigai."

"What do you mean?"

"That gigai was specially crafted to implement a chakra network to the wielder. I think Kisuke tried to use it to join the shinobi once while he was traveling there, but it wouldn't work on him. He thinks it should work on you."

"Why? Because I used to live there?"

"Maybe," Yoruichi said. "He didn't share all the specifics, but he said that the Kyuubi should act as a source of yang chakra to join with your yin chakra, or reiryoku."

Naruto thought back to what he knew about the nature of chakra and how it is used in techniques. The Kyuubi's large energy source had usually made his jutsu more unstable and usually useless. He remembered something Jiraiya had once told him about how Bijuu chakra eventually adds to the physical chakra of the jinchuuriki. "So the longer I am in this thing, the better I'll be able to use my own chakra, as well as the chakra of the Kyuubi. Great."

It was like Urahara had given him a chance to relive his old life, inside a fake body. He suddenly reminded himself of Orochimaru and wanted to puke. He probably would have, if the gigai had anything in its stomach.

"Yeah. It's a lot to take in," the cat said. "Do you think Aizen is really using the Bijuu?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Probably. He and Urahara seem to be a lot alike."

"Are you going to do something about that?"

The blonde looked at her, raising up from his cloud gazing. "What do you suggest? I figure knowing the way that Aizen plans, he's probably got all of the available ones by now." He tried to not think about the Akatsuki, but it was difficult not to. They were the ones who kept him in captivity after all, long enough to seal him in the giant statue last.

"Not necessarily," Yoruichi explained. "You're headed to the Elemental Nations soon, right?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes. I need to look over the seal again."

"Well, do you think it would be worth it to check out all the places where you know there are Bijuu? All the villages associated with one of them anyway?"

He frowned. "No, it would take too much time. I can't leave Momo alone for that long."

The cat turned to him. "I think it would be a good idea, since you already have to go. I'll bet that if you tweaked it, you could use Kido to create a Bijuu tracking Kido. Do you really want Aizen to get more power? What if going after Momo is the perfect chance for him to take Tatsuki? Or one of the other jinchuuriki or Bijuu?"

Naruto shouted suddenly, throwing his head back on the ground and rubbing his face. What she was saying made sense. He already had to go. Maybe he could try to locate them while he was there with Kido, and if he didn't get a ping, he could return to Urahara and try to work out some way to get to Hueco Mundo. That would be awful because it would probably mean that Aizen had seven out of nine Bijuu at his disposal.

"Fine. You're right. I'll be as quick as I can," he said. "But you want me to take Tatsuki with me, don't you? She needs to have her seals analyzed too."

Yoruichi smiled. "You're smarter than you look. So you'll do it?"

"There's nobody else, is there? And besides, Tatsuki could transform tomorrow into the full Bijuu and destroy everything in her path if I don't see what the limits of that ring are."

And that was the first part of the Elemental Nations Arc. Just so you know, I'm basically ignoring the timeline of the beginning stages of the Arrancar Arc in order to do this, because the events of this Arc are going to take about a month in fic-time. If I were to follow the canon timeline to a T, the Ryoka arrive the night before school starts on September 1st, and by September 3rd, Yammy and Ulquiorra show up. I don't want to get fully into the Arrancar stuff just yet.

I've got 5 chapters planned after this one for this arc, before the Arrancar stuff happens, but this is subject to change and to become longer, or shorter, if the case may be. I know what I want to happen though, for sure.

Leave a review and let me know what you think! :D Sort of an info-dump chapter, but I tried to keep the exposition down to a minimum. I wanted to answer as many questions as I could about the specifics behind how chakra works in this fic in combination with spiritual bodies, and more will be shown later. And see if you can guess which Bijuu Tatsuki has. There's a hint in this chapter, but it won't be revealed until a little bit later.