They were Rukia Kuchiki, though she had yet to get that name, and Renji Abarai. I was still unsure where Renji gained that surname, since the district we were most likely in was the Inuzuri district, which was the seventy eighth district, if my perfect – when I want it to be – memory was anything to go by.

Renji leaped up onto a table, and shouted, "I'll be a Shinigami if I want to be, you hear, Zabuza-san, Rukia?" Zabuza rubbed the bridge of his nose. That happened often, by the looks of it. And Rukia was having a comical tick mark on her forehead, which made her take Zabuza's side of the conflict. "You hear me?" Renji yelled, while Haku shook his head and proceeded to carefully tread towards Renji.

Rukia, whether she noticed Haku's approach or not, began to shout insults at Renji, "What are you talking about, you oaf? Shinigami are the reason us people in Rukongai can't live well!" Ah, there seems to be some animosity between Rukia and the Shinigami. Wonder what that would be. It probably has something to do with Rukia's sister, Hisana. "If you continue being a reckless idiot, I'll skin you alive!" ouch, brutal much, Rukia?

Haku was right behind Renji, and when Renji was about to retort to Rukia's insults, Haku grabbed onto the back of Renji's dirty green shirt and hoisted him up in the air in an impressive show of strength. "Now now, young man," Haku began, with a smile that promised a great deal of pain should anyone disagree. He was without a doubt scary when he did that, now that I think about it, "It's impolite to shout when the receivers are right besides you," Haku said, a shadow covering his eyes in a malicious manner. Screw scary, it was damn frightening, that's what it was! I didn't know that Haku could be that scary and cute – did I say that? Ups – at the same time.

Renji, however, wanted none of it, and didn't even bat an eyelash at Haku. He continued to wriggle in Haku's grasp, letting loose childish squeals of indignance at being lifted up into the air, by a girly boy, no less. He shouted at Haku, "Let me go, Haku! I'll become a Shinigami if I want to, alright?"

Haku giggled at Renji's antics, and then, without warning, threw him behind himself. Renji landed heavily on the staircase that I occupied at the moment, the staircase threatening to collapse at a moment's notice now. I simply stared at the dizzy Renji.

"That's what you get for being a moron, Renji!" Rukia shouted at Renji, whipping around with a clenched fist.

Haku sighed in disappointment at Rukia. He murmured something so low I couldn't hear it, but Rukia heard him clearly. "What was that, Haku-san?" she threateningly said. But she wasn't nearly as scary as Haku when he was angry. Or as scary as Zabuza on a bad day. That would be scary as fuck. Just imagine. An angry, no, furious, Zabuza. The scariest part is that I can see it happening at some point, like if Haku died or something. Which had already happened once, and I was pretty sure that if Haku died again Zabuza would be absolutely outright pissed. Not pleasant for the enemy, let me tell you that. For we have already seen what had happened to Gato. He died. By decapitation. After getting stabbed in the stomach. And was thrown in the water afterwards. Horrible death, but nothing compared to what Zabuza would have done if he was capable in his arms. His arms were disabled by Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan, after all.

Haku innocently said, "Nothing," folded his arms behind himself and looked around as if nothing was wrong. Ah, well played, well played, Haku. Next thing you know, he would be a player of women. And in an obscure sense, it would be possible. Since he was extremely feminine, some girls would be fairly attracted to him. Bah, what was I thinking about? It was absurd thinking, something I shouldn't be worrying about, at all!

Rukia sighed in frustration, but then her eyes fell on me. One of her eyebrows rose up in response, and then she huffed. "Who are you?" she asked me.

I smiled benevolently and bowed at the waist. "My name is Shinji Takuma, pleasure to meet you..." I drawled, as if asking for the name of hers. Which I did, because it would be suspicious if I knew about the afterlife, wouldn't it? I would be really suspicious if someone knew about my life, all down to the last detail. Like, I couldn't just go to Rukia and Renji and say, 'Oh, hey, I know your name is Renji Abarai, and I know your name is Rukia Kuchiki, or at least your future surname will be Kuchiki. I also know you will meet a boy named Ichigo Kurosaki, and he will be taking all your powers for a while. Oh, and did I mention you will become a Shinigami? Because that'll happen!'... see? Can't do that approach. So I'll have to ease into it. Become their friend, and then from there I'll do something in the future. I sure do hope that I won't age past my prime. Because that'll suck. Big time.

Rukia huffed again and crossed her arms, "I'm Rukia Inuzuri. Remember that name," she began to glare at me, "Because I won't be repeating it for your benefit. Ever," ouch, harsh much, Rukia?

I simply smiled at her and bowed again. It was best to stay on her good side, whatever it was, because she was a very important deuteragonist in the Bleach universe. Deuteragonist being a secondary character, or a character that follows the main character. Exactly what Rukia will be. And speaking of Rukia, why did she take that name instead of some other?

Oh right. Kenpachi Zaraki had his surname from the district from which he hailed from. That explains a lot, doesn't it? It does did give a reason as to why Rukia took that surname of all surnames, right?

Anyway, once I locked eyes with Rukia she flinched and began to point at me with an expression that seemed to be frightened, if anything, "What's with those eyes of yours, Takuma-san?" ah, I see. I forgot to put the illusion back on. Dammit, I knew it would be some form of consequence for my disabling of the genjutsu that was similar to the one Tsunade was using on a daily basis.

I wanted to seem dramatic as possible, to leave an impression of sadness if you will, and it wasn't that difficult, either. It was because of my power and inabilities that Anko-chan and my child were dead. And they were probably not in the Bleach universe, so I had to simply move on. Anko-chan would have wanted me to move on. But of course, like every grieving husband or boyfriend out there, it was difficult beyond comprehension. So I had to take nothing for granted and live like the wind, eh? Anko-chan, I miss her. I had been dead for so long, so I cannot imagine how Anko-chan would react, since personalities change constantly due to outside stimuli. How would she react? What would she say to me if I bedded another woman? If I lived on and dated another woman? I'd consider it defiling her memory by doing so. I cannot live on.

Unknowingly, my facial expression had changed to that of sadness, and it made Rukia wince in response while Haku and Zabuza looked at me with a curious facial gesture. Renji was unconscious, so he couldn't properly respond to anything. He was thrown at a staircase face first, after all.

I sighed, "Let's not talk about it, alright, Rukia-san?" I pleaded. Then I motioned at Renji, "And please, don't talk to Renji about it. It's a..." I hesitated, "sensitive subject."

Rukia nodded swiftly.

It had been over thirty years since my arrival to Soul Society. I had discovered that one does not age past their prime in this dimension. That was good, very good in fact, because that would mean that I would be able to tirelessly search for my beloved Anko-chan. She was worth to me more than anyone else. I was determined to find her.

While I was in Rukongai, I discovered that everyone around in the seventy eighth district feared both Haku and Zabuza, though mostly Zabuza. It was mostly due to appearance, but Zabuza did tell me that he had 'roughed up' a few civilians that were obnoxious to the point of where it irritated even Haku. From there the rumour mill did the rest, and not before long, Zabuza and Haku were the most feared individuals in most of the lower numbers of South Rukongai. Often were they challenged by some unlucky guy who had one too many beers, but Zabuza and Haku always came up on top. Always. No exceptions. And now that I was there, well... no one wanted to get on our bad side.

Which was curious, actually. After an admittedly short time, I found out that Zabuza, Haku and I still had the chakra system, not a shred of reiryoku. That was strange, because everything in the Soul Society dimension was made out of reishi, spiritual particles. But I came up with a theory. Perhaps if people were sealed into whatever they were sealed into, it would mean that they would retain their chakra pathways and their pressure points. When I tried, I found out I could use all the jutsu I could used when I was alive, and I found out that we, as in Zabuza, Haku and I, had not a single shred of reiryoku inside us. Again, that was strange, since everything was made out of reishi. But as I had already mentioned, it was probably because I had sealed them.

I had asked Zabuza and Haku what they remembered of their previous life, and they told me that they remembered everything up to the point where they were sealed. Either into my Susanoo, which I cannot remember if either of them were – and they told me that the time they were sealed was very fuzzy, thus they could not truly recall anything from that point – or by the standard sealing arts. Either way, that was good. If they couldn't remember me using Susanoo then all the more power to me. That would mean that they wouldn't be remembering my blood thirsty side.

As the years passed by we, as in Haku, Zabuza, Renji, Rukia and I, moved up the food chain, so to speak. We moved up the numbers of the districts of Rukongai, intent of satisfying Renji's need to become a Shinigami all the while I was trying to encourage Rukia at becoming a Shinigami as well. I tried to do so with subtlety, because I didn't want to be pounded into the dirt by her. She showed repeatedly, only to Renji though, that she was extremely violent when she wanted to be. Thus earning her playful nickname from the rest of us as the 'purple hotshot', or just 'hotshot', because of her bad and untameable temper.

While we were moving up the numbers of the Rukongai districts, I stealthily sent out disguised shadow clones that searched for Anko-chan. I couldn't search for my child, because the first time I saw our child it was too dark, only moonlight was illuminating, and it wasn't nearly enough for me to get a visual representation for my child. It was ironic, I didn't know how my first child, my very first child, looked like, despite seeing the silhouette of my child. It wasn't enough just to know how the silhouette looked like. For all I knew of, my child could be Toshiro Hitsugaya. But we all knew that that was improbable to the point of where it was ridiculous. So instead, I looked for my Anko-chan. I was sure that she wouldn't abandon our child, no matter what.

However, none of my shadow clones found her. Not even in the furthest corner in Rukongai.

Though to be honest, I didn't search for them in Seireitei. So I wouldn't really know if they were there. But the possibilities of them being there were so low I didn't know what to think about. And I didn't want to risk the Gotei 13 to find me and then experiment on me by unnatural means. I bet that at least Kurotsuchi would be interested in it.

But one interesting thing happened when one of my shadow clones stumbled onto a clearing in West Rukongai, sixth district Fugai, at night. It was over twenty years since I had arrived into Soul Society when I discovered a curious sight. I already knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

It was all of the Visored – no, not yet – and they were struggling against a Hollowfied Kensei Muguruma. In the same part of the clearing I saw Kisuke Urahara and Tessai Tsukabishi, they too struggled to contain the Hollow virus that flooded Kensei Muguruma's reiryoku system with Kido.

The worst part of it all were two things.

The worst part of it all was, of course, that for each one that Kensei hit, the Hollow virus spread. Meaning that whomsoever was hit by Kensei Muguruma, such as Shinji Hirako or Hiyori Sarugaki, would be inflicted upon them the Hollow virus. They were fighting them off, but one by one, they were picked off. And it was all because of Aizen's manipulations that they were even there to begin with.

The second worst part was that I didn't – no, more like couldn't – do anything to help them, at all. There were several reasons for that that my shadow clones figured out in less than a second. One of the reasons was that if I interfered, I would interfere with the canon storyline. That wasn't good, because for one, it would mess with the storyline in such a way I wouldn't be able to predict it properly, should I interfere with it, thus meaning that when the time was right, I couldn't very well interfere as one could do if they were in the Bleach universe.

Let's say I did interfere, would it be for my own interests or of that of the 'greater good'? What was the 'greater good' to begin with, anyway? Was it Aizen, who was merely a little bit misguided in his attempts to throw off the Spirit King, who was thinking of the greater good? He could be, or he could just be an egotistical and egocentric maniac who only thought to be the one to rule them all? But maybe he wasn't misguided. Maybe he was right. Maybe the Spirit King needed to be overthrown, especially seeing as the current system simply wouldn't hold itself up for a long time. It was time for a change, and Aizen was seeing that. But his methods of doing so – killing off an entire city – were severely deluded. Therefore, I wouldn't be taking his side in the fight. If I did, I believe Anko-chan would demolish my self-esteem by dating another guy, probably just to spit in my face and saying 'Fuck you', or something.

So in order to avoid complications I didn't interfere. It would save me a lot of time.

My shadow clone dispelled itself, sending the information and its thoughts to me and my other shadow clones. I nodded at the shadow clones' thoughts. It was correct in its assumptions and hypothesises. If I would interfere it would cause too much of an impact on the canon storyline, thus revoking the advantage I had. But sooner or later I would have to interfere in the business of Soul Society. Maybe I could find a way to administer chakra into Ichigo Kurosaki, making him even more special than he already would be. But alas, I had not a reason to think about it. For right then I had to take care of something else. It was my turn to cook the meal, so I had to continue doing so.

So it was a hundred years before canon starts, huh? That was good to know. Real good to know.

But there was one good thing that had happened during the incident where the to-be-known-as Visored, Kisuke Urahara, Tessai Tsukabishi and Yoruichi Shihoin would be banished from Soul Society. I discovered that Shinigami, no matter how powerful they were, couldn't detect me. At all. The only way they could possibly detect me would be through means of chakra, should I use the Hiding Like A Mole technique, for example. They, as in the Shinigami, could either do a wide scale destruction technique, like Byakuya Kuchiki's Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, for example, that would devastate an entire area of landmass, in order to find me, or they could do a visual search for me. Both would be taxing on the Shinigami, either on their time or their spiritual power, their reiryoku. Both of which were valuable to the Shinigami, so should a battle occur between me and the Shinigami, I would have the upper hand. Unless, of course, the Shinigami tread onto the air, but I believe I could manipulate my Rinnegan's power over gravity so that I could levitate somewhat. I did hope it wouldn't be demanding on my chakra deposit. As soon as I got this information I spread it carefully to Haku and Zabuza, but I soon, in my disappointment, discovered that they already had fought and killed a few Shinigami that were pompous in their own right. Well, Zabuza did the killing, Haku just disabled. Apparently the Shinigami, despite being made out of reishi, still had their pressure points and could still be inflicted poisons, should any of us chakra people want to utilize that option. I never used poison, but it was good to know about it. I could put that information to use, should I get my hands on any poison.

But alas, all that background information was unnecessary to know when you were surrounded by over thirty or so armed thugs who wanted money and hadn't heard of me yet. Just how I like to keep it. Not being heard of made the surprises that I made that more entertaining for me. Oh yeah, life could be fun sometimes, don't you think so?

"Giv' us yer money and we ain't gonna kill ye! Maybe," one of the hooligans rowdily demanded of me.

I chuckled. How cute. There were a few infidels who thought themselves to be as tough as meat. Well, I would have none of it. "Whatcher laffin' 'bout, ye scumbag?" another of the goons demanded, just like the previous one.

I grinned, "Well, I just thought how cute it was that you're playing all tough like," I said cheerfully. I was currently in the fifth district of East Rukongai, and though I thought that the crime rate was low enough for me to do some casual shopping with money I had gotten through some odd jobs, I didn't expect there to be such a large gang of thugs without me hearing a rumour or two from the rumour mill. But oh well.

They all shouted in outrage and indignance. It wasn't always someone mocked them, them!, and got away with it. "Only the cursed Shinigami can get away from mocking us, ye scurvy scumbag!" yet another one of the henchmen yelled. His statement made me wonder if they had been dealing with Shinigami before. But hey, it wasn't that big of a deal. No matter how weak the Shinigami, if they know Shunpo they'd be able to get away from them, no matter how strong the opponent was.

And then several of the thugs charged at me.

Author's Note: I am sorry for the rough ending, but it does serve a purpose! :D

Hey, has anyone read the latest chapter of Naruto? Freaking sicktastic, man! Awesome stuff! The plot twist made me so fired up I didn't know WHAT to do! I swear, if Kishimoto-sama does anything even closeto that, I'll freaking offer him to suck his dick! (joke) He is that awesome!

Thank you for reviewing, everyone!