I don't own Naruto or Bleach

Well, Bleach manga has begun its final countdown to the end now. As you might be able to tell I'm gonna miss it.

Chapter 37 The ROOT of the Problem

Pacing back and forth, Abigail continued to, fruitlessly, contact her sister. "Terra! Terra!" she screamed, "Terra, I know you can hear me so answer me already! What the hell was that shit about!?" There was a long pause and Abigail's face became even more frustrated.

"Oh, you "don't know what I'm talking about" so you want me to "clarify", huh?" Abigail answered mockingly, "Ok, I'll tell you what I'm talking about. Let's see you, killed off one of Naruto's closest friends in front of him, blew him up thus giving him severe burns, dropped a building on him, oh, and now he doesn't have any fucking legs! That was not part of the plan and so not necessary! H-how could you do this?" Abigail's face slowly grew into shock at whatever Terra's reply was.

"W-what do you mean, "they're just fictional characters"?" Abigail said her voice shivering.

With Naruto

"Hey, ponytail!" Grimmjow yelled. The Espada slammed into Iruka knocking Naruto and Sasuke out of his arms. Slamming onto the ground, Naruto opened his eyes and looked around.

"S-Sasuke! Wh-where am-" Naruto began to say. Before he could finish though Grimmjow grabbed him and began using sonido to get away. "Hey!" Naruto yelled, "Let go of me!" He began pounding on Grimmjow's back but the Espada didn't even take notice of it. Instead, he raised the wrist of his other arm up near his mouth and activated the seal.

"I got the brat," Grimmjow said, "I feel some Konoha shinobis' reiatsu starting to follow me. I'm gonna need some help getting them off my trail. End message." Lowering his arm, Grimmjow continued trying to lose the shinobi following him. All the while Naruto was screaming and trying to break free. In a curst of air a group of 5 shinobi wearing ANBU masks surrounded him. Grimmjow barely stopped in time.

"Let go of the jinchuuriki," one of them ordered. The five shinobi drew out tantos and held out their swords, ready to attack if need be. "If you don't then we will end you," another said.

Looking around, Grimmjow smirked at the group. "Alright," he answered, "I guess I'll just do that." He threw Naruto into the air and cut down one of the ANBU. Two more raised their swords in order to attack him and a third jumped up to catch Naruto. Grimmjow easily dispatched the two ANBU who tried to attack him and killed the third with a bala. As he attacked the final one though, they easily dodged his attack and drew out a kunai, stabbing him in the leg. Reeling from the shock of the attack, the ANBU delivered a strong round-house kick to Grimmjow's head, sending him flying. At that moment, Naruto began to fall to the ground but a new figure jumped up and grabbed him in time landing on a nearby roof.

"What the hell who-," Naruto's eyes widened as he realized the person who just saved him was Asuka, "WHAT THE HELL!? You!?"

Asuka raised an eyebrow, "What, no "thank you for saving my life like the damsel in distress I am"? Talk about ungrateful." The ANBU who had kicked Grimmjow away shunpo'd behind Asuka. Asuka looked up and smiled weakly.

"Put the Jinchuuriki down, now," she ordered Asuka.

"I have a name!" Naruto yelled at her. The ANBU didn't listen and just continued to glare down Asuka.

"Uuuuuh," Asuka said, very frightened by the air the ANBU had around them, "Look o-" Grimmjow sonido'd behind the ANBU and prepared to strike them down with his sword. She slammed him with a backfist and sent him flying again. All without even taking her eyes off of Asuka.

"Uuuuuum, I see you're kinda busy fighting the guy with the bad hairdo," Asuka said, "So, why don't I hold on to Naruto while you deal with him! I won't go far, I promise!"

The ANBU leaned down and looked Asuka straight in the eye. "And why would I do that?" she asked the girl.

Asuka gave a nervous smile and sweated a bit. "B-because y-you'd hunt me down and kill me if I didn't stay here?" she asked hopefully.

Grimmjow dug himself out of the wreckage he'd been blasted into by the ANBU's attack. "Ok, lady!" he yelled, "You asked for it!"

The ANBU turned around to the direction Grimmjow was in. "Be sure to dodge any debris that ends up flying at you," she told them, "I'm sure you can handle that much. Foreign shinobi or not, you are expendable. The jinchuuriki is not. I expect him handed into my custody once this little distraction is taken care of." Asuka just nodded in confirmation and jumped to a safer distance with Naruto in tow.

"Grind, Panthera!" Grimmjow yelled. A large burst of energy erupted from the ground and engulfed him. The ANBU narrowed her eyes as the large pillar began to dissipate and Grimmjow jumped into the air, his form changed into something more catlike. He landed on the building opposite of her and called out, "Hey, lady! What's yer name? I'd like to know it before I rip you to shreds."

"I have none," she answered, "I am simply a member of ROOT. That's all you need to know." Grimmjow leaped off of the building and began clawing at the ANBU. She easily dodged the first few strikes and blocked the next one. Grabbing the arm she blocked with both arms she threw Grimmjow to the ground and mounted him. She slammed his arms to the ground and held onto his wrists, positioning his arms in 90 degree angles. Removing her right hand from Grimmjow's left wrist she quickly slid her arm underneath Grimmjow's and grabbed her wrist. Moving quickly she "painted the ground" with Grimmjow's arm and broke it.

"GAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" he yelled. He reached out to try and punch/claw at her. She simply grabbed that arm and did the same thing to it. While he was distracted by the pain the ROOT operative grabbed a kunai out from her rear pouch, enhanced it with chakra so that it could pierce the hiero and thrust it through Grimmjow's eye, and into his brain, killing him.

As he fell limp she got up she wiped her hands and muttered to herself. "Why is it that so few of these "accomplished warriors" don't know basic ground defense?" Looking across the street to the rooftop of another building she saw both Asuka and Naruto staring wide eyed. The ANBU headed over to them and took a shocked Naruto out of the hands of a shocked Asuka. "You may move along," she told Asuka, "I will return Naruto to the hospital. If you should wish to visit him before returning to Kusagakure it may be done so there where he will be given more competent guards than the ones who foolishly let the Uchiha get by. That is all."

"W-wait, no!" Naruto yelled, "Asuka sh-she's ROOT! My dad told me about them! Don't let her take me! They'll turn me into a mindless zombie!"

"Ichimaru-san," the ANBU said, "If we'd intended to do that we'd have taken you in before you were adopted by one of the most dangerous shinobi Konoha has ever had in its ranks since the Yondaime."

Asuka straightened up and gave a serious look to the ROOT shinobi. "I'm still going with you to make sure Naruto-san gets back ok," she told the older woman.

The ANBU looked at Asuka curiously and asked, "And what makes you think I will allow that?"

Asuka smirked and answered. "Because it would be a big political incident if the daughter of the leader of Kusagakure was found dead or went missing in a foreign village," Asuka Honda responded, "Especially one as prominent as Konohagakure."

The ANBU glared at her before letting out a hefty sigh. "You have a point. Let's go," she said. Before they were able to do so though a wall of flower petals began to surround them.

Two figures wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them appeared behind the trio. "I'm afraid we will have to protest that," the Byakuya told them.

"Hand us the Jinchuuriki and we'll let you two go," Rukia said, "If not, we'll have to kill you both. We'd rather avoid that option if we have to." The ROOT operative handed Naruto back to Asuka.

"I'll create an opening in the barrier they've placed around us," she whispered to Asuka, "When I do that we'll both make a run for it. But for now, DUCK!" The ANBU ran through a group of handsigns really quickly and casted a wind jutsu that sent a strong burst of air all around her causing the petals to scatter everywhere.

Immediately, the two of them, plus Naruto though he was being carried, ran out and began heading away from them. Byakuya thrust his hand out and sent a wave of the petals closing in on them. Just before they converged on them a group of numerous quick blows destroyed several petals and scattered the rest. Turning around, the trio saw their savior standing there.

Gin Ichimaru, usually known for wearing a notoriously wide grin on a regular basis was not smiling at ALL. Byakuya and Rukia tensed and got ready for the coming battle.

"ANBU-san, Girl-chan," Gin said, "Get my son out of here. I'll deal with these two."

"D-dad," Naruto said, "I-I, thanks for coming."

Gin turned around and gave Naruto a reassuring smile. "Of course, you're my little baby boy, aren't you?" Gin said to his son.

Naruto gave a big, but thin smile. "Y-yeah," he responded, "I am." Nodding, Gin turned back to the two Akatsuki members.

"Go," he told them. The started jumping across the rooftops and heading back to the hospital. Gin began to slowly walk towards them, no sign of his usual gleeful expression on his face. "In the past 24 hours," he said, "My son has been beaten around, stabbed, blown up, severely burned, had a building fall on him, gotten his legs amputated due to severe injuries, watched his teammate die, been kidnapped, tossed around like a hot potato, and is probably severely traumatized at this point. So right now, I don't care that you've thrown your lot in with Akatsuki, I don't care if this is out of character for you two, and I sure as HELL don't care about what I've done to you two in the past. You came near my son and tried to hurt him." Gin raised his arm and pointed his Zanpakto at the two of them. "Now you die," he told them, "Bring me their heads, Shinso." His sword shot out straight for a bit and then it curved into a perfect circle at the end.

Rukia released her Zanpakto and Byakuya spread his arms out, ready to unleash the full wrath of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi on Gin.

Kumogakure

A looked down at the body on the table in to mortuary. He reached over and lifted the cloth covering the figure and looked down to see his brother, Bee, with a hole in his chest so big he barely had a chest left. Lowering the cloth back down, A turned to Tosen. "What do you think could have happened to him?" he asked his comrade as they left the room and began to walk out.

"Well, if I had to guess-," Tosen said, biting his lip.

A narrowed his eyes. "Guess what?" he asked Tosen.

"If I had to guess," Tosen repeated, "I'd say it was Gin who killed B in order to keep him away from Akatsuki."

"How could he have done that?" A asked, "He wasn't anywhere near where they were when B was-….. At least according to the forensics team."

"Well, it may be nothing but there has always been this thing Gin referred to his Zanpakto as one time," Tosen replied, "He called it, "The Zanpakto of One Thousand Releases"."

Author's Notes: For those of you thinking about it, do NOT try that move the ANBU pulled on Grimmjow to break his arms at home. It is a very dangerous and very real move and if you want to learn it go take Brazillian Jujitsu/Ground Defense. Yes, Byakuya and Rukia are part of Akatsuki. No, I'm not telling you the backstory behind that. And yes, Bleach has really begun its final countdown. That is all. Callian31, signing out.