Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I think I've got a bottle of bleach somewhere around here...

Author's note: I've gotten a beta! Hurray! I'd like to thank PseudoPhysics for his help with this chapter.

In other news… I'm moving this world to 2016 instead of 2001 like canon bleach is set in. It just became too frustrating to constantly check what has or hasn't happened yet, or what was available 15 years ago.


Chapter 5 - Preparations:

Ichigo scowled. Golden irises and black sclera stared defiantly back at him.

The orange haired teen sighed and broke the staring contest, tilting his head back to look at the giant wall of energy separating the two of them.

"This is awkward…"

The inverted version of him snorted.

A little behind him, Zangetsu was calmly standing atop a flagpole. The three of them were currently situated sideways on a skyscraper. It should have been disorienting, but Ichigo found it strangely natural despite the initial surprise.

The awkward silence stretched. Finally, Ichigo couldn't take it any longer. "Fuck it. Just answer my questions and I'll be out of here. Deal?"

His Hollow lifted a white eyebrow. "Questions? Since when did you become so curious?"

"Since now. I have nothing better to do." Ichigo shrugged. Had it been up to him, he could have easily slept through the night undisturbed, preferably without dreams.

"Then ask away King! I have nothing better to do either!" The Hollow shouted, smashing his fist against the seal. The building shook and the sky rumbled.

Ichigo didn't flinch.

"Why do you want my body?" He asked, scowling at his inverted counterpart.

The Hollow blinked, staring at him as if he had just asked why the sky was blue.

"Why? WHY!? BECAUSE YOU'RE WEAK! THAT'S WHY!" His copy shouted at him.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes. It made sense. In a convoluted sort of way. The Hollow had hinted at it before. That he would die if Ichigo died. Like all other living beings, his Hollow didn't want to die. But… Neither did he. "I'm weak. So what? I'll get stronger." Ichigo said, determination dripping from every syllable.

His Hollow laughed. It was a chilling and distorted laugh. The double tint made the hair on the teen's neck stand on end.

"Stronger? How do you intend to do that when you've locked up your own damn power!?" The last word was thrown in his face. Spit flew from the Hollows mouth, only to evaporate as it touched the barrier between them.

Ichigo blinked twice before his scowl returned. "As if you give me a choice." He said with irritation. "Why should I keep you around if all you do is try to eat my soul?"

Just as he said it, an awful feeling settled over him. It reminded him of reiatsu, although that should have been stopped by the seal.

His Hollow's eyes dilated. The black and golden gaze burning so intensely Ichigo almost took a step back.

"All I do!? Hadn't it been for me, you'd been dead ten times over! I'm the only reason you're still alive you idiot! A king is nothing without his horse!" He sounded angry. A much more genuine anger than the crazy lust for violence and murder he had shown previously.

Ichigo frowned as he recalled the numerous times a Hollow mask had saved him. Come to think of it… he would have died against Byakuya too, if his Hollow hadn't intervened. As much as Ichigo resented the being in front of him, he couldn't deny the truth of its words.

"Why do you call me that?" Ichigo asked instead, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling pressing him down.

The Hollow blinked, a bit put off by the sudden shift in mood.

"Call you what?"

"King. You've done it before. Why call me that? I'm not a king." Ichigo insisted.

The doppelganger snorted and looked away. Some of his anger faded. "You're the king of this world, and we're the horses. You are the one living. The one choosing. We are only here to assist you. Of course we're the horses." The words were bitter, but they lacked any weight or conviction behind them. As if the Hollow barely believed what he was saying.

Ichigo tilted his head to the side as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea. He looked at Zangetsu still standing calmly behind him. The old man's silence was an answer all to itself. He did feel a little bad about that. Still… He wasn't going to give up his life because some crazy Hollow wanted to live its own.

"So what'll I call you then? Since you're most likely staying here for a while." Ichigo said, ignoring the seed of guilt churning in his stomach with practiced efficiency.

The Hollow stared at him for a while. Black and golden eyes searching. What they were searching for was anyone's guess. "Zangetsu." The word was said without inflection, although strangely loaded at the same time.

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "I can't call you that. He's Zangetsu." He said, jerking a thumb at the spirit behind him.

The flash of satisfaction was quickly replaced by a scowl that was more than a match for Ichigo's. "I am Zangetsu." The Hollow insisted, palms pressing against the energy separating them. Steam rose from the point of contact, shortly followed by the smell of burning flesh. The Hollow ignored it.

Ichigo sighed with a patience he usually reserved for his sisters. "You can't both be Zangetsu. That'll never work." After a moment of deliberation, the teen nodded imperceptibly. "I'll call you Shiro."

The newly dubbed Shiro snarled. His eyes flashed with irritation. He didn't speak up though, so Ichigo took that as a 'fine, you jackass'.

"So… How do I get out of here?" Ichigo asked, turning towards the much more collaborative inhabitant of his world.

The old spirit cocked his head to the side. "You open your eyes." He said matter of factly.

Ichigo sighed with irritation. That explained absolutely nothing. His eyes were already open. Before he could point out this blaringly obvious fact, he was suddenly uncertain. The mere act of thinking about it gave him a strange tugging sensation behind his eyelids, as if he really did want to open them.

After a few seconds of disconnect, the world suddenly shifted.

Ichigo could still feel the smooth stone of the skyscraper beneath him, but if he concentrated, he could also tell he was laying in his bed, the soft mattress pressing gently into his back.

Without a second thought, Ichigo opened his eyes.


"Now, I expect you all to make the new student feel welcome." Ochi-sensei insisted, her voice caring and innocent. No one was fooled for a second.

Ichigo wasn't really paying attention. A transfer student was always thrilling news in high school. Judging by the excited whispers around him, his class was no different than the norm. Personally, he had had enough excitement for two or three lifetimes. As long as the they weren't some eccentric spirit trying to recruit him into a cult of half-demons, Ichigo couldn't care less.

"Heya Kurosaki-san, my name is Hirako Shinji. Nice to meet ya'."

Future Ichigo would look back at this moment and wonder… was the universe intelligent? And did it take sadistic pleasure in proving him wrong in the most ironic ways possible?


Aika sighed mournfully as her mission once again assured her of humanity's deficiencies. They couldn't seem to get even the tiniest detail right. Sure, they were nice to look at, and some were even interesting, but they were just so… fallible.

And fragile. She remembered just in time to grab a spear headed for Juro's back. The shinobi twirled around, taking in the situation within a fraction of a second. He nodded his thanks to Aika before flying back into combat with all the grace of a fully trained jounin.

Not all that gracefully, in Aika's opinion.

She kept an eye on her three teammates as she casually flicked her next foe in the forehead. Just as her skin touched him, he was burned to a crisp by unnaturally dark flames.

Their objective cowered behind them, trying to stay alive as an army of Giants advanced towards them. Aika almost sneered. He was the reason they were in this mess in the first place. He only had to keep quiet as they came to rescue him, but of course he tried to get out on his own. Making lots of racket in the process. Pathetic thing. Although, her more gracious side amended, it wasn't totally his fault. He hadn't chosen to be born human any more than her brothers had chosen to be born as eagles.

However, this particular human had managed to screw up so much it bordered on the ridiculous. Who the hell stole a godly weapon from one of the most secure citadels on the planet, only to end up in a completely different world as dinner for hungry Giants? The monsters didn't even belong to the same pantheon!

Thankfully, the guy had friends in high places. People who knew whom to call. Friends with actual money for a change. So the shinobi alliance didn't even have to pretend to be a charity organization.

Aika twitched in irritation as she materialized between another teammate and certain death. The ground quaked beneath her feet as she caught the massive sword threatening to flatten her blonde ally. Aika did a doubletake as she reevaluated the weapon before her. It wasn't just a massive sword. It was a massive sword on fire. Even better, a massive claymore on fire.

That was actually kind of cool.

The girl behind her screamed in pain as waves of heat exploded from the magical sword. The flames seemed alive as it thrashed against the world around them, snarling with fury and ectoplasmic faces. Aika's face practically sparkled with childish eagerness. She wanted that sword!

A strange sound brought her back to the current moment. Oh right. The girl. What was her name again? Enrike? Rina? Rika? Rika! That's it.

Rika swore violently as she fell to the ground, clutching her burnt face and vincing from the pain. Relief and terror flashed through her her eyes as they locked with Aika's. Thankfully, the jounin had enough sense to substitute herself with a piece of rubble, giving her team leader some room to maneuver.

Aika looked up at her new opponent with disinterest. The overgrown moron was at least thirty meters tall. He towered over her and his lesser brethren. His skin was blue, and he wore some high quality combat armor. Probably someone important then.

The Giant seemed shocked. As if he couldn't imagine someone actually catching his sword. The rest of the battlefield wasn't any better. Everyone (including her teammates and their objective) was gawking at her, wasting valuable time by being amazed. The only thing missing was an audience gasping in the background.

Aika rolled her eyes. Morons. The lot of them.

The Giant grunted in dismay and studied her with carefully intelligent eyes. The flames encompassing his weapon picked up in intensity, becoming so hot that it began to melt the rock beneath her feet. Aika thought it was pleasantly warm.

The raven-haired woman pondered their situation as she kept the claymore in check. This wasn't sustainable. Her teammates simply weren't strong enough to survive such an encounter without casualties. They were thankfully stronger than the average Giant, so they weren't completely dead weight. However, they were still only three shinobi. The Giants had brought an army. Granted, they were trapped in the heart of enemy territory. So she supposed it was to be expected.

Taking a few hundredths of a second to think it over, Aika arrived at her solution. Kill them all.

She doubted her father would agree to her chosen path of action, but the Giants' souls would survive, and they didn't live all that long anyways. She couldn't remember exactly how long, which annoyed her, but she was sure it wasn't more than a century or two. Plus they were ugly, and they smelled terrible.

Decision made, Aika tightened her grip. The mystical metal creaked in protest. Eyes widening in shock, the Giant tried to pull his weapon back without much success. A sadistic smirk stretched Aika's mouth as her eyes spun into the red of the Sharingan, three tomoe spinning lazily around the pupil.

A second later, the flaming piece of metal was consumed in an eldritch dark flame. It covered the blade from head to toe, quickly spreading to its wielder and burning him to ashes. The sword followed soon afterwards.

No! Not the sword! Eyes widening, Aika tried to pull the flames back. It was too late though. Only ashes remained of the Giant and his weapon. A second later, even that had evaporated. Sighing in disappointment, Aika let the flames burst up again. The sword was long gone, but if it couldn't even take that much, it was barely worth taking anyway.

Flicking her wrist towards the nearest cluster of enemies. The dark flame leapt at her command. She was careful to leave an untouched area around her team. After all, killing her allies would be kind of counterproductive to the mission objective.

Fifteen minutes later, the only thing left standing was her, the shinobi that came with her, and the idiotic manling they had come to rescue. Aika took a deep breath, frustratedly brushing a strand of black hair out of her eyes. Fifteen minutes? Did she really take an entire fifteen minutes? Unacceptable. He would have managed it in half that time.

"Let's go." She said, annoyed at herself. This entire mission had been very unsatisfactory.

Her team was staring at her. Fear and trepidation dancing in their eyes. It was well hidden, but Aika could still see it. Rolling her eyes at their antics she motioned for them to get on with it. The manling squeaked.

Juro coughed once before nodding. Without another word, he pulled out a scroll from his pocket. The jounin tossed it forward, letting the parchment unroll itself before going through a short sequence of seals. It took a couple of seconds for the portal to establish itself, but the shinobi wasted no time once it did. Juro went last, taking the floating scroll with him, and thus collapsing the hole in reality.

They left the dark flames of Amaterasu burning Jotunheim behind them.


Ichigo stretched in his seat. The final lesson of the day was finally over.

He took his time gathering school supplies. Shinji tried to strike up a conversation, but Ichigo wasn't in the mood, so the other boy eventually gave up. Almost everyone had left by the time the orange-haired boy shuffled out of the classroom. He wasn't particularly surprised to find his friends waiting for him though.

"Late as always, Kurosaki." Uryuu complained, pushing up his glasses in a perfectly superior motion.

Ichigo snorted. "Sure, sure. You guys ready?"

Ishida rolled his eyes, but Inoue and Chad nodded. Thus the four of them left school together. Orihime waved cheerfully at an obviously suspicious Tatsuki.

"I've been thinking." The cheerful girl began. "What if we get together after training? We still have homework to do, and it would help if we did them together... right?" Her voice was hopeful, but her voice became uncertain towards the end.

Ichigo nodded. "That's an excellent idea, Orihime." He had already warned his family that he'd be busy for a while, and wouldn't be home for a few hours after school ended. His father had been all too eager to use this as excuse to annoy Ichigo about girls. The man was relentless.

Ishida was quick to give his assent as well, although he had a very intense gleam in his eyes. It looked as if he had taken the innocent proposal as a personal challenge.

Chad grunted his confirmation. "I'm living alone at the moment. So there's no pressing schedule on my end. Most days I have guitar practice around 7, but we should be finished by then anyways.".

The conversation went back and forth for awhile, mostly discussing unimportant things teenagers often talk about. Finally they arrived at the gym, and was once again subjected to the weirdness of having an entirely separate world in the cellar. Naruto was waiting for them of course, and they soon split off in separate directions. Ichigo quirked an eyebrow at Naruto. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but his teacher felt different somehow. He wasn't good enough at sensing to say anything more however, so he let it be. He would probably find out sooner or later.


Ichigo was forced to jump back as a blade of wind obliterated the place he'd been standing. A large swath had been cut through the earth, digging down farther than he could see.

Unperturbed by this, the orange-haired teen entered his fastest Flash Step before swinging Tensa Zangetsu with all his might. A massive Getsuga tore through the air, but just as it had the last few times he'd tried, the attack connected with his teacher… and then passed harmlessly through him.

Naruto just grinned at him, body reforming as fast as the air could move. Swinging his hand around, the blond tossed a tornado at his student.

Ichigo was blasted backwards, crashing into the ground before regaining his footing and blasting off in another burst of Shunpo.

This had been going on for a while now, and Ichigo was beginning to get annoyed.

How was this fair? How could he attack someone that could turn into wind? At first he'd thought it was some kind of illusion, but Zangetsu could detect no tampering with his mind. The second thing he'd considered was the possibility that he wasn't fighting Naruto at all. He'd seen his teacher's clone techniques, and it wasn't too far of a stretch that the blond could make the wind look and act like him.

He might be a clone, but he certainly didn't feel like one. The overbearing feeling of his energy was still here, just as powerful as ever. The nearest other signature was Chad, a couple of kilometers to the north. Also, his punches hurt like a bitch.

No matter his method, Naruto was transforming into wind as he was attacked.

Facing his teacher, the teen only had a second of warning before Naruto activated his next technique. Ichigo choked as all the oxygen around him disappeared. Dammit. This was so unfair! Since when did Naruto fight so dirty?

Flaring his reiatsu as high as it would go, Ichigo blasted towards his opponent. He was (mostly) sure that Naruto needed to breathe, so he wouldn't remove his own oxygen supply.

On the way towards his teacher, the substitute broke through three air barriers, each one sturdier than the last. Black flames flowed around his body as Ichigo broke through the last wall. He was pretty sure that one had been harder than tempered steel. But he had never broken through a steel wall before. He would have to remember the sensation for a later occasion. Who knows, maybe someday he would have to rob a bank...

Then the world suddenly stopped. The ever-present rush of wind was gone. There was no sound. No motion. The air in his lungs almost forced its way out, but he managed to keep it in with a concentrated effort of will. He could feel a prickeling under his skin. The feeling was becoming steadily stronger, as if his body wanted to turn inside out but something was stopping it. Whatever it was, Ichigo was thankful for it.

Naruto looked mildly concerned.

Ichigo blinked as he noticed tears streaking down his face. Or they would have, if they hadn't evaporated as soon as they left his eyes. Eyes which were becoming dryer by the second. Clamping his eyelids shut, the student tried to stop the water from flowing. He might as well have tried to stop the Victoria Falls. This had nothing to do with emotions, it was a purely physical reaction.

"Ichigo! You are in a vacuum! You have to move!" Zangetsu's voice was slightly panicked.

In the back of his mind, Ichigo noted that his Zanpakuto sounded different. Younger. More emotional. However weird that was, he did agree with the sentiment. He found that moving felt… strange. There was no resistance, so he ended up overcompensating. The air walking technique thankfully still worked, so he managed to close the distance between himself and Naruto.

Ichigo gulped down as much air as he could just as normal atmosphere reestablished itself. It took about half a second for him to reorient himself enough to move towards his opponent. The teen was grateful Naruto hadn't taken the opportunity to attack. All such reservations having long since been beaten out of him, the substitute swung his Zanpakuto again, drowning the sky in another burst of black and red energy.

"You know... no matter how much you swing that stick around, it's never going to do anything to me." Naruto teased, sending a battering ram of air straight at Ichigo.

The high schooler braced himself, stabilising the reshi platform beneath his feet to the best of his ability.

It felt like being hit by a truck. A very big, fast-moving truck. Thankfully, Ichigo was more than tough enough to weather it. The second it passed, the Shinigami tossed another massively overpowered getsuga at his teacher. Of course, the blond just reformed two seconds later.

"I still don't get what you're trying to do. It's like hitting your head against the wall, trying to make it break." Naruto frowned. Studying his wary pupil.

At this point, Ichigo was panting with exhaustion, sweat dripped down his face. His eyes were still focused though, and his spiritual pressure was as strong as it had ever been.

Feeding another massive amount of energy into his sword, the teen quickly deflected dozens of wind spears heading straight for him. Vanishing into another Shunpo, he appeared behind Naruto once again, pouring even more reiatsu into his next attack. The horizon darkened as he swung.

When Naruto reformed, he was greeted by the sight of his prized pupil almost fainting with exhaustion. "That's enough. You can't go on for much longer." the blond said, beginning his descent towards the ground far below.

"I'm not done yet!" Ichigo protested. Tensa Zangetsu's chain elongated and bound itself around his biceps, allowing the teen full use of both hands. Reaching towards his teacher, the exhausted teen dragged his arms together.

Lifting an eyebrow in surprise, Naruto opened his mouth to protest. But before he could say anything, he noticed the dark energy surrounding them had begun to twitch. Red and black reiatsu flickered through the air, suffusing the skyline from top to bottom.

Each Getsuga Ichigo had thrown left a fraction of itself behind, bathing the area in the death god's spiritual energy.

As Naruto watched, the sky moved. All the remnants of Ichigo's attacks gathered themselves on the teens command, surrounding Naruto in a sphere of dark flame.

"When did you learn to do this!?" Naruto asked incredulously, looking for an opening in the attack. Unfortunately for him, the technique was perfectly formed. If it had any imperfections, Naruto couldn't find them.

"I'm- kind of-" Ichigo huffed. "-improvising." He forced out, voice obviously strained.

"Improvising?" Naruto repeated incredulously. Eyes wide, the blond stared at the reiatsu surrounding him. This was getting ridiculous. He could expect the moon, and the teen would give him the entire night sky.

As the sphere collapsed around him, Naruto's field of vision was filled with an all-encompassing darkness. He could feel the particles of dust being burned away.

Eyes hardening, Naruto instantly cloaked himself in Kurama's protective energy. A half-second later, he had activated every defensive technique he could at this short a notice, letting the numerous seals on his body mix themselves with the six paths' markings. His Rinnegan pulsed almost painfully and Naruto let his voice echo through the world.

"SHINRA TENSEI!"

The wall of gravitational force met the incoming energy and instantly dispersed it, then it blasted towards the ground far below them.

With a deafening boom, a crater the size of Karakura grew from the impact, tossing a humongous amount of dirt in every direction. Naruto let out an astonished huff before letting his chakra cloak dissipate. Scanning the area for his pupil, the blond blanched when he saw him still standing.

"Now…" Ichigo began, his body utterly spent. "...I'm done." his voice dropped off as he fainted.

Naruto shook his head. With almost no power left he had still managed to withstand an overpowered Shinra Tensei?

Ichigo's dark cloak flailed around him as the Shinigami fell from the sky. Ah… The substitute Shinigami. The devil was in the details and all that. Moving towards the descending teen in a lazy mockery of his previous speed, the shinobi caught his student long before he hit the ground.

Studying the child in his arms. Naruto's thoughts drifted back to the last moments of the fight. If he hadn't reclaimed more of his power a few days previously, he wasn't certain he could have repelled that attack. If he had fought this version of Ichigo before their invasion of Soul Society, he couldn't have guaranteed victory.

The blond grinned at that thought.


Stark sighed as Lilynette dragged him towards their destination. It had been a while since they were the last in the world of the living, and the air in this town tasted surprisingly good. "Slow down Lilynette, the mission isn't supposed to start until a few hours anyway." Stark complained.

In response, his partner stuck out her tongue and only pulled harder.

Stark stared mournfully at the sky. The sun had only just risen a couple of minutes ago. It went against his nature to be awake at this hour. But after Lilynette had gotten over her initial reluctance, her excitement for their mission had built to unbearable levels. She had been become very insisting, refusing to let him sleep in.

Despite himself, he also found his own curiosity growing. It wasn't as much due to the mission itself as to who their teammates were. Naruto certainly hadn't pulled his punches there.

Ten minutes later, they were standing outside a small shop. Their mission leader had requested that they meet up here for whatever reason.

A red haired boy was standing outside, glowering at them. Stark stared lazily back, his face devoid of any emotion.

Lilynette was not as composed.

"What do you think you're staring at? Huh! Wanna go!" The child Arrancar growled, taking a step forward as she scowled back at the boy.

"Huh!? Who do you think you're staring at? This is our shop, you know! It's you that look suspicious!" The redhead shouted. He took a step forward as well, suddenly brandishing a giant spiked club. Stark wasn't particularly worried. He didn't feel much hostility from the boy, only irritation. Something that seemed to be his default feeling, if he wasn't mistaken.

The two 'kids' stalked towards each other, lightning flashing between them. Just as they reached each other, another figure appeared between them.

"Yare, yare. What is all this racket. You should be nice to the customers, Jinta-kun." The newcomer was a blond middle-aged man brandishing a walking stick.

Stark deliberately didn't tense. While the redhead wasn't a threat, this man most definitely was. His Shunpo had been virtually soundless. "Urahara Kisuke, I presume." Stark drawled.

Using his cane, the Shinigami tipped his hat upwards, causing shadows to hide his face menacingly. "Ah, yes. And you're Coyote Stark, correct?" His smile was just a tad too wide. Stark nodded, noticing Lilynette and Jinta had started their one-upmanship again.

The two warriors studied each other for a moment, the air growing noticeably colder between them. Urahara opened his mouth to say something, but before he got the chance, Lilynette and Jinta both decided words weren't enough. Unfortunately for Urahara, he was standing between them, and was thus trampled into the ground by the two irate children.

Stark looked down at the man with sympathy. He knew how that felt. "Are you okay?" He asked. Kisuke was their host after all.

"I'm used to it." The blond wheezed, using his cane to limp back towards the shop. Stark followed shortly after. They left Jinta and Lilynette outside, busy tearing each other's hair out.

As they entered the building, Itachi and Minato were waiting for them. Neither man acknowledged their entrance however. Both were completely engrossed in some sort of competition. No words were spoken between the two, but the stillness of their bodies and their flickering eyes spoke of some sort of mental battle. Itachi had the Sharingan active.

Kisuke narrowed his eyes at them. "They have been doing that for some time now. Some sort of Genjutsu, I'm guessing. A simulation only they can see."

Stark blinked. Wasn't that interesting? A Shinigami using shinobi terminology?

"They are at least vaguely aware of the outside world. As when I tried to empty a bucket of water on Itachi-san. He… well… It didn't work." Kisuke laughed awkwardly. Stark raised an eyebrow at the shopkeeper. He would have paid some serious money to see that.

"Those two are always competing in something or another." The Arrancar explained. He remembered when they had enlisted in a house building contest. In the end, every other contestant was either catatonic or trapped in some obscure satellite dimension. There were still ongoing arguments on whether Itachi's house ever really existed to begin with. And if not, was that sufficient reason to disqualify him?

Shinobi and rules simply didn't get along.

Kisuke nodded absentmindedly, his eyes moving from one man to the other. It looked like he was determined to recreate the entire illusion based on the movement of their eyes alone.

Stark left him to it, retreating further into the house where he felt another familiar signature. Sure enough, Naruto was there. His boss was playing some sort of fighting game with his son. A skeletal warrior bisected the scantily dressed woman he was fighting with brutal efficiency. It all looked very morbid. Boruto shouted and thrust his hands up in the perfect expression of victory. Naruto hung his head and stroked a familiar cat lounging beside him. The feline purred in satisfaction.

"See that, Yoyo-chan? No respect for his elders. What has this world come to?" Naruto shook his head. An almost tangible cloud of depression forming above him.

Stark didn't say anything as he slid down the wall, trying to get some shut-eye before the mission started. It wasn't to be however, as Itachi and Minato had finished whatever they'd been doing.

"Ah, there you are, Stark. Ready for the mission?" Minato asked, dropping down beside him.

The Arrancar sighed internally but nodded anyway. Of course they would start early. They were all here, after all. The late start was probably just because of his tendency to sleep in. As he was already here, that was no longer a problem.

"Great, we will depart from the cellar. It should be impossible to trace it if we open the Garganta there." Such security measures weren't strictly necessary, but you could never be too careful.


A couple of minutes later, a strange assortment of sapient beings were gathered in the massive underground space beneath Urahara Shoten.

An irate Lilynette stuck her tongue out at Jinta, quickly hiding behind a sheepish Naruto as the redhead made a move to retaliate.

Ururu quietly fretted over the situation, but was too shy to intervene.

Yoruichi was lounging lazily on top of Naruto's head. Watching Minato with a slightly interested air about her.

Stark was watching Minato with a raised eyebrow.

Itachi was staring at Minato.

Tessai was staring at Minato.

Urahara was staring at Minato.

Minato was drawing a seal.

The seal was more than eight meters in diameter and painted over rocky ground. It had been written entirely in blood, most had been bottled and prepared beforehand, although some had been in Minato's body just a few minutes previously. All he needed now was an altar, some candles, and possibly a baby, then the entire thing would look like some kind of satanic sacrifice.

When he finished, Minato pocketed the stained brush and placed his hand at the edge of the seal. Twisting his palm once, he watched as the construct collapsed and twisted over itself. A second later, it had reformed into the shape and size of a golf ball. He took it, carrying the glowing symbols as easily as one would any solid object.

Then he stuck it in his pocket.

Minato nodded to Naruto, signifying that he was finished.

Stark sighed. He had long since given up trying to understand all the strange and seemingly nonsensical things his friend did on a regular basis.

Gently directing Lilynette to stand beside Stark, Naruto stepped forward. His back was straight, and his eyes were filled with intent. The serious atmosphere was kind of ruined by the cat lounging on his head though.

"As you know, your mission is to locate Las Noches and report its location to me before two weeks time. I expect a progress report every day you're in the field. Namikaze Minato is the mission leader." They all knew this of course, but last minute iterations were standard procedure. "Any questions?"

Lilynette was about to point out the cat reclining on her friend's head, but Stark quickly shushed her. No other questions came. Minato smiled brightly at his teammates. It was time to leave.

Stark yawned. For a Hollow at his level, opening a Garganta was as simple as poking the air. He probably didn't even need that to be honest, but he would never hear the end of it if the portal became unstable because he was literally too lazy to lift a finger. A swirling darkness opened in reality, elliptically stretching across three-dimensional space, the menacing portal gaped before them.

Stark felt Lilynette tense. She didn't say anything though, so Stark supposed she was fine. He smiled to himself as she squared her shoulders and ran forward, letting him trail after her. Itachi entered shortly after them, his face falling into an unreadable mask of utter professionalism.

Urahara was studying the portal closely, so he almost missed it as Minato tossed something at him. With a movement too fast to see, the ex-assassin caught the shogi piece. The scientist frowned at it, the kanji for 'Knight' gleaming back at him. When the scientist looked up, the Garganta was closed and all four warriors were gone.


"What do you mean gone?" Aika asked incredulously.

The woman behind the desk winced at her tone, but her answer remained the same. "N-Naruto-sama has left Shin Uzu for an unspecified amount of time. That is what the report says, Uzumaki-sama."

Aika's eyebrow twitched. Left? What did that even mean? Naruto never left. He could be everywhere at once!

Thankfully, the woman she was talking to wasn't a complete idiot, as it seemed she understood Aika's confusion.

"Apparently there is some sort of situation that takes up a lot of his capacity. His mission load has shrunk to a third of the usual. We have been recalling hundreds of back-up personnel to deal with the extra work." The secretary said, voice regaining a smidgen of its usual authority.

A situation? A situation that required Naruto to recall over two thirds of his forces? Had he truly left Shin Uzu entirely? The thought was almost comical. For one, that wasn't actually how his technique worked. As long as there was energy to use, his capacity was nigh unlimited. So… what? Why did her father feel the need to dispel thousands of clones and leave hundreds of simulacrums unattended?

"Where did he go?" Aika asked. Her curiosity was getting the better of her.

"I-I'm not authorized to-" The woman began.

"Use my authorization then." Aika snapped, handing over her ID card in the process.

The chunin squawked, but did her best to fulfill the request. The secretary placed the card on her omni-sensor. The fancy fuinjutsu work on Aika's card lit up, the imbedded seals sending a verification request to her soul. The entire process granted the computer access to almost everything within the shinobi database.

After a few minutes of searching and navigating data systems she was obviously unfamiliar with, the chunin finally found the answer.

Karakura Town, Japan.


Ichigo was content. It was such a rare occurrence that it was worth savoring. He was in his room, stomach full of curry and all the scheduled homework done on Monday. It felt good having mundane problems to worry about. Even better to not have any to worry about. That his soul wasn't currently in danger of consumption was also a plus.

"Oy, Ichigo. You just going to lay there all evening?" Kon asked.

The Mod Soul was sitting on his desk, swinging his legs in a way that sufficiently conveyed the message 'I'M BORED!'

Ichigo hummed, looking up from his book. That did sound nice. "Yes." He decided.

That wasn't the answer Kon wanted though. The stuffed lion jumped from the desk and landed on Ichigo's back. It was probably supposed to be painful, but the plushie was so light he barely felt it.

"Now you listen here buddy!" Kon began, threateningly pointing a paw at the back of his head. That was as far as he got however, as Ichigo's Shinigami badge buzzed just a second later. That sound was starting to annoy him almost as much as his alarm. That was impressive, as Ichigo's alarm was Isshin.

The teen sighed, but he dutifully grabbed the badge. He ejected Kon's pill before the toy had a chance to do anything. Swallowing the pill, Ichigo's soul had soon manifested itself outside his body, while Kon was left rubbing the back of his head in irritation.

"Behave yourself. I'll be back in a few minutes." The substitute Shinigami said. The Mod Soul's sullen mutterings followed him as he dashed out the window, flying through the air at speeds olympic athletes could only dream of.

Breathing in the (not very) fresh air of urban Japan, Ichigo let his spirit sense wash over the city. The Hollow wasn't that hard to locate. It felt stronger than usual though. Before the summer vacation it might have worried him.

Ichigo scowled. His spiritual energy felt strange, as it had ever since Naruto sealed Shiro away. It wasn't stronger or weaker per se. If he had to describe it, he would call it lighter. It wasn't as heavy as it used to be. Though he hadn't noticed any lack in potency or any other detrimental effect. It was hard to put his finger on. The only noticeable change was a slight increase in reiatsu control. Now it was merely terrible.

The Hollow was large mass of hulking muscles. Quite an average specimen, to be honest. Then again, 'average' for a Hollow was anything between a giant centipede and fighter jets.

The monster swung one of its massive arms at him. Ichigo dodged with ease. It was horribly slow compared to the speed he was used to fighting at.

Before the corrupted spirit could make its next move, the teen threw Zangetsu at it. The blade cleaved effortlessly through its head before he dragged the sword back by its ribbon.

That's it? He mused. He was a bit disappointed. He had been looking forward to building up his ego again after the beatdown camouflaging as a spar he had received earlier today. But this was a bit too easy. Ichigo sighed as he swung Zangetsu's massive frame over his shoulder.

"W-who the hell are you!?" The voice came from behind him.

As he turned around, the orange-haired teen found the source was some kind of nondescript Shinigami. Well... he amended. That afro does stick out some. Ichigo chided himself for not paying more attention. Although, to be fair, the guy had so little reiatsu he barely even noticed there was anyone there.

Deciding to answer the man's question, Ichigo let his Zanpakuto refasten itself on his back. "Name is Kurosaki Ichigo. Substitute Soul Reaper. You?"

The afro-guy carefully mouthed the words 'Substitute Soul Reaper', before his brain eventually settled on the last question. "HAHA! I'm the elite Shinigami Zennosuke Kurumadani! The one in charge of protecting Karakura Town. The most spiritually active area on earth!" He sounded very proud of it all.

Ichigo frowned. Wasn't Renji in charge of Karakura? Though now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember the redhead actually admitting to that. Ichigo had only assumed it to be the case. It was strange to have a lieutenant on such a routine mission. So if Renji wasn't here for something as mundane as Hollow patrol, then he was here to… to what? To watch him? To watch Naruto? Urahara? All of them? It didn't seem that farfetched, but it did make him slightly annoyed at Renji for not telling him. Unless the lieutenant was hiding in every bush Ichigo passed, he was fine with Soul Society trying to keep some sort of control over large uncontrollable factors. In fact, it would be stupid of them not to.

He was about to answer the afro-guy (he had already forgotten his name) when Ichigo's senses picked up another reiatsu signature right behind him. The energy was repressed but clearly powerful. The teen's eyes widened in panic. Quickly putting Zangetsu in a guard position, Ichigo Shunpoed between the afro-guy and this new character. The Shinigami wouldn't last five seconds if Ichigo's estimates were in any way accurate.

As he looked over at where he had just stood, Ichigo couldn't help but curse the gods of irony to the deepest depths of hell. His new classmate was standing upside down in the air, smiling the possibly creepiest smile Ichigo had ever seen. Which was impressive, as Ichigo had met both Urahara Kisuke and Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

"Hirako. What the hell are you doing here?" Ichigo demanded. His eyes widened as they fell on Shinji's sword. If that wasn't a Zanpakuto then he bleached his hair.

He quickly forced himself to calm down. No reason to panic. So Shinji had a Zanpakuto? That meant he was a Shinigami. So what? There were a lot of them. The blond wasn't even the first to have infiltrated his class. Or the second.

"You've got good reflexes kid." Shinji smirked. A trickle of reiatsu began emanating from him, suffusing the air with killing intent.

"W-what the hell? W-who is this, S-substitute? A-a friend of yours?" The afro-guy stammered. His feet were trembling.

Ichigo frowned. If this came to a fight, it would be difficult to protect the other Shinigami at the same time. Hopefully, the dude was smart enough to run away on his own if that happened.

"What do you want, Hirako?" Ichigo demanded. The creep was obviously here for him, but as to why? He hadn't faintest idea.

"Hmm… What do I want?" Shinji mused.

Ichigo blinked and Shinji was gone.

The teen barely managed to react in time to block the blond's first strike. Afro-guy went flying from the aftershock. His scream of surprise grew faint as he tumbled over the roof of a nearby house.

Ichigo tried to twist inside Shinji's guard just before he was forced to retreat and block. A dozen strikes were exchanged in similar manner, all of them happening in an instant.

After a few seconds of this, Shinji disengaged. Putting some distance between them that made very little difference. He seemed pleased.

"You asked me why I'm here?" Shinji asked. His killing intent had all but disappeared, and now he was casually resting his Zanpakuto on his shoulder. "I'm here to give you a proposal, Ichigo." The man said, creepy grin back in all its glory.

Ichigo scowled. Shinji was far too ambiguous for his own good. He still had nothing on Kisuke though.

"Then out with it." Ichigo barked, impatience getting the better of him.

Shinji raised an eyebrow, mouth quirking up in a much more honest expression than before.

"Join us." Shinji said.

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched. "Us?"

Instead of answering, the disguised Shinigami held a hand over his face. A heavy feeling settled over the high-school student. The teen's eyes grew wider and wider as he saw what Shinji was creating.

"A Hollow mask." He whispered.

Shinji smirked. "That's right. A Shinigami's Zanpakuto and a Hollow's mask. The same as you. Isn't that right, Ichigo?" The teenager swallowed. His spirits had become eerily silent. "So, what do you say Ichigo? You're the same as us. You are a Vizard."

"Vizard? There are more of you?" Ichigo asked. His throat felt dry.

"There are more of us, yes." Hirako corrected, letting the mask dissipate back into the air. The heavy feeling - which Ichigo now recognized as Hollow reiatsu - disappeared with it.

"The Hollow inside you is slowly consuming your soul. It might take a week. It might take years. But sooner or later, your soul will be devoured. If you join us, we will teach you to suppress your Hollow. And also to draw upon its power."

Ichigo blinked. That would have been much more tempting if Naruto hadn't already taken care of the issue.

Scratching the back of his head, Ichigo let Zangetsu rewrap itself before looking at the point where the afro dude had flown off to. If he concentrated, he could tell the man was fine. Possibly unconscious. That was probably what Shinji had been aiming for in the first place.

Looking back at the Vizard, Ichigo realized the guy wanted an answer. "No."

Shinji blinked. Nonplussed by such a direct refusal.

"What'ya mean 'no'?" Hirako asked incredulously. As if he couldn't imagine people declining his proposal.

Ichigo's scowl got even more pronounced as he explained.

"I mean no. You attacked me in the middle of the night in order to 'test my ability' or some other crap. Then you invite me to join your secret little cult. A cult that could have ulterior motives regarding me, my soul, or some other reality bending shit. And that's not even considering how you just casually strolled into my classroom with full intent to spy on me and my friends. Not to mention I'm busy, and abandoning everything to join some shady organization for virtually no reason isn't really my style. Thanks, but no thanks." Ichigo finished in a huff, crossing his arms and daring the man to contradict him.

Hirako seemed completely off balance, like Ichigo's little rant had been the most ludicrous thing he had ever heard. The teen regretted that he didn't have his phone on him. He had a feeling that befuddlement was not a feeling Shinji felt often.

"B-but what about your Hollow?" Shinji protested.

Poor guy. He seemed so lost.

Now Ichigo understood the value of secrets. To withhold information for a tactical advantage, and all that, but Shinji wasn't really an enemy. Not yet at least. Despite having just attacked him in the middle of the night.

And Ichigo had never been much of a liar, to others or himself. He had agonized for weeks about not being able to talk to his family about his new life, and even then he wasn't outright lying, just withholding information that affected them indirectly.

Here, there were no such obstacles.

"My Hollow is no longer a problem. My teacher took care of it." Ichigo said. Waving off the issue. He was mostly done with that whole debacle anyway. As long as the seal didn't break, his Hollow could stay where it was. It was a good solution in Ichigo's opinion.

Shinji stared him as if he had just swallowed an apple whole. "… took care of it?" He repeated, sounding vaguely disbelieving.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. Was that really so complicated to grasp? "Yeah. I'm fine. So you can run back to your friends now. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my evening." With that said, the teen Flash Stepped away, soaring over the rooftops and back to his house. The whole exchange had barely taken more than a quarter hour.


Thousands of tiny lights embraced the cityscape of Karakura. Only a tiny smattering of stars could be seen, even atop Naruto's excellent vantage point. The rest was drowned out by the ever-present illumination of a modern city. The immortal took a deep breath as he looked mournfully up at the night sky. It was a shame that so many people would never see it in all its humongous glory.

Nevertheless, Karakura Town was a marvelous city. With a population over three times as large as Konoha at its peak, the fact that it was called a 'town' was laughable.

As he had been doing for the last few hours, Naruto let the natural energy seep through his skin. It came with a fervor he rarely experienced outside of ley-line clusters, rain forests, or other potent gatherings of life. Expelling some of the energy beneath himself, the blond kept a constant altitude above the tallest building in Karukara. From here he could watch the city go about its nightly business. It was surprisingly quiet.

Then it wasn't.

A loud crash echoed through the night as a water tower toppled to the ground. The metal beams supporting it crumpled like cardboard as the huge Hollow continued its rampage across the city.

Part of Naruto's mind assured him that no one would be hurt by the debris, but his main consciousness still focused on Kon and the creature chasing him. The Mod Soul was obviously distressed, but he seemed to be handling himself fine. What he was doing with Ichigo's body was another issue though. Naruto doubted his student would appreciate the current situation.

Shifting his attention slightly, Naruto's brow furrowed at the spirit chasing the Mod Soul. It was an Arrancar. That fact was obvious to anyone with any knowledge of the species. It's face was visible, and it was swinging around a Zanpakuto the size of a small barn.

Naruto couldn't really see it, as he was too far away to see any details from this distance. And even if he could, he couldn't see through solid stone or concrete. Not with these eyes at any rate. No, the Sage could only discern what was happening thanks to the natural energy constantly painting a vivid picture of everything around him. It was only a question of comprehension and focus.

Following their movements for another minute, Naruto's frown deepened. There was a problem with this scene. One thing that was simply wrong. The Hollow chasing Kon wasn't a Menos Grande. Yet it bore all the obvious signs of an Arrancar. That shouldn't be possible.

This was Aizen's work, no doubt. How he had managed it was anyone's guess. Even if the Hollow in front of him was the largest and most flawed Arrancar Naruto had ever seen, the fact remained that it was an Arrancar.

A part of the Hollow's heart had been returned to him, but his body hadn't been ready and so the creature had needed a metamorphosis to survive. A change Aizen had no doubt facilitated, if not fabricated entirely. Kisuke had said the Hogyoku could manipulate the boundaries between the souls of Shinigami and Hollows. Perhaps just the boundaries between souls period. The scientist had been a little vague with the details.

Such an ability would no doubt allow Aizen to create as many Arrancar as he wanted, with consistently good results. Perhaps he could even create a perfect Arrancar, given time and practice. Still… to allow a non-Menos to become a half-mask without killing him was unprecedented. Was the Hollow's new body a result of the Hogyoku, or a separate technique Aizen had developed?

If it was the former, Aizen's potential as a threat had increased dramatically. And from a strategic viewpoint, it was always best to assume the worst case scenario. At this point, the blond was seriously considering options he would never normally entertain.

Grand Fisher had finally managed to corner Kon and was readying a giant fist to turn Ichigo's body into paste. Naruto was about to intervene, but then a blue barrier erupted around the Mod Soul.

Naruto blinked. That was a kido script. He didn't know Ichigo carried charms around. That showed an amount of forethought he hadn't expected from his prodigy. Normally, he wouldn't need it. As it would only be of help to him in some highly obscure situations. Situations such as this one, for instance.

Then Isshin revealed himself.

Naruto raised an eyebrow in astonishment. Really? Just like that? He knew the man was privy to Urahara's plans, so he already knew Naruto was here. There should be no real reason for Isshin to interfere.

Ah… Of course. Almost smacking himself for being an idiot, Naruto groaned. Of course he revealed himself. This was Grand Fisher. Masaki's murderer. The man wanted to free his wife himself, not let some stranger do it. Naruto settled back into a comfortable position. The night wasn't finished quite yet, it seemed.

Not surprisingly, Isshin handily defeated his foe. Naruto was tempted to listen in on what he was talking about. Unfortunately for his curiosity, he had nothing to do with this battle, and he couldn't justify spying for no reason. Who was Isshin talking to again?

Naruto did a double take.

When did Urahara get there?

Or… did he?

Through the natural energy, Naruto could tell something was there. It looked like Urahara. It sounded like Urahara. It smelled like Urahara. But it gave of no other presence. None whatsoever. The only reason Naruto could even tell he was there was because the universe still acted as if the body was a physical object. But there was no life. No mind. No soul. No spirit. No energy. Nothing. A rock had more presence.

Activating part of the sealing matrix above Karakura, the blond teleported to a nearby alleyway.

Imitating his late sensei, Naruto slouched over to the two men with a casual nonchalance. His body language practically screamed 'don't mind me. I just happened to pass by'. Neither of the other two seemed particularly impressed.

Naruto nodded to Kisuke, studying the man for a tenth of a second longer than usual before turning his attention to Isshin.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you." He beamed.

The ex-captain beamed back and shook his hand, not seeming at all perturbed by a third party interrupting their conversation.

"Kurosaki Isshin. Or you could call me Doctor Kurosaki. That's fine too." Isshin laughed. "You're the one training my son, aren't you?" The bearded man asked. His voice and face was relaxed, but his eyes had something very focused in them.

Naruto nodded. "I am. He's a quick learner." Understatement of the century.

Isshin beamed even more.

Before the conversation could spiral away, Urahara interrupted them. No doubt preventing the feedback loop of positivity and energy that was doomed to escalate the more a Shiba and an Uzumaki talked to one another.

"Uzumaki-san! What a surprise! I thought you were on the other side of the city." The shopkeeper chirped.

"I took a shortcut." Naruto shrugged. The monster of a seal above Karakura was a topic for another day. He and his father had already alerted Kisuke when they made the thing, as well as explained its most prominent features. "That Arrancar, it was created by Aizen, wasn't it?" Naruto asked instead, his voice turning serious.

The question made Isshin straighten.

Urahara hummed. "Yes. A normal Hollow turned Arrancar. That means every Hollow in Hueco Mundo will eventually fall under Aizen's command. It is a virtually endless army." He didn't sound very thrilled at the prospect.

Isshin rubbed his beard as he looked around the road they were standing in. It was late, so very few people were out and about. He'd seen two cars during the last minute, and while both had taken into other intersections. This still wasn't the most private place to talk.

That didn't seem to deter Urahara or Naruto though.

"That shouldn't be a problem. As long as we can sure up our defenses, it doesn't matter how many small fry gets sent at us." Naruto mused. Any of the three people here could take on thousands, if not tens of thousands normal Hollows. However, if Aizen had enough elite fighters under his control, those may be enough to protect the rest of his army. If that was the case, then the traitor's destructive potential increased tremendously.

"That might be true, but fighting such numbers is draining. It also means it will be hard to get a foothold in Hueco Mundo, should we need it." Urahara interjected. "The world of Hollows isn't very nice to outsiders at the best of times, but if every single Hollow is organized and part of a larger army... At the very least, It would become extremely resource intensive to stay there for any length of time."

Naruto nodded, looking up at the moon high above them. The same moon as Hueco Mundo in fact. And Soul Society. Gaia's satellite dimensions were weird like that.

"Did you notice?" Urahara asked. The question was directed at both Isshin and Naruto.

The mercenary nodded.

"The Vizards are finally making their move." Isshin confirmed.

Naruto frowned. "Aren't they on our side, though? I thought you were the one that rescued them?" He asked his fellow blond. That was the story Urahara had given him at any rate.

Kisuke shook his head, although the gesture wasn't an outright refusal. "It has been decades since I have spoken to any of them. They were never really on 'our side' to begin with. They are against Aizen, yes. But that doesn't necessarily mean they are with us."

The shinobi turned this new information over in his head. That was... not good exactly, but it wasn't bad either. Ichigo would never abandon his friends, and the guy was charismatic enough to get stuffed animals to follow him. They could just throw the teen into the lion's den and see what happened. A few more lions on their side couldn't hurt.

The talk continued for a few more minutes, any car that drove past them seemed to be ignoring them completely, much to Isshin's confusion.

Naruto eventually found an opening. He had heard enough from the shopkeeper to be reasonably certain he was who he seemed to be. Now he wanted answers. "So tell me, why are you invisible?"

Urahara blinked before looking down at himself, seemingly to see if the question had any merit. "Invisible?" he asked. A far too innocent expression framing his face.

Naruto's stare was as deadpan as he could make it.

"Yeah. I noticed that as well." Isshin commented, frowning at his old friend. Kisuke didn't normally emit much reiatsu. He was good at suppressing it. Very good in fact. But he had been standing there for several minutes now, looking right at them. It was highly improbable that he wouldn't have noticed even a flicker of energy by now.

Kisuke's face broke into an excited grin. He seemed far too pleased with himself in Naruto's opinion. "Since nothing we knew seemed to be able to hide us from your Senjutsu. We figured we'd try something new. We are former Onmitsukido, after all."

Naruto blinked. "We? Yoyo-chan can do it as well?"

"That's right, Naruto." Yoruichi said, walking out the same ally he had come from not too long ago. Her tail was waving back and forth in a motion that spoke of pure satisfaction.

The blond shinobi stared disbelievingly at her. He hadn't noticed her at all. And even now, he couldn't feel even a smidgen of her energy. Looking back and forth between them, Naruto came to a conclusion. "You went dark." He said, voice wary.

Going dark was slang for disconnecting yourself from the world. Only their physical bodies (or spiritual body in Yoruichi's case) interacted with the world at all. While under this technique, a person could release as much energy as they wanted without anyone being the wiser. In theory that was.

"I didn't know Shinigami could do that…" Naruto trailed off when he saw Kisuke's dejected face. "What?"

Yoruichi sauntered over to her old friend. Naruto almost winced at her lack of presence. It felt so wrong.

"He's just sad he wasn't the first to come up with it. Going dark. Hmm… I suppose that's fitting." The cat purred.

"You do know the possible repercussions of such a technique, right?" The shinobi asked hesitantly. He didn't think they would use it if they weren't, but better safe than sorry.

"The isolation, you mean?" Kisuke asked, having quickly regained his composure.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. People aren't meant to be so utterly disconnected from the world. It drives them crazy."

Kisuke's eyes sharpened. "I knew there was a risk, but Shinigami have gone through a Garganta before. Hollows do it all the time, and though I would hesitate to call a Hollow sane, their mental state mostly comes from their heart being ripped out and their world view being utterly destroyed. Few minds survive the process, and none come out undamaged."

Naruto's eyes widened. So they sent their souls to the void between worlds? To the Aether? Normally, going dark meant connecting yourself to some pocket dimension. Obito had done the same. And… well… he might have been insane before, but isolation from the world certainly didn't help.

"It's true you're no longer human. I don't know if you ever were, but Shinigami originated from humans. You both have incredibly strong souls, and I don't doubt your minds are well trained. But please, use it sparingly. Your souls belong to this world. Should you leave it for an extended amount of time…" Naruto hesitated. He knew several who had done just that. "It probably wouldn't be good for you." He finished lamely.

Soul Society didn't count. Satellite worlds were basically the same as the original plane, depending on their distance and natural differences with Gaia. Then there were the billions of other people living there, providing support for each soul existing within the same dimension.

Kisuke hummed. He didn't seem very worried, but he did let go of the technique. As did Yoruichi.

Naruto sighed in relief.

"We should be going home." Urahara said, allowing Yoruichi to climb up on his shoulder. He stopped himself just before leaving though. "Your son is probably worried." He added to the bearded Shiba.

Isshin snorted, showing how likely he found that idea.

Urahara smiled, his expression disappearing beneath the brim of his favored hat. Then he vanished in an effortless Shunpo.

Isshin sighed. "He's probably right. Come on Kon. We have stuff to talk about."

With a last wave to Naruto, the ex-captain walked away, the Mod Soul inhabiting his son's body hot on his heels.


When Ichigo got home, the first thing he noticed was a distinct lack of two spiritual signatures. The first was his father, which wasn't any concern of Ichigo's. The man was an adult, despite his behavior. He was allowed to go where he wanted. The second however, was Kon.

With his body.

The teen groaned. His father had been here when he left, and unless there had been an emergency at the hospital and he was called in to help, there shouldn't have been any reason to go outside at this hour. Unless Ichigo was also outside. Or in this case, Kon. Grimacing at the thought, Ichigo dearly hoped the Mod Soul could keep up the act.

Deciding to check up on his sisters as he waited, Ichigo phased through the nearest wall. He didn't completely pass through it, only sticking his head through the obstruction. He calmed a little as he saw both Yuzu and Karin fast asleep. He had sensed their reiatsu, but visual confirmation was always nice. They did have their own separate rooms, but Yuzu usually crawled into bed with Karin. The other twin didn't have the heart to deny her, even if she wanted to.

He stood there for a few seconds before willing his body to fall through the floor.

He ended up pacing back and forth for a few minutes, wondering what he should do. Finally, he settled down in the living room, having retrieved his unfinished book from earlier today. He had only sat there for a few minutes before he felt the faint echo of a Hollow's reiatsu. That was weird. His combat pass hadn't reacted at all.

Closing his eyes, Ichigo concentrated on the feeling. It felt strangely familiar. Concentrating even further, he saw thousands of spirit ribbons manifest themselves around him. Making it much easier to find one specific signature. True enough, the dark ribbon of a Hollow was clearly present. There was something awfully familiar about it, but Ichigo couldn't put his finger on it. Thankfully, there was a ridiculously obvious golden ribbon somewhat near it.

Ichigo relaxed a fraction. There was no need to get involved then. Naruto would take care of it. Sure enough, the Hollow's ribbon soon dissolved into nothing. The teen was about to cancel the technique when he noticed something.

His teacher hadn't been the one to slay the monster. In fact, he hadn't moved at all.

Instead, another signature had appeared. A signature that had been too weak for Ichigo to notice previously. It was a familiar signature. Very familiar. It was much larger than Ichigo had ever felt it though. And he should know, as he had felt it practically every day since he'd learned to sense reiatsu.

It was his father's signature.

His ribbon was red.

Ichigo sat frozen for a few moments, his brain having no idea what to do with itself.

His father was a Shinigami.

His father was a Shinigami!

The book fell from lifeless fingers as Ichigo stared into empty space.

That…

What…?

How?

Since when?

The last one was the easiest to answer. Since before Ichigo was born, most likely. But his father couldn't see spirits. He was the only one in the family who couldn't. He believed them when they told him, sure, but even Yuzu could see more than Isshin. Unless he had been lying.

Why?

That question also refused an easy solution.

A thought somehow found its way through his numb mind. If his father was a Shinigami, he would sense his son waiting in the living room.

Ichigo swallowed heavily. After a few more seconds of thought, the orange-haired teen slowly got up from the sofa, picking up his book before he walked upstairs. His movements were mechanical and awkward, despite his spiritual body being much more graceful than his earthly one.

So what now? What did this change?

Everything.

Should he pretend he didn't know anything? Or should he demand answers the moment Isshin walked through the door? He didn't know. His first instinct was to let Isshin tell him when he was ready. That it didn't truly matter and he could just forget what he had just sensed.

The problem, he realized, was that this was something so thoroughly connected to who he was, that it couldn't not matter. He was Kurosaki Ichigo, substitute Shinigami. His father was a Shinigami. That couldn't be a coincidence.

At the very least, he knew why he had always been able to see spirits now. So that was one question answered. Now he only had a hundred others taking its place.

Had his mother known? Surely, she must have. He couldn't imagine she didn't know. If not, then goat-face was getting the ass kicking of his life.

Ichigo sighed as he collapsed on his bed. This was far too much to think about in the evening. Maybe things would be clearer when he had rested a little.

Half an hour later, he had still not fallen asleep. The play he had barely started lay untouched beside him. Despite his better judgment, he had been following the feeling of his father's reiatsu since he first felt it. So he could tell the exact moment the man stepped back on their property.

As he lay there, the door downstairs opened. It would have been almost inaudible to a human, but as with everything, his senses were enhanced in soul form. A few whispered conversation drifted upstairs before the distinct sound of footsteps approached his room. The door creaked open and Ichigo saw his own face poke through the slit.

Kon froze when he saw Ichigo looking at him.

Maybe he should be angry. It was his body after all, but it felt irrelevant compared to the other issue.

Ichigo got up from the bed. He didn't say a word, simply gestured with his combat pass. The Mod Soul seemed to get the message. A few seconds later, Ichigo was back in his human body and Kon was once again a lion plush .

"Ichigo. I'm sorry, I-" Kon began whispering.

The substitute waved him off. "I don't care. Just go to sleep." His voice sounded very monotonous, but he didn't care enough to put more effort into it. Kon looked at him with concern, but nodded eventually.

What did Kon do in his body? He was sweaty and dirty, several small scratched lined his shirt that hadn't been there before. And nature was calling, apparently. Strange how that differed between his spiritual and physical form.

Ichigo sighed and trundled off to the bathroom.

"Hey son. You're up late."

Ichigo froze. Isshin was standing at the bottom of the chairs, goofy grin and totally normal Isshinnes. The teen was silent for a moment. What should he say? 'Yes, dad. I was busy killing evil spirits, but you were too, so I guess we're even?' Instead, he just shrugged his shoulder and locked himself in the bathroom.


Jin Kariya looked up at the star-filled sky above him. The ancient creature took a deep breath, wishing for the millionth time that Bounts had the same immaculate sense of smell as the beings they were inspired by. Alas, their senses had never been much better than an average human's. Although their advantages over the originals were many, smell was not among them. The ability to sense other souls most definitely was though.

And that sense was telling him several things both exciting and frustrating. One thing was for certain. This was not going to be easy.


Yamanaka Ino sighed contentedly as she finished another cup of perfect sake. The heavenly rice wine burned down her throat, settling reassuringly at the bottom of her stomach.

Lounging contentedly in her garden chair, Ino looked at the town around her. It was full of people. Some were dark-haired, some red-heads but most were blond. In fact, one third of the people around her were blond, blue-eyed men with whisker marks on their cheeks. There were a few things that separated them though. Some wore different clothes, for one. Perhaps they had shorter or longer hair. Differently colored skin or eyes were not uncommon. For some though, the only thing distinguishing them was something miniscule like a slightly sharper chin. Ignore all of these minute differences, and all of them looked like Naruto. Not that strange actually, considering that they were Naruto.

In fact, everyone in this town was Naruto. Ino being the only exception.

The Yamanaka patron smiled to herself. She liked this place. It was much nicer than the dreary sewer beneath her. Here they had a sky, a sun, and even some trees.

"Why can't your entire mindscape be like this Goldie-kun?" She asked.

There was no one beside her, but an answer came anyway. "I like the tunnels. They're how my world looked like way back then. If my mindscape is similar, it helps to imitate my old mindset as well."

Ino's face scrounged up. "It isn't a very nice place."

The impression of a shrug entered her mind.

"Oh, stop that." She complained. "Get me someone to talk to at least. Body language doesn't work without a body."

A second later, Naruto was lounging on a chair next to hers. It wasn't one of those almost copies on the street either, this was a perfect representation of his original body. "Did you want to talk about something?" He asked.

Taking another sip of her sake, Ino materialized another cup full of the stuff, handing it over to her friend. "Here. Relax. You've earned it."

Naruto laughed, but accepted the cup. His eyebrows rose in astonishment after his first taste. "This is good stuff! Where did you get it?"

Ino shook her head in mock disappointment. "It's from Takamagahara. Be careful about what you choose to forget Naruto. Amate wouldn't be happy knowing you forgot her favored drink."

"Ehehe… right…" Naruto scratched the back of his head embarrassingly.

Ino frowned at him in concern. "Have you been sleeping well?"

A huff of laughter was her answer. They both knew the answer to that question.

"You've been far too tense these past few days. Everyone needs a break now and then." The telepath insisted.

Naruto only smiled at her. It wasn't patronizing or apologetic, but it clearly showed he had no intention of changing his current routine.

Ino's light blue eyes hardened as she thumped her best friend over the head. "Idiot. You know there's better ways to do this than to push your psyche to the limit." Poking him repeatedly in the forehead, the telepath continued. "You have over 300 active threads right now. And that's just for your main consciousness." Gesturing towards all the people around them, she looked almost angry. "Your mindscape is currently supporting a little under 2000 separate personas. No mortal mind is meant to sustain anything close to that."

"I'm not mortal, Ino." Naruto's voice sounded old.

The woman rolled her eyes. "That's besides the point. Your current mind isn't designed for this. The stress is too much. You're long since past the point of appropriate adjustments. Your mindscape is a patchwork of specialized modules. Why aren't you using one of your higher level ASI's?"

Running his hands through his hair, Naruto looked frustrated. "You know I hate to use those. They're disgustingly logical, and their thinking is so far removed from other people." He blinked as he saw Ino's expression. "Eh… No offense, of course."

"Of course."

Drying off a couple of sweatdrops, Naruto sighed. "It's not like I haven't considered the option, but none of the pre-existing ones fit the parameters."

"Then make a new one then!" Ino complained, throwing her hands up in irritation.

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but after a few seconds of deliberation, he closed it again. "Maybe you're right." He said instead, seeming to age a thousand years before her eyes. "This thing can go south at any moment, I shouldn't be limiting myself when so much is at stake."

Ino stayed silent. Thankfully, Naruto wasn't as single-minded now as he had been in his youth. Unlike her, who was at least several orders of magnitude more stubborn.

Pushing himself out of the garden stool, Naruto began to walk. "It's just… this entire situation is driving me up the wall. There are so many things I can't do anything about, and those I can, have to be approached extremely carefully."

Ino smiled. "You can complain to me, you know. I am a fully qualified psychiatrist."

Naruto looked at her from the corner of his eyes, as if he couldn't decide if she was joking or not.

Deciding that it might not be that bad of an idea, Naruto complied. "Well, other than Urahara being infuriatingly tight lipped, we have the governmental structure of Soul Society, which is so corrupt I don't even know where to begin." He started.

As they turned into the busy street outside, Naruto emptied his sake cup in one chug before vanishing the wooden ornament into nothingness.

"The Shinigami themselves are alright, but their organization and utilization of assets leaves much to be desired. The class structure is mostly dysfunctional and detrimental for the average soul, and the legal system is a mess of nonsensical and sometimes self-contradictory rules and arrangements that's rarely enforced and followed only when it suits those in power." Naruto continued, ignoring most of his copies as they entered a non-assuming house with a long spiral staircase.

As they descended towards the oppressing light further down, they passed several clones bustling to and fro. Most looked like Naruto himself of course, but some were completely unrecognizable. A brown haired girl with a frail complexion. A dark haired nerdy boy with glasses as big as his hands. A red-haired warrior weighed down in heavy medieval armor. A blond child carrying a school-bag.

Normally, she would never have recognized them for what they were, as everything from their complexion and apparel, to the feel of their energy and shape of their minds were completely separate and distinct from Naruto's. In this world though, her main purpose was to defend her friend's mind should he ever need it. And for that to be even remotely viable, she needed the same powers and privileges Naruto had in his own mindscape. That included nigh-omniscience.

Shaking his head in dismay, the blond continued talking. "Frankly, the entire dimension is a mess. The only thing that really work as intended are the Shinigami themselves and their overimposed goal of purifying Hollows. By the Sage, the world is still stuck in the edo-period!" Naruto exclaimed, gnashing his teeth in frustration.

"Then there's the souls stuck in the Dangai. That's millions of spirits caught in limbo by an interdimensional defense system." Naruto said, swerving around a clone carrying a mountain of books.

"The idea has merit: Defending Soul Society from outside invasion and detection by placing a nigh-impenetrable wall between them and the rest of Gaia. And it works. It does what it's meant to. A Senkaimon is almost required to traverse it, and obtaining the ability to open one is more effort than most would care to give for such questionable rewards." The Hokage was on a roll now. His speech was becoming more and more intense as he spoke.

"But then there's the thousands of souls which can't find their way through this world. It was designed to keep people out, and failing that, keep them there for all eternity! The flow of souls is naturally exempt from this defense, and is allowed access through the passages created by the cleaner. However, that doesn't mean every spirit makes it through to the other side!" He shouted angrily. Taking a deep breath, the blond forcibly calmed himself.

Holding out his palm, Naruto conjured a projection to better illustrate his point. "Sometimes, souls gets stuck in the Koryu, trapping them in a temporal distortion field. From there, their chances of escaping is less than miniscule."

In his projection, small pinpricks of lights flowed through an open pathway. From time to time, the purple goo on the walls would brush against one of the lights, then the soul would slow down or speed up, completely veering off course in the process. It would eventually crash into the wall itself, where it was stuck moving slowly in some bizarre direction. The movements didn't seem to belong in traditional three dimensional space. Sometimes it would jump back to its starting point, or teleport several kilometers in a random direction. There were single souls jumping around or clusters of lights conjugating in relatively stable patterns. Neither the single souls or the largest clusters ever left the wresting flow.

"The Koryu was never meant to be escaped, but at least it is within the realms of possibility. Thus I can begin extracting them, however slowly." Naruto frowned and Ino nodded, listening with a quiet intensity she used in professional settings. "I am getting better, but it's… hard. Especially if I don't wish to cause some irreparable damage."

"Isn't the world designed to be a defense against multi-dimensional entities? Shouldn't it be more robust than that?" Ino asked, frowning at the statement.

"Huh?" Naruto blinked confusedly at her, then his expression cleared up and a small laugh escaped him. "No. I was talking about damage to the souls. The Dangai itself could probably handle the energy equivalent of a couple hundred medium sized supernova. Of course, that's just applicable to brute force, but still. There's not much I can do to the world itself." Naruto hurriedly explained. His projection showed a very colorful depiction of multiple stars blowing up in a giant's face. The giant sneezed.

"Uhu." Ino mused. Looking at Naruto's illusion with interest. For some reason, the giant was still there, picking it's nose. "So that's that taken care of then? You'll extract the souls from the Dangai and the dimension would still survive just fine. It'll just take some time. What's the problem here?"

Naruto's face fell. "It's not that easy unfortunately. The souls trapped in the Koryu are one thing. At least those still exists. Those consumed by the Kototsu aren't so lucky."

Ino frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

Naruto waved his hand through the projection, reshaping the image into a representation of the Dangai's cleaner. "The Shinigami doesn't fully understand it, although several theories and speculations have been made. I'll explain what I've gathered so far."

"The Cleaner, or the Kototsu, is a super-dimensional structure. It stretches over at least four dimensions of space, and probably affects the world's temporal fields to such an extent that it's essentially indestructible. Should it by some miracle of magic or engineering be damaged, it will always remake itself from a separate timeline. In order to get rid of it, you would have to destroy every version of it across all the different timelines the Dangai sees fit to exist in at that particular moment. You also have to do it in a nigh-infinitesimal time frame, as the flow of time varies wildly in this world." The blond explained.

Ino stared wide eyed at the projection. Wow. That really was a robust defense mechanism.

"At the same time. Anything that enters the cleaner can never leave it, from then on existing through the entire Dangai's timeline system simultaneously. In theory, it is as hard to remove something from the Kototsu as it is to destroy the thing itself. And that's disregarding the fact that nothing exists within the cleaner." Ino opened her mouth to protest, but Naruto stopped her. "I know I'm not making sense right now, but bear with me, ok?"

Nodding a greeting to a black haired boy with an unnatural fondness for piercings, the blond continued. "No information that enters the Cleaner can ever leave. It's not a case of energy or its conceptual nature, although I can't even begin to guess at the latter. The reason things can't leave the Kototsu is because there's no way out. Spacetime folds upon itself. Everything is blocked off by a simple gravitational well existing in four dimensions. From the perspective of the rest of the universe, it might as well not exist."

Ino raised an eyebrow. "A black hole?"

Naruto smiled a secretive smile. "Not quite. Although the concept is similar. It even has an 'event horizon', if you would like to call it that. Though there's no singularity within the cleaner. There is simply no directions you can move through four dimensions of space to escape it. On top of that, time does not exist in any meaningful form within it. So once trapped, there is nothing you can do. There's no way to do anything, as the act of doing requires time."

"For all intents and purposes, everything that enters the Kototsu stays in the Kototsu." Naruto summed up.

"There are ways of superseding four-dimensional spacetime prison structures." Ino said. Frowning a bit of the problem. Assuming you were outside of this thing, of course. Any possible way this could be achieved still required time to do it.

Naruto sighed. "None of which I am capable of."

"Inoue could."

The golden haired shinobi laughed. "Yes! Yes, she probably could. But she is nowhere near ready for that. The first step is knowing what she is supposed to reject. Something like this? Maybe in a decade or two." Naruto shook his head admiringly.

"So this is what troubles you?" Ino asked.

"Some of it." The blond admitted.

Before she could ask again, Naruto continued. "Then there is Aizen. That man is starting to seem even more dangerous than everyone says he is." He said, taking a left turn in the next intersection. The Yamanaka frowned. She could swear this tunnel wasn't here yesterday. She didn't like it when he constantly changed the roads. It made it irritating to orient herself.

"The Hogyoku itself is bad enough. That's thousands, if not millions of souls trapped in an unknown structure, where they are forced to obey the will of a heartless megalomaniac." Naruto's face scrounged up in disgust. Depending on the structure, they could be suspended in an infinite state of bliss, experience the ultimate form of torture, or everything in between. In Naruto's opinion, Soulstones were abominations of nature and should never have been made. Souls so warped and broken that Hell, in all its countless renditions, seemed like the greatest kindness.

"Oblivion might be a kinder fate." The sentence was less than a whisper. It would have been impossible for Ino to pick up on it if they weren't in Naruto's mindscape.

The blonde girl stopped dead in her tracks.

That was… a very extreme opinion coming from Naruto. One of his most fundamental beliefs was his hatred of soul death. This was a man that had destroyed empires to save a single soul from oblivion. A man who would trade the lives of millions of living humans for the continued existence of only a handful of souls. If Naruto had known the Soul Society used soul disintegration as their ultimate execution penalty, he would have stopped at nothing from having it abolished.

"I don't even know how powerful or efficient it is! Urahara won't tell me a fucking thing!" The blond snapped. Anger burned in his eyes. This wasn't some trivial irritation over the shopkeeper either. It was the same molten rage that had taken root after Aizen escaped. Anger at Aizen for doing what he did. Anger at Urahara for omitting crucial information. Anger at himself for allowing it to happen.

"Someone seems has worked himself up to a frenzy." A voice rumbled.

"Shut up, Kurama." Naruto snapped. Walking past the shrunken fox with brisque annoyance.

"That wasn't very nice!" The little girl sitting beside the Nine-tails accused him.

For a second it almost looked like Naruto was going to snap at her too. Although he stopped himself just short of speaking. The blond took in three deep breaths and calmed himself.

"You're right. Sorry Ellie. Sorry Kurama. It's just… there's a lot going on." The blond sagged. He smiled tiredly at them, patting the young girl's head in a very fatherly fashion.

He didn't look much better, but Ino hadn't expected him to. The small straightening of his shoulders was good enough. If nothing else, he should feel a little lighter now.

Ellie nodded in satisfaction. She gave the demon a hug and scratched him behind the ears. "Come see me sometime, Kurama!" She begged. When he didn't look convinced, her eyes went wide and glassy. "Pretty please. I miss you!"

Ino was impressed. That was a perfect application of the puppy dog eyes. She doubted she could have done it better herself.

The fox spirit sighed but leaned into the embrace. "Well, I guess I can come visit. This should be finished in a couple months anyways." He finally conceded. The girl beamed.

"That's great! I can't wait to show you to all my friends! They're going to be so jealous!" She squealed. It looked like she was going to say more, but a cough from Naruto made her pout. She sighed before sticking her out tongue at the blond. Then she turned around and bounced away with all the endless energy of childhood.

Silence reigned for about ten seconds after Ellie disappeared.

"That was so cute!" Ino practically melted. Trying to capitalize on Kurama's inattention, she threw herself at the self-declared incarnation of hatred. The demon shrugged casually and danced around her most recent attempt at cuddling, keeping her at bay with a couple of tails as the blonde tried her utmost to get around them.

Naruto smiled fondly, then continued onwards to whichever place he was going. Ino and Kurama followed him.

Trying to finish their 'therapy session', Ino was the one who broke the silence. "So you made a mistake. Everyone does. It's part of being human."

A hollow laugh escape the whiskered blond. "Human? You really think I can be called that?"

"Yes."

The ancient warrior was quiet for a few seconds, then a few minutes. Eventually it became apparent that he wouldn't continue the conversation on his own. Before Ino could say anything more however, they arrived at their destination.

The lake of memories was different than before. A lot different.

The room was completely lit up. A bright white light seeped through the stones in the cavern, penetrating even the darkest nooks and crannies. Although the light was not painful, it took a few moments to get used to.

Another change was the open-ended nature to the room. The dark void behind it was clearly visible, even from the shore where they were standing. The black space showed pinpricks of distant lights, imitating the faint illumination of stars.

The lake itself had also transformed. It was larger now. Maybe four or five times the size it had been previously. The water sloshed over the side, spilling precious liquid at irregular intervals. Multiple clones were at work trying to stem the leaks, reshaping the world around them and molding the hard stone at the edge of the bowl, increasing toughness, density, and mass.

As interesting as it was, all of it was completely overshadowed by the absolute massive flow of liquid descending and emerging from the lake. A colossal cylinder of water rose and fell to the surface simultaneously. Streams of liquid memories moved both directions at once in an impossibly intricate demonstrations of fluid dynamics.

The room was a flurry of activity. Hundreds of people entered and left constantly. Some came floating down through the dark void unaided. Others were guided by the almost unnoticeable strings that permeated the room. But most entered and left through the pillar in the middle. Walking into and out of it as casually as one would an elevator. And with the exception of herself and Kurama, every single person here was a different version of Naruto.

Ino was quiet as the blond lifted both arms in front of himself, slowly going through a long set of hand signs. Some of the people looked over at them once Naruto began, but they soon continued on with their business.

The Sage's eyes smoothly darkened and three rings spiraled out of his pupil, forming the recognizable shape of the Rinnegan. The jutsu had no name. In fact, it was barely even a jutsu. Only a set of commands easiest to interpret through handsigns.

In response, the water of the lake shifted. A spark no larger than a firefly came flying towards them. Naruto cupped it in his hands, letting the light spill out through his fingers. When he let go, the core of light was shining like its own miniature star. Naruto stared right at it, unbothered by the intense luminosity.

The spark was a template, the blueprint of a mind. Not yet conscious or aware, the seed was little more than a shell of what might be. As Naruto imbued it with his will and power, an unfinished anima began to take shape.

Lifting the spark above his head, Naruto let it fly. It disappeared into the dark void, growing brighter and brighter until it dominated the skyline.

"There. It should be done in a couple of days. I'll continue to use this mind as communication with the outer world. It is much better suited to that." Naruto smiled at her.

Ino nodded, satisfied.

"Why did I follow you again? I much prefered this miserable world when I got free scratching and affection." Kurama complained.

Naruto shrugged. "You were the one deciding to follow us. We just passed you by coincidence."

Kurama sagged, then he made a very undemonic noise as Ino finally managed to tackle him to the ground. She quickly buried herself in his nine fluffy tails, cooing and squealing all the while.


"Die! Die! Die! Die!" The Hollow screamed as Itachi flowed effortlessly through its attacks.

The Uchiha's red eyes lazily analyzed his opponent just as his torso was pierced by a scorpion tail. The tail had emerged from the monster's back within a fraction of a second, moving faster than a speeding bullet. The Hollow's scream of delight echoed through the forest. The monster jumped at its dying opponent, maw open to consume the man whole.

Just before its jaws locked around him, Itachi burst into a murder of crows. The birds began cawing and clawing at the monster before them. They flew around it in a disorienting swirl of feathers and beaks. They could do nothing about the monster's defenses however. Even if it didn't have a shred of hiero, the Hollow's scales and reiatsu levels were more than enough to stop any normal attack.

Despite this, the monster trailed off mid-swing, its eyes staring vacantly into space.

Itachi rematerialized from the same birds he had transformed into. The red-eyed man was completely relaxed. One of the crows landed on his arm. The bird blinked at him. Two Sharingan eyes clearly visible in its otherwise dark silhouette. Itachi blinked back.

The Hollow was still staring into space.

Itachi looked the monster in the eye. A few seconds passed before the ex-anbu flicked his wrist and the spirit dissolved. "Dead end. It had never been to the surface. It was barely even aware there was a surface."

Minato nodded, studying the white mineral forest around them. Beside him, Stark was slouching as if he could barely be bothered to stay awake.

"Do any of you sense anything out of the ordinary? I am picking up some very confusing energy signatures." Minato asked, brushing his fingers across the cool sand beneath them. If he wasn't mistaken, there was another level to this bizarre forest below them. Their goal was upwards though, not down.

Stark grunted. "Hollow reiatsu is chaotic in nature. A Hollow's energy signature can feel like almost anything."

Minato frowned as he traced a line in the sand, making the particles create subtle wave patterns around his hand. "No. This isn't a Hollow. It's human."

Itachi looked over at his team leader, scanning the ground around him. "The trace is several hours old already. Wherever it leads, the victim is most likely dead by now."

Stark sighed as Lilynette tugged at his leg. Putting a reassuring hand on his partner's head, the Arrancar answered the unasked question. "Newly evolved Hollows like to… play with their prey before eating them. It isn't such an unusual occurrence."

Minato closed his eyes for a second before standing back up. "Right. Let's get going."

They did not bring up the subject again.

Three hours of searching later, they found another peculiar energy signature.

"Shinigami." Itachi said. The Uchiha was in full shinobi mode, as such, his voice might as well have been an audio recording of the dictionary for all the inflection it held.

The other three sharpened to attention. According to their information, there were only three Shinigami currently in Hueco Mundo.

The signature was more than a little difficult to track. It had become too diluted to be recognized at several points along the trail. Whoever the signature belonged to was good enough not to leave any physical indications of his presence. Not that such a thing was all that hard in a world of shifting sand and few physical obstructions. There was no convenient undergrowth to consult, no broken twigs to follow.

That was fine. Both Itachi and Minato could track a bird through the sky a season after it had started.

Minato sank into a formal seiza position. The blond closed his eyes and gave himself completely over to the world around him. Slowly reaching out to grab a handful of sand, the ex-Hokage let the particles flow through his fingers. He repeated the process five times before he emerged from his self-induced hypnosis.

"There is indeed a Shinigami in this forest, but he is not one of our targets. He has been here for over three hundred years for one thing." The blond said, blue eyes scanning the dark canopy above them. Almost as if he expected the mysterious Soul Reaper to come falling from the sky.

"Anything else?" The Uchiha asked.

Minato shook his head. "The desert is mostly apathetic to the coming and goings of sentient life."

As the two shinobi continued discussing their next plan of action, Lilynette tugged at Stark's leg again. She had been doing that a lot since they came to this world. "What are they talking about?"

Stark blinked down at her. "Psychometry. It's a very useful tracking skill."

"Then why don't you know it?" She accused.

The grown-up shrugged, covering a yawn with his left hand.

"Lazypants." Lilynette complained.

Stark didn't refute the statement.

As they had no better leads, they ended up going after the mysterious Shinigami. Despite finding a trail only a few hours old. He was surprisingly hard to track down. Minato used psychometry three more times before they finally found their target.

"Kano Ashido. We wish to speak with you." Minato said, his voice was clear and calm. It echoed off the cliff face and into the cave before them. The reiatsu inside stirred, but then quickly quieted after barely a moment, becoming almost unnoticeable.

After several moments where nothing happened, a cloaked figure stepped out from its hiding place. If nothing else, the man didn't lack balls.

Stark blinked as a Hollow mask came into view. He was momentarily confused before he understood it was only an accessory. Was he wearing the mask of another Hollow as camouflage? Or was it something else? The fact that it hadn't dissipated yet was curious. Was Ashido sustaining it with his own reiatsu somehow?

The figure stood completely still. He had drawn his Zanpakuto, pointing it towards the ground as he took in the situation.

Stark felt the man's gaze go over him and land on Lilynette. The girl stopped moving. Stark tensed. Then the moment was over, and the Shinigami's gaze drifted back towards Minato. Ashido had identified Lilynette as an Arrancar, but hadn't reacted aggressively. A positive sign.

Finally he spoke. "You know my name, yet I do not know yours." His voice was raspy and gruff. As if he hadn't used it for a long time.

Compared to earlier, his reiatsu was now as far from unnoticeable as it was possible to get. He was strong.

Stark felt a smile tugging at his lips. He liked meeting strong people.

"Relax Kano-san. We're not seeking a confrontation." Minato said, holding up his hands, palms empty. Stark almost laughed. Like having empty hands would make any difference for the Yellow Flash.

"Names." Ashido insisted.

Minato nodded before introducing himself. "My name is Namikaze Minato, fourth Guardian of the Elementals. This is Uchiha Itachi, my friend. And the pair over there is Coyote Stark and Lilynette Gingerbuck, also my friends. They are the sixth and seventh Guardians respectively." Although few knew what those titles meant, their basic meaning were unmistakable.

"What is it you seek then, Guardians?" Ashido asked. His voice echoed within the small space beneath his mask.

Minato smiled a disarming smile. He walked forward with outstretched hands, almost as if he wanted to give the wayward Shinigami a hug. He still kept a respectable distance however. "We seek a way to the surface, and subsequently a way to the palace of Las Noches."

The Soul Reaper was quiet for a moment, giving no indication about what he was thinking.

"And what…" Ashido started. "... would you do if you found it?"

"Nothing." Minato answered. "Our job is simply to locate the fortress."

Due to the lack of facial expressions, Stark found himself relying more on sensing the subtle flow of emotions through his reiatsu. Ashido was confused. Wary but confused.

A slight gust kicked up behind Stark, making his coat shift slightly. Ashido stiffened. Shock and terror radiating from his body. Minato's face hardened.

Before anyone had a chance to do anything Stark got a telepathic command to not resist. A fraction of a second later, Minato had him chained to the ground with several dozen golden chains. A three-pronged kunai pointed lazily at his neck. At the same infinitesimal amount of time, Minato had torn off his shirt and cape, standing over him bare chested.

Stark blinked.

Lilynette squawked indignantly. "What the hell are you doing Minato!"

"Please. Kano-san. I was telling the truth. We mean you no harm." Minato said. Blue eyes digging into the Shinigami before him. The second Minato had acted, Ashido had lept away from them, getting into a defensive posture in the process.

"He's a Hollow." The Soul Reaper sneered. Although he did seem slightly placated by the state Stark was currently in.

Not that it was actually an effective restraining method. In fact, Stark wasn't restrained at all except inside his mind. An area of effect Genjutsu. It was a good illusion and an inexperienced mind would no doubt find it almost impossible to move. Stark could dispel it with a thought. He didn't dispel it.

"Stark may be a Hollow, but I'm not. And neither is Itachi." Minato said, his face a mask of complete seriousness. His bare chest just about proved his point.

Ashido relaxed a fraction, although he didn't step forward.

Stark blinked again.

In less than five seconds, Minato had saved an almost unsalvageable situation. Do nothing, and Ashido would have fled. Capture Ashido and he would never trust them. So the fourth Hokage chose a different option.

Stark wanted to laugh.

There was a reason he trusted this guy with Lilynette's life.

"Ehh… Do you think I could let him up now? I don't really enjoy putting my friends in chains." Minato laughed, scratching the back of his head in a self-conscious motion.

The Soul Reaper was quiet for a moment before he slowly nodded. The movement was almost unnoticeable.

The chains melted back into the desert. The action was purely to maintain the illusion that he had actually been restrained. Stark sat up, rolling his neck to add a bit more realism to the act. Since the Shinigami already knew, the Arrancar calmly unbuttoned the top of his jacket, putting his Hollow hole in full view.

Although Lilynette's nature was impossible to hide, she was also not that strong. She was simply not a threat. Stark however...

Ashido was quiet for another five seconds before he finally sheathed his sword. He still kept his distance though. "You're traveling together with a Vasto Lorde, and you say you don't know where the surface is?" Ashido asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Stark hasn't been in this dimension for centuries. And getting to the surface isn't the problem. Our real goal is still Las Noches, and there are a lot more Hollows to ask here than up there. They haven't been all that accommodating though." Minato smiled calmly.

Ashido sighed heavily before removing his mask. His face was quite drawn out, but his eyes were still sharp as razors. His hair could easily make people mistake him for an Uzumaki.

"Arrancar, your name was Stark wasn't it?" His voice was strangely free of animosity. Most Soul Reapers would attack a Hollow the instant they laid their eyes on them, but Ashido only sounded resigned. Doing nothing but killing Hollows for the last couple of centuries probably helped with any aggression issues.

Stark nodded. Unsure of how this conversation would pan out.

"Hey! Don't forget about me! I'm an Arrancar too!" Lilynette shouted kicking Minato in the shin. She probably wanted to kick Ashido for ignoring her, but was too intimidated to do so, so she settled for the next best alternative. Minato yelped in protest and began jumping on one leg.

Ashido blinked at her but quickly shifted his attention back to Stark again.

The Soul Reaper was quiet for a moment before he made his decision.

"I'll show you the way to the surface." He told Minato. "And although I've never visited Baraggan's palace myself, I do know its general location."

Minato's face lit up. "Thank y-"

"In return, I want Stark to create a Garganta for me into Soul Society." Ashido interrupted.

Stark blinked as everyone's attention was turned to him. He was about to agree when Lilynette beat him to it. "No! I'll do it! Stark isn't the only one that can open a Garganta you know!"

Everyone looked down at the small girl. She stared defiantly back at them. Stark could see her legs shaking.

Minato smiled and clapped his hands. "Very well! Now that that's settled, let's go."

"Ah… could you wait a moment? I want to say goodbye first." The redheaded Soul Reaper almost whispered. He disappeared the moment Minato nodded. Minato, Stark and Itachi watched him leave. His movements were too fast for Lilynette to follow.

"Why did he agree to follow us? We didn't even get to ask." Lilynette questioned, looking at Stark for an answer. The Arrancar could only shrug in response.

It was Itachi that answered her question. "He recognized what Stark was. He knew he would be dead if that was truly our goal. As our mission makes sense, he took a gamble that we were speaking the truth. I don't know why he is here, but I don't believe he wants to be. He has been here for centuries. You are probably his first opportunity to escape in a long while."

Minato nodded his agreement. Gaze lingering in the direction Ashido disappeared. "He doesn't seem to be trying to betray us. I can feel nothing living in the direction he disappeared in."

"He could still send a message. If he's truly in league with Aizen, it wouldn't be hard to contact them with other methods." Itachi commented. It was less of a disagreement than a statement of fact.

A small smile danced on Minato's lips as he gazed into the expansive forest around them. He didn't seem overly concerned by the possibility.

Ashido came back a little while later, exiting a perfectly executed Shunpo. His stoicism was almost a match for Itachi's.

Minato beamed at him. "Lead the way, Kano-san."


"Hmm…" Urahara Kisuke hummed as he went through the data on his computer. Something was off about it. With a few sure strokes, he called a phone he had only recently acquired the number for. Before the first ring had even finished, Naruto's voice could be heard from the other end.

"Yes?" His fellow blond sounded the same as he always did. Positive and optimistic. There was still a tense and serious undertone to it though. This was not a number you called for a social event.

"We might have a bit of a situation. Could you check out a couple of locations for me?" He quickly rattled off the coordinates, watching as the data on his screen updated in real time.

There was silence in the other end for a moment. "Do you know who did this?" Naruto asked. His voice was no longer the happy-go-lucky it had been. Instead it held the unmistakable hint of steel.

"Did what, Uzumaki-san?" Kisuke asked.

"The bodies have turned to dust. Only the clothes are left." Naruto said, describing the scene in front of him.

"Hmm… do you think you could bring some samples here?" Urahara asked. When he turned around, Naruto was already standing there. Pieces of clothes and dust held gingerly in his hands. Then Kisuke blinked and the shinobi was gone. The scientist shook his head, an amused smile covering his mouth. It would take a while to get an in-depth analysis.

Then he frowned. On another note, he really didn't like people teleporting into his home. He would have to do something about that.


Calloused fingers skimmed through the dust that had once been a person. A soul brushed against another, and another, and the thousand others remaining within the discarded corpse.

Souls are everywhere. They fill the universe. They permeate the world. Souls are the source of magic. The source of every decision. The foundation for life and free will.

One of their greatest attributes is recollection. Minds can be altered, memories forgotten, but a soul never forgets. Information once experienced can never truly be lost. They are everywhere, experiencing everything. There has never been an event not experienced, and there never will be. The perfect record of everything exists within the collective of all souls in existence. To access this record is the ultimate goal of psychometry.

The soul of Uzumaki Naruto brushed against a collection of souls that had belonged to a man's skin. A japanese man in his thirties. Kenshi Kimura had been an aspiring artist. A father. A husband. A son. He had many friends. There were many who had shaken his hand. Many who had shared a drink.

Amongst the spirit that had recently skimmed this archive of souls was a dog that recognized its name as Koona. Or Koona-san, if the one talking was the little girl that had gotten a puppy as a birthday present.

Another who had touched him was Mana Kimura. A widow that would soon get her memories erased by Shinigami doing their job, thus forgetting the father of her child. These souls recognized her better than any other. They had touched her countless times. An event so intimate it had created something eternal. The two spirits of Kenshi and Mana had created a third. It's existence, as all others, discarded logic in favor of absolute eternity.

The third soul was loved more than life itself. The girl who called her dog Koona-san. Kazumi Kimura, whom had once held Kenshi's hand and called him father. A girl who would soon forget her dad thanks to the machinations of beings she knew nothing about.

Although none of the souls Naruto touched was the spirit whom had created the girl. They loved her no less than every other part that had once been Kenshi Kimura.

In another world, the heavens wept.


Naruto stopped breathing. That one had been particularly bad.

The creation of a new soul was a relatively rare occurrence, and it always required strong emotions from both parties. Anyone who had taken part in such an event would inevitably have an intense life.

Despite the ache in his soul, he got something from Kenshi that he hadn't from the others. A name. Yoshino Soma. Everything that had been Kenshi hated her.

Naruto breathed in deeply before delving into the world around him. He ignored the extra layers of reality, only concentrating on the collection of souls before him. They weren't conscious spirits. None of them had the ability to really act on their hatred, nor did they understand the concept of that hate. But they hated all the same.

Naruto soothed them, brushing against each and every soul with the intent of compassion, of understanding and regret. Soul by soul, the resentment faded, leaving only sorrow and longing.

Naruto sighed as he stood up. Yoshino Soma. He didn't recognize the name. Oh, sure, he knew someone by that name. Several someones actually, but none that would be a fitting suspect in something like this. Taking out his phone, he did a quick internet search of his target. Unfortunately, nothing of interest came up. Grunting in annoyance, Naruto sent a message back to shinobi headquarters requesting a full backgrounds check. It was a fairly common name, so he expected it would take a while before they found someone relevant.

In the meantime. He had a city to watch.


Morning eventually reached the eastern hemisphere, and Ichigo once again became a victim of his father's eccentricities. After dodging the obligatory morning kick, he got dressed and made his way down to the kitchen. Once again, Yuzu had made it abundantly clear who the early riser in this house was.

Half an hour later, the family was all seated around the breakfast table. And although he tried, Ichigo couldn't stop glancing at his father. He don't know what he expected. Some clue he hadn't seen before? Some sort of inner strength yesterday's reiatsu suggested he must have? But no, Isshin was still his normal, extravagant self.

Swinging his backpack over his shoulder, Ichigo bid goodbye to his sisters before leaving. Just as he went out the door, he saw a familiar silhouette crossing the street.

"Yo, Chad! Wait up!" He called, jogging over to his friend.

The half-Mexican turned at the sound of his name, visible eye blinking once in recognition. "Ichigo." He greeted.

As they walked side by side, Ichigo let the silence stretch out. It was comfortable. It always had been that way with Chad. The half-Mexican had been one of his closest friends ever since 8th grade. He was someone he trusted no matter the situation. Fighting thugs, demons or gods. There was no one he would rather have at his back.

"Hey, Chad…" Ichigo started.

The giant blinked at him. Ichigo frowned. He wasn't normally this indecisive. If there was something he wanted to say, then he said it. Taking a deep breath the teen ploughed onwards. "My father is a Shinigami."

Chad was silent for a second. "Are you sure?" He asked. It didn't really sound like he doubted him, but something like that deserved confirmation.

Ichigo only nodded.

His friend was quiet for a while before he spoke again. "You okay?"

"I don't know." Ichigo answered truthfully. "It's weird. This has to mean something, but I have no idea what."

"Have you talked to him about it?"

Ichigo shook his head. "You're the first person I've told. I found out yesterday evening."

Chad hummed. Ichigo could see his friend thinking.

"I think you should. If something were to happen, and you haven't talked about it, you might end up regretting it forever. If nothing else, you should tell him that you know."

Ichigo mulled over the advice. "I'll-"

"KUROSAKI! YASUTORA!"

Both Chad and Ichigo stopped in the middle of their conversation. Just outside their school was a group of around thirty people of varying age. Most were teenagers like them, although some were visibly older. All of them had weapons of some sort. Bats and metal knuckles were the norm, although Ichigo could make out a few more serious weapons on their person. One man even carried a poorly concealed gun. A gun! What was this? America?

"You bastards! Remember me?" The one who seemed to be the leader stepped forward. Something moved in the back of Ichigo's mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

Looking over at his friend, Chad shook his head. Ichigo shrugged. "Sorry. I'm terrible with faces."

The tug ground his teeth together, the piercing in his bottom lip stood out like a sore thumb. "That's too bad for you. Get them boys."

Ichigo blinked as the group of people advanced towards them, trying to be more menacing with every step they took.

A cough made the procession stop.

"Ah. This is a prestigious school for mostly decent students. I would prefer it if you took this somewhere else." Ishida said. The Quincy was standing right behind the group leader. One hand gently resting on his shoulder.

"Who the hell are you!? Mind your own business!" The guy shouted, swatting Uryuu's hand away. At least he tried to. Faster than he could register it, he was lying on his back, staring up at the sky and wondering what had happened.

The archer pushed up his glasses, making them flash with a sinister light.

"Y-You bastard." The nearest tug shouted at him, swinging his bat at the newcomer.

Ishida didn't hesitate in the slightest. Walking into the swing, the Quincy stopped the bat effortlessly, his hands resting almost tenderly at the base of the weapon.

"As I said. I would prefer it if you took this elsewhere." Ishida said. Smiling a not very friendly smile.

The next few minutes were a whirl of body parts and crude weaponry. Both Chad and Ichigo joined the fighting soon after Ishida introduced himself, and it wasn't long until all the thugs lay unconscious or groaning on the ground. Uryuu calmly straightened his jacket as he brushed off some dust. Then he took out his phone and called an ambulance.


Three hours later; after multiple medical check-ups, police questioning and a talk with the principal, Ichigo, Uryuu and Chad were finally let back in class. The first thing Ichigo saw was Shinji flirting with Orihime.

Without missing a beat, he grabbed the Vizard by his collar and marched out the way he had come, dragging a reluctant Shinji with him. "Why are you here?" He asked, practically slamming the man into the wall. "I told you yesterday. I'm not joining your cult."

Shinji pouted at him. "It's not a…" He stopped at Ichigo's deadpan stare.

"Fine. Call it what you want. But you'll still join us." The blond grinned assuredly, as if the issue had already been settled.

Ichigo's eye was starting to twitch again. "At least leave my friends out of it. You pedophile!"

Shinji blanched. "That's uncalled for. I'm not a pedophile!"

Ichigo stared back at him. "How old are you again?"

"Around 500." Shinji said, cocking his head to the side. What did this have to do with anything?

"Right. Orihime is 15. You're over 30 times older than her. Keep. Your. Hands. Off. Her." Although Ichigo's Hollow was sealed away, the reiatsu saturating the air had a lot more in common with demonic monsters than any mortal creation. Oh, and of course, the thought Ichigo had been doing his best not to think about managed to force its way inside his brain. How old was his father exactly? He might have to give Goat Face a beating regardless of his mother's awareness of the situation.

Shinji swallowed. The aura around Ichigo reminded him uncomfortably of a certain healer back in Soul Society. "R-right. I-It was only a joke Ichigo. I wasn't actually going to try anything." Normally he would be teasing Ichigo mercilessly about his romantic leanings, but the ex-captain was getting flashbacks to the fourth division, and he favored his soul too much to give it up for momentary satisfaction.

"Ehehe…" Shinji laughed awkwardly as Ichigo let him go. Narrowing his eyes in contemplation, the ex-captain became a little more serious. "I don't know how you've apparently dealt with your Hollow, but we have been doing this for a hundred years. We know how aggressive they can be. If nothing else, we can give you training you could never receive anywhere else. We could teach you to control your Hollow. Just think about it. We'll be waiting for you in the old warehouse district." That said, Shinji handed the orange-haired teen a business card, detailing contact information and address. Ichigo narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Following the other 'boy' into class, he ignored his teacher's complaints with practiced ease. He did keep the card however.

The rest of the school day happened without much trouble. His friends kept sending him glances from time to time, but Ichigo had nothing to say, so he pretended he didn't notice.

Other than that, two more Hollows decided to pay them a visit. They were shortly taken care of though, and thankfully without any of them having to do anything. Afro-san was either more capable than he'd thought, or someone else was taking the situation into their own hands.

No matter the reason, the school day would soon be over and their daily training would commence.


"So who are we dealing with here?" Yoruichi asked, leaning back against the chair in Kisuke's kitchen. She had managed to drag him out of the lab long enough for him to clean himself and eat something. Tessai had been very happy to finally get some food into his friend. It had been days since he had last eaten anything. Soul Reapers were naturally more resilient than mortals, true, but that was no reason to starve yourself of basic necessities.

Kisuke blinked at her with noodles hanging from his mouth. This was his fifth meal in the half hour since he began eating. Noisily slurping up the broth and wiping his face, Urahara considered her question. "Well, so far I only have guesses…"

Yoruichi rolled her eyes. Kisuke's guesses tended to be scarily accurate. She trusted his guesses over most people's guarantees.

"The most obvious conclusion would be a new type of Hollow, or one with a special ability." Neither of them actually believed that, so she wondered why he even brought it up. "The reiatsu traces on the remains we have indicate that this is not the case however." Kisuke continued, starting on the next meal put before him.

"In fact, the traces of energy tell a very interesting story indeed. There is an unfamiliar reiatsu signature on the clothes and ashes Naruto brought me, but there is very little in terms of other types of energy."

Yoruichi blinked. Other types of energy?

Sensing her confusion, the scientist decided to elaborate. "Chakra and spiritual energy are not two different types of energy like most would assume. Spiritual energy is part of chakra, but so is every other type of energy at a person's disposal. Chakra is merely the collective energy of a singular being."

Yoruichi nodded. She wasn't entirely sure where he was going with this, but knew enough to let him continue.

"The remains I have studied shows traces of a foreign reiatsu signature, and only reiatsu." Kisuke said, a light shining through the dark shadows under his eyes. It had been there for weeks now. Kisuke was driven. There were few things on this planet that could stand up to a motivated Urahara Kisuke.

"That means that whatever, or whomever, our suspect is, they are almost certainly connected to the Soul Society. Having another spiritually active community come to Karukara now would be highly implausible." The Shihoin princess nodded patiently, allowing her friend to explain his reasoning. Although she wished he would just get on with it.

"The fact that they chose now to appear means that something recent must have drawn them here. There are five factors that exist now that didn't before. These are Naruto, Sado, Orihime, Ichigo and Uryuu." Urahara explained, holding up five fingers.

Closing the first finger, Kisuke continued. "Naruto is a possibility. But he is currently several places all over the globe, and his existence isn't really a recent thing." He smiled. Pleased at his own joke. "Sado is an interesting case, but his powers are nothing really noteworthy and he has no previous history with the supernatural as far as I'm aware. Orihime is the most worrying possibility, but I find it just as unlikely as Sado's case. Her powers are almost entirely unknown. There are only a handful of people that know what she could actually do, and even fewer that fully grasp what that entails."

Taking a break in order to inhale the last piece of his sixth dish, Kisuke proceeded with his explanation. "Ichigo is the second most likely candidate. His existence is known by the entirety of the Seireitei, and he hasn't exactly been subtle about it in the living world either. The Hollow invasion in the middle of July made a lot of ripples, not the least of which was a giant rift in reality as a Menos forced its way here. A Menos which Ichigo subsequently defeated.

"There are several parties which would be drawn here by him simply existing, the most notable of which being Kugo Ginjo, the previous substitute Shinigami." Yoruichi blinked. Kugo Ginjo? Huh. That was the first time she had heard his name. She knew little about the whole fiasco surrounding that man, since the entire incident happened long after they had left the Soul Society. Soifon didn't have much flattering to say about him though. Most likely, it was her little bee's responsibility to take care of him.

"The victims turning to dust could be some power or consequence of his allies, but I don't really see why he would target random humans." The blond said, patting himself on the stomach, showing Tessai that he was finished. The large man nodded patiently, turning back to the kitchen with the large salad he just finished preparing. Yoruichi blinked. Only six? She would have eaten at least half the kitchen after so long without eating. If nothing else, then just to prove she could.

"Before that however, I see Uryuu as being the most likely draw for our resident murderers. The Quincy have been thought extinct by most of the world for over 200 years. But one has recently revealed himself. Uryuu was one of the key fighters during the Hollow invasion, and he is not that hard to find for those with eyes to see and ears to hear." As he talked, the ex-captain picked up his favorite hat and placed it firmly on his face, shadowing his eyes. "So whom with connection with the Soul Society are after Quincies? Aside from Hollows, that is."

Yoruichi scratched her head. Shrugging in an obvious gesture of implied ignorance.

"The Bounts." Kisuke revealed. Inside the blond's head there were ominous music playing in the background. Violins and scary chanting optional.

"The what now?" Yoruichi asked.

"The Bounts. A group of vampires consuming the souls of others to become immortal. They were at war with the Quincies some 400 years ago, trying to convince them to let them into Soul Society. Most of them died in the subsequent conflict. Unfortunately, that's all I have on them for now. The data seem to have been erased from the twelfth division's servers." Kisuke frowned. He was clearly not happy about that.

Yoruichi raised an eyebrow. "You have access to the twelfth division's servers?" That was new.

Kisuke smiled.

"It seems we have to trawl through written records that may or may not be there to find out more. I have already notified the Soul Society. They should be sending someone to deal with the situation."

"Oh, but I'm already here." Soifon said. Kneeling before Yoruichi, her next words were almost reverent. "Mission successful, Yoruichi-sama."

Urahara blinked at her. "How long have you been here?" And how did he not notice it? He was sure the wards should have identified her even if she was sufficiently hidden from his own not inconsiderable sensing capabilities.

Yoruichi smiled smugly. "She is a quick learner, my little bee." The Shihoin princess ruffled the captain's hair affectionately. Earning a suppressed squeak in response. "Y-Yoruichi-sama." Soifon stammered, blushing scarlet.

"You taught her the Complete Void spell?" Urahara asked incredulously.

"It is as much my technique as yours Kisuke. We are both the inventors of the spell, it is my right to teach it to whomever I want." Yoruichi said, her voice carrying a warning undertone.

Kisuke vinced. She was right about that. He supposed he shouldn't be too surprised. The Onmitsukido could benefit massively from a kido like that, and despite going into self-exile a hundred years ago, Yoruichi still cared about her ex-subordinates. This one especially.

"Does that mean you already knew everything?" The scientist asked incredulously. And he who'd thought he'd made such a good presentation out of it to!

Yoruichi only smirked at him.


"Excuse me, Hirako-san. Do you have some time to speak?"

Shinji turned around. Happy for a reprieve from the sandal beating he was currently receiving. His gaze softened as it fell on Orihime. Honestly, that girl was far too pure for this world. She had to have some sort of dark secret. Or universal balance was bound to have an issue with her. Yasutora Sado stood behind her, providing a perfect contrast to the young girl. It was hard to believe they were even of the same species.

"Does it look like he's free, huh!?" Hiyori demanded. She was the one handing down the beating. She hadn't exactly approved of his decision to give Ichigo space. Especially after the guy had dropped the 'taken care of it' bombshell.

Orihime blinked. "Haha... Well, I thought-"

"You thought wrong, stupid girl!" Hiyori interrupted her.

Shinji suppressed a sigh. Sarugaki wasn't the nicest person at the best of times, and her mood was particularly bad right now.

Instead of backing down though, Orihime squared her shoulders and looked the other girl in the eyes. "What do you people want with Kurosaki-kun?" Oh man… At least the girl was direct.

A shadow fell over Hiyori's face. Shinju furrowed his brow. He didn't think she would do anything too stupid, but he had been wrong before.

"What's it to you? You his girlfriend or something?" The female vizard spat. Angry eyes burned beneath her spiky hair. Orihime blushed at the insinuation, but before she could do more than open her mouth, Hiyori spoke again. "No. Don't answer. It doesn't fucking matter anyway. He's ours. Either he wants it or not. Go play with your little dolls and stay out of our business princess."

Shinji winced. They should probably go home before the midget managed to mess something up permanently.

The teenagers' posture had become tenser the longer Hiyori was talking. Strangely, it was Sado who spoke next. The rumbling voice of the half-Mexican making everyone pay attention.

"We won't let you take our friend. If you intend to hurt him…" The threat was left hanging in the air, and a very impressive presence pressed down on them. Impressive for a mortal, that is.

Hiyori scoffed. "Please. If that's meant to discourage us, you should just go home now. Kids like you shouldn't be playing superheroes." A sliver of killing intent escaped her, much more intense and deadly than Chad's mediocre attempt. "You'll die."

Despite the oppressive atmosphere, neither student was backing down. In fact, Orihime barely even seemed to have noticed it. "Please. We don't want to fight, Hirako-san."

Shinji blinked. Why was she addressing him?

"Oy! Bambi. It's me you're talking to!" Hiyori was predictably furious.

Shinji smiled a disarming smile, trying to diffuse the situation. "It's fine, Orihime-chan. We won't hurt Ichigo…" He began, then thought better of it. "... at least not on purpose."

Hiyori knocked him into the nearest wall. "Shut up, Shinji! I'm the one talking!"

Shinji's response was a groan of pain.

"Look-" Inoue tried again, wincing at the casual display of violence.

Before she could utter another word, Hiyori was behind her, Zanpakuto resting on her neck. "I said leave it." Sado was stopped by a glare from the female vizard. Luckily, this was a very isolated street. It was surrounded on all sides by stone walls, so no one saw it happening. Unluckily, it was an isolated street, so no one saw it happening.

Orihime didn't seem scared. Mostly, she just looked confused. She opened her mouth to say something, but Hiyori interrupted her again. "Don't." The female vizard reiterated, pressing her sword a centimeter closer. But just as the edge was about to pierce skin, sparks sprang from the point of contact.

The next thing anyone knew, Hiyori's Zanpakuto was buried halfway through solid stone, and the girl herself had been flung across the gangway.

Orihime was shining, light was seeping through her skin as though her insides were on fire. The ghostly apparition of a fox was hovering before her, snarling at Hiyori with vehemence. Orihime looked as surprised as everyone else, looking at her guardian with wide eyes.

"Eh…" Shinji started. Dragging his hand across his face. That couldn't have gone much worse.

The unofficial leader of the vizards picked up his groggy subordinate. Hiyori had actually been knocked unconscious. Although not very effectively it seemed, she would come around any second now. "I'm sorry about this. We don't wanna' hurt Ichigo, or any of you, really. Hiyori is just having a bad day." Smiling his trademark smile, Shinji wrenched his teammate's sword out of the stone. "Please forgive her." Then he vanished, interrupting a perfectly executed bow in the process.

The glowing fox growled one more time before sauntering over to Orihime, it nudged her cheek before passing straight through her chest. The glow on the girl's skin disappeared just as the fox did.

Inoue stared wide eyed at the place the spirit had disappeared. She poked it experimentally, then turned around in confusion. "Where did it go?"

Chad coughed. "I… I think it went inside your soul."

Orihime's face lit up as she hit her fist in the perfect expression of understanding. "Of course. It's a guardian spirit. That's what they do."

The half-Mexican hummed noncommittally. "We should get back to the others. Ichigo's probably wondering where we are by now."

Orihime nodded seriously. Uryuu had agreed to keep an eye on their friend, preventing him from following them. They should have already arrived at the gym by now though. Best not to be too late.

A happy smile spread across her face as they left. The warm glow suffusing her entire being pulsed, and Orihime shivered in excitement. Fairies and guardian spirits? That was just so COOL!


Relaxing on a nondescript rooftop, Shikamaru lazily observed the clouds drifting above him.

The street below was full of people going whichever way they pleased. A nostalgic sight.

It was around this place that he awoke over 400 years ago. All he knew then was his name, and that the pink-haired girl lying next to him was a friend.

He and Sakura had quickly made their own path in the district. They spent a decade working on a farm, finding new friends and a new family. That lasted until the place was destroyed in a Hollow attack. He and Sakura were the only ones that survived.

After that, they ended up wandering for a while before taking up jobs as mercenaries. Sakura had wanted to go to the Seireitei and try to enlist in the Shinigami academy. They both had spiritual energy, quite a lot of it actually.

Shikamaru held them back though. He had always felt the Shinigami's handling of the districts, both in and out of their control, left much to be desired. The 53rd district was right at the edge of Seireitei's influence, but that just meant that laws were upheld when it suited them. Corruption ran rampant amongst the few government officials that came to visit them. There was very little 'justice' in the justice system.

Working as mercenaries had certainly been challenging. Especially for their morals. Both of them knew how to fight. Knew it from the moment they woke up in this world. But taking money for violent work seldom led to lawful actions. The group they worked for was one of the more honorable of the lot, but even they were less than reputable.

Shikamaru and Sakura were good at their job. Very good. And they only got better as time went on. They learned to manipulate their reiatsu and take out groups of opponents, or monsters several times their size. Even most Hollows weren't a problem.

Wishing to make their mark, they eventually struck out on their own, forming their own band of mercenaries. It was though, but somehow they managed. As more and more people joined them and their mastery over reiatsu increased, their influence and power grew to a point where the Shinigami could no longer ignore them. They were met with an ultimatum. Join the Soul Reapers or disband the group. It wasn't much of a choice to be honest. Most of the group joined the Soul Reapers after that, although a few remained behind and formed new groups and alliances, most embodied the ideals set by Shikamaru and Sakura.

By pulling a few strings within Seireitei, the Shinigami mostly ignored their old comrades. It helped that Sakura became the vice-captain of the fourth and Unohana's personal apprentice. If nothing else, Shikamaru was thankful to his friend for allowing him to remain innocuous.

"Reminiscing again? You sure do that a lot nowadays, Shika."

A smile tugged at the Nara's lips. At least he got something good out of joining the Shinigami.

"So what do you think of the Soutaicho's offer?" His Zanpakuto asked for the hundredth time.

"It's troublesome." He thought back.

Troublesome didn't even begin to cover it. In the 300 years since he joined the Soul Reapers Shikamaru had never really trusted them. Or rather, it was the Central 46 he didn't trust. And they had given him no reason to do so. Quite the opposite, in fact.

He had been expecting it, of course. Ever since Aizen's betrayal, the Gotei 13 were seriously down on manpower. But how did they even know he was a possible candidate? Sakura was the only one who knew, and he was sure she hadn't said anything. Damn that scheming old fossil.

"It isn't that complicated. You're just making yourself depressed with all this thinking."

Shikamaru sighed. She was right of course. The upcoming months were doomed to be troublesome beyond belief. Concentrating on the flow of his reiatsu, Shikamaru effortlessly entered Jinzen. Most Shinigami would sit up in a lotus position or enter some other elaborate pose. Shikamaru could never be bothered though. Lying on his back was so much more comfortable.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in the middle of a forest. Gigantic trees stretched towards the heavens. The shadows they cast seemed virtually endless.

"Hmph. So you came to visit me. It's been awhile hasn't it, brother?" The voice was overflowing with passive aggressiveness.

Turning around, Shikamaru rolled his eyes at the dark haired woman ten meters above him. She was swinging her legs like an impatient child.

Barely holding back a smile Shikamaru greeted his other. "Shikako. How've you been?"

The Zanpakuto spirit rolled her eyes as she dropped down to ground level, landing with all the lethal grace of a tiger. "Sure. I love this forest. It's been my home for three hundred years."

Shikamaru blinked at her. It was a bit strange to have a Zanpakuto so different from himself. He would have loved living in a forest all his life. In fact, hadn't it been for Sakura, he probably would have retired as a hermit after the death of his foster family.

"What do you think Aizen's goal is?" Shikamaru asked. Going straight to the point.

Shikako blinked. "Hmm… You're asking me? Does that mean you don't know?"

Shikamaru frowned. "Only guesses, none that have much basis in reality."

"Let's hear it then. I'll be your soundboard." His sword spirit said, leaning against the nearest tree, almost melding with its shadow.

"Aizen said he wanted to 'claim the throne of heaven' whatever that means." Shikamaru mused. He had read various reports about the incident, both the publicly available ones and the restricted stuff. It was annoying that he hadn't been there himself, but lying unconscious at the bottom the Central 46 chambers tended to restrict your mobility somewhat.

"It sounds like the Soul King, doesn't it?" Shikako asked.

"You would think so, but it doesn't quite add up. Aizen's direct words were 'the vacancy of heaven's throne is over'. If he wishes to replace the Soul King, then why would he claim it was vacant?" Shikamaru countered.

The spirit shrugged, gaze drifting further into the woods. "He could have been talking out of his ass. Trying to sound dramatic. The phrase might not even mean anything. Who knows? I doubt it's that important."

Shikamaru wasn't so sure. Amongst everything he had read. That phrase was the one that had bothered him the most. His instincts was telling him it was important.

"Say his goal is to take over the Soul King's position. How does he even do that? Is it even possible? For that matter, what does the Soul King even do? Virtually nothing is known about him, other than that the government insists he exists." The Nara scratched his beard in contemplation. The Reio had always sounded like a very convenient excuse by the Central 46 to claim they were exercising the will of God. But there were sources far older than the Seireitei referencing him.

"It is said he controls the flow of souls, and is the reason Soul Society exist." Shikako commented.

"'It is said.'" He quoted back at her.

Shikako pouted. She didn't like having her own words used against her.

"And even if that is his goal, then what? What would he use this new position for? Heavens throne sure sounds nice, but it is only empty words in the end. He has to have a reason for going after this 'throne'."

They bounced ideas off of one another for over an hour, each theory more unlikely than the last. They simply had no starting point. No information to go off of. Aizen's words were little more than poetic mockery. He had killed the entire Central 46 and betrayed them all, setting himself up as a villain only to obtain a little gem nobody but Aizen and Urahara Kisuke knew much about.

And what really made no sense was how he had betrayed them. Down in the 46's chambers, the traitor had had them all at his mercy. And he had let them go.

A third seat, two lieutenants and a captain. No one had stood a chance against him. Later he had stopped just short of killing the captain of squad 7. He had completely overwhelmed both the substitute Shinigami and another lieutenant. Yet he didn't seem to have much interest in actually killing them. If his goal was to defeat the Gotei 13, there were much more efficient ways to go about it.

There were two possibilities as far as Shikamaru could see. Aizen didn't actually want to defeat them. Or none of his opponents that day actually posed a threat to him.

The first possibility seemed strange. Even if his goal wasn't to destroy the Shinigami, they would inevitably stand in the way of whatever his goal was. Maybe he needed them for something?

The second possibility assumed an incredible arrogance on Aizen's part. Then again, he had effortlessly defeated 5 opponents with Bankai. Two of which were in Bankai. An insane feat, and an incredible demonstration of power. It sent a very powerful message.

None of this told him Aizen's goal however.

"So what are you going to do now?" Shikako's voice rang through the forest.

"I need to talk to Urahara Kisuke." Shikamaru said. "And I need to know more about Aizen. How he thinks and acts. Who he really is. Not just this mask he has been wearing for so long." He had already sent out feelers through his contacts in the Rukongai. Starting somewhere in the lower 30s. That's where the academy files said he came from. Whether those records were accurate or not were anyone's guess.

"And then there's Uzumaki Naruto." Shikamaru mused. Yet another piece in the game… Or perhaps a player?

"What about Naruto?" His Zanpakuto said. A gust flew past the clearing they were in, ruffling the branches around them.

Shikamaru was quiet. Yes. What about Naruto? There was something in the back of his mind screaming at him, yet he couldn't figure out what. Shikamaru was not the kind of person to ignore details. Much less… whatever this was.

"Perhaps I should be asking you that. Do you know who he is?" Shikamaru asked. His eyes locking with his Zanpakuto spirit.

Shikako flinched.

Hadn't he been scrutinizing her so closely he would have missed it. It was very controlled, barely more than a few centimeters of movement, and she caught herself an instant later.

"What do you mean? I see the world through your eyes. Do you think I know more about him than you?"

"Yes."

Shikako looked away, hiding her eyes behind her dark locks.

"You know who he is, don't you? You know why he seems so familiar. Would you tell me?" Shikamaru asked. His intense stare backing down a little towards the end.

"Please don't ask." The request was quiet. Very quiet. Shikako was shaking. Shikamaru blinked. Was she crying? That's the first time he had even heard about a Zanpakuto cry.

"It could be important. Why won't you tell me?"

A moment of silence followed, and Shikako's shaking abated. When she looked back up, her face was a mask of utter sadness. Shikamaru had to keep himself from taking a step back.

"There is a reason why you have forgotten. Please don't try to remember. It will only hurt you." Shikako said. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Shikamaru sighed. "I'm sorry. I know your purpose is to protect me, but my purpose is to protect everyone else. If these memories can help me with that, then I need to know."

The Zanpakuto was shaking her head.

"I- I can't…"

"Please, sister."

Taking a deep breath Shikako locked her gaze with Shikamaru's. Defiance burned in her eyes.

"I will not tell you. My ultimate purpose is to stay by your side and support you. This is not something you need to know. Please…" She trailed off at the end, her gaze traveling towards her feet.

Taking a deep breath and steeling his nerves, Shikamaru drew his sword. The steel sung as he dragged it through the air.

Shikako looked up, uncertainty written on her face.

"Shikage no Kougeki. I order you-"

Shikako's eyes flew open in panic. "Wait!"

Shikamaru stopped.

"I- I'll tell you… Just… Not now. It'll take a while to reclaim everything. I have been holding back the memories, but they are still disjointed and messy. There's almost nothing but pain. Please let me gather the rest before I give them to you. That way you'll have the whole picture and it won't just be suffering…"

Shikamaru considered the request. He should refuse. Some information was better than nothing. Then again, if he acted on incomplete info, the outcome might be worse than if he never had it in the first place. Sighing. Shikamaru nodded. "How long would it take?"

Wringing her ponytail in frustration and relief, Shikako answered. "About a month, I think."

A month? Shikamaru frowned. The Hogyoku was estimated to awaken around december, three months from now. That didn't mean Aizen would wait that long to act however.

In the end, it was Shikako that was the deciding factor. He didn't want to hurt her. If he couldn't compromise with his own soul, then he would have been far too stubborn for his own good. A Shinigami's strength is measured in the bond between Zanpakuto and wielder after all.

"Fine. I'll wait." He conceded, sheathing his sword in the process.

With one more look at Shikako's conflicted face, Shikamaru retreated from his inner world.

Eyes blinking open on the rooftop. Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome."

The sun had risen since he entered Jinzen. The shadows of twilight had embraced the district. Without anyone ever noticing he had been there, Shikamaru sank into the shadows.

Author's note:

Hello dear readers! No, I'm not dead… yet. No, I'm not abandoning this story. Thank you for all the follows and favorites. And thanks for the reviews! I love every review I get! Even the ones telling me I am an idiot heretic not following the teachings of god. (Yes, that did happen, although it seems to have been deleted.)

Another big THANK YOU goes to PseudoPhysics for agreeing to beta this chapter. He has been an immense help with editing, corrections, and idea bouncing. I am very humbled by someone giving so much of their time to helping me with such a relatively unimportant non-profit project.

Also, as you may or may not have noticed. I love references. Both to other fanfictions or just to different fiction in general. Some are more obvious than others. I applaud whomever can find them all. (I did not intentionally include that Shrek reference last chapter, but I couldn't stop laughing once I saw it.)

The explanation of The Cleaner might be a bit confusing for people not used to thinking in terms of extra dimensions and stuff. Basically; the inside is like its own separate world. You enter it by being run over (duh). Time moves so extremely slowly in this world that it might as well not exist at all. In my story, it is impossible to stop time completely, but when someone inside the cleaner have experienced even a second, the heat death of the universe would have long since come to pass. So it's a moot point.

This is not compatible with what was shown in the latest filler of the Bleach anime, where it sent Ichigo's combat badge into the past. Then Ichigo was actually inside the thing at one point, and was subsequently rescued by himself from the future… Fuck that. I'm not writing any paradoxes. This is how I imagine it'd work, so this is how it'll work.

I'm not saying time travel is impossible. But time travel is impossible.

And no. That is not what the group did when they first came to SS. I might explain that later, but it's not a paradox or a problem with how my world functions. Apparent time travel can still be done as long as there is any other logical explanation than actual time travel.

And as always, I have no idea when the next chapter will be out. Although it should be shorter than last time. *nervous chuckle* Oh, and Omaeda is now doomed to a slow and agonizing death. I'm sorry dude. I simply wasn't fast enough.

In other news; I'm done with the military! Huzzah! It was an… interesting experience.

Now I'm working full time on my farm back home, doing online courses in agriculture and farming. I'm not entirely sure this is what I want to be doing with my life, but it is an option.

Also, how many of you have played Undertale? That game has practically consumed my life for weeks now. It lasts for about 8 hours, and even that is generous, but I have immersed myself so deeply in the fandom I'm afraid I might never find my way back out. I'm not sure I want to.

Finally, this is only the second time someone has used a substitution jutsu in my story. This is… not acceptable. The Log must be most displeased.