Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto. Only the OC is my idea, her backstory, abilities, appearance, etc. I do not make any money from this story. Some characters may be a bit out of character.


Perplexed was an interesting look on Neji. The prodigy of the Hyuga clan had just learned of a confectionary item called "cheesecake" and it was apparently one dessert that she enjoyed. From what she told him, raspberry cheesecake was the best, the savory cheese, and the tartness of the raspberries made up for the sweetness.

He made a mental note to remember that detail as he headed towards a large house with Chiaki walking beside him. Eventually the question came out, "you already know my favourite is herring soba, but you've never told me yours?"

"I like savory foods. Any kind of soba's good, but if I had to pick just one thing as my favourite food —I guess maybe Shabu-Shabu, although I haven't really had that one in a while. It's not exactly a single person meal," She admitted.

"That is true," Neji replied as they entered the grounds of the large traditional home.

"Wow, your family lives here?"

"Yes," Neji agreed as a girl with long bluish black hair and the same featureless white eyes approached them. Chiaki recognized her as Hinata right away, and smiled at the exchange between them.

"Good morning Lady Hinata," Neji greeted his cousin, nodding his head slightly.

"Good morning Neji-nii," Hinata replied, and nodded in greeting to him, and then to Chiaki.

"It's Chiaki, right?"

"Yes, it is. Nice to see you again, Lady Hinata," Chiaki answered.

"I'm going to be training Lady Hinata for about an hour. Perhaps you could observe?"

"I suppose so," Chiaki complied before something caught her eye and caused her to ask, "actually, Neji, once you're done here—could we look into something? It isn't urgent right now but—it could help with that thing I was telling you about."

Neji picked up on the hint and readily agreed, "we should be able to."

"I could come along as well, if you'd like some more help," Hinata offered.

Chiaki processed the question quickly but hesitated on how to respond to it. What she wanted to investigate was something that only Neji and Tenten would be aware of.

Neji gave a small sigh at Chiaki's expression before looking to his younger cousin. They had grown up together, lived in the same house until six months ago. He rubbed the back of his neck a little before glancing to Chiaki. He lowered his hand back to his side and gave a reassuring smile along with a slight nod.

Chikai bit her lip as she inquired, "how well can you keep a secret?"

The question seemed to almost throw Hinata off guard, but she responded, "hmm a secret? It depends on if it's something that could cause someone to be harmed or not."

Chiaki gave a small sigh as she replied, "Well, maybe we should speak somewhere not so open."

Neji nodded in agreement gesturing for the three of them to enter the Hyuga home. He followed the two women into the house, making sure to close the door behind himself and started with, "Hinata, you know how the Byakugan allows us to see the flow of Chakra inside of our opponents?"

"Of course," Hinata acknowledged.

"Almost two weeks ago I found out that it allows us to see something else as well, because the internal networks are similar," Neji stated.

"What he means is: I'm not human. I primarily exist as a soul. This-" she pointed to herself as an indication of her body, "—is a faux body. It allows ordinary people to see me, but when myself or my gikon are not inhabiting it, the body doesn't really have any discerning features."

She bit her lip a little before adding, "My gikon's personality is a little… unusual… so please try to excuse her. However once I swallow this green pill, please use your byakugan to see I'm telling the truth."

"Alright," Hinata agreed, watching as Chiaki took the tubular container with a duck head on top of it, raised the duck's bill to her mouth, and pressed a button. The green pill shot from the duck's mouth into Chiaki's, and her soul form separated from her body.

"Byakugan," Hinata called out, veins enlarged as blood flow to her eyes increased and she gasped at what she saw. She saw Chiaki's shape where her body had been, but also next to her was an entity of the same size and shape.

Yuki flapped her arms and asked, "Byakugan, what it do? Quack!"

"It allows me to see nearly everything all around me," Hinata calmly explained.

"Byakuya! Byakuya! Byakuya! Quack!"

"Byaku- No, it's Byakugan," Hinata and Neji corrected Yuki.

"Byakuya Captain! Byakuya Captain! Quack!"

Hinata looked to Neji quizzically and inquired, "Byakuya Captain?"

Neji shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don't know. I know back home Chiaki's home has a kind of military force and large squads of over 200 people, the strongest of those people hold the rank of 'Captain'."

The pill popped out of the gigai and Chiaki quickly reentered the faux body before it could revert to its uninhabited appearance, she tossed the green pill up in the air and caught it before placing it back into the duck shaped dispenser.

"Byakuya Kuchiki is the Captain of Squad six, and the twenty-eighth head of the Greater Noble Kuchiki family in Soul Society," Chiaki stated as she pocketed the gikon dispenser into her shorts pocket once again.

"I was adopted by the lesser noble family Kyoraku when I was very young," She added.

"So you're of lesser nobility and there's how many great noble families in the Seireitei?"

"Four. There's the Kuchiki's, the Shihouin family, the Shiba clan was once the fifth greater noble family however it was stripped of that status a bit over thirty years ago. Hmm what's funny is I never hear anyone talking about the two other greater noble families. I guess they just kind of keep themselves out of trouble and the gotei 13. However the twenty-second head of the Shihouin clan, Yoruichi is the former Captain of Squad two and the Commander of the Stealth Force. The Kuchiki clan actually has three members within the gotei 13. Byakuya who Captains the sixth, his sister Rukia who Captains the thirteenth, and her husband Renji who is Byakuya's Vice Captain," Chiaki rambled.

"Uhh, wow," Neji voiced in acknowledgement.

"What happened to the Shiba clan?"

"Their head of the family at the time, Isshin Shiba was exiled," she replied with the same indifference of talking about the weather that Neji had learned all too well was a discreet way of requesting further questions not be asked.

Neji looked to Hinata and suggested, "are we training indoors or outdoors today?"

"I'm okay with either," Hinata answered.

"I vote outside—if my vote counts for anything," Chiaki joked.


AN: Shabu-Shabu is a one pot meal in Japan, similar to Sukiyuki however the broth in Shabu-Shabu is more savory and less sweet than Sukiyuki. Commonly in Shabu-Shabu you have cabbage, carrots, chrysanthemum greens, some have tofu, and usually strips of thinly cut meat that you cook by holding them in the broth for a few seconds. There's also mushrooms involved, but Chiaki would forgo those and let someone else have them.