Hey, guess what!? I'M ALIIIIIVE!!! After being practically held captive at almost every single one of my relatives' houses, I return to update!! Fans of Tite Kubo will recognize the crossover elements from Bleach in this chapter. I promise you guys, there WILL be plot development next chapter!! I PROMISE!!! As a belated Christmas present, I included the very first ShinMe fluff (Shinzui x Ayame) towards the end. I'll do my best with Ayame, considering almost nothing is known about her!! --;;;
Shinzui gasped for air as he stood again. He'd been trying to make his own techniques with his sword, Konpakutou, but it wasn't working.
("No crap it's not working, you've only been at it for two hours.") Shinzui grunted noncommittally as he sheathed his sword. The sword was just too freaking large. That, or he was too small. Probably a little of both.
("I concur. You are aninsignificant specktoo small to relieve myself on.")
'Oh, yeah, now my day is complete. I really had a burning desire to have you insult me. Besides, relieve yourself!? Why not just say I'm not worth crapping on!?' Shinzui quipped as he staggered through town, covered in the backlash from his attempted techniques. He paused to lean against the side of a building, some kind of store for all he cared. It was odd, he decided, that every other store was bustling and overflowing with customers, yet this one remained empty. His curiosity outweighed anything else, and he decided to poke his head in.
"Welcome to Masaki Shoten, what can I get for you?" He jumped out of his skin when a female-sounding voice barged into his thought process. He walked further into the store, and saw a woman sitting behind the counter. She had light brown hair, almost the color of sand, and eyes so brown they were almost black. She had an apron on over a casual dress, and took a drag from a cigarette as she looked at him.
"Um, excuse me onee-san, but what is this place?" She smirked in response.
"You must have abnormally high spiritual powers to be able to enter, let alone see, this store. Who are you, gaki?" (gakimeans kid) Shinzui bowed.
"Watashi wa Subete Shinzui desu." She smiled and nodded her head.
"Masaki Yamiko. Why do you have a sword, squirt?"
"I'm a Shinigami, Masaki-san." Yamiko practically choked on her cigarette.
"You!? A Shinigami!? But you're still alive!? And you're just a gaki!!" Shinzui rolled his eyes.
"I'm no ordinary gaki, Masaki-san."
"Obviously!!" Shinzui looked around the store. Some of the items looked normal enough, but there were several items that looked like they didn't belong in a normal store.
"What do you sell here?" Yamiko smiled proudly.
"Contraband, direct from Soul Society. You interested gaki? Since you're a shinigami, I can give you a discount!" Shinzui shook his head. She practically had ryo signs for pupils, and was grinning at him.
"Gomen, Masaki-san, demo-"
"Yamiko-chan." she interrupted, wearing what was probably supposed to be a disarming smile.
"Yamiko-chan, then. I don't have any money. Besides, all of these things look really expensive…" Yamiko smiled wider.
"Well, since you're the only shinigami here, I think I can give you a few freebies!" Yamiko walked out from behind the counter and picked up a glove from a display stand. The glove was red, and it had a design of a skull with blue flames on the back. Shinzui raised an eyebrow.
"These babies can force the soul out of a person. All you have to do is hit them with your hand while wearing this, and ZAP!! Their soul flies out!" Yamiko explained excitedly.
("I like her. I know a fellow sadist when I see one.") Yamiko spun around.
"Like you'd know, you damn fox! Now I recognize you…" Shinzui's eyes bugged out of his head and Kyuubi was spluttering.
"You can hear him!?" Yamiko nodded.
("That only leaves one possible thing you could be.") Her shoulders tensed.
"Oh? Enlighten us, teme." Shinzui grumbled.
("She's an exiled shinigami. Only way she'd be able to hear me.") Yamiko sighed.
"Sou da ("sou da" "that's right"). I used to be a shinigami. Captain of a squad. I protested something that I shouldn't have…" her fist clenched and shook with anger.
"Was it anything to do with the extermination of the Quincy?" Shinzui asked in his quiet manner.
("HOW IN ALL HELLS COULD YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT!?") Yamiko's eyes had widened in shock.
"In Soul Society, shinigami are also called 'balancers.' There always must be balance between the number of souls in this world and the next, also known as Soul Society. If not, the balance between the two worlds is moot and they're both screwed. Shinigami regulate the amount of souls in both worlds. Souls reenter the living world under the watch of shinigami, and souls depart this world via shinigami, Hollows included." He picked up a scale from the counter and piled around 30 marbles in each side.
"Think of it this way. The balance between the worlds is a lot like this scale. The black marbles in this side represent the souls in Soul Society, or the afterlife. The white marbles on the other side are the souls currently in the living world. Say a shinigami performs konsou, or Soul Funeral, on a Hollow and/or ghost." He removed a white marble from the scale and placed it in the other side.
"As soon as that happens, another soul is sent back to this world, escorted by shinigami." He took a black marble and placed it on the white side, making the scales balanced again.
"A pretty smooth system, until the Quincy came along. See, the Quincy don't pass souls on, they just eliminate them." He started removing black marbles one at a time.
"If this kept happening, well, sooner or later… There we go." The scale had become so off balance that it tipped over completely, spilling all the marbles.
"The resulting chaos would make Soul Society spill over into the living world, destroying both worlds." She nodded slowly, not believing what she had just heard.
"How… how do you know so much…?" Shinzui smirked.
"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I told you I read it in a book back home?" Yamiko smiled.
"Seeing as how you came from another world, yeah, I think I buy it. I think I like you kid. Here, every shinigami needs one of these." She reached behind the counter and pulled out…
"A denrei shinki?" Shinzui asked quizzically. She nodded, surprised that he knew what it was.
("Oh, this is just what he needs, a way to catch up with his social life! How thoughtful.") Sarcasm dripped from every word, and Shinzui took the phone in his hand.
"Nope! This is no ordinary cell phone! It's called a denrei shinki, or a Celestial Text Messager. This little gem warns you when a hollow appears in the mortal plane. It'll usually give you a five minute warning, as well as a fifty-foot radius of where it's likely to materialize." She lectured the fox, making him growl in frustration. Shinzui was impressed, and he slipped the phone in a hidden pocket inside his shirt. He wanted more of the stuff inside the store, but he was flat broke. This called for desperate measures and a forbidden technique in its own right – the dreaded Puppy Eyes no Jutsu.
"Any other freebies you care to give me, Yamiko-onee-chan?" he asked, looking up at her with his best impression of puppy eyes. Boy, did it ever work. She squealed, picked him up and hugged him tightly.
"Awwwww!! Soooo kawaii!!" Shinzui immediately blushed profusely, considering just where she was mooshing his face.
"There's no way I can refuse that!! You're just too cute! You're going to be quite the hottie once you grow up!" Shinzui's face was going through about five different shades of red.
"Um, thanks, I guess…" Yamiko finally set him down and dug behind the counter again.
"Now where did I stock those… Here it is!" she declared triumphantly as she pulled out a cigarette lighter.
("Now I really like her. I don't suppose she has any cigarettes?") Shinzui coughed, not really surprised by Kyuubi's comments.
"That isn't a normal lighter. If you click it in front of a normal person's face, it'll erase their memory of your encounter and put in a random replacement memory." Shinzui took it and nodded his thanks, pocketing it.
"It won't work on everyone, so try and reserve it to civilians who are attacked by Hollows. They're much better off not remembering it." Shinzui smiled up at the ex-shinigami.
"Thanks for the equipment, Yamiko-nee." She ruffled his hair and smiled back down.
"No problem, chibi. Just be careful, k?" He nodded, and left the store, closing the door behind him. Yamiko lit another cigarette and leaned against the counter.
"So the kid can fight hollows in his physical body, huh? Interesting… Good luck, Subete Shinzui. I have a sinking feeling you're going to need it."
Shinzui walked through the marketplace, trying to feel for Naruto's chakra. He was walking by a store when –
-'Nani!?' He looked down and saw himself lying in a bloody mess on the forest floor, a jounin from Amagakure (Rain village) standing over him. He turned and looked at a limp Iruka, a trembling Kurenai, and an unconscious… Who was that, anyway? And what the hell was going on!?.
"Well, now that he's out of the way, I can kill you three and make a clean sweep of the leaf ninjas." His compatriots behind him laughed and cheered him on. The Jounin walked forward, but everyone froze once they heard an unearthly growl. Shinzui saw his body stand up, knitting itself back together from a collection of slices to a functioning body. His body raised its head and a primal roar of fury and rage issued from it –
-hislegs buckled as he found himself lying against the building he had been walking by.
'What… the freaking hell!?!' Kyuubi growled from his cage.
("Just great. So YOU don't know what that was either!?")
'No freaking idea, fox. Now excuse me while I try to get my pulse under two hundred miles an hour!!' Shinzui stood and examined himself in the glass. He gasped involuntarily at the reflection of his eyes. The whites of his eyes were as black as night, his pupils merely white slits against the pale sky blue of his irises. When he blinked, they were back to normal, the whites were white, the pupils were black, and his irises were chocolate brown again.
'Okay, now I'm seriously worried. That can't have been a flashback, that hasn't happened yet!! You don't think… I just saw into the future… do you?' Kyuubi gave the mental equivalent of a shrug.
("Beats me. You still don't know a blasted thing about where your body in this world came from, so who's to say you don't have a kekkei genkai?") Shinzui's mind entered double-time.
'A blood limit!? HOW could I have a blood limit!? Okay Shinzui, calm down and think about this later. What were you doing before you had your freak-out? Looking for Naruto, that's right. So let's just finish that…' Shinzui headed to a local playground and scanned the children for a mop of unruly blonde hair. Finally spotting one, he saw Naruto sitting in the sandbox by himself. He walked over and stood behind him.
"You look lonely, chibi." Naruto spun around and looked up.
"Aniki!!! You found me!! Wherewereyouhuh? Wereyoudevelopingsomesupersecrettechnique!? Huhhuhhuhhuhhuhhuhhuh-ITAI!!" Naruto ended his hyper rant when Shinzui rapped him over the back of the head lightly. Shinzui hauled his little brother up to a standing position.
"You wanna have Ramen for lunch or what?"
"YAAAAYY!!! RAMEN!!" Naruto started to sprint in the direction of the Ichiraku. Or he would have if his feet had been touching the ground. Shinzui was holding his overenthusiastic brother by his shirt collar, which resulted in Naruto's feet missing the pavement by a good six inches.
"Aniki!! Lemme go!! Ramen!!" Naruto looked back at him with tearful eyes. Shinzui chuckled.
"Hai, hai, hai. Ramen. Just don't get out of my sight, okay squirt?"
"YATTA!!" Naruto practically skipped down the street, while a chuckling Shinzui followed. Naruto bounced into his normal seat, and Shinzui sat on his right.
"Ojii-san! One miso Ramen!" Teuchi turned around to greet his youngest customer when he noticed the green-haired youth sitting beside him.
"Well, I recognize Naruto, but you're new around here. You happen to be that older brother Naruto's always going on about?" Shinzui laughed.
"Yeah, that's me. Watashi wa Subete Shinzui desu, Teuchi-san." Teuchi raised an eyebrow.
"Well welcome to the Ichiraku ramen stand, Shinzui-kun. Ayame-chan! Come out and meet Naruto-kun's aniki!" he hollered back into what looked like a storage closet.
"Coming otou-chan!" came the voice of a young girl from said room. Soon, a nervous-looking girl walked out wearing the uniform of the food stand. She looked a little younger than Shinzui, and her brown hair reached down to her shoulders. Her face bore a shy smile, and her eyes matched the color of her hair perfectly. She met Shinzui's eyes, and her face turned beet red.
'Sugoi… so handsome...' she thought as she stared at him. His green hair was the color of emeralds, and it fell around his face and head to his shoulders. His eyes looked so kind, yet so distant. And there was something about his eyes… something familiar… She quickly turned around and started making the order, her heart still racing.
("YAHOO!!! This is the one, kit!! Take her!! Do it now!!") Kyuubi roared from his cage. Shinzui managed to turn his shriek of disbelief into a coughing fit before it got out.
'WHAT THE HOLY FUCKING SHIT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?! WHAT THE HELL BROUGHT THAT ON!?!' Shinzui mentally screamed.
("Gee, you can swear!! I didn't know! Well, there's no way I could ever convince you to mate a youma…") Shinzui coughed again.
'No crap there's no way!!'
("So I figured a hanyou like her is the next best thing.") Shinzui froze in the middle of a cough.
'Hanyou? You DID just say hanyou, right? As in, half-human, half-demon!?' Kyuubi chuckled.
("Feel her chakra aura kit. Doesn't it feel different from a human's? More animalistic, unearthly, unnatural even?") Shinzui concentrated. The fox was right. Something about her chakra just seemed… off.
'Does my chakra feel like that?' Shinzui wondered rhetorically.
("Almost. Yours gives off more of an I'll-kill-you-if-you-mess-with-me kind of feeling. No need to thank me!") Shinzui rolled his eyes.
"Are you okay aniki?" Naruto asked, looking up at him with concern.
"Ah, yeah, I'm fine. I think I just overdid it when I was training myself. Landed kinda hard, you know." Shinzui laughed as Naruto slurped so enthusiastically that the noodle slapped him in his face.
Ayame's heart fluttered when she heard the most gorgeous and beautiful sound she ever had. It sounded like an angel was laughing.
'That sound… so melodic… Should I turn around? I really shouldn't… demo… I must see the source of that sound!' She turned around to look, and her face turned beet red instantly. That angel was sitting at the bar, that emerald-haired angel that she thinks she's in love with. He turned and looked at her, meeting her chocolate orbs with his own. And then he smiled at her. She immediately felt her heart melt into a puddle of warm, sticky goo at the bottom of her chest cavity.
Shinzui smiled at the girl, and her face turned so red it looked like she'd dunked it in a bucket of red paint. She timidly smiled back as she handed him his order.
"H-H-H-H-Here's your r-r-r-ramen, Shinzui-san." she squeaked out as she set it on the counter.
"Arigato. I'm sure it will taste great, since you made it just for me." If it was possible, even more blood rushed to her face as she smiled shyly again. Within the recesses of his mind, he heard Kyuubi chuckle.
'What's so funny, fox?' Kyuubi laughed again.
("Looks like I won't have to teach you how to woo a woman. This one's already smitten with you!!") Kyuubi howled with laughter. Shinzui almost choked on his ramen. He looked up at Ayame, and she practically had hearts for eyes. Shinzui just groaned mentally as he ate more of his ramen.
'Great, just great. First I have a freaky vision, and now I have my first fangirl!! Ah well, at least she doesn't look psychotic.'
("You never know about the quiet ones, kit. You never know…") This time Shinzui did choke.
Kyaaa!! There we go, people! Okay, now, review time!!
Night-Owl123 – Thanks!
Dragon Man 180 – Yes, Shinzui will meet some nice ghosts, I promise. No, the third didn't know, and he'll find out in the next chapter (insert maniacal laugh here). I do plan on making Naruto and Hinata friends, even if they aren't a couple.
Metanaito-san – Well, soon we'll meet our first Hollow! Evil spirit ahoooy!! Erm, anyways, thanks, Kyuubi can be surprisingly hard to write! Oo
animewatcher-san – Congratulations! You're the first one to notice that it's a Bleach crossover! (opens party balloon) Nice eye for the small stuff. Yes, the training is going to be, er, interesting, for certain. Yeah, it's gonna get crazy… oO
Skuld's Sentaro – Shinzui could have killed the orphanage worker, but he has self-control. That's just how he is. Yes, including ghosts will prove to be a pleasant challenge, one that I can't wait to start.
Inferno-Dragonz – I'm trying to update more often, I promise!! I have two other stories though!! Oo
PREVIEW OF NEXT CHAPTER: Shinzui starts training his team, with the help of an unlikely sensei. We learn more of Ayame, the shy hanyou, and we also find out just how Shinzui was called to this world, as well as who did it.