Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach. All rights go to the original owners.

~Hollow~

Chapter One: Lost and Hollow

Ichigo could feel his mind drift back into lucidity upon which he was assaulted by what had to be one of the worst migraines that he had ever experienced in his young life.

He opened his eyes and was greeted by the light of a flickering lamp mounted on a wall above him. From the smell and the feeling of sharp objects poking at his back and behind he could assume that he must've been in an alleyway of some sort.

That was a first for him, he recalled waking up in all manner of weird situations, but a back alley? Yuzu would have his head if she ever found out about this. Thinking about his little sister made him recall the happenings that led him to being here…

He reached up with a hand to rub at his eyes, trying desperately to stem the tears that welled up within them. It was no use, the pain was just too great, too fresh to ignore… His home, his family, his friends; they were all dead!

Dead and Gone!

A shuddering sob escaped through his brittle and dry lips.

He had failed them all!

Sobs continued to wrack through his body and soul, even as he drew his knees up to his chest where he buried and hid his face from the world.

Everything that he ever cherished was gone because of the mistake one man had made. How was that fair? Who decided such things?

What was he supposed to do!?

"It's not fair!" He yelled into his knees while folding his hands above his head, fingers painfully fisting and pulling at his hair. "It's not fair…"

He didn't deserve this, did he? What ungodly crime had he committed to receive this… punishment!? Hadn't he bled and suffered enough!? Had his life not been hard enough already!?

Why was it always him?

"Why me…?" He whispered through heart quenching sobs of anguish. "Why always me…"

He could feel the presence of Zangetsu and the Old Man in the back of his mind, he could feel how the spirits of his blades tried to comfort him, to aid him through the anguish that held his heart in a vice grip. And yet their presence did little to soothe his woe's.

He didn't know how long he sat there against the walls of some building, time seemed wholly meaningless. He just sat and he cried, he cried and he cursed whomever and whatever that would hear his cries.

He cursed Ywach, he cursed the Shinigami, he cursed Minato and he cursed himself to the very depths of purgatory and beyond.

He cursed and cried, cried and cursed until his tears ran dry and his voice turned hoarse, then he just sat with his head buried into his knees.

"NO!" Ichigo raised his head and looked towards the entrance of the alley and saw a woman with long red hair stumble past, quickly being followed by several blurs. "Leave me alone!"

The fiery haired Shinigami blinked in confusion before he decided to find out what that was all about.

Anything to get his mind off of his failures.

He wiped his face clean of tears and quickly rose to his feet; once he stood upright he checked himself over, making sure that his blades were still in place and even making sure that the clothes he was gifted were all accounted for.

After he'd assured himself that nothing was amiss, he left the alley and made to follow the red haired woman.

He followed the direction the red haired woman had taken in a light jog, and once he rounded a corner he came upon a scene that made his eyes narrow.

The woman was lying on the ground, dressed in nothing but a ruffled and dirty hospital gown. She was glaring fiercely at the group of masked individuals that were surrounding her in a circle while clutching a small bundle in her arms.

"Jonin Uzumaki, hand over the Jinchūriki right now." One of the masked men spoke in a cold and even voice.

Looking those masked people over didn't reveal much to Ichigo. They were twelve in total and all of them wore different attire. Some wore pieces of armour such as breastplates, shoulder pads and arm-guards, while other's wore large cloaks that covered most of their forms from view. Their weaponry too varied from individual to individual, some carrying swords, some held what he assumed to be throwing knifes in their grips, while others were armed with clubs and batons.

The only thing they had in common were the blank white porcelain masks that made the whole group appear as a bastardized mockery of Hollow's to Ichigo's eyes.

"Never!" The redhead shouted fiercely while pulling the bundle in her arms closer. "Danzo is a fool if he believes that I would ever allow him to lay a hand on my son!"

"This matter is non-negotiable, hand over the Jinchūriki now or we will take it by force." The same masked man spoke in the very same emotionless tone, even as the other wanna be hollows simultaneously drew their weapons and stepped closer to the lone woman.

Said woman finally seemed to realize the situation she found herself in and grew desperate in her attempts to protect the child within her arms.

"Stop!" The woman cried loudly, "don't you dare to come any closer! I swear if you take my son from me I will gut you all!"

Watching that scene unfold before his eyes, Ichigo had to say the woman's fiery spirit impressed him quite a bit. She reminded him off his own...he shook his head, this wasn't a comparison that he wished to make, it would only bring up even more anguish and painful memories, and he already had enough of those to last him several lifetimes.

Anyhow, while her spirit was commendable, it was no use. She was alone, unarmed and going by the hospital gown in no condition to fight.

Luckily for her, Ichigo had seen just about enough; he would not allow a child to be orphaned right before his eyes. He began to walk towards the woman and her would be attackers, his left hand reaching down to grasp the hilt of Old Man Zangetsu.

Just as the leader of those masked asses gestured for his men to advance towards the helpless mother, Ichigo made his presence known.

"That's enough." He spoke firmly, drawing the attention of everyone towards himself.

Though only the red haired woman seemed to show surprise at his intervention whereas most of the masked men didn't even bother to turn towards him. Only the masked face of the groups leader turned slightly towards him, only enough that the edges of the man's eyes were visible through the eyeholes.

Their eyes briefly met before the man looked away and once more focused his attention on the frightened mother, before he spoke.

"No witnesses."

With those simple words three masked men broke away from the group and immediately shot towards the Substitute Shinigami. The masked men moved quickly, diminishing the distance between themselves and Ichigo in a few quick strides.

Though it was all for naught.

The moment the first of the three came within arms reach of the fiery haired teenager, Ichigo had drawn old man Zangetsu free from his sheathe and smoothly dragged the blade along the masked man's throat, leaving behind a trail of arterial blood that spewed free from the cut Zangtsu left in his wake.

Ichigo strode past his now gurgling opponent and immediately faced a second attacker. He twisted the still raised Zangetsu before slashing down, his blade heading towards his second opponents masked visage.

Said opponent tried to raise his weapon in order to block Zangetsu, but it proved futile. The powerful Zanpaktuo cleaved through the weapon without meeting even the slightest resistance before cutting the individuals mask and biting deep into the flesh beneath, severing the head in twain.

Opponent number three surprised Ichigo by throwing his weapon high into the air before moving through several strange hand-symbols.

The teen from another world raised a curious eyebrow when the masked man drew in a deep and long breath before, much to Ichigo's silent amazement, spewed forth the head of a massive Dragon made out of flames.

To Ichigo's eyes this was more of an artwork than an attack, and he had to ask himself why that was. Was there some purpose behind the shape of those flames? Was it meant to be intimidating?

Ah well, in the end it didn't matter.

He lifted old man Zangetsu over his head before slashing down in an almost causal manner, and yet the mere air-pressure created by his swing was enough to sever the flaming dragon into two pieces that harmlessly past him by.

Ichigo took a moment to relish in the surprise he could see in the masked man's eyes before he decided to go in for the kill.

He shot towards his enemy, covering the distance between them in a split second before he plunged Zangetsu into the man's abdomen. Ignoring the man' gasping breaths Ichigo pulled Zangetsu free and turned to face the leader of those masked men, a deep scowl on his youthful face.

"Now then, I'll give you one more chance to get the hell away from that woman and her child or I will tear every single one of you apart…"

The leader of the group fully turned to face Ichigo with an air of calmness about him that slowly whittled away at the substitutes temper. Ichigo had faced cold and emotionless opponents before, but there was just something off about those masked men.

It seemed as if they knew no fear or doubt, as if they had no real sense of self.

"Negative." The masked leader spoke coldly, cementing his fate. "Kill him while I'll get the Jinchūriki to Danzo-"

The man never got to finish his sentence as Ichigo blurred from view and when he reappeared again he stood in front of the red haired woman who looked up at him with wide violet eyes.

All around them the masked men began to wobble in place before gashes opened up all over their bodies, spraying their steaming lifeblood into the air before they all fell as one.

Most of them were dead long before their cooling bodies hit the ground.

Ichigo's chocolate brown eyes met the woman's wide violet ones before he took a look at the child that she held cradled within her arms.

Blonde hair, whisker like marks on tiny cheeks, and wide cerulean eyes that stared up at him with childlike innocence.

Another, similar, face flashed through his mind along with the echoing words of the man that was at fault for him being stuck here in the first place…

'Could you listen to a man's last words?'

Ichigo closed his eyes and tried to ignore the echoing voice in his head. He was still unsure how he felt about that man, and a very large part of himself wanted nothing more than to blame Minato for the deaths of his friends, his loved ones and his family.

'Please protect my son and wife.'

"T-Thank you." The substitutes eyes snapped open again to look at the wife of the man that might as well have damned his entire world. "Thank you for saving us, you have no idea how much this means to me."

Ichigo tried to scowl down at the woman, and yet he found that he couldn't. All the anger and sadness that coursed through his very being seemed to vanish at the sight before him. Seeing this woman look down at her child so lovingly as she spoke…

Minato's words once more echoed through his mind. 'If you happen to see either one of them, tell them that I love them both.'

Ichigo sighed and combed a hand through his hair. "Yeah, no problem." He mumbled to the woman who took her eyes away from her child to look up at him.

"Who are you?" She asked, her gaze becoming inquisitive. "You don't wear a headband and I'm pretty sure that I've never seen you around the Village before, are you a traveller?"

"Name's Ichigo Kurosaki, and yea, I guess you could say that I'm new around these parts." He said before kneeling down to get a better look at the woman and her child. "Are you alright? Going by that hospital gown I suppose you shouldn't be out here."

The woman smiled and shook her head, "I'm fine, us Uzumaki are a resilient bunch, really I'm just happy that my baby is save."

Ichigo couldn't help the small smile that grew on his lips at the adoration with which the woman smiled down at her son.

"Truly I can't thank you enough." The redhead continued, her eyes moving away from her son to meet Ichigo's. "I just lost my husband...i don't know what I would've done if I had lost my son as well…"

Ichigo breathed out a light sigh before falling back into the dirt to sit next to the woman. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you." She whispered, her smile turning melancholic. "I guess I should introduce myself as well, huh? My name is Uzumaki Kushina and this little one right here is my son Naruto."

"It's nice to meet you two." Ichigo said, a tiny smile playing on his lips. "Say, Kushina was it?" The redhead focused her attention on him and nodded, "I'm sorry if this question is too personal, but you husband...he was the man that fought the giant fox that attacked this place not that long ago, wasn't he?"

"Yes, that was him." Kushina nodded, her face plainly showing her conflicting emotions, "Why do you ask?"

"Because I was there." Ichigo said.

"Wait, what do you mean by 'you were there'?" Kushina asked in a demanding tone.

"I was getting to that." Ichigo sighed while combing a hand through his hair. "The circumstances surrounding my arrival in this village are odd...and not exactly something I want to get into right now. But when I arrived here I met your husband, it was right after he performed whatever weird ritual he did in order to summon this-ah THE Shinigami…"

Kushina looked at him with narrowed eyes and despite himself Ichigo found himself beginning to sweat at the look she was giving him.

"Go on…" She said, or rather demanded, causing Ichigo to sigh again.

"Quite honestly I still have no clue about half of the stuff that happened during the few moments that I've known your husband. But he did ask me to look out for you and your son, it was his final request, he also asked me to tell you both that he...loved you very much."

Kushina looked down at Naruto with a small, sad smile on her lips. "I see, thank you for telling me this...and I guess you did keep your word didn't you? By protecting us from those Root Ninja I mean."

"...I guess…" Ichigo shifted uncomfortably.

He never had given Minato his word on anything, and a part of him questioned what would've happened had the Shinigami not made his presence known.

Would he have helped Minato fight against the Kyuubi? Would he have stood aside?

But one thing was certain, he didn't save Kushina and Naruto for Minato's sake. He did it because he could and because he just knew that it was the right thing to do...

~Hollow~

A/N: Hello everyone, and let me just say I'm sorry about the rather short chapter. I struggled quite a bit with this one for some reason, and in the end I'm not truly happy with it.

I wanted to write this chapter in a way that was similar to "The Leaf's very own Soul Reaper", but at the same time I wanted it to be vastly different. As such I swapped out the mob of villagers with Root Agents, which was mostly because I'm not a big fan of the "evil villagers" cliché.

I also tried to write both Ichigo and Kushina a bit more...broken I guess.

I'm not a big fan of angst or overly much drama, but the truth of the matter is that the both of them lost a lot. Kushina lost her husband and Ichigo quite literally lost his world, neither of them has any reason to be chipper or in a particularly good mood.

That will change of course, but it's going to take a bit of time.

With that said, thank you all for the support you have given me so far, and I will try to update again soon. Hopefully with a longer chapter as well!

Ciao, have a great one and I'll see you guys and gals whenever!

R&R