Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Bleach or Shaman King.

Naruto could beat Raditz nowadays. Just saiyan. I think that's only fair now. The Narutoverse has risen tremendously in power since the DBGT-like (in low quality writing, of course) war happened. I don't think it's unreasonable to say he's at small planet level if we low-balled his tanking of a moon-cutter to like multi continent level because we're saying the Narutoverse's moon was somewhat hollow. Multi continent is still most of the planet and he tanked that attack effortlessly, meaning Toneri, even being that strong, was still fodder by comparison, so yh.

Small planet level is the least we can give Naruto. Moreover, while I feel Raditz would likely have more destructive power than Naruto because blowing the moon up over cutting it which Piccolo who Raditz decimated with ease, did, Naruto would just have too much for him. Even without the all negating Balls of Truth, Naruto could throw Raditz off with clones and hit him with a Rasenshuriken barrage. I know in the war it just seems more and more like a Kamehameha/Spirit Gun kinda just straightforward nuke attack, it still isn't. It would FUCK Raditz up unless maybe he has his aura up, which he has to consciously do as seen in Goku's and Trunks' little sparring match in Z where Goku charged KI in his finger and blocked Trunks' sword and Super Saiyan Blue Goku getting pierced by a scrub's laser gun.

Aura can block anything, yes, but it's not subconscious by any means. They have to consciously shroud themselves in it to be nigh-invincible.

Naruto's Saiyan Saga level easily.

It was him, the Transmigration of the Child of Prophecy later dubbed one of the first two of the Divine Warriors; nigh godlike Warriors said to be so strong their mere presence alone brought cataclysmic devastation to countries. Truly, Kisuke had his doubts pertaining to the accuracy of the stoned tablets listing the absurd power of the Divine Warriors, but he had seen three earn the prodigious title after Naruto and the first one received theirs many, many years before he even existed, so while the more rational part of his brain told him parts of their accomplishments were overblown another part told him they wasn't all exaggerated. There were some truths to the tale. Naruto was a living-breathing proof vessel of the legend of the very first two named Divine Warriors.

He radiated power, even untapped and suppressed. The boy with cerulean eyes as blue as the ocean itself - a paragraph of the ancient prophecy - was definitely that Naruto. Anyone else even with a quarter the amount of reiatsu as Naruto would've been devoured by the creepy-crawlies of the night, to put it in less literal terms. He had his theories as to why Naruto hadn't yet been hunted down by those who coveted his power for their evolution but he would reserve those until after he opened Naruto's eyes to his destiny. That was the challenge, accomplishing that in a manner that was most plausible. As Naruto's companion proved, people didn't just believe what they were told at face-value from total strangers, especially what was essentially a fairy tale legend wholly unbelievable and not at all grounded in reality.

Fortunately, he was Kisuke Urahara, a man of a thousand possibilities, planning strategies a million years in advance. Naruto was no different. A couple of centuries back, when he first heard of Naruto's existence, he mentally mapped out multiple blue prints he would likely employ to get Naruto on his side for his own convenience.

The greater good played a smaller factor in Kisuke's desire to ensure Naruto stayed relatively in the white end of the spectrum but only because he had no desire to fight against someone said to had possessed power capable of destroying the planet. He was shady and corrupt in his own right but he didn't harbour any delusions of world domination. He wasn't that ambitious. He just wanted security, and having a godlike warrior on his side granted him all of that and more.

"Naruto!"

Ah! Actually, to tell the truth, he was overjoyed to see Naruto and his companion weren't so naïve that they would just believe everything he said at face value, because that meant he could employ operation fun strategy, show them why Naruto was a legend-among-legends by helping them ascend through the 'goodness' of his heart.

"Why!"

...Without telling them at first, of course, because trolling was always fun.

"Owwwww!" The spiky headed blond winced, pushing himself to his backside and ignoring the strange rattling of chains close to his proximity, "What gives, asshole?!" Naruto's cerulean eyes borne into his mischievous-smiling assailant with laser-like accuracy and penetration, "What's the big idea leading us down here in this Cliffside basement thing only to whack me across the fucking landscape, prick!" Seriously, though. He could've at least been kind enough to let Naruto and his rival absorb the near perfect imitation of a Cliffside that was Kisuke's 'basement.' Even the artificial sky looked absolutely real and looked like the everyday sky he was used to seeing when he stepped outside his shitty apartment. He would've believed it was real if it weren't for the eerily, still, unmoving clouds.

But scratch that. Now all his mind could dwell on was the sudden and, surprisingly, damaging assault on his person and how his pride needed to be compensated for its humiliation. He actually rag dolled for the first time since he could remember upon being met with a strike, and it irritated him to no ends.

"You got five seconds to explain yourself before I kick your butt from here, all the way to China!" The whiskered-cheeked hotshot asserted, darkening glare only leaving Kisuke's teasing smile from the nervous nudges on his shoulder.

"Uh, Naruto," Kuwabara's gruff voice sounded supremely nervous.

"What!" He snapped with unintentional rudeness, searching his rival's nervous gestures with annoyance plastered on his face, "What? What are you trying to say, man?"

Kuwabara didn't know how to convey his absolute horror to his technically best friend, in the sense that Naruto was his only friend, companion at least. He wasn't as blunt as his physically stronger classmate on sensitive matters so he figured the only way to get his point across was to show Naruto as he shakily pointed across the landscape to where Naruto originally laid. Naruto traced his finger, eyes bulging wide to a perfect replica of himself lying motionlessly on his belly wearing his clothes seemingly being linked to his person by a metal chain.

Well that explained the noise.

"Hey, there's another me, wearing my clothes," Naruto stated, all semblance of fire lost in his blank tone. With supreme hesitation extremely unnatural to his confident character, he touched at his chest, wincing from the cold feel of metal. He gulped, steeling himself for the worse before gazing down to find an all too familiar object now attached to where his heart should be. He trembled, "...Hey, I know this thing," It was the very spirit chain he had seen on many a spirits with his girlfriends walking from and away from school, "That means..."

"He killed you..." Kuwabara finished for him, voice trailing off in a gasping whisper.

"Noooooo!" Naruto lamented, and Kuwabara joined him in his grief.

"Noooooo!"

"I was so young, though!"

"I know, man!"

"I'll never get to taste ramen again!"

"Who am I gonna beat up now!?"

"Shut up and be serious, you idiot!" Naruto reprimanded him, returning to his grief shortly after, "What are my princesses gonna do without their prince-charming in orange shining armour!"

"Wait a minute!" The sudden reference to his girlfriends hit Kuwabara with a flash of selfish inspiration, "With you out the picture maybe I can score with Yuzu and Karin."

Faster than a heartbeat, the sadness in Naruto's cerulean eyes shifted to dangerous anger, "You better not or else I'll haunt your ass from beyond the grave!"

Kuwabara stood tall, bulky shoulders extended in his bravery, "Haha! Whatcha gonna do now, Uzumaki? You're dead! Time to step aside and let a real man show the ladies all about honour and... swords. Yeah! Innuendo very much intended, punk!"

Naruto growled underneath his breath, "You..."

"Actually, Mr Kuwabara," Naruto's quote-unquote murderer chimed in, earning Naruto's ire and Kuwabara's nervous attention, a murderous red crimspn glow gleaming in his eyes, "You gotta die too, I'm afraid."

Kuwabara paled, backing up with his hands held up, "Wait! Hold on, man! If ya worried I'm gonna snitched, don't! I hate cops!"

"Sorry, you've seen too much my friend. Gotta silence you the hard way. Nothing personal!~"

The horrified panicked on Kuwabara's face worsened as the shadow of Kisuke's approach slowly eclipsed his panicking visage until he turned and attempted to gallop to safety, for all the good it did; none. Kisuke literally blazed past him like the wind, ejecting his spiritual body from his physical one with a slash far too quick for the naked eye to catch. He stumbled and rolled beside an overjoyed Naruto, pushing himself and observing his chain with a sigh of deflated excitement.

"Darn, I was so close too to getting two hot girls."

"Hahahahaha!" Naruto chortled, throwing an arm around his partner in dead, "Don't feel too bad, buddy. There's no way you woulda gotten my girls. I'm in so deep with 'em they'll die without ever looking at another guy again!"

"Oh, fuck you!"

"Oh, you're not dead... yet," Kisuke stated perkily, whispering the end part of his sentence very inaudibly and malevolently underneath his breath, "Cheer up!"

His follow up sufficed to masquerade his malicious intent as the two turned to him with hopeful eyes, "Really? We're not dead?" Naruto asked, praying for clarification.

"Noooo," Kisuke drawled out playfully, tapping the chains connected to their chests, "See this? This is what's known as a spirit chain. As long as it remains attached to your real bodies, you can hop right in no problem!"

Naruto heavled a massive sigh of relief followed by Kuwabara, "Well that's a relief. For a second there I thought we were seriously-." Their chains were severed mid-sentence, "Fuckeddddddd!"

"We're dead!" Kuwabara yelled, grasping his huge wallowed cheekbones, "He killed us for reals this time!" He slammed a fist against the battered crumbled rocky ground beneath them, "Gosh darn it! I never even got the chance to own a cat!"

"I'll waste you, you asswipe!" Naruto lunged in on Kisuke who merely responded with a two-fingered gesture, content mocking grin still very much hidden behind his trademark green and white striped fan. Seemingly against his will, Naruto's arms forced his rush attempt on his murderer to a sudden halt and moved behind his back, twisting forcefully in knots as though an invisible ghost was tying ropes around them, "Wha-? FUCK!" He grimaced in agony, attempting to wiggle his arms free in vain to escape the seeming psychic's hold, "No fair, bitch! That's cheating!"

"What the hell?" Kuwabara wasn't flaring any better. Kisuke had also used the same voodoo-like magic on him, psychically tying his arms behind his back and forcing both of his twisting arms up in the air, bringing both him and his rival to their knees, "What is this shit!?"

"First you kill us, then you torture us!?" Naruto accused, face shoved almost magnetically into the rocky surface, "Oh, that tears it! I'm so haunting your ass for the rest of your days, you asshole!"

"Relax! You're not dead - so to speak - just yet!" Kisuke declared vaguely, absolutely loving all the reactions he was evoking from the overreacting students.

"What are you talking about?!" Naruto demanded, still struggling to at least push himself up, but all for naught.

"Tessai, my good man!" He ranged, and a massive shadow eclipsed the trapped boys' bodies before the air was taken right out of their sails by the straight-legged cross sit down press by Urahara's assistant that literally quaked the ground his muscular built, "Take our 'guests' here to the next stage in their evolution." They really didn't like the way he phrased the term "next stage", partly because neither Junior high schooler had the slightest clue what the fuck he was going on about but mostly because he sounded absolutely evil.

"As you wish Master."

For it just them or could they not feel the ground underneath their flattened bodies anymore? "Wait, whattttttttttt-?" The sudden rapid descent tuned out Naruto's question entirely as both boys used every last ounce of their lung capacity to scream for dear life in their free fall into the dark abyss of seemingly absolute nothing. lives flashing spastically before their very eyes before they reached the bottom of an eerily glowing dark green pit in an explosive thud the likes of which could only be matched by a crushing boulder falling atop of a skyscraper to the earth below.

"Ugh, I think my legs are broke, guys," Kuwabara moaned.

"Hey, you two still kicking down there?!" Kisuke's mocking voice hollered down at them.

Naruto once again stubbornly attempted to raise his head but couldn't even pry his chin from the cold ground, so he did the next best thing and envisioned Kisuke before his glaring vision, "What d'you think!?"

"Good!" Kisuke approved sarcastically, "Listen, if you wish to escape my lovely pit of doom you must first find~ your true selves!~"

"What are you talking about, true selves?"

"You better get to it! I estimate you have three days before..."

Kuwabara gulped at the ominous foreshadowing of their end fates.

"Before... what exactly?"

"Hahahahahahahahaha!"

And Kisuke just left them with the sinister laughter of a crazed madman.

"Goood… Morninggggg… Ichiiiigoooooo!"

Ah, the usual obnoxious awakening call almost came as a pleasant reassurance to our secondary main protagonist of the story, and considering the surreal events which had transpired all of last night ago, normal order resuming was just the thing he needed to set his mind at ease.

…Well it would have been if it weren't for the all-important fact normal order meant he had to react like a cat to avoid getting knocked on his ass by his loon of a father, who, for some crazy reason only he knew, chose to attack him daily by way of morning greeting.

"Goddamn it, old man!" The orange-haired teen raged, tucking his feet inward to spring to a quick squat, narrowly avoiding the ridiculous dropkick of one Isshin Kurosaki that almost shattered his bed in two. He retaliated by roughly grabbing hold of his father in the palm of his hand, aggressively driving him off of his bed and pinning him to the floor with an unforgiving thud, "What kinda lunatic attacks their own son in the morning!?"

"Training!" Isshin perked, "These random attacks are what will keep your reflexes in tip-top shape!"

Ichigo deadpanned at the usual nonsensical answer from his decidedly childish father as he got off of him, "Fine. Whatever," He waved it off, "Can ya at least give it a rest for today after what happened last night?"

Isshin's head bobbled back up in a confused tilt, "Last night?"

Now it was Ichigo's turn to hold the ball of confusion. That didn't sound right at all. The events they went through all of last night weren't so insignificantly ordinary that they just could be forgotten as inconsequential, "Whaddya mean 'last night'?" He snapped in a bid to jog his father's seemingly wayward memory.

Luckily, he had just the thing to do that; the evidence of the white-masked creature attack, "There should be a big freaking hole out front!" He insisted, pointing furiously toward the window of his bedroom.

And it did seem to be just the trick Isshin needed to kick start his brain as he smiled in remembrance, "Oh!~ You mean that!" Only Ichigo still wasn't satisfied by his father's seeming recognition of the surreal events they experienced in the night, "Don't worry about it!"

If only for the important fact his father wasn't acting like one would from being ambushed by a supernatural creature of the night. Almost having one of your daughters devoured whole definitely wasn't something not to worry about.

Instead of answering Ichigo's unasked question Isshin led him outside, all the while maintaining his reassuring grin.

….

….

….

….

"Isn't it a miracle!?"

Well, his family definitely recalled the gaping hole in front of their clinic.

"A truck drives through our home and none of us are even injured!"

…Only they had the culprit mixed up with something else entirely, like their experience was replaced with this.

"Masaki must be watching over us!" Isshin bawled theatrically, covering his weeping eyes with his arm.

'What the fuck?' Ichigo mused, staring into his place of growth for the last fifteen years from the outside in abject horror, 'Why do they think a truck did this?' His mind wandered to one of the only conceivable explanations, 'Did she do this?' The petite girl garbed in black who danced gracefully through his window. It wasn't everyday one had the luxury of pinning their dilemma on an apparent messenger of God.

He didn't know honestly. He was still very much in the dark despite all that she had told him about the Afterlife that was apparently called the Soul Society. Truthfully, he wouldn't have believed a single thing she said if it wasn't the fact she sent a spirit who had been peacefully haunting his family over to the Soul Society in a majestic display of serenity.

Anyone who could interact with a spirit in such a way definitely wasn't just some kid play acting god.

"I'm just surprised none of us even woke up to sue the drunk," Karin deadpanned, already dressed in her school uniform much like her sister.

"Well I'm just relieved we all made it out okay," Yuzu beamed with an softening smile, "Naruto-kun should be happy. I'll ask him if he can help with repairs if we hopefully see him at school."

"Are we sure he's even alive, Sis?" Karin asked. It was a legitimate question. It was Monday. The weekend had gone past without the twin sisters hearing a word from their boyfriend. Not a call to pester them to come join him at his favourite shop or even a text to see how they were doing. That was very unlike the Naruto they knew. In the very least he would always send them a text each asking them how they were doing and if they could hang out.

"Karin-chan!"

"You said 'if' yourself," Karin retorted dismissively, "We don't know where in the hell he's at?" And that in of itself raised all sorts of alarms. The girls almost always knew where Naruto was or was last situated at any given time.

The left side of Yuzu's cheekbone inflated outward in the most adorable pout ever, "Well you don't have to be so negative about it!"

"Don't fret my girls!" Isshin insisted with transparent optimism, scooping his daughters up in a bear hug, "I'm sure your fella's just gone on a long training montage! After all, any man worthy enough of not one but both of my girls has to be in tip-top shape!"

"Right… Of course. He's jogging up mountains as we speak to Rocky Balboa music," Karin remarked sarcastically.

"That's the spirit!"

This was where Ichigo just tuned out the conversation. In fact, he had been doing so since Yuzu brought up their boyfriend. His sisters' romantic lives were just that; their lives, and although he was left wary of the fact one boy could allegedly charm his sisters, he trusted their discretion. To Ichigo, Karin and Yuzu were good girls, and mature for their age.

The possibility of them falling for a delinquent badboy who would influence them negatively was slim to none and although there was an infamous ruffian who went by the name 'Naruto' Ichigo knew it was a coincidence.

There was just no way his sisters would ever fall for a scumbag infamous enough to be referred to as the "Demon Gaijin."

XxX

Jesus Never Dies

C

H

A

P

T

E

R

THREE

It Has To Be Coincidence. Right?

XxX

(Karakura High School)

Ah, school.

For once, Ichigo could actually say he would prefer to be there then at home. Tensions thickened in the Kurosaki residence when Karin flat out stated for a moment that her boyfriend, Naruto, a thirteen-year-old no less, could not only beat him, but do so with his hands tied behind his back.

Needlessly to say, she had stabbed at an ego Ichigo wasn't even sure he still had until that moment. He felt significantly better when she kinda-sorta took it back, even if there might have been a hint of sarcasm to her casual tone. There wasn't a chance in hell he would ever lose a brawl to a student in Junior High. No chance. Even if his sister was talking about the dreaded Demon Gaijin himself, but that would be nonsensical.

Karin and Yuzu WASN'T going out with that Naruto.

So preoccupied with telling himself the Naruto his sisters were enamoured with was the ideal straight A student and nothing like the one many rumours revolved around he didn't realize he had cut a corner abruptly, straight into the line of view of two girls in his year group until he bumped over one of them.

"Ouch."

"Hm." He regarded the girl he inadvertently floored indifferently. Long, luscious amber hair cascaded down to her back like a majestic waterfall. Curves like that of an hourglass formed her curvaceous figure complemented by the most enormous pair of watermelons on her chest that he had seen on a high schooler, which said a lot in his case.

He wasn't a lecherous pervert by any means. He didn't sneak around to intentionally leer at girls, but he could appreciate a girl's beauty.

"Oh, it's you Inoue," He acknowledged impassively.

"Ichigo, you jerk!" The other girl raged, balling her hands into fists and getting in Ichigo's face. Orihime's opposite in every department in the degrading sense, from her mane of short, spiky hair, to her less than curvy figure broadening on cardboard and lastly, her decidedly smaller B-cup breasts. Tatsuki Arisawa was that girl guys went for when they realized the top-tier girls like Orihime weren't available, "Is THAT what you say when you knock someone down, huh?"

"Geez, sorry," Ichigo said a bit awkwardly, backed up slightly from Tatsuki's forward posture. He straightened, turned to the floored girl and kneeled to her level, offering her a hand, "Here, Let me help you up, Inoue."

Though the sight of his face, brightened in a backdrop of erotic pink, eased in a seductive expression of a snazzy gentleman to the high school girl's wild imagination had her heartbeat racing a hundred miles an hour, feeling light-headed like her head was floating on a cloud was too much for Orihime to handle. Instinctively, she shot to her feet by her own power, face heated with several shades of red as she frantically waved her arms about in ever so polite dismissal.

"Oh, that's okay, Kurosaki-kun!" She hurried, mind scrambling for answers, "I was late for art class anyway! Bye!" She turned without waiting to see his possible judgemental gaze and jogged girlishly down the hall, leaving the orange haired youth staring bizarrely in her wake.

"What was that all about?" Ichigo asked Orihime's decidedly ditched escort.

Tatsuki sighed, more at ichigo's ignorance than Orihime's quirky dramatics before plastering a smile, "Oh, I don't know, maybe it was your big ol' ugly face?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah."

"So how are you, man?" Tatsuki said to begin small talk with her childhood friend, "How did your weekend go? Anything good come up?"

Ichigo was almost attempted to sarcastically debrief her on his run-in with the Shinigami woman who transferred her powers to him so he could save them all, but held back for the obvious reason that no one in the right frame of mind would ever believe such a ridiculous story of god's escorts and ghostly creatures at face value. He experienced all that and even he had trouble believing all that actually went down.

"Not really," Ichigo replied nonchalantly, walking with Tatsuki to their homeroom, "Well, my sisters are stressed over their friend not getting in touch over the weekend, but I'm sure it's no big deal. He probably just left his phone off."

"You mean that Naruto-kid?" Tatsuki's eyes shot to Ichigo's inquisitively. On more than one occasion had Tatsuki frequented the Kurosakis to pay Ichigo a visit and overheard his sisters talking, sometimes even arguing, about their 'friend' Naruto.

Despite the dark nature of her forthcoming joking question, Tatsuki cocked a sly grin, elbowing Ichigo, "How do ya know he hasn't just bit the dust already after biting off more than he can chew?"

Ichigo narrowed his eyes dangerously, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, come off it!" She scolded, "You must have figured it out by now? Who your sisters are dating?"

"My sisters aren't going out with the 'Demon Gaijin' Tatsuki?"

"How do you know?"

"I just do!"

"Have you ever met Naruto?"

Silence.

"Then it stands to reason he could be the one your sisters are smitten with," Tatsuki finalized, "I mean, how many other kids you know are named after ramen?"

"Naruto isn't a rare name," Ichigo defended, even if he knew himself his reasoning was weak. He even quickly shifted his reasoning to another hopefully more well-founded one, "What would they even see in a punk like him anyway?"

"Some girls like a bad boy," Not her, but some with a childish mindset. Not like Orihime's innocence but more of a mentality of them trying to act grown up and date a 'cool' tough guy as an act of rebellion against their parents. Her line of reasoning didn't go over well with Ichigo, however, as he shot her an annoyed grimace, "Hey, I'm just saying!"

"Rightttt…" Ichigo intoned dryly, turning his gaze away from Tatsuki in finality, "Never gonna happen. My sisters ain't some cliché teenage girls rebelling against our old man," They had been incredibly mature ever since their mother passed away. It had always shocked him yet filled him with pride at the same time to see how admirably his little sisters had coped with the passing of their mother.

"If you say so," Tatsuki remarked, but didn't press the matter further. Their journey continued onward much in silence, only being broken when they reached the door by the frantic cheer of a brown haired boy, slender arms thrown out spastically Ichigo's way.

"Ichigo!" The shaggy-styled haired youth's face met the forward forearm of said carrot-top he attempted to embrace in a brotherly manner, with Ichigo continuing his saunter on into the classroom as if he had simply past through the hyperactive youth.

"Hey, Keigo," He greeted tepidly.

"Ugh, nice to see you too, man," Keigo groaned from his place on the floor.

"Nice to see Asano-san's still his idiot self," Tatsuki remarked sarcastically.

"What else is new?" Ichigo returned. They each found their respective places on the formation of desks, with Ichigo occupying the window seat and Tatsuki sitting further up in the middle area next to Orihime and their other female friends.

"Hey Kurosaki-san," Mizuiro approached him, and similar to Orihime and Tatsuki being day and night respectively he and Keigo could've taken an identical yin-yang role to the girls. They were slender with barely anybody muscle upon them but whereas Keigo was dressed raggedly with an untucked shirt and tie and messy hair, Mizuiro was refined. Iron-pressed silvery-grey blazer jacket on and fully buttoned up and long shoulder-length dark blue hair combed neatly, leaving no rough edges out of place, Mizuiro was almost the textbook definition of dress to impress.

"What's up, Mizuiro?" Ichigo returned.

"How did your weekend go?" He enquired politely, making small talk.

"Could've been better," Ichigo answered grouchily, "Just yesterday a truck drove through my family's clinic."

"For real, dude?" The ragged teen previously on the floor hurried to his side for confirmation, expression a mixture of amazement of the expressly surreal nature of the incident and concern of the dangerous consequences of such a damaging incident ever taking place in a household of five.

"Yeah, freaky, right?" He asked sardonically, earning nods of agreement from his two friends, "Even freakier that none of us even woke up, but I guess we can count that as a blessing, eh?"

"I'll say," Keigo concurred, relieved to hear none of his friend's family or himself were fatally injured, "Did you catch the dude who did that?"

"Nah." Ichigo swayed his hand in the negative, "He hightailed it before any of us could woke up to press charges."

"Ugh. Well that blows," Keigo sighed in irritation, plastering a good-natured smile of optimism, "But hey, look on the bright side. At least you all made it out okay."

"True." Ichigo accepted, though rubbed the side of his neck in patented annoyance of his, "Gonna be a pain funding repairs, though."

Keigo offered him a grin of sympathy, "Yeah, bummer."

A huge shadow eclipsed the trio from Ichigo's blind spot, "Need any help cleaning up?" Came the usual deep monotone voice Ichigo had to come identified as his arguably closest friend. Twisting his head to face the large muscular Latino teenager who resembled a man in his mid-twenties than a fifteen-year-old, Ichigo grinned sheepishly at him.

"Uh, that's okay, man."

"Yeah, Chado. With your size, you'll probably bring down the house."

"Hm."

"Oh yeah!" Keigo perked up, "You hear guys?"

"Hear what?" Ichigo enquired, countenance reverting to its usual scowl.

"About that Naruto-dude?" Ichigo rose a rough askance eyebrow. It wasn't until Keigo finished that Ichigo felt like his world had come crashing down on him, "He's been M.I.A for three days now."

"What?" Eyes wide open Ichigo almost slammed his palms on the surface of his desk and shoved his posture forward, but he managed to refrain himself at the last second. He did have a measured image of aloof to maintain in class after all.

"Yeah! Dudes are already moving in on his turf."

"Fuck…" The tangerine-haired youth murmured harshly under his breath, lurching forward to perch his elbows atop his desk and intertwine his fingers together in a grouchily contemplative manner, eliciting an eyebrow from Mizuiro.

"Do you know Uzumaki?" Mizuiro asked.

Ichigo's scowl darkened, "Kinda."

"Seriously, dude?"

"Yeah. I met him years ago, though. Punk probably doesn't even remember me."

XxX

He had to think back as early as six years to recall his first ever meeting with a little rascal that would go on to become not one of, but thee biggest delinquent Karakura Town had ever known and a fateful encounter that heavily influenced Ichigo's resolve for the art of fighting. Oddly enough, despite the infamous reputation of which Naruto accumulated in the present his first encounter with Ichigo didn't go down as one would expect – that being Naruto antagonizing Ichigo and the two coming to blows because of it. Instead, it actually played out rather heroically; a complete contrast to many a view of Naruto's shady character.

A much shorter Ichigo could be found in the park standing protectively in front of his two smaller sisters having ran to their aid when a group of older kids around about his age decided to push them around.

Suffice to say, the protector did not take kindly to that harsh mistreatment of his precious siblings and launched a full-on headstrong assault at the group, all but ploughing one over on the route to his sisters with the force of a jack hammer with a powerful strike from his own hand-made club.

"Ow!" The bully he had stuck down whined indignantly, clutching at his face while the rest of his posse shifted worried gazes to him and enraged ones to Ichigo, "What the heck? You coward!"

"Coming from the guy who needs a pack to pick on two girls!" Ichigo retorted in disdain.

"Like we were gonna hit 'em! We were just lettin' 'em know the jungle gym belongs to us!" Another one of the hotshot bullies chimed in.

"You don't own the jungle gym, jerk!" The feisty youth shot back. Scowls emerged on the faces of his opponents immediately followed by grumbles before they readied their postures in motions of attack, causing Ichigo to tighten his grip on his mace. For as willing as he was to face down his antagonists it was still six against one in their favour, and if to add further insult to his disadvantage…

"Big brother."

He had his sisters to shield.

Ichigo lied a comforting hand upon little Yuzu's mop of dark blonde hair in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture, fierce, determined gaze never leaving the enraged stare downs of his opponents as she sniffed and clung to his side.

That was when he appeared. It was like something right out of an heroic tale when nearly all was lost to give the young ones hope for a brighter ending. He eclipsed the setting sun like an eagle in the sky, perching himself upon Ichigo's first assaulted target and forcing his head and body in a forward lurched over position.

"Hey, OW!" He winced.

"You know, six against one ain't fair." His childish, high-pitched voice squashed the tension like a jackhammer, spurring everyone out of their tense silence and into a state of befuddlement. When they met the mischievous blue-eyed gaze of a seemingly Gaijin kid the same age of the girls they had attempted to oppress, they were jarred, staring in dumbfounded confusion at the sight of a boy half their size and age standing casually atop their friend's head, and, by his straining grunts, effectively keeping him pinned.

"What the heck?" One of them shouted aloud, alarm unintentionally slipping into his voice, "Ryo, shake him off already!"

"I can't!" Ryo specified in horrified alarm, causing his posse to jerk back in similar alarm, "He's fucking strong!"

"Uh, I'm not strong," Surprisingly, despite his showing of superior strength over a kid much older and bigger than him, the spiky-headed Gaijin seemingly showed admirably humility, "You guys are just weak."

In unison, they flushed in anger, "What?"

"You heard me!" He asserted and with an additional pressure to his leg stomp on Ryo's head, he forced the older boy to one knee, renewing the panicked expressions of his friends, "Picking on girls. Sheesh, that's the lamest thing you can do. Real cool guys don't need to pick on those who are smaller than them to prove themselves. There's no fun in that!"

"You little bastard!" One roared in protest, getting a raspberry from the boy, "Who do you think you are preaching to us, you damn goody-two-shoes?!"

"I think am the kid who's owning your butts, dattebayo!"

"Get off him!" Another charged him in a desperate, reckless attempt to prove him wrong, that they weren't so weak that a little boy could easily manhandle them all, but that proved to be his undoing. With a leap, Naruto threw out his arm, grabbing the bully by the scruff of his neck and slamming him atop his friend in a dusty display of unnatural athleticism and strength.

Astounded couldn't even begin to describe the profound disbelief of those who had borne witness to the almost bona-fide counter of a skilled martial artist by the tiny scrawny arms of a toddler. They were floored, staring at Naruto with conflicting expressions shifting on their faces. Awe was the mutual expression of everyone present and fear was the exclusive emotion among the bullies.

"Holy moley!" One of the nameless fodders yelled aloud, "This kid knows martial arts!"

"Orrrr, I'm not weak," The nigh inhumanly strong elementary schooler offered, squinted eyed as he dropped nonchalantly atop the flattened twosome he floored, shoving one hand in his pocket.

"Let's get outta here, man!"

"Yeah, I don't wanna take on that freak!"

Naruto frowned in annoyance, demanding as he tussled threateningly toward them, "What did'ja call me?" They squeaked an resounding nothing in unison before taking off in the opposite direction, absolutely dismissing their fallen buddies in their self-preservation and total desire not to get their faces pounded in, "Pssh, wussies!" The disgust that morphed on his whiskered countenance as a result almost had Ichigo mistaking him for a sadistic bad boy who just wanted to torture them more, until his next line, "Those who abandon their friends are worse than scum!"

Ichigo's eyes were trembling in his disbelief, 'W-What?' He watched the shorter, younger boy approach them as if in slow motion, mind failing miserably to comprehend his absurd strength and bizarrely loyal character, 'What is this kid?'

"Sorry about that," Naruto offered upon stopping before the trio, adorable sheepish grin etching across his lips, "You guys okay?"

The warmth of his friendly grin provided Yuzu the security she needed to squirm from behind her older brother's leg, "Wooow," She murmured longingly, eyes lighting up like stars, "You're really strong."

"Heh-heh," Naruto chuckled, caressing the back of his neck, "Thanks, but I'm not that strong."

"You saved us, though!" Yuzu argued back with a pout.

With very clear profound pride conveyed through his straightening head and thumbed posture, Naruto claimed, "It's what the good guys do, dattebayo," to which Yuzu giggled and Ichigo and Karin rolled their eyes, though both sported the tiniest of smiles.

"Dattebayo?" Karin prodded, also feeling secure by Naruto's welcoming aura to step from behind Ichigo's leg, "Is that like a verbal tic or something?" Naruto flushed, flailing his hands about in realization of his slip up, promptly causing the twins to snicker at his expense. It was quite the charming sight for them, to see a kid their age so strong but easily flustered.

"Yeah, I say that from time to time," He chuckled in his embarrassment, "Name's Naruto Uzumaki. What's yours?"

"I'm Yuzu Kurosaki!~" She beamed, pointing to her sister, "That's my twin sister, Karin!"

"Hi."

"Hey!"

"And that's!" For the first time since Naruto appeared on the scene his eyes met Ichigo's, "Is our big brother, Ichigo!"

"Hey."

"Hey."

End of Flashback

There was a minuscule yet noticeable period of silence when the last word of Ichigo's retell of his first encounter left his lips, disbelief slowly giving away to amazement to the renewed perspective they received of someone most had already included would most likely end up in prison or dead later in life.

"Whoa…" Keigo uttered, breaking the ice, "That's," He shook his head, searching Ichigo's hazel eyes for any hint of amusement to betray his straight-faced expressopm, really not knowing what he was looking for considering Ichigo never looked remotely goofy, "Deep."

"So even the 'Great Uzumaki' was once normal," Mizuiro concluded, palpable sarcasm on Naruto's self-proclaimed title.

Ichigo sighed like a load was taken off his shoulders, tilting his head back toward the ceiling, "Seems so."

"How was he so strong even at that age though?" Mizuiro prodded, contemplatively cupping his chin.

"Dunno," Ichigo shrugged.

"Dude had to have taken some kinda martial arts, right?" Keigo offered.

Ichigo shook his head, "Like I said, dunno. Kid said he just watches Kung Fu flicks and applies whenever they do to his own brand of 'unique' fighting."

"No way!" Keigo dismissed, "Dude's obviously trolling."

"Probably."

"Hello there." That accent, even oddly altered to fit a modest polite girl, had Ichigo's eyes stretching wide. Neither of his friends took note to his disbelief, however, especially Keigo whom was entirely engrossed in the new girl who appeared in Ichigo's flank, "My name's Rukia Kuchiki. I just transferred here. It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Well that settled that because it would just be too coincidental for someone to share the exact same voice and even name in its entirety of the enigma he met a night ago.

He snapped to his feet and twisted around, pointing shakily at the petite black-haired girl wearing the girl's school uniform, smiling pleasantly at him like this was truly their first time meeting one another.

"Huh?" Keigo cocked an eyebrow, "You know her, dude?"

"No, of course not," Rukia smoothly answered for Ichigo, waving gracefully before her delicately-crafted sheepish smiling face, "He must have me mistaken for someone vaguely familiar. I'm afraid I don't recall," Keigo ate that excuse up with a hearty nod, briefly closing his eyes and missing the smirk that sprung across Rukia's lips as a result, "May I borrow a book… um, Ichigo, is it?" He was almost attempted to buy in to Rukia's obvious fake façade if only to avoid the inevitable headache of having an otherworldly woman in his life would cause him, until she showed him her hand.

Make a scene and I'll kill you.

Everything cleared up like the rain.

Ugh, this was going to be a long day.

XxX

Elsewhere – Location Unknown

XxX

Threateningly skin-crawling pitch-black clouds and an eternal 'full silvery moon' hung high in the dark grey 'sky' above the vast wide open desert, endless amounts of sand coated in sickening multi-coloured blood, disembodied arms, legs and other such monstrous limps remained scattered about neck-deep in the bloody sands as though they were a twisted individual's warped concept of decorations. This altered version of a desert was not conventional in any sense of the word.

There was no day to its night. No heat to balance out the cold and no typical springs to evoke feelings of joy and relief. Only night and cold reigned eternally supreme in this realm and misery was what most felt. Unless you were this particular bear-like creature.

He didn't care less, gave no damns to what he was or that it was said he needed to apparently fill the void in his now missing heart. He never had that shit to begin with. In a world where the main quota was the 'Survivor of the fittest' only the strong survived and the weak perished like the worthless things they were in his not-so humble option.

"Man, that lousy teleporting guy ain't come back," The lips on his milky-white mask curled into a scowl of disgust, "Guess that means he's dead. Pssh, dumbass probably bit off more than he could chew," That was the prime problem with his kind. The vast majority were mindless, simple beasts craving the spirits of their precious people. Ugh. Most simply did not possess the presence of mind to realize just how severely outclassed they were when faced with a foe of substantial power.

The only thing they saw was a greatly filling meal they coveted to evolve past their primal states.

This was where Bobomaru tremendously differed from the average hollow-joe. Usually, upon becoming a hollow, one would be filled with the overwhelming, unbearable urge to fill the void left behind by their hearts and would instinctively covet their most cherished ones as a result. They didn't have a mind to distinguish right from wrong, or weak from strong.

Bobomaru was a rarity. He retained his intellect from when he was human and never once fostered any desire to devour his loved ones. Not that he had any, but still. He was aware and could tell when he was heavily outmatched. This was why he had endured for as long as he had. The average hollow's lifespan was little over a year, simply because most would usually get themselves purified by a Shinigami within the first day or few hours of becoming a hollow in some cases like the simple-minded thoughtless creatures they were.

Of course, being so aware had its downfalls. It tremendously hurt his pride having to run away.

"Ugh! If only I coulda eaten that little blond shit and his girlfriend!" He lamented, "I coulda evolved, if not for him!" Never mind that though. Bobomaru hated dwelling on the negatives. If nothing else, one could say he was positive, "Fuck it! I'm going hunting. I'm starved," He stood, tall and bulky like a true bear his built was distinctly inspired by, and flicked an annoyed paw off of open air, materializing a strange open void that made him grin hungrily.

"Oh yeah! Time to feast!"