A young Naruto, currently slept snuggled in tight with his big brother, hoping that he would be able to stop the bad dreams from coming. Or at least have the comfort of someone he loved, when they did come.
"Ichi?" Naruto whispered, knowing that if he talked louder, they would both get into trouble. "Please don't leave me."
"Never." Ichigo mumbled back, holding on tighter to his young brother, trying to show that he was going to be supportive no matter how old they would get.

The two had been sharing the same bed now for a year, as the blonde wouldn't sleep alone. He would sometimes tell his big brother what happened in his dreams, not the ones that were really bad though, he never seemed to be able to talk about those. And after those dreams he would stay cuddled into the blankets for a day if they couldn't coax him out.
And it was currently happening this morning, Naruto wasn't going to leave his blanket cocoon for his first day of kindergarten with Ichigo.
"Are you happy we get to go?" Ichigo asked the blonde. Yesterday when he had asked Naruto had been really excited, so he wondered if he had another 'dream'.
"Big people." Naruto whispered to his brother. "The big people hurt me!"
Ichigo wrapped his arms around his brother and the blankets. "I make sure the big people won't hurt you. And Mommy will be there too!"
Masaki had been sitting next to the blanket lump, and agreed that she would stop anyone who would try to hurt him. "Don't worry Naru, everything will be okay."
"Yeah, we'll protet you." Ichigo slowly started to remove the blanket from Naruto, who had allowed them this time to be removed.
"You won't leave?" Naruto asked as he latched onto the arm of his elder brother. "You promise?"
Both mother and brother agreed that he wasn't going to be left alone while he was there. "It's gonna be fun!"

As soon as they reached the kindergarten, the blonde had latched onto his brother and hadn't let go. Masaki had also stayed close, smiling when they were asked to introduce themselves. Naruto had stayed quiet - which she had expected of her youngest son - and let Ichigo do that talking.
"I'm Ichigo, and this is Naruto. He's my younger brother." The orange haired boy announced. "And we are thee."
"Are you twins?" The teacher asked and both boys nodded. The teacher smiled and asked what they liked to do, but only Ichigo was the one answering. "And what about you Naruto?"
The boy shifted closer into his brother's side, making it so that he wouldn't have to answer the scary lady. "Naruto likes stories. The best one is what Mommy tells us."
The teacher had looked at Masaki, wondering what she was doing about her shy son at home. It seemed that the blonde never got to talk around his brother to her. "Why don't you tell us Naruto, is there anything else that you like?"
Naruto stared at the woman, who had the face of the person who would condone violence at the home mixing in with hers. In response, tears had started to form in Naruto's eyes, and he pushed himself even closer into his brother.
Ichigo who had noticed little wet spots on his shirt, and wrapped both arms tightly around Naruto. Masaki noticing the shift in her son's mood instantly moved from her seat to him. Telling him that the teacher was only trying to get him to speak, instead of Ichigo who was doing all the talking.
"Is it her again?" Ichigo asked, confusing Masaki, who looked between both her sons.
"Who is Ichi talking about Naru?" Masaki spoke in a quiet calming tone, hoping that her youngest son would open up to her, like he did with his brother.
"T-thee was a l-lady… a-and she l-l-let the o-other kids do m-mean things to m-me." Her son sobbed into her shirt.
Masaki was shock at this, wondering who her son was talking about, as she had never let her boys out of her sight when going out since Naruto was so shy, and this was his first time at kindergarten. "That isn't going to happen here, okay?"
Masaki rubbed her hand up and down Naruto's back in a calming manner. She had started to take Naruto to the chair she had been sitting in, while nodding to Ichigo that his brother was going to be alright. Her eldest didn't leave though. "Naru is going to be able to join you in a second, okay Ichi?"
Ichigo nodded and reluctantly left Naruto with their mother. But every time he would talk with the other children in the class she could see him stealing glances the blonde, and knew that he wanted to be with his younger brother more than anything at the moment.

After fifteen minutes, Naruto looked up at his mother before looking over to Ichi, and starting to move off her lap. "Tanks Mommy, but Ichi needs me."
Masaki nodded and watched as her youngest moved towards her eldest, and as he introduced them properly to the blonde. They got on quite well with the blonde, but they seemed to notice how he was glued to Ichigo's side. They seemed to accept it better than the teacher had. Masaki smiled at her two boys and knew that they would both be fine now, and that she would be able to leave Naruto in their care when they came in again tomorrow.

Naruto had slowly started to move out from behind Ichigo when he saw someone running towards him. He quickly pulled himself back behind his brother, but the person just kept coming. When he looked up again, he couldn't see his brother, even though he could still feel his shirt in his grasp. That didn't help though when the older boy had started to beat him.
"No! Stop please stop!" Naruto called out into his brother's shirt.
Ichigo recognized this from when Naruto usually had his nightmares. "It's okay Naru." Ichigo had pulled Naruto to the floor with him, holding onto his brother tightly. "I'm here. I'm here."
The young mother had lept out of her seat, but stilled when she saw what Ichigo was doing. It seemed he was very used to this kind of thing. How often does this happen when I'm not around? Masaki wondered, still watching as Naruto seemed to latch onto his voice, and slowly came out of whatever it was that he had been drawn into. She could see the two whispering to each other, most likely what had happened just then.
The brunette twisted when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She saw the grim look on the teacher's face and knew what this would be about.
"I'm sorry, but it would be best if you were not to bring young Naruto back here."
Masaki glared at the teacher, who was supposed to be helping the children, not giving up on them as soon as things went south. "Rest assured, we will be finding a new place for the boys to attend tomorrow."
Masaki looked warmly at her two boys before moving towards them, ridding herself of the negative feelings that had come forth from the chat with the teacher. "Alright Naru, Ichi, it's time to say goodbye now."
Ichigo looked to his mother who was picking Naruto up, wondering why they were leaving so suddenly. But still he said his goodbyes, and they left the kindergarten

Once they had returned home Masaki had sent both boys up to their room to play. Once she was sure that they were up there, she went to Isshin to talk about her theory.

Isshin was sitting in his office trying to fill out some of the paper work that he promised his wife he would do while she took their sons' to kindergarten. He was surprised though when he saw her walk in at eleven am, as she was supposed to stay at the kindergarten with their boys until three.
"What happened?"
Masaki moved next to her husband. "The teacher there thought that Naruto was only trying to gain attention, even though she didn't say it, I know she was thinking it. And she asked us not to bring Naruto back."
"Then our boys weren't meant to go there." Isshin said, pulling his wife into a hug. "We'll find a place for them to go, don't worry about that my love."
The brunette looked at her husband for a moment, a frown starting to form at the edge of her lips. "Is it possible for a soul that has been reincarnated to maintain the memories they have of a past life?"
Isshin seriously pondered this for a few minutes, remembering what his father had told him once before about a soul that was strong enough to keep the memories of their past life. "It is possible if the soul is strong enough to maintain them in rebirth cycle. It also depends if that is what the soul chose rather than going to seireitei, they are more likely to be a stronger soul and therefore able to maintain their memory.
"My father was the only one who could offer that to a soul though, and only one ever accepted out of the twenty to be reincarnated after they had died." Isshin looked wide eyed at his wife. "Are you going to be alright to watch Naruto and Ichigo? I need to go speak to Urahara."
Masaki nodded vaguely as her husband had shot out the door sending paper flying around her.

After ten minutes of straight running he reached the shop of Kisuke Urahara. Isshin had fallen flat on his face from the effort, and from the fact that he had left his bike at home. Masaki wouldn't let him drive her car as he had no experience from living in soul society for a long time.
The shop owner stepped into his door and looked down at the man before him. "Tessai?" He called over his shoulder. "Clean up on the outside of the store."
The big hulking man had moved to get the man off the ground. "You know that it isn't nice to imply that people are a mess."
Kisuke shrugged, before turning back into his shop with Tessai following behind.

Quickly they had moved into his back room, with Tessai making Isshin more comfortable as Kisuke made some tea. "So what have you come to see me about, dear Isshin?" The blonde man asked as he sat at the table while placing a steaming cup in front of the man.
"Reincarnated souls…" Isshin said after drinking the entire cup. "What do you know about them?"
Kisuke opened a fan that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. "Not as much as you seem to think I know."
"Anything will help."
Kisuke sighed at this. "In the history of the Soul Society only one soul ever agreed to be reincarnated straight after death. That soul was one of the twenty - all from the shinobi era - that was ever offered it. Since this soul was the only one to ever be reincarnated straight after death, there are many things that we speculate about, but only since we cannot compare them to any other soul.
"The head captain was the only one who was able to offer this to souls as they would be the ones that he would think would be the most deserving, of either a new life, or one that would be able to change the world. Hence there have only been twenty souls to be offered this." Kisuke took this time to drink some more tea while Isshin looked lost in thought.
"Continue please."
"We are also not able to tell when a soul is going to come out of the cycle, so it the soul could have come out of the cycle already, be on it's way out or if there are still many years for that soul to come out of the cycle." Kisuke finished, drinking the last of the tea in his cup. "Was there something else dear Isshin?"
"What about the soul retaining memories of their past life?"
Kisuke put his hand to his chin. "Hmm… If the soul is strong enough then it should be able to retain memories of their past life during this one, again this is speculation. But if we were to go on speculation, then it could be true as well… If a strong soul were to go to the soul society then they are more likely to remember their life when they were alive, than if they were a weaker soul who would struggle to retain their memories.
"So if you go on that then it would be true for the stronger soul to retain their memories through the cycle than a weaker soul." Kisuke finished this and looked at Isshin again. "But you told Masaki that it would also depend on how long after death that they entered the cycle affects them as well didn't you?"
Isshin nodded to this and looked at his friend for any sort of answer.
"Again it is speculation," Kisuke waited for the man to nod before continuing. "It could also apply, since souls that have entered the seireitei have usually lost their memories by the time they enter the cycle themselves, for the time it takes them to stay in the seireitei before they can move on and into the cycle. So this could mean that since the soul that was reincarnated would also have a better chance of remembering as they would have entered the cycle with their memories intact, and as it would have been within the window after their death they would have a higher chance of remembering.
"Did you find the soul Isshin?" Kisuke asked as he stared at the man.
The man sighed as he also looked at back at the blonde haired man. "I believe that this soul that was reincarnated, is my son."

Kisuke stared at the man before him in shock. "That was unexpected."
Both men turned to the hulking man before them. "That is what you wish to say?"
"No. Would it be alright if we were to return with you to see your son?" Tessai stared at Isshin, and to get the stare off him he quickly agreed. "Then let us be off Mr. Kurosaki."

Upon the arrival of the three men at the Kurosaki residence, Masaki was holding her husband by the ear and telling him off for not consulting her first so that she would be able to tell Naruto and Ichigo about the strangers coming over. Afterwards she had released her husband's ear and turned to the two men he had invited over.
"Please take a seat while I go talk to the boys." Masaki then proceeded to move up stairs and nearly half an hour later she reappeared with two boys in tow. "Ichigo, Naruto, why don't you two say hello to Mr. Urahara."
Naruto started at the man before him, moving over to him, surprising his family in the process. "You look familia. Do I know you from somewhere?"
Apart from his family, both strangers had looked shocked, which made the boy move back slightly, wondering if he had done something wrong. "Ichi?"
The other boy quickly moved to his brother's side, and they began whispering to each other. Ichigo looked at the two men before pulling Naruto closer to them again. "Hello. I'm Ichigo and this is Naruto."
"And I'm Kisuke and next to me is Tessai." Kisuke leaned forwards a little, showing his light blonde hair to the young boys.

Seeing the blonde hair on the man, had sent Naruto's mind into overdrive as he began remembering the Yamanaka clan. First the academy, then some missions that they had been sent on, and finally the war. At this point he was hiding behind Ichigo and shivering and what was going on. His friends that he couldn't save then, and the ones he had left behind afterwards "No. No no nonononononono!"
He collapsed into Ichigo's back, causing both boys to fall forwards almost as they were about to hit the ground, Kisuke had caught them both, while hearing the blond boy mumbling apologies to many people who he knew now resided in the soul society. He made sure that they were comfortable before looking to Isshin and Masaki, and slowly nodding his head. This was the only chosen reincarnated soul that had finally found his way back to earth.

When the young blonde woke he found himself alone, but that was alright with him for the moment. "Where am I?"
He moved to stand, but as soon as he was sitting he had fallen back down. He saw flashes of orange hair and a small smiling face. One he saw in the mirror next to his. "Ichigo?"
"I'm sorry, but I've told Masaki and Isshin to take him home for a bit. They should be back shortly though." A light blonde haired man stood in the doorway.
"Kisuke?" Naruto questioned, memories from both the past and the present getting confused for the moment. As he was trying to sort through his memories, tears had started running down his face. "They're dead."
"Who do you mean Naruto?"
"Them…" Naruto sobbed as he looked back to the blonde haired man before him. "But you really look like you are from the same line."
Kisuke listened to how the boy's speech had changed. He didn't exactly sound like a child anymore, and the look in his eyes held pain that he knew no child should have there. "What do you remember Naruto?"
"Faces. A war. And lots and lots of pain." Naruto murmured, pulling his legs into his chest. "Two children."
"Would you like it if you were able to see these people again one day?"
The blondes' stared at each other, one in curiosity and the other in wonder.
"Ichi needs me though." The younger of the two muttered, even though he knew that it would be good to see them again, he needed to stay with his brother. "And I need Ichi too."
Kisuke nodded as Ichigo came running through the door to his brother who was still lying on the floor, tears running down his face as well. "Naru are you ok?"
"Yep, I'm ok now." Naruto moved his arms around his brother, snuggling into him as he always did at night. "Thanks Ichi."
"Welcome Naru." Ichi said as he too wrapped his arms around his brother and pulling him closer to him. Both had fallen asleep within minutes, causing a smile to form on the adults faces.

"So cute!" Masaki had whispered before shooing the other males away from the room. Where Kisuke had lead them back down to his meeting room.
"Soul society don't have to know about this do they?"
Isshin looked at his wife. "Knowing them, they found out when we did, or they will in the coming years."
"And there is no way to keep them from coming after Naruto if they find out?"
Kisuke raised his hand a little to gain their attention. "We could always come up with a way to make it seem like he is only afraid of spirits."
They looked blankly at him.
The blonde man sighed. "Both of your sons have high spirit energy, and I don't doubt that they can see spirits that are still lingering. And because they can both see them, they really only need to talk to each other about it. It is also possible that they may have talked to other children who cannot see them and assume that you cannot see them either."
"That would make sense." Isshin looked at Masaki. "Even though I left soul society, it would still be able to carry over to them, and with you having high spiritual pressure and being a quincy, then it makes sense that they would be able to."
She nodded, "that could work very well. But for how long?"
"We can make it last as long as we can." Kisuke stated. "But later on we may have to go down a different path. We'll figure that out when we get closer to that time though."
"Thank you Kisuke."

Naruto sat down in a grassy clearing with a river running along to the side and trees stretching into the distance. The place seemed familiar but he couldn't place from where. He laid back into the grass and sighed. "So soft."
"It's been a long time Naruto."
The boy sat back up quickly, looking around him in shock at the voice. "Kurama!" The boy jumped up and wrapped his arms around the little fox that was still with him. "How?"
"I have somehow managed to become part of your soul. Something that must have been in the seal to bond me to you." The fox laughed as he continued to watch the young boy try to make sense of this, before moving on.
"Where are we?"
"In your inner world I think, kind of like your mindscape." Kurama stated, wondering if that was the best way to explain it to the young boy. "I believe that this is a representation of your team's old training ground from back when you were part of the shinobi world."
"Before Ichi?" Naruto asked while tilting his head, his eyes wide with wonder. The fox nodded in response to this, while pulling the child into his side, thinking about how cute this child version of Naruto was. "Why are we here?"
"I wish I knew the answer to that question, but I can't say that I do." Kurama looked at the child before him, so different and so similar to the person that he had known before. "Now why don't you go back to Ichi now, as he seems to be waking."
"Okay Kura, I'll come back soon." Naruto smiled at his friend before waking up with Ichigo.

"Hey Ichi." Naruto said slowly whilst stretching, moving away slightly from Ichigo in the process.
"Did you finally sleep well?" The orange haired boy asked while still waking up himself.
"Yep. There was a nice fox in my dream. His name is Kura." The blonde started to get sit up, and was managing it this time. "I think you would like him."
Ichigo looked at his brother. "Can I meet him?"
"I dunno. Maybe. I'll ask him next time." Naruto stood this time while only swaying slightly. Ichigo stood up quickly to balance his brother. "'M'kay Ichi."
The orange haired boy nodded but continued to hold his brothers hand as they walked down to where their parents were located.

The adults turned their conversation to something more normal when they heard the patter of little feet on the floor heading towards them, so that the little ears wouldn't be hearing about the plan.
The two little boys instead walked in on the adults talking about sports and items that were currently in the shop.
"Mommy, can we play?" The orange haired boy asked.
"Just outside the front of the shop okay? And please be careful of the items out there." Both boys nodded and rushed away from the room towards the front of the shop. "There is no one out there, right Kisuke?"
"There is a barrier ten meters around the shop that we replace every week. They will be fine so long as they stay within it." The blonde man assured their mother, or at least hoping that it would. They were only told to play outside the front of the store, he was sure that there wasn't much that could go wrong.

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