OooOoOooO

"Not a chance after"

Chapter 1

Naruto wandered the streets of Konoha.

It was really hard for him to look at the faces of these people and think that they were all so innocent. For the life of him, he could not bring himself to understand their burden of loss when they're not all that clean from behind the past.

Some of those have betrayed other people.

Killed, even. Or steal from fellow citizen. Not that it really mattered.

Their shadows are so dark that it was hard to see through it.

Even if he shed a light within, it doesn't erase the fact that the dark stillness would remain dormant in their souls.

The blonde looked away.

'I don't see people. I see monsters worse than hollows.' He thought to himself forlornly.

He paused in his step to look at a group of children, bullying and making fun of another kid in the middle. A sandal being tossed around as the kid cried and pleaded for them to stop. And Naruto wasn't surprised to see no adult had bothered to stop them.

In his first life, he didn't realize that he was self-centered enough to not notice.

He was different.

The adults hated him, it was a fact.

But that did not stop people from experiencing the things he went through.

Others may not be as hated, but they didn't give enough reason not to be detested.

He continued to watch with a small ache in his chest that he learned to ignore for decades. His blue eyes took in the scene with little to no sympathy. All he could see in the child's place was another child with wild blonde hair, cerulean blue eyes, and peculiar whisker-like marks on the cheeks.

At first, when he had gained the friends he wanted and acknowledgement he extremely craved for in the afterlife, he had thought that he was over his death.

But as he faced the place he had seen one last time through the haze of pain and blood, he realized that he was never over it.

He was never ready.

Naruto walked away without even glancing back.

Through the midst of people in Konoha, he felt alone more than ever. To him, he felt much different than before.

It's not because he was hated unlike others.

But because, this time around, he knew he is different and more so that he knew.

Not a chance after to change it now.

Not acknowledgement, not pure guts, nor determination.

Because he is different and not a soul here knows.

– OooOoOooO –

He stumbled in his apartment and tiredly made his way back to his bedroom.

Without even removing his dirtied clothing, he simply collapsed on the bed on his stomach and sighed on the pillow face first.

Ever since the mission in Wave, Sasuke had been acting particularly harsher than he remembered the bastard being. Not that Naruto really minded but the Uchiha tended to bring out his frustrations out through spar and proved his superiority.

It was very hard destroying your fighting style in hand-to-hand combat.

For Naruto, his own style came naturally to him even back in the Academy in Soul Society. He was one of the unpredictable fighters there because his style flows and it doesn't follow a specific pattern. He's also the most flexible – his body is slender and accustomed for speed.

He was deadly in Hakuda as others were hard pressed to follow his movements as he could wound around any opponents' guard. And he also has the advantage of a smaller build. His sword made up for his short reach and Kidos covered up his long range disadvantages.

But for him to convince everyone that he was just a child who customized the Academy Taijutsu style into his own bastardized street brawl style, he needed to contradict his own style of fighting.

And it was difficult. Deliberately holding himself back requires heavy restraint on one's part.

It doesn't help that Sasuke's speed had been a joke compared to his own.

Seeing, in order to master shunpo, he had to be fast as it is without using it at all.

And he sometimes found that his reflexes aren't helping his supposedly low profile.

'I hate this. My team are such a pain in the neck and it's a wonder we even work together at all.' He complained inwardly, practically feeling miserable.

There was some shuffling within his mind.

'They are not them, Naruto-kun. Try not to change their faces with someone you know. They'll never be them.' A nonchalant voice commented almost idly.

He just screamed on his pillow in frustration.

'I know that! I'm not stupid! It's just I'm trying to make this place like my home. It's hard, you know?' The last part was softly uttered in his mind.

Then he heard a scoff of annoyance.

'Of course, it will be difficult. This is not your home so it will never be. And therefore, also not mine.' The voice argued with vehement urging.

Naruto sluggishly covered his head with a pillow.

As if that would stop him from hearing his zanpakuto's voice.

'I know, damnit!' He cursed mentally, groaning as he did so.

'Naruto-kun, stop being such a child. To my knowledge, you're supposed to be the oldest person in this village by the age of almost ninety years. Act like it.' His zanpakutō reminded him and tried to sound stern, but failed if the amused lilt was anything to go by.

He could just imagine the damn spirit smirking.

The blonde scowled.

'Technically, I am that old. But I'm a kid, remember? Even in Soul Society! I'm even smaller than Hitsu-teme.' The last bit wasn't really comforting as people tend to underestimate him.

It was also not appreciated when his advancement in ranks was questioned with disbelief.

'But you must have the mindset. And you call your Gikongan an idiot?' The voice snorted in reply.

Naruto turned from his position and lied on his back.

He then pouted.

'But…but he's a stupid pig! We've been only gone for two hours to patrol the walls in my Shinigami form and then I have to look at the consequences of leaving him alone in my gigai. The apartment was a total mess!' He whined like the child he looks like.

There was a beat of incredulous silence.

The blonde could've sworn that his zanpakutō just rolled his eyes.

'You're a neat freak for a kid. If only that cleaning applies to manners…'

Naruto decided to close his eyes and get to sleep.

'Gah! Why is my zanpakutō turning against me?' He complained to no one in particular.

His answer was just a laugh.

– OooOoOooO –

"Naruto…"

He stirred but he didn't wake up.

"Oi…"

Feeling a not so gentle jab at his side, the blonde just continued to sleep.

There was a pause.

"Baka! Wake up already damnit!" Then Naruto was painfully shoved off the bed.

He fell off with a loud crash and blue eyes snapped open.

As he realized that someone had just intruded his sleep, he cursed and grumbled as he sluggishly removed himself from his tangled sheets.

With the loud voice, Naruto was almost thinking of seeing Kiba or Konohamaru hovering over him.

And yet, he wasn't really expecting a redheaded man with tattoos on his forehead and dressed in Shihakushō glaring down at him.

He blinked once.

"RENJI!"

Then he gave a spinning kick to the redhead's jaw and sent him flying to a wall before the man even had the time to react at all.

After that, Naruto sighed satisfactorily and sat down on his bed.

"Yes, that was a nice morning workout." He breathed out happily as he stretched his arms over his head.

"What was that for, you baka?" Renji hollered angrily as he jumped to his feet, raising a trembling fist at his direction.

Naruto shrugged innocently.

"Well, I was having a good dream and you ruined it by waking me up. So why not?" He grinned cheekily.

The redheaded man flashed to his side and locked his head into a headlock and proceeded to rub his fist painfully at the head of blonde hair.

"I haven't seen you for nearly ten years and this is the greeting you have for me?" Renji growled as he dug his fist deeper.

Naruto choked, squawked as he tried to escape the man's hold.

When it didn't work, he elbowed Renji on the side.

The redhead released him instinctively and clutched his side with a groan.

"Yeah, ten years that wasn't enough if you ask me." Naruto grumbled irately under his breath as he gently touched the throbbing area on his blonde head.

Renji scowled.

"I heard that!" He yelled with narrowed eyes.

Naruto scoffed but otherwise strolled out of his room and went to the kitchen.

"Why are you here, Renji? Not that I don't mind the company and all." Naruto inquired as he raised an eyebrow at the frowning man.

Said man looked away and sighed.

"Zaraki-taicho sent me here to accompany you. Said something about Kusajishi-fukutaicho bothering him or something." Renji explained with an indignant huff, disdainfully eyeing the messy apartment that Naruto has yet to clean.

Naruto scowled at that.

'Damnit! That annoying little…!' He thought darkly.

The blonde grabbed two ramen cups from his cabinet and instantly boiled some water.

"So when did you arrive?" He questioned distractedly as he waited for the liquid to boil.

Renji sat himself on one of the chairs in the kitchen and made himself at home.

"Last night, I explored the village a little before heading here."

Naruto looked at him over his shoulder.

"Did you make sure that you weren't seen last night?" There was a dangerous pause in his voice.

The redhead shrugged obliviously.

"They can't see me, what's the worst that could happen?" He asked with a confused frown.

Turning off the stove, Naruto turned around and stomped angrily towards Renji, glaring at him with blazing gray eyes.

"You moron!" The blonde yelled and slapped the back of the man's head. "There are some jounins and ANBU who could see us in our Shinigami form! What if you were seen? The village would be put into high alert and they will hunt you down!" Naruto screamed at the cringing Renji.

"I didn't know, alright! Sheesh! What's got your panty in such a twist?"

Renji's frown deepened.

Naruto glowered at him, looming over the man.

"Because if the village is put on high alert then it might jeopardize my mission!" He gritted out as the gray eyes glowed.

'And I might be forced to stay for another while longer…' was left unsaid.

Renji raised his hands in defense, looking straight at Naruto's unnerving stormy eyes warily.

"Alright, I give. I won't let it happen again." He promised with an exasperated roll of his eyes.

Naruto growled.

"You better." The blonde whispered before making his way back to the stove.

He nodded, satisfied, as his gray eyes toned down into its original blue.

There was a sharp intake of breath.

"Naruto, who the hell are you talking to?"

He grimaced as he looked towards the window just to see Kakashi perched on it.

"What are you doing here sensei?" Naruto asked rudely, glaring sullenly at the man.

Inwardly, he was panicking.

'How much did he hear? Why the fuck didn't I sense him sooner? What the hell does he want from me?' His mind whirled at a whole hundreds of possibilities.

'Calm down, Naruto-kun. You might give yourself away.'

The nonchalant voice of his zanpakutō made him relax marginally.

Kakashi eyed him oddly.

"We were supposed to meet an hour ago." The silver haired man informed him, his eye suddenly sharp and calculating.

And Naruto didn't like that look.

"Shit!" He looked at the wall clock above the doorway to his kitchen and saw that Kakashi was right. "I must've slept through, fuck." He cursed as he immediately poured the hot water on the ramen cups.

The blonde was careful not to look at the amused and thankfully silent Renji.

"Who are you talking to a while ago?" Kakashi asked again, this time it was laced with genuine curiosity.

Naruto grimaced again. He had been hoping to evade the question.

No such luck.

"I was…uhm, just talking to myself! Yes! That's it! I must still be dreaming… Yes, I'm still dreaming." It was a diversion but Naruto honestly doesn't know if Kakashi bought it or not.

So as to prove his statement, he closed his eyes and put on his most put upon focusing expression.

He couldn't help but also feel embarrassed.

But the main point for this lie was because the jounin might think that he'd been communicating with Kyuubi.

Not a good sign.

Kakashi eyed him with concern before stepping down from the window sill to ruffle his student's blonde locks.

"You're not dreaming, Naruto." He assured. "But you would wish you are if Sakura gets a hold of you." He stated with a happy crinkle of his eye.

The blonde sighed forlornly as he waited for his breakfast to cook.

"Does that mean you'll give me a day-off?"

Kakashi hummed as though he was mulling it over.

"Nope! It won't be good to have you slacking on your training, right? After all, a hokage needs to have a conditioned body to be strong." The man couldn't help the jab and saw his student cringe.

But it was for entirely different reasons.

"So, finish eating your breakfast and get dressed. We'll wait for you at the tower for a mission." The silver haired jounin reminded then went out the way he had gone in.

When Naruto was very sure that the man's presence wasn't nearby any longer, he proceeded to collapsed on the chair across from Renji.

"That was too close." The blonde mumbled.

Then Renji exploded with laughter.

Naruto glowered at him.

"Shut up!"

– OooOoOooO –

Renji, to Naruto's chagrin, had followed the blonde out.

The Shinigami was careful to not be seen by shinobi in case some of them are much spiritually aware, immediately using shunpo if he wasn't fast enough to escape their sight of vicinity. But the redhead keeps insisting that they won't see him anyway.

And during the course of D-rank missions (he and his team have done two), the redhead had been teasing him all day.

His state of dress – the horrid orange jumpsuit – had made Renji guffaw for at least five minutes.

It was known that he loves orange, but this is overkill, even for his standards.

'Damn Gikongan…'

Their first mission had involved pulling weeds out in a citizen's backyard.

It was really hard since Kakashi had forbidden any of them from using any jutsu during D-ranks.

"So, the third seat is reduced to pulling weeds?" Renji laughed. "I can't believe it! So this is what you've been doing since you became a 'shinobi'." He taunted with his eyes full of mirth.

Naruto glared at the patch of weeds in front of him, roughly pulling them out.

'I'm going to kill him once this is over.' He promised to himself with an angry twitch of his eyebrow.

"Maa, Naruto, what did those weeds do to you?" Kakashi asked with feign worry, but the amusement in that lone eye told the blonde another story.

It didn't help Renji's case as the man snickered.

The blonde genin rounded on his sensei and directed his glare at him.

"Why are we doing D-ranks again?" He demanded angrily, with Renji's presence, his mood isn't going any smoother.

Kakashi looked over his book.

"And that is why you're doing another D-rank after this." He simply stated as he went back to reading his book.

Sasuke scowled and gave the jounin his most frightening glare.

But Sakura directed her anger at her blonde teammate and stomped over to him.

"This is your fault, baka!" She screamed as she bopped him over the head painfully.

"Itai! Sakura-chan." He pretended to grouch over the ache of her punch.

That snapped Renji out of his amusement.

Instead, he frowned at the pink haired girl. And Naruto could guess why, Sakura's action had been cruel considering it wasn't his fault at all.

His Gikongan likes Sakura for a reason, but for Kami's sake, Naruto couldn't really guess why as the pink haired girl hadn't shown any shed of affection towards him.

After that mission, true to Kakashi's word, they went back to the tower that afternoon to get another D-rank.

When the blonde heard that they were going to chase Tora again, he decided that he had enough.

Even his redheaded companion gawked at the mission.

Followed by Renji in an alley while he let his team go first, he brought out his Gikongan and switched with it.

"Yo!" It greeted in its usually loud voice.

Naruto looked at it exasperatedly while he stood beside Renji.

"Go with the team, you have another D-rank mission. Act normal, alright?" He emphasized since the Gikongan sometimes has a short attention span.

The gigai frowned, but cheered anyways. "Yosh!" He saluted before running out.

He and Renji watched as it caught up with the team.

While the team were walking on the streets, they noticed the villagers glaring at the orange clad blonde.

Naruto frowned at that before turning back.

"Renji, let's go." He simply said, his voice devoid of any emotion, before vanishing with a shunpo.

The man eyed the displayed prejudice with a clenched jaw before following suit.

– OooOoOooO –

They wandered the training grounds for a while.

Simply jumping from branch to branch and explored, sometimes watching a random team train.

When Naruto saw Team Ten, he sat on a high branch and opted to watch them. Shikamaru and Chouji had been good friends of his back in the Shinobi Academy so it was kind of nice to see what they were like with their team.

Renji just stood beside him.

Ino was practicing her aim with shurikens, throwing them at the log with increasing speed.

While Chouji was munching on chips and watching the game of shougi between Shikamaru and their sensei.

To Naruto, it was quiet and peaceful. Though he didn't understand why the Nara complains about Ino being loud so much.

"So Renji, I wasn't able to ask you earlier. Why would Yachiru feel the need that you should accompany me here? I know that she likes annoying me but there's got to be another reason as Zaraki-taicho doesn't simply send out his soldiers to interfere with another division's mission." Naruto started as he glanced at the man from the corner of his eyes.

The redhead grunted before settling himself to sit beside him.

"Tsk, they're right. You're a little observant for your own good." Renji admitted with a shake of his head.

Naruto turned to the man seriously.

"What name have you been using?"

The blonde frowned. "Sometimes Namikaze, but I usually use Uzumaki."

Renji nodded.

"You shouldn't use Namikaze for a while." The man advised.

Naruto stood up in outrage.

"What?" He hissed angrily. "It's my birthright!"

It had been denied to him once and he won't let it happen again.

Renji glared at him.

"The council's beginning to make a connection between you and your father." He simply stated monotonously, eyeing the blonde in the eye.

Naruto froze and his eyes widened.

He opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and simply sat down beside Renji with an explosive sigh.

"I'm not a Shinigami-hollow hybrid like him." He muttered softly, looking away.

Only a few people know his connection to Namikaze Minato, and those people knew to shut their mouth about it. His father isn't a criminal or anything close to it but his kind is not allowed in Soul Society with the council ordering their immediate execution.

The redhead nodded.

"Yes, but you once housed the Kyuubi with you. Its malevolent energy should be enough to turn you into a hollow immediately. But you didn't, and those old coots believe that they know everything." Renji snorted angrily.

Naruto didn't say anything.

"Zaraki-taicho sent me here in case the council decides to do something stupid and act on it. A squad from the Onmitsukidō has been investigating about you. Hitsugaya-taicho and Ukitake-taicho could only do so much." The man continued as he watched the kids below them.

"Do they know about my mother?"

"Naruto…"

The blonde glared at Renji.

"DO THEY KNOW ABOUT MY MOTHER?" He exploded as he rounded on the man angrily.

Neither of them immediately noticed Shikamaru looked up at Naruto's outburst.

Renji sighed.

"They don't and that's only because she's not a Shinigami."

Naruto nodded, satisfied. Visibly calming down.

"Good, I won't forgive myself if she's put into any danger just because of me." He whispered under his breath.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Ukitake-taicho won't let anything happen." He assured with full confidence, knowing the man had been doing everything on his power.

They then fell silent.

After watching Team Ten for another while, Naruto jumped down from the tree.

The redhead just followed suit.

Naruto sighed tiredly. "I'm going to have to finish the mission immediately, I need to be there to solve this and prevent anyone from getting involved."

His companion glared at him.

"You can't stop others from getting involved, they will want to. Don't underestimate yourself so much, we're different from this village." Renji stated seriously, grabbing Naruto's shoulder to make a point.

The blonde sighed again, ready to argue his point that he didn't want any of them to get invol–

"Naruto?"

He groaned and ready to yell at the person who interrupted their conversation.

But then he remembered that nobody was supposed to see them.

Blue eyes looked at Shikamaru to see him standing, Asuma had walked to Ino and started helping her – oblivious to their audience – while Chouji looked at Shikamaru curiously.

"Shika, who are you talking to?" The Akimichi asked as he looked around, seeing no one other than Asuma-sensei and Ino.

The Nara's eyes widened and looked at Naruto and Renji.

"You don't see them, Chouji?" He gestured to the two Shinigamis.

Chouji shook his head, confused.

"You can see us?" Naruto asked, bewildered and a tad bit worried.

Shikamaru just looked at him straight in the eyes.

"What the hell?"

Renji shared the same sentiment.

AN: This is a time when Renji's still a Shinigami under the 11th Division. Thanks for the reviews. I really appreciate it and a lot has put this story in their favorites so I decided to post this chapter. It's not much but enjoy.

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