Yay!This is my longest chapter ever. It's like five or six pages! I hope it is written better and you all like it. I don't own Naruto or Bleach. I keep on forgetting the disclaimer.
WhatDoYouMeanI'mDrunk: I know, I'm really trying to make this fic go slowly, it's just not working! I understand what you mean by 'you can't really connect with the characters' and I'm working on it.
Narilyte: It does say in the summary that Naruto appears very little. If you don't like stories like that, then don't read them. I understand how you feel though and I think it is because I haven't made it completely clear what's going on. Naruto is listed as a main character because, although he does not appear, he is very important to the plot. It probably does not make any sense right now, but hopefully it will.
Sasuke just kept on running. He needed to clear his head. He had never run when he was alive; not for enjoyment anyway, just to keep in shape. He felt free. This was what Lee must have always meant about expressing your youth.
As he ran, he saw a mountain. Heading towards it, he noticed that there was a cave. He ran to it; up the mountainside. He stood in the cave at the edge of the mountain and looked out. From there, he could see Sereitei on the horizon. Naruto would have loved this view. Sasuke could imagine the sun setting behind it. He could imagine seeing the silhouette of the great shinigami city and he knew that Naruto could have sat there all day just to stare at it. Sasuke vowed that Naruto would get the chance to see all of the beautiful things that Sasukewas seeing. No matter what the captain commander said; there had to be a way to save Naruto and Sasuke would find it.
He took out a knife from his pocket. Old habits die hard. He made no sound as he brought the knife up to his hand and cut his palm, letting the blood slide onto the floor of the cave. After a few drops, he recited, "I vow on my blood, the blood of the Uchiha, that I will save Naruto. I will keep that promise because that is my nindo, my ninja way".
When Sasuke returned to Sereitei, he spent his time, either practicing or studying. He practiced to become strong enough so that no obstacle would stand in the way of freeing Naruto. He studied every book in the library to find any reference, no matter how small, to a way that he could free Naruto.
His hard work in class was well noticed by the teachers. Indeed, he became the top of the class and was soon competing with older years. It was no surprise to anyone else when he was picked for the new training program. It was experimental, but if it worked well then soon it would become a part of the academy curriculum. Of course Sasuke got picked, but happily Nadakai, Kiku, and Daisuke were chosen too.
On the first day of the new class, the four friends decided to meet.
"Oi, Daisuke-san, get your ass out of bed, we're going to be late if you're not up soon." Sasuke was used to his roommates sleeping habits by now, but they still annoyed him.
Daisuke groaned and rolled over in the bed, putting his back to his roommate. Sasuke all but growled as he glared at Daisuke. Then, he gave a small smirk and went to the bathroom, coming back with a bucket of cold water and promptly dumped it on his roommate. Daisuke shrieked as the cold water his him and he ran to the bathroom. When Sasuke heard the shower start, he nodded to himself and continued his routine. The cold bucket of water worked every time on every person, no matter how heavy a sleeper they were. Sasuke remembered a time on a mission, when he and Naruto had trained so much the night before that Kakashi-sensei had to get water from the lake and dump it on them.
Daisuke left the bathroom, one towel around his waist and using a smaller one to dry his hair. He glared at Sasuke and walked over to his dresser to find his clothes.
"You didn't have to do that, you know. I would've gotten up eventually." He said. It was true though, even though he woke up abominably late, he was never late to class.
"I know, but we have to meet Nadakai-san and Kiku-san. They will be mad if we are late and I will be mad if I am late because of you." Sasuke did not look at Daisuke but kept on getting ready.
"Alright, alright, I'm getting ready now." Daisuke grumbled, pulling on his clothes.
"Let's go."
They walked down the hallway, past groups of other students starting their day. They looked at the pair in awe, wishing that they had been chosen. Sasuke just walked, paying no attention to the other people in the hallway, but Daisuke was living it up, he winked and whistled at girls that walked by. They blushed and he grinned at their embarrassment.
It was Sasuke's turn to laugh though, when Daisuke got too carried away and Kiku appeared out of nowhere to whack him over the head. When she heard his laugh, she turned to him with a glare.
"And what are you laughing about, hm?" she said
Sasuke made an innocent face and replied, "Nothing"
Kiku gave him one more suspicious look before turning. As soon as she looked away Daisuke and Sasuke broke down into fits of silent laughter, Daisuke at Kiku's reaction, and Sasuke at Daisuke's antics with Kiku. 'They make a good couple' he thought. It was like Ino and Shikamaru, except Daisuke wasn't as lazy. 'Maybe it was a bad idea for him to help Kiku with her confidence, because now she is a terror.' He thought again.
They waited for another minute for Nadakai to show up. In that time, Daisuke acquired a few more bruises and bumps on his head, while Sasuke stood back to watch.
Nadakai walked down the hallway to come to the sight of a cowering Daisuke and an angry Kiku. He raised an eyebrow and turned to Sasuke, who was leaning against the wall. Sasuke just shook his head and said, "Don't ask. You don't want to know"
After dragging Kiku and Daisuke away, they all headed for the special room that the new class would take place in. Once again, they all stood in a long line and they were placed into groups of three. This time Sasuke, Daisuke, and Nadakai were all placed in a group together. Kiku was in a group with another girl and a guy that they didn't know.
The point of the first practice was to see how well they worked in teams. Sasuke did not miss the references to Konoha's training program. They had mock battles with other groups and Baly-sensei told them that they would eventually fight with an invention known as a dummy-hollow to prepare them for the real thing.
When that day came, everyone was more exited than usual. Everyone in the class was restless. Baly-sensei led them to a portal that would lead them to the real world. They were to go there to fight the dummy-hollows. Sasuke and Kiku had pointed out the problems with going to the real world.
"Real Hollows might sense their reiatsu."
"They might damage the land and attract the attention of the living."
"So much concentrated reiatsu might damage the living"
"Real Hollows might sense their reiatsu."
They were assured, however, that there were enough precautions to make sure of their safety and there were plenty of teachers to help out. The training section was a complex structure of buildings, giving them different fighting conditions that they might encounter in the real world. To any living person who might stumble upon the complex, it would look like a ring of stone ruins and of no particular notice. (1)
The goal of the exercise was to find and kill as many dummy-hollows as they could. The teachers were watching to make sure no one got severely hurt or cheated.
As soon as the bell sounded, Sasuke and his group set off running toward the center of the complex.
"That way," Sasuke reasoned, "We can be close to everything."
"That's right," Nadakai agreed, "We are at a strategic point in the complex. If anyone wants to get anywhere, they have to go through us."
They stood, backs to each other, to see from every angle.
"There!" Nadakai shouted, "To the left!"
They took off to where he was pointing. They followed the shape until it came to a stop in an ally.
Daisuke identified it, "Spider-like, low-leveled. It has no special talents. Easy."
"Good, let's go." Nadakai responded and all three of them got their practice swords ready.
The dummy-hollow leaped at them, but they were ready. It was Daisuke that lifted his sword up when it was in the air, barely scratching the mask. Sasuke was above it and stabbed down, separating the mask from the head.
"Woohoo. One down, plenty more to go!" Nadakai yelled, punching the air with his fist.
Suddenly, the complex started to shake. The hollow alarm went off, signaling that hollows had indeed found their way into the complex. Some teachers started to fight them off while others herded the students toward the gates.
The group started to run to the gate, but were stopped by a giant eagle-hollow. It poised to strike, but milliseconds before it did, it was struck by a beam of red light, rendering it motionless. They watched as Iwao-sensei appeared and stabbed the hollow in the center of its mask. It screeched and disappeared.
"You three, get to the gate now!" He yelled to them. They nodded and continued their run for safety. However a shout from behind them caught Sasuke's attention.
"No!"
It was Iwao-sensei. Sasuke turned to find himself looking into the eyes of a creature he had hoped to never see again. It was humanoid, with large bat-like wings. It had red eyes and dark slash over its nose. It was him. In its arms, he held a limp Daisuke. Daisuke's eyes were wide and his mouth was open in a silent scream. The hollow simply smirked at him, dropped the body and flew away.
"Daisuke-kun! Daisuke-kun! Wake up! No, you can't be dead, you can't!" For all his talk, Nadakai had never seen a comrade die. Sasuke did not speak. He only looked numbly at his roommate's unmoving body, knowing he was dead.
They brought his body back to soul society. Daisuke had been the only casualty. Casualty. As if he wasn't even a person. He was a casualty, a statistic for the government to process and say 'We'll do better next time'. A small funeral was held for him. He didn't have a mother or a father to mourn him. Only three close friends.
Kiku was so depressed that she quit the academy, she chose to leave and not have to face the fact that more of her friends will die; she will die. Nadakai survived, but he is quieter, less enthusiastic about learning to kill. Sasuke was the best off. It seemed to him that his friends were naïve about what being a shinigami meant, just like many of the children training to be ninjas did not realize that they would have to kill and watch their comrades killed. Sasuke knew this. Sasuke also knew that they shouldn't have to go through this; the pain of losing a friend.
Sasuke realized that it wasn't just that he was used to it. One should never become used to watching friends die. He realized that Daisuke was not truly his friend. When had he asked Daisuke about his life? When had he been nice? When had Sasuke tried to become close to Daisuke, to call him his friend?
Never.
That's when.
If Naruto were here, he would have known everything about Daisuke. He would have known that Daisuke had no parents. He would have known Daisuke's favorite food, and color. Naruto would have saved Daisuke. Sasuke should have saved Daisuke. If Sasuke were half as good as Naruto was, he would have saved Daisuke.
Sasuke ended up practically locking himself in the library, going through every tome time and again. It was three days before he found anything. It was surprisingly in a history book. It told of the King of Shinigami. The way to surpass any law passed by the shinigami council was to appeal to the King. The only way to do that was to either get promoted past Captain rank or to create The Key. Sasuke tore out the page of the book and headed back to his room to contemplate.
He needed a way to make the key. Getting promoted was too risky, he could die before accomplishing his goal. But how was he supposed to find it? He needed to both find it and protect it and keep it a secret from the captain commander.
He reached the door to his room but as he was reaching for the key, he noticed a presence in the room. He slammed the door open to find a boy, a bit younger than him, unpacking. His new roommate. The boy had dark hair and dark eyes. He would be impossible to pick out if it weren't for his bright smile that didn't go away, even when he looked up from his work in alarm as the door opened.
"Oh, hello," he said nervously, "Do you live here? Well of course you live here, you had a key. So you must be my new roommate. It's really nice to meet you." He rambled on, "Oh, I should introduce myself shouldn't I. Sometimes I forget these things. I actually forget a lot of things. Anyway my name is Shigekuni Genryuusai Yamamoto, and some day I'm going to be the Captain Commander!"
(1) – Can anyone guess what it is?
