Hmm…an unexpected side effect; my story's popular! Thanks for the support (reviews, favs, alerts, etc.)!

However, to Mr. (or Ms.) HolyKnight5: I never said I that they landed in the 1870s. I'm merely using the RK characters as plot devices to introduce the Naruto and OC characters into the Bleach world. I know Yamamoto is over five thousand years old by the time of the current timeline. It's fanfiction for a reason, dude; calm down and get a grip. Obviously, I'm going to explain how he ended up as the Captain-Commander – aka Sotaicho – of the Seireitei and other details like that. Just assume that Kenshin and his gang's story took place in ancient Japan. This whole fic is pretty much AU at this point anyway.

And yes, Mr. Trife, this is before the founding of Soul Society, as explained above.

Anyways, I felt bad (sorta) for Chapitre Quatre's shortness, so I wrote Chapitre Cinq. I think it's long enough for this week's fic quota. I was really just pulling ideas out of my ass with Chapitre Quatre and Rurouni Kenshin came out. Or maybe it was looking at those new redesign sketches in the kanzenbon volumes that Watsuki drew a few years back.

Actually…this whole fic is really random, now that I think of it. Ideas just keep coming to me from weird and unusual places, heh.

[edited: 10/11/09, 10/19/09, 4/5/10]

After a round of rousing explanations, the two intruding men found themselves still dumbfounded three days later. And yet…they were telling the truth.

Kenshin was a shrewd observer of character, and he found no lie…well, almost no lie – as some of them were rather boastful and exaggerated in their tales – but that was to be expected of the majority of strong warriors. Ninja, actually. Not that Kenshin had any doubts on that. There was that ninja clan he'd encountered when he was still alive. Although, these ninja were almost godlike in terms of power, compared to the ones he'd met.

While they were powerful, they certainly didn't act like that.

In fact, judging by the amount of screaming, Makoto was most likely trying to molest Fumiko again. In Kenshin's honest opinion, he felt that the blue-haired woman was both bipolar and bisexual. She loved to accentuate her curves in front of the men, competing with Anko, that scary purple-haired yellow-eyed woman, while on the other hand, the only person she loved to annoy was apparently Fumiko, Naruto's exceedingly-great-grand daughter.

And now that he thought of the blonde leader of the seemingly random group, many questions popped up in his mind. Such as the fact that demons really existed. Perhaps not in this world, but in another? A little disbelief was acceptable under the circumstances, but Naruto had dispelled that when he showed them that intense, abnormal red energy. All of them were surprised, actually. Especially the rest of the group, considering that they'd lost that 'chakra' energy of theirs.

When Sanosuke had explained what reiatsu was, and after only a few hours of practice, most of them had become even more adapt at using it, which in turn made them even stronger now that they could focus it. That alone attested to how strong they were.

Nearly mastering your reiatsu in under a year was unheard of, let alone a single day! And they weren't even shinigami, either.

But then again…none of them were normal, Kenshin thought with a slight sweatdrop.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. There were those two masked people. They hadn't uttered a single peep the whole time, he realized. One of them was a male, with a lion's face as his mask while the female person had a wolf's face.

They were part of a group called the Union, Naruto had told him, which consisted of Naruto himself, the two masked people, Kakashi, Anko, Tsunade and Sakura, a pink-haired girl who hadn't been in the clearing when Kenshin and Sanosuke had 'arrived'. They all wore the same uniform black cloak inlaid with dark orange with an orange spiral on the back. Naruto was the only exception, with his jacket open and used in a sling-like fashion for his bandaged left arm, and closed at the waist with an orange sash.

While Tsunade had told them most of the story, there were a few things still missing. Unimportant, sure, but it would be nice to get to know your allies…or potential enemies. But Kenshin sincerely doubted the latter, and dropped it from mind.

Fumiko, meanwhile had been the 127th Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato and Yamamoto, who Kenshin had shamefully forgotten about briefly, was Naruto's young apprentice. He and Fumiko were just about evenly ranked as the least powerful among the group. Even so, he knew instinctively that if he were to fight either of them one-on-one, he might not be able to win.

He paused in thought when he stepped to the side as Sanosuke grinded to a halt after being pushed back, a shit-eating grin on his face at finding a good fight. Across from the former fight merchant, Kakashi closed his single visible eye to give the impression of smiling.

"You're good! You're really good! I haven't had a fight this good in a long time!" Sanosuke exclaimed, tearing off his sleeve to match the other torn one.

The red-haired man was hard-pressed to not release a groan.

Every person they'd met in the afterlife had been scared off by the man's love for fighting. Hell, he was the reason why they lived in the forest instead of one of the little towns that had sprung up in recent years.

"Hey, Kenshin-san," Naruto called over to him, catching his attention.

"Naruto-san," he acknowledged back.

The blonde jogged to him and asked, "You said you're shinigami, yeah?" Kenshin nodded the affirmative. "Are there more of you, then?"

Kenshin nodded again and spoke. "We are shinigami, or have become a part of the shinigami force. Not many do so, but it is necessary."

Naruto frowned. "Yeah, I got that, but what is it that you do, exactly?"

The short man sighed. "In the human world, which is not where we are right now, spirits can become either pluses or minuses. Sano and I are pluses, as you can see. Minuses, on the other hand…" He trailed off and looked towards the sky. "When spirits are burdened with strong negative emotions, or are emotionally attached to a location, their emotions can corrupt them into becoming spiritual creatures called hollows."

"I take it that these hollows are a threat?" Naruto asked rhetorically, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed.

Kenshin frowned. "Yes. Hollows are a serious threat because when they are 'born', so to speak, they are drawn to eat humans in order to fill the void in their hearts. We shinigami have made it our duty to stop them from eating humans."

"Hmm… I see." Naruto scratched his chin in thought. "So are they just mindless beasts, or do they retain their memories?"

"They tend to lose their memories. When spirits become hollows, all they know is that they must eat human souls. It is their one driving instincts. The other instinct is to become stronger."

"Do you just kill them or what?"

"No, we don't. Zanpakuto, our blades, are used to send them here without their memories as hollows or humans. Basically, we purify their spirits," Kenshin answered.

Naruto noticed something then. "And what are these 'Zanpakuto'? I sensed that they weren't regular swords."

Kenshin allowed himself to smirk, which looked a little out of character on him. "They are a part of a shinigami's soul."

That comment caught Naruto off guard. "Eh? What do you mean they're a part of your soul?" he asked confusedly.

"A shinigami, or even somebody with enough spiritual power, can manifest an aspect of their soul. That aspect separates and becomes a Zanpakuto. Although, if a shinigami dies, their Zanpakuto remains behind and calls out for a new master, even if he or she already has a Zanpakuto of their own."

"Oh, I see," Naruto muttered, nodding. "So they're pretty much sentient weapons. How does that work, though?"

Kenshin unsheathed his sword and brought it up. "They work as any normal sword would. However, every Zanpakuto is different, with a few exceptions every once in a while. Each of them have special abilities which amplify your own. There is a second form of the sword called 'Shikai' that can only be accessed by learning your Zanpakuto's name. And you cannot jus simply pick out a name, because each Zanpakuto already have their own names, and they can only be attained after mediation and being in harmony with ones Zanpakuto."

"You have to learn their names?" Anko whined, dropping down from the tree she'd been using to unnecessarily eavesdrop on them. "That sounds so weak!"

Kenshin smirked again, and Naruto decided that it looked unnatural on the kindly man's face. "Anatano ha tono tate no keppaku…Hitokiri Battosai!" he declared, stepping back a little bit.

Before their eyes, his plain katana glowed brightly and reformed.

In his hands, Kenshin now held a wider blade about six inches across, but it stayed the same length of four feet. The handle had turned into a long dark purple pole which extended out by a foot. The funny thing was, the curved part of the blade was blunt. Not even that, it was solid; there was no blade on the side whatsoever, almost like it was the back of the blade. Instead, the sharpened edge was on the reverse side of it.

"This is my Shikai," he announced a bit smugly, amused more than anything at the two's awed expressions.

Anko whistled appreciatively while Naruto was itching to reach out to the cool-looking sword. "Damn, that thing looks kick-ass. But why is it reversed?" she asked curiously. A blade that big and deadly with a reversed edge was a little strange, but definitely not the weirdest thing she'd ever seen.

The woman started to think she said the wrong thing when Kenshin's face fell and he sighed wistfully. "When I was alive," he started sadly, "I worked for a government. It was my duty to crush a rebellion that sprung up, and I killed many people. Since then, I have sworn an oath never to kill, even in the afterlife."

Anko decided it wasn't her place to make a comment, and Naruto patted his shoulder understandingly, to which Kenshin flashed a grateful smile.

"So that's Shikai, eh?" Anko said, thankfully breaking the tension.

Kenshin nodded, immediately resuming up his lecturing tone while dispelling his Shikai. "Yes, this is the first advanced form of a Zanpakuto."

"First? So there are more forms then?"

"Only two are available, Shikai and Bankai. Shikai unlocks your Zanpakuto's abilities, augmenting your power with its own, letting you use unique attacks. Bankai, however, is substantially more powerful. Achieving Bankai, I've heard, increases your power five to ten times," he revealed to their surprise. "With the power you hold now, you and the others would be akin to real gods. I find myself sympathetic to those who might earn your wrath," he said amusedly.

Anko snorted crudely at that. "I hardly think that anybody could defeat us at our level, but it never hurts to be prepared. And this Bankai, I take it, has a catch or two, right?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Bankai takes many years to earn. I myself have been a shinigami for some three hundred years, and I haven't achieved Bankai yet. Neither has Sano-kun over there." He gestured over to his best friend who was now fighting Makoto and her huge halberd-type weapon. "Bankai is also draining on reiatsu reserves, but I'm more than positive that that will be no problem for you and the others."

"Hell yeah!" Anko crowed, preening at the praise.

Naruto rolled his eyes and continued the conversation. "So, have you ever seen a Bankai before?"

"There hasn't been a Bankai user in over five hundred years, so no, sadly. It would be interesting to see such a feat, though."

"I agree with you there," Naruto mused. If Kenshin's earlier statement about Bankai's augmenting factor was true, then he really would be godlike at that point, if he wasn't already. He was the current Kyubi no Yoko after all. His chakra might not work in this world, but he still had the two sources of energy in him. They were merely converted into reiatsu, as Kenshin had said.

Since that gate had pretty much killed them on the way here, they were beings of pure spiritual energy anyway, which explained why they had no chakra. Chakra was energy of the body and mind. Now that they were deceased, they technically had no body or mind because they were souls. Reiatsu, on the other hand, was pure spiritual energy. Naruto guessed that because they had vast amounts of energy of the body while they were alive, said energy was converted into spiritual energy.

…truthfully, he had no idea how the system worked. But if they were here to stay, they might as well get used to using reiatsu. And also look into manifesting Zanpakuto of their own.

He snapped his fingers suddenly, and the rest of the Union came forth, Fumiko, Makoto and Yamamoto lagging behind by a second with Sanosuke out cold on Makoto's shoulder.

"Alrighty, team, today's goal is to attempt to manifest Zanpakuto of our own," he announced cheerfully, much to Kenshin's surprise. "So we're going to take a break from training for now, and meditate to try to seek it out. And since three of you aren't part of the Union, I'll have Kenshin-san explain it to you."

"Oro?"

Anko nudged the red-haired man in the ribs lightly and whispered, "Just tell them what you told us before."

"Er…" He cleared his throat and repeated his description to the three non-Union members.

"So we're going to attempt to manifest these 'Zanpakuto' from within our souls?" Yamamoto asked curiously once Kenshin had finished. To him, the whole concept sounded pretty exciting. Once he managed to manifest his, there would be so much potential with the weapon!

To Kenshin's surprise again, it was Tsunade who answered him. "Yup. The only way to do that, like Kenshin-kun here said is to meditate." A lot of them groaned, Anko in particular, despite the fact that she had known beforehand. "Now go pick out a spot and start."

In a few minutes, the entire clearing was quiet, with Kenshin calmly sitting at the base of a tree, observing the meditating ninja.

They actually looked peaceful for once, just sitting or lying down on the grass (or what was left of it from Sanosuke's fights with them). Nobody was cursing or yelling; it was actually quite nice. And there was no distractions whatsoever…

"Dammit! What the hell hit me!?"

…or not.

Sanosuke had awoken, cursing up a storm. The ruckus caused Makoto to snap out of her self-induced trance. When she saw that it was Sanosuke making all the noise, she threw a boulder from who knows where at his head.

Needless to say, he dodged rather quickly. And in doing so, knocked himself out again when he bashed his head against a tree.

Kenshin couldn't help but laugh out loud at the sight, which unfortunately earned him the ire of several of the shinobi.

He, too, found himself seeing stars as his face hit the ground, courtesy of several substantially smaller rocks.

If some of what I wrote sounds contradictory to the other chapters, than you should know that most of this chapter is from Kenshin's POV.

I would have put Fumiko's numerical position in Japanese, but I didn't think that 'Hyakunijunanadaime', which was the translation I got, sounded cool.

And I figured that Kenshin's shikai had to be ironic, considering his no-kill outlook on life.

Anatano ha tono tate no keppaku – Shield innocence with your blade.

If you don't like it, then give me some suggestions and I'll change it in a later update. He also seems OOC because he's been dead a long time. That's my excuse. Well, that and it feels weird writing how he usually talks and acts.

I think I might just keep the RK people as supporting cast, unless I get bunch of protests, of course.

Next chapter: The group gets their Zanpakuto!

As always, constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Although "Great Job!", "Can't wait for more!" and "lmao" are pretty cool too, yeah.