Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Bleach, but every year when I blow out my birthday candles I wish I did. Don't you?

xXx

( Land of Iron )

Of all ways to be greeted by Renji, Ichigo had the misfortune of being attacked. Of course it wasn't hard to spar against Renji, who –even after seeing it was only Ichigo- continued to slash his Zanpakutou. However nothing could beat the pleasure of seeing something familiar in the unfamiliar elemental nations and Ichigo was quick to forgive the redhead. Seeing someone he knew in the icy wasteland that was the Land of Iron made him feel oddly optimistic. Especially since, now with him here, he might just be able to forget the scene that had just unfolded before him.

Oh! But how could he forget? All the logic in his mind told him that Sakura confessing her "love" to Naruto should mean nothing, yet at the same time it meant everything. Ichigo was desperate to steer his thoughts in a more positive direction, and thus when his brief fight with Renji was over he unknowingly started himself up for disappointment.

"So, what are you doing here? How'd you even get here?" He asked after being roughly clapped on the shoulder by Renji. Both shinigami did their best to ignore the confused looks from the shinobi. They each felt the same way about ninja: after being with them so long, it was nice to see a familiar face and nothing could stop that.

Nevertheless, Renji was none too thrilled at answering the question. The very force that brought him there was the very object he loathed. "Jiryokou…" He mumbled, getting an understanding nod from Ichigo. They were both in the same boat.

Same boat or not, there were still matters and people to attend to. Ichigo turned towards his allies, making sure to force Renji to turn with a cruel glare. He could only assume that the shinobi weren't sure what they were seeing. Without knowing it, his eyes first turned to Sakura, who looked not only curious but grudging at the same time. It made him wonder if she did not like Renji. Sure, there were a lot of people who didn't like Renji, but Ichigo would have thought the Sakura he knew would have given him a chance.

"Everyone, this is Abarai Renji." He told them. Crickets. He gestured to Renji and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off when the shinigami smacked his hand away.

"I don't need any fancy intro, strawberry."

Ouch. No matter how peeved Ichigo may have been with that comment, he let it slid. Rudeness was just a term of endearment for Renji. It comforted Ichigo just a little to think that by saying that, he was really saying "thanks for the consideration!" Of course, that was very wishful thinking.

Strangely enough, Renji didn't seem to be in the mood for chit chat. Ichigo was briskly pulled into a sidebar away from the shinobi, who immediately began to look at each other as if one of them had the answer. At first Ichigo struggled, not wanting to appear suspicious before these people. If the difference between Chakra and Reiatsu was true, giving these people any reason to attack him was a death wish.

"Hey? What gives?" Ichigo hissed, relinquishing his right to freedom when Renji forced them both to face away.

Renji cautiously looked over his shoulder. "This is better, they shouldn't know about what we are. I think you've figured this out, but these people aren't exactly normal, and they're not shinigami, either." He paused briefly to lessen his grip on Ichigo. "It's best if they don't hear about our business."

Something was on Renji's mind, Ichigo could tell. The way his eyes flickered to every single space he could find, or how knitted his brow was, or even how he randomly fidgeted were dead giveaways. Luckily for Ichigo, he didn't have to wait long. Renji quickly revealed his true agenda.

"So…is Rukia here?"

He had been wondering about it ever since he saw that head of orange hair in the distance. If Ichigo was here, than there was a good chance Rukia was too. He could only hope she was somewhere safe, if not right there with Ichigo.

The teen nodded. "Not here, here, but back where these people come from. She's in their village with Kon." The fact that Renji was eager for answers was unknown to him; Ichigo was blind when it came to love.

"Ah…" Renji mumbled. He was tempted to ask what village, but knew that even to Ichigo that might reveal his intentions towards Rukia. Clenching his jaw he relished the thought of not knowing, but knew it needed to be that way.

Both shinigami returned back at the group, acting as if their brief conversation had never happened. Renji was the first to speak up, saying, "Well…it's been great seeing you, Ichigo, but I need to get back. A distraction will only last so long." What Renji didn't expect was one specific ninja to suddenly question him.

"Where will you be going back to?" Sakura asked, taking a step towards them. She knew what they both were, and figured such a question would be helpful. Involuntarily she looked mostly to Ichigo, a fact which did not go unnoticed by Renji.

Maliciously he smiled. Renji crossed his hands behind his back, falling back and forth on the balls of his feet. "Huh? Who are you?" He sent a snarky look towards Ichigo, who seemed blank and distant in terms of what Renji was trying to get at. All Renji could think of was that this girl, in her pink-headed glory, had somehow managed to be bewitched by Ichigo, which would make a surprising twist to his idea of Ichigo when it came to women.

She crossed her arms. "Haruno Sakura, but you didn't answer my question." She told him.

"You don't miss a thing, do you?"

Ichigo could already see the tension between the two of them. Both wanted answers from the other which both knew they would never get, yet they didn't give up. Although determination was an admirable trait, it was also dangerous in this situation. Ichigo diffused the situation by taking Renji by the shoulders and leading him off, giving him a good push towards the direction that he came from.

"Go, go! They're probably waiting for you!" Ichigo told him, blatantly guessing that whatever Renji was returning to involved people. Luckily enough, Renji just nodded and began to walk away. Though for shinigami, walking was unnecessary and he quickly switched to shunpo. Before they knew it, he was gone.

Gone. Such a lonely word. Seeing that one familiar person had made Ichigo feel somewhat better, but now with Renji gone the simple facts came crushing down on him: Sakura confessed, and for some reason he cared! That thought alone was enough to make him anxiously avert his eyes, suddenly feeling self-conscious about what she may or may not think about him. The pain to his ribcage returned and he bent over to ease it. Sakura suddenly became worried.

Worried…what a nice thought…

xXx

In the midst of a mere three minutes things had somewhat returned to a state of normalcy, or at least whatever normal was for a pair like Ichigo and Sakura. While the others were most likely plotting their next moves outside (minus Naruto, who was watching suspiciously from the doorway), the unlikely duo were in another room, alone. And not just a normal alone, but a shirtless-Ichigo alone. Unfortunately Sakura had failed to heal his injury properly, and because of that the condition of it had only escalated until the point where if she wasn't precise, they could run the risk of an unconscious state, and nobody in the group looking happily upon carrying Ichigo's tall body back to Konoha.

So there Sakura was, standing over shirtless Ichigo as her shaky hands delivered the medical ninjutsu. She did her best to pretend like Naruto wasn't silently watching them from the corner of his eyes. In truth she wished he would turn around, there were some things she wanted to talk to Ichigo about; and just like him, she had no idea why. There was just something she needed to say, or ask about, or state. What it was, or how she was going to do it was unknown, and in the end she decided to let time decide.

Oh, imagine her luck when Naruto was called away by Kakashi and Yamamoto, giving Sakura the private time she needed. Of course, something potentially awkward like this was easier said than done. The anticipation of whatever would naturally come out first was welling up, causing her hands to shake over his abdomen.

His abdomen was something special, that was for certain. Sakura had never been much of a fan girl or a flirtatious beast so knowing what to say in such a situation was uncommonly hard to think of. Nonetheless, she definitely knew what to think. Ichigo had ever single hero-straight going for him. Not only was he tall and handsome, but now it was suddenly obvious to Sakura that he had amazing pecks. Where all shinigami this ripped? Or was that specialty reserved for Ichigo? Rather unceremoniously, she was pulled out of her erratic thoughts with his voice.

"What?" He asked.

Quite suddenly, she felt overwhelmed with the idea that Ichigo might have noticed her staring. She coughed and turned her head to the side, muttering a weak "Sorry," in response. She knew she had many things she wanted to talk about, Renji being one of them. However, it was impossible to say anything in that situation. She felt as if her lips were sewn together; her vocal cords locked up.

He craned his neck off the table she had him laying on to look at her. She caught his eyes and held them, wondering what he was thinking. Even better, she hungered to know what he thought about her, and a part of her thought that she could figure it out by staring into his eyes. Eventually, though, the awkwardness was too much and they both looked away. Trying to focus on something more stable, she focused on not his muscles, but the medical ninjutsu she was using on them.

Trying to focus was a grave mistake. She knew that when he looked back to her and began, "So…" Anytime where someone used 'so' and broke off after that was a clear sign of a disastrous conversation. This was extremely disconcerting; hadn't Sakura had enough disasters in the past few hours?

"So…what was that back there?" He asked casually, or at least tried to. With the way he was laying, saying something like that with a smooth voice was difficult and he sounded more worried than he did curious.

Sakura could assume what he was talking about, but wasn't in a mood to talk about it. "Back where?" She asked, "What are you talking about, Ichigo?" Her response must have been unsatisfactory. Ichigo struggled against the palm of her hands to sit back up, which she could never allow. That had the potential to hurt him, and for reasons unknown she dreaded the thought of him disabled or severely injured.

Unhappily he sighed. "Don't give me that crap. You know exactly what I'm talking about." He spoke, narrowing his eyes at her. She ignored him. Making wild hand movements when justified he continued, "Just what were you thinking? I thought Naruto was like a brother, you said so yourself!"

Sakura shook her head blankly. "You have no idea what you're talking about; things are more complicated than that." Though to a certain extent he was right. Naruto was a close family member, but even such a deep bond like that had to be forgotten and put to the side when it came to what was right.

Gruffly, Ichigo grunted. "Oh really, how?"

Her hands tensed, on the verge of giving up on their medical ninjutsu and turning into fists to punch Ichigo in the face. Nonetheless she bottled up her irritation cleanly. "I did what had to be done," she told him delicately.

"No," he retorted, "you did what you thought had to be done. The world could have gone without that sad performance of yours."

Luckily for her she didn't need to take much more of this. In a matter of seconds she was done, and quickly retreated away from his close proximity. "Sad performance?" She questioned. "Do you think this is all just one big game? What I did was perfectly harmless." She nodded to herself while putting on her usual coal-gray gloves.

Ichigo bolted upright on the table, making sure to re-cloth his upper half as he muttered angrily, "What you did wasn't harmless, you hurt a lot of people." He slipped off the table, reaching for Zangetsu who was resting against the wall when Sakura's Chakra suddenly exploded. The air in the room changed; Ichigo felt chills.

"Hurt a lot of people? How could you say that? It's not me hurting people, it's not my fault!" She quickly strode up to him, jabbing an angry finger at his chest. As intimidating as it was, it didn't have the desired affect. Nonetheless, she went on. "If you really want to pin blame on anyone, it should be Sasuke! He's the one hurting people, not me!"

By now their voices were raising, to prevent anyone outside from hearing their conversation Ichigo forced his down to a hushed tone that was still considerably angry. "Sure, that's just an excuse, Sakura. You are just as bad as Sasuke!" He waved his hands to his sides frantically, expressing every single syllable by a rough jerk or his hand slapping on the table. "You. Are. Just. As. Bad."

"Ugh!" She barked, crossing her arms defensively and taking a step back. "Who did I hurt, Ichigo? Who was it that I wronged, huh?"

By now he had already strapped Zangetsu to his back, his hands needing to do something to relieve the tension he felt. Still, all of his pent-up frustration could be clearly seen in his face. "Naruto, you hurt Naruto…and…" He threw back mainly as an excuse to keep him from saying what he was really thinking. Yet his insides twisted together in anticipation, his mouth desiring to say three words. He fought it, even pinched his own arm to distract himself, but in the end it all came down to it. His unspoken answer would finally be said.

"And you hurt me."

Sakura was at a loss for words. He sounded hurt, truly defeated when he said that and quickly turned away. The dreadful silence ensued, and through that silence she realized many things. She was in disbelief the more she thought about it, the more she realized that without thinking about it, her actions all had consequences. And now she had to face the agonizing truths:

She caused Ichigo pain, when only moments ago she had feared the idea of hurting him. Of course pain held no boundaries, and now she suddenly saw that any physical pain would have been no threat to him. Indeed, a hurtling punch to the gut would have been less painful than her spewing some cruel words. He could walk free from a tackle, but not from malice-injected hate words. It also seemed to occur to her, that out of all the things she had said to Naruto she now knew which one had hurt Ichigo. Of course all of them had hurt him, but there were specific words that tortured him. Her confession to Naruto was like a rejection to him.

Out of all times to learn of this, it just had to be now. At the most awkward of times she finally understood what those undisclosed emotions meant; she had feelings for Ichigo. Whether or not those feelings were just a quick infatuation or a lifelong love was unknown, but she did know this: The feelings she felt for Ichigo made her feel less and less responsible for all the problems that were happening around her, and for once she wasn't sad about Sasuke.

But to hurt him with that confession to Naruto could only mean one thing. He must have felt some sort of feeling similar to hers in order to feel so hurt and rejected. All in one moment her heart seemed to soar and fall; soar at the notion that her feelings weren't completely unprecedented, and fall knowing that now there was no possibility of ever justifying her actions to him. She was almost positive that he would never forgive her. To him there was no solution that would make her actions justified; he could never understand what she was thinking. But at least now she understood him.

Furthermore, in the middle of this renowned discovery something truly appalling also came to light. The silence that ebbed on between them was more than just what it appeared to. In a brief moment they both seemed to understand that not only was it silent inside the Inn, but outside as well. Sakura and Ichigo exchanged the glances, both of them equally sure that either they were left inside the Inn or everyone outside had heard their stark confessions. The latter seemed most likely, and while Sakura flustered from the embarrassment, Ichigo rerouted his feelings to anger.

He strode right past her to the door, throwing it open. "Wait!" Sakura called. The only response he was willing to give was the slam of the door. The sound echoed throughout the room as to mock her. Now this was his payback; her rejection. An eye for an eye.

She stalked out of the Inn, immediately catching the eyes of those outside. She noted that now there were only four people outside, Ichigo, Naruto, Kakashi, and Yamato having left the premises. She clenched her jaw. Things wouldn't have to be so complicated if she took the time to examine or own feelings.

Originally she had planned to take down Sasuke on her own, free Naruto the pain of anyone else doing it, but any thoughts in relation to that were washed away. Sakura tightly wrapped her cloak around her arms, not even bothering to so much as glance her companions' way as she went past.

"Let's go home."

xXx

( Location Unknown )

The Kage Summit had been the worst thing Karin had ever been to, and it wasn't because she had a heavy distaste for political issues. Oh no, her dislike of the event was born the moment Sasuke was set free to start havoc. The whole thing was chaos, and throughout all of it Karin was afraid for her life. Hiding out where they supposedly could not see her, her job was to locate Danzo's chakra signature. But that job was hard when people were talking fifty miles a minute, fighting whenever they got the chance, and breaking holes in the very wall she was supported on.

So yes, she feared for her life. The fear was so great that tracking down Danzo took a prolonged period of time. It didn't help that she felt conflicted about Sasuke. At that point she'd only had a brief whiff of his evil side and still felt relatively in love with him as all females did. She was yet to see how easily his handsome face could contort to something evil, something sinister. And even when that face peeked out from the dark underbelly of Sasuke's soul she dismissed it, afraid to believe that the very Sasuke she knew was a monster.

Things only continued to go downhill when Sasuke unleashed the Susanoo. Even she, someone she was so very positive he could never hurt, believed that she would die. Karin wanted to curl up in a corner and forget she was there, save herself, really. She thought that perhaps Sasuke had changed back to the handsome hero she imagined when he saved her from the roof caving in. Of course, his chivalry could only last so long as it had an expiration date. Quite suddenly she lost track of all space and time and found herself in a very mysterious place.

Nowhere.

A world of black, the only solid surface to walk, sit, and lay on being luminous white squares and rectangles. It was like a world made of oversized blocks, created by a two-year old with a hard time expressing their imagination. Karin looked around, frightened and confused. How did she get from the Kage Summit to a world of white toy blocks and black nothingness? It didn't make any sense.

Beside her she spied Sasuke, injured and unconscious. She gulped, leaning in to get a better look at his face. "You look so harmless when you're sleeping…" She mumbled, sighing, "Why can't it always be this way?" Of course she knew the answer; she could feel it in his Chakra. The darkness that had played with him for so long was finally taking control, overtaking his body and soul.

Past Sasuke, Karin swore she could see something move. A flash of brown went right across her vision, jumping from block to block. Was it possible someone else was there, too? She furrowed her brows, quickly hoisting herself up and chasing after the stranger. The blocks were more of an obstacle for her. Although she was indeed a ninja, she wasn't the fighting type. Sensory shinobi like her didn't usually have the strength or determination to run fast or jump high like the mystery person she chased could. Yet today she had rallied up a little determination with the fear that she was in an unknown place. And Karin -being the overly-obnoxious woman she was known as- hated not knowing.

"Hey! Wait!" She called, climbing over block after block just to catch up. Eventually she got close enough that he could hear her, evident by the way he inclined his head towards her. Unfortunately, they were still too far apart and she needed to get closer in order to find out who he was. "I just have a few questions!" She called once more.

She never thought he would come to a complete stop, never. However it seems not everything that happened to her that day had to be bad. The stranger, to her absolute surprised, stopped and let her catch up. The fact that she was getting further and further away from Sasuke didn't occur to her, that she was potentially leaving the only safe spot in this whole twisted universe. Soon enough she began to see that her decision wasn't the brightest one she had ever made.

Upon closer inspection, she saw that this man was big. Not fat, but tall, maybe over eight feet tall. He was a giant, and not just any giant. The first thing she noticed was how he lacked skin or anything fleshy in general. The man…or, thing…was a walking skeleton. Literally. Only instead of white, chipped bones they were a sleek and shiny black color. And where she should be able to see his skull was some sort of colorful mask made of bone. To say the least, Karin froze in her spot, allowing it all to soak in. It didn't help that he wore a tattered brown jacket that went down to the knees with a white cloth wrapped around his torso like a sash.

Seeing the thing so clearly startled her, and she promptly shrieked and fell backwards. "GAH!" Karin got onto her back and crab-walked away as fast as she could. Unfortunately her hands found that there was nothing behind her; she was on the edge of the block. "This isn't happening, this isn't happening." She told herself crazily. "It's just a dream, just a dream." A dream would have been a more plausible situation. After all, where else would you see a giant skeleton wearing strange clothing with a bone mask?

The thing edged closer, whether it was smiling or not she couldn't tell. There was only one expression on his mask: pure agony. "Ohoho~ Who is this we have here? Did he finally send me something to play with?" The creature asked itself. Its voice was perhaps the worst thing about it. It was monotonic and scratchy, sending shivers down her spine.

"Stay away!" Karin told it, holding up a shaky hand as it approached. "I'm warning you!"

It laughed a cruel laugh. "You think you could fight me, is that it? Newsflash baby, you're in hell. There ain't no escaping fate in this land, not unless he allows it." The giant came closer, oddly enough his voice right then didn't feel threatening. If anything, it felt welcoming. As if he was a prisoner here, too.

Karin gulped, somewhat reluctant to believe that the creature was harmless. "Do you know where we are…?" She asked it, forcing the obvious tension in her muscles away. She remembered being told that monsters could smell fear.

The skeleton made a big circular gesture to everything around them. "I told you, you're in hell now." She heard it sigh (or something that resembled a sigh, at least) as it stuck out its hand before her, offering to help her up. It was a little funny to see an 8 foot tall creature bending over to help an average sized woman. "Hell being the inside of his head, that mother f-"

She accepted the hand cautiously, interrupting what she expected to be a long string of curses by asking, "Who's this he you like to talk about?" He lifted her back to her feet.

"Tobi- Madara- err, whatever his name is." The creature informed. "We're inside his sick little head, trapped basically. Any Jutsu is illogical in this world; he's made it so you can't fight." The fact that he specifically referred to her when mentioning Jutsu passed by unnoticed.

Karin nodded, crossing her arms uncomfortably. It felt awkward to be looking up at the thing before her when it was twice her size. Nonetheless, it seemed the creature had a lot of useful information about this place and Madara. For both her and Sasuke's sake, it wouldn't hurt just to milk out a bit more, wouldn't it? That in mind she politely asked, "So how did Madara manage to force you in here?"

"Probably in the same way he got you here, missy. It was unexpected and spontaneous. That bastard…I didn't even see him coming…" It responded, its boney hands curling up into a hard fist. The body language Karin could see and interpret suggested anger and resentment. Obviously this creature had a feud against Madara.

Karin briefly glanced back in the direction of Sasuke before returning her attention to the thing before her. With one hand she pushed up her glasses and used the other to flip back her hair. "So what's you're name?" She could have sworn she saw the lips on his mask curl up into a sort of sneer.

"Jiryokou." It responded.

xXx

Author's Note:

Yipee! I'm so excited! I finally get to write more of my own plot stuff after this point! Now, I'm sure you noticed that this Truths chapter was in two parts. I did that to save some space. Originally I had a big 20-page epic planned, but let's face it: that's just too much. So I sorted it down to this, which I think was the smarter decision.

Oh and a special shout out to the anonymous reviewer that pointed out the Naruto Character "Yamamoto" was actually "Yamato". A big thanks for you, I would've have never caught that otherwise. Now that I know I'll try to keep it consistent. Unfortunately I can't go through and edit the other chapters, but I won't make the same mistake twice!

Also, if I have a chapter done and there has already been 200 views, I usually post it even if I just recently updated. Just saying that to see if anyone's willing to help promote the story. I really love it and would like to see it get more attention in the fanfiction world. Nonetheless I'm reasonably happy with the way things are going! 8D

Sayounara!