Kasek: Hey, remember me? The guy who never updates? Guess what I just did. Expect me to do the same with Kitsu Kitsu no Mi soon, too.

Well, I seem to have gotten some complaints about me not specifying pairings. I'm not exactly a pairing-kind-of-guy, as it's just not something that occurs to me until it happens. However, if a pairing is going to happen, it will probably be NaruSaku. It might not happen, though. If you want, you can give suggestions, try to make an argument for your case and stuff. Either reviews or going to my new forum, Kasek's Korner (I know, cheesy), will work just fine for me. Here's the link in case you don't feel like bothering with looking for it: ought to work, but if it doesn't, let me know. ...shoot, it doesn't work. Giveme a sec: type in the usual ffdotnet, slashforum,slash Kaseks Korner (with space), slash 39894. Hope it works.

Disc.: I do own neither Naruto nor BLEACH. If I did, I would give BLEACH more plot and Naruto would have started dating Hinata already.

Chapter 2: Academy Daze

Naruto stared at the huge academy. And stared. And stared. "Are you crazy, Dad?!? I can't do this! No way!"

Minato chuckled. "Come on, Naruto, it's already been a month. I even gave you some tips on controlling your reiatsu. You'll be fine! This place isn't nearly as bad as the one back in Konoha."

Naruto growled, and lifted his hand to the hitai-ate on his forehead- the only piece of clothing he kept from his living days. He was now wearing the Academy uniform, a white with red kimono with a red hakama. "I hope you noticed when I claimed that I was the dead-last in that academy..."

The former Yondaime Hokage crossed his arms and gave a big huff. "That was only because those teachers refused to teach you! Besides, it's not like it was YOUR fault you had more chakra than most jonin know what to do with!"

Naruto gave his father a mock glare. "Yeah, you're right. It's YOURS."

Minato raised his arms in front of his face in a playful defensive gesture. "Come on, last I checked, having a bijuu in your belly doesn't affect your normal chakra. That was all inherited from your mom's side of the family, I swear!"

Naruto's mock-glaring ceased. "My... mom?"

Minato pulled out a cell-phone. "Oh, would you look at the time? I've really got to get going. Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you, I signed you up to board here. Hope you don't mind. Later!" In the blink of an eye, Namikaze Minato disappeared from sight. Naruto wondered what that technique was for a second, knowing that it wasn't a jutsu (dead people couldn't use chakra, after all), before his mind got right back on track. "Hey! Get back here! I don't care if you ARE the Hokage AND my dad! I'll get you for this!"

As many people raised eyebrows at the spectacle of Uzumaki Naruto, one pair of eyes was focused on the back of his blond head, having apparently recognized his voice. "Naruto...?"

Naruto grumbled, and turned back towards the huge campus before him. The figure's eyes widened, and made a dash for Naruto. "N-Naruto!!!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized who was dashing towards him, and his body froze. "Sa-!" His cry was cut off when he was tackled to the ground. He heard muffled sobs from the face that was buried in his chest.

"Naruto... I'm sorry...I'm so sorry... It's all my fault..."

Naruto stared at the mass of pink on his chest. "Sakura-chan...? Why are you here?"

The mass of pink lifted, and underneath it was, indeed, the face of Haruno Sakura, Naruto's former teammate, which was now covered in tears.. "I'm so sorry... it's all my fault... it's all my fault..."

Naruto didn't quite know what to do in this situation. Here he was, in the middle of the street, with the girl of his dreams- who was SUPPOSED to be alive- crying into his chest, and seeing as he didn't LIKE the fact that she was crying (in public, no less), he tried to comfort her. "What's your fault, Sakura-chan?"

She sobbed again. "Th-that... you and Sasuke-kun are... are..." She couldn't take it anymore, and she once again burst into tears. Naruto sat up, and let her cry into his shoulder. Naruto noticed that she had said "You and Sasuke". Did that mean that Sasuke was dead too? However, his mind didn't process any more as he went back to trying to comfort his friend. "Sakura-chan... it's not your fault..."

"Yes it is! If I hadn't made you go on that stupid mission, you would still be alive! You would still have your shot at Hokage! And Sasuke-kun... now he'll never get to take his revenge, or revive his clan... How could I be so stupid..."

Another figure approached the two. "Actually... I think he managed to clear one of those objectives..."

Naruto turned towards the figure, and his eyes froze, and his mouth drew into a snarl. Sakura, curious, turned towards the figure. Naruto let out a low growl. "Uchiha... Itachi..."

Sakura's eyes widened in fear. This was the man that Sasuke wanted to kill? He didn't look all that threatening in his academy uniform... Her eyes widened even further when she realized what his presence here meant. "Y-you mean... he's still..."

Itachi shook his head. "Alive? No... but he isn't here, either."

Sakura started shaking. "Wh-what do you mean by that?"

Naruto helped Sakura up to his feet, and then he growled at Itachi again. "What do you mean by that? If a soul as twisted as yours managed to make it into Soul Society, then Sasuke should be here, too!"

Itachi chuckled. "As twisted as mine, you say? How ironic that you should be saying that, when Sasuke's own soul has been twisted beyond almost all recognition?"

Naruto took a step back. "What... did you say?" However, before anything else happened, a large bell rang throughout the campus, and everyone started making a mad-dash towards the main building.

Itachi turned towards the main building himself. "Ah... it seems the opening ceremony is about to begin. Since you are both wearing the uniforms, I advise you not to be late. This looks to be an interesting afterlife."

As Itachi walked away, Naruto and Sakura just stared at him blankly. After a minute, Naruto snapped out of it. "AH! He's right! We better run for it, Sakura-chan! We're going to be late!"

Before Sakura could even regain her composure, Naruto was practically dragging her. It took a moment for her to at least get enough sense back into her head to walk on her own. As she ran after Naruto, her head was just too confused to think straight. Itachi had said that Sasuke's soul had been twisted... but what did that mean? And why in the world was Itachi able to come to Soul Society? She had been told that Hell was a very real place by the people she had stayed with before her potential as a shinigami was discovered. He must've done a LOT of charity work to work his way here...

She was brought out of her thoughts when she realized that Naruto had stopped. Looking around, she realized that they were in a huge auditorium, and practically every seat was taken. In fact, the only two seats not taken... happened to be right next to Itachi, who was in the farthest back row, three seats from the door. Naruto grit his teeth, while Itachi glanced at them nonchalantly.

"It is rude to stand during occasions such as these. You should sit down before they start." Naruto growled at the Uchiha, but took the seat that was closer to him- most likely to better protect Sakura, though he knew that he couldn't if he tried.

Sakura took the last seat, and not a moment too soon- the auditorium darkened, leaving only the stage up front lit. A lone figure hobbled onto the stage, and instantly Naruto and Sakura could sense how powerful this guy was. He definitely carried had an air of power about him, despite the fact that he was relying on a cane to move around. The man was bald, with a very long, braided beard. His stance said that he was very, very old; it almost seemed that the cane was the only thing keeping him up. He had a shinigami uniform on, but he also had a white haori that was obviously too large for him draped over his shoulders. Each time the cane touched the floor, the noise reverberated throughout the entire auditorium, and yet his footsteps didn't seem to make any noise at all. After a minute, he managed to reach the center of the stage, and with one, final, resounding stomp of his cane, he turned to his audience. He introduced himself as Yamamoto-Genryusai Shigekuni, and gave an introductory speech. Naruto found the whole ordeal rather boring, but at the same time, at least tried to pay attention.

Apparently, this man was the person who had founded the Shinigami Academy almost a thousand years ago, which Naruto understood to mean that this guy was a lot older than even that. The Shinigami Academy was not merely a place to learn-it was a place where they could weed out people too weak to become Shinigami. Naruto had figured as much, as the Academy back home was essentially the same thing.

Naruto's mind began to wander, deciding to focus instead on the two people on either side of him. First up was Sakura. Why was she here? To be here meant that she was dead... but how did that happen? She seemed very torn up over his death... well, at least Sasuke's death, anyways. But she did seem sincerely sorry that he had died, too. If she was so torn up about it... then, could she be here because she had commited suicide? Naruto shook his head-there was no way Sakura would do something like that... would she?

At the same time, Sakura's mind was focused on Naruto, while still listening to the wizened captain's speech. There was so much she wanted to ask him- Tsunade had lifted the Third Hokage's ban on talking about Naruto's birth, so not only did the new generation find out that the Kyuubi had been sealed inside of him, but everyone in the entire village found out for the first time who his father really was. She knew for sure that he hadn't known who his father was, but... how come he had never told anybody about what was inside of him? They were a team- they shouldn't have been keeping any secrets from each other.

Naruto's mind wandered over to Itachi. How the heck did he get into Soul Society? And what did he mean when he said that Sasuke had managed to kill him? Naruto remembered that he couldn't touch anything back when he was still in the land of the living. And, to say that Sasuke's soul was even more twisted than Itachi's? Naruto remembered what his dad had taught him over thet past month- he said that there were souls that weren't reached by Shinigami,and whose very souls twisted until the point that they became monsters of the worst kind- Hollows, creatures who fed on human souls for sustenance. Had Sasuke undergone the transformation? After all, it only took feelings of sorrow and rage... and Sasuke probably had plenty of both when he realized he was dead.

Itachi, not surprisingly, was thinking about Naruto. After all, he was both an Uchiha and a member of Akatsuki- naturally, he was interested in the current status of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Was it dead? Alive, but rampaging in the land of the living? Did it go back to whence it came, never to be seen again? Or, as it was a spirit being anyways, was it still sealed inside of Naruto?

Naruto was startled when everyone started to get up and leave. "Wait, huh? Don't tell me it's over already?

Sakura sighed. "You're the same as ever, Naruto... we don't have any classes today, but we're supposed to look around campus and make sure we know where everything is. Come on, I'm going to make sure you don't fail out of this Academy, you almost failed out of the last one."

Naruto paled. "Sakura-chaaan... I already have my dad on my case about that, not you too..."

Itachi growled. "Do you mind getting out of my way? You're holding some of us up." Sakura and Naruto gulped, feeling the combined annoyance of Itachi and the several students behind him, wishing to get on with their lives. Needless to say, the two former genin dashed for the exit.

Kasek: FINALLY! IT IS FINISHED! I had SUCH a hard time with this chapter. I was trying to figure out what to make Shigekuni say. With my brain, that ended up creating months of writer's block. Got around it by not making him say anything at all. In retrospect, that was EXTREMELY obvious. Also, 'obvious in retrospect' and variations thereof seem to be my favorite phrases right now.

I've been having some... difficulties, with life lately. But I seem to be able to get back into the groove of things, mostly, so be glad I got into it before Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out. I am OBSESSED with SSB, so it's going to be a while before I can finish any more chapters.

Again, suggestions are welcome, though I have a lot of the important stuff in my head. And I apologize for the shortnessof the chapter compared to the length of time since the last update. Really.

Also, I removed all references to Minato being a vice-captain. Found a better place for him.