Kasek: Ummm... listen. I have NO clue what I was thinking when I wrote this. It just kind of... came out. Took me a while to pave over the inconsistencies.

I FINALLY decided on Minato's position in the Gotei 13. At first, I had thought of 2nd division vice-captain. And then, I thought of 11th division 4th seat (it suits him). But now I finally have it- you'll probably see it coming. If you go back through the chapters, you'll notice that I removed references to him being a vice-captain. Also, I ret-conned Sakura's thoughts on Naruto at the end of the last chapter- I realized that Sakura already knew about Naruto's dad.

Also, anyone expecting Kitsu Kitsu no Mi 7 to come out soon- don't. I REALLY need to rework it. I went back over it, and it seems extremely rushed. I mean, really- you don't want to see from the bell test to post-first Zabuza fight in six pages, do you?

So, just read and review. Please. Point out any errors you see, alright?

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING. Yet. In this case, I do not own Naruto or BLEACH (or One Piece, due to the AN).

--

Naruto sighed as he walked along, carrying his large stack of books. "Great. I have to learn not only about the afterlife, but about an entirely different 'living world' than I'm from... what's up with that? Did I end up in the wrong afterlife or something?"

Sakura, who was having less difficulty with her books due to having brought a bookbag, looked up at the sky. "Well, I heard that our world was only recently connected to the afterlife- before, everyone just reincarnated back into our world. I think it has something to do with the Yondaime, the Sandaime, and the Kyuubi. Which reminds me, you've met him up here, right? Your dad?"

Naruto beamed at the mention of his father. "Yep! He's pretty cool, I guess. A total goofball, though. He's a vice-captain in one of those Gotei 13 divisions. Can't quite remember which, though, I don't pay attention... Wait a sec, I never told you about my dad!"

Sakura looked down towards the ground. "Well... you were yelling at him when I met you...plus, after you died, it kind of became public knowledge who your father was..."

Naruto snickered at the thought of how conflicted everyone must have been- was he the Kyuubi, or the son of the Yondaime? It must have fried their brains. "I bet that shocked a LOT of people..."

Sakura smiled, and put her eyes back on the path. "So, is your mother up here, too? I haven't heard anything about her before..."

Naruto pouted- he was just as curious. "If she is, dad's been keeping her a secret from me. I asked about it right before you saw me, and that's why he ran off. Geez..."

Sakura's tone of voice saddened a little. "Yeah... it must nice to have family up here..."

Naruto immediately knew what she meant, and became even more depressed then her. "Sorry... I feel like an idiot now. More of one, anyways..."

Sakura tried to get him out of said depression. "Hey, you may be an idiot, but right now, I'm the only one who knows that. Who knows, you might actually become popular up here."

Naruto failed to smile. "I know you're just trying to cheer me up, but... I completely forgot about the living world... we have no clue as to what

happened to Sasuke... and I doubt Itachi will be very forthcoming on the subject..."

Sakura frowned at the thought of trying to get on Itachi's good side. "Yeah... we don't have much of a window to find out, either. Knowing Itachi, he'll be out of here in no time."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sakura sighed. Same old Naruto... "You never did care about learning things... Itachi is the greatest genius the Konoha Ninja Academy has ever seen. It only took him a year to graduate."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Wh-wh-what?!? And that was before he was a ninja..."

Sakura nodded. "Not only that, he was only five years old at the time. He's both older and wiser than he was back then. It won't be long before he's surrounded by the likes of suck-ups and fangirls, and not much longer before he's out of here."

Naruto smirked. "Never thought I'd hear that kind of thing from you. You've really changed since the Academy."

Sakura blushed from the embarrassing memory. "Hey, field experience does that kind of thing to people."

Naruto's smirk remained. "Yeah, it does. It also gives US the edge in combat training and kido training... I think. Combat training for sure."

Sakura sighed, and pinched her forehead. "Do you even know how kido works, Naruto?"

Naruto smirked. "Hey, don't count me out just yet. My dad gave me a little bit of preparatory training before I came here."

Sakura smiled. "Good. I don't have a clue as to what kido even IS. It sounds hard... Care to give me a hint?"

A foxy grin grew on Naruto's face. It felt good to be the one in the know. "It's kind of like using ninjutsu, but instead of chakra, it uses pure spiritual energy, and instead of handsigns, it uses chants."

Sakura sighed in relief. "Good. I thought it was something that would take a lot of effort. But if it's just spiritual energy manipulation, then we're all set. Unfortunately, history isn't exactly your strong point..."

Naruto's face paled. What she said was certainly true- anything that didn't involve the Hokages, he often forgot. "Well, this time, I've got you to help me study. Um... you ARE gonna help me, right?"

Sakura chuckled. "You're the only person I even know up here. Not only that, but we're comrades- and comrades don't abandon other comrades in need."

"Sooo...that's a yes?"

Sakura sighed, and smiled. "Yes, Naruto, I'll help you with your homework."

--

Naruto sighed. It was the first day of classes, and his first class of the day was hand-to-hand combat training. The teacher was short, balding, and fat- not exactly the first thing that came to mind when Naruto thought of martial arts masters. The man was calling out the role, seeing who was here and who wasn't. Naruto noticed that both Sakura and Itachi were in this class- which was a good thing in his eyes, it meant they could keep an eye on him. Eventually, the man got to his name. "Namikaze Naruto!" Naruto gave a "Present!" as he had heard all of the other students do, but all of a sudden, the whole room's attention was on him. There was a moment of silence, and then the whole class erupted into whispers. Needless to say, Naruto was confused.

Sakura, too, was confused about the uproar. She leaned over to the girl to her right. "What's going on? What's the big fuss about?"

The girl giggled. "You mean you don't know? He's the son of Namikaze Minato, one of THE most handsome guys in Soul Society, second only to Kuchiki Byakuya himself! Looks like all the right genes got passed down, too!"

Sakura had to suppress a giggle of her own. Handsome was NOT the word she would use to describe Naruto. The girl to her left took a closer look at Sakura. "Hey, aren't you that girl who was hanging out with him yesterday? You're not his girlfriend, are you?"

Sakura had to work harder to suppress the smirk that wanted to come out- it appeared on Inner Sakura's features, instead. Heh, he WISHES that was true... She smiled. "No, we're just close friends. We grew up together." She had to resist the urge to smack herself in the face. She sounded almost PROUD of it.

A sly grin grew on the girl's face. "So, he's available?"

Sakura sighed. It had been forever since she had participated in 'girl-talk',and Naruto wasNOT the subject she wanted to talk about. "Single, yes. I think so, anyways, I haven't seen him for a month. Available, no. Last I checked, he has his heart set on getting this one girl to date him."

The girl gasped. "What kind of girl WOULDN'T want to go out with a guy like that?"

Sakura resisted the urge to facepalm. "A girl that actually got to know him, that's who..."

Eventually, their sensei reached the end of the roster. "Alright, kiddies, playtime's over. I let you get that last bit of childhood out of your systems. This is a serious class, and is to be taken SERIOUSLY at all times. Am I clear on this matter?"

Naruto stifled a groan. This man sounded like a lot like his combat instructor back in Konoha. He nodded with the rest of the class all the same, though.

"Good. As you already know, this is hand-to-hand combat training. To be realistic, the odds of you needing to fight a Hollow with your bare hands are very slim. Let's accept it- if you're separated from your zanpakuto, and you can't use kido, you're screwed. Any Hollow that's small enough for you to fight hand-to-hand with... will either be an easy kill, and thus you'll have your zanpakuto anyways, or they're Vasto Lorde class menos, in which case you'd be dead from being in their presence. However, this class is not truly about learning to fight hand-to-hand- it's about discipline. If you can't figure out how to throw a punch, there's no way we're letting you near a zanpakuto. First off, we're going to go into drills. Later, we'll split into pairs for practice matches. I want to see how well some of you can fight, and how badly the rest of you cannot. The first drill is..."

Naruto was very glad that he had been a shinobi in his past life- aside from him, only Sakura, Itachi, and some other guy were still standing. Even then, the last guy was panting heavily. The sensei looked up from his clipboard. "Well, well, this is a surprise. I wasn't expecting anyone to still be able to stand at the end of the first day, let alone four of you. Tell me, how come you three seem unaffected by this, hmm?"

Itachi spoke up. "Namikaze-kun, Haruno-kun, and myself were all members of our village's military in life."

Naruto had to suppress a growl. It's not like it was a total lie, but he was acting like he had been their allies up until they died. The sensei raised an eyebrow. "Really now? Not often we see people come here from the world of the living with spiritual talents. But do they really let kids like this into the military nowadays?"

Itachi remained emotionless. "I was in service as far back as when I was five years old. However, I... retired at age 13 to become a mercenary after my family died. I was killed by a Hollow due to my high spiritual energy, but managed to escape and eventually came to Soul Society."

The man sighed. "I'll take your word for it... but five? Yeesh, humans, nowadays..."

Naturally, this caused a buzz among the girls, who had taken notice of Itachi after recovering from their small bout of exhaustion. After all, he had both good looks and a cool demeanor, not unlike a very popular Shinigami captain. Add in the tragic past, and he was nearly elevated to a godly status in their eyes. They only had two wishes- first, that his family turn out to be a well-to-do family (which they will eventually find out to be true.), and second, that he HAD broken a sweat.

He turned to the last guy- he seemed to be around Itachi's age. He had short, brown hair and dark eyes. He had a scar running down his right cheek, and his skin was rather tan. "Let me guess- outer Rukongai, right?" The boy nodded. The man sighed. "Be careful around here- there's a lot of prejudice towards people who come from the poor districts. Personally, I think we should recruit more shinigami from over there, instead of having to train pampered brats from the ground up..."

This sparked Naruto's interest- other than his first few minutes in Soul Society, he hadn't really seen Rukongai. Judging by the boy's demeanor, it must be one heck of a rough place in the poor districts...

He turned to the class. "Alright, I'll cut you guys some slack- it IS the first day, after all. You don't have to fight each other. I just say that kind of stuff to make you work harder so you're more likely to focus on training hard. Though, don't expect me to do it again- next time I say that there's going to be a fight, there's GOING to be a fight. Am I clear?"

All of the students sighed in relief, and nodded. The bell signaling that the class was over rang (Naruto noticed that it wasn't electronic), and they all filed out- the majority of the females chasing after Itachi, though a few of the younger ones were still loyal to Naruto. Not like he realized it- Naruto was too busy trying to remember what class he was going to next.

"We're going to Life Studies, next. The class about the living world." Naruto looked at Sakura, who had managed to get through the crowd. Naruto smiled. "Thanks! Though, it is kinda creepy that you knew what I was thinking."

Sakura sighed. "Naruto... you're one of the easiest people to read in all of existence. ANYONE can read your mind, you leave it on your face."

Naruto looked affronted. "That's not entirely true! I happen to be a master of concealing my feelings! I just haven't felt like it lately, that's all!"

Sakura smirked. "Suuuure you are."

Naruto was about to argue further, but they had already gotten to class. He sighed- that particular comment brought to mind why he had such a cheery disposition anyways. All of the hatred, the feeling of nonexistence... he put his hand on his chest when he felt a sudden pain in his heart. It was similar to the pain he had felt when he had died... the pain of emptiness. The pain went away just in time- the teacher was calling role.

After class, Naruto and Sakura had to split ways for the third class of the day. Naruto sighed- his next class was about Hollows. He desperately wished that he had a zanpakuto training class, but that wasn't for a while. Hopefully, he could impress his martial arts sensei and he would get upgraded. His dad had said that that was both he and old man Sarutobi had done- all you have to do is prove that you're a master of a certain subject, and they pass you.

He noticed that Itachi was in this class, as well. All of the seats around his seemed to be occupied by girls- Naruto couldn't help but snicker. It was probably in his blood. The sensei- another balding man, but this one tall and thin- took the role call. Soon, class started, and Naruto was subjugated to a lecture about Hollows more boring than Iruka's had been. Eventually, after having covered the basics of the process of becoming a Hollow, the man started using a slightly different teaching method. "Now, class, I have to ask- have any of you had any experience with Hollows before? Any at all?" No one answered. "Odd. I had most certainly heard that at least one of my students had not only seen a Hollow,but watched it transform from a Plus to a Hollow... Uchiha-kun, is this true?"

Naruto gulped. Was he implying what Naruto thought he was implying...? Itachi nodded. "Yes. Before I came to Soul Society, I personally witnessed my younger brother's chain of fate removed from his chest and was nearly eaten when the resulting Hollow tried to eat me. I managed to get away, but I am most certain that the Hollow is still at large."

Naruto was horrified- he did not know how he was going to break this to Sakura. He was barely able to hold it together himself.

The teacher frowned. "Tell me, Uchiha-kun. What did this Hollow look like?"

All of the girls around Itachi were glaring at the teacher- this was NOT how you treated your students. Naruto, too, was aware that this teacher seemed particularly cruel, but his interest in the subject at hand overrode every other rational thought.

Itachi closed his eyes in thought. "He turned into a large snake with black wings and a white, nearly skeletal head. The head had three tomoe marks on it- onebelow each eye, and one on its forehead."

The man raised an eyebrow. "That's a rather unique sounding Hollow. Tell me, Uchiha-kun, what did this Hollow act like? Did he name himself?"

Itachi frowned, and every girl in the class frowned with him. "He identified himself as Uchiha Sasuke. He seemed to be very similar to his old self, though he seemed to be driven mad with the desire to consume me."

The sensei began talking to the class again. "As you heard from Uchiha-kun, it is perfectly normal for a Hollow to identify themselves as their former self for a short period of time after they become Hollows. Eventually, their personalities erode, and only the strong of will and those who were monsters in life retain rational thought. Even then, it is extremely rare to come across a Hollow unwilling to devour anything. After all, all beings have the will to survive engraved into their souls, so only the extremely naïve would not eat another soul, and even then, naivety and a strong will are, last I checked, an impossible combination."

Naruto was now simultaneously horrified and disgusted- the term 'comrade' should not be used to apply to... things that devour each other at a moment's notice. He was also afraid for Sasuke's well-being- would he be able to adapt to such a situation? More than likely he retained rational thought, so at the very least, he wouldn't be eaten himself for a while.

The man continued. "Now, you're probably thinking, 'what does this have to do with shinigami?' It is not only part of a shinigami's job to guide Pluses to the afterlife, but to slay Hollows- preferably with your zanpakuto. Can anyone tell me why?"

A girl with glasses spoke up. "Because Hollows slain with zanpakuto become normal again?"

The teacher smiled. "Correct. Hollows slain by zanpakuto are purified and come to reside in Soul Society just like any other soul. However, it is extremely uncommon for souls that were once Hollows to become shinigami- Pluses with spiritual power tend to either be rescued or eaten before they can turn into a Hollow. Any that do become Holllows tend to be unnaturally powerful, and are thus put on high priority for purifying, so they stay in Hueco Mundo, the world of the Hollows."

Naruto smirked- he could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sasuke was more than likely a 'powerful Hollow', so that meant that if he ever came to the human world for food, the shinigami would know immediately. And since all ninja had spiritual power (even Rock Lee, though his energy was too unstable to mold), and Sasuke had tons of the stuff, he'd be recruited for shinigami duty in no time. Team 7 would be back together again! Well, minus Kakashi, anyways. Naruto shook his head-he needed to stop thinking about Konoha. It would only make him sad. He'd ask Sakura about it later if he really needed to.

His train of thought hit the emergency brakes when the teacher called on him. "Namikaze-kun, I've also heard that you have some... experience, with the transformation process of becoming a Hollow, right?"

Naruto gulped- just how cruel this teacher really was hit him. "H-hai." The sensei smirked. "Do you mind telling us about it?"

Naruto sighed, and resignedhimself to his fate. "Well, it's hard to explain, it all happened so fast. When I died, a shinigami- Sarutobi Hiruzen- was already there, and-" "Sarutobi Hiruzen, you say? That old man who breezed through the Academy not too long ago?" Naruto nodded. "Yeah, that's the one. Anyways, I knew immediately that something was wrong- after all, I had attended the guy's funeral. He told me I was dead, and then... I don't quite know. I remember that it felt like my heart was being torn apart- right before I passed out, I felt.. well, the best way to put it was that I felt... hollow, inside. Next thing I knew, I was in Soul Society."

The sensei looked rather impressed. "To tell you the truth, that's the first time I've ever heard a first-hand account of the process. However, that is still how it was described to me, as well. That 'hollow feeling' is what gives Hollows their names- their hearts are hollow, devoid of compassion and sympathy. As I already mentioned, nearly all Hollows have a hole through their chest to represent this. Now, can someone tell me what their white masks symbolize?"

The same girl raised her hand. "To hide their previous identities?"

The sensei nodded. "Also correct. Beneath every monstrous mask is a human face. Many a novice shinigami have fallen prey to Hollows because they were surprised when they cut off the mask and saw the face, and became unwilling to kill them. Make sure that the same doesn't happen to you." The bell rang. "Ah, that time already? I won't assign any homework. Tomorrow, we start going over the details of the things I have discussed today, starting with the transformation process. Dismissed!"

--

Naruto and Sakura were eating lunch together under the shade one of the many trees on campus- they weren't the only ones, as many of the students preferred eating outside, but they were the only ones actually eating lunch while sitting on the branches. Ninja training can be really helpful sometimes. Naruto was the first to speak up. "So, you find anything useful in your classes?"

Sakura nodded. "Kind of. Apparently, I'm a kido prodigy."

Naruto snickered. "We all knew THAT was going to happen. What else?"

Sakura thought for a second. "Not much, really. Learned a basic kido spell. You?"

Naruto sighed- now was the moment of truth. "Well, I've got good news, and I've got bad news. Want me to give the bad news first?"

Sakura gulped. "Something tells me that I don't want to hear this..."

Naruto nodded. "Not like I wanted to, either... basically, what Itachi meant, that first day, was that

Sasuke's soul has twisted to the point where he's become a giant, man-eating winged snake demon."

Sakura closed her eyes, and pinched her forehead. "PLEASE tell me that the good news is that the process can be reversed..."

Naruto grinned. "Yep! All we have to do is get our hands on a zanpakuto, and slice him in two!"

Sakura looked about ready to bash his skull in. "How does THAT help?!?"

Naruto smiled. "Because if you do that, his soul will turn back to normal, and he'll come to Soul Society like you and me!"

It took a moment for the full meaning of that to hit Sakura. Her face eventually showed the elation she felt. "So, looks like you haven't broken your promise after all..."

A grin broke across Naruto's face. "Yep! I'll make sure that he comes to Soul Society! Unless, of course, someone beats me to it. Shinigami are kind of indiscriminate when it comes to purifying those guys. Part of the job, after all."

Sakura's smile faltered. "'Those guys'? You mean, there's more of these monsters?"

Naruto's grin started to fade. "...well, shoot. I forgot about that. They have their own planet...that can't be good. Umm... well, we'll just become the strongest shinigami EVER, and just raid that stupid planet until we kill the right Hollow! It's not like it's a BAD thing to kill them. Plus, they have to go to the living world for food, so the shinigami always know whenever one pops up."

Sakura giggled. "That's just like you, Naruto... making it sound like becoming the best is so easy..."

Naruto's smile had a bit of sadness engraved on it. "Yeah... I never did make it to Hokage... which reminds me...you don't have to tell me right now, but... what happened in Konoha after I died?"

Sakura looked up at a nearby branch, and it was evident that she, too, was sad. "Well... long story short, the place fell apart without you. Weird, huh? Wasn't that long ago that the entire village despised you... well, they still do, but at least the funeral had more people attending than just Iruka-sensei."

Naruto frowned. "My funeral, huh..."

Sakura nodded. "Yeah... if I wasn't here with you, I don't think I'd be able to talk about it... it's certainly an odd experience, talking to someone about their funeral after the fact..."

Naruto sighed. "Look, if you don't want to talk about it..."

Sakura mirrored his sigh. "It's alright... this kind of stuff is important. The sooner I get it off of my chest, the better..."

Naruto's eyes still held a look of seriousness to them. "So, who actually went to the funeral?"

Sakura closed her eyes in thought. "Well... obviously, the Rookie 9 were there, as was Team Gai. Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya-sama, and Shizune were all there, too... Iruka-sensei came with the Konohamaru Corps, and Teuchi-san and Ayame-san were there... Surprisingly, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro came. They were already in the village, so they made sure to come. Even more surprisingly, Hyuuga Hiashi- Hinata's dad- came with Neji and Hinata."

Naruto smiled. "Except for the Suna nin and Hiashi... that's pretty much who I expected to come... what was the funeral like?"

Sakura kept her eyes closed. "It was... very emotional. Even Kakashi-sensei had a hard time keeping it together. Because you were a ninja, it went like the Sandaime's funeral, but afterwards..."

Naruto gulped. "Afterwards...?"

"...well, I'll talk about Kakashi-sensei first. He started taking a lot of dangerous missions, and stopped acting so... goofy. He left my training to Tsunade-sama, instead. Shikamaru was hit pretty badly, too- he felt just as responsible as me and Kakashi-sensei, because he was your team leader..."

Even only this far in, Naruto was having a hard time not crying, and so was Sakura. She continued. "I haven't seen Iruka-sensei since, but Konohamaru tells me that his classes are even more boring than before... as for Ichiraku's, they closed down the moment they heard you were dead, and they had only just reopened before I died..."

A small smile graced his lips. "I guessed those two liked me a lot, huh..."

Sakura nodded. "Lee is determined more than ever to become a great shinobi, not only for himself, but for you, as well... and I remember seeing Gaara at your grave, a lot, too. Just standing there, silently. You certainly changed him, he's a lot nicer than he used to be... he even told me he was sorry about what he'd done to me back during the exams. He said that he was going to become Kazekage, just like how you wanted to be Hokage."

Naruto smiled. Gaara as Kazekage, huh? She resumed. "Neji was hit kind of hard, too. He didn't go back to the jerk he used to be, but... I once saw him at your grave, berating you for dying before you proved the rest of the village wrong about your fate...however... the person who got hit harder than anyone was Hinata. Neji told me that she just locked herself up and cried for days on end. Even after she came out, she hasn't acted like herself at all- no stuttering, no pushing her fingers together, not even a smile. When he sparred with her, he said that she seemed almost devoid of compassion."

Naruto stared at his food, his body frozen. "Hinata...was hit that hard? But... why would she..."

Sakura sighed. "I don't think it's exactly my place to tell you this, but... she loved you. For her, you were her reason for existence, the reason as to why she should get stronger. You took up the whole of her heart, and when you died, so did everything that made Hinata, well, Hinata."

Naruto looked back on every time he had interacted with the girl- he almost punched himself in the face at how obvious it had been. He reminded himself to do it later when Sakura wasn't around. "She didn't... die, did she?"

Sakura shook her head. "No... as far as I know, I'm the only Konoha shinobi to have died since then. Why, do you want her to?"

Naruto shook his head. "No! That kind of thing is... well, if that had been me... I don't know what I'd do..." He looked back at her. "And... how did you react?"

It was Sakura's turn to freeze. "Look...I don't really want to talk about it right now... alright? I'll tell you about the other stuff some other time... it's almost time for classes again, and we haven't eaten yet..."

Naruto nodded in understanding, but at the same time, the same question burned in his mind- how had she died?

Kasek: This chapter was... boring to write. The last part, however, was something I wanted to write. I don't know if it's my degrading brain, but I actually cried writing it. Well, teared up, anyways.

If you hadn't noticed, I do like the idea of NaruHina. However, it's not going to happen in this fic- after all, that would require Hinata to, you know, die.

So, I want to know- you guys want to hear Sakura's story now, or later? It's probably going to take up a whole chapter, so it'll interrupt the flow of the story. I have the basic layout set out in my mind. Though, with a cliffie like that, something tells me the initial vote's going to go in 'yes's favor.