A/N: I DO NOT OWN. I thought I did but it turned out it was gas...
Enjoy! (Also. I kind of gave up on divider lines for perspectives it doesn't change very often. I have faith in you my lollipops!~)
Naruto had found himself a generic cloth that he was able to wrap around himself as he wandered through the town of people. Houses were everywhere but they were far from normal, made of all kinds of materials and he wondered where all of it came from, his only memories that were relevant to him now being that of a never ending desert.
He had been wandering around for a couple of days in this colorful and happy place. No one knew he was different. Naruto played with the kids that ran around all day though he had not worn a smile on his face in such a long time. He only smiled when he went in for the kill in the desert and that was only because they were pitiable beings that needed to be put down.
He had felt like he was starting to belong but he needed to move. This pattern went on for a little while until he reached a set of walls. He touched these walls and looked at them with wonder. He could feel it. There was power beyond these walls. There might even be someone with the power to tell him who he was.
He reached back and tied his hair before wandering back to the current town he was in and patted the children on the head. He was staying with a bunch of orphans since he still had the body of an eighteen year old at the moment.
Naruto fell asleep under the blanket of calm that filled the air but was violently awoken from his slumber by shouts outside. There were people. People who looked regal in form with black uniforms and swords of varying sizes and origins strapped in a multitude of different ways to each person. Naruto watched them from a window and listened to them.
"Ok so- Ichigo! Are you even listening?!" Came a shrill female voice.
"Yeah. Jeez! Calm down!"
The smaller girl rolled her eyes. "There has been an immense spirit that has been wandering the Serete since about a month ago and this is the first time it has ever come so close. It's our job to get it and bring it back."
"Yeah, yeah whatever. Why do we need it anyways? It's not doing any harm. What if it's like I was when I was still alive?" The boy that had strawberry blond hair said, previously identified as Ichigo.
"Orders are orders."
"Orders are what almost sent you to the end of your existence so don't you give me that."
The smaller girl frown and turned to look around before looking this Ichigo with a smolderingly serious expression.
"I don't know if you can feel it but this presence isn't just another powerful soul. There's something missing. But for some reason it also feels like there's something extra and it infuriates me. I honestly wish Urahara were here so he might make some sense of all this. Right now, we need to treat it as an enemy."
Ichigo adjusted his sword and sighed. "I don't see why… we won our war. Don't we deserve a break?"
Naruto was listening still but his mind had wandered elsewhere. He remembered rivers of blood painting the land. There were mountains moved and valleys made in battles full of flashing colors, the memories of even the most horrid things becoming fuzzy now. He could remember the screams and sights of wounded that were beyond repair fill his memory but he was broken from his reminiscing when Ichigo and the small girl had slipped into silence.
Naruto peaked out of his little space by the window and saw them looking at the house. Naruto didn't become worried until it looked like these people were going to attack the little orphanage of children.
Naruto sighed and tucked his hands into the sleeves of his kimono before walking out of the small hut of a house.
"And just what do you think you are going to do to this house?"
Naruto gave them a scolding look, his own appearance akin to a school teacher or someone who dealt with children on a daily basis. He had the look for it, his posture and tone properly reprimanding.
"Well there was-" Ichigo was interrupted by Naruto intensifying his stern look.
"I don't care if there was a dragon in there. Who are you to take innocent lives, no matter how young or old?"
Ichigo and the Rukia looked at each other not sure if they should put their swords that they had drawn down or fight. The fighting option was becoming less and less favorable as they thought about it. Suddenly another man approached the two and drew his sword against Naruto.
A look of surprise and realization dawned on the girls face when the other man came and suddenly she looked at Naruto with a more confident gaze.
"It was you." She said and suddenly the confusion on Ichigo's face melted away. Ichigo still wasn't sure whether he wanted to raise a hand against this boy that looked a bit younger than him but felt like he had lived a hundred lives.
"Ichigo. That is your name." Naruto stated, not looking for an answer. He walked up to Ichigo who looked to the girl and the new red haired man who had come earlier. Before he could get to close, Naruto was blocked by a sword.
"Watch yourself."
Naruto eyed the sword that lay flat against his chest. His hand raised and touched Ichigo's that still held his sword.
"I do not intend to hurt you or your friends. Please. I just want to find out." He said, a slightly pained expression on his face.
"Find out what?" He asked quietly as if the silence around them was fragile and tangible.
Naruto looked down and put a hand over the hole where his heart would have been. "I need to find out what I am." He opened his kimono type covering to reveal it but a moment later he realized that it was the wrong thing to do. He had a sword to each side of his throat just under his ears.
Naruto was at a cross roads. On one hand, he could fight his way out and run away which was what his instincts were telling him to do but on the other he wanted to know what he was. He was a child in this moment, unsure. He had never had to make allies in this existence before. Everyone had been an enemy in the desert but it was different now. He decided that the most prudent thing to do at the moment would be to let them know he had no intentions of attacking them.
Naruto pulled his hands from his sleeves and held them up but not above the blade of the sword just in case they had the idea of cutting his fingers off. He spoke at Ichigo once again who now had his sword at his stomach.
"I promise I won't cause you any trouble. Do what you may but I only want to learn." Naruto suddenly felt a collar click and tighten around his neck before he felt his body become weak and all of that power that was his to behold was gone from him. Naruto stumbled a little as if the world had rocked and he was trying to regain his footing. He looked around to find that everyone was putting away their swords.
He winced when the girl shouted the word 'Bakuto' or something that sounded like it and he couldn't move his arms or legs. He crumpled to his knees and frowned at the girl.
"These measures are not necessary. If I did not run before, why would I do so now especially with this thing around my neck." He tried to stand but could not with the binding on his body. He was ignored and the red head with a superfluous amount of tattoos picked him up and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of flour.
Naruto let out a small grunt at the impact of his stomach on the boys shoulder and flailed as much as he could with the range of movement he was given.
"Put me down now! This is humiliating!" The blond struggled for a bit but found it to be futile as his movement was highly constricted and didn't have very much of an effect on the man carrying him.
Naruto huffed and settled in, quickly becoming tired from the power drain and the struggle that he had put up. He was at least grateful that the pineapple was being considerate of the fact that the position he was in was very uncomfortable. He was lulled into a light nap by the slight bouncing of the others gait.
The blond man was put on the table in Urahara's lab and strapped down before all who were involved in capturing him stepped out to speak.
"Not exactly what I was expecting." Renji said while stretching.
"I think it was just because he was so easy to capture." Said Ichigo.
"Maybe."
Ichigo turned to the petite black haired woman "Hey Rukia, how did you even know he was the right guy? I couldn't even fee his spiritual pressure."
Rukia rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "You were never good at sensing spiritual pressure Ichigo but I'll give you a break since I couldn't feel it until Renji came either." Rukia unfolded her arms and looked at Ichigo. "Do you remember the first time we met?"
Ichigo remembered when the girl had stepped into his room like she owned the place and proceeded to give him an explanation of what she was as well as torturing him with really shitty diagrams. Then the Hollow came. "Yeah."
"That night, I couldn't feel the Hollow at all until it was attacking your sisters since your spiritual pressure was so overwhelming." She looked to both of them, her voice lowering slightly as if the gravity of the situation was actually dragging down her tone and volume. "That's what just happened."
Renji looked a little confused so she began to explain. "We were standing right in front of him and we couldn't sense a thing. Not one single thing. It lulled us into a calm when it should have set off our warning bells. I realized what was going on when Renji had showed up. This man's power dwarfed everything around him, even us to each other. Renji as a lieutenant level soul reaper wasn't on the radar until he dropped down right in front of us. Do you guys understand?"
Renji was a bit disgruntled at the fact that he was so insignificant to this man but he got the gist. He was about to say something when Byakuya who had heard the whole thing from his little space by the wall spoke up.
"It means that if he wanted to, he had every chance to get away before you put the collar on him."
Ichigo looked to Renji. "Where did you even get the collar?" Renji nodded to his captain.
"Did you think I pulled it out of my ass? Why do you think I was late to patrol?" Rukia and Ichigo looked away innocently and Renji got all worked up about them thinking he was lazy and had ended up skipping patrol. They were interrupted by Byakuya.
"That is beside the point. Now what we need to do is inform the head captain and wait for orders. Kisuke also has to perform a routine check on him to make sure he wasn't effected by the Hogyoku and that there aren't any physical anomalies that we have to work with or around. Until then, I would just keep on your toes and continue working." He turned and walked down the corridor that led to the outer halls which connected the squads. He headed to his section and wrote down a report of the person who now rested in the science and research ward of the Seretei.
After he was finished, He called Renji to add some things about the capture to the report and to take it to the head captain's office.
Naruto lay on a bed with his whole body bound so his arms were down at his sides and his feet were spread a little. He lifted his head up to see where he was and put it back down when he saw that it wasn't anywhere familiar. He sighed and closed his eyes figuring that there was honestly nothing to do while he waited.
For the first time in an eternity he felt the first hints of fear creep up on him. He had never been restrained in such a way and he didn't know whether or not this fear stemmed from his past life or the fact that he has never been so helpless or quite so much at anyone's mercy as he was now. He wiggles his fingers and toes just to assure him that not all movement was taken from him and it was silly really but it was comforting that he had that least little bit. In Hueco Mundo if he ever learned anything, it was to appreciate what you had, no matter how little because no matter how little you have, you could always have nothing at all.
He sent out his hearing and listened for conversation but there was none and he couldn't feel anyone approaching so he decided to relax and meditate. He fooled himself for about an hour into thinking that he could relax in the situation that he was in but he eventually had to give it up and just study the patterns that his eyes were starting to see on the blank ceiling.
After a little while, Naruto had almost drifted to sleep once again before the door to whatever room he was in slammed open and in walked a man with a white and green hat. He had a cane and a pair of wooden sandals on. He studied the smiling man and was reminded of silver hair and a mask.
"What are you going to do?" He asked, his face hardened as if he expected the worst.
"Oh calm down. I'm not here to torture you. You could even think of this as a check-up. I need some information on your physical wellbeing as well as some things that I require for purely selfish motives. Research and so on. I wouldn't want to bore you with the details. Now if you could strip? Oh! Silly me! I forgot that you were tied to my lovely operating table. Now, I'm going to undo the straps but you are not to run." He said the last sentence not as a question but as a statement.
He undid the straps and Naruto rotated his shoulders as soon as he could sit up, his joints a little stiff from sitting in the same position for so long. This man stood him up and took measurements, weight height and a couple of other things before he asked some questions. Then they moved onto the more intimate inspections that included a lot of beeping and whirring machines. He sat quietly through the whole thing and made small talk when the other attempted to have a civilized conversation with him.
The blond man asked about his past which he tried to remember but at the moment he was only able to remember the days leading up to and including the day he died. The memories come and go from day to day. He saw a few people come into the room and discus some things using words he didn't understand, making it seem like they were speaking in a completely different language.
"Naruto. Do you remember anything but your name?" Naruto stared at the man. He could lie. He could tell them no; spare them all the sordid details of his humiliating demise. He could start over, no one knowing who he was or why he got there. There was that one bright ray saying that he didn't have to tell. In the end though, he knew it was futile. If he was to help these people to help himself, he was going to have to be entirely truthful about what had happened on his death day.
"I know how I died. But I can't remember much else right now, ask me tomorrow and I may say something completely different." His current 'doctor' nodded and took out a pen.
"Then I want to know what you do with as much detail as you can." Naruto looked at the man with a glare.
"You do realize that you have no idea if I was brutally murdered and you are making me drudge up these memories not only for my personal reliving of them but for someone else to hear as well?" He was a little taken aback at the extent of invasion of his personal information to the extent at which they were asking him to reveal but he also was just hoping to put off the inevitable for a little bit longer.
At this point his set of memories changed from day to day but he felt like if he took the time now to relay his memories as they came, instead of fading, they would stick with him as they did when they had actually happened. He had felt the despair and hate. He heard vulgar words and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to remember.
Naruto saw the others expression turn to shock. "Well this is most interesting." He wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed Naruto a piece of fabric.
"What… why are you giving me this?" Naruto was slightly confused at the supposed kind albeit odd gesture. Maybe it was a custom of some sort?
The man stopped writing and motioned to his face, looking at him as if he was dim. "To wipe your eyes." Naruto reached up with his hand and touched his face to find it wet. There was a constant ache in his chest since he first started this existence but now he could tell it had increased quite a bit. He looked up to the man who had paused to watch Naruto with a burning curiosity.
"I don't want to remember…" He closed his eyes and clutched his head, the images of people beating him and raping him were burning themselves onto the inside of his eye lids. A hand reached out and touched his hunched figure.
"We can do it another way but it would still cause you to remember, though we will see it instead of hear it and you will be unconscious when it happens." Naruto slowly sat up straighter and used his own sleeve to wipe the tears from his eyes. His face was in his default neutral expression as he nodded.
"I wouldn't mind."
"Well then we would have to get set up. My name is Urahara Kisuke by the way." Urahara left the room and spoke with someone just outside the door before peaking his head in. "I'll be right back." He then left.
Naruto looked down at his hands and blinked when the other had left before tying him up again. He figured that if there was any time to prove his innocence it was now. He sat and waited and soon an hour flew by before the kid named Ichigo came in and took him by his upper arm rather roughly, dragging him to their destination.
They arrived and stepped into the room. All of the captains that had survived the war stood there as well as the lieutenants. There were some new faces among them as captains but all in all, familiar faces all around as he led their prisoner into the room.
Naruto was guided roughly to a chair that was reclined quite a bit and sat down in it. He looked around him and saw he was highly outnumbered even though he wasn't planning on getting away. Some of them were quite intimidating but he couldn't fathom as to why his gruesome past was of any relevance to most of the people here.
"If I am going to be the entertainment of this little party of yours, I want nothing to do with it." He said looking at the Urahara character he was talking to earlier.
"Trust me, Naruto, this is pertinent information that would have been shared anyway. I wouldn't be able to give you all you want to know, alone and this may decide what we do with you from here on out so all of the important people have to be here." He said and flipped out a fan type thing, putting it in front of his mouth.
Naruto glared. "Stop talking to me as if I were a child." He leaned back in the chair resigning himself to his fate.
He took a deep breath and felt hands on his head. The next moment put him under.
Kisuke hooked up the machines to his head and turned on a machine. Suddenly, pictures played along on the screen and they waited until the pictures became clearer and it abruptly slowed, as if showing them something that was filmed. This was already a bad thing. The fact that this creature knew such insignificant details meant that it was ingrained in his mind. They watched the boy who looked much younger walk down the street since the memory was oddly from a third person point of view.
They saw differences in the boy that lay on the table and the one that walked with fear and confidence. He saw the boy waver in a way they knew the kid would never do now and it was odd thinking that these were the same people. Since the blond said he could remember some things, they had assumed that he was rather young, yet powerful but they were beginning to realize that wasn't the case.
The day ended and they were in a house. Things were destroyed and they heard sobbing only to realize it was the boy. It was strange though. They heard an echo only to see that the boy on the table was currently crying on the table. Urahara felt a sense of dread fill him and put a hand on the head captains shoulder. "Maybe we should stop." But his suggestion went unheard as they saw the boy suddenly move to the bathroom and heard a commotion.
Someone found Naruto and dragged him out to the crowd of people that now stood in his home. They heard the speech the woman gave and were absolutely appalled. They looked at each other with horror stricken faces when they saw the boy being beaten and some had to step out as the memory progressed later in the night.
Urahara had to stay through all of it since it was his job to write down all the information they saw in the room that day and he regretted pushing the boy. He had never heard of a crying Hollow and that should have been the first warning but he didn't even consider this. They began hearing his thoughts and some of the women were staving off tears for this stranger.
The next morning in the memory came and they covered their ears for the first couple of minute's for all the screaming that went on, most of it being Naruto's. The memory skipped, they assumed he had been unconscious so the next thing they saw was the face of a blond busty woman that were just as big as Rangiku's. The women were failing as they saw this woman apologize and comfort the boy and the boy's words made their chest ache. The blond woman left and it was quiet for a minute before a group of people were sent into the room where the boy had been waiting.
They listened to the boy's final words and when everything went black, there was a moment of silence before a soft, soothing, broken voice spoke.
"Goodbye, Naruto. My brother."
The memory went black and the machine stopped whirring when someone turned it off, the room being full of soft sobs when the blond in question came to.
Naruto avoided the looks on the woman's faces and the men's faces that were tinted green. He was unhooked from a machine he didn't remember being hooked up to in the first place and was gently pulled to his destination this time. He felt drained of what little emotion he had left for the day. It was slightly odd since the man wasn't saying anything but he did feel a weird vibe coming from him, as if he might be tip toeing over egg shells. He watched him write a few things down and move a couple objects, seeming to be cleaning up for the day before he was lead to a different place that was just a room with a futon on some tatami mats.
"This door will be sealed throughout the night but the door over their leads to my room and all you have to do is knock if you need something." Urahara turned around and paused when he got to the door. He sighed and put his arms in his sleeves to refrain from doing something so childish as to rub the back of his neck or fiddle with his hand in a nervous gesture.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly and closed the door.
A/N: I just want to take this space to say thank you to all the people who have read this story so far and a special thank you to thos of you who have followed and favorited it. This chapter came out rather quick because inspiration is flowing like crazy and I am falling in love with it every time I sit down to write. Please follow this story if you are interested in it because updates are going to be coming rapid fire inthe next month and i don't want you missing it! Please review and tell me how I'm doing. What I'm doing right and wrong and everthing between because I cherish your opinion!
SELF PROMOTION: I have another story called Noble Souls that I am working on so if you enjoy my work, please check it out though those updates will be coming slower than this one. Thank you!