Disclaimer: One year! One bloody year since I last updated!

HA! ONE YEAR, TO THE DAY!

FREAKIN' NAILED IT.

…I am such a dick.

Chapter 16

Mentietur

He was on his toes, moving as silently as he possibly could. His entire life depended on his ability to be stealthy. But he shouldn't have a problem, should he? After all, he was a master of stealth. Nobody could surpass his ability. He was the picture of stealth.

Well, he said stealth.

In reality, he knocked over two tables, tracked sand halfway into the main room of his wing, flipped over a few of the couches, and broke part of the floor.

His Fracción would never suspect a thing.

Well, except Mojo, who was creeping along behind him. Unfortunately for him, he didn't notice her until it was far too late.

She pounced.

Naruto screeched as she slammed full-force into his back, driving him to the ground head-first, where Mojo perched on his back like a little bird. Mojo laughed, clapping her hands happily. "Naruto's back!" She called out loudly, poking the Vulpes roughly in the back of the head when he tried to move.

His remaining Fracción melted out of the shadows - how had he not smelled them there? - and Naruto swore silently. He had sworn his Fracción had been asleep when he left…

…six hours ago.

…oh. That might be the reason they were all awake now.

Mojo jumped off of his back and happily rejoined the other Fracción. Naruto dragged himself to his feet, rubbing at his forehead, which had left a sizable dent in the floor. "Was that really necessary?" He demanded, checking his fingers to make sure his head wasn't bleeding. That was just what he needed; explaining to Szayel why his forehead had been split open. The dumb bastard would never let him live it down.

"You're the one who was breaking everything, and making too much noise to sleep." Toba mumbled, rubbing tiredly at his eyes.

"Yeah!" Riko agreed, appearing right in Naruto's personal bubble to lean in towards his face. "Where were you? Somewhere interesting? Who'd you see? Why'd you break the wing even more? We're still missing half of our ceiling!"

"And whose fault is that?" Naruto rhetorically asked. His left ear flicked in dismissal. "It doesn't matter to you where I was, since it's my own business, but if you must know, I was on a recruiting mission for Aizen-sama."

"Any interesting Hollows?" Senza inquired with a raised eyebrow. The orange-haired demon shrugged his shoulders noncommittally.

"Not really."

"Not that this isn't interesting or anything," Toba said slowly. "…but I'm tired." He paused. "I'm going back to bed." And just like that his Fracción dispersed through some unspoken agreement, leaving Naruto and Tigre standing alone in the mostly-destroyed wing.

"Is there something you wanted, Tigre?" The young fox asked, rubbing at his own eyes. Damn, he was tired.

"Sir, may I go for a walk?" Naruto waved his hand towards the door.

"Go ahead, you don't have to ask me." The Fracción nodded and slid out the door, casting one slightly bewildered glance to the damage that Naruto had caused in his poor attempt to be stealthy.

Naruto himself retired to his own room, sighing at the sight of the night sky over his head. 'Still need to fix the roof…' He thought absentmindedly as he threw himself onto his bed.

He hadn't exactly been…truthful…when he had told his Fracción about his "mission." He hadn't actually been on a mission at all. What he had been doing was his greatest secret; he had been visiting that human girl in the prison cell. Again.

It wasn't something that anybody else knew about, as he had gone to great lengths to keep it a secret. He only went at night, and he only went to and from the cell in his fox form to make hiding easier. Ever since that day two weeks ago, he had been visiting the girl every night to talk. He didn't know why he was so eager to talk to her; she was a human, and him, a demon. Communication between the two species had never exactly been a common thing, seeing as both normally just killed the other on the spot. So his excitement was a bit odd.

Her name was Orihime, and she was friends with quite a few Soul Reapers. That fact alone had almost scared Naruto away, but he was a Vulpes, dammit, and there was no way in hell he was going to let a little bit of danger chase him away from answers, namely how the human had known his name. Of course, it was entirely possible that another Arrancar had told her about him beforehand, but for some reason, he highly doubted that.

Keeping a secret from Aizen - and the other Espada, for that matter - was never a good idea. Chances were, they were going to find out sooner or later, and while Naruto could hope that it was the latter, he really had no idea nor control over what happened. He had no idea why he didn't just tell anybody about his dirty little secret, but he just had an instinctual need to not let them know. And his instincts were typically a good thing to listen to.

The two had been exchanging stories for the past two weeks; Orihime about her adventures in the World of the Living and Soul Society, and Naruto on his life in Las Noches. At first Naruto had been apprehensive when entering Orihime's room - always staying as far from the human as he could, and always in his fox form - but eventually he became more at-ease, going so far as to recline on her bed in human form. It was odd how fast she had gained his trust in the past two weeks, considering not even Aizen had his complete trust, even with all the years the two had known one another.

One of Orihime's stories really intrigued him. It was a story about a raccoon-dog demon who had come to Karakura - the town Orihime was from - a few days before Orihime herself had been kidnapped. His name, she said, was Gaara, and he was…odd. He would jump back and forth between complete, laid-back silence, and complete, homicidal silence; the difference, apparently, was sometimes hard to spot.

Gaara himself had confused Naruto. In his mind, no demon in its right mind would venture into a human settlement. Humans were evil, despicable creatures that wouldn't hesitate to kill a demon. 'And yet,' Naruto thought. 'Orihime is accepting of Gaara, and of me.' He frowned. 'Odd.'

Her friends were coming for her, though. Maybe he could knock some senses into the Raccoon-Canis when he arrived.

:::Las Noches Hallways:::

Tigre grumbled quietly to himself, turning slowly around to try another corridor. His sense of smell wasn't the best, especially when compared to Naruto's, but the fact still remained that he was a tiger, and his nose was much more powerful than most other's. But while Naruto's scent was vastly different from the other scents of the Arrancars and three Soul Reapers, it was still a pain in the ass to track.

It was as if the Vulpes has doubled back multiple times, at some points even wandering in circles in the middle of the hallway. Instead of trying to guess which way Naruto went, he followed the trail exactly; which meant that he himself was wandering in large circles for a good portion of his time.

He was no fool. He knew that Naruto had been disappearing for the past few weeks. The Espada would vanish in the middle of the night, and only return a bit before the rest of his Fracción normally woke up. It was just a stroke of luck that the other Fracción had been woken up by Naruto's bumbling, and without it, Tigre wouldn't have had a good reason to be awake, and therefore investigate where Naruto had been sneaking off to.

It didn't take long for Tigre to guess where Naruto had been going. Naruto's wing was on one end of Las Noches, and the prison cells were on another. It was unlikely for Naruto to wander all the way there on accident, and do so on a nightly basis. And, as far as Tigre was aware, there was only one prisoner being held in the practically-abandoned wing.

Stopping outside of Orihime's door, the tiger-based Arrancar took a deep whiff of the air, frowning as he sifted through the pile of scents until he found the one he had been tracking. He had been right; Naruto had entered and exited Orihime's cell, and if the increasingly stale scents were anything to go by, he had been doing so for quite a while.

He abruptly flashed away with Sonido, appearing a few seconds later in Aizen's throne room, as he did every morning to give his daily report.

The brown-haired Soul Reaper was where he always seemed to be; reclining in his massive throne with his egotistical smirk stretched across his face. "Ah, Tigre." He spoke, his voice smooth and rich. "Such a pleasure to see you. How is my little pet doing?"

"Sir," Tigre began as he knelt, bowing his head in reverence. "the Espada known as Vulpes Naruto has not shown any outward signs of regaining his memories, nor questioning your orders. He continues to take his Fracción out on regular training trips to the outskirts of Las Noches. His Fracción show no signs of trying to tell him anything."

"Very good." Aizen acknowledged with a nod of his head. "How are his Fracción?" The Soul Reaper really had no interest in Naruto's Fracción so long as they weren't revealing anything detrimental to Aizen's plans, but Tigre knew better than to question the powerful ex-Captain.

"Darklay Riko has stolen Yoroi Senzakou's twice more in the past two weeks."

"In other words," Gin interrupted from the shadows near Aizen's throne, his grin curling higher. "the little puffball needs to have his private wing repaired again." Gin made no effort to hide the glee at the prospect of being able to gloat that Naruto couldn't fully control his underlings. The light-haired Soul Reaper had never fully gotten over Naruto trying to eviscerate him, and usually took any chance he could to taunt the fox.

Instead of verbally answering, Tigre just nodded his head before continuing. "Aside from that, Darklay Riko and Gimji Mojo continue to be Darklay Riko and Gimji Mojo." Tigre couldn't lie; the way that the faces of the two Soul Reapers paled, and the way Gin slowly backed into the shadows, amused him to no end. The two Fracción were weaker than them - well, maybe stronger than Gin, since Tigre had never actually seen the man fight - but even mentioning their names caused the two to blanch.

"I will send a few Arrancars to fix whatever they have broken." Aizen spoke after a few moments of silence. "Anything else, Tigre?"

The calm Fracción parted his lips, fully prepared to inform Aizen that Naruto was making secret excursions to visit the human prisoner. But he paused, frowning.

:Flashback:

It had already been a week since Tigre had officially become one of Naruto's Fracción, and while Tigre hadn't expected for the other lower-ranked Arrancars to immediately become accustomed to his presence, he didn't think it would be taking this long; at some points, he was even convinced that the others were purposefully trying to sabotage him.

Currently, instead of going on the training trip that the other Fracción were on, Tigre was sitting in his Espada's private wing, perched on the end of a cushion of one of the couches and staring blankly at a far wall.

Naruto suddenly burst into the room, slamming the door closed behind him. His ears were twisted backwards in his hair, his eyes wide and his arms shaking.

"Tigre!" Naruto barked. "What're you doing here? You're not supposed to be here."

"The others are out training, sir, and- what's that noise?"

Outside the door to Naruto's private wing, it sounded as if a whole horde of buffalo Hollows were stampeding.

"That's Kami teaching me a valuable lesson." Naruto replied with a sage nod, even as he winced when something smashed loudly against the wall near the door.

"And that would be…?"

"Don't try and dye Yammy's pet puppy pink and yellow." The doors behind him jumped open slightly as they were rammed into once again, and Naruto threw his entire weight against them, forcing them closed, if only just barely managing it. "Why did you say you were in here, again?"

"I didn't." Tigre replied before pausing briefly. "The others prefer to train without me."

"What?" Naruto grunted, though not for lack of hearing, as he strained against the buckling door. "You lot need to learn how to fight together! You're their teammate!"

"They don't like me much." 'And they have all the right not to.'

"Well, sucks to be them." The Vulpes replied quickly. "We're a team. We are supposed to be like family. You can't choose your family, so you just have to live with them and muscle through it." He squeaked as the door cracked open, buckling under the weight slamming against it on the other side. A massive hand reached through, wrapping around Naruto's torso. The hand withdrew, dragging Naruto along with it until just his head and hands remained inside the room as he clung for dear life to the mangled door. "Tell me if anybody gives you any crap, okay? Some of these people are due to be smacked."

With a very girlish shriek - which the demon would later deny vehemently - Naruto was ripped forcefully out of the room, loud slams and wails of pain and regret following.

Tigre paused.

Wait, what had just happened?

:Flashback:

"Tigre?" Aizen called, a small frown fulling at the corners of his lips at Tigre's sudden silence. "Is there anything else to report?"

Tigre blinked slowly, and released a slow breath.

"No, sir."

:::In Hueco Mundo:::

Gaara was, apparently, somebody that should not be messed with when he was annoyed.

Or when he was holding a sword.

"STOP. TRYING. TO. EAT. ME." Gaara snarled, slamming his soulless Zonpaktou down repeatedly on the head of the Hollow that had most recently attempt to turn him into a snack. The soulless blade had dulled over the time Gaara had been using it. A Zonpaktou with a soul was a strange thing; unlike normal blades, Zonpaktou rarely ever became blunt, and when they did it was only after an equivalent of quite of few years of continuous use. Some Soul Reapers who took great pride in their soul-cutters would still sharpen their Zonpaktou whenever they found time, but only because they really wanted to. A soulless Zonpaktou became blunt much faster, not having the soul inside to keep the blade sharp and lethal. The more a soulless Zonpaktou was used, the faster it became blunt.

And Gaara had definitely been using his soulless weapon a lot.

Hollows liked him. A lot.

Gaara stood panting over the latest carcass of a Hollow, having beaten it to death with the soulless blade. The Hollow slowly disintegrated, the rate of its decay slowed by the ambient energy in the constant-night air of Hueco Mundo. He was covered from head to toe in layers upon layers of bluish-green blood, some partially dry from age, and some fresh and wet.

His comrades stood dumbfounded behind him, gaping or edging slowly away from him.

"Um…" Chad mumbled, scooting a bit further away when Gaara twitched.

"Itsygo…" A little girl dressed in rags, a cracked mask on top of her blue-green hair, and a red mark stretched across the bridge of her nose and her cheekbones, whispered to the orange-haired half-blood. "…Gaawa's creepy…"

"It's okay, Nel. Just don't…go near him." Ichigo replied slowly, moving to stand in front of Nel as if to protect her from Gaara's apparent wrath.

"YOU." Gaara snapped, whirling on Ichigo. He jabbed a finger into the orangette's chest, poking him repeatedly. "This is your fault!"

"My fault? MY FAULT?!" Ichigo roared, rearing up in growing rage. He jabbed his own finger into Gaara's forehead. "How is any of this my fault?!"

"You influenced Naruto! That little idiot never left his skulk before now!He didn't know to avoid this crap! You introduced him to this world! Ergo, YOUR FAULT."

"I didn't introduce him to "this world!" I was new to it myself! If it's anybody's fault, it's…uh…RUKIA'S."

"Don't bring me into your argument you little shit!"

Renji latched on to Rukia's shoulder, dragging her back before she could get involved in the quickly-developing fist-fight between the half-Reaper and the "demon." He leaned down, eliminating the height difference to whisper into her ear.

"There's dissension among your ranks."

"I'm not the the higher-ranking Soul Reaper here, Lieutenant Abarai." Rukia replied, equally as quiet. "If they're anybody's "ranks," they're yours."

"…still. You should fix it." After all, they had already screwed around enough over the past few weeks, and Naruto's situation probably wasn't getting any better as they sat around arguing.

Rukia glanced back and forth between Renji's impatient face and the two squabbling teens.

"Uh, yeah. No."

:::In Las Noches:::

Naruto rubbed at his temples, sighing tiredly. Riko and Mojo were wreaking havoc, as per usual, and Toba and Senza were…somewhere. Probably hiding.

…they were incredibly intelligent.

Tigre, however, was sitting next to him calmly, reading a book that Naruto swore he had swiped from Szayel's collection. His expression was no different than normal, but he had to be shrieking inside. Though, he could possibly not be, in which case Naruto was extremely jealous.

"Sir?" Tigre suddenly called out as something smashed loudly behind the two on the group's favorite couch. He turned the page of his book, rather undramatically. "I know we're supposed to be a happy team…but if they don't shut up, then I'm going to commit homicide." Naruto sighed heavily as a wall crumbled somewhere to his left.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked with a humorous grin.

Without much warning, a nameless Arrancar flashed into the main room, head bowed in respect. "Vulpes-san, Aizen-sama requests your presence in the meeting room immediately."

"YES!" Naruto cried, leaping to his feet and throwing a fist up in the air in triumph. He was out the doors to his wing before the low-ranking Arrancar even had an opportunity to flash back out.

In the large hallway, Naruto paused, backtracking so he stood in front of his two remaining Fraccion. Toba and Senza were seated on the ground, legs crossed. The white-and-red-haired Fraccion was literally rocking out to his music, swaying back and forth to whatever was was coming through his earphone-like mask fragment. Toba, without having an iPod to entertain himself with, was attempting to play cat's cradle with himself; he wasn't getting that far. In other words, he was staring intently at the very first step, struggling to find any solution to his dilemma. He had already tried using his toes, and that had failed miserably. His feet were still tied together. Stupid knots…

"Is it over?" Senza asked, apparently having paused his music as he looked up at Naruto hopefully. "Is it finally over? Is my precious safe?" He clutched his iPod to his chest. Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but a high-pitched screeching, the sound akin to the whine of a homing missile, cut him off.

Following the screeching was one of the louder crashes yet, followed by the indignant roaring of Tigre.

Naruto simply raised his eyebrow as Senza slowly resumed listening to his music. No words were needed apparently.

Shaking his head, Naruto vanished with the typical sound accompanying Sonido, and reappeared a few seconds later in the Espada's meeting room. All of the other Espada were already present, seated in ranging positions of attention around the long, oval table. Naruto took his seat between Yammy and Szayel, shying slightly away from the bigger man that was glaring none-too nicely at him.

"Ah, Naruto." Aizen called from the other end of the table, his usual sickeningly-sweet smile in place. "So nice of you to join us." The orange-haired Vulpes nodded his head briskly in acknowledgement. "Before we begin, there's a matter that must be discussed. Naruto…is there anything you want to tell us?" Multiple eyes turned to stare directly at the demon, whose ears dropped slowly.

'Ah.' He thought. 'Shit.' Did they know about his secret meetings with the human girl? It wasn't like it was illegal for him to go see her - at least, he didn't think it was - but it was still his instinct to sneak around the other Espada - all of the Arrancars and the three ex-Captains in general - when it came to the strawberry-blonde human.

Aizen suddenly pulled something out from under the table, and placed it on the tabletop to dash freely about, yipping and barking and creating all sorts of mayhem near the King of Las Noches. Naruto laughed nervously as the little pup raced to his end of the table, launching itself into Yammy's arms. The larger Espada's pet puppy gave its master a generous amount of slobbery licks before jumping down and leaping off, making some strange combination of a yelp and a mewl.

Oh, and the dog was bring pink with neon-blue splotches here and there.

Couldn't miss that.

"Oh, ah, yes. That. I was…bored?" Naruto offered slowly, laughing feebly at his poor attempt at a defense.

"If I didn't have to eat off of this table," Yammy growled, "I would rip your head off right here and now."

"Oi. Baldy. Stop making living noises."

"I'M NOT BALD! I HAVE A PONY-TAIL!"

Aizen cleared his throat, and the soft sound had an effect similar to a nuclear bomb going off. All of the Espada had frozen in various states of disarray, before all snapping back to a more appropriate position. Well, except for Starrk; he was still in the middle of the nap that next to nothing could rouse him from.

"While this conversation may be entertaining under other circumstances," Aizen said with a wide smile. "I did not call you all here, away from important business I assume, for a social hour." Without any prompting, a type of hologram blazed to life in the center of the table, displaying distorted figures that were moving in some erratic fashion across the sight range of whatever was recording it. Even though the figures were little more than blobs, they were still identifiable as human beings. "The Soul Reapers that our residential demon annoyed have come for their revenge at last." He paused. "Similarly, they have come to rescue their comrade, who we are detaining in an isolated cell."

"…can I go break their faces?" Yammy asked slowly. "I want to break their faces." A pause. "…I like breaking faces." Naruto snorted, and his head was immediately slammed into the table, courtesy of Yammy's fist. Naruto immediately popped back up.

"Do we have a plan for when they get here?" Yammy opened his mouth. "Aside from punching their heads."

"We have a few plans in place." Aizen replied evenly. "Nothing that you have to worry about."

"Right. Because a few genocidal Reapers with a vendetta is not worrisome at all." Naruto muttered under his breath, before nodding. "Alright. So then if there's already plans or whatever, why are we having this meeting, exactly?"

"To make a few…restrictions…clear." Aizen spoke slowly, his smile falling just a bit so he could adopt a more serious expression. "Naruto, under no circumstances are you to confront these Reapers, nor will you visit their friend in the prisoner wing."

Ah…well, if he hadn't been forbidden from seeing Orihime before, he was now.

Well, the Arrancars and ex-Captains sure as hell weren't going to keep him from getting his answers. So, instead of arguing as he so dearly wished to, Naruto nodded his head in submission. "Alright. As you wish, Aizen-sama."

:::Halls of Las Noches:::

Naruto strolled on down the halls of the large dome-shaped structure, hands shoved in his pockets and whistling any random song that came to mind. He was really just wandering aimlessly, slowly meandering along to where his private wing was located. Well, unless it moved again. It seemed to do that, though it could easily be that he was just a bit thick.

The meeting had ended pretty quickly after Naruto had been forbidden from doing anything even remotely "fun." Immediately after Naruto had agreed to the restrictions, he had pretty much nodded off right at the table, following Starrk's example.

'That man is truly brilliant.' Naruto thought, stretching his arms over his head to work out the kinks that had formed in his back.

As he reached a fork in the hall, he slowed, his whistling fading away as he halted. If he went right, he would (hopefully) be heading in the direction of his wing. But if he went left…

'No, no, I was forbidden from going to see her.' Naruto thought with a shake of his head. His right ear twitched, flicking about on top of his head. 'It's not like I want to listen to instructions, but Aizen-sama gave me a direct order! I can't just ignore him.' The orange-haired Vulpes sighed, drifting towards the right hallway.

Without much warning, he jerked to the left, sprinting down the other hallway with reckless abandon.

He was never one for listening to orders, anyway.

:::Orihime's Room:::

Orihime, to put it simply, was bored.

Naruto was visiting her every night, ever since he had first found her. They would exchange stories all night long, for as long as possible, before Naruto would have to sneak back off. He would slip in and out in fox form, and only recently did he start shifting to his more human form after he had entered. He used to stay as far from her as possible as they talked, moving whenever she did so that he would always have at least twenty feet of space between them. At one point, he even used his claws to stick to the ceiling when she had tried to corner him.

He didn't remember her.

And it broke her heart.

Every time he would tell her about his "life," talking about his relationships with the Espada and other Arrancars, about how Aizen was his savior. He would tell her lies, but what made it so heartbreaking was that to him, they weren't lies. To him, they were pure truth.

And she hated it.

The fox-eared demon had visited her the night before, as he always did. He had confided in her, telling her a secret that he had been keeping from her.

Her friends were coming.

'They're his friends, too.' She couldn't help but think. 'He just doesn't know it.'

He had left early in the morning, as he always did, though, unless her internal clock was off, he left later than usual. Now she had hours to wait for him to return so they could continue their conversation. All she had for her entertainment was staring out her window, or staring at the wall. Both weren't exactly exciting, but what else was there to do? Well, she could try to leave, but considering Naruto had told her on multiple occasions that the hallways "were completely random and could switch themselves up on you," so, instead of risking getting lost and starving, she opted to stay in her room.

…but it was still dull.

Orihime was just considering trying to learn how to do a headstand when the door to her "room" was thrown wide open, bouncing back off the wall and smacking whoever was entering right in the face. Orihime squeaked, moving quickly to the fallen person. She could recognize those fox ears anywhere.

"Naruto!" She squeaked, rolling the fallen Arrancar over as he groaned, using one hand to nurse his nose while the other pushed feebly on the open door that was drifting back and forth a bit. He shoved it closed, and dual-colored eyes opened to stare up at the strawberry-blonde human.

"'ello." He said with a slight slur. Without warning, he shot upright, leaping to his feet while screeching.

"What?" Orihime asked after she had calmed, having yelped and jumped away from the suddenly-moving demon.

"Orihime! Holy crap, Orihime!" Naruto grabbed the younger girl by the shoulders, shaking her so roughly she was close to getting whiplash. "They're here!"

"…who's here?" She cocked her head in confusion.

"Lord, woman- your friends!"

Orihime froze. "Your friends," he had said. Not "our friends." No matter how many times she heard it, she still couldn't wrap her mind around it. How could somebody just forget their entire life and pick up some new one?

"Th-they are?"

"Yeah!" Naruto's grin fell. "And coming to kill me, but that's beyond the point." He kept talking, cutting Orihime off before she could try to refute his previous statement. "And I was forbidden to see you, or fight them. Also beyond the point. Your friends are here!"

Orihime winced at the mention of Naruto being banned from coming to see her. She had assumed, at first, that he had been banned from seeing her anyway. After all, he had been dragged out when they had first been reunited, and had to sneak around ever since. He had told her that he wasn't banned, but now… She knew what Aizen did to his troops that disobeyed orders. Grimmjow's arm had been hacked off…

"Oi, what's with the face?" Naruto demanded, releasing the girl with a frown. "Your friends are coming to save the day! They'll fail, obviously, but hey! They're coming to rescue you!" Orihime chewed on her bottom lip, staring down at her feet. Naruto took a few steps back, looking her up and down with a confused frown. "You're not happy." He observed. "You should be happy, your friends are coming. Why aren't you happy?"

"I am…" Orihime replied, keeping her voice low, barely even at a whisper. The demon's ears would pick up her words, anyway. "It's just…what about you?" Naruto cocked his head.

"I'll be fine. Like I said, they'll fail. Won't last long, them. So I'll be fine." He smiled, the expression equally sad and pitying. "I don't know if you'll see your friends before they're killed, though. Sorry."

"I…I think they'll be fine." Orihime replied, clasping her hands in front of her chest so she could wring her hands. "They will…they'll be fine, and I'll see them when they come get me." Naruto made a face.

"If you say so." He paused. "Why are you so certain your friends won't die?"

"Because." Orihime said, her response coming right on the heels of Naruto's own words. "Because…they're too stubborn to die." Naruto cracked a small smile.

"I think I'd like them, if the situation was any different." He clapped his hands together once. "Well, that was all I was stoping by for. Don't tell anybody I was here, and all that. Especially now. See you tonight." He waved, and then his form melted down, twisting and turning and morphing into his fox form. He offered her a slight grin before dashing out of the room, the door closing behind him from a tug of his tail.

Naruto darted through the halls, weaving around corners and avoiding any and all Arrancars that he possibly could. He arrived back at his wing in record time, his sides heaving for breath as he morphed back into his human form. Senza and Toba were no longer sitting outside the doors, and all was silent; hopefully that was a good sign, and wasn't just Kami's way of telling him that Riko and Mojo had ended up murdering his Fraccion.

He found, upon entering his wing, that his Fraccion weren't dead. In fact they were just sitting there. Having a conversation. Being civil.

"Oh sweet Lord the world is ending." Naruto deadpanned. His Fraccion whirled around, staring at him guiltily - well, most of them looked guilty. Tigre looked more uncomfortable at Mojo sitting practically in his lap than anything else - with wide eyes. Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Hi."

"Uh, hi." Toba, apparently the one who was speaking for the group at the moment, said. He cleared his throat, and made an attempt at looking at ease; he was failing pretty spectacularly. "So, how was the meeting?"

"Oh, boring. Fell asleep halfway through." Naruto waved his hand in dismissal. "Though, I am more interested in what you lot were talking about." Naruto's ears swiveled backwards in his hair, and his eyes narrowed. "Was it just me, or were there mentions of Aizen lying to me about something?" The color vanished from the faces of each of his Fraccion, and they glanced at one another accusingly. "Now, now, don't be like that. Just tell me what's going on, and we can get this sorted out. I'm sure I just misheard." Nobody spoke up. Naruto sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm your higher up. Your Espada. And I am ordering you to tell me what the hell is going on!"

"I think we should tell him." Senza said suddenly, and the rest of the lower-ranking Arrancar spun to face him, surprised.

"Of course you should tell me, I ordered it!" Naruto snapped. He was promptly ignored.

"Seriously, think about it. What has Aizen ever done for us?" The music-loving Arrancar demanded. "Nothing, right? He never tried to control the other Espada, and we all got hurt because of it. Naruto, though, he's protected us. All of us." He shot a piercing stare at Tigre, who shifted slightly on his feet. "We should tell him, at least what we were talking about." He whispered something after that, speaking so quietly that not even Naruto's ears could pick it up. The other Fraccion nodded in agreement - even Tigre, though he looked a bit apprehensive. He was quickly distracted by Mojo trying to chew on his hand - and turned to face their leader, their expressions serious.

"Naru-chan should probably sit down." Mojo said, suddenly appearing behind him and crawling up onto his shoulder, nodding her head sagely.

"…how'd you get on my shoulder?"

:::Ten Minutes Later:::

Naruto stormed out of his private wing, his eyes practically blazing, his knuckles cracking with each twitch of his fingers, and his ears pressed so flat against his head, it was almost as if they weren't even there. His pupils were narrowed so greatly, they were just thin lines in his eyes, providing a break in the bright glow of color. He was absolutely livid, a ten foot radius around him filled with such killer intent, malice, and spiritual energy that anybody that tried to approach him would be flattened to the ground immediately. His fangs were bared in a silent, a quiet growl rumbling deep in his chest.

Arrancars scattered well before he was even in their line of sight, their instincts begging, pleading that they run, get out of the way because a monster, a demon was coming, and he was mad.

He may have used Sonido a few times - though it felt more like he was literally teleporting instead of flashing about at high running speeds - but he hardly noticed nor cared. He didn't care about much at the moment, and how he as transporting himself from point A to point B was definitely not one of his concerns. Whether it was Sonido or true teleportation, Naruto reached his destination faster than he ever had before. The doors blew clean off of their hinges, flinging themselves across the interior of the room they closed off to smash and bury themselves in the far wall with a sharp crack from the concrete. Probably not the safest way to enter a room, but right then, at that very moment, Naruto could barely differentiate blue from red, let alone use logical thinking.

Orihime was off her bed the moment the doors left their hinges, her eyes wide in terror at the sheer show of strength, without anybody in sight to have actually touched the doors. Her expression softened when Naruto swept into the room, though her guard went up a bit at the sight of the pure, unbridled rage swirling about in Naruto's eyes.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" She asked. "Isn't it dangerous for you to be here so soon? It's not nighttime, is it?" She asked with a glance over her shoulder at the window. Not like the window would help any; it was constantly night out her window, so how was she to tell time with the glance?

"SCREW it being dangerous!" Naruto barked, snapping so loudly and wildly that it sounded more like a primal snarl than actual words. "That BASTARD! I'll kill him!" Naruto drove his fist into a wall, his hand punching through it and to the other side. He ripped his fist back out with a roar of anger, spiderweb cracks splitting the wall from its sudden trauma.

"Naruto? Naruto, calm down. Tell me what happened." Orihime said, sitting down carefully on her bed and patting the spot next to her. Instead of taking the proffered seat, Naruto began to pace, muttering in some language - it wasn't Latin. In fact, Orihime couldn't identify it at all, and she could identify a lot of languages based purely on the sound - under his breath. He ran his right hand through his hair multiple times, and every few times he would brush his fingers over the jewel in his forehead; and each time he touched the embedded jewel, the fury in his eyes would grow stronger, and the malicious feeling in the air would become thicker.

"He lied to me." Naruto growled, his voice so low and guttural that for a moment, Orihime was convinced he was still mumbling in that odd language of his. "He lied to me!" The Vulpes repeated, his voice stronger this time. He reared back for another punch, winding up his fist and screaming as he prepared to deliver another punch to the concrete. But Orihime was suddenly there, grabbing his fist gently in her hands, running her thumb over the furry and bloodied knuckles.

She pulled the demon towards her bed, ordering him to sit down, and forcing him with a surprisingly terrifying glare when he refused. Touching her hairpins, she commanded them quietly to activate, and a small field of orange-yellow light formed over Naruto's knuckles, the flesh slowly stitching itself back together over where it had split away from the bone.

"Who lied to you?" She asked, mentally commanding the healing field to try and sooth Naruto's rage. The growling low in his throat slowly quieted, and the anger in his eyes softened, but his muscles didn't relax, and the energy that promised to cause pain didn't disperse from the air.

"Aizen." Naruto whispered, and Orihime glanced up from where she had been focusing on her work, her eyes wide at the implications of that one simple name. "He- he lied to me." The demon's voice no longer held the rough, dangerous edge, but more of one of confusion. "My Fraccion…they told me…they told me that I never made an enemy of the Soul Reapers, that I'm not the reason that they're trying to break into Las Noches."

"Oh, well, that's not so bad…" The human female said, though she didn't sound so sure.

"But that's just it, it is! Because I can remember it, Orihime! Every last detail, right down to what the wind tasted like that day! I can remember it, Orihime, like I was actually there, but I wasn't! So how can I have the memories if it never happened? And if Aizen's lied about that, then what else could he have lied to me about? What else could I be remembering but not remembering? What else do I believe that's completely untrue? And this!" Naruto tapped the jewel in his forehead so roughly, he was practically punching himself in the head. "What the hell is this thing, because I'm damn well sure now that it's not some limiter for my powers!"

"Naruto, calm down." Orihime grabbed his other hand with her free one, pulling it away so he would stop jabbing himself near the eyes with his sharp claws. "Everything's going to be fine. You'll see. When my friends get here…my friends, they'll be able to help. I know they will." Naruto snorted.

"Yeah, right. Like they won't kill me just for being alive. I'm not stupid, Orihime. I may not have pissed them off like I thought I did all those weeks ago, but I'm still a Hollow, and they're still Soul Reapers. Our kind don't mingle."

"But they can." Orihime said with a calm, warm smile. "And trust me when I say that they won't kill you. I give you my word, that in no way will they cause you harm." Naruto snorted again, and rubbed at his eyes, once again mumbling in that same, guttural, unknown language from before. Suddenly he was on his feet, all signs of his earlier anger gone. Without a hand to heal, Orihime's healing field flickered out of existence.

"Right! So! Aizen's making me mad, I feel like rebelling. Care to join me?" Naruto held out his hand with a grin. Orihime took the furry hand, blinking confusedly.

"I don't get it. What are we doing?"

"Your friends are invading, aren't they?" Naruto asked. A mischievous grin spread across his face, his fangs flashing in the moonlight shining through the window. "Let's help 'em cause chaos."

:::Some Observatory:::

In the darkened Observatory, where billions of screens mounted on the walls were playing through the lives of their own personal intelligent being, one screen, previously black and lifeless, flickered back to life for just the briefest of moments. But in that brief moment, the picture quality was the clearest it had been in weeks, blazing with color and energy and life.

Somewhere in that darkened Observatory, the owner grinned.

A/N: There! A nice long chapter. …I would like to apologize for not updating for a year. There's really no reason for it, aside from I just completely lost inspiration for Vulpes Alveus, and writing in general. Which is why I'd like to apologize if the OCs aren't written correctly(had to dig up their information again to jog my memory of a few little things). But on the bright side, school's almost out! Just…four more (school) days! I think.

Anyway, I hope to have more updates regularly. Or, you know, I might just wait another year.

As I was saying to my friend, "There, I updated. Now leave me alone for another year." …I'm kidding. If I don't update, please come and kick me in the ass.

If you want, go check out some of my other stories. Currently in the works are Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (Left 4 Dead/Resident Evil, because I love me my Leon fics), From the Ashes (Doctor Who/Harry Potter. Spoiler Alert: The Doctor may or may not be a phoenix), and Avian American (Psych/Maximum Ride. There's no real reason for this one…).Which reminds me, I need to do Gatekeeper…hmm.

And if anybody is interested, cares, or is still reading this, then I have other one-shots-that-may-become-full-length-fics-but-pro bably-not coming! There's a Bleach one called Salvaje (It's Spanish! :D…I think I like foreign titles…), a Primeval one called…Primal (…and this is why I use foreign languages.), a Grimm one that I haven't named (but there will be zombies. Lots and lots of zombies. And a return of Nick's super-hearing, since the show-writers have apparently forgotten that little tidbit), and a few Teen Wolf ones, like Stärke der Wolf (…German.), Lupolaiga(GIBBERISHGIBBERISHGIBBERISH-), and Cornered (…it has to do with the episode "Nightschool.") Oh, and there's a Sherlock/Doctor Who one in there. Totally randomly. Without a name.

Most of them are completely written. Which one do you wanna see first?

…yep.

…most of them are one-shots.

…I'm off to re-watch Doctor Who and Cry's live-streams.

…bye.

P.S. Chapter 16: Mentietur - Chapter 16: Lie.

P.P.S - I purposefully updated exactly a year since my last update. My friend was grilling me about never updating my stories about ten days ago, and told me that it's been almost a year for Vulpes Alveus. I thought it'd be hysterical to wait until it had been exactly a year. So you can thank my friend for me updating.