I do not own Bleach.

Sakura opened her eyes to an unfamiliar sight. She sat up and looked out of the window that was beside the bed she was in. 'Did I travel back to feudal Japan?'

'Did Ya forget where we are darling?' Sakura frowned as she thought of what Muso-ku was saying. The horse laughed as sakura pondered. 'Tall-pale-and-drop-dead-gorgeous told us about this place.'

'We're in soul society, idiot!' Sakura cringed as Tsubaki yelled at her. 'Good thing the window was on your left. Otherwise you may not have noticed.'

"Shut it Tsubaki." Sakura pushed the blankets off of her. She needed to find someone and then find Jushiro.

"Is Tsubaki your zanpakutou?" Sakura looked over and saw a woman with long orange hair standing in the doorway with a smile on her face. "Sorry if I startled you. I just got out of a meeting and wanted to see how you were doing."

"It's fine. I don't get startled easily." Sakura stood up from her bed, but immediately sat back down. "My gosh the floor is cold."

The woman giggled as the girl tried to warm her feet. "That it is. We had to change you out of your clothes. They were torn up pretty bad. I'll have someone bring you some clothes." The woman leaned out of the room.

Sakura looked around the room more as the woman talked to someone in the hall. She noticed that the woman was wearing a white coat like Jushiro had. She waited till the woman turned her attention back to her before she asked. "Are you a Taichou?"

The woman seemed a bit surprised by the girl's observation. "Yes I am. Oh. I haven't introduced myself. I'm terrible about that." The woman laughed as she scratched her cheek. "I'm Inoue Orihime, 4th squad Taichou."

Sakura returned the woman's gentle smile. "It is nice to meet you, Inoue-Taichou. I am Sazumi Sakura."

"Oh I know that. Ukitake-san brought you here. He seemed quite concerned about you." Orihime gave the girl an inquisitive smile. "How long have you two been seeing each other?"

Sakura blushed and looked away from the woman. "We actually haven't seen each other in a while."

"Oh. I see." Orihime grinned widely as she thought of how the SWA could help them see each other more. She dropped her grin a bit as she remembered what she had wanted to ask the girl. "Sazumi-san, do you know of any family that may be here in Soul Society?"

"There's my dad and my cousin. Why do you ask?" Sakura replied while tilting her head.

"Just wondering. Your reiatsu signature feels familiar. So I was trying to figure out what it could be. And family would be the most likely culprit of similar signatures." Orihime now had to check and see if she had ever treated a Sazumi.

"Then it wouldn't matter if I had family here." Sakura saw the confusion on the Taihcou's face. "I was adopted into the Sazumi family. I don't know who my birth parents are. But Urahara Kisuke said that my parents were shinigami."

"Urahara-san said that?" Orihime began thinking of what the scientist had gotten onto. "Do you want to find out who your parents are?"

"You can do that?" Sakura was inching to rattle the answer out of the woman, but the floor still looked cold.

Orihime nodded her head as she stepped out of the doorway. She turned towards one of her subordinates that was carrying a pile of clothes. "Thank you, Yamada-kun." She smiled as the shy shinigami backed away and went back the way he had come.

She walked over to the girl and placed the pile of clothes beside her. "I can do it quite easily, but it will work easiest if I have the mother's reiatsu nearby. So I need you to do something for me." Orihime had noticed how Sakura's reiatsu had completely vanished the moment the girl had awoken. She was a bit surprised that Ukitake hadn't stormed the hospital wondering what had happened.

"Okay. What do you need me to do?" Sakura began dressing in the clothes that she had been given. She could easily tell that it was a shinigami uniform. "How do you put this on?"

Orihime laughed as the girl tried to figure out how each piece went. "Here, let me help."

After about twenty minutes of dressing, Sakura was dressed like a shinigami. "Wow. This is very comfortable." Sakura stretched her arms and legs happily. She was especially happy that she hadn't lost her balance yet.

"It is." Orihime knew exactly how the girl felt. She had the same thought when she had first put on a shikahosho. "Now then, about what you need to do. There is someone that I think will be a close match, if not an exact match, to who your mother is. However, she is currently being held in a place that I do not have access to."

"Okay. So do you want me to bring her here?" Sakura wondered if she was about to do something illegal. But this wouldn't be the first time.

"That would be best." Orihime was glad the girl wasn't asking too many questions. Orihime quickly summoned a jigokucho. "This will lead you to her. So make sure you don't lose sight of it." Orihime let the butterfly fly off of her hand and land on Sakura's shoulder. "Good luck."

"Thank you." Sakura went to pick up the butterfly, but it flew away once her hand got close. "I'll be back soon." Sakura ran off after the butterfly, it could go pretty fast.

'Tsubaki, do you think I could borrow your right eye?' Sakura kept her eye on the buttefly while she spoke with her Hollow.

'I don't know how long it will last.' Tsubaki was a bit sceptical about Sakura's idea. 'It might give us away. I'll need to merge with you partially for you to be able to use my eye.'

'That's okay. I'll just have to be faster than anyone that ties to catch us.' Sakura smiled as her Hollow laughed.

'Alright. Let's try it.' Tsubaki didn't think they had anything to lose. If Sakura crashed because she was half blind, they would be caught. If she attracted attention because she felt like a Hollow, they could just beat them all up.

Sakura continued running as Tsubaki worked on merging their vision. She nearly tripped when she could suddenly see from her left side. 'Looks like I got used to being blind easily.'

'Don't take your eyes off the butterfly!' Tsubaki yelled as she turned their head towards the butterfly. 'Looks like we are both in control at the moment.'

'Yeah, I noticed.' The girl kept going as her Hollow helped her catch up to the butterfly.

Sakura ran into a large room and closed the sliding door behind her. She took several deep, quiet breaths as multiple people ran passed the door she had hid behind. She let out a sigh when it got quiet again.

'Inoue-Taichou didn't mention just how secure this place was.' Tsubaki was breathing just as heavily as Sakura. The merge had run out at least an hour ago. 'Plus it is a maze in here.'

'Yeah. It deffinitely got harder after we lost the butterfly.' Sakura rubbed her forehead. She could feel a bruise forming. 'Could you have held the merge longer? That beam hurt.'

'Sorry. I told you that I didn't know how limit would last.' Tsubaki replied with a frown. 'You could have just ducked.'

'Well we went slower all of a sudden.' Sakura backed away from the door and looked around the room they were in. 'It dark in here.'

'It's lovely.' Sakura smirked as Muso-ku purred with happiness. 'Want to try shadow jumping?'

Sakura thought about it. 'Sure. Why not?'

"Finally." Sakura nearly jumped as a horse head emerged from the shadows.

"Please stop doing that." Sakura took a deep breath as she approached Muso-ku.

The horse laughed as her master approached her. "Get on quickly. I can feel them coming this way."

Sakura climbed onto the horse. "So, what now?" She wasn't sure what would happen next. The horse had never told her exactly how her shadow traveling ability worked.

"Just hold on." Muso-ku reared up before running forward into the darkness.

Sakura held onto the horses fiery mane as the world became black. She noticed places where there were objects outlined in white. "Muso-ku, what are those?"

"Doors. How else would you exit a shadow? Light closes the doors, but in here...we are connected to all shadows." The horse headed for one door that we hardly noticeable. "I believe this is our stop. You can walk through on your own. It seems we have a follower. I will lead them away."

"Alright." Sakura dismounted Muso-ku. "Stay safe." She patted her zanpakutous neck before heading for the exit. She could only see the exit by what looked like a panel of buttons outlined in black.

As she stepped out of the shadow, she looked around the small dark room she was in. The only bit of light coming from the panel of buttons. Sakura chewed her lip as she looked at all of the buttons.

'Just pick one already.' Sakura jumped as her hollow yelled at her.

'Alright.' Sakura reached out and pushed a button. She squeaked a bit as the door slid open and light flooded into the room.

Sakura shielded her eyes as she walked into the bright room. As her eyes adjusted, she noticed that the room looked more like a garden. Or a green house.

"Wow. To think this could all grow underground." Sakura looked around as she made her way further into the room.

"Who are you?" Sakura froze as a voice spoke from behind her. "How did you get in here?" Sakura turned with a kido ready, but it fizzled out as she caught sight of the woman. Her straight black hair pulled into a bun and her glasses perched on her nose.

The woman froze as she caught sight of the girl in front of her. "It can't be." She slowly approached the girl.

"Who are you? Inoue-Taichou sent me here." Sakura noticed a small black butterfly following behind the woman.

"Sakura? Is that really you?" The woman ignored the girl's questions. The brunette seemed to have even forgotten her own questions. "You've grown so much." The woman placed a hand on the girl's cheek. She had hoped she would meet this girl again. "My sweet little Sakura."

"Mom? Are you my mother?" Sakura couldn't help the tears that were forming in her eyes. She had only dreamt about this moment.

The woman nodded at the girl's question. "Yes dear, I'm your mother."

Both women jumped as an alarm sounded. "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! ALL FORCES HEAD TO PRISON LEVEL TWO! INTRUDER IS AFTER ISE NANAO! REPEAT!..."

Sakura wiped her tears as she looked around the area. She smiled as she spotted a dark shadow. "Come on, Nanao. Let's get you out of here." Sakura grabbed her mother's hand and ran towards the shadow.

Nanao ran along side her daughter. "Your father might lecture you about calling your mother by her first name." She laughed thinking of what he would say when she told him his daughter was alive.

Sakura chuckled as she pulled her mother into the shadow world. "I think we might be too busy catching up on lost years." Sakura quickly looked around the try and find an appropriate exit. "Come on, we need to find an exit."

"Have you been here before?" Nanao was very surprised at where they were. She only knew of one other person that could use shadows as a mode of transport.

"Only once before, but I get the hang of things quite easily. I've been named a genius several times for that ability of mine." Sakura walked slowly with her mother beside her. "Do I get that from you or dad?"

"Probably from both of us. No ether of us are geniuses, but we are both very intelligent." Nanao laughed as she described her husband. "Most people are actually very surprised by your father's level of intelligence."

"Really? Does he put on an act or something?" Sakura smiled as she thought of the father she had.

"You could say that." Nanao wrapped an arm around her daughter and pressed a kiss to her hair. "I never thought I would see you again. My little Sakura."

"I'm not little anymore." Sakura leaned into her mother's arms.

They walked in silence for several minutes. Their silence was interrupted by a laugh, a cold sadistic laugh. Sakura looked around for an exit. There weren't that many. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Nanao nodded as they made their way towards an exit.

They stepped out of the shadow and looked around the room they had emerged from. Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled with a smile. "We must be in the hospital. It smells like disinfectant."

Nanao nodded as she tried not to breath in too much. The smell was making her a bit nauseous.

"You're back!" Both women turned as a smiling woman with bright orange hair ran at them. "Nanao-san! I'm so glad you're alright. Let's go check on that baby." Orihime quickly dragged the two into a room.

Sakura sat on a chair while her mother was sat down on the bed in the room. "Wow mom, you waited till this long to give me a younger sibling? I'm already 19."

"This wasn't intentional." Nanao didn't know how to explain the situation to her daughter. "We'll talk more when your father gets here. Speaking of which, can we call him here. I think he should know his wife is safe and sound." Nanao looked over as the healer continued running tests with kido.

"Oh yes!" Orihime couldn't contain her excitement. "I'll send Isane to get him. I think we should tell him the news. Although everyone suspects you're pregnant since Central 46 put you under their 'protection'."

Sakura frowned as the woman exchanged sarcastic looks. She didn't get their conversation.

"And it's so wonderful how you two found each other. But, Nanao-san..." Orihime looked between the two women as she walked towards the door. There wasn't much resemblance, but they definitely had a similar reiatsu signature. "How did you know Sakura was your daughter?"

Nanao held her hand out and beckoned her daughter closer to her. She hugged her once she was sitting beside her on the bed. "A mother knows her own children."

Orihime smiled as she made her way out of the room and towards the main office. "Now to tell Isane to go get the father. I'm sure he will be happy to know he is a father of two." Orihime giggled as she held herself back from skipping down the halls.

We know who the mother is. And looking at what ships I support, the father is a dead give away.

Let me know what you thought of the chapter.