Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto. Only the OC is my idea, her backstory, abilities, appearance, etc. I do not make any money from this story. This story is a sequel to "in your eyes", if you haven't read that, please do so first other wise this one isn't going to make as much sense. A bridge story in between them is "the best present."
Shunsui's jaw gaped at the news that Chiaki had just delivered to him. How could this have happened? When she built the gigai she took care to make sure that something couldn't occur with the gigai and she was in the gigai so then how—he gave his head a firm shake and heavily sighed, it didn't matter. What mattered was keeping her safe from central 46 and some shinigami captains who would possibly seek her life for this act.
"In this world, are there remaining members of the clan?"
Chiaki nodded and confirmed, "yes. Aunts, Uncles, cousins."
"I see. This is an unexpected and difficult situation, Chiaki. I'm going to send you back to that world. I'll tell Central 46 that you're trying to ensure that any traces of Aizen have been eliminated. I'll send Nanao and a few others that are very trusted with you. I'll try to figure out how this happened but in the meantime—you should prepare yourself for a long stay there," he decided.
"But Tetsuya-"
"I'm still here. I'll make sure the boy's safe. He is my grandson after all, and his father is also a member of the guard squads," he reminded her.
Chiaki shook her head as she countered, "he signed off on his parental rights. He doesn't feel fit to be a father. He's fine with babysitting occasionally but you know as well as I that he isn't going to take Tetsuya on."
"I do. I don't expect him to. However Chiaki, and I cannot stress this enough: you broke one of our highest laws. All I can do to keep you safe is send you back to the world where this happened. Hopefully things will turn out for the better," Shunsui replied.
His mind was made up, she knew this. There was no way around it. She had to go back to that world, and try to avoid anyone she encountered before, namely Tenten. This would be all the reason she'd need to tailspin and she didn't want to negatively impact a human's life.
"No other way around it, I guess," she conceded, her eyes now downcast. She glanced up when she felt Shunsui's hand on her shoulder. The man who had raised her, who had supported and shielded her, and had done his best to provide the same protection for her late twin sister was offering a reassuring smile as he suggested, "hopefully it'll only be a month or so."
Chiaki nodded a little before asking, "my grandfather—why didn't he ever tell me when he was alive?"
Shunsui gave a heavy sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck and admitted, "I don't have all the answers, kiddo. One thing I can tell you: he was very heartbroken when his daughter passed and the fact that the two of you were in such grave condition for a while nearly destroyed him. For a time he nearly reverted back to his old ways before joining the guard squads. It was myself and Captain Unohana that kept him in check."
He looked to her and he stated, "but your name, and Mizuki's—they came from him. Your mother named you Chiaki, but that was with her last breath. He's the one who decided to name you Chiaki Yuuki and your sister Mizuki Nozomi, we added my clan name later on once we knew you were both going to survive. I kept you both at the eighth squad barracks as long as I could before your own powers began manifesting. Once that happened—well he'd never let either of you within two barracks of Aizen. I think even back then he suspected, but he didn't have enough evidence."
She glanced down, avoiding Shunsui's eyes as tears welled up in her own.
"He loved both of you girls greatly, Chiaki. I know he'd be proud of how well you handled yourself recently," he offered.
She nodded a little, as she brought her hand up to wipe away the tears that had escaped her eyes and gave a bitter laugh, "crazy hormones."
In Sakahone Neji noted that the scenery was quite almost the same except he could hear the running water of a nearby river and glanced to the little girl asking her, "do you like fish?"
The child looked at Neji and gave a small shrug of her shoulders admitting, "I don't know. I don't get hungry."
"You don't? Hmm, I think I am," Neji remarked as he headed towards the river. He looked to the little girl with her dark brown nearly black hair and light brown eyes. He gained a smile as he shifted her in his arms so she was being balanced in the palm of one of his hands, laying with her face towards the ground and began to run, carrying her. The girl spread her arms out and giggled. After a short burst he chuckled as he righted her in his arms and declared, "Suzume, that's your name."
"Suzume," she repeated with a growing smile. He gently let her down onto her feet while asking, "have you had enough rest?"
"Yes. Thank you," she replied.
"You're welcome," Neji replied as he gathered a few sticks together, he was looking for a particular kind of stick however and eventually found one that would do. One that could spear the fish, so he could scale, gut, clean and cook it.
"Neji, how do you know this stuff?"
"I don't know. It's interesting that you have no memories at all but I get these… flashes," Neji replied. He shook his head before giving her a smile and admitting, "I wish I knew, but I don't."
He grasped the stick he found and rolled up the legs of his pants to his knees before entering the river. He stood still for a moment letting the fish get used to him, he saw them swimming by some were darker, some shined like silver.
After about thirty minutes or so he jabbed the stick into the water and missed. He brought it back out of the water and waited for the fish to resume to their calm state before attempting again. Another miss, Neji closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, he remained that way while the wind blew through the area. Suzume sat on the bank of the river. He almost felt as if he gained a sense of the fish within the water. He then tried to spear with the stick again and succeeded in gaining a fish.