Summary: Ichigo was about to get killed until a long-forgotten captain showed up and protected him. No one remembered him, but soon, everyone would remember the existence of Naruto Uzumaki, the former 7th Hokage of Konohagakure, Jinchūriki of Kurama, Captain of the 2nd division, and potential head captain. Naruto will rise once again and fight the enemies who will appear.

"Speech."

'Think.'

Flashbacks/Events of the Past

Technique

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach.

Warning: English isn't my native language.

Pairings: Ichigo x Rukia x Orihime / Naruto x ?

Life always played interesting games with people's lives. How often had a person thought to himself, "It can't get any worse," and in the end, something worse happened?

The strangest things always happen in life. Whether it was within a year or a lifetime, many wonders or mysteries accumulated, and many people could not explain how the end result even came to fruition.

Why did the lightning strike the ground, even though skyscrapers were everywhere? Many things were unclear in the people's eyes, although they had already discovered many things and were able to explain them.

Naruto had also seen many people who could walk up walls, walk on water, unleash fire from their mouths, and much more. In his world, smashing a rock with a punch was not uncommon.

He had fought many battles as a shinobi and, in the end, even fought in a great war that determined the world's fate. But everyone knew the story of Naruto Uzumaki, the 7th Hokage of Konohagakure. He was the hero of Konoha because, just like his father, he delivered the decisive victory in the war and thus brought the village to glory.

At the age of 30, he was the strongest shinobi alive. Only his best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, could hold a candle to him. He was an excellent shinobi and had achieved everything he wanted. He had prevented his best friend from falling into darkness, he had become a Hokage, and he had been recognized by the village, among other things. But he couldn't win over the love of his life. That had been fine with him because he had no time for a woman as a Hokage.

When, at 24, he accepted the hat of the Hokage of Kakashi Hatake, he vowed to himself that he would not make the same mistake and sit in the office. He would continue to train and have another job. He was able to do this with his Shadow Clones. The job of the Hokage was very time-consuming, but he had also managed to learn another thing.

He didn't even know why he had learned this thing. He had learned forging from an old friend from his time as a fresh genin. It was time-consuming, and he was sometimes away from the village for five days. Of course, his Shadow Clones took care of everything, and since there were no big fights and peace between the five big nations, he had time to leave the village for a few days.

But in the winter of his 30th year, something happened that no one would have expected. As Naruto sat at his desk and did his normal work, he suddenly felt something distant. Before he could do anything, Sasuke showed up at his office. It was immediately clear that a great danger was approaching Konoha.

As it turned out afterward, two new Ōtsutsuki had come to Earth. Naruto and Sasuke left the village with clear instructions for situations like this to prevent the village from getting into trouble. Only the two of them were able to cope with Ōtsutsuki's tenants. After all, the two were also partly Ōtsutsuki because they were the reincarnations of Indra and Ashura. The two were the strongest shinobi in the world, and if these two couldn't win, then no one could.

The fight was very long and hard, but Naruto and Sasuke were able to win together. But everything came at a price. Naruto had to use a dangerous technique during his fight, using his chakra as a source of energy to create a new type of energy. At 30, he had just as much chakra as Kurama. To the normal shinobi, Naruto was a god in human form. He was the fourth, after Hiruzen, Hashirama, and Hagoromo, to be called the god of shinobi.

At the end of the fight, Naruto's body lay on the ground, showing no signs of life. Kurama was released at the same moment, and Sasuke was unfortunately unable to do anything more for his best friend. The two were separated during the fight, and each had to take on a Ōtsutsuki himself. He had fought Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki, and Naruto had fought Isshiki Ōtsutsuki.

Sasuke lost his right eye in the fight against Momoshiki, so he had only his Rinnegan eye left. He didn't have his normal Sharingan anymore and was completely at the end of his strength.

By the time Sasuke arrived at Naruto's house, he was already dead. Kurama had tried to sacrifice himself, but Naruto hadn't let him do it. He had told him he would not allow anyone to sacrifice themselves for him again. Since Neji sacrificed himself for him in the war, he didn't let such a thing happen again.

When Naruto died, he had no regrets and smiled. He was willing to see his family on the other side, knowing the village and the others were safe and sound.

It was a pretty unusual sight when he opened his eyes again in a little wooden house in some strange place. He still had the trained and muscular body of a 30-year-old man, but his clothes were different. When he sat up and looked down at himself, he could see old, worn-out garments like from a beggar. It was an old kimono with a grey obi tied around the waist and old pants with shredded ends. He stood up and looked around the room.

He looked at the open entrance of his wooden house and saw a man who, if Naruto had to guess, should be around 40-50 years old. Naruto saw the severe look and narrowed eyes of the man. He narrowed his eyes when he felt pressure from the man. He didn't know what this pressure was, but it was pretty intense. It wasn't killing intent or potent chakra. He couldn't feel any chakra inside himself or the man in front of him.

"You have a strong Reiryoku. Come with me, and I will show you how to wield your powers."

Naruto opened his eyes and saw the night sky over Karakura Town. It was a small city with an average-sized population, most of whom were unaware of the ghosts and spiritual forces that existed there.

Karakura Town was under the jurisdiction of the 13th Division and was referred to as District 3600 by the Shinigami and was situated on the current Jūreichi (Important Spirit Ground; Viz "Concentrated Spirit Zone") - the point in the Human World that possessed the greatest concentration of spiritual beings.

'It's been a few hundred years since I left the Gotei 13 and the Soul Society. I wonder how Sensei Shigekuni is doing over there. I am sure he is still the serious head captain to this day.' Naruto chuckled a bit when he thought back to his time in the elemental nations after he died. One thousand years ago, he woke up in a wooden house in nowhere. It was just a coincidence, but the head captain of the just-formed Gotei 13 found Naruto because Naruto had a strong Reiryoku even when he had just come into the Soul Society. It was so potent that Yamamoto Shigekuni could feel it from afar since Naruto had no idea what Reiryoku was and how to suppress it.

Naruto attended the Shin'ō Academy, founded by Yamamoto Shigekuni 2100 years ago. Students of the Shin'ō Academy studied, trained, and learned everything about a Shinigami, their duties, and everything else in 6 years. Naruto finished after three years and was considered a genius when it came to every aspect of a Shinigami fighting style.

Almost no one could beat him in Hakuda, which was basically Taijutsu. At the end of his life in the elemental nations, he was one of the best Taijutsu practitioners in the entire world, even surpassing Taijutsu specialists.

Learning Hohō (Fast Movement) wasn't pretty tricky since it had some similarities with the usage of chakra. The greatest form of Hohō was the Shunpo. Shunpo (Flash Step) was a movement technique that allowed the user to move faster than the eye could follow. As speed was the main factor of the technique, the method was best characterized by how fast one could get from point A to point B in the least number of steps. Training and skill were what determined how fast a Shunpo user could move.

There were different stages on how well someone could use Shunpo. They were categorized into three main groups of users: Shunpo Masters, Shunpo Experts, and Shunpo Practitioners.

Shunpo Practitioners: Practitioners of the technique could maintain fast movements for a short period of time by seemingly taking only a few steps to bridge what would typically be large distances. Those who were practitioners commonly used their knowledge of Hohō while engaging in combat to close the space between combatants. Practitioners who maintained these high speeds for too long tend to become winded.

Shunpo Experts: Experts in the technique were considerably fast and could maintain high-speed movements for extended periods of time. While not as fast as masters, they could keep up quite effectively. Some holding the title were faster than others, but nonetheless, their application of the technique was highly advanced.

Shunpo Masters: Shunpo masters were capable of maintaining high-speed movements for extended periods of time while using the least number of steps to achieve those movements. Masters were capable of using advanced steps, which were considerably harder to initiate. A master could possibly create new techniques, but it was most likely a rare occurrence.

Naruto was a Shunpo master and one of the fastest Shinigami ever. Almost no one could keep up with his speed and his mastery of Shunpo. Only someone like Shigekuni Yamamoto, the strongest Shinigami, could keep up with Naruto.

On the other hand, Learning Kidō (Demon Way) was a bit more difficult for Naruto. Even when it was similar to Ninjutsu, a Shinigami could use three kinds of Kidō spells. Hadō, Bakudō, and Kaidō.

With Bakudō spells, someone could, for example, create barriers or seals. They were mostly supplementary spells that could immobilize an enemy or have an effect besides a direct strike.

Kaidō was pretty hard to learn, and only a few could use this hard kind of Kidō spell. Those were healing spells, which were pretty similar to medical Ninjutsu. Naruto learned it over the years, but when he came out of the academy, he couldn't use these rare spells yet. He learned it from another Shinigami.

Hadō were offensive spells that inflicted direct damage to the enemy. Their effectiveness differed depending on the user. It was said the effectiveness of the higher-ranked spells was beyond imagination. With the usage of Hadō, he could even recreate his beloved Rasengan. It was his very own Hadō spell only Naruto could use. It was just as deadly and effective as the original in the elemental nations.

Last but not least was Zanjutsu. Zanjutsu was the fighting style for the Zanpakutō and was one of the four basic fighting styles of the Shinigami. Naruto had to train pretty hard in this fighting style since he never wielded a sword in his former life. He was a Taijutsu and Ninjutsu specialist. He never needed a sword since he could use Shadow clones to overpower his opponent or other Ninjutsu. He also felt more comfortable using his own body in close-range combat. But he also learned and mastered Zanjutsu and became a captain pretty soon after he finished the academy.

What still amazed him today was how a "Soul" ages. He was over 1000 years old and still didn't look any different from when he arrived in the Soul Society 1000 years ago. He wasn't a typical human since he became a Soul who lived in the Soul Society. Souls were the living beings over at the Soul Society. Some souls like Naruto had enough Reiryoku to learn the ways of the Shinigami and later become one.

Naruto left the Soul Society and the Gotei 13 for a few reasons, but those were all long forgotten. He thought about returning multiple times, but he liked his peaceful and quiet life in the human world. He watched how the humans of this world evolved and created fascinating technology and other things.

He knew that one day, his peaceful life would be over because he would be dragged into something again since he knew his luck with those kinds of things. It was also his personality, which couldn't look away if something serious happened in front of his eyes.

It wasn't that he didn't have conflicts while he was a captain of the Gotei 13. 1000 years ago, he was in a war against the Quincy and killed many of them because they were about to destroy the balance between the worlds. The Shinigami had no other choice but to hunt them because they wouldn't listen or agree to any negotiation.

Naruto smiled when he thought back to all the things that happened in the Soul Society. His old comrades, his friends, his life over there, and many other things. It was a great time, but he was also glad to some extent to live his simple and quiet life in the human world. He still had all of his powers and trained enough not to rust over the hundreds of years he already was in the human world. He didn't make the mistake when he was Hokage, and he wouldn't make the mistake when he was a retired Shinigami captain. It could always be that an enemy would appear before him and attack him.

He stood up and stretched once. He wore a long-sleeved white shirt with grey pants and brown boots. He had short, spiky blond hair, ocean-blue eyes, and six whiskers. Those things would never change, no matter how much time passed. His hair hadn't changed or grown out one bit since he became a Soul, not that it bothered him in any way.

He made a living by writing books. His most famous book series was about his old life. Since no one knew about it, Naruto wrote about it, and it was a hit. Humans in the entire human world read his books about the elemental nations. Naruto's first book was about his own life, to the point where he left the village with Jiraiya on the 3-year training trip.

There was even a manga and anime adaptation of his books. It was pretty crazy how well humans in this world could recreate scenes and persons from his old life just from the descriptions inside of his book. He only ever wrote the details of the looks of everyone in his books and never drew a visual design for everyone, but still, the humans could recreate everyone pretty accurately.

He was standing at the side of a river. He liked to lay here in the grass and watch the night sky when it was dark outside. He was mostly awake when it was night since he liked the moon and felt more comfortable at night. He could, of course, leave his gigai, and he wouldn't be able to be seen by normal humans, but he preferred to stay inside of his gigai.

Naruto narrowed his eyes when he felt the reiatsu of the shinigami stationed in Karakura Town almost vanish. He had planned to leave Karakura Town in a month to travel to another city since he couldn't be in one place for too long because Hollow and Shinigami could begin to register him if he was too long at one point. But feeling this rare occasion, he changed his plans. He would delay this and look what happened.

He walked toward a bench and sat down before he left his special gigai, who could hide his reiatsu entirely. It was the single reason he hadn't been found yet, besides his careful lifestyle of not attracting spiritual things like ghosts, shinigami, and hollows.

Naruto now wore a normal Shinigami shihakushō with a long-sleeved captain's haori. On the back was the sign for the second division, showing his former position as the head of the second division and Onmitsukidō. He wore a narrow white obi, in which he secured his Zanpakutō. He placed his hand on the orange grip of his Zanpakutō and smiled. "It's been a while, old friend." He chuckled a bit when he felt the reaction of his partner he had since he managed to imprint his soul into an Asauchi, gaining his own personal Zanpakutō at the time during the academy. His Zanpakutō had an orange grip and a rectangular sword guard.

He looked toward the direction he could feel the vanishing reiatsu from and raised a foot before he vanished. He appeared far away when he placed his foot down and vanished again when he raised his next foot. Naruto had to say that using Shunpo to travel around was liberating. He trained his abilities enough and used them all so he wouldn't rust, but using Shunpo again with a purpose other than training to stay on his level was a different feeling.

He appeared in the air, where he felt the reiatsu. He saw how a hollow held a little girl with black hair, a teenage boy with orange hair lying unconscious on the ground in front of the hollow, and the Shinigami he felt. She was injured and held her Zanpakutō at her side while she held her right side with her other hand.

Naruto wanted to interfere but stopped when he saw how the teenage boy woke up and attacked the hollow. 'So, the boy has enough Reiryoku to see Hollow and Shinigami.' The boy was slapped away, and he landed on the ground in front of the Shinigami. Naruto's eyebrows rose when he saw how the Shinigami gave the teenage boy her powers, and the boy with orange hair wore a Shinigami shihakushō with a giant sealed Zanpakutō. It was larger than any other Asauchi he had seen so far. Normally, an Asauchi wasn't longer than a standard Japanese katana, but the Asauchi, he held a two-handed longsword in his hand. It was just as huge as the boy.

Naruto watched as the boy killed the hollow with one clean sword slash. 'He has good intuition and good reflexes.' He could tell instantly that the boy had to be someone special. Naruto waited a moment before the boy became unconscious and vanished, appearing behind the Shinigami.

"Hello."

The female Shinigami was startled for a second when she heard the voice behind her. She had wide eyes when she saw Naruto's outfit and felt his reiatsu. She could immediately tell that Naruto wasn't a normal shinigami just from his reiatsu and presence. He had the presence of a leader even when he was gently smiling at her.

"W-who are you? I never saw you before, and you are wearing a captain haori." She could tell this haori was an original and not a fake one. Captain Haori was special, and everyone could tell if one was fake or not.

Naruto crouched down in front of her to be at eye level. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki." He held his hand in front of her chest before a green light began to shine around his hand. He was using Kaidō right now to heal the wounded Shinigami.

"Could I ask for your name, Shinigami?"

She remained silent for a second and looked at Naruto's hand. She couldn't believe someone appeared out of nowhere, revealing himself as a Shinigami. Naruto was most likely a former captain of the Gotei 13 and could also use the rare art of Kaidō. She could feel how her wounds began to close and heal.

She looked into his ocean-blue eyes and said, "My name is Rukia Kuchiki."

"It's an honor, Rukia." He canceled his Kaidō spell when he was done healing her. Her wounds weren't fatal. She was only exhausted because she had lost all her powers to the orange-haired teenage boy. When she was inside a gigai for some time, her powers would return, and she would be as good as new.

"Since you shared your powers with the boy over there, you could use a gigai." Naruto grabbed inside of his shihakushō and pulled out a little brown sphere. This was a portable gigai Naruto got long ago from someone close to him. Naruto had a few portable gigai in case something like this happened, or his gigai would be destroyed while he was outside it.

"Here, you can use this for the meantime." Rukia looked unsure at his extended hand with the brown sphere in hand. Ultimately, she grabbed the portable gigai and crushed it in her hands, revealing a perfect copy of herself without eyes in her arms. The gigai takes the form of anyone who destroyed the brown sphere.

Naruto stood up and turned to the orange-haired boy and the girl. Rukia looked up and saw the second division symbol on Naruto's back. She was sure now that Naruto was a former captain since the current captain of the second division was most likely still in her position.

He looked down at Rukia and saw her gaze. "I would only ask you for one thing in exchange for my help." Naruto has done this before and helped others. He only ever wanted one thing in return.

"Don't tell anyone about my existence. Can you promise me this?" Naruto looked into Rukia's eyes, and she nodded without hesitation. "I promise, Naruto Uzumaki. But I want to meet you again; I have many questions."

Naruto smiled and shook his head. "I am sorry, but I would prefer to stay under the radar. Revealing information about myself to a member of the Kuchiki family would only create trouble for me later on. Forget I interfered here and regain your strength while you help the boy to whom you gave your powers."

He turned around and stopped before he looked over his shoulder. "One last warning, Rukia Kuchiki. I don't know if the law has changed since I left the Soul Society, but sharing your powers with a human is a fatal crime. I hope you are ready for what will come when this law is still in effect. going." He looked forward and walked a few steps before vanishing.

Rukia slipped into the gigai and watched the spot where Naruto vanished. She didn't even think about the consequences of her actions when she shared her powers with Ichigo. She flinched a bit when she felt a little pain in her left arm. She would ensure that Ichigo would be prepared for what would come sooner or later. Her decision ultimately placed Ichigo and his entire family in danger. She would need to resume her activities of hunting hollows, but she would need Ichigo's help. That would be the perfect opportunity to train him and explain what Shinigami was and what he would have to expect in the future.

When he walked away from the river, Naruto was already in his gigai again. He looked over his shoulder and saw a black cat who looked at him. 'I knew it.' He kept walking and chuckled a bit.

It had been a few hundred years, but his actions finally had consequences for him. He couldn't look away when a fellow Shinigami was in danger, and seeing how Rukia Kuchiki was about to die to a hollow, he had to help her even when he wasn't needed. He could have stopped her from sharing her power, but he wanted to wait until the last moment.

'To be honest, I already thought about getting some action back. After a few hundred years of living so peacefully, my body and my partner crave action.' His zanpakutō didn't clash with another zanpakutō for a very long time, and it craved to clash with another zanpakutō again. His body also screamed at Naruto when he left his gigai that he should get some action again after so long.

'Let's see how this turns out. The black cat has her eyes on me now, and I can feel a strong reaction from the cat.' He stopped and waved at the black cat before he walked away, chuckling to himself. He got the reaction he wanted from the cat. The cat stopped dead in her tracks when Naruto turned around and obviously waved at her with a smirk. She most likely didn't think Naruto noticed her since she was very good at suppressing her reiatsu.

Having experience as a shinobi and the leader of the stealth force, Naruto didn't have difficulty noticing the cat. Even when he wasn't sure who the cat was, it was still no problem to notice her.

'I am looking forward to the things happening in Karakura Town in the near future.'