Chapter 1 - Descent

How long had he been falling?

His entire body burned with a dull pain that refused to go away. It was like needles burying themselves into his skin; a thousand paper cuts that endlessly multiplied. Dull, yet sharp pains racked his body and mind as Naruto fell in the endless abyss.

Time lost all meaning as Naruto fell; it was hard to think in the descent. For some reason, he was tired. But, try as he might to rest, the endless torment of pain kept him awake. Amidst the physical pain and the mental weariness Naruto was in a haze of emptiness.

And so he fell...

... And so he fell...

... And so he fell...

... And so he lost himself...

Naruto awoke to a terrible hunger, the endless feeling of dread and despair in his stomach. He was kneeling in some strange place, an endless desert beneath a moonlit night. Just moments ago Gaara was carrying him across the battlefield, but now he was resting in the strangest and most empty battlefield.

"Where am I?" he questioned to himself. It was strange but somehow he knew that this world was not the same one that he had come from. Suddenly the hunger came back; it was so strong that Naruto's very insides seemed to twist and turn around him in an effort to sate that hunger. He instinctively reached for his stomach, only to find a strange hole forming in the area where his seal used to be.

"Kurama's gone…" he observed as the hunger grew and grew. His very psyche began to feel strangely empty, as though something important from him was being sucked out. Naruto couldn't quite put his finger on it, but at the same time he knew something was leaving him.

At first he resisted with all his might. Despite his best efforts, the dreadful pull grew larger and larger as it expanded, pulling everything including the dread and hunger out from his mind. No matter how hard he tried to stay together, the consuming pull of his hunger overpowered him.

A mask began to form around Naruto's head, covering his face tightly. At the same time the last vestiges of his memories disappeared and the struggle ended.

As the minutes passed, Naruto never realized that he had forgotten something important, because that importance of memory was no longer important. Only the confusion as to why he was here lingered in his mind.

All around him was an endless desert; a darkened wasteland. Around him there was nothing, and so nothing was what was around him.

With no real sense of direction, he looked around for the briefest of moments. Then he turned to the sky and saw the moon. High above the endless desert the white globe gave him the strangest sense of revulsion. Something was wrong about that moon, and yet he couldn't understand why he hated that moon.

Determined to flee from the moon's sight, Naruto began to walk away from it.

Naruto didn't realize it at first, but everything around him withered and died.

Occasionally Naruto would pass by a tree or a small animal. Simply walking by them would cause them to waste away in a horrible death throe before their essence burst from their bodies in a fine mist. That same essence would then funnel out of the unfortunate souls and on into him, though Naruto never paid attention to the drain.

As Naruto walked he never paid any attention to the uncaring sands beneath his feet or the animals that he killed subconsciously; the revolting moon above his head drove him into an endless march.

For many cycles of the moon Naruto continued to walk away from the moon, oblivious to the pitiful death wails of whatever he passed. Sometimes he questioned who he was and why he was here in this wasteland. Sometimes he questioned what this wasteland was. In the end, all that Naruto knew was that he was terribly hungry and that there had to be somewhere to escape the moon.

It wasn't until he crossed a large animal that his march was halted. A feral beast slammed down on the sand directly in his path, knocking Naruto off balance. As Naruto was sent backwards the catlike creature began to stalk a circle around Naruto.

"Today's my lucky day." it snarled through a strange skull-like mask on its face. As white as bone, the mask hid the cat-like creature's head and outlined a pair of large fangs. Where the mask ended, the beast began; long, tall, and filled with muscles, the cat was in every sense the apex of predatorial evolution.

"What are you?" questioned Naruto as he found his voice. The creature was big and beautiful and it was dangerous. Lost in his musings, Naruto barely registered the beast hissing and then lunging at him.

Not that it mattered, for the beast fell over dead before it could touch Naruto.

With a lifeless crash, the beast skidded into the sand and threw up a small screen of sand as it became a ragdoll. Then it dissolved into a fine mist that began to flow into Naruto. That was when he realized what had happened.

His hunger was mildly sated.

"I killed him..." Naruto whispered to himself, shocked at the turn of events. "…I killed him and consumed him…"

Suddenly a flow of knowledge invaded Naruto's mind. The memories of the beast became his memories. The constant fight for survival and a daily meal echoed in Naruto's mind. The hopes of becoming something greater reverberated in Naruto's psyche. The sudden realization and fear of death caused a great pain in Naruto's heart.

Confused at the sudden information, Naruto reached for his head with both arms as though to try and hold his head shut – like it would explode if he did not attempt to keep his mind together with physical force. That was when Naruto realized that he too wore a mask.

"Why am I wearing a mask?" He asked himself, confused at the sudden flood of consciousness. Gently he tugged upon it, only to gasp in pain and release his grip.

Lords above! It felt like someone had taken a great massive spike and shoved it straight through him when he attempted to pull off the mask. It was like pulling the mask was the equivalent of ripping out his own heart.

With a stagger, Naruto collapsed to the ground. For the longest time the pain across his very soul couldn't move an inch.

"Don't come close to me!" Naruto begged the beast in front of him pitifully. It had been hundreds of moon cycles since he had come here. He still couldn't understand why he was here, but the crippling sensation of loneliness was constant in his life.

Naruto had consumed hundreds of other hollows just like the first monster that had attacked him. Through their knowledge he came to understand that he was in a place called Hueco Mundo – a godforsaken desert where only the wretched and tormented lived. Through their memories came a unifying theme of emptiness and loneliness - for they had been able to touch and feel other hollows, even if it was as they consumed them.

Everything simply died as Naruto came close to it.

"And why shouldn't I?" asked a masked juggernaut as it towered over him, "I see a weak morsel, ready for devouring. Why would you deny me of my rightful meal?"

It was always the same deal. Some predator would try and attack Naruto, looking for a quick meal. Naruto would beg for them not to come closer, and then the fools would come closer anyways. They would call him weak, they would charge, and then they would die and become a part of him.

With a guttural cry, the juggernaut lunged for Naruto before evaporating into dust. Tears flowed through Naruto's eyes as he absorbed the beast's powers as his own. He didn't want this. He didn't want to endlessly destroy everything that came close to him.

It was a curse and truly he was a cursed person. Falling to his knees, he cursed his life.

"Why are you crying?"

Abruptly pausing in his tears, Naruto looked up. There, ten feet away from him, stood the most beautiful female centaur. Her long green hair flowed down to the waist of her human body. Her waist seemed to transform flawlessly from that of a human to that of a horse. At the crown of her head rested a strangely beautiful white skull that adorned her in no small similarity to that of a hat or a helmet.

However, most striking of all was the face on the centaur. For once the mask didn't hide away a face, instead it simply crowned her. Two beautiful eyes gazed deep into his soul. A thin smile portrayed both worry and comfort. It seemed that this centaur did not want to eat him.

Caught in the beauty of the magnificent hybrid, Naruto couldn't find the words to describe his newest visitor. But then she took a step closer.

"Stay away!" begged Naruto as he hastily pulled away from the centaur, "You'll disappear like everyone else!"

"What do you mean by that?" asked the centaur as she walked up to Naruto faster than he could shamble away.

"Everyone that gets close dies..." answered Naruto, as he turned away so not to look at the woman when she died before him. "Please stay away for your..."

Naruto paused as the centaur laid her hands on him. For the first time since coming here, he felt the touch of another person. Her hands were soft, and comforting, and all too real in this nightmare of a world.

"H-how?" gasped Naruto in disbelief. Tears of joy came from his face as he watched the centaur sit down in front of him.

She towered above Naruto, and even when sitting down she had to bend forwards to meet him eye to eye. But she did just that, and drew him into a reassuring hug.

"You seem lonely, what's your name? Mine's Nelliel Tu Odelshwanck."

Her name was Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, although Naruto simply called her Nel. According to her own admission, she was at the very top of the hollow evolutionary chain – she was a Vastos Lorde. In their first meeting after Naruto had finally calmed down she explained that Naruto consumed everything in an attempt to become whole. He was just like the other hollows in Hueco Mundo, only he consumed his power in a different way than most.

But since Nelliel was a Vastos Lorde, she could resist Naruto's aura.

Nelliel was immune to Naruto's life-absorbing aura, a feat that no other hollow could manage. Only after much deliberation and thought did Naruto come to the sad conclusion that Nelliel was right and the consuming aura was his way of feeding and defending himself. And it made sense, for he had never physically touched any other hollow besides Nelliel.

But he could touch Nelliel without hurting her! Nelliel was strong enough to resist the consuming aura that Naruto exuded. Nelliel was a Vastos Lorde and Naruto was a much weaker hollow, probably an Adjuchas – though Nelliel couldn't immediately identify which class he was. Therefore it was only natural that she could resist his hunger.

Naruto could touch her and ride atop her and talk to her and use her to escape the biting loneliness of their empty existence. Nelliel was a font of joy and she gave a meaning to his life in Hueco Mundo. She could fill the void of his loneliness.

Nelliel had taught Naruto that the reason he felt lonely was because all hollows felt the burden of a meaningless existence. Hollows wore their hearts as masks because of some trauma that they had felt while they were living. They cannibalized other hollows in an attempt to fill that loneliness and sorrow, and because of that urge to fill their emptiness they constantly felt hungry. But, despite their greatest attempts, it was only when they found a way to fill that hole that the hunger truly disappeared.

At any rate, that certainly explained why he hadn't ever hungered whenever he was around Nelliel. She filled the hole that loneliness caused him.

Tonight was the fiftieth moon cycle that the two were together in the desert wasteland. Naruto refused to allow Nelliel to leave his side - her companionship providing him the rock of stability against the overwhelming loneliness he had felt before. Nelliel, for the most part, took the measure in stride and proved to be a good company for Naruto.

"I must hunt Naruto," instructed Nelliel as she took steps out of their temporary cave shelter. The soft crunch of sand beneath her hooves was the only sound in an awkward silence before Naruto finally spoke.

"Promise you'll return Nel?" asked Naruto as he stared at her from his seated position against one of the walls of the cave. He understood why the female had to kill other hollows – she was still hungry. Despite Nelliel filling Naruto's hunger, Naruto could not fill Nelliel's hunger. What filled her hole was something different than companionship.

Naruto would always become sullen and withdrawn whenever Nelliel made leave to hunt but he understood why she had to leave. Though he was never hungry, his consuming aura still existed and it would always absorbed any hollows that came close to them before Nelliel had a chance to sustain herself. Whenever they hunted other hollows together, Naruto would rob Nelliel of her much needed sustenance.

Bowing her head in silence, Nelliel slowly turned around and walked over to Naruto. "I promise that I will return." answered Nelliel as she reached behind his white mask and rubbed his messy blond hair. She kneeled down before Naruto and gave him a quick hug, then released it and made her way out of the cave.

As soft and warm as her words were, Naruto couldn't help but feel the icy grip of loneliness take hold on his very soul. He didn't want to be alone. The thought of eternal solitude pained him more than a thousand bites and cuts. He was hungry whenever he was alone, and he hated that hunger.

It reminded him that he was still a cursed soul.

Four hours later Nelliel returned to the cave, her hunger sated. Still sitting on the ground was the truly pitiable Naruto, the strange hollow that consumed everything around him.

Another hundred moons passed as Nel and Naruto continued their existence together. Time slowly passed as Naruto grew in stature and intelligence from his constant feeding while Nelliel stagnated. As Naruto grew, Nelliel withered.

But it was a slow process, happening so gradually that Naruto never noticed until the end.

"I'm sorry Naruto. I can't go on." whispered Nel as she collapsed to the sandy ground. Her latest hunt had been unsuccessful, and as such she was forced to return to Naruto hungry.

Naruto immediately rushed to her side. "What do you mean Nel?" he asked as he reached out to steady Nelliel by holding her shoulder. For the many cycles of the moon, Nelliel had been his teacher and friend. She educated him on the ways of the world while relieving him of the burden of being alone.

Naruto always assumed that they would be together forever. She filled his emptiness and had never shown any weakness before. In fact, this was the first time that she had ever said anything close to giving up. This moment was the first time she had ever shown weakness in front of him. It had never happened before.

It was only when Naruto touched the centaur that he realized the horrible truth. His life-consuming aura left burn marks on Nelliel's shoulder. She had lied to him about his hunger. For all the many cycles that they were together, Nelliel had never truly been immune to Naruto's aura. Indeed, Naruto had never been hungry when they were together because Naruto had been constantly feeding off her.

Very slowly, the very essence of Nelliel began to flake off her like a fine dust. She gave him a loving and tender gaze as Naruto tried to pull away. Resisting his attempt to make distance, Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck grabbed onto his hands and refused to let him go. She gasped in pain as the process sped up, but all the while she held the struggling Naruto close.

"Why!?" cried Naruto as he desperately pulled away, "why!?"

"I've... I've always hated my existence." answered Nelliel softly though gritted teeth, "We live a cursed life, destined to hurt others. But at least by being with you, I could escape that lonely and meaningless life - if only for a bit."

"Don't do this!" begged Naruto as Nelliel's essence flowed into him. With it came a flood of knowledge, a rush of Nelliel's memories as Naruto absorbed her.

Nelliel gasped as she sank her teeth into the hundredth Adjuchas of the cycle. She could feel the power within her bubbling upwards; it was only a matter of time before she evolved. As long as she kept her body safe she would be evolving into a Vastos Lorde very soon.

"Will I finally find meaning?" Nelliel asked herself as she continued to absorb the power of the hollow in front of her. The elephant-like monster had put up quite a fight but in the end Nelliel had tramped his head beneath her feet and crushed his mask.

For the longest time she ate in silence, all the while contemplating what she had done in her past life to deserve an eternity in an endless struggle to exist. Why couldn't she have been born a shinigami? Why did they get to enjoy the zest of life without needing to struggle? When would she finally have a reason to live, other than simply consuming and evolving?

She had run into shinigami before, and she had trampled them beneath her hooves like every other hollow in her path. She had consumed many shinigami before, though their souls provided little sustenance for her growing power.

As she finished the last bites of the monster, she couldn't help but feel strangely full. But she never felt full. In fact, she was so full that she kind of felt sick. It was as though her body couldn't contain the power that she had just consumed.

Wait…

"AUGHHH!" screamed Nelliel as she grabbed her mask. There was a sudden surge of pain as Nelliel's entire body felt as though it was on fire. Her body was changing, muscles snapped and tightened while her frame shrank in size but not power.

"This is it!" she thought as the transformation took place. Soon she wouldn't be an Adjuchas anymore. No, as soon as the transformation ended she would be a Vastos Lorde, and then she would be complete.

For what seemed like an eternity, Nelliel Tu Odelshwanck gritted her teeth and bore the pain of the change. But it was worth it when the transformation was complete.

"I'm so powerful." She noted with a smile as she observed her hands. They were much smaller but so much stronger. "I cannot believe it finally happened!"

In a motion of pure joy, Nelliel bucked upwards onto her hind legs before firing a cero into the air. The blast of power was so strong that it scorched the very air around her and whipped it into a surge of flames.

But just as quickly as the joy came, so did the horrible truth.

She was still empty.

Despair set in as Nelliel slowly realized that even in the end, no matter how strong she became, she would always feel the emptiness of living without a purpose. She would never feel completed, like a shinigami, and she would always have the instinctual need to cannibalize other hollows for her own power.

There was truly no other reason for her existence, other than to exist.

It was with great sadness that Nelliel came to the conclusion that her life was worthless. All that her life amounted to was hunting and feeding. She had no reason to exist.

For ages she had constantly been searching for a meaning to her life. The centaur had always questioned why she was born the way she was, as a hollow. At first she had chased the fleeting goal of evolution in hopes that it would provide her with a meaning for her life. She had always hoped that she would eventually find something worth living for.

But evolution was not that answer. Her evolution from a regular hollow to a Menos Grande had given her a desire to become stronger. Her evolution from a Gillian to an Adjuchas had filled her with the hope that there was a meaning to exist in the next evolution. Her evolution from Adjuchas to Vastos Lorde had taken away that hope, for there was nothing left to strive for.

Her meaning for living was a fleeting goal that, in the end, left her with nothing but the bleak realization that life as a hollow had no meaning.

"Don't come closer to me!"

The pitiful cry of another hollow roused her from her reverie. Saddened by what sounded like the passing of another hollow, Nelliel bowed her head and waited for the death scream. Death was the rule of Hueco Mundo and, as much as she wanted to distance herself from it, she could not help the poor amalgamation of souls that was about to die.

But that death wail never came. Instead, only a faint sound of tears carried over the wind.

Confused, Nelliel couldn't help but follow the sound of tears to the source. There she saw the most pitiful sight she had ever seen.

A young hollow no larger than a boy was sitting and crying alone in the sand. There was some evidence of a fight, but the hollow was completely unharmed and there was no corpse around him. But hollows never cried – they only consumed others.

"Why are you crying?" she asked simply as she walked towards the boy. As Nelliel got close, she immediately knew what had happened. The hollow had some form of life-consuming aura around him that ate everything. Even now as she passed into its range she felt the dull, gnawing, pressure of the aura as it attempted to consume her.

But she was strong so she simply shrugged it off.

"Everyone that gets close to me dies…" the boy said in a pitiable tone. No doubt he was still confused as to why he was here. He was alone, confused, and completely miserable.

It was at that very moment that Nelliel had an epiphany. Just like her, this hollow had no reason to live. It would be a mercy to kill the boy, but she would only condemn him to live on as a part of her. Since Nelliel had no purpose for living, why not use her life to give someone else's life meaning?

She knew she would die if she stayed by his side long enough, but she had no reason to live anyways. But that didn't matter. Since she had no purpose, she would at least give someone else a purpose. At least, she could try. That would be her purpose and reason for existing.

Reaching down, she touched the boy's shoulder and changed the Naruto's life. She didn't realize it at the time, but he also touched her life.

As time passed, Nelliel began to enjoy her life as a hollow. Sure, she still needed consume other hollows to feed herself, but with Naruto it seemed like every moment was something to cherish. The boy was an endless font of questions and enthusiasm; it reminded her of an innocence that human children carried inside of their minds.

"What do I look like?" he asked one day as he rode on her back. They had been together for a few cycles of the moon, and in all that time he had asked her many questions – but this was the first time he had asked about what he looked like.

"Well, where do I start?" asked Nelliel rhetorically, "You're a lanky human hollow and you're far too skinny for what's normal. You look very weak."

"Hey!"

"But, despite all that, I'm sure that you're very beautiful underneath that mask. You have a nice, if unruly, head of bright yellow hair. It looks very much like the sun."

"The sun?"

"Oh, right," remembered Nelliel as she continued to walk beneath the moon. Naruto had never visited the human world. Hueco Mundo was the only world that he knew. "The sun is a brilliant and warm ball of fire in the sky of the human world. Unlike the moon in Hueco Mundo, it fills the world with life."

"Can we go see it?"

Though Naruto couldn't see her face, Nelliel was biting her lip. Of course Naruto would want to go see the sun in the human world, he was curious of everything. But she couldn't simply take him to the human world, there were shinigami there and they would obviously notice the overwhelming power that Nelliel exerted. It would be a disaster.

"I'm sorry Naruto, maybe later." she replied in as honest a tone as she could. It hurt to lie to Naruto, but he would eventually understand why they could never visit the real world.

"Okay…"

Maybe one day, when she became a part of him, Naruto would be strong enough and mature enough to venture into the human world. Maybe he would find someone else to protect and cherish. Maybe Naruto would give someone else's life meaning just as she had given meaning to Naruto's life.

It hurt to know that one day she would cease to be an individual, but it comforted her to know that at least she would continue to exist as a part of her friend.

The memories continued on and on in a steady onslaught of the past.

Time's passage and the many memories. The friendship between the two. The joy of finally having a purpose. The loneliness kept at bay. The guilt that she was lying about being unaffected by him.

The growing weakness. The sad resolve that her death was inevitable. The fear that when she was gone Naruto would be left alone once again. The desire to be with Naruto until the end. The knowledge that she would rather die than face a lonely and empty existence.

At least now her death had meaning. She would live on forever with Naruto. It was her desire to at least have left an impact on the world, if only through one person that would remember her as she became a part of them.

"Don't go Nel. Please don't go..." begged Naruto as Nelliel released her grasp on him and fell to her side. Quickly, Naruto caught her and cradled Nel in his arms. They both ignored the burns that were popping up wherever Naruto touched Nelliel.

The centaur girl weakly traced her fingers around Naruto's mask, a sad smile on her face. "Don't... Weep for... Me..." she asked of Naruto, "I'll live on... Through... You..."

Slowly Nelliel closed her eyes and faded into an ethereal dust as the last of her being flowed into Naruto. He couldn't make any comment as he felt the strangest mixture of emotions flowing through him because of Nel. He felt unending sorrow, the depths of his despair unmatched. But, despite all of that, he felt a fluttering longing for Nelliel in his soul.

He could feel her inside of him urging him to be strong; but he couldn't be strong without Nelliel. For an eternity of the cycles of the moon she had given him a reason to exist, to brighten up her life and for her to brighten up his life. Because of her he no longer dreaded the moon and he no longer felt alone. But now she was gone – forever a part of him – and he wanted her back; simply having her as a part of his soul wasn't enough.

For Naruto, that longing for Nelliel was far more than a friendly desire to be with her.

Was it love?

What was love, truly?

Unable to take the grief of murdering his only friend and important person in the world, Naruto gripped his mask tightly. With a grim determination he pulled it away from his face.

Nelliel had once warned him about taking off his mask. She claimed that taking it off would destroy his soul, for every hollow wore a mask to hide their anguish. Not even Nelliel could remove her white bone crown.

Pain screamed through his body as he continued to pull against his mask. It felt like he was cutting up his own soul to remove the mask. If he continued to rip it away, Naruto knew that his soul would simply explode into essence and he would die.

But that was fine. What was the worth of an empty existence? Nelliel had found her resolve to live the empty existence through him, but he couldn't find any resolve to continue on without Nelliel.

Naruto knew that Nel would be disappointed in him. He could feel the echoes of her soul begging him to stop. But it didn't matter, for Naruto would rather dash himself upon the rocks and end it now than face a life without meaning; a life without Nelliel.

After what seemed like an eternity of bathing himself in lava, Naruto's mask finally gave away. It ripped off his soul and crumbled to dust as he pulled it off of his face. The pain overwhelmed him as his soul seemed to escape from his body - so much so that he fell to the ground in pain.

And so he fell...

... And so he fell...

... And so he fell...

... And so he lost himself...

Naruto remembered the horrible pain of loneliness, when the other villagers ignored him and whispered behind his back.

Naruto remembered trying so hard to make the villagers love him, but he didn't know how to make them love him.

Naruto remembered the joy in finding the grandfatherly Hiruzen Sarutobi and the love from someone who didn't have to give him the time of day but did - Iruka Umino.

He remembered team seven and their mission to wave country. He worked so hard to learn how to walk on trees. Then he met Haku and the masked assailant who had punched Sasuke full of holes with his senbon.

"Naruto!"

Abruptly the spiral of descent and the flood of memories ended as the voice in his ears pulled him back to his reality. But he recognized that voice, and that voice was now and forever a part of him.

"Wake up Naruto!" screamed Nelliel as she violently shook Naruto awake. Back and forth she rocked him as his head jerked around without resistance.

"I'm alive..." Naruto gasped as he filled his lungs with oxygen. "I'm alive... I- you're alive!"

Naruto could scarcely believe his eyes as his longtime companion gave him a bone crushing hug. He felt his shoulders separate painfully as she bent him backwards in an unexpected show of affection. One rib broke, and then another. Finally a third rib cracked before Nelliel released her death grip on him.

"I heard you calling to me from inside your soul," replied Nel with teary eyes as she slowly eased away to hold him at a close arm's length, "you would rather cease to exist than exist without me. How could I not come back to you?"

Stunned and shocked, Naruto couldn't help but note the fact that Nelliel had changed. Instead of being a centaur, Nel had two very human feet. Though the feminine body remained the same from the waist up, her waist no longer curved into the body of a horse. Indeed, she was a beautiful human with long green hair that reached the floor.

"You're not a centaur anymore…" Naruto started before abruptly being cut off.

The hard palm of Nelliel's hand snapped across Naruto's face with all the force of a rock slide. There was an audible crack as the force twisted Naruto's neck harshly to the side.

"Don't ever do that again," begged Nelliel as she once again hugged her friend. Tears were in her eyes as she hugged him fiercely. "If you died, I would have no reason to live!"

"What..." asked Naruto in surprise. His cheek stung like hell from the force of Nelliel's palm, but he wore a mask to protect it. Only he definitely felt Nelliel's palm against the skin of his face.

Confused, he reached upwards to feel his mask but then remembered that he had pulled it off. He only paused for a split second before touching his cheek. There was no mask there.

"I... I promise I won't do that again…" swore Naruto as he moved his hands down from his face to Nelliel's shoulders in an embrace. At least for now, they both had a reason to exist.

(A/N) I needed a break from my other stories. I've always wanted to try my hand at at writing a Naruto/Bleach crossover and I've been building the outline and resources for a while. The story is going to be shortish, ranging at about 5 chapters and 25k words when complete. There will be lots of time skips and there may be a disjointed feeling, though I'll try to keep it to a minimum. Each chapter will cover an important part of the story and build on several themes, try and spot them if you can!

Also, this chapter has some very dark themes in it that are very close to suicide and many self-loathing tendencies. It will get better, but I wanted to say that if you're ever in a bad situation or a bad spot in life and you need someone to talk to, I will always have an open inbox for you.