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Chapter 14

Naru hid behind the wall and eased her breathing and waited calmly as she listened to the conversation.

"I like you, Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue exclaimed, her eyes shut and her cheeks aflamed.

Ichigo just stared at her, bewildered as he stood rooted to his spot. It took him a moment before what Inoue said registered in his mind.

He took a deep breath and let it out softly before smiling softly at his classmate and the person who had become his treasured comrade.

He placed his large hand over her head and watched as she flinched at his action before looking up at Ichigo. Seeing his smile, she couldn't help but the slight glimmer of hope fluttering in her heart.

"Inoue…" he started.

"I appreciate you. You are one of my precious people. However, there can only be one mate for me. And she is Naruko. I cannot love another than she. I can't even think if its possible for me to love any other woman besides her."

Inoue swallowed the large lump of bitterness as she gathered her thoughts.

"But I've known you longer! She just came into your life!" tears were welling up in her eyes.

Ichigo began rubbing her hair softly and shook his head.

"No. I've known her far longer. She has been with me from the end of my life to the start of my new life. She is my world. For many centuries she has been my only one. I can't stress enough how important she is to me, Inoue. You are precious to me too. But you will only be my friend to me. Nothing more, nothing less."

With that, Inoue burst into tears and ran out of his room.

Running a hand through his hair in slight frustration, Ichigo heaved a sigh of relief as a pair of hands wrapped around him.

"Did I do it right?" he worried.

Naru turned to give her lover a peck on his cheek and nodded.

"I'm proud of you." she smiled. Ichigo could see how happy his mate was with how beautiful she was, beaming with happiness.

"I just wished she could have feelings for Ishida. That four eyes been pinning on her since we got the gang together."

"Feelings can't be forced upon people, Ichi. You know that."

XxXxXxX

~Inoue's pov~

I knew this was bound to happen with how he looked at her. how things changed drastically overnight. But… I just can't help it… I've always been the one there for him! Nobody was there for me though…

A hand softly landed on her head, startling the orange haired teenager. She looked up to see Uryuu smiling softly at her.

He calmly took the swing next to her and began to slowly swing back and forth. Uryuu said nothing. There was no sound aside from the creaking of the swing and the breeze of the night.

Inoue somehow calmed down drastically with just his presence. It was like he knew what was wrong and yet he didn't want to pry her of her feelings. She looked at the blue haired man beside her and watched with keen eyes as he looked up in the night sky, swinging back and forth as if waiting for her to realize something.

And that was when it hit her. she was never alone. He has always been there for her. Ever since their childhood days he had been there for her. He watched her as she had watched Ichigo. He cared for her as she had cared for him. He has been hurting, watching her loving another as she had for Ichigo.

You have been waiting patiently all these while Uryuu-kun…

Tears began to well up in her eyes again as the quincy turned to meet her tearful gaze.

He reached out and placed a hand lovingly on her cheek and wiped a stray tear with his thumb, smiling painfully as he watches her cry.

"Arigatou Uryuu-kun. Arigatou" she bursts into soft sobs as Uryuu quickly got up and kneeled before her, grabbing her head softly to lean on his shoulder as she cried out her remaining feelings for Kurosaki Ichigo.

That night, a one sided romance died and was buried. But a new one, blossomed in the night breeze of a healing heart.

XXXXX

"You do realize that this isn't the end of the war right?" Naru asked her lover.

Ichigo suddenly choked on his juice and fell on his back as he heard her.

"What do you mean this isn't the end?! Aizen's gone!" he yelled, flabbergasted.

A deep sigh of frustration escaped the blonde beauty.

"That, Ichigo, was just the end of this world's problem. It is the beginning of a cycle of hatred in another world."

Ichigo plastered on a poker face and a ticked mark was since on Naru's forehead which was followed up with a roundhouse kick to her lover's head.

"BAKA! Oi! Kisuke! Youruichi! Isshin! Get your asses in here!"

xXxXxXx

"EH?! There's more than one world?! Like seriously there are other dimensions out there?! That's so cool! And so troublesome" another tick mark popped on Naru's temple. But this time she managed to keep her cool

"Look Ichigo, the only reason I was able to send you into the past was because my past is long gone. Vanished from history. This is because of how strong the enemy was that it is better for us to vanish from this world. Or so many thought. The truth is, during the last battle with madara and the bijuu, I set a seal on my world. A seal that puts them to sleep for as long as it could hold. But I can feel it weakening. And before it breaks entirely, I will need to go back to my world and release the seal while resetting history all over again. Basically I used the jutsu to send us back into time here as an experiment. I honestly didn't think it would have worked but it did! I have you and I many more precious people and I don't regret it."

The gears in Ichigo's mind began to turn and he understood the meaning behind her ramblings. She didn't use him. Whatever they shared in the past and currently have now is all real to her.

He smiled at his lover, she was so ditzy he couldn't help but love her more.

"Well where would we be going? And how was it possible that Hashirama, Madara and Tobirama joined us in soul society when you put a seal on their world?"

"That's because they were already dead so the souls of the dead are reincarnated and what not. I made up the story about them being reincarnated into another world up so that I didn't mess up with your head. Other than that, I'm going to have to transport the ninja world into another dimension and deal with them from the beginning. Maybe around the chunnin exams? But you will need to upgrade yourself with the pirates if you're planning on coming along Ichi. At the rate you're at now, which is actually half of what you were able to do in the past, is going to get you killed."

A sudden chill ran up Ichigo's spine as his beloved had a splitting evil grin on her face.

"Oh no…"

"Oh yes! Its embarrassing that Luffy is so much stronger than you in terms of power! and he can't swim! I won't have my mate any weaker than my comrade. You're the male and you have better get your act together and grow stronger or I will leave your sorry ass behind!"

He knew he was dead before she even finished that sentence. Kami save the poor man's soul.

The End

a/n: Sequel coming up!