so anyways idk this is just a thing i'm playin' around with. see how it goes.

i don't own naruto and i don't own bleach and i certainly don't pretend to be an avid fan of either. just a lowkey longtime fan. (like i remember being an avid fan when shippuden came out... i was in middle school lmao.) so like, hunt me down if i get something wrong, if thats your cup o' tea.

This was not his office. This was not Seireitei.

For the first time since the end of the War, the fragile peace that Hitsugaya had known had shattered.

He was anguished, more than anything, when the world around him seemed to bleed in from the white static that had suddenly engulfed him. He stared around him, expression blank, seeing faces far too familiar but so, so distant from who he was now. Pink hair– pale eyes, dark hair– spiked hair, pulled back in a ponytail– black, charcoal eyes on an ashen pale face. Sakura, Hinata, Shikamaru, Sai, his mind hissed, taunting him of what he had long since lost and could never regain. He took a soft breath, his heartrate skyrocketing as his arms were suddenly bound. He looked down to the chakra restraints that clasped tightly onto his wrists, bleeding seals onto his pale skin. He breathed; there was no need to lose his composure. He had suffered far worse.

"Oh?" He heard a voice, one that seemed eerily familiar. "You're Uzumaki Naruto? This is not what I had expected when I tried to resurrect you... but now things have gotten interesting."

He took a slow breath, then, and let his reiatsu loose. The binds that held his wrists froze quickly, and he flexed his arms to shatter them. He flashstepped a distance away, his eyes narrowed and gaze dark.

"Sit upon the frozen Heavens," He said, slowly, drawing his sword. He swung the blade out at the ninja who seemed so familiar, yet so different, with that scaled skin, those slit eyes, that grey hair, those glasses. "Hyorinmaru!"

The dragon roared as it flew from his blade, and he bared his teeth as it crashed into the cavern ceiling, breaking the mountain face open, disregarding the enemy before him. He had no desire to face this past that was so far gone, now. He had no desire to rip those old wounds open, again. He couldn't bear to see the pain on those peoples faces, those who had been his friends, once.

He couldn't focus on that. He stared down at the gathered ninja, both rogue and Konoha, his expression remaining passive, standing seemingly on thin air. This seemed to take the present ninja aback as he held the sword at his side.

"Where do you think you're going, jinchuuriki?" Kabuto called up after him. "Do you not feel any sort of concern for your own former comrades?"

"The dead," He said, coolly, "Have no place among the living. I do not know how so little time has passed here since I departed, but it is to your own detriment. You have made a terrible mistake by bringing me back."

"Oh? You've become quite arrogant." There was nothing but amusement to Kabuto's expression as he replied, his posture open and clearly lacking the fear that Hitsugaya felt he should have. It made his blood boil in a way that he hadn't felt in a long time and he wondered, then, what his problem was. "Are you so sure of yourself, after you overtaxed your body following your legendary battle with Pain?"

"I was young," Hitsugaya countered, letting a hint of his reiryoku free, letting the cold chill his skin in a welcoming comfort against the harsh sunlight. "And I was cocky. My enemies in the afterlife have been more than you could hope to be. You are continuing to blunder about like an insignificant child by underestimating me."

He disappeared in another flash. Choked gasps rose up from the present four as a spray of blood opened up from the new wound freshly made on Kabuto's chest. Hitsugaya stood behind him, blade in hand and stained red. Kabuto clasped the wound, looking alarmed.

"I did not even have to activate my shikai to injure you," Hitsugaya's voice came coldly, breaking the suffocating silence.

Kabuto's eyes narrowed before he tilted his head back, his glasses glaring in the sunlight that flooded through the destroyed mountain-face. "So I should attempt a different tactic, then."

There was a blur of movement, but considering Hitsugaya's skill he could see where it was going. In a flash he vanished, and the three kunai that had been launched at Hinata crashed into the zanpakuto, bouncing off it. Kabuto's lip twitched, and Hitsugaya sneered.

"Don't think me so weak," Hitsugaya hissed in a harsh whisper, the words almost a growl. "You'll find yourself regretting that."

"I do believe you've forgotten how this world works," Kabuto replied smugly.

It was then that he realized– too late, too late –that there were exploding tags on the kunai.

A blast of smoke and explosives obscured the cavern. Sakura threw her hands up in front of her face to minimize the impact of any debris. Sai and Shikamaru both took the opportunity to jump back, and then Sakura followed them, her eyes narrowing.

"Did you see Hinata?" Sakura asked, worry seeping into her voice.

Shikamaru shifted his body lower, his eyes narrowed as he took in the situation around them. "No," Shikamaru said, biting his lip for a moment. "But that guy had her back, at least."

Sakura tensed.

"So you two are tentative to label that strange boy as Naruto as well?" Sai asked.

"I..." Sakura wanted to be mad, honestly. Truly, she wanted to take offense to Sai's reluctance to believe that Naruto was brought back. But the boy that stood before them was an echo of a boy that shouldn't have existed, yet was also so different from anything she knew.

And he was so cold.

Just like Sasuke.

Just like ice.

Shikamaru jerked forward a bit, his eyes widening a bit. Sai and Sakura turned their attention out, leaving the conversation by the wayside. After all, there were far more important things going on.

Like a massive, jagged spire of ice being left in the fading smoke.

Shikamaru sagged in relief to see Hinata.

"This was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance effort," Sai murmured under his breath, only loud enough for Sakura and Shikamaru to hear. Truly, he was getting the hang of the whole social interaction thing, even if he was still having mild issues with his social awareness. Shikamaru grumbled a bitter "How troublesome" as well, and Sakura finally saw the reason why.

Hinata swallowed.

She had, for a moment, been disoriented by the attack from how quickly it'd come. More disorienting had been the heat of the explosives and then a cold so intense it burned. She had wrapped her arms around herself and huddled, intent on minimizing the damage due to how close she was to the attack.

But she wasn't hurt.

She looked up sharply, her Byakugan active, and then gasped.

"Naruto-kun," She breathed.

For Hitsugaya was before her, his Haori torn and stained with blood, a giant frozen obelisk surrounding them. Clearly, the defensive measure had absorbed the brunt of the damage, but Hitsugaya still hadn't been quick enough. But that was not the reason why she knew, suddenly, that this was Naruto.

His eyes were terrified, a fear that was reflected that she knew so intimately, that haunted her dreams for years, and she could only stand there, frozen, transfixed by that gaze because it was him. He was afraid for her.

And then he was angry.

Which was, in fact, the nail in the coffin for his identity, for anger meant that a beast which had long since laid dormant was now awake. Now, being in such a chakra rich environment, the Kyuubi's chakra flooded out of Hitsugaya in a maelstrom, and Hitsugaya roared, Hyorinmaru falling from his hands as he shattered the ice around him, sending a frigid hail of jagged icicles in Kabuto's direction. Kabuto only watched in amusement as Hitsugaya was enveloped in a cloak, rapidly ascending to a three-tailed form.

"N-Naruto-kun, wait–" Hinata stammered out, alarmed, but she barely had time to brace herself as Hitsugaya lunged away from her, a shockwave slamming into her from how fast he'd moved.

This wasn't the Naruto she knew, even if he was Naruto. She regrouped with the others, uncertainty in her eyes. Though nothing was said as they readied themselves to defend themselves and combat Kabuto, they knew for certain that this...

This all was wrong.

Only one thing was certain.

Things had officially gone from idyllic to a nightmare, and Hitsugaya was going to have his revenge.