His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally? A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars. Onward, upward to where the shinigami demon cat awaits. His path leads to her side. His powers begin to flourish. And time, Moves on... What dangers loom in the future?

I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.

"Speaking"

"Thinking"

"Kyuubi to naruto"

"Mugen to naruto"

((Hollow speak))

Battle, Night

Kenpachi paused, he looked around, sure that he'd sensed something...

Nope. All that he could sense was some harmless woodland animals. Shrugging, he looked down at the Second Division lieutenant before him and grunted, "Fine," He said, "As long as you spooks stay outta my way, you can look around all you like, just let us know if you find anything." The Eleventh Division captain could have phrased it better, his words were brash and manner impolite but you had to have expectations to be disappointed.

Soifon nodded obediently, "Yes sir," She said. Her head was bowed and she was pointedly ignoring her opposite number, Yachiru, from the Eleventh as the little girl shamelessly tormented a young fox by grabbing the animal's tail and holding on in spite of the creature's cries of protest. "Hmph! Yachiru c'mon let's get going!" The imposing captain called.

The pink-haired lieutenant let go of the fox which swiftly sprinted for the woods not looking back. "OK!" She called exuberantly, leaping onto Kenpachi's shoulder in a single bound. "Bye-bye Squint-Face! Bye-bye Foxy-kun…" Her voice trailed off as Kenpachi raced off… toward Mount Hakone, in roughly a direct path away from where the murders had occurred at a port city near Sagami Bay.

Soifon shrugged, who was she to argue when someone made her job easier, speaking of which…

"You can come out now, sir." She called drily.

Walking out from behind a tree, rubbing at his sore tailbone was her captain, Uzumaki Naruto.

Although she would never admit it to anyone, he was the best thing to have happened to the Second Division, after Yoruichi-sama of course. For those who lived within Seireitei, duty was a fact of life. The so called Noble Families held their position by virtue of a tradition of service to the Shinigami. To leave active service for permanent retirement meant sealing ones power unless joining Central 46 which was in itself another type of service. The misfits that couldn't or wouldn't agree to serve were remanded to the Maggot's Nest until a use for them was found. And those who had not earned retirement, were unwanted by the Gotei Thirteen, yet could and would serve?

They were given to the Onmitsukidō.

Usually they were the children of nobility or former shinigami who wished to serve. The latter sought to serve with honor, the former sought honor in service. Most were promoted and quickly snatched up by the other divisions, especially the First, the few that weren't were the slackers looking for a free ride.

Those Soifon dealt with personally.

The Onmitsukidō had a reputation for performing its duties no matter the cost. This was different per say from, being strong or skilled, which many members were but for the most part they were simply ruthless. Very, very, very ruthless. The Special Forces did not believe in fighting fair, could not when on average, many of their members were the rejects of the Shinigami academy or rich pretty boys who couldn't hack it and whined as Soifon ground them between her merciless training and their honor. They died or turned into diamonds that were snatched up by the other divisions but they always completed their mission.

Most died.

That was the fact of life until Shihoin Naruto came along, with his ridiculous hat and obscuring scarf. He didn't change their traditions, he didn't even try to. What he did do was shake their fatalistic training around and turn the whole notion behind it, on its head. They didn't stop sending out the weakling in groups to survive or die, it was just that more and more of them kept surviving. Group tactics was a well established tactic but cross-training hakuda-specialists as field medics, establishing ambush and forward intelligence squads within the patrol corps, adding torture and interrogation units to the punishment corps, shuffling the executive militia around until each person had fought or trained beside her captain at least twice and then his knowing of who worked well with whom, even when she thought Naruto crazy for partnering her with Marechiyo.

And somehow they kept surviving.

"The tail," The blond shinigami whined piteously, "Why always the tail. That girl! Every time! She goes after the tail."

"You think she knows?" Soifon asked, looking amused.

Naruto stopped short, looking contemplative, then he said, "Nah, she would have told Kenpachi if she realized," He rubbed at his sore back, "Though she probably can tell it's the same fox."

And just like that, her captain went back to the quiet professional that was his public persona.

"Report!" He commanded.

So what if that voice stiffened her nipples just a bit? Well, he still had nothing on Yoruichi-sama. Or so she told herself.

So what if she thrust out her chest a little as she gave her report to her captain…

Hakone Shrine

The priest shivered, looked at the piece of paper in his hand and shivered again. It was time to do another purification ritual apparently. A foul wind cast the strip of paper away from him, on it was written:

STUPIDLY, UNREASONABLY, RIDICULUSLY BAD LUCK!

Kenpachi paused, he looked around. He was feeling kinda was lost.

"Neh, Yachiru," He said, with no real heat to his lieutenant. Yachiru was a diminutive girl with bugglegum pink hair, she was at the moment perched on his shoulder avidly watching a strip of paper float by. "Yachiru… Where the hell are we?" He growled, "I thought you said the strong guys were around here?"

Yachiru however, was too busy watching a zero fighter fly over the bay. In doing so her eyes fell upon a train trundling along in the distance, puffing out plumes of black smoke as it moved away from the seaport. Tugging at Kenpachi's hair excitedly she pointed at the machine saying, "Yatta! Ken-chan, that way!"

Kenpachi didn't see anything but started running down the mountain all the same, startling a few monks along the way down Mt. Hakone with the wind of his passage and lingering bloodlust.

"Heh, I hope they're strong!" He grunted.

In a totally different direction…

It had been a long time since she'd ventured into the Human World. The area reminded her greatly of another place. There across the street was a bank, all polished marble and concrete. Men dressed in fine cotton suits; ties and shoes polished to a shine by the elderly woman at the corner, walked in and out, some were fair-haired foreigners, some the local Japanese businessmen.

The scene could have been from any affluent European or American street. A line of expensive cars parked along the road, an Auburn Cabriolet, a Speedster and a Rolls Royce among them with the drivers waiting next to them, reading the papers, learning about the newly elected German Chancellor.

She flash-stepped to a rooftop a few blocks away and watched as the wealthy compounds and town houses expanded in one way while in the direction of the docks and elsewhere, things grew more cramped, smaller homes, warehouses, wooden shacks stacked back to back, and a sea of humans, cursing men driving rickshaws, wagon masters carting loads of crates bearing goods from the port cursing right back.

She looked over at the mish-mash of rooftops, painted orange and green; the telegraph wires, water towers, flyers, and trees.

It reminded her of… Where?

Shaking her head, Sakura moved on.

The constables manhandled the raving engineer into the back of the truck. A burly orderly assured them that it was an obvious case of dementia.

"A Pink Devil riding a Demon I tell you! A Demon!"

They were lucky that he hadn't started this episode until after arriving at the station. The man simply stepped off, calmly walked up to the Stationmaster's office and regaled, the aghast, staff with a tale of pink haired demons, dark tunnels and monsters that outran speeding freight trains.

Clearly he needed to be committed. The man's coworkers would take over while the Stationmaster tried to keep the whole mess under wraps.

Pink Devils…

Naruto was standing behind a tree in a park at night. Soifon was next to him sitting on a bench in her gigai. She was pretending to watch some birds bathe in a nearby fountain as she discretely gave her report. He could have joined her in his own false body but his distinctive hair would have been a definite disadvantage during these times, even if he spoke perfect Japanese.

Around them was a discrete cordon composed of twenty members of the Sōshireikan's personal guard; his personal guard. It was annoying being followed around constantly but the fifty special operators that Kotengu had helped him pick out were absolutely hardcore. These men and women didn't flinch at his orders; whether they were to scout out a killer hollow, execute a criminal or just fetch him tea and a warm blanket- not that he used them for such a trivial thing that often.

Aside from the sixteen guards hidden from both physical and spiritual sight there were two more overseeing the efforts of the Second Division officers who where liaising, i.e. staying the hell out of the way of, the Eleventh Division shinigami that were carelessly turning the spiritual 'life' of the area upside down in the search for their comrades' killers.

There wasn't much to be found by the Eleventh Division members, save for the stray Hollow to exterminate, unsurprising given their methods. From Soifon's report it seemed like there was nothing on her end of the investigation either. Whatever Zaraki's men thought, she and the additional Special Forces squad under her command was the group that was truly investigating the situation. It seemed that the killers didn't actually reside in the Human World which was worrying, given Naruto's other reason for being in there.

They both felt it at the same time, the subtle feeling of a shinigami unsealing a zanpakuto along with an alien reiryoku that felt vaguely familiar to Naruto for some reason. The shinigami flash stepped, leaving Soifon's Gikon behind in her gigai to be harassed by a police officer over being out alone after dark.

Sakura blinked. Her amber colored eyes glinted in the light caused by resealing Mirokumaru. She couldn't really tell what she'd done to those creatures; the red hooded, white wraiths, or why.

It was just, instinct…

It was the same instinct that allowed her to evade the lunging hand of the dark skinned man that tried to ambush her. The dark haired girl leapt backward for more space, vaulting over the short wall and into a nearby cemetery.

"Who are you!" She barked, hand on her sword.

"You're coming with us…" A smooth voice said from somewhere behind her.

Sakura took her eyes off of her initial attacker for a few brief seconds and regretted it. She only had an instant to take in the shadowy figures arrayed on the far wall of the cemetery before the brutish-looking man in green chest armor struck at her with a powerful overhead strike. Her guard was insufficient and the blow sent her tumbling between headstones in a semi-controlled roll.

-Ugh!-

She didn't recognize the spirit standing next to her as she slammed against a small stone shrine. In fact, in her confused state she almost thought that the man was the human caretaker, come out to see what all the noise was. If her attackers were surprised they didn't show it. They sensed little reiryoku from the interloper and would have overlooked him had he not brought himself to their attention. Sakura's attacker rushed in, intending to power through the man and capture his target.

Blue eyes narrowed under a wide-brimmed straw hat as they looked over the figures that seemingly had their owner and the wounded shinigami at their mercy.

Naruto didn't look at his attacker, not even as the man's curved fist-blade drew a breath away from his form…

The weapon sailed past him as he stepped to the side and into the arc of the blow. A hand, as unyielding as a steel manacle, latched onto the offending wrist as it passed by. Naruto tugged with little seeming effort as he turned in close to the man's body, too close for the man's other weapon to do much damage.

An elbow arrested attacker's forward momentum, turning into a cruel fulcrum that dented and ground the green chest plate into the man's sternum as his body was rotated horizontally around Naruto's body. The shinigami captain exhaled gently as he swung his antagonist around like a flail. The man's face was used to smash the gravestone, above Sakura's head, and then destroyed the headstones in a seven foot radius around Naruto before he tossed the bleeding body through the wall that his opponent's allies had been watching from.

Sakura blinked…

She'd missed the whole thing…

As the shattered headstones fell to earth as a shower of pebbles one of the man's comrades finally processed what had happened.

"Jai!" The man called out.

As one of the figures leapt down to the fallen man, another unleashed a storm of throwing daggers at Naruto.

He managed to catch one before Soifon arrived in time to deflect the rest. Looking at it idly he gave a subtle hand-sign to a patch of shadow.

'Capture them.'

The darkness seemed to surge as one, but the targets vanished in a Hollow-like distortion before the Special Forces commandos could take them

Later, Naruto watched as Sakura limped away after being questioned. He turned to Soifon, "You noticed?"

She nodded, "Didn't identify her division, didn't recognize a Captain, didn't give her report per protocol." She listed the oddities.

"None of that is conclusive of wrongdoing though, I sort of remember her from somewhere so it's likely that she might just be one of Ukitake's… check,"

Soifon saluted, again stiffening slightly at being given a direct command, "Hai!"

To another patch of shadow Naruto signed, 'Follow that Girl'

AN: Maybe one or two more chapters before things pick up from the manga.