Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach.
This story is in response to the challenge from, Naruto Bael.

Moonless Night – Chapter

Naruto yawned while stretching as he sat up in his futon. Heaving a sigh, he then sat there rubbing his eyes to rid the haziness of a dream filled sleep. Closing his eyes again and taking a calming breath, he just sat there silently for a while longer.

The silence was broken however, when his ears perked up at hearing a strange yet familiar sound that was gradually growing louder coupled with a Reiryoku rapidly closing in on him.

Naruto sighed before getting up.

"…GGGGGOOD MORNIN', NARUTO!"

And just moments after he did so something crashed onto the floor of his room right on top his futon, sending the tatami mats and his blankets flying everywhere.

Naruto nonchalantly turned to stare down at the invader. "Ji-chan, what are you doing?" He asked neutrally before turning his head to the side and muttering, "and 'good Morning'? It's already late in the afternoon,"

Isshin twitched before jumping to his feet, sending the tatami and futon that were on him flying around the room to join the others. He stood tall with his hands planted on his hips as he threw his head back and laughed, "gyahahaha! You're getting good, Naruto! To think you'll be able to dodge my stealthy special good morning tackle!"

Naruto gave his uncle an unimpressed look. "Stealthy? With you screaming like a maniac and your Reiryoku going wild like that, I could tell you coming from the other side of the Seireitei."

His response put a stop to Isshin's laughing as he turned to his nephew with a scandalized look. He opened his mouth to retort but didn't get the chance.

"Ji-chan!" Naruto interrupted, "shouldn't you be bothering Nii-chan if you have nothing better to do?"

Isshin blinked once before a look of realization crossed his face as if now recalling why he was there in the first place. "Oh, that's right!" He snapped his fingers before he turned to his nephew and said, "Naruto, get ready. We will be going to meet Hisana."

"Nee-chan? We are going to meet her today?"

"Hn." Isshin nodded in response as he crossed him arms over his chest. "We were all free so Nee-chan called for us; said we should go today before something else comes up!"

"I see." It made sense, seeing as how for the past week his family had been too busy with one thing or another to make the visit.

"Well then!" Isshin exclaimed as he turned to leave. "I'll leave you to get ready while I wait with the rest! See ya!" With that he bolted out of the room the same way he came in.

Naruto stood there looking a bit confused. "Was it just me or did he seem in a hurry to leave?" He then shrugged his shoulders and turned back towards his room and instantly came to a stop. "Did he just ditch me to clean this mess all by myself?"

"Thank you for stopping by, please come again!" Hisana bid the last customers farewell with a bow, before standing straight and heaving a tired sigh. Her hand then went to cover her mouth as she coughed.

Even after seven years, her search for Rukia has been going as fruitlessly as ever – even with the help Byakuya-sama and Naru-chan provided her. And as a consequence of her restless search her health had continued to deteriorate. She was even warned by Unohana-taichō during her last visit that if she continued on like this, she will be beyond the point of return.

But even so, she cannot just stop; for Rukia's sake, and her own.

She cast her eyes down and bit into her lower lip, 'Rukia…'

"Nee-chan!"

Breaking out of her thoughts at the familiar call, a smile overtook her lips despite her current train of thought. She turned towards the speaker, "Naru-" and paused, "chan?"

"Yo, Nee-chan! How have you been?" Naruto greeted her with a grin as he made his way towards her.

"Ah, yes. I've been fine…" She answered, trailing off at the end as she regarded him before turning to look at the rather… unusual group of people gathered at the entrance. She did recognize most of them as they were frequent visitors of the shop and well, it really was hard not to recognize them when you lived in the Seireitei.

Putting Byakuya-sama and Naru-chan aside, she recognized the Captains of the 2nd and 10th Divisions, Yoruichi Shihōin and Isshin Shiba, and the Lieutenant of the 6th Division, Sōjun Kuchiki. She also knew of Sōjun Kuchiki as Byakuya and Naruto's father and Isshin Shiba as their maternal uncle.

Then there was the only one that she didn't outright recognize. The woman standing at the front, right between Sōjun Kuchiki and Yoruichi Shihōin, and regarding her with a calm smile.

Hisana didn't even have to recognize this woman to know that she was Byakuya and Naruto's mother.

How nerve wrecking.

Here were not only the clan-heads of three of the four most prominent and noble clans in the entire Soul Society but also Shinigami of the highest ranked captain-class gathered in her little tea house. Now granted, it wasn't the first time that captains have stopped by, but it definitely was the first time when so many were gathered together at the same time. And honestly, their combined Reiryoku was making her skin crawl despite the fact that they were not being exerted.

Most important, however, was the fact that the family of Byakuya-sama and Naru-chan has come along with the two.

Gathering her nerves, she faced them straight before bowing respectfully, "Welcome,"

'How did it come to this…?' Hisana thought as she sat between Byakuya and Naruto. Never had she thought that one day she will find herself seated on the same table as people of their standing.

What was even more surprising though, was the way they treated her.

After being made to sit with them – even though she had tried to politely refuse before complying so as to not offend them – she had not expected to be made part of their conversations. But she was. They involved her in any small talk they did, no matter how pointless, without touching anything too personal to her. She was sure they were aware of everything there was to know about her yet they did not treat her any differently or like an outsider.

It really did surprise and threw her off wonderfully to be treated so familiarly by the noblest of Soul Society. They were casual as opposed to the other nobles she has seen. She supposed that this was where Naruto got his attitude from.

"But it really is nostalgic,"

Hisana looked towards Asanoha to see her looking around the tea house with a small, nostalgic smile.

"Oh yeah," Isshin spoke up at that, "Nee-chan used to visit this place a lot with Tou-san back then."

That earned a blink from Naruto and even caught Byakuya's attention. They didn't really know much about their maternal grandfather since he had died before they were born, and topics about him were hardly ever brought up.

"Really?"

The Shiba grinned from ear to ear as he spoke, "Yep! Believe it or not, but Nee-chan used to be quite the little rascal back in the day. In fact, her temper was even worse than Byakuya's! And even before she officially became Shinigami, she would accompany Tou-san and Nii-san outside the Seireitei to cut down any poor rogue or Hollow she could find."

Hisana turned to Asanoha with disbelieving eyes, finding it hard to believe that the calm woman before her could act like what was just described.

The barely noticeable, bashful blush on her face said otherwise though.

Sōjun looked at his wife with a playful smile and commented, "Ah yes, Asanoha Shiba really was scary."

Naruto crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side. "Then how did Kaa-chan became as calm as she is now?" He questioned, before suddenly his eyes lit up, "No wait! How did Tou-chan and Kaa-chan fell in love!?" He asked excitedly as his eyes twinkled with curiosity.

Asanoha gave a barely noticeable pause before sipping her tea. Though her blush did become more prominent at Naruto's inquiry. She really was not used to being the center of such conversations.

Yoruichi looked on in interest. It wasn't every day that such stories of Asanoha were brought up, so she was naturally curious.

On the other hand, Hisana and Byakuya exchanged sideway glances. They seemed to have strayed from the original topic but… the two turned to listen on.

"Oh!" Isshin exclaimed with a wide grin, "Now that is an interesting story!"

"It isn't. If anything, it was normal."

"Yes, it was a normal, everyday story for the noble houses." Asanoha added, cutting Isshin before he could over-dramatize their story. "We were arranged to be married." She gave a pause before continuing, "Yes, a contract between the Kuchiki and the Shiba to stabilize the standing of the Shiba clan as one of the Four Great Noble Houses after the untimely deaths of my father and brother, the clan head and the clan head-to-be. And even though I was hastily put as the new clan head and captain of the 10th Division, it did not do much to help the situation so your grandfather, Ginrei, came up with the offer of a political alliance between the two houses through marriage." She looked at her own reflection in her tea before putting the cup down. "So, yes, it was not a marriage born out of love." She then turned to her husband and taking his hand in hers added, "But, well, I suppose it will be more appropriate to say that our love was born out of marriage."

Hisana couldn't help but stare at Sōjun and Asanoha as they smiled at each other. Even though it was the first time she had formally met them, it was so obvious that the two were completely in love. And quite honestly, they looked so perfect. She wondered if this was what she and Byakuya would look like if they –

Her eyes widened and a fierce blush overtook her face. She immediately looked down at her lap, mortified at her own thoughts.

The others took notice of her and, being able to tell her thoughts, couldn't help but smile at the girl.

Asanoha picked up her tea and studied Hisana. From the short time she had known her, it was easy to tell that she was a sincere and hardworking girl, true to herself. While likable indeed, there was something that they needed to know.

"Hisana-chan," She addressed the embarrassed girl causing her to look up. She smiled welcomingly and spoke, "Would you like to work for the Kuchiki?" Her offer earned her a wide eyed look from the girl as she continued, "We are aware of your… search and if you work for the Kuchiki, it will be of great help to you."

Naruto's eyes widened and just as he went to speak, his father shot him a look, telling him to be patient. While that confused him, he decided to comply nonetheless.

Hisana seemed to be thinking over it for bit before looking at Asanoha and without any hesitation she bowed and spoke, "I am honored by the offer Lady Kuchiki, but I am afraid I will have to decline."

"And why do you decline?"

She raised her head to look at the Kuchiki Matriarch. "I am already being helped by Byakuya-sama and Naruto-sama, which is more than I could ask for, but more than anything, I owe a great debt to this tea house. And I," She casted her eyed down with pained look, "I can't bring myself to abandon what is in front of me. Not again."

Asanoha closed her eyes with a smile. "I see." Yes, she really could see why her sons had taken such a strong liking to this girl.

(The Next Day)

Naruto stifled a yawn as he walked into the classroom, early for once as he mumbled to himself about needing to learn Shunpo and something about it being a pain to walk to the academy from the Kuchiki Clan compound every day.

It has been about a couple of weeks since Naruto first started to attend Shin'ō Academy and he had to admit that so far it has been quite the experience. Granted, they have yet to do any actual training and were still involved with the theoretical stuff but it still greatly interested Naruto to read about the different arts/concepts of Shinigami combat, plus the history of the Gotei 13 and the Seireitei , especially since a lot of it also revolved around his own family.

That being said, they were to start their training, beginning with Reiryoku control, by the start of the third week.

That worked just fine for Naruto.

Due to the ridiculous levels of spirit energy he was born with, controlling it has always been a problem. It was for that reason that his family had stressed the importance of Reiryoku control early on into his training, and while he has gotten considerably better at it over the years of guidance from his family, he was still far from the point where control was no longer an issue.

More importantly however, Naruto sought to attain complete mastery over his Reiryoku as he has been taught that how strong a Shinigami could become was heavily dependent on how well they could control their spirit energy coupled with the strength of their spiritual power. Now seeing as how Naruto did not need to worry about the later at this point, all that remained for him was to learn to properly and fully control his Reiryoku.

"You should stop thinkin' so hard, ya know. Otherwise, you're gonna come up with a fever."

Breaking out of his thoughts, Naruto blinked and took notice that he had been so lost in thought that he had seated himself without even realizing it. He turned to the side and came face to face with a smiling Gin.

Naruto deadpanned. "I think you should stop smiling so creepily before you are even more disliked than you already are." He retorted, pointing to that fact that the other students made it a clear point to steer as far away from Gin as possible due to his unnerving demeanor.

"Oh, an' look how much I care!"

Naruto rolled his eyes at Gin's sarcastic remark before turning to the other two and grinning. "Good morning Soifon-chan, Tōshirō!" He greeted, earning their attention over to himself as they eyed him curiously and a bit weirdly.

"Good morning to you too." Shaolin greeted back before adding a bit uncertainly, "And Soifon-chan?"

Tōshirō didn't even bother to respond to Naruto's greeting and just waited for him to explain himself.

Naruto's grin widened. "I heard from Yoruichi-san that you are going to be inheriting your great-grandmother's code-name, Suì-Fēng when you join the Onmitsukidō. So from now on you're Soifon-chan!" He explained while pointing a finger at her.

Shaolin looked at Naruto in surprise. It was only recently decided that she will inherit the name Suì-Fēng after she joins the Executive Militia as despite being the youngest, she was the only one left from her siblings to eventually succeed her great-grandmother as the Head of the Clan. But if he knew about that, then did it mean that he also knew about what became of her other older siblings?

Her eyes went downcast at that last thought.

The others were able to catch on to the sudden shift in her mood, before Gin decided to add his own thoughts on the matter, "Ah, I see! I see!" He began as he nodded his head in understanding before he turned to Soifon, as Naruto called her, with his smile taking a mischievous turn, "Now ya have to make sure to get into Onmitsukidō! Him," He pointed to Naruto, "calling you by a name you were supposed to go by only after you joined is basically him saying he believes in ya! Now ya don't wanna let him down, do ya?" Gin said as he tilted his head innocently at her.

"Hey now!" Naruto began with a grin of his own, "I don't believe in her to make it into the Onmitsukidō, I know she will! It's only natural, right, Soifon-chan?" He commented, turning to Soifon with a bright grin.

Soifon though, instead of saying anything, went red in the face.

Tōshirō couldn't help but roll his eyes. He then decided to intervene since he doubted that even Soifon would be able to handle both Naruto and Gin messing with her, "And what's with the Tōshirō?" He asked accusingly, causing Naruto to turn to him.

"What do you mean what? You're Tōshirō aren't you?" Naruto answered with a shrug.

"It's Hitsugaya to you." Tōshirō replied simply as he turned away from him, before he added while casting Naruto a sideway glance, "And since when did we become such good friends that you can call me by my first name?"

"But you don't deny that we are friends!" Naruto replied back with a grin, knowing that despite Tōshirō not openly admitting it, they were friends since all four of them found the rest of the class to be annoying – the noble brats – so for the past weeks the four kept among themselves and bonded a little over the time. "But if you don't like it then I guess I will have to call you by the nickname I thought of," Naruto paused, as if there was no helping it, "Shirō-chan."

Tōshirō sputtered with a red face before snapping at Naruto, "Absolutely not!" He had enough with Momo calling him that, he did not need Naruto of all people to start calling him by that embarrassing nickname as well!

Naruto grinned at him. "Then you'll have to do with Tōshirō."

He barely stopped himself from snapping at Naruto again before he took a few deep breaths to calm himself and regarded the Kuchiki, "What about you and Ichimaru then?"

Naruto stared at him. "What about us?"

Tōshirō's eyebrow twitched. "We can call you two what we want right?"

Naruto shrugged, "I guess." He then gave a pause before adding with a cheerful – perhaps a little too cheerful – grin, "Oh, but if you want to, you can call me Naru-chan!" He then added with a pause, "Like the women in my family do."

Tōshirō's eyebrow gave another twitch, before a smirk played on his lips. "Thanks, but I think I will call you Fishcake instead."

Naruto's grin, instead of faltering like he had hoped, only seemed to widen as he replied, "Go right ahead. Though you should know that my name, Naruto, was chosen by my mother because of its meaning Maelstrom and she doesn't like it when people comment it means Fishcake."

The thought of saying anything that could be taken as an offence by the Kuchiki Clan gave Tōshirō the stop. He glared at Naruto annoyed, "You thought this through, didn't you?"

Naruto smiled innocently at him, "Whatever could you mean?"

Tōshirō once more stopped himself from acting on his urge to snap at the Kuchiki and instead said, "Alright, so what about Ichimaru then?"

Naruto actually seemed a little thoughtful here as he held his chin. "I guess we can just call him Gin. But wait, maybe G–"

"Finish it, an' I'll stab ya."

Naruto stared blankly at Gin, whose smile, if at all possible, seemed to have grown even wider and creepier before, he once more turned to the others and said, "So anyways, from now on, you guys are Soifon-chan, Tōshirō and Gin, and as for me, you can just leave aside the Kuchiki and call me Naruto."

"That sure worked out fine for you." Tōshirō couldn't help but once more glare at the smiling revenette.

"Come on! It's not like you have a problem with it!"

Tōshirō didn't even bother replying and simply turned to face the front, noticing the teacher walk in. Although, he did silently admit to himself that Tōshirō wasn't nearly as bad as getting stuck with 'Shirō-chan'. But there was no way he was going to say that out loud.

"Alright everyone, attention please!"

With the voice of the teacher calling for attention, the conversations around the class stopped as everyone shifted their attention over to the teacher. And no one noticed Gin open his eyes to study Naruto.

It would seem that despite it not being all that long since they first met, Naruto had already moved on to first name terms with them. Gin eyed the Kuchiki in contemplation. A Maelstrom huh, what a fitting name indeed. He really was like a maelstrom that had hit their lives out of nowhere, and slowly but surely, they were getting dragged to the center.

"Man, doesn't that teacher ever get tired of talking?" Naruto commented as he walked out of the classroom alongside Tōshirō, Gin and Soifon, "Yeah, it was interesting at first but listening to him speak about the same thing for hours nonstop gets really boring!"

Tōshirō looked at him for the corner of his eyes before he humped, "I don't think you have any right to complain when you start dozing off before even halfway into the lectures."

Naruto pouted, "But it gets so boring!"

The white-head didn't even bother turning as he spoke, "We are here to become Shinigami. It doesn't matter how boring it gets, we have to listen attentively to grasp the concepts."

"Hn," Naruto crossed his arms and closed his eyes with a smile as he spoke, "What can I say, I'm the type who understands better by practice than by long-winded explanations!"

Soifon casted Naruto a puzzled look, "Is that really something to be proud of?"

Tōshirō gave her a deadpan look, "Of course not. He's just an idiot."

Gin kept smiling, "Ma~ it is Naruto we're talkin' about, 'suppose he can be proud."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched at the comments and was about to snap when a meek sounding voice cut in.

"Gin,"

Turning towards the source, he saw a young girl around their age with short, shoulder-length strawberry blond hair and blue-eyes standing not far from them. She appeared to be from the regular classes and seemed to have come all the way to the advanced courses building just to look for Gin.

"Rangiku,"

He found curiosity bubbling within as Gin went over to the girl, Rangiku, with said girl asking where he had gone off to this time, clearly upset.

Gin responded without actually answering the question, and to anyone else looking, it would have seemed as if he was fooling around like he always did as he talked to the desperate girl. Naruto was empathic though. He could sense the negative emotions of others like they were his own. So he was probably the only one who could tell that Gin couldn't be any farther from fooling around. The usual negativity that he harbored when dealing with the rest of the world was absent with this particular girl.

It had him thinking. He had wondered just why the silver-head kept hanging around the three of them when he kept them at arm's length; never opening up nor letting his guard down: when he had his eyes set on something that they couldn't grasp. And looking at him now, with someone he treated differently, someone that clearly mattered to him, raised similar questions.

It honestly had him stumped. No matter how much he looked, he just can't tell what's what with Gin.

"Ah, it's you!"

Naruto blinked as he was broken out of his thoughts by Rangiku's exclamation as she pointed a finger at Tōshirō, who nodded a greeting.

"So you decided to become a Shinigami after all," She said, smiling down at the boy.

Tōshirō gave her a look – that to Naruto didn't look all too pleased for some reason – as he replied, "Yes well, it's not like I had much of a choice otherwise."

Naruto looked between the two curiously along with Gin, "You two know each other?" He inquired, and the strawberry-blond turned to him with a questioning look. "Ah, I'm Naruto Kuchiki by the way."

She nodded her head, "Rangiku Matsumoto."

He blinked at the rather normal greeting. That was new.

"To answer your question," Tōshirō began, earning their attention, "Yes, we do know each other." He then looked to the side and added, "She was the one who suggested that I become a Shinigami."

Now that interested Naruto.

He then looked back up at the girl and said, "But I didn't know that you knew Ichimaru."

"Ah, Gin and I… we –"

"'Think we'd better go have lunch now 'else the break'll be over."

Before anyone could say anything to Gin's rather abrupt interference, Naruto spoke up, "You're right! As I much as I wouldn't mind if it did, the break won't last forever." He then turned to the strawberry-blond and said, "You will be joining us, right?"

She gave one look at Gin and nodded to Naruto.

He grinned at that and gestured towards Gin as he said jokingly, "That's good! You just caught him, so you at least have to grab ahold of him!"

Nothing else of importance was said after that as the group started on their way towards their usual spot for lunch with Rangiku, Soifon and Tōshirō making small talk, and Gin falling in-step with Naruto at the back.

"An' just what did ya mean by that?" He asked for only the Kuchiki to hear. The hidden implication of Naruto's words had not been lost to him.

"Oh nothing much," Naruto began as he grinned back at the smiling Gin, "I just thought that you would want to spend some time with the girl you want to change things for." He said before going to join the others.

Gin opened his eyes to stare at the Kuchiki. He could tell that Naruto had been taking shots in the dark, and had surprisingly hit the mark. But that wasn't what had him curious. No, what he was interested in was what had Naruto taking those shots in the first place.

Gin's smile turned into a smirk. This was his fight. That much was certain. But he wasn't one to shy away from letting others get involved if it helped. That still begged the question though; what was going to come out of having someone like Naruto Kuchiki get involved?

AN: And that is it. This was actually a draft that I wrote a few years back (half the length of the actual chapter to be exact) that I was going to edit and clean before publishing (and if you have read the preview that I gave a while back you'd know) but that is not going to happen anymore. And the reason for that is…

THE STORY IS GONG UP FOR ADOPTION!

Sorry guys, I know many of you love this story and I do too (it is my best doing story) but the thing is I am a graduate student and I just can't seem to manage study time, work time, and hobby time. It really is sad to let this one go. I had thought up this story all the way to the end but with how much time university, classes and research take it is impossible to devote the time to writing fanfiction. So yes, I am offering this up to anyone who might be willing to taking it up because I really do not want to see this story dying. So if anyone of you want to take up my stories you can PM me and we'll talk about it. I will also help out if ya need.

It has been a long–short but splendid run. I really do not wanna let this end like this but I just cannot offer the time – it is a matter of priorities after all – what actually matters so I hope you guys understand. THANKS A BUNCH GUYS! YOU WERE THE BEST! YOUR SUPPORT REALLY MATTERED TO ME!

P.S. I am not deleting anything and might drop by sometime with an update. No promises though.

- El Emperador