Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach, and I make no profit writing fanfiction about them.

(AN): Honestly, I don't even know. This prompt just wouldn't leave me alone for like, six hours. I feel like cwyscross (except less good). Just start oodles and oodles of fics but never get around to finishing.

(Tags): Fem!Naruto, NarukoxSasuke, Manga 699 divergence

(Inspired By): Thermal by Tsume Yuki, Transcending Bonds by Wolf's Honour, Seeking Answers by ShadowofHeartsXII, A Hawk's Plight by The Digger92, and Uchihas of Remnant by silentshadow01.

"Uhh?"

Blue eyes cracked open, staring blearily into the distant cerulean sky. Grimacing at the dryness of her throat, the blonde teen rolled over and pushed herself to her feet.

Rubbing at her eyelids in an effort to clear the last of the dried crust from her lashes, the blond girl scanned around her in a confused daze. Trees stretched as far as she could see, moss and dirt mingling over the forest floor. Sunlight slanted through breaks in the canopy, and there was just the faintest rush of water on the edge of her hearing.

Where was she?

... Who was she?

For lack of a better idea, the blonde turned toward the distant sound of moving water and began to move forward. Birdsong filled the air with a musical trill, disturbed by the occasional rush of wind that sent the branches overhead into creaking sways.

A rumbling growl shook up from her stomach and with a rueful grin and shake of her head, the blond quickened her pace. Fuck, she was hungry. Pulling the folds of her white kosode tighter across her bosom, the blonde teen scowled in vague annoyance at the poor fit. She might not give much of a damn about formal shit, but she hardly wanted to go around flashing every pervert she met.

Pushing past a low-hanging branch, the blonde came across a small stream. Clear water bubbled merrily along, rinsing dark boulders that dotted the riverbed here and there. An idle blue eye judged the distance and decided it was just slightly too far to jump across in a single leap, but the rocks were close enough together that she could cross without too much trouble.

Liquid splashed again across the damp surface of one of the stones, and the blonde was keenly reminded of her thirst. Throwing herself down on the grass just beside the stream, the young woman cupped slender hands together to scoop up a mouthful of water. She greedily swallowed it down, relishing in the cool trickle in her dry throat until her craving was entirely quenched.

Hunger pangs still ate at her, and the water sloshed around the empty confines of her stomach, but the blond was satisfied for the moment. She could look around for berries later on, or even find her way to a town. There should be people somewhere around to help her find out whom and where she was.

People...

Leaning over the edge of the bank, the blonde stared down into the slowly rippling surface of the stream with an expression of fascination. A slightly tanned face stared back, faint whisker-like lines slashing across her cheeks like odd birthmarks or tattoos. Blue eyes crowned delicate features, long lashes fluttering with the slight movement of her eyelids. Pert pink lips concealed the slightly elongated fangs that the blonde could feel with her tongue.

... What the fuck?

Poking out from the strands of her tumbledown golden hair were two twitching fox ears. Blonde fur ending in white points topped the back of them, and with a concentrated effort she managed to make them swivel about. In and out, up and down, rigid and flat, and all-around. It was actually kind of fun.

BUT IT WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT NORMAL.

Or at least, she didn't think it was. There was a vague mental image in her head of humans, and they all had round fleshy ears attached to the sides of their heads. Not great fluttering things that were more suited to her foggy memories of what a fox would look like. But for the life of her, the blond simply couldn't conjure up any other image of herself. Attempts to picture herself with regular human ears was even more disorienting than the shock of seeing actual fox ears crowning up from the sides of her head.

The fox ears were fucked up compared to what a human should look like. But they seemed right on her, which was even more fucked up, since the blonde was pretty sure that she was a human being.

Cracking drew her gaze away from the rippling mirror surface. The blonde stared across the stream as a high hedge of bushes rustled furiously before a dark haired man tumbled right on through them. Digging her slightly clawed fingers in the grassy earth, the blonde prepared to fight or flee even as the man was tugging at where his kosode was caught in the bushes and cursing under his breath.

"Oi." The blonde interrupted his one man war with the greenery. "Who the hell are you?"

With a last tug, the dark haired teen pulled free from the grasping branches. Sweeping the mussed strands of his hair out of his face, the raven peered thoughtfully at the blonde with coal dark eyes. An awestruck expression crossed his face in such a flash that the blonde was sure she'd imagined it. "Isn't it proper manners to offer your name to someone before asking theirs?"

The pale skin and aristocratic cut of the young man's features were like a kick to the chest for the blonde woman and sent her heart pounding. While he was handsome - oh he was handsome – there was just something intensely familiar about him. Something that lit the fire behind her eyes and the pounding between her ears, memories of whatever life she must have lived before now screeching and hammering away at an invisible barrier. Because he was who he was, and she was who she was. Opposite ends of the mirror, existing in a perfect contrast. Light and dark, each meaningless without the other and utterly dependent –

"Naruko." Burst forth from her lips, her throat offering up the secrets of her buried memories without her even registering it. "Uzumaki Naruko." The syllables dropped thick and weighted from her tongue.

The other teen's dark eyes glimmered with mingled shock and triumph, and Naruko knew that he felt the same as she had. Lost and alone and confused as to who he was, until in the last moment he'd been spurred on by her own gravitating presence into stealing a precious memory from the forgotten abyss of their former lives.

"Sasuke." Rolled from those thin lips that curved up into a smirk. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke."

"So where are we?"

"I don't know."

"So how did we get here then?"

"I don't know."

"So where are we going?"

"I don't know."

"So what –"

"Oh for the love of heaven, would you be quiet? Idiot."

"...Bastard."

Flicking a dark glare over his shoulder, Sasuke rolled his eyes at the pouting expression that adorned Naruko's whiskered face and turned away before the burning at the back of his neck grew too warm. It was, quite frankly, ridiculous. The blonde was just a girl, and the Uchiha knew instinctively that he could brush off just girls easily enough.

It was far harder to just brush off the embarrassed heat that burnt the tips of his ears when he stared at her for too long though. It was even more difficult to pretend the awkward throbbing of his groins was anything but arousal when she'd excitedly rushed across the stream with a heaving chest and thin white kosode clinging to her curves.

Fuck.

In vain Sasuke had tried to direct his attention to her odd fox ears. They weren't features he'd have expected to see on any other human, and combined with the whisker marks on her cheeks, made Naruko look more than a little bit different. Just focus on the ears. Ignore everything but the great big freakish twitching things. There was nothing sexy about fox ears. The Uchiha wouldn't get turned on by such a deviant thing. Even if they were actually kind of cute, and soft looking enough that Sasuke just itched to give them a tweak...

Fuck. Fuck.

Focus.

"You know, we should cover those up." Sasuke blurted, fighting down the urge to turn around and stare with a mighty effort.

"Cover what up?"

"The ears." Slowing to a stop, Sasuke took a silent fortifying breath and turned around. Pretending that the quizzical expression she stared up at him with wasn't a kick to the gut, the Uchiha motioned at the fur covered appendages. "I don't really mind, but I have the feeling they're just a little bit outside of the norm. We don't know how other people are going to react to them."

"Right!" Naruko agreed with a nod and a comically serious expression on her face. The blonde began to scan about with intent blue orbs, eyes darting over the foliage in search of something to wrap around her head.

After a drawn out minute, Sasuke rolled his eyes with a sigh. Settling a tight grip over his left sleeve, he gave a sharp yank and detached the pale fold of cloth from the kosode with a tearing sound.

"Oi, you don't have to do that! I've got my own cloth right here, ya know?" Naruko instantly protested, her attention drawn back by the ripping of threads.

Sasuke eyed the flimsy kosode that strained to contain her chest while preserving modesty with a significant glance. "Somehow, I really doubt that it's an option to start tearing at your clothes."

Flushing at the pointed gaze of the Uchiha's dark eyes, Naruko folded her arms over her breasts with a scowl. "Don't be staring at my boobs, you bastard! Pervert! Lecher! Peeping Tom!"

"Shut up!" Sasuke snarled, a warm flush to his own features. Snapping the torn off sleeve out into a flat band, the raven wrapped it around the blonde's head in a makeshift bow. The gentle nudging of his fingers as he carefully tucked her ears beneath the band was at odds with the dark glare of his eyes.

Naruko subsided with a quiet grumble of "Bastard..." fidgeting with pink-tinged cheeks until the Uchiha turned away. "I'm completely starved." She muttered as her stomach rumbled again.

"...So am I."

A long silent period passed between them as the pair continued to trudge onward, breaking out of the thick forest and into sprawling fields. A spot of brown caught Naruko's gaze, and she squinted blue eyes in its direction. "Is that a road?"

"I think so." Sasuke replied after a beat, having turned to squint himself. With a mutual shrug, they switched directions and pushed on through the tall grass.

It wasn't much of a road in the end. More like a half-beaten path broken up by alternating brown and green patches. Neither direction seemed to lead to civilization, so Naruko picked a direction at random and tugged Sasuke along behind her.

"Holy hell." The blonde complained as her stomach rumbled again. "Why am I so hungry? Is this normal? I feel like I haven't eaten in a week and it's getting worse all the time."

"Complaining won't do any good, usuratonkachi."

"What did you call me?!"

Naruko was less than impressed by her first glimpse of civilization. Some part of her had expected towering monuments and a bustling orderly city. Instead, she and Sasuke stumbled on a dozen rundown shacks with mould crawling up the sides. A wrinkled old drunk was collapsed against one of the beaten huts, and the blonde stepped away with an expression of distaste.

Out of the corner of her eye she could just see the wrinkle of disgust over Sasuke's brow, and if they were anywhere else Naruko might have grinned and teased him for it. But it didn't seem appropriate for this... wherever they were. Something like despair and a little bit like rage hung so thick in the atmosphere that the blonde nearly choked on it.

Run.

Deep seated instinct whispered up the joints of her spine like cold steel, and the blonde grit her teeth. Repressing a shiver, Naruko turned a suspicious gaze to their surroundings. There was some base bloodthirsty rot to be found, and by the pinched expression of Sasuke's face, her companion had noticed it too.

"Fresh meat, I see."

Sauntering out of the long shadows cast by the dying afternoon light, a long-haired brunette gave the pair of newcomers a roguish smirk. If not for the ropy red scar that obliterated most of his nose and the cruel glint in his eye, he might have even been handsome. "I can tell that you're a pair of newly dead guppies just by those innocent looks on your cute little faces."

Sasuke stiffened behind her, narrowing dark eyes suspiciously. "We're dead then? And what does it matter to you anyway?"

The brunette hung a hand in the folds of his dark green haori, settling the other over the battered hilt of the wakizashi strapped to his side. "Now, now. We're all friends here, ain't we? Name's Seiichi. No need to get rude, guppies."

"Naruko." The blonde cut in, ignoring the Uchiha's sharp look and shrugging an errant shoulder in her companion's direction. "And this is Sasuke."

Sucking in an exaggerated sigh, Seiichi crooked one corner of his lips up in a mocking grin. "Well isn't that all better now? I suppose it'd be my privilege to welcome you two to our own little slice of the afterlife. I'm always trying to be welcoming to the new citizens of our Soul Society."

"What do you want?" Sasuke grunted briskly, a tense muscle jumping in his jaw. "I doubt that anyone in a place like this just helps others out of the so-called goodness of their hearts."

Cocking a brow with a false expression of woundedness, Seichii rocked back on his heels and gave a mournful blink. "Well I suppose if you're insisting that we act all business-like, I'll make ya a deal. I'll give ya a night of food and a roof over your head, and even point you to the next district. All I'm looking for is a night with a piece of Naru-chan's sweet ass. Not too much to ask for, is it?"

It took half a second for that to sink in.

"I refuse!" Naruko shrieked, enraged and offended. That someone would even think that she'd be that kind of girl just pissed her right off. "I'm gonna kick your ass, you shitty bastard!"

Something ugly settled in Seiichi's grey eyes, and that scarred man gave a humourless laugh. "I don't think I was asking, sweetcheeks. Should've just taken the easy way, and we'd have all walked away dandy."

Drawing the wakizashi from his obi with a slow hiss, Seichii just tutted mockingly. "Well I can't complain. We'll give your pretty boy here a nice grave, and the fellas can have their turns with you after I'm done. They were getting a bit pent up anyway."

Looming out of the ramshackle huts that dotted along the beaten path came six brawny thugs. Indistinct tattoos dotted along their muscled arms and over leering cheeks. Most of them were armed with little more than cobbled together clubs, though one had managed to snag a double edged kaiken in his meaty grip.

Naruko was beyond caring about the circling criminals though. Long blonde strands of hair lit up in the dying sunlight like fire, brilliant orange streamers as the young women moved forward in a speeding lunge.

Panicked grey eyes took in the abnormal swiftness, and registered Naruko's obvious latent shinigami potential even as Seiichi hurried to bring his wakizashi up in a defensive slash. It was all for naught, as the blonde ducked under the panicked slice and delivered a full-strength punch to the gang leader's elbow.

Being new to Soul Society as she was, Naruko was more shocked than anyone else when Seiichi's elbow crumpled inward at the strength of her blow with a cracking of bone.

The wakizashi tumbled out of Seiichi's spasming grip, the sound of metal striking the dirt drowned out by the brunette's pained howl. "Shinigami wannabe bitch!"

The blade didn't linger on the ground for long, Sasuke having moved a mere breath behind his blonde companion and snatching it up. Spinning in place, Sasuke gave an elegant cut that drove away Seiichi's cursing minions and dissuaded their rushing to their leader's aid. A rushed step in brought him face to face with the tattooed thug brandishing the kaiken, and with a palm strike to the man's stomach he reduced the would-be killer to a retching heap.

Sasuke snatched up the kaiken and tucked it in the folds of his kosode with a sneer.

Naruko didn't spare him even a look, weaving out and around Seiichi's frantic one handed attacks with a fierce grin. She might not know who she really was or where she'd come from, but fighting was written into her very bones. Naruko knew this, because it was the beat of life in her veins and the amazing rush of adrenaline past her thumping heart. She was alive.

Swinging around in a low kick, Naruko slammed her heel into Seiichi's calf with another crack of bone. A second scream later accompanied her enemy's collapse to his knees, and another whirl brought her swinging fist directly at his forehead.

She stopped.

Naruko didn't know why she and Sasuke were apparently so much faster than everyone else they'd encountered so far, or why she was able to so easily wreck Seiichi's bones, but she didn't feel like rejecting her blessing. Between being a freak of nature with queer strength or a gang's personal meat toilet, she'd take being the freak every time.

But still, Naruko stopped. The blonde knew if the strike connected, she'd have shattered the front of Seiichi's skull and killed him with her bare hands. And while Seiichi was scum, that didn't mean Naruko had the right to kill him.

Sasuke had no such compunctions, stepping smoothly past and bringing down the wakizashi in an overhead strike that clove Seiichi from right shoulder to left hip. Grey entrails spilled from Seiichi's opened stomach in bloody ropes, making Naruko step back with a curse.

"Fuck, Sasuke, you didn't have to kill him!"

"Sure I did." The Uchiha hummed, turning back around with lethal intent in his dark eyes. "And the rest of you are next."

Naruko swore again, diving to grab the back of her raven companion's kosode to yank him back. The blonde was just a little too slow though, as she hadn't quite managed to prevent him from reducing another thug's throat to a red ruin.

Silence hung in the air, broken only by the last desperate gurgles of a dying man as he futilely attempted to stem that fountain of blood gushing out of his throat. The thug sunk to his knees, paling and giving a final gurgle before flattening entirely with a final thump.

Absolute stillness.

"Well you don't see newcomers with that sort of skill all that often, do you?" A knife cut through the air, slamming into the side of one of Seiichi's former minion's skulls with a wet thunk. Another throwing knife sallied forth, cutting down another gaping thug with a strike to the chest. Then the remainder broke, scrabbling and cursing as they fled into the early night.

Hobbling up the pathway was a wrinkled, white-haired man. It was the drunk, Naruko realized dully as the geezer bent to yank his throwing knives out of the still warm corpses. Who was apparently less drunk and less passed out than she'd assumed.

"What now?" Sasuke grumbled beneath his breath, tightening his fingers around his newly won wakizashi and turning to face the newest possible threat.

"Oh put your sword away before you hurt somebody with that, boy." The older man grumbled, clearing his throat with a great cough and idly spitting the phlegm on Seiichi's cooling corpse. "Not all of us around here are like him, even if most are."

"...Who the hell are you?" Naruko sighed after a moment, rubbing an idle hand over her stomach as the hunger pangs returned with a vengeance. "And why the hell did you just decide to jump in and give us a hand at the end? We could've used the help at the start."

"Ryuuji. And why the hell would I put my own ass on the line for a couple of greenhorns like the two of you? I don't know you, and you don't know me. I don't mind lending a hand to the newly born souls, but I wasn't going to stick my neck out and get killed for you either."

"Fair enough." Sasuke agreed after a beat, pulling the wakizashi's sheath from Seiichi's body and sliding the blade back into its casing.

Squinting down at the bodies littering the pathway with a gimlet brown eye, Ryuuji gave a disdainful sniff. "Better off without those ones in the afterlife. Now come along, I guess. I can answer the questions I'm sure you young ones are just exploding to ask me."

"The first thing you need to understand is that you've died."

Huffing quietly, Naruko sunk down cross-legged in the dirt. The blonde rolled her eyes as Sasuke hovered suspiciously over her, and reached out to tug sharply on his pant leg until the raven conceded to sit with what she was discovering was his typical ill temperament. "I kind of got that."

Ryuuji eyed them oddly as the older man settled into a seiza position, but seemed to dismiss whatever manners quibble he had in favor of more important topics. "I don't know if you do. You've died. Bought the farm. Kicked the bucket. Exited the World of the Living and rolled the shitty dice to end up in Zaraki."

"Zaraki?" Sasuke raised a brow. "I thought we were in Soul Society. Or was that wrong?"

Grimacing, Ryuuji rubbed at an ache in one of his knees before shrugging. "They're both right. Zaraki is the outermost North District of the Rukongai, which is all of Soul Society outside of the Seireitei – where shinigami live."

This was beginning to sound more and more like a horror story, Naruko decided. Death gods? Soul reapers? "So you've got gods just stomping around here? Why is this place such a dump, then?"

"Wait." Sasuke cut in with a frown. "This is the furthest district of 'Soul Society'. So what's after it? Does it just end, or what?"

"Wait your turn, young brat." Ryuuji grumbled while giving Sasuke a dirty look out of his hazel eyes. "And for your information, no, it doesn't just stop. Do you think they've got shinigami running around sending westerners to the afterlife? 'Course not. It just passes on to some other corrupt afterlife government that handles souls in a different part of the world. Anyway," the white haired man sighed, turning back to Naruko. "The shinigami are just normal souls with some power behind them and spend their time ferrying dead souls from the World of the Living to Soul Society. Law keeping comes a bit lower on the list compared to that, so the further away you get from the Seireitei the less shinigami there are patrolling and the more chaotic things get."

Cocking her head, Naruko gave another absent rub of her stomach. "But if there's no law around here, how the hell does anyone get anything to eat? Do they starve to death? Can they starve?"

"So you're hungry, eh? That's good news for you." Ryuuji scratched at his scruffy beard with an expression of satisfaction. "Means you can become a shinigami and get the hell out of this place. Most souls don't get hungry. If you're hungry, it means you've got shinigami potential. Puts you a step above most of the souls in the afterlife, which is why you managed to kick Seiichi's ass so easily. But it also means that yeah, you can starve and die if you don't eat."

Sasuke had heard enough. It was becoming very obvious to him that their options were pretty limited. Either wander about aimlessly, hoping that one of the lawless souls killing each other in Zaraki didn't manage a lucky strike and kill them, or head inward. "How do you become a shinigami?"

Ryuuji smirked. "You'll want to hold on to that will, boy, if you're going to make the cut. Anyone that wants to become a shinigami has to go to the Shinigami Academy, and pass. It's not just about having the potential, you know. Gotta have the skill too, or there'd be a lot less of us starving and killing each other out here. Even if you've got to fight, being a shinigami has its perks."

"I didn't ask for a lecture."

Naruko dug her elbow into Sasuke's side.

"No, I'm sure you weren't looking for one. Well whatever, I'm too old for this. An old geezer like me doesn't know much about getting into the Academy, but I know you've got to make it a lot closer to the Seireitei than you are right now. Head south, and ask for directions, and I suppose you'll get there."

"How long does it take to get there?" Naruko bit the inside of her cheek. Going by how hungry she was, she could still survive the trip if it was a few days, or maybe a week...

"For a trained shinigami? Two weeks or so, I hear. For the rest of us mere mortals? You're looking at closer to six months or so."

"Six months!" Naruko yelped, blonde brows rising to her hairline. "Just how big is this place?"

"Large enough." Ryuuji chuckled. "If it was that quick to get there, don't you think we'd have something resembling a law in these parts?"

"I suppose." The blonde muttered dubiously, blinking in surprise when Sasuke climbed to his feet.

The raven nudged at Naruko with his knee. "Come on." Sasuke ordered lowly, making to turn away before grinding to a reluctant halt. "Thanks." The Uchiha grit out, evidently not used to being anything near polite.

"I'm not done here." Naruko whined, poking at the back of Sasuke's knee and smirked at the slow scowl that built up on his features. "So why don't you just slow that ass down and take a breather."

"It's fine." Ryuuji grunted, rising to his own feet with creaking joints. "Some men just aren't the sort to slow done and smell the roses. If you don't care for it blondie, you should have picked a different lover."

"L-l-lover!?"

Winking roguishly at the twin looks of embarrassment that the teens sported, Ryuuji turned away and pushed at the tattered noren that enclosed his cramped abode. "You two will be better off to at least wait for the morning. Travelling by dark is just asking for trouble with most of the scum that would be wandering around this time of the night. I can show you which huts are empty now that you've run Seiichi's boys out of here."

"You're suspicious."

"Sasuke!" Naruko hissed, jumping to her feet and elbowing her companion in the side.

"No, I can see how he'd be suspicious. Zaraki is full of people that don't have anything else they want to do in life but eat, fight, and fuck. It's certainly a bit strange to see someone just helping someone else out of the 'goodness of their heart' around a place like this."

"Uh, well..."

"Truth be told a few decades back I wasn't any better than the rest of the meatheads that strut around the outer districts, thinking that a sharp blade and half an ounce of skill gives you the right to take anything you want. But then I met him. He just a scrawny little brat that had no business amounting to anything, but that didn't stop him from turning ol' Ikki's gang into a mountain of bodies. I was the only one to walk away from that – too busy between some whore's thighs while the guys I fought and killed with were getting massacred for picking a fight they shouldn't have. That kid could have killed me when I came running back in, but he just left me soaked in a puddle of my own piss and went on his way."

Ryuuji turned back to his silent observers, grinning humourlessly and showing off the gap in his upper molars. "A close brush with death like that changes ya. Shakes you up and makes you start wondering what the hell you've been doing with your life. Four hundred years and I never set a foot closer to the Seireitei than the 60th district. Too busy drunk on my own foolishness to pull my head out of my ass and experience something new."

"Get to the point."

"Sasuke."

"Don't be so hasty brat, or you'll end up like me. Living with nothing but regrets and wasted time. I suppose that's what it boils down to for me in the end. Just trying to atone for some of the things I've done. So no, I suppose this isn't out of the goodness of my heart. I help newborn souls like you two because it makes me feel a little bit better about myself. There's my selfish interest."

Sasuke's dark eyes stared with an undecipherable gaze at the elderly male before the Uchiha clenched his teeth and sighed. "Fine, I'll believe you for now. But I'll be watching."

Shaking her head ruefully, Naruko settled her hands on her hips and huffed. "Well now that tall, dark, and broody here is satisfied that not everyone is out to murder us in our sleep, can we please go to bed or something? I'm tired and hungry."

Ryuuji coughed under his breath at the frustrated look Sasuke favoured his companion with, grinning with tolerant amusement. The former criminal led them out into the night, shivering a touch at the slightly chill breeze before pointing a few of the rundown shacks out for the newborn souls.

"Any of those four would be fine to sleep in for the night. You might even luck out and find a bit of food still lying around. Seiichi and the boys didn't need to eat, but food is still something that any regular soul can enjoy."

Sasuke grunted wordlessly before stalking towards the nearest hut and sticking his head through the noren. Naruko and Ryuuji watched him move from building to building before an errant thought occurred to the blonde.

"Oi jii-san. I was wondering if humans are the only souls that make it here. Do animals get souls? What about creatures like kitsune? Did you ever hear of any souls with, I dunno, fox ears or something?"

Ryuuji's hazel eyes tracked knowingly to the ragged makeshift bow crowning Naruko's messy blonde strands. "Yes and no. Things like kitsune or other demons don't actually exist, as far as I know. That being said, there are rumours that there's more out there than regular plain souls like me. Sinners cursed with the form of a wolf are one tale. There's also talk that the Shihōin clan are born with cat parts, and that they learn to turn completely human or completely animal as they get more skilled. It's all just rumour, though I wouldn't be surprised if there was some truth to it."

"Stop wasting time out in the dark, idiot."

"Looks like your sweetheart is calling."

"He's not my sweetheart!"

(AN): This one clocks at 5200 words. I'd planned to try and go for 10,000, but I didn't feel like trying to force it. I have no idea when Ajax will show back up, or if I'll get the random urge to work more on something else, so might as well finish it up.

In case the tags at the top weren't clear enough, this fic is divergent from manga chapter 699. And since it's Bleach and Soul Society, obviously they died. Though the how and why of that won't be known until Sasuke and/or Naruko regain their memories.

... of course they're going to eventually get their memories back. They'd just be OCs with Sasuke and Naru's names if they didn't.

Anyway, moving beyond that. There are three things I wanted to address.

Naruko is a fox girl now? – The short answer is that it was just for personal kicks. *giggles perversely* The long answer is that I've decided to justify that quirk with a bit of world building and a game of "What happened to Kurama?"

When does the fic take place? – Haven't decided yet. I wanted to see what the readers thought about it. I have three "starting points" I guess that I thought to work with. Either 150 years prior to Bleach canon, 100 years prior [around the time that the Visored are created], or 50 years before canon. Canon start isn't an option. The further back Resurrections starts, the more deviations and pre-canon plot there will be. But that comes at the cost of a bit more distance with Ichigo and the gang [via no friendship with Rukia or Renji], and Naruko and Sasuke being weaker when the conflict with Aizen shows up.

Zanpakutou release commands – I've already picked out the names for Sasuke's and Naruko's blades, but I don't know quite yet what their commands should be. Suggestions welcome.