A/N: This was a recent challenge given to me by jacke44, and... I just had to try it. It's really cool, in my eyes, so I'm just going for it. Yes, it's another story on my plate. Yes, it's another NarutoxBleach. No, I don't care XD I'll be putting this up on my bio as a challenge for anyone else, so if you wanna try it, look there for the specifics.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach

"Human speech"

'Human thought'

"Jutsu/Demon speech"

'Demon thought'

Let's begin

"Stupid Kakashi-sensei... Stupid Sasuke-teme... Yeah, he's gotta fight Gaara, but what about me? I'm fighting against Neji! We all saw what he did to Hinata-chan! I may be awesome, but even I'll admit that guys scary-strong. Does he really think that Ebisu asshole can teach me anything useful?" Naruto muttered in a round-about, illogic fashion as he trudged towards the secret place he found.

It took a lot of time convincing jii-san that he'd come back in time for the Chuunin Exams; after all, it's normally disallowed to let any shinobi leave the village during the Chuunin Exams, but after numerous aforementioned promises, as well as one to cut down the time he'd be on the road, thus cutting down on the chance he'd be attacked.

Not two weeks ago did he and Team 7 liberate these lands from Gato, allowing Tazuna to complete his bridge. Heck, he even named it after him; how awesome was that?! Anyway, on the way to the bridge for the big clash that resulted in Zabuza and Haku dying, he happened upon some trap door, which he sent a clone through in case there were traps. The result was a double set of good news; one: no traps, and two: apparently he got the memories of the clones. Upon testing that in training back in Konoha before Kakashi-sensei gave them the Chuunin Exam forms, he found they could aid him, something he sure-as-hell used in training. In only a week of doing it, he was able to bring up his chakra control to less-laughable levels. Not Sakura-chan's, but good enough.

Gah, he was getting off track again! Trapdoor; right! Anyway, the clones memories showed him that the trapdoor lead to some sort of underground laboratory. While Naruto wasn't really a science type of guy, he hoped there was something in there that could help him get strong enough to beat Neji for what he did to Hinata.

Returning the hearty greetings as the people of Nami no Kuni recognized their supposed Hero, Naruto made his way to the trapdoor, finding the swirl he made in the ground at the edge of the forest between Tazuna's house and the bridge, having dodged the bridge builder and his family not to be malicious, but to avoid the time he'd waste saying hi to them and doing this and that, when he could be training. He needed all the time he could get to prepare himself against Neji.

Before he could raise the door, he heard screaming and yelling... from Tazuna's house. The hero in him made him almost instinctively run towards there, kunai in hand.

Bursting through the open doorway - identifying the busted-down door just after that - Naruto saw a trio of Gato's thugs pinning Tsunami down while the last intended on skewering Tazuna himself, Inari unconscious to the side.

Creating ten clones, Naruto charged forward with them in a wave of orange pain, kicking the thugs off their potential victims and whaling on them until they passed out from the pain, then tied them up.

"Tazuna, what happened?!" Naruto asked, worried for his friends.

"Gaki! Oh thank Kami you were here; those three have been asking around for us for the past week. A couple people got hurt, but thankfully no one died." Tazuna explained.

"What?! But... didn't jii-san send shinobi to help Nami?" Naruto asked, confused.

"If he did, we never got 'em. The only contact we've had with Konoha is the courier who took our message/treaty there and brought back the signed paper, solidifying our alliance. Beyond that, we've heard nothing from them, so we just started on fixing Nami ourselves; we've only made it this far because of the trade routes the bridge opened for us." Tazuna answered.

"That doesn't make any sense... jii-san promised he would. Maybe... maybe he will after the Chuunin Exams; shinobi aren't allowed out of the village during them. I'm only here because I begged a lot and promised I'd stay off the road." Naruto reasoned, though that didn't get rid of the ominous feeling over his shoulder.

"I guess... so why'd you come here, anyway?" Tazuna asked, taking his reason at face-value, being a civilian not enlightening him to the finer intricacies of shinobi.

"I came for training. I found a secret place underground on the way to the bridge two weeks ago, and I came back to check it out and see if there's anything inside that could help me. I'm going off against a supposed genius in the Chuunin Exams, and Kakashi-sensei is concentrating on Sasuke-teme." Naruto answered, scowling childishly.

Tazuna chuckled heartily at that. "Well good luck, and I hope it helps you kick the kids ass." Tazuna said, seeing the boy off.

"Thanks Tazuna! I'll see you at the end of the month!" Naruto bade farewell over his shoulder.

Waving after him, Tazuna waited until Naruto was out of ear shot, before his face turned grim and slightly haunted as he got up and took a kitchen knife, dragging the thugs to the backyard. If they just threw these men in jail, or even ran them out of town, they would just return, and there wouldn't be someone to help them this time. This was for his family, and anyone else they might hurt...

(With Naruto)

Finding the secret spot was easy enough, so Naruto raised the trapdoor and dropped down, cursing as he had apparently forgotten the slope the clone found, sliding on his ass and burning his hands something fierce when he attempted to slow his slide, which was futile anyway, as he tumbled out of the bottom when he reached the lab proper.

"...Ow. Whoever made that slide is an ass." Naruto commented on the ground. Getting up and dusting off his ass, he looked around for a refresher on the interior.

White. Loooooootta white. And yet, it was a bit dark.

There were your basic tables covered in beakers, test tubes, papers, science-y stuff. The weird thing was the pipe organ-looking machine in the back. The large blood stain on the ground was very disconcerting, though... It was in front of a large tube-like chamber with a sticky note on it.

If you're going to keep killing and making replacements, the least I could do to relieve the headaches you'll make is at least keep you all from being morons. Just step in and you'll have your very own genius to keep you all from blowing up valuable equipment.

This guy... didn't sound like all his screws were that tight. Killing and making replacements? That sounded crazy. But a genius... Neji was always vaunted as a genius of the Hyuuga. So why not fight fire with fire? Plus... Naruto would reluctantly admit - in no one's company! - that he wasn't that smart...

Stepping into the chamber and looking around until he found a small square button, Naruto pressed it and thanked the gods that he didn't have claustrophobia, as the glass pane behind him closed, trapping him within the chamber, before it became flooded with a bright light, some sort of energy that didn't particularly feel like chakra concentrate around his head.

Then the pain started.

It felt like someone dug their serrated claws in his head, tore it open, and poured lava right into his skull. It was the type of pain that made you wish you could just die, just to stop it. And it wasn't one of those situations where it was over almost instantly, or it was really a short amount of time but felt like forever, it literally was forever. Apparently the process the machine went through to apparently 'keep them from being morons' wouldn't exactly take for Naruto's special condition. Not just being child, or even having a different type of energy than the kind the machine was letting out...

Being alive.

Were he to have looked around a little more, he would have found numerous entries by only a single person.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

For half an hour, Naruto suffered in agony as knowledge he couldn't comprehend entered his mind, before he was forced to comprehend it, all sorts of compounds and equations and theories fluttering before his eyes, faster than he could track, but immediately understood. Like a toaster, the chamber dinged, opened up, and tossed the blonde out on his face.

"Ow. I should really fix that." Naruto commented on the ground, rubbing his sore nose as he rose to his feet. "Pneumatic piston... pressure too high. Too much force. More than one clone dead on impact." He muttered. "But then that's not where you came in, is it?" He rhetorically asked the large blood stain in the middle of the room, before walking over to a table with a large scroll on it, a couple blacked-out signatures of clones, their 'names' merely being numbers, as was their designations. You couldn't very well have four Mayuri's walking around, now could you?

The universe would implode from so much concentrated genius.

Or insanity, depending on who you asked.

Anyway, this scroll in Naruto's hands was a venturing in applying observed characteristics of this world, specifically the Kuchiyose no Jutsu, combining it with an experimental dual-application of chemical compounds and spiritual energy flared in unique patterns to pacify the creatures before he could insert a module to make the control permanent.

A summoning scroll for Hollows was devised.

Results were... mixed. Nothing more than Menos-class were able to be bound to the scroll; anything bigger was a failure, and thus the blood stain. 432 was very ambitious, but alas... At least the beast was put down before it could continue.

"Ugh!" Naruto grunted, dropping the scroll back on the table and cradling his forehead, a migraine hitting him. 'This... this isn't my knowledge. These things...'

Shinigami. Zanpakutou. Reiryoku. Seireitei. Hollows. Quincies. This knowledge was... not of this world. Or even this dimension.

Head suddenly snapping to the side, Naruto suddenly saw a man in the room, but he was transparent, and didn't appear to notice him.

"This world is very interesting. It could prove useful for me to form a base here, for research. These humans, this energy they possess; it's all very fascinating. If I am to form a laboratory here, I would require test subjects..." His sly grin on that mask, for Naruto knew his true face, was sickening, yet the blonde shared his sentiment, for some reason.

"Research... test subjects... yes, everything is shuffling into place. That chamber... used for clones to give them his knowledge... not meant for chakra. Based on spiritual energy, not meant to mingle with physical. But it did. The visions... a side effect. Mild identity crisis, but... I'm me. I'm Naruto. And I'm going to use this all to my advantage. Neji? A child. Orochimaru? A hack. Kurotsuchi Mayuri? Uzumaki Naruto? Brilliance!" Naruto announced with a grin that belonged more on the 12th division captain. "First things first, the computer. It should have data on these inventions and theories of his." He said, walking over to the slightly curved terminal initially mistaken for some sort of shelving and pressing a button below the dust-covered screen, blowing on it to clear it.

Immediately logging in with the information he was now blessed with, Naruto searched the desktop, finding only three files.

Uzumaki Clan, Uzumaki Destruction, and Katou Dan/Senju Nawaki.

'Uzumaki? I have a clan? What would he have to say about them?' Naruto wondered, opening it and reading the file, brushing off the last file since he didn't know who those people were.

"This 'Land of Whirlpools' was destroyed just recently. It was actually very fascinating. Apparently the denizens of this country, these Uzumaki, were renowned for their sealing techniques, so much so that three of these supposed Five Great Villages banded together to wipe it off the face of the earth. The fascinating part, however, was that the village under siege was betrayed by their allies, the Village Hidden in by Tree Leaves; two elderly men met the leaders of the three attacking villages and handed them information to bypass their defenses. Using my amazing cloaking device, I was able to overhear their conversation; apparently they had all they needed of the village, their techniques, and so sought to 'cut the fat', so to speak, letting the three villages do the dirty work. Whilst the village was under attack, any messenger birds or humans were killed upon arriving in Konoha. These humans and their propensity for greed are all quite fascinating; it's even more prevalent than in my worlds human counterpart. I can scrounge the bodies and analyze them to better understand this 'chakra' and possibly extract these so-called vaunted techniques of theirs. This fuinjutsu could prove quite useful in the Seireitei."

The document also came with videos Mayuri's recording equipment took of the gate guards of Konoha slaughtering any Uzumaki messengers.

...What? Konoha betrayed the Uzumaki?

Hoping against hope, Naruto opened the Clan file and read what he found to be the history of the clan, Mayuri observing them, amongst other 'prime subjects', to better understand how this world worked.

Nothing. Nothing could justify what Konoha did. Uzumaki were loyal as loyal could be. They valued family and allies above all else, even the mission. They gave their techniques to Konoha willingly. And Konoha abandoned them.

White-hot fury filled Naruto's being, a rage he could never have fathomed before. It was such a potent hate that he even tapped into the Kyuubi's chakra.

And cowed it.

The Kyuubi hated, there was no doubt about that, but it hated all things, even its sibling bijuu, but that was nothing compared to what Naruto felt.

"Get in here, boy."

Naruto blacked out.

(Mindscape)

"What the hell is going on out there, ningen?" The rumbling voice of the Kyuubi was the first thing he heard, before Naruto could even acclimate to the sudden shift.

"H-huh? Wha?" Naruto muttered, slightly disoriented.

"What's got you so riled up that even my chakra can't cloud your mind? What happened?" The Kyuubi demanded.

"K-Konoha... betrayed my clan. Took their techniques, and left them to die." Naruto answered while holding his head, another migraine coming on, but no vision this time.

The Kyuubi's eyes widened in surprise, before closing as it smiled in amusement. "So, you found out about that, huh? I thought you never would, considering your fanaticism towards that den of snakes." It commented.

"What? You knew? How?" Naruto asked.

"I was in your mother before, and she had arrived in Konoha just on the cusp of the invasion. Though she was unconscious, I could still hear the world around her, and I heard whispers of your precious Hokage and some ningen he referred to as Danzou speak of their actions, of perpetrating the Uzumaki's destruction. I was highly amused by their tactics, and am now amused again that I am contained in such a patriot of that same village." The Kyuubi grinned viciously.

Naruto was silent at the revelation and confirmation; for one thing, the Kyuubi admitted to being in his mother before him, and confirmed the truth on the screen. Jii-san betrayed his family... And to think he was someone proud to be from Konoha. "Well no more." Was all Naruto said, reaching up to his hitai-ate, untying it, and throwing it to the ground, even if this was his mindscape. "Each and every single one of them will pay for what they did. I will use this genius of mine to tear down the foundations of Konoha, bring them into the muck they believe themselves to be above, and bring down their world." He proclaimed with ferocity.

"Damn right, sochi-kun!"

"I never would have imagined my village would do this... but the reign of tyrants must end in fire."

Naruto stiffened and mechanically turned around, finding two people behind him, one he immediately recognized, thanks to both books and the Kyuubi's growling.

"Hello Naruto-chan."

"Hello, sochi."

"Yondaime... and... my mother?" Naruto turned to the Kyuubi for confirmation, only receiving a dismissive nod, as the bijuu focused all its hate on the Yondaime. "What are you doing here? And... what're you doing here, Yondiame-sama?" He asked.

"Didn't you just hear me call you sochi? I'm your father, kiddo!" Namikaze Minato proclaimed with a grin, the woman beside him charging the blonde and wrapping Naruto up in a hug.

"My little sochi-kun, you've gotten so big!" The red-headed woman said as she seemingly attempted to suffocate the blonde with her hug.

"K-Kaa-chan... can't breathe... p-please stop." Naruto begged as his face slowly turned blue.

"Kushina-chan, I think you're killing Naruto." Minato warned with a sweatdrop.

Kushina merely let Naruto go, the blonde falling limp in her arms as he took in large gulps of air. She just had an infectious grin on her face. "I can't help it. I'm just so happy! Whatever Naru-chan did let us form a solid, permanent link in here, so we can be with him as he makes all those Konoha traitors pay for what they did. I never knew what really happened beyond Kumo, Kiri, and Iwa attacking, but now I know the truth! The home Mito-baa-sama sent me to was just a den of liars, thieves, and traitors. But now we can do something about it!" She proclaimed.

"Wait... you saw what I saw? And what do you mean a 'permanent link'?" Naruto asked, not following.

"The reason we're here in the first place was because I put a sliver of each of our chakra's in the seal when I put the Kyuubi in you so that, when you unlock too many tails, I would appear to tighten the seal, and when you would one day fight the Kyuubi for control of its chakra, Kushina-chan would appear. However, when you entered that machine, it flooded you with spiritual energy apparently containing the knowledge of this Kurotsuchi Mayuri, simultaneously passing it to you and revitalizing the tiny parts I put in here. Because of it, when we would normally disappear after helping you, we can stay, and we showed up much earlier. We're going to stand by you, sochi, to make Konoha pay! It pains me to see both that the people treated you the way they did and that they did that to our allies, and just like you, we found no justification for it, so we will help you." Minato explained, clapping a hand on Naruto's shoulder as Kushina nodded.

Tears were slowly forming in Naruto's eyes as he realized this; he could have his parents! Sure, they'd be in the seal with the Kyuubi, but he would have them! Nodding and smirking in determination, Naruto escaped his mothers grasp and turned to the Kyuubi. "And what's your take on this, Kyuubi?" He asked, surprising everyone else that he asked such a thing.

"Why would you care what I think, ningen?" Kyuubi demanded, glaring at the boy through narrowed eyes.

"Better to have enemies without than within. Plus, I'd figure you'd like the idea of me intending to destroy Konoha, given your... 'history' with it." Naruto admitted.

The Kyuubi just stared at him for the longest time, before suddenly breaking into a monstrous grin. "You'd be right. I'd love nothing more than to see that pits destruction. If you stand by your promise, I will aid you in destroying each and every one of those bastards involved in my sealing. Everyone one else will just be icing on the cake. And I want you to destroy the pissant Uchiha who was at fault on that night, as well." Kyuubi demanded.

Naruto raised a brow. "Uchiha?"

"I can explain that." Minato spoke up. "On the night you were born, a man calling himself Uchiha Madara attacked us and unsealed the Kyuubi from your mother. He used his Sharingan to control it to attack Konoha, and I fought him and broke the contract seal. After that, I had to face the Kyuubi and ultimately seal it in you." He explained.

"Oh, then I'm definitely killing that guy." Naruto agreed.

Kyuubi grinned again. "Excellent. Then you have my support; I will give you my chakra when you need it, preferably when you use it to kill the people responsible. I don't care about your vendetta against the people that resulted in the destruction of that village, but I'm all for you killing them, and anyone else." It said.

"I guess I'll take what I can get. Now, time to put this knowledge to work. Mayuri left many formulas and schematics for his inventions, both mechanical and chemical. In analyzing this 'Reiryoku', I can most definitely transfer the manipulations and techniques into using chakra. What crusade is without an army? I'll need to bring many others to the fold; I hold no delusions of being able to destroy Konoha just by myself, even with Kyuubi's help." Naruto commented.

"Ningen... call me Kurama. You've earned the right to know my true name." The Kyuubi spoke up.

"...Thank you... Kurama. I won't bother saying we can be friends, as you'll probably-" A scoff cut him off. "-do that, but we can be allies. Heck, according to some of this information, I may be able to give you a body outside of this seal." Naruto proclaimed, to wide eyes of all.

"...You'd better not be lying, gaki." Kurama said lowly.

"Nope. According to this 'Artificial Soul' business, it's entirely possible. I just need to find a proper vessel. I can move your consciousness into an ingestible pill and insert it accordingly. Depends on the vessel you want, though; would you like something humanoid, or more bestial?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm... I would prefer bestial. I don't intend to become accommodated with a human form. Perhaps you can make it artificial as well, instead of flesh? I don't exactly desire the feeling of being splattered across the terrain like you humans are so easily want to do." Kurama answered/slightly insulted.

Huffing at the jab, Naruto merely nodded. "Very well. An artificial bestial vessel it is."

"Oh, sochi-kun, I have a great idea!" Kushina spoke up, leaning in to whisper her plan to her son.

Raising a brow in confusion, Kurama merely shrugged it off; obviously they'd go for a fox-like body, so perhaps they were discussing specifics only these humans would care for. With that, Naruto laid his head on his paws and returned to sleep.

Completely unaware of the growing grin on Naruto's face and the stifled giggles from both parties, Minato joining in when he was let in on the plan.

(Reality)

Awakening with a start, Naruto was thankful he didn't topple over when Kurama brought him into the seal. "Mmm. First things first, let's actually try out that summoning scroll. At least he went to the trouble of learning the seals for it; only makes sense for creating something like this. Might as well go all the way, turn local." He went back to the scroll and wrote his name in blood, going through the seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A large puff of smoke formed in front of Naruto, before it was swept away.

From the cloud came a 16-feet tall Hollow, bearing a fish-like mask that extended to armor its shoulders and arms, the rest of its body a dark green like the scales of a fish, a dorsal fin on its back. The hole in its chest was filled by what appeared to be a metal apparatus with chains digging into its skin in an X-shaped fashion; that was the control Mayuri used for permanent control to tie them to the scroll.

"You must be... Fishbone D." Naruto observed, as the Hollow looked on the cusp of going on a rampage, before it spied Naruto, or rather, his soul. Normally, it couldn't matter and it would attack, but it sensed the signature of...

"M-Ma... yuri...sama." Fishbone D grunted, lower its arms and yielding to Naruto.

"Oho! Sapience! Most reports are of Hollows behaving as animals until they reach at least Adjuchas, but it is to be expected of summons. And referring to me as Mayuri-san... you're basically a malicious spirit, so is it because of my soul? The machine did give me spiritual energy, and I suppose since it was laden with Mayuri's signature, it'd be passed to me." Naruto observed, knowing this would all go over the Hollows head. "Very well, I will call on you when needed. You are dismissed."

Without anything said, Fishbone D went up in smoke, returning to the pocket dimension Mayuri made specifically for these summonable Hollows.

"Well, that was easy. Not much more I can actually do about the scroll. Other than the one Gillian he got - there has to be some proxy for Boss summons in here - perhaps I can attempt to tether higher-class Hollows to it myself. Mayuri tends to not go 100% if it proves too difficult or annoying, but me... oh I don't know when to stop. But that will be for the future. For now, we'll focus..." Naruto spun on his heel to face a child-sized stasis chamber. "...on you, Nel-chan." With a grin, Naruto walked over to the chamber, going over the information pertaining to its inhabitant.

Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, the ex-Tres Espada. After she somehow reverted to her adult form and helped the Shinigami attack Las Noches and the other Espada, Mayuri drugged her, changing her back, and took her in to be examined. He couldn't exactly do it the old-fashioned way, what with her strong Hierro, but scans provided more than enough data.

"Wake up, Nel-chan." Naruto said as he entered the code to open the chamber, stepping back as it slid open, cold vapor pouring out, as a shadow within became visible. Before she could fall, Naruto caught her, hefting the little girl up and bringing her over to a table to lie her on.

Green hair under a broken goat mask, a red mark across her cheeks and nose, and a green cloak defined her, her large brown eyes shut for the moment. Frowning as she shivered at the cold table, Naruto looked around until he found a blanket and pillow - probably sleeping arrangements for any live test subjects - and put his jacket under her to separate her from the table, setting her up with the pillow and blanket, smiling as she snuggled into them.

Left in his fishnet undershirt, Naruto looked for the next bit of business. Turning to another table, Naruto found a pair of hair pins and a ring. "Shun Shun Rikka... Brazo Derecha de Gigante. Very fascinating abilities; I can see why he created facsimiles. Question is who to give them to. Of course, allies brought into the fold, but also people they'd be appropriate to. Hmm..." Grabbing a pad of sticky notes and a pen, Naruto created two notes, sticking them to each jar.

Find someone with a good heart

Find someone capable of defending and attacking

Until then, he'd have to put them on the backburner. Seeing Nel was still asleep, he turned to a cabinet on the wall, opening it up to revealing 28 glass cubes. Just looking at them put a grin on Naruto's face. "Oh Mayuri-san, you had a contingency for everything, didn't you? To think, you did this. Oh, glorious." He commented, clapping his hands together.

Before him were what could be called 'consciousness copies' of the captains of the Gotei 13, their lieutenants, Urahara Kisuke, and Shihouin Yoruichi. In the event that too many of them were killed, if he could, Mayuri would use the copies to re-create them with pseudo-Gigai; as Gigai were made to hold souls, but consequently weakened them, these Gigai would be permanent bodies, where they would have their full power always. Thankfully, Mayuri, being the clever bastard he was, changed them all slightly; they would all be loyal to him, and thus Naruto due to the spiritual energy thing that made the Hollow see him as Mayuri.

Infuriatingly, these would have to wait until he created the appropriate Gigai. Naruto gnashed his teeth. "Too much 'leave it for later', how about some 'do it now'?!" He complained, closing the cabinet and heading towards another table, covered in weapons he recognized as Quincy equipment, consisting of a generic Quincy Cross, which is actually a pentacle but they were free to name their shit whatever, a Sanrei Glove, a Quincy Bangle to be used in conjunction with the equipment to better use their abilities - Mayuri found this world was actually filled with some sort of energy exuded by nature, which was also the reason their dead didn't turn into Hollows, which could also be used in place of one's chakra, but you needed large reserves to even utilize it - a set of Gintou, and a Seele Schneider. Most of this existed because Mayuri wanted to see if it was possible; he obviously had no intent to use them, as was evident by the dust. "Finally! Something to do!"

"Actually, you can just have a clone do this while we train you." Minato's voice pervaded his thoughts, causing him to jump in shock and almost drop the stuff.

"T-tou-san?!" He yelled, looking around for Minato.

"In here, Naruto. I managed to tweak the seal so we can communicate with you while you're conscious."

"Hi sochi-kun!"

"Gaki."

"Uh... hi, everyone? Well, this is great! Are you really going to teach me?" Naruto asked.

"Yep! We'll bring you up to the level you should be by the end of the month; we'll crack down on your training, so you better be ready for pain." Minato answered.

"...I'm scared." Naruto admitted.

"As you should be. This will hurt. You may even hate us by the end of it, but that means it's working. We will beat you into the ground, pick you up, and beat you even harder until you can get up on your own and fight back. We will train in everything we can give you." Kushina pitched up, ignorant of or ignoring Naruto's paling face.

"Kurama... help..." He begged.

"I'm staying out of this. All I can do is give you chakra to keep you from dying." Kurama said, feeling some sort of budding respect/a little bit of fear of these humans now.

"That just means it'll last longer!" Naruto exclaimed with waterfall tears.

"Oh stop complaining! We're starting now! Create a clone to do what you planned to in here and find either a training room or get outside!" Minato commanded, entering his 'sensei mode' from his Jounin days.

"Okay..." Naruto created a clone to do whatever it could in here and trudged to a training room he knew of thanks to the information in his head, heading towards his doom.

(One week later)

For the first set of seven days, they focused primarily on what Kushina could teach him, which included taijutsu, ninjutsu, kenjutsu, and fuinjutsu. Seeing as Minato's taijutsu style involved liberal usage of the Hiraishin no Jutsu, they opted to train Naruto in Kushina's Uzuken, a style that centered on combining fluid movement with powerful counterattacks as well as rotating direct attacks. They abused the shit out of the Kage Bunshin, having Kushina take over one - while Henged into her so it wasn't weird - and teach the stances to 125 clones, three other groups of just as many clones for the other branches she could teach.

For the 'taijutsu clones', each and every single one of them went through the stances, building up muscle memory, which dealt with Naruto's mind and his reaction time to certain stimuli within a battle, thus clones could be used for it. Seeing as Naruto inherited both of their Wind affinities, she helped him with that, as well as a secondary Water affinity he got from her, training him in elemental manipulation, having a clone go outside and bring a bunch of leaves for wind and just having a deep tray full of water to use.

Halfway through the week, though, they discovered something interesting pertaining to Kushina and the zanpakutou-related knowledge Naruto had from Mayuri.

(Mindscape)

"What's a zanpakutou spirit, and why are you asking me if I want to be yours, sochi-kun? What does that mean, anyway?" Kushina asked, head tilted in confusion.

"Mayuri is probably the second-most knowledgeable man in terms of zanpakutou knowledge, as he dealt with fixing peoples zanpakutou, so I can use that knowledge to create an artificial zanpakutou for myself, and I asked you for poetic justice; as my zanpakutou spirit, you'd represent a weapon I would use against Konoha. Normally, you'd be in your own plane in my mind, and thus out of the mindscape, but as an artificial one, I can modify that as I wish, and thus you'll stay here. So, do you want to be my zanpakutou spirit, kaa-chan?" Naruto asked.

Smiling broadly, if a bit maliciously at the prospect of her hatred against Konoha being a physical weapon her son could use, before nodding. "Definitely! How do we do it?" She asked.

"You don't need to do anything; it's all on my end. I just came for your consent. I'll begin immediately; I can do it myself, anyway, so no need to waste clones." Naruto answered, before fading and getting to work.

(Reality)

Naruto took an 'empty' zanpakutou from the cabinet full of them on the wall, Mayuri having them so his clones could have his Ashisogi Jizou, another 'copy' he managed to create, though there could only be one at any time in this dimension. Of course, the spiritual container that held the Ashisogi Jizou was gone, but that was fine; Naruto had the replacement, his mother.

Closing his eyes and concentrating on the new spiritual sensing ability he had, Naruto eventually was able to discern his parents souls from his own, and 'grabbed' his mothers, putting it into the sword, while simultaneously keeping a bridge so she would stay in the seal instead of being separated. It took some doing, and Naruto's spiritual energy manipulation was pushed to its breaking point, but he did it.

In a flash of spiritual energy, the sword, once Mayuri's sealed zanpakutou, changed form to Naruto's artificial zanpakutou.

The blade was completely black, even the normally-silver edge, and the spiky 'guard' became a more contemporary circular one, though the design of a whirlpool was visible, and the hilt turned black, but formed a red cloth around it, a golden tassel hanging off the bottom of the hilt.

"Hey, it's my sword!" Kushina commented once the blade formed, not having experienced anything in the seal.

"How do you mean?" Naruto asked with a raised brow, looking over the marvelous weapon.

"When I was alive, this was the weapon I used that got me the title of the Aka Shi (Red Death), my Beni Mayonaka! (Crimson Midnight)" Kushina explained with a fond smile at the memory of her sword.

"Hmm, poetic, how your sword became my zanpakutou that contains you. Though, as a zanpakutou, it would have a shikai and bankai, and thus a name. As the spirit, you should know it. Is there a name in your mind that suddenly appeared?" Naruto asked, giddy at this development.

"Hmm... I... I hear a name. I feel like it should be my name, but I know it's not. It's... Hahaoya no Ikari." Kushina said after a bit of an identity crisis.

Naruto chuckled heartily at the poetry of the name. "Hilarious. Very well then. Now for my side; the command. Hmm..." He closed his eyes again, this time sitting down in a lotus position, zanpakutou across his lap, as he attempted to synch his spiritual wavelength with it in order to learn the command to activate its shikai.

There was a large flame - Naruto - and a small one before him - Hahaoya no Ikari - and a great expanse of darkness between them, even as the arms of Naruto's flickering flame attempted to reach out. Just when he was about to give up - having Mayuri's knowledge also plagued him with his temperament, and thus the propensity to give up on the current course and try another, possibly more painful method - a third flame appeared in the figurative emptiness, red as blood, next to Naruto's flame, and their arms intertwined, creating a violet flame that surged towards the flame that represented Hahaoya no Ikari.

'Even when I wanted to give up, you were there for me. Even when I can't do it by myself, you were there. You were by my side...' Naruto reminisced, before the connection was made, and his eyes snapped open, a grin slowly forming on his face as he climbed to his feet. "Watashino gawade tatte kudasai, Hahaoya no Ikari!" (Stand by my side, Mother's Wrath) His sword went up in a flash of light, before splitting in two, allowing him to grab them, before they died down and revealed the shikai of his artificial zanpakutou.

A pair of uniquely-shaped scimitars, one light green, the other blue, the blades were serrated, formed with segments that intersected like Celtic knots, having flat tips instead of being pointed, an orb at each pommel, the blue one filled with churning water, the green a miniature-tornado.

Zanpakutou normally couldn't have control over more than one element, but they also couldn't be formed from a human soul, and not having their own mental plane, so Naruto was breaking all sorts of rules here. Naturally, he didn't care.

"Oh! Oh-ho-ho! This... this is a weird experience. I'll have to get used to dual blades, and using scimitars, as opposed to a katana." Naruto commented, even as he swung the blades around like they were a part of him. Of course, that was a given seeing as it was his zanpakutou, but his body needed to get used to using them.

"We can do that in kenjutsu training, though we'll have to get rid of any thrusts and stabs." Kushina commented.

"Agreed. With all that out of the way, let us return to training." Minato finally spoke up, having opted to merely observe the proceedings.

Agreeing, Naruto re-sealed his zanpakutou and returned to the training room.

(Three days later)

By the end of the week, Nel woke up, and Kushina let Naruto go to her personally instead of letting the clone still in the lab deal with her. Good news, though: the clone had already finished half of the Gigai necessary for the Gotei 13 captains, their lieutenants, and the two interesting people in Mayuri's experience, and it managed to procure the vessel Kushina recommended for Kurama. He'd save that for later, probably at the end of the month.

"Keep up the work." Naruto said to the clone, who opted for a white lab coat while it was here - hilariously appropriate - as he approached the waking Nel.

Little Nel yawned something fierce, her mouth opening wide enough to probably eat someone's head, stretching and arching her back off the table in a way that almost looked painful, before she flopped back down and smacked her lips, a lazy smile on her face. She looked around before she found an actual person. "Hiya! I'm Nel. Who're you?" She asked.

"I'm Naruto. How are you feeling?" The blonde asked.

"Hmm... Nel's sleepy... more than I probably should be. Bit cold, even with this blanket. Where is Nel, anyway?" The verdette asked innocently.

'Aaand immediately with the difficult question...' "Nel-chan... You're... not home. Do you remember Hueco Mundo? Ichigo and his friends?" Naruto asked tentatively.

"Hmm? Nel remembers... Hueco Mundo. And... Ichigo!" Nel said with a bright grin at the memory of the strawberry. "Then... Nel remembers creepy doctor. Then Nel wake up here. Where is Nel, Naruto-onii-san?" she asked, immediately latching onto him as a brother-figure.

Naruto gave a strained smile. "Ah, that would be Mayuri-san. Mayuri... took you, and brought you here, to study you. He did... science things, then he put you to sleep. According to several notes lying around, it's been a couple years since then." He explained carefully, taking into account her current mental state.

"Creepy science man took Nel? Whhhhyyy?" The verdette asked, already on the verge of tears as she quickly put together that she might not be able to see Ichigo again. She latched onto Naruto, bawling her eyes out on his shoulder.

Holding her and letting her cry it out, Naruto felt extreme guilt, as he could actually create Mayuri's Garganta-creating machine to get her access to Hueco Mundo, and then her friends; heck, she could do it herself if she ever regressed to her adult state. But then that would create all sorts of trouble by interacting with the people of that dimension, and that was something he didn't want. And thus, he withheld this information from the girl. "You are a very special girl, Nel-chan, and Mayuri wanted to understand you. Your abilities, your condition, your disposition in respect to what you are, it all intrigued him, and when something interests Mayuri... he has to have it. I'm sorry." He explained.

Naruto would be the first to admit Mayuri, in all his brilliance, was completely insane, maybe homicidally so, and most of the things he didn't weren't always defined as 'good', says the child soldier. Heck, he replaced the organs of most of his division with explosives as a 'security precaution'; did that say sane to you?!

"Hic... S-so Nel is all alone?" Nel asked, voice blubbery.

"No, Nel-chan, you're not alone; you have me. I'll be your friend." Naruto countered with a warm smile.

"But onii-san, you said science-man was inter... intri... wanted to know about what Nel was; doesn't that mean you know what Nel is? Aren't you afraid?" Nel asked, knowing at least the simple fact that a human would fear her kind if they knew about her.

"No Nel-chan, I'm not afraid of you. Like I said, I want to be your friend." Naruto answered.

"Will you be Nel's onii-san?" Nel asked with wonderment in her voice, stars in her eyes.

Naruto chuckled. "Yes, I'll be your onii-san." He agreed.

Nel merely squealed and hugged him around his neck.

"Ooooh, Naru-chan, make me a clone! I wanna meet Nel-chan; she's so adorable!" Kushina demanded, squealing within the seal.

Minato chuckled beside her. "It would probably be for the best if she met all of us, so she won't keep asking questions when you talk to yourself, or she see's Kushina training your clones." He pointed out.

'Agreed.' "Nel-chan, I want you to meet some people close to me that I think you'll like." Naruto said, putting her back on the makeshift bed on the table.

"Who, onii-san?" Nel asked with a tilt of her head.

Saying nothing, Naruto merely created two clones, having them possessed by his parents and transformed into them. "These are my parents, Nel-chan." He introduced them.

Kushina immediately attacked Nel with affection, picking the girl up in a hug and nuzzling her head with her cheek, squealing all the while. "Ooooh, you're just as adorable in person as you are from the seal!" She commented, Naruto and Minato off to the side, chuckling.

"Where did you come from, kaa-chan? Why did you and tou-san look like onii-san?" Nel asked through the affection.

"Kaa-chan?" Kushina asked with a hopeful smile.

"Tou-san?" Minato parroted quizzically, merely curious; as a man, he would not give in to the cute. Never again...

"Onii-san is onii-san, so his kaa-chan and tou-san are Nel's kaa-chan and tou-san!" Nel explained with her 'logic.'

Minato merely took it in stride, smiling and shrugging, while Kushina squeal again and renewed her nuzzling.

"Now, the reason they looked like me for a second was because this world is very different from yours, Nel-chan. We use a different energy, and it allows us to do all sorts of things, including create clones. I created two clones, and my parents spirits - usually residing in my seal - possessed them and transformed - another technique we can do - into them. My parents aren't actually alive anymore, and a special thing happened that let me meet them now." Naruto explained as best he could, considering her current mental state.

"What happened to kaa-chan and tou-san?" Nel asked innocently, ignorant as everyone around her suddenly stiffened, before they forced themselves to relax, and relayed a silent conversation through eye contact, culminating in agreeing nods.

"On the night I was born, a... giant monster attacked my home, and they sacrificed their lives to defeat it by putting it inside of me. They also left part of themselves so I would meet them one day." Naruto explained, again dumbing it down for her, apologizing to Kurama, who huffed at being called a 'monster.'

"So... kaa-chan and tou-san are in your tummy?" Nel asked, to chuckles all around.

"Yes, they're in the seal on my stomach. But now I can be with them; would you like to be a part of our family, Nel-chan?" Naruto asked.

Nel answered by shooting off of Kushina like a little rocket and latching onto Naruto, giggling when he tried to stay on his feet. "Onii-san!"

(The next week)

Tending to Nel's curiosity, and letting her go out and look around, under the supervision of clones and Tazuna's family, who loved her just as much as Naruto and his parents, was relatively easy compared to what the blonde had to do. Training under his father was more arduous than under his mother; maybe it was because he was a Jounin sensei, and thus had to deal with a bevy of personalities to face while teaching, maybe it was because he was the Hokage, and thus had to be strong and stern with people. Either way, Minato was a task-master when you were training under him.

Minato taught Naruto what he could of elemental jutsu, which involved what he could add to Naruto's Wind arsenal, and expanding it with Raiton, but the culmination of his training involved teaching his son the Rasengan, and attempting to teach him the Hiraishin no Jutsu. Thanks to the chakra control exercises Kushina hammered into him, Naruto was able to perform the former technique in one hand in just a single day. More than once, they were surprised by the sheer potential Naruto was capable of, and the capacity to learn and reproduce the results, which was amplified by Mayuri's intelligence and ability to analyze things he observed. The Hiraishin, on the other hand, continued to elude the blonde with its complexity, as it required Naruto to be knowledgeable in fuinjutsu as much as Kushina and Minato, and that would take more than the three weeks they now had, so they would unfortunately have to sack that technique for now.

Halfway through the week, however, was when things got interesting, as the clone ordered to create the 28 Gigai had managed to streamline the process and complete them sooner than expected, but something it sensed topside stayed Naruto's hand to recreate the Shinigami, and thus he went up to investigate.

There they were, just as he remembered them. It had been nearly a month since he saw them, since they died. He approached them.

"Zabuza... Haku..." Naruto said simply, as if he couldn't believe they were here.

"Gaki? You can see us?" Zabuza asked from his spot atop his Kubikiribouchou, used as a gravestone.

"How is that possible, Naruto-kun?" Haku asked, polite and friendly even in death.

"Some things happen, and now I can see the dead. It's a matter of spiritual energy, let's leave it there. More importantly, do you want to live again?" Naruto asked, immediately going through a plan he hatched the second he saw them. He did say he needed an army, and these two could be the first soldiers. Discreetly creating a clone behind him, already transformed into a fly so the smoke wouldn't be noticed, and dispelling it, relayed his orders to the Giga-making clone to make two more.

Zabuza scoffed. "Hell yeah, I'd like to be alive again. I came here to make money for the resistance to bring down the Mizukage, and here I am... dead."

"I, too, would like the be alive again, but that is obviously impossible. Why do you ask, Naruto-kun?" Haku asked.

Naruto merely smiled. "Follow me. I'll be bringing the sword, too, for you, Zabuza." He said, walking over to Zabuza's grave.

"Well, seeing as I can't do anything about it, I guess I have no choice. What for, though?" Zabuza asked, getting off his sword and following the blonde beside Haku, surprised when he could carry it with ease.

"You'll see~" Was all Naruto said as he lead them to the secret entrance, taking the chute down and landing on his feet this time.

"GaaaaAAAAAAAHHH!" Zabuza's yell was heard as he came down the slide, completely unprepared for it, and thus he landed in a heap beside Naruto, Haku landing on her feet with ease, possibly mocking Zabuza with her grace.

"Are you alright, Zabuza-sama?" Haku asked worriedly; while she accepted that Zabuza no longer saw her as a tool, old habits die hard.

"Ugh... what's with the slide, gaki? Did you- where the hell are we?" Zabuza asked once he got to his feet and looked around the underground lab. "What the hell have you been up to, gaki?"

"It's a long story; first things first, step in." Naruto gestured to the two genderless corpse-looking forms at his feet.

"...Huh?" Zabuza asked with the razor edge of his wit.

"Step. In. Just lie down right over them, and you'll be absorbed into them. You'll be alive again. While I would want to have modified them so you wouldn't require such things as sleep or food, I kept those features in so you can feel 100% alive again; all that's different is you're much tougher. You'll also have your chakra reserves back, as they will change to fit the soul injected into them." Naruto went on a bit of a tirade when talking about the Gigai.

"...Huh?" Truly a riveting conversationalist, that Zabuza.

Rather than wait for Naruto's rapidly thinning patience to allow him to answer, Haku took the initiative and laid down on one of the bodies, sinking into it as she did, before going completely flat, the glow of her translucent form fading as she was absorbed into it, before it shrank to accommodate her dimensions and formed clothes and hair.

The Haku-double opened its eyes, and took in a deep gulp of hair, before bringing a hand over the location of the wound that took her life, finding unblemished skin and cloth. "I'm... I'm alive again." She tested her newly reacquired vocal cords.

Zabuza, seeing the miracle before him, stepped over to the other body and went through the same process, the Gigai changing until it looked exactly like Momochi Zabuza, nuke-nin of Kirigakure no Sato. Naruto quickly put his sword beside him so he could have it again.

Zabuza's eyes flew open, and he breathed in air he never thought he'd feel again, bringing his hand up to find it wasn't see-through anymore. "It's real... we're alive again. Gaki... what the hell happened since we've been gone?" He demanded.

Merely nodding, Naruto went over everything that happened since they died. Returning to the village, the Chuunin Exams, facing Orochimaru of the Sannin, the preliminaries, and the month of training until the final round, Kakashi abandoning him to train Sasuke. After that, he mentioned coming back to Nami to find an underground place to train, and then stumbling into a machine that gave him the knowledge of a technically-dead guy from another dimension, finding information that pegged Konoha as traitors of Uzushiogakure, including his once-beloved jii-san, and training under his parents that were sealed into him alongside the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Haku fainted.

"Hmm... well, that's some heavy shit, gaki. And you want us to join your army to one day get back at Konoha? Hell yeah, I'm down with that! I want my revenge on Hatake, then I'm gonna go to Kiri to finish my business." Zabuza said, raising his cleaver of a sword as if it were a pitchfork.

"All in good time, Zabuza. We still have over two weeks until the finals, and I still think Orochimaru has something planned for then, so there's that. Until then, I'll be training under my parents and in the Quincy equipment Mayuri-san left. However, now that the Gigai are finished, I can bring him and his colleagues here; I'll wait until the end of the week for that, though. Make yourselves at him; I'll be returning to training." Naruto said, waving at them as he left for the training room.

"Hold on! Training under the Aka Shi? You bet I'm getting in on this!" Zabuza said, ignoring Haku's giggle at his slight fanboyism.

'Uh... Kaa-san?' Naruto silently asked.

"Sure, Naru-chan, Zabuza can join! I enjoyed having my own student once, so this'd be nice again." Kushina responded with her normal exuberance.

'You had a student before?' Naruto asked, not having been told that.

"Yes, I taught a boy by the name of Gekkou Hayate kenjutsu." Kushina explained simply.

'Gekkou Hayate? Hey, that was the coughing proctor from the preliminaries!' Naruto realized.

"A cough? Oh yeah, I heard he got caught in a poison trap on a mission and developed it; I think the doctor said it was permanent. Poor boy." Kushina pouted at her ex-students condition.

'Hmm... maybe... We'll see.' Naruto had a conversation with himself as two ideas formed in his head immediately, put away for now. "Okay Zabuza, kaa-san gave you the okay. Prepare to cry, though." He warned the swordsman.

"Uh... y-you're kidding, right?" Zabuza asked, suddenly very afraid.

"Nope!" A feminine voice answered as they stepped into the bunker-like room, a grinning redhead meeting his gaze.

Naruto came over and pat Zabuza on the shoulder consolingly. "Good luck, Zabuza." He said, before walking over to the clones training with Minato.

The end of the week came fast enough, and thus the prophesied time of the technically Gotei 13 captains 'and guests' had come. Naruto walked into the lab, finding Haku doting on an unconscious, bruise-ridden Zabuza on the ground. 'I told him to prepare to cry...' Naruto mentally commented with a shrug, heading towards the cabinet that held the soul-copies of the 28 Shinigami. Taking them out and bringing them over delicately, Naruto created 27 clones and gave each of them a cube, joining them in pressing them against the chests of the Gigai, shattering the cubes and letting the souls sink in, dispelling the clones and stepping back as they each transformed and grew or shrunk.

Yamamoto Genryuusai Shigekuni, Sasakiba Choujirou Tadaoki, Soifon, Omaeda Nikkoutarouemon Yoshiayamenosuke Marechiyo, Ichimaru Gin, Kira Izuru, Unohana Retsu, Kotetsu Isane, Aizen Sousuke, Hinamori Momo, Kuchiki Byakuya, Abarai Renji, Sajin Komamura, Iba Tetsuzaemon, Kyouraku no Jirou Souzousuke Shunsui, Ise Nanao, Tousen Kaname, Hisagi Shuuhei, Hitsugaya Toushirou, Matsumoto Rangiku, Zaraki Kenpachi, Kusajishi Yachiru, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, Nemu, Ukitake Juushirou, Shiba Kaien, Urahara Kisuke, and Shihouin Yoruichi.

Naruto watched as they went through the same motions as Zabuza and Haku, opening their eyes, breathing, looking at themselves, before turning to Naruto. It got a bit awkward when they all got down on one knee and bowed to him.

"MAYURI-SAMA."

"Uh... call me Naruto." The blonde said awkwardly.

"NARUTO-SAMA."

"Oh you think you're just hilarious, don't you? Okay, everyone get up." Naruto commanded with an exasperated gesture.

They all stood up robotically and stared at him. Naruto was pretty sure they weren't breathing.

"Shit, I forgot about this; Mayuri-san may be fine with this, but to me, it's just creepy. There's probably a note in that cabinet about this. Wait... Mayuri-san?" Naruto wondered experimentally.

"Yes, Naruto-sama?" Mayuri answered flatly.

"What's the command to allow you all to retain your personalities?" Naruto asked, not able to sift through all the knowledge for the finer details of most things, including this.

"That would be 3487-Q14." Mayuri recited, before everyone's shoulders sagged and they started to act like their normal selves.

"Ugh... what the hell happened?" The gigantic Kenpachi asked as he rubbed his sore neck, even as Yachiru clambered onto his shoulder.

"I believe my Soma project, you ape, strangely in the Shinno dimension I found years ago." Mayuri answered him with his usual biting remarks.

"I suppose that is what you named this world?" Naruto asked with a bit of amusement. Shinno, shinobi, definitely Mayuri's brand of 'humor'; soma itself meant 'body' according to an ancient language from his human world counterpart, Greek he believed it was called.

"Yes it is, Naruto-sama. I trust, with your being here, that you stumbled upon the lab and used my machine to give you my knowledge?" Mayuri asked.

"That is indeed what happened. I came here two weeks ago, and my clone finished the Gigai halfway during this week, but I wanted to leaving waking you all up until the end, when this week's training finished." Naruto explained.

"Clones? After-images, yes?" Soifon asked.

"Nope, solid clones. In my world, we are able to create solid clones made of the elements, or in my case, chakra itself." Naruto explained.

"...Mind explaining?" Kisuke asked, having never heard of a solid clone technique, or this 'chakra.'

Sighing, Naruto went on to explain, with Kurama's help, the Rikudou Sennin who gave people chakra, physical and spiritual energy, which the people used to create ninjutsu, which consisted of manipulating the five elements, and fantastical things such as defying the laws of physics, manipulating states of matter, and manipulating the self, such as creating clones.

"Hmm, I knew of most of these things beforehand, but nothing about this Sage; I'm tempted to say he appears to be fiction, but given the hearsay of your 'bijuu', he was very real, correct?" Mayuri asked.

Naruto winced and held his head. "Y-yeah, he was real. Kurama also says to never say the Rikudou Sennin was fake, or he'll... do things." He relayed.

"My apologies, Naruto-sama." Mayuri said with a bow, the reaction reflexive due to the programming the original Mayuri put in.

"Uh, no problem." Naruto said, feeling a bit weirded out.

"More to the point, you obviously animated us for a purpose, yes?" Yamamoto spoke up.

Naruto chuckled, amused that the Captain-Commander saw right through him. "Yes, Genryuusai-san, I woke you all up for a purpose. I seek an army for a crusade." And so, Naruto filled them in on his early childhood, leading up to the information he found on the computer pertaining to Konoha's betrayal of their own ally, his clan.

"Deplorable, to leave a child to fend for himself, thrust into a world brewing with hatred. These Konoha dogs must perish!" Genryuusai commented with a slam of his cane.

"Just drop me in; I'll slaughter 'em all!" Kenpachi offered with a bloodthirsty grin.

"Ah, but you won't settle for such an easy answer." Aizen commented with a conspiratorial smile.

"Of course not, Aizen-san; I will make them rue the day they sought to scorn me. It will be a slow vengeance, like a poison, weakening them from within as I convert their numbers to mine; I'm sure to find several people who would join me. With you 28 brought to 'life', I can already enact a plan or two. First things first, Yoruichi, Soifon." Naruto said, turning to the former and current Onmitsukidou heads.

"Yes, Naruto-sama!" Both women straightened up and faced him, having previously been chatting away.

"I want both of you to go out and make as much money as you can in bounty hunting; I believe you two are the best for this work. And, whenever you choose, I want you to go to each of the five 'Great' Hidden Villages and copy their jutsu libraries; you will be able to leave your bodies like normal Gigai, but only for thirty minutes." Naruto ordered.

"Thank you for your belief in us, Naruto-sama; we will do this to the best of our ability. If I may ask, what will you need the money and 'jutsu' for?" Soifon asked respectfully.

"I'll be using it to buy an expanse of land for all of us to live in in Konoha, remaking the Uzumaki compound for kaa-san. And the jutsu will be for I and any shinobi we bring to our side to learn." Naruto answered. "And Mayuri-san, I'll need your mind to aid me in several of the original Mayuri-san's designs, specifically his formulas and more complex inventions." He added.

Mayuri gave his trademark terrifyingly wide grin. "Of course, Naruto-sama, I'd be happy to help." He answered.

"Excellent. Now, everyone come to receive your zanpakutou; I believe they will transform to match yours as opposed to the process that got me my own." Naruto gestured them over.

"You have a zanpakutou of your own, Naruto-sama? How did you go about this?" Mayuri said as everyone followed Naruto, intrigued by this information.

"Physically, it was easy, but the theory took half a week to get down. Ultimately, I took one of the empty zanpakutou and was able to visually separate my mother's soul from my own and connect it to the sword, without moving her there completely, so she could stay with my father. My mother acts as both herself and my zanpakutou spirit." Naruto explained.

"Fascinating; a human soul as a zanpakutou spirit. I never would have thought of it. Tell me, were there any complications, physical or mental on Kushina-san?" Mayuri asked.

"Mostly a tiny moment of identity crisis, but kaa-san managed to work it out. There was a bit of difficulty in ultimately unlocking my shikai, but that was surmounted soon enough." Naruto answered.

"Absolutely intriguing, and what does your zanpakutou entail?" Mayuri wondered.

"I wasn't able to train in it yet - that will probably start next week - but as far as I can tell, it entails water and wind." Naruto relayed.

"Impossible. In all records of zanpakutou, even ones attempted in experiments by Mayuri, no zanpakutou can manipulate more than one element." Yamamoto denied.

"Well, no zanpakutou has been powered by a human soul, has it? Besides, seeing as it is powered by my mother, it represents a part of her, and the wind and water possibly represent her home, Uzushiogakure, and the whirlpools that surround it." Naruto countered.

"Hmm... perhaps. This human zanpakutou business could open the way to all sorts of theories pertaining to zanpakutou spirits." The Captain-Commander pondered with a stroke of his beard.

"Yes, I thought the same thing when I succeeded. Are the zanpakutou human souls converted into the beings we know them as? If so, where did these people come from? Who were they? Were they connected to who their Shinigami were when they were alive?" Naruto questioned, silencing the rabble of the other Shinigami following him. "None of you remember who you were as humans, do you?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"No. No tests, physical or psychological, have been able to dredge up our memories; at least none I've done." Mayuri answered.

"And obviously your zanpakutou don't have the answers." Naruto commented, receiving negative shakes of the head all around. "Then there may be nothing we can do, as well." He said with a sigh, even as he opened the large cabinet filled with empty swords and handed them out, watching as each Shinigami communed with their zanpakutou in their own way, each blade transforming to match the originals.

"Excellent. Now, before you all find your accommodations, there's one thing left for you to do." Naruto said with a grin.

"What would that be, Naruto-sama?" Unohana asked demurely.

"Time for you to meet the family."

End Ch. 1

So yeah, a couple things to go over. Obviously, this is a Vengeful!Naruto, so there will be some minor bashing, and some characters who are more towards the evil side of the grey area, but not outright evil; obviously, 'for the greater good' nonsense, but there will be some moments when it appears to be outright spitefulness. The rainbow of human nature! :D

Also, Naruto won't be completely dark, there'll be some good parts of him, including a bit jacke44 just mentioned that I liked (guy's just overflowing with ideas, seriously, it's great; I love people like that, imagination at its peak, or for those of you who watched ToQger, IMAGINATIOOOOOOONNNN!)

Still haven't finished ToQger... hate when I do that.

Anyway, as you can see, small army of the Gotei 13 captains, their lieutenants, and our favorite exiles, Quincy armament, Shun Shun Rikka and Chad's Fullbring in reserve for special people, artificial zanpakutou, 'alive' Zabuza and Haku, shit's all over the place.

And I fucking love it.

Have I gushed enough yet? I'm not sure.

Anyway, just to warn you guys, this will be a harem, as per the challenge, so that's out of my hands if it annoys you. The definitive harem is Hinata, Nemu, Anko, Soifon, Nanao, Momo, and Rangiku. I think that's everything so, as always, tell me what you think.

Ja ne!