Chapter 2: Chapter 2: expression stoic
Most of all though, was his greatest wish. His wish of one day starting a family of his own; being able to witness his kids first steps and hear their first words. Shion, among others, would be a mess when she found out he'd died, he realized sadly.
He'd agreed to give her children not long before the war had really started to heat up, and their first try had been successful. They were going to have twins, but he wouldn't be there for them.
All of this and more he spoke into the wind. The woman next to him simply listening, her expression stoic, but not unkind or cold. If he was feeling her right, she was simply trying to put up a strong front; she didn't want him to see what she was feeling, but didn't know that he could feel it.
She was hiding a great deal of anguish, as if she were directly related to the events that had transpired here.
"Gomen... I shouldn't be rambling like this." Naruto sighed, something he seemed to be doing a lot since he died only a few short hours ago. "Before you do whatever it is you're going to do to me, like send me to hell or whatever, can I ask you something?"
When the woman looked down at him and nodded Naruto offered her a small smile in thanks. "There was a man, wearing an orange spiral mask somewhere around here, is he still here?"
The woman was silent for a moment, seeming almost remorseful, but the expression was fleeting; she slowly shook her head in the negative before speaking. "No, his soul was already Konso'd, and the gates of hell appeared to claim him; he's gone for good, so you have nothing to worry about."
Naruto nodded. "I see." He looked up at the woman, his expression one of solemn acceptance. "It's too bad really, Obito had come around in the end; if not for him I don't think we would have won. Mind you, if it hadn't been for him, none of this would have happened in the first place."
His gaze returned to the charred wasteland before him, resting on his own body for a moment, before a single brow rose in question as he realized something strange. "Wait a second... are you the Shinigami? You look nothing like that creepy thing I saw all those years ago."
The woman nodded but said nothing further on the matter; with a feline grace she moved to stand in front of him, yet he didn't move, merely following her with his eyes.
Turning to face him, the woman reached behind her and drew her sword, and in response Naruto smiled and closed his eyes, ready for the next stage of his journey at long last. "I'm going to send you to Soul Society, I guess you would refer to it as the Pure World."
Naruto was rather confused though. Why would the Shinigami send him to heaven, and why would the shinigami be a beautiful woman? Was it to make him more comfortable in it's presence? Or had the shinigami really been a she all this time?
He didn't have much time to think on it though, as the next thing he knew the woman had tapped the pommel of her sword against his forehead and almost instantly a soft blue light appeared before his eyes.
Looking down, he noticed a circle of light beneath him, his body beginning to sink into the earth as if he was being converted into light.
When he looked back up he smiled a little bit wider than before, his first genuine smile in what felt to him like ages. "My name is Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, Former Shinobi of Konohagakure. What's yours, Shinigami-San?"
The woman smiled for the first time since he'd seen her as she sheathed her sword; she then placed a hand on her hip and swung her hips out to the side in a teasing manner. "Quite the long name there handsome, and it's Yoruichi. Shihouin Yoruichi, Niban-tai Taichou of the Goteijusantai. See you soon, Naruto-kun."
When the light finally faded and everything had gone dark, only a single thing passed through his mind before even thought was lost to him. 'What a pretty name.'
(Yoruichi's name in kanji translates to; Shihouin "Four Tree Imperial Palace", and Yoruichi "One Evening". Took me forever to work that out, tell me if I'm wrong, though it still sounds nice)
(SCENE BREAK)
When Shihouin Yoruichi returned to Squad Two's barracks she immediately went to her room and tossed her haori on her desk before flopping down onto her futon face first.
Her report to the Sou-Taichou had been long and emotionally trying; having to detail the events of a war between the forces of man and an endless army of what appeared to be white plants, the resurgence of a Primordial God that even
The Goteijusantai was wary of, it's subsequent defeat at the hands of a young man no older than seventeen, and the death of said teen that Yoruichi had been watching over since his birth.
It was the original deal between the Sou-Taichou and the man known as Namikaze Minato, to have someone competent keep their eyes on his son and make sure he didn't become a target for the more opportunistic hollows, or anything thing else of a more supernatural nature that would want to take advantage of such a powerful demon being sealed within a human child.
Minato had long since reincarnated, as he was not allowed to enter the Seireitei for another six hundred years at the least if he was still eligible to do so when that time came.
That's what happens when you summon a Shinigami to the land of the living after all, a price had to be paid to wield such an ability.
She'd watched over young Naruto since he was only hours old, through all the good times and bad, his first steps, his first words, his first beating at the hands of a drunk, and the day he'd finally earned the respect of the village he'd sworn to protect; and over the years the little knucklehead had grown on her.
To watch him die had nearly broken her, and to be completely honest, all she wanted to do right now was to curl up in her futon and cry.
She knew he was here in the Soul Society, somewhere out in the Rukongai, but they might never find him before he re-entered the cycle of reincarnation. She might never see that little ball of sunshine ever again, and that tore her up inside.
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