28Chapter 1: I'm Home
"Hard to believe I'm back home after only two years. It's barley changed." A 20 year old young man thought to himself while staring out the window of the bus he was riding on. He was lightly tan skinned having spiky blood red hair with blue eyes and whisker marks on his cheeks, a lean and muscular build, wearing a burnt orange t-shirt, black jeans, and white shoes. This was Naruto Kurosaki, formly Uzumaki.
He had a nostalgic smile on his face as he looked around his hometown that he had been away from.
"Wonder how the family's been since I was away." He chuckled to himself as he imagined the antics that his younger brother and his father would no doubt be taking part in with one another. He loved the man for adopting and raising him while helping him grow into the man he was today, a real better improvement from his old life, but his father was a bit much at times with his hyperactivity. Which was saying alot since he use to just a hyper if not more back in his old world. And his younger brother was a bit physical in his responses, usual resorting to fights over words. Which is understandable since he hated it when people acted stupid and annoying for no reason.
As for his baby sisters, they were quite a pair too. The eldest younger sister, from what he could remember, was pretty independent for a girl her age. She was also incredibly blunt; which he found both amusing and refreshing. As for his youngest sister, she was a sweetheart; no questions asked. Ever since the family lost their mother, she had taken on the role of housekeeper, cook, and overall caregiver.
And then there was him; the eldest child of the Kurosaki family. Even though he is adopted. He had to be the one who looked after his siblings, making sure that they stayed strong after their mother's death. With his time spent in college, he hoped to be able to better support his family since his father mainly ran an emergency clinic. While it was a great service to the community, and they hoped that they didn't get so many patients, it only provided so much.
The bus reached his stop cutting Naruto from his musings, and he grabbed his duffle bag and laptop case before exiting the bus; making sure to thank the driver for getting him to his destination. He knew that the simple things, like small acts of gratitude, went a long way for people; so he made sure to do them as often as he could.
Once the bus left, he smiled at the sight before him; Karakura High School, where he had graduated some years ago. Looking at his watch, he figured that his brother would still be in class, so he went down the beaten path he fondly remembered walking as he made his way to the Kurosaki Clinic. As he walked, he resumed looking around his hometown, his smile never fading in the slightest.
"Wonder how Sensei and Neko are doing?" He absently thought, turning his gaze to the direction of a familiar shop he frequented as a teenager. His gaze moved to another familiar location and he chuckled. "I'll bet they're all lazing about as usual."
It took Naruto around an hour to reach his family's clinic, due to him taking his time getting there. When he gazed at the place, his smile grew warmer and his stance became straighter.
Home sweet home.
He was finally back home, coming back to his family now that he was an educated man. He found himself incredibly content about that fact as he approached the door. With a rhythmic knock, Naruto patiently waited for a response and was rewarded with a familiar voice calling out.
"Karin, can you get the door, please?"
He took a step back from the door, his bags still in hand as he heard the knob unlock and turn before the door itself swung open. A familiar short black haired girl with dark gray eyes looked out with a rather bored look as she greeted. "Yeah?"
"Hey there, big-lil sis." Naruto greeted fondly.
Slowly a smile graced her face before she poked her head back inside and called out. "Yuzu, come quick!"
"What's wrong?!" Came an incredibly worried response from the other sister.
"Just come outside!" Karin answered before she rushed out the door and collided with her eldest brother with a powerful hug. "You're back!"
"Of course I am!" Naruto responded with a laugh just as he saw a familiar head of short light brown hair with dark brown eyes poke out of the building. His smile never weakened when he saw that, like Karin, her eyes widened in surprise and even watered slightly. "Yuzu-chan..." He greeted.
"Naru-nii," Yuzu whispered back, tears falling as she smiled brightly and rushed into his arms like Karin had done. "I missed you..." She said, her voice muffled against his shirt; which he felt was getting wet from her tears. His smile softened as he held her close rubbing her head affectionately.
"I know... I missed you girls too." Naruto said lovingly, happy to hold his sisters in his arms again.
Pulling away to stand next to Karin, Yuzu wiped her eyes and smiled brightly. "Welcome home, Naru-nii."
"I'm home." Naruto smiled as he followed his sisters inside his home for the first time in two years.
An awkward chuckle escaped him as Naruto saw his father and brother, a tall man having black sticked up hair with black eyes and a 15 year old young man having spiky orange hair with brown eyes, once again going at it. "It's like I never left home." He commented, smiling at Yuzu when she gave him his helping of dinner. "So, what has everyone been up to while I was away?"
Karin shrugged. "Nothing much. Yuzu and I are doing alright in school, Ichi-nii is still being bothered because of his hair, and dad is...dad."
"That about sums it up, huh?" Naruto grinned.
The two of them shared a laugh at that while Yuzu stifled her own giggle. "Ichi-nii is still seeing ghosts too," Yuzu added.
Naruto paused in taking another bite, slowly setting down his chopsticks. "...He is?"
Both of his sisters nodded. "I can still feel them when they're near; but I can't see them yet." Karin noted. "What about you, Naru-nii?"
"Yeah, I still saw ghost even when I was at college. Had to play it off that I couldn't see them." Naruto said.
"I wish I could see them," Yuzu sighed out feeling left out. "Only dad and I can't see them."
"Don't worry so much about it, Yuzu-chan." Naruto assured, reaching over and rubbing the top of her head. "It's not as glamorous as you think. Most of the time, the ghosts are just people having trouble accepting what happened. I can't think of a time I talked to a ghost that wasn't either depressed or angry about what was happening."
"That sounds so sad..." She mused with a sympathetic look.
"It is. Which is why it's probably best that you don't see them. You don't need the unnecessary guilt at being alive weighing you down. There are a few ghosts who throw that in your face, trying to make you feel like you're the reason they died." Naruto said shaking his head losing count of how many times that happened.
"Geez..." Karin commented. "Talk about messed up."
"Don't ever be ashamed that you're alive, girls. Even if someone says you shouldn't be, it's not their life to lead; it's yours." Naruto said making them both nodded with thoughtful looks on their faces. Dinner was quiet after that talk, save for Isshin and Ichigo still having their pre-dinner brawl.
"There we go." Naruto said having finished putting away his belongings and sitting on his bed. "I really gotta remember to thank Yuzu for keeping my room clean while I was gone."
His room was simple in terms of decorations. He had his bed, a desk, and a small television set on top of a stand. His closet held all of his clothes and even a small dresser, giving the actual room more space to move around in. On one of the walls was a small shelf that he had screwed in for the sole purpose of holding his pictures.
In the first picture, there was his family before his mother's death. His father and mother were standing at the back while he stood in the center in front of them. Ichigo stood to his left while Karin was on his right. Yuzu was clinging to his back with her arms around his neck. All of them looked so happy.
The next picture had three kids in it. The first was him, the second was Ichigo, and the last was a girl around Ichigo's age having short orange hair cut in a hime style with gray eyes that were incredibly expressive and she held an innocent smile on her face. The Kurosaki brothers were also smiling with Naruto standing behind the two of them and his hands on their heads.
"I wonder how Hime-chan is doing since I left." He mused as he looked at the younger visage of Orihime Inoue. She was a childhood friend of his and Ichigo's, and Naruto had been a major source of support for the girl when her older brother, Sora, had died. It took a while, but slowly the girl had returned to her bright self.
The third picture had him as a teenager standing in front of a small shop. Next to him was a man dressed in green with a black haori and wooden geta sandals. On his head, and slightly shadowing his eyes, was a white and green striped bucket hat. On Naruto's shoulder was a black cat that had amused looking yellow eyes. The hat wearing man had a hand fan hiding the lower half of his face while Naruto's face looked to be in the midst of laughter, as if a joke had been made while the picture was taken.
"I'll bet sensei hasn't changed a bit." Naruto thought aloud shaking his head in amusement. "Him or Neko..."
The final picture had Naruto sitting around with a diverse group of people; eight of them, to be exact. They were having mixed expressions of laughter, smiles, and even annoyance (though that was diluted by the smile mixed in). The lot of them all looked to be content, just going through another day of their lives without anything to bring them down.
"I should go see how they're doing this week." Naruto said making a mental note to have a day set to go visit them all. Moving to his desk, he saw that everything had been left where he had left it; making him once again feel grateful for Yuzu taking care of his belongings. He picked up some of the papers, looking them over and smiling in recognition. "I never finished these..." he mused, looking at the incomplete works in his hands. "I should set some time aside for this. Unfortunately I finished the other thing with my own flare. So hopefully she'll like it."
Putting them back down, he moved back to his bed and lied down, staring at the ceiling with a smile. Closing his eyes to rest for the night, he felt a sense of peace fill him to the core at being back home.
Blue eyes opened to a blue sky that had some drifting clouds scattered about it. He also felt that he was lying on grass, so getting to his feet, Naruto looked around the area to see he was in a field filled with lavender flowers as some blew away in the wind making him feel serene.
"Here again, huh?" He asked as he closed his eyes, smiling at the calm wind blew over him hitting his body. Naruto picked up for a presence behind him and his smile grew fonder as he turned around. "I kept you waiting, didn't I?"
Giggling back at him was a woman that stood having long dark purple hair with matching eyes, a well developed figure with G-cup breasts, wearing a short purple chinese dress and matching high heels. This woman was Kazehana, Naruto's partner and lover.
She moved closer to him and ran her finger down his chest to his abdomen. "Yes...you did." she answered, never moving her gaze away from his own. "Y'know, now that we're back in Karakura, I can feel things are going to get interesting."
"You are never wrong with these feelings, Kaze-chan." Naruto smiled.
"And yet you say it's one of the things you love about me." She retorted.
"So, why did you bring me here, Kaze-chan?" Naruto asked.
"What? A lover can't just call her man over to chat?" Kazehana asked back, raising a brow. "Maybe I grew bored of watching you and being in here by myself?"
"You're right. I'm sorry about that, Kaze-chan. I'm just trying to live a life with some sense of normalcy. At least normal for me."
"Your life stopped being normal the moment you heard my call, Naruto. Your brother will soon hear a call too; and eventually your sisters. It's practically a given. Besides normal is overrated."
"True, true." Naruto chuckled as he sat down on the grass as Kazehana smiled and sat beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad to have you as a partner, Kaze-chan... I hope you know that."
"I do." She answered without hesitation. "You're my partner and I know you enough to understand how you feel about things. Just don't forget that you're important to me as I am to you."
Naruto smiled at her and wrapped an arm around Kazehana pulling her close.
"I won't."
The two of them looked out to the horizon see the setting sun that was changing the bluey skies to orange hues, a sense of tranquility resting over them.
The next day, in the later hours of the morning, Naruto walked through the streets and alleyways of Karakura Town with a set destination in mind. He just hoped that the place was open so that he wouldn't be forced to wait for their business hours to begin.
Walking down a longer stretch of alleyway, he saw a familiar shop getting closer and smiled. The two young preteens in front of the place were new to him, but he figured that they were just two more lost souls that his sensei had picked up.
Raising an arm in greeting, he caught their attention by calling out, "Good morning!"
The black haired pigtailed girl with purple eyes jumped a bit in surprise while the short red haired boy turned to him with annoyance on his face. "Yeah, what do you want?" He asked rudely.
"J-Jinta," The girl said with a slight stutter. "Tessai told us not to be rude to potential customers."
Jinta, scoffed at that. "Whatever, Ururu. You need something, Whiskers?"
"Wow." Naruto thought with sarcastic deadpan. "That's original." Outwardly, he never lost his smile as he replied. "Is Urahara-san in? If not him, then maybe Tsukabishi-san?"
Before the kids could answer, the sliding door of the shop opened, and a rather tall lightly tan skin man having black cornrowed hair, a moustache, and glasses stepped out. "Did someone call my name?" He asked before spotting the whisker-faced redhead. "...Naruto?" He asked in slight surprise.
Grinning, the young man raised his arm once more. "Yo, Tessai! How's it- ACK!" His greeting was cut off as he was engulfed in a, literal, bone-crushing embrace by the now emotional man.
"Oh, it's been ages since you last came by!" Tessai exclaimed dramatically, throwing the kids for a loop as the whiskered redhead's back popped in several places. "Two years is far too long of a time between visits!"
"Yeah well," Naruto groaned out, ignoring the snickering that echoed in the back of his mind. "I was...busy with school...and stuff!"
To his relief, he was set down as the man rushed back inside, calling for Urahara. He took the time waiting to fix his ruffled clothes as Kazehana spoke up. "Still a strange one for a man of his caliber."
"Everyone has their own quirks once they reach a certain level of power, Kaze-chan. He's emotional, Neko is teasing, and you're a flirty drunk."
"For the record, I was always a flirty drunk."
He smiled in amusement as a familiar sandy blonde walked out of the shop. "Well, look who decided to come back to town! Been a while since we had you drop by, Kurosaki-kun."
Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah, it has, sensei. It's good to see you and Tessai again, though." He looked over the man's shoulder curiously, but didn't get the chance to ask anything as the shopkeeper spoke up.
"She's not here at the moment; but she should be back within a week or so."
"Personal concerns or your own curiosity?" The redheaded Kurosaki asked
Urahara smiled and hid his face behind his fan. "Oh, a little bit of both." He answered vaguely. "Don't worry so much; she'll be fine."
"It's not Neko that I worry about." Shot back Naruto as the subject was dropped. "How's business?" He asked, discretely looking at the kids.
"Relax, they know all about our friends from the other side. It's why I offered them a place to stay. As for our friends, they're still quite common here, unfortunately. We occasionally get pest control, but that only stops the visits for however long they're in town."
"Damn." Naruto sighed.
"On the bright side, they don't seem to be any more than the garden variety Hollows. Nothing too concerning." Tessai said.
"Garden variety or not, with my family being so spiritually aware, they're in danger of being targeted." Sighing again, Naruto brushed a hand through his hair tiredly. "Looks like I'll be reconducting some business transactions with you, sensei."
Urahara flourished his fan over his face once more and laughed jovially. "Excellent! I was hoping to get some revenue soon!"
Naruto rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop himself from giving a small smile at his sensei's antics. "I just hope I haven't gotten too rusty over the past couple of years..."
There was a brief pause between the three men before they all laughed together, confusing Jinta and Ururu. The girl turned to Jinta and asked, "Are all grownups odd?"
"Only the weird ones," He answered as he resumed sweeping, prompting Ururu to go back to her own chores.
The cool evening breeze felt great against his skin, brushing through his hair while his eyes were closed. A smile was on his face as he basked in the feeling, allowing a sense of nostalgia to overtake him as he embraced his natural element.
"I see you're enjoying the winds. A cool gentle breeze that can be everywhere in the world." Kazehana grinned.
"I can't help it when the breeze is just right. It's the ambiance taking over, y'know." Naruto thought back.
"Ambiance, eh?" Kazehana asked, her tone teasing. "Look at you using fancy vocabulary. Looks like college did you some good after all."
Naruto rolled his eyes at her teasing, but he couldn't help the smile that was etched on his face. The mood, however, was ruined when he felt something dark nearby followed by the sound of an echoing screech. "Dammit." He sighed out, leaping off of the telephone pole he stood on and moving across the rooftops.
"Ooh! Some action after two years?"
"Yep. Unfortunately it's no doubt some small fry from what I'm feeling."
"Still we'll be able to stretch our legs. If only a little."
"True."
Chuckling, he stopped on top of a late night cafe's roof, staring at the serpentine Hollow that was moving through the street, pushing some of the idle cars as it travelled and surprising many of the drivers at the sudden shifts their vehicles suffered. It was dark blue in color with a white mask that held bright red markings underneath the nostril slits. What made it unique in its own right was how its tail was split near the end, giving it three separate tips while the center one was sharpened like a pike.
Naruto shook his head at the sight as he held out his left hand, where a lavender lily flower floated out of it before it flashed orange and became an odachi styled sword. The sheath was pitch black, the guard was circular, and the wrappings on the handle were a dark purple. Attached to the end of the pommel was a small orange tassel that was half a foot long.
With his right hand, he pulled out the blade, which gave off a stunning silver sheen, while tossing away his sheath which dispersed in a small burst of lavender lily flowers. Wind picked up around him, distorting his image before his previous attire had changed.
From his feet upwards, he wore waraji (straw sandals), white tabi socks, black hakama pants, an orange obi sash, a black kosode (robe), and an orange shitagi (undershirt). On his arms were dark purple gloves that stretched to his elbows and left his fingers exposed. On the back of each glove was the Uzumaki swirl, as to pay homage to his clan.
Naruto rolled his neck around two times, getting the kinks out of it as he got used to being "in uniform" for the first time in a long while.
"Back in black, eh?" He joked aloud before he vanished in a blur, reappearing right in the middle of a four-way intersection that the Hollow was nearing. His right hand held the handle of his sword, resting the back of the blade against his shoulder as he smirked at the snake. "I'm sorry, but," Naruto pointed his left hand upward, gesturing to the red light in front of the Hollow. "you're not allowed through here at the moment."
The Hollow roared at him before it lunged, intending to take a rather large chomp into his body. Naruto's smirk remained as he vanished again, appearing on the pole that the traffic light was attached to. His smirk widened into a grin as he crouched and kicked off the pole, shooting upward by about twenty feet before he turned his body so his head was pointed downward. Kicking off the air as if it were solid, he shot down at the Hollow with the tip of his sword spearheading his dive.
"BANZAI!" Naruto cried out in excitement, piercing the Hollow through the top of its head and through its throat, landing with a roll before he jumped away and resettled his sword on his shoulder. His grin was gone in place of a serious visage as he watched the Hollow writhe in pain before giving one last screech and fading away. Naruto's eyes closed and he bowed his head slightly as he whispered, "I hope you find peace..."
He kept his head bowed for a few moments longer before he leapt off, deciding to do a perimeter sweep of Karakura Town. Unknown to him, a rather petite woman wearing a uniform more formal than his witnessed the event from when he first appeared at the intersection. She had short black hair with a long bang that rested between her violet eyes, slightly paled skin, and a sword strapped to her white obi sash.
Frowning, she leapt off of her telephone pole perch and began to follow him, all the while thinking, "Who was that Soul Reaper?"
As you can see I adopted pain17ification's Maelstrom story, while adding some minor stuff. Now the following chapters are going to have the same as the original with minor changes before I branch out with my version.
As for the harem it was decided to on who to give Naruto while also giving Ichigo a mini harem. And here they are.
Naruto: Kazehana, Orihime, Yoruichi, Lisa, Retsu, Kukaku, Rangiku, Nemu, Nelliel, and Mila Rose.
Ichigo: Rukia, Tatsuki, Senna, and Nozomi.
As you can see I replaced Karasuba with Kazehana which both are from Sekirei FYI.
Anyway that's who they are and I'm not changing.
Stay tune for the next chapter.