Prologue

(Chapter Zero)

Uzumaki…..

Rukia held her small baby close to her chest, humming softly to herself, her ocean-blue eyes glued on the baby's chubby face.

Rukia couldn't remember the last time she had felt so happy, so proud, so full of life; in fact, she thought she had never felt better then this. This was the happiest moment in the long life she had led.

She felt Naruto's strong hands rap around her neck, his warm breath on her neck; she watched with growing happiness as her husband twisted his hand and bushed their daughter's cheek. The baby made a sound like a giggle, wriggling around in her mother's arms, then drifted quickly back to sleep. Rukia felt tears of joy surfacing; her baby had responded to her father's touch!

"So, what're we gonna call her, Rukia-san?" The matured version of Naruto asked, eyeing his wife cheekily.

"I….don't know," Rukia admitted as she shifted the position of her arms so that their nameless child was more comfortable. "I never thought about it…."

"Well, we can't be calling her 'Kid' for the rest of her life," Naruto pointed out. Began to laugh lightly, but the suddenly deadly glare his wife gave him tightened his throat. "….How about Rika?" He suggested, his cheek darkening with embarrassment.

"Rika?" Rukia echoed. "It's almost the same name as mine."

Naruto grinned. "She does look a lot like you," He informed Rukia, nudging his head toward their baby. Rukia, following his gaze, realized that the baby really did look like her, in fact, it was almost a complete copy. Her eyes were big, even when closed, and what little hair she had was raven-black, except for the hairs around her neck; they were all white as snow, but all ended in black tips. Strange, that was; why should a baby have white hair?

Rukia decided to let the question go; after all, Sakura had pink hair, Hitsugaya had silver hair, Ichigo's was orange and Gaara's was red. Strange coloured hair was common in their world.

"Yes, but don't you think it's a little silly to give her a name so close to mine?" Rukia argued. "I mean, I'm sure you would've wanted to be called 'Uzumaki Maito' just because your father's name started with an 'M'." Rukia teased.

Naruto's grin vanished. "Point taken. But unless you can think of a better name…." He prompted, waving his hand in a helpless gesture.

Rukia frowned; naming things had never been her best subject. "Auno….How about…No, not that…" She racked her brain for a good name, or, at least, a Japanese one (Ichigo watched far too much English TV…) but Rika was all she could think of. She secretly cursed Naruto; the smug look on his face made Rukia think he had planned her brain to work that way from the start.

After about five minutes of searching, Rukia gave in, sighing in defeat. "Alright, Naruto-san, Uzumaki Rika it is."

Naruto smiled warmly, pressing his face against his lover's cheek; in the past, Rukia might have blushed or frowned, but, now that they were marred, she pushed her own cheek against his.

"…You know," Naruto mumbled after a while. "I've noticed something. Why does Rika-chan have white hair, too? I know Hitsugaya-Taichou and Kakashi-Sensei had silver-white hair, but that was because of their fathers."

So, once again, Rukia found herself wondering about the white and black hairs sticking out of her baby's neck; she thought about what Naruto had said, about the reason for Kakashi's and Hitsugaya's strange hair colours were because of their fathers hair colour. She stole a quick Naruto's head; no, his hair was still the bright yellow spikes always had been. Not a single hair of white (or grey) or visible. Rukia already knew that her hair was still raven-black; she had glanced in the mirror that morning after hulling herself out of bed.

"It' probably 'cuz of DNA from our Grandfathers or something," Naruto said, shrugging, after a short silence. "Sakura-chan is said to look like her Great Grand Mother, rather then her real Mum or Dad."

Rukia nodded, happy to comply with his logic. "That's probably it," She agreed. She then twisted her neck, blushing faintly, and kissed his whiskery cheek.

They had no idea how wrong they were.

Eight years went by, and Rika grew into a copy of her mother, only she had black-and-white hair, and at the age of six whiskers had appeared on her face. Unknown to her parents, Rika was haunted by dreams during the night; dreams of a horrific white beast, with gigantic, blood-stained fangs, huge blood-red eyes and half of a wolf's skull stuck to it's face. It had nine tails, each tipped with a light blue colour.

There was a girl too; another Rukia clone, only this one had yellow-orange eyes, and black where the whites should be. Her skin was pebble grey, and her tounge was purple. The creature's hair was the opposite of Rika; the top parts of her hair were snow-white, while the parts about her neck were raven-black, tipped with white.

For years, Rika would cry and tremble at night as the black eyed girl would cackle and scream, and the giant demon would thrash its head about the freezing-cold slab of ice, surrounded by darkness that was her Inner World; each time it crashed one of it's massive paws to the fragile ice a wave of pain would zip though Rika, knocking her to the ground.

Rika never told them about her dreams, though she would scream and cry at night. They would ask her repeatedly what she was dreaming about, but she would continue to say that she couldn't remember; Rika thought it was best that way, if they never knew about her Inner Hollow and Demon-half.

That's what the white creature had called itself; her 'Demon-half'. The black eyed girl had called herself an 'Inner Hollow', as well as threatening many times over that once she was strong enough, she would eat Rika's soul and take control of her body. She would cackle every time she said that, as though the thought of devouring her soul was hilarious in some way.

Rika had decided, after three weeks of having those horrible dreams, that she would never tell Naruto or Rukia; she was afraid of what they would say. Would they reach out it her, smiling warmly, speaking words or comfort, or would they reach out with swords, aiming for Rika's heart. That wouldn't kill her though; Rika learned this when she accidentally stabbed herself in the leg archery (the important vain that carries most of the blood. I can't spell it properly. Sorry) with a knife. She had been all along out in the garden at night, bleeding like there was no tomorrow. The ground around had turned dark red as the blood seeping into the ground. It had hurt like Hell, so badly that Rika had almost screamed, but within one minutes her legs had been completely healed.

After that, she had tried to kill herself several more times; once stabbing her chest, another time holding her breath until her face turned blue. She had jumped off a cliff, only to hit the ground with a deafening crash, but still completely intact (though she was bleeding badly and hurt all over). She had considered trying to burn herself to death, but she felt the pain first, and how would she explain to Rukia when she came home with only ashes of her cloths remaining?

She finally came to a conclusion; Rika couldn't die.

She knew of two creatures that were this hard to kill; one was a vampire, but she knew that she wasn't that, and the other was a Demon. The only way to kill a Demon, as the books would say, was to lop its head off.

'Demon-half' is what the white haired beast had called itself. The Demon-half of Rika's soul.

It was then Uzumaki Rika discovered that she was a Demon.