When Worlds Collide: A Bleach and Naruto Fanfic Crossover Royale!

VOL. VI::Chapter 36--Kurosaki Ichigo

(A/N: Hey! Thanks for reading this far, what with the longness of this particular crossover and my incredibly slow updates (T-T). Speaking of longness, this here chap is pretty long and I don't feel like reworking and splitting everything up, so, you know, take your time XD READ. VOTE. COMMENT. SHARE.)

-----------------------------------------

VOLUME VI--Closed Doors

CHAPTER 36--Kurosaki Ichigo

Iji sat in the blood spattered dust holding Jin. In a black kimono. Like one a Soul Reaper would wear.

Iji was a Soul Reaper.

"K-Kon..." I whispered, "Go get Sakura." Miraculously, he poked out unscathed from behind a wall and I heard him squeak off towards the shelter.

"Iji..." I started. But a dark purple light began to eminate from Jin's chest. Nearly smothered by Iji's frame, it phased into a bright white color. I saw his fingers grasp her back, then go limp again as the light faded away.

She gently hugged Jin around the sword.  "You idiot." I heard her say with a shaky, dread filled voice. "You should have let me protect you for once. Now you're dead. Always trying to act all tough for me, even though you could never even win a fist fight... Why? Why would you make this my fault? Why would you leave me like this?"

To her questions came another feeble question, "Are you saying... you need me, to protect you?" Iji jumped. Something registered on her face that I hadn't seen out of her this whole time. Not when Jin was revealed to be an Arrancar. Not even when she'd gotten hit or had broken several bones. She began to, finally... cry.

Head still resting on her shoulder, he brought his hands up to weakly hug her back. I saw that they were badly burned. He shouldn't have been able to move them at all. Nevertheless, unfazed, he said, "It was because I knew... that you were trying your hardest to be strong enough to live..." he coughed and more blood spattered the ground. "So I wanted to take some of the burden you decided to carry... because... I fell in-"

"Shut up!" she yelled, cutting him off. She quickly wiped her tears. "Ichigo!"

I jumped, suddenly feeling like an intruder. "M-me-?"

"Duh! Help me get this idiot to a doctor." She started to pick him up, careful around the zanpaktou. I was finally able to see her expression. It was one of pure desperation. "He's not... He's not dead yet!"

I rushed to help her carry him. "Sakura should be here soon-"

"Ichigoooo!" I heard Kon's annoying voice, and Sakura was not far behind. She dropped down from one of the buildings and immediately took Jin and laid him down. She started her freaky green healing modjo on his chest and cursed. "It's not, it's not working! I don't understand!" She said, desperation etching into her voice, too.

Something drew my attention away from the scene. A dangerous rising pressure. I whipped around to find a man not two feet from me, calmly cradling a katana at his hip.

I swiftly backed up, into the girls, who were still attending to Jin. "Who're you?!" I interrogated, leveling my sword at him.

"The name's Tatsuo, number one samurai of the gem, and I'm here," suddenly he was behind me, "To kill you."

I didn't even have time to turn around, and felt myself flying across the dusty clearing as wounds new and old opened. This guy would be a problem. I blocked just as he landed on me with a stifling strike. I broke the struggle and came at him with a few blows of my own, which he slipped off the edge of his sword as nonchalantly as raindrops. I came with a blow over the head and he suddenly dropped to swipe his feet under mine and knock me stumbling face forward into a rock. This guy played DIRTY!