Change (Bleach Fanfiction)

Chapter One

"That was a close call." 

To close for Nao's comfort. A sigh of relief escaped her as the two shinigami continued on there way. There'd been several close calls since she'd got here, and Nao was thanking the lucky star that had kept her out of trouble's way. If she'd run into a captain, the only advantage she'd have was speed - that was the one field where she couldn't be beat. 

Sixteen-year-old Nao Ichisada was an intruder of sorts. Her intentions were pure enough - she had needed a place to hide, a place that was large enough to hide in without being discovered, but it would be the last place anyone would think of looking. She'd puzzled over that particular problem for days on end, until a couple of days ago, when she'd seen two shinigami heading into North Rukongai. 

In turn, she'd come to the conclusion that the best place to hide - for now, anyway - was the seireitei. It would mean constantly cloaking her reiatsu, but Nao had decided it was worth the trouble if she could hide from them for a little longer. 

Them being the clumsy brutes her well-intentioned, suffocatingly overprotective adoptive parents had hired to find her when she ran away. Nao loved Ai and Kenta Mochizuki dearly, but their desire to protect her from the world was to extreme for comfort. 

"It's a miracle I'm allowed to breathe without supervision." 

"Quit complaining, gaki*." 

Dark green eyes resisted the urge to roll.  The only constant in her life was the sometimes irritating, constantly sarcastic presence of her  zanpakutō, Onsoku*. He appeared in the form of a normal shinigami in standard attire, but he wore a white cape around his shoulders, and a small, currently unexplained scar ran from just below his left eye to a little above his eyebrow.

Nao couldn't remember the last time something Onsoku said hadn't been dripping with either loathing or sarcasm. It also seemed as though they were constantly bickering.

"Quit complaining? Of course, my mistake. I have nothing to complain about. It's only the fact that we're intruders in the seireitei, and if we're caught, it probably means execution. I'm hungry, I'm tired, and to top it all off, my zanpakutō is a smartass. My life is perfect. Thanks for the sympathy, Onsoku." 

"Anytime, gaki, anytime." 

Sighing, she turned, and waited for several seconds. Nothing. They had to move on. There was no doubt in her mind that if they didn't, they would be found. Her legs were beginning to cramp up, and her back was aching from bending over for so long. 

Shaking her head in exasperation, she shoved, and the grate gave way. Being 4.4 ft had it's advantages and disadvantages. One advantage was the ability to fit into confined spaces that were to small for normal people to breathe in. Nao made quick work of clambering out of the large air duct, replacing the grate, and using her shunpo to start putting distance between them and their last hiding place.

It seemed to be around 2:00 a.m, and judging on the fact that they reeked of sake, the two shinigami who'd just staggered past in a drunken stupor were headed back to their barracks after a night of drinking.

"I sure as hell pity their captain. Imagine having to command a team that has doltheads like those two." 

"Gaki, quit tarring every shinigami with the same brush. I've seen you in a worse state than that when you're sober. Kami* pity the person who talks you into drinking shots." 

Nao felt her anger bubbling, but she knew better than to respond. Onsoku made a habit of picking a fight then backing away, leaving her to wallow in her own rage. It caused Nao to snap irritably at whoever spoke to her. Several rather disastrous arguments could've been avoided if Onsoku hadn't wound her up beforehand.