Chapter 19:

It made their relationship a little bit more interesting than the ones he'd had before, but he was the one they once called Uzumaki Naruto; just because his name had changed, it didn't mean he wasn't the same knucklehead he was before. He'd just go with the flow and, if necessary, overcome the storm.

As his name was written, he was born to be a 'maelstrom', a whirlwind of change.

He had to admit he was attracted to her, but what hot blooded male wouldn't be? The woman was gorgeous, blessed with a curvaceous and slender figure, and mischievous golden eyes that reminded him of shining gemstones. Graceful, powerful, athletic, flirtatious, and possessing an amazing sense of humor not so dissimilar from his own.

It would seem she even shared his love of pranks. She was a woman most men had only ever dreamed about.

The perfect woman from any teenager's hormonal fantasies. Even though he wasn't a teenager anymore, she made him feel like one again.

Was he in love with her? Perhaps, but to him it was still too soon for him to make an accurate judgement.

With a sigh, Naruto tipped his pipe and tapped the contents out onto the grass beneath his deck, it was in that very moment that he felt it. A familiar tingling at the edge of his senses; a familiar yet strange reiatsu.

He could feel the presence of a familiar shinigami, and it wasn't alone. If he was reading the feeling correctly, then it was being eclipsed by what felt like a hollow.

Eyes snapping wide open in shock when he finally recognized this particular shinigami's reiatsu, Naruto literally tore apart his deck with the force of his departure as he leaped from his yard and over the wall, splintering the wood and sending pieces of shattered mahogany flying about in frenzied flight.

He was going to have to fix that later too. Now he was definitely both annoyed, and worried.

Worried that his friend was in danger, and annoyed at this Hollow for forcing him to worry in the first place. Now his friend was in peril, and his deck was destroyed.

He made his way in her direction with bursts of repeated shunpo, blasting over the village of Hokutan so quickly not even the shinigami on duty had been able to make him out as a blur against the evening sky; and when he finally reached the area he'd sensed the strange reiatsu emanating from, he was met with a grisly sight.

Six corpses laid on the ground, slowly disintegrating as life left them, body parts strewn across the small forest clearing in a gory mess. Naruto grunted his displeasure, his sense of smell being quite a bit stronger than most, so this was bothering him more than such a sight usually would.

It was always the smell that got to him, that and he had an issue with death; the fact he was technically dead not being lost on him.

Looking up at the sound of something moving, Naruto's eyes went wide in shock as a shadowy figure emerged from the underbrush.

"Miyako-san?" Had been the only words he could utter at the sight before him.

Shiba Kaien was a nervous wreck as he and Ukitake Juushiro, his superior officer and Taichou of the Jusanban-tai, made their way towards the last known location of Miyako's squad. He knew there was something strange about that mission, ever since he first heard what it entailed, yet hadn't thought that even Miyako would fall prey to this strange Hollow; but when a frantic survivor of this particular disaster had burst through the doors of the barracks screaming his head off for help, Kaien had known right then and there that he'd had good reason to worry.

His only relief was that he could still feel her reiatsu, it was faint but it was there. So he had set a frantic pace, his ill Captain easily keeping up with him as he did so.

It was when they arrived that they were treated to a surprise however.

As there was another in the area as well. The first was unmistakably his Miyako, yet there was definiately something was wrong with her.

Most of her face was shadowed, yet he could make out two dark red glowing eyes leering out from beneath her messy bangs, and the most ghastly of smiles that was on her face.

The other individual however, was someone who was supposedly on a short leave from his duties, and whom he hadn't been able to sense at all. Though this was normal for this particular man.

Namikaze Naruto, the leader of the Onmitsukidou was standing across from Miyako, one of his hands resting on the hilt of his wakizashi Zanpakutou, while the other was holding what appeared to be a small square of rough parchment. His visage was calm and analyzing, yet his posture was simply menacing.

The man was quite large in comparison to most, and when such a man has you locked in his sights, looking like he's ready to rumble, it was a naturally intimidating sight.

With a small slide, both Ukitake-Taichou and Kaien came to a stop and took up position on either side of the young Noble, the three of them looking across at Miyako who hadn't budged an inch since they'd arrived.

"Naruto-kun, could you tell us what's going on, and most importantly what it is you're doing?" Juushiro was the first to speak and though Naruto barely moved to acknowledge his presence, the Captain knew he must be concentrating-something to do with the glowing tag in his hand he believed-and didn't think anything of it. Though the blonde did grunt an affirmative after a long moment of silence before speaking to them quietly, his voice sounding oddly strained.

"I sensed something strange with Miyakochan's reiatsu while I was sitting at home enjoying my short vacation, and rushed straight here; this is what I found, six dead bodies and Miyako-chan. She attacked me almost as soon as I'd acknowledged her presence; while her reiatsu is being suppressed and her reiryoku apparently being devoured by a Hollow of some kind, a Hollow which I believe is actually inside her body at the moment.