Chapter 21:

"

Kaien nodded in affirmation, leaning down to pick up his wife before sending Naruto an appreciative nod. "Thank you, Naruto-dono.

For what you've done for me today, I am in your debt. " Naruto nodded to his friend, but said nothing.

He'd never really known how to react to people saying such things to him. He knew it meant that they were just trying to show him gratitude for helping them, but he never did these things with the thought of getting something in return.

Juushiro then turned to Naruto and smiled uneasily. "I know you were on a short leave Namikaze-san, but I'll need you to hand in a report on what happened here to Yamamoto-Soutaichou immediately.

"

Naruto groaned, slumping over in defeat as his short leave was called to an even sooner end, just the thing he needed to top off the night. "Damn it, yeah I get it.

There goes my vacation. "

(Flashback End)

He had been a little upset that his well deserved vacation had been interrupted, but considering one of his few precious people had been in danger, it was worth it to save her. She recovered quickly under Unohana's attentive care and was well on her way to making a full recovery; whatever that Hollow had been doing, it had definitely done some damage.

Naruto had been on very good terms with the entirety of the Shiba Clan ever since the attack of the body snatcher Hollow, and quickly came to learn that they were all lunatics. Mind you he couldn't really say anything, as he could admit he had a few screws loose himself.

The dynamic had changed. He'd been a friend before, but now, he was part of the family.

Kaien had even taken to calling him Aniki, and Isshin had starting jokingly referring to him as 'oi-kun' (nephew) whenever he went over to visit; he could honestly say it was rather nice to have something like a family after so long.

Though he could do without Isshin practically demanding that he make it official and marry his niece immediately. He knew Isshin was only half serious, and was mostly doing it just to get a rise out of him, but it got annoying sometimes.

To the point that both he and Kukaku would take to teaming up on the Shiba Clan Patriarch in retaliation. It only occasionally turned into an actual fight, but they were never anything too serious.

Though again, Naruto wouldn't mind it all that much; Kukaku was a fun person to be around after all, and they both seemed to enjoy a good fight, good tobacco and good sake.

About two and a half years ago though, the talk of engagement had gone beyond being just a simple joke at their expense and had actually become official. Isshin had initially been surprised that they'd both agreed to it, and then became what could only be described as a man child as he began releasing what he called his 'manly tears of ultimate happiness' and hugging the daylights out of them.

He pouted childishly when they said they would be married only after they'd managed to get more familiar with one another, as even though they had known each other for a few years, Naruto had been rather busy with his responsibilities and they hadn't actually interacted all that much. Basically telling him that they wouldn't be getting married for at least another decade at the least if it continued apace.

Naruto smiled fondly in memory when Isshin had actually started crying in happiness, saying how happy he was that his Niece had found such a kind and powerful man to marry; yet how sad he was that she would someday soon be leaving his house and joining a different Clan entirely. Now don't get him wrong, he didn't mind compliments; but whenever he received them he had difficulty accepting them.

He kept quiet though, and simply thanked the man for his kind words.

Then there was something else that had been brought to his attention. Over the last several years hundreds of souls had gone missing from the Rukongai, including a certain shop-keeper that Naruto had been a patron of for close to one hundred years.

The disappearances had started a little over ten years prior, and Naruto had been personally looking into it after a certain part of the investigation had piqued Naruto's suspicion towards a particular shinigami.

Clearing his throat, Naruto left one of the senior members of the Onmitsukidou to watch over the new recruits and get them started on their training as he turned and left the training field. His suspicions concerning the decade long investigation had been proven mostly correct.

He'd listened in on several meetings between the co-conspirators, a Fuku-Taichou and his subordinate actually, and had been able to discern just what it was they were doing; and that the leader had been the one who was responsible for the near death of his soon to be sister in law all those years ago.

He didn't have enough actual concrete evidence to bring it to the the Sou-Taichou's attention however, the Fuku-Taichou's record was spotless to begin with, so simply coming forward and stating his opinion on the matter would do nothing more than make the one responsible suspicious, and Naruto himself look like a fool.

With a sigh, Naruto entered his office and gathered up his files. He would need to take some time at home to go over everything again and try to make more sense of all this.

What the young man's true goals were remained a mystery, and Naruto absolutely hated mysteries.

They made his head hurt.

Leaving his office with files in hand, he nearly bumped into Sui-Feng, who had been preparing to knock on his door. Smiling at her warmly as he closed the door behind him Naruto gestured with his head for her to walk with him before he set off down the hall.

"Is there something you needed, Sui-Feng?"

Sui-Feng nodded, falling into step with the much larger individual almost twice her height with hurried steps as he quickly made his way down the hall, slowing his stride to allow her to catch up. "I wanted to catch you before you