The pair of mods, to Naruto's relief, turned back to the fight when an outraged scream reached the trio's ears.

"ARAUGHA! DAMN YOU RUKIA!"

Rangiku's hair stood on end and surrounded her head like the pettles of a sunflower, the half surrounding the right side of her head was covered in hard icecles that looked like they were growing out of Rangiku's head and on the left, it was singed and burnt.

Seeing that, the three in Orihime's house couldn't help but laugh.

Back with the fight, Rukia scowled. She couldn't get past that damn ash ability Haineko used enough to do any real damage. Sure that last kido combination with Sode no Shirayuki had a rather comic result, but it just made Rangiku mad...and give everyone else that saw her a sore gut from laughing so hard.

She gulped...hating that she had no choice but if growing up in Rikongai had taught her anything, it was that those who were or had been outcasts needed to watch eachother's backs. She pulled the showing a black tatoo with a purple outline.

"Release."

As soon as Rukia said that, black reiatsu with dark purple outline enveloped her. When Rukia was revealed again, she now stood a good head or so taller. Clutched tightly in her right hand was a massive, double edged scythe. Her hair had turned lavender, as had her eyes. Her sandals had dissapeared sometime during the transformation. Her hakama was no longer black, instead it was the purest shade of white, and red on the inside. It was far from natural, tattered at the sleeves, shoulders, and even more so at the bottom, showing off long and slender legs.

If anything else, her body had grown as well. She had...matured. She now looked like a full grown woman. A tattered yellow sash was tied around her waist, which now strained against the kimono-like robes she was wearing. The chest area of her new attire was pushed out quite a bit as well. Basically she now rivaled Rangiku in that department.

Rukia snarled and lashed out with her scythe, nearly beheading Rangkiu.

==

As Naruto watched the fight, guilt welled up in him. He'd done this. As he wished there was something he could do to make things right, to make sure this whole fight was forgotten as if it had never happened, he suddenly doubled over screaming and clutching his stomach. What the hell...he felt the spot with the seal that kept Kurama inside his body buldge outwards, something trying force its way out through it! Time stopped for him as agony took it place and he kept screaming. Naruto felt something long push its way out of the seal and he fell on all fours, panting and sweating.

"Damn Shinigami-forged seal...what the hell was that?" Naruto groaned, his hand involentarily closing around the object that had shoved its way out of the seal. After he'd caught his second wind, he stood and looked at the object only to stare.

In his hands was a sword that was in a scabbard made from polished and steel. The hilt was also jet black, with silver trimming along the edges. The center of the hilt bulged out, before it slimmed down, and then flared out at the pommel, and the circular silver hilt guard. The hilt was wrapped in black leather, to better aid in gripping, and was made of solid silver metal. The sword's pommel was tear-drop shaped, set with a clinohumite gem the size of a small egg that was held in a claw that went all the way down and formed a sort of cage around the gem as the claw's points all joined together and the claw looked like it belonged to a dragon. The scabbard was jet black, with a silver cap at the end, and a silver ring around the top, where it met the hilt guard. The scabbard was wide, about three inches, and was three and a half feet long. The end of the scabbard tapered down from the top, and came to a point with the bottom.

Naruto gently grasped the hilt, before drawing the sword from its sheathe. The blade, like the scabbard and hilt, was black. It looked like black onyx, reflecting the light like a crystal.

The blade of the sword was narrower then the scabbard, being about one and a half inches long from the cutting edge to the back. The blade curved gently back like a katana, and made for one-handed swordsmenship. Towards the point of the blade, about seven inches below it, the back of the blade flared out, before running straight towards the point. The cutting edge tapered down to meet the bottom, creating the point and the cutting edge was serrated all the way from the hilt's guard to the point.

As he gawked at the blade, a dark gray reiatsu with a bloody red outlined the weapon in a sinister aura. As it did, Naruto felt himself mutter something. What it was, he didn't know. All he did however, was that he said the word "Erase" at the end and as soon as he said it, the black of unconsciousness took him and he felt drained of all energy.

==

Rangiku and a still-transformed Rukia both froze. What where they doing?

"Why're we fighting? WHO where we fighting?" the squad ten lieutenant asked.

Rukia groaned and rubbed her head "I don't remember."

"Miss Rukia! You've gotta get back down here! Hop." Chappy shouted and the two Soul Reapers landed through the holes in Orihime's roof. They spotted Kutsuu...or rather, Naruto, as they now knew he actually was called, for some reason, they remembered everything up to busting a pair of holes through the roof of Orihime's house but after that, it was a blank page in their memories. As they neared the mods and the fibber, they noticed that Naruto was out cold and seemingly exausted.

Rukia leaned over and was surprised to see a sword and its scabbard laying next to Naruto, flickers of reiatsu fading away came from the weapon. Her eyes widened. A Zanpakutō?! But How?! Then it dawned on her...It was him! He was why they couldn't remember!

"So that Zanpakutō he's got is like an absolutely flawless memory-based version of Kyōka Suigetsu in a way, it can even channel memories and go as far as to solidify them and bring them to life in addition to manipulating them the way Kyōka Suigetsu's Complete Hypnosis controls the five senses to the point that it can make the target misinterpret another person's form, shape, mass, feel and smell and all that? There's a yikes." Rukia said. Rukia shivered in spite of herself. The utter mastery over memory could allow one near-imunity in nearly every situation. Gaining information by erasing actual memories and implanting false ones in their place, combat if you removed your enemy's knowlage of how to fight, stealth since you could make people forget to look for you or make them seem to "remember" you were an ally...and those were only a few examples.

Why'd he use it on them though? And how could a living human even HAVE a Zanpakutō in the first place? This would take some looking into. She nudged the blond young man with her toe and almost instantly Naruto cuddled up to her foot. Seeing as he was already asleep, it was a natural reaction to inch closer to the nearest source of warmth, which in this case just happened to be Rukia.

Seeing that, Rangiku broke into a giggle fit "Seems he was honest enough about being a fan of yours at least, Rukia."

The Kuchiki huffed and looked away. In spite of herself, she felt the need to examin Naruto now...that or wait until he woke up to interrorgate him. She spoke to Rangiku about it and the lieutenant agreed.

After a while, the two female Soul Reapers decided to...