EDIT: I've split this chapter into three, since I felt that putting all of it together was too big of a chunk. That way there are more breaks, and it won't be too long.

EDIT 2: I've rewritten it because I felt that too much of it was total canon and not much of the actually story.

A/N: This is my first fanfiction which will be a crossover between Naruto and Bleach. This chapter has been rewritten.

Warning: There will be spoilers and 'character deaths'.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach (it belongs to Tite Kubo), Naruto (it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto), and/or the quote (which belongs toPhilip Johnson, but found at BrainyQuote).

"Speaking in Japanese."

'Thoughts in Japanese.'

"In any language but Japanese."

Emphasis.

TIME-SKIP.

Welcome to:

Back Together

By:

ObsessionistofMany

Chapter One

Quote of the Day:

"All architects want to live beyond their deaths."

-Philip Johnson

Slowly, his temporary body creaked to a stop and fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

Sasori still stood, staring down at the extremely damaged puppet then up to the two still living kunoichi (female ninja). They were talking about him, but then his grandmother flinched in pain. Her entire body was shaking with her effort to remain conscious.

However, the dead puppet master had acquired his own problems, and, no, it was not his lack of a shirt (as he had the clothes he usually wore under his Akatsuki cloak and the cloak from the temporary puppet). A man dressed in black with a sword at his waist was staring straight at him.

"Who are you?" Sasori's brown eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I'm a shinigami (death god). Here to help you pass on to the next life," the man explained.

Sasori smirked slightly and cocked his head to one side, "And how are you going to do that?"

"I perform konso (soul burial) on you. It's done by placing my zanpakuto (soul-cutter sword) on your forehead," the shinigami gestured to his sword.

"Do it then," the deceased shinobi (ninja) sighed softly.

The shinigami nodded and raised his zanpakuto. Sasori closed his eyes as a reflex when the cold hilt touched his forehead. When he opened them again, he found himself in a rundown, but lively-looking, village.

Suddenly, the shinobi was surrounded by several tough-acting souls.

"Hey, look guys, it's a newcomer. Why don't we show him how things work around here?" the leader grinned.

Without any warning, Sasori snatched the man's knife and permanently incapacitated all who were threatening him. The knife shattered from cutting through so much bone, and Sasori tossed the remaining hilt away without a second thought.

The other souls all scattered in fear, but Sasori managed to grab a soul. The man squirmed in his grasp, begging and pleading.

"Shut up," Sasori ordered, getting irritated.

Instead the soul wailed louder, so the impatient shinobi threw him into a wall then pulled him up by the collar. The victim was now silent, and he stared at the newcomer fearfully.

"Tell me everything about this place," the shinobi snapped.

Immediately, the man gave him any information he had about the afterlife, or Soul Society.

Sasori considered the information given to him then nodded and dropped the man, kicking him away. The puppet master began to walk towards his destination, Seireitei (Court of Pure Souls), grabbing a sash from a nearby stall to tie his cloak closed as he passed.

As he went down the road, Sasori would take traveling items from the stalls he passed. Since word of his arrival spread like wildfire, the streets were always deserted when he walked through them.

Due to this lack of people, he was able to get to Seireitei within a week. Finding himself in an empty area between Seireitei and East District 1, the shinobi noticed the lack of normal souls beyond this point.

Sighing, Sasori was about to search elsewhere for the elusive shinigami when someone appeared in front of him.

It was the lieutenant of the tenth division, Matsumoto Rangiku (last name, first name). The puppet master recognized her by her looks and the badge hanging from her sash.

It turned out that she wasn't expecting anyone to be in this area.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she panicked as she was about to fall into Sasori.

The puppet master easily avoided her, and he stopped her fall with his puppet technique. He righted her then quickly retracted the strings.

Luckily, she merely thought he grabbed the collar of her uniform, "Ah, thank you! I'm sorry; I didn't see you there. Normal souls usually don't come this far... Are you new here?"

Sasori had been startled by the sudden question, but nodded and answered, "About a week ago."

The woman had smiled at him sympathetically, and she had bid him goodbye and was about to leave when Sasori spoke up.

"Wait! How do you become a shinigami?" the puppet master questioned.

"Become a shinigami? Well, you are showing a lot of reiatsu (spiritual pressure). I can take you to the Shinigami Academy if you want," Lieutenant Matsumoto offered.

"If it isn't too much trouble," Sasori smiled innocently; an attempt to be on the shinigami's good side.

"Then let's go!" the shinigami said enthusiastically as she began walking away with Sasori following close behind.

Soon, the pair arrived at the Academy.

"Good luck, kid," the lieutenant smiled before disappearing, or left really fast, but Sasori could track her movement.

Sasori turned and looked at the enormous entrance before sighing and continuing into the huge building.

I didn't take much for Sasori to enter the Shinigami Academy. In fact, they accepted him on the spot. Quickly, the people in charge assigned him his classes and dorm. They provided a uniform in blue.

The puppet master looked at his schedule and noted the classes he had: kanri (control)*, hakuda (hand-to-hand combat), hoho(fast movement), kido(spirit way), zanjutsu(art of the sword), and yakuwari (duties)*.

He could infer that hakuda was taijutsu (body techniques) and hoho would be focused on speed, but the other subjects could mean anything.

Sasori sighed then headed off to his dorm to change before going to his first class.

The shinobi's first class was hakuda. He was confident that he was proficient at the subject, but, as a puppet master in the shinobi world, he had less than average experience in using it.

"Are you the new student?" the teacher, a lithe shinigami, raised an eyebrow at the redhead.

Forcing an innocent smile onto his face, Sasori replied, "Yes, am I in the correct room?"

"You are. Stand over there for now. We'll introduce you at the beginning of class," the teacher instructed before turning back to the papers on her desk.

The two waited twenty minutes before other students started to enter the room. Some of the shinigami-in-training coming in noticed the unfamiliar face and informed their friends. Pretty soon, the whole class knew that there was going to be a new student.

"Attention, brats! This is...," the instructor trailed off, not knowing the puppet master's name.

"Sasori," the redhead filled in helpfully.

"Sasori. He will be joining Class 001. Now, let's get started in our combat pairs. Sasori, you'll be going against Fumiko-chan. We had an odd number of students before you came, so she has been fighting me. Hope you can keep up," the teacher smirked before going to correct the form of another student.

"Hello, I'm Sasori," the shinobi bowed.

"Fumiko. Nice to meet you," the timid girl returned the greeting.

Suddenly, the girl swept her leg across the ground, hoping to catch the redhead off guard, but Sasori's easily evaded with a flip over the girl. He lightly tapped her head during his evasive maneuver, since he didn't know what types of attacks were allowed.

"Sasori!" the teacher shouted, "We don't allow pansy attacks like that. Hit like the man you are!"

Sasori took that as the go ahead to fight at a higher level. Though slightly distracted, the puppet master was able to catch the next kick that Fumiko executed with a back flip and fling her across the room instead.

Fumiko righted herself in midair and skidded back on her hands and feet. Both stood and analyzed each other, reassessing the other's abilities, before Sasori smirked and made a 'come' motion.

The girl's eyes narrowed and she charged forward then aimed a punch at Sasori's head. The shinobi easily grabbed her fist and twisted it behind her before snatching her other hand then pushing her into the ground.

"Okay, okay. Sasori, up," the teacher said pushing through the crowd of non-practicing students.

The shinobi let go of the girl and stepped back.

"Fumiko, are you hurt anywhere?" the woman questioned.

The puppet master almost bristled at the idea that he was unskilled enough to not be able to control his attacks when he realized he didn't care.

"I'm fine, Yoko-sensei," Fumiko got up easily, showing that she wasn't hurt in the slightest.

Then Yoko-sensei turned to Sasori, "You're easily shinigami level with your hakuda. Around a seated-level, I believe. Let me see if I can get you to skip this class."

With that, she had Sasori tutor some of the other students until the class was over.

Next on Sasori's schedule was kido. The shinobi quickly learned that the subject was extremely similar to ninjutsu (ninja techniques). Due to having extreme control over his power from his puppet jutsu (technique) he was also able to skip that class.

This happened with almost all of his classes, except zanjutsu and yakuwari. Yakuwari was a breeze; all he had to do was memorize the rules and regulations of being a shinigami. The hard part was the soul searching he had to do in zanjutsu class.

"I've heard about you, Sasori-san," the old instructor greeted the redhead.

Sasori attempted to look embarrassed, but he really didn't care.

"However, zanjutsu is different from just fighting," and the teacher's words rang true.

Since they were half way through the year, Sasori had to spend half the class figuring out why the hell their swords transformed and gave them powers. At first, the puppet master had thought it was more ninjutsu stuff, but there were no consistency between the commands.

After he finally understood the concept of zanpakuto, he spent the other half of class attempting to imprint his soul onto the blank zanpakuto. By the end of the week, he was finished due to being able to use spiritual energy when living, but he had yet to speak to his zanpakuto. However, once, he believed he heard it.

"Sasori...call my name...," it had said faintly.

However, a zanpakuto stuck into the ground directly in front of him then, and he lost focus.

"Damn it!" he had cursed, startling his classmate, who was retrieving the zanpakuto.

"Sorry," the teen had apologized, for what, the student didn't know.

Sasori sighed when the bell rang, ending the day.

The old instructor placed a comforting hand on the redhead's shoulder, "You'll get there. Be patient."

Sasori gave the old man a long look, trying to figure him out. Quickly, Sasori's intense gaze faded into tiredness, and the puppet master trudged back to his dorm.

Over the next two weeks, Sasori kept trying to obtain his shikai. During his latest jinzen (sword meditation), his teacher had startled him out of his concentration.

"You regret something," he had said.

Sasori had jerked backwards in surprise. He had regretted something? Nonsense. S-rank missing-nin don't regret anything. The shinobi had abruptly stood up and left, returning to his dorm.

Fortunately he had, for at that moment, he felt his soul being engulfed by familiar chakra and pulled back to his own dimension.

*Kanri is the name I made up for the class that teaches students to control and use Reiryoku.

*Yakuwari is the name I made up for the class that teaches the students shinigami duties.

A/N: Finally finished! Sorry for the long wait. The rewrite is still the same basic idea except there will be no Madara (*Depression*), since Tobi isn't actually Madara, and it will start with shinigami point of view first. Instead, Konan will be with the hollows.

Once again, I'm very sorry for the long wait. I have no excuses. I procrastinated.

Thank you for reading and please review to tell me how good or bad it is. Please tell me how to improve it if you don't think it's good enough and if there are any grammar mistakes.

-OoM