UnderACherryBlossonTree-Ch3

Under a Cherry Blossom Tree: A Story of Rising and Falling, Love and Betrayal

A Bleach Fan Work
By Ashez86

    Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters in this story (with the exception of Naomi). Bleach and its characters belong to Tite Kubo.
    “Under a Cherry Blossom Tree” and the character of Naomi belong to ME. Please do not use any basis in this work, or the character of Naomi without permission from me.
    Be Warned: This fanfic jumps around in time a lot, I will try my best to keep it obvious and easy enough to follow. Some parts of the fan fic (even if not this particular chapter) also contains some material deemed as Mature Content.
    Thanks.




Chapter III

=+=
So damaging so devastating,
Nothing so closer yet so far apart.

It used to be clear what the looking glass said,
now everything’s hazy
Baby nothings making sense.
=+=

Naomi quickly flash stepped through the Seretai. In no time she was from the Division 13 training grounds to the steps of the Captain Commander’s meeting chamber. She was particularly gifted with speed, and had always been. It was coordination that she had always desperately lacked. Sometimes she moved so fast that it was hard for her to stop, or control her direction. She tried to halt smoothly in front of Yamamoto’s office, but failed and crashed into the Captain of the 8th Division, Kyouraku Shunsui. He fell backwards against the door, and Naomi followed, slamming hard up against him with her full body weight.

“Well now, Naomi, I do hate to go behind my best friend’s back, but you are being pretty forward here, I must say,” Shunsui joked as he grinned and looked down at her.

“Shut up Shunsui, don’t flatter yourself. If I were interested in you, I would have taken you up on your advances years ago,” she spat back at him.

She was in no mood for sarcasm or joking around. This was not the time.  But then, it seemed, it was always the time when Shunsui was involved. Good old Shunsui. He could always make nearly anyone feel better with his laid back demeanor and is good natured joking. But right now, nothing could calm her rapid heartbeat.

“Right, well, I understand that, but in that case, I have just one question for you,” Shunsui smiled down at her.

“Yeah, I am sure you do. What is it?”

“Don’t you think you should take a few steps backwards?”

Naomi looked down at their bodies. Shunsui was still squeezed uncomfortably tight between Naomi’s own body and the large dark wood door. She had totally forgotten to move, she was so flustered and focused on her goal. She blushed at her stupidity a bit for just a split second, and took a quick few steps backwards.

In the old days, she would have not felt so awkward or uncomfortable in that position, she had had her fair share of men, and enjoyed it. But it had been many years since she was that close to any man’s body other than Jyuushiro ‘s, and even that, with her pride and severe lack of ability to show caring or sensitive emotions, combined with his recent health, wasn’t even that often. Her awkward feeling quickly subsided though. She knew that Shunsui knew as well as she did that her heart and body were bound to his best friend years ago. And aside from that, she had never showed the slightest interest in Shunsui. Even in her younger, wilder days, she always leaned towards the men who were aloof or hard to obtain.

“What are you doing here anyway Lieutenant? This is a Captain’s meeting,” Shunsui asked, after the brief awkward air had cleared.

“I know, but I heard the hell butterfly, and”

Shunsui cut her off, “You mean you intercepted a hell butterfly and eavesdropped.”

“…It doesn’t matter how I heard… I heard that it was an urgent meeting, mandatory for all Captains, including and especially the Captain of Division 13.”

“Yes, that is what it said, but still, it says Captains, not Captains and Lieutenants, Naomi.”

“Shunsui, don’t you dare lecture me! I know what it said. But this is something important, I sense it. And it involved my Captain directly. “

“That changes nothing. Just because you were once a Captain does not mean that you are currently permitted to such privatized information. You were stripped of that when you were stripped of your Captain status and robes,” another voice broke in.

Naomi spun around, although she didn’t have to. She knew that voice all to well.

“Byakuya, this conversation is not directed towards you.”

“Nor does the fact that you were once a Captain give you permission to regard any captain by their informal name, nor does it give you any right to speak in such a tone to a superior,” he continued.

“Captain Kuchiki, then! Is that better?”

“You should leave. You have no business here. Go back and tend to your squad.”

“Now, Byakuya, rudeness is never a charming trait,” Shunsui started to step in, smiling.

“No, he is right.” A fourth voice joined the conversation.

Naomi knew this voice too, better than Byakuya’s even. Ukitake was walking up behind Captain Kuchiki. He still looked pale and a bit fragile, but better than he had when she had left him this morning.

“Leutinant, this meeting is addressed to Captains, and as that is not your current position, you know Captain Yamamoto will not allow you to be present,” Ukitake spoke calmly.

“I know that, I wasn’t planning on going in, I just…. I need to know what is so urgent. We all play a role in this war against Aizen, you know?” She protested.

Byakuya moved passed her and into the meeting hall without even a sideways glance. Ukitake nodded for Shunsui to move on in as well, and he obliged.

“Lieutenant,” Ukitake started (they always addressed one another as Lieutenant and Captain in business hours. Rarely did they have personal time that was not related to work in some way), “you know that I will immediately inform you of any important matters after the meeting. I wish that you could attend this meeting as well, it would make it much less work for me, and you do deserve to know. But you know that you cannot. There are things to do back in our division, new graduates and recruits for you to be training. Busy your mind on that until I can get this information to you.”

Naomi hesitated, she wanted to argue as she stared back into those deep chestnut eyes, but she knew that anything she said would just be wasted breath. He was right. As hard as it was to taste the superiority and know how it feels to be included in something of such high importance as a captain’s meeting, and then have to leave it all behind, she knew that her only option was truly to wait for news from him. There was no use in longing for her glory days now.

“…Yes sir.”

And with that, she turned, rather flustered and aggravated, and disappeared off towards Division 13 headquarters.

She sat at her desk in the office for nearly three hours, trying to busy her mind with paper work. She supposed she should be training the young shinigami of the 13th Division, but she really didn’t have the patience today.

Finally, when she thought she would maybe just flash step back over to Division One and see if she could get close enough to hear anything, Captain Ukitake opened the door to the office. His stare met hers immediately, and she knew something was wrong.

“What is it?” she asked.

“We must talk, Naomi." He paused, "...The Soul Society feels that you may be in great danger.”

“W-what?” she stuttered, “That’s ridiculous. I am more than capable of defending myself.”

“I know Naomi, as am I, or any other Captain class shinigami, but it makes things a bit more difficult when Aizen himself is targeting you.”

“Excuse me?” she said, in disbelief.

Ukitake walked over to the couch and sat down. He looked at the ground for a moment and sighed. He then looked back up at Naomi, who’s gaze had never left him, and signaled with a nod for her to join him on the couch. She got up from behind the desk and walked swiftly over to the couch, and took a seat, torso turned towards her Captain.

“Naomi…” He disregarded Lieutenant and used her name.

“What? What is it? It can’t be that bad Jyuushiro,” she followed his lead, sensing this must be something more than business. He would never be so informal if not.

“I… I hate to bring up your past incident. I know you don’t like to think of it, nor do I or anyone else, for that matter. But because of that, because of what happened to you, what you… became…. That is why Aizen is after you.”

“Damn. I thought this may happen.”

“You did? Why did you never say anything?” he asked, his brow furrowed.

“I had hoped it wouldn’t, and I didn’t want to bring it up. But I am not dumb Jyuushiro, with all due respect. Aizen is researching and developing and enhancing Arrancar. It’s only natural for him to want to know. He thinks I hold a secret.”

“You do Naomi, you do realize that?”

His voice was strong now, smooth. More like the man she used to know, and less like the sickly man of recent times. The smile and friendly aura he usually wore were nowhere to be found. He was completely serious in this matter.

“I suppose I do, yes, Jyuushiro. The only problem is, I have no idea what it is.”