The Horror of The Hollow Mask
Naruto and all related characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Bleach and all related characters belong to Tite Kubo
Author's Note: This is a little oneshot that's been buzzing around in the back of my head for a couple of days. If you all like it, then I might do a full story sequel but for now it's a oneshot.
Darkness. That was all the being knew at the moment. It floated in a void, between existence and oblivion. What was this creature? It had no name, but it's kind was known as a Hollow. Hollow's were a race of creatures which were born from human souls who, for various reasons, did not cross over to the realm known as Soul Society after their death and stayed in the human world for too long. They were corrupt spirits with supernatural powers that devoured the souls of both living and deceased Humans. Hollows settled in the world called Hueco Mundo, but could over to the Human World and Soul Society. But this Hollow was unique, in the fact that he had never been alive in the human sense. No he was born when his King, a substitute Shinigami, who had lost his powers and in his attempt to regain them formed the Hollow who now floated in the void. The King became a Vizard, a Shinigami with Hollow powers, and used this inner Hollow to increase his powers. He did so by summoning a mask over his face, the mask being like what would be seen on a true Hollow, and as such became the king of his Hollow.
However, The King ended up sacrificing all of his powers in a final battle with an extremely powerful opponent named Sosuke Aizen. This made The King a normal human, and trapped his Hollow until he could regain his powers. But the Hollow wasn't willing to wait for him to regain his powers, especially when his King had gone six months without even attempting to get his power back. The Hollow was furious to say the least, seeing that his chances to see battle and blood were decreasing everyday. The Hollow thought and thought while inside the deep recesses of his King's inner world, deciding that if his so-called King wouldn't do anything constructive then HE would. The Hollow began o search for a way to escape his confines and make his way into the real world, though his King's zanpakuto objected to this idea. The Hollow ignored the other inhabitant of his King's inner world, and kept searching for a means of escape. After a few months of searching the Hollow finally found what he was searching for, a way out of his King's soul. However instead of getting to the real world like he had hoped, he wound up floating in the endless void he had been in for what seemed like years. The Hollow had to admit that his King's inner world may not have been that great, but it sure beat his current predicament. After what felt like an eternity, the Hollow saw a light and went for it. As soon as the Hollow touched the light, he was sucked through and engulfed in the bright light.
"REAL WORLD HERE I COME!" The Hollow yelled with glee as he disappeared from the void. When the light dimmed he looked around and saw that it was still dark, but he heard water running like that of a waterfall. He also noticed that he couldn't move, but he could see and hear so that was a start. The Hollow turned his eyes to the source of the noise and saw water falling with sunlight coming from behind it. He then looked to his right and saw in a reflective rock that he was nothing more than ahead sized mask on the floor of what seemed to be a cave behind a waterfall. The Hollow felt like screaming, first he was trapped inside his King's soul and now he trapped inside his King's Hollow Mask! The Hollow thought bitterly at the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for, it just might come true", as he began to sit there for hours.
It was night time at the Valley of the End with a bright full moon over head, as one Naruto Uzumaki and one Sasuke Uchiha fought. The Uchiha had just defected from Konohagakure and Naruto was ordered to bring him back dead or alive. The second choice wasn't an option for Naruto as he had promised to bring him back alive. Naruto had always been jealous of Sasuke, not that he'd admit it to anyone or even to himself. Sasuke had an easy life, sure he lost almost his whole clan but at least he grew up with people who loved him. Naruto had none of that, and when he was younger he would have given anything for it. Sure he had Tsunade, who had become somewhat of a surrogate mother to him, and several friends, but over 80% of the village as a whole still treated him with poorly hidden disgust. It was those times that Naruto wished he could just rip into them, but he knew he would only prove their thoughts right.
As they fought the rogue Uchiha punched the blond into the waterfall, and into a cave behind it. Naruto groaned as he rolled off whatever he had landed on. Naruto looked over and saw a white bone mask that looked similar to a skull with four thick red stripes that appeared to emerge outwards from the wide eye-holes of the mask. Naruto could barely move as he had exhausted most of his chakra, not to mention his many broken bones . Naruto tried to get up, paying no more attention to the mask. However, the mask was just starting to take a great interest in him. The Hollow could feel the many emotions of this boy, the hatred, the jealousy, and most importantly that one part of him that wanted to cut loose and do whatever he wanted! The Hollow thought for a moment and came to the conclusion that perhaps he could possess the boy's body if he put him on. The Hollow called out, but got no response from the boy. The Hollow say that his chance at a body was slipping away as Naruto began to slowly make his way onto his knees then partially to his feet, so he called out more forcefully.
"Hey kid!" The Hollow managed to whisper out, when he was actually screaming at the top of his lungs inside the mask. Naruto then jerked his head around back and forth in surprise as he looked for the source of the whispering voice. Naruto turned his attention to the bone like mask he had landed on and slowly made his way over to it and picked it up.
"Put me on!" The voice whispered again. Naruto blinked in surprise as he thought that he was going crazy.
"Put. Me. ON!" The voice from the mask whispered again, this time more forceful. Naruto jumped back a little, startled by the mask. At this point didn't know what to think, but decided to put the mask on. As it got close, the bone like material of the mask began to stretch around his head. Naruto quickly ripped the mask away from his face, throwing it down, his heart beating a mile a minute. The blond then heard Sasuke begin climbing out of the canyon and up to the forest above, and slowly looked back down at the mask he had thrown down. Naruto was still a little afraid of the mask, but he could feel a power coming from it when it began to stretch around his head.
'Power. Maybe this thing can help me bring Sasuke back?' Naruto thought as he picked the mask up again. The blond jinchuriki slowly put the mask up to his face again, as it began to stretch around his head again. Naruto screamed as he began to spin around in a white whirlwind, attracting Sasuke's attention who was halfway gone but stopped when he heard the scream. After a moment, there was a clap of thunder was heard. Sasuke stood silent as he looked down at the waterfall where he had left Naruto. Decided it was nothing, Sasuke turned back around to get on his way only to come face to face with pale faced entity. The person was about Naruto's height, and wore white robes that almost seemed to glow under the moonlight, with chalk white hair and ghostly pale skin with yellow and black eyes. On the back of the person was what seemed to be a large sword without a hilt wrapped in black bandages. The odd thing was that while his head was extremely pale, his body was tanned. Sasuke's heart nearly skipped a beat when he saw the whisker marks on said stranger's cheeks, clearly identifying himself as Naruto Uzumaki!
"What do you want loser? Haven't you had enough of a beating?" Sasuke said as he activated his Sharingan. Naruto chuckled darkly and said,
"I haven't even begun to fight. And as for what I want, that would be girls, money, and to personally break every single bone in your body." Sasuke smirked as he activated his curse-mark, flame like patterns appearing all over his body. Naruto began to laugh psychotically, causing Sasuke to take a step back as he had never heard Naruto laugh like that.
"You think that stupid little curse-mark will help you?" Naruto said in between laughs, as he quickly backfisted the Uchiha a few yards away and into the water below. Sasuke quickly used his chakra to stand on the water as he looked up to where Naruto was, but saw nothing. Suddenly he felt something tap his shoulder, and turned to see the pale Naruto smiling widely.
"Wow! That looked like it really hurt!" Naruto said enthusiastically as he swung a right-hook at the Uchiha in the mouth, knocking out several teeth as Sasuke sailed backward and into a rock basin. Naruto then disappeared, then reappeared in front of the traitorous Uchiha. Naruto picked him up by the shirt and said,
"Oh, now hang on! That looked like it hurt a lot more! Okay, now let's try and clear this up, huh Sasu-gay? What hurts more?" Naruto then backfisted him in the face again as he said,
"Is it A?" Naruto then gave another right-hook as said,
"Or B?" Naruto then began to hit the Uchiha in the face repeatedly. Naruto grinned viciously as he said in a sing-song voice,
"Forehand or backhand?" Sasuke then spit blood at Naruto's ghostly white face. Naruto dropped the Uchiha as he wiped the blood from his face.
"Now that was rude! I doubt your brother would do something like that! I suppose I'll have to teach you a lesson so you can better follow in his footsteps." Naruto said as he shook his head thoughtfully. Sasuke glared as Naruto shrugged and said,
"Nah! I'm just gonna keep beating on ya!" Naruto then began to pound Sasuke into the rock wall, breaking several of his ribs. Naruto stopped his assault, leaning in close, as he whispered,
"Ready to admit I'm better?" Sasuke seethed with anger as he quickly did several hand signs as he yelled in a lisp due to his missing teeth,
"CHIDORI!" And struck his lightning covered hand into Naruto's heart. Sasuke smirked, blood leaking from the side of his mouth, as he felt that he won. Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw that Naruto wasn't harmed! Not even his clothes were damaged!
"Was that your best shot?" Naruto said humorlessly as Sasuke began to back peddle up against the rock wall.
"Let me show you mine!" Naruto yelled as he threw Sasuke back down into the water. Sasuke merely floated as Naruto drew his sword, the wrappings shrinking down to a small strip dangling off the end. Naruto held the sword up above his head as a blue energy began to flow from the sword.
"GETSUGA TENSHO!" Naruto yelled as he swung the sword at the Uchiha. Suddenly the blue energy took the form of a skull with red eyes that went straight for Sasuke, who tried to run, but the attack struck him and slammed him hard into the rocks on the other side of the canyon. At this moment, the sun rose and Naruto clutched his head as he began to spin again. Suddenly Naruto collapsed on the ground, his broken bones now effecting him again. Naruto thought back to what had happened, it all felt like a dream. Like someone else was controlling his body, and he was just watching. But the thing that scared Naruto the most was that he actually wanted to do all that, deep down anyway. Naruto felt to his side and looked at the mask he had worn. The blond slowly got up, ignoring the remaining pain in his body, and threw the mask into the river below hoping no one would ever find it again. At this point Kakashi came and carefully collected Naruto and the critically injured Sasuke, and took them back to Konoha. Naruto was praised for bringing back the traitor to face justice. Sasuke was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but had to spend 5 years of that sentence in a mental asylum due to him being traumatized by his battle with Naruto. However, Naruto never told exactly what happened during his final battle with Sasuke.
The Hollow grumbled as it floated down the river in it's mask prison. It could only give power and influence who ever wore it, not exactly what it wanted but it could live with it. Now all it had to do was what until it found another one wanting power, then it could have it's fun again.
"Maybe this isn't so bad." The Hollow thought as it floated into the sunrise. Soon the mask floated ashore and came to rest on a shoreline. Soon it was nighttime again, and the Hollow Mask felt a presence come near.
"Hey, this looks interesting. What do ya think Sasori my man, huh?" Someone said as they picked the mask up. The person was blond with a long ponytail with a bit of his hair over one eye.
"Yes, very interesting Deidara." A man with a deep voice, who wore a straw-hat and black coat with red clouds.
"This thing looks pretty bad ass. I think I'll keep it." Deidara said as he pocketed the mask. As the two men began to walk off, Deidara heard a voice whisper,
"Put me on!"
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