Naruto:
Lust for Madness
Summary: Szayel is dead (again), but that's hardly the end of his tale. A spirit he swallowed when still a new-ish Hollow starts acting up in his final moments and gives him a chance to make a fresh start in a different, fascinating world—one that lacks a competent, non-pedophilic, relatively godlike scientist that just so happen to have more power in his pinky than most of the average beings within gained their whole lives. Naturally, Szayel quickly comes to the conclusion that this needs to rectified. Even if he has to kill a few people to be able to start his new life in relative peace. Post-NaruTimeSkip, Post-BleachWinterWar, diverges from Narucanon after Valley of the End, NO BASHING (unless it's actually in-character)
Pairings: Um. None outside of canon. I think. :P We'll see. (btw, sex-buddies do NOT count as pairings…just sayin' :3)
Disclaimer: The "Bleach" anime/manga, "Naruto" anime/manga, and all related properties belong to various Japanese companies and people I don't know the name of. If so I wouldn't be writing here and many of the Arrancar/Akatsuki would have survived the Invasion/Konoha…or at least lasted longer. D,:
Prologue
Death—again—sort of—was actually rather boring for Szayel Aporro Granz, Octava Espada and intellectual/scientist of Las Noches. After going through the many stages of grief over his own demise (most notably denial, which lasted for quite a chunk of time), Szayel was left with nothing to do as his eyes stared at the seemingly-unmoving Zanpaku-To before him and his ears heard a long, noted hum interspersed rarely with extended silence. Kurotsuchi Mayuri would have been pleased to know that his super-human drug worked to perfection.
Never one to waste a potential learning opportunity, Szayel spent quite a bit of mental time after he finished grieving over the death of, err, himself to go over all the knowledge he had collected throughout the fifty-odd years he had been an Arrancar and revise old theories, combine knowledge, take a few moments to look over his abilities, et cetera. Then he moved on to the knowledge he had obtained through the souls he had devoured over the years, much of which included memories and skills he hadn't bothered to examine in detail in favor of increasing his own personal knowledge.
Each soul a Hollow devoured before becoming an Adjuchas/Vasto Lorde/Arrancar contributed to its overall personality as a humanoid being. Although this was common knowledge amongst those who cared to find out, Szayel had always been interested in finding out exactly how much each soul affected the overall outcome. The results were absolutely fascinating; the wide range of traits and tendencies he received from each soul was just so varied!
From the Hollow of a mother who had killed herself after her child died (he decided that this was the only reason he could put up with the more immature Arrancar…and have any sort of attachment to the idiotic yet undoubtedly loyal duo Lumina and Verona) to the multiple intellects' Souls (that combined together gave him his insatiable thirst for knowledge) to a young child's Hollow (which he blamed for his brief bouts of sympathy/mercy in the past), each separate piece brought something of interest to the table.
But when Szayel came close to the center of his being, the Hollows were much more influential. He found an accomplished scientist from Germany that discovered amazing things and was well-respected despite his eccentrics*, probably the base for his own fascination with how the natural world worked. A sociopathic woman killer whom slaughtered children for her own twisted ideas of youth and bathed in their blood after torturing them** was likely the reason why he was so desensitized and even enjoyed causing others pain. A Hollow composed of souls from some place called "Danvers" that was horrifying in its so-called treatment of mental illnesses*** probably led to Szayel's admittedly unstable mental state and obsessive desire to become perfect.
There was one Soul that truly caught Szayel's attention. Towards the end of his self-examination, just when in the "real world" the Zanpaku-To was touching his chest and there was one of those rare pauses of silence between words, he found perhaps the most fascinating thing yet.
A Plus Soul, undiluted and obviously not from a Hollow like every other in Szayel's being, hovering quietly as if it had been patiently waiting centuries for Szayel's attention. And as soon as Szayel noticed it, it struck.
Memories almost as clear as his own flooded the scientist's mind, flickering with emotions both foreign and heartrendingly familiar. A village, hidden, surrounded by trees and so colorful yet so cold at the same time; a hate-filled environment with a few bright exceptions; a brief yet tantalizing glance at a poorer village that yet somehow had much more hope; then faces, faces varying from an intelligent man older than even Barragan appeared to a man not elder than Grimmjow with a nasty scar yet cheerful expression to a young child, probably not even in double digits, bouncing enthusiastically—
Then voices began, overlapping with the images; voices varying in tone, in word, in sentiment, in everything, yet at the same time they all connected their words with one name. A name that carried power, promised the unexpected, and maybe was a bit of a joke to those whom didn't know the owner.
Mentally gasping for breath, Szayel's eyes widened as the image of a young teenager, smiling with determination, flashed through his mind at the same time as Mayuri's blade pierced his heart.
…Uzumaki…Naruto…
And Szayel died.
-Lust for Madness-
*Albert Einstein. I decided that Szayel needed a famous scientist somewhere in there, and after some debate (I originally wanted to use Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo de Vinci, or Isaac Newton) decided Einstein would be interesting. He's fascinatingly eccentric and his theories were so complex and revolutionary that it wasn't until years after his death that some could be proven (i.e. gravity affecting even the path of light). Plus I could totally see him refusing a Konso just to see what would happen. ^.^;;
** Elizabeth Báthory, the Blood Countess of Hungary. I almost used Aileen Wuornos, the first woman to officially gain the title of "serial killer" in the United States, but then realized she died in 2002 so it probably wouldn't be likely that Szayel would have been able to get a hold of her soul before he became an Adjuchas…plus Elizabeth has always fascinated me; I did a project on her once and creeped out my Criminology class/teacher in High School.
***Danvers State Hospital. The place was notorious for its barbaric procedures and its overcrowded living quarters (it was made to hold 500 people at most, but held 2300 patients at its "peak" in 1940) and is rumored to be the birthplace of the art of lobotomy. Perhaps you've heard of it. A doctor literally and physically scrambles your frontal lobe to "help" you "recover" from your insanity. It's horrifyingly gruesome; I once saw a YouTube video of some old footage of a lobotomy…let's just say I wasn't the only one in the room to look away and gag (this coming from the girl who watches realistically gory movies like Devil's Rejects just to cheer on the murderers).
-Lust for Madness-
MKL's Post-Production Notes (3-15-12): So I noticed a while ago a lack of Naruto!reborn(ish)!as!Szayel fics in the multitude of Naruto!reborn!as!Arrancar fics out there and decided to rectify that. This prologue's been sitting in my computer for about a month now and I figured I'd post it to see what the response will be. If you, the readers, give me an indication that you have interest in the idea, I'll continue it right away. If not, I'm going to continue focusing almost solely on my HP/Naru story "Wrath of Jashin" and my original fics leave this alone until I'm done with it...likely in a few months. This isn't me blackmailing reviews; I just have been allotting my time more carefully lately and each story has its own priority. Right now, this one's pretty low. So review if you want to see this continued...or don't. Either way is fine with me. ^.^