DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF THE CROSSOVERS
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The Eternal Guardians
A God Awakens Arc
Chapter 02 - Prologue
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The world is changed...I feel it in the waters...I feel it in the earth...I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live...who remembered it. It all began with the consumption of a single fruit. Who would have thought that the world would see such changes for such simple thing...so small thing? Is it not a strange fate that the world should suffer so much fear, war and pain for so small a thing? So small a thing!
The single event of eating this fruit brought so many changes into the world of man. The ability to use chakra. Chakra...the perfect blend of the body's physical energy with the soul's spiritual energy. Coupling this mixture with the proper molding and man became the ultimate hunter of this earth.
They could control all of the elements. They could breathe flames, control the water and the wind, bend earth with a small gesture of hands and control lightning like nothing ever could. These humans capable of molding chakra were known as shinobi (ninja) and they were the ultimate warriors of this earth. They were so fast, strong and powerful that only another one could fight them on equal grounds.
But even among them, there were a few that stood out for being even more powerful. Just to name a few, there once lived Senju Hashirama, who could control wood and trees like no other. With a single clap of hands, thousand of trees would be born from the ground, they would rise high into the air or destroy everything in their path. He could calm even the strongest of demons.
Another one was called Uchiha Madara, the true master of fire. This man was the true fire lord, capable of unleashing real infernos upon his opponents. Coupled that with his bloodline limit, the Sharingan, he could create a gigantic ethereal samurai that, with a single stroke of his blade, would split mountains and crack the land. His special eyes allowed him to control demons.
Another one was Namikaze Minato, son of Uchiha Madara. His was once regarded as the fastest person to live on the earth. Extreme natural speed coupled with space-time techniques that allowed him to travel instantaneously made him one of most powerful man to ever live on this earth.
And finally, the strongest of them all. Ootsutsuki Naruto, son of Namikaze Minato, grandson of Uchiha Madara and great-grandson of Senju Hashirama. Naruto was blessed with the power of all of his predecessors. He was a human of such power that many claimed him to be a god. There was nothing out of his reach, nothing that he couldn't do. Even death itself fell before him.
Naruto, his wife and eight more warriors had created what was once called 'The Ten Dragons'. This group was created with a single purpose: to protect earth and keep peace among man. Such a difficult and long purpose for humans, who had such short lives. This is where Naruto's power comes in. Naruto was considered a god because he had absolute control over life, death, destruction and creation itself. And for thousands of years, the dragons stood watch and guarded the earth, protecting man from himself.
During all of these years, earth itself saw many changes. The land where they once lived, split apart creating five continents. The dragons also split, two for each continent, and continued their job. One day, they decided that they were no longer needed. The human race had laid down their weapons and started evolving, technology started appearing. And so, the dragons disappeared from this world.
And some things that should not have been forgotten, were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for thousands of years, the dragons slept in wait for the day to come, the day they would awake. The day...mankind would need their help once again.
## Current Time - Year 2015 - Karakura Town ##
Thousand years had passed since the dragons had vanished without a trace. Mankind never once needed them again. Of course there still were a few wars but nothing like what once existed back in the shinobi era. Mankind was starting to learn, help and understand each other.
In the middle of this town there were two teens staring at each other intently. They were staring at each other in the eyes. One of them had spiky orange hair and was in his spiritual form. He was wearing the standard Shinigami attire, with the addition of a strap across his chest. It was a thick brown belt to hold his Zanpakuto sheath. He was Ichigo Kurosaki, substitute soul reaper for the soul society.
The other person standing in front of Ichigo had straight, chin-length raven-colored hair framing both sides of his face, and was fair-skinned with blue eyes. He wore the respective school uniform along with a tie. He was Uryuu Ishida, the last of the Quincy.
"And how do you suggest we do this duel?" Ichigo asked smirking towards the fellow Quincy standing in front of him.
"We will use this to begin...it will help" Uryuu said as he went to his shirt pocket and removed some sort of round object, like a coin.
"And what is that?" Ichigo asked curious about the little object in his hand.
"Bait" Uryuu simply replied pushing his glasses up "For the hollows. Once I crush this, hollows will start to appear" Uryuu explained as if it was a regular day occurrence.
"What the hell" Ichigo snapped at Uryuu.
"The rules are quite simple. Whoever kills the most hollows in twenty four hours will be the winner" Uryuu said smiling and looking at the incredulous face of Ichigo "Simple right?" Uryuu rhetorically asked "Even you can do it" Uryuu said while Ichigo got mad.
"Are you crazy?" Ichigo asked "Doing that would put everyone here in danger" Ichigo explained but Uryuu didn't even waver or flinch. "This battle is just between us" Ichigo said.
"Why are you making such a fuss about this?" Uryuu asked and Ichigo was about to answer when Uryuu continued "I know that I have nothing to fear because I will be able to eliminate every single one of them that shows up here" Uryuu explained and broke the object releasing a small energy into the air.
Suddenly small crackling sounds could be heard through the sky. Ichigo looked up to see a small piece of the blue sky starting to crack and piece falling. Green hands started emerging from the crack and soon enough a hollow burst from it and came into the human world.
"You are insane" Ichigo stated as a blue energy arrow blurred by his face heading towards the hollow. The hollow got hit by that arrow and got his white mask destroyed. The hollow was vaporized leaving nothing behind.
"And that is one for me" Uryuu said while Ichigo got pissed and ready to punch him the face. That Uryuu had just placed the whole city in danger for some duel. Ichigo decided to leave him be and go for the hollows.
"Once were are done with this we will both now our answer" Uryuu yelled towards the running Ichigo. A blue energy bow formed in Uryuu's right hand. With a single pull, several blue arrows flew out of the bow and into the sky. "And that's two down" Uryuu said smirking.
## Urahara's Shop ##
"What is going on here?" a small teen asked the sitting man in front of her. She was waiting for an answer when her phone rang.
"Excuse me Urahara...business" Rukia and walked away to answer her phone when the signal went dead. "Why did the signal disappear?" Rukia asked herself. Urahara just watched the events unfold.
"Hmmm" Urahara replied.
"Oh...I get it" Rukia said getting the attention of Urahara "Ichigo must be working well today" Rukia stated just at her phone beeped again and lost the signal just as it beeped. "It went blank again?" Rukia asked just as the phone started beeping constantly.
"This can't be...can it?" Rukia asked uncertain who what to do. Her phone was giving out multiple signals of hollows all around town, and number kept increasing. Rukia ran outside of the store once she heard a hollow scream.
"What the hell is happening here?" Rukia asked as she watched a hollowed crawl out of the sky through a cracked portal.
## Back with Ichigo ##
Ichigo was running through town killing as many hollows as he could. Eventually he ran back into Uryuu whose hands had numeral cuts from using his energy bow too much.
"Tired?" Ichigo asked with a smirk.
"Not a chance" Uryuu replied as he charged another arrow and sent it away, killing yet another hollow. "You will never defeat me...I'll prove that this world doesn't need soul reapers" Uryuu stated as he fire multiple shots.
"Ichigo" Rukia said as she arrived near the duo "What happened here?" Rukia asked. She had never seen so much spiritual activity in one spot.
"Uryuu use some kind of hollow bait to draw them out" Ichigo explained as he sliced another hollow. Suddenly multiple holes opened in the sky and a large horde of hollows came out of them.
"This doesn't look good" Ichigo stated. Suddenly and out of nowhere, Hollows started dropping like flies. It was a little girl with some king of machine gun decimating them.
"We figured you might need a hand" Urahara said as he joined the picture and was accompanied by three other person. A big dude called, Tessai Tsukabishi, the little girl with the machine gun was called Ururu Tsumugiya and there was another kid the same age was the girl with red hair called Jinta Hanakari.
"How about we handle these pests while you take care of that one" Urahara said pointing towards the sky. A big fissure suddenly popped open in the sky and a towering figure came out. His body was pitch black with only having some kind of white mask with a horn in the place of his nose.
"It can't be" Rukia said with her eyes widened "A menos grande" Rukia stated looking at the monstrous hollow in front of them.
"That isn't some ordinary hollow" Ichigo said looking up.
"My bait couldn't possibly draw out something like that" Uryuu stated in shock.
"Yet it did. Let's focus on killing the damn thing" Ichigo replied as he grasped his sword.
"You can't. A menos grande is too much for a single soul reaper" Rukia explained.
"That thing is too big for any of our weapons" Uryuu said as he pushed his glasses up and looked at 60 foot tall enemy.
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall" Ichigo said raising his sword "Let's take this sucker down, Uryuu" Ichigo yelled and started running towards the hollow. Ichigo jumped in the air and tried to cut it but the sword simply bounced off, and Ichigo was thrown backwards, crashing into the ground.
"That was the stupidest charge i've ever seen" Uryuu replied while Ichigo got mad.
"Why don't you try it then?" Ichigo said motioning Uryuu to step in. Uryuu charged an arrow and fired it at the hollow, only to simply scratch its face and do nothing more.
The hollow stopped on its tracks and looked down at Ichigo and Uryuu who gulped. Red energy started gathering near his mouth as the hollow charged a Cero. Moments later, the hollow fired the red beam of energy to annihilate both Ichigo and Uryuu. Ichigo ran into the beam and blocked it with his sword. Ichigo buckled and kneeled due to the pressure. Uryuu ran to help him only for the ground to start cracking.
The street beneath both Uryuu and Ichigo cracked wide open and they fell. The beam destroyed the road and increased the hole, making a huge crater. Ichigo and Uryuu stumbled down the hole, through the sewers and into some kind of cave system they never knew it existed.
"*cough* *cough* W-Where are we?" Ichigo asked as he shakily rose up and turned to help Uryuu who was trying to get up as well. They were in some kind of cave and it was almost pitch black if it wasn't for the small light coming down from the hole they made. Even then, the exit to the cave was almost 70 foot away.
"What is this place?" Uryuu asked as he regained his bearings. He strained his eyes to try and find some sense of where they were. He could feel wind down here which meant that this wasn't some small cave. How could such big cave be hidden beneath a city without no one ever finding out.
Ichigo and Uryuu looked up and noticed it would be difficult to get out of such deep cave without any help. They decided to explore the cave a bit to try and find out an alternative exit. They were both walking until Ichigo stepped on a seal that suddenly glowed.
Suddenly the whole cave lit up as several torches burst into flames. Both teens flinched when the torches lit up as they didn't know why. They looked at the cave. It was a very long cave with several support columns. All of the stones had markings and other drawings. The stones had drawings of long and hard battles. Ichigo looked at walls and noticed large drawings of open field battles. A man with long hair standing on top of a very large fox with nine tails, nine more warriors were standing by his side, all of them facing an army.
They walked down the long haul until they finally reached a big double stoned door. The door had emblazed two large dragons. One dragon in each door, they were both sitting and facing forward as if guarding the doors from intruders.
"Are those dragons?" Ichigo asked curious about the design.
"I believe so" Uryuu said analyzing the drawings "These are old...very old" Uryuu stated. The drawings were missing a few chunks, the cave smelled very bad as if sun hadn't entered it in a long time.
"I think no one has entered this cave in hundreds perhaps thousands of years" Uryuu said as he dusted the door clean to notice some text on it.
"It's in English" Uryuu said shocked and began to read it out loud.
In times of darkness, we shine.
In times of pain, we heal.
In times of despair, we smile.
And in times of death, we fight.
The last resting place of The Eternal Guardians
We shall come for those who need it
Ask for it, and it shall be granted
"What do you think 'it' means?" Uryuu asked Ichigo who scowled.
"How should I know?" Ichigo rhetorically asked "Damn caves and their riddles" Ichigo said while Uryuu sweat dropped.
"Should we go in?" Uryuu asked. These ancient cave always had some kind of trap meant to kill any of their trespassers.
"Of course. There is no other way out of here" Ichigo replied and pushed the stone doors open. The big stones doors cringed as they opened for the first time in ten thousand years. The moment the opened the doors the torches inside the chamber blazed to life showing a smaller chamber. Inside the chambers were two coffins lying side a side.
Behind each of these stone coffins there was a statue. The first statue was that of man around six feet tall, he had waist length spiky hair that partially covered his right eye. An interesting fact about his eyes is that they had a strange pattern. They had a strange circle with three tomoes around them. He was wearing some kind of armor because there was a dragon emblazed in the middle of his chest. His right arm was extended forward with some stone sphere in his hand.
His left hand was holding the right hand of the other statue who anyone could clearly see that it was a woman. She was around five feet and nine inches tall. She had long, waist length hair. She had a similar armor as the other statue and she seemed to have a gentle smile on her lips looking at the stone ball.
"Who were they?" Ichigo asked looking at the statues holding hands. They seemed to looking intently at the stone ball in the male's hands. They must have been important to be buried in a cave deep beneath the earth.
"How should I know" Uryuu replied dusting off the coffins to try and find something out.
"She's beautiful" Ichigo thought to himself looking at woman's statue. Even from the degraded stone he could see that this woman had delicate features.
"Is that Earth?" Ichigo asked towards Uryuu as he looked intently at the stone globe in the statue's hands. He could see some drawings protruding from the ball's flat surface. After looking carefully at the design he could clearly understand them. They were the continents. Why did this man had the Earth on the palm of his hand?
"Hey Ichigo...check this out" Uryuu said and Ichigo went forward to find writing in the coffins.
Here lies Ootsutsuki Naruto
Soul Mate of Ootsutsuki Hinata
God of this World
The Silver Dragon
One of the Eternal Guardians
"He doesn't seem much eternal if he's buried" Ichigo stated and went to read the other coffin.
Here lies Ootsutsuki Hinata
Soul Mate of Ootsutsuki Naruto
Last wielder of the Byakugan
The Purple Dragon
One of the Eternal Guardians
"Lucky bastard" Ichigo thought looking Naruto's statue.
"We should leave and try another way out. We still have that hollow to take care of" Uryuu said and Ichigo snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. They both turned around to leave.
"We will need help-"
Crack!
Both Uryuu and Ichigo froze when they heard the small cracking sound. They both gulped and slowly turned to face the coffins. The small cracking sound was followed by an intense rumbling as the stones on top of the coffins started moving on their own. The stones fell to the side and into the floor revealing the coffins fully open.
"Uhm...he-hello?" Ichigo carefully asked to see if there was anything...alive in the coffins. Both of them slowly walked towards the coffins, one step at the time. Ichigo peeked inside of the male's coffin.
"Is he in bad shape?"Uryuu asked looking away from the coffins.
"What the hell is this?" Ichigo said in shock staring at the face of Senju Naruto. There, inside the coffin, laid Senju Naruto. However he wasn't in bones and dust. He had hair and skin and flesh, he was warm to the touch. Ichigo looked closer and saw that his chest was rising and falling slowly but rhythmically. He had both hands on top of his chest.
"Is he all bones?" Uryuu replied trying to decide if he should look inside or not.
"No" Ichigo replied looking at the blonde man lying in the coffin "He seems to be...sleeping" Ichigo said. Ichigo got closer to his face when Naruto's eyes snapped open to reveal deep, ocean like, blue eyes.
## Soul Society - Aizen's Room ##
"What is this presence?" Aizen asked to himself narrowing his eyes and looking at the horizon.
## Soul Society - Soul King's Palace ##
"Nice to see that you're back...old friend" the Soul King said to himself chuckling. Things were about to become interesting.
## Surface ##
"What is this..." Urahara asked gob smacked. He could feel a very large amount of power radiating from the hole that Ichigo fell in and it didn't belong to him or Uryuu.
The Dragons had awakened
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