Chapter four
Team work
Aizen had been observing Ulquiorra's confrontation with the young blonde in his conference room accompanied by the other nine Espada. "Oh?" he expressed with interest as he delicately balanced a cup between his callused fingers. "So, it seems we've found him" he continued with a growing smirk forming on his lips "It'll be interesting to see how Ulquiorra decides to bring him to me."
A loud bang on the table shaking the cutlery that lay formally on the surface broke Aizen's concentration. As the former shinigami looked up, he found Grimmjow making his way towards the exit of the room. He rested his elbow on the side of his chair as he placed his cheek on his knuckles, giving Grimmjow's back an amused yet questioning look. The blue haired Espada fell to his knees under the sudden spiritual pressure that had been thrown on top of him, almost forcing him to bow. "I'm afraid I wasn't finished talking to you, Grimmjow jeagerjaques. Would you like to return to your seat?"
"Dammit" the fierce blue haired Espada thought as the spiritual pressure of his lord was taken off of his back. He shot Aizen a look of disdain for a split second before looking down and standing back up. "Look, I get that we have to be patient but what about those other pests running around our hallways? I have a score to settle with Ichigo Kurosaki" he said with bitter emphasis on the young shinigami's name.
The other Espadas had scrutinised their comrade as though he were just wasting time. "Can't you just follow Lord Aizen's orders, you fool" echoed a female Espadas voice.
"Harribel?!" Grimmjow spat, his blood had slowly started to boil as he heard a soft snicker coming from Nnoitora making his deep blue orbs flash with malicious intent.
"Though I appreciate your intentions Grimmjow, I'd prefer if you stayed here for now" was Aizens reply. The enraged Espada had blown a fuse, his short temper had completely been destroyed although he had stood tall, staring at Aizen, holding back his frustrated glare and not letting the others see just how much he despised them in that moment. Taking a deep breath, he nodded once then made his way back to his seat. "Thank you, Grimmjow" the former shinigami casually said turning back to the screen which revealed Naruto and Ulquiorra.
"Be patient" he continued, addressing all of the Espada's. "We have all the time we could ask for, they're in our territory right now" he concluded with a slight grin.
The blue haired Espada kept his gaze down on the table, trying not to tell his 'lord' how stupid waiting around would be. "But you just wait Ichigo, you're mine" he assured himself, his eyes widening as a wide smirk formed across his features.
"Wait, so let's go over this" Ichigo announced after a moments silence after their departure from the others. He could hear a sigh from Sakura coming from behind him. "Hey, it's not my fault there's two of you and one of me! Remembering one name is hard enough."
"I guess that's fair enough, I can't say I remember yours very well either" Yamato agreed.
Sakura could have sworn she saw the heroic orange haired boy pout for a moment at her former captains words before he changed the topic. "So, now that we've told you about why we're here, why don't you give me a bit more detail on why you are?"
The two shinobi had exchanged glances, searching for a look of approval from each other. There was an awkward silence between the three until Yamato decided he could trust Ichigo to tell him that much. "From what you've all told us and what's happened in our village not long ago, I'm guessing that we're here to stop Aizen. We know we can't just be ignorant to the fact that he'll probably have no problem with getting rid of us…" he said hesitantly "but for now, we just have to ensure Naruto's safety and eliminate the ones that came to us first." he finished confident in his mission.
"What? The guy Rukia had bound, right? But why do they want him so badly?" Ichigo interrogated, genuinely confused. "He seemed like such a knucklehead when I first met him."
"We don't know the answer to that yet" Yamato lied, heaving his worried gaze towards Sakura who had also had her gaze turned down to the ground as they ran, knowing full well why they would want someone like Naruto.
"How long have we been running for now" Sakura complained, desperately trying to avoid the rest of their current conversation.
"Geez, you're starting to sound like Uryuu" Ichigo joked, feeling slightly comforted that they could be just as human as he was.
"What did you-" Sakura started before Yamato's curiosity got the better of him.
"Wait, who exactly was Uryuu again?" he interjected.
"You know the guy with the glasses and the funny looking outfit" Ichigo replied casually.
"Were you just comparing me to him!?" the kunoichi questioned offended while a small amused smile had played on Yamato's lips.
"Wha-? No! Not comparing, you just said-" the shinigami stopped mid sentence and his eyes had narrowed.
The two shinobi mimicked his sudden stop as they carefully looked around themselves, noticing they came out of the thin corridors and into a hexagonal looking basement with a staircase on the other side. Before their eyes could follow, two Arrancars had appeared before them, blocking their way to get to their exit.
"Where do you think you're going, intruder?" spoke an arrancar with large spikes trailing down his back with four needle looking spikes coming from the left side of his face. Behind them, they heard an inhuman growl, as they turned around there was a larger arrancar with a larger form, longer arms and a mask which had only covered his eyes and nose. Sakura and Yamato stared wide eyed at the foreign entities, almost forgetting they were there to save Konoha and not to gape at these things they only heard in scary stories.
"Sakura, Yamato, right?" Ichigo called, trying to recall their names. "These" he began "are what we call Arrancars" he lectured them while keeping a smug look from appearing on his face.
"Uh huh" Sakura uttered softly, still very surprised at what she was looking at. She was still nodding her head at Ichigo's words as she gazed up at the large Arrancar towering over her.
"These guys just look more like ordinary hollows if I had to be honest with you, the Espada's really aren't as scary as these ones we have here" Ichigo continued "This should be too easy" he concluded.
"Easy? The Arrancar with the needle-like form echoed offendedly. "Demoura on the other hand, I can understand being an easy defeat but you dare say that about me?!"
"Shut your face, Aisslinger" the other lanky Arrancar barked "I'm far stronger than you are even without your-" Demoura had suddenly been sent flying into the far right wall.
"Oh, how about you both shut up!? I've got a mission to complete and I'm already sick of looking at you so called Ar-ran-cars" Sakura yelled towards the fallen being with fire in her eyes, playing with their given name with contempt.
"What in the world…" Ichigo spoke to himself with shock as he eyed the small pink haired girl in front of him. "No way! There is no way she's this strong. It had to be a fluke."
With that, she ran towards Demoura who was still trying to regain his composure "Heh, so he's this slow? Let's hope his size doesn't make up for it" the small pink haired girl thought to herself as she quickly lunged herself towards the Arrancar, throwing her fist towards his mask once again, before she could become into contact with it she had found her fist being countered by Demoura's with just as much force as her own.
She had fallen back, both feet landing hastily on the ground. Her brows furrowed, now in concentration. "He counteracted my attack with the same amount of strength as my own, did he somehow copy my technique? No, impossible. The only plausible reason he can do that is because he's trying to gather as much spiritual energy into his fist like I do with my chakra."
"Sakura! Are you alright?" Yamato asked with concern.
She turned slightly but not taking her eyes off of the Arrancar glaring at her "I'm fine" she replied "you worry about that guy" motioning her head to Aisslinger who was watching the small pink haired girl and his comrade with amusement. Yamato nodded in agreement and turned to his opponent.
"And Sakura" the girl's former captain began "good luck."
The pink haired girl smiled and nodded once as she once again lunged towards her opponent "I haven't used this one in awhile but thanks to watching him, I have an idea" she thought as a picture of a grinning twelve year old Naruto with his arms folding behind his head had flashed in her mind. She smiled softly to herself as she folded her hands into a sign "Shadow clone jutsu" she whispered, creating another self.
Ichigo stood back, watching in awe. "Should I step in at some point? Would that be like a disrespectful thing to their people or something if I did though? They've never even fought Arrancars before, do they know what their doing? Oh man, I'm not ready to deal with this, shinigami is one thing but actual people like this? No way. I'll just watch for now."
Demoura's eyed widened and he looked at both of the pink haired girls, only observing them as if trying to comprehend what had just happened. "Did she poison me with her last punch maybe? I'm seeing double" he thought dumbfounded. As the clone ran and lunged at his aggressively, he instinctively lifted his arm and pulled back his arm before pushing it forward towards his enemy. "Did I get her?" he thought irritated, trying to see through all the smoke that seemed to had appeared out of nowhere.
Before he could see what had happened, he heard an ear cracking smash as he realised it was his mask shattering. Being unable to hold himself up, he stumbled backwards and fell into the wall behind him, almost going straight through it. The real Sakura had come straight through the smoke and landed one powerful punch right in the middle of the Arrancars mask. "CHA!" she cheered to herself proudly, fist bumping into the air while being watched by Ichigo who had one thin eyebrow arched in amusement by seeing her reaction to defeating her first Arrancar.
"I did it!" Sakura chimed, fidgeting in the one spot until she turned to catch a glimpse of Ichigo watching her. She immediately stopped and looked down as a slight shade of pink crept across her cheeks in embarrassment. Before she could try and justify her excitement, she remembered Yamato was still in battle.
"Captain Yamato!" she yelled while running towards him.
Her former captain held his arm out to his side "I'm fine, Sakura. Stay with Ichigo."
Sakura paused in her spot and nodded, holding her arms close to her sides in suspense.
"And what could you possibly do to me?" Aisslinger looked at Yamato in disgust, he was paired against a human, how degrading. After observing his comrades fight with the young girl, he had concluded that her powers were impressive but Demoura had just been too stupid to actually do anything about it. "That won't happen to me" he thought to himself as his eyes narrowed towards Yamato who mirrored his concentrated expression.
"Let's finish this quickly" Yamato said, ignoring the Arrancars previous question.
"Let's" Aisslinger agreed before four arms appeared from the rear of his cloak which had started to fire energy blasts at Yamato.
"Wood style" Yamato cried towards his opponent confidently "wood locking wall." A large brown dome appeared over him as a defence, leaving black burnt spots on the outside where the energy had been shot towards the ninja.
"I-I… Ah.. wh…what?!" Ichigo's eyes had widened slightly with disbelief. "A small looking girl with super strength and a guy who can make wood appear out of nothing? I wonder how they'll react to my mask, whether it'd be a shock to them or not to see it." Ichigo continued to ponder.
"What?!" The insect-like Arrancar thought, shocked. "But that's impossible"
"You shouldn't take your eyes off of your enemy, they don't teach you much here do they?" Yamato yelled at his opponent while running towards him with tremendous speed before forming hand signs which had suddenly made wooden roots come from the ground and entangle his enemy within it.
"Are you calling me stupid?" Aisslinger yelled, enraged. "I may not know how you're preforming these things to appear but they can't hold me. You'll be lucky to not receive all 108 shots of my Uña Tirotear at once!" With that, an overwhelming burst of energy was shot from the Arrancar and coming straight for the stunned shinobi. Quickly, Yamato summoned a thick wooden wall to shield himself and his two companions from the toxic energy.
As strong as the wood was, it couldn't withstand all 108 shots and a part of the wall had faltered, Aisslinger heard his opponent grunt in pain and this had sent a satisfying feeling of accomplishment through his body. The Arrancar had grinned in victory and started to walk towards the tatted remains of the ninja's wooden protection.
"Wood style!"
The Arrancar saw multiple long wooden stakes coming his way, straight through his body and right out the other end all too quickly. Was he really just impaled? He couldn't believe it, it was all too surreal. He looked around himself, realising he was now pinned to a wall with his opponents weapon going straight through his stomach. He looked up to see the three humans unscathed.
"So, he planned it all did he?" Aisslinger had confirmed to himself. The walls had started to shake, bits of rock had started coming down. "You're not going to make it out of here in one piece, I promise you that much" the struggling Arrancar called to Yamato with disdain, almost amusement. "By making it out of here alive, you've only earned yourself a slower and more painful death than you would've had by my hand."
The three allies had stood and watched the defeated Arrancar break out into a dark chuckle as the walls started to corrode and break down. "Let's get out of here" Yamato muttered to his team mates as they started running towards the stairs. Halfway up the stairs, the rumbling had dissipated and their pace had slowed, it was only a matter of time before they reached the top.
"You know" Ichigo started, breaking the silence "considering you guys haven't fought Arrancars before, you didn't do half bad" he subtly praised with a straight face, staring forward.
"It helps knowing your opponent but sometimes battle experience and the ability to strategise really helps out" Yamato said feeling quite pleased with himself and Sakura. He looked over at his pink haired team member to check on how she has been doing only to see a blush creep into her cheeks.
"That really happened" Sakura thought, inwardly burying her face in her palms as she thought back to her childish way of coming out victorious against her vicious opponent.
"What was that about?" Yamato thought, turning back to face Ichigo's back in front of him. "It's amazing Nel had been sleeping peacefully hanging onto your shoulder like that this entire time" Yamato noticed, just letting how shocking that really is sink in.
Ichigo scoffed. "Yeah, she's really something" he stated sarcastically.
"How long have we even been on these stairs, they never end!" Sakura said still trying to push down her embarrassment.
"You're sounding a lot like-" Ichigo started before he saw a flash of pink run past him and he all of a sudden felt an unpleasant sensation on the back of his head.
"Don't even start with that again!" she shouted in frustration.
"Did.. Did she just hit me?" Ichigo asked stunned as he stared after the retreating girls back.
"Ah, yeah, she tends to do that" Yamato answered scratching the back of his head with one hand.
"H-Hey! Wait!" Ichigo called to Sakura, avoiding him.
Yamato stared at Ichigo and Sakura as they playfully ran circles around each other while a soft smile started to play on his lips. "So this is my current team huh? I hope the others are alright."