Chapter 3: A Zanpakto and A Spar
Naruto was happy. The reason for that was that he was wearing orange Shinigami clothing, only the top of it, but it satisfied Naruto. Right now he was heading to the office of Yamamoto, he had said that they needed to talk after he destroyed this Cleaner thing, so why not now.
He arrived at the door and put his hand on the door knob, ready to open the door. In the last second he changed his mind though, Tsunade had always scolded him when he entered without knocking, and Yamamoto looked like he would be bothered by such menial stuff as well. He was still going to call him Yama-jii though. Naruto rose his fist and politely knocked on the door.
The door was opened by the man Naruto remember to be Yamamoto's assistant, or whatever the Shinigami called it. He wasn't good with ranks.
"Yes?" The man questioned Naruto.
"Yama-jii wanted to talk to me," Naruto answered, "So here I am."
"Please adress Yamamoto-soutaicho with the proper respect." Sasakibe demanded, blocking the way into the office.
"Let him in, Sasakibe." Yamamoto commanded from within his office, sighing at the lack of respect Naruto once more showed.
Naruto walked in and moved towards the chair that stood opposite of Yamamoto's desk, while Sasakibe closed the door behind him and stood next to the now closed door. When Yamamoto saw Naruto he scowled a bit upon seeing his Shinigami outfit partially orange, but he decided not to comment on it.
"So, we needed to talk." Naruto stated while he sat himself down on the chair.
"Correct," Yamamoto answered, "We have a few matters that have to be settled before the inevitable clash with Aizen Sousuke."
"Sure." Naruto answered.
"Firstly, incidents like the one in the Dangai are not to happen again, I cannot have some loose cannon running around in the Seireitei. If you have a need to blow of some steam just go to the 11th Division."
"I suppose that's fine." Naruto answered with a nod.
"Secondly, I need your word that you will never turn on the Soul Society." Yamamoto demanded next.
"That is fine, so long as you will leave me in peace when Aizen is defeated." Naruto demanded in return.
"Agreed, as soon as Aizen is defeated it will all end." Yamamoto gave in to Naruto's demand, "And lastly, I had a standard blank Zanpakto specially prepared for you. Just pour your power into it, and it will personalize to you."
Yamamoto reached underneath his desk and his hand returned with a simple katana, the guard was a simple circle, the blade was standard length and the grip a red color.
Naruto picked up the katana and prepared to channel his chakra into the blade before Yamamoto interrupted him. "Please be aware, Uzumaki-san that we use a different kind of power here then you used to use."
Naruto gave Yamamoto a questioning look, signaling Yamamoto to explain.
"You use chakra, but we here use a power we call Reiryoku, after some studying I have concluded that this power is mostly similar to what you use as Yin. The katana is of Shinigami making, so it will need to be channeled with Reiryoku, or in your case Yin chakra."
Naruto nodded, he had never much practised with Yin and Yang, and he had been told that Yang would be more his thing then Ying. But he supposed he should be able to do it, seeing as he was the reincarnation of Ashura and all that. Naruto called upon his chakra and felt its familiar warmth flowing through body, he split the chakra that was in his hand that was holding the katana, and carefully decided what was the Yin and what was the Yang. Naruto decided that the Yin was the part of the chakra that was somewhat smoother and more refined then the other part, which was thus the Yang. Naruto carefully channeled the Yin, not wanting to overdo it, which he was able to do so easily with his enormous reserves.
It appeared that the blade barely needed any Yin at all to react, Naruto had been started before the katana started glowing. The sword extended until it was about the size of a nodachi, the color of the grip change to - of course - orange, and the guard become the Uzumaki swirl. Next to the Zanpakto a scabbard appeared, with a strap attached so that Naruto could carry it on his back, the sword was way too long to be worn at his side.
"Congratulations upon receiving your Zanpaktou," Yamamoto commented, seeing that the process was done, "Please carry in with you at all times, for it could mean the difference between our defeat and Soul Society's victory. And beside that, if you use your Zanpaktou as often as possible, it will be very unlikely that Aizen will come to know of your real powers, making you our ace in the hole."
"Sure, I'll carry and swing it around," Naruto answered, "I do have one question though, what is so special about this so-called Zanpaktou, what do you Shinigami use it for besides fighting, it seems important."
Yamamoto deadpanned, he had assumed that Naruto would be aware of what a Zanpaktou was by now, and why would he ask this when the entire process was already done. "The sword is part of your soul. It will be able to talk to you, and have a place in your mindscape. With your Zanpaktou spirit you will be able to achieve the next levels in power, Shikai and Bankai. We use to swords to purify Hollows and send them to Soul Society and we use them to pass wandering Plusses - Souls that were not able to find the way themselves - onto Soul Society."
"Okay, so they are important." Naruto answered, glad his guess had been spot on, "Anything else Yama-jii?"
Yamamoto showed no reaction to the "Yama-jii", but next to the door Sasakibe visibly cringed.
"That was all." Yamamoto answered, "Have a good day, Uzumaki."
"Ja ne," Naruto answered before disappearing with a Shunshin.
Naruto once again appeared atop the Soukyoku Hill, and sat down with his legs crossed. Yamamoto had said that the Zanpaktou spirit would reside in his mindscape, so he decided to pay a visit, for him entering his mindscape was a piece of cake.
Upon entering his mindscape he stood in front of the Bijuu immediately, having planned to start there. "Yo" He greeted the demons.
The beasts all gave different signs of welcoming, it mostly came down to "Hello."
"Sorry, guys. I am not really here for you though." Naruto said, "A new entity should have formed in my mind and resides in my mindscape, have you guys felt anything?"
"I did feel that," Kurama answered, being the most powerful of the nine and thus having the best sensory skills. "If I am not mistaken it is at the opposite side of this room."
"Thanks!" Naruto yelled with a thumbs up, already leaving the room. "We'll talk some more while I am sleeping tonight."
Naruto was already outside of the Bijuu's room when he yelled that, but he was sure they heard it, they had a sharp hearing. In the hallway - true to Kurama's words - was a new passage on the opposite side of the hall. Naruto walked through the hallway, and for a while he thought he had taken the wrong way, but a second later he saw light at the end of the tunnel, most likely sunlight by the looks of it.
When Naruto exited the tunnel he saw that he was on a beach, an extremely windy beach. But there was no sand in the air, all the sand remained calmly on the ground, as if rejected by the wind. The sky was bright blue, and the sun was shining, though the sun was somewhat dull, Naruto could look into it without having to clinch his eyes shut. When he looked back, the path that he had come from was gone, and he saw only dunes. Naruto climbed up the dunes to have a good look around and see if he could spot his Zanpaktou. When he stood atop the dunes he saw he was currently on an island, a perfect circle it seemed. The dunes were also in a circle, and in the middle of them was a small valley like spot. There was no sand there, no there was a small parch of grass and a big oak tree. And in the oak tree, on one of the lower branches sat a little girl, swinging her legs. Naruto guessed her age to be around twelve or thirteen.
She wore a thin light blue dress that reached her knees, her shoes were white with wing-like accessories on them, around her arms she had the wing-like accessories as well, and her light blue nearly white hair was in a twin ponytail, both to the side of her head.
"You came." She said excitingly but analytically, and jumped out of the tree, and the wind seemed to catch her.
"Hello," Naruto said in a kind voice. "Who are you?"
"I am Kaze Ōjo." The little girl answered, a curious look on her face. (Wind Princess)
"I see." Naruto answered smiling, "The name fits you, Kaze Ōjo."
"Well, this is special." The girl mused, more to herself then to Naruto.
"What is?" Naruto asked nonetheless.
"Oh well, it is unheard of that one can hear the name of his Zanpakto on first try." She answered, "I guess your special."
"Why wouldn't I be able to hear you?" Naruto asked, confused about what she said.
"Being able to hear my name, equals unlocking Shikai. Therefor upon first try, most Shinigami have not reached the required reiatsu levels etcetera." She answered, still pondering the fact that Naruto could hear her.
"So I already have the first power-up." Naruto said with a grin on his face, "I knew it, I am just so awesome!" He exclaimed, before getting smashed in the head by his Zanpakto.
"Don't be so loud and full of yourself," She said, "It is irritating and will cost you friends."
"Sure, sure," Naruto answered, "So, what is this Shikai?"
The girl sighed, one of the disadvantages of having a non-Shinigami wielder, he knew nothing. "Shikai is - as the name says - the first release of your Zanpaktou. You activate it by saying my release command and name. You must find out for yourself what our Shikai is, go train or fight that spar with the crazy captain or something."
"Sure, I'll go do that." Naruto answered, looking forward to beating the captain into the ground. "Though I think I'll try to get my arm back first, it is a real bother not to have it."
"Don't kill him." Was Kaze Ōjo's last remark before Naruto left the mindscape.
Naruto opened his eyes and slowly got out of his sitting position, stretching his muscles a bit before using a Shunshin, trying to find someone who could chop op the remains of his arm for him.
Naruto had tried to get to the Renji guy with his Shunshin, he seemed like a guy who would love to chop of the remains of an arm. He appeared in a puff of smoke in the middle of a street, seeing Renji and some other peoples sitting to the side if it. The petite black haired girl and the orange haired guy seemed to be Shinigami as well, but the other three obviously were not. And he also saw his now favorite cat among them, talking with that weird masculine voice.
"Yo," Naruto said as he approached them, "Can one of you chop of my arm?"
Except for Renji, no one really knew who Naruto was. Rukia and Ichigo could guess, and would probably guess correct, but the silence that followed Naruto's reqeust was complete.
Orihime was the first to react, her pacifist nature coming forward, "Why would you want us to chop of your arm?!" She exclaimed confused.
"Oh, right, guess I should explain first," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head with his hand. "My arm of already chopped of and the wound was burned shut, but with the burned cells I can't heal it." While talking Naruto had taken of his orange Shinigami top and revealed his mess that used to be an arm to them.
All cringed a bit, Renji the least as he had already seen the wound. But Orihime visibly gasped, it looked so painful. "Soten Kisshun!"
Two yellow energies left from her hairpins and went for Naruto's arm, trying to heal him.
'What the fuck are these things?' He questioned himself, before Orihime answered.
"Stay still, I am trying to heal your arm." And true to her word, the blackened cells turned back to healthy ones and a new arm started growing. It took a couple of seconds and Naruto had a completely new functioning arm.
Naruto moved his new arm around a bit, testing it. And it possessed the exact same strength as the one destroyed by Sasuke. "That was awesome," Naruto managed to bring out, still amazed.
"Thank you," The girl answered timidly, "I don't like it when people are in pain."
"What's your name?" Naruto asked, "And you have beautiful hair by the way, I love orange!"
This caused a slight nearly unnoticeable change in Ichigo's scowl, before it reverted to the standard one. "My name is Inoue Orihime," She answered smiling, "And yours?"
"Me?" Naruto answered, "I am Uzumaki Naruto, hundreds of years old, and yet only sixteen." Naruto liked the look of confusion on her face, along with the looks of mist the others present.
"Huh?" Orihime brought out, quite dimwitted. But Renji decided it was time to drop the bomb.
"See Ichigo," He said with a smirk, "This is your unhealthy, creepy, arrogant undead warrior."
Ichigo visibly paled while Naruto turned his gaze towards him. "You what?" Naruto asked threateningly.
But Ichigo was not easily impressed and retorted with full force. "I said that your an arrogant undead warrior who is creepy and should have just stayed sealed away."
"Arrogant am I?" Naruto asked, calling upon a little Kyuubi chakra and turning his eyes red with vertical slits. "It isn't arrogance, it is confidence."
Ichigo just scowled a bit harder, "You're probably just all talk."
"Did the pineapple-head tell you my story?" Naruto asked while Renji glared at Naruto.
"He said you destroyed the Cleaner." Ichigo answered irritably, "Not all that impressive if you ask me."
"Kurosaki, you are aware that the Cleaner is that thing that almost killed us?" The blue haired Ishida asked.
Ichigo just "hmph'd".
"Right," Naruto continued, now ignoring Ichigo, "I believe you people should introduce, cause I don't know shit about who you are, except hothead and pineapple-head."
"Ishida Uryu," The blue haired guy said, "A Quincy."
"Sure," Naruto answered, "Don't know what a Quincy is but that's fine."
"Sado Yasutora." The dark skinned walking tree trunk said in a surprisingly kind voice.
"Kuchiki Rukia," The petite Shinagami said, "Your the warrior that Nii-sama went to unseal?"
"Yup, that's me!" Naruto answered while pointing to Ichigo, "And you are?"
"Kurosaki Ichigo." Ichigo grumbled.
"So, you're not a Shinigami?" Ishida asked, wanting to know if this man was his enemy.
"Correct, though the clothes most be confusing," Naruto asked, "But I had no others."
"It's true, he was naked when we unsealed him." Renji agreed, causing Orihime and Rukia to blush a bit.
"But you three aren't Shinigami either, but you do have powers." Naruto said, hoping for an explanation.
"I am a Quincy, a race of humans with powers, the Shinigami are our enemy." Ishida stated, proud of his ancestry.
"Sado-kun and me got our powers from hanging out with Ichigo." Orihime explained her powers and the ones of the giant.
"So, what are you dong here then, and especially the Quincy?" Naruto questioned, wondering why they were here in the first place.
"We came here to save Rukia," Ichigo grumbled, "Aizen wanted her dead."
"Okay, that explains most of you," Naruto answered, "But not the Quincy."
"I came to know Rukia while she was in a gigai in our school," Uryu answered, "She was nice and decided to come help save her.
"Okay, does sound like a bit weird logic to me, but whatever." Naruto said with a shrug. "Now excuse me while I go beat Kenpachi into the ground." Naruto said, already preparing his Shunshin, but not leaving before saying to Orihime, "I'll see you around."
And Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a blushing Orihime.
In a puff of smoke Naruto appeared in front of his destination, and walked inside through the open gate. Behind the gate was an open field, suited for training and mostly used for duels. A bald headed guy and a guy with feathers on his face seemed to be sparring right now.
"Yo!" Naruto yelled to them while approaching them.
"They stopped fighting and looked at Naruto, before the feather-on-his-face guy immediately looked away, "Ugh, what an ugly color."
The bald guy was content with saying, "Who the hell are you?" with a challenging look on his face.
But Naruto was no longer listening, the only thing he heard was that guy calling the divine color that is orange, ugly. He walked towards the guy calmly, but his the look on his face was far from calm. "You said what?!" Naruto asked threateningly.
"The orange," The guy answered, "It looks horrid."
"Are you a blind fool," Naruto questioned the man's sanity, "Orange is the color the gods."
"So sad, one with such a twisted sense of beauty." The guy said arrogantly, "When real beauty is standing right in front of him he still refuses to see it."
"Are you gay?" Naruto asked in all seriousness, forgetting about the orange-feud for a second.
A tick mark appeared on the guy's head, "Why does everyone say that, what is wrong with knowing I am beautiful."
"Yep, definitely gay." Naruto concluded, "But even a gay should be able to see all the beauty of orange, maybe even more so."
Their discussion was interrupted by a childlike voice, "Oh look,, it's Ken-chan's new plaything."
The bald guy and the gay guy both got blank looks on their faces, before bursting out laughing, "And he said I was gay!" The gay one managed to bring out in between laughs.
Naruto just stood there, a deadpanned look on his face. "You just had to say it like that, didn't you?"
"Hnm." The girl answered with an innocent smile on her face, while Naruto had both laughing men on the head, hard.
"Where is your taicho, we agreed on a spar." Naruto asked, instantly shutting the two men up, far more effective then hitting them in the head.
"You must be that unsealed guy," The guy one said, "I'll go tell the soutaicho you are here for your spar. Yachiru-fukutaicho, can you go get Zaraki-taicho?"
"Sure." The pink haired girl said before dashing away with quite an astonishing speed.
It didn't take long for Kenpachi to arrive, with Yachiru hanging on his back. "Yo, Naruto!" Kenpachi said with a bloodthirsty look on his face, he was looking forward to this spar far too much.
"Zaraki," Naruto acknowledged, "Ready to get beaten into the ground?"
"Oh, I like this one." Kenpachi said, "Likes battle far more then Ichigo. I do hope your any good, it would be such a wast if you were not."
Then Kenpachi noticed the nodachi on Naruto's back, "Were did you get the Zanpakto?" He questioned eagerly.
"Got it from Yama-jii about an hour ago, did manage to get Shikai though." Naruto answered.
"Nice." Zaraki exclaimed in glee, it seems his fight just got a whole lot better.
At that moment Yamamoto and all the other taicho appeared. "It appears Uzumaki-san has indeed honored his word and challenged Zaraki-taicho to a spar. I ordered all taichio to be present so they could see Naruto's skill. Start at your leisure."
Naruto drew his nodachi from his back, resulting in some murmurs among the taicho audience, while Kenpachi also drew his crude sword. Naruto took his sword in two hands, still getting a bit used to his sword, while Zaraki only used one hand. They rushed towards each other and their swords clashed multiple times, but both failed to wound the other.
"Your strikes are strong!" Zaraki yelled, "Good!"
Naruto jumped back a few meters, goading Zaraki to approach him. And Zaraki approached, running towards Naruto zealously. And running straight into the Rasengan Naruto had just formed in his hand. The Rasengan was tearing away at his skin, but Zaraki did not appear to care and swung his sword at Naruto, who tried to parry with his own sword.
But Naruto only had one hand on the handle of his sword, and was quickly overpowered by the physically stronger Zaraki. Naruto canceled his Rasengan and gather some chakra in his now free hand. Using a chakra enhanced punch Naruto punched Zaraki a few dozen meters away. His chakra punches were by far not as powerful as Tsunade's had been, but they still packed a serious punch.
Zaraki emerged from the dust he had kicked up, still wearing the same crazy smile on his face. Naruto stood back and watched hat Zaraki was going to do, and as expected he charged straight through the middle again, swinging his sword at Naruto's head. Naruto quickly ducked and avoided the punch, and while he came up quickly he headbutted Zaraki at the bottom of his chin. But Zaraki did not budge at all and Naruto felt as if his head had just hit a wall of steel, another swipe from Zaraki approached Naruto and he quickly blocked with his nodachi, barely stopping the strike. Zaraki put some more strenth in his attack and threw Naruto back a few meters, but Naruto landed quite gracefully on his feet.
"You're holding back." Naruto observed.
"So are you," Zaraki answered, "But I stop holding back right now."
He brought his hand to his face and ripped of his eye patch, which had a perfectly fine eye underneath it. But a second or so after that Zaraki seemed to explode with yellow reiatsu.
"I suppose I could use this Shikai thing." Naruto mused to himself, before mentally deciding that that was a good idea. "Watashi no Shirudo, Watachi no Ken, Kaze Ōjo!" (Be my Shield, Be my Sword, Wind Princess) Naruto yelled and his sword and underarms got enveloped in smoke. When the smoke blew away Naruto's word was gone, the sleeves of his Shinigami outfit were gone and on both his underarms were light blue segmented leather gauntlets, the last segment being longer then the rest and ending in a point beyond Naruto's elbow.
Naruto looked at himself with a critical eye, and swinging his arms a little, testing his powers. Zaraki looked at Naruto, ready to charge again. Whatever his Shikai was, it couldn't be much because he did not have a blade anymore. He charged Naruto, who just made a motion with his arm, suddenly Zaraki was hit in the side with an invisible force and thrown side wards.
"Hmmmm," Naruto stated, "I like it."
"Not done yet!" Zaraki yelled as he charged Naruto again.
Naruto waited until Zaraki was in front of him, almost in reach of his sword, before punching forward, not really hitting anything. But once more Zaraki got blow away by the invisible force. Naruto charged to still airborne Zaraki, having formed a chakra rod and aiming to impale Zaraki with it. Zaraki just batted it aside and swung his sword against Naruto, who blocked it with another chakra rod that had formed out of nowhere. The other chakra rod had disappeared and Naruto used his free hand to punch Zaraki in the chest, sending him full speed to the ground and creating a crater on impact.
Naruto jumped away from the crater, and waited to see if Zaraki would get up from that one. And indeed after a few seconds Zaraki came walking out of the dust, still grinning. He was enveloped in his yellow reiatsu again and had concentrated nearly all of it in his sword, before swinging his sword down and creating an enormous explosion. Naruto's eyes widened and he quickly used a quick substitution jutsu with a piece of rubble that was outside of the blast radius.
"It seems this you are a tough guy," Naruto said to Zaraki who grinned quite literally like a madman, "So I can use this jutsu without worries!"
The wind picked up and started swirling around the ball of blue energy Naruto created in his hand, the wind got sucked into the ball, only to appear again as a gigantic shuriken, making a loud screech-like noise.
"Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!" Naruto yelled before he threw the shuriken at Zaraki at an amazing speed, Zaraki did not have a chance to dodge.
The Rasenshuriken hit Zarakia and started to destroy his skin, just like the normal Rasengan had done only much faster. Before the Rasenshuriken exploded - for lack of better word - with Zaraki right in the middle of the dome of uncountable wind blades.
The dome dispelled and Naruto walked towards the lying form of Zaraki, the taicho had numerous cuts all over his body and was breathing heavily. Naruto reshaped a chakra rod into a kunai and put it on Zaraki's exposed throat, before saying "I win." and putting the kunai away.
A/N
Another rather short chapter, but it is a chapter nonetheless. Right now the story has no hit any mayor events yet, so nothing all to interesting happened. Though I am anxious to know what you guys think of Naruto's Shikai. I hope that there was no one who thought that Zaraki might win, come on, Naruto is faaaaaar more powerful then Zaraki. (Not saying that Zaraki is weak though)
I have no idea when the next chapter will be up, seeing as my school start again in two days. Bye bye holiday. I have already thought up Naruto's Bankai, though I am not sure wither it will come to that at all in this story. But if you feel you have Naruto's Shikai figured out (not too hard I think) and you believe you have an idea of pure genius for his Bankai do PM me. Try to keep it realistic.
Anyway, leave me some nice reviews please. I can handle criticism, but flames will be removed.
Ja ne.