GloriousHorror: Naruto threw a wrench in Madara's plan, with his and Kyuubis untimely death. I'll explain what fully happened to him in due time. As for Naruto's goals; yes he will have another goal. More than one actually.
Disclaimer: Guess who doesn't own Naruto or Bleach.
Chapter 9: Miedo de un Dios
Drowning...
As Naruto underwent his transformation, it felt as though he had been submerged into a burning lake of fire. An intense feeling of depraved pleasure had morphed into nothing more than a sensation of pure agony. The power that he had gained for his own benefit was now threatening to consume him, and make him into a mindless beast.
Drowning...
Even now, he could feel it. The rush of the hundreds of souls he had consumed, including Kyuubi's, throughout his entire body. The cold touch of their essences sent shivers down his spine. He could just... feel them eating away at him. Attempting to gain control of his body. Gain control of him.
He muttered something incomprehensible in the dark, in a shaky voice that seemed to spell complete hopelessness. All of the Hollows, all of their despair, all of their hatred, all of their sadness. All of those things unified under one being, projecting themselves through Naruto, all as one.
There came painful sounding cracking noises from over all areas of Naruto's body. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and all four of his legs receded into his own body. The voices of the crowd above him faded, and all he could hear was the endless sounds of hundreds of souls fighting inside his mind. His vision blurred, and the world around him began to rock and shake.
He held his front paw in front in face, vaguely sensing the blurry shape and texture. He caught his breath when little pieces of flesh flaked off his paw, all of them joining together to mingle in the soft breeze.
He numbly noted that this was happening to his entire body. His legs, his head, his stomach. All of it. His body was dissolving into dust, yet the sense of burning pain was diminishing. It was like the rapidly enclosing feeling of oblivion numbing him to any sort of feeling.
Before long, he reached that oblivion. His former body was completely destroyed after about a minute of changing., and for a second he felt it as he relinquished control. The unbearable cold chill of nothingness. If he gave in to those other souls; that was what was going to happen to him.
And then, he came back. The flakes of Naruto's body dispersed into the wind, but a shapeless black mass, almost like a silky cloth, formed on the direct spot where he had disappeared. It was surreal. This was the feeling of being bodiless... of being ethereal. Nothing more than a consciousness that existed without a body, hardly aware of what it was doing.
The black mass began to fester, before it shot up towards the sky at much faster speed, twisting around itself as it rose about fifty feet in the air. It displaced dirt as it rose, making Naruto's tunnel even larger than before.
Then, it started to take form. The black mass became a billowing black robe that hid the being's soon to be arms. It grew chalk white legs that sprouted from beneath the thing's robe, with large, pointed feet the same color as its legs.
Its head appeared next, following the same pattern as its torso. Finally, its mask appeared. A vulpine mask similar to Naruto's other one, yet it was flatter with more rounded features. The eyeholes were empty and sunken, and they just stared out into space. It was in stark contrast to the former Naruto's life filled eyes.
Naruto glanced downwards at an impossibly slow rate, surveying his new body. He had just barely wrestled control from the other Hollows he had absorbed, and was thoroughly relieved when he didn't turn out like most of the other Gillian. He was superior than them. He still retained his consciousness. He would continue to evolve.
He opened his mouth in order to say something, but the only noise that came out was a low, primal roar.
He tried again, but the result was the same. As he thought about it, he realized that he had never heard a Gillian speak before. Did they have the ability? Whatever was wrong with his vocal chords, he didn't know. But, he had a sinking feeling that he would never be able to communicate with others as long as he was a Gillian.
The spectators were stunned by this new Gillian with the unique mask, and as it roared their attention was drawn to its mask. It was almost exactly the same as that rabid fox Hollow from earlier. That disgusting being had evolved.
Questions exploded in the viewer's heads like fireworks. How had he evolved from right under their noses? How didn't he die from the barrage of Ceros from the Gillian? What rock did he crawl out from under? The fox's sudden evolution was just so ridiculous, even if most of them admitted they were used to the impossible happening in Hueco Mundo.
The other Gillian did not notice the presence of their new brethren, not even when it slowly thundered on over to them and bit a chunk out of the closest one to it. The wounded Gillian roared, before it collapsed onto the ground much like a falling tower.
Naruto chewed stoically on his meal, as the other Gillians finally noticed his presence and swiveled their heads to look at him. He didn't look at them, not even when they began milling directly around him. He broke the circle by eating another one directly to his right, and the slow and unintelligent Gillian were unable to respond as he walked out of the circle.
After around a minute, five Gillian mustered up the organization to all use their Ceros simultaneously on the new one. They didn't even get to use it as they were all slashed diagonally across the midsection in a silver streak before they even got to use their attack. The diagonally bisected Hollows roared one last time before they vanished into dust.
Naruto himself roared when he turned around to view the destroyed Gillian, and was slightly relieved to see Fuermos standing there. He was flaked with dried blood, and his mask wore an bitter scowl, but he seemed relatively unharmed.
"Naruto... is that you? It is, isn't it. You've evolved into a Gillian, and you've had the rare miracle of retaining a conscious. With your personality, I guess that's no surprise, huh? You're so determined and egotistical that there's no way you'd ever fall victim to oblivion... You saw what happened, didn't you... That cataclysmic attack... The attack that wiped out our comrades. You don't care, do you?"
Naruto roared in response, and Fuermos felt a great sadness blossom inside of him due to the loss of his newfound friend.
"That's right, you can't talk. In fact, you probably haven't even noticed that I'm here right now. I must be losing my mind after all that time in prison..."
Fuermos slashed an incoming Gillian. It roared one last time before dissolving into a black mist.
"Us Hollows... we have to eat to survive. But, does that mean we should enjoy it? That we should always adhere to the contraband stereotypes of the Shinigami. I hate eating other Hollows. Every time I bite into their flesh, I hear the cold contempt the Shinigami race has for us. We have at least one thing in common, Naruto. We both hate the Shinigami. I don't know what happened to make you hate them, but when I saw you for the first time in the hive, it gave me hope. That there was a solitary beacon of divine vengeance and justice against the murdering Shinigami. You... were different than most other Hollows, who are simply content to about their lives, uncaring of the effects the Shinigami have on our species.
"I. . . ." Fuermos stopped to stare dumbly into space as the Gillian Naruto completely ignored him, and began chewing on yet another Gillian. It was surprising. This Naruto ate with a slow boredom, in comparison with the former Naruto who ate with greedy relish. Maybe that was an improvement.
Almost like he was anticipating an attack, he pulled himself up from his crouched position, and began to slowly charge up his newfound Cero. The red ball of energy formed slowly, much slower than the other Gillian.
But, as he released it, the red stream of dangerous light tore through a slowly oncoming Gillian, leaving a gaping hole where the creatures stomach would've been. The downed Gillian fell like a skyscraper, almost knocking into some of its fellows as it collapsed.
The Gillian looked at their downed comrade, and didn't even notice anything when Naruto had bit into the shoulder of the closest Gillian yet again. He ripped the black fabric-like substance from the bitten shoulder, growling slightly as the Gillian fell.
One Gillian looked at its fallen companions for an extended period of time, long enough for Naruto reveal grisly, white arms from his cloak. They grasped the Gillians' shoulders, finally prompting the stupid beast to notice.
Naruto and the other Gillian stared each other down for a few seconds, before the grabbed Gillian finally realized it was in danger, and began charging up its Cero. Before it could release it though, Naruto bit into the other Gillians' shoulder blade and tore another chunk clean off. His growling got even louder.
The Gillian released its Cero as it fell, angled slightly upwards. The attack clipped some of the spectators in the crowd, atomizing them instantly, much to the dismay of all the other spectators who weren't killed.
The hissing and jeering drowned out Naruto's growling, though it wouldn't be that way for long as Naruto's growl became a piercing roar, one of being in clearly visible pain.
The jeering from the crowd died down almost instantly after Naruto emitted that awful cry. His reiatsu... it was getting stronger. Much stronger than ever before.
A steam-like red aura was rising from Naruto's body, and Naruto's roaring increased as the mist became thicker and thicker. It even began to form a shroud around Naruto.
A cold ball of anxiety appeared in Fuermos' stomach, seeing the all-too familiar spectacle unfold itself upon Naruto. His haunches drooped in nervousness, and he was unable to settle the feeling in his gut as the red aura completely wrapped around Naruto.
"No... it can't be. It's ludicrous..." Those thoughts only served to straighten Fuermos, and did nothing for the intense feeling of emotion that was curled away inside him. He heard Naruto roar again, and realized how ridiculous those thoughts that comforted him were. He was wrong... It was the real deal.
"It's..." said Fuermos in a near silent whisper. The simple word produced more awe than a shocked scream ever could. Naruto was now nothing more than a blank silhouette in the swirling torrent of powerful energy.
A tense silence filled the arena as every being watching the sight unfold before their very eyes. The spectators had stopped jeering; the Gillian stood stock still, not even milling around as they usually do. Only Baraggan showed no visible reaction, though the tightening of his grip on the throne would indicate that he was indeed bothered.
A few of the weaker Hollows fainted, the darkest corner of their minds producing nothing other than raw fear. The animalistic instinct of "fight or flight". And this thing was definitely telling their minds to flee. Flee and never go near here again.
Many individuals caught their breath, as the silhouette of Naruto began to morph. He was rapidly shrinking, his two-legged body once again changing to become four-legged. The red aura thickened even more, and the silhouette of Naruto became fully hidden from view by the thick, dark energy.
And suddenly, the energy stopped moving.
Dead silence reverberated throughout the entire arena, and no one said a word until the energy started picking up motion yet again. It rose and rose in speed, until it intensified to the point where it was buffeting around wildly, long tendrils of reiatsu lashing out at anything that dared touch it. All non-Menos level Hollows in the arena found breathing to be difficult, the intense spiritual pressure smothering them.
Some of the Gillian found themselves being whipped by the red energy, their big bodies serving as a big target for disaster. The reiatsu tore through their bodies like paper, leaving gaping and mortal wounds to any Gillian who got too close.
After around a minute of this, a small explosion was heard coming from Naruto's position inside the vortex. A second one resounded directly after, and then the energy and smoke began to disperse. When it cleared all the way, a fresh Naruto emerged, vastly different from his short-lived Gillian self.
He held a look of satisfied confusion, pleased with what had suddenly happened, yet also greatly confused. His bipedal body had once again changed back to a quadrupedal form similar to when he was a normal Hollow.
He was smaller than before, a large difference in size between his Gillian self. Yet, he looked significantly more dangerous despite his small frame. With the exception of his mask, he was covered in a deep red bony armor, bulky enough to protect, but small enough to be maneuverable.
His mask was more vulpine. More pronounced in its features. Yet, it did nothing to hide the cruel, terrible visage that lurked beneath its porcelain. The fox's gaze was once again evil, and once again mocking.
Spikes were jutting up from various place along Naruto's body, a testament to his new appearance. Smaller spikes were projected from the Hollow's neck, ankles, and knees. Yet easily the most prominent were the two larger twin spikes that jutted out from the top of his shoulder blades.
They shot up before pointing forward in a curve, flanking both sides of Naruto's mask. They seem to shine slightly with an unnatural gleam, which was the most noticeable in the dim light they were currently under.
Claws even more vicious looking adorned the Hollows feet. They looked denser. Sharper. Like they could cut nearly anything to ribbons. Nine tails sprouted from the fox's rear, covered in a thin red armor and poised in a clockwise rotating spiral.
"Adjuchas..." Fuermos whispered, not in fear or awe, but a mutual understanding. "I just don't understand how..."
"Exceso..." Baraggan mused, his booming voice drawing the attention of several nearby Hollows. They had never heard of anything like this before, but apparently their king had.
"I've seen this before. The natural phenomenon even rarer than the Gillians' evolution to Adjuchas. Those Gillian set to evolve to the next stage of existence change after consuming a mere five or six other Gillian."
His servants and guards looked at their king curiously, having never heard of anything like this. Baraggan raised his right arm daintily, an act of disdain against those ignorant fools.
"I'll explain. Hollows gain power by eating the flesh of Shinigami, humans, and other Hollows. In addition, all Hollows have the inherit ability to retain excess power when going through evolutionary leaps. In other words, it means that the gap between the next evolutionary stage becomes closer. However, when Hollows go through an evolutionary leap, their last meal was usually a fairly small source of power, so this ability goes unnoticed by the vast majority of evolving Hollows."
He stared down at the new Adjuchas.
"But, when the Hollow consumes a being of much greater power than them, the ability becomes clear. They evolve much quicker than any other Hollow using a different method ever could. Do you understand?"
A look of understanding and some nods answered Baraggan's question.
"I don't know how that young Hollow managed to do it, but he did. He consumed a very large source of power right before he evolved into a Gillian, and so he was able to evolve into an Adjuchas after consuming a mere few Gillian."
Baraggan took his eyes off Naruto, only to notice very concerned looks. His vassals were clearly worried about Naruto's rapid increase in power. The king stood up.
"This amusing little show has gone on long enough. This has been a great embarassment to all of Las Noches. Our arena fighters fail to best a couple of puny little ants. It's time to end this..." he said. Naruto was already giving a show down there.
The crowd was absolutely outraged.
First Gillian, now Adjuchas. What next?
Naruto reared back his head and laughed uproariously, contrasting his dull, emotionless Gillian behavior. This one had the personality of the original Hollow Naruto. Loopy, flamboyant, and evil.
"I'm back. I'm back! I'm BACK! Yeah! Being a Gillian wasn't fun at all! That big ass body, the lack of talking, and the fact that I was slow as hell! But now I'm an Adjuchas, and I'm ready to spread some carnage once again!" the new Adjuchas screamed to the entire crowd.
The crowd booed him.
Naruto laughed.
"Aww, are you guys happy to see little ol' me? I'm so flattered I think I could cry," True to his word, he started making obnoxious, sarcastic crying noises, falling to the ground because of the "emotional joy".
The crowd screamed in anger even more.
Naruto got to his feet. adopting a serious look on his face.
"Well, it just so turns out I have a special surprise for and every one of you, my wonderful fans out there in the audience." More boos. "I'm putting on a special performance, all about my wonderful and epitimal self, just for you. I will host it in the first cave to the west of Las Noches in one week, so make sure you'll be there. The admission fee will just be..."
.
.
.
"Your life," he said scarily.
Silence, and then laughter from Naruto.
"Oops, I guess I can't put on a show for you if you're all dead. Silly me! Guess there will be no show after all. Bet you're all real disappointed now, aren't you. Well, that's too bad, because I won't be able to do it for you."
The crowd hissed, and Baraggan was surprised when Naruto turned his full attention on him.
"And You!" Naruto yelled dramatically, pointing up at Baraggan in his balcony.
"I'll bet you're real disappointed. I know how much you love me, gay man. Enough to lock me up in prison for three years and then make me compete in this worthless excuse for an arena. Well, you know what. Here's my response to that.."
The Adjuchas opened his mouth and sucked in a breath full of air. Tiny little particles of orange light gathered at the opening of his mouth, forming the familiar ball shape of a Cero. As the crowd heard the signature hissing sound of death, a sense of dread settled in every one of their stomachs. In the center of the Hollow's mouth, a full-fledged Cero had formed of a gleaming orange color. And he was aiming it directly at Baraggan.
He wouldn't...
Naruto released his Cero, the brilliant orange beam of light racing to where Baraggan was calmly sitting.
The Cero nailed the balcony, being entirely engulfed in the strong orange light. Every Hollow in the stadium turned in pure fear towards their attacked king and god.
Okay, so he would...
Feeling satisfied, Naruto walked on over to where Fuermos was standing, with a dumb look on his face from what had just happened.
"Now you've really rattled the monkey cage," he murmured, just loud enough for Naruto to hear him.
Naruto chuckled. "Shall we go, then? I've got our escape route all set up," he said, gesturing over the hole he had come out of. His demeanor had changed completely, from the crazy slasher to a sane, though still sadistic individual. It made Fuermos wonder what the hell was happening with the fox.
Speaking of the escape route, the mole Hollow Naruto had fought earlier was groggily getting to his feet, using his powerful claws to clamber his way out of the giant hole. The poor Hollow never expected his previous opponent to hop into the air, and come down foot first on his head using a strong, downward thrust.
The mole coughed up blood as Naruto's powerful claws sank into the mole's flesh. His vision blurred and became distorted, though his head was held aloft by Naruto.
"Now, now. You can't fall unconscious on us. That just will not do. You see, you are going to play a pivotal role in my brilliant escape plan, whether you want to or not," whispered Naruto in an eerie voice.
The mole whimpered slightly, scarcely viewing Naruto's scary expression and hearing his hushed whisper.
"Dig..."
Every eye in the stadium, every spectator's mask was turned toward their king's balcony. The orange light had shielded their king's condition completely from view, and after it had dissipated, the smoke that had risen from the rubble created nothing more than a hazy, distorted silhouette of the skeleton.
The smoke cleared after around a minute, but as soon as they found out their king was alive, it did nothing more than increase their fears.
Baraggan... did not take being attacked very well. And when he was attacked, he tended to go on a violent rampage, executing everything in sight. Many Hollows lived in constant fear of those rampages. It truly was the fear they had of their god. It was not to live in fear of his power. It was to live in fear of his previous actions. That was true submission.
When he rose, the whole stadium buckled. A putrid purple mist was coming from his mouth, and even though it was slight, it was enough to begin rotting away the material that made up his balcony.
The Cero had scalded the entire area to Baraggan's right, and it was clear that Baraggan had batted it away with one hand. Still... the fact that He, a God had been attacked; it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
By mere ants, no less! The ants had somehow been able to avoid all the dangers of his arena, and with some massive bullshit that involved the vulgar fox Hollow evolving twice, had defeated all of his Gillian.
Now, although the experience was humiliating and degrading for him, he wasn't stupid. Just because they defeated his arena fighters by no means meant that they'd be able to defeat his army. Hell, just one of his personal guard would be enough for them.
Speaking of which, his personal guard was standing poised stoically right beside him, six powerful Adjuchas ready to fight to the death for their king. He was about to motion for them to finish the job, when he noticed something curious down on the field.
There was a stout mole Hollow, one of his judging by the insignia, who was being forced to dig a path for the fox Adjuchas. Within five seconds, the fox Hollow had disappeared into the earth, the firefly Adjuchas following up the rear a few seconds later.
Baraggan could've screamed in absolute rage. First, those little ants make a big mockery of the greatest competition he could think of, and now they believe they could away with it scot-free. He lowered his hand, deciding not to send his guards after them through the hole.
"They'll have to surface eventually. It's impossible to burrow out of the palace because the hard material goes underground as well. Though, they might not resurface until the very last minute. Which means I'll have to..."
"You!" pointing to the guard directly to his right, who stood up straight.
"Place the entire palace on lockdown. Do not let a single Hollow in or out of these walls," he ordered. The guard bowed to his master, and with a quick "Sire" he disappeared. With the first guard gone, Baraggan turned his attention to the guard on his left.
"And you, gather all the main forces and capture those two renegade Hollows, for committing the crime of avoiding divine judgement. Alert all of my vassals to their presence and order them to report to the local authorities if they spot the fugitives. Once you have captured them, bring them directly to my throne room."
Baraggan paused, his face holding a look of determination.
"I want to deal with them personally..."
Chapter 9 finished!
My shortest Chapter in the story so far. But, I wanted to finish up the scene in the arena.
I must say though, it was shorter than I had anticipated, but Naruto and Fuermos have made their big escape from the arena, and all of Las Noches is searching for them! Oh noes!
Anyway, it's not a pivotal chapter, but I hope everyone will review it anyway.
Translations and other features:
Exceso: Excess
So good bye. I'll be working on the next Chapter of One Twentieth of a Whole, so this one won't be updated until after that.
Bye,
Alban55
