Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach or any related characters or properties.
.:09:.
Home
Beacons of spiritual pressure, foreign reiatsu, filled the area, even as far into the Squad Thirteen barracks as she was now. Captain Ukitake had arrived only a few moments before, but he had yet to address the situation.
Rukia could not believe that Fourth Seat Uzumaki had been taken, and she could not figure out why. Maybe he angered someone; it wouldn't be the first time someone held something against him. She knew that all too well.
The unseated shinigami sighed as she considered it, but when Kiyone burst into the room, she was shocked.
"Everyone, you have to see this! I've gotta get the captain!"
Rukia watched as she left, and a crowd of shinigami flocked toward the exit and the windows. Several people gasped, afraid.
White tendrils that seemed to be moving, like they were made of individual parts, dove from the sky, passing through the force field over the city with only a flash of light, like there was no resistance at all. They were headed toward Sokyoku Hill, and she really needed to know what was happening.
The white-haired captain appeared, a shocked expression on his face. He tried to quell the chaotic question shot at him, questions about invasions and enemies and Naruto's kidnapping. "All right, settle down. The orders we've received are to spread ourselves thin and continue to monitor the World of the Living. Everyone head to the Fifth Seats for your new assignments, because we still have a duty to protect the human souls of the dearly departed. The other squads are going to move against this attack, so you need to do a good job and support them by ensuring that the balance between the souls of the living and the souls of the dead is not tipped."
It took several more minutes before everyone calmed enough to start actively receiving new assignments and to communicate with those who were already on assignments in the World of the Living. Rukia, seeing the opportunity to finally help out and receive an assignment, approached but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.
"Why not, Captain? I've not gone to the World of the Living in so long. He doesn't trust me to take care of myself, does he?"
Ukitake shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. Perhaps you can assist the others in organizing these assignments?"
She nodded slightly, crestfallen at the idea of her brother controlling her time on her own squad. The captain started walking toward his own quarters, when Rukia realized that she had to ask.
"What about Naruto? What are we going to do to save him?"
The man paused, his back turned away from her. "We... we can't do anything. I... I'll be waiting on the order to help in the fight if they need me, so otherwise, just help in whatever way that you can."
The petite shinigami frowned, her mind far too busy with worry and fear that everything would not end well. The battle over the Kido Cannon had already begun, with only the Kido Corps to guard it until others could arrive. In a few short hours, the worlds would cease to exist, unless they protected the cannon, used it against the Valley of Screams, and stopped its advance. In the process, they would kill Naruto Uzumaki. She was not sure how she should feel about this, but she felt helpless to stop any of it.
The Fourth Seat of Squad Thirteen was hungry, tired, and angry. He was still shackled together by the strange material, unable to escape but at least able to move legs. He had tried to use Shunpo to get away the moment that they had removed him from the building, but he was still so restricted, even with his own spiritual power, that he had stumbled and collapsed onto the ground, unable to get free.
He turned to look at the people around him, Senna and Ganryu as well as a contingent of Blanks. They looked fearsome, their reiatsu level strong enough that Naruto would still find trouble with them in large numbers, especially without his shikai.
He cursed how slow his bankai training was going, wishing that he had had it the moment this bastard had tried to kidnap him back in the Seireitei. He was convinced that they could not have stopped him if they had even tried.
Senna would not stop talking and asking him questions about his slowly growing memories. Naruto walked around with a constant headache, flashbulbs occasionally going off but the content did not seem major at all. Little bits and pieces of irrelevant information, and he didn't feel like they were changing him at all when learning them. Either way, he really wished that she would shut up.
Naruto kept quiet as they lead him through the World of the Living very slowly. They needed him for something, some information that would be necessary for their plans. Naruto knew enough to not divulge information, and they wouldn't kill him without learning it. The tricky problem was that he still did not know what they were looking for, and he had to play along at least a little bit so that they felt he was being cooperative.
He wished he had his sword, but his zanpakutou was still out of his reach. It had confused him at first that Ganryu would even bring it along, but maybe it was a gesture of good faith to him somehow. He wasn't going to question him about it, however, because knowing it was stashed in a pack on Ganryu's back was enough for him.
The area they were traveling through was filled with trees and rivers, the place seemed untouched by nature. Naruto was not sure why, but there were certain landmarks, trees or boulders, that seemed familiar to him. Had he been here in his past life?
Senna was still practically clutching him the entire time they had been trekking here, since they had used the Blanks to travel through the Dangai into the World of the Living. She seemed happy just to be near him, and it was hard not to find that a little endearing. She seemed to have a good personality, other than the fact that she was kidnapping people for her own benefit.
"And this was the site of a glorious battle!" she said as they passed into a clearing. It did not seem any different to him than any other clearing, but upon further inspection, he could see scars in the trees that were actually very interesting. And familiar. The ground seemed a little bit softer, and he realized he was remembering something about it.
A redhead with some kind of freakish arm made of veined sand slammed a pink-haired girl into a tree, holding her there and taunting anyone to come forward. A boy with jet black hair shaped strangely in the front as opposed to the back crouched on a tree limb, his dark crimson eyes intensely staring at his opponent.
The memory was so sudden, leaving him as quickly as it had come, but his attention was on the girl with pink hair more than anything. He did not see enough of her to be sure, but it was an astounding coincidence nonetheless.
Sakura?
The pink-haired Fourth-Seat of Squad Four blasted through the city, leading a medical team behind her in the hopes that they could help quell the rising chaos. A battle was brewing near Sokyoku Hill, where the Kido Cannon had been stationed.
She had responded as quickly the minute that Lieutenant Isane gave her the order through a Hell Butterfly. She had been worried about Naruto's capture, but she was more worried about how Momo felt about that.
Nevertheless, she shot through the city giving orders to her team members so that they would be prepared. The Blanks were spreading throughout the city from the top of the Hill like a plague, trying to stop any high-ranking officers from being able to pursue them. There were most likely injured civilians and injured squad members, and she knew she could help defend her team if need be.
The closer they got to the fighting, the easier it was to assess the situation. There were enough Blanks that it was like a horde or even a small army that had descended upon the city like a swarm of locusts, with the Dark Ones in command if her sensing skills were good enough to locate the reiatsu signatures.
She grimaced when she felt the conflicting signatures atop the Hill, and it was easy to tell there were a lot more of the enemy on top than the defenders. No one had anticipated an invasion of this rate, but the Kido Corps were not trained for combat to this magnitude. The most they could do was protect the weapon with barriers and attack the weaker enemies, while the Dark Ones were likely going to overwhelm them.
She tried to search for any familiar signatures, but none came to her mind. There was too much static as is, too much happening at once and it was nearly too hard to concentrate.
"You three, head to the north side, and you three to the south. Assist the fighters as much as you can, but your priority is the wounded. Is that clear?"
They replied with a resounding "Yes, ma'am," and split up. The remaining team looked at her expectantly, and Sakura merely rolled up her sleeves.
"We're going to push through to the top," she explained to the last three members. "The Kido Corps is up there, and we need to make a path for the others."
"What about Squad Eleven? Don't you think they're already trying?" asked the Seventh Seat.
She nodded, thinking of Tenten. "Yeah, they probably are. We can give them medical backup so they can keep fighting, as well as contribute to some of the fighting ourselves. Let's go."
The Fourth Seat of Squad Eleven hated the fact that her attacks were practically useless. The girl with panda ears for hair poured as much reiatsu as she could into each strike, a move taught to her by Ikkaku and even the Captain. But Tenten could not make a significant mark when each Blank she cut down was replaced by another.
"Damn," she cursed under her breath, sprinting up the side of the Hill and waving her katana through the air, knocking the falling Blanks away from her and into the mass of fighting below. "Good try, but you gotta do better than that."
She spotted Ikkaku, the bald Third Seat using his signature sword and sheathe style in the distance. He was making a little more impact than her, but even he was unable to stop them all.
She kicked a Blank away from her from her place on the zig-zagging staircase leading up to the top of the Hill, the white creature spinning through the air and exploding away from her. She cursed that nasty trick under her breath, hearing more exploding Blanks occurring all around her. These bastards had no honor.
She jumped off of the stairs and landed in the circle that Ikkaku had cut, joining him back to back. "You having any luck?"
He grunted his reply, throwing another enemy off of him as he did. "Not really. A lot of our squad is down, and the Captain has not appeared yet."
She frowned, using her entire body to shove another Blank into the crowd around them, and then slashing diagonally, the creatures dissipating from the process.
"What about Yumichika? Where is he?"
"He left the join the other side of the attackers, trying to bolster their confidence and help tear through the enemy line," the man explained. "I hate to say this, but I think these guys are too tough to stop holding back this much."
Tenten nodded, understanding completely where he was coming from. "Transform, Yukai Datsu!" There was a dark green flash of light and her sword melted into a hovering pile of twisting, liquid metal. She held the hilt in her hand, the only untransformed part, and swiped her hand through the air.
Instantly the blob of goo split apart, formed into spinning shuriken, and radiated outwards at a wide array of enemies. The spinning stars of metal embedded in the Blanks, eliminating them before returning to hover near her.
"Extend, Hozukimaru!" Madarame's blade shifted into a naginata seemingly made of wood, with a short blade on one end and a red tassel on the other end.
He flashed toward the enemy, stabbing and swinging relentlessly and destroying several Blanks in only a few moves of his weapon. He blocked one Blank's strike, his spear splitting into three. He then hit the white enemy with the pommel, throwing it backwards and stabbing into it with the blade.
Tenten formed an ornate battleaxe, attached to the hilt of her weapon, and used it both offensive and defensively. She eyed the battlefield as best as she could, trying to get a good idea on where she could break through the line and help others get to the top.
Pain erupted in her shoulder, a white mantis-like claw ripped from it. She angrily twisted, ignoring the pain and cutting the Blank's head off with one swing. "Shit," she muttered, trying to ignore the blood running down her back.
She heard someone scream to her right and turned to see a familiar figure running through Blanks with only Hakuda, snapping arms in half, punching through enemies until she started making her way up the staircase leading up to the top of the Hill. The pink-haired medical shinigami never even touched her blade once, making Tenten marvel at her willingness and her pure physical strength.
Tenten followed her, using her Shunpo to join her and shifting her axe into a long metal bo staff, using the weapon to throw enemies off of the stairs and into the ground below. "Need some help?"
Sakura nodded, looking at the many flights of stairs ahead. She punched at the light red head of a Blank, throwing it several feet backwards into another Blank before it dissipated. "Yeah, we need to let the others know to follow us. We need to make a formation that allows us to cover all sides and head up the staircase."
Tenten nodded, knowing that brute force was not exactly working at this point. "That's not a bad strategy."
"Well, over time, guys like Shikamaru start to rub off on you," she explained, hurling another enemy away from her and kicking a blade strike away from her body. "We just need to figure out a way to break through."
Tenten nodded, promising to figure out a way to let the others know about their formation plan. She looked toward the top of the stairs, where even more Blanks were coming. They just did not seem to stop flowing, their white forms descending on them like clouds of fog.
"Here, we're nearly there," explained Ganryu, making a motion for the entire contingent to stop. "Naruto, we need you to procure something for us. We already know what it is, but we believe that only you can handle this. You can do so in a trusting manner, if you will. Is this clear?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. "It would be a little bit clearer if I knew what I was trying to get."
Senna frowned. "Don't be hasty, it will all make sense soon. Let's keep moving, the village is only a few minutes away."
The village?
Naruto's eyes widened at the prospect. Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He... he was finally going home. He did not know how to feel about that, let alone deal with it. It all suddenly clicked to him; they were taking him to the village where he grew up, the hopes that he would be able to understand the knowledge hidden within his memories and help them understand the memories themselves.
They passed through the last section of woods, entering a path that felt so familiar that his mind opened to the memory of he and a group of four others leaving hurriedly to pursue someone, four others who seemed to be around his age. Sakura appeared again in his mind, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she begged for him to save someone named Sasuke and bring him home.
He shook his head in response, finally looking forward. His eyes widened with shock.
The great doors that once served as the gate of the village were in shambles, the entire wall broken apart as far as the eyes could see and reduced to pure rubble. He could see the remains of the village ahead, very few buildings left standing. The large stone mountain that had once been a great monument to the Hokage was broken apart, the only face remaining a man wearing what looked to be bandages over his head and face.
Nothing about it looked like his former home. It did not feel right, did not feel normal. Why was it in ruins? Did this have something to do with how he died? Not even what was left of the Hokage Monument looked right, that face did not seem like it should belong.
"What?" asked Naruto. "What happened to this place?"
Senna looked toward him, frowning. "Aww, Naruto! Don't be upset! Your home might be gone, but there's no reason to fret! There are some survivors."
"Survivors?" he asked. "What do you mean?"
"You'll find out soon, I promise!" The girl turned to Ganryu. "Get rid of the Blanks for now, we don't want to seem like a threat." The Blank souls without memories were drawn into Ganryu's body, a perverse sight that left the blonde a little disgusted.
Naruto was still utterly confused. "A threat? How are these survivors going to see us as a threat at all? They're human, aren't they? They can't see us unless we have gigais."
Senna smiled. "Don't worry, they aren't exactly normal humans."
The shinigami was still all too confused at what they wanted him for. Why was he necessary for anything? What did they need really need him for?
"Naruto, your job is to help us infiltrate the group," Ganryu explained. "They'll trust you, and you can get them to trust us. Before you ask any more questions, I probably need to explain why you're here. If you don't cooperate, I'll kill the survivors of your homeland myself. Do you understand?"
Shikamaru really, really disliked major fighting like this, but his mind was working as hard as he could to ensure the safety of the formation. He could see the Squad Eleven Fifth Seat tearing through enemies as gracefully as the shinigami could, with more in Squad Eleven backing him up.
The Third Seat of Squad Eight had been working through several strategies but they did not seem to be working as well as he had expected. The sheer numbers of the enemy and their annoying ability to self-destruct had put down many, many members of his own squad and many other squads.
He assessed the situation and what squads were even present. Squad Four was there for medical support, spreading themselves thin across the entire battlefield to allow them to help many others. Squad Two and the Stealth Force were lying in wait, sending small sub teams through the cracks in the enemies defense, but even they were unable to cut through. Squad Three and Squad Five were both working to relay information to Squad One about the battle, while Squad Twelve waited with the SRDI to monitor the entire fight. Squads Six, Seven, and Eight were holding the defensive line of their own, while pushing outward slowly. Squads Ten and Eleven were like a massive combat force, causing chaos among the enemy, but both were limited without their commanders on the field. Squad Thirteen had yet to join the fight, trying to continue monitoring the World of the Living and ensuring that souls still migrated, even in the time of distress.
He sighed, knowing that the full force of more than half of the Squads should be enough to tear through these Blanks, but there were too many of them.
If the captains were to join the fight, he was certain that the tide would change. But he had to make due at the moment, and it was up to him to get the shinigami of Squad Eight around him to act as a cohesive fighting force.
When he was sure he had a possible plan, he stood up from where he had been kneeling, drawing his sword and getting their attention.
"Eight, to arms! Delta position, heavy hitters on the front and start moving toward the staircase." Those around him started relaying the orders to the others around him, and soon enough, Squad Eight had formed into an arrowhead like position, pointed toward the bottom of the stairs.
Shikamaru felt his was the best he could do in this situation, and it seemed to be handling it very well. He used his speed to deliver blows that they could hardly react to, before they could use the damage against him. He kept his mind focused on the task at hand, not letting it wander toward his inward worry for Naruto. The guy had a knack for getting out of sticky situations, that much was sure.
Somewhere nearby, there was the sound of electricity and even the boom of thunder, and everyone nearly gasped from the shock. The Third Seat of Squad Nine, Samui, was leading the charge, second only to Lieutenant Hisagi. Her dual-bladed Lightning-Type zanpakutou was arcing electricity through several enemies at once, each swing of the electric bolt-shaped steel sending arcing energy blasts into the Blanks. It was powerful, that much was sure.
Shikamaru was glad for their ability to use shikai, but his own shikai would not be useful here. He had to make due with what he could, binding enemies with Bakudo and attacking with his speed. He noticed that Squad Nine was adapting his own formation, heading toward the staircase from a different direction, and he couldn't help but realize that it wouldn't work. The stairs heading to the top were too narrow for that many enemies at once, and he had to signal to them not to go with that formation.
"Damn. How troublesome."
Naruto had not expected to see anyone in the village, the village that was clearly destroyed. He didn't know how it happened, but he had not expected to find anyone inside.
Despite that, he hid behind a collapsed building and looked around the corner, where he found some standing buildings, buildings that looked and reminded him of the clan compounds from when he was alive. He couldn't tell which clan this was, or even remember what the clans were, but nonetheless, there were some buildings that were still in good shape. Why would anyone live here in the ruined village in the first place?
His hands were no longer bound, but Ganryu was watching his every move and planned to kill the survivors if he gave even the slightest hint to escape. He didn't have his zanpakutou, and considering that the man could recall the Blanks at any given moment, he couldn't be sure he could use Kido or get away in time. He was momentarily bound by obligation to ensure that the survivors were safe, feeling tied to them despite not knowing who they were or remembering a lot about them. There were too many variables for him to react rashly.
Someone left a building on the compound, and Senna pointed the person out to him excitedly. He shot her hand down. "Quiet, we're waiting a moment, all right?" She frowned at him but did not pursue. "You're going to stay here."
The person was a very old woman holding a cane. If she were a shinigami, she would clearly be rivaling Captain Yamamoto, at least in appearance. She seemed well in shape, but she was frail and moving very slowly. He was not sure why she was moving all by herself, but Naruto needed to know who she was.
The lady turned just so that the sunlight caught her face, watching the blank, nondescript blue sky. Naruto looked toward it himself, glad to not have to look at the mirage of the Soul Society reflected over it. Karakura Town was directly below the hole in the sky, and they were rather far away from it at this point. It seemed like several hundred miles, but it probably was not that far.
He watched her eyes and her gray hair and realized with a fearful gasp that he knew who she was. The pale lavender eyes were unmistakable, but there was something new about them.
"Hinata?" he said aloud, Senna watching him closely as he said it. I'm glad she lived that long.
"Go on, Naruto. You need to make your presence known; their eyes can see you."
He gaped at her. "Really?" That didn't seem like it should be right. "How is that possible?" Senna, however, was gone.
He took a deep breath and walked closer slowly, thinking she would notice his approach and possibly freak out. She was simply walking slowly from one house to the next, a kind of urgency in her step but unable to move quickly with the cane.
He passed near the front gate, preparing to leap over it, when she suddenly stopped and looked, her eyes activated.
His heart plummeted as he watched her, the shock slowly spreading across her face. She said something that he could not hear, but the blonde could only wave his hand and grin. He was consciously trying to do things that made himself seem trustworthy. Things that he did as a child.
"Naruto?" the woman asked, her voice not quivering at all.
"Um, hello, Hinata."
The woman looked at him with confusion for a moment, before shaking her head. "No, Hinata was my sister. I'm Hanabi. But this is not even possible. You're dea-"
"Yeah, I know. I'm dead," he explained, realizing this whole interaction might be harder than he thought initially. "Sorry..."
Sakura was halfway up the stairs, along with the rest of her planned formation, when she realized something was coming. Coming directly for her. She threw up her arms to block the strike and protect her face, but realized very quickly that it was not a direct attack. She only reacted just fast enough to catch the crossbow shot in mid-air, just before it hit her face.
The culprit was one of them, falling toward her from the sky and focusing all of her attention on her for some reason. The woman's purple hair was flowing behind her, the dark green and black armor looking rather expensive. Another crossbow bolt nearly impaled her shoulder, but she spun out of the way and leaped into the air to meet the woman, aiming a well-placed fist.
"Hand-to-hand? I was aiming for someone strong, but if this is all you have, maybe I should find another to attack!" the woman shouted with a grimace, as though this were a game. Sakura caught the next strike on her left bicep, the bolt grazing her and cutting into her skin.
The pink-haired shinigami ignored the pain, her fist colliding with the enemy in mid-air. Sakura then grabbed her, flipped both of their positions, and kicked off of the woman's body powerfully, to better control her fall.
Just after the crunch of the purple-haired Ryodoji's fall, she landed in a crouch, the ground cracking slightly under the reiatsu she was using to protect her descent. "Just who do you think you people are, attacking this place!? You're going to destroy the entire world! You're going to destroy all the worlds!"
The woman cursed as she stood up from the fight. Sakura was slightly lucky that the Blanks around her were busy, but she had a feeling that the Ryodoji in front of her knew how to control them and could change that very quickly.
"No, we are going to destroy every other world!" the enemy explained, causing Sakura to question the woman's sanity.
"If you went through with your plan, do you not realize that you would destroy the Valley of Screams too?"
The woman screeched, strafing to the side and firing another crossbow shot at her. "You would think that, wouldn't you!? Is that what they want you to know?"
Sakura rolled out of the way of the shot, before realizing there were three more, and soon she was trying to dodge an entire volley, somehow shot from that crossbow so rapidly that it was nothing. She had no idea how this weapon was working, but she could feel almost no reiatsu from it at all. Was it even a zanpakutou?
The medical shinigami held up a hand. "Hado Number Thirty-three: Sokatsui!" The pale blue wave of cackling fire erupted at the enemy, incinerating quite a few crossbow bolts, but the woman proved fast enough to slip out of the way of the attack, only receiving partial wounds on her left arm.
"You'll pay for that!" the woman cursed, aiming her weapon again and firing from afar once more. Sakura held both arms in front of her and quickly formed an incantation-less Enkousen, a barrier of spinning yellow energy blocking the projectiles. From there, Sakura pushed herself off of the ground toward the right, keeping her spinning shield in front of her for a few more seconds.
"You're not going to do anything to me," Sakura taunted. "I mean, you can try, but we're evenly matched. I'd even go so far as to say I'm better."
"Better?" the Ryodoji laughed. "Yeah, right." The purple-haired woman began to gather the white Blanks around her, their forms turning into a gaseous wisp of smoke before becoming part of her, and Sakura could easily tell that she was upgrading her power more and more with every Blank she absorbed. "I'll show you who's better!"
"Incapacitate, Dokushibireru!" Sakura shouted, her sword instantly changing shape until the shinigami was holding what looked like a thin rapier blade, the end tapering off to a point that reminded her of a needle on a syringe. She stabbed forward, her spiritual pressure ejecting from the end of the needle and colliding with the oncoming enemy.
"Wow, that hurt so much," the woman deadpanned, continuing her assault, forcing Sakura to evade the close-range shot of the crossbow. "You're really doing a great job here."
"Don't underestimate me!" Sakura yelled, chasing after the woman and knocking bolts out of the sky with swings of her needle sword. "There's a reason why my zanpakutou's shikai command is 'Incapacitate.' Any guesses as to why?"
The purple-haired woman nearly began to argue, but her words stuttered out of her mouth before they even began. "Wha.. what did..?"
"My zanpakutou emits a substance that inactivates the kinetic energy of your spiritons, which will slowly numb your entire body," explained Sakura, her expression much more calm now that she knew that she had won that particular fight. "You're going to have a lot of trouble moving from here on out. Eventually, you'll stop altogether."
The woman's face grew more and more upset and twisted, and without warning, she screamed and began absorbing as many Blanks as she could see, and Sakura's eyes widened. She jumped backwards a bit more, realizing very quickly that the woman had overpowered her shikai's effect, and was continually getting stronger and stronger.
Sakura made to use a Bakudo, but the spell did not even stick, no matter how much force she tried to add to it. Sakura realized that even if she wanted to use her shikai again, she couldn't until she had the time to build up again, and it probably would not work anyway.
"Damn it," she muttered.
Shikamaru cut into the left shoulder of a Blank, killing yet another as he finally reached a large overhang about three-fourths of the way up. The members of his squad were scattered up and down the staircase, fighting against the horde that just would not end. It was almost appalling to think that these creatures did not have a limit; he had surmised from the briefing that these Blanks constitute the entire Valley of Screams. Was it really possible the dimension was this large?
Something approached on his spiritual senses, and Shikamaru bolted from his position, dodging a shuriken just before it could hit him. The Squad Eight Third Seat twisted in time to see a pale man with dark hair approaching carrying a wide blade that almost looked like an extended arrowhead. The man swung but Shikamaru brought up his own blade to dodge it.
"Give up now and we won't kill you," the pale Ryodoji offered, but Shikamaru did not even comment, letting his sword swing do the talking.
He rushed backwards, glad there was enough room on the outcropping for a battle like this. The Ryodoji flicked his sword at him, unleashing another hidden shuriken from the blade that Shikamaru managed to block with his blade.
"It's going to take more than that to get me," the brunette muttered, his mind racing to figure out what this guy's deal is. He seemed almost nervous, afraid to get that close to anyone. More shuriken headed in Shikamaru's direction, and the evasive shinigami was able to avoid them fairly easily while he wracked his brain for a plan.
There were still quite a few troops fighting all around them, most concentrated on the stairs. Only a few yards behind him, the outcropping dropped off until there was nothing left but a great fall. The top of the cliff and the Kido Cannon were only about one hundred yards directly upward, and Shikamaru was not even sure that the Kido Corps had managed to hold out this long.
His opponent seemed to be a long distance fighter, but still had the capability to fight at a close-range. He figured that the guy was better at long distance, so the best thing to do was to find a way into the man's guard.
Shikamaru unleashed his shikai without the command, setting his plan into motion. His weapon faded into his shadow, and the Dark One was curious as to why he would throw away his own weapon. "You're probably going to need that thing against a guy like me, you know."
Nara laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right. I don't feel like learning Hakuda, and memorizing Kido is such a chore." Shikamaru dodged a group of shuriken, the ammo being replenished using the Blanks all around him as the materials. The Ryodoji would manipulate the white memory-less wandering souls into the weapon, creating another shuriken for each one.
Shikamaru only further realized that this fighter was a definite specialist in long-range fighting, based on how he was using these Blanks. The Third Seat flipped to the right using only his hands, pushing off with his wrist as leverage, and landing in a crouch several yards away.
His shadow soldier for a shikai suddenly appeared behind the enemy, and with a single mental command from Shikamaru, his sword tore through the pale fighter's back.
There was a scream of terror as he considered his fate, before he turned quickly and started dueling with the shadow fighter. Shikamaru's zanpakutou could react as quickly as the shinigami's thoughts, parrying strikes before they even happened. Shikamaru tried planning ahead, working well enough to knock the blade from the Ryodoji's hand.
"It's over for you," Shikamaru warned. "Bakudo Number Sixty-two: Hyapporankan!" The shinigami materialized a blue rod of energy before hurling it like a javelin, the rod splitting in mid-air and impaling the Dark One against the wall, blood dripping to the ground.
"It's not over yet," the man warned through gurgling blood, raising a bound hand that could only move around the wrist and instantly calling as many Blanks as he could. The Ryodoji inhaled them and suddenly grew more and more powerful, powerful enough that the rods holding him down were suddenly not enough.
Shikamaru's eyes widened with surprise as they burst, shattering into a million pieces like simple glass. The opponent stood quickly, his sword returning to his hand, and he rushed at Shikamaru with newfound power, power that easily dwarfed his own. "Captain-level? That's impossible!"
The shadowy zanpakutou warrior intercepted the man's attack, the two dueling for supremacy and Shikamaru was not going to let that bastard get the better of him. A cut grazed along his thigh, the same place where the shadow was just struck, and Shikamaru realized that it would not be that easy.
Naruto sat at the table, wishing that this whole thing could speed up a little bit. He knew what was at stake here, knew now after Ganryu's explanation that all the worlds were in danger. There could only be a short time left, and if they didn't succeed quickly, there would be no World of the Living to save. No Soul Society to save.
Hanabi seemed to not live alone. While her husband had apparently passed away, her children and grandchildren seemed to be here at the time, as well as their husbands and wives. It was easy to tell who were her children among all the visitors, as they seemed to have the Hyuuga bloodline trait, the Byakugan. Naruto did not remember much about it, but he could not forget those pale eyes. Even so, there was something different about them, something that was probably the reason why they could see him in the first place.
One of her granddaughters was very much pregnant, her dark hair and pale eyes a trademark of the Hyuuga clan.
"Well, Konohamaru would never believe me for a minute if he knew you had appeared to us," Hanabi said when the non-Hyuuga had been ushered out of the room. Naruto did not like all the eyes he had trained on him, he felt there was infinitely more pressure on him now. At least three pairs of eyes could see him, apart from Hanabi herself. "He always loved you from the minute he met you, and he was sad to see you go."
Naruto looked downcast for a moment, his brain wracking. An image of a young boy's face, a young boy who dreamed of becoming Hokage, the grandson of the Third. "You and he were married, weren't you?"
Hanabi nodded, not seeming to want to cry about it. She just seemed a little sad. "The love of my life. You know, my sister was always in love with you. She passed away a few years back, but she lived a long and happy life."
Naruto considered the possibilities for a moment. If Hinata had died at an old age, she would probably be in the Rukongai. He wondered if he could find her, at least to see her one last time.
"I... I don't think I ever knew when I was little," he muttered, the impending doom on his mind but unable to get himself to the point. "But... Hanabi, how exactly can you even see me? I never knew that the Byakugan could see spirits, and that seems like something that would have been public knowledge."
"Mom was the first Hyuuga to ever unlock a secondary level to the Byakugan, one that helped our clan gain even further clarity in our vision. We were even able to look past the material world and experience pure spiritual energy, or yin, for ourselves," one of the women behind him began, apparently the daughter of Hinata. "She attributed that feat to you, Uzumaki. It was always one of her favorite stories to tell, about how you inspired her to reach past herself."
Naruto grinned at the situation, looking around. "It's a nice place you've got here, despite all the rubble. Why do you live here in the ruins anyway?"
Hanabi laughed. "Well, I'm a stubborn old bat who doesn't like change. My children, for the most part, do not live here but live in a compound several miles from here. Close enough that they can watch over me, but not so close they are in the village anymore."
"She would get into all kinds of trouble if we didn't," explained the pregnant Hyuuga, and Naruto laughed.
"So how did I die?" He asked that question in the hopes it might lead to the next question, the whole point of this visit.
The woman looked toward him, her face frowning. She shared a look with her children, the eldest of which was a man with a seemingly powerful presence.
"I'll try to give you the short version, maybe it will help you remember the details on your own. I think... I think it was about a year after the Uchiha left the village," she explained, Naruto's memory flashing to the image of a black-haired boy with dark crimson eyes. "The Akatsuki kidnapped you and you were never seen again. A some point a few years later, it was revealed that the Kyuubi had been extracted, and that is how we believe you passed away."
Naruto was fixated on only one detail. The Kyuubi.
"The rest of the villages managed to stop the Akatsuki, but in the process, the damn Kyuubi was taken by the Hidden Cloud Village," the eldest of the three Sarutobi-Hyuuga began, the man with an unmistakable prideful look. It reminded him of Byakuya. "They were unable to actually make a successful Jinchuuriki, but that did not stop them from declaring war on us several years later. Over time, the village was wrecked by more war and more attacks, but Dad managed to steal the urn back."
"The urn?" asked Naruto, the detail not unknown to him.
"The Kohaku no Jouhei," explained Hanabi. "It was how the Cloud managed to seal the biju for so long. We managed to retrieve it, but without the right person, it's useless."
"Oh, come on, Grandma," the pregnant Hyuuga said. "It's not like we have a reason to need a Jinchuuriki anyway. It's fine where it is."
Naruto let them talk after that, only responding to questions or giving answers when they directly involved him. They were having a discussion about the wars that the Hidden Leaf had fought since Naruto's death, some great battles and great figures from history he had not lived long enough to see. He was not even half listening.
He was worried about how to ask the next question. This entire situation was terrible. With Ganryu hiding somewhere nearby, it would only take him seconds to wipe out the family if he did not do what the Ryodoji wanted. He cursed under his breath and turned to them, trying to think of a good way to ask the question.
"So... where is the Kyuubi after all?"
It'll be wrapped up next chapter, I do believe. I'm sorry for the lack of Naruto action, but hopefully the other characters were interesting enough!
My original chapter that I posted had created a couple of plot holes that I had not realized I was creating, so I edited them back out. Hopefully this version of Chapter 9 makes a bit more intuitive sense and contradicts less facts, and I apologize for all the confusion.
Let me know what you think about this chapter in a review! Until next time!
