Hey there, joshnaruto here
Chapter 10 is finally here; hope you guys like this chapter, a longer chapter than usual.
Note: For those loyal Bleach readers, I can finally tell you that Ichigo will appear in chapter 16. I know that is a while off to some of you, but there are still some battles and the like to get through before Naruto and Buffy can be prepared to face Soul Society. However, this is also confirmation for those of you who are unsure if Ichigo will even appear so rejoice, I haven't decided to take him off it, since he is an important part of this story as well.
Chupii: Yes you're right about Buffy, but there are things that need to happen like in the real show and whilst Buffy may still love Naruto, she is still young and hurting so try see it from her side, especially since they aren't exactly together.
UltraNexus: Isabelle won't be part of Naruto's harem. She will develop feelings for him, perhaps love, but nothing will ever come out of it due to certain events which won't happen until much later. I like the character too but I feel Naruto has enough in his Harem. Not sure what to do with Nel as of yet but she won't be in it until much later anyway so I have time for that. This also goes for those wondering the same thing.
Thank you to all my loyal readers for the reviews and simply reading my story. I'm sure any other writer out there can agree with me when I say it really is great to receive nothing but compliments that make me want to write this story. I would also like for you guys to review since on my last chapter I barely got any and considering reviews help any author to write more, seeing few reviews kinda puts a damper on that.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Bleach or Buffy The Vampire Slayer, nor do I own any techniques etc. from any other show, anime, games or Bleach Fan Fiction Wiki. I will give credit to those who I have used stuff from on that site and if there's any problems then ask.
So, for now that's all and here you go…
Naruto Namikaze: Human-Shinigami-Hollow Hybrid
Chapter 10: Puppet Master Falls! Slayer's New Enemy!
Hueco Mundo
Hidden Cave
"He is stronger than we anticipated." Sasori's monotone-like voice echoed through the cavern.
They had just viewed the battle between the Arrancar and the Namikaze through a projection. They were surprised that Naruto had so much strength and was clearly holding himself back from going all out. What was scary though was the fact that they could feel his reiatsu pressing down on them from their great distance.
"Be glad we're stronger than we ever used to be, un." Deidara said with a smirk. "One way of another, he will not leave this place alive." He promised with a grin.
"Don't be so sure of yourself Deidara. He is not the weak child he once was." Kakuzu grunted with a shake of his head.
"If I remember correctly Kakuzu, it was you who he killed. I wouldn't be surprised if you were afraid." Kisame said with a grin only to have reiatsu slam down on him that he just brushed it off.
"Watch what you say." Kakuzu warned as his reiatsu flooded the cavern.
"Calm down." Sasori said with a sigh. "We shouldn't rile up each other when we may very well die soon."
"Awww, you scared?" Kisame grinned.
Sasori's gaze found Kisame's own eyes. "I am not foolish enough to believe we will win so easily, such thinking will be your undoing." His monotone like voice actually sent shivers down their spines.
"Anyway…" Kakuzu drawled out getting rid of the tension. "…We have a new recruit." The others looked at him in shock.
"What?" Deidara asked with mouth agape.
"His name is Senkaku Ningensei, and he wishes to join us."
"Why?" Kisame asked with a raised eyebrow, or rather his invisible eyebrows.
"Because I wish to fight strong opponents…" They all looked over to a shadowed area to see a man walk in to the light. Senkaku was a slightly muscular and slim man, carrying the appearance of a teenager. His eyes were red, he had black hair that was long in length, as well as unkempt and tied in a one-tie ponytail. He was white-skinned. He wore a shihakushō which was unusual given the fact he was an Arrancar. His Zanpakuto took the form of a regular katana. It had a black guard as well as a matching colour tsuba. Like many, it was secured to the obi on his waist. "…And I believe Namikaze-san is a strong being." He said with a stoic look on his face. It would remind anyone of Byakuya Kuchiki.
"Do you understand your mission?" Kakuzu asked the man.
"He has a mission?" Deidara asked in disbelief.
"To take away that which he holds closest to his heart." Senkaku answered ignoring Deidara as if he wasn't even there. "I will destroy those that mean more to him than his own life."
"Good." Kakuzu said with a smirk before turning to everyone. "Be prepared, Naruto Namikaze will soon be here. Don't underestimate him."
Hueco Mundo
Naruto and Isabella
"You're telling me they're hold up in some cave?"
It had taken just over a day for Isabella to heal up, at least he thought it was a day, being in the Menos Forest didn't allow anyone to be able to tell how much time had passed, or above ground with their being a moon out at all times. After she had awoken healed and refreshed thanks to her special abilities, she had explained what she knew about Akatsuki and where there base was held. And to his annoyance, they were hidden in a cave.
"Yes, there isn't really anywhere they could hide nowadays." Isabella said with ashake of her head. "With Aizen taking over Hueco Mundo, I doubt they've een able to hide from which suggests…"
"…That hey're working for or with Aizen." Naruto finished with a sigh. Damn." He leant his head back against the tree he was leaning gainst.
"Why o you wish to find them so much?" She asked with a tilt of her head.
"Back n my home realm…the Akatsuki was a bigger, much stronger group that hunted own people that were like me. They would kill anyone who got in there way just o accomplish their own goals. I will kill them before they ever get the chance o hurt anyone again, especially now I know they're after me." He said ooking away with a faraway look. "If I don't, and I let them go on…well hey would be able to one day make the group larger with more powerful members. I have to stop them before anything like that is possible."
"I see." She said with a nod of her head.
"What will you do now?" He asked her.
"Huh?" She blinked at him with a confused gaze.
Naruto chuckled and stepped away from the tree. "I never intended to force you to work with me when we made that deal. Free will is free will, so what will you do now?" He repeated the question.
Isabella looked at him with narrowed eyes having thought she was basically bound to his will by the deal made. Hearing what she just heard caught her off-guard slightly since a part of her didn't mind working with him. He was more powerful than her, which was a fact, he had been holding back in their fight after he used Bankai and she barely caught up to his speed. Being with him would no doubt put her against strong opponents and therefore make her stronger. True she had been holding back her true power, but had she of used it then all that would have been accomplished would've been that the battle lasted longer, still ending in her defeat.
"I'll come with you." She surprised him making him look at her with a quizzical look. "I get the feeling that the more I travel you, the stronger I will become. And besides, you're going to need my help eventually."
Naruto smirked at her and gave a nod. "Well then, this will be the start of a beautiful partnership."
Isabella just rolled her eyes at the blonde while he smirked at her making her blush slightly. Something she had never done. "Whatever." She looked around and noticed just how out of hand there battle had gotten, the area in front of them was nothing but flat land with craters and rocks scattered about. "We should probably get a move on. If Aizen has contacts down here then he will know you've come already."
"I wouldn't be surprised if he's been watching the entire time." Naruto muttered as he looked around. "Do you know exactly where Akatsuki is?"
"No. I only heard they resided in a cave. A large cave. They aren't that popular because they stay hidden. Why they do that, you would have to ask them, especially since they are rumoured to be powerful Arrancar." She answered with a frown.
"Well then, I guess we best be off then huh?" Naruto replied with a grin.
"Yes." Isabella said with a smile. Both stepped forward and vanished in a mixture of a buzz and a whoosh.
As they left, a figure walked out from behind a tree. "I may not be able to get revenge on that pink-haired bitch or my grandmother…but I can take your life away as replacement." Sasori smirked as his hand tightened its grip on his Zanpakuto at his side.
Later
"Not here either." Naruto muttered as they looked around a cave that was pretty much encased in darkness.
"Well, the Menos Forest is pretty much endless." Isabella said with a frown as she too looked around.
"At this rate, we'll never find them. It's like they're not even here at all." He sighed in frustration.
"Maybe they're moving from cave to cave using some teleportation technique." She suggested. "Didn't you say you could use techniques from when you were alive?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah I can but that's because I never really died, I kept my chakra because I am still alive." He answered. "All of the Akatsuki died, and were reborn here. To be honest I thought they would be sent straight to hell, I guess this place was there first stop."
Isabella chuckled lightly and shook her head. "They'll be sent to hell as soon as you kill them here."
"You know, that's kinda unfair." He said gaining a confused look from her. "Well, when people die and become Shinigami, that's their last chance, once they die then, they stay dead for ever. But someone becomes a Hollow and they get killed and they get sent to Hell. Granted it isn't exactly a paradise but even so, it's like they have two second chances." He complained with a sigh.
"You do know that Hell is a punishment for them, don't you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah I know that. But Shinigami should have another chance, like going to a real Heaven or something where they don't have to deal with anymore war, famine and all of that lot. A place where they can simply live peacefully for once."
"The only way that'll exist is if by some miracle someone is able to create it." She snorted at the idea knowing such a thing couldn't exist.
"Stranger things have happened." Naruto said with a chuckle. "Anyway lets-guh!" Isabella turned to look at him at the sound of him choking and was shocked to find a blade protruding from his stomach.
"Naruto?" She asked wide-eyed, looking behind him she saw a red headed teenager of an Arrancar who had a stoic look.
"Your time ends here Namikaze!" Sasori exclaimed and was about to stab further when suddenly Naruto chuckled startling the both of them.
"Did you really think I didn't sense you?" Suddenly Naruto had vanished leaving his top clothing hung on the sword. "Onmitsu Shunpo Shihō no san: Utsusemi!"(Way of Onmitsu, 3rd of the Shihou: Cicada) Looking behind Sasori they were shocked to see Naruto with his arms crossed over his now bare looked down at his bare chest and sighed. "I really liked those clothes." He muttered. "What?" He asked seeing the looks he was getting.
"I stabbed you clean through, how could you get away?" Sasori demanded.
"I was the Fukutaichō of the Nibantai Division. The Division that specializes in stealth and assassination, did you really think I wouldn't pick up on your reiatsu signature and activate my technique in time? Oh and I was a Taicho of the Jūbantai as well. If you want to kill me, you're gonna have to do better than that I'm afraid." Naruto sighed as he gripped his Zanpakuto.
Isabella looked at him in awe wondering what other tricks he had up his sleeve; even she hadn't felt the red head closing in. Then again she was distracted by the conversation, something she would have to fix later on. It was then she noticed the clothing of the stranger. "Akatsuki huh?" She mumbled. "Do you want to take him or me?" She asked Naruto.
Naruto seemed to ponder this making Sasori fume on the inside. "I'll take him down thanks. But after him there's three more, so you can have one of them. Promise." He said with a grin.
Isabella smirked and walked past him to the opening of the cave. "I'll hold you to that promise." She whispered with a grin before vanishing.
"You sent the bitch away? Why?" Sasori questioned.
Naruto eyes turned to ice in a matter of seconds. "I sent her away because I didn't want her to get caught up in my kicking your ass. And call a teammate of mine a bitch again, and you'll wish you were in Hell." He said coldly. "Now I don't have time to waste, so I'm not holding back." Holding out his Zanpakuto, his reiatsu exploded out of his body blowing the cave apart at once from the force and pressure of his reiatsu. "Bankai!" He exclaimed as his blue reiatsu quickly turned to a blackish-red as it exploded all around him, blowing the remainder of the cave away.
Slowly, but surely, the reiatsu that had exploded out of him was slowly evaporating as it revealed his Bankai form. What little clothing Naruto still had on had been replaced with a long-sleeved, ankle-length black coat, or Shihakushō, with red lining that was closed at his chest, then left to flare out into ragged ends, much like that of Zangetsu himself. "Tensa Zangetsu!" (Heaven Chain Slaying Moon) He said softly.
"Hmm…" Naruto muttered as he stretched his muscles. "…I've never gone straight to Bankai before, it's…interesting." He smiled as he felt power rushing through him wanting to get out in any shape or form.
"If you think this will be an easy battle for you, then you're delusional." Sasori growled in anger.
"So, what do you have against me huh?" Naruto asked as he started to walk around Sasori.
"Revenge." Sasori answered. "Granted I would rather get revenge against that pink haired bitch, but you'll do having been her teammate."
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the man before chuckling. "You want revenge because Sakura defeated you?" He shook his head at the once human puppet. "You people really do hold on to petty grudges. If you hadn't been a cold-blooded murderer then you would never have been killed by Sakura, you would have been able to live in peace, but no, now you're forced to live as a Hollow, with only revenge on your mind. It's pathetic." Naruto said coolly with a shake of his head.
"We all have our own paths to follow." Sasori said with his monotone like voice.
"Yes, your right, unfortunately yours ends today." Naruto vanished from his spot and appeared behind Sasori in the process of swinging his blade down when Sasori actually span around and blocked the strike. "You're fast." Naruto noted.
Sasori stabbed forward with his free hand but before he could reach the blonde, Naruto vanished in a burst of speed. "I'm not like Hidan. I actually trained myself to be better, to be a weapon, I'm faster than he ever could be, I'm stronger than him, and I am not careless or arrogant as that bloodthirsty fool was." Sasori's monotone voice drifted through the area. "His Resurrección doesn't even compare to my strength."
"Why tell me how strong you are?" Naruto asked appearing a distance from the red head.
"I am not." Sasori glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "I simply told you I am stronger than him, I never explained how strong, also it would be tiresome for you to expect to defeat me so easily, it would only drag this on further than I would like." Sasori vanished leaving behind buzz as he appeared by Naruto. Swinging his Zanpakuto in a wide arc at him, he would've connected if Naruto hadn't grabbed the blade, bare handed.
"Try again." Naruto yanked on the blade bringing Sasori closer, curling his other hand tightly around his Zanpakuto, he stabbed forward to pierce Sasori when the man twisted to avoid it only receiving a cut on the arm. Sasori, as he twisted his body, pulled his Zanpakuto free and on the end of the twist he kneed Naruto in the back sending him flying across the ground.
Naruto gripped the ground with his hand to slow his momentum and flung himself upwards to be on his two feet where he still skidded along the ground. 'Damn, he really is stronger than Hidan. I guess I really can't hold back anymore.' Eventually stopping, he gripped his Zanpakuto tighter. Lifting his left hand up, it seemed to burst to life as electricity completely enveloped it.
"So you can still use chakra." Sasori noted as he felt the familiar energy coming from the blonde.
"Yes. I've not had to use it much since I became a Shinigami and honestly, I should start again. I forgot how good it felt to be able to control the elements." Pulling his left hand over to his right side across his chest, he swung his hand forward. "Raitama Senbon!" (Lightning Sphere Senbon) Dozens of senbon shaped lightning rods flew at Sasori who shifted his posture with his Zanpakuto ready. As they got closer to him, he started to deflect them with his Zanpakuto, although with the amount there was it was difficult to actually manoeuvre himself to knock them all away.
Once more Naruto's hand lit up in lightning only in a different form. Instead of having a wild look to it, this was more like his Rasengan with a spherical shape and a bright blue hue coming from it. 'Raikireme, I've never had to use it before, my advanced version of Raitama…let's see how it does against an Arrancar's Hierro.' He thought with a smirk. Using Shunpo he landed in front of Sasori just as the red head knocked the last senbon away. "Raikireme!" (Thunder Break) Thrusting his hand into the surprised red head, his technique struck the man in the chest, grinding against his skin until there was an explosion of electricity that blew the Arrancar away.
Sasori hit the ground the hard as he was thrown across it by the lightning technique. While it didn't necessarily do any damage to his body, it burned his insides as the lightning seeped into him leaving the odd tingle running through his body, then again they couldn't really be felt as he was practically dragged along the ground.
Naruto appeared above Sasori looking down on him with Tensa Zangetsu held high. Blackish-red reiryoku erupted from his hands on the grip of the blade and wrapped the entire sword. Swinging down, he called out. "Kuroi Getsuga!"(Black Moon Fang) The powerful force of reiryoku burst from the blade in a crescent shape at Sasori which slowly grew into a mass of reiryoku.
Sasori held up both hands calling forth his reiryoku causing a purple energy to form into a large ball on the space above his palms. "Cero!" The ball left his hand almost immediately and shot forward to meet the chaotic reiryoku. Sensing the danger that would befall him if he stayed put, he flickered from view to escape the aftermath.
As Cero and Kuroi Getsuga met, there was an immediate flash of light before an explosion rocked the earth, spreading fire and energy across the atmosphere that almost caught Naruto if he hadn't flickered from view, following Sasori's own actions.
Naruto appeared high up so he could look down on the fire that stretched out wide from the collision of both techniques. Suddenly, Sasori appeared behind him barely giving him time to spin around as Sasori's foot connected with the side of his face. "Gah!" Blood was spat out of his mouth as he was sent flying to the ground with a sonic boom, passing through the fire he blew it away with the speed he was falling. Before he could hit the ground though, he twisted himself to land in a crouch on the ground, looking up to Sasori; he shot towards the red head at insane speed that left a crater where he stood. "ARRGHHHHHH!" Appearing by Sasori he gave a mighty swing with his Zanpakuto at the surprised red head.
Sasori hastily brought his arm to block knowing should he try to block with his blade he would have no time. As Zangetsu struck his arm, he was surprised to feel pain as it left a deep gash as blood shot out almost in slow-motion as his eyes followed the drops of blood in shock 'I haven't been cut by anyone seen I came here, even alive I never bled.' Coming out pf his shock, he swung around his Zanpakuto towards Naruto's neck.
Naruto simply blurred away as the blade passed over where his after-image faded away. "I thought you were better?" Naruto appeared behind Sasori in an attempt to drive his blade through the ex-puppet master. His eyes widened however when he felt a pinch on his stomach, glancing down he almost went into shock when he found Sasori's palm pressed against his stomach with a purple glow emanating from it.. "Wha-"
Almost like a deathly whisper, Sasori opened his mouth. "Cero!" A purple light lip up the dull forest as Naruto was flung through many trees, bringing the colossal trees down, driving tremors through the earth from the mighty blow.
Sasori eyed the destruction with minimal glee at the fact he had been able to damage the Namikaze to such a degree. He let himself feel proud of himself for a moment knowing with someone with such speed like the Namikaze; it wasn't easy to score a direct hit with the man.
"Kuroi Getsuga!"(Black Moon Fang) Before Sasori could do anything a torrent of blackish-red reiryoku slammed into his back. "ARGHHH!" He arched his back in a scream as he was literally ploughed into the ground below followed by the flood of reiryoku that slammed on top of him, washing over the area.
"You are good." Sasori heard the acknowledgement in the tone and it annoyed him. Picking himself up from the crater his body had formed he turned around to be greeted with the site of a perfectly fine Namikaze who was floating down to solid ground. "You look surprised." Naruto noted as his feet softly touched the ground. "Did you really think I would leave myself open to attack?" The blonde questioned.
Sasori looked at him in clear confusion. "I hit you; simple as that…but you have no mark on you." He muttered in confusion.
"No." Naruto shook his head at the Akatsuki member. "I asked, did you really think I would leave myself open to attack?" Seeing the widening of eyes a moment later made him grin. "I used a powered up version of my Kage Bunshin to test your strength against me and what would work against you. And I have to say, you're stronger than I thought you would be, even from what you said about being stronger than Hidan."
"That was a clone all of this time?" Sasori asked with wide-eyes before narrowing in anger.
"Yes. It had a mixture of chakra and reiatsu inside of it. I'm still on my way to create my own Kidō spells by turning my jutsu into the Kidō. My very own unique Kidō, only useable by me." Naruto lifted Tensa Zangetsu up and pointed the tip at Sasori. Blackish-red reiryoku enveloped the blade, making it look like fire was licking the blade itself. Slashing the air in front of him in a circular motion, the reiryoku from the blade formed a circle with power brimming from it. Stabbing the Zanpakuto in the centre of the circle he called out. "Kuroi Mangetsu!" (Black Full Moon) Without a second to waste a beam fired from the circle that covered the space between him and Sasori in no time.
Sasori knowing he wouldn't be able to escape the beam of the blast radius raised his reiatsu to nearly earth-shaking levels and brought his Zanpakuto up in front of him to try and hold the beam off. As the beam struck him, he found himself quickly being pushed back from the amazing force, even his own reiatsu, which was helping to shield the full power from hurting him, was being pushed back. After a moment his eyes widened as his arms were broken apart from the incredible pressure and thrown back as the beam overtook him.
Sasori was eventually thrown out of the chaotic mass of reiryoku and slammed against a tree, cracking it so hard it fell forward on top of him making a small mushroom cloud of smoke and dust. After a moment of utter silence, the debris from the tree around Sasori was blasted apart as a volley of Bala came speeding out.
Naruto was surprised at the speed at which the bullets of reiryoku were coming at him and had no choice but to use Shunpo to evade each and every one with skill to avoid being hit by even one. Coming out of his last Shunpo he charged his blade with reiryoku and slashed at Sasori's last known location. "Kuroi Getsuga!"(Black Moon Fang) The familiar looking crescent slammed down on the position and cut straight through the ground leaving a giant crevice. With no sign of Sasori.
"Cero!" Quickly spinning around, he swung his Zanpakuto as he saw a purple beam coming at him. "Kuroi Getsuga!"(Black Moon Fang) As the two met each other, a shockwave blew him away from the explosion as everything seemed to shake.
Sasori flew through the smoke with his destination being Naruto as he tightened his grip on his sword that was teeming with power. "ARGGHHHHH!" Sasori screamed as he appeared above the blonde already swinging his Zanpakuto downwards.
Naruto looked up at the blade coming at him and flickered away; reappearing above Sasori he delivered a powerful kick to the red heads head creating a sonic boom as the Akatsuki member was sent flying to the ground. Before he could reach the ground however, Naruto appeared beside him and kicked him in another direction along the ground causing chunks of rock to be ripped up.
Sasori used one of his hands to rip into the ground and slow down his momentum while stabbing his Zanpakuto in the ground completely stopping him allowing him to flip over to his feet. Glancing down to his body, he grasped the tatters that remained of his cloak and ripped it off in one smooth motion revealing him only wearing hakama underneath. "I guess it's time." He muttered to himself as he placed both hands on his Zanpakuto and placed it in front of his face so the blade was pointing upwards. Purple reiatsu violently ripped out of him like the floodgates being opened on a dam.
"Is he releasing his Zanpakuto?" Naruto wondered from where he stood in the air. Gripping his Zanpakuto tighter with both hands he waited for whatever happened.
"Matar a Todos, Veneno!" (Kill All, Poison) As he called out the command, a heavy and thick mist rolled in and enveloped Sasori's entire being. After a moment it vanished allowing Sasori to be revealed in his new form. While he generally looked human, he had a tail like a scorpion with a point at the end that dripped venom from the tip. His skin now had white bone armour making it harder to cut him, his fingers had grown extremely sharp nails at the end that could cut through steel with a flick, at the end of each tip is venom like with his tail. His Zanpakuto was still in its normal form, however it also looked like venom was inside of it ready to poison whoever it touched.
"Damn, that looks like poison." Naruto muttered with a frown. 'I need to be really careful now, no joking around, or I could really die.'
Before he could do anything, Sasori was upon him, tail striking for his head. Wide-eyed he quickly blurred from view and behind the man only to have the tail almost strike him again causing him to blur away once more. 'Ok, that tail is annoying.´ He thought in annoyance.
Naruto flew at Sasori leaving a sonic boom in his wake. As he got closer, Sasori shot his tail out once more but twisting his body around he managed to evade the tail so he now appeared beside Sasori. Pulling his arm back, he smashed his fist into Sasori's face knocking the man's head back as his body was sent rocketing downwards while in a daze.
Flying ahead of him, he was able to reach under the red head so he could kick the man upwards stopping Sasori from recovering his balance. Flying upwards so he managed to reach just above him, he slammed his foot down on Sasori's stomach that was so strong it left a shockwave as his body plummeted to the earth.
Sasori flipped around before he touched solid ground and landed on all fours looking like he was on the hunt. Looking upwards he growled slightly before leaping at the blonde at extreme speed. Appearing in front of the blonde in just a few seconds, he lashed out with a kick which was blocked by the Namikaze's arm. His tail came up quickly to wrap around the arm that blocked him. "You'll find that I am much faster and stronger now." Wrenching his body forward via his tail, he stabbed forward with a clawed hand towards the blondes' chest.
Naruto's hand shot up just in time to catch the wrist before he could be cut or rather disembowelled by the mincing claw that had god knows what poison on it. His left hand, which held Tensa Zangetsu, gripped the handle tighter as that arm was being squeezed by the tail while his right hand was gripping the wrist. They were basically at a stalemate, unless he used a Kido or a technique that would actually damage himself more than Sasori. Naruto grinned at Sasori with a feral quality to it. "I hope you don't mind if I turn the heat up around here." He said to the red head gaining a confused look.
"I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you will die here today, by my hands."
"I don't think so." Naruto said shaking his head. "May my enemies know redemption in the form of a fiery death…" Suddenly the atmosphere started to heat up as flickers of what looked like fire passed by them.
"What are you doing?" Sasori questioned as he felt the reiryoku and heat in the air, shimmering around them.
"Hadō no Roku jū go: Shinkoushoku Hinote!" (Way of Destruction #65: Scarlet Blaze) The flickers of fire that were shimmering around them soon changed as a circle of fire appeared on the ground directly below them before it suddenly shot up to surround them in a pillar of fire that touched the roof of the forest. They were completely trapped in the pillar of fire as it started to close in on them.
Adjusting his hold on Tensa Zangetsu, the familiar blackish-red reiryoku swarmed the blade like a twister. "Let's see you survive this!" Loosening his grip on Sasori's wrist who had gone wide-eyed, he called out. "Kuroi Getsuga!"(Black Moon Fang) The mass of reiryoku slammed against Sasori causing his tail to get lose on his arm. Grinning he flickered away as the Getsuga exploded filling the pillar of fire with its reiryoku. Appearing a good distance from the fire, he lifted his hand up in an open palm and close his hand into a fist. A second later and pillar of fire exploded, sending the embers everywhere and with his own technique in the mix of it, the explosion carried on through the space that was the Menos Forest.
Naruto panted for breath as he shielded his eyes from the result of the explosion as the heat wave from the fire pillar washed over him like a heat wave. Suddenly all of the fire and smoke was blown away as Sasori raised his reiatsu revealing he had been burnt in several places but nothing too serious. Sasori then held his sword up as a poison mist wrapped around his Zanpakuto. "Veneno de Onda!" (Venom Wave) Swinging the Zanpakuto down, a wave of thick, condensed poison erupted from the blade and shot towards Naruto who fired off a Kuroi Getsuga only for it to pass through the poison must making him wide-eyed. Flickering away as the mist caught up to him, he watched wide-eyed as the mist touched the remains of a tree and disintegrated it almost immediately. 'I see now, my Getsuga didn't pass through it, it was eaten by the poison mist. So it can disintegrate solid objects and reiryoku? This will not be easy; this is why I hate poison so much!'
Flickering away once more, he appeared by a still smoking Sasori. His reiatsu erupted from his body causing Sasori to spin around to him with wide-eyes too concentrated in his attack to notice. Naruto pointed his blade at Sasori and called out. "Getsuga Tenshō: Shibari no Kage!" (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer: Binding Shadow) Having channelled a small amount of reiryoku into the tip of the blade, he released it into the form of a massive tangible chain-like pattern that he manipulated to bind Sasori's arms, legs and tail in the solidified reiryoku.
"Get this off of me!" Sasori shouted losing his composure as he tried to break free by raising his reiatsu only for nothing to happen.
Naruto held his sword forward, pointed at Sasori as his reiryoku once more swirled around it, however instead of staying attached to the blade, it separated into the atmosphere around Naruto, looking like blobs of energy. Slowly they started to take shape into identical replicas of Tensa Zangetsu. Twenty in total hung in the air, positioned around Naruto, ready to kill anything. "Tsukaken!" (Moon Shadow Blade) As soon as the words softly passed his lips, every replica blade flew at Sasori with such speed that the only indication they were there was multiple black blurs streaking across the sky.
"ARRGGGHHHHHH!" Sasori screamed in pain and agony as each sword struck his body, piercing his armour so easily it was like a knife cutting through butter. "IMPOSSIBLE! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" He shouted in denial. No longer did he have a stoic look on his face, for the first time in many years, his stone mask snapped.
"This is as far as you will you go, Akasuna no Sasori." Unseen to Naruto as he lifted his blade up to finish the man off, Sasori had slightly moved his hand to have his blade pointing at Naruto with a purple mist solidifying over the blade like liquid.
"Kuroi-"
"Veneno de Bala!" (Poison Bullet) A solid bullet of purple reiryoku fired from Sasori's sword and struck Naruto in the chest.
"Guh!" Blood shot out of his mouth as he dropped his hand to his side while bringing the other one to his chest as his skin started to burn from whatever that poison was. If it was anything like his recent attack, then it literally burning his skin away and possibly his insides. "No." Channelling reiryoku into the hand that held his chest he said. "Chiyudō: Kiseki no Hōhō!" (Way of Healing: Miracle Method) 'I'm glad I got...Hachi to teach me this, with this I can heal my body from the inside that way I won't be in as much risk.' He thought as his hand lit up with blue reiryoku.
From a good distance away, Isabella frowned in actual worry for the blonde as she gripped the black cloth that tied around her waist. This was all new to her, having to work with a partner, well new since her sister had been killed by Aizen. But what surprised her was how much she worried about the blonde, maybe it was the fact that they were similar in the way there powers are alike, or the pain they had both gone through, the need to prove themselves to others. And if she was honest with herself, then she would admit that she liked having to worry about someone, it gave her a purpose, a reason to fight, a need to stay alive so she could help and protect her partner.
It wasn't long ago that she was a cold and ruthless killer, a subject made from Aizen's actions. Back then she hadn't cared what happened, if she killed someone she didn't think if they had a family elsewhere, a wife or husband, kids waiting for their parents to feed them, it was all about gaining power to her, and they stood in her way.
But now, she was the person she once was when she fought with her sister. A person who worried about her partner and had to watch as he fought a strong opponent by himself. She had to stand there and watch as he was cut up, as he spat out blood from a vicious kick or punch. But now, she had to watch as the only person who bested her in combat, and someone she had started to grow attached to, started to heal himself, from what she didn't know. But all she wanted to do was go over there and help him, but being a warrior herself, she knew that she couldn't interfere, but she would, if he would be close to dying. Something she knew he wouldn't let happen.
In a way she looked up to Naruto for being so strong and determined to do what he wanted, or rather what he felt he needed to do. The only other people she had ever looked up to was Tia Harribel and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, two of the greatest female Arrancar's to ever exist. She gripped her Zanpakuto tightly to restrain herself from helping.
Naruto sighed as he stopped healing himself, moving his hand away he looked down to see a burn mark on skin and a hole in his clothing to show the patch of skin. 'Damn it, I got careless, I should have killed him by now.' He thought as he shook his head in annoyance at himself. 'I need to take him out now, and conserve my strength for the last two.' "Hadō no Hachi: Kiriken!" (Way of Destruction #8: Substitute Blade) Blackish-red reiryoku shimmered in the palm of his hand and stretched out forming a replica of Tensa Zangetsu in his left hand.
Holding his blades up in an 'X' formation, the familiar blackish-red reiryoku swirled around them, swinging down, he called out. "Tsuin Kuroi Getsuga!" (Twin Black Moon Fang) Two crescent waves were immediately unleashed from both Zangetsu. Sasori who was still bound by the reiryoku threads went wide-eyed as both waves struck him. "ARGHHHHH!" He screamed as the waves literary cut into him, from being still bound, the waves were unable to throw him away meaning that hey continued to push against him with all of their power.
Naruto flickered over to Sasori and slammed his blade down on where the Getsuga's were pushing against Sasori and yelled out as he pressed down harder. All of a sudden there was an explosion of epic proportions. Naruto flung himself out of the bomb fire that practically took up most of the atmosphere and flew down to the ground where he landed softly. Looking upwards at the result, he was surprised to see the residue from his attack, blowing over Sasori, still able to maintain form.
Eventually a body fell from the smoke and plummeted to the ground creating a tremor through the ground as the earth shook. Naruto sighed as he walked over to the fallen body. Eventually reaching it, he found Sasori lying on his back, he had reverted to his original form, what surprised though was the peaceful look on his face as if he had wanted to die all along.
"Ever since I became a Hollow, I wanted to die." Sasori spoke in a normal tone, gone was his monotone like voice. "I had always wanted to become one of my creations when I was alive, which I eventually accomplished, becoming one with my puppets. But when I was reincarnated here, I realised that I was a puppet being controlled, I was weak because I could bleed, because I could get injured and I hated it."
Naruto looked down at him with some sadness before his eyes widened. "Being controlled like a puppet? What does that mean?" He questioned confused.
"Aizen." Sasori whispered as his right leg started to disintegrate. "He found us all and brought us together to take you out, granted we had our reasons to kill you anyway, but we were without a doubt under his control." Sasori turned his head to Naruto and held out his Zanpakuto to him as his other leg disintegrated. "Take my sword as a trophy, where I'm going I will have no use for it."
Naruto sighed and bent down to grasp the blade. "I hope, where you're going, that you will find your place at last." Sasori smiled slightly and was soon disintegrated into nothing more than ash blowing in the wind.
"Did you win?" He heard Isabella's soft voice behind him.
"No." Naruto shook his head in the negative. He took out the scroll that he had sealed Hidan's Zanpakuto into, or rather it was nothing but a regular sword now, and unrolled it before placing Sasori's sword on top of it. "Winning would imply that I killed an enemy, but rather, I saved him from his own misery." Placing his hand on top of the sword he said the incantation for the sealing and watched as it was absorbed into the scroll leaving the markings for it. Rolling the scroll back up, he placed it away and stood up. Turning to Isabella he sealed his sword and sheathed it as reiatsu flew off of him showing the sealing of his Bankai.
"I see." Isabella muttered with a slight frown. To her, he had won the battle but, something must've happened towards the end for him to have been kneeling down beside the man, what surprised her when she arrived was Sasori handing over his blade instead of stabbing Naruto when he had the chance. "What now?"
"Now?" Naruto asked her and himself as he looked off in another direction. "Now…we hunt down the last three members of Akatsuki. Aizen is controlling them, or rather; he has them in his control." He frowned as he tightened his fist causing his nails to dig into the palm of his hand drawing blood. "It's time I get rid of this nuisance once and for all."
"You mean 'we'." She corrected making him look at her. "We're partners now; we will get rid of this nuisance once and for all."
Naruto smiled at her gratefully, glad he wasn't in it alone now and glad she had completely decided to join him now. He gulped however as he really looked at her now, the way her hair was blown across her face as the wind brushed it, the way her clothes stuck to her body as if they were so tight that they were strangling her. Buffy and Faith had once told him how slaying would get them hungry and horny, he was beginning to wonder if the same happened to Shinigami, especially with his past experiences with Yoruichi, Soifon and Lisa.
Isabella felt hot under his gaze as his eyes swept over her body as if he was really looking at her as a woman and not a Hollow. She felt kind of nervous as she had never had a man look at her that way, much less been with a man in more than just being comrades or friends. Having his eyes looking at her with obvious lust made her almost rub her legs together to get rid of the ache that was throbbing between her thighs as she felt a wetness she had rarely felt before. "W-What?" She asked a little nervous, something that just didn't happen to her.
"Nothing." Naruto shook his head to get rid of his thoughts and looked away in another direction wondering where to go next.
Isabella actually felt somewhat disappointed that he looked away but shook her own head to focus on the task at hand. "I'm sure the other members of Akatsuki have heard that last battle, never mind felt it." She commented.
"Good." Naruto said with a touch of anger. "I want them to feel my power; I want them to actually feel fear, because when I find them, I will make sure they won't be able to come back…again."
"Do you know who they are?" She asked with a raised eyebrow at the anger in his tone.
"If I had to guess, there are only three others who were truly in Akatsuki to kill." He said as he thought of them. 'Nagato, Konan and Yahiko were good people, they would never re-join the group, but I fear they were sent to Hell for what they had done in their quest. Madara, he will have gone straight to Hell, if his soul actually survived. Zetsu is a possibility but he has no reason to re-join. That just leaves…' He paused as he thought of the two. "…Deidara, Kakuzu and Kisame Hoshigaki." Seeing the confused look he received he elaborated on the people. "Deidara used to create bombs with these extra mouths on his hands, I don't understand the theory behind it but his attacks were extremely dangerous to anyone. Kakuzu didn't care about taking lives when he was alive, he would kill someone strong and then take the bounty for them; he was a ruthless person who cared for no-one. Kisame was a true monster in the battle field, nothing could stop him, he had so much energy when he was alive it didn't seem possible for someone to actually survive. He killed out of sheer fun, he cared little for life. If it's those three, then watch yourself, now that they're Arrancar, I hate to think of the power they could possess."
Isabella frowned the more she listened, over there short time together, he had managed to explain bits and pieces of his life and what Akatsuki were. To hear that when he was just a teenager that he had to face people like that actually made her cringe and shudder at such a life. "Well, then, I don't plan on dying anytime soon. Unlike them I actually have a reason to live." She said with a smirk.
Naruto chuckled and gave a nod to her. "Good. Let's go, I don't want to waste any more time." Getting a nod from the woman they both shot off in search for the Akatsuki.
Human World
Sunnydale, CA
Over the last few months, much happened in Buffy's life once she started college. After sharing what she believed to be a night of emotional intimacy with fellow student Parker Abrams, she became depressed when he neglected to contact her afterwards. This left her feeling unwanted due to the fact that not only have the people she loved left her, but now she had been simply used and thrown away. Buffy was eventually able to get over it knowing that some people were like that, but it made her feel dirty later on as she realised she had had sex with someone who never intended to be more than that.
What made it worse though was the fact she had technically used him as well. By having sex with the man she had hoped in some way to simply forget about the people leaving her life all the time, like Naruto for instance. Whilst she knew he responsibilities elsewhere, it still hurt to see him leave like Angel had and maybe it had been the bitter part of her that decided to use Parker as an escape. After it though, it made her realise that no matter what she did, she would never be able to simply forget about Naruto or him leaving her. She had to move on at the very least, no matter how much she loved Naruto. It hurt her thinking that they would only spend a short amount of time before he left again for an untold amount of time.
At Thanksgiving, at Giles', Buffy, while determined to have a safe and normal dinner, was forced to deal with Hus, a Native American vengeance spirit accidentally released by Xander's construction crew, who he had actually started to work with recently, and was secretly helped by Angel who had returned to town after one of his new friends had a vision that she was in danger, though he only made his presence known to the other Scoobies under the belief that he would only distract and endanger her even more. After Xander accidentally let it slip that Angel was in town, Buffy was hurt that he let everyone else know that he was back in Sunnydale and yet never told her even though they parted on good-ish terms. She immediately travelled to Los Angeles and confronted Angel in his office, and the two agreed to just stay away from one another for the time being. Just as she was about to leave, however, the two were attacked by a Mohra Demon. Though the duo succeeded in wounding it, the Mohra escaped, and Buffy and Angel immediately tracked it down in the sewers. The two became separated, and Angel seemingly killed the demon itself, though its blood mixed with his own and turned him human again. Whilst Buffy was happy about this, she knew that her feelings for him were fading away though they would always be there, but Angel soon discovered that the Powers That Be had not yet offered him forgiveness. When Angel was nearly killed by the regenerated Mohra, Buffy managed to slay it with his help. Upon discovering that Buffy would die much sooner if he was to remain human, Angel had the Oracles rewind time to reverse his transformation into a human, leaving no one but himself with any memory of the incident.
Eventually, Buffy attracted the sincere attention of teacher's assistant Riley Finn and began to wonder how she would balance her Slayer duties while dating a seemingly-normal guy. However, while fighting the Gentlemen, a race of demons that stole everyone's voices rendering them mute, she discovered that Riley had a secret of his own; he was in fact a member of the Initiative, a U.S. government task force created to research mystical and demonic creatures led by Buffy's psychology professor Maggie Walsh, whose experiments on the recently returned Spike had rendered him incapable of harming humans. Buffy then joined forces with the Initiative knowing that she would have to keep a close-eye on them as well.
It was also the Initiative who planted a chip in Spike's head rendering him unable to kill humans, or even harm them. This was proven when he tried to attack Willow in her dorm and then ended up staying at Giles to be kept an eye on until they shipped him off to Xander's where he soon found out he could hurt demons, giving him a new hobby, happy he was able to hurt something.
For Willow it was different once she started college. Willow suffered heartbreak and came to terms with her own sexuality. Moving across town to UC Sunnydale, Willow and Buffy become roommates at Room 214 in Stevenson Hall. When Oz left town after cheating on Willow with another werewolf, a devastated Willow casted a spell to have her will done, accidentally endangering her friends' lives in the process. Afterward, she joined the campus Wicca group, a disappointing experience with the exception of the presence of timid, serious witch Tara Maclay. After discovering each other's magic, they became friends and later lovers.
As Giles learned to cope with being unemployed, and the growing knowledge that Buffy no longer needed him, he resumed a sexual relationship with his old friend Olivia, who Anya tactlessly labelled his "orgasm friend." Lacking a sense of purpose, he spent most of his time lounging around his apartment, watching Passions with Spike. He began to suffer from depression, especially when the Scoobies failed to keep him in the loop regarding Buffy's new boyfriend Riley Finn and his affiliation to The Initiative. When Ethan Rayne casted a spell on Giles which turned him into a Fyarl demon, he had to enlist Spike's help to escape the Initiative and Buffy, who believed him to be the demon who murdered Giles. However, Buffy later realized from his eyes and "annoyed" expression that he was in fact Giles, and Ethan was taken into custody by the Initiative.
After Xander came back from his trip, he moved into his parents' basement, for which he had to pay rent, and took a series of odd jobs as a food vendor, a bartender, a phone-sex operator, and a deliveryman. Xander's problems multiplied when he was forced to accept Spike as a roommate for a short time. After very little persuasion, he had sex with Anya and they began dating. Initially, his interest in Anya was purely sexual, but as their time together increased, he developed genuine feelings for her, and she to him, although she wasn't familiar with such feelings. He eventually got a job in construction which he found himself to be good at and a path to follow.
Forest, Sunnydale, CA
Saturday, 10th January 2009, 09:39 PM
Some men in Initiative Commando were prowling through the woods, crouching behinds trees and bushes to keep their movements silent from whoever or whatever they were hunting for. They were all wearing dark ski masks and armed with taser rifles used to stun the demons. The lead commando silently motioned them forward with a hand sign and the three of them disappeared into a tall stretch of bushes.
After a moment of being in the bushes there were sounds of fighting for a minute before one of the commandos came flying out of the bushes landing at least 10 yards away. Bushes were ruffled a bit before a petite blonde stepped out revealed to be Buffy with a long beige coat on and a beige hat with a smile on her face as she looked down to the other two down and out on the ground around her. Before she could praise herself, a fourth and fifth commando charged her from either side.
Buffy greeted the fourth commando with quick alternating front kicks that the commando blocked but the impact sent him off balance. Buffy span into a roundhouse kick into the face of the fifth commando as he came up behind her. He recovered quickly and swung a punch that she ducked and sent him down with a right hook. She turned to the fourth commando who was up again and faked him with a high backhand that he blocked, then brought that fist down to hammer punch him in the groin, making him hunch around in pain. Her attention was quickly placed on the fifth commando s she blocked a mid-level uppercut, catching it and had him in an arm lock. She sent a back kick into the fourth commando's chest sending him to the ground.
Buffy swung her captured commando around just as the lead commando popped out of some bushes with his taser rifle and fired. The blast hit the helpless commando causing the poor man to spasms as rings of electricity coursed through his body. Buffy let him drop to the ground and readied herself as the lead commando charged her. They were about to fight when a voice shouted out.
"Lights!"
The bright lights of a Humvee parked up on a gradual hill illuminated the area and Buffy and the lead commando turned to see Professor Maggie Walsh, in a dark wool coat, hurrying down to them. She walked past the lead commando, who was pulling off his mask to show it was Riley Finn. Walsh stood in front of Buffy and regarded her with a stoic expression. "It took the patrol team 42 minutes to track you and you neutralized them in 28 seconds." She informed the small blonde who smiled slightly at the times.
'If only I could unseal my necklace around you, you wouldn't know what hit you.' She thought with a secretive grin. She had grown stronger in her other abilities to the point where she could actually move as fast as Shunpo that Naruto had shown her. The only person who actually knew of the powers was Giles since he was the only one who could train her with Naruto not being there. Of course she had grown in her other abilities like her strength which was twice as strong now, if not more.
Buffy glanced at Riley behind Walsh. "I was just lucky." She said with a small grin.
"I see." Walsh said as Riley started to smile. "Well...still. Very impressive." Walsh turned around and Riley quickly wiped the smile off his face as she walked past him and heads back to the Humvee. Buffy watches her leave as Riley stepped up to her. "I was just being modest with the whole 'lucky' thing. You got that, right?" She asked with a worried look.
Riley just looked down at her with a, 'shine a flashlight on his teeth and blind yourself' smile that made her smile back up at him. "I got it." He said as the rest of the commandos got back to their feet and took their masks off. One of the commandos and Riley's friend, Graham Miller passed Buffy on her right. "Awesome, Buffy." He said with a smile.
Forrest Gates walked past her on her left, without saying a word, looking a little pissed. He had a hand held to his back out of pain from a rough landing when he had been thrown; he stopped for a moment to look over his shoulder. "Pfft!" He huffed as he carried on.
Riley who was still smiling looked back down at her. "See? You're a hit. Everybody loves you." He placed an arm around her shoulders and followed the others out of the woods. Walsh, who was standing beside the Humvee, was looking down at them with an unhappy look on her face.
Initiative headquarters, Sunnydale, CA
Wednesday, 14th January 2009, 07:24 PM
Professor Walsh had not long given Buffy a tour of the Initiative facility and already she was getting pissed off with the blonde slayer. No matter what, the slayer was always asking questions that simply didn't need to be asked, or rather in her mind they didn't need to be asked. However now, the blonde was an official part of the Initiative.
Walsh walked up to a metal security door and zipped her security card through the keypad that was placed on the side of the door. The keypad lit up green and the door unlocked allowing her to step inside. She continued down the corridor to another door with the numbers 314 on it. Going to the panel at the side of the door, she punched in a code and slid the card through again. Once more the door seemed to hiss as it opened up for the small woman as she stepped inside.
As she walked inside the lab room Walsh closed the door behind her. Dr. Angelman, who just got through washing his hands at a sink, turned to face her as he dried them. "How did the tour go?"
"I'm not sure. She's unpredictable." Walsh said with a frown. She walked across the room towards a lab table.
"She's an unnecessary risk." Dr. Angelman said with a frown.
"Possibly. How's our baby doing today" She asked with a smile.
"Adjusting nicely. Reflexes, motor-functions. All off the charts."
"That's what I like to hear." She looked down at the lab table to where a young man was laying under a blanket with only his chest and head visible. But he didn't look like a normal man, his brown hair was neatly trimmed, the most normal feature, while more than half of his face was covered in dark green skin, the rest of his face was a human pale. There was also metal plating on the green left side of his face, from jaw to temple. Most of his chest was also green as well as was his right shoulder, but there were also patches of other different types of skin. Wherever his different type of skin met there was a line of sutured or welded-on scars like a grotesque demonic jigsaw. There seemed to be numerous IV lines and monitoring connections disappearing under the blanket obviously hooked up to the strange being. "Almost time to wake up, Adam. And take your first look at the world. I know you're gonna make me proud." She spoke to the deformed creature as if she was its mother.
Riley's room, UC Sunnydale, CA
Friday, 16th January 2009, 07:12 AM
Buffy was in Riley's bed looking comfortable as her head shifted on the pillow making her blonde hair move across her face and pillow in a mess. She woke up after moment and rubbed her eyes to focus them on her surroundings. Her eyes widened a second later as she got a worried look, she suddenly rolled over and found Riley lying next to her, already awake, looking at her.
"Hey. What's the matter? Weren't expecting to see me?" Riley asked with a smile.
Buffy relaxed into the bed with a smile. "I never know what to expect." She said sleepily.
They were secure enough with their morning breaths and started kissing in a lazy manner. After a few minutes of their kissing there was an electronic chirping sound filling the room. Buffy hearing the sound started to laugh. "Your robot bird sounds hungry." She joked.
"It's just a reminder to take my vitamins." Riley explained as he rolled over and grabbed a medicine bottle on his nightstand as the chirping ended.
"You're kidding." She teased with a grin as he downed the pills with a glass of water and returned to his original position. Tucking the sheet around her chest, Buffy sat up against the headboard.
"Sorry." He apologized with a smile.
Buffy sighed happily as she started to play with his short bangs with her fingers. "Quite the regimental soldier." She mumbled with a smirk.
"I am how they trained me." He said simply.
"They? Who are they?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You know…the government. Plucked me out of special op training for this." He said with a shrug.
"What did they tell you it was for?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They didn't. In the military you learn to follow orders. Not ask questions." Buffy frowned as it sounded too much like Naruto's old life as a shinobi. Although from what he had told her of how he was like, he did ask questions.
"I don't understand. Aren't you curious about all the science and research stuff they're doing?" She asked with raised eyebrows.
"Hm. I know all I need to know. We're doing well here, protecting the public, removing the sub-terrestrial threat. It's work worth doing." Riley answered with a shrug. They was silence for a moment and Buffy became serious.
"What's 314?" She asked with a serious look. Riley seemed surprised by the question but before he could say anything, his phone rang.
Rolling over to his nightstand he picked his phone up. "Riley." He answered.
"We have a situation. You're needed." Walsh's voice spoke through the other end.
"On my way." He replied as he hung up.
"What is it?" Buffy asked once he turned to look at her.
"Don't know." Riley said as he got up.
"You're really not one for asking questions, are you?" She asked with a slight frown.
"I'll leave that to you." He said with a grin as he went to get dressed leaving Buffy to her thoughts.
Initiative Headquarters, Sunnydale, CA
Friday, 16th January 2009, 01:43 PM
Buffy had been called in to the headquarters by Walsh. It was actually becoming annoying being beeped on a pager when she was trying to be with her friends. The night before she had gone to the bronze with Riley and a couple of his friends so she could hang out with her own, but before she could have any fun whatsoever, she and the other Initiative Commandos had been paged away and it hurt her to see Willows hurt look as she walked away with her 'new friends'. Just before she was trying to apologize to Willow, her pager had gone off once more, and she had felt like Willow was preoccupied with something else. Either that or ignoring her. She hoped it wasn't the latter.
So now she was walking with Walsh through the Initiative corridors. "It's a small job. Reconnaissance. Probably a waste of a Slayer's abilities, but my boys are on assignment so I—"
"No. It's okay. I'm up for some action." Buffy interrupted Walsh with a smile.
"I doubt you'll get any on this one." Walsh said dismissively.
They eventually reached a table where a large map was placed down. "We have a reading of a class three sub-terrestrial moving through the sewer tunnels just on the edge of town." Walsh said pointing to the map.
"Class three?" Buffy questioned with raised eyebrows.
"It's a low-level threat. Minimal aggression. Meager defenses." Walsh with a dismissive wave.
A commando walked over to the two with a taser rifle. "Professor Walsh." He called as he handed the rifle over.
Walsh took the rifle with a nod and turned back to Buffy. "They barely show up on the scanner and occasionally turn out to be raccoons." She handed the weapon to Buffy.
Buffy took the gun and started to examine it. "Wow. You're not crazy about raccoons, huh?"
"We always take precautions." She picked up a device called a com-cam from the table. "All we need you to do is get a visual on this thing. This will feed me back an image and I can advise you from there. I don't want to put you in any unnecessary danger." She explained as she handed it over to Buffy.
"Oh. That's okay. Danger's my birth-right." Buffy replied with a grin. Not used to such a weapon, Buffy carelessly let the barrel point towards Walsh, who casually diverted the weapon away with her hand.
"Sorry." Buffy apologized with a weak grin. "Um, Professor Walsh. There's, uh…there's still some stuff about all this that I'm not clear on."
"Well, when you get back we can have a talk." Walsh promised with a nod. 'Even though you won't make it back from the surprise I have ready for you.'
"Good. Okay. When I get back." Buffy nodded as she turned to leave but stopped. "Am I supposed to salute you?" She asked with a sheepish look.
"No."
"Okay." Buffy Said slightly relieved and walked off as Walsh glanced down at the table then looked over her shoulder to watch Buffy leave. 'I really wished you hadn't been so observant or I wouldn't have had to use the contingency plan to get rid of you.' Sighing she went back to work.
Sewers, Sunnydale, CA
Friday, 16th January 2009, 02:33 PM
Buffy emerged from a tunnel and stepped inside a larger chamber armed with the taser rifle as well as wearing the com-cam hooked over her left ear. She snapped her head around as she heard a snarling sound coming from deep in the chamber.
"Professor Walsh, are you getting this?" She asked into the microphone but carried on before a reply could be made. "Possible SHT? Make it a definite." There was nothing but silence on the other end but before she could say anything else, she saw a green squid-faced demon step out, wearing ragged robes and carrying a long battle axe. A second demon stepped out with it, also armed with a battle axe.
"And he's brought along a friend. They seem…" She paused as she had a minor flashback of back at the Initiative where she saw the exact two demons being worked on in 'the Pit.' Buffy aimed the taser rifle at them and pulled the trigger but to her dismay the weapon short-circuited with a burst of sparks and Buffy dropped it from the shock. She turned to flee the way she came but a barred gate dropped in place, blocking her escape into the tunnel.
Buffy turned back to look at the approaching demons. "Oh, fuck me!" She moaned with a worried look.
She was standing on a three-foot raised section as she watched the demons approach. On the ground level, the taser rifle was still short-circuiting, shooting sparks. The demons charged at her making her hop down, hitting them with alternating front kicks. The second demon was quicker to recover and swung the axe down at her head. She side stepped and kicked it in the back of the knee, throwing it off balance, and sent a back kick into the first demon. The second demon got back up again and smashed the axe handle into her chin, turning her around. The first demon swung its axe at her but Buffy caught the handle with her hands. As they struggled with it, the second demon slammed the handle of its axe into the small of her back. The first demon used this to free its weapon from Buffy's hold causing her to fall to the ground in a shoulder roll.
Buffy jumped back up as an axe came down toward her head but she managed to grab the handle of one of the axes' and started to wrestle with it. The other demon attacked and swung its axe down towards Buffy causing her to jump out of the way which unknowingly knocked off the com-cam she got from Walsh, the same one that measured her heartbeat.
Back at the Initiative Headquarters
Walsh looked into the monitor that she had been watching Buffy's fight in when suddenly the camera view fell to the floor causing her to smirk as she watched the heart rate drop on the monitor. Glancing around, she was glad to see she was the only one to notice.
"It's done."
Back with Buffy in the Sewers
Buffy was suddenly thrown away by one of the demons towards another who swung its axe down at her. Before it could reach her, a dark-skinned female hand had caught the axe by the blade and smashed it easily. Buffy looked at the newcomer in surprise, especially the persons appearance. The woman had golden eyes with black slits, purple hair tied back into a pony tail with it picked up around the side of her face. Her attire consisted of a backless, black sleeveless undershirt, an orange over-shirt with two white straps on each shoulder, a large beige sash around her waist, black stretch pants and long beige wrist warmers, secured by bands, and long beige leg warmers with brown light shoes.
"Who are you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
The person looked at her with a grin like a feline. "My names Yoruichi…" The woman said as her purple hair flipped back as she spun around and knocked the demon away with a kick. "..I'm a…friend of Naruto's." She further explained to gain the Slayers trust.
Buffy's eyes widened hearing the name of the person Naruto had mentioned many times before. Now that she got a good look at the woman she felt self-conscious as to why Naruto would ever sleep with her or even be with her when this goddess was always waiting for him.
"No spacing out now, these demons, are a bitch." Yoruichi produced a knife from her wrist warmers and threw it at the demon she had kicked away, stabbing its head all the way through and stabbed into the wall behind it as it dropped dead.
Buffy gave a nod and span around to find the second demon coming at her axe raised high. Buffy slid under the axe as it was brought down on her. Kicking its feet from under it making it trip up and drop its axe. Buffy flipped backwards towards the axe, picked it up and brought it down on the demons head.
Buffy sighed and stood up fully, wiping her hands on her pants to get rid of any dirt on them. She turned around to see Yoruichi looking at her with a smirk. "So, what are you doing here? I thought Naruto would need you." Buffy said with a raised eyebrow.
Yoruichi chuckled and shook her head. "Naruto's still in Hueco Mundo doing…god knows what." Yoruichi sighed as she shook her head. "He asked me to come here to look over you and Sunnydale itself. I planned on just watching until I saw you being betrayed. Be glad Naruto wasn't here right now."
Buffy sighed and gave a nod understanding that if Naruto was here, he would bring hell upon the Initiative and Walsh for setting her up. Widening her eyes she looked at Yoruichi in shock. "You haven't heard from Naruto in so long?" She asked in worry.
Yoruichi smiled at Buffy softly. "Don't worry, if something happened to him…we'd feel it." She said cryptically.
"We'd feel it?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because we love him." The purple haired goddess said simply.
"I can't love him anymore, I'm with Riley now." Buffy said with a shake of her head. Though she knew that no matter what happened relationship wise, she would always love him.
Yoruichi gave a nod in understanding before she noticed the camera lying on the floor. "Fancy sending them a message?" She asked with a smirk which Buffy returned.
Initiative Headquarters, Sunnydale, CA
At The Same Time
Riley walked up behind Walsh who was still standing in front of the Control operations panel. "Professor Walsh?" At the sound of his voice she turned to face him looking shaken. "Regret to report Hostile 17 is still at large. I left Beta Team to comb the area but the tracer's—"
"Riley, something's happened." Walsh interrupted him with sorrow written on her face. "I-I don't know what to say. It-it-it's about Buffy." She stammered out.
"Buffy?" Riley asked confused.
She took a few steps away from the monitors, com-cam point-of-view still on the sewer floor, and Riley stood in front of her. "Two of our hostiles broke free and escaped into the tunnels. She...went after them on her own." She met his eyes. "She's dead, Riley."
"What?" He asked shocked as he felt the world crashing down on him.
Walsh actually felt regret and guilt as she watched Riley's heart actually break. "I did everything I could to stop her. I told her to wait for a back-up team; she kept insisting she didn't need any team. She could handle it by herself. I-I'm so, so sorry." Riley struggled not to break down as he heard what she told him.
"I don't understand." He said looking with his eyes looking dead.
Behind Walsh, the com-cam image on the monitors suddenly started to move as if someone had picked it up.
"I know what she meant to you." Walsh said soothingly, playing the good mother act.
"How could this happen?" Riley asked getting angry.
"She was a very, very special girl." Walsh soothingly said as she went to pat his arm as an apology.
The com-cam image was still as Buffy stepped into the picture and knelt in front of it with an expression that screamed pissed beyond all reason.
"I didn't understand at first. But she had something. I don't know...maybe I could have stopped her." Walsh acted confused for a moment as Riley looked over her shoulder and saw Buffy face in the monitors.
"It's hard not to blame myself." Walsh said not knowing Buffy was still alive on the monitors.
"Professor Walsh. That simple little recon you sent me on...wasn't a raccoon." Walsh went wide-eyed hearing the steely voice of Buffy Summers behind her. Slowly she turned around to face the persons she thought she had just killed. "Turns out it was me trapped in the sewers with a faulty weapon and two of your pet demons. If you think that's enough to kill me, you really don't know what a Slayer is." Walsh couldn't do anything or even form a coherent word she was so speechless. "Trust me when I say you're gonna find out." Buffy's last words were before she stood up and moved from the image. The camera view started to get fuzzy until the last thing they heard was a crunch and all the screens turn snowy with static.
Walsh still speechless slowly turned to face Riley again only to find him with a very pissed expression as he looked down at her with so much hate that she couldn't help but feel like everything had just gotten thrown back in her face. "Riley..."
Riley looked at her in disgust before he walked away without a word. "Agent Finn, I order you to stop!" She shouted in panic. People all around them looked at the scene with confusion. "Agent Finn!" She shouted again but he had gone. "RILEY!"
Giles Apartment, Sunnydale, CA
Friday, 16th January 2009, 04:16 PM
Giles removed a pair of latex gloves he had worn to take a bullet out of Spike that he had been shot with by the Initiative the night before. Luckily for Spike, Buffy had been out patrolling with Riley when it all had happened and unintentionally saved Spike from being captured again.
Spike was sat on the edge of the desk, putting his black T-shirt back on, careful of his wounded shoulder. "It will be dark soon. I think it will be wise for you to leave Sunnydale." Giles advised the vampire.
"I'm not going anywhere. Not until those bastards undo whatever they did to me. Put me back the way I was." Spike growled out in anger.
"Sure. Just explain to the nice scientist guys that you really miss killing and torturing innocent people." Xander's sarcastic voice echoed through the house from the kitchen.
"Do you think that would work?" Spike asked seriously.
"Spike- lord knows why I'm telling you this- it's for your own good. As long as the Initiative is in operation it's not safe for you here." Giles said rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"No." They heard a solemn but serious voice from the door. Looking over they all saw Buffy with a serious look on her face and a slightly taller woman behind them with strangely purple hair. "It's not safe for any of us."
Initiative Headquarter Door 314s, Sunnydale, CA
Friday, 16th January 2009, 04:16 PM
Walsh walked through the dimly lit lab over to where her creation, Adam was still sleeping. Adam no longer had a sheet covering him showing what he looked like all over which was basically a more of his mismatched demon body. He was wearing commando pants and boots with a strange metal/electronic plate on his chest where the heart would be.
"So. All right. Fine. If she wants a fight, we'll give her one. Won't we, Adam? I've worked too long. Too long...to let some little bitch threaten this project. Threaten me." She spoke in soft, menacingly halting, but strangely affectionate tone. She paced to the end of the table and put a hand on Adam's boot. "She has no idea who she's dealing with. Once she's gone, Riley will come around. He'll understand." She was getting delusional from the panic of not having Riley back.
She turned toward the second table which was empty besides the surgical bone-saw which was lying on it. She slowly picked it up to put it away. "It's for the greater good. He'll see that. And if he doesn't...well, first things first. Remove the complication and when she least expects it-AHH!" She had started to walk away but before she could go anywhere a long sharp spear had suddenly burst from her chest. Shocked, she looked down at it, and then looked over her shoulder only to have her eyes widen as she saw Adam awake and standing behind her. "Adam?" She asked, her voice failing her as she fell and she slid off the spear. Adam raised his new Polgara left arm and watched as blood dripped from the bone skewer as blood flowed from Walsh's body which he then found interesting.
"Mommy." He said with a tilt of his head.
Giles Apartment, Sunnydale, CA
Friday, 16th January 2009, 04:20 PM
Buffy was talking to Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya and Spike while Yoruichi who they hadn't been introduced to yet stood against a wall beside the front door. "So Maggie sends me down into the sewers with one of those blasto guns and the next thing I know, it's raining monsters." She said using her hands to talk.
"Hallelujah." Xander chimed with a little grin
"And then this gate slams down behind me and I-I try to use the gun but it goes pfft." She scrunched her face up trying to replicate the noise the gun made.
"You're saying that Maggie Walsh set you up?" Giles asked shocked while wiping his glasses not sure what else to do.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. She sent me on a one way recon." Buffy sighed as she sat against a table with her arms crossed.
"Got to hand it to you goldilocks -you do have bleeding tragic taste in men. I've got a cousin married to a regurgitating frovilops demon that's got better instincts than you." Spike said with a cocky smirk.
"What does my taste in men have to do with this?" Buffy asked confused.
"You think army boy was out knitting booties for your future offspring while Maggie was stringing you up?" Spike asked with a raised eyebrow while Anya, Xander, Giles and Yoruichi were silent.
"You guys think Riley had something to do with this." Buffy stated more than questioned.
"Riley had no part in it." Yoruichi spoke for the first time gaining their attention. "He was sent away for this exact reason, so he wouldn't interfere."
"Ermm…who are you again?" Giles asked embarrassed he hadn't asked before.
"Oh right." Buffy said sheepishly. "This is Yoruichi, a friend of Naruto's." She informed them with a smile. "She helped me with the demons."
"Ah, it's good to finally meet you." Giles said pleasantly while Xander's eyes drifted elsewhere before he was smacked by Anya who noticed his gaze. Willow also looked a little uncomfortable being near such a beautiful woman, especially since her transference of sexuality.
"How did, um, you know Riley had no part?" Giles asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'd been following everything going on around here, especially this Initiative. Riley was sent with that…Forest I think his name was…" Yoruichi placed her finger on her chin to think about it before nodding. "…They were sent out because of some tracker that I presume was placed in this vampire." She indicated to Spike who had been ogling her.
"Plus Riley, he seems like he wouldn't tell a little white lie let alone a whole bunch of big dirty ones." Willow added in her two cents.
"That's why they call it the secret forces Will, 'cause they kinda keep the whole lying thing to themselves." Xander said with a chuckle.
"All I know is that Maggie has it in for me which means the Initiative has it in for me." Buffy sighed as she placed her head in her hands.
"I'm guessing the mad scientist isn't too keen on the fact that the entire Scooby gang knows that the Initiative is up to no good." Xander sighed as he thought about what that would mean for them.
"Which brings us back to the not safe for any of us concept." Buffy said with a frown marring her features.
"What could have happened to make Professor Walsh want to kill you?" Giles asked the question that they had been wondering themselves.
"I don't know, uh." Buffy paused as she scrunched her face up. "She wasn't keen on the fact that I was asking a lot of questions that's for sure."
"So you were getting too close to something." Anya commented.
"Clearly. Although one can only imagine what she'd be so desperate to hide." Giles mused.
"Everybody grab a weapon. We've gotta move." Buffy said moving over to a chest and picked out an axe and grappling hook to give to Xander and Anya.
"Storm the Initiative. Yeah let's take on those suckers." Xander said as he pumped his fist in the air with a grin.
"I was thinking more that we'd hide." Buffy stated.
Xander breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God."
"Are you sure about this?" Yoruichi asked the small blonde.
Buffy looked at the taller woman and gave a nod. "This is the only way I can protect my friends." She closed her eyes with a sigh. "Naruto would always make sure his friends and loved ones were safe before he done anything." She opened her eyes to look at Yoruichi with determined eyes. "I won't let him down…and I won't let my friends down either."
Yoruichi grinned and gave a nod. "Well said. I can see what Naruto always saw in you." She gave her a look over making Buffy actually blush slightly remembering the times when she had told Naruto that the fact he loved others didn't bother her and that she would actually enjoy it with others, seeing Yoruichi now actually gave her thoughts she shouldn't have about the two Shinigami.
"I think perhaps we should talk about this." Giles tried to reason to stop Buffy from being too hasty.
"We need to relocate someplace we're less likely to be found. We need to come up with a plan." Buffy ignored Giles and carried on with the plans needed.
"We could go to my place." Willow suggested with a smile.
"The Initiative guys know how close we are. They'll automatically check the places that you hang out." Buffy argued against the idea before turning to Xander. "Xander, what about your basement? The guys haven't seen us together that much and there's enough room."
"I-I don't see why we can't stay right where we are. Pfft. It's very unlikely that those Initiative boys are going to come round here to look for uh…" Giles would have finished had the door not opened and Riley waked in. "I rest my case." He muttered.
"Buffy!" Riley exclaimed with a wide smile with a bit of worry on his face. "God Buffy, are you ok? What happened?"
"You know?" She questioned with a slanted eyes.
"I know something went down." Riley shook his head still not sure about everything. "Tell me."
"Maggie tried to kill me." Buffy said bluntly.
"It didn't work, but they're all upset anyway." Anya commented with a shrug.
"Ok listen I need you to go over everything step by step. There has to be…has to be some kind of mistake." Riley tried to reason still not wanting to believe his boss would do something like that.
"There was no mistake. And how do you know something happened?" Xander interrupted seeing Buffy narrow her eyes at her boyfriend.
"I was on a mission but I came back and...I'm not sure…look let's just keep our heads and not jump to any…" Riley stopped talking as Spike caught his eye.
"What?" Buffy asked confused.
"That's hostile 17."
Spike laughed and shook his head. "No, I'm just a friend of Xaannderr's, Pfftt." Spike dropped his drawl. "Bugger it. I'm your guy." He said resigned.
"This is Spike. He's um…It's a really long story b-but he's not bad anymore." Buffy defended a little uncomfortably.
Spike hearing he wasn't bad anymore looked offended and jumped up. "Hey! What am I, a bleeding broken record? I'm bad it's just I can't bite anymore. Thanks to you wankers." He shouted with a pissed look on his face as he indicated to Riley with his head.
"We've been looking all over the place for him - but you've known where's he's been all along." Riley whispered in shock.
"It's not like that." Buffy defended with a worried look.
"Then what is it like? What's he doing here?" Riley demanded.
"Leaving you swabs to your dramatics, thanks. I've got my stories on the telly for that." The blonde vampire said as he put on his black leather coat. "By the by. If you're trying to kill her." He leaned back with a big grin and two thumbs up causing Buffy and Willow to roll their eyes as Spike ran out the door into the sunlight covering his head and arms with his coat.
"Buffy, what is this? You're hiding an H.S.T.?" Riley demanded once more.
"Why don't you just back off and let her ask the questions," Yoruichi said with an annoyed look.
Riley glanced at her with a confused look. "Who the hell're you? Some other demon they're hiding?" He asked sarcastically.
Yoruichi bared her fangs at him. "I'd watch your mouth, I could rip you limb from limb." She threatened.
"Yoruichi, please." Buffy tried to placate the female Shinigami. She sighed in relief when Yoruichi gave her a nod in understanding. "Now, tell us what you know." Buffy told her boyfriend.
Riley glanced down at his girlfriend and rubbed his forehead wondering how everything ended up like this. "I-I didn't see much, I wasn't there. All I know is that Professor Walsh told me you were dead but then I saw you on the monitors. This isn't Professor Walsh, there must be something making her act this way. Something…I don't know, controlling her." Riley tried to reason.
"We think Buffy may have been becoming too inquisitive. That she was getting close to something that Professor Walsh was trying to hide. Do you have any idea what that might be?" Giles asked softly knowing Riley was on edge right now.
"What about 314? Maybe that's it." Buffy asked wide-eyed.
"Maybe she was trying to test you. What if it was only a drill?"
"Then why did she tell you I was dead? Riley it wasn't a test." Buffy argued softly hoping her boyfriend understood.
"See I've heard rumours that the Initiative isn't all that we've been told. That, um, secretly they're working toward some darker purpose, something that might harm us all." Giles once more said softly.
"No! That's - that's not what happens there." Riley denied completely.
"Riley!" Buffy shouted to reason with him.
"I would know!" He shouted.
Buffy closed her eyes to calm down; shouting would get them no-where. "No one is sure of anything, ok? We're just trying to sort it out."
"I can't be here. I'll sort it out on my own." Riley shook his head as he headed for the door.
"Riley." Buffy called to him.
"No. Just, I'm sorry." And he left leaving Buffy to look down at the ground.
Initiative Headquarters, Sunnydale, CA
Saturday, 18th January 2009, 06:34 PM
The night before, Buffy had realised that something was wrong with Riley when she was at Willy's Bar to get information on the Polgara demon she suspected had killed a young boy given the way he had been murdered. Riley had entered and started demanding that Buffy explain everything and why she was socializing with demons of all things. In the end he held a gun at what appeared to be an old woman who started to cry from being threatened, Buffy had realised at that moment Riley's hand had been shaking furiously. After calming the man down, Buffy had taken him to Xander's basement where they were all hiding and tried to help him but with no result as Riley was just too shaky and sweating for some reason. They had also found out that Maggie Walsh had been killed by a weapon similar to the Polgara demon which put everyone on edge. So she had decided that the next day, Xander and she would go down to the Initiative to find out what happened to her boyfriend.
Buffy was currently eavesdropping on a conversation between a scientist and Dr. Angelman while Xander stands by her looking for anyone who may find them.
"How many of the men are still out, the longer they go without their meds…" Dr. Angelman trailed off as he spoke to the scientists who gave a nod in understanding what he meant.
"Everyone's off their schedules because of the professors' death."
"It's dangerous I don't want to think about the damage our guys could do under the stress of withdrawal especially since they won't understand what's happening to them. These guys don't know they've been getting meds in their food so we better get them in here stat." Dr. Angelman ordered.
"We've located all but a few. The last ones were in pretty bad shape but we stabilized them."
"But Finn wasn't one of them, right?" Dr. Angelman asked with furrowed brows.
"No."
"Find him. He's the one I care about. He's too important to our work to lose now." Dr. Angelman ordered at once.
"Indeed."
"Keep me posted. I'll be in records." The scientist gave a nod and walked off as Dr. Angelman entered a room with his card. Buffy and Xander managed to follow him before the door shut, but what they didn't see was a blur speed past them into the room.
Buffy walked up to the good Dr. and grabbed him by his shirt. "Now I don't generally like to kill humans. But I've learned that it pays to be flexible in life." She threatened.
"I was wondering when you'd turn up." Dr. Angelman said with no surprise but a bit of fear.
"Oh darn!" Buffy mock-sulked as she took of the glasses she wore to dress up as a scientist. "So this isn't a surprise." She set the glasses down. "Now you can tell me what you did to Riley and after that we can take a tour of room 314."
"Somebody's coming, you know. I'm sure they've already seen you on the security monitors." The Dr. warned.
Before Buffy could respond, Riley entered. "Monitors are non-functional at this time, sir. Went down about ten minutes ago."
"What! I didn't do that." Buffy said a bit shocked.
"Thank god for small favours and we'll worry about the details later, hunh, Buff?" Xander said with a grin.
"Finn, take this girl to the stockade immediately." Dr. Angelman ordered as he looked into Riley's eyes.
"Riley, he can tell us what we need to know. Maggie wanted me dead, didn't she?" Buffy tried to convince her boyfriend.
"She did." Dr. Angelman admitted after a moment before turning to Riley. "But understand the
Initiative has no interest in eliminating the slayer." He looked back at Buffy. "It was her own vendetta."
"Why? Spell it out for me! I feel an attack of dumb blonde coming on." Buffy demanded in her own way.
"I don't know." The man denied with a shake of his head.
Buffy grabbed a little tighter. "Well think harder!"
"It was the project." He said fearing for his life.
"Project? 314." Buffy interrogated with a glare to make sure he knew she was serious.
"It..." Dr. Angelman paused as he looked at Riley and back. "It escaped."
"That's enough!" Riley shouted tired of hearing what he was hearing. "You're making her sound like some psychopath. She wasn't like that! She was a brilliant woman!"
Dr. Angelman Looked at Riley and moved his hand downward in a take it easy gesture. "She was. It's not…"
"All she was doing was trying to help people and this is the way you want them to remember her!" Riley shouted once more as perspiration ran down his forward making his face look water has been splashed on it.
"Angelman said Walsh was feeding you drugs." Buffy told him seeing him shaking again.
Riley moved within arm's reach as Buffy let Angelman go. "You're doing this to me, aren't you?" Riley accused pointing at Buffy who looked hurt at the accusation. "This all started because of you."
"If you will just listen to me, I am trying to help you get to the truth." Buffy said exasperated.
"You want truth then tell me, what did you do to her Buffy?" Riley demanded once more as he grabbed her only to have her break the grip.
"Stop it! I didn't do anything." Again Riley grabbed her but once again, she broke the grip. "Riley stop! This isn't about us, everything that we need to know is here, and we just need to find out what was in 314." As she said that a commando's body dropped from a raised platform. Both looked up to see a creature that looked deformed and a mixture of all beings.
"That would be me." Adam said with a gruff voice.
"What the…?" Buffy muttered in shock.
"That's what killed the young boy." Buffy startled slightly and looked to her side to see Yoruichi. She was about to ask her a question when she heard Adam's heavy foots clanking on the platform.
"I've been thinking about the world. I wanted to see it, learn it." Adam stopped his pacing and looked down at the small group. "I saw the inside of that boy...and it was beautiful, but it didn't tell me about the world. It just made me feel. So now I want to learn about me. Why I feel? What I am?" He paused as he simply stepped off the platform and dropped about 3 meters. "So I came home." Adam placed his hand in one of his commando pants pocket and pulled out a disk with the letters 'Ad' printed on it. He then placed it into what looked like a slot on the metal plating of his chest causing him to lose focus for a second as if he was distracted. "I'm a kinematically redundant, biomechanical demonoid designed by Maggie Walsh. She called me Adam and I called her mother."
"Adam!" Angelman shouted in plea. "Maggie would want you to stand down."
"Yes. But I seem to have a design flaw." Adam said making Angelman pale in realisation. "In addition to organic material I'm equipped with GP-2, D-11 Infrared Detectors, A Harmonic Decelerator, plus D.C. Servo."
"She pieced you together from parts of other demons." Buffy said in horror at what type of person could do such a thing.
"And man. And machine. This tells me what I am, but not who I am. Mother wrote things down. Hard data, but also her feelings. That's how I learned that I have a job here. And that she loved me." Yoruichi couldn't keep the scowl off her face if she wanted to. The fact Humans were capable of creating such monstrosity proved they were no better than the demons that killed for no apparent reason. This Maggie Walsh sounded too much like Mayuri Kurotsuchi, Kisuke's old 3rd seat of his Division, and the experiments he would always want to do, and from what she had heard from Soul Society, he had become a Taicho of the Jūnibantai, only he became more sinister in his experiments.
"Why would someone even want to create such a thing?" The purple haired goddess whispered to herself, only low enough for Buffy to hear as the Slayer glanced at her and frowned wondering the same thing.
"She wasn't your mother and she didn't love you!" Riley shouted at the creature in front of them.
"Is that really the issue?" Xander asked, nervousness in his voice and for good reason, he was the only one there without abilities. While Riley may not have supernatural abilities like Buffy or god like abilities like Yoruichi, the man was still trained and very strong compared to the Scoobette.
"She made you because she was a scientist!" Riley ignored Xander and chose to defend Maggie's honour.
"Riley!" Xander whispered harshly.
Adam pulled another disk with the letters 'Fi' from his pocket on his trousers and inserted it in to his chest. "Riley Finn…" Adam started off.
"Stop! Those files-"
"Oh! Mother created you too." Adam interjected with genuine surprise on his face.
"Maggie's not my mother! I have a mother! A real-"
"A birth mother. Yes." Adam confirmed with a nod. "But after you met Maggie, she was the one who shaped your basic operating system. She taught you how to think, how to feel. She fed you chemicals to make you stronger, your mind and body. She said that you and I were her favourite children. Her art. That makes us brothers. Family." The hybrid said with a smile.
Riley stepped forward bristling with anger. "No! I'm not like you." He argued with a shake of his head before he gripped his chest as pain jolted through him.
"That's pain isn't it? Why? Because of your feeding schedule, the chemicals have been interrupted? Or do you miss her? Tell me."
"I'll kill you!"
"You won't. You haven't been programmed to."
"I cannot be programmed! I'm a man!"
"It's here." Adam said as held up a disk. "The plan she had for us. What happens. How it ends."
"No."
"Do you want to hear?"
"No!" Riley shouted in denial, knowing there was something but he didn't want to hear it. Riley pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Adam, but before he could take a shot, Adam efficiently disarmed Riley and knocked him away. Buffy quickly stepped in but a punch downed her. Riley rushed Adam and punched Adam in the face who responded with an uppercut sending Riley flying up in the air over a table. Xander ran in to push Adam but was pushed and thrown back into a wall. Buffy stepped back up to Adam and kicked him in the chest which the being seemed to shrug off and punched her in the face causing her nose to bleed.
Yoruichi deciding enough was enough and stepped in, pushed Buffy back out of harm's way and kicked Adam in the chest the same way as Buffy, but this time, Adam was pushed along the ground a good few feet. "Damn, you're more resilient than you look." The Shunshin said with a smirk.
Adam looked at her with a tilt of the head as Buffy, Riley and Xander stand up behind her. "I don't know you." He said with a curiosity laced in his voice. "Who or what are you?"
Yoruichi grinned as she cracked her neck. "Yoruichi Shihōin and I'm a Shinigami."
"Shinigami?" Adam questioned before he reached into a pocket and pulled another disk out with the letters 'Na' on them. He placed the disk in his chest and blinked rapidly as if processing the information. "Ahh, now I see. Naruto Namikaze, 209 years old, appeared in Sunnydale over 50 years ago. His powers are unknown but he is a great threat to me. He is the only known Shinigami to appear in Sunnydale."
The group stood stunned that Adam knew about Naruto of all people. Riley however was confused by his girlfriend and friends expression. "Who the hell is this…Naruto?"
Adam looked at him with what seemed to be a smirk. "You don't know? He was Buffy Summers lover at one time; or rather that is what the data says." Riley looked at Buffy confused having never heard her speak of him before even though he had heard of Angel.
"How do you know about Naruto?" Yoruichi asked dangerously.
"Mother, took it from Richard Wilkins office. He seemed to have had a great interest in Naruto Namikaze's powers. But I never expected to have met another Shinigami." Adam said in fascination.
Suddenly there was pounding on the door as commando's tried to get in, in their distraction, the group didn't have time to do anything as Angelman made a run for it only for Adam to skewer the man in the middle of the chest. "Doctor." Retracting his skewer he let the Doctor drop to the ground, dead.
"Damn it." Yoruichi swore as she saw the pool of blood growing around the man.
"Thank you. This has been...very interesting." Adam said as he walked up some stairs towards the platform he started from. Adam reached up towards a vent as shots pierced the door. Buffy moved to Riley's side and put his arm around her seeing him getting dizzy, at the same time the commandos broke open the door.
"Riley. Are you ok?" Buffy asked concern clearly in her voice.
"Secure the room." One of the military guys shouted.
"We got a demon in here. It escaped through that vent." Xander called out to the military guys.
"It's not the Polgara, it looks sort of half man." Buffy added after a second,
"Right and you just happened to be in the neighbourhood." Forrest's sarcastic voice sounded as he walked up to them.
"She's telling the truth. I saw it. It killed Angelman. Go...now." Riley confirmed what Buffy said.
"He needs to go to a hospital." Buffy told them, gesturing to Riley.
"We'll take it from here." Forrest said with a snarl.
"I'm going with him." Buffy basically ordered.
"It's a military hospital." Forrest growled at the Slayer.
"No."
"Back off. We take care of our own around here, understand?" Forrest growled as two commandos lowered their rifle weapons and aimed them at Buffy. Two more were beside them.
"Buffy." Xander whispered as he looked at the guns unsure of what to do.
Forest and Graham each took one of Riley's arms and helped him up. "Get them out of there." Forrest growled at the commandos.
Yoruichi walked up to Buffy and Xander and placed his hands on their shoulder. "We should get out of here."
"You're not going anywhere." One of the commandos said.
"Sorry but we are." Yoruichi said with a grin and just like that they were gone. Now they had to find a way to defeat Adam.
Hueco Mundo
Hidden Cave
A Week Later
"So you've finally found us."
Deidara, Kakuzu and Kisame stood in the centre of a large cave facing the entrance where Naruto Namikaze and Isabella Peleira stood. They had only just found them after intense searching after Naruto had used his Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to scour the Menos Forest from top to bottom.
Naruto unsheathed his Zanpakuto and smirked. "Yes and it's finally time that you all die." As soon as the words left his mouth, everyone had unsheathed their blades and got into their stance, ready for anything. Kisame's Zanpakuto was a standard katana but slightly large in width with a simple cross guard, with a simple circular frame and a blue handle. Kakuzu's Zanpakuto was similar only the handle was black and Deidara's was yellow and white.
"Let's go wild."
To Be Continued in the Next Chapter – Chapter 11: Akatsuki Meets It's End!
Anyway I hope you guys liked this chapter.
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