Chapter 9 – The Power of the Tailed Beasts: Kurama vs. Ulquiorra

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[Karakura Town Outskirts, Human Realm]

Recap:

Kurama stood before the 4th Espada.

"Why don't we take this fight elsewhere, Ulquiorra?" Kurama asked the Espada, having heard the first converstion between the Arrancar and Naruto a copule of weeks earlier; Ulquiorra, without saying anything, simply used his Sonido to head to an area farther away from the town.

Current Time….

Kurama was speeding off to the area where Ulquiorra was waiting for him; with his natural speed surpassing that of most Shunpo Masters it didn't take him long to reach his opponent's location, a small forest clearing several miles away from town.

"Interesting..." Kurama thought to himself before he spoke to the 4th Espada.

"So tell me Ulquiorra... why did you agree to my request so easily?" Kurama asked as had expected his opponent to use the vicinity of the town as a psychological shield against him.

"Because if I had stayed too close to the town I would not be able to fight you with my full power, which it appears that I'll need to use if I hope to defeat you, shinobi," Ulquiorra said to his opponent, knowing that Aizen wanted to use the town to create the Oken. Although the Espada was right in proceeding with caution against his opponent he was totally unaware of what he was truly dealing with, though Kurama decided to change that.

"Heh, you Arrancars are totally clueless if you don't even know what I truly am; that goes for your little puppetmaster Aizen as well," Kurama chided getting a raised eyebrow from his opponent.

"What are you saying?" Ulquiorra asked as he unsheathed his zanpakuto.

Kurama simply smiled as he unsheathed his sword and stuck it to the ground; unlike Naruto's Kenja, Kurama's new blade is not zanpakuto but it is, however, able to be used against those who do wield them and it can still purify a hollow or perform the Konso thanks to certain things that Kisuke had done to this blade.

"I'm not a shinobi; I'm not even human. I was just given a human form," Kurama explained; he could sense that the Espada was rather shocked by this revelation, even if his facial expression didn't show it.

"What are you then, if you're not human?" Ulquiorra asked. Kurama's smile didn't leave his face as he pointed his right thumb at his chest.

"My name is Kurama and I am a Tailed Beast; you may know me as the Nine-Tailed Fox," Kurama declared; he smirked when he saw Ulquiorra's eyes widen in shock.

"If you're a Tailed Beast then that would mean that the Shinobi is-" Ulquiorra said before Kurama interrupted him.

"My Jinchuriki, and a very strong one at that," Kurama said as Ulquiorra prepared to release his zanpakuto.

"Imprison, Murciélago (Spanish for "Bat")," Ulquiorra said as a burst of black spiritual pressure with a green outline began to burst from and fall around Ulquiorra as green rain. Ulquiorra suddenly became bat-like in appearance; he now had large black bat wings on his back, his hair became longer and wilder, and the remains of his Hollow mask were now centered atop his head and with two large horns extending outward to the sides towards the front of the mask. The lines on his face became black, broad and more triangular while his fingernails lengthened; his Arrancar attire also became more form fitting and closed at the top while it was now more like a robe towards the bottom.

Despite the more menacing appearance and apparent increase in power, however, Kurama was not impressed.

"Is this it? Is that all the strength you can muster? Ulquiorra, you disappoint me; I don't even need one tail to defeat you if this is all you have. I only need to go this far," Kurama said.

Before Ulquiorra could question this Kurama rolled back the left sleeve of his shirt, revealing a seal that consists of the Kanji for Yin Release surrounded by a trigrams seal of sorts. Kurama built up some chakra in the palm of his hands and placed that hand on the seal, causing the seal to disappear. When that seal vanished Ulquiorra noted, in shock, that the Tailed Beast's power instantly doubled. The Espada then looked on shock as Kurama began to release his chakra which affected the Tailed Beast's body. His eyes became blood-red, with his pupils becoming slitted; his hair also changed to the same color while it grew to waist-length. His canine teeth became longer, turning into fangs, while his finger nails did same, turning into claws. Kurama's overall appearance resembled Naruto's Initial Jinchuriki Form and, as Ulquiorra was about to learn, it was more powerful than the Naruto used.

Kurama's chakra emanated all around him as he looked at Ulquiorra, who tried to unleash some sort of attack.

"Luz de la Lun-" Ulquiorra said as he tried to create some sort of green enegy javelin; unfortunately for the Espada Kurama moved right of him before he could lift his new weapon.

"Too slow," Kurama said as he grabbed Ulquiorra by the throat and pushed the Espada to the ground; the resulting collision between Ulquiorra and the ground left a giant crater several dozen yards wide, a scene of devastation that was only matched by the injuries that the Espada had just suffered.

"Are you done yet, Espada?" Kurama asked his opponent as he backed up; as Ulquiorra got up he held his injured left arm, his high-speed regeneration nullified by the foreign nature of Kurama's Chakra.

"I know you're holding back, Cifer; if you don't use you're full power against me you will die here," the Tailed Beast said as he keep attacking the Espada, who could barely dodge the Tailed Beast.

Ulquiorra realized that his opponent was right; the full power that Kurama refered to was, however, that the Espada did not want to use until he revealed it to Aizen. In the end, however, Ulquiorra decided that there was no way around it anymore.

"Very well then; if I cannot defeat you with this level, allow me to show you-" Ulquiorra said until both he and the Tailed Beast felt a sudden surge of spiritual pressure emante near Karakura Town.

"That's not an Arrancar; whatever this thng is, however, it needs to be dealt with now," Kurama thought to himself; while this new spiritual pressure was undoubtebly some sort of hollow it was too different from the Arrancars that Kurama had encountered so far to be one of them. It's greater power, however, was enough to concern the Tailed Beast.

Kurama turned to his opponent.

"You know I've gotten tired of fighting you so I'll finish this battle quickly," he said as he proceeded to release more of his chakra; this chakra soon enveloped Kurama, turning into a fiery red Chakra shroud that loosely resemled his true form... with one tail materialized similar to his jinchuriki's one-tailed form except that this version was more of a fiery gas than acidic bubbles.

"Is this truly the power of a Tailed Beast?" Ulquiorra thought to himself as considered his options.

"Here I come," Kurama said; before Ulquiorra could respond he was struck by a claw-like extension of Kurama's shroud; knocked back by the attack Ulquiorra immediately regained his footing and created a new energy javelin.

"Die," the Espada said calmly as he threw his projectile at the Tailed beast; the attack hit Kurama cleanly, enveloping him in a massive explosion. Believing his battle had ended Ulquiorra resealed his zanpakuto and prepared to go to Harribel's aid in her battle, a presumptive move on his part.

"Is that all you got, Ulquiorra?" the voice of Kurama asked, causing the Espada's eyes to widen.

Ulquiorra turned his head and was shocked to see Kurama, still enveloped in his red shroud, on his fours... completely unscathed.

"How did you-?" Ulquiorra asked before Kurama interrupted him.

"That attack was nothing more than an annoying bug bite compared to what I'm about to use on you," Kurama explained before he took a unnaturally big breath.

When Kurama began bloating he proceeded to let out a massive roar; having used his chakra to turn said roar into a massive shockwave Kurama intended to end this fight with this attack. The shockwave was massive, being as wide as a 100 yards and a matching height it easily enveloped Ulquiorra and large part of the forest behind him up to two miles. The attack leveled the trees like tooth picks, tossed around very large boulders like rag dolls for miles and left a trench in the ground 12 yards deep and 20 yards wide. Ulquiorra, who was caught in the middle of the blast, fared little better than the forest, having received several lacerations across his body; Ulquiorra's left leg was so badly mauled that he could barely stand on it.

Kurama came before the limping Espada.

"It's over, Ulquiorra; if you leave now I'll let you live. If you keep fighting, however, I'll have no choice but to kill you," Kurama declared; Ulquiorra stared back at him, still unwilling to fall back. While the Espada knew that he was outmatched by his opponent he had not received any orders to fall back and, unless that changed, he was compelled to continue this battle.

At this point in the battle, however, a Garganta suddenly opened behind Ulquiorra, suprising both him and Kurama; Kurama was further taken aback when a mysterious figure suddenly emerged from the portal. It was a man with black skin, purple hair and some sort of visor on his eyes, which appeared to be featureless and gave the impression that he was blind; he wore a sleeveless Arrancar jacket but, with no mask remnant on him and with the nature of his spiritual pressure, he was clearly no Arrancar.

"Ulquiorra, the mission is complete; have the other Espada fall back. Lord Aizen wants the analysis of the ninja's power as soon as possible," the man said, to which Ulquiorra nodded.

Kurama was confused; because of the nature of the altered seal Kurama could see, within his mind, what was happening to Naruto and, to be perfectly blunt, the blond-haired ninja was holding off his opponent and was not in danger of being captured anytime soon. If the Arrancars had gone to great lengths to lure out Naruto but were ending their "mission" without their target secured, then they clearly had a different goal in mind; if that was the case, then what was it?

Kurama looked intently at this mysterious man.

"What are your intentions?" Kurama asked as he prepared himself in case the man attacked him. The man turned his attention to Kurama as Ulquiorra left to go somewhere without saying anything else.

"That is none of your concern; you will find out soon enough, though," the man said as he reentered the Garganta; as the portal closed behind the figure Kurama, deciding not to pursue the man into an unknown territory, dissipated his transformation, reverting to his normal human form. As he retreived, and sheathed, his sword Kurama sensed the ominous spiritual pressure from earlier; to Kurama's shock, however, he could sense that this power had a familiar nature to it.

"This is not good at all; I need to find Naruto, help him end his fight, and deal with whoever or whatever this being is before something terrible happens," Kurama thought to himself as he went to aid his knucklehead Jinchuriki...

Next Time - The Meaning of Sacrifice: Naruto vs. Harribel, Part 1

EDIT: In most Fanfics where there are Bleach characters the authors use the Japanese translation of the names of the Arrancar's zanpaukto; I my case however, I will be providing the direct translation of those zanpakuto names from Spanish.

This warning is for those readers who manage to notice that I'm providing a translation differs from most authors.