Natsu flew into a shunpo and made a leap over the shadow's shoulder; one executed to near perfection that even Yoruichi would approve of the elegance. The shunpo was not nearly as fast as it needed to be but it was good enough for the unprepared shadow that couldn't keep up with the sudden movement. Natsu tumbled over her shoulder as she landed on the other side and proceeded to somersault a few times as she didn't account for her own velocity and horrible history of landing awkwardly when using high speed shunpo. She could manage her body just well enough to re-organize her lanky body so that she could push off her re-aligned legs and direct herself the right way. As she spun like a fan on a ceiling, she grabbed at her sword and came to face her opponent again. She launched herself upright as quick as possible to defend against the incoming slam of the arrancar's sword against her own. Now on one knee, she pushed up with the leg that she had just been able to bring up and using her momentum she heaved Sombro as far away as she could with a swing of her zanpakuto.

In the clear, Natsu got back onto her feet and stared at the small jitters in her arm. If her hypothesis wasn't confirmed before, it definitely was now from the quivers of contracting muscles in her sword arm. The shadow had increased strength, and now it was even more than the last time. The change was probably from Sombro itself and not her own physical form; especially if Sombro's ability came from the release of the sealed state. Her eyes went back over to the prowling figure and they clashed swords again as they swapped sides, though needless to say it was impossible to tell since they glided along the same white landscape.

Slipping slightly in the sand, Natsu used her hand to catch herself on the ground, leaning her weight heavily onto her arm as she awkwardly dragged her sword to clatter again. Noticing that Sombro was digging its second hand into the hilt of its sword, Natsu dropped her hand and thumped against the sand back first. As the grains splattered up around her, she cut through them as she shifted her sword around so that she could support it like a bench-press bar above her head, as she lay prone on her back. Quickly, she followed through by sweeping her leg up and kicked the arrancar, who now loomed over her, back into the sunnier area of the desert and away from her.

Natsu couldn't spend any time staring up at the fake sun above her as she was forced to scramble back onto her feet. Her breaths felt like gushes of water when she was dehydrated as she pushed gulps down into her lungs. But instead of drowning, she tried to keep the breaths slow as she breathed out through her nose, so that she could calm her heart that had unfortunately picked up its pace. She just had enough time to prevent a swell in her reiatsu, before her eyes, which roved over Sombro, triggered another bought of heavy movements.

It was a physical type of play and even her teeth felt like they were straining as she felt them grind together. Her eyes blurred as she tried to keep up with all of Sombro's movements which were now a variety of sword-play and hakudo. In a way, this sort of fighting was giving her enough time to think about the situation as a whole. The body of her enemy was a shadow that reflected any of its hits back on her, while also being able to inflict its own attacks onto her body. This was a characteristic which held true even as Sombro took over direct control of her shadow as apparent by the cuts that were beginning to line her body. Not to mention, Sombro was also a decent fighter from the numerous amounts of bruises or cuts that she was adopting from its abuse.

Sombro got a good knock into her sternum and Natsu flew back along the sands, taking a small tumble over the heels of her feet, as a deep breath left her lungs.

This ain't good…

Natsu raised her eyes slightly, as she found herself locking eyes with what should have been the reflection of her own honey-auburn freckled eye color but was nothing but the color of black. The brief moment transpired in no more than half a second as Natsu was just about able to recollect her breath before they fell into another volley of sword play. The arrancar easily could outmaneuver her and outdo her in terms of strength with the amount of hits that she was taking. It was also apparent that light didn't seem to effect its abilities as they were traveling over the sands in their fight.

"Who knew fightin' yaself could be so tough." Natsu choked out as she wiped at some of the blood that was streaming down her lip from the knock to the center of her ribs. "Ya got pretty silent all o' a sudden. Don't tell me ya done talkin'."

"I see no point in talking to a soon to be corpse." The arrancar swiped the sword off to the side in the same way its words came out slightly careless and bland.

Natsu smirked slightly and steady her sword in front of her. "O' ya jus' worried tha' I migh' fin' somethin' out… Picked up on ya previous tip quick didn't I?"

"You picked up on nothing, Shinigami."

"Ya sure 'bout tha'?" Natsu jokingly swayed her sword about from left to right. "Tha' sword ya 'ave ain't mine. Ya said ya knew all ma abilities an' ya made it sound like when ya took ma shadow ya gained ma 'bilities… 'Ow come ya ain't usin' em then?"

"Using?"

"Tsk, tsk, arrancar. Gotta 'plain everythin' ta ya?"

Natsu smirked again as they fell into another volley. Obviously this arrancar wasn't completely aware of Shinigami abilities to the fullest extent. Probably because Aizen wanted to get rid of the poor sucker and was just using Sombro to get his ends. As if a spotlight had landed on her opening, Natsu took it and finally ended up getting a long, useful slash through Sombro's chest to which the arrancar quickly backed away from its own upcoming attack to tend to its wound. There was a groan from the arrancar, who slumped slightly in pain, and then she was also hissing as the cut appeared on her chest. She looked down to see the three diagonal slashes that she had ended up with which was the only sign that Sekhmet wasn't completely awake yet.

Annoyin' thang ya ar'

Shut up

Ya shoul' be 'wake 'lready ya slo'poke

Natsu cut off whatever growl Sekhmet could release as she turned around slightly and then gestured to the wound. She refrained from stupidly patting at it, which in an Ikkaku-like move would have proved her "superior pain thresh hold", which she didn't actually have. She was much better at admitting to her screaming unlike Ikkaku who left the nurses unprepared. "This wha' I mean'…. None ya cuts 'ave been replicatin' which means ya ain't usin' tha 'bility... Then 'gain is not like ya need to really 'cause I get stuck wit' 'em anyway."

"I will give you praise then Shinigami." The arrancar adjusted slightly as the shadowy figure tried to work around the deep slash it had collected on its chest now. "Not only did you land a very good hit on my body but you are also correct in your assumption."

Natsu let out a small chuckle as she dragged the tanto from her back. Sombro shifted slightly, edging to a perpendicular stance so that it could protect its now damaged chest, and avidly looked at her movements as it coated its dark eyes on her hand's every twitch. With a generous flick of her wrist, a nervous twitch on Sombro's part as the arrancar got ready to fly if she threw the tanto, Natsu whimsically held the piece up to her chest. When she had more reiatsu, like in this moment, the rate of healing was also much faster, so closing up cuts and deep gashes was possible even on the battle field even at the increased rate of losing energy. The heat sizzled up instantly and she could feel the cells as they began to close up.

"Wh- Are you healing your wounds?" the arrancar spluttered slightly, before reminding itself that taking a step forward was definitely not the best fighting tactic; especially in situations when you don't have all the details.

Natsu smirked slightly and shook the tanto even as she kept it close to her chest. "I suppose ya jus' thought it was a tiny dagger I carried 'bout wit' me…. An' it looks like ma otha 'ssumption was correct."

"What other assumption?"

"Anythin' I do ta ma person ain't reflected ta ya." Natsu gestured slightly over to the wounds that still had the arrancar hunched over in its fighting stance. "So~," she whistled out, "tha means that tha true potential of ya ability is jus' stealin' a body. Tha' replicatin' thin's really 'nonyin' as 'ell but... Tha only question remainin' is if I can live withou' ma shadow. Ya think i's possible?"

"You've grown far too arrogant Shinigami." The arrancer jeered as picked itself up until it now stood upright, to overcompensate for its weakened form, and pointed its sword as it readied for a charge, much like how a bull paws at the ground before it begins tearing through the stadium to get at the matador. "There is no way that you can beat me with your powers even if you are capable of healing yourself. Our power difference is too much."

Natsu let out a sigh. She shut down Sekhmet who had begun to let out a furious, trembling words and was undoubtedly scratching at her inner brain to try at get at her floating thoughts which had been a passing wind in her inner world before she closed them off. She tightened her grip on the hilt of her zanpakuto and then on the tanto. For a brief moment she paused, the moment actually freezing as she tried to think if this really was the best option. Only her breaths and how the smallest quiver of her tanto came from the shake of her hand was before her eyes. The flash of sun over her sword, which directed the ray right to her eyes, blinded her for a moment; from the frenzy of unwelcome thoughts of how to live her life. The darkness behind her eyes silenced anything else that she could have been thinking; like how there's an unusual peace once the sun sets and all through the night, that is not there when the sun rises. Life has to sleep too.

Righ'... I made this decision.

Natsu thrust the tanto straight into her chest. Sekhmet let out an outraged roar as it growled out its complaint about damaging an already hurt body, but Natsu dug the sharpened tanto further into her body. It split through her skin easily enough with only a small cough from her at the feeling of something gutting her. She could hear the squelch of blood and the small pop of a few air bubbles in her blood as she continued to push the dagger into her chest. The blood trickled down instantly as she dug it in a bit further so that it stood in place until she knew it was really best to stop. The short dagger was in the area just over her left breast and close to her heart; near the very valves that helped with blood flow along the body. And now the film that Sekhmet naturally set up, was being set up externally as she felt the wrap of the light red, see-through coffin come around her. Natu's hand traveled away from the hilt immediately and implanted a strong kaido over the organs inside her body and added a double bakudo over her heart within a few seconds before she dropped again to grasp at her zanpakuto with two hands.

"Are you nuts?" Sombro's words came out a bit twisted as Natsu's brain automatically focused on the way her body was trying to push out her tanto; as if part of herself was a virus that shouldn't be there. Sombro continued talking, even as she eyed the area where she had created her own incision and the unusual calmness that took over her heart rate even upon seeing a tanto sticking out of her chest. "Do you not care for your body?"

"My body's treat'ble." Natsu shrugged slightly and stared at the red film that was finishing covering her entirely and trapping in a bit more of the sweat that had worked up. Her zanpakuto was pretty close to waking up but she'd make do. "Is yer's?"

"What?"

"Is ya body healable? 'Cause I ain't got time ta 'old back on ya," Natsu proclaimed a bit more as she raised up her two hands, with her zanpakuto swiveled so that it created a bridge between them. Her fingertips brushed together as her two hands created a hole for her to focus the reishi and for her to correctly aim her hadou.

"Wa - Wait. You can't be serious! You're seriously going to destroy me? Your body will never withstand the impact!"

"Boke." Natsu jeered slightly as she cocked her head with her smirk fashioning back onto place. "Ya really don't know anythin'… A heala don't care 'bout thin's they know they can 'eal. Only 'bout things tha' otha's say can't 'eal."

"You'll die Shinigami."

"So will ya….. Bakudo 61: Rikujokoro." The six beams of light immediately locked down onto the target as the arrancar screamed out, struggling in vain for an escape. Natsu only shook her head slightly as she let out another puff of air which helped her to focus on bursting hanki around her and breaking the bakudo so that she could finish off her attack. "Hadou 73: Soren Sokatsui."

She heaved up blood immediately and then dropped down onto her knees. Everything swerved around her instantly and her vision blackened out as she tipped over the side. Over the small lumps of white that were in her vision, she made out the large piles of steam that were coming up from the area that her opponent had been in. She let the image drop out as the light of the sun beamed down on her and Sekhmet whispered that she would take care of everything else.

Sounds familia'

This time her dream was something just a bit different than anything she had experienced before. She vividly was looking around for something in the beginning. What she was searching for wasn't known even to her, but her head was flopping around and around from side to side, before laying still. Her own consciousness recognized her hand slightly as it raised before her eyes. For a brief moment she was staring startled at the stubby form of her fingers and the fat palms, before that surprise became subdued. Yet the dream version of her was still staring at her stubby hand with half awe and half curiosity. She knew it was a hand but only her subconscious knew, since it seemed that the dream version of her wasn't capable of actually recognizing the limb that was before her. Dream-her stretched and flexed it several times, gripping at empty air, before shaking it vigorously, before she was moving around to look at other things since she grew bored of seeing 'if it was possible to shake off a hand'.

Her eyes teetered around and everything was upside down but this version of her didn't know that. To this dream version of her - the baby version of her, now that Natsu could fully comprehend the situation - everything in the world around her was exactly how it should be. There was no correct way, and no wrong way. It took her a long moment of rocking before she was flopping down onto her stomach having gotten there from her back. Her head took in the door or what she actually saw as something weird and dark looking with something that was shining that was attached to it. It was blocking something and even her baby version brain somehow collected that people entered from that area. People would just show up and appear from somewhere just outside of that area.

Her limbs were hard to control but somehow she parked her thighs up close to her chest and was pushing up. The ground beneath her felt shaky even though she knew it should have been straight and easy to walk along. She found herself sticking her arms out and her body was tilting forward as she teetered forward a bit from the excess weight. Her legs went flying in a tumble and she rammed down onto the ground again with her entire stomach going up into aches and her knees hurting like they had been cut up by a numerous thumb tacks.

She let out a bushel of whimpers, the rattling going into the back of her throat just on the cusp of being released before she found herself looking at the weird plank of wood that let people appear and disappear. Her tears dried up immediately and her attention was so intent on the weird contraption before her that she forgot her cries. She was back on her feet with that teetering jumble until her weight was flying her forward too fast for her legs to keep up. Faced with a dilemma of not being able to control her legs, she let out a small shrieking gurgle and watched as the ground grew too close to her face again.

Thin, yet sturdy, hands instantly swooped in and they propped her up before she could hit the ground. But, of course, her baby brain wouldn't recognize the fingers exactly for what they were. Her wailing, as if cries would halt her body in mid-fall, stopped for only one thing. It was within the moment, even her small brain could instantly recognize that scent of cinnamon trolling out and overtaking the air and the strength beneath her. Her wide eyes blinked several times before she let out a cheering chirp and thrust her hands out in her tilted state. Her pudgy fingers sank down into the folds of fabrics; under which her subconscious, adult brain knew were very, knobby knees. The rest of her body was brought up underneath her and she found herself now standing up properly with the help of the strong hands around her torso.

Her wide eyes stared up immediately and she cheered again at the brown eyes and the wide grin that was staring down at her from it hunched over frame. The long wisps of blonde hair fell over his shoulder and her fingers immediately fell into it and gave it a yank. A grumbled series of words left his lips immediately and she knew then that she had tugged harder than she intended. But her baby brain in the dream didn't seem to know that as her gummy hands continued to tug at the hairs in her clutch. She was taken up and the air danced around her as she stared in wonder that she was somewhere else her pea-sized brain couldn't recognize at all. She was just in arms, and there was nothing below her. Yet, instead of being scared of being high up, she knew what was going to come next.

Natsu forced her eyes open instantly and stared up at the bright, blue sky above her. A quick glance around told her that she was still in the white sands and not back in another memory, because there were too many to count of her staring up at blue skies and she didn't want to recall anything more traumatic. That would just be an imposition of her brain on her emotions. Instead, Natsu was almost happy to see that she was still stuck in Hueco Mundo in the greedy fingers of "great lord" Aizen. The image of the painted sun was somewhere behind her, so it didn't blare down on her, and she couldn't feel the heat, but the brightness was the same. She took in long breathes as she cleared out her vision to take in the stream of fake light that was coming down toward the ground and the way that the clouds were moving about; or at least giving the illusion of moving about as she continued to stare at them.

You're still very injured, Natsu… That was a very dangerous thing that you did.

… Whateva, tha 'rrancar is dead so it don't matta.

It does, since your reiryoku went wild while you were passed out. I was able to get it settled and heal up a good portion of the damage.

Ma reiatsu?

There but you should take it easy if possible. Another battle and you'll be drained within only a few minutes of fighting.

Natsu let out a small groan as she pulled herself up from what felt like ten thousands pounds of water. The gashes that she once had along her body were healed up for the most part from the previous work just before her final move, so they no longer were hurting intensely. But they strained as she was stretching them with each movement she made to sit up. Even still with the dull throb of pain, Natsu continued to inch her fingers up and gave the tanto still plunged in her chest a sharp tug. As the red film around her body disappeared, her entire body fell back over into the padding of the sand as her body seized and continued to twitch from the pain of the harsh rip. The harsh convulsion sent ripples from the other cuts and the waves that she was under took long minutes, stretched like hours, to settle.

When she was done surfing along the residuals of pain and unconsciousness, a sharp call from Sekhmet keeping her from falling over into her memories, Natsu continued with a mental check of her body. None of the organs had been damaged from the layers of bakudo she had put on them, and then Sekhmet's healing which had kicked in instantly around the kidou. She could even feel that her ribs were not cracked but they were still incredibly tender.

Moving would be a problem though. There was a deep seated weariness in her bones as when she attempted to push herself up so that she could do a visual assessment. The blood rush was instantaneous, having her see black spots, as her head swayed and slumped every which way trying to stay upright. Her limbs quivered from the simple idea of moving and her brain was rolling through ideas like a tortoise moved towards its destination, so eventually she decided just to stay laying down and do what she could from her prone position. A few words escaped her lips, as she tried to gather strength into her fingers so she could get through the moment alone.

Her reiryoku may have been settled which was keeping any worsening pain away, but her reiatsu was just about under what Sekhmet had said because of the actual healing process. Sekhmet's healing ability was a trade off of using her own reiatsu to heal herself. It essentially wore her out by focusing on the natural healing process of her own body and speeding that same process up to fix her. Ironically the process was a lot slower than how the process worked on another person.

She searched through her sleeve and then dug out the medical bag. Her healing water, unfortunately, was something that wouldn't actually work in this instance because it would be repeating the same process that the tanto had attempted to do. In this case that would be redundant because the tanto had already fixed as much as it could using her own reiatsu to do so. The water didn't give her back any reiatsu because of its diluted nature and would barely heal her at all.

She drifted into the bag and collected up antiseptic. She immediately uncovered her wound by squirming until the top of her shihakusho was off of her shoulders; an unfortunate necessity even as her body throbbed from the movements. Then she doused the stabbed area with a cotton cloth that she had spilled the antiseptic haphazardly on. She blew out slowly as her body inflamed with the heavy alcohol seeping in. She dabbed at it a few times before she left the small cloth on her wound, as her hand scurried around her bag to where she knew her other materials were. She tilted her head just enough to make sure that she was collecting a needle and her dis-solvable thread, which she brought up over her head to stare at as she lay back down on the sands. Her fingers quivered restlessly as they stayed above her and she let out several curses before she was able to get the thread through the eye of the needle.

Natsu moved back to the side and gripped onto the tanto which she stuffed into her mouth to bite down on. She wiped her hand as best as possible on her shihakusho and then tapped around until she found the wound, immediately ridding it of the cloth of antiseptic that covered it. Using one hand, Natsu squeezed the skin as tight as possible together and then began the long process of sewing the hole closed. She ground down onto the hilt, feeling a bit of her saliva upchucking in her throat at the pain she was imposing on herself. Her fingers slipped every so often and the needle would scrap along her skin with her blood and sweat slicked skin. Even in her sleep she had let out a lot of heat and she was coated in a fine sheen of sweat already.

Fuckin' sucks…. Why couldn't ya be able ta 'eal me prop'ly?

Because that would just mean you could avoid death.

…. Nah. It would jus' mean I couldn't get mort'ly wounded.

Natsu let the needle rest against her chest as she finished with the sewing and gathered up more breath through her nose so that she could finish patching herself up without passing out again. A few puffs of black smoke rose up before and she couldn't stop the "tsk" and her eyes from rolling at the sight. Her fingers reached up to take the tanto from her mouth after a few more moments of grinding and then they flopped down onto her stomach with a small hollow thud. She dragged herself to the surroundings and felt all the reiatsus around which included the serious injured Chad and Rukia, as well as the new addition of Orihime.

Looks like we're gonna 'ave ta retreat.

You can't make a garganta at this rate, Natsu.

Shudup.

Natsu let out another groan and then pushed herself up from the sand. The world swerved around in circles and she shut her eyes as her body wanted to tumble backwards. She kept herself up with jittering arms, and breathed through the intense wave of nausea that was hitting her. She heaved up another long pump of black smog as she hacked out as much as she could with more forced coughs. She felt the pulse from her lungs and then she swung over to the side as she let out an actual dry heave of the liquids in her body.

Her eyes opened slightly and she looked up ahead of her so as not to look at the drear, watery, vomit that was below her. The desert came to a stand still and Natsu gave a slow nod as she drew back until she was sitting in a 'W' along the said. She shifted around and got the bag to her front and sorted through it. She drew out her scissors and gave the needle with the remaining thread a snip, before she was packing everything up again and hiding it into her sleeve.

She collected up her tanto and slipped it behind into the sheath and then wobbled over towards her katana which she also placed into the sheath. She couldn't make out any enemy reiatsus around so she would take the risk of putting away. It would give her just a bit longer to collect up some strength. She blinked several times and then brought out her medical bag again.

Her fingers grasped on to a small bottle that she kept towards the back of the bag, since she almost had no need to make use of the stamina pills. She slept so often that she was constantly in a restful state with her reiatsu pretty close to full, even if her face betrayed that fact. She took out two burgundy pills with the skull and crossbones painted on top of them and popped them into her mouth. It wasn't so much that energy swept back into her, but that she felt the weight lessen from all around her body.

She sorted that small container back into the side pocket and then maneuvered around for another container. This one contained reiatsu boosters which were only to be used during emergency situations if the reiatsu was too low to even attempt doing a restoration. Kind of like an electric shock to the systems of the body which help convert reishi into reiatsu. They didn't always work properly because most of the time the pills had a less than 1% possibility of infusing properly with the receeding reiatsu, or the shinigami's will was already gone. They were administered simply because of procedure but almost none of the members of the fourth division really believed in the potential of the pill.

Worth a shot… Seein' as I ain't even close ta dyin' an' ma reiatsu should be okay fo' this.

Will it not damage you, Natsu?

Ya focus on restin' fo' now…. Don't know when I'mma gonna 'ave ta figh' 'gain.

…. I will do that then.

Natsu popped the solitary pill into her mouth and chewed it up as she stuffed the container back into the slot. She zipped the bag again and then shrunk it so that she could get it into her sleeve. She felt a small crackle in her reiryoku and spat out a slob of saliva tinted with that black color. Then she coughed out another long train of black smoke. Her reiryoku spluttered back to life and she punched down on it repeatedly until it settled with the force. She'd have to figure out if that was because of the pill or if it was just the luck of timing. But that could wait until much, much later. Preferably when she's slept off the past few months of work.

She calmed down her breath to a steady stream and looked at the slipped shihakusho top. With the heat that she was producing, it was better to keep off anything that would contain the heat around her body and make the symptoms worse, and with the wrapping around her chest there was no need for any concern about flashing anyone. She realigned the straps of her sheaths so that they were along her bare stomach and then let the fabrics of her top fall down to her hips. Then she got up from the dunes of sand and made her way back over to the bridge that she had dropped down from.

A/N: Yeah... I think I mentioned before that Natsu was a really reckless fighter. She's really a sucky strategist. I don't know why I made her that way. Maybe I just thought she wouldn't have any patience for things that got in her way; particularly from interrupting her naps. Probably when someone sees her with the most energy with her trying to escape her responsibilities and such!

Now that I think about it, it's kind of ironic that she's so reckless and hates fighters like Ikkaku since characters like our favorite baldy don't really use strategy either. I guess that makes her a hypocrite. Hm~~~ Who knows, where that really comes from. What do you guys think?

I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Let me know. Please comment/review/ask questions/say 'hi'. Love hearing from you all.