Author's note: Thank you all so much for voting! I've decided; while the poll is blind to you, the reader, I am able to see who won. I am now closing the poll. Again, thank you so much for voting! But it is clear who won. And you will have to wait and see which universe it was that won.
Alright, then," I said cockily. While I was sure that I would lose the fight I would definitely give the old man a run for his money. I had, after all, the Rinnegan, Tailed Beast level chakra and knowledge of over a hundred different techniques, all of which could kill, or have some kind of effect that would help me defeat my opponent. I was sure that the observers were hesitant to call me a worthy opponent of the Captain Commander, but I would show them. I would show them that I was going to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I was all out of bubble gum.
Yamamoto approached me, and when he got within eighty feet of me the air seemed to ripple slightly. It was almost as if there was some kind of barrier, actually. "I have ordered the Kido corps to set up the strongest reiatsu suppressing barrier they have over the entire Sokyoku hill," we were at the only bridge that connected the rest of Seireitei. "The barrier is strong enough to suppress even my Bankai at full capacity," he said.
I rose my eyebrows in appreciative surprise. Wow, that's a very strong barrier. But then again, it is the secretive Kido corps that we're talking about here. They're supposed to be experts in all things Kido. So it was no wonder that they should be able to suppress even Yamamoto's Bankai.
Yamamoto turned around and put a hand on the rippling air. I saw that Ichigo especially was confused, and he turned and asked what was happening. Apparently the barrier was also sound proof, or at least somewhat, because I heard nothing, not even when I began to channel chakra through my ears. The only thing I heard was the Captain Commander's slight and calm breathing and my own. I cut off the flow of chakra to my ears. The barrier, after a while of having the Captain Commander's hand on it, got slightly more opaque, slightly less transparent. It took an off white yellow colour. But the large audience was still able to see through with ease.
Then the Captain Commander turned around after nodding to himself. His usually squinting eyes were open, showing only me that he had red eyes. But I believed that he wasn't exactly keeping his eye colour a state secret anyway, so never mind. "Are you ready, Takuma?" the man's old voice cut through the silence like that of a knife. Or a sword, in some cases.
I took a taijutsu stance, the one I had been taught by Zabuza, and was ready to perform any techniques that should be needed to defeat, or at least stall, the old man's attempts at winning a battle against me.
This was going to be a battle of the ages, and I was going to be one of the contestants.
"I'm ready, Captain Commander Genryuusai Shigekuni Yamamoto. The question should rather be, are you ready?" I smirked. I was confident on the outside. I was confident that I could give the over two thousand year old Captain Commander a run for his money.
On the inside I was sweating bullets of fear. I mean, this was the freaking Captain Commander of Gotei thirteen! He could wipe the floor with Aizen if he so desired. Alright, maybe not wipe the floor with Aizen, but Aizen himself had, or will, acknowledge the Captain Commander as a man to be feared and respected gravely.
The Captain Commander held up a hand. He then proceeded to take off the top of his Shinigami uniform, discarding his haori completely. It was probably going to be soaked, electrified, dirtied, cut up and burned – especially burned –, so why not just take it off? It seemed that the old man thought the same and had discarded it. "Let us start, Takuma," he said gruffly, his voice grave and otherwise daring me to oppose him.
I removed my smirk immediately and nodded. "Yes, let's," I answered, and resumed my ninjutsu and taijutsu focused stance.
I wondered at that moment if genjutsu would work on him. But to be fair, I wouldn't use genjutsu unless it would save me the battle or save me an arm or something.
"Reduce all creation to ash, Ryuujin Jakka!" he growled. The fire that then erupted from his sword that was hidden in his staff completely evaporated the wood that usually covered his sword. The ensuing fire was so large, so incredibly huge that licked the top of the strongest barrier of the Kido corps.
However, I felt no heat from it. I felt nothing. I had a thought all of a sudden. It was an impossible thought, but hey, you never get anywhere without trying. I brought up a hand and reached out with a hand towards the raging fire that was probably supposed to intimidate me. It did work to intimidate me, however. The fire burned with such ferocity that I thought that the Captain Commander had already gone Bankai without giving me the courtesy of telling me.
I wanted to absorb the fire, to use the Preta Path's ability to absorb and devour chakra. It, as already stated, was an impossibility. I mean, the Preta Path was supposed to absorb chakra, not reiatsu or reiryoku.
It didn't work.
All I got was a burnt sleeve. I didn't feel the effects of the fire on my flesh, but looking at my hand, I saw that it was steaming slightly. Well, the fire had to burn something, so why not the liquid that I was sweating tonnes of? I was scared by the old man. No, not scared. Terrified was more like it. I didn't know what had come over me. I wanted to give him a run for his money, and I was getting that wish. Perhaps... perhaps I needed to neutralize it with my killing intent.
It was an idea that as soon as it crossed my mind I did it. I let loose the killing intent, removing every mental limiter and blocker I had and throwing everything I had towards Yamamoto's general direction.
As if in a great sweep of a tornado, the fire around me within a radius of about thirty feet was swept into the air and dissipated into nothingness, as if the thing that supplied oxygen to the fire was swept away. As if it had the oxygen and the fire had been blown away by an invisible force.
Thank god for killing intent. I looked back at the old man Captain Commander, but he wasn't surprised for some reason. He was squinting his eyes again, but I could tell he was looking at me with calculating eyes. He was measuring my ability, or what he could measure without me using any techniques. And I guessed that he thought that he didn't like what I was showing. I hadn't stepped away from my taijutsu stance, so I was in good hands, as long as I took myself calmly forward without as much as a wince of fear.
Seemed like my killing intent wind had worked. I was no longer terrified of the bearded man. I was no longer scared of my life.
I cracked my neck, holding a hand on the open side of it. I groaned. I liked cracking bones, whether it was my own or my opponent's. "Alright, let's get started," I yelled over the roar of fire. I was sure that Yamamoto heard me, too.
I got the sudden urge to duck. So I did, while making my body practically saturated with all the five elements of chakra, enhancing my body's reaction time to inhumane levels with lightning chakra, increasing the strength to the extreme with earth chakra, boosting my body's speed with extreme amounts of wind chakra, raising my joints' flexibility and mobility with water chakra, and lastly, make my punches and kicks have a poisonous after effect with fire chakra. I could use all natures of chakra at the same time. I was the very definition of a chakra monster taken human form, just that I was one hundred percent human, just with enhancements. In all departments. Yes, even my-
Dammit! I wasn't focusing! I ducked underneath a swing of a sword aimed to decapitate me from behind. Thank goodness for my lightning chakra and wind chakra. Hell, everything I was thankful for. I lashed out with my foot, and I felt it connect with something rock hard. But even if it was something rock hard I still managed to make my opponent skid backwards a great distance. Well, not taking the fact that I was channelling earth chakra through my entire body's muscles. I made Yamamoto slide back over eighty feet from the sheer force of my kick. And combined with the Asura Path's natural strength and speed giving ability, I was able to make an extreme impression on Yamamoto's psyche. And his physical body. Or spiritual. I didn't really know which was which any longer. But it didn't matter in the end. I was able to kick ass, even Yamamoto's wrinkly old ass. That was all that mattered to me at that moment.
I turned around to see if Yamamoto was any hurt. It would be good if I broke one or three of his ribs. Or in between, or even higher.
Never mind. As long as I was careful not to give into temptation to use the too powerful Mangekyo Sharingan techniques, I was good.
Yamamoto was in relatively good shape still, despite being on the business end of a Rinnegan user's earth chakra and Asura Path enhanced kick. Namely, me.
I was not going to get a lax guard, however. That could spell the end of that little all-out spar. Speaking of all out, maybe I should too. That way I would be able to maybe get Yamamoto to reveal his legendary and secretive Bankai. I wove through three hand seals, Dog, Boar, Dragon, and drew on more of my massive chakra reserves. I willed whatever moisture was left in the air, and promptly shouted, "Water release, Great Water Dragon!"
With that shout came a gigantic water dragon out of nowhere. It even touched the very top of the barrier as huge as it was. I willed it to roar, to intimidate, surprise and startle whomever had plans to harm anyone that was either important to me or important to the plot of Bleach. I was going to protect my loved ones, especially a sexy paper lady by the name of Konan, who also happened to be my lover, and Zabuza and Haku, and defend whomsoever was important to the plot of Bleach. And hopefully, with this battle, I too would be important to the storyline of Bleach.
The Water dragon did roar, and roar it did. The sound waves that originated from the great water dragon's throat were enough to blow away the highly spoken of and legendary flames of Ryuujin Jakka, clearing away any flames that were near either me or the water dragon itself.
Yamamoto stared at the water dragon, a dragon of Chinese descent, oddly reminiscent of Hitsugaya's ice dragon generated by his Zanpakuto's special ability. Its roar was lengthened, and then, when it finished, the flames took up the call of challenge. The flames too soared to the very top of the one kilometre tall barrier. But the flames couldn't hold their altitude, unlike the great and tangible water dragon that was feeding off my chakra. I wasn't about to run out of chakra any time soon, either, so I didn't mind it.
Then the water dragon lost height. Rapidly. Its glowing red eyes were staring directly into the red eyes of the Captain Commander, approaching the bald man with such speed that it almost broke the sound barrier.
Just in time to respond to the water dragon's quick approach the Captain Commander poured his spiritual power into his sword, lighting it up with extremely large amounts of fire. The fires were extremely intense, but they didn't instantly vaporize the chakra saturated water dragon upon contact. No, rather, it steamed heavily. It wasn't enough. The water dragon crashed into the place where the Captain Commander stood, splashing water everywhere, even as far as hitting all five of the barrier's sides, albeit harmlessly.
I stared warily at the place where the Captain Commander should have stood on, but realizing that he must have done, I rolled forward, and I heard a clang. It was like metal – a sword, perhaps – hitting solid rock. I quickly righted myself and looked where I had stood not a second ago. There, in his flaming, scarred glory was the Captain Commander, calmly looking at me with calculating eyes. Ryuujin Jakka was held steadily in one of his hands, flaming brightly.
Suddenly he vanished, and I used a sealless shunshin to move six feet forwards. It didn't take a toll on my chakra, at least not noticeably. Again, the sound of steel hitting solid rock could be heard over the massive flames that Ryuujin Jakka produced.
He disappeared again, and it was faster than anything I had ever seen. I couldn't follow his speed as the Captain Commander used Shunpo to disappear and reappear, zigzagging forwards towards me rapidly. I desperately brought up a hand to do a slight defence against Yamamoto's style of attacking, or even his sword. It was a pitiful thought, but I reacted immediately without thinking.
And then, when Yamamoto's Ryuujin Jakka was inches away from cutting off my hand, something strange happened.
A black rod with an ominous red glint on it appeared in my hand, effectively blocking Yamamoto's sword. I was too startled by the sudden appearance to take note that it was the same type of metal rod that Pain, or Nagato, used when he was alive.
Yamamoto jumped backwards after seeing the metal rod. I was staring at the rod, trying to take note of anything unusual that had happened. I checked my chakra reserves. No, nothing noticeable on the large scale. I still was at somewhere near full capacity, despite just having used the massive water dragon. I could still be considered a tailless Tailed Beast. The other tailless Tailed Beast from Water Country, from Kiri.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and refocused on the strange thick metal stick that was in my hands. I thought of Pain, or Nagato, and his apparent creation of those metal chakra receivers after half a second.
Then a wide grin spread across my face. This was going to be awesome.
I looked at the old man with a wide grin that I intentionally turned around to look mad. "So, no questions about how I managed to create this thing out of freaking nowhere?" I asked, sounding cocksure of myself. I wasn't, to be honest. I actually just wanted to scare, or otherwise intimidate, the bearded and scarred man.
Yamamoto's head shook from left to right. "No. Now let us continue, Takuma," he answered. I was sure that he was glaring at me with something akin to wonderment. He was without a doubt wondering where I got that incredibly hard metal stick from. I was wondering, too. But I thought immediately of the Creation Of All Things. It might just have had something to do with it. I mean, Nagato didn't have an apparent source as to where he got those rods from. So I simply assumed that it was Creation Of All Things technique that did that.
Now if I could just remember that feeling...
Got it down! It felt like simply channelling normal chakra, albeit willing something to appear into my hand. In this case a black with a red tint metal stick that was nigh unbreakable, if not.
I held out my free left hand and in it appeared the same black rod. It was the same length, too. Two feet long, and pointy at both ends. However, it felt as if my grip on the metal could not be broken at all, and it also felt as if I knew how to handle them. Perhaps the information on how to handle the half inch thick sticks were supplied by the Rinnegan, but to be brutally honest, I didn't care. All I wanted was results, toll on my chakra be damned to an eternity to hell.
I refocused back to the battle, just in time to see Yamamoto's Ryuujin Jakka approach me rapidly. I parried with one of the metal sticks, and sure enough, it didn't break, it didn't even get scratched, as dense as it was. Only a person in Sage Mode should be able to break it.
And thus began a deadly dance of blades. With a stab, a parry followed by the opponent. With each slash a block. The deadly dance lasted for a while, and considering that I had no experience with blades whatsoever – I was a ninjutsu specialist – I was doing pretty good against Yamamoto, who just so happened to be the best swordsman that the entirety of Soul Society had to offer. The knowledge of how to use the blades had flooded my brain instantly, and it had felt very much like it had come from my eyes. That I was able to hold my own against the Captain Commander for over a thousand years told me that not only was it information containing intelligence on how I could use the chakra disruption blades, but also muscle memory. Muscle memory was purely mental, despite what others might tell you. Muscle memory is in the brain itself, not in the muscles. If the muscle memories were in the muscles themselves then the muscles would have to have some sort of biological data bank. It doesn't have any sort of biological data bank. Anyway, if my Rinnegan could flood my brain with information like it had done, then I don't even want to know what else it can do. Actually, no. I do want to know what else the Rinnegan can supply me with.
I stabbed at the Captain Commander's stomach, and the Captain Commander jumped back. We both regrouped ourselves, physically – spiritually, if you want to get fancy and technical – and mentally.
We both tensed our muscles the exact same time, we both took our desired stances – mine a double bladed stance, while Yamamoto took hold of his sword with both of his hands, taking the traditional kendo stance – at the exact same time.
I took that moment to survey the battlefield. Yes, the entire Sokyoku hill was firmly and absolutely scorched and steaming, because of what leftover water decided to be stubborn and stay. The flames had not died down, though. They were still roaring, covering us from view from the audience.
The audience, especially the Captains of Eighth and Thirteenth – luckily Ukitake had been well rested and well in health – were astonished that the flames hadn't died down yet. While they couldn't detect anything, they were sure that their Captain Commander would win the fight within a blink of an eye. But alas that was not the case. They knew that the Captain Commander would not just do something as irresponsible as pressing his spiritual pressure for no reason at all.
"What's going on in there?" Ichigo loudly asked anyone who had the necessary knowledge.
Rukia bashed Ichigo on the top of his head. To be able to do that she had to jump, though. "Idiot! They're fighting, of course!" Then she turned around, crossing her arms and huffing. She sported a light blush, though. She was embarrassed to know that she was attracted to Ichigo, despite how much she refused it. A voice inside her head, a voice that sounded suspiciously much like me, resounded in her head, 'You know you like him. Why don't you just bag him and be done with it?' But she shook her head to remove the voice. She thought that she might have gone insane, but that was highly unlikely that she was going insane, because she was a fuck mothering Kuchiki! Even if she was adopted!
"Which makes me wonder," Ukitake said with his kind voice, trying to find the right words to voice his thoughts properly. His voice took the attention of most of those around him, the Shinigami – mostly – turning their gazes to him as opposed to look at the display of immense and unfelt fire. "How come the shinobi is able to fight Captain Commander Yamamoto for such a long time? As far as my knowledge goes, the shinobi has no high speed technique that allows travel over a distance. Curious. Very curious."
Ichigo shrugged, and in his usual, confident and loud voice said, "There's the shunshin technique."
That brought the attention of most of the Shinigami around, especially that of the Twelfth Division Captain. He was without a doubt thinking of dissecting me to research me and my capabilities and properties of chakra, as well as the chakra network. Mayuri Kurotsuchi, in his squeaky and self confident voice, asked the Kurosaki teenage boy, "What is this technique that you explained, this 'shunshin'?" while scratching his chin in thought. He had a million thoughts running through his head at the moment, and one of them was the dissection of the shinobi, to see what made us tick. He would not touch any of the shinobi if I had a say in it. Unless it was Madara, Orochimaru or Kabuto, or some rapist, child abuser, or other disgusting things. Then I would want them to feel the pain, to stay conscious while being dissected. And I would sit back and laugh at them like a maniac. Because they deserved it. They deserved it all.
Ichigo frowned at the scientific curiosity of the Twelfth Division Captain, but answered nonetheless for the benefit of those listening in. "It's a technique," and then he began to explain the workings of the shunshin. He was questioned further by Renji, about what chakra really was. Ichigo had sighed in response and explained the workings of chakra. That it was a mixture of mental and physical energies. That merely spurred everyone on, firing questions left and right, only answering those that he cared about.
Then a voice seemed to echo throughout the entire Sokyoku hill, even as far as going through the reiatsu suppressing barrier.
The voice said, "Bankai, Densetsu no Ryuujin no Kaen!"
Author's note: Bad ass grandpa is bad ass! Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to you, man! Yes, you! The reader! I love you just the way you are! Unless you're an asshole. Then you can go fuck yourself.
Anyway, 'Densetsu no Ryuujin no Kaen' can roughly be translated to 'The Legendary Flame Of The Dragon God'.
By the way, you can influence what Yamamoto's Bankai can be! If you drop a review or send me a personal message you can tell me what you think his Bankai should be. I will take each and every idea and seriously consider it.
Oh, and special thanks to nartog! And not just him, either! I want to thank everyone, especially you that are reading this right now, for reading! If you would be so kind as to drop a review, I promise, if either through a personal message or through an author's note, I will respond to your review. Without question!
Also, the poll's still going. Oh, and don't forget! You can still influence my decision as to what Yamamoto's Bankai will be. I already have something in mind, but the idea can easily be shattered and rebuilt into a masterpiece! :D
