Chapter 7: Chapter 7
(Twenty years later)
Twenty years passed by since the hollowfication incident which resulted in vacancies for many taicho and Fuku-taicho positions. That incident also resulted in Kisuke and… Yoruichi abandoning the Soul Society in order to save the lives of those involved in the incident.
Naruto finally felt something he hadn't felt in a very long time… the pain of loss. He felt empty inside though he didn't show it outwardly, he was deeply affected by Yoruichi leaving.
Naruto's mother, Unohana, introduced him to her new Fuku-taicho ten years ago in an attempt to get the newest female fuku-taicho to become more open. The secondary goal was for Naruto to get out of his state of depression.
Now a member of the Fon clan leads the Nibantai, Soi-Fon is the one in charge now.
Soi-Fon, Naruto quickly learned had practically Worshipped Yoruichi and the two found some common ground regarding her after some adjustment to her being the new captain.
Nibantai HQ:
Naruto walked down the hall and greeted various subordinates and they returned the greeting. He made his way past the training grounds, seeing spars being done he looked on in a slightly approved manner.
Making his way to Soifon's office, he knocked on twice and heard a come in being voiced. He slid the door open, seeing Soifon doing paperwork he strolled casually up to the desk.
"What do you want?" she asked, eyes not being taken off the paperwork.
Naruto smiled a bit "Just to say hi. How are you doing?" Naruto spoke.
Soi-Fon sighed with a small smile as the two of them had become friends over the past few years as they had known each other while he was simply just a member of the black ops.
"The paperwork has finally reached it's peak, hmm?" he quirked innocently with a raised eyebrow. Soifon lightly punched him on the shoulder "It's not something to laugh about in this season" she replied, slightly amused at his antics.
"The paper work will have to be finished, so please be quiet"
Naruto smiled "Then I can help in that area" he walked next to her and began to work "Besides, I work out the errors"
Paperwork was routine and a bane for the shinigami in the afterlife, three specific shinigami had the most paperwork, such as Kenpachi Zaraki due to the fact that most of the divisions paycheck goes to property damage.
Zaraki had already tried finding Naruto, for a chance to battle him. But the Kuchiki-Unohana mainly used stealth to avoid the battle laden beast.
An hour later, the paperwork was all finished. Naruto cracked his neck "Want to head for the training grounds? It's private there" a small glint came across his usually calm grayish-blue eyes.
"Shunpo? First one gets choice of spar" she proposed with a small grin on her face.
Naruto raised a brow, over the last few months, she'd have begun to show her dormant side. But Naruto was the only one she showed this side to.
Vanishing in a shunpo, the two left
"Aizen-sama?"
Aizen smiled as he swiveled in the chair, facing his zealot commander "Tousen, I do believe it is time to get our resident Kuchiki to show his abilities" he said softly, casually sipping a cup of tea.
Tousen cocked a brow "How sir? Hollows attacking in the middle of the Seretai draws suspicion" he pointed out quietly.
Aizen merely smiled at the observation, rather obvious of the statement. He set down his teacup with a small clink.
"Kuchiki-fukutaicho, will be taking a new recruit group on a hollow mission with the Patrol Corps. Send in several meno's in three hours"
Tousen nodded and bowed before leaving, Aizen smiled as he left the room and rolled his eyes to himself of his overzealous subordinate. The Gobantai Taicho looked over the files of Naruto's time in academy.
His brow furrowed, the Kuchiki-Unohana had yet to show his zanpakuto's abilities. Almost 300 years and Aizen knew that something was up of course.
Aizen sipped his tea, today, he would place an attack on Naruto's patrol.
The clinking of his tea set down on the small plate was all that sounded out in the office.
Two Hours Later
"No"
Naruto's amused tone cut through the afternoon air.
"Come on, I have another thing I want to try out!"
"We did that for two hours" he replied, the amusement was not left out as he smiled.
Soifon sighed, muttering something about damned schedules as they got up "Good luck with the patrol then" she got up as did Naruto.
Naruto stretched momentarily and looked at Soifon "And do inform me if the paperwork overwhelms you" he teased with a smile of amusement on his part.
Soifon punched him playfully on the shoulder as Naruto laughed quietly "Shut up" she muttered, Naruto chuckled one last time before leaving in a shunpo.
Soifon sighed in contentment, Naruto was different from other nobles as she learned over the last three months. Unlike his Otou-san's cold aura, Naruto seemed to have an aura of protection and warmth, mostly like a sleeping dragon.
She shivered mentally at that thought, the old saying goes "Waking up a sleepy dragon, is an angry dragon" and you do not want that angry dragon directed at you.
She shook her thoughts off with a smile before leaving in a shunpo as did Naruto.
She certainly was lucky that he is an ally.
Naruto still had an hour left, so he decided to visit his Kyoufu's at Juushiro's ugando.
Kyuubi was interested into the disease that Juushiro had, and agreed with Naruto that he could find a way to cure Spiritual tuberculosis, but was far from finding a cure.
And Naruto had yet to tell Juushiro.
Naruto simply sat before taking a sip of tea as he sat on the porch ending. He raised an eyebrow at Shunshui who seemed to look around cautiously "He's hiding from Nanao-san, isn't he?" he asked Juushiro, deadpanning in tone and a slightly amused face.
Juushiro had the decency to look sheepish "Pretty much, its paperwork season now" he smiled a bit knowing Kaien could handle the workload of his divison, the Jusantai.
"Sh!" Shunshui put his finger to his lips "She's good at this if you must know" he muttered, knowing his fukutaicho was out there.
Naruto shook his head ruefully "Nanao-san would be in the Onimitsukido if her "Taicho senses" were put in our divison" he commented in a calm manner.
Shunshui snickered at the joke, Juushiro chuckled silently before Naruto spoke up "Anything new for you two recently?"
Shunshui shook his head as he took out a bottle of sake "Nah, Hollow increase as of late. But it's being monitored by Kurotsuchi-taicho" he explained shortly before taking a sip.
Naruto frowned mentally; the hollow level had risen slightly. And that made Naruto suspicious that Aizen had something to do with it, but why did it?
Naruto sipped his tea; a far off look in his grayish-blue eyes ran over scenario to scenario, Aizen working with hollows? Impossible, he thought before shaking his head.
Juushiro hmmed "Aside from that, I hear Sosuke-kun is teaching calligraphy at the academy" he remembered as Aizen had begun that class over five years ago, arguably he had become popular at the academy.
"Oh yeah" Shunshui snapped his fingers before sipping some sake "Most popular class since then, I hear that the lines are a mile long" he grinned lightly.
Naruto only frowned mentally `Kyuubi, what do you make of this?'
"Kit, being honest here on Aizen" Kyuubi spoke up in Naruto's mind "It's recruitment, he's most likely monitoring for extraordinary students."
Naruto cocked an eyebrow mentally as if he were gesturing him to continue "If I were to guess correctly, he dismissed you because you had no interest in his division nor did he know of your existence for the first week in the Soul Society"
Naruto agreed with that statement `True. If any students capture his eyes…'
"You'll follow their road kit…" Kyuubi grinned widely "You're as cunning as the Kitsune clan" he said with pride in the tone.
Naruto smiled a bit `All thanks to you, Sensei' he returned gratefully before returning to reality "It's that popular?" he asked, curiosity seeping into his tone.
Shunshui nodded "The guy's loved by all, gotta give him that" he drank some sake before feeling an aura of total rage behind the three shinigami.
"Taicho…."
Shunshui, felt dread building in his stomach at that voice. Naruto and Juushiro all looked behind themselves to see a very stern looking Nanao along with the crossed arms and tapping foot that sounded impatient spelled "DOOM" for Shunshui.
"Eh he eh…Nanao-chan, how are you?" he asked nervously with a gentleman like smile, hoping it distracted her.
"Taicho" she pushed up her glasses in a serious manner "Its paperwork day" she said, her tone taking on a borderline dangerous sound.
Naruto sighed to himself "If only he took a strategy from Nanao-san" he murmured, shaking his head.
Juushiro nodded in agreement as they watched on.
"Well, as you can see Nanao-chan, me and Juushiro-san are spending time with our godson" he pointed out.
Naruto looked at him "Do not drag me into your conflicts" he said flatly before sipping his tea "Nanao-san, how are you doing today?" he inquired politely
Nanao stopped her aura of doom and looked at Naruto "I am well, Kuchiki-san" she bowed slightly before straightening.
Naruto nodded at the greeting "I better get going, I have Patrol Corps in half an hour" he gave a smile to Juushiro and a sympathetic look to Shunshui as he handed his empty tea cup to Juushiro and left in a shunpo.
Shunshui chuckled nervously before Nanao grabbed his ear and yanked him up painfully "Ow, Nanao-chan!-"
*BAM*
She hit him over the head with her book "My apologies to you and Kuchiki-san, but he'd been avoiding me all day" she explained to Juushiro who just nodded "Not a problem, you have a nice day yourself Nanao-san" he said kindly as if he had dealt with this situation before.
Nanao grinned lightly in an enjoying manner and dragged the now unconscious Shunshui out of the Ugando.
Juushiro coughed lightly before clearing his throat and watched the cloudless blue sky.
With Naruto, Two Hours Later
Naruto looked over the vast canyon area of Hueco Mundo, sure it was on the very outskirts but nonetheless he had to be cautious.
Naruto's eyes scanned the area, something was off today he mused to himself as he directed squads of shinigami to specific areas. He glanced at the sky and the area around him.
It didn't feel right with Naruto today.
"Fukutaicho!"
Naruto turned to face the Onimitsukido member, he gave a nod to continue "We've set the squads up, are we cleared to move forward?"
Naruto inwardly felt some feeling, he took a bare glance at the valley and nodded to the shinigami member who gave a salute before leaving in a shunpo.
Naruto put on his headset and listend for the squads, onto their conversations.
"Man, what a bore, no hollows"
Naruto cocked a brow in curiosity as he felt the wind sway his high ponytail, no hollows? Now he had to be on guard.
"Watch it! Don't jinx us you fool!" another squad member said "It's too quiet, and I don't like that"
"Calm down, one patrol this close to Hueco Mundo and things go bad" Naruto heard the walking continue until his senses picked up one shinigami stopping.
"What is it? Fukutaicho isn't gonna like it if we slack off"
"I…I just felt as if wind passed me" he replied sheepishly, continuing the patrol.
Naruto frowned, he stopped and felt wind? Hollows are not able to hide themselves, nor their reiatsu. He sensed the hesitation, or nervousness in the tone of one of his squad members.
Something was out there.
A scream broke through the microphone minutes later.
"What the hell! How the F**K did a big hollow get this close!" slashing and metal grinding was heard.
"I don't know-" a voice stopped "Holy Shit! We have more incoming!" Naruto heard the squad members before a slicing through flesh happened and a pained scream came through.
Naruto didn't panic, he narrowed his eyes and tossed the headset behind him to Omeada "F-fuktuaicho!" he caught the headphones and stumbled a bit.
"I'm going in" Naruto stated calmly `This will require through investigation' he thought to himself, he glanced in the barest to Omeada as he took out portable headsets as he slipped and earphone in to his right ear to listen to their progress and leaped off the cliff edge before vanishing in a shunpo.
Reappearing several miles off, he jumped from cliff to cliff and spotted the surrounding team, he had sent out teams of five and sensed only three reiatsu signatures.
Over the horizon he snapped his finger and sent three Hado no Rokujuusan – Soren Sokatsui" (Way of Destruction 63: Twin Lotus Blue Fire, Crash Down) as he cleared the wall and tore through three hollows, saving one of the shinigami.
"Fukutaicho!"
"Naruto-fukutaicho!"
Naruto gazed lingered momentarily on the squad "Get the wounded out of here!" he ordered loud enough for them to hear, one by one they left with Naruto unsheathing Sussano.
Disappearing in a shunpo several big hollows were dead before they even hit the ground.
Gin Icimaru grinned to himself "Ne, good for Nibantai Fukutaicho" he looked to Tousen who remained stoic "What do ya think of him"
Tousen remained silent for a moment "Confusing" he replied softly, Gin cocked a brow interested "What do ya mean?"
"His reiatsu is off" Tousen explained "It seems as if I cannot get an appropriate power reading" he could tell by "Seeing" reiatsu.
Gin opened his eyes slightly, revealing crimson colored orbs "Really now…" he looked on, curious of the Kuchiki's potential.
Naruto had sensed the impressively supressed reiatsu levels and recognized who the two signatures were despite the hollows not around them.
Gin Ichimaru and Tousen Kaname
`So, sent your flunkies to watch me then, ne Aizen?' he thought mentally while dodging an energy blast from a large hollow's mouth.
"Hado no Yon: Byakurai" (Way of Destruction 4: Pale White Lightning)
Naruto swiftly dodged a hollows swipe which destroyed part of the canyon wall, the Kuchiki pointed at the hollow who did the damage and a blast of white jagged lightning pierced the mask and the hollow disintegrated moments later.
Naruto then heard something that was unexpected, Menos's tore through holes in dimensions, three of them to be precise.
Knowing that the blame would rest on the fight earlier, Menoes's would be discarded as it merely being an accident due to the reiatsu released in the earlier fight.
Naruto swore mentally, with a sigh prepared a higher level kido.
A snap and a Hado no Rokujuusan: Raihoko" (Way of Destruction 63: Thunder Roar Cannon) was sent at the first menos and disintegrated after the spell blew off its head.
Naruto saw more hollows forming at the feet of the Menos's and nearly groaned, but instead his left eyebrow twitched. `Sensei, we have the enemy watching. Any tips?'
Kyuubi sighed, it was a last resort at this point "Shikai kit, we'll use the attention on us to any advantage at this point"
Naruto agreed, but hesitated in using Sussano's shikai "Kid, just let me loose. This will keep Aizen's suspicoun off of us for at least a while"
That one convinced Naruto as he held Sussano in front of him, Aizen would hold onto his suspicion that Naruto knew about the Gobantai Taicho and his cohorts, as long as he kept to himself.
Tousen noticed a slight rise in Naruto's reiatsu "His shikai" Tousen murmured, catching Gin's attention "He's releasing his zanpakuto"
Gin nodded and paid attention to Naruto as he murmured "Suto-mu soshite gekido za unabara,unari of sono tentos, Sussano" (Storm and rage the sea, roar to the heavens, God of Storms).
The sky darkened on the horizon, the squad members at least four clicks away looked on in shock as thunder clouds formed as they felt an ominous pressure in the air.
Omeada gulped "W-what is that?"
"T-the Fukutaicho's releasing his zanpakuto" one Onimitsukido member whispered as the pressure increased to a mid fukutaicho level.
Omeada looked shocked, but said nothing to comment as all the Nibantai respected Naruto, any bad mouthing from Omeada, and he was quickly shut up by anyone in the division.
A flare of reiatsu indicated that the transformation of Naruto's zanpakuto took place.
Gin grinned "Ooohhh…a lightning zanpakuto"
"Most interesting" Tousen commented softly.
Back with Naruto, Sussano was arching with black electricity and a black tassel that seemed to pulse every few seconds or so.
Naruto twirled the blade at a high speed making it look like a black disk, Naruto rammed the blade into the ground creating spider cracks "Rein no Hantei" (Rain of Judgement).
Almost a second later, black lightning struck right in front of the hollow group, decimating them in a thunderous explosion, a smoking crater was left as each hollow was taken down by blasts of lightning.
Rein no Hantei allowed Naruto to generate electricicty in the atmosphere, thus giving him the ability to mentally control where each lightning strike would hit.
It was just one of three abilities that he could use for lightning.
All the hollows were decimated, nothing but smoke and ash left as they all disappeared into spirit particles, only the Menos was left as it fired a deafening Cero at Naruto who quickly took up Sussano and murmured "Tate no Gyogyou" (Shield of Water).
The cero connected with Naruto getting shocked looks from the squad members, Omeada thought the Kuchiki would survive as the dust cloud was thrown over the area.
"Aw…too bad the show ended" Gin commented cheerily, ending with a pout
"No…." Tousen murmured, slightly shocked.
The dust cleared seeing a pillar of water blocking the cero, it was a defensive technique, as Sussano's lighting capabilities were for attacking. It depended on how powerful the attack was that an approximate level of reiatsu was needed to defend against the attack.
The water was strengthened with Naruto's own reiatsu, he otherwise had a few singes on the edges of his shikkashou and a light cut on his left cheek, but not much else. Then Sussano appeared to now have a blue tassel, signifying that water was being used before it resorted to black once again. Naruto swung downwards making the water sink into the ground.
Naruto raised Sussano as black lightning cackled on the blade, he increased his own reiatsu in the blade causing lightning to arch off the blade, he swung downwards.
Just before it connected with the ground, the Kuchiki murmured "Amatsu Yaiba" (Heavenly Blade)
A blast of black, condensed lightning was shot at the Meno's at earth shattering speed as it clearly sliced through the Meno's in half.
Naruto faked panting, truth to tell, he trained with Kyuubi in controlling this technique as lightning was the ultimate blade to use, much to Kakashi's Raikiri. The panting however was faked as if he was misleading Gin and Tousen on how strong he was with his shikai abilities.
Another fact was that that was only half the power of his techniques; he liked keeping his secrets close.
Naruto watched as the Meno's disintegrated into spiritual particles, he deactivated the shikai of Sussano and sheathed it the next second, he sensed Tousen and Gin gone, but decided focusing on his Division members first.
Naruto had Kyuubi hold back some reiatsu reserves as he did not want the full power of his shikai revealed. He checked with casualties and found it they only had ten injured members as well as three KIA's (Killed in Action).
Naruto sighed inwardly, Aizen didn't seem to care about casualties that happened in the ranks. That only confirmed one trait about the man that Naruto figured out today.
He had no morals, nor problems with killing another member of the Goteijuusantai as long as his plans were completed.
Kyuubi concurred with the young Kuchiki's thoughts, Naruto looked to the sky just as some light broke through the clouds, shining onto him as he looked over the area where Gin and Tousen monitored him.
Today, it began for Naruto Kuchiki-Unohana
The greatest chess match between the greatest manipulator of time, and a Noble Jinchuuriki. What happens in this match, will decide the outcome of the Soul Society…..