AN: Revised as of 7/5/20
AN: Sorry guys, been a while. Been an exciting two months for me, finished school and landed a full-time job (no more bouncing between two part-time T.T). Here's the next chapter, feels a bit unpolished, but that's probably true of most of this story lol Let me know what you guys think! As always, if you see any glaring mistakes grammar or plot-wise, please let me know.
Natasha fought the urge to pinch herself as she examined the cavernous underground room that Ichigo had apparently somehow hidden beneath his house. He could give SHIELD tips for hiding things in plain sight. The brightly lit cavern must have been a mile in radius easily, probably taking up half the space underneath the culdesac Ichigo called home. The ceiling was painted a convincing, bright blue to give an impression of the open sky, tricking the eyes into believing that they were actually outdoors rather than underground.
The artificial setting was very off-putting, given the fact she knew she was underground. The rocky outcrops mimicking the open plains you might find out in the central parts of North American seemed out of place in a backdrop that contained a ladder that extended into the sky. Hell, there were even tumbleweeds! The ball-shaped dead plants rolled about like it was some western movie set, which begged the question of what generated the wind that was pushing the dry vegetation around?
The light source could not be pinpointed, but it certainly felt natural. A miniature lake glimmered with the purity of uncontaminated open water, unlike the chlorine blue you might find in a backyard pool. Natasha wouldn't be surprised if there were actual fish in the false pond. There was even what appeared to be a hot spring in one corner of the cave, judging by the rising steam from the heated pool.
"How the hell did he set up all this without anyone noticing?" Natasha asked Yoruichi in amazement as she studied the cave.
The foreign woman who had followed her down was currently dipping a toe in the hot spring, swirling the water about, giving the redhead time to adapt to the environment.
"We're not actually underground," Yoruichi explained nonchalantly, a hand resting on her hip. "This is a pocket dimension that happens to have its entrance in his cellar. You could say this room is its own mini-universe."
Natasha took the explanation in with silence, unable to decide whether or not the cat woman was messing with her.
"You're going to have me believe this is all real and that the hole in the sky we just came down from is the entryway to another dimension?" the Russian asked skeptically.
"There's a lot of weird shit in the universe if you know where to look. Sereitei might be a wild concept to you, but believe me, there are far freakier dimensions even we don't poke our nose into."
Yoruichi shrugged. "Believe what you want, but that's not why we're here though."
Natasha put the questions she had forming on her lips aside. No, indeed, it was not. She was here to find answers.
"So talk," the spy demanded with her arms crossed. "I'm listening."
The tanned woman stared at the spy with considering eyes. "There's no point telling you more than you already know if you don't plan to do anything about it. So my question to you is, how far are you willing to go to find the answers you want? Are you willing to risk your life? Your soul? I'm not joking around here; there's a good chance you'll really end up dead or worst."
The redhead stared back in determination. Ichigo had refused to give her answers so far, but this stranger was willing to give her what she wanted at a cost. Could she trust her? Probably not, but nothing in life was for free. Natasha had played the life and death game too much to even hesitate.
"I am," she said bluntly. "I know far too much to sleep well at night, but what I don't know is worse. My job is to risk my life for answers; I'll take a chance with any consequence to get what I want."
Yoruichi grinned widely, showing off perfectly straight pearly teeth with oversized canines. It might have been mistaken for friendly, but there was nothing pleasant about the mischievous glimmer in her amber eyes.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," the Shinigami chuckled as she pulled on a single red glove with a skull surrounded by blue flames etched onto the backside of the fabric.
Yoruichi's movement was far too quick for Natasha to even catch a glimpse of. One second she was standing and the next the spy found herself crashing painfully onto her back, the Shinigami's hand gripping her by the width of her forehead.
Natasha instinctively lashed out at the unexpected assault, coiling up her legs and kicking out. Her nimble opponent danced backward deftly before the reflexive kick could connect.
Snarling, the Russian struggled to her feet, wondering why her body suddenly felt so heavy. She froze when her eyes caught sight of what Yoruichi was standing next to.
People always talked about the surreal out of body experience, sometimes in connection with traumatic events where they felt like they were witnessing everything unfold from a third-person perspective. There were many reports of this phenomenon when people had their life hanging on the balance. They swore they had witnessed the mad scramble to resuscitate their dying bodies, describing what took place with astonishing detail for the medically dead.
Natasha was currently experiencing one such out of body experience. She was quite sure she was conscious as she observed the prone form of her own body that was now being used as a stepstool by Yoruichi.
"There are two ways we can go about this," the Shinigami said while rolling Natasha's physical body over with a nudge of her foot. "The slow old fashion way of trying to get you in tune with your reiatsu through years of controlled practice. Too much time investment for you or I and no guarantee of success even if we tried. The second method is to do what I did just now, separate your soul from your body."
The redhead swallowed thickly, glancing down at her chest and seeing the chain that all ghosts had. The length of metal stretched from her translucent form all the way to the prone body lying on her back.
"I see you've noticed the chain of fate binding you to the world of the living," Yoruichi said with a nod. "You know what it is?"
"Ghosts all have them," Natasha replied slowly, gathering what little she knew as she stood. "The chain slowly degrades over time, and when it vanishes, the ghost turns into a Hollow."
"Very good," the Shinigami praised with an impressed look at her knowledge. "The chain is a representation of their link to the world of the living. Your chain is still attached because it's acting as an anchor to your body."
The shorter woman gave a sinister smile, the single expression sending a chill down Natasha's spine. Raising her hand, Yoruichi smashed a balled fist into the chain, obliterating the links connecting the spectral spy to her body.
Natasha's mouth dropped open in shock at the unexpected action. "What did you do?!"
Yoruichi straightened up. "Relax. For most humans, having their chain broken means they're dead. A body can't survive without a soul attached to it. For people with abnormally high reiatsu, their bodies can survive for a short period, even with the link severed. You can still merge your soul back to the flesh within a certain time frame, the more reiatsu you have, the longer the period of separation without fatal consequences."
The Shinigami tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Given what I can sense from you, I'd say you have a five maybe six hours before your body expires, and you're stuck as a ghost permanently."
Natasha's heart was still hammering, but she forced her nerves down, reminding herself that she had asked for this. Crazy as the method seems, this was probably the closest thing to the training she wanted Ichigo to give her. Supernatural aspect aside, it was not any more extreme than the process that produced the Black Widow.
The caramel-skinned woman took a step forward, casually kicking aside the broken chain of fate. "So we're going to play a game, Natasha. You're going to try to get past me by whatever means possible so that you can get back to the world of the living. If you fail, you stay dead, and I send your pretty little ass along to the afterlife. I think we both know which gate will be appearing to collect your soul if that happens."
"How is this supposed to help?!" Natasha demanded angrily. "I can barely move!"
Yoruichi shrugged carelessly. "You're in your pure spiritual form right now. If you can't figure out how to tap your reiatsu and use your powers like this, then there's no hope of you learning in your physical form. As a teacher, I've always been a big believer in the sink or swim approach, so start swimming if you don't want to die."
Cursing under her breath at the purple-haired woman, Natasha began to limber up, testing to see the limits of her soul form. Her arms and legs felt like lead, her breath came short and shallow as if she were on top of a very high mountain. Nothing she couldn't adapt to, but the question was, could she keep up with Yoruichi?
"That's a good idea," the female Shinigami remarked dispassionately. "Take some time to get used to moving around as a soul, but not too much time; clocks ticking. I'm mostly guessing at how much time you've got. Maybe you have more, maybe less. Better hurry if you don't want this to be a permanent arrangement."
Snarling, the spy gathered herself and charged forward, fist cocked back.
SCENE BREAK
Ichigo climbed down the ladder, careful to makes sure he had three appendages on a hard surface at any time. People who made the mistake of climbing quickly usually ended up hurt or dead. The former substitute Shinigami might be dying, but he sure as hell wasn't going to go out by falling to his death. He'd never heard the end of it if he did.
Spotting Yoruichi, he strolled over to his lover, casting a look of idle interest at the prone form of Natasha Romanoff. The pretty redhead was extremely pale, her chest barely rising and falling with each shallow breath it periodically took.
"She doesn't look too good," he commented as he sidled up next to the kunoichi. "How long have you two been at it?"
The female Shinigami turned and gave her man a passionate kiss before returning her attention to the soul form of the spy she was training. In the distance, the human woman was straining to lift her spiritual body off the ground with little success.
"Almost five hours now," Yoruichi murmured, casting a wary eye at the pale body next to her.
"You should probably call it quits before she's actually dead," Ichigo advised. "She doesn't look like she has much left in her."
A faint smirk formed on Yoruichi's lips, a hint of admiration on her face as she continued watching her new pupil.
"Oh, I don't know Ichigo," she replied, golden eyes fixed on the woman who was glaring determinedly back at her from the prone position on the ground. "She might surprise you."
Ichigo's eyebrows shot up at the unexpected spike in reiatsu from the spy. Black shadows surged up from the shade cast by her body, rapidly encasing her form in inky armor. It was similar to what he had witnessed the night Ishida had used the Hollow Bait to poke at her dormant abilities.
The odd black suit was form-fitting, one smooth black fabric that stretched seamlessly from her feet to her neck. As Ichigo watched, strands of black sticky material crawled up her jaw, streaking across her face like cancer, coating her entire body in the substance.
"Can you see her at all?" the former Shinigami substitute asked his lover curiously.
Yoruichi had shed her gigai and was currently in her natural state, with no physical eyes to observe Natasha's form. There was no reiatsu signature being emanated by the redhead, a rather astounding feat for such a novice. Natasha may as well have been a rock if he weren't able to see her with his eyes.
"Just barely," Yoruichi said out of the corner of her mouth as the spy limped towards her. "At a distance, she may as well be invisible, but if I know where she is when she first puts that damned armor on, I can track her movements if I focus. She still makes noise when she moves, and I can pinpoint her location if I fill the area with my reiatsu and judge based on the way she's pushing it aside. It's almost like fighting an outline of a person, just brief glimpses of her when she loses focus. She doesn't have a perfect handle on her powers yet, but once she does…"
Ichigo frowned. That was a rather scary thought. Against spiritual beings, Natasha would be the perfect assassin. Suppressing reiatsu was considered a high-level skill, most who could tend to have excellent control over their spiritual energy. But no matter how good they were at hiding their presence, it was a skill that was only effective at a distance. Close proximity made it impossible not to sense someone.
Natasha's ability was quite unique, something he'd never run into or heard about before. Her potential was frightening to consider, especially given her background.
The two women charged at one another, their movements lightning fast. Yoruichi wasn't using shunpo to give Natasha a chance at fighting back. With the aid of her shadow armor, the spy was moving far faster than any human could. It seemed her powers did more than conceal her presence; it also augmented her physically. The speed and strength she displayed were well beyond the limits of the human body.
As fists and feet flew between the two fighters, the black patches around Natasha's hands warped, forming elongated arm length blades. Yoruichi did not back down, hands slipping into the pouch she kept at her waist to withdraw a kunai in each hand to deflect the sharp weapons swiping at her vitals.
They exchanged more blows, the spy unable to score any hits while her armor shrugged off any strikes from the Shinigami's throwing knives. The display of martial prowess was impressive, but the stalemate was apparent even for untrained eyes.
The spy suddenly switched tactics, charging forward and grabbing the Shinigami in a bear hug. The unexpected ploy worked, the caramel-skinned woman silently swearing to herself for letting her guard down. There was a momentary scuffle, and Natasha's dark form seemed to expand and ooze over Yoruichi. A second later, Natasha had slipped out of her armor, leaving the dark-skinned woman trapped in a perfect sphere of mirror black.
The redhead lurched towards her own body, making it two steps past the midnight sculpture before she was forced to turn, sensing the spike in reiatsu. Cracks began to appear in the dark obelisk holding Yoruichi in place. With each pulse of energy, pieces began to chip off. Finally, the prison could no longer hold back the Shinigami, exploding into a thousand fragments with one last pulsation.
"Not bad," complimented Yoruichi blithely as she patted her panting student's head condescendingly. "Not bad at all. You're starting to think outside the box, but you'll need to do a lot better than that to put one over me."
Natasha swore, summoning up the last dregs of her reserves and calling on her powers once more. Her black shell manifested sluggishly, providing immediate relief in reducing her aches and pains as it encased her in its protective embrace. Against anyone else, the armor would have made her feel unbeatable. But Yoruichi had dissuaded any misguided notions of invincibility very early on in their training.
They continued to clash, Natasha desperately trying to score a hit on her instructor. In contrast, Yoruichi continued to dance effortlessly just outside of the human woman's reach. The Shinigami's own strikes were lethargic in Ichigo's eyes, certainly not even a fraction of what the Goddess of the Flash Step was capable of. It was still quite impressive that Natasha was able to keep up even if Yoruichi was pulling her punches.
"I'll go make dinner," he called out, tired of watching the deadlock.
"I want salmon!" Yoruichi called out excitedly, completely taking her attention off the fight but still somehow able to dodge the dangerous blades swiping at her face.
"Of course you do," Ichigo grumbled with a roll of his eyes.
She always wanted salmon—damn cat.
After the man had vanished back upstairs, Yoruichi grew bored of the current impasse. Drawing on her reiatsu, she gave a yell of exertion, smashing her balled fist into Natasha's stomach. The powerful blow swatted aside the spy's hastily thrown up guard like it wasn't even there.
The black armor shattered, countless midnight shards raining down on the floor. The human woman was thrown backward by the mighty blow, now fully exposed again without her shadow protecting her. She lay on her side, gasping frantically for air, body screaming in pain as she coughed crimson onto the ground.
Yoruichi crouched by the unmoving woman's spiritual body, prodding her form to see if she could get a reaction. Maybe that last liver shot had been a bit overkill.
Natasha tried to swipe at the hand that was harassing her tortured body but could only make an odd twitch of her limb. Groaning, she turned her face away from the amused expression of her tormentor.
"Well, it looks like you've finally reached your limit Natasha," Yoruichi said, straightening back up. "Honestly I'm impressed, I didn't think you'd be able to last half as long as you did."
Turning, the Shinigami sauntered away with a flick of her dark violet hair.
"Wa-wait-!" Natasha croaked out painfully. "M-my bo-bod-body."
Yoruichi turned and gave her an amused look. "You've got a few minutes left before you're dead. Better hustle if you want to make it back to the world of the living. We'll be upstairs waiting for you. I'll come back after dinner and send you on your way if you don't make it."
The spy spat vicious curses in her native tongue at her whimsical teacher's back, slowly forcing her limbs to follow her commands. She began the long, painful crawl to save her life.
SCENE BREAK
It took her almost ten minutes to cover the few meters of dirt separating her from her body. It took a moment to realize that she had actually made it.
When she finally opened her eyes again, her physical body felt no better than her spiritual one. Natasha had overtrained her body plenty of times before, painfully familiar with the sore aches and pains of overtaxed muscles. It felt like she'd been hit by a truck and then forced to run a marathon afterward.
She lay on her back for the first few minutes, savoring the modest task of breathing before gathering what stamina and willpower she had left. The climb up the ladder had been a battle, but the thought of punching out the smug woman infused strength in her limbs. Twice she almost fell to her death, but the self promise of vengeance saved her life.
When the spy finally got back to the house, the home was filled with the alluring aroma of seared fish, the air tantalizing with the scent of herbs mixed with melted fat. Natasha's mouth watered as she hobbled up from the basement, her worn body screaming for food despite having done nothing but lay still for the past six hours.
The spy stumbled towards the kitchen and snarled aloud when she ran into Yoruichi in the hallway.
Once more, the dark-skinned woman was completely nude, her exposed form slightly damp from the shower she had just taken. One hand was absentmindedly drying her long purple hair with a white towel, the other combing through the locks to untangle them.
"Oh, you made it," the Shinigami said nonchalantly as she eyed the battered form of her protégée. "Good for you."
"No need to sound so disappointed," Natasha huffed, using the wall as a crutch.
Just a few more steps and that smug bitch's face would be within striking range.
Yoruichi shouldered past her into the kitchen, unknowingly thwarting the spy's vengeful plan.
"Ichigo!" the naked woman exclaimed happily, snuggling up against the back of the man currently attending to the cooking fish over the stove.
He grunted in response, not turning away from his task despite his unclothed girlfriend nuzzling his neck.
The woman pouted at her lover's lack of response, shooting Natasha an annoyed look.
"You! Shoo! You're making Ichigo shy, and I wanna have sex on the kitchen table before I eat my fish!"
The Russian spluttered in indignation, not sure exactly what she wanted to respond to more at the moment.
"Dinner's almost ready," Ichigo said without turning around, completely ignoring a horny Yoruichi cuddling against him.
The Shinigami puffed out her cheeks childishly, but let it go. Moving over to the fridge, she draped the towel she had been using to dry her hair over the back of a chair, reaching into the icebox to pull out a pair of beers.
"Here," Yoruichi said, pitching a can over to Natasha. "I suppose you've earned that."
Natasha raised her hands up to catch the object thrown at her, but her strained muscles caused her to fumble the easy toss.
Yoruichi snickered as the beer clattered on the ground. "Fail!"
"Bitch!" the spy growled out, stooping over slowly with aching back muscle to retrieve the fallen can.
She'd shoot herself in the foot before admitting it to the tanned woman, but the ice-cold beer tasted heavenly at the moment.
"Foods done," Ichigo announced, turning to begin placing the finished dishes at the dining table that rarely saw use. "Why don't you go put some clothes on? It's only polite."
Snorting Yoruichi departed from the kitchen. They could hear her low muttering about humans and not understanding what was wrong with nudity and how he didn't seem to mind the last time she ate naked in the kitchen.
"She always like that?" Natasha asked as she collapsed into the nearest seat.
Ichigo chuckled fondly. "For as long as I've known her."
The spy eagerly stabbed into her salmon steak, her famished hunger breaking any sense of polite etiquette. Who knew pure bliss could be found on a plate?
"How rude," sniffed Yoruichi as she joined Natasha at the table. "You're supposed to wait for everyone before you start eating, you know!"
The bronzed beauty was clad in a pair of loose silky gold boxers that obviously belonged to Ichigo. Her top half was now covered with an energetic pink t-shirt, a couple sizes too small for her judging by how strained the fabric was. The word Kitty was printed boldly across the bust line of the shirt, emphasizing her generous cleavage and showing off hard nipples beneath the thin material.
Natasha swallowed another bite, making a rude gesture with her hand at her teacher.
Ichigo joined the table, and the three began to eat. The atmosphere was pleasant enough. Yoruichi chattered away animatedly between bites of fish while the doctor answered in grunts and monosyllables.
Finally, the spy had more than her stomach could handle, and she pushed the plate away from her.
"So besides trying to kill me, was there a point to all that?" she asked sourly. "Cause I don't feel any different, and I still can't do the things I did as a soul. I tried."
Yoruichi snorted. "Well, of course not, you're back in your body, aren't you? Most of your reiatsu is back doing what it normally does, keeping you alive. But I think you should at least be able to feel your reiatsu now, right?"
"Feel it?" Natasha asked in confusion. "No, everything still feels the same."
"It's like reaching for the spirit ribbons, except you turn that sense inwards rather than outwards," Ichigo explained as Yoruichi cracked open her second can of beer.
The redhead frowned, concentrating as she focused her senses. Spirit ribbons began to appear, inching towards her as she struggled to turn that feeling inwards. She absentmindedly noted that both Ichigo and Yoruichi had bright red ribbons coiled tightly around their bodies, unlike the random loose strands that came at her beckoning. Did that designate them as Shinigami? She filed away that observation for later examination.
Finally, after sitting in silence listening to Yoruichi badger Ichigo about visiting Japan, Natasha felt it. A spark inside her that she had not noticed before.
Her soft gasp was met with a knowing nod from Ichigo and an exasperated eye roll from Yoruichi.
"About time," the caramel-skinned woman grumbled. "Now that you can feel it in your body, the next step would be to practice externalizing it. Once you can do that, you should be able to call up that weird shadow power of yours. Rest of it is just like any other skill, practice until you get better."
"How do I go about externalizing it?" Natasha asked with a frown.
Yoruichi stood up, gesturing at Natasha to do the same. The spy followed the other woman to the doorway, scowling sullenly when the Shinigami opened it and jerked her head out into the evening.
"Come back tomorrow, I'll have some exercises for you to try then. Now get out. I haven't seen my boyfriend in months, and you're interrupting sexy time."
Huffing indignantly, the spy limped out the doorway. She headed towards her apartment, determined to get some rest before coming back to learn more. The spark she had felt in herself was a warm feeling, causing her to smile unconsciously.
The redhead reached out for that spark, drawing it towards her center. She watched as the shadow around her arm twitched and solidified into a black gauntlet with wicked curved hooks at the end of her fingertips. Flexing the digits of her hand experimentally, the spy noted that despite the angular form of the gauntlet, they made no sound.
Natasha smirked. Clint was going to lose his shit when she showed him.
AN: So, Natasha starts to grasp her powers. Avengers story starts next chapter! Stay tuned, and tell me what you guys think! I love hearing back from my readers.