Jumping to the left, Naruto avoided a blow that would've likely killed him, his clone taking the place of the sacrificial lamb and immediately poofed out of existence. Aizen had come too early. How he had gotten information on their planned attack was still unknown. He had been sleeping his head off when his chakra senses picked up incoming beings with immense spiritual energy coming towards the house. Before he knew, they were being blasted by a ball of spiritual energy so much that the entire house was destroyed as well as the surrounding area.

He had summoned Gamachiki at the last second, calling upon every ounce of his speed and teleported into the toad's belly. He had grabbed Rukia as quickly as he could, knowing that they were going to be injured anyway but at least they could reduce the damage. Ichigo's family was fortunately on a vacation which Ichigo had arranged in order to fight Aizen without any disturbances. They weren't injured as such, they just looked like they had been in a hellhole. His black t-shirt and orange pants were slightly tattered and Rukia's Shinigami outfit looked the same as his.

Aizen had brought an army of Hollows, some of which were unidentified Hollowfied Shinigami., Rukia had told him. He also brought his male counterparts, Gin and Kaname. Being number-one loudmouth ninja he was, the blonde vowed to defeat Aizen once and for all as well to protect his friends and the citizens.

Now he was involved in what might've been one of his toughest battles apart from Pein. Rukia had immediately called for reinforcements from the Soul Society and was fighting tooth and nail against the Hollows, alongside Chad and Uryu. Reinforcements had arrived but Naruto didn't have time for an introduction. He had simply told them to deal with the Hollows and Aizen's counterparts whilst he would take care of the rogue Shinigami himself.

Orihime had immediately arrived at the start of the battle only to be locked in a black coffin, courtesy of Aizen's kido spell Kurohitsugi. She immediately collapsed after being released, barely a hair's breath away from death. Naruto had wanted to rush to her but couldn't due to Aizen's constant attacks. They had moved from Karakura Town, going to the open space where he had had sparring sessions with the Shinigamis. At that moment, he sensed Sakura's chakra signature and Ichigo's reiatsu and immediately his spirits lifted. They would come soon.


Naruto formed a Rasengan in his hand, the clone vanishing just as soon and launched himself towards the Shinigami. Aizen fluidly dodged the attack, choosing to punch the blonde as soon as he dodged him. The jinchuriki reeled backwards due to the force of the blow and crashed into the forest floor below. Aizen smirked as he watched the blonde struggle to regain his bearings. "Enjoying it down there?" he taunted. He had gotten some injuries of his own, having received a blow from the blue ball of spiritual energy and physical energy the blonde loved to use ever so much, chakra as Katsuro had told him.

Naruto stood up and glared at the Shinigami. "Just what do you want from us?!" he all but shouted as he pointed an accusing finger at the brunette. "You're a nuisance and I have to get rid of nuisances before they disturb me and my doings," the man replied smoothly as he smiled in what Naruto had associated as being a typical Orochimaru-style. "Which doings if I may ask?" the blonde as he eyed the swordsman warily, his eyes hard.

"I'm not stupid enough to tell you that. That's a secret for me," he responded. Just then, Aizen's ears tingled and he moved just in time to avoid a flying fist. The girl flipped in the air and landed smoothly on the ground, having missed her target by barely an inch. "Sakura-chan!" the blonde exclaimed as he rushed over to her. Sakura, seeing her best friend, smiled. "Hey Naruto," she replied as she gave him a once-over, seeing that he wasn't severely injured. Ichigo landed beside them. "Hey," the orange-haired boy said. Naruto acknowledged his presence with a nod. "I see we have some visitors" Aizen said as he hovered on threesome below. "It won't be a problem anyway. It means I'll have more beings to kill then, especially the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi," he added.

Their eyes widened but they were quick to recover. "How'd you know that?" the blonde sputtered. "Let me guess. It's Katsuro who told you, isn't it?" Sakura spoke. "How so?" the brunette asked. "I did some few researches on Katsuro and you as well. Katsuro was a failed experiment of Orochimaru whom you just happened to stumble upon when he accidentally teleported himself here. Then you modified him in order to use him for your own benefits. I read his file in Konoha, noticing that he was commonly cited around the Snake Sannin's previous hideouts, hence the conclusion that he was a failed experiment," the girl all but sneered. "Very clever," Aizen commented. "I see that forehead of yours houses a big brain," the man remarked snidely.

Sakura fought back some profanities which she was sure would rival those of Hidan's. One thing you could not do was to insult her forehead. "If that's the case, I don't see any reason why Katsuro should keep hiding. Come out then." As soon as he had said that, the rogue nin appeared beside Aizen in a flicker. "Katsuro," the two ninjas sneered simultaneously in distaste. "Naruto and Sakura, long time neh," the brown-haired ninja replied in a like manner. "You brought us here on purpose, didn't you?" Sakura snapped coldly.

Katsuro laughed, as in really hard. "No, that was a mistake on my part. I supposed to capture the infamous Uchiha brat," he corrected them as he wiped away some tears. 'Uchiha brat? Sasuke?' the two ninjas thought. "Yes, it's that Sasuke Uchiha you're obsessed over," the ninja replied. 'So, he's name is Sasuke?' Ichigo thought as he reflected on his previous conversations with the two ninjas. "You see, Orochimaru tried to create some time travel jutsus using the DNA of the Uchiha, who possess their famous Sharingan which was going to help him. However, Sasuke would not allow him any part of his DNA so he had to steal without Sasuke knowing. However, his body wouldn't allow him to start working on the jutsus and Kabuto didn't know how to do so, so he came upon a certain boy," Katsuro explained.

"A lost kid whose parents he had deserted, who was looking for a purpose in life. That kid had precise chakra control which could almost rival that of the famous pink-haired medic kunoichi of Konoha. So that boy performed those tasks instead. However, Orochimaru was not satisfied with the boy's progress so he left him in the forest for the dead. What he didn't know was that the boy was beginning to perfect the time-travel jutsus. Instead of shifting through time, he had shifted through dimensions and thus he came upon Lord Aizen who promised him to help use his talent more, instead of being used by Orochimaru. And I'm as you all know, that boy happens to be me," Katsuro finished as he smirked.

"What were you going to do with Sasuke?" Naruto asked, barely managing to control his anger at the thought of his best friend being used. "Take his eyes and use them for whatever Lord Aizen deemed necessary of course," the boy replied. "Well, sorry. But we won't let you lay your hands on Sasuke and we'll be sure to defeat you, dattebayo!" the blonde shouted as he glared at him. "I'd like to see you try," Katsuro said and he rushed towards the blonde. Naruto, not being one to not have the first move, jumped towards the ninja and they met in hand-to-hand combat.

Sakura chose not speak, instead opting to move silently towards the slightly distracted Aizen. She masked her chakra as she possibly could and she jumped silently towards the floating Shinigami who was suspended in the air, aiming her fist towards. At the last moment, Aizen turned and caught her fist. Sakura growled. Pushing more chakra to her fist, she pushed as she struggled against his hold, hoping to throw him off balance. "Your physical strength is quite impressive," the man commented as his hand slightly trembled due to the force. "But it won't be enough to stop me," he added as he flicked his wrist, twisting her body with the small movement and throwing her over his shoulder. Sakura allowed herself to be flipped over, pulling her fist out of his grasp to try and punch him again.

Aizen dodged the fists which were coming his way at a considerably impressive speed but not enough to stop. He detected a movement behind him and kicked Sakura in the stomach, sending her flying backwards and turned to deflect Ichigo's zanpakuto. Ichigo growled inaudibly, obviously displeased with his sneak-attack being found out. The two Shinigamis exchanged blows as they floated in the sky. Aizen noticed that Ichigo's attacks were forcing him to move down to the ground. 'So that's how he wants to play,' he thought as he landed on the ground, easily blocking Sakura's kick as soon as he had done that. He countered with a kick of his own but the kunoichi blocked it with her forearms, quickly sending her fist flying towards him as he retracted his leg. He dodged to the right, her fist meeting with the ten-tonne boulder beside him. The whole thing turned to pebbles as it was completely obliterated and Aizen watched in slight awe. How she had done that he didn't know but from the fraction of what she could do he had seen, he knew he had to avoid getting hit at all costs. He slashed his sword and the girl jumped away from him, landing beside Ichigo with her face set in a permanent scowl of displeasure. The said redhead was standing beside her, his face one of seriousness.

'This battle just got interesting then,' he thought, now more intent on avoiding the pink-haired girl's attacks.


I'm done with this chapter. Sorry for the late update, I was busy these days. My country has extended our lockdown by two weeks so I'm not going to school anytime now. But I can't make any promises since I'll be writing my Form Four exams in November and I have to read and be very prepared. So please bear with. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Read and review.

Tozoonana

AfricanFire