Episode 48: Rinji vs Barragan

Yumichika was spiriting over the maze, and Barragan was walking through the maze, the walls rotting away as he was walking. "Damn!" Yumichika mumbled. After several minutes, Yumichika made it to the other side. The person who was guarding the gate seemed surprised.

"There's an Akatsuki that's following me! Get Rinji Toichi and Tatsuzo Tekkan as back up! NOW!"

"Yes, sir, Yumichika." He ran off.

Yumichika gripped his sword. Should I run and warn the Kinkage? Or should I stay here in case he gets here? Even if he does get here... what would I be able to do? Damn. He thought. He darted off.


"What?" Asked Rinji.

"That's what Yumichika said. He requested backup from you and Tatsuzo-sensei."

"Tatsuzo is off on a mission." Rinji then took off towards the gate.


"Thank you for the warning, Yumichika." He looked to his guards. "Get Naruto Uzumaki and bring him here. We're going to defend him with our lives. Yumichika, you're going to help us. On your way to find Naruto have Jonin and Chunin begin escorting people to the safe point."

Yumichika sighed.


Rinji made it to the gate. "Stand by the gate, as soon as he comes out, attack him. After your attack, I'll attack him."

"Yes, sir." He stood there by the gate.

Suddenly the gate's wood started to rot. "What the hell?" Rinji asked.

The gate then fell apart, and Barragan stepped forwards.

The gate keeper ran at him.

"Wait! Hold on!" But he didn't hear Rinji's plea.

The gate keeper punched Barragan in the face, not seeming to effect the Akatsuki.

The gate keeper's fists began to decay, and the decay began eating away at his whole arm. "SHIT!" He drew a kunai, and he attempted to cut his own arm off, but he wasn't fast enough. The decay had already made it to his torso.

Rinji took a deep breath. So his power is to decay things. He thought. Anything around him will decay. So I can't get close to him.

"You seem to be smarter than that last guy." Barragan stated. "Move aside and I won't kill you."

Rinji drew a shuriken, and hurled it at him.

"Pointless."

The shuriken decayed before ever hitting him- and it disappeared out of existence.

I figured that would happen... Rinji thought. Damn, how am I supposed to beat someone like him?

"Tell me where Naruto Uzumaki is. I know he's in this village."

Rinji didn't say anything. He began making hand signs. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Fire spouted from his mouth, and shot right at the Akatsuki.

The fire aged and disappeared before hitting him too.

"Where is the Nine Tails? I won't ask again."

Rinji made some hand signs. There's got to a limit to his jutsu. So I'll just spam the crap out of him until he runs out of chakra.

"Earth Style: Trap!"

Suddenly the ground right beneath Barragan's feet disappeared, leaving a giant hole that was around ten feet in diameter, and twenty feet long.

Barragan dropped, and hit the ground. Rinji looked down, to see Barragan was running up the side with his charka. Damn, so he can turn his jutsu on and off... Rinji then made more hand signs. "Earth Style: Impermanence!"

He smacked his hand on the ground. The entire hole was suddenly filled with dirt and earth.


Kenpachi slashed down, trying to hit one of the Pains, but they all dodged him.

It seems that they're somehow linked. I don't really give a damn how, though. So they'll dodge all of my attacks that they can see. I'll just show them an attack they won't be able to see. He thought as he gripped his blade with both hands. "It's time for some Kendo."

"Oh boy! You're using that technique already, Kenny?" Yachiru asked.

"Do me a favor and be quiet during this fight."

He held his blade up above his head, and some of the pains charged him. He slashed down, and a giant wave of chakra shot from his blade. Two of the pains were defeated.

"Three of us have been defeated. We're going on the offensive now. No holding back!"

The summoning path summoned a large bear looking thing, and a giant dog. Kenpachi let go of his blade with one hand and he slashed both of them apart.

A chakra rod suddenly stabbed him in the back, and went straight through his stomach.


Ikkaku stabbed at Liones with his spear. Liones punched the spear, and Ikkaku caught on fire, and was sent flying backwards. He hit a tree, and then fell to the ground. The fire burnt away. Ikkaku looked up, and he gripped his spear.

Liones walked over, readying to hit him again. Ikkaku stabbed at him, but then Liones grabbed the wooden part of the blade, and yanked. The staff easily broke, and then he punched Ikkaku in the face with his other hand.

Ikkaku held up the remains of his Hozukimaru, blocking the attack.

"I should have known that there was such a difference in our abilities." Said Ikkaku. "Well, I didn't want to use that here- but I guess it'll be okay because everyone else is so busy fighting. Oh yeah... and don't tell anyone you saw this... or my sensei will be mad at me."

What the hell is this guy doing? Thought Liones.

Ikkaku slammed the ends of his broken spear together. "BAN-KAI!" He called. There was suddenly a small explosion that forced Liones to jump backwards.

"Did you say Bankai? That's the stuff of legend... you couldn't possibly have it..."

"Did a I stutter? I said BANKAI. Ryumon Hozukimaru!" He grinned, and he gripped the handles of his Bankai.

"Impressive."

"Don't say that. Not yet. I didn't release enough chakra to impress you." He began to glow with chakra. "Decide if it's impressive enough... After I use it to cut off you're ugly head!"

Liones punched at him, but Ikkaku slashed his fist. Part of Ikkaku's dragon started to light up. Ikkaku slashed him with the other blade, but this time right across the chest.

Liones jumped back, his eyes wide. "Damn!" He punched at Ikkaku again, and Ikkaku slashed him once more. The dragon was about half lit now. Ikkaku then switched his grip to the handles on the back part. He started spinning it around, and Liones hand to jump back to dodge it.

Ikkaku's dragon was all the way lit up now. "Let's do this!"

Liones grunted in response.

The two fights flew at each other.


Naruto and Sakura were walking around the Steel.

Naruto was carrying his sword around in his hand.

"Do you think that you'll be good enough with that sword to fight against Kenpachi now?" Asked Sakura.

"Definetely not. Maybe if he wears his weights again... but it'll still be difficult."

"Is he really that strong?"

"Well, if I was able to use all my jutsus, I think it'd be easier. But I'm pretty new with the sword so-" He would have continued, but then a group of ninjas teleported in front of them.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Come with us." The one said. "This is an emergence."

"Umm... okay."

"Hang on a second-" Sakura went to step forwards.

"Sakura Haruno. Find the closest Jonin or Chunin to you, and then they'll tell you what to do. You are a guest to our village, so you will not be forced to help."

"What's going on?" Asked Naruto.

"It is not up to me to stay. Come on."

The group of ninjas teleported away, and Sakura ran off to find a Jonin.

The group of ninjas took Naruto to the Kinkage's office.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Naruto asked.

"There is an Akatsuki. He's after you, Naruto." The Kinkage put it blutly. "We're going to protect you. But we need to keep the people out of the way."

Naruto swallowed. "You don't need to protect me. I'll be-"

"Shut up." Yumichika said. "Just shut up and listen. That Akatsuki is going to be hard to defeat. If he gets here we're not just going to hand him over to save our lives. You need to stay hidden and out of the way. We're not putting our lives on the line for you, we're doing it for the sake of our own village. If you get in our way, then it'll be life threatening for all of us."

"But I can't just sit here while that man is looking for me."

"You can. You can and you will." Yumichika gripped his sword. "If worst comes to worst, I'll just have to take him out with my technique. And Kinkage. If it comes to it... Don't tell my Sensei. That goes for all of you."

"You're one dense Shinobi." Said one of the Kinkage's guards.

"What?" Yumichika asked.

"All of us know of your technique. We've known of it for quite some time. We also know of Ikkaku's Bankai."

Yumichika's eyes widened. "You know of both of them...?"

"Yes." The Kinkage answered. "It wasn't that hard to figure out. And it's only a matter of time before you and Kenpachi achieve Bankai as well. If I were you... I'd train quite a bit after this is over."

"What's a Bankai?" Asked Naruto.

"Something that you'll learn about later." The Kinkage said. "Now stay hidden." He stood up. "I guess now I'm going to have to fight the Akatsuki myself. They've breeched my village, and now they're going to pay. We're going to attack their hide out directly after this."

"WHAT?" The guard asked.

"Keep your voice down. They won't expect a counter attack directly after we were attacked. We won't have time to gather a bunch of reinforcements, so it's just going to be us."

"That's crazy talk, Lord Kinkage. We can't allow you to go on a mission that might kill you." Said his second guard.

"Crazy talk it might be. But it's something that we need to do."


Notes: I could use some ideas for Yumichika's Bankai. I've looked up a few fan theories... but none of them seemed quite right, to me. Also bad news. The Bleach manga is going to end fairly soon. I'm almost certain that it's going to have a few plot holes in it. So I'm going to write a rather long fanfiction fixing all the problems in Bleach. It'll be very, fun.

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