Naruto no Rei

Ch. 3 – The plans are set forth

--

"So… this is what the human world once was, huh? How… interesting! This place, so many weaklings, they have no training, no idea how to fight! I wonder where Aizen's challenge was!" Naruto said, amazed the Shinigami-traitor had been defeated in any way by anyone from here. He was well-aware that it was a Shinigami, or a group of them that had taken him down, but looking back on his own experience, he could only say that it was Aizen hesitating to act superior that probably got him killed. From Naruto's experience, Shinigami didn't know where all the openings in a stance could be or how to cover them.

Either way, Aizen was stupid and died as a result, whether it was a millennium before he finally died not a matter as he still died from his own stupidity. Naruto's ears perked up slightly, and he turned around to find an orange-haired Shinigami with a sword similar to a butcher-knife in shape, wrapped in white cloth on his back, the sword as large as the Shinigami was tall. Naruto smirked as he saw the Shinigami flying toward him, and he brought his sword up with a cruel smirk.

"Heh, you must be pretty weak, Shinigami. I can't even sense your Reiatsu!" Naruto taunted, the Shinigami looking a little annoyed at that statement. "Seriously kid, you're a weakling to me. Can you even sense spiritual pressure? I'm way stronger than you! Hell, I'm a lot stronger than any of your captains!"

"All I know is that you're an Arrancar, and right now we're in a bit of a war with them. So I don't care how strong you think you are, I'm taking you down!" The Shinigami said, drawing his own sword and charging Naruto. Naruto smirked, and used his step to appear behind the Shinigami, bringing his sword down.

"I'm stronger than Aizen, you idiot kid! You really wanna fight me?!" Naruto said, the Shinigami barely getting out of the way. "I'm not too bad at sensing Reiatsu, I'm actually pretty good at it! And I can barely sense you at all when you're right in front of me! I don't even feel your spiritual pressure!"

Naruto's sword began glowing red again, and he made a horizontal slash, calling the name of the attack. "Empujon! (Thrust/Drive)" The wave of sparking red energy cut through the air, charging at the Shinigami, who raised his sword above his head. He called out an attack as well, Naruto smirking.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" A large white wave of energy outlined in blue, flying down toward the red blast. As they collided, there wasn't even a struggle as Naruto's Empujon destroyed the Shinigami's Getsuga. The Shinigami rose his sword to defend against the blast, and he succeeded in guarding, however, his sword acquired a network of hair-thin cracks all through the blade. Naruto grinned and his sword started glowing again, using his step to appear in front of the Shinigami with his sword swinging from his left into the vertically held blade, sparks appearing as they entered a dead-lock as if Naruto's sword was a saw.

"Let me tell you a little about Empujon. I might've only known for a little while, but I know everything. Empujon is what I do when I focus the energy into my blade, in order to send out the power wave, I need to call the name, or else it is weakened, but as is, all the force of that attack is in my swings!" Naruto said, pressing harder, the Shinigami's sword chipping. "Another thing, is that Empujon, in all forms, is an attack that uses raw directional force as a weapon, it's force is so high that it can the air to spark from friction, and lets me push through any opposition I meet!"

Seconds after he finished his explanation, Naruto pushed a little harder, and busted right through the Shinigami's sword, leaving only the lower blade and handle. The Shinigami stood in shock, Naruto getting right in his face.

"What, you some kind of retard? You can't just stand around like that, never been a person in my life that would sit around and let you be all dramatic, kid! Get used to it, you gotta keep fighting till you use your last breath!" Naruto said, the Shinigami glaring at him. "How's this, you tell me your name, I let you live?"

"Only if you tell me yours." The Shinigami said in a moderately angry tone. Naruto smirked, backing away and bowing.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Vasto Lorde Arrancar, at your service." Naruto said, standing and smirking more cruelly at the Shinigami whose eyes widened. "You really gotta fix that thing with the shock. You'll probably end up dead if this happens in a fight with someone not as nice as me."

"Tch, whatever. I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, Substitute Shinigami or Karakura Town." The Shinigami said, looking at his sword apparently in deep thought. The Shinigami, Ichigo, looked up to glare at Naruto, only to notice Naruto was gone. A tick-mark formed on his forehead when he noticed Naruto had ignored him for something else.

Said blonde was currently floating in the shadows below with his sword on his back, smirking at Ichigo's stupidity. 'Honestly, can't believe he's not smart enough to sense Reiatsu. He's already managed a Shikai, how can he not know how to sense Reiatsu by now?'

Leaving the questions for later, Naruto decided that it would serve him best to wait for some other Arrancars to show up. The only thing he had left to do was to wait around in the human world. As he looked around the alley he was in, floating to the ground, he couldn't help but groan at how bored he would be.

'Somethin' tells me I'm gonna start wishing I had that old fur-ball to talk to when I got bored soon.' Naruto thought to himself, sitting up against the alley-wall as he masked his Reiatsu. After all, it wouldn't do if someone found him while he was searching around his mind for something to talk to.

"Cool. Looks like you can fight, kid. Maybe this'll be a little fun."Naruto looked around, his eyes settling on his sword. "Better reasoning than me, kid. Took you half-as-long as I'd have taken. So, what are you waitin' for? Get in here so we can start the party!"

Naruto smirked, and closed his eyes as he let fatigue finally take him, no more voices badgering him to give up his control over the body any longer. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

--

"Tsunade-sama!" Came the shout of a rather frantic pink-haired teen wearing some kind of boxer-ninja attire. She had rushed out to her mentor's side, said woman having her energy, her chakra, drained by an object she'd picked up a second earlier. She felt its draining cease, as it started glowing an incredibly bright blue. Seconds later, the light died away and the teen looked at her mentor in shock. "T-Tsunade-sama… how- how can this be possible?"

"I haven't got a clue, Sakura. But I do know that I like it. If I can figure out how this little thing did that, it'll be the greatest medical discovery in the history of mankind." Tsunade said, now looking roughly seventeen years old with a more realistic-sized chest (I like 'em as much as the next guy, but it tends to get a little ridiculous). She held the object in her hand, unaware of the pair of curious white-eyes staring at the object.

'That thing, it has something to do with time. Tsunade's body has been reduced to its prime in strength, while her mind, discipline, and chakra control is all the better. What is it about that device… that makes me feel like I'm getting closer to my goal?' The owner of the white eyes, a woman, went down for a closer look, before reaching out to the souls of her partners. 'Nisshoku, Gesshoku, how would you classify Reiatsu?'

"The power of the dead?" Came the slightly wistful voice of the white-eyed woman's first companion, suggesting her answer as a question.

"I'd say it's the essence of the dead, our source. Can't be in the after-life without the stuff." This was the voice of the woman's second, more teasing or crazed companion. The woman smirked when she heard that, something clicking in her head, both companions noticing. "What's on your mind, Hina-chan?"

'Well, when I was alive, we were taught that Chakra was the essence of life, that even though some can't use it, everything in the world has chakra. And according to you two, Reiatsu is the essence of death, suggesting that Reiatsu and Chakra are opposites.' Hinata explained, before continuing. 'That little orb absorbed Tsunade-baa's Chakra and returned her body to its prime point after absorbing all it could handle. If Chakra did that, and Chakra's Reiatsu's opposite, maybe I can use that little thing with our Reiatsu to age us and let our powers grow more quickly.'

"I like that idea! That way you can get your guy and we can talk to the spirit in that sword of his!" Nisshoku said excitedly, clearly hoping that Naruto's sword-spirit was male.

'I thought Naruto-kun was a hollow. Why would he have a Zanpaku-to?' Hinata asked, Gesshoku answering.

"I'm a Hollow in a Zanpaku-to, who's to say a Hollow can't get a Zanpaku-to? There've been Shinigami with Hollow masks in the past, so Hollows with Zanpaku-to aren't too much of a stretch of the imagination." Gesshoku said, Hinata agreeing instantly after.

'Well, let's wait till Tsunade-baa puts the little orb away somewhere before we take it and use it.' Hinata said, following behind Tsunade as quietly as possible, which was fairly simple since she could float. Still, she decided to put on a mask she'd taken from a Hollow that wanted to eat her a while back that she liked.

It was a fairly cat-like mask, with ears that went out over her head. It had blood-red paint around the eye-holes and red lines went to the tip of the cat-ears from there. It had three red whisker-marks that widened as they approached the ends of the mask. The teeth were arranged in a single, razor-sharp, horizontal row overtop her mouth.

Putting on the mask, she looked around before floating behind Tsunade as she and Sakura began walking back toward the Hokage's Office, with the odd meteorite from the sky now found and taken care of.

--

Naruto found himself standing on a slightly older street, outside of a large old-style shop. He walked up to the doors and knocked, not getting a response. He decided that since it was his mind, he would walk in anyway. He saw that it looked more like an inn than a shop, and decided he would walk to the desk and look around. As he went, he saw that there were a lot of odd trophies, such as demons pinned to the wall with swords, guns, odd, very eccentric weaponry strewn about near the weird trophies.

He got to the desk and saw a half-eaten box of something he'd never seen in his life, roughly pie shaped sitting next to a phone and a shiny silver object that looked like a metal bar attached to a handle.

He heard footsteps and looked up, just in time to see someone jump off the balcony above him. As they fell, they were flipping and spinning around, their body still straight. When they landed, Naruto saw it was a man, looking roughly twenty-two years old with mid-neck length silver hair, leather pants, combat boots and no shirt on. He also saw a red amulet in a silver pendant on a silver chain around the man's neck. Afterward he noticed the man was holding a black version of the metal thing on the desk aimed at him like a weapon.

Naruto reached for his sword, only to grab air. He looked around for a second before he saw it leaning up against the wall by the trophies. "Alright… I'll bite, who are you and what are we doing here?"

"Heh, won't tell you my name yet, but I'll tell you where we are." The man said, lowering the weapon. "You're in your own mind, where exactly you are, well, you're in my shop, which is in the city above those sewers you thought were your mind when you first met the fur-ball."

"Ok, can you tell me who you are without giving your name?" Naruto asked, the man chuckling slightly.

"Yeah, I'm the spirit of your sword." The man said, Naruto raising an eyebrow. "I see you don't get what I mean. Well, let me tell you a little about myself.

"I am something called a Devil, Akuma in your language. An Akuma is a being born of the remaining hate and rage from when a Hollow called a Menos is purified and sent to what the Shinigami call Soul Society. I dunno much Japanese, so don't ask me to translate what I don't know. Oni, demons, are what's left of normal Hollows that are purified. Hell is the place where all the evil emotions end up, but only one Akuma is ever born of a specific Menos being purified, however entire species of Oni are made from a single Hollow's hate, rage, and evil. Truthfully, I'm only half-devil, my mother was actually human. My Father… he was one of the strongest devils ever. Guy named Sparda, and truthfully, he was the exact opposite of what Hollow he came from.

"He's actually one of the only two Devils to come from truly powerful Menos. They were two Vasto Lordes, turned into Arrancars by Aizen Sousuke, and ranked as people called Espada, the best of the best in the Hollow world, Hueco Mundo, where we just came from. Sparda came from a guy named Stark, whereas the other, a pain-in-the-ass named Mundus, came from this old strict called Barragan who thought of himself as a king. Anyway, Sparda died sealing Hell away from the human world, given the fact that in order to seal hell away he had to make himself mortal, sealing his own power away. Didn't quite work though when me and my brother inherited his power genetically.

"I'll teach you how to use my powers as you get to be able to use them, but for now, I think I should tell you my name. Just call my name if you ever wanna use any of my powers, other than Empujon." The man said, Naruto nodded. "Name's Dante. Now, the first attack I'll teach you is Rebelion. That sword that you're used to, that's my original sword. It's a keepsake from Dad. It's name is Rebellion. Whenever you use the attack that its name translates to, your shadow will split off and transform into a copy of myself in my Devil form wielding Rebelion. There are seven more attacks for you to learn, so don't go thinkin' that you aren't gonna be strong enough to do what you want. Just remember that you can't use Rebelion when I'm not in my transformed state."

"Right, understood Dante. Hope you like to talk, cuz' there won't be much else to do while we wait for things to pick up. I'm still waitin' on a ticket back into Hueco Mundo." Naruto said, Dante nodding. Naruto vanished, and Dante smirked.

"Well, kid. You sure made a switch when you transformed. Wonder when you're gonna find out I wasn't replaced, but just changed back to normal." Dante said to himself, picking up another piece of the pie-like thing.

\-/

Chapter End

I decided that my idea for a Zanpaku-to based on Dante would fit better for a Hollow, mostly because Hollows are more like Devils.

A few explanations about Naruto's freakish strength.

It's there for a fairly good reason, those who don't know what's happening, and don't live long enough to find out, are boring.

The massive difference in strength by someone who looks, and is, slightly younger than Ichigo will drive the Carrot-top to gain more power faster.

Naruto's Zanpaku-to is like Ulquiorra's, in that he has two releases.

Naruto's powers are like Chad's, in that while Chad is human with Hollow-esque powers, Naruto is Hollow with Shinigami-like powers.

Dante was long dead when Naruto was born, being half-mortal, and as a result, his spirit was still hangin' around earth lookin' for somethin' to do. He was only half-devil, meaning if he wanted he could've passed on or become an odd devil-hollow hybrid. He didn't want to in this story. When the sealing occurred, Dante was sealed and became the spirit of Naruto's Zanpaku-to when Naruto died.

And finally, well, Naruto's Zanpaku-to has to be a partial-reflection of himself since he's an Arrancar, so, I figure we have Dante's personality blend a little with Naruto's.

That's all, no further questions will be asked til the next arc is posted. P.S, this arc isn't over yet. Just look at that little arrow button if you need any more proof.