Hey, look, i told you guys that i would be back on my regular release schedule! :D Its time for a new chapter! Yay, and sugar!
Just a note before i start to respond to my awesome and great and fabulous and best reviewers that i love oh so much to read and respond too :P i must make a comment
I began to realize that something didn't make sense, i first thought that Konoha was a few centuries old, with how big and powerful it was, but i began to wonder, Hiruzen "aka the third Hokage" was on team Tobirama, meaning that he was alive during the time that Konoha was founded, just as i have shown he was in my story, however that would make him like two hundred years old! It made no sense to me at all, so i went to check to see how old he was, according to narutopedia, witch is where i get most of my info on Naruto, he died at the age of 69ish, meaning that by shippuden he would have been 72ish and in my current story, he would be 76ish meaning that Konoha is not even a century old! even if Hiruzen was born shortly after the village was founded, it still wouldn't make Konoha old enough to make my story make sense, unless he had the same powers Madara seems to have, and i am pretty sure he didn't :P anyway all this to say that i will be editing my story to account for this, i know that i could just leave it as is and most of you would not care, hell probably wouldn't have even noticed :P but as a writer, i take pride in how my story is written and how much sense it makes, i will NOT change the core of the story, it will remain the same, however i will be changing stuff like instead of two centuries, i will bring it down to probably something like 60-70 years ago, i will make a list of what i have changed and post it with one of my chapters, so you won't have to go back and reread the entire thing :P anyway, now that that is out of the way, time to respond to some reviews :D
Gravenimage - Thanks for the review, and continued support :) Hope you like 24
Alex Kingetsu - Thanks for the review, i have no idea what a nest chapter is :P but the "next" chapter is here ;) lol sorry i couldn't resist...yes i know my sense of humor sucks :D anyway yep, Rukia was a captain and survived the invasion and was sent back home, and thus now has a role in the current story :D Rukia is to awesome to be like her brother "she is one of my fav chars in bleach next to Toshiro :D"
Slop Doggy - Thanks for the review, and you know what...i will be completely honest, i have NO IDEA what powers i will give her Zanpakuto yet... I am hoping that somehow the manga reveals her powers so i can steal it from there :P but if they don't show it by the time i need her to use her power, then i guess i will have to think of something :P
RairyuuBlade - Thanks for the review, and when i first read the beginning of your review, i was wondering "wth?" but then as i read on i figured it out :P anyway hope you enjoy the chapter :)
naru-ca-titan - Thanks for the review, and i am happy that i at least kind of helped :) if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask :D i love Banana Cream filled donuts...but they stopped making them at Tim Hortons "its the Canadian version of dunkin donut" i was so sad :( i use to eat one or two every time i went there as a kid, oh well, at least they still make my second fav, lemon filled donuts :D
blackmoon124 - Thanks for the review, and nope, the chidory is a skill were as the blade is just absorbing his chakara and creating the energy, Madara chose that weapon because he knew that Masaki's blade cannot cut anything that has chakara flowing threw it
xzavx - Thanks for the review, and :P chapter releases should be back on track from now on :)
Anyway that seems to be everyone, hope i didn't miss any, don't think i did i just double checked :) anyway, here is chapter 24!
Historical Bonds
Chapter 24
PRESENT TIME
Naruto and his team had been traveling for a while until they could finally see the night/demon borders represented by two flags. On the nights side stood a flag that was black with a white quarter moon in the middle, it looked worn down and ripped as it flapped in the wind, while on the other side was the demon flag, it was black and had two red dots, representing red eyes looking at you from the darkness, unlike the Night flag it was in perfect condition
Rukia, Yoruichi and Toshiro stopped at the borders, every instinct in their body told them not to go any further while Naruto and his team stopped and turned around "What is it?" Naruto asked
"This is the border, once we cross we will be in demonic controlled territory, are you sure you wish to proceed?" Rukia asked looking at Toshiro
"Of course, we didn't come all this way to just turn around, right Toshiro?" Naruto told him
Toshiro was frozen; this was something that Naruto and Sakura had never seen before, although he was very young he had always proved himself to be brave and almost fearless in combat, including when he fought against the leaf during the night invasion "Are you alright Toshiro?" Sakura asked
Toshiro was remembering his mission that took him into the demon country
FLASHBACK three years ago
Toshiro was only nine years old and he had already attained the rank of Vice Captain of the tenth division, he was shining his armband making sure it was clean as he slipped it onto his arm with pride. A man with a white cloak walked up to him with a smile on his face, unlike most other night ninja's he wore a sleeveless black kimono and he had a custom made captain cloak also without sleeves, on the back was the number ten "Captain" Toshiro said at the approaching man
"Toshiro, congratulations on becoming vice captain, if you keep this up, you may become one of the youngest captains in history, you really are a prodigy. I am sure glad that I was able to get you in my division" He said with a grin
"Thank you captain, it is an honor to serve you and the tenth division" Toshiro responded bowing in respect
"Cut that out, no need to be formal with me, I want us to work together as a team" He told Toshiro
"Yes sir!" Toshiro responded, this caused the man to let out a small laugh, Toshiro was so young, however that's what made him special. He could easily mold him into a great night ninja
Suddenly a girl bearing another vice captain armband ran into the room "Captain Muguruma, there is a demonic attack in progress on the border town of Karakura" The girl informed him, she had the number seven on her armband and black hair along with deep blue eyes, she was older then Toshiro and had been a vice captain for a few years
"What? So soon after the last one… Damn it! Toshiro, I want you to assemble every available division member"
"Yes sir!" Toshiro answered quickly.
"Rukia, I know that your only here as our guest while you are on vacation, but would you give us hand?" He asked the young girl
"Yes sir, of course I will!" She quickly answered
"Then go with Toshiro and help assemble the team, I will head out right away and try to help the defenders" He asked her as he vanished in a flash of light
Toshiro and Rukia had assembled everyone that they could find and were leading them towards Karakura, Rukia was running next to him "Are you nervous?" She asked him "After all, this is your first mission as a vice captain, I was nervous on my first mission" she said with a warm smile
"I am a bit…" He confessed to her
"You are a strong fighter and a great leader, you will be fine as long as you believe in yourself" She said with a grin, she ruffled up his hair a bit to tease him
"Stop that!" He told her in an annoyed voice, much like a little brother towards his older sister, Rukia let out a small giggle. But her smile didn't last long, they could already see the smoke coming from the town in the distance, they had to hurry
Once they arrived, they found the town in flames, many people were laying on the ground dead or wounded. The rest of the people were busy trying to put the fires out. Toshiro walked up to one of the people tending to the wounded "I am vice captain Hitsugaya of the tenth division, where is the enemy?" he asked
"I am Yamada, seventh seat of the fourth division's medical team, the enemy has already gone back once they had what they wanted…." The young man answered
"What? What was their goal?" Rukia asked
"Sacrifices… They captured as many of our people as they could, including small children and women. By the time reinforcements arrived they were long gone, the tenth division captain went after them…"
"Quickly, tell me where they went!" Toshiro asked wanting to back up his captain
"They went that way" Yamada told him pointing in a direction
"Rukia, I have to go help my captain, but you are under no obligation to come with us" Toshiro told her
"I may not be of the tenth division, but we are all fellow night ninjas and I can't let you go off on your own" Rukia told him "I am going with you"
"Thanks Rukia… Alright everyone, let's go back up our captain and save those people!" Toshiro told his men as they began running towards the night/demon borders. Toshiro's team crossed over into enemy territory without giving it a second thought, they had a mission and they were going to bring those people back home before they could be sacrificed or worst
They could finally see it, the nearest demon village to the night border. It was much different then what Toshiro had imagined, he had envisioned blood everywhere, skulls and other barbaric things. But it resembled one of their own villages, however he didn't see his captain or anyone else other than a group of defenders that were rushing to fight off the night raid. Toshiro took out his Zanpakuto, as did Rukia and the rest of the team. The night forces outnumbered the defenders four to one, however they were still able to hold off the night from getting into the village "Rukia, take command of our forces, I am going to try and get by and find the people they captured as well as find the captain" Toshiro told her
"Got it, good luck Toshiro!" She told him as he jumped over the defenders, a few of them were going to try and pursue him but Rukia and two others got in their way "Your fight is with us!" She said as she charged at them
Toshiro continued to run into the village, the villagers were all screaming that an enemy had broken through and were running into their homes, as if Toshiro was there to kill them. But he ignored them all and continued to run towards the central structure, with all of the guards busy defending the village he was able to just walk into the building. However he was horrified, all around the room were crosses with people nailed onto them, some of them had had their clothing ripped off, a few of them were missing limbs, Toshiro was horrified to see many of them were small children or young girls, however he was most horrified to see his own captain nailed to a cross in the middle of the room with a group of demon ninja's dancing and chanting around the room "CAPTAIN MUGURUMA!" Toshiro shouted getting the attention of the demon ninja's
"An intruder…" one of them simply said
"Activate the portal…" Another said
They continued to dance and chant as a portal began to open, it was almost as if it was using the life force from the people on the cross in order to function, Hollows suddenly began to pour out from the portal. Toshiro was afraid, he didn't know what to do. His captain, the most powerful member of the tenth division had been taken out, how could he a simple vice captain survive? "This is bad… This is bad, we have to retreat!" was all that he would think of, but his exit was being blocked by two demon ninjas. He was now surrounded, he was going to be nailed up on one of those crosses and there was nothing that he could do about it "No…..No…..NO!" suddenly his blade began to glow "What?...Is this…..? BAN-KAI!" he suddenly screamed out
A large explosion of chakra erupted from his body, once the smoke cleared Toshiro's blade had turned into ice and he had wings also made of ice "He has Ban-Kai?" one of them shouted out
"Who cares, he is only one, we took out that captain, we can take out a vice captain that just woke up his powers" one of them said with a grin
Toshiro didn't know what to do, yes he had just unleashed his Ban-Kai, but he didn't know how to use or control it or even what its powers were. A group of hollows tried to attack him, out of pure instinct Toshiro swung his blade unleashing a wave of ice and freezing them in an instant "Whoe…" was all that he could think of, however the demon ninjas were not going to give up that easily
"Break the seal!" one of them shouted out. One of them ran to the gate that was bringing in the hollows and tore off a seal, the portal began to glow as red chakra began to pour from it. Hollows were now coming out of it at an extreme rate, Toshiro had never seen that many in his entire life. The room was filling up quickly. He flew up using his new wings and began to swing his blade around "Blizzard ice storm!" a small blizzard began to form inside of the structure as ice pallets were now flying in every direction, they were as sharp as knifes and killed a large number of hollows, however they just kept coming and coming. It was like a never ending wave of them and he was starting to run low on chakra
"Damn it… I am at my limit…" he thought to himself as he slowly fell back to the ground, he was panting heavily, trying to stay awake "This can't be how I die..." He thought sadly
Suddenly a large surge of energy filled the room "Protection field of angels, level 99" a large yellow field surrounded Toshiro "Way of destruction, black energy blast, level 90!" a large black energy blast suddenly ripped through the structure incinerating everything it touched until the structure itself exploded, Toshiro had to shut his eyes as the blast was almost blinding. Once the smoke had cleared, there was nothing more than rubble, except for Toshiro who was protected by the field and the portal that had somehow survived along with the crosses and the people nailed to them
A Young girl with purple hair appeared beside Toshiro, she wore the black night uniform and on top had the white captain's cloak, with the number two on it "Yoruichi!... Err I mean Captain Shihoin"
The barrier disappeared from around Toshiro "We don't have any time to lose; we need to get out of here!" She told him
"What about them?!" Toshiro said pointing at crosses
"They are already dead…" she told him wanting for him to just follow her
"But the captain is still alive…"
"Toshiro, he is dead, his body might still be functioning but his brain is gone, I have seen this before… This was all a trap to lure him here, this is how they power those portals… They use the life force of the living… However a captain is worth ten normal ninjas… If we don't get out of here now, we will be giving them three more captain level power sources…" she told him with a sense of urgency
"Three?!" Toshiro asked
"Myself… Rukia and you Toshiro…Now we must retreat while we still can, that is an order!" She finally told him
Yoruichi lead the group of night ninja's that had survived back safely to night controlled territory
END FLASHBACK
All three of them could remember that horrible day as if it had happened only yesterday, Yoruichi and Rukia looked at Toshiro "Are you sure you want to proceed Toshiro?..." Yoruichi asked him
"If there is any chance that Hiyori is still alive…I want to save her" He answered
"You should know that Hiyori is practically at the level of a captain, if they truly got their hands on her, you should know that there is nothing we can do to save her…" Yoruichi tried once more to convince Toshiro to change his mind
"But even if there is the slightest chance that she is still alive… I want to be able to rescue her" He answered once more
"Yoruichi, it's pointless to talk him out of it. We both know that he is afraid beyond anything right now but the idiot is going to risk his life to save the one he cares about" Rukia told her
Yoruichi let out a large sigh "Then let's go…" She said as she was the first of the three to cross over and join Naruto's group, followed by Rukia and finally Toshiro "I hope you are all as strong as you believe you are… Because odds are, half of this group will not return alive, if any of us return at all…"
"Do you really need to keep saying stuff like that?" Ino asked
"It's not her fault… She has just seen what these people are truly capable of, and somehow survived… As well as rescue me and Rukia from a failed rescue mission of our own…" Toshiro said defending Yoruichi
"Yeah well, It really gets annoying when she keeps saying stuff like half of you will not return and all that" Ino commented
"Pretending like all of us will return from this mission without a scratch is delusional, even if all thirteen captains from the night were with us, none of them would assume that they would all return alive… Once you witness their true power, you will understand" Rukia said also defending her friends
"We are all ninja's, we know about death, we know that every time we go on a mission that we may not return, we put our lives on the line every time we wake up in the morning, hell some of us don't even get to wake up… My point is that we are not stupid enough to believe that we are invincible and that we will all return from this alive. However if we go into it with the mindset that we will not return then we might as well just give up. We leaf ninjas have had to do many sacrifices in our history, and I am sure there will be many more… However I can make you this promise, as the Hokage and leader of my people I swear that I will protect you with my life, even you two who are not from the leaf. It is my way of the ninja" Naruto said with a serious expression
Rukia leaned over to Toshiro "I know I said this earlier, but I can see why you respect this guy so much, even I am starting to respect him a little…" She simply told him
"Very well, then let's go" Yoruichi Said as they continued their search for their missing team members
Meanwhile, a group of demon ninja's had arrived at the cave that Hiyori and Hamako had used only a few hours ago "Sir, they came this way, they must have used the cave as a resting area" One of them said
"They can't be far, we have this entire area surrounded, they can't escape. I want that captain level girl, that other one has a high power level as well" The one that was leading the group ordered
"Yes sir!" The man answered
End chapter 24
Well That ends another new chapter, this was more of a flashback chapter but i had fun writing it, i wanted to show how Toshiro got his Ban-Kai, as well as the friendship that the trio have together even back then, as well as give a little peek at how a demonic village works and how they gain their powers
Will Toshiro be able to face the demonic forces again? Will Naruto be able to protect them all and bring everyone back safely? Will Hiyori and Hamako be able to avoid capture from the approaching demon ninja's? Will Tim Hortons ever start making my beloved Banana Cream filled Donuts again?!
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