ベリーと死神の7

Of Berries and Shinigami 7

The hollow laughed at her failed shot, gritting her teeth she prepared another arrow with the intent of actually hitting this time, but the hollow was moving fast, "one hostage is enough." It said as its tentacle lifted Yuzu up even higher and placed her above his mouth. Sakura's eyes widened as Ichigo appeared out of nowhere and sliced off the tentacle and caught yuzu in midair.

"Ichigo, it still has Karin!" she shouted as the arrow finally formed in her bow. She grit her teeth as the hollow spoke again, "very well, I still have a hostage." It lifted a struggling Karin up with its four fingered hand, "I've been waiting for you, shinigami."

Ichigo laid Yuzu by a stone marker and looked over at his sister, "Sakura get Yuzu, I'll grab Karin!" All she could do was nod as the bow and arrow de-materialized as she ran and made her way towards Yuzu, gently picking her up and carrying her away from the danger as fast as she could.

When she was back near the steps she turned around and her eyes widened once she saw the same boy from six years ago standing there infront of the hollow, "Ichigo! It's him! The boy from six years ago!"

"Yea I know! The same one from six years ago when I tried to save this kid," his growled, "when I woke up… Sakura was crying and mom…mom was dead." The hollow only laughed as it claimed it had no recollection of anything that happened six years ago. Rukia steeled her gaze on the hollow, "his name is Grand fisher… it hides itself and makes the appendage growing out of its head take human form." There was a pause, "then any human who can see it… in other words, any human with a soul of high spirit density becomes fodder to increase its power."

The Shinigami from earlier stood behind Rukia with hardened look, " that hollow has evaded us shinigami for 50 long years. And its favorite meal is women."

Ichigo's eyes widened, "you mean this thing… killed my mom?" Rukia closed her eyes and silently nodded. The hollow seemed intrigued at the twins' words.

"Ah, I see. You kids are lucky to have survived after seeing me." He continued to speak as his tentacle swung back in forth in an almost hypnotizing way, "at first, I may have been trying to eat you because of your great spirit power. But women just look so tasty."

Still standing near the steps, Sakura heard every word the hollow had said along with Rukia and the other Shinigami's comments. Gently placing Yuzu behind a marker so she would be safe she turned around and began making her way towards them.

Rukia turned around as she felt a faint familiar reiatsu coming from behind her. There was Sakura, walking towards them, her eyes swimming with emotions. Loss, sadness, fear, rage, but the one that swam with dominance was killing intent. She gulped before turning around to see Ichigo shaking as he held his zanpakuto, same rage and killing intent in his eyes. She watched as he jumped up into the air and swung his blade left and right before finally landing with a large arc of a swing. Rukia began to run trying to predict the hollows next move.

Ichigo jumped back onto the next level only to be grabbed by grand fisher, despite having the life being squeezed out of him by grand fisher's tendril like hair, Ichigo managed to speak, "You're the only one I'll never forgive!"

Sakura continued to walk slowly towards the fight; faintly she could hear Ichigo shout something at what she assumed was the hollow. She could hear her blood pumping through every single vein in her body, every beat of her heart, and every swish of her eye lashes. She felt light, as if she could fly, jumping up in the air, and landing as if on a solid surface- which she wasn't in the right mind to question at the moment- she continued to do so till she heard a muffled shout of, " Disintegrate, Black Dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself and burn; tear away your own throat! Way of Binding, Number 9, Geki!"

Once the chant had ended she snapped out of whatever trance she had been in. She could hear clearly now, no muffled sounds as if she held a Styrofoam cup to her ear that was pressed against a wall. The rhythmic beats in her ears gone along with the sound of her blood rushing through every single vein. She heard a surprised scream coming from down below, where Rukia had been thrown back into one of the various stone markers, blood visibly dripping down her face in a steady stream. Looking back up at grand fisher, she materialized the bow in her hand getting ready to strike at any moment.

"Now then, I'm going to eat this girl." Asked the ugly looking hollow as it lifted Karin close to its mouth, "what are you going to do?"

A strained, "Karin!" came from Ichigo. Sakura lifted her bow, arrow already in place as she pulled the pinkstring back waiting, just waiting for grand fisher to lift Karin up a little higher into the air.

'just a little bit more…' she thought as she instinctively closed an eye to better her sight.

"Stop!" shouted Ichigo as he began to squirm in the hollows grip. Grand Fisher, with his mouth now open looked down at the strawberry, "so, you'll be good and let me eat you?" it leaned in closer to eat Ichigo, simultaneously causing it to raise Karin a bit higher into the air, just where Sakura needed him to. Watching as the unknown shinigami jumped up in the air, the cherry let go of the arrow letting it sail through the air cleanly cutting the hollows hand off.

She let herself drop down onto the ground and landed just as Karin did. She held her hand up to Karin's neck making sure she was alive. She turned around just as Ichigo shouted her name in warning. She stood up, stretching her arms out in a defensive manner over Karin waiting for the dagger like hair from the hollow to impale her.

A burning feeling covered her arms, legs and shoulders. Opening her eyes she saw a black broad back in front of her, the hair like tendrils sticking out through him and impaling her. Her eyes widened when she saw the blood coming from her and the man who had attempted to protect her- his reason? She didn't know why but the act was appreciated. She heard the slice of a sword being pulled down by gravity. The man infront of her slumped down as he leaned on his sword. Sakura who was being held up by the tendrils staggered back and landed beside an unconscious Karin.

Sakura stared up at the sky and focused her attention on trying to keep her body working.

"Hey, You…" Ichigo started as he glanced back at them, " Why did you do that…"

The heavy breathing coming from the shinigami echoed through the area, "Shinigami keep fighting the hollows, no matter what. Shinigami never forgive hollows. Because of hollows attacking indiscriminately… precious people are lost… and only emptiness is left," he managed to look up at Ichigo before glancing at the bleeding pinkette behind him, " I won't forgive that. Protect them, Spiky boy. Because there won't always be someone there to do it when you can't." He started to slouch again, "you understand, don't you…" he collapsed into a heap as the blood began to pool around him.

Sakura continued to listen in on the conversation, and from what she could tell the shinigami that took the majority of the hit for her didn't die, but instead just fell asleep. Taking a deep breath, Sakura began to sit up, willing herself to stand up. The sound of feet distracted her causing her to look to her left, and there was Kon running up to them. Rukia turned to him, "Kon, take the sisters."

Kon stopped for a second, "Wait the twins and Sakura? Or just the twins?" he asked in confusion.

"Just the twins!"

"Wait! No, Kon take Sakura as well." Ichigo said as he lifted his zanpakuto once again. Sakura stood up on shaking legs and whipped her head to face her older counterpart, "like hell I'm leaving you alone." She muttered with a glare. She watched as his hardened gaze softened as he looked at her, battered and injured and bleeding profusely.

"Please… cherry-tan.." he said; "you're too injured to fight…" he softly smiled and mouthed a word, " please." She mentally faltered. Sighing she looked away from him and nodded. She slowly made her way to get on Kon's back but was stopped by a large hand placed gently on her shoulder, looking over her shoulder to see who it was but all she got was a glimpse of green before she blacked out.

Ichigo stared as the man known as Naruto appeared out of thin air and placed a gentle hand on Sakura's shoulder. Immediately she collapsed and fell into his seemingly buff arms, "I'll take her. She's to injured, I'll take her to the shop." He said. It took Ichigo a minute to figure out that he was talking to Rukia instead of him.

"Oii, Naruto was it?" Ichigo asked, Naruto nodded, "take care of her. If I find out something happened to her that didn't happen here I'll kill you."

"I wouldn't dare hurt her." he said, his tone serious. Ichigo nodded before facing the hollow once again. With a nod towards Rukia he disappeared once again.

Naruto landed just outside the shoten, two tall figures standing by the entrance as if they were waiting for him. Readjusting the petite girl in his arms he managed to walk over giving a small nod before speaking, " Good afternoon Kakashi... Sasuke."

EDIT: 12/20/13

A/N: GUESS WHAT Y'ALL I FINALLY HAVE MY OWN LAPTOP SO I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT LIMITED COMPUTER TIME ANYMORE. I'LL DEF BE UPLOADING MORE CHAPTERS TO THIS FIC SOON.