TTGLX: Brothers to the End.
Chapter 11: Ooh hell yeah!
Kamina awoke suddenly, blinding pain ripping through his body. He heard a loud curse beside him, the voice not one that he recognised. Struggling, he tried to sit up but only inflicted more pain upon his body.
"Sorry about that." apologised the voice.
Kamina turned his head slightly to see the figure sat at his side. His neck wouldn't turn far enough to see. Instead he glanced at his surroundings, taking in wooden walls and roof. He must be inside. He racked his memories but couldn't piece anything together. The last thing he remembered was getting his ass handed to him by that damned Meta-Spiral and then being kicked off of the cliff and hitting the rocky water far below.
"You're one lucky guy." commented the voice. It was a man's. "The injuries you've sustained would have killed any other men. If the battering hadn't killed them, my attempts at healing them certainly would have." he chuckled.
Taking a deep breath and bracing his muscles, Kamina managed to prop himself up on his elbows. The man was in his view now.
He wore a long coat of bright orange with black flame patterns at the bottom. White trousers covered his legs while a zip up black jumper covered his chest and arms. A mess of mid-length blonde hair sat atop his head, separated from his whiskered face by a black forehead protector that's loose ends descended down his back. Piercing blue eyes met with Kamina's crimson ones.
"Who are you?" groaned Kamina. "And where the hell am I?"
"You're safe here. It might not be much but I call it home." answered the man. "As for me, I'm just a sage hermit, passing his days out here alone. You on the other hand, are very well known. Blue hair, blue tattoos, red eyes. Your reputation proceeds you, Lieutenant Kamina."
Kamina couldn't help but grin at the spread of his own reputation. Something didn't sit with him though. The person before him was familiar somehow. If only he wasn't so terrible with remembering faces.
The man interrupted his thoughts. "I'm surprised though. Who could you have been fighting to do you over so badly?"
"Screw you!" snapped Kamina testily. "I had that son of a bitch! He just powered up and took me by surprise at the last second, that's all!"
"That's still no small accomplishment." commented the man. "I'm kinda out of the loop here. What's going off to cause so much trouble?"
"A race called the Meta-Spirals are trying to destroy the universe. They've already captured my bro and now they want me." Kamina grunted. He forced himself into a sitting position. From this new position, something clicked.
"I knew I recognised your face!" he cried out suddenly. "You were in one of the books back at the academy. An ex-captain!"
The man sighed. "Well, no point denying it now. Yeah, I'm an ex-captain. The name's Naruto Uzomaki."
"I know about you then. You were thought to be one of the strongest warriors to ever live!" exclaimed Kamina. "What the hell you doing hiding away out here? So many times with needed strong fighters like you!"
"You wouldn't understand. You're still young. I was the same back in my youth." grinned Naruto, skirting around the question. "I don't fight anymore. That's all you need to know."
"That's bullshit!" Kamina shouted. He struggled for a moment then pulled himself to his feet. Naruto held up his hands, warning the younger man against sudden movements. Kamina ignored him.
"So many people have died, just while I've been here! How many of those could you have saved?"
Naruto shook his head. "It was killing people that made me stop. Battle involves death, its inevitable. To save your friends you sometimes have no choice but to kill your enemies. Those enemies had friends too who will seek revenge. Its all just one long wheel of hate and death. I tried to find a way to break that cycle. I'm still trying."
"That doesn't explain why you're out here rather than back in the Seireitei."
"You really want to know? Fine, I'll tell you. During my life I aspired to become the strongest and create peace for all. My only other goal was to bring back a friend to the light. Our entire lives we fought each other and I never gave up trying to make him see sense. I reached my dream of becoming Hokage but it still wasn't enough."
"Then when we died the cycle continued. It got to the point where he was killing so many innocent people that redemption was no longer possible. I had no choice but to stop him once and for all. By killing him, I killed a piece of myself. The pain of loosing a friend, someone I looked upon as my brother, it hurt. Knowing it was your own hands that ended his life, that's even worse."
Kamina remained quiet. He thought on how he would react if he had been forced to fight Simon, if he had had to kill him. Would he do it? Could he continue with life if he did? He shook his head. It didn't bear thinking about.
"I don't know how much you know but unless I beat this Meta guy then the universe could end. If it's all the same to you, I haven't given up on fighting so I need to get back on my feet and be fighting fit real quick." Kamina grunted determinedly as he flexed his muscles.
Naruto clicked his tongue. "The toads tell me that you don't stand a chance."
"What?" snapped Kamina. He looked beside the man and a series of small toads sat around him. On closer inspection the room was filled with them.
"A few of them saw the fight. They say that you aren't strong enough to beat him while at full health, let alone like you are now." Naruto informed him.
"Screw the toads! I'm not gonna be called weak by a little warty bastard! I'll beat him. If my sword can't cut him then I'll punch him to death. If he cuts off my arms than I'll break his bones with my forehead! I will win!"
Naruto chuckled at the words, causing Kamina's anger to bubble. The blonde haired man held up his hands, indicating no offence was meant. "You sound just like I did. You have a good heart. Let me ask, who was your master? Who trained you?"
Kamina gave him a blank look. "My master? Nobody. My dad taught me to fight and never give up. The academy taught me to use my shinigami powers and Captain Ichigo Kurosaki showed me how to control my inner hollow. Everything else I learned myself."
"Hmm." Naruto mused. "How would you like to become my student? I may not fight anymore, but that doesn't stop me from passing on my abilities. I like you. I feel you'll put the powers to good use."
Kamina snorted. "What could you teach me that would be any use? I already know as much as any captain."
Naruto stood up and rolled his shoulders. "I can wipe out an army in a single second. I can kill any opponent before they can even blink. I can do all of this without producing any excess spiral energy."
This sparked Kamina's interest. "How can you be that powerful without massive spiral energy?"
"I never used to be. It was only when the Spiral Nemesis became known a few decades ago that I set to work creating new, spiral friendly attacks." he held out his hand and air began to spin until a sphere of spinning energy sat in his hand.
"This is the rasengan. It used to be formed by channelling pure chakra, or spiral energy as we now know it is called, and compressing it into a constantly spinning ball. When it was revealed this was bad for the universe I altered the technique so that you draw excess spiral energy from the air around you instead of from within. You for example are constantly bleeding out power which I can use to create one."
Kamina shrugged. "It's pretty cool but how powerful is it. Some weakass attack is no use to me."
Naruto stood up and left the building. Stiffly Kamina followed. Once outside, Naruto picked a tree at random and smashed the energy ball into the trunk. The wood turned into a mist of splinters in less than a heartbeat. Kamina whistled at the devastation, his eyes sparkling.
"Strong enough for ya?" inquired the man with a sly smile.
"Ooh hell yeah!" grinned Kamina madly. He cracked his fingers and jumped on the spot. "Where do I sign up?"
Naruto nodded. "We have little time though if you wish to stop these Meta-Spirals. I'll give you a week. I will teach you three techniques to learn in that time. First, we will start with the first technique I ever mastered and my favourite: shadow clones."
"Clones…" smiled Kamina dumbly. He imagined hundreds of Kaminas running around the Seireitei at his bidding. The fantasy caused him to salivate. The beautiful chaos he could create. The women he could please…
Naruto waved a hand across his face to snap him back into reality. "It is a difficult technique that involves lots of power. If you were to use your own power then you could produce hundreds. By using free floating spiral energy you will only likely be able to create one or two."
"First you need to learn the hand signs that will help you to channel the energy." Naruto began, to make shapes with his hands, demonstrating the signs needed. It looked simple enough.
Kamina tried them and after a few minutes had the signs committed to memory. He felt no change as he performed them though.
"Now you must gather the required spiral energy. Imagine your hands are magnets that draw spiral energy from the air. Try to gather the energy around your hands like a glove of power. Concentrate and you should feel the slight movements of power around you."
Kamina did as instructed. At his maximum concentration he could feel the air move slightly but very little spiral enegy attached itself to his hands.
"It is easier to get the power from within so don't be disheartened. It took me a while to learn it and I train quicker than you could imagine." Naruto encouraged him.
For the rest of the day and through the night Kamina tried to gather the energy around his hands. He didn't rest once. A shout of triumph alerted Naruto early the next day that he had finally succeeded. He left his hut to find Kamina stood with glowing blue hands. He looked on the verge of passing out but his joy at the victory was clear.
"Now you need to use the hand signs I taught you. As you perform them, give shape to the energy in your hands. Force it into a human form. Think of nothing except for the jutsu." commanded Naruto.
Kamina complied. He stood shaking for a few moments, the strain clear on is face. Then there was a puff of smoke. When it cleared, two Kamina stood before Naruto. Kamina grinned at himself, inspecting his handiwork proudly.
"Handsome fellow ain't he? No wonder people can't help but to worship me."
"Just remember that you need to be able to do that instantly in the heat of battle. Spending hours or even minutes gathering the necessary power just isn't going to cut it. On the bright side though, anything your clone learns will be passed onto you when you release it. With that in mind, both of you get to work producing more."
Another hour went by before the real Kamina produced another clone. Thirty minutes after that his clone managed the same feat.
Naruto nodded, satisfied with the progress. "Right, now release them by using this sign and drawing the energy back to yourself." he watched as the three clones disappeared. Kamina collapsed, clutching his head. "Yeah, that tends to happen at first. After a few times it won't happen any more."
The blonde haired man gave Kamina a break, giving him a meal of forest berries and a spit roasted duck. After eating, Kamina tried the technique again, managing a clone in only twenty minutes this time. It was still not good enough though.
Kamina snapped at him. "It's not my fault that your technique is so damn slow. How fast can you manage a clone then, you whiskered bastard."
Naruto made the signs and in a second Kamina couldn't see the surrounding trees for a thousand Narutos had just appeared in the clearing. A second later, each one of them held a rasengan in their hands.
Kamina was dumbstruck. Without another word he returned to his training, redoubling his efforts with a new found determination. Clones made clones creating a slowly building chain of Kaminas. As the sun began to dip, Kamina released them, tanking the ensuing migraine that wrecked his brain.
"You think you can pull it of yet?" Naruto asked. Kamina nodded. "Good, cos you're not getting anymore food until you can."
True to his word, when Kamina tried his hands began to glow instantly. He made the signs and his clone appeared on cue. Both shared the same cocky smirk.
Naruto summoned two clones and signalled them forward. They charged at the twin brawlers, one attacking high, the other low. The true Kamina jumped and ducked at the same time, curling into a ball as the two clones swooped past him. His clone caught him and threw him at the blonde ninjas. They dodged easily but were instantly under assault by the second Kamina as the first recovered.
One Naruto struck the Kamina clone hard in its chest, causing it to burst. No sooner had it turned to smoke though had it reformed around Naruto's arm. The real Kamina was stood nearby making hand seals, reforming his clone before it had fully vanished. The Naruto was pinned, its arm stuck within the other clone's chest. The Kamina clone, dubbed Klone within Kamina's mind, slammed his head into the Naruto. Both of them vanished in a burst of smoke.
Through the smoke rocketed Kamina. He punched at the remaining clone but missed. Not that it mattered though. He span around and fired a cero into the clone's face. It too disappeared.
"Not bad." Naruto chuckled. He threw Kamina a chicken leg. "Eat up then get some sleep. You won't learn anything if you're tired."
The next day Kamina rose early and sparred with his clone until Naruto joined him.
"You ready for the second technique? It is probably harder to control than a simple shadow clone." said Naruto between gulps of ramen that he was shovelling into his mouth.
"Of course I'm ready. Just who the hell do you think I am? Am I gonna get to learn that exploding ball?"
"I don't trust you with the exploding ball." sighed Naruto, much to Kamina's annoyance. "No. Today you're going to learn how to move very fast."
Kamina frowned. "I already know that. It's the basics. All shinigami know shunpo. The flash step."
Naruto suddenly vanished. A second later he appeared behind Kamina with Hitsugaya's zanpakuto in his hand. Kamina stared at it as though it were some kind of alien artefact. Naruto flashed from sight again and was back in a blink holding a gadget that Kamina recognised as belonging to the Twelfth Division. He went again and returned empty handed
"How does your shunpo compare to that then?" the ex-captain smirked.
"That's not fast moving. To cover that distance in that kind of time you'd have to be teleporting." Kamina complained. To cover that distance with flash-step would take several minutes, not a split second.
"Well observed." complimented Naruto. "My dad developed the technique a long time ago. He was renown as the Yellow Flash. The technique allows faster than light travel. The process is simple but hard to explain and harder to put into practice."
"Shunpo works on the basis of boosting your movements with spiral energy. This teleportation requires the user to convert their physical body into spiral energy for seamless movement. As well as creating super fast travel, it also means that you cannot be hit during it unlike with shunpo where you are vulnerable to attack."
"And how the hell am I suppose to turn myself into energy? Not even the captains know how to do it. Hmm, this might give me the edge I need to finally win Kenpachi. Let's do this! Do I just try really hard like everything else I've ever tried?"
Naruto thought for a moment. "Yeah, pretty much. It sounds a lot simpler when you put it like that. Keep in mind though that you were energy for a while during the Super Tengen Toppa battle."
"I had kinda died just before that and forced myself into the human world instead of oblivion."
"True, but you know what it feels like, what you need to aim toward."
"Be one with the force." muttered Kamina sagely to himself. "Become the energy. My fiery spirit will break through the bonds of flesh and engulf both the earth and the heavens. My passion will burn so brightly that even the gods themselves will take note of me! Who the hell do you think I am!"
Blue flames of power surrounded him but his body was still visible. He willed his power to be released down to a cellular level. Naruto grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to stop.
"All you're doing is releasing power. Your body isn't changing. Creating energy and becoming energy are completely different. Draw the energy to your core rather than expelling it all into the air. Let the power burn inside you rather than around you." Naruto advised.
Kamina tried again and felt the power welling up within him. It was painful and made him feel bloated. He felt as though he was drinking ten gallons of chilli source.
"It's working!" exclaimed Naruto. "Think of a destination then flash-step there."
The first thought to enter Kamina's mind was the academy. He attempted a shunpo and felt the world move around him. His eyes refocused upon the stunned face of Captain Hisagi. The man's mouth hung open and his eyes were wide.
"What the-" started the tattooed captain.
Kamina cursed. "Err…This is a figment of your imagination. You are feeling very sleepy…" Kamina punched him. When the captain's eyes re-opened, Kamina was gone. The class of students that had been sat behind Kamina stared blankly at the spot where the blue haired man had been stood.
"Captain? What the hell just happened?" asked one of them.
"Don't question it. Trying to work it out will only lead to a headache." Hisagi sighed as he rubbed the spot Kamina had hit.
Kamina reappeared in front of Naruto, his face the very image of excitement. "This is the coolest move ever. Women's shower block here I come. Any chance of an invisibility technique?"
"Focus." snapped Naruto as he tried to suppress a smile. This man was so similar to Jiraiya in certain aspects that it was unreal. The fact that this young man reminded Naruto of his former master told him all that he needed to know when it came to trusting him.
"You are ready for the ultimate technique now. I will teach you the rasengan."
Kamina's eyes lit up. Any thoughts of women were pushed from his head by the promise of mass destruction. "About time!" he beamed.
Naruto threw him a water balloon. "Start with this. Use your energy to swirl the water without bursting the balloon."
"Easy!" stated Kamina eagerly. He began to prod the balloon with his energy. The balloon imploded.
Naruto face-palmed. "I'll start filling up more balloons."
The next two days were spent just trying to keep balloons intact. A subtle touch was definitely not Kamina's strong point. No amount of trying could control his raw levels of power.
It wasn't until the fifth day of Kamina's training that he managed to figure out how to cap the energy at his fingertips. The water within the balloon span in a perfect sphere for a few seconds before spiking, bursting the rubber casing.
"Damn it!" he roared, frustrated at his own inabilities. "I only have two days left and I'm getting nowhere!"
Naruto rubbed his chin distractedly. "Maybe this method is wrong for you. Ditch the balloons, I have a new plan. Just do what feels natural to you. Remember to draw energy to you."
Kamina cleared his mind and concentrated. Like with the shadow clones he drew in the energy around him, placing it all in the palm of his hand. His fingers moved around the energy, trying to form it against its will. The visible power currents bulged and surged unnaturally but then began to gain a pattern to its movements.
At first Naruto looked completely amazed. A massive grin quickly spread across his whiskered face. His blue eyes took in every detail of the thing in Kamina's hand.
"Why won't it work!" raged Kamina.
"Look at it!" Naruto said. "It is rasengan, only one that better suits you."
Kamina stared at his hand and all glumness left him. "Now this is badass!"
"I think you are ready now, young padawan. Go kick these Meta-Spirals asses."
"Hell yeah! They won't know what hit 'em!"
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A/N: Not many reviews last few chapters. Let's pick it up people. None stop action for a while from here. Until then, sayonara.
-FWF