Chapter 6 - Clash in Konoha Forest
"A meteor, you say?" Hashirama turned to Madara as Harribel recounted their battle. They had decided to walk instead of utilizing Tobirama's flying Raijin, as there was much to catch up on. "Have you gained new abilities since becoming a hollow?"
"What makes you think I wasn't just holding back against you?" Madara retorted, not willing to disclose the evolution of his Rinnegan, yet.
Hashirama scoffed. "Madara, do you seriously expect me to believe you could have leveled the battlefield with a meteor and simply chose not to?"
Thinking fast, Madara sighed; "I'd been experimenting with jutsu I saw inscribed on the Uchiha tablet. Without any means of escape, if I had brought down a meteor upon us, I would have perished with you. I only summoned it against Harribel and Barragan because I had planned to escape back here through a garganta before it fell."
Accepting the explanation, Hashirama nodded, stroking his chin in contemplation. "So what is this Barragan's power, Harribel? To be able to stop a meteor kilometers in diameter…I cannot fathom how anybody could achieve such a feat."
The Espada simply shook her head; he would really have to try harder than that. "It is not my place to reveal Barragan's techniques."
Hashirama laughed; "I suppose it was worth a try. What about you, then? Do hollows have some kind of hardening ability to turn your skin into armor?"
Harribel just fixed a blank stare at him, and the group walked in silence for a few moments.
"How about an equal exchange of information, then." Hashirama said, clearing his throat. "You tell us something we want to know, and we tell you something you want to know in return."
Harribel looked thoughtful at the suggestion, before speaking; "That is acceptable to me. I'll answer your previous question, then. You commented to the shinigami earlier that Madara did not look like a hollow. That is because, by my estimation, he is a vasto lorde - the highest form of natural hollow evolution. If he was truly as powerful in life as you have described, then evolving into a vasto lorde in such a short span of time is not impossible."
Madara crossed his arms at her explanation, and frowned. Harribel's choice of words and the tone in which she delivered her explanation betrayed no sense of surprise or admiration. "You speak as if such beings are beneath you. Are you not also a vasto lorde, then?" He asked.
"I was, but I have further evolved into an Arrancar by shattering the boundaries of hollow and shinigami. All Arrancar have an ability called 'hierro', in which their skin hardens roughly proportionately to the amount of reiatsu they have. In a sense, you could say that we literally have steel skin."
"And the reason I don't have this 'hierro' is because I am not an Arrancar?" Madara interjected.
"Correct." Harribel replied. "And before you ask, I will not reveal how regular hollows can become Arrancar."
"Tch." Madara scoffed, but said nothing more.
Hashirama was fascinated by Harribel's explanation; "But my sword has cut through stone and steel alike over the years without issue - why did it break so easily?"
"Tiburon is a zanpakuto." She replied as she gently unsheathed her blade. "Zankaputo are manifestations of our very souls, and carry the bulk of our spiritual power within them. Even unreleased, no mortal steel could hope to match one."
"So my weapons are going to be useless against hollows and shinigami?" Madara asked, alarmed.
"They should be okay against regular hollows and low level shinigami who haven't awakened their zanpaktou spirits, but I would not be in a hurry to test them against any seated officers or above." Harribel explained.
Hashirama sucked in a breath to speak again, Harribel raised her palm and cut him off; "I believe that's been three questions for me, Hokage, while you have yet to answer one of mine."
Madara laughed out loud again as Hashirama sheepishly apologized, before indignantly pointing out that he had only asked two. Harribel just continued: "I suppose any questions regarding your abilities will not be answered?"
Hashirama smiled; "No, I can answer them. There are probably detailed files about me available in all the hidden villages, anyway, so there's no point being all secretive about myself."
Harribel's eyes narrowed; "To seem comfortable in revealing your abilities just like that, you must either be a fool or have complete confidence in yourself."
It was Madara who answered her next; "In my travels before returning here for our battle, I had overheard many discussing who the 'most powerful' shinobi was. Aside from my own, there was only one other name that I heard with regularity: Hashirama Senju." Madara grimaced, but continued, "They're calling him The God of Shinobi."
Hashirama rubbed the back of his head, face turning red. "Ah, thanks for that, Madara. So I'm being called that in other countries too, huh?" Then he leaned into Madara with a devious expression. "But you claim some people out there believe you to be the strongest? Suppose they hear that despite having Nine Tailed Demon Fox under your control, you still lost to me…" He winked, trailing off.
Madara pushed him away with an annoyed huff. "Yes, I concede you are stronger than me, Hashirama. Rest assured, though - that will change once I master my new jutsu."
"Why don't you tell us more about these new jutsu you're working on, then, Madara?"
"Not a chance. I'm not stupid enough to reveal my secrets to people I don't know I can fully trust." His gaze danced from Tobirama, to Mito and then Harribel. "And certainly not stupid enough to willingly give you an edge over me."
Harribel listened intently. So he is the strongest shinobi in this world? "What can you do, then, Hashirama, and how can you use reiatsu if you've never even heard of hollows before today?"
As the group was approaching Konoha's gates, the guards saw their Hokage and saluted. Neither guard recognized Madara in his hollow mask, and they entered the village without issue.
Hashirama nodded in acknowledgement to the guards, before turning back to Harribel; "Well, I used a technique called sage mode to absorb nature energy. It was just a matter of tuning into the type of nature energy that vice-captain Matsumoto was emitting when she was out of her gigai. Once I got a sense of their reiatsu, it was easy to draw it into myself and share it with the others." He said, gesturing at Tobirama and Mito. "In fact, now that I know what to look for, I can sense that every living being has some within them."
"About what I can do...Well it's honestly hard to answer, because I can do a lot." He said with a mischievous smile. "But something unique to me is my ability to manipulate wood. I could grow a forest in the middle of this village if I wanted to." He eyed a patch of soil outside a dimly-lit hut. Clapping his hands together, he pressed them to the ground gently, and a rosebed grew out of the soil. "There - a small scale demonstration of my wood release."
At this, Harribel's eyes widened, and she turned to Madara; "So those roots you summoned to trap me earlier - were they some form of this wood release, too?"
Madara froze, his mind scrambling to find a way to explain himself. He couldn't just say he obtained a piece of Hashirama's flesh and ate it, gaining his powers. "Ah, somewhat. It is my approximation of his wood release that I copied."
Hashirama was surprised at this: "You copied my wood release? I thought even the sharingan cannot copy Kekkei Genkai."
Madara waved him off; "No, it cannot, but my eyes have not only awakened the mangekyou sharingan, but also the eternal mangekyou sharingan from assimilating Izuna's. To compare that to the regular Uchiha sharingan would be like comparing a henge jutsu to your wood clones."
Hashirama laughed; "How could I expect any less from the only man to ever genuinely threaten me in direct combat?"
"We have almost arrived." Madara announced, thankful that Hashirama didn't decide to pry further. They were nearing entrance to the Uchiha district. "Not much further, now," he said, and the group continued on in silence.
Valley of the End
Hitsugaya and Rangiku looked up from their soul pagers as a senkaimon opened before them. They had been completely absorbed in the files regarding the 'Hollowfication Incident' from 100 years ago.
"The old man really thought we needed five captains to capture two hollows?" Zaraki Kenpachi drawled as he stepped out of the senkaimon first. He flexed his reiatsu. "And without limiters?!" He grabbed his head and sighed. "Damn, and here I thought I was gonna be able to actually have some fun."
"Have you forgotten the briefing already, brute? Captain Hitsugaya was defeated by a resident of this realm. Do not underestimate anybody; we have a mission to accomplish," Tosen snapped as he stepped out, keeping as far away from Kenpachi as he could.
Kenpachi looked back at him and shrugged. "At least I was at the meeting point on time…me and Komomura…don't know what you and captain 'four eyes' were doing, keeping us waiting for so long," he muttered.
Aizen smiled as he too exited the senkaimon; "Gentlemen, please." He turned to Kenpachi, "Captain Tosen and I were busy reviewing the intel we were sent regarding this mission. Although, with how quickly we did so, I'm surprised you two beat us there." He then looked up at Komomura. "You must be a an incredibly fast reader."
The 7th Division captain fidgeted; "Uh. I skimmed most of it. Once I saw you and Kaname were being dispatched too, I was hoping one of you could give me the short rundown."
Kenpachi threw his head back and cackled; "That's the spirit. Who cares about the briefing or the intel. I didn't even read it. I'm just here to kill some hollows," he declared, blanketing the valley with his spiritual pressure. "Now where are they?!"
Hitsugaya felt like a long break was in order after this mission, as he and Rangiku walked up to join the group. "Captain Kenpachi," He said flatly. "Our orders are to capture the Arrancar alive. One of them is a suspected victim of Kisuke Urahara's hollowfication experiments from a century ago. Her reiatsu is undoubtedly captain level. The other is a newborn hollow by the name of Madara Uchiha; we do not know the extent of their powers, so caution is of utmost importance here."
"Whatever, I've stopped reading those briefings after that one about Rukia's execution. The bastards at central 46 have really gone senile," Kenpachi grunted. "Just tell me where the hollows are and I'll soften them up for you to bring back to the old man."
Rangiku pointed to the direction of the hidden leaf village; "They headed in that direction. There is a village not too far from here."
Hitsugaya nodded. "Before we go, though, let us bring you all up to speed with what we know so far."
Uchiha District - Naka Shrine
"All of you, step back while I read the tablet." Madara ordered as he realized he was going to have to activate his Rinnegan. The last time he was here he was disappointed to discover that some of the inscriptions on the tablet were hidden even from the eternal mangekyou sharingan, but he had no doubt that the Rinnegan would allow him to read the entire tablet.
"And no sneaking up behind me, Hashirama! You know I can sense when you do that," he warned.
But Hashirama was not listening - his attention was elsewhere at the moment. "Hey Harribel, can you sense spiritual energy?" He asked, voice low with concern.
"Yes, why?" She replied.
Hashirama shook his head and activated sage mode. "I can't tell for sure because I'm so new at this, but I think four large reiatsu signatures just appeared near where we found you. Can you feel them?"
Harribel closed her eyes, opening her pesquisa. Her eyes snapped open. Lord Aizen…and lord Tosen are here? "Yes, you're right. Four captain-level shinigami have just arrived." Even as she said that, a huge wave of spiritual pressure washed over them, stifling the air. "These people are strong. Much stronger than the two shinigami from earlier," she bit out, concerned. She could still escape at any time, but if Aizen was here then he must have a plan, she thought.
"Madara, you hear all that?" Hashirama walked up, placing a hand on Madara's back.
"I feel it, too. I can sense them now as well," he ground out, making an imprint of the stone with his Rinnegan before deactivating them, and turning toward Hashirama. "What the hell are these people after? They want to kill me that badly just because I'm a hollow?"
As if in answer, the energy signatures began moving toward Konoha. "Tobirama! Get Mito back to safety and meet us outside the Naka Shrine. You have a mark here, right?"
"Yes." Tobirama answered.
"We're going to meet these newcomers. If it's a fight they're after, I will not allow it to be in the vicinity of our village." Hashirama declared.
Madara clenched his teeth; his chakra was recovering but he was still nowhere close to being fit for battle. "Hashirama, I-" he stopped himself as he felt chakra and reiatsu flowing back into him from Hashirama's hand upon his back.
"Can I trust you to protect the village with me, Madara?" Hashirama asked seriously.
Madara's mouth opened and closed a few times in utter shock at how quickly he felt his reserves replenishing. "Your medical ninjutsu…is truly in a class of its own, Hashirama. Yes, I will protect our Konoha with you."
Hashirama nodded, satisfied, before turning back to look at Harribel; "And what will you do? You were dragged into this by mistake…I cannot deny that your assistance would be greatly appreciated in helping us defend the village, but I also completely understand and would not hold it against you if you wish to fall back to safety."
Harribel pondered Hashirama's words. Lords Aizen and Tosen are here. They may require my assistance, too. The best course of action for me right now would be to stay a while longer. "I will help you. Shinigami are enemies of hollows, anyway."
Hashirama inclined his head in thanks. As he finished healing Madara, Tobirama ran down the stairs. "What's taking you so long?!"
"Harribel has agreed to help us, and I was in the process of healing Madara."
Tobirama frowned, but said nothing.
"We need all the help we can get if these people are as powerful as I think they are." Hashirama continued. "Now come, you two. Grab onto Tobirama. He will teleport us to meet these shinigami."
Land of Fire - The Forest Near Konoha
Tobirama had many flying Raijin Seals scattered around strategic points in the forest surrounding Konoha. Using the reiatsu-infused sage chakra Hashirama had cloaked him with, he quickly located one of those locations close to where the shinigami were, and teleported the group.
The shinigami stopped, suddenly sensing powerful hollow reiatsu in the trees directly above them. The six of them fanned out, with Rangiku taking the rear as they saw the silhouettes of four figures cloaked in shadow among the leaves.
"Ah, finally, they come to us! I was just about to say how I thought we might've been going the wrong way. It's too damn hard to shunpo in all this forest." Kenpachi bellowed, lowering his sword from its resting spot on his shoulder. "Now come out and state your names so I know who I'm about to kill." His uncovered eye glowed with insanity, teeth bared in a gruesome smile as he unleashed his reiatsu. An eerie jingle filled the forest as his reiatsu exploded in a gale, jingling the bells in his hair as it billowed in the wind.
However, before anything else could happen, Tosen drew his blade, pointing it toward Harribel. "Bankai; Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Korogi!" He declared, shunpoing toward her distinctive reiatsu signature as his Bankai's sensory nullification field enveloped them. Harribel unsheathed Tiburon and blocked just in time, but the momentum of the blow carried them some distance before crashing into another tree.
Tosen brought one of Harribel's hands to his blade, allowing her to see and hear him. "Tier Harribel, I must make this short so as to not arouse any suspicion." She nodded, and he continued, "You will enter your Resurreccion and cut me down. Make it convincing; you must inflict heavy injury but obviously do not kill me."
Harribel nodded again. "Understood."
"After I am out of the fight, my Bankai will subside and everybody will be briefly disoriented at having their senses back again. You must take that opportunity to attack Captain Kenpachi, the one with the eyepatch. Kill him first, then kill Captain Hitsugaya. Captain Komomura will come to check on me; do not attack him. You will then engage Captain Aizen. Do not be afraid to attack him with your full power. You will not be able to harm him.
Harribel's brow twitched at this, but she waited for Tosen to finish.
"Once he has defeated you, you will be taken to the Seireitei to be interrogated. Aizen has them all under his Kyoka Suigetsu, so he will instruct you as to what to say. We're going to use your presence in the seireitei as an extra layer of distraction as Captain Aizen's plan nears fruition. We will not be in Soul Society much longer. Fate has presented us this perfect opportunity to remove some captains that may cause us trouble in the future. If anything goes wrong, then know that your sacrifice is greatly appreciated. Am I understood, Harribel?"
The Tres Espada nodded, putting both hands on her zanpakuto. "Hunt, Tiburon," she commanded. Tosen opened his arms, letting her know he was committed to the plan, and she slashed him diagonally from shoulder to hip. A grave injury, but not mortal if treated promptly. As Tosen fell, the blackness surrounding Harribel lifted, and she scanned the area for the eyepatched Shinigami. Upon seeing him, she cocked Tiburon back and took aim. "La gota."
A trio of water bullets rocketed toward Kenpachi, who barely reacted in time to cut the first two with his sword. The third crashed into his arm as he raised it in defense. Before he could blink the water from his eyes, Harribel was before him, stabbing forward with Tiburon. For the briefest moment, Tiburon met with resistance against Kenpachi's exposed chest, but then it pushed through, the wet squelch of tearing flesh and snapping bones accompanying it as the tip of Tiburon protruded from the squad 11 captain's back.
Time seemed to stop for Hitsugaya as he saw both the captains of squad 9 and 11 dispatched within a matter of seconds by the blonde arrancar. And that was Tosen's Bankai? I couldn't see, sense or hear anything. How did she cut him down like that? Flash-stepping backward so as to not be caught by any surprise attacks, Hitsugaya brought his sword before him. "Bankai. Daiguren Hyorinmaru."
"Bankai, Kokujo Tengen Myo'o!" Captain Komomura shouted, almost in unison with him.
Hitsugaya's first action in his Bankai was to freeze Kenpachi's and Tosen's wounds, to keep them from bleeding out. He barely had time to dodge as Harribel barreled into him, shattering one of his ice wings with a horizontal slash of TIburon. Hitsugaya staggered backward, shocked at her speed.
Before Harribel could capitalize on the opening, an enormous sword slammed into her, driving her into the base of a giant tree. She coughed, fighting for breath as the strike had knocked the wind out of her. A flash of white caught her eye as she catapulted herself upward, somersaulting over a tongue of ice that skewered the tree where her chest had been mere moments ago.
While in the air, her eyes widened as she saw the massive sword from before swinging her away again. Too late to react, she braced herself as it bore toward her in an overhead slash. The blow never came. It was met in the air by a familiar, flaming blue skeletal arm.
"You've got intiative. I like that, Harribel. A word of advice - keep moving so you don't get caught by those who would attack you from behind." Madara's voice rang from somewhere above her.
Shifting his attention onto Komomura, Madara moved to check another strike with his susanoo's forearm. He managed to stop the sword, the skeletal arm cracking under the force. "That golem of yours mirrors your every move, does it?" Madara observed, talking down at Komomura from the forehead of his susanoo. As muscles and tendons snapped into place around the susanoo skeleton, Madara pushed back against Komomura's Bankai. It resisted. So it's as strong as my complete susanoo? "Very interesting," he droned. "Well, then, I wonder how well this golem of yours matches up against my perfect susanoo."
Meanwhile, Toshiro Hitsugaya had regrown his ice wing and had Harribel on the run. She was sure she had some broken ribs from being blindsided by Kokujo Tengen Myo'o, and her left shoulder was dislocated. I'm sorry, Lord Aizen, Tosen; I couldn't execute the plan. She weaved around the trees with her sonido, desperately dodging shards of ice as she racked her brain for a strategy - any strategy - that could work against the 10th division captain.
The plan Aizen and Tosen had hatched in the short time they had before meeting with Kenpachi and Komomura had overlooked one minor detail. Instead of Komomura removing himself to tend to the wounded Tosen, it was Rangiku who retreated with him and Kenpachi through a senkaimon, leaving the squad 7 captain free to fight.
Hashirama, Tobirama and Aizen were the only ones who had yet to move. It was Aizen who broke the silence. "Not going to help your new friend there?" He pointed at the quickly retreating figure of Harribel.
"Why have you come here, and what do you want with us?" Hashirama demanded, entering sage mode, while motioning for Tobirama to assist Harribel. The younger senju wordlessly nodded, then took off in her direction.
Aizen's eyes widened slightly; "That is some impressive reiatsu," he observed, resting a hand on the hilt of Kyoka Suigestu, drawing it slowly. "To be honest, I really don't have anything I want with you. In fact we were only sent here to capture the hollows."
"Then leave. The hollows are under my protection. Any crimes they commit will be dealt with by me. Two of your members are heavily wounded, and I assure you that the rest of you will not get past me. Leave, before more blood has to be shed just to satisfy whatever law you shinigami seem so adamant about following." Hashirama's eyes were hard, but he was a pacifist at heart, and would always give his enemies a chance to retreat before cutting them down.
"Very well, I concede your point. You are indeed powerful and capable of disciplining the hollows." Aizen said smoothly. As he motioned to sheath his sword, though, he paused and said, "Say, what do you think about my sword? It's a truly beautiful piece of craftsmanship, is it not?"
AN: Before anybody gets all up in arms about Kenpachi getting one-shot by Harribel, remember this is Resurreccion Harribel who catches an eye-patch suppressed Kenpachi (who is still recovering from Tosen's sensory depravation Bankai) completely by surprise.
Responding to a few reviews:
Witcher: I'm trying to increase chapter length now; the story has only properly started now (chapter 6) whereas the previous ones were kind of just setting the scene and introducing the main characters. And you are very right that Hashirama's Valley-of-the-end power level will get outscaled by the more heavy hitters :P
Raven Mordrake: While what you say is true, there is also the fact that Madara was killed by a regular sword through the back. He is going to learn a few new tricks as this fic progresses, but for now I don't want him to be so overpowered as to nullify any suspense/stakes
awwal: I didn't explicitly write it, but I tried to heavily imply that the reason Madara had chakra exhaustion was because he tried to force his susanoo against Barragan's aging powers head-on, therefore Barragan "aged" away all his chakra through Madara stubbornly trying to hold onto his susanoo.
THOTSLAYER9000: Hahaha paragraphs as thick as the great wall of China-nice one. I admit when going back over it my paragraphs are pretty chunky, but I'm trying to streamline them as I go.
