Chapter 9 - The Sun and the Moon
"Zanka no Tachi; North!" The head captain shouted, shunpoing forward and slashing up from the base of the susanoo clad Kan'on. He was wreathed head to toe in the fires of his Bankai.
Madara gawked in utter disbelief as the Majestic Attire Kan'on was split in two. There was no indication that Yamamoto's blade had even met with any resistance. Ryujin Jakka had simply parted the plates of his susanoo's absolute defense as if they were wet paper.
A vicious gash opened on the Kan'on from base to crown; only the tallest arms had been spared from the blow. The edges on each side of where the head captain had cut did not even burn - the Kan'on simply vaporized into a thin cloud of dust.
Captains Unohana and Komomura arrived beside the head captain then, the latter having been rejuvenated by the former's Kaido. Spotting Captain Hitsugaya's motionless form in the distance, Unohana swiftly retrieved him with a shunpo, relieved that he was still breathing.
Laying on the ashen remains of the once lush Konoha forest floor, Harribel had lost her Resurreccion state, but she remained conscious. She reached out with the now sealed Tiburon to open a garganta, but her heart fell when the portal did not open. She did not have a single ounce of reiatsu left. She tried to rise, but her arms would not obey her will. Closing her eyes, she sighed, utterly defeated. Apache…Sun Sun…Mila Rose. I'm glad to have known you all.
"What's that look for?" Hashirama asked as he landed beside her, stumbling before stabbing Hyorinmaru into the ground to support himself. He had abandoned his Thousand Armed Kan'on. "It's not over yet."
"No, Hashirama. I'm almost out of chakra, and I don't think you have too much more left to give either," Madara countered, dropping down beside him and collapsing to one knee. "I put everything I had into that jutsu."
"If I'm not mistaken, Madara, I believe you have awakened the Rinnegan since you became a hollow. I sensed that you were using it to read the Uchiha stone tablet before…or am I wrong?" Hashirama pressed.
Madara sighed; Hashirama was too observant for his own good. "No, you're not. But what do you expect me to do with the Rinnegan? My chakra is almost gone, and even if I could summon a meteor here, it would destroy Konoha."
It was then that a deathly pale Tobirama teleported beside them. "K-k-konoha…t-the villagers…they've turned to dust," he stammered, gripping Hashirama by the arms.
Surprised by his sudden appearance, neither Madara or Hashirama knew what to make of his words.
Remembering the task he had given Tobirama before confronting Kenpachi, Hashirama motioned for his brother to relax; "Calm down, Tobirama. Did you deliver the message? Do the leaf shinobi know to stay away from here?"
Tobirama's eyes were wild as he shook his head continuously, shaking his brother violently, "They just turned into dust, Hashirama! Are you listening to me?!" He demanded. "There was nothing I could do." His tone shifted to one of sorrow, "The villagers…"
Madara registered what Tobirama was trying to say. "The villagers…turned into dust? Are you saying that they're dead?"
At that, Hashirama grasped the severity of the situation. "What?! How many?!" He breathed, eyes widening.
Tobirama sank to his knees, still grasping his elder brother's arms. "I don't know…most of them. The children-"
"-are all alive, right? They're the ones that must have been spared!" Hashirama interrupted, voice growing frantic.
He extended his senses toward the village. He had frequently done so, when meditating atop the outcrop where Madara had come up with Konoha's name. It was always calming for him to sense the thousands of peaceful Chakra signatures that their dream had blossomed into.
But now the blossom had been squashed, and their dream had been shattered. Scattered, panicked chakra signatures - all of whom he recognised and could name as capable shinobi - were the only ones remaining in his Konohagakure. Their signatures were moving about frantically, no doubt scouring the village for more survivors.
"No, big brother," Tobirama's trembling voice whispered, confirming what he had just sensed, "the children…were the first to go."
Overhearing their conversation, Kenpachi slung his sword over his shoulder, bells jingling as he shook his head sadly. "Well, shit. That's the old man's Bankai for ya," he said mirthlessly. His voice was heavy with remorse, for despite his love for battle and carnage, there was no glory in killing children.
Yamamoto's reiatsu mellowed, and moisture returned to the air as he reverted Ryujin Jakka into its sealed cane. He did not want to erode the world of the living any more than absolutely necessary.
He looked behind him at the somber expressions of Komomura and Kenpachi. Unohana was in the process of using her Kaido on Hitsugaya, but she, too, wore a pained frown as she listened in.
"It is truly a tragedy that so many innocent souls had to perish," Yamamoto said softly to the captains behind him, "but know that I unleashed my Bankai to protect the lives of five captains of the thirteen court guard squads. Over the course of your shinigami lifespans, you will free countless souls through the purification of hollows. On top of that, as captains, your leadership and prowess will shape the future of countless more. The sacrifices of a few thousand today will lead to the future salvation of millions." His voice grew in resolve as he spoke, almost as if he were trying to convince himself of them, too.
Madara's fists trembled as they tightened around his gunbai and scythe. They were useless against enemies of the Captains' caliber, but feeling them in his hands gave him some measure of comfort, regardless. He, too, had reached out his senses toward the Hidden Leaf. He could feel the chakra of about half his clansmen, but some of the elders could not be felt, and he could only sense the signatures of a few talented Uchiha children.
Could I entrap them in a Chibaku Tensei…? Madara thought to himself, before striking the thought from his mind. He didn't have enough chakra left to make the planetary devastation technique large enough to have a chance of sealing the Shinigami. Even if he could, using the jutsu on such a scale would no doubt annihilate what little remained of his village.
Madara was pulled from his reverie by a sudden gust of chakra. He looked to his side and at its source; "Hashirama?" He asked, wondering what the Hokage could possibly be trying to do.
"The Eight Inner Gates: 7th gate - Gate of Wonder, open!" Hashirama roared, before vanishing from sight.
What!? Was all he had time to think before a cry of surprise from Harribel drew Madara's attention. There was a trail of blue vapor beside her, but she seemed no worse for wear than before; she was simply staring slack-jawed at her empty right hand.
Hyorinmaru and Tiburon met with Minazuki in a hail of sparks as Retsu Unohana intercepted the spinning blow meant for the captain commander.
Reacting instantly, the dual wielding Hashirama weaved together a flurry of strikes, putting Unohana on the defensive. Hashirama grunted in frustration as the woman he had placed to be a medic turned out to be a master swordsman, her finesse with the blade putting Zaraki Kenpachi's to shame.
Hashirama himself was no slouch at the sword, but he scowled as he found both blades somehow entangled by Unohana's much longer one. Desperately, he twisted Tiburon, trying to wedge Minazuki in its hollow center in order to disarm her. The squad 4 captain was too fast, though, and danced out of the way in a swirl.
As she rotated back to face Hashirama, he had already brought about Tiburon mid-swing, cleaving at her neck. She checked the strike, though the instant Minazuki met Tiburon, Hashirama stabbed forward with the slimmer Hyorinmaru. Unohana's eyes widened as she stepped to her side.
She avoided the stab by the skin of her teeth, as Hyorinmaru passed harmlessly through the arch of her back, but as she shifted her balance, Minazuki's leverage against Tiburon weakened, allowing Hashirama to disengage the parry and bring the blade towards her head again. Unohana flung her torso backward, bending at the knees as she felt the shockwave from the force of Hashirama's slash tickle her forehead. A few strands of long black hair had been severed.
"Hado #73: Soren Sokatsui!" Unohana cried as a twin beam of energy shot out from her free hand, forcing Hashirama to disengage.
She recovered her stance, before falling back to Yamamoto's side, as Hashirama took his position back beside Tobirama and Madara. The entire sequence of events had lasted mere seconds.
"Thank you, Unohana," the head captain grumbled, genuinely having been caught by surprise. "I see the centuries have not dulled your skill." He had sealed Ryujin Jakka and lowered his reiatsu, convinced that both Madara and Hashirama were on their last legs. He inwardly berated himself for growing soft and underestimating his opponents, as he drew his zanpakuto again.
Retsu Unohana was stunned by the ferocity of Hashirama's onslaught. Her heart ached for this man who had just lost his village, and she admired his refusal to back down in the face of insurmountable odds, but her duty demanded she stand in his way. She readied Minazuki again.
Madara was also taken aback, but in an equal mixture of awe and jealousy as Hashirama returned to his side. Even with his eternal mangekyou sharingan, Hashirama's movements were too fast for him to track. "Hashirama…you mean all this time, you could have brought out the eight gates against me?" he asked in astonishment. He could have humiliated me...but just chose not to?
Hashirama ignored his question, grimacing as he brought Tiburon up before him, the hollow knife held in reverse grip in his left hand, while raising Hyorinmaru behind him in his right. This woman was no mere medic. "Madara, Tobirama. Carry on the will of fire. I entrust the leaf to you." He said as his chakra began to concentrate in his heart, and the blue aura surrounding him began to take on a reddish tinge.
"The Eight Inner Gates: 8th Gate-"
"Stop, Hashirama!" Madara placed himself between his old friend and the shinigami.
"What are you doing, Madara? The only way to defeat these people is with close quarters combat or Taijutsu. Large scale destructive ninjutsu is too inaccurate. We have to cut them down with swords!" Hashirama shouted, but the vapor steaming off his body had settled back into its original pure blue.
"Or I could use genjutsu, but then what, Hashirama! What if we repel this strike force and they send a squadron or an army in its place?! The Leaf is in shambles and cannot lose its Hokage!" Madara reasoned.
He planted his gunbai and scythe into the ground and then gently reached his hands out, beckoning for the zanpakuto. "This is the third time now that you've proven to me your willingness to sacrifice yourself for those you hold dear," Madara said, locking his gaze with the pupiless eyes of Hashirama's. He still had sage mode active, and even despite that and the Gate of Wonder, he had felt compelled to open the Gate of Death. They were truly in dire straits.
He recalled, all those years ago, Hashirama's expression of gratitude, when Madara named his price for Uchiha-senju cooperation as either Hashirama or Tobirama's life. Instead of spitting in his face, like Madara would have were their roles reversed, Hashirama had thanked him for his kindness as he prepared to pierce his own heart.
He recalled Hashirama swearing he would put his life on the line to strike down any threat to the village - even an old friend. Yet despite such a declaration, Hashirama had held back his power, only revealing more after each escalation that Madara had initiated. All that time he was still considerate enough not to trample on Madara's pride.
And now, again, Hashirama was about to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of those he cared about, just because of Madara's decision to return to the Land of Fire. This entire mess with the shinigami was not Hashirama's responsibility at all. He had been caught up in a conflict that had nothing to do with him, his village was decimated, and now he was about to sacrifice his life for the remaining few.
No, Hashirama has done enough. "It's my turn, old friend," Madara said.
Hashirama stared at him, incredulous; "What could you possibly do in your state?"
"Don't insult me, Hashirama. Give me the swords." Madara spat out, but he didn't even need to feign disgust as every fiber of his being wanted to revolt against the plan that he had - the only plan he believed had a chance of saving those he cared about.
Nodding, Hashirama's look morphed into one of faith and steely determination. "Go for it, then, Madara," he said, as he pressed the handles of Tiburon and Hyorinmaru into the Uchiha's beckoning palms. "For Konoha."
Madara nodded, and promptly threw the two swords to the ground before Yamamoto. He knelt, raising his hands in surrender. At this point, it was the only meaningful action within his power, and he loathed his weakness.
"I forfeit my life. Harribel is disarmed and in no condition to resist. You have your prisoner and you can kill me... but please, spare the others and the Hidden Leaf." Madara pleaded, a quiver in his voice.
His eyes stung with tears of shame, and he fixed his gaze at the scorched earth upon which he knelt, unable to meet anyone's gaze.
"...Madara…" Tobirama muttered behind him. Hashirama was stunned into silence.
Yamamoto grunted in approval. "You are an honorable hollow, Madara Uchiha. You will be granted a swift end." Motioning to Kenpachi and Unohana, he continued, "Captain Kenpachi, retrieve the Arrancar. Captain Unohana, you can kill the hollow. Ryujin Jakka has seen enough blood today."
Aizen took this opportunity to speak. "If I may, captain commander. Should we not capture both of them for interrogation? This Madara hollow is admittedly unique and seems to be comrades with the Arrancar. Killing him here may steel the Arrancar's resolve and make extracting information from her more difficult in the long run."
"Ah captain Aizen," Yamamoto's gravelly voice boomed, "your forethought is impeccable as always. Secure them both, then. I will call a captain's meeting in the squad one barracks within the day. Hopefully captain Tosen will be awake to join us."
Madara raised his head at this. "Captain Aizen…? Tosen?" His mind flashed to Harribel's conversation with Barragan back in Hueco Mundo.
"Lord Aizen…the ruler of Hueco Mundo is a shinigami?" He muttered out loud as he looked the squad 5 captain up and down. He was just an unassuming, glasses wearing, brown haired man.
Time seemed to stop for Sosuke Aizen. Tobirama pointed to him, leaning toward Hashirama. He spoke softly but his voice was clear enough to be heard by all; "This is the Aizen that put you under the genjutsu?"
Head captain Yamamoto and Unohana both turned their heads toward him. "Captain Aizen…what is the meaning of this?" Yamamoto began.
Before any more damage could be done, Aizen activated Kyoka Suigetsu. Under the complete hypnosis of his shikai, each captain saw Hashirama leap forward with a Kunai in his hand, aimed toward Yamamoto's heart.
The head captain sidestepped, before retaliating with a horizontal slash of Ryujin Jakka. Hashirama staggered backwards, but Yamamoto was not done. He directed seven precise stabs into the Hokage.
To the eyes of Madara and Tobirama, unaffected by Kyoka Suigestu, the head captain had just ruthlessly cut Hashirama down, completely unprovoked. As the Hokage collapsed to his knees, his pupils returned, wide in shock as both his sage mode and the inner gates' chakra faded away.
"A dangerous opponent… the intuition to use any opening and the undeniable skill to exploit it. For a mortal to have achieved your level of power is simply unfathomable, but you will never threaten anyone in the Gotei 13 again," Yamamoto declared.
Madara scanned his old friend with his mangekyou sharingan, and saw that each of the head captain's stabs had gone through a vital chakra gate. The only one remaining intact was his heart.
Hashirama pushed himself off the ground and laid a hand on the wound in his stomach, but instead of the warm green glow of his medical ninjutsu, his hand spasmed and he doubled over, vomiting blood.
Madara stared in horror as his sharingan revealed the extent of the cruel injury Yamamoto had inflicted. With Hashirama's chakra points all disrupted, the Senju's immense chakra had no outlet, and had erupted within his own body. He could never use ninjutsu again.
"Elder brother!" Tobirama called out, coming to Hashirama's aid as he tried to mend the Hokage's wounds. He gasped as he felt Hashirama's chakra, no doubt also realising what had happened.
Aizen had taken this opportunity to come up with an explanation: "Head captain Yamamoto, respectfully, sir, unless Hueco Mundo's ruler is also called Aizen, I suspect this is the hollow's scheme to create a distraction for Hashirama to attack you."
The head captain grunted, but before he could respond, Madara sank into a battle stance, and his red eyes morphed into purple, a series of black rings fanning out from the center.
"You monster! What the hell are you talking about! You would strike at us during negotiations of surrender!?" Tobirama demanded, now cradling his brother in his arms.
Madara leapt to his feet, all thoughts of surrender being consumed by bitter rage at Yamamoto's actions; "Bansho Ten'in!" he called, activating his Rinnegan.
Tiburon and Hyorinmaru flew into Madara's hands, but even as his fingers wrapped around their hilts, Unohana and Kenpachi appeared on either side of him with a shunpo. Each captain had one of Madara's arms in a vice-like grip, and the blades of their zanpakuto were lightly pressed against his neck.
Madara didn't care. Dropping his weapons as if surrendering them again, Madara opened his palms and snarled: "Shinra Tensei!"
The remaining captains watched in shock as space itself seemed to press out from Madara's location in a perfect, translucent sphere. Both Kenpachi and Unohana were suddenly pushed away from the hollow by the invisible force.
Kenpachi smashed into a large stump, but Unohana dug Minazuki into the ground, maintaining her footing.
Madara locked his gaze with that of the captain-commander, before Aizen stepped in between them, pointing a finger toward the hollow.
"Bakudo #61 - Rikojokoru '' he said, and six golden rods of light materialized around Madara, stabbing into his body one after the other in a circular formation, binding him in place.
Zaraki Kenpachi had recovered, shunpoing before the restrained Madara and roughly yanking his head up by the hair. "Still got some fight in ya, huh? Thought you gave up already." Even as he looked into the hollow's eyes, Madara's left eye morphed back into his eternal mangekyou sharingan.
"Hey, this hollow can do some funny things with his eyes-" Kenpachi began, but suddenly stopped.
"Izanami." Madara bit out, and Kenpachi crumpled to the ground with a thud.
As Madara's vision blurred, then faded to black in his left eye, he didn't care. He activated his remaining sharingan and locked gazes with the head captain again.
He was thankful that Aizen was no longer blocking his line of sight; the squad 5 captain had retreated some distance, muttering under his breath: "Sleeping crest of turbidity, arrogant vessel of lunacy…boil forth and deny…"
"Suffer for eternity for all the lives you have taken!" Madara yelled, channeling chakra into his right eye. "Tsukoyomi!"
"Captain commander! Don't look in his eyes!" Unohana cried out. She had sensed some kind of foreign energy disrupting Kenpachi's reiatsu and a similar energy was gathering in Madara's right eye.
The captain commander wordlessly turned away, opening a senkaimon. "I'll leave the cleanup to you, then, captains Unohana and Aizen," he said as he stepped into the senkaimon.
Aizen nodded, continuing his chant: "grow numb and flicker, disrupt sleep…crawling queen of iron…"
"Turn and face me, you coward!" The Tsukuyomi had missed. Whether it was because of Yamamoto's apparently permanently closed eyes or because he had turned away in time, Madara was livid. He could not let the bastard just walk away after everything he'd done.
"Bansho Ten'in!" He commanded, applying all the pressure he could into the rinnegan's pull to force Yamamoto to look at him.
The captain commander's step barely faltered.
From the depth of his soul, Madara reached for more power, exerting even more will into the ocular jutsu. "Bansho Ten'in!" he screamed, lips curled and his teeth bared with pure, unadulterated hate. Blood wept from his right eye, down his mask and into his mouth, staining them a dark red.
This time Yamamoto stopped, and the ground behind his feet cracked as he dug in his heels, but still the head captain did not turn.
"...Eternally self destructing doll of mud…unite…repulse…" Aizen's voice was now reverberating around the clearing.
Madara blinked the blood from his eyes and screamed in futility. One more time! "Bansho Ten'in!" his voice cracked, and this time the captain commander anchored his cane into the ground to hold his position.
Still not enough!? Madara thought. His mind was in overdrive, desperately trying to decipher more jutsu from the memories of the stone tablet he had copied with his Rinnegan. …and the Uchiha will be saved by the infinite Tsukuyomi… one line in the tablet suddenly leapt to the forefront of his mind. He turned his eye to the moon, its faint shadow still visible but almost obscured by the light of dawn.
"...Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness! Hado #90: Kurohitsugi!" Aizen finished his chant, thrusting a finger into the air as a black coffin took form around Madara.
"Tsukoyomi!" Madara bellowed into the sky, fixating on the fading shadow of the moon. He didn't know if it was his imagination, or if he could see the barest reflection of his sharingan on the surface of the moon, as the black coffin closed around him, and his world exploded in pain.
The howl of the wind was the only sound heard throughout the clearing as Aizen's Kurohitsugi dissolved, leaving behind the desecrated form of Madara Uchiha. Still propped up by the kido rods of Aizen's Rikojokuro, his torso was slumped over, covered in cuts. All visible parts of skin were caked in dark, oozing blood.
"Even as powerful and arrogant as this hollow was, when met with overwhelming defeat, he reveals himself to be but a wild beast," Aizen remarked as released the binding kido, standing over the hollow and kicking it onto its back as it fell.
Tobirama had retreated with Hashirama in the chaos, but Harribel was still where she'd been left, too weak to move; she was still conscious, but wished she wasn't as she struggled to keep her breath steady. She had vastly overestimated her own strength in the grand scheme of things, and had no idea what was in store for her now.
"Madara still lives?" Yamamoto asked, somewhere in the distance.
"Yes," came Aizen's reply. "His tenacity is simply remarkable."
Yamamoto grunted, inclining his head in respect for his fallen enemy. "Secure him and the Arrancar, and throw them in the Muken while we treat our injured. Captain Komomura, go and aid Unohana with Hitsugaya and Kenpachi. The captain's meeting will be postponed until we have all had some time to consolidate our reports and the wounded captains have recovered."
Madara fought to keep his eye open; he focused his vision to the sky and noticed that the moon was no longer visible. All that was left floating in the sea of blue above him was the golden sun, which had now completely risen over the horizon. His vision slowly faded to black as Sosuke Aizen hoisted him over his shoulder.
One by one, the captains silently stepped through the senkaimon back to the Seireitei. Their mission was finally accomplished, yet none of them were in the mood for celebration.
AN: So that's it for the first arc! Next up - Soul Society!
I hope I did every character justice in their fights in this introductory arc. My main goal for this chapter was to give off a sense that the Shinigami had the overwhelming advantage on the surface, but were actually this close to losing if a few events had just been slightly different.
Re; 8 gates, sage mode Hashirama - as some of you pointed out in reviews, there seemed to be too big of a power difference between Bankai Yamamoto and the shinobi. This was my way of -kind of- evening out the field. It was planned from the beginning, and my reasoning is that theoretically anybody could learn the 8 gates. Especially if it's someone like Hashirama who can enter/exit sage mode mid-battle. Hope it's not too contrived, heh
As always, please read and leave a review if you liked it, or have any suggestions/comments!
Responding to reviews:
XenoLucifer - yeah, you're right. Thanks for point that out. I'll think of something and edit it. I'm thinking of combining the first two chapters and rewriting them a bit, anyway.
awwal - thanks for your support! hopefully this chapter explains a bit of Yamamoto's reasoning going into bankai; and I hope that the conclusion of the fight makes logical sense
Raven Mordrake - there will be repercussions, and there will also be a bit less physical, but more philosophical battels on the horizon over the next couple chapters.
Witcher - the kyuubi is going to make an appearance, at some point in the next arc, and people (on both sides) are going to get some powerups. Stay tuned!
