All Naruto saw since he was engulfed by the sand trap was darkness as he held his breath due to being buried.
Despite this, he kept feeling himself sinking deeper and deeper.
He thought he would eventually reach the bottom or even that there was no end to it, but then.
"AH!" shouted Naruto as he stepped outside, only to fall from a great height and a few seconds later, he stopped screaming and concentrated on avoiding the fall. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" shouted Naruto creating a clone next to him through a burst of smoke, which grabbed him.
"Uzumaki Throw!" shouted Naruto's clone before launching the original into a huge pillar.
Naruto steadied himself and landed on the pillar on his feet and then launched himself towards another nearby pillar, on which, he landed on his feet before jumping back to the first one.
He kept jumping from pillar to pillar until, finally, he landed on the ground, where he took a heavy breath.
"Wow. I thought I was going to die." said Naruto before looking around.
Right now he was in a covered area with several huge pillars around him.
"Where are we now?" asked Naruto.
"From how we got here, we must be under the desert." said Kurama.
"First lost in an endless desert and now trapped underground. What else can go wrong?" asked Naruto.
Suddenly, they began to hear giant footsteps approaching where the jinchuriki was.
"You had to talk, didn't you?" asked Kurama.
Quickly, Naruto hid behind one of the pillars and peeking out a bit, he was completely shocked when he saw that the giant footsteps were caused by huge creatures covered by black cloaks that had white spikes around their 'necks' and a humanoid mask with a long nose.
"What are those things?" asked Naruto.
"Judging by their energy, they must be hollows, but their level is lower than the one you fought." said Kurama.
"I see. I don't have time to deal with them now." said Naruto.
"You're right. It would be best to get away from here as soon as possible." said Kurama.
"Right." said Naruto before quickly leaving the place, running for a while and then, jumping from pillar to pillar and then running on the ground again.
However, a good while had passed and Naruto had found nothing but the same scenery.
Every time he spotted one of those huge creatures, he quickly changed direction to avoid being seen.
"This is going from bad to worse. Not only is the desert huge, so is this place." said Naruto.
"In that case, the only thing left for us would be to climb back up to the surface." said Kurama.
"You're right, but the problem remains…" began Naruto before he felt something incoming and quickly jumped to the side to avoid a hollow's attack.
Before Naruto went to attack, he found himself surrounded by several hollows.
"Damn. We've been surrounded." said Naruto.
"Yes, but I can sense that they aren't as strong as the one before, but don't let your guard down." said Kurama.
"Understood." began Naruto before gesturing with his hands. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" shouted Naruto creating, through smoke explosions, several clones of himself.
With a battle cry, Naruto and his clones launched themselves into battle against the hollows.
With heavy blows to the masks, Naruto was eliminating the hollows quickly, but even if he eliminated several hollows in a short time, more were appearing, to the point of overwhelming him.
"No matter how many I eliminate, more of them keep coming." said Naruto.
It was then that they heard giant footsteps and Naruto turned his head to be horrified when he saw one of those huge creatures arriving on the scene and directing its gaze towards the jinchuriki.
Soon after, the creature opened its mouth, where it charged an energy attack.
Naruto prepared to perform some powerful jutsu to finish off that creature, but then, suddenly, a mysterious figure appeared in the air and with his sword, decapitated the creature that disintegrated right away.
After landing on the ground, Naruto could see that he was a humanoid being with a skin over his shoulders, adorned with several Hollow masks while wearing a gazelle-like mask to cover his face.
In the next instant, the hollows rushed towards him to attack him, but the figure killed them all with swift sword movements.
Unfortunately, more hollows came soon after.
"Come with me if you want to live." said the mysterious man before jumping away from the place.
"Yes." said Naruto without hesitation to heed the person who saved him, so he started jumping behind him to follow him far away from the area.
"What do you think, Kurama?" asked Naruto mentally.
"Definitely not a hollow, but definitely not human either." said Kurama.
"Still, he saved us, right? That means he's not a bad person." said Naruto.
"Maybe, but we won't know for sure until we talk to him." said Kurama.
Soon after, the two arrived at a cave.
"Hey, thanks for helping me with earlier." said Naruto.
"You're welcome, but I have a question to ask you." began the mysterious man before removing his mask and turning his head to look at the jinchuriki, revealing himself to be a man with unkempt hair. "What is a human doing in Hueco Mundo?"
"Hehe. It's a long story." said Naruto nervously as he scratched his cheek.
Later, Naruto and the man entered the cave and sat by a fire, with the jinchuriki telling the man about how he came to that world.
"So, you don't know how you got here?" the man asked.
"I know it sounds ridiculous, but I did." said Naruto.
"I believe you. Especially since I sense in you an energy totally unknown to me. It's certainly not reiryoku." said the man.
"Reiryoku?" asked Naruto.
"It is also known as spiritual energy." said the man.
"So that was the energy we felt both in the environment and in those hollows." said Kurama.
"Ah, by the way. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Naruto Uzumaki." said Naruto introducing himself.
"Ashido Kano." said the man introducing himself.
"And tell me, how come you are here? Until now, the only thing I've seen in this world have been those hollows. In fact, I can sense that you're not human like me." said Naruto.
"That's right. I am a shinigami." said Ashido.
"W-Wait, shinigami? You mean the spirit of death that decides who lives or not." said Naruto surprised by the revelation, since the most he knew about a shinigami was from that forbidden technique his father used before he died.
"That's just common knowledge among humans. We shinigami are actually protectors of the balance of life and death. To that end, we help souls who have been stranded in the world of the living so that they can go to the Soul Society." said Ashido.
"The Soul Society? You mean heaven?" asked Naruto.
"You can think of it that way. It isn't only the resting place for the souls of deceased humans, but also the home of the main forces of the shinigami." said Ashido.
"What do those main forces consist of?" asked Naruto curiously.
"There are three in total. The special forces, the kido division, which is the handling of reiryoku to perform special techniques…" began Ashido.
"Sounds like what we ninja do with chakra." thought Naruto comparing kido to jutsus.
"And finally, the 13 divisions, the main organization in which almost all graduated shinigami are enrolled. All those divisions have a captain and a vice-captain and some of them are dedicated to specific subjects." said Ashido.
Naruto couldn't believe his ears.
That Soul Society sounded like a ninja village, as it was composed of several divisions such as medical, infiltration, information gathering, etc., only on a larger scale due to the fact that he considered those division captains as Kages
"But wait, if you're a shinigami, what are you doing in this place? Were you sent on a special mission?" asked Naruto.
"No. Hundreds of years ago, my companions and I took on a group of hollows who managed to infiltrate the Soul Society. When they fled, we made the crazy decision to follow them. That's how we ended up in Hueco Mundo. We fought countless hollows. My companions died one by one until only I was left." said Ashido.
That made Naruto feel sorry for the shinigami, for he had the misfortune of losing all his friends.
In fact, that reminded him of when Sasuke lost his entire clan, only unlike him, Ashido didn't get to become someone driven by hearing.
"I'm sorry for your loss." said Naruto.
"Thank you." said Ashido.
"Wait a minute, you said hundreds of years ago. How come you look so young?" asked Naruto confused.
"Shinigami live much longer than humans. We can live up to thousands of years." said Ashido.
"My goodness. So, they are older than old Tsunade." thought Naruto in surprise. "And you've been here all this time?"
"Yes. At first, I wanted to return to the Soul Society, but I saw that was impossible, so I decided to stay here to eliminate as many hollows as possible for the sake of helping my own." said Ashido.
Naruto couldn't help but smile that he was willing to stay in that place to help his comrades.
"That brings me to another question. What exactly are those hollows?" asked Naruto.
"Hollows are wild creatures that were once human souls." said Ashido.
"Wait, what? Those things were human?" asked Naruto in surprise.
"Yes. When a human soul is corrupted by its negative emotions, a void is created within it that leads it to become a hollow, a beast that tries to fill that void by devouring souls, both of the dead and the living. That's why the shinigami's mission is to prevent that from happening." said Ashido.
Naruto's eyes widened in shock, as he didn't expect something like that could happen to someone, even if they were dead.
Now he could see that the work of a shinigami was more serious than he had imagined.
While the ninjas only performed missions requested by people, the shinigami fought those beasts to save everyone.
"But when I faced that hollow upstairs, it could talk like a normal person." said Naruto.
"You must have run into an adjucha." said Ashido.
"Adjucha?" asked Naruto.
"There are the normal hollows like the ones you saw before, when I helped you, but beyond that, hollows have three evolutions, each one stronger than the last." said Ashido.
"How do they evolve?" asked Naruto curiously.
"By devouring each other." said Ashido.
That completely horrified the jinchuriki.
It was one thing to devour human souls, but devouring each other to become stronger?
That was pure cannibalism.
"Definitely those hollows are pure beasts." commented Kurama surprised by the revelation.
"*Glup* So… what evolutions are there?" asked Naruto.
"First there are the menos grandes, also known as gillian. They're those giant creatures that roam this place. In fact, this place is known as the forest of Menos." said Ashido.
"Now I understand why there were so many of them down here." thought Naruto.
"Then there are the adjuchas. They possess more intelligence than the gillian, which allows them to be able to speak. Because the gillian's intelligence is very low, there are few adjuchas in all of Hueco Mundo. Their power can reach that of a vice-captain of division. If you could defeat one, either he was too weak or you are too strong." said Ashido.
"I think it's more the latter." thought Naruto, as he considered himself someone very strong, though he was beginning to doubt whether that adjucha was strong or not.
"Lastly, there are the vasto lorde. They are the most powerful form of the hollows, as well as the most human-like in appearance. Their numbers are even more scarce than the adjucha, being very difficult to find any and their power is high enough to be compared to that of a captain of division." said Ashido.
Naruto was surprised by that information.
To him, the hollows and gillian were like dogs, the adjuchas were like low- or high-ranking ninja and the vasto lorde were like Kages.
If there were so few of them, that meant that it was totally difficult to reach such power for the adjuchas and, if he ran into one, it might be hard to fight him.
"Ugh. Fantastic. I'm going to be stuck forever in this place full of creatures that will try to kill me on sight." said Naruto resting his head on his hand, complaining about the current situation.
"Actually, you may have a way to return home." said Ashido.
"Oh yeah? How?" asked Naruto very curiously.
"You see, from what I've been told, years ago, a division captain named Sosuke Aizen, betrayed the entire Soul Society." said Ashido.
"Why did he do it?" asked Naruto.
"To usurp the soul king, the ruler of everything." said Ashido.
Naruto wasn't too surprised, as he could imagine it would be something like that.
To Naruto, this Aizen fellow was like Danzo, who looked like a simple old man advising the Hokage, only for him to turn out to be an evil manipulator who aspired to be Hokage by any means necessary, even associating with big criminals like Orochimaru or using his subordinates, like Sai, to achieve his goals even if it meant the death of the subordinate, for to him, they were just pawns.
"When he revealed his true nature, he escaped to Hueco Mundo with a couple of his followers and a powerful item known as Hogyoku. When he arrived here, he dethroned Baraggan Louisenbairn, the previous king of Hueco Mundo, taking control of everything in this world." said Ashido.
That surprised the jinchuriki, for if that man could defeat the strongest man in Hueco Mundo, it meant he must be very powerful.
"Not only that, but he used Hogyoku to turn hollows of any kind into arrancar." said Ashido.
"Arrancar?" asked Naruto.
"It's a separate form of evolution they get when they take off their masks. That way, they get an almost human-like appearance, as well as shinigami-like abilities." said Ashido.
Naruto's eyes widened in shock that the hollows could do such a thing and the worst part was that Aizen had an item to make something that seemed natural to be forced.
"Out of all the arrancar he created, there were 10 that were the strongest, known as the espada. He used the palace in Hueco Mundo known as Las Noches as his base of operations and remained there until he decided to carry out his plan." said Ashido.
"What happened next?" asked Naruto.
"From what I could understand, Aizen and his strongest espada went to the city of Karakura, where they would have the necessary ingredients for their purpose, but the shinigami intercepted him in time and fought him and his forces." said Ashido.
Naruto could see that it must be a different world from his own, as he had never heard of a city by that name, not to mention that everyone would have heard about it if there had been a war between shinigami and arrancar.
"After many hard and almost deadly fights, the shinigami, not only wiped out most of their forces, but managed to defeat Aizen and put him away for good." said Ashido.
"And what does that have to do with my way back to my world? If Aizen has been defeated, then Hueco Mundo has been left without a leader." said Naruto.
"Not exactly." began Ashido to the jinchuriki's confusion. "From among the survivors of the war, there was one espada, 3rd espada, Harribel Tier. From what I heard, Aizen stabbed her in the back in the middle of the battle as he deemed her useless."
Naruto clenched his fists in frustration upon hearing that.
Not only did that man cheat the Soul Society and use the hollows for his personal gain, but as soon as he saw that one of them was no longer of any use to him, he decides to eliminate her.
If he had that man right under his nose, he would have punched him in the face, but he was somewhat relieved to know that he would never hurt anyone ever again.
"After she was healed, in light of the situation, she and the Soul Society were able to come to a mutual agreement and since she was the strongest of Aizen's leftover army, she became the new queen of Hueco Mundo." said Ashido.
"So, you're saying she could take me back to my world? Won't she want to devour my soul as soon as she sees me? After all, she's a hollow." said Naruto.
"Don't worry about it. For hollows, devouring souls is instinctive and natural, but the more they evolve, the more intelligent they become, so the soul-devouring thing becomes more of a very internal desire than a necessity." said Ashido.
"I guess it's like with humans. You used to be like animals before, but over time, you became intelligent enough to perfectly restrain those wild instincts." said Kurama.
"So, I just have to go to Las Noches, talk to her and ask her to help me get back to my world, right?" asked Naruto before shrugging his shoulders. "Sure, why not? I'd have to get out of here to do that though, not to mention I don't know exactly where that place is."
"I can help you with that." began Ashido before getting up. "Follow me." said Ashido walking out of the cave, being followed by Naruto.
As the two stepped outside, Ashido jumped up and down quickly as he went in one direction, being followed by Naruto who kept wondering where he was taking him.
For quite a while, the two of them walked through much of the forest of Menos, avoiding several hollows, gillian and adjuchas along the way, as they didn't want to waste time fighting them.
They continued on this way until they came to an area where the entrance to a tunnel was located.
"This tunnel will take you outside. It won't take you directly to Las Noches, but you'll be able to find your way around better from there." said Ashido.
"Thank you very much for everything, Ashido, but are you sure you don't want to come with me? You could go back to your own." said Naruto.
"I appreciate the offer, but it's my decision to stay here and help where I can. Besides, I can't leave my teammates behind." said Ashido with a smile that Naruto returned.
"If that's what you want, I'll accept it." began Naruto before walking deeper into the tunnel. "I hope we meet again sometime."
"Same here." said Ashido waving goodbye as Naruto walked further into the tunnel until he was out of sight. "In a very interesting boy, but that being that dwells inside him… I wonder what it is. I'll have to let Rukia know the next time we contact each other."
AN: Did you know that Tite Kubo wanted to add this character and the mini arc in which he appears in the anime as a canonical arc in the manga?
Unfortunately, that idea was scrapped and he could only show him in the anime in a filler arc.
Many think it's pure normal filler, but to me, it's canon as a big part of the story.