[Samsara] Chapter 6 - Kenpachi (II)

Shihouin Chika watched the young boy locked behind bars in silence for a while. Looking at his young face and scrawny body, it was hard to think that this kid had massacred hundreds of gangsters in Rukongai. 

“Just do what you’ve come to do. Finish this and kill me already,” the boy screamed when he noticed his presence and started struggling against his chains as though he were possessed.

Chika stepped out of the shadows and came closer to the bars. 

‘What’s with Rukongai lately? Where did these monsters pop out from?’ he thought. 

First, it was Uzumaki Naruto who had killed Furofushi Saito and most of her squad. And then, Chika had almost gotten himself in big trouble against this little psychopath.

It had to be said that, for Shinigami, due to their incredibly long lifespans, 10 years was almost 10 days for humans. For two generational talents to appear in such a short period of time, was unusual, to say the least. Moreover, they weren’t part of a noble family to attribute their abilities to their bloodline and favourable environment.

Two days had passed since Chika and Naruto fought against the killer of Rukongai, and the boy had been imprisoned in the same cell where Naruto had been brought 10 years ago. 

“If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have locked you up,” Shihouin said when the boy stopped thrashing in his chains. “I want to talk to you. I want to make you an offer.”

Unlike Naruto, who had broken out of his cell thanks to his unique, instantaneous kido spell, this boy was not talented in that field. All he could do was try to break out through brute strength, but the chains continuously draining his spiritual energy did not help his case. For the moment, he had no methods of freeing himself.

“Screw off,” the boy spat, though his voice betrayed how exhausted he was. It was the first time in his life that he had run out of spiritual energy. He had never felt that weak and helpless before.

Chika was not disheartened by his brusque refusal. Naruto had reacted in the same manner during their first conversation, and the blond had actually had a good reason to hate the Shinigami. In contrast, this boy did not seem to bear any particular grudge against the Shinigami or the Court of Pure Souls. 

Over the past two days, Shihouin had mobilised the Onmitsukido to dig up all the information they could about the boy. Being masters of intelligence gathering, the Stealth Force accomplished their task with ease. 

The boy’s name was Zaraki, and he was an orphan. He had grown up in the slum districts of Rukongai and quickly made a name for himself as a powerful and merciless killer. However, as his strength grew, so did his thirst for battle, and he started seeking stronger opponents, which, in turn, led to him attracting the Seireitei’s attention and his subsequent capture.

“I could ‘screw off’, and you’d die a dog’s death tomorrow morning if that’s what you wanted,” Chika said. “But I think it would be a shame for someone as strong as you to lose their life in such a meaningless manner.”

Whether Zaraki had calmed down in the meantime or he was too drained to lash out in anger anymore, Shihouin was not sure, but he continued talking all the same.

“I know your kind,” Chika said, looking into Zaraki’s eyes. “Money, women, authority, rare delicacies, alcohol. . . none of these matter to you. You are a blade. A blade seeks battle. A blade seeks bloodshed. The sole reason for your existence is to fight and dominate others.”

The words of the Shinigami Captain set Zaraki’s blood aflame, and his small black eyes started burning with ferocious fighting spirit. 

“I can give you that and more. I can give you the chance to fight opponents stronger than any you’ve ever encountered.”

“And what do you want in exchange?” asked Zaraki.

As unhinged as he may have been, the boy was not a complete lunatic. He understood that nothing in this world came for free. 

“A rabid dog that bites everyone would end up trampled by the world. As you are, you are a thorn in everyone’s side. That’s why you ended up locked in a cage, like a beast.”

Seemingly ignoring how Zaraki started growling and gnashing his teeth, Chika continued nonplussed:

“Become my blade. You fight who I tell you to fight. You kill who I tell you to kill. Join the Gotei 13 and you will be allowed to wreak havoc all you want against the enemies of Seireitei.”

A very long half a minute of silence passed as Shihouin and Zaraki stared at each other, not saying a word.

Interpreting his silence as a refusal, Chika turned around to leave. But he did not make more than two steps before Zaraki called out to him.

“Oy. Wait.”

“What is it?” asked Chika, momentarily halting his steps but not turning to face him. 

“That blond shinigami who captured me, what’s his name?”

“Uzumaki Naruto. He’s my Lieutenant,” Shihouin answered.

“Tell me, if I take you up on your offer, will I get the chance to fight him again?”

Zaraki couldn’t see the wide grin that split Chika’s face at his question. 


⁂ A few days later ⁂


Sounds of blades clashing reverberated through the air as a man and a woman were locked in a fierce swordfight. 

“Hey! We held up our side of the bargain!” Naruto shouted as he parried a violent diagonal slash with his sword. “Aren’t you supposed to hold yours now?”

“That is exactly what I am doing,” the woman said in a chilly voice, the calm and collected expression on her face slowly twisting into one of murderous excitement as she started hacking at him crazily with her sword. 

“Idiot captain, don’t just sit there and drink tea! Control your woman!” Naruto shouted at Chika, who was sipping on a cup of tea elegantly, and Shunpo’ed away.

His words made Unohana attack him even more fiercely, and Naruto was seriously considering removing his bracers and letting his sealed reiatsu explode at full power. 

‘But the moment I do that, this madwoman will go apeshit on me.’

He could instinctively feel that the Kenpachi was just barely reining in her bloodlust.

He didn’t want to have a meaningless battle to the death. He came there to learn Healing Kido from her, not to fight for his damn life.

“Just let her cut you a few times and be done with it,” Chika said in a serene voice. It was as though he was watching a play at the theatre instead of a fierce clash of swords between two captain-level shinigami. 

“Are you fucking crazy?!” Naruto swore at him in anger. 

But he wasn’t the only one. Unohana momentarily stopped her assault and glared at Chika. 

“Shihouin!” 

“Y-Yes.”

“Don’t ruin my battle. Shut up,” she said in a glacial voice. 

“Understood,” the dark-skinned man said meekly and made a zipping gesture over his mouth. 

“Fuck!” Naruto let out a curse under his breath. “You don’t care about teaching me healing kido; you just want to fight!”

“How would you learn healing kido without having some wounds to heal?” Unohana asked. 

“For god’s sake, just bring a wounded shinigami who just returned from patrol duty!”

The female captain shook her head. 

“Using healing kido on others is not the same as using it on yourself. When you heal yourself, the effects are reduced, and so is the speed of healing, too. You want to learn healing kido for yourself first and foremost, don’t you?”

Once she finished saying those words, Unohana threw herself at him again.

⁂

Four hours later, Naruto dragged his tired body out of the Eleventh Division’s barracks, his face rather pale and his shihakusho shredded and torn all over. He looked as though he had gone through a blender. 

Neither he nor Captain Unohana had gone all out. They had limited the output of their reiatsu, and they had a battle of pure Zanjutsu and Hoho. No shikai, no bankai, no kido. 

It turned out that getting an entry-level skill in healing kido was not that difficult. With his talent for the Demon Arts and Unohana’s teachings, Naruto got a grasp on it in the first hour. Every time either of them wounded the other, they would stop, and Unohana would make Naruto heal himself or herself.

‘She was right. It's a lot harder to use healing kido on myself than on others,’ he thought as he walked towards the barracks of the Second Squad to change into a new set of clothes.

His healing kido was faster and more effective when he used it on Unohana’s wounds than when he had to heal himself.

As much as he hated to admit it, the Kenpachi’s barbaric method of teaching proved to be very good.

‘Still, I’m far from being able to use healing kido on myself in the middle of the battle.’

Unlike Unohana, who could heal her own wounds instantly with her healing kido, Naruto needed several good minutes to achieve the same result. But he wasn’t discouraged. In time, he would become just as skilled as she was. And time was not something that he lacked. He was a Shinigami; as far as he knew, there were no known cases of any Shinigami dying of old age. They all died in battle; even then, the stronger ones often lived centuries or even thousands of years. It couldn’t be compared to the shinobi’s lifespan in his previous life.

The thought of his previous life gave him a mix of sadness and nostalgia. He preferred not to think about it, but once in a while, he could not help asking himself what happened after Kaguya killed him. Did Sasuke and the ghost of the Sage of the Six Paths find a way to defeat her? Or did the whole world succumb to the Infinite Tsukuyomi?

He let out a long sigh. 

‘There’s no point in dwelling on the past,’ he told himself in an attempt to calm down his agitated spirit.

‘Even if there was a way for me to return to the Elemental Nations, and even if they had found a way to defeat the Rabbit Goddess, everyone I know would probably have died of age by now,’ he thought.

He had lived in Rukongai for decades before Furofushi Saito and her squad massacred his village.

‘I live in the Three Realms now, and Soul Society is my new world.’

With that thought in mind, Naruto changed into a new shihakusho and left his squad’s barracks, heading towards the Eighth Division.

⁂

Arriving at the Eighth Division’s barracks, Naruto was welcomed by two Shinigami who had been waiting for him outside the gates. 

“Uzumaki-fukutaicho, welcome to the Second Division,” the middle-aged man greeted him respectfully.

Although Naruto had joined the Gotei 13 only ten years ago, Shinigami greatly valued strength. His feat of knocking out the entire Second Division with his reiatsu alone and his subsequent promotion to the seat of Lieutenant had made Naruto the talk of Seireitei over the past few days. 

“Thank you.”

“Katori-taicho has been waiting for you. Please follow us.”

At first glance, despite the different building styles and their locations, the barracks of the Eighth Division had the same facilities as the Second Division. There were several training grounds, a dojo, the living quarters, and so on. 

Following the Eighth Division shinigami, Naruto became increasingly alert the closer he got to Katori Batsu’unsai’s office. 

His captain, Shiouin Chika, had assured him that Captain Katori simply could not be the invisible enemy that had ambushed him during his latest patrol mission in Rukongai, but he could not help being cautious. After all, Katori and Unohana were the only two female Captain-level shinigami that he knew of. 

‘What’s going on?’ he asked himself as his Negative Emotions Sensing ability picked up the anxiety and deep terror that started rolling off from the two Shinigami when they arrived at the door.

“C-Captain Katori,” one of the shinigami stammered as he knocked on the door and called out her name. 

“Yes?” a sweet, gentle voice replied from inside. 

“The Second Squad’s Lieutenant has arrived.”

“Ah, yes, please come in.”

The two shinigami opened the door for Naruto, but they didn’t enter the office with him. They bowed from the waist in front of their captain and quickly made themselves scarce. 

Weirded out by their strange behaviour, Naruto focused his attention on the female Shinigami in front of him. 

“Thank you for granting me an audience, Katori-taicho,” he said respectfully. 

In his previous life, as a child, Naruto used to be a disrespectful little shit; he did not have any manners, nor did he care about showing his respect for others through words. But that was a thing of the past. Although he looked like a man in his twenties currently, he was already older than the Sandaime Hokage from his memories.

Now, he understood the importance of minding his manners, especially when he needed to ask for a favour from a stranger. And that was exactly his current situation; he had come to the Eighth Division in order to ask for Katori’s help.

“Ah, it was no biggie!” the young-looking woman said, her smile almost shy when she saw him bowing. “I’m always willing to help my fellow Shinigami when they are in need!” Katori said, clenching her fists cutely to show her determination. 

“. . .”

Momentarily, he was stunned by her demeanour. 

This was the first time that he was talking to the Captain of the Eighth Division face to face. In addition, he was not one to gossip with his fellow Shinigami, so he had not heard any talk about Katori before.

‘What’s with this. . . bubbly girl?’

Shihouin Chika, despite his affable and laid-back personality, viewed weak people as no different from gravel. In Chika’s own words, even if thousands of them died, who cares?

Unohana Yachiru was an unhinged psychopath. The same could be said about Furofushi Saito, whom he had killed. 

Obana Danjiro, the Captain of the Fifth Squad, was obsessed with fighting. Chika told him that Danjiro was a battle junkie who was currently away on an expedition to Hueco Mundo, in search of powerful hollows to fight. 

As for Nobutsuna Shigyo, the Captain of the Seventh Squad, Naruto had sensed the twisted envy and hatred lying underneath his gaunt appearance when they last met.

To make a long story short, every Gotei 13 Captain that he had encountered until then had something vile about them or a loose screw.

Katori pushed her big, round glasses higher up her little nose, and she rested her elbows on the desk as she leaned forward, unknowingly making Naruto’s eyes drop to her chest. It was. . . formidable. Senju Tsunade-levels of formidable.

“Well then, Uzumaki-fukutaicho, what can I do for you today?” Katori asked in the same innocent voice, seemingly completely unaware of what effect her posture was having on him. 

Tearing his gaze away, Naruto looked up, meeting her large grey eyes, and said:

“My captain told me that you are skilled in crafting all sorts of artefacts and devices. I need something that would allow me to detect an invisible enemy. Something like a dense smoke bomb, or a bomb of ink or paint. Or something that would leave a sort of mark on the invisible person so I can track them.”

As he talked, the blond focused intensely on his Negative Emotions Sensing ability in order to see if he could detect even the tiniest bit of anxiety or ill intent. If she was the one who had tried to kill him in Rukongai, he would know right away. 

Alas, his sensory ability did not catch anything. In fact, he could not sense any negative emotions of any sort from her.

“Hm, let me see. . .” Katori trailed off, tilting her head slightly and bringing a slender finger to her chin, seemingly in thought.

“A smoke bomb would be the easiest, but it would also be blown away with a simple flare of your enemy’s reiatsu. I don’t think it would be that useful. Paint or ink bombs would be better, but the disadvantage is that they would have a much smaller range... Naturally, you could increase the range of the explosion with your reiatsu. . . but the quantity of ink or paint would need to be larger too in order to cover such a large area.”

“Maybe this would help?” Naruto asked as he took out a sealing scroll from the pocket of his shihakusho. 

“What is that?”

“It’s a creation of my own. It’s a kido spell that lets you store things in a scroll.”

“Ohhh!” Katori exclaimed and jumped off her seat, almost like a child, rushing to him. “Let me see!” she said, clapping her hands twice in excitement.

She was so deep into his personal space that he involuntarily took a step back in a vain attempt to maintain his distance. 

But Katori appeared to have forgotten her sense of decorum at the sight of the sealing scroll because she took his hands in hers, standing so close to him that their faces were only a few inches apart now. 

“How much can it store? What’s the maximum?” she asked curiously as she started inspecting the kanji and the formulae drawn on the scroll. 

“For now, one cubic meter is the maximum,” Naruto said, his voice giving away how flustered he was by her behaviour.

“Really?! I want to test it! Can I do it?”

“Um. . . yeah. Sure.”

“Excellent!” she said happily, and, suddenly grabbing him by the hand, she started dragging him after her.

“Where are we going, Captain?” he asked once they left the office. 

“Why, to my laboratory, of course!” she said, smiling, before quickening her pace. 

⁂

If the meeting with Unohana Yachiru had been exhausting due to their intense swordfight and the amount of reiryoku that he had used to learn and practice healing kido, his meeting with Katori Batsu’unsai had been its own different type of exhausting.

The bespectacled woman gave Naruto the entire time a feeling of incongruity. His Negative Emotions Sensing ability had not picked up anything during the entire two hours he had spent together with her, but his instincts were warning him that something was not right.

‘Why were her subordinates so terrified of her?’ he wondered as he walked back to his barracks. 

Moreover, her innocent face and her accidental erotic gestures did not match. The way she seemed to not even notice how she moved her hips when she walked or the way she pushed her well-endowed chest forward in various postures were at odds with her apparent obliviousness.

‘Was she trying to seduce me?’ he asked himself, despite how ridiculous it sounded to him, too. ‘But why would she do that?’

After all, this was the first time they interacted with each other. Also, he wasn't like his Captain, who could charm any woman with a smile or like Sasuke Uchiha from his previous life, who had the entire female population of the village fangirling over him.

Furthermore, his sensory ability had not detected any emotions of lust coming from Katori. He did not know what to think.

‘I’d rather deal with Unohana than her.’

Katori Batsu’unsai was pushing all the wrong buttons. 

He let out a long sigh and glanced up at the clear night sky. Although Soul Society was technically the afterlife of the Three Realms, there was a moon, a sun, and stars. There were four seasons as well. 

It was spring now, and the streets of Seireitei were filled with the smell of cherry blossoms. 

As much as he hated what the Shinigami had done to his village, Naruto couldn’t deny that Seireitei was a very beautiful city. 

The low-rise white building with orange tile roofs, the clean and orderly paved streets, the numerous cherry blossom trees, and the circular, concentric walls surrounding the tall Palace of Repentance in the middle of the city gave Seireitei a special, majestic appearance.

Seeing as it was evening, the bars and taverns in the commercial district of the city were filled with partygoers. He had gotten used to seeing that scene over the past 10 years, but he had never gone inside. Still, the merry sounds of laughter and partying often made him glance at the bars wistfully. 

Lost in his thoughts, Naruto almost didn’t react in time when an overwhelming burst of killing intent exploded from behind him.

“Enkosen!” he shouted as he thrust his arm back, forgoing the type and the number.

A spinning, circular shield of light appeared in front of his hand, just in time to block the slash of a jagged blade. 

The hastily cast kido spell was not enough to fully stop the incoming attack, but it slowed it down for half a second, giving Naruto the necessary time to shunpo away.

“How did you get out of the Maggots’ Nest?” asked Naruto when he realised who his assailant was.

“Captain Shihoin freed me. We made a deal. And I’m here to pick up where we left off. We have unfinished business.”

Naruto couldn’t suppress a groan of irritation. He was already physically exhausted after his four-hour-long battle with Captain Unohana, and then Captain Katori’s strange behaviour had taken a toll on his mental state too. Fighting yet another madman was the last thing he wanted to do at that moment. 

“What unfinished business? I knocked you out cold. I put you to sleep.”

Zaraki growled. 

“That’s exactly what I mean. You should have killed me when you had the chance. You made a grave mistake by not finishing what you started. Now, it will be your turn to fall, and I won’t show you any mercy.”

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Whatever you say, kid. But it’s night, everyone is sleeping, and I’m also tired.”

“Like hell if I care!” Zaraki shouted, and his reiatsu washed over the commercial district with his anger, terrifying hundreds of Shinigami and knocking out cold the regular, untrained people. 

“Are you picking a fight with me because I let you live? Are you serious? That's your reason?"

The boy raised his serrated zanpakuto as he spoke:

“Reason? I don’t need a reason. I simply aim my blade at the strongest.”

Naruto swore under his breath as he drew out his zanpakuto and broke into a fast Shunpo, leaving the boy, who did not know any Hoho techniques, very far behind him. 

However, Zaraki wasn’t deterred and chased after him like a hunting dog. 

“Stop running, you coward!” the boy shouted after him. “Stop running and fight me!”

But Naruto didn't say anything in response. He chose to retreat. He could not afford to have a battle against a Captain-level shinigami in the middle of Seireitei. Too many innocent people would be caught in the crossfire. As such, he made a beeline towards the Maggots’ Nest.

His mind filled with just one thought, Zaraki ignored the Onmitsukido’s Detention Division shinigami who were trying to stop him and ran after Naruto, who had disappeared into a building. 

If the boy had been a tad more attentive, he would have noticed the fact that he had returned to the very place where he had been imprisoned until only a few hours ago. 

“Stop right there and fight me!” Zaraki hollered, his voice echoing loudly in the long, dark corridor. 

Eventually, the chase came to an end, and Kenpachi unknowingly found himself on the deepest level of the Maggots’ Nest, much deeper than the cell where he had been locked up before.

“This is it. It’s the end of the line for you,” the boy said. 

Raising his zanpakuto above his head, Zaraki threw himself at the blond, laughing out loud.

Had he been a bit more mindful of his surroundings, the boy might have noticed that something about the place they were in was not normal. His reiatsu, which was normally strong enough to crush and blow up even buildings, had no effect on the wall of the deep and wide cave-like room he was in. 

‘I don’t have much spiritual energy left.’

His four-hour-long battle against Captain Unohana and his repeated use of the healing kido had left him running on fumes. As a consequence of that, Naruto did not have the leisure to fight with his Demon Arts like he normally did.

‘I have to finish this fast.’

Zaraki descended upon him like an eagle, swinging his serrated zanpakuto down savagely. But Naruto parried his strike and kicked him violently in the stomach, hurling him all the way to the other end of the cave. 

While the lunatic was getting up to his feet, Naruto spoke two words in a soft, barely audible voice:

“Seal, Akuryo.” (1)

His regular katana transformed into a simple, straight, double-edged sword with a black handle and a black blade. It was a Jian, a pitch-black traditional Chinese longsword.

A split second later, Zaraki lunged at him again, and he swung his zanpakuto with such strength that a shockwave exploded from the clash of their blades, the sound and the following echo nearly deafening them both.

‘This kid. . . He’s gotten even stronger than the first time!’ 

He knew that life-and-death battles could help trigger a Shinigami’s awakening and boost their spiritual energy, but the difference in Zaraki’s reiatsu in the present and his reiatsu from a few days ago was too drastic. 

‘I did well to release my Shikai.’

Their blades clashed nine more times in extremely quick succession before Naruto took advantage of Zaraki’s lack of experience and proper technique by parrying the 10th strike at an angle, making the boy’s sword swing slide to the side. 

While the kid was in a state of imbalance, Naruto swung his sword upward. 

Zaraki’s beast-like instinct made it so that instead of having his entire right arm looped off from the elbow by Naruto's slash, he only got scratched by the black jian Shikai.

After leaving a bleeding gash in the boy’s arm, Naruto’s black blade turned crimson red.

Unexpectedly, Zaraki's right arm fell limply to his side, and his jagged zanpakuto fell on the ground with a clang. His arm had been paralysed. 

The boy quickly bent down to grab his zanpakuto with his other hand, but Naruto swung his Shikai a second time, and this time, Zaraki’s left arm became paralysed too. 

"Goddamn it! Fight me fair and square, coward!" Zaraki screamed.

Alas, the echo of the large, empty cave was his only answer.


⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: The Shikai isn't as simple as merely sealing. And the bankai will be quite different. I won't say more for now because I don't want to spoil you.

(1) Akuryu means "evil spirit"