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Another Faction
🕑 Added 2023-04-02 15:35:23 +0000 UTCJust like that, a few more days passed, and the leading players within Hueco Mundo were yet again all gathered in the same room. Aizen allowed his gaze to wander over the troops he had gathered and nodded in satisfaction.
By now, every Arrancar had a mostly human form, with the exception of Aaroniero Arruruerie, who Aizen assumed would never gain such a form due to the unusual way he had evolved in the first place: By absorbing the abilities of other Hollow.
Another little thing Aizen off-handedly noticed was that Zommari Rureaux, who previously scolded Yuna for being disrespectful towards him, had a completely different attitude. He was very jittery and was constantly looking around like he expected to be ambushed at any moment. Additionally, Aizen noticed how his gaze briefly met Yuna, causing Zommari to flinch and instantly look down like a scolded child.
'Interesting. I wonder what happened between those two. Did Yuna torture him or something like that?'
Aizen briefly wondered if he should investigate what had happened but decided against doing so for one simple reason: He didn't give a shit about Zommari. If it were a higher-ranked Espada, he might at least pretend to care, but he saw no point in doing so for Zommari.
Quickly losing interest in whatever happened to Zommari, Aizen kicked this little meeting into gear.
"Well, I'm happy to see that all of you have successfully evolved and reached the status of a true Arrancar. Unfortunately, it's still too early to attack Seireitei, as we still need to make a few preparations. As you all should know my plans, I decided to send a few probes to the world of the living to get a feeling for how fast Seireitei can deploy their troops and how strong they are."
Obviously, Aizen wouldn't blurt out his plan to attack Karakura Town in front of Yuna and Hinata, who he currently had the least trust in, so he had to speak in a roundabout way, unaware that Yuna already knew of his plans.
As for those probes he planned to send, they were just a bunch of half-assed Arrancar that failed to evolve properly. So, even if they died, there would be no losses.
Obviously, he plans to send in a few of his Espada at one point in time as well, but that would need to wait for now, as they still had to get used to their new powers.
Seeing everyone simply nodding to his words, a light smile appeared on Aizen's face as he rose from his seat.
"Very well, that is all I have to say for now. Continue training so you can get used to your new power, accelerating our plan to fight against Seireitei as far as possible."
Hearing Aizen dismissing them, everyone else rose from their seat and left the room, leaving Yuna, who had Hinata sitting on her lap behind.
"Seems like things are finally starting to heat up, huh?"
Instead of answering Yuna, Hinata simply hummed in agreement, almost causing her to purr like a cat due to Yuna petting her head.
"Oh well, my preparations are almost done as well, so things are about to get fun."
"Oh? I'm honestly surprised you are not done yet."
"Yeah, I'm a little annoyed as well, but it can't be helped. Seireitei's open structure made it very easy to get around and plan my next move, but Las Noches closed-off environment not only makes moving around a pain in the ass but even planning the proper setup is very complicated."
Hearing Yuna's explanation, Hinata nodded in understanding as she continued enjoying Yuna's hand combing through her hair.
"I have to say, I'm not much of a prankster, but I'm looking forward to what will happen after you are done setting up."
"Hehe, a lot of fun things will happen~"
Seeing Yuna's evil smirk, Hinata could only smile wryly while feeling a tinge of pity for the people of Las Noches.
'Yeah, things will get messy very soon~'
Meanwhile, back in the world of the living, the school had restarted, and Ichigo was currently walking towards it.
"IIIII...CHIIIII...GOOOOO~"
While Ichigo was walking through the school's corridors, he heard someone loudly calling his name. Moments later, Keigo appeared in the distance, diving in for a hug, which Ichigo casually dodged while giving Keigo a Clothesline, knocking him to the floor.
"Yo, Keigo."
While Keigo was twitching on the floor, Mizuiro appeared as well, giving Ichigo a casual greeting which he returned before entering the classroom.
"Good morning, Ichigo~"
"Hey."
"Your hair looks as stupid as always."
The moment Ichigo entered the classroom, Orihime gave him an energetic greeting, while Sado gave him a casual one and Uryu a snarky remark.
"Ichigo, what's going on here? What's with that combination? Why are these three hanging around together!?"
As Ichigo was approaching the trio who had just welcomed him, Keigo somehow managed to revive himself and started talking up a storm yet again, causing Ichigo to roll his eyes at him. Despite Ichigo rolling his eyes at him, Keigo continued talking without a stop.
"What is this? The beauty, the beast, and the nerd? No, maybe the princess, the gorilla, and the four-eyes!?"
As Keigo continued running wild, Ichigo approached the trio and greeted them casually, almost causing Keigo's eyes to pop out.
"Geez, calm down, Keigo."
"Why the hell are you with them as well!? What in the world is going on here!? What has the world..."
"Good morning, ORIHIME~"
Hearing the familiar greeting, Orihime expected her breast to be groped, but to everyone's surprise, none of that happened, resulting in a wave of disappointment rolling over most of the boys present. Surprisingly, the usual event of Chizuru fondling Orihime's breasts as a greeting didn't occur today, drawing everyone's attention towards Chizuru.
When people realized the reason for Chizuru's unusual behavior, their jaws crashed on the floor in surprise. Currently, Chizuru was flanked by two women, each pressing one of Chizuru's arms into their breasts. The people in the classroom quickly realized what was probably going on, instantly causing everyone to whisper to each other.
"No way. Did that pervert actually do it?"
"How the hell did she trick these two into agreeing."
"That has to be some kind of act."
"I bet these two are paid actors."
Ignoring the murmuring all around her, Chizuru gave the women holding onto her arms a quick kiss on the lips before telling them that she was looking forward to seeing them in the next break, causing both of them to blush before fleeing the classroom.
"No way, it's real."
"Impossible!"
"Those two have to be actors!"
"No way, that pervert someone managed to score two girlfriends, and I don't even have one. What the hell!?"
Yet again, Chizuru ignored all the talking around her as she scanned the classroom for someone. Seeing that the person she was looking for wasn't here, she decided to approach Naruto instead, who was sitting by the side, watching the drama unfold.
"I'm sorry, but could you tell me where Yuna-sama is? I'm looking for her."
Hearing Chizuru's words and calling Yuna with a respectful "sama", everyone was even more confused than they previously were, with only Naruto realizing what was likely going on.
"Sorry to disappoint, but nee-san won't be able to attend school for a while due to personal reasons. Is there anything you want me to tell her for you?"
Chizuru couldn't help but be disappointed after Naruto claimed that Yuna wouldn't be at school for a while, but she quickly recovered as her gaze grew sharper.
"Although I want to do this personally, I guess doing it like this is fine for now. I seriously want to thank Yuna-sama for her teachings about how to start an all-female harem. Her teachings have enlightened me, and I couldn't have achieved what I have today without her."
Having already expected this kind of answer, Naruto simply nodded his head and gave her a reassuring smile.
"I see, so it's like that. Don't worry; I'll tell her your words and make sure she understands how grateful you are."
As soon as Naruto finished speaking, a happy smile appeared on Chizuru's face as she turned around and sat down in her designated seat, leaving an eery silence behind.
"No way. Did I seriously just hear that?"
"Teachings to start an all-girls harem?"
"So she really said that. I thought I was hallucinating."
"There is no way something like that exists."
"What do you mean by 'There is no way something like that exists'? Isn's a successful example right in front of our eyes?"
"Impossible. It's impossible!"
"Are there maybe... some other teachings..."
As soon as these words left someone's mouth, most of the eyes in the room snapped toward Naruto, making him sweat a little due to how much zeal everyone had in their eyes.
'Nee-san, you are not even here, and you are still causing me trouble.'
While Naruto wasn't entirely sure how to resolve the current situation, his and Ichigo's Substitute Badges started constantly yelling the word "Hollow", initially making them sweat, but as soon as they realized that normal people couldn't hear it, they both relaxed a little.
"Mah, sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have any absurd teachings like nee-san, so how about you ask her for guidance when she returns? Anyway, gottogotothetoiletbye~"
Before anyone could ask any more questions, Naruto dashed out of the room, leaving a dumbfounded crowd behind. A crowd that didn't even notice that Ichigo had left as well.
Around a minute later, Ichigo found his target: A middle-sized Hollow that was constantly yelling something about pork and veal, causing Ichigo to shake his head as he casually cut it into two pieces vertically.
Obviously, after fighting Captain-class enemies within Seireitei, normal Hollow were no longer a threat to him, making them easy prey.
Meanwhile, as Ichigo easily killed the Hollow, a man stood up-side-down in midair, drinking a bottle of water while observing Ichigo. He had smooth blonde hair, brown eyes, and a cheeky grin on his face.
"Ichigo Kurosaki, eh? How interesting."
Suddenly, the man felt some pressure on his shoes, and after giving them a brief glance, he noticed that some had landed on the soles of his shoes resulting in the person standing upright.
"That is indeed Ichigo Kurosaki, but who might you me?"
The bizarre image of two-man standing on the soles of each other's shoes aside, the man couldn't help but be startled as someone actually managed to sneak up on him. Worst of all, he couldn't even tell who the other person was due to literally standing on each other.
He briefly pondered the situation and then used [Flash Step] to quickly move away from the other party while righting his body. To his surprise, the moment he came to a halt, the other party yet again appeared out of nowhere, but this time the roles were reversed, with the first man standing upright and the second one being upside-down.
"Well, this is pretty fun~ I'm Naruto, by the way; who are you?"
Despite hearing Naruto's carefree tone, the man had cold sweat flowing down his back. The first time he was approached so easily could still be credited to him being careless; however, that was not the case for the second time.
'Who is this? An Arrancar? No, it's too early for this strong Arrancar to appear. Someone from Soul Society? No way, there is no way they would play around like this. Why haven't I heard anything about this? Did... Did that Urahara bastard not tell me everything?'
The image of Urahara laughing loudly while fanning himself with his beloved fan briefly flashed through the man's mind, causing him to frown.
'I'll definitely make him pay if this is really one of his pranks.'
The man briefly thought about his next step a little longer before simply sighing in defeat.
"*Sigh* I'm Shinji Hirako. Am I right to assume that you are on Kisuke's side?"
Since Naruto was clearly only playing around while showing no aggression towards him, Shinji decided to simply clean up the situation so that no misunderstandings could happen.
"Mhh, Kisuke's ally? Not... really? If you insist on me being allied with someone, I guess I'll choose Ichigo simply because I'm dating his childhood friend, and I know she would want me to help him out."
Although Shinji briefly pondered how that kind of weird position came into being, in the end, he was satisfied with Naruto's answer. After all, in the fight against Aizen, he wouldn't claim to be Seireitei's ally either, but his faction was still on the side opposing Aizen.
"Oh well, good enough for me. Out of curiosity, does Kisuke know about you?"
"Know about me? Well, he does know me, but I don't think he knows the extent of my strength. However, considering all the information available to him, he should at least be able to make an educated guess."
Hearing Naruto's answer, Shinji couldn't help but gnash his teeth together as he realized that Kisuki probably knew at least a little about Naruto.
"So, in other words, he deliberately hid you from me in hopes of seeing a funny scene play out."
"Yup~ That's probably exactly what happened~"
As soon as Naruto finished speaking, he moved at lightning speed and appeared in front of Shinji, causing him to be on guard. However, to his surprise, the only thing Naruto did was grab something Shinji didn't notice out of the air.
Before Shinji could ask what Naruto was doing, Naruto opened his hand, revealing a small insect sitting inside of it. At first, Shinji was confused about what Naruto was implying, but upon closer inspection, he noticed that the insect was actually artificial in nature, causing a tick mark to appear on his forehead.
"KISUKE URAHARA!!!"
Without waiting for Naruto to say anthing else, Shinji shot of into the distance at high speed, causing Naruto to chuckle in amusement.
'See, I told you keeping a few of Aizen's mechanical spy insects with me could be useful. If someone isn't knowledgeable about this stuff or is simply agitated, it's impossible to differentiate who the real owner of these things is.'
[That shady merchant sure is in for a rude awakening, isn't he?]
'Pah, that's what he gets for pulling all this mess with Rukia and even sending us to enemy territory without proper preparations.'
[He claims, as he is still giddy due to how much chaos he managed to chaos within Seireite and how much fun he had there.]
'*Cough* That's beside the point. Just because I enjoyed the trip and had a lot of fun doesn't mean I'm happy how the whole thing got initiated.'
[He claims, as he is already considering asking Kisuke for a way to invade Hueco Mundo to cause even more chaos there.]
'T-That is beside the point as well! Additionally, how can I not go there!? How can I possibly have nee-san have all the fun by herself!'
[He claims, clearly in denial of his own desires and goals.]
'Could you stop with the narration point of view?'
[He asks, already knowing the answer.]
'*Sigh* Whatever. Let's get back to class.'
[He says, forfeiting the argument.]
'I still have that Hashirama x Madara technique in my repertoire.'
[Come at me. Let's see who dies of disgust first!]
Hearing Kurama's words, Naruto could only smile wryly as he made his way back to the classroom. He and Kurama had spent a lot of time together by now, and the longer they stayed together, the better Kurama became at turning Naruto's pranks and word games around. One might be annoyed at that, but Naruto couldn't help but enjoy the verbal battles he had with Kurama on a regular basis.
Not even a minute later, he returned to the classroom, where his teacher announced that a transfer student would be joining them today, but to everyone's confusion, no one was there, confusing the teacher greatly.
"How weird, he was here not even five minutes ago. I wonder what happened."
Hearing his teacher's words, Naruto couldn't help but frown as he realized who the new transfer student probably was.
'Since he seemed to be interested in Ichigo., there is a good chance he will try to join this class. People in this world sure are easy-going when it comes to staying close to their target. Rukia did the exact same and boldly joined Ichigo's class when she needed to stay close to them.
Oh well, even if Shinji Hirako joins this class, I honestly couldn't care less. Since he seems to consider himself to be Ichigo's ally, I won't interfere for now. However, I couldn't help but notice the interesting presence he gives off.'
[Yeah, it seems like Aizen wanting to create Hollow-Shinigami hybrids wasn't the first instance of someone trying to combine the two forces.]
'Yup, but this time it's the other way around. A Shinigami-Hollow hybrid, huh? Guess nee-san, Hinata, and I count as one of those as well. Considering that, it's rather obvious why Shinji wants to approach Ichigo. I've been feeling Ichigo struggling with his inner Hollow for a while now, so I guess Shinji wants to recruit him using the method of controlling it as bait to make Ichigo join him. Considering I have never shown any signs of having an inner Hollow, I think it's safe to assume that he doesn't know about me.'
[*Sigh* Just like that, another faction pops up.]
'Hahaha, you make it sound like that is a bad thing, Kurama. This is where the fun begins!'
Comments
Christian Jeffress
Thanks for another excellent and very entertaining chapter
RagniDrakula
curious as to what Yuna has planed and who will be with her when she does it, and poor Shinji has no idea who he is dealing with, all in all Brilliant as usual.
