Chapter 54: Another Faction
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Chapter 54: Another Faction
Just 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!?" The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.
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.
'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!'
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Chapter 54: Another Faction
Just 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!?" The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.
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.
'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!'
Chapter 54: Another FactionJust 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!?" The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Nvl-B!n.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. '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!'
