Reap the Pain

Chapter 1 - A Grim Encounter

Our story begins as thus.

Over the course of 3 years much has changed for the World of the Living as it had for the Soul Society. A singular woman named Rukia Kuchiki changed the fate of a single young man whom became the unintentional savior and hero of the Seireitei. Through arduous conflicts, blood, and tears being shed traitors were imprisoned and executed, as well as a nefarious organization out for vengeance.

That was a year ago, and he has since been carrying the title of Substitute Shinigami. A legend among the ranks of the Gotei 13 for his strength and his courage, his powers are vast and unprecedentedly higher than most could fathom. Along with his friends he has made Karakura Town, his home city, safe from the ever-encroaching threat of twisted human spirits known as Hollows.

Who is this man?

Ichigo Kurosaki; age of 18 with bright orange hair and hazel eyes, stature being six foot. A highschool student and Substitute Shinigami, along with working a part-time job at Unagiya Shop. He is the older brother of two middle school aged sisters, Yuzu and Karin, son of the late Masaki Kurosaki and Isshin Kurosaki.

Currently this alleged hero and everyday brazen man is donning his soul form, rushing through a dark abysmal highway known as the Dangai Precipice World. The walls made of decadent sludge that constantly sealed itself behind those who are rushing through its dank road with a very peculiar security system. This being the semi-sentient entity known as the Cleaner that disposes of unwanted entities skirting through its domain.

Unfortunately, this is where our hero finds himself in a bind.

"Shit-Shit-Shit-Shit-Shit!" Ichigo swore aloud, eyes comically enlarged to emphasize his terror. Rushing forward with all he had, desperate to not get absorbed and disassimilated by the living organic train. He dare not look over his shoulder, knowing if he did, he'd surely stumble and fall prey to the pyre of glowing dark sludge.

"Should be safe today, they say! Come on over, they say! I swear if I make it through this, I'm going to kick someone's ass for this!" Ichigo shouted with wild abandon, his arms pumping in sync with his rapidly sprinting legs.

Had he known a summons call from Rukia would end up getting him almost killed by the Cleaner AGAIN he would have just stayed home and slept in. After all, it was the weekend, and he valued his free time to do absolutely nothing. That is when his duties didn't call and/or kidnap him to fulfill them.

"I swear if I live through this, which I probably will, I will NEVER answer another request from her again!" Ichigo growled to himself.

Luckily, he managed to see light at the end of the tunnel, figuratively and literally. The telltale tall rectangular outline of the Senkaimon exit lied ahead. It seemed to send rivulets of light, rays dancing across the dark enclosing walls of the Dangai's eerie makeup, even overcasting the light of the ominously charging Cleaner.

"I'm going to make it!" Ichigo said aloud with determination, mingled with relief.

Through an additional push off the hardened sludge-like ground that he failed to notice a sudden split in the path before his feet. Split open almost like an eye, it happened so quickly that Ichigo failed to notice until his body began to plummet downwards. And just like that, the hole would close as the organic spiritual eating train would pass over, as if he had never come past the rift world at all.

With eyes widened with fright, his arms flailed helplessly as he was swallowed into darkness. One might think it would be luck to avoid the Cleaner's rampage, but on the other hand, he had fallen into an entirely new kind of peril. One of which he had no way of comprehending.

Lights streamed all around him, like speeding stars, to match the speed of his descent in passing through the veil of this unknown space. His body flourished downwards like a comet, shortly afterwards bursting through a thin barrier separating him from what he assumed to be the other side. That side holding a very open sky and a patch of ground he rapidly approached.

"AH SH-!" The Substitute Shinigami failed to complete his exclamation, let alone react, as he face planted into the ground. Enough force was placed into the impact that a sizable gust of wind exhaled outwards, emitting a shockwave that rattled the landscape around him. He wouldn't be able to hear it due to his head being firmly buried into the ground along with his shoulders.

A growl would be heard, muffling beneath the soil, shortly before his body forcefully bent back and wrenched him outwards. Coughing and ragged breathing from disorientation was all the orange-haired boy allowed his mouth to exude for long seconds. Shaking his head, he finally blinked away the spare dust in his eyes before standing up to his feet, taking in his surroundings.

Many block-shaped hubs were built over disheveled soil, made of simple plaster and clay, culminating into a large village. With where he landed, it appeared as if the entire ground was distended and dipped inwards from the outer perimeter of the village. In the distance he could see aged and cracked stone faces, carved into a mountainside.

"What the Hell...is this?" Ichigo thought to himself as he absorbed what was around him. "this isn't the Soul Society, I can say that much. If anything it looks like somewhere far away back home. But that can't be right! Last time I checked I was-"

"Hold it right there!"

"-near the Soul Society?" Ichigo finished aloud, distracted by the sudden shout. To his eyes, he saw a number of shadow-enraptured shapes appear within seconds of the declaration. Most of them were upon his immediate periphery, though his senses allowed him to feel out their locations.

"15 signatures in total," Ichigo thought with eyes drifting to half mast, narrowing them specifically at a entity dropping in front of his vision, "none of them are souls or Hollows. That means they can only be human!"

The man approaching Ichigo dressed in a style similar to what Ichigo was familiar with, that being the Onmitsukidou Militia tasked under Captain Sui-Feng. Covered head-to-toe with a black dyed jumpsuit, forearms and shins were clasped in dark grey metal plating designed for protection while being pliant and easy to move within. A dark blue holster was affixed upon his upper left thigh while a hint of a beige hued pouch was held above his left rear flank. His hair had raven tresses jutting out in a fraying upwards manner, complimented by the dark red eyes pooling out from his mostly concealed visage.

Curiously enough, he also adorned a metal headband crossing over his onyx hued bangs, bearing the sign of a spiraling eye at its center. It appeared to be an insignia for an organization or a group he was affiliated with.

"Whoever these guys are, I can feel intent to kill in their Spiritual Pressures," Ichigo concluded with an audible growl, having it escape a jaw-clenched set of bared teeth. "I may need to knock some heads before getting answers on...wherever the Hell I'm at!"

"This is a restricted area! Who are you and what are you doing here?!" The Leader of the shadowy figures inquired sharply, his red eyes glaring heatedly at Ichigo's hazel orbs.

Ichigo paused to consider a proper response. Hostility was already thick enough that he could cut it through with Zangetsu. However, he didn't really want to be the one responsible for starting the fight, should negotiations be applicable later. Clicking his tongue against his teeth, he couldn't help but hate this passive position of misunderstandings he's placed in.

"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki," The orange-haired teen declared, knowing they probably never heard of him to begin with, "a Substitute Shinigami."

"Substitute...Shinigami?!" The enforcer defacto's eyes widened several fold, both in perplexion and infuriation. "what the Hell is that?!"

"Yeah, I get that enough," Ichigo rolled his eyes, reaching up to place his hand into the fold of his kosode, "here, I think I got something that'll expla-"

"He's reaching for a weapon!" A voice shouted from his left.

"Stop him!" Another to his right.

The Lead enforcer's eyes narrowed, fishing for an exposed kunai at his hip, quickly tossing it towards Ichigo's location. All of the projectiles whizzed through the air, creating faint ruptures through the wind to cause whistling sounds to be emitted. It almost seemed like a circular wave of metallic death headed towards the intruder, aiming to penetrate his flesh and cause incapacitation, if not assured death.

None of them would reach their target.

Instead of palming the combat pass that he was reaching into his Shikhakushou for, Ichigo spun on his heels to turn into a complete circle. With his hand emitting a soft emerald glow, the air quickly shifted around his person, as if siphoning into a cyclonic vacuum. When he had spun a fifth time, the projectiles would have been blown back by a violent gust of wind, thrust out with a emphasized gesture of his extended arm, sending them all scattering away while rattling the humble built landscape around him.

"W-What was that?!" One of the figures inquired, lowering his arms down to his sides as he stared with disbelief. "Ninjutsu?!"

"I didn't see any weaving of hands, let alone see him move. What the the Hell is he?!" Another inquired with disoriented confusion.

"Everyone! To me!" The Lead Enforcer voiced aloud with a swing of his arms. Ichigo could tell he was doing his best to hide his fear behind a bead of sweat, trickling over his sharp brows.

With that said, over a dozen figures flew over the air with agile leaps from the structures and alleys they were hiding from. Upon landing behind their boss, Ichigo could tell from the synonymous choice of garbs they all adorned that they were all part of a bigger organization. Each of them ranging in size and shape, they all appeared hardened through training and capable on their own.

But from the way all of their spiritual pressures flickered upon the recesses of Ichigo's senses, he could tell that they were off balance. No one knew how to handle a situation like this, but were determined to handle him regardless.

"I'm not eager to fight any of you, so I'm giving you one chance," Ichigo announced in a level, assertive tone as he took a single step towards them. "give up! I just want some answers, that's all, and I'll walk away!"

"The only one getting information is us about you!" The Lead enforcer shouted back, throwing an arm to the side as he crouched down in preparation. Clasping his hands together, his digits intertwined and slid across his gloved palms, causing the energy within him to be fluctuate. Finishing with an upraised sign, the enforcer seemed to bend back a fraction as he declared loudly, "and we can do that after we've interrogated you!"

"Katon, Gokakyu no Jutsu!" The man roared out in sync with a geyser of flames spewing out of his covered mouth. In turn, these flames would form a sphere in shape, discharging outwards at a high speed towards Ichigo.

The black robed interloper simply stared impassively at the flames for a few seconds. Just bare inches before the rippling tongues of orange and yellow would touch the fabric of his Shikhakushou, his form bent at the knees before propelling upwards, leaving a discharge of dust particles from which where he had previously stood.

Ichigo appeared a dozen meters above where he had stood seconds ago, the fireball long since carving a scorching trench through the soil and exploding through several structures behind him.

"Up there!" One of the female assailants shouted, weaving her own hands in similar signs.

"Is he flying?!" One of the male comrades shouted with incredulous disbelief.

"Nevermind that!" The Lead enforcer shouted in command, weaving more handsigns in a follow-up to his last attack. "attack at will!"

In that instant, to Ichigo's eyes, it was a bombardment of streaks infused with elemental energy. Streams of flames flew upwards in his direction, along with a host of thrown projectiles, complimented by high velocity thrown rocks. If all the techniques weren't thrown in his direction, he would have taken in the sight with awe.

Kicking off the platform of spirit energy his sandal covered feet stood upon, Ichigo dove headfirst into the storm of attacks the enemies sent his way. Pushing his hands out in front of his face, trails of emerald energy once again ebbed off of his palms, flowing back across the air that bent around his speeding frame.

Just bare meters away from the wave of element and projectile force, Ichigo swung his palms outwards until they nearly tapped his hips. In doing so a shrieking severance occurred within the air, splitting the geysers and thrown pieces of the elements while sending the projectiles awry into the distance. The fissure of wind that was manipulated by Ichigo continued onwards until it collided into the ground, impacting it with explosive force that sent an audible shockwave to shatter the faces of many structures surrounding the dirt laid street.

In the midst of the chaos, seven of the fourteen figures in black were pummeled into the ground by the wave of high velocity thrusted wind. Apparent to those that managed to skirt and leap away from the incoming airwave, their comrades seemed to be rendered unconscious from the kinetic force wrought on their bodies.

Touching down in front of the gouged piece of earth, Ichigo's sandal-adorned feet tapped gently to the ground. He couldn't help but admire his handiwork, looking down at his hands, allowing his digits to open and clench experimentally.

"That training in the last year to hone my Fullbring powers along with my Shinigami powers has certainly paid off. The last thing I want to do is kill these poor bastards with Zangetsu. I doubt they can take that kind of punishment, being humans and all," Ichigo concluded, returning his attention to the stunned and aghast enforcers surrounding him.

"Wind Release, again?!" One of the conscious female subordinates said on her knees. "how can someone just bat away all of our attacks so effortlessly?!"

"You don't suppose he's a Hidden Mist Swordsman?!" Another inquired rhetorically in a nervous tone, noting the sword he had yet to draw on them.

"All the way out here in that get-up? Impossible! He doesn't even look like a Shinobi," A third spoke out in a disregarding tone.

"Stop your babbling!" The Lead enforcer snarled out, earning Ichigo's left side glance in his direction. Standing to his feet, he began sprinting with his body held low, already fishing for another kunai from his leg holster. "forget Ninjutsu! Pressure him from all sides at close quarters!"

Moving upon the beckoning of their superior, the other figures leapt forward, all drawing various short instruments. Ranging from ninjato, kunai, and even a monstrous mace, the remaining eight enforcers rushing at Ichigo with their weapons drawn.

"Man you guys are persistent," Ichigo sighed to himself, impassively casting his glance at the charging enemies.

"DIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" The first of the enforcers reached Ichigo's front, swinging his behemoth mace to ram into his left arm and side like a bat. When it closed the distance, Ichigo's left fist swung in a pendulum motion, smashing it like glass into dozens of shards. Before the attacker could utter a response, let alone a follow-up to his failed strike, Ichigo moved forward in a blurring motion and rammed his fist into his gut.

With a pained gasp leaving his mouth, the enforcer would be launched off his feet and sent pinwheeling across the air, skidding across the ground like an airborne bowling ball.

In turn, to another charging enforcer, he spun on the heels of his feet to evade a thrust while palming her wrist. Pulling her forward, Ichigo rammed a hammerfist strike into her face, breaking her concealed nose and rendering her unconscious in a single painfully audible crunch. He would grasp the ninjato out of her hand before her body would unceremoniously slump to the ground with a groan.

Four others would circle around him, one leaping up in the air and the others coming at his opposing angles. With all of their weapons thrusting and swinging forward, they intended using a simultaneous synchronized attack to prevent a proper counterattack. In a blur of motion, they all struck at once, only to find that their weapons struck each other's and forced their bodies to impact clumsily into each other.

"Gah! Where did he-!" One of the female enforcers began to ask.

"-go?!" The male one inquired, having came from above and literally saw him evaporate into the air.

"Was that Swift Release?!" Another shook his head, having bashed the other in on accident.

"Did he vanish?!" The last shouted out with confused infuriation.

As the four tried to get their bearings, Ichigo's form had patiently materialized above them within the air. Having taken the ninjato, he brushed the flat of the blade with his left hand while swinging it out with his right. In a flash of lime hued light, the short edgeless blade transformed into a double-handed nodachi katana, complete with a bronze tsuba and crimson tassels.

"Above you!" Lead enforcer shouted, catching a glimpse of Ichigo's fullbrought blade manifesting above their heads.

They were all too slow.

With a downward two handed swipe, Ichigo's raw strength dispersed the air waves from which the blade past through. This caused a cerulean downward wave of air pressure to jettison on top of the stunned enforces, indenting them into the crater and rendering them as unconscious as their ground prone comrade. As the blistering winds exhaled the audible shockwave that further rattled the established base of operations, the Lead enforcer could only look on with shock and awe.

"H-How did he get that weapon?! Transformation Jutsu?! Was that Wind Release?! What's going on?!" He muttered to himself with staggering backwards step. With all of his fellow subordinates subdued in just under a couple minutes, he felt incredibly outclassed by this stranger.

Another blurring motion of hyperspeed was witnessed, as Ichigo materialized in front of the Lead enforcer, causing the latter to tense and raise his arms up defensively. A derisive snort was let loose by the Substitute Shinigami as he dryly looked at the man in an unimpressed manner. Dropping the fullbrought blade to the ground, Ichigo couldn't help but put his fists on his hips and tap his left foot expectantly at his enemy.

"You still think you can win this?" Ichigo inquired with a blank stare sent his way.

"I..." The Lead enforcer began to say, halting his speech when he realized what was at stake. If someone knew an enemy infiltrator, someone of his scale in power, had just trounced him and his comrades, he wouldn't survive the reprisal. With an audible gulp, the man took a courageous step forward, weaving his hands in trembling signs. "...cannot...allow you to escape here! I must stop-!"

"JUST SHUT UP!" Ichigo shouted with a kick let loose, the sole of his sandal slamming into the man's face with air popping force. Watching him comically spin backwards like a ragdoll, the Substitute Shinigami's brows twitched with irritation, emphasized further by his forehead pulsating a single vein of frustration. "I swear these guys are a bunch of hair trigger happy idiots! They're actually worse than the Shinigami in the Gotei!"

It wouldn't be but a handful of minutes later that Ichigo noted that the Lead enforcer was rousing up from his sleep. When his burgundy shaded irises blinked away the disorientation, he swung his head back and forth noting that nothing but the horizon of their encampment. Oddly everything was from an inverted point of view and that he was seeing things from a far higher elevation than normal-

"W-W-WHAT THE HELL?!" The Lead enforcer shouted at the top of his lungs, finding himself hung by his ankles upside down by Ichigo. Arms flailing and finding none of his equipment stashed on his person, the man quickly gave way to panic at his given situation. He'd have rather had a quick death by his nemesis rather than be at his mercy in this situation!

"Good to see you got your energy back," Ichigo stated dryly, tightening his grip around the entity's ankles in order to quiet his struggles. With only the sound of gasps and heavy breathing to be heard by the Substitute Shinigami's ears, he would let out a snort of contentment before continuing. "listen, I'd hate to waste either of our times here and my hands are getting tired of holding your ass one hundred meters up in the air. So if you could tell me who you are, for starters, before telling me what you and your goons are, I'll be more than kind enough to lower myself a few meters closer to the ground. Finish my questions correctly, and you get back on solid earth. Don't finish them to my liking, and I'd like to see how you handle a high velocity drop to the dirt below. You game?"

"I-I-I understand! Just please don't drop me!" The captive man in Ichigo's grip nodded upwards, able to gain a downward angled glare to meet his near petrified stare. "I'll tell you what I know..."

"Then start," Ichigo said pointedly.

Gulping down what traces of fear and shame he had in himself, the enforcer first stated the interloper's first inquiry, "My name is Fuyuki, a Chunin Shinobi sworn fealty to Order of Pain. As Captain of the Shinbu Corps, the organization I am from, I lead a squad of scouts to keep this area of the land under our surveillance."

"Uhhhh," Ichigo drawled out dumbly, causing his captive to immediately halt, staring at Ichigo as if an utterance such as that would be odd. "sorry if I sound a bit stupid for asking but...what's a Shinobi?"

"Y-You're joking, right?" Fuyuki asked with perplexion, blinking for emphasis of his bafflement.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Ichigo asked in a stern tone, shaking his captive by the ankles, causing him to jiggle precariously under his grip. After the man begged him to stop, Ichigo halted and glared at the man in his grasp once more. "are you assassins or spies?"

"Shinobi are whatever the world wants us to be. At one point, we'd do even the most mundane tasks for the right price. But those days are over. I'm part of an organization sworn to an Order that helps preserve the Utopia of peace and prosperity reigning across these lands. To answer your question we are scouts, doubling as assassins in the event we find our targets we patrol for," Fuyuki responded in as cool of a tone as he could muster.

"Gotcha," Ichigo nodded. Raising his left brow, he further inquired, "what's your rank. Is that what you mean by Chunin?"

"Most of my squad is assembled of Chunin rank, with mine subverting theirs, since they have little experience in true combat. As you've seen, even my little experience was no match for your skills and power. Ranks among the Shinobi, from least skilled to most skilled, are Genin, Chunin, and Jounin. Those above us are not designated by a rank, but moreover by title. In large settlements of Shinobi, called Hidden Villages, the strongest are appointed as Kage. Anything on par with them, as demonstrated to the world, are within the organization I'm sworn to serve: The Akatsuki," Fuyuki finished ominously.

That one name. He knew that the definition of the name meant Dawn, but from the way he was informed by this mook, they were no one to be trifled with. He could practically feel the hairs on his skin raise up just hearing their name uttered so reverently by this man.

"Who're they?" Ichigo asked in a lower tone.

"They're the ones who overthrew the old order that oversaw the Five Great Nations, with all Five Hidden Villages being the strongest of all Shinobi cultures. They gathered the entities of pure chakra, the Tailed Beasts, and imprisoned them in a weapon of massive destruction. With it, he has forced the world to adhere to their laws and their will. One nation was annihilated in an instant for standing against them, the Land of Lightning. The other, before its regime took full affect, was destroyed by its leader and left most of them dead, now branded as enemies of the world: Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village. What you see below is the results of it being demolished so utterly, three years ago," Fuyuki spoke plainly, trying not to hold too much pride in his words. With a downwards gesture of his limply hanging arms, Ichigo would be able to see just what he was talking about.

And everything clicked.

The place where he landed was the middle of a giant crater, having to be several kilometers in length and indented dozens of meters below the land's proximate wilderness. Smaller craters and ridges were displayed, showing signs of a battle happening afterwards amidst the large earthen indentation. Casting a glance towards the faces of which were emblazoned in a mountainside, Ichigo could tell that it was the sole remaining part of this settlement that existed before this massacre.

"An entire settlement wiped out? A nation destroyed in the blink of an eye? What kind of sick bastards are these?!" Ichigo thought with a hardened glare etched upon his brow line. His hands unconsciously gripped tightly around the man's ankles, causing Fuyuki to wince, though he dared not speak of his pain. He had no wish to fall to his imminent demise, nor wish to incur further anger upon this unknown anonymoly.

"Just one more question," Ichigo said in a low growl, something that made Fuyuki tense up with apprehension. "what is the name of their leader? The one responsible for all of this?"

"P-P-Pain," Fuyuki responded with a trembling quiver. "he is simply known as Pain. He is the god of this world, and the one who has established this era of peace. I know not another great than him."

"How can someone so great condone genocide and manslaughter of such a scale?" Ichigo asked rhetorically, glaring around at the earthen soil that laid empty and lifeless. The small hub of spartan buildings barely filled the center of the impact site, giving it the impression that this used to be a large hub of activity and life. The idea that it was all gone, and done in the name of peace made the Substitute Shinigami's blood boil. "I cannot forgive someone like that. Not for something like this!"

Fuyuki blinked up at the person he concluded now wishing for death. He could tell by the way he spared his squad and himself, the way he got riled up at what he had been vaguely informed that he was a righteous one at heart. The abnormality of his demeanor as well as his existence baffled the Chunin Shinobi to no end.

He'd have little time to reflect as he felt his head tap the familiar sensation of the ground below. With a unceremonious drop, he felt his feet fall forward, putting his body at ground prone position. Even as a sigh of relief distilled the dust below his mask, he could already hear the taps of Ichigo's sandal covered feet treading away from him.

Warily, he got on his hands and knees, inquiring loudly, "Where are you going?!"

"I may not be going anywhere for awhile," Ichigo said over his shoulder, placing a hand over his sword's hilt, "so I might as well do some reaping while I'm here!"

As Ichigo stated this, Fuyuki couldn't help but just stare in confusion at this boy. A being with incredible power, nothing he had ever seen in his life, was determined to change the state of this world? He couldn't say it to be impossible, given with what he'd seen could only be the tip of the proverbial iceberg of the young man's powers.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, huh?" Fuyuki thought with intrigue, rising to his feet to watch the black-robed man head away from the crater that was Konoha. "I wonder just what consequences are going to be for the actions you've sowed into place today."

Beyond both the Shinobi and the Substitute's perception lied another far beyond their comprehension. This one was imbued within the sockets of a gnarled beaked crow, casting a violet hue from its eyes. Spirals emitted from its miniscule proportioned pupil, locking onto the crater's interloper, the orange-haired young man. What the eyes imbedded within the animal's saw far more than any could understand, save for its owner. And what had just transpired was already made aware to the said originator of such eyes.

And said originator is already on its way to convene such a proper course of action.

Location: Unknown

Nine silhouettes were gathered. Each of them bathed in obscurity, detailing only their vague physical outlines and shapes. Emanating lights affixed from the rainbow, they appeared ghostly, as none of their bodies were truly near any of the others. Such was the work of the Gentoshin Jutsu; a technique designed to allocate the telepathic signals coming from various members of the Akatsuki and then transmitting them to a location of disclosing choice by the caster.

With all of them standing, sitting, or kneeling in various parts of the cave, their avatars occasionally flickered with distortion and emanated their spectrally illuminated bodies in a brilliant display of energy. As the ninth had arrived it only took a few seconds before a familiar voice called out with a grated chuckle.

"Boy, this is nostalgic. How long has it been since we've all gathered in one spot?" Kisame Hoshigaki inquired, his fish eyes blinking over the trim of his overcoat collar.

"Fourteen months, give or take," The voice of a hooded and masked individual to his right, now known as Madara Uchiha, answered promptly, "I believe it was due to that incident of the Land of Lightning's attempt to start a continental uprising against us. What an anti-climactic ending that crisis attained."

"Ah, right. Guess this is another pressing matter we should all be in the know about," Kisame nodded his head with understanding.

"Whatever it is, make it quick," A smooth low tone emanated from another entity of the Akatsuki. This one belonging to a silhouette sitting nonchalantly on a boulder within the cave, the infamous child prodigy Sasuke Uchiha. Eyes that were drawn into half mast looked over towards his superior, his triple-tomoe Sharingan glistening through the indistinguishable shadowy mask laced over his visage. "I have more pressing matters than simply being aware of another domestic issue."

"This is no trifling matter," A deep authoritative voice declared among those gathered, more pointedly towards Sasuke, belonging to that of Pain himself. His eyes projected a violet hued pair of spirals, seeming to pierce through the menacing crimson orbs of the Sharingan that Sasuke prided so much. As soon as his subordinate's gaze turned away from his, he returned his gaze to encompass the entirety of their meeting place. "there has been a rupture in the fabric of our world. An unknown anomaly has appeared in the Land of Fire, having landed directly over the base camp of a Shinbu Corps squad. He defeated them all effortlessly, and without the work of any known Jutsu."

A brief silence, coupled with subdued gasps and whispers, briefly washed over the shadowy figures. An enemy capable of tangling Shinbu Shinobi, most of which are a league above the average Hidden Village's operative. While a Scouting Squad was hardly made up of a taskforce of elites, the fact an entity who didn't possess Jutsu of any kind was able to subdue them all was nearly impossible to believe.

Then again, the Akatsuki were not normal Shinobi, and were more open to believe the improbable as possible.

"Did he now?" Madara voiced aloud in a quite amused tone, drawing his singular eyed gaze towards the impassive stare of their leader. "that's quite the feat. Over a dozen capable bodied Shinobi and Kunoichi defeated effortlessly is no small feat, especially for someone possessing no attributes that of our ilk. Is he a samurai, or is it someone beyond the shores of our continent that we had missed?"

"There hasn't been a Samurai other than the Mifune that could defeat Chunin-level Shinobi in that number, ever seen," Zetsu, a two-faced entity, raised his own voice from his trap plant visage. While the prior voice was dark and level-monotone, the next voice to come out was light-hearted and nonchalant. "if we have seen such an entity prior to this incident, we would know about him."

"This is no ordinary being that we are aware of," Pain continued, his Rinnegan eyes blinking once before drawing them to each silhouetted figure, "his Chakra flows in a way what we would consider to be an inverse of what humans have in their bodies. That and it possesses an immense power supply, something of which I can only compare to that of a Jinchuriki or the Tailed Beasts themselves."

"Now that is interesting!" Kisame said with an elated tone. "it's been quite dull for these last couple of years. It'd be nice if Samehada and I got a workout, more than that Eight Tailed Jinchuriki gave us that is."

"Do you suppose he's even human at all? It seems unlikely a non-Shinobi could possess that level of power," Madara probed inquisitively.

"He may have human form though he is far from what we'd consider a human," Pain answered readily. Turning his gaze pointedly to a pair of slender cloaked figures, he said authoritatively, "for that reason I am tasking you two to handle this matter...Akimai and Shigure."

The first of the called figures, Akimai, turned her shadowy visage in Pain's direction, "You think that this entity is a demon who's entered from a rift of their world into our own?"

"It is a possibility I'm not willing to ignore. What with the near awakening of Moryo that transpired a year ago when we had recruited you, I am not discounting the possibility of him being a spirit from the netherworld," Pain explained, blinking his violet ringed irises as he continued. "your experience with spirits and beings from the beyond is among the highest of the Akatsuki. Coupled with Shigure's experience in working cohesively with your talents, I'm sure you will be able to assess and possibly eliminate this threat."

"Sounds easy enough," Shigure, a shorter Kunoichi said in a nonchalant manner. Strangely enough, a bubble seem to expand from her shadow endowed visage, popping a few seconds afterwards. "leave it to us, boss."

"Where do you suggest we look for him?" Akimai asked levelly.

"I currently have a Summon tailing him as we speak," Pain answered stoically, "he's heading Northwest, towards the Nara Clan Forest. I do not know his objective but it is quite possible he may encounter the Konoha resistance. Try and make sure that if alliance is possible between them, make sure it doesn't happen."

"Please," Sasuke's voice interrupted, his voice filled with lethal intent as he cast a glance towards Akimai, "do not get in my way. My quarry is with those still living of Konoha. If you get in between me and them, even on this mission, I won't hesitate to go through you to get to them."

"I doubt that you could, little Uchiha," Akimai responded coldly, her own gaze locking onto his from the distance within the cave. "likewise, if you get in between me and my objective, you will not leave unscathed."

"Now-Now," Madara's voice chided, his masked visage moving its gaze from one to the other, "no need to be so hostile. Try to understand if we try to destroy ourselves, what is to keep this world's current state of peace from unraveling?"

"Tch," Sasuke dismissed, turning his gaze away with a sharp bow to the left. "are we done here?"

"This meeting is concluded," Pain said with a nod, turning his gaze to encapture all the present Akatsuki members. "I'll keep you all appraised of the situation involving this apparition who's entered our world. Be ready to be called upon to deal with it, if he manages to evade Akimai and Shigure."

Soon, the rainbow silhouettes began to flicker out of form and substance. One by one they all disappeared, leaving the cave as empty as it was prior to their use of it. With Akatsuki on the move and a new kind of threat moving through their dominated world, what will become of the Shinobi lands?

A/N: And done! Wow, I'm quite impressed with how much substance I managed to place into this Opening Chapter. I hope the quality is on par with my other works I normally do, so please let me know if there is room for improvement or not ^^

So, first off, this is a Crossover Story (obviously, lol). I'm not usually one to read them myself or write them (my little bout of FF7/BLEACH didn't last too long) but this was a unique idea I had when talking with a friend. While this is going to be more or less a side project of mine, I shall be updating it at a infrequent pace, also depending upon the views and positive feedback I get on this story.

Secondly, this is a form of Ichigo I've taken some liberties in changing up, in terms of versatile abilities. While we never got established confirmation from Tite Kubo if Ichigo lost the ability to use Fullbring after he got it fused with his Shinigami powers, I am assuming he at least had some basic control over it in order to enhance his powers in the way he did prior to getting them changed (AGAIN! -.-). So for the sake of settling confusion, Ichigo's powers are all fused into a singular core type. Thanks to Fullbring, his Hollow Powers and Shinigami Powers are all one in the same. With additional training over a year since the end of the Fullbring Arc (one year after the end of the Anime, if you want to go by that train of logic), he's gained some skill involving Fullbring, using his martial arts (yeah, he has that. Remember that, Kubo?) and bettering his overall skill set so it isn't just a one track mind (as much as I love GT, I don't like power spamming, so this is what I'm coming up with. ^^)

Lastly, you're probably wondering WTF is up with the world of NARUTO I have constructed. I will be answering that more into detail in the next chapter, trust me, but I will disclose a little bit here. Naruto IS dead, and so are the five Kage. Land of Lightning, as is the Hidden Cloud Village, is annihilated and Konoha is all but a shell of its former self. I may give more descriptive details in the coming parts of the story (if I do, it will be in typical flashback fashion =w=) but don't expect to get the WHOLE story in one sitting.

Involving the Akatsuki ranking, I shall disclose all that has been revealed in this Chapter (in case you missed it): Pain, Konan, Madara, Kisame, Sasuke, Zetsu, Akimai, Shigure, ?

Okay, I think I've covered everything O-O

Please leave comments below detailing your thoughts about the story's start and what you'd like to see from it. Please try to leave argumentative topics and rants out of the Review section as I'd like more of a mature tone for these Reviews, rather than it become debased. So please again be mindful of what you say and what your commenting :)

Until then, I'll see you all in the next, Reap the Pain Chapter!

Extra Treats!: I got some translations listed below of the following techniques used in this chapter. Hope you enjoy seeing them for what they mean, especially those who don't use google to find all your answers XD

Katon, Gokakyu no Jutsu: Fire Release, Great Fireball Jutsu