Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach. Blah blah...

Chapter 9 - Genius:

Urahara Kisuke was a genius. He had known that since he was four years old.

It had not been a difficult conclusion to come to when the majority of people were so staggeringly stupid.

Oh, there were exceptions. Yoruichi had always been his superior in speed, and had achieved Bankai before him, making him spend a couple days creating an invention to achieve his own 3 days later. She was even better than him in Shunpo and few other choice techniques.

Tessai, his second childhood friend, had been his superior in reiatsu manipulation, and had spent more time and effort on understanding the art of kidō than Kisuke, at least the conventional aspects of it.

Other people that had also earned his respects over the years included Kurotsuchi Mayuri. Who, despite his complete lack of morals, had an ingenious approach to problem solving that sometimes managed to surprise him.

But none of them were truly his equal.

Kisuke was second in Shunpo ability only to Yoruichi. He was second in kidō only to Tessai, and even then he could sometimes outmaneuver the ex-kidō corps commander. His zanjutsu was the best among his generation, despite him only spending a fraction of his attention towards the art.

His inventions blew Kurotsuchi's out of the water, even though he had access to less resources and less time.

Despite being the third seat in Yoruchi's division for most of his Shinigami career, she had never been able to defeat him in a serious match. Kisuke's arsenal was simply too diverse, and he was too good at using them.

He had an eidetic memory, and an IQ score far above measurable ranges.

His mind worked differently to others. It worked faster, took different tracks to reach conclusions. It rarely disregarded even the smallest details when analyzing a situation.

He'd known he was different for a long time, and it took centuries for him to meet his equal.

Aizen Sousuke. The man that had ambushed him before he was even aware of the man's capabilities. Kisuke didn't know whether he would consider what Aizen did a good idea on his part or not. If Aizen had approached him directly with his motivations and plans, Kisuke wasn't certain he'd be able to resist the temptation to follow along.

What Aizen was trying to do was essentially to remake a part of the world to his own liking. Kisuke would be lying if he said such a prospect wasn't tempting.

But in the end, there could only be one King, and Aizen had recognized him as an obstacle. If not an opponent. Thus he'd been removed from the board, framed for a crime he didn't commit and exiled from his home.

Then he'd spent the next 100 years setting up the pieces for the game the two of them were destined to play one day.

Gathering allies in Soul Society and the Living World, creating, manipulating, and hiding the central pieces, the right information finding itself to the right ears. Events manipulated such that things would go in his favor.

It was a game of power and intellect. A game with the highest stakes and the grandest design. Aizen had gotten a head start, but Kisuke had gotten a century to catch up.

It hadn't been quite enough time in his opinion, Aizen's advantage wasn't so easily toppled, but as the Sealed King was only a few years away from release, this was the latest possible moment to act on their plans before everything became uncertain.

The game had to be played now. Before a third player entered the field and ruined everything.

Before he'd been exiled, his goal had been simple: Break the limits of Soul Reapers.

He needed to, if the Shinigami were to win against the Quincy King for their rematch. The only one that had been able to match a century old Yhwach 1000 years ago had been the Head Captain. A man that by all reasonable metrics was far stronger than a Soul Reaper had any right to become.

There were no records of anyone stronger born before or after the Captain Commander's birth 3000 years ago.

And he had almost lost to Yhwach. A Quincy born in the Living World

Both Urahara and Aizen had arrived at the same conclusion. When Yhwach emerged again, the current Gotei 13 wouldn't be able to stop him.

Thus, breaking the limit to a Soul Reapers growth was necessary.

Utilizing the inherent power to shift reality that lay within every soul, both of them had created gems of incredible power.

His own Hōgyoku was created from the fading soul of a Quincy, and a single newborn Hollow.

Broken down and rebuilt through carefully designed machinery and specially designed magic. The two souls had been recreated to be the perfect equal to each other, sat in opposition to one another within a sphere of highly concentrated reshi forming a crystal lattice.

The result…

A Soul Gem.

An artifact capable of realizing its users desires. It was not omnipotent, but what he had created was still a true wish granting device.

Aizen had created the same. Before Kisuke had, even. The older of the two gems had always been the most powerful, but Kisuke's version had been far more precise.

Aizen's Hōgyoku had been created based on thousands, if not millions of souls. Taken from Hollows, Shinigami, Quincy, normal Plus souls, even living humans. And probably more that Kisuke didn't know about.

This had made Souske's Soul Gem much stronger than Kisuke's version, but he had a harder time balancing these souls to create something that truly understood his wishes and could be controlled and directed in a useful way.

He'd clearly gotten some success from it. Being able to create Arrancar and Vizard, but it hadn't had the versatility and ease of use Kisuke's had.

Now he had both, and had no doubt fused them together to create a perfect Soul Gem, one equal to the vaunted Philosopher's Stone, if the data he'd gotten from the Shinobi Alliance and his own calculations were accurate.

As far as he knew, only the Heart of Atlantis would have been its superior within this World's history. And that one had been used by an entire civilization to make themselves a world power in an era where gods still walked the earth freely.

When it had broken, it had almost erased Atlantis from history entirely. The only reason he knew about it was the data he'd gotten from Naruto's main soul piece. Information Ori had been very reluctant to give up.

He'd given Aizen access to a terribly potent weapon.

Then again, that had been the plan.

So far, things had mostly played out as he'd envisioned it.

The only exception had been the 'hired help', as it were.

Naruto and his allies had involved themselves with this affair to a far greater extent than he'd anticipated or thought them capable of.

Through Naruto he had met a man named Minato Namikaze. A person Kisuke suspected had an intellect rivaling his own.

Of course, intelligence was difficult to measure like this, but if one defined it as the 'ability to solve problems with equal amounts of influence over events', then Minato was his and Aizen's equal. At least according to the readings of memories in Minato's blood that his computer had done.

Psychometry. What a wonderful technique. Kisuke couldn't believe he'd been without it for so long. So many problems would have been easier with such a tool at his disposal.

And how the world had opened up for him. Just the first weeks of interactions with Naruto had revealed more of the world to him than he'd been able to figure out in centuries. The gods were not dead, as the Shinigami had long thought. They were hiding.

The divine pantheons of the world had declared the Living World off limits, so as to keep from ruining it entirely.

Wars fought between gods was not something Earth was capable of surviving. The fact that it had done so once before was a small miracle. Though humanity had still nearly been wiped out.

Kisuke now had access to an entirely new world history. Books on subjects he didn't even know existed. A body of knowledge beyond anything he could have hoped for.

He had no doubt the Zero Division already knew everything that was so new to him, and a large part of him resented them for that, but he could see the necessity.

With just the knowledge and abilities available to the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. Aizen is -or would have been- capable of bringing the entire realm to its knees.

Kisuke had no doubt that with the greater body of knowledge he now had access to, Aizen could become a much greater threat.

According to the new history he had access to, people like Aizen, Minato, and himself was not unheard of in the world. Though extremely rare, they did crop up from time to time. Super geniuses that seemed to demolish any previous records with ease.

Giving them all access to what Kisuke now had available would have been too dangerous.

A beep from his monitoring station had him shift his attention away from his internal monologue and the endless array of bug fixes his new project had to go through.

He only sent it a vague glance before using Flash Step to arrive at the specified location.

On his way there he crashed into three walls, and through a shoji door before he arrived at the entrance to his basement.

Jumping down, he felt himself drifting off to sleep during the short fall. Crashing into the ground woke him up again, and he hobbled over to the gates that acted as his artificial Garganta anchor, trying to work the kinks out of his back.

The portal opened and four 'people' jumped out. Three Hollows and a clone of Minato.

Kisuke's eyes momentarily shifted to the small child's broken mask, his fingers itching to put her in a scanner or two.

God, he had too many projects, too many plans. There was so much going on. He needed a new time dilation chamber already. His old one had broken, and he hadn't had the resources to build a new one, nor had he had the need for one in centuries.

"Minato, it's good to see you! Why don't you introduce us?" Kisuke said, trying to hide how tired he truly was at the moment.

Minato studied him silently for a moment, then nodded. "Sure. This here is Pesche Guatiche, Dondochakka Bristanne, and Nel Tu." We met them in Hueco Mundo, and they seemed to be a bit bored. We offered to take them in, can you watch over them for us, it'll only be for a few days?"

That was what the blonde said, but Kisuke immediately understood that he was actually being given the opportunity to study the Arrancars more. His brief examination of Yammy had yielded a treasure trove of data. Information he still hadn't finished examining yet.

"With pleasure." Urahara nodded to his fellow blond. He noticed Nel hiding shyly behind Minato's leg and couldn't help but marvel at the bizarre sight of a Hollow with the personality of a child. How had she even survived?

No. Questions for later. For now, he had to get his guests new accommodations.

He called for Ururu and had her show the Arrancar around and find a good place for them, confident in the little girl's ability to handle herself should they become aggressive. None of the three had reserves comparable to Ururu's, and they didn't handle themselves like warriors.

It made their existence even more bizarre.

"So, how's the search going so far?" Urahara asked.

Minato smiled. "Fine for now, it shouldn't be long until-"

That was as far he came before the clone burst into a cloud of white smoke.

Kisuke stood there for half a second, briefly wondering if Minato had made some sort of mistake.

To even be able to sustain an extension of his soul across dimensions was incredibly impressive. So it shouldn't be a surprise if the connection was too much for him.

Or that was what would have been true for anyone but Minato. As Urahara had already established, the man's intellect and abilities rivaled his own, except for the fact that the other blond has had ten times more time to cultivate his abilities than Kisuke.

There was no way such a blunder was because of a mistake.

Twisting his arms in a familiar gesture, Kisuke activated a Kidō spell he hadn't used in ages. Space twists upon itself, and the green clad shopkeeper grabed the shogi piece Minato had given him before they left.

His own newly designed Kidō spell flows into the piece and follows the connection it contained to its creator.

White noise.

The connection couldn't reach its destination.

Kisuke held back a curse and began modifying his spell on the fly, getting a feel for the distortion field around Minato and co.

After ten seconds, he was confident he had located the center.

He briefly regrets having sent both Tessai and Yoruichi away, he really wasn't in proper shape to attempt something as strenuous as what he was planning to do right now.

He really should have listened to his ex-captain.

When this is over, he'll go to bed.

Minato Namikaze

Minato flew through the quantum substrate of reality, barely slowed by the differences between this reality and Gaia's default state.

This was something he had practiced an uncountable amount of times. A change in terrain wasn't going to trip him up that easily.

The Flying Thunder God technique was, in his opinion, the single greatest technique invented by the Second Hokage.

Some may argue it was the Edo Tensei, or the Shadow Clone Technique, but Minato had always favored the Hiraishin.

Back during the Era of Shinobi, there were more than one method of teleportation. Summoning techniques, mainly. But also more obscure techniques like time manipulation that wasn't quite teleportation, but accomplished basically the same thing. Or techniques that twisting reality to such a degree that the World could no longer distinguish between what's real and what was an illusion.

But the Hiraishin was the fastest among them all. Unlike summoning, which bent space-time to make two locations equal, or the Ōtsutsuki clan's Yomotsu Hirasaka, which created a bridge between two different spaces and compressed that bridge to almost nothing in 3D space, or the Mangekyo Sharingan technique Kamui, which moved through four dimensions, and cut a whole through space-time to access a preexisting pocket dimension, the Hiraishin worked differently.

The Flying Thunder God technique works thanks to the uncertainty principle; the quantum phenomenon that states that the fundamental building blocks of matter is never in a single spot. Rather, they exist as wave functions. At any point in their existence, there is a chance, however minute, that the electrons and quarks that made up all matter was actually on the other side of the universe than what the models say they should be.

The second's jutsu, unbeknownst to Tobirama, or Minato in his youth, essentially worked by convincing the World that the particles that comprised their bodies weren't here, they were over there.

And so they were.

What all of these methods had in common was that they would allow the user to travel faster than the speed of light, a hardcoded limit on the mundane side of reality.

This should have made them all instant, or to be more exact, take negative time.

That wasn't quite how it worked out however. Time was a strange construct, and causality was not so easily broken.

Linear time within their universe may be broken by some of these techniques, but the acausal, multiversal constant, was unmoved.

Among all these techniques, the Hiraishin was the only one that could truly be called instant.

Measure time with a perspective from within the universe, and every form of teleportation, once initialized, took at least some time to work. Even summoning. There was a few very short lived instances where the two spaces existed side by side, but wasn't yet one. The two places themselves had to be moved through space.

Hiraiashin didn't have that problem. It was truly instant.

It worked as quickly as a planck second. As fast as the universe can register something doing anything.

Instant teleportation, from one place to another. The only requirements was a marker to have something to aim towards, and quite a bit of math in order to specify where exactly one wanted to teleport to, and how one wanted to arrive.

The markers were only that, something to aim for. The user had to do everything else themselves.

It could be set up beforehand, thankfully. All the calculations could be done before the battle even started, or the technique was required. But if the user was limited to just that, they would be limited in how quickly they could accomplish an unscheduled teleport, or how often it could be performed.

Minato had learned to use the Hiraishin at 17. He had been able to figure out all the necessary calculations for an emergency split second teleport when he was 19.

By now, 5000 years later. Minato had permanent cognitive enhancement techniques.

His thoughts ran more on chakra than the neurons in his brain. His thoughts were removed from the normal flow of time within the universe, halfway out of phase of reality, where he essentially had all the time he needed in order to calculate exactly where and how he wanted to appear in one place.

Then, during the nonexistent interval that almost everyone else within the universe had to adhere to, Minato observed, calculated, and activated the technique. Then he did it again, and again, and again, and again.

Within the nonexistent time between instants, Minato thought and planned.

In the next instant, he existed within the world, his body having simultaneously appeared at every point he had specified.

Instead of moving from there, he used the same jutsu to shift his body's position in space and in relation to himself. Appearing to anyone capable of perceiving time at these speeds like a buggy video game character. Capable of simply being in the positions he needed to be in order to avoid damage or to attack his adversary.

If one of his bodies were destroyed, it hardly mattered. All his bodies were the same body, reality simply hadn't caught up to him and decided which one was the real one yet. The universe hadn't been given the chance to decide where the particles in his body actually was, and so he existed in a superposition of simply being everywhere. If he made a mistake, and one of his bodies were destroyed, then he simply erased that possibility.

When the World caught up to what had happened, it wouldn't even know there had ever been one of him there. Only the aftereffects of his actions would be known. An effect without a cause.

Only he would ever know what happened. He and the Akashic Records, of course.

This ability was the only reason he wasn't immediately destroyed when faced with a battle against Souske Aizen upon foregin soil. Here, the majority of his power was inaccessible to him. As was the case for Naruto and any other being considered too dangerous to walk unrestricted upon the face of the Earth.

Hueco Mundo was not Earth, but that did not make his restrictions any lighter. The limits placed upon them by the Treaty was there not just to spare Gaia the collateral of fights by beings on his level, but also to keep new wars from breaking out. Invading other realms was a very hard thing to do. It was good that the Hollow's realm did not have an acknowledged ruler, or Minato's group may very well have been forbidden entrance at all.

The only places he could go all out was within the Elemental Realms, and the places Ori had supreme authority over.

That meant he couldn't defeat Aizen here. The man was simply too strong. His body was too resistant to damage for Minato to truly damage him.

Itachi might have been able to with the Totsuka Blade, or maybe even damage him with Amaterasu's flames, but he was the only one amongst them with that capability, and Itachi was far far too slow to ever be able to hit Aizen.

And with Gara as their enemy, reborn as a millenia old Arrancar, within the dessert of Hueco Mundo, they were fighting the world itself.

Itachi could keep him at bay with one of Sunsano's complete armors, and Gara's strongest attacks could be blocked with the Yamato Mirror, but with the very world against him, Itachi had no opportunities to hit back.

Starrk was little different. Spectral wolves ran alongside him as he danced between Gin's sword stabs and fired a series of cero's blasts back at his opponent.

Starrk could damage Gin, but he wasn't quite fast enough to get a hit in before he had to dodge another attack from Gin's absurdly long sword. It was still their best chance however. If Starrk could win his match, then he could team up with Itachi to pincer Gara between them.

Minato still had trouble actually finding a way for them to win from that, but it would still allow them to drag the confrontation out.

Getting into an endurance match with Gara was probably not the best idea, but Minato couldn't see any better path to victory.

Then the thing Minato had been hoping for happened.

The barrier around them shattered.

Space-time was once again unrestricted.

Within the next instant, Minato appeared beside both his companions. The next instant, all three were a kilometer to the East of their previous positions.

The next instant after that, Minato burned through all his energy and used a part of his own soul as fuel to cross the distance between dimensions.

He released Itachi and Starrk into the mission debriefing office within one of the offshoots of the Shinju, then he felt himself being pulled into a separate dimension and being submerged within a pool of healing chakra.

Minato's eyes closed, and everything went black.

Urahara Kisuke

Kisuke breathed heavily, his reiryoku sputtered. His energy levels were dipping dangerously low.

"Sloppy. You are better than this." Benihime admonished him

The ex-captain didn't bother answering, instead checking up on his Garganta gate.

Ruined.

He'd channeled almost all of his reiatsu through it in an attempt to break through whatever interference was keeping Minato and his team isolated from the world.

It had worked, but the prototype Garganta gate was destroyed, having channeled the entirety of a Shinigami Captain's reiatsu had been too much for it.

Kisuke felt his eyelids slide shut, but he forced them up again. Not here. He had to get back to his room.

He got to the ladder and felt a moment of vertigo. Normally, he just Flash Stepped to the top, the ladder was mostly for Jinta, Ururu and the occasional guest.

Now though…

He didn't have enough reiatsu to use Shunpo, and he was seriously wondering if he'd even be able to scale the ladder with how exhausted he was.

Kisuke gritted his teeth and began climbing. Every other step, he had to take a break as the world around him blackened. Every time, the call to unconsciousness became stronger and stronger.

Eventually, he wasn't able to keep it at bay, and he felt his grip on the ladder slip.

His body tipped backwards, and Kisuke felt the familiar feeling of freefall overtake him.

Then he stopped, a pair of strong arms supporting him as he halted in midair.

"Geez, I told you to take it easy Kisuke. How long have you been awake now? Two weeks?" Yoruichi's voice reached him

The blond shopkeeper let his head loll backwards. "Good… to see you too. I think I'll take a nap now."

Himawari Uzumaki

Himawari shivered as another nightmare replaced the old one, her mind struggling to comprehend what it was seeing.

Her body shivered and a small cry made its way out of her mouth.

Then she awoke as a warm hand shook her awake.

Himawari gasped, sitting straight upright and almost colliding with her brother's forehead.

"Easy." Boruto said, sliding a hand over her back and making her muscles relax with controlled pulses of medical chakra.

"It can't- it can't be true. He can't have-"

Boruto's eyes shadowed over, and for a moment Himawari could feel the endless power lurking within the tiny mortal frame containing her brother's soul.

It was more power than she knew of in anyone, save one, she now remembered. Enough power to shatter the world and rebuild it in his image if he was allowed to use it.

"Dad is not as nice as he likes to pretend." Her brother confirmed, and Himawari shivered at the tone in his voice.

She winced as another set of memories entered her skull. Another century. Another history. Another life.

"Why?" She whimpered, clutching at her brother's shirt as her body shook.

"Cowardice." Was her brother's answer.

Ichigo

Ichigo swung his two swords around as fast as he could manage, releasing a constant stream of reiatsu from each one.

The result was a massive hurricane of power created through the Getsuga Tenshou. Blue energy absorbed from the surrounding reshi and wrangled into submission by his Quincy Spirit had made the process of creating it much less taxing than it might otherwise have been.

Feeling his Hollow side stirring again, he reached out towards that elusive power.

Grasping it with his left hand, he let one of his cleavers vanish into nothing before he dragged his hand across his face.

As a white mask with red stripes formed over his face, he felt the oppressive power of his Hollow settle upon his shoulders like a cloak made of lead.

His body ached, but that was nothing he wasn't used to, so Ichigo ignored the feeling and burst out of his own tornado. His reiatsu shifted from its normal blue to the black/red that signified his Hollow/Zanpakuto side.

Kensei met him on the other side, holding back Ichigo's cleaver blade with his own trench knife. He gave a grunt of effort trying to keep up.

Ichigo dug deeper, calling up every scrap of power he had. He recalled the lessons from Urahara and Naruto from what seemed like years ago. He recalled his battle with Kenpachi and Byakuya and tried his damndest to bring out as much strength as he could manage.

Kensei's eyes widened as Ichigo sent the man flying with a burst of power.

The ex-shinigami flipped uncontrollably through the air before crashing through a bunch of rocks, then passing through those to crash into the kidō barrier Hachigen had put up.

"Damn it, Ichigo." Kensei said as he pushed himself up, bending backwards to relieve the pain in his back. "You don't hold back do you?"

Ichigo breathed slowly, trying with all his power to keep his Hollow mask from dissipating.

It was to no avail. The elusive reiatsu slipped through his fingers despite all his attempts to keep ahold of it.

The moment the mask disappeared, Ichigo sagged, feeling the strain of its use on his already worn out body. Despite that, he soon straightened back into a proper combat stance. "It's not real training if you're not pushing yourself."

Shinji laughed. "Never taught you of all people would be lectured about training, eh Kensei?"

The unofficial leader of the Visored was the only other person down here with Ichigo and Kensei, the others had long since gone upstairs after the spectacle of Ichigo subduing his Hollow was over.

The white haired Vizard cracked his neck and spat out some blood before settling into a proper one handed knife stance. "Heh, you've got me there. Guess I'll have to take this up a notch."

Ichigo tensed, preparing himself for the counterattack.

He wasn't disappointed, a moment later Kensei had manifested his own Hollow mask. Completely white and reminiscent of a hockey mask. His reiatsu skyrocketed, and Ichigo barely had time to twist his sword into position before his opponent was upon him. The combat knife that was the man's Zanpakuto in Shikai form swiped left and right, moving far too quickly for Ichigo's massive sword to keep up with.

In the span of a few seconds, the orange-haired teen was littered with painful cuts, that plus his exhaustion and all the wounds still not healed from his previous exchanges left him flagging. His strength draining away from him every second..

Like before, he manifested his second blade and used both to do a 360 degree Getsuga, creating some distance from his opponent.

Unlike the other times however, Kensei wasn't blown back. Instead he weathered the assault, using his Hollow enhanced reiatsu to tank the blow head on.

He burst forward the moment it ended, and Ichigo was pretty much immediately overpowered.

It was hard enough keeping up with Kensei with one sword, but he had never been trained in dual wielding, and his shkai blade was not the type of blade one used one handed. If it wasn't for his superhuman strength in soul form, it wouldn't even have been possible to begin with.

Both his blades were completely identical save their colouring, and using them both in an actual zanjutsu bout was folly. The only thing it was good for (in Shikai) was to enhance his signature attack with a second energy stream.

A kick to his torso made Ichigo think he'd broken a few ribs before he was sent flying away.

Icihigo felt rock break beneath his body, and forced himself to get back on his feet even as everything ached.

"Blow it away, Tachikaze." Came the words, as Kensei activated his Shikai for the second time this sparring session.

The column of wind overtook him and slammed him into yet another rock formation.

Ichigo felt like his body was being crushed between the raging winds and the rock behind him before the hard granite finally gave way and he was sent spinning through the air, much like he'd just done to Kensei.

He landed on his back. His head was light and spinning, and his reiryoku reserves was severely depleted. Ichigo lay there for about half a second, wondering if he'd even be able to stand after that.

His Hollow side twinged, and Ichigo grit his teeth before staggering back to two feet. Deciding to give one last hurrah before he passed out, he manifested his own Hollow mask before letting his new reiatsu nature sweep through his body and heal his more serious injuries. He didn't have the energy to spare for the lesser ones.

Bringing a single sword up above his head, he let his energy infuse it.

He reabsorbed most of the energy that had been tossed around the battlefield so far, using his Quincy heritage to enhance his he put nearly all his newly regained Hollow energy and infused that with the technique too.

Zangetsu began to vibrate, the power in the blade such that a fountain of blue/black/red rose from it. The light of power rose all the way to the top of the training ground, brushing against Hachigen's barrier.

Kensei stopped his forward charge and simply stared at the beam of power. His mask dissolved to show a gaping face beneath it. Much like how Shinji was acting back by the audience stands.

"Getsuga-" Ichigo began, putting all his power and heart into the attack, exactly the way he'd been taught to do. Without Ichigo noticing, the three colors swirled together until they all combined to form a pitch black, so deep that it absorbed all the light that touched it. The flames descended down the teen's arm, crushing his muscles and bones to paste beneath the weight of its reiatsu even as his Hollow nature healed them and his Quincy spirit allowed him to use the arm anyways. "-Tenshou!"

"Kensei!" Shinji shouted, his voice tinged with panic.

The beam of power fell towards the earth. A black wave so oppressive it was as if the void had invaded reality. Where the attack hit the earth, the rock disintegrated without even the slightest bit of resistance, denied existence by an authority far higher than itself.

The black energy washed against the bottom of Hachi's barrier and crashed against the walls almost a kilometer distant.

The barrier cracked, threatening to give away, but Ichigo bent the beam away before his attack could fully break through.

The Getsuga dissipated, its residue filling the entire training ground. The reiatsu from the attack lingered, scattering as small pockets of pitch energy twisted around in the air, looking almost like cloth before it all dissolved into nothingness.

Ichigo blinked as he realized what he was seeing.

The training field had been carved in two, large amounts of its mass had simply been erased. No atom touched by the black energy remained.

Stone crumbled as the two sides of the training field collapsed towards each other, the ground quaking in the aftermath.

Beside the newly formed trench stood Kensei, Ichigo having missed him on purpose much like he'd done the first time he'd used that technique against Urahara.

"That- was a bit stronger than I'd meant it to be… Sorry." Ichigo said as his Hollow mask dissipated into thin air.

Then he fell face first into the dirt, out like a light. Having spent the last of his energy in that attack.

Tatsuki Aisawa

Tatsuki panted, her body ached, her head pounded, her soul was exhausted.

This was, without a doubt, the hardest training she'd ever undergone.

The Tower of Babel was massive.

Larger than any skyscraper she'd ever heard of. She'd passed by the first cloud layer yesterday, and there was still no sign of the top.

Master Shen had been the arbiter of the first floor. From him she'd learned more about hand to hand fighting than all the Karate training she'd done in her entire life thus far.

It hadn't even taken that long. She'd found herself having no problem remembering every little detail he said or moving her body exactly like he wanted her to move. Sometimes, she didn't even need more than a simple demonstration of a move before Shen declared her 'adequate' with it and moved on to another one.

They'd trained in four different 'taijutsu styles' as he had called them. One for physically overpowering her opponent, both in offense and attack. One for redirecting an opponent's moves both to hurt them and to protect herself. One for evading all attacks and only striking back when the opportunity presented itself.

The last was a style centered around pressure points, and chakra infusions to lay out an opponent non-lethally. That one they'd barely spent more than 20 minutes on. It wasn't that such a style was useless, rather that it was primarily meant for crowd control, and for taking down opponents weaker than herself.

Something she wouldn't need much in the coming battles. He'd promised to come back later and finish her education when she had more time, and Tatsuki honestly looked forward to it.

All her new styles was centered around utilizing chakra, and each had their fair share of superhuman moves. The first and third more than the second, but none of those styles were ones that could be used effectively by normal humans.

It was a good thing that she wasn't normal any more.

Her chakra was wonderful. A part of herself that had always been there, but that she only now could utilize and move. It allowed her to run faster, hit harder, move more precisely. It tremendously increased her kinesthetic sense and the control she had over her own body.

It allowed her to think faster, react at superhuman levels, and sense danger through the faint emanations of killing intent almost any creature had when they were about to attack someone, giving her a sort of 'sixth sense' to danger, a sense that grew better and better the more she used it.

Without chakra, passing Chen's examination would have been impossible. And that wasn't even mentioning the following floors.

Every floor had another challenge for her.

Either it was an enemy to defeat, ranging from humanoid, to animals, to monstrous. Some she was expected to defeat outright, some she only needed to impress enough that they allowed her to pass. And some gave puzzles in the form of battles she had to figure out while being attacked before they'd allow her to pass on to the next floor.

The challenge could also be an obstacle course, in one insane form or another.

At one point she had to jump through a series of portals and floating rocks to not fall into a literal lake of lava. She knew she'd probably be rescued before actually falling in, but feeling the intense heat coming from the ground was certainly good motivation not to fall in.

She'd gone through reaction speed exercises, tactical training regimes not unlike ones she knew the army was using, and even strategic battle simulations that would have been classified as games if it wasn't for how brutally realistic they were.

The main reason the tower pushed her so wasn't the tasks however. No, it was the environment itself. For every floor she ascended, the air became a little more oppressive, the energy in the air a little thicker. Sometimes it would switch its nature from hot to cold, from chakra to reiatsu, or to things she didn't recognize. Sometimes the air was too light, or too heavy, sometimes it felt as if the entire world wanted to kill her, and sometimes it felt like the entire world ignored her completely.

She wasn't certain which of the two she disliked the most.

For every increase in floor level, the atmosphere became more and more oppressive, pushing down on her body, mind, and soul.

After the 24th floor, she had to take breaks every fourth floor or so, just to allow herself to acclimate to the environment.

After the 46th floor, she had to stop every time she entered a new one to allow herself to become accustomed to the energy pressing down on her before attempting the floor's challenge.

Her backpack had an endless supply of water and delicious food, each gulp or bite filled her with a warmth she had begun to associate with Naruto's chakra.

There was also a sleeping bag and tent there. And she was certain it had been enhanced in some way. For one, it was the most comfortable sleeping bag she'd ever slept in. Far superior to even her own bed. She rarely needed more than 4 hours of sleep when she slept it, awakening each time fully rested.

And the tent blocked out almost all sound from the outside, only letting through a gentle breeze that wafted over her and prevented the inside from becoming too hot or too cold.

There was a shower ready for her every five floors, and she could only use a particular shower twice. A motivation to make her go at least 5 levels per day. Something that had been relatively easy in the earlier levels, but had become a grueling challenge the farther up she went.

At least she could backtrack if she needed to use one she hadn't used before. Though she had to redo the challenges on her way up, they weren't very challenging the second time. She already knew how to win after all, and she was stronger.

Way stronger.

Her abilities was increasing at an absurd pace.

When she began her climb up this tower, she had been a completely normal human capabilities wise, albeit a junior Karate champion.

Now she could hit cement trucks through walls, run faster than race cars, move faster than the human eye could track in small bursts, balance on the tip of her pinky finger. React to a bullet already in motion. Either to dodge, or block. Both of which she was also capable of.

She had been tossed into an earthen floor hard enough to leave a crater, and had cut through a steel platform with a borrowed sword.

She could bend steel with her bare hands, and kick harder than a speeding truck.

Tatsuki loved it.

The strength she felt within her limbs gave her a feeling she could only describe as euphoria. With every floor she ascended, the more capable she became, and the more she was able to do.

If she fought a lightning user, whatever shape or species, she could feel how they channeled their energy. A bit of experimentation later, and she was able to mimic it to a lesser extent, which through practice increased her abilities tremendously, just like everything else about her in this tower.

The same applied to fire, water, wind and earth abilities. It applied to creatures using ice, lava, living wood, crystal, and any other element she could imagine. If she could feel how it was done, it only took a bit of practice for her to replicate the basics.

She had never felt particularly smart before, but now she felt like a goddamn genius.

Adrenaline sang in her blood, chakra rushed through her being, her smile was threatening to break her face in two.

These powers were amazing, and she couldn't get enough of them.