A while later, Naruto regrouped with the others, and after Yoruichi finished scolding Ichigo for making a move too quickly, she started speaking to the rest of the group.
"Well, that didn't work out. It's rather unlucky that the first person we met was actually a Captain. If it had been a lower-ranked Shinigami, we could have just knocked them out."
While everyone nodded their heads, Naruto couldn't help but frown as he suspected that Gin didn't appear in front of them out of coincidence. However, there was no point in informing the other's about that, as he had no proper evidence, so he decided to continue listening to Yoruichi instead.
"Since there is a gate rather close where Yuna invaded the city, we could try going in from there, but I don't think that will work out. So, instead of using paths that are already there, we'll create our own point of entry."
Yet again, everyone nodded their heads as Yoruichi turned around and started walking toward a nearby village, the rest of the group following closely behind. Since Yoruichi seemed to know what to do, everyone easily followed her.
A while later, the group entered a small wooden house, where they met an old man drinking tea. Apparently, Yoruichi knew the old man, and after a short moment of chatting, she asked the whereabouts of someone called Kukaku Shiba.
While Yoruichi was chatting with the old man, the door burst open, followed by a man holding reins sliding into the room face first.
*Clap**Clap**Clap*
"Nice entry. At least an eight out of ten."
While Tatsuki lightly hit the back of Naruto's head for making fun of a stranger, said stranger got up from the ground and immediately glared at Naruto. The moment he saw Naruto's clothes, his glare intensified even further.
"What's a shitty Shinigami doing here?"
"Mah, pretty sure that's none of your business."
"What did you say!?"
As soon as Naruto dismissed the man's question, he became angry and closed in on Naruto, causing him to roll his eyes. He had fought in a war before and fought the strongest of the strongest, so cheap thug methods like this obviously couldn't intimidate him.
"Geez, are you seriously trying to pick a fight over a little bit of teasing? What are you? Five?"
"Like I give a shit about your words? I'm picking a fight because you are a Shinigami."
Since the man clearly wanted to escalate the situation, the old man Yoruichi was previously speaking to spoke up.
"Ganju, calm down. That Shinigami isn't a bad person."
Although the old man didn't have much of a conversation with Naruto yet, Naruto's polite attitude and kind smile immediately won the old man over. Unfortunately, Ganju couldn't care less about the old man's words and reeled his fist back.
"Pah, he's a Shinigami, so he obviously is a bad person. There are no good Shinigami."
"That's quite racist~"
As those words left Naruto's mouth, he chuckled in amusement, and before Ganju could understand what was going on, he was spinning through the air and crashlanded on the ground. The moment Ganju landed, Naruto's gaze moved away from him and landed on Tatsuki, who was currently holding her chin deep in thought.
"Well, how was that?"
"Mhh, the technique was a little rough, but that was a pretty good throw."
Hearing that Tatsuki gave her approval, Naruto happily nodded his head with a smile on his face. However, that smile quickly turned into a smirk as he gave Tatsuki a dirty look.
"Hehe, how about a little kiss as a reward~"
A light blush appeared on Tatsuki's face as she suppressed the desire to hit Naruto, causing him to chuckle in amusement while the other people in the room only rolled their eyes.
[You are slowly reaching Yuna levels of shamelessness.]
'Sorry, Kurama, that is an apex that can not be reached.'
[I guess that's true.]
While Naruto was flirting with Tatsuki and chatting with Kurama, Ganju got up from the ground and looked at Naruto in confusion. He had not the slightest clue what had just happened, making him wary of Naruto.
However, before he could do anything else, another man burst into the room, and after frantically looking around, he found Ganju and started speaking.
"Boss, it's bad! It's already nine o'clock."
"What!? Shit, I have to go!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he whistled loudly with the help of his hand, resulting in a big boar bursting into the room. He quickly sat down and rode away, and as he was doing so, he turned around to Naruto and said a few last words.
"You better don't run away! I'll get you the next time!"
Seeing the bizarre scene of a man riding away on a boar, Naruto really didn't know what he should say, while the other people in the room were somewhat dumbfounded as well.
"The hell? Who tells some not to run away while riding a boar into the sunset? Is that some kind of weird flag?"
[Do I smell a genre change?]
'Sorry, still into women.'
[Are you sure? Imagine a nacked, hairy man. Any reactions?]
'Yeah, a shudder of disgust, and why are you even talking about stuff like that?'
[Hey, are you the only one allowed to talk shit to mess with somebody?]
'... Okay, fair enough.'
Anyway, the old man apparently knew the approximate location of the person Yoruichi was looking for, so the group quickly traveled to their destination, and around an hour later, they arrived at... something.
"Who builds their house like this?"
"No idea, Tatsuki, but now we at least know why they don't live with the other villagers."
"Yeah, there is no way they could accept such a weird building in the village, Naruto."
"Ohh, this time, it's two hands holding the banner~"
Hearing Yoruchi's words, everyone's heads snapped towards her in bewilderment, with everyone having the same question in their minds.
' ' ' ' ' 'The theme changes!?' ' ' ' ' '
In front of them was a normal-looking wooden house with a ridiculously high chimney on its roof. So far, things weren't too weird. However, right in front of the house, two huge stone arms grew out of the ground, holding a huge banner that had "Kukaku Shiba" written on it, dumbfounding everyone except for Yoruichi, who apparently was used to that kind of sight.
Before they could go any further, two burly men appeared in front of them, stopping them just before they could walk underneath the banner.
"You are wearing unusual clothing, and two of you are even Shinigami."
"Bunch of suspicious people, you better go away, or we'll kill you."
While Naruto was clenching his fists, preparing to try a few more of the karate moves Tatsuki had shown him, Yoruichi jumped on his shoulder, instantly changing the atmosphere.
"Oh? So it was Yoruichi-dono!"
"We apologize for the rude behavior!"
Apparently, Yoruichi knew these two, ending the fight before it could even happen, and moments later, their group walked through the house's door, which immediately led to a set of stairs going down.
"Don't worry about it. Since you didn't see me at first, it can't be helped."
Moments later, one of the men started guiding Naruto's group down the stairs, and after walking for a minute, they arrived in front of a door.
"Please wait here for a moment. I will..."
"Koganehiko, no need for them to wait. Interesting guests like that are always welcome. Let them in."
"Eh? Ah, yes!"
Moments later, the man, who apparently was called Koganehiko, opened the door, revealing a busty, one-armed woman with black hair.
"Yo, Yoruichi, it's been a while."
Due to the woman revealing clothes that almost had her breasts spilling out, Tatsuki moved as soon as she saw her and covered Naruto's eyes, causing him to chuckle in amusement, while everyone else was bewildered that Kukaku Shiba apparently was a woman.
"You do realize that you can't cover my eyes the whole time we are here, right? At some point, I will have to look at her."
A massive pout appeared on Tatsuki's face, but she nevertheless removed her hand from Naruto's eye.
While that duo was in their own world, Yoruichi had started talking to Kukaku, asking her for a favor which she easily granted, stating she liked dealing with troublesome favors.
As the duo finished their discussion, Kukaku's gaze landed on the rest of the group, causing her to frown.
"Although I trust you, Yoruichi, I don't trust the brats behind you, so you don't mind if I send an additional helper with them, do you?"
After getting Yoruichi's confirmation, a door opened, revealing the man who had previously picked a fight with Naruto.
"Hello, my name is Ganju Shiba nic... AH, IT'S YOU!"
He was just about to give a friendly greeting when he noticed Naruto, immediately causing him to start yelling as he approached Naruto.
"You bastard, let me beat you up!"
"I would rather not."
Yet again, before he could understand the situation, Ganju was flying through the air before crashing to the floor.
Naruto's gaze briefly landed on Tatsuki, who gave him a thumbs-up, resulting in a goofy smile appearing on Naruto's face.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!!!"
"Could you stop with your one-sided infatuation?"
"DON'T SAY IT LIKE THAT!!!"
Ganju was just about to attack again when a fist smashed onto his head, yet again sending him to the ground.
"STOP THIS NONSENSE!!!"
Kukaku, who was the one who just beat down Ganju, gave his twitching body another glare before her gaze landed on Naruto.
"What's this all about?"
Feeling the seething glare of Kukaku on her, Naruto only smiled lightly while shrugging his shoulders.
"We met before, and he attacked me because I'm a Shinigami, so I had to teach him a lesson and send him flying."
"So this is pretty much 100% Ganju's fault."
Seeing everyone, even Yoruichi nodding their heads, Kukaku went over to Ganju's twitching body and gave it another kick, sending him flying into a wall.
"Stupid idiot. Why is he going around provoking Shinigami? Does he want to die? We can solve this matter later; for now: follow me."
Shortly after this little incident, Kukaku revealed that she was a fireworks expert and showed everyone a massive canon. Apparently, Yoruichi's idea to get into Seireitei through the air dumbfounded everyone present.
However, seeing the huge canon, Naruto couldn't help but smirk as he started speaking.
"I would say you are compensating for something with this huge thing, but that joke would fall rather flat considering you're a woman."
Hearing Naruto's words, Kukaku laughed loudly while slapping Naruto's back.
"Hahaha, you are quite the cheeky brat, aren't you?"
"Hehe, out of curiosity, what's the survival rate?"
"Around 50%."
"Ohh? That's not too bad."
"""""HOW IS THAT NOT BAD!?"""""
Naturally, everyone was outraged by Naruto and Kukaku's outrageous conversation, not seeing 50% as a good survival rate.
Seeing everyone's outrage, Kukaku couldn't help but start laughing even harder. Obviously, she was joking, but she didn't expect Naruto to play into her joke, creating an even stronger reaction.
"Anyway, jokes aside. This is what you will need not to get blasted to smithereens during launch and landing."
As she finished talking, she tossed a ball at Naruto, which he easily caught, looking at it with interest.
"This is a Spirit Core you just..."
Before Kukaku finished speaking, a blinding light came from Naruto'S direction before immediately fading away, leaving Naruto surrounded by a spherical dome of light.
"Sorry about that; I wasn't expecting that I would have to put that little Spiritual Power in for it to activate."
Seeing Naruto instantly activate the Spirit Core properly, Kukaku nodded in approval while she explained that that would be the canon ball. Additionally, she explained that Seireitei was surrounded by a barrier as well, and they would need the Spirit Core to break through that one as well.
However, a problem popped up at this point. While Naruto, Tatsuki, and Orihime easily mastered how to use the Spiritual Core, Ishida and Sado initially had some problems with the stability and the form of the sphere but got that fixed rather fast as well. So, the real problem was Ichigo, who didn't know how to use his Spiritual Power at all.
"Why can you do it so easily, Naruto? Didn't you become a Shinigami after me?"
"That might be the case, but I've been training how to use Spiritual Power for a very long time now and didn't start doing so after becoming a Shinigami."
Hearing Naruto's answer, Ichigo clicked his tongue in annoyance as his focus went back on the sphere he was holding while trying to somehow force his SPiritual Power in. Seeing Ichigo fumbling around with no plan at all, Naruto shook his head as he snatched the Spiritual Core out of his hand.
"Let me help you with this; sit down, close your eyes and open your mouth. I'll show you a trick to master this easier."
Although Ichigo could understand the purpose of sitting down and closing his eyes, he was a little bewildered at how opening his mouth was supposed to help.
Nevertheless, since Naruto wanted to help him, he decided to do as he said and sat down and closed his eyes while opening his mouth.
"Alright, and now, no matter what enters your mouth, keep it open."
The moment Ichigo heard Naruto's words, he felt like something was fishy, so he decided to open his eyes and saw Naruto looking like he was about to pull his pants down.
"F*CK!"
Ichigo instantly got up and slashed his sword at Naruto in anger. Obviously, he didn't want to kill Naruto, so he swung his sword in a way that would, at worst, leave a little gash on Naruto's cheek, knowing that something like that would heal within a day or two.
However, just as he was swinging down his sword, he felt something in his body move and flow into the sword, gathering at its blade.
Seeing that, a smirk appeared on Naruto's face as he moved backward to create some distance from Ichigo, and moments later, a mass of Spiritual Power shot out of Ichigo's blade toward Naruto.
Naruto's smirk widened as he gathered wind on his fist and smashed it into the incoming attack, canceling its power out and settling the matter without damaging his surroundings.
"Well, did you feel your Spiritual Power move this time, Ichigo?"
Obviously, Ichigo was dumbfounded. He had used this kind of attack before when he was fighting Kisuke back in the world of the living. Well, it was much stronger than this time as he was seriously attacking back then, but he was not expecting that he could actually use that kind of attack again.
More importantly, the first time he used it, he wasn't paying attention to his Spiritual Power at all while just going with the flow. However, this time he was conscious about it from the start and actually felt his Spiritual Power move. He couldn't help but smile wryly when he realized why Naruto had done what he had done.
"Seriously? Couldn't you have come up with a better method?"
"Of course, I could have, but that wouldn't have been half as funny, hahaha... owowow, mercy, mercy."
While Naruto was laughing loudly, Tatsuki, who had seen the whole incident, came over and pinched his waist, resulting in Naruto acting like he was suffering greatly, causing Tatsuki to roll her eyes.
"Why do you always have to play pranks like that, Naruto?"
"Well, what can I say? It's the ancestor's teaching, you know."
While Tatsuki was wondering why Naruto sounded like he was talking about a specific ancestor that wasn't even his own, Ichigo tried moving his Spiritual Power into the Spiritual Core and actually had some minor success with it. Seeing that, Naruto nodded in approval and resumed speaking.
"Very well, that's the first step. Now we are going for the next. So, kneel on the ground and spread those cheeks, boy... owowow, mercy, mercy."
Yet again, Tatsuki was pinching Naruto's waist, but this time there was a light blush on her face as she averted her eyes from the dumbfounded-looking Ichigo.
[So we DID switch genre.]
'Shut up, stupid fox. I'm just messing around!'
[Suuuuure~]
"Anyway, jokes aside, sit down and close your eyes. You might now be able to feel your Spiritual Power, but you are far from controlling it properly. We don't have much time before Seireitei gets destroyed, so let's continue the training."
Naturally, doubt filled Ichigo as he looked at Naruto with suspicion, causing him to chuckle in amusement.
"No need to look at me like that. Since Tatsuki is now closely watching, I won't be playing any more pranks."
Realizing that that was likely the truth, Ichigo nodded his head and sat down while Naruto sat down behind him and put his hand on Ichigo's back.
"I'll now inject a sliver of my Spiritual Power into you. Your goal is to capture it with your own and remove it from your body. Although it's not a real battle, conflicts like this are the best way to learn something new when there is time pressure. I think this should be the most efficient method for you to get the necessary control over your Spiritual Power to use the Spiritual Orb.
While Ichigo nodded in understanding, and Tatsuki looked at everything with interest, a small smirk appeared on Naruto's face while he started injecting Spiritual Power into Ichigo.
"Okay, I'm putting it in~"
"DON'T SAY IT LIKE THAT!!!"
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle in amusement due to Ichigo's outburst while briefly glancing at Tatsuki, who was currently sighing deeply while facepalming. Clearly, she was contemplating how awesomely mature her boyfriend was.