Chương 75: Reaching Las Noches
The group outside Las Noches was currently resting, as they had been running for a whole hour, but somehow, Las Noches still seemed to be as far away as it initially was.
"Damnit, just how big is this damn building!? Is it even real? Maybe it's a mirage."
"It can't be a mirage, Ichigo. Let me tell you how mirages work. So, when it is really warm..."
"I DON'T CARE!!!"
While Ichigo and Ishida were quarreling, Naruto looked around, noticing a small lizard-like creature with a Hollow mask and hole crawl past him.
"How fascinating. I didn't expect there to be Hollow this small. Although Hollow supposedly eat human souls, but if they are this small, the Spiritual Particles in the atmosphere must be enough to sustain them."
"Mhh? Spiritual Particles? Is there something special about the Spiritual Particles in this place?"
Hearing Ichigo's question, Naruto briefly looked at him in bewilderment before sighing deeply.
"Just how shit are you at sensing things?"
"OI!"
"Anyway, if the density of Spiritual Particles in the world of the living is like air, it's like water within Soul Society and like syrup within Hueco Mundo. Got it?"
Ichigo simply nodded his head after Naruto finished his explanation, and before he could say anything else, an explosion occurred nearby, followed by a humanoid figure bursting out of the sand while screaming in terror. Following that figure was a giant Hollow that resembled a worm and another two Hollows that were laughing like maniacs.
Seeing that scene in front of him, Naruto's eyebrows rose as he felt no ill will or killing intent from the three Hollows rushing after the little figure.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Who cares!? Save the human!"
Naruto had some serious doubts that the little figure was a human but didn't bother to comment on Tatsuki's words as he vanished from his position, dropkicking the worm-like Hollow in the face while smashing the heads of the other two together.
"Stop picking on us! We didn't do anything to you!"
As Naruto had expected, things weren't as simple as they looked, as the small figure, which turned out to be a little girl wearing a broken Hollow mask on her forehead, who was initially chased, was now accusingly pointing her finger at Naruto.
"Oh? A mask? Are you a Hollow?"
While the little girl was pointing her finger at Naruto, Ichigo and the rest arrived as well, instantly causing Ichigo to wonder about the girl's mask.
Moments later, the four Hollows were kneeling on the ground for some reason, sincerely apologizing.
"We are really sorry. Nel had no idea that our game of endless tag would be misunderstood like that. Since there isn't much to do within Hueco Mundo, we have to come up with our own games, and endless tag is one of them."
"Nonono, no matter how I look at it, you were clearly crying. What kind of game is that?"
Hearing Naruto's words, the little Hollow, who apparently was called Nel, awkwardly scratched the back of her head and answered Naruto.
"Hehe, I'm a masochist, so it's no fun for me unless they chase me so hard I cry a little."
The moment Nel finished speaking, Naruto and Tatsuki's fists smashed on the heads of the adult-looking Hollows, pushing their heads into the sand.
""WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TEACHING TO A LITTLE GIRL!?""
"A-Anyway, you said your name was Nel?"
While Naruto and Tatsuki were beating up the two Hollows, Ishida asked Nel about her name, who eagerly nodded her head with a smile on her face.
"Yes, I'm Nel Tu of the Arrancar."
Hearing Nel's introduction, everybody froze, but before they could comment on her being an Arrancar, the two Hollows who had just been beaten by Naruto and Tatsuki introduced themselves as well.
"I'm Nel's older brother, Pesche."
"And I'm Pesche's older brother, Dondochakka."
"""And this is our pet, Bawabawa."""
The trio finished their introduction by telling the group the name of the giant Hollow-worm that happily wiggled around while being introduced.
However, seeing that everyone was looking a little confused, Nel tilted her head.
"Is something wrong?"
"Well, not really; I just never heard about Hollow having a family."
Hearing Naruto's words, Nel pouted in annoyance as she crossed her arms and resumed speaking.
"Why wouldn't we have families? Is that really so hard to believe?"
"Well, I just randomly stumbled into Nel and decided to become her elder brother because she was cute."
"Hehe, that's right, I did the same~"
"Hehe~"
"Fine, fine, I'll just act like you are family."
Following Naruto's question, Nel confidently declared that Hollows obviously had families; following that, the other two claimed that they basically randomly declared themselves to be Nel's brothers, so, not wanting to make Nel sad, Naruto decided to just accept this weird family in front of him.
Minutes later, Naruto and Nel's group were sitting on the back of Bawabawa, riding toward Las Noches.
"I didn't know that there were Arrancar like you around, Nel. I only know about the ones that occasionally had invaded the world of the living."
Nel, who was sitting on Naruto's lap for some reason, laughed out loud when she heard Naruto's words and answered him while getting off his lap.
"Hahaha, of course, we are different. Those were the Numeros. They are high-ranking Arrancar directly serving under the Espada. They are expert fighters and are nothing like us bugs.
Speaking of it, you are an even weirder Arrancar. As far as I can see, you don't even have a mask, and you are wearing a Shihakusho, almost like a Shinig...
KYAA, YOU ARE A SHINIGAMI!!! YOU ARE A BAD GUY, AND WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!"
While Nel and her two companions were freaking out, Naruto chuckled in amusement as a kind smile appeared on his face. His hand moved and quickly landed on Nel's head, petting it softly.
"Calm down; we have no intentions of hurting you, okay, Nel?"
Seeing kindness radiating out of Naruto's eyes, Nel calmed down a little, the shock of the person she was talking with being a Shinigami slowly subsiding.
Seeing how easily Naruto calmed down the panicking Nel, Tatsuki couldn't help but smile warmly as well.
'Naruto is really good with children~'
Realizing in what kind of direction her mind was wandering, a pink blush appeared on her face as she quickly lowered her head.
'Damnit, what is wrong with me recently? What's with all of these invasive thoughts?'
Nel, not aware of Tatsuki's dilemma, squinted her eyes in pleasure as Naruto combed through her hair.
"I see, so you are not a bad Shinigami."
"Hehe, oh well, might as well leave it at that."
However, just when Nel had fully settled down, a powerful voice boomed over the small group.
"What is the meaning of this? Arrancar teaming up with Shinigami? I, Runuganga, guardian of the white sand, will rip you to pieces!"
Suddenly, the sand started moving and formed into a giant figure that looked like a Hollow entirely made of sand. Naruto briefly wondered how that worked, but before he could make any conclusions, Ichigo had already attacked.
"[Getsuga Tensho]"
A concentrated blade of Spiritual Power flew at the sand colossus, and after reaching it, the upper portion of its body was cut in half vertically.
"Ohh~ Good job, Ichigo. As decisive as ever."
However, as Naruto was praising Ichigo, Runuganga reformed into its initial state without any damage visible on its body.
"Well, decisive but useless, huh? Sorry about that, ichigo~"
"F*ck you, Naruto!"
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle in amusement after he was done egging on Ichigo, but he deiced to put his focus on Runuganga.
'Well, cutting it in half didn't work, so I guess I'll try scattering his body into the wind, spreading it all over Hueco Mundo. Not sure if that will kill it, but it should at least prevent it from reforming quickly. If that doesn't work either, I'll just shred its whole body into dust until not even a single sand corn remains.'
As those thoughts passed through Naruto's mind and he was preparing himself to get a little serious, another voice echoed over the battlefield.
"[Tsugi no Mai: Hakuren]"
A white beam shot at Runuganga, and as soon as the beam passed past Runuganga, its whole body was engulfed with ice. Following that, its body simply crumbled apart, showing no sign of regenerating.
'Oh? So ice was its weak point, huh? Thinking about it, water would have probably worked as well.'
While these thoughts were passing through Naruto's mind, everyone else's gazes landed on the source of the ice, where they spotted two Shinigami standing, coats covering their bodies.
"Eh? Rukia and Renji, why are you here?"
These two Shinigami were Rukia and Renji, who had followed Ichigo and the others here only around an hour after they had left.
As Ichigo approached the duo, Rukia punched him in the chin out of nowhere, followed by Renji giving him a right hook and knocking him to the ground."
Ichigo flew past Naruto, who was still thinking about what other possible weak points Runuganga might have had, but as he saw Ichigo flying past him due to getting beaten by Rukia and Renji, his thoughts diverted.
'Every time these three meet after a period of separation, it ends with Rukia and Renji beating the shit out of Ichigo. Do they have some kind of weird three-way relationship?'
As Naruto's thoughts kept wandering in weird directions, Rukia started scolding Ichigo for not waiting and questioning whether they were really friends or not and why Ichigo didn't trust them.
Following that, Rukia revealed that Byakuya was the one who allowed the duo to come here, basically stating that he was only told to bring them back to Soul Society and not that he was supposed to keep them there, dumbfounding Ichigo, who knew how stubborn Byakuya was, greatly.
The conversation between Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji was just about to end when Ichigo noticed something else.
"Wait a moment, why am I the only one getting scolded? No matter how I look at it, Naruto was the one who initiated us coming here directly."
Hearing Ichigo's words, Rukia and Renji both looked at him like an idiot before their gaze fell on Naruto.
"Naruto, why did you want to go directly to Hueco Mundo without waiting for any of us?"
"Well, I mean, the fewer people there are, the more fun fights there are, right? Isn't it obvious that I came here as soon as possible? In fact, I didn't expect Byakuya to act like this, resulting in you two arriving here this early. Seem like I have to tattle on him to the Head Captain as punishment for ruining part of my fun~"
Hearing Naruto's words and seeing the vicious smile on his face, Ichigo remembered that Naruto's priorities had always been a little weird, seemingly caring more about having fun than anything else, so he saw no point in continuing to talk about this.
'Right, just like Yuna, it seems that Naruto was only in the game to have fun and nothing else. Although I'm pretty sure he cares for his circle of friends, he is simply too confident in himself to actually worry about them.'
Following that, Rukia couldn't help but ask Ichigo why he was traveling with four Hollows, and after a messy introduction, during which they all tried to tell Rukia the name of their group while all of them were announcing different names, Rukia simply accepted that Ichigo had picked up a group of weird Hollows that apparently were willing to help him.
And after traveling a few more hours on the back of Bawabawa, the whole group finally reached the outer wall of Las Noches, and after Rukia inspected it for a short moment, she confirmed what everybody was hoping for.
"It's not made of Sekkiseki."
Sekkiseki, a rather rare material, was what the barrier surrounding Seireitei was made of, and it prevented Spiritual Pressure from passing through it. Although Naruto and the rest managed to pass through it anyway during the invasion of Seireitei, that was only possible by using the cannonball technique of the Shiba family, which was unfortunately not available right now.
So, hearing that the outer wall of Las Noches wasn't made out of Sekkiseki immediately made it clear how they would enter this place as Ichigo and Renji both drew their Zanpakuto.
A loud explosion later, a hole was opened into the depth of Las Noches, allowing Naruto's group entry into the building.
However, while Ichigo and Renji entered immediately, Naruto turned toward Nel and the other Hollows and smiled wryly.
"Thank you for bringing us here, but I think you shouldn't go further than this. Things are about to become seriously dangerous from here on out, and I don't want the other Arrancar to think of you as traitors."
However, hearing Naruto's words, tears appeared in the corners of Nel's eyes, causing Naruto to falter.
"NO! I want to come with you. I bet the moment Runuganga saw us helping you, we were already marked as traitors! Aizen-sama will never forgive us, and even if he did, there is no way the other Espada would!
If you don't take us with you, we'll be killed! If you don't take us, I will... I will... I WILL CRY!!!"
Seeing that Nel was genuinely about to cry, Naruto smiled wryly as he moved behind her, picking her up and allowing her to sit on his arm.
"Now, now, no need to cry. I only said that for your own safety. After thinking about it, what you said makes sense, and Aizen might really already know about you, so you can come with me.
However, if I order you to run away or hide or something like that, you won't go against my orders, understood?"
Seeing that Naruto was actually looking at her sternly while he made her an offer, Nel obediently nodded her head, causing Naruto to smile as he resumed petting her head.
"Good girl~"
While Nel was happily squinting her eyes due to Naruto petting her head, Ichigo couldn't help but frown.
"Are you sure you want to bring such a little girl with you, Naruto? Won't this be too dangerous?"
As soon as those words left Ichigo's mouth, Nel started tearing up yet again as she pointed her hand at Ichigo.
"The carrot head hates Nel!"
"C-Carrot head?"
"The doodoo head has a stinky breath!"
"What the hell is a doodoo head, and my breath doesn't stink!"
"Damn, virgin!"
"Guh!"
"Fatality!"
"Shut up, Naruto!"
After Nel continued bullying Ichigo for a while longer, he finally relented while saying something along the lines of "Well, she probably is safer with us", somehow trying to deflect how he had lost an argument with a little girl.
Following that, the group continued moving forward, and after a few more minutes of running, they arrived in a huge room with seven doors, causing Naruto's eyebrows to rise.
'What a coincident; the number of doors perfectly matches the number of invaders within Hueco Mundo~'
"Seven paths, huh?"
"Guess we'll have to try them all."
After Sado mentioned the number of paths, Ishida quickly commented on his words, but before they could speak further, Rukia issued her own opinion.
"No, each of us should take a different path."
Obviously, Ichigo was outraged by that suggestion. After all, it wasn't certain that the Arrancar would be coming at them one-on-one, so meeting more than one Arrancar might possibly be a death sentence. Hell, even meeting one could be a death sentence.
However, Ichigo quickly got silenced after Renji mentioned that Ichigo shouldn't look down on their pride as warriors, totally forgetting that it was doubtful people from the world of the living, who had lived mostly peaceful lives up until now, had such a thing.
Following that, Rukia pretty much shut Ichigo's doubts down by claiming that she didn't come here for Ichigo to protect her.
Realizing that there was no point in arguing any further, Ichigo sighed deeply as he accepted dividing their forces to cover more ground.
Hearing the result of the discussion between Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji, Naruto briefly wondered if he should follow Tatsuki to protect her, but in the end, he decided against it.
'She has her own pride, and doing something like that would be an insult to the determination and effort she put into getting stronger.'
Having made his decision, he approached Sado and patted him on the shoulder, confusing him a little.
"Well, all of us are splitting up, Sado. Aren't you happy this isn't a horror movie?"
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