The world sharpened into frightening clarity.
Every ripple of air, the shifting grain of dirt beneath his sandals, the pulse of Kensei's reiatsu, Minato felt them all, as if they were part of his own body. His golden irises glinted like twin suns in the dim forest.
Kensei's brow furrowed. "That Reiatsu… it's changed. No it's not Reiatsu anymore..."
Then Minato moved.
One instant he stood still, the next he was inside Kensei's guard. The wakizashi whistled upward in a savage arc, the blade edge singing. Kensei caught it in time, but the force behind the blow was monstrous, shoving him back hard enough to gouge twin trenches in the earth.
The young man didn't let him breathe. Another strike, low and slicing for the tendons. Then a reversal slash for the throat. Kensei blocked one, barely dodged the other, and then the air burst as Minato's heel drove into his ribs, the shock rattling through his frame.
'Faster and stronger than before, I can barely react' Kensei thought grimly.
A roar of wind came from behind him, not from Kensei's Shikai, but from the sheer displacement of air as Minato's next strike descended. Sparks erupted, blades screaming. Kensei's muscles burned under the onslaught.
Minato pressed harder. A thrust. A feint. A sudden corkscrew slash that nearly took the Captain's ear. For the first time in years, Kensei was reacting instead of dictating the pace.
And then..
Kensei felt it. The shift. The faint, jagged instability beneath Minato's Reishi filled Sage Energy a rhythm that didn't belong to a Shinigami.
'He's forcing Reishi into himself… He's. The Quincy? He's the one who destroyed the Hollows! No wonder his Reiatsu felt familiar.'
Kensei leapt back, chest heaving. His dagger rested loosely in his grip. "You're reckless, kid." His voice was quiet, almost heavy. "You took down the Hollows didn't you?" Minato was silent. "You know what that means kid. I have no choice. You're coming with me.."
His free hand rose. Fingers curled around the hilt of his weapon.
Minato froze. Even in Sage Mode, he felt the pressure spike, a deep, crushing weight that pressed against his ribs and skull.
Bankai.
The word felt like it echoed inside Minato's bones.
In Kensei's mind, the decision cut like a blade. To release Bankai against a soul barely past his first steps as a soul, someone without his shikai. It was unthinkable. Shameful. A Captain's final measure, drawn against someone who hadn't even learned to stand properly in this world.
'What does that say about me?' He thought bitterly.
But Minato had to be brought in. His duty came before empathy.
---
The forest bent under the sudden surge of power.
"BANKAI: — Tekken Tachikaze."
Kensei's blade dissolved into twin steel gauntlets, black and silver, the air around them vibrating with caged explosions.
Minato braced, but the moment Kensei moved, the fight shifted from a duel to a beating.
The Captain blurred forward. Minato's wakizashi came up in a perfect block, yet the gauntlet slammed into it with such force the steel screamed, and Minato was hurled backward, smashing through a tree trunk.
Before he could recover, Kensei was there.
A hook to the ribs, detonating on impact, blasting Minato into the dirt. Minato shushined, but just like his Sage Mode, Kensei's power was boosted beyond his comprehension. 'Bankai? The second transformation. So this is what makes a Captain..'
A straight punch to the chest. Minato's hand crossed to block, but the sheer force cracked the bones in his arms and his sternum shuddered, the explosion behind it knocking the breath from his lungs.
Minato tried to counter with a Shunshin slash, but Kensei's gauntlet caught his blade barehanded. The next instant, Minato's world went white with pain as an explosive uppercut tore through his guard.
---
His golden irises began to flicker, the toad-like pupils trembling. A minute and half. Minato began to feel it. Was it because he had not fully recovered from the previous repercussions? He didn't know. Every breath felt wrong now, the Reishi he'd pulled into his body was fighting his own Reiryoku, sparking in his veins like acid. His limbs felt heavier. The flawless precision of Sage Mode began to dull.
Kensei didn't relent. He drove Minato back with a hurricane of strikes, each one detonating like a cannon. Bark, soil, and stone exploded around them.
By the time Kensei stopped, Minato was on one knee, chest heaving, vision swimming. The gold in his eyes bled back to blue. His wakizashi trembled in his grip.
Kensei lowered his gauntlets, still breathing hard. He looked at the boy, not with triumph, but with a grim weight that settled deep in his chest.
He had won.
But against someone this young… it didn't feel like victory at all. Of course, he had held back. Otherwise Minato's fragile body wouldn't have been able to withstand a single punch, but even that wasn't going to help his case against the other Captains.
Minato vomited blood, as the reishi that constantly poured into his body seized. His body shook for a moment. Blood tore through his orifices and then he collapsed to the ground face first. It was over..
"Tsk. It seems your own body gave out in the end. I'll take you back to the Gotei 13." Kensei couldn't help but sigh. Even if Minato wasn't guilty, everything about him was suspicious and that technique he used, that could absorb Reishi into his body wasn't gonna help his case at all. He could even be sentenced to death.
'I lost..'.
They weren't just words. They sank in him like a lead weight. His consciousness swayed like a ship in a storm, rocked by violent waves. His eyes grew heavy.
Maybe if I close them… for good… everything will stop.
---
'…Minato.'
A voice.
'Minato…'
His eyes opened.
Kushina?
No. Not Kushina.
Her hair was silver, long, flowing like a river under moonlight.
And they weren't in the desert. They weren't in Konoha.
The void stretched endlessly around him, a dark infinity pierced by a single impossible sight, a palace. Regal and antique. Silver and gold, hanging in the nothingness as if time itself bowed before it.
He stood at the grand entrance.
The massive doors, inscribed with thousands of intricate seals, parted with a slow, resonant groan. Warm light spilled out, pulling him in.
The interior was breathtaking, the ceiling lost to shadow, yet dotted with floating constellations of inscribed paper talismans, glowing faintly like a cosmos of stars. The air thrummed with quiet, immeasurable power.
And there she was.
Seated gracefully on a small white futon, her pure white robes pooled like snow around her. Her silver hair trailed endlessly, her eyes calm and piercing.
She looked at him.
"Minato," she said softly, yet the sound filled the entire hall.
"K-Kushina… No." He shook his head. "You're not her…"
A faint smile touched her lips. "No. I am not the woman you loved.." Silver eyes met blue eyes. A stalemated silence reigned.
"What are you?" Minato broke the silence, his eyes straining on her face. "I am a reflection of the innermost desires of your heart. It's why I was born in this form. Th closest thing you'd ever get for a friend in this world. I am power. Strength. And ultimately, I am you, Minato.."
Minato was speechless. "I don't know you..." Was all he could say. "You spent the last few weeks of your life in this world trying to reach here, reach me, through that blade and now you don't know me. How quaint.."
"The blade, that was you?" He asked, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Kushina, no something like her was here. "My heart was never shut off to you, Minato. I'd been trying to reach you since the first time you held me in your arms..." Minato shuddered, the dreams, the visions, it was all her trying to get him to open up. He finally understood.
"What is this place?" He asked. Her expression didn't soften. "You have one of the most brilliant minds Minato, but sometimes you're too foolish to recognise something when it's in front of you. You overthink.."
Minato was surprised. "It must be some sort of inner world or domain?" He answered it himself, taking a deep breath. "How long have you been here?" Minato asked calmly. "For as long as I was conceived.." She replied calmly, her silver eyes catching Minato's blue ones again. "Was it lonely in here?" His voice softened considerably.
"I knew you'd open up to me one day, Minato. I trusted you enough to hope for that day.." She answered him softly.
"Do you know what happened to Kushina? And...Naruto.." His voice carried grief and a sadness. "I was born from your soul, Minato. I don't know anything aside from what resides in you.."
He wanted to speak, but she raised a pale hand.
"You hold onto the past like an anchor, Minato. Every strike you make is pulled by what you've lost, not what you want to gain. You think of her. You think of your son. You think of the mistakes."
Minato's fists clenched. "I can't just let go—"
"I am not asking you to forget." Her voice was quiet, yet cut deeper than any blade. "I am asking you if you are ready to release the weight… and face forward."
Her silver gaze locked onto his. "My power is one of purpose. To wield me fully, you must have one. Without it, my strength will burn you from within, just as the Reishi did moments ago."
The words echoed through him. Purpose.
He thought of Naruto. The stigma, the hatred that could grow in his heart. Minato just wanted to ask him if he was okay..
"I…" He closed his eyes, inhaling slowly. "I want to grow. To stand at the apex. To find a way back to my old world… and to ask Naruto to forgive me. That's my purpose."
A faint wind seemed to stir in the great hall. The talismans above flared softly, their inscriptions shifting and glowing brighter.
Her expression warmed, just a fraction. "Then we begin..."
A/N: Sorry guys. Schedule this week is jam packed. I'll resume posting regularly from next week.