Naruto: Sasuke Uchiha Returns from Soul Society

"Lord Sasuke!" Harribel called out to him instinctively, "Will you come back again?"

Sasuke stopped and turned his head to the side.

"Perhaps."

This ambiguous answer caused Halibel's emerald eyes to dim slightly.

But then, the boy's voice rang out again.

"After I've sorted out all the trouble over there..."

Sasuke turned his head slightly, and Harribel's figure was reflected in his deep eyes.

"At that time, it will probably not be long before we reach the world without sacrifice that I promised you."

Hribel was stunned.

A world without sacrifice...

This was the promise that the boy before him had made to himself on the sand dunes.

"I understand."

Harribel took a deep breath. "No matter how long it takes, the gates of Las Noches will always be open for you."

"We will be here, waiting for your return."

Sasuke did not respond further, and his figure vanished from the spot in an instant.

........

Soul Society, Avici Hell!

Click, click, click.

Footsteps suddenly broke the silence of the space.

"Aizen, it's been a long time."

The bound man had a slight smile on his lips.

"Sasuke-kun? I never expected to meet you here again."

Chapter 242 Fullbring Technique & Spirit King Fragment (Seeking votes next month!)

A tall, slender figure stepped into the darkness.

My gaze settled on a spot not far ahead, where a man was bound to a stone chair by layers of black cloth.

His limbs, torso, and even his eyes were tightly bound by black cloth covered with sealing spells, leaving only half of his face exposed.

"You're in a bit of a mess right now."

"Disheveled?"

Aizen seemed to chuckle softly. "Sasuke-kun, you didn't come all this way to a place where even the light can't get in, did you? You didn't come here just to mock my failure, did you?"

"Given your personality, you wouldn't do something so pointless."

Sasuke withdrew his gaze, his expression returning to its indifferent state.

“Of course not.” He went straight to the point: “I’m just curious, how did you fail?”

"Did Squad Zero make their move?"

In Sasuke's mind, since Aizen had already fused with the Hogyoku, his strength was so great that no one in the Gotei 13 could stop him.

The only ones who could pose a threat to him were those old monsters who guarded the Spirit King, especially Hyosube Ichibei.

Aizen shook his head.

Unfortunately, your guess is inaccurate.

"The Zero Division's duty is simply to protect the Soul King. As long as I don't threaten the Soul King, those guys won't have any interest in anything that happens in Soul Society."

"Not Squad Zero?" Sasuke frowned slightly. "Could it be Captain-Commander Yamamoto?"

As the founder of the Gotei 13 and hailed as the strongest Shinigami in a thousand years, the old man certainly has the potential to possess such strength.

"Do not."

Aizen once again denied Sasuke's guess, "In fact, Captain-Commander Yamamoto has already done his best in front of me."

"He was even willing to sacrifice one of his arms to stop me."

"But you've seen the result," Aizen said calmly. "It doesn't mean anything."

Sasuke frowned even more deeply.

Since even Yamamoto Genryusai was defeated, who in the Soul Society now possesses the power to defeat Aizen?

Unohana Retsu? Kyoraku Shunsui?

No, while those people are quite strong, they are still far from being at the level of Captain-Commander Yamamoto.

Sasuke quickly sifted through the possible lists in his mind, but still couldn't find a reasonable answer.

"You are quite familiar with this person as well."

Just as Sasuke was pondering, Aizen's voice rang out again, carrying a subtle smile.

"It's Ichigo Kurosaki."

"..."

Sasuke was stunned.

For a moment, he even wondered if there was something wrong with his ears.

"Who?"

"That half-baked substitute Grim Reaper?"

Sasuke found it hard to believe. The last time he was with that orange-haired guy, the guy had just regained his Shinigami powers with the help of Kisuke Urahara, and he was even struggling to use his Shikai.

Even if he learned Bankai during the time he was away...

so what?

That level of power was nothing more than something Aizen could easily destroy with a wave of his hand.

"You're not kidding, are you?" Sasuke asked coldly. "How did he do that?"

"I was surprised too."

Aizen didn't mind Sasuke's doubts. "At that time, I had already defeated all the Gotei 13, and after a little incident, I achieved a perfect fusion with the Hogyoku, evolving into a dimension that even I had never imagined."

"In that dimension, whether it's a Shinigami or a Hollow, their spiritual pressure is meaningless to me."

"But Ichigo did it."

"At the cost of sacrificing all his Shinigami power, he transcended Shinigami and Hollows in an instant, and even surpassed me, reaching a higher dimension."

"That strike without moonlight was indeed beautiful."

At this moment, Aizen's tone was devoid of any resentment; instead, it was filled with pure appreciation for "evolution" itself.

"Although that blow didn't kill me outright, it did cause my beliefs to waver briefly."

"And Kisuke Urahara, who had been observing from the shadows, seized this opportunity."

"At that moment, he activated the Kido Seal that had been planted in my body, and sealed me away while the will of the Hogyoku was wavering."

"I see......"

After listening to Aizen's account, Sasuke nodded thoughtfully, the surprise in his eyes gradually turning into deep contemplation.

Is it a single strike bought with all our strength?

This certainly fits that half-baked approach.

Even so, crossing that dimensional gap cannot be achieved simply by "sacrifice".

"Could it be...?"

Involuntarily, Sasuke recalled the unfathomable, mysterious fluctuation he had sensed years ago when he used his Sharingan to probe Ichigo's power.

"Is it because of the power within him?"

Sasuke secretly speculated in his mind.

He didn't understand before, but now, from his perspective, the power that had been lurking within Ichigo Kurosaki was very likely derived from the Soul King.

Or perhaps, it is a vessel for some kind of fragment of a spirit king?

Only in this way can we explain why he was able to unleash a power that surpassed Aizen's.

"How interesting." Sasuke's lips curled up slightly. "It seems that the substitute Shinigami is hiding quite a few secrets that I don't know about."

He looked at Aizen, who was bound, again, his eyes filled with even more amusement.

"However, it seems that after all that scheming and planning, you haven't accomplished anything in the end."

Sasuke looked around at this pitch-black hell. "The Soul Society is still the same as before. I even heard that the Central 46 Chambers, which you killed before, have been rebuilt under the control of the nobles."

"Everything seems to have returned to its starting point."

"The changes you talked about, the evolution you pursued, it seems that none of them were achieved in the end."

Despite Sasuke's taunts, Aizen's smile did not diminish in the slightest.

"So-called order always possesses a repulsive resilience."

"Like weeds on a wasteland, even if you set fire to burn all the leaves on the surface, as long as the roots are still there, as long as the soil that breeds decay remains..."

"One day, they will sprout again when the first spring breeze blows."

"But, Sasuke-kun."

Do you really think nothing has changed?

Sasuke did not answer.

"The seeds of doubt have been sown, and the cracks of fear have been created."

Aizen said to himself, "Some things, once broken, can never be repaired and will never return to their original state."