Naruto: Copy System

~ Next Bonus, 200!

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Inside the 4th Division barracks, Unohana Retsu’s gaze drifted toward Yoruichi Shihōin. Every time Shin visited, this little “tail” seemed to tag along.

Naturally, that tail was Yoruichi. Although Unohana was internally displeased, she didn’t voice it aloud.

However, even if Unohana remained silent, Yoruichi could clearly feel the hostility radiating from the 4th Division Captain. And the feeling was mutual—Yoruichi harbored quite a bit of animosity toward Unohana as well.

“Doesn’t Captain Unohana have duties to attend to?” Yoruichi asked, feigning casual curiosity.

While it sounded like a simple question, Yoruichi was heavily implying that Unohana should go do her job and leave them alone.

“I did have matters to attend to,” Unohana replied, casting a side-glance at Yoruichi. “But for me, entertaining Shin takes precedence over everything else.”

Hearing Unohana’s retort, Yoruichi grit her teeth in frustration but ultimately chose to stay silent.

They spent several hours there. As dusk began to fall, Yoruichi finally dragged Shin away. She honestly suspected that if she hadn’t physically pulled him out, Shin would have happily stayed there until the next morning.

For Shin, every day was a leisurely existence. Of course, his mood would likely be even better if Yoruichi wasn’t constantly shadowing him. It wasn’t that he disliked Yoruichi, but having her around made it difficult to handle certain matters discreetly.

“I have business to attend to,” Shin said, turning to Yoruichi. “I’m heading to Hueco Mundo. Do you want to come along?”

“Hueco Mundo? What are you going there for?”

Yoruichi stared at him, bewildered. She didn’t recall receiving any missions regarding Hueco Mundo. Why would Shin want to go to that desolate wasteland now?

“I have my reasons. If you don’t want to come, I’ll just take Soi Fon with me.”

Shin didn’t elaborate on the specifics.

“I’m going. Of course I’m going with you,” Yoruichi decided after a brief moment of consideration, nodding firmly.

Standing nearby, Soi Fon lowered her head in disappointment. She had wanted to go, but with Lady Yoruichi joining, she knew her place.

It made sense—the 2nd Division couldn’t be left completely unmanned. If both the Captain and her lieutenant left, who would handle any sudden emergencies? One of them had to stay behind. Since Yoruichi was going, Soi Fon was the designated guardian.

“I’ll have to trouble you to hold down the fort at the 2nd Division, Little Soi Fon,” Yoruichi said, playfully pinching Soi Fon’s cheek.

Soi Fon nodded resignedly. There was no helping it; she had to stay.

“Please be safe, Captain Shin, Lady Yoruichi,” Soi Fon said dutifully.

In truth, she wasn’t particularly worried. She knew exactly how powerful Shin was; he wasn’t likely to encounter any crisis he couldn’t handle.

“Just keep an eye on things here,” Shin instructed. “If anyone comes looking for me, tell them I’m busy. If Unohana comes by, tell her the truth—that I went to Hueco Mundo.”

It might be problematic if others knew he ran off to Hueco Mundo without authorization, but Unohana was different. Even if she knew, it wouldn’t cause any issues.

With that settled, Shin took Yoruichi and departed for Hueco Mundo. The dimension was the same as always—an endless desert of white sand and eternal night, unchanged since its inception.

“Can you tell me now what we’re actually doing here?”

Yoruichi asked. She certainly didn’t believe Shin came here for the scenery—mostly because there was no scenery. Hueco Mundo was famously barren and depressing. It wasn’t exactly a vacation spot.

“Nothing major, really. I just wanted to come and take a look,” Shin replied with a smile.

“If you don’t want to tell me, fine.” Yoruichi rolled her eyes. She assumed he was talking nonsense.

Come here to look? At what? Sand?

Ironically, Shin was telling the truth, but in this day and age, honesty was often mistaken for deception.

He hadn’t come for the view, but to observe Aizen’s progress in Hueco Mundo. He wanted to know if Aizen had begun his intervention in the Hollow sphere of influence.

This was important to Shin. He wanted to gauge how far along Aizen’s Hōgyoku development was.

Even though the Hōgyoku in Aizen’s possession wasn’t complete, it still possessed significant power. It should be enough to facilitate Arrancarization.

Shin was curious if any Arrancars had appeared yet. Of course, he excluded a certain natural-born Arrancar from this equation—Coyote Starrk, the Primera Espada, who had likely already split his soul due to his immense power.

If possible, Shin wanted to meet Starrk.

“Seriously, why did I follow you to this dump?” Yoruichi couldn’t help but complain.

“If I’d known you were going to be like this, I would have brought Soi Fon. At least she wouldn’t whine. Listening to you complain constantly is getting annoying.”

Shin retorted, a bit exasperated. He had actual business to attend to, and Yoruichi buzzing in his ear wasn’t helping. If he hadn’t thought traveling Hueco Mundo alone would be boring, he would have come solo.

“You find me annoying?” Yoruichi’s eyes went wide.

“Yes. Is it not a fact? You are being annoying right now. Am I wrong?”

“Fine. I won’t talk to you then. Happy?” Yoruichi huffed, turning her head away like a petulant child.

“Sigh… This isn’t the Yoruichi Shihōin I know at all,” Shin muttered, shaking his head.

The current Yoruichi, perhaps due to different life experiences in this timeline, bore almost no resemblance to the original Yoruichi. She was practically a different person.

“What are you sighing about? What’s there to sigh about?”

“I thought you said you weren’t going to talk to me?” Shin asked with a teasing grin.

Yoruichi’s expression stiffened, and she glared at him viciously.

However, Shin was immune to her glares by now.

Shin picked up his pace. Seeing him accelerate, Yoruichi quickly caught up.

For Yoruichi, Hueco Mundo still held a degree of danger.

For Shin, however, it was a playground. Even if every combatant in this dimension attacked him at once, he would crush them effortlessly. Because of this, he walked through the desert with complete impunity.

Watching Shin strut through the sands as if he owned the place, Yoruichi felt a mix of exasperation and resignation. She was used to it by now; whenever she followed Shin, they always walked with this level of arrogance.

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