14 Collecting All The Pieces (2/3).

With their speeds, it didn't take them long to reach the point where they would separate. Ichigo thanked Jiraiya for all the help he and village had provided him and they separated. He entered Sage Mode to enhance his sensing abilities and started making his way towards the lightning country. He went high enough to still see the ground and also avoid any large structures.

He had asked for the estimated distance between the villages and how long it would take their fastest ninja to make that trip. From Konoha, it would take their fastest less than a day to reach the closest village and three days to reach the furthest. But even their fastest couldn't break the sound barrier, while he had done so by mistake.

So now that he was going at full speed, it would at most take him a few hours to travel between the different villages. After almost an hour, he started seeing snowy mountains. He kept himself entertained by watching the shifting scenery and the few settlements he saw as he passed them, but thankfully he was high enough to not disturb them.

He started going up and passed the snowy mountains in a few minutes and entered a mountain range. From what he gathered, Kumogakure shouldn't be far from this point. He traveled for another half an hour before spreading his Senjutsu enhanced sensing ability as far out as he could to find the largest cluster of chakra presence. He found one after a few minutes and went straight for it.

It didn't take long to see buildings built on top of and into the mountain peaks, surrounded by clouds. He found the highest peak and stood on top of it. He lowered the range of his sense to increase is sensitivity and started looking for the largest chakra sign. They were very easy to find, the bigger one was a bit further away from the village and the other was inside it.

He moved to the bigger one and found a small cave opening with guards all around it. He moved inside the cave using Sonido to make as little noise as possible. He didn't want to hurt anyone in this world. He made it inside undetected and found a strange beast. It was as large as the Kyuubi with a bulls head, a human like torso and 8 octopus like tails/tentacles. It was tied down and the cave walls were filled with seals. He could feel the same sentience, so tried calling it.

"Oy, eight tails!"

The giant creature stirred before opening its eyes.

"What do you want human?" Gyuki was not in a good mood. He was tied down after being extracted from its previous prison and was soon going to be put in another. This time, he had heard that, it was a kid. The human in front of him was strange. It didn't belong here and it was clearly not afraid of him.

"I want to know how and when you Bijuu got the piece of metal that's inside of you." Ichigo asked.

That immediately got his attention. The piece of metal inside them was put there by their father. He had told them to safeguard it and keep it away from anyone, but he was sure only the ten of them, including their father, even knew of their existence.

"How do you know of them, human?!" Gyuki knew that even the most stupid of them, Shukaku, wouldn't tell the humans about their existence.

"They belong to me." Ichigo replied calmly. He pointed his right hand in front of him and tried to feel the piece inside the best with his chakra, the piece flew out of the beast and was quickly absorbed. Now it was too big to remain in chain form so it formed a small tanto.

"HOW?!!" Gyuki shouted. The ninja outside had heard that and quickly activated the emergency seals and informed their sealing squad and Raikage. The outside activity was increasing but Ichigo still replied calmly,

"As I said, it belongs to me. Now I asked you a question. How and when did you bijuu get your hand on Zangetsu."

Gyuki looked at the human in front of him and told him the truth.

"Our father, the one who created us, told us that he found nine pieces of what looked like a broken sword on his travels. He said that he could feel a lot of power and sentience from each piece. He didn't want to alter a sentient being so he formed our bodies around them. According to him, it was waiting for its original master. Our father said that it was most likely a weapon of a being like his mother, someone not from this world."

"How long ago was this?" Ichigo said, a knot forming in his stomach. How long had Zangetsu been waiting for him?

"A bit more than 1000 years." Gyuki could see the sadness inside the eyes of the human.

"Thank you for telling me." The human said to him before turning around and leaving.

As Ichigo made his way out of the cave, he could feel a lot people gathered outside the cave but he was in no mood to entertain anyone. He started to bring out his powers as his body was slowly shrouded in inky shadows. His sclera turned black as his iris started to shine gold. A horn grew on the left side of his head just he stepped out of the cave.

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To those outside, it felt as if both of the bijuu were loose and they were coming to kill them. Most of them were paralyzed as a human figure came out of the figure but that thought quickly came to a stop as they saw what had come out. It had a humanoid shape made of rolling shadow with a human head. But even the head was not normal. The eyes were fully black with the iris shining a bright gold. There was a horn on the left side of the the thing.

"Move."

With just one word, the pressure increased so much that the shinobi started to lose consciousness. Ichigo once again found the other massive chakra signature and moved towards it. He quickly reached a person but before he could even land, they fainted. He scowled for a bit before putting the tanto on the forehead of the girl. He had learned from Minato that the jinchuriki could interact with their bijuu in their inner world and that others could also enter it.

Just as he touched her forehead, he found himself in a dark place with a large, two-tailed cat that was similar in size to the other two and burning with a blue fire. He didn't waste any time and once again felt the piece with his chakra, it quickly flew out and got absorbed. The tanto got bigger. Then he felt the cat push him back out of the girl's mind and allowed himself to be pushed back.

He came back to himself and rather than waiting, immediately took to the skies and headed of to the next place. He would have to cross the ocean to get to the village hidden in the mist but right now all he could think of was how Zangetsu was waiting for him for more than a thousand years. He once again didn't stop, not even to eat or drink and just kept going.

He kept going for nearly three hours during which his thoughts were spinning around the statement that Zangetsu was in this world for more than a thousand years. How was that possible? Did he really spend thousand years in the void? How was he still alive if thousand years had actually passed? If anyone other than him had actually survived, would they even be alive after so long? If that was so, then finding others, if anyone had survived, was even less likely. He sighed dejectedly before focusing on his correct task.

After a few hours of him lost in his thoughts, he finally came across land. He landed for a bit, ate something and drank some water before continuing. Spreading his senses as far as he could, he once again tried to find the largest signature. He found one not far from him but when he reached, there was only water around him meaning the bijuu was inside the water.

He tried connecting to the piece of Zangetsu and it worked, he didn't have to be near them for the pieces to feel him and come towards him. Once again, the sword became larger and heavier but stayed in its katana shape rather than turning into a cleaver. He continued before anyone could see him. There was one more bijuu in this country that he had to find. He found the next one sealed inside a young boy with a few ninja guarding him. He flared his power to render them unconscious and went to the boy.

He did the same thing that he did to the other host and touched his sword on the boy's forehead, was pulled into his inner world, got the piece and let the beast, a slug of some sort, push him out. Now his sword was slightly bigger in size than a Wakizashi. He quickly took off before anyone could regain consciousness and went to his next destination. He would have to go to the Sunagakure in Wind Country, passing Fire Country. Another long journey. At first, he was going to collect all the pieces in a span of few days, but now, he was in a hurry. He would collect them all in a single day.

It took him a two hours to get to a desert. He spread his senses and started going into the desert. It took him another hour to get a blip in his senses. He found a village surrounded by walls. The only color he could see was brown and different shades of it. He found the largest chakra signature in the central building. This time, he couldn't go in unnoticed because the jinchuriki was in the middle of the building surrounded by people, probably guards.

So, he once again unleashed all his powers as he descended to the ground and started making his way into the building. Everyone he came across was either already down or barely hanging on. He entered the room where he could feel the chakra and found a brown haired women on the floor and a crib in which a red haired baby was sleeping. He quickly suppressed his power and touched the baby's head.

Once again, he found himself inside a dark place with a large, slightly chubby looking Tanuki. He pulled the piece towards himself and let himself get thrown out. When he got back, he found himself surrounding by ninjas two of whom were trying to kill him with their weapons. He was still in his Sage Mode, so their weapons didn't even pierce his skin. He sighed and swung his sword making all the ninjas fly away and the side of the building completely broke. He didn't wait for anything more and left at his highest speed.