Chapter 20:

" Naruto answered calmly. "I managed to quickly subdue her with a stasis seal, which I'm holding the key for right now, and it seems to have also halted the Hollow in it's tracks.

Her reiatsu hasn't been getting any weaker since I activated it, and the hollow has simply been staring at me the entire time since. "

Juushiro nodded and Kaien took a step forward before coming to an abrupt stop at the sound of Naruto suddenly calling out to him.

"Do not go near her, Kaien!" Naruto growled as he moved his right foot outwards and started dragging it through the dirt. "Not until I've finished; if you get too close there's a good chance you'll disrupt my stasis seal and the Hollow will get loose and start trying to attack us again.

If that happens I'll have to draw up a new seal and reapply it, and if that fails then. .

. " Kaien nodded numbly and stepped back when Naruto trailed off, not wanting to mention what they may have to do to protect the pluses from this strange Hollow.

Juushiro simply looking confused at the use of the word seal so many times when he could not sense any active kido, but if he disagreed with the Commander of the Onmitsukidou on how they were going to approach this problem, then he didn't show it. He simply asked about the glowing tag in his hand, and if he was studying Kido in his off time; Naruto's response was a sly grin and a single statement, "Trade secret.

" After stating his piece, the grin disappeared; replaced by a thoughtful frown as he returned his attention to what he was doing.

Slowly, Naruto started moving around Miyako in a wide circle, using his feet to draw something in the dirt as he moved. He kept his eyes trained on the possessed Miyako as he moved, not even blinking; and when he finally made his way all the way around, he stamped his foot down on the first marking he'd made earlier and then raised his voice for a single command, "FUIN!"

Blue light erupted from the earth all around Miyako, glowing through the symbols he'd drawn in the earth as the seal he'd formulated was activated. The light grew in strength after a moment, growing to the point of blinding them and concealing those at the epicenter of the explosion of energy from view.

It lasted mere moments, and Kaien, fearing the worst when everything went quiet, almost made to jump into the light before his shihakushou was snagged in a firm grip and he was yanked away from the pillar of light and dropped on his ass by a disgruntled Shinobi.

"Don't be getting so stressed out Kaien. " Naruto grumbled, having finally dropped the tag he'd been holding and drawing his sword.

"It took me a while to figure something out to save Miyako-chan, which is why I had her in the stasis seal in the first place; the seal that I just drew however is used to expel alien elements from the host body. It can be used for any manner of things, Healing, and Exorcisms being among the most common of uses since the seal is indiscriminate.

It's not to be used on a pregnant woman though, especially when it's had this much reiryoku pumped into it. I just haven't figured out a name for it yet.

. .

" The last part of that statement was added as an inconsequential after thought, something that had Kaien sighing and mumbling something about priorities.

After he'd finished explaining the uses of the seal, the light had begun to fade and the trio could just barely make out two forms within the fading light. One was humanoid and quite obviously the object of Kaien's worry, while the other was most definitely a Hollow.

It was large and almost spider-like, with dozens of strange tendrils all frozen in place by the stasis seal, seemingly being the last parts of the hollows body to be expelled from the young woman as they were all reaching towards her back and nearly touching her shihakushou.

Not wasting even a second, Naruto dashed forward, breaking through the boundary of the stasis seal and releasing those inside it. Miyako fell limply to the earth while the hollow went flying towards the tree line after being expelled from its' point of entry so violently.

Before it was able to figure out what had just happened and why it was suddenly out of its' host, Naruto appeared above it in a burst of shunpo, his sword already driven into it's mask up to the hilt. It had been instant.

"Ja ne, Hollow-teme. " Naruto growled angrily as the hollow twitched once, and then began to dissolve, the black soul stuff that these men had grown so used to seeing after purifying a Hollow being carried off in the breeze.

Landing on his feet after pulling his Zanpakutou from what remained of the hollows face, Naruto swiped his sword, sending the Hollow's black blood splattering to the grass, before sliding it back into it's scabbard just as the disintegrating corpse of the strange Hollow crashed into the trees behind him.

Naruto's expression calmed, the threat was now gone, and he had the victims of some kind of body-snatcher type Hollow to attend to. Facing forward and making his way over to the prone form laying in the center of the earth that had been charred almost black in the wake of such a massive release of pure reishi.

Kneeling down, Naruto pulled her into a sitting position, her reiatsu was definitely weak, but he could tell she was recovering. Letting out a breath he'd been holding in relief, he turned to the stunned Captain and his Lieutenant with a serious expression on his face.

"She's alive, but incredibly weak, she needs immediate medical attention, Taichou. "

Juushiro nodded and motioned for Kaien to take her. "We'll need to transport her to the barracks of the Yonban-tai, Unohana-Taichou can take much better care of her than anyone else in all of Seireitei.