XX-level Hokage

Instead of dwelling on that idea, it's better to be prepared to act at any time, ready for any potential battle.

Shiba Ganju looked at Kurosaki Ichigo with disbelief at how easily he had made his decision.

"Ming...you just suffered such a blow, why can you still say such things now...? Because there's no other way."

Kurosaki Ichiro naturally retorted, "In the end, coming to the Soul Society... no, to rescue Rukia is inherently dangerous, and a battle is inevitable."

Not only that man from earlier, but the two guys who came to Karakura Town to take Rukia away were also ridiculously strong.

So from the very beginning, I was prepared to fight an enemy of that caliber; if I wasn't prepared to fight to that level, it would have been better to do nothing at all.

The logic is sound, but it feels rather subtle coming from Ichigo Kurosaki's mouth: "Not just Kuchiki-kun, but Chad-kun too."

Surprisingly, it was not Shiba Iwagi who spoke again, but Ishida Uryu.

His words weren't meant to support Ichigo Kurosaki; they sounded more like a question. His eyes, hidden behind his glasses, gazed intently at Ichigo.

"Chad's fate is currently unknown; we can't just leave him like this, can we?"

His words were practically asking Ichigo Kurosaki what he thought Chad was.

Chad considered Ichigo Kurosaki his only brother. He was instantly blasted away while trying to help Ichigo retrieve his Zanpakuto, and his fate is currently unknown. Yet, Ichigo Kurosaki hasn't mentioned Chad even once.

Could it be that Ichigo Kurosaki is the kind of guy who prioritizes women over his own family? As for Chad... don't worry about him.

Kurosaki Ichigo glanced to the side, at the bustling road, his eyes deep and unfathomable. No one knew what was reflected in his gaze at that moment. But his words were unusually firm.

"I can't even imagine Chad losing. Chad is the strongest."

"...I don't know where you get this confidence from, but frankly, the objective difference in strength is right in front of us." Ishida Uryu was also taken aback, but he quickly realized what was going on and shook his head.

Unlike Ichigo Kurosaki's unconditional trust, he values ​​reality more. "I can't just leave Chad behind."

“In that case, let’s part ways here.” Without letting the two argue, Shiba Iwagi decisively said. “If we’re going to fight the Seireitei itself, let alone us, even if we were ten times stronger, we wouldn’t make a ripple.”

In other words, whether they act separately or united, the power imbalance will not change. In fact, acting separately might even grant them more freedom.

Leaving aside Ichigo Kurosaki's power, Orihime Inoue and Uryu Ishida's power had already been revealed to some extent just now.

Being able to spar with the captain and use some tricks means that as long as they don't encounter any big shots above the top five, they have the ability to fight back and even retreat smoothly.

From this perspective, a team of four is a bit too bloated.

"We'll split into two teams. One team will stay put and rescue Rukia Kuchiki, while the other team will go and retrieve the missing one!"

"Is this the place?" "It's around here."

The clamor was incessant, but unlike the hordes of death who moved in groups, there were only two of them. Their identities were immediately apparent from the white robes they wore.

Then you'll feel that their actions together are what constitutes teamwork, and a huge waste of combat power. Tosen Kaname and Nekomura Sajin.

They followed the sounds and the destruction forward, eventually arriving at their homeland.

At the end of the straight line of destruction, in the open space behind the shattered wall, one can see a burly figure lying on its side in a circular crater.

His left arm and left leg were covered by his body because he was lying on his side, so his face could not be seen from the angle of the shot.

The two of them stepped over the entrance smashed through the broken wall, which was piled with rubble and tiles, and came to the side of the burly figure who was motionless as if dead.

"How is it?" Dongxian asked.

"Although he was dressed in ordinary clothes and at first glance looked like an ordinary resident of Seireitei, his presence here speaks volumes." At the edge of the circular pit, Sajin Katsura coldly gazed at the motionless figure and placed his hand on the Zanpakuto at his waist.

“Killing those who cannot resist is indeed disrespectful, but if it is for the sake of the Gotei 13, then there is no other way. Rather, since you chose to invade Seireitei and cause chaos, you must have thought of this outcome from the very beginning.”

The soul-soul sword was slowly drawn. Inumura Sajin raised the sword high. "Our righteous cause is without blemish."

Anyone who causes chaos within the Seireitei is an enemy, and since they are enemies, there's nothing more to say. Uchimura Sajin's sword suddenly fell, mercilessly finishing off the helpless enemy.

Chapter Seventy is in progress.

However, the knife in his hand was only halfway down when someone reached out and caught it. "Tosen?"

"Since you've lost the ability to resist, let's stop here." Tosen Kaname calmly withdrew his hand after stopping Inumura Sajin.

His expression was similarly cold to Inumura Sajin's, meaning he wasn't acting out of sympathy or pity.

"Lock him up, and someone will conduct a trial. We can also get information about his companions from him. If we can't control him and kill him in the battle, that's something we can't do."

However, the current situation is not a dilemma where it is necessary to finish the job. There are still more uses for leaving it, and even if it is not useful, it can be dealt with after the matter is over.

It would be such a waste to finish them off like this. "...You have a point."

After a moment of silence, Hachimura Sajin sheathed his drawn Zanpakuto. "It was my oversight. So, where should I send it next?"

He was looking... no, it should be said that he only seemed to be looking in a certain direction, but it didn't actually mean anything, since his eyes were covered and he was just a blind man.

In short, Tosen turned his head back and said with some emotion.

"Let's send him to the Fourth Division first. He'll die soon if we leave him unattended. I wonder who did it; their timing was so precise." Not long after, the soldiers who had been stopped earlier arrived and began to examine the burly man, who was already unconscious in the circular crater.

Recycle.

At a distance from this spot, Ishida Uryu, who had been gripping the Quincy Cross pendant tightly, finally loosened his grip with a hint of reluctance.

Among the group of Grim Reapers dressed in black, that white robe stood out so conspicuously.

Ishida Uryu wasn't too unlucky; out of a total of thirteen captains, he had already met four of them.

But his luck was definitely not good either. He finally managed to find his way by following the traces of the destruction, but he was still a step too late and couldn't rescue Chad in time. He could only watch helplessly as Chad fell into the hands of the enemy.

But...but there are two captains over there. We can't even defeat one, let alone two. And what's most terrifying is...

It's unclear whether Ishida Uryu's identity is clear, or whether the captain, who appears to be blind, has actually discovered them.

If we're only talking about seeing them, even if he weren't blind, he still couldn't see them if he were blindfolded. The problem is, Shinigami have more than just the five senses; whether it's spiritual pressure detection or other methods, there's a probability they could detect them. But if they did detect them, why didn't they simply take them down in one fell swoop?

Or was it just a coincidence that he was looking this way? After all, the taller man beside him hadn't noticed them either. These questions arose in Ishida Uryu's mind.

He didn't show it, though. "Ishida-kun, Ishida-kun."

Behind Ishida Uryu, a hand quietly reached out, gently nudging him with its fingers, and then called out to him in the same voice, "How is it?"

"We have no choice but to retreat for now. There's no way to save Chad here." Shi Youyulong sighed slightly and said in a somewhat helpless voice.

They said they'd send Chad to a place called the Fourth Division for treatment, which is kind of like a hospital, I guess. We might have to wait...

They've made their move over there.

The one traveling with Ishigami Yuryu was not Shiba Ganju, but Namikaze Orihime.

Ichigo Kurosaki wanted to continue with his original plan to rescue Rukia Kuchiki, while Yuuryu Ishi insisted on retrieving Chad. This led to a slight disagreement between the two, and they ultimately split up.

It was probably because Chad needed Orihime's healing abilities, and also because finding someone was safer than breaking her out of prison. So, Orihime was sent to act with Uryu Ishida.

Shiba Ganju and Kurosaki Ichigo continued their operation there.

"You knew where we were going so quickly? Ishida-kun is really amazing."

Orihime Inoue's eyes lit up slightly, and she couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. "!"

Ishida Uryu silently pushed up his glasses and turned his face to the side.

"This is just a very basic assessment of the battle. It's nothing to mention." "But it's still quite impressive, I never would have guessed that."

"Ahem, ahem, anyway, continuing like this will be very troublesome. Let's think about how to infiltrate that place called the Fourth Division."

For some reason, Ishida Uryu coughed awkwardly twice before saying this. "So?"

"So, we initially wore this outfit to blend into the Seireitei and pretend to be ordinary passersby, but now this outfit has made us noticeable. If we really want to blend in, we can only wear the same clothes as the Shinigami. There are so many Shinigami, it's normal to encounter people we don't recognize."

As expected of Ishigami Yuryu, who is extremely skilled in needlework, he noticed the problem with the fabric. However, this may also be due to the reminder from Kamimura Sajin.

"Huh? But didn't Ishida-kun say he wanted to find a chance to change back into his own clothes? Is it really okay to wear a Grim Reaper's outfit?"

Orihime Inoue's innocent question dealt a devastating blow to Uryu Ishida. "...This, this, this can wait until later to change it!!"

"If nothing unexpected happens, Rukia Kuchiki should still be in the Third Division's prison."

"Alright, let's head over there now and bring Rukia out!" Shiba Ganju and Kurosaki Ichigo headed in a clear direction.

The conflict between the Central 46 and the Gotei 13, which revolves around Rukia Kuchiki, is a major event that everyone in Seireitei knows about.

This is precisely because the news that Rukia Kuchiki is in the Third Division's prison is widely known.

Even though the Shiba family is located in Rukongai, outside of Seireitei, and even though Imaseki was just involved in this matter, it would be easy to obtain this information with a little investigation.

In fact, their initial plan was to first enter the Seireitei through the Tanju-bu, and then blend in around the Third Division to see if there was any opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

If they couldn't find an opportunity or route to infiltrate, they would have to find another way, to open up another path directly to the prison. The only reason Shiba Iwagi came along, besides needing to deal with the Danbo, was for this reason.

But man proposes, God disposes. The whole situation changed too quickly, so quickly that there was no way for anyone to react in time.

They had barely stepped into Seireitei when they were exposed—of course, it wasn't necessarily just them; perhaps others were exposed at the same time.

It's possible that others infiltrated but were discovered due to their lack of skill—in any case, they were drawn into it.

The plan then became to evade the Grim Reapers while stealthily approaching the Third Division from a corner.

Of course, anyone with a modicum of common sense would know that under such circumstances, the difficulty of accomplishing anything would increase dramatically. However, they hadn't even taken a few steps before they were caught red-handed.

Having barely managed to escape, Chad went offline and lost contact. The remaining four split into two groups and took action in two separate ways. The original five people were reduced to just two in the blink of an eye.

slightly.

Since Ichigo Kurosaki was prepared to fight if discovered, Ganju Shiba also became more relaxed. Instead of the conservative strategy of ensuring they wouldn't be discovered, they adopted a slightly more aggressive approach: advancing while remaining hidden, and engaging in direct combat if discovered.

But sometimes, things are just that strange, and there's absolutely no way to understand them.

Their cautious, step-by-step approach only made them more easily discovered; now, adopting a slightly more aggressive strategy has allowed them to advance smoothly.

They quickly arrived around the Third Division.

Perhaps due to their confidence in their base, there weren't many Shinigami left around the Third Division's base. Most of the Shinigami had been dispatched to scout out the streets and outskirts.

Maybe in them

It seems that not many intruders would dare to be so audacious as to invade the squad's own base. However, the fact is that there are two people who are so bold.

Chapter 71: Ichigo VS Renji

That being said, getting in... won't be easy. Ichigo peeked out from behind the corner of the wall, glanced around furtively, and quickly withdrew his head.

He said to Shiba Iwato.

The fact that not many Grim Reapers remain does not mean that no Grim Reapers are on guard.

Moreover, because they were familiar with the area, they didn't need to wander around, as the main roads in and out were basically guarded.