Chapter 01

Bloodbath

Now—

The gentle sound of bracelets clanking softly against one another on his left wrist…

Toushirou walked slowly to the graveyard in the human world; standing tall with his once spiked hair now slightly longer to seem shaggier. It was a trait that he received from his most cherished friend—a friend that he had taken for granted long, long ago when he was still a stubborn little captain. The wind picked up gradually as they neared the tombstone that they wanted to reach, and his long silver-white colored hair tied in a ponytail began to fly wherever the wind carried it. Behind him stood his busty lieutenant who was there to support him and their late friend that had brought him back onto the right track. There were still a few others that were alongside him as placed the hilt of an old broken Zanpakutou in front of the grave on the ground, that had belonged to a man that they cared for.

"It's been one hundred years since I could muster seeing your grave." The adult captain spoke, fixing his haori so that he would not cry in front of the others. "Just to make sure I would come, I had brought your pack with me, along with your drinking partner who still doesn't do her work when told." He managed a cracked smile as his lieutenant huffed unhappily. "I really wish you were here with us, Kurosaki Ichigo."

The pack that was behind him, was a group of seven large wolves that were Soi Fon's height; causing them to appear intimidating to most. It consisted of a black male and female, a raven male and female, and two troublesome reddish brown wolves, all of them were missing their unique reddish orange-coated leader. The black female came to Toushirou's side to whimper at the grave that they did not want to see, but would to give their respects to the one that once leaded them. What better way to pay their respects than to be in the form of a wolf to show how strong their bond was together as a family.

Rangiku already turned away from the tombstone with a hand to her mouth and eyes shut tightly as she began to sob uncontrollably as she remembered the events. The wolves were also gave their cries by surprisingly starting with black male, followed by the raven female, the black female, and the rest of the males. Toushirou gave up as well when staring at the grave in front of him, allowing the tears to descend from his face freely to soak the grass that coated the bones of a man in his animal form.

"This is goodbye, Ichigo…"

The ones in their Shinigami forms cried, the wolves howled, and all honored their fallen comrade.

A large white beast stood behind them, watching.

One hundred and ten years ago…

"Why did I have to trouble myself with learning this transformation, huh?" Ichigo stared at the rocks of the training arena in the basement of Urahara Kisuke's shop. "There's no point for mean to learn, I'm human."
"Oh come on, stop being such a baby." The woman snorted at him—especially as he finally looked at her while she was naked; scowling at her endlessly. "You're being paid to learn this technique, remember?"
His chocolate brown hues rolled unhappily at the reminder of him being low on cash as he looked for his own place to stay before school ended. "Alright, but I'm not going to take a cat form! You got that?"
With a catlike grin, she placed a hand on her bare hip, "you got it Ichigo. With whatever animal form you learn, you can be able to cross the worlds without the need of Shinigami powers. You just need to—"
"I already said that I'm not going through that damn surgery that Urahara-san suggested! There's no way in Hell that I would let him operate on me!" Annoyed, he sat on his butt to gripe and grumble about this.

Yoruichi's grin had widened at his difficult behavior. "If you don't have the surgery, you can't use your five senses in Soul Society." Her naked form came over to snake her arms over his shoulders. "Don't you know that Yamamoto-soutaichou is requesting your appearance? It seems like Hitsugaya-taichou is really working himself to death to make sure that nothing repeats itself in any shape or form." She frowned as she began getting under his skin. "He won't see his friend, he snaps at his fukutaichou, but you might be the one person that he'll listen to." The woman kissed his cheek. "Soutaichou will convert money for you."

There was no way that that he could when against this woman who was trying her best to seduce him into agreeing with her. Already adjusted to being sexually harassed by the woman, he ignored her large sized breasts against his back as she kissed him every now and then. On some occasions he would begin to growl at her disapprovingly towards her actions when she was becoming too cuddly for him. Someone came down from the stairs, lightly applauding the two for training on something different for once—being the animal transformation rather than where the man's perverted mind might lead to.

"You might not have to endure surgery after all, Kurosaki-kun." Kisuke flapped his fan open happily. "I have gigai for those that come to this world, so I figured, why not make one for you to go there!" To praise himself, he fanned his face with a smile. "Of course, you can only stay in the gigai while you're there, or else you will die instantly most likely." His fan slapped shut. "That doesn't solve your sensing problems…"

Ichigo's eyes rolled at this. "If I'm going to be in a gigai, why can't I stay in this form!"

"Because I want to see what my son looks like!" A man cheered, earning a swift punch in the face.
"Stupid old man, go make yourself a grave!" Said son fumed angrily. "Let's get this over with already!"
"That's the spirit!" Yoruichi cheered, then cupped her breasts. "Oh, Ichigo. Do you want some milk first?"

"NO!"

The two then worked countless hours on having him change into a different form that would have to be an animal or some sort. Yoruichi continued silently hoping that he turned into a cat for her to play with, but she knew instantly that he was going to be something bigger. Hours became into days as he meditated to concentrate on a specific animal, and often imagining himself as being that animal. After a month, he had finally succeeded on turning into a large sized wolf; something hardly known within Japan nowadays.

"Why a wolf, I wonder." Kisuke pondered aloud, watching the wolf learn to walk on all four.

"I remember when studying American Indians, that, wolves meant guidance." Ichigo looked at the nosy man, but looked to the ground afterward. "I figured it was suitable if I'm to guide Toushirou to sanity."

"Very well, I have a gift for you!" He hurried over to the canine that now sat. "Shake boy!"
"How about I give you rabies instead?" With that, he snapped his fangs at the hand.
Kisuke pulled his hand away in time. "Be nice! I have to put this on your arm!"
Growling that he had to listen, he obeyed. "Fine." His left paw met his hand.

Four silver bracelets were place on his leg; almost like ankle bracelets even. "Perfect! I'm glad I finished them just as you completed your transformation!" His arms crossed, nose high in the air. "Notice anything in the training arena, Kurosaki-kun? There's a surprise for you!" Kisuke then casually moved aside.

"Renji!" Ichigo barked in surprise as his body jumped into a standing position. "How long have you been here!" The once carrot top, now reddish-orange male wolf, would not put it past this guy to have stayed—
"I just got here an hour ago as requested. Urahara-san asked me to come here and see if I wanted to participate in some sort of training." The redhead smirked. "But at least now you can see me!"
"Yes! I was getting to that!" Kisuke waved his fan at the lieutenant. "Instead of making a gigai, I decided to make something that can harness spiritual energy from their surrounds. They give you your senses!"
The wolf looked at the bracelets, attempting to shake them off, only to make sure that they would not. "I never thought I would be seeing my friends from Soul Society until I was as good as dead." He chuckled.

"Don't get too cocky." Renji sneered. "I'll be joining you, and I'll be getting some others to join too!"

"W-What?"

That was how it started, and a pack formed of seven wolves…

After having to take up five years of his life, six Shinigami officers would occasionally come down to the human world, and they would practice on being a pack. It was easy for the majority because they always allowed their instincts to guide them, but one male and the two females tried to fight it a little. There was no denying that their pecking order had been created within the first year to calm their wild and chaotic acts. For the rest of the positioning, the others mainly fought about it—two in particular, but the elder of the two won victory and claimed his place as second in charge. They had never truly picked someone to vent on as the lowest chain, but some would pick on a female, others would pick on the feminine male.

Ichigo was a little infuriated about having to waste five years of his life, training just to keep Toushirou from killing himself due to over exertion. Lucky for Soul Society that the Commanding-General was paying him for staying with this training for so long, and having Kisuke converting it to legit money. With the time that had passed by, it was the moment where he would have to return to Soul Society while the rest of his pack waited patiently on the other side for him. He did not know how long that this would take, but he knew that he would help Toushirou no matter how bad the situation was going to be…

"Come on Shirou-chan, can't you step away from your work for a little while?" Momo frowned at the small white haired captain that was putting all his attention to the paperwork he had. "Won't you stop, please?"
"I have to finish my work so I can train afterward, Hinamori. I have no time to play around, I'm sorry." Toushirou had not once looked up to see the fragile lieutenant. "…maybe another time Hinamori."
"Is that your answer to everything?" Renji growled at him for his disrespect to a pack member, but the captain did not know anything about this. "I swear, I would challenge you if had bothered to get off y—"
The female quickly placed her hands on the angry redhead's chest to have him back off from the cranky captain. "You'll get in trouble if you decide to mess things up, you know you'll be punished." She frowned.

Toushirou came to a slow stop as his eyes finally left his work to watch the two talking in whispers that seemed a little suspicious for the two. He was aware that the two had been in the Shinigami Academy at the same time, but they were acting a little friendlier than they usually would in the past. Of course, he had been so busy for the past six and a half years training to become strong enough to protect Momo. Renji grabbed her arm to take her away from the desk to talk to her in a low manner to tell her firmly that he did not mind getting punishment. He could put up with almost anything that their pack leader would put him through, but that did not make her any happier to hear. Not knowing how to keep the peace between her friend that she grew up with as family, and her pack member that was now her family. Momo told him that it would be her that would receive the most punishment because of her position, and that things can get ugly from there. She was begging him quietly to reconsider the thought of challenging the captain who did not understand their customs, but a loud howl pierce through Soul Society.

Her face lit up excitedly. "He's here!" She tugged the male who did not budge. "What are you doing Abarai-kun," she laughed at him. "We have to see him!" Momo could not budge the tattooed lieutenant.

"I want to say something really quick," Renji looked to her, "you go on ahead, you should greet him."

"…I can't cover for you," he nodded to her, and she left.

With the female gone, the redhead turned to look at the captain who was glaring at him for the rough attitude towards his childhood friend. His large hands slammed onto the table aggressively, giving his own glare. "You do what you think is right. Go ahead and train as much as you think you need to, you're only going to hurt Hinamori more." There was another howl in the air. "You may be training to protect her from others, but what's the point when you can't even protect her from yourself, do you even know that—" There was another howl, meaning that he was going to get in deep trouble soon if he did not respond to the call in the distance. Not able to continue his pursuit on this captain, he turned sharply on his heels in order to flee the administrative office so that he could be with the others while he still could keep his tail.

This entire scene had made Toushirou suspicious.

Unfortunately, he had no time to bother investigating the situation because of the pile of work that he still had to deal with. However, it appeared that the redhead had a valid point about him over doing this to become strong enough to protect Hinamori Momo. Having been so focused on becoming stronger with his youth, he had been neglecting the one person that he wanted to protect. Everything was getting heavier on his shoulders that he had been stressing out more often, lashing out at any who spoke aloud.

"Taichou!"

"WHAT!"

Rangiku shuttered at her captain snapping at her after she entered the office cheerfully; she did not like side of her captain, but put up with it. "…I just wanted to say that, there's a pack of dogs in Soul Society." Worried that her head would be chewed off, she added quickly. "I thought for sure that I saw Hinamori going towards the group, but before I knew it, she was gone, and two more dogs were passing by me."

"Dogs, in Soul Society." He glared at her. "Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?"

Suddenly, the alarm was being sound as the announcement called out about intruders within the wall of Seireitei, in the shape of animals. Hearing this while now aware that Hinamori now went out there where all the danger was, he finally let his desk to chase after the lieutenant. Sure enough, there were large beasts running around outside of the buildings as if they were wild creatures out for a run! After managing to pinpoint her location, he used a flash step to reach her before the monsters could, but it led him to a black-coated canine. Worried that the large creature had swallowed her whole, Toushirou unsheathed his Zanpakutou to attack the beast—only to be attacked by another in which he tried to block.

"Run!" Ichigo roared with the blade in his mouth after tackling the captain to the ground. "I said run!"

The other wolf flattened her ears before darting off quickly.

"Bastard!" Toushirou kicked the beast off himself before throwing and icy attack at him—but was deflected by Byakuya who stood in front of the four-legged animal. "Kuchiki, what's the meaning of this!"
"Back off, now!" The wolf snarled; needing to be attacked by the Zanpakutou in Toushirou's hand.
This caused little captain to watch in surprise as the noble captain slowly stood aside. 'What is going on?'
"I can handle myself against this scared little brat." Ichigo bared his fangs and hackles high, pacing while striking anger within the little captain that was surprisingly easy. "What can you accomplish now?"

The anger struck Toushirou instantly as he charged at the creature with his Zanpakutou in hand while there was a quick cry to stop him. It was too late though as his hands were swinging down the blade heavily to destroy the creature as Momo was jumping in the way. Ichigo also caught this at the last second and managed to spin around to have her jump on his back while he leaped out of striking distance. His front right leg was struck by the Zanpakutou, causing him to look at the attacker before howling into the sky before others joined him. Two wolves jumped alongside him as did Renji, Byakuya, and Rukia whom wasted no time in hopes of everything going according to plan.

Toushirou looked closely at the wound—he knew he cut the beast, but there was nothing to show for it.

"A blade with an owner filled with hatred cannot harm me, but yourself." Ichigo called from the rooftop. "If I had not removed her, you probably would have almost killed her again for the third time." He began to turn away. "Hinamori Momo is better off in my care, Hyourinmaru can no longer help you fight blindly."

With that, he hopped away with Momo still on his back along with it the others that followed him.

Toushirou had hurried to the location where he sense Momo's reiatsu, but he was led to the first division for a brief moment, only to find out that he was too late. It was a good thing that he was able to sense her over in the fifth division. With the new destination set in his mind, he began to head over there—only to hear a staff hit the ground softly for attention. The small captain turned to look at the elder reluctantly; wanting to hurry up and find the childhood friend that was possibly in danger.

"Harm any canine creature you see here, and you will be confined with the same sentencing as Aizen Sousuke. Never to see Hinamori-fukutaichou ever again," Shigekuni glared. "Is that understood?"

With a faint nod, Toushirou left, and finally found her in one spot long enough.

Hinamori Momo and Kuchiki Rukia were both cuddling happily against the beast that Toushirou could have sworn that he had wounded. The latter female began blowing teasingly into the wolf's ear to have him shake his head quickly for relief, and both girls giggled. For this, he got up and lied down on top of them with a snort, but with his head in Momo's lap, she began to roughhouse with him. Toushirou had to watch closely as the giant creature accepted it by getting up on his paws in a ready stance, tail wagging.

"Come on Rukia-chan, you and me versus alpha!" Momo laughed; knowing she could not say his name in Soul Society as they were all told. Rukia nodded quickly in order for them to leap in unison. "Got you—!" Ichigo jumped over their heads easily before chasing after them playfully until they turned to tackle him.

The captain leaned back against the side of a building, watching Momo play contently with the large beast that, in fact, saved her today. He should have been able to stop his attack, but he had been focused on killing the beast that he had not considered her jumping in the way. A sudden loud yelp pierced his ears—Momo had accidentally stepped on the wolf's paw, and the strangest thing happened. Rukia turned to her with a hand raised in the air to slap her right across the face, but then the wolf barked at her instantly with fangs bared. She lowered her hand obediently, allowing Momo to hug the giant beast with countless apologies until a reddish wolf appeared, snarling at her.

"Hinamori—" the new wolf snapped at Rukia who started warning Momo, causing a black wolf to appear!

Toushirou watched while insanity began to go underway as the black wolf began to attack the reddish brown one, drawing blood. Momo and Rukia cried out at them to stop while the other wolf only stood there to watch as the males were fighting it off once again. Ichigo was watching them carefully, and as soon as Renji was yelping and whining, he barked warningly once to have them stop. Renji, wounded and now frightened by the beta for protecting the sister, he coward beneath Ichigo to keep himself protected. Rukia and Momo both giggled lightly at the surprising act of the one that was not an omega, earning a snarl from the most wounded of the group.

"Knock it off." Ichigo warned them all as he walked over Renji without stepping on him, going to the black male wolf. "You have work to do, next time, I will correct him behavior, do you have a problem with this?"

The black one began to raise his hackles to detest the order, causing Renji to grab the two females quickly to get out of their way. It was rare when their beta challenged the alpha—sometimes once every six months it would happen, but it has only been a month since the last one. Momo did not want them to fight for position so soon, but Rukia held her hand, and watched as her brother made the first move. Byakuya lunged at him from the front to snap at the others paws that only jumped over him enough to sink his fangs into his neck to shake him around heavily. Painful yelps filled the area as blood began to spill faster than the previous fight, until the beta rolled over so that he would be released by the other's fangs. Ichigo licked his fangs as they began their second standoff, both of them had their tails sticking straight up in the air before charging at one another once again.

"They're at it already?" Ikkaku asked with interest, arms crossed. "What happened?"
"I-I stepped on his paw while we were playing, I didn't mean to!" Momo looked at him worriedly.
Rukia also looked at him. "Then Stupid here was going to attack her as a warning, but I dumbly told her to move, so he went after me. Beta and him then began to fight it out. You know who obviously won…"
"Then of course alpha told beta to let him correct me when he's present." Renji turned and left.
Yumichika sighed softly. "I don't know why they bother, it's the same as always."

"Hey, I would probably challenge them too if I thought I could win." Ikkaku then looked over at Momo, slightly scolding her. "You need to be more careful Momo-chan." Being a part of the pack, he did not feel the need to address her properly. "Both of you, actually." He turned to the fight. "I know that he won't go after either of you intentionally, but you have to realize that your fair game to the others." It was true, and it mainly meant for Momo who was not considered the first female wolf. "Unless titled, watch out more."

"We really should determine the pecking order…" Rukia huffed. "There needs to be more females."
"Just don't ask Matsumoto, I might kill you if you do." The two wolves turned and snarled. "I-I'm j-joking!"
Yumichika covered his mouth to giggle loudly. "Had you forgot that we were watching them, Ikkaku?"
"N-N-No… just forgot that they were listening t-to us." Ikkaku gulped nervously before they began fighting.

"I know we shouldn't get involved but…" Rukia began to run over, Momo followed in pursuit.

Ikkaku and Yumichika jumped in front of them, glaring at the two for attempting to stop an inevitable fight, causing the two females to back up. Moments later, Byakuya yelped painful while fallen to the ground with Ichigo growling over his head before walking towards the group. Momo and Rukia hurried to the winner to pet him by scratching beneath the chin, hugs, and happy tones—as they should. They would have only been in more trouble if they had greeted the lesser wolf who was slowly getting up on his paws.

"You two should get some rest." Ichigo stated quietly, nudging Momo slightly. "Come along, get going."

Tired of this, Toushirou pulled out his Zanpakutou before making himself noticed. "Don't touch her."
"Fool…" Byakuya muttered before jumping over in front of Ichigo, baring fangs as he bled heavily.
"Hitsugaya-taichou," Ikkaku called. "It's going to get ugly if you don't put your Zanpakutou back."

The captain hesitated before looking over at the wolves unhappily, as Momo was forced on Ichigo's back.

Author Note: A friend of mine was confused as to why Byakuya and Ichigo started to fight in their wolf forms. Byakuya is beta but also a captain, teaching Renji his manners is what he does, but Ichigo (being alpha) tells him not to do this when in this form. Angered by it, Byakuya attacks him in hopes of being able to change the pecking order to become top wolf so he would not have to agree to this.