This follows on from my previous stories 'Descend, Heaven's Cloud of Doom!' and 'Red Kimono, Grey Heart'. As usual, it follows the anime storyline roughly with some changes. This is less of an action piece and more an excuse to explore the relationships between some of my favourite characters a little deeper. I hope you enjoy it.

Sakura Takahashi paced her father's study, agitation in her every step. The tall young woman was bored and, like most members of the 11th Division of the thirteen protection squads, when she was bored, she defaulted to angry.

"Hey, Kotsubaki!" Sakura called, pointing at the tall man who shared the 3rd seat in the 13th Division and who just happened to be walking past the room at that instant. "Want to play?" A feral smile lit her pretty face, and one hand rested on her Zanpakuto.

There was a weary sigh from behind her.

"Sakura, I realise you're bored but you really must stop picking fights with everyone. You know I don't like you sparring with my subordinates. They always come back bruised."

Sakura sighed and turned to face her father, Jushiro Ukitake, Captain of the 13th Division. White hair fell in his handsome face and an expression of weary fondness lit his eyes, which were shadowed with dark smudges beneath them as if he had not been well.

"I'm sorry, father. Are you feeling any better?"

He waved a long-fingered hand as if the question was not worth answering, and Sakura felt a small knot of worry settle in her stomach. She knew her father had never had the best health but she'd never before seen him suffering so badly. Although, it was almost a welcome surprise to realise how much she cared about the man. She had, after all, spent most of her life hating him, but in the past few months their relationship had improved considerably.

She went and sat beside him.

"I just hate the waiting. I don't see why I can't go as well."

Ukitake shook his head, pale hair falling over his shoulders.

"We've been through this before. As the fourth seat of squad eleven, you're needed here to supervise the squad whilst Madarame and Ayasegawa are in the human world."

Sakura frowned, her lower lip jutting out petulantly, pale violet eyes darkening with unhappiness.

"That's the official version, anyway. We both know no one wants me fighting where Aizen might notice my powers, and Yamamato doesn't trust me to control myself."

Ukitake sighed and looked at his daughter. She was beautiful, and reminded him each passing day of her mother, a spiritually gifted human who he had fallen in love with many years ago and lost due to the paranoia of those Shinigami who had once made all the decisions for the Soul Society and its occupants. Sakura, his only child, had long white hair, like his own, and wide violet eyes like her mother. Tall and strong, she'd grown up in the human world before a series of events had brought her to Soul Society. After being asked to join the Shinigami Academy, she'd spent a long time rebelling against her new life, but something had changed for her, and now she was fully dedicated to her life as a Shinigami. She'd even moved from the 7th seat to the 4th within a year, and in the 11th Division that was no easy feat. Of course, Sakura was quick to point out that the only reason she had attained the 4th seat specifically was due to Yumichika Ayasegawa's constant refusal to take it, settling for the 'more beautiful' 5th seat.

She was definitely a part of this world now, Ukitake mused, but that didn't mean she didn't rail against rules and regulations. It was part of who she was, and being in the 11th Division had only encouraged this side of her. You had to be sharp, eager, and vicious to survive in such a division, and seeing rules as entirely flexible, if not totally breakable, was just part of daily life for them.

Ukitake sighed.

"I did hear that Ikkaku Madarame is in need of a few molars since his battle with the Arrancar. Perhaps I could arrange for you to take them to him?"

Sakura's face lit up and Ukitake held up a finger, face stern.

"But you must promise not to engage in any fights whilst you are there, even against hollows, and the vast majority of your powers will be sealed. You're to drop off the teeth, and leave. Understand?"

Sakura beamed and grabbed her father in a fierce hug.

"Thank you!"

The older man laughed.

"I have to get permission first."

"Of course!"

Sakura stood, still smiling hugely. "And, maybe, I could say hello to old friends whilst I'm there?"

He shook his head, though he was smiling.

"As long as you're not fighting and drawing attention to yourself, I don't care what you do."

Sakura grinned, leant down to kiss her father's cheek, and fare skipped from the room.

"Let me know when you get the go ahead!" She called as she departed.

Sakura walked into the crisp afternoon air and ran a hand through her hair idly. Although she'd been proclaiming for months that her main frustration was due to being unable to fight the Arrancar (a group of hollows who had taken off their masks and gained Shinigami powers thanks to the help of the traitorous former Captain Aizen) she knew that what really bothered her was the absence of Yumichika and Ikakku.

Ikkaku was her senpai, her mentor, and the one who had made her realise that there was a place for her in Seireitei, if only she allowed herself to see it. He had been helping her embrace and utilise her often uncontrollable power, instead of railing against it out of fear that, if she didn't suppress it, people would die. Her hand went unconsciously to the livid scar at the base of her throat, a testament to a time when her power had raged out of control and almost destroyed all of Soul Society.

Through their training, something else had developed and Sakura was, unofficially, Ikkaku's lover. It wasn't so much that it was a secret, more that neither of them had an accurate name for it, and certainly didn't want to call it to the attention of other members of the squad lest the wrong idea occur. Sakura was, after all, the only woman in the 11th Division. Well, she mused, technically she was the second but it's hard to think of the tiny, childlike and extremely eccentric vice-captain, Yachiru Kusajishi, as a 'woman'.

Through her relationship with Ikkaku, she'd come to befriend Yumichika, a narcissistic, attractive young man with a penchant for ornate facial decoration, who happened to be Ikkaku's closest, and oldest, friend. He was the total opposite to Ikkaku, who was bald, demonically fierce, famously bad tempered, and bulging with muscles. 'Grace' or 'class' were certainly of no concern to such a man. Whereas Yumichiki was elegance personified, with his short, perfectly maintained bob of blue-black hair, attractive additions to the standard Shinigami uniform, lean body, and ornate coloured feathers that he wore on his right eye and eyebrow. He spoke nicely, properly, and would not concern himself with anything he deemed 'ugly' since beauty was all he cared about. The two men were as different as fire and ice, and Sakura suspected this was why they got along so well.

And what was she to the group? She supposed that she shared a little of both of their personalities. She loved to fight and had grown increasingly fierce since her induction in the 11th Division. She was often fearless, aggressive, even rude, but she had an elegance that couldn't be denied, and a respect for life and others that she simply couldn't shake. Whereas Yumichika and Ikkaku tended to be withdrawn, Sakura was vibrantly outgoing, and well known among her friends for her physicality. She thought nothing of grabbing her superior officers for a fierce hug when they pleased her, and it was difficult to reprimand such enthusiasm.

The three Shinigami had been nigh inseparable since Sakura had officially joined the 11th Division, and when they had received their orders to go to the human world as part of a squad to gather information on the Arrancar, she had been insanely jealous and, if she were totally honest, worried. She knew better than anyone that her friends were strong but not being there to witness their fights, not knowing how they were progressing, was almost unbearable.

Of course, since she'd been used, almost successfully, by the powerful Bount, old man Yamamato, Commander in Chief of the thirteen protection squads, would not risk Sakura coming to the attention of the power hungry, and incredibly dangerous, former Captain Aizen, the man who had shaken Seireitei to its very core.

But now, she thought as she brightened, she had a chance to check up on her friends and, whilst she was in the human world, she would look in on Urahara and see how her old sensei was doing. It wouldn't hurt to speak with the others, either, and she looked forward to seeing Ichigo and his friends once more.

A lot had changed since she'd last seen them.