Rise of Renji
Renji gets tired of being treated badly, so he challenges the other lieutenants to prove his worth
I don't own Bleach
A/N: This story takes place before the betrayal but after Renji achieves bankai. If you know what that means, you are qualified to read this story.
"Why can't I go on the mission?" Renji asked his captain. "Because you are incompetent and would endanger the rest of the team," Byakuya replied coldly. "How can you say that?" Renji shouted, "I'm the only lieutenant that can use Bankai!" "Sadly, that is the only thing that sets you apart from the other lieutenants," Byakuya told him, "In my professional opinion, most of the other lieutenants are more qualified for this job than you." "Really?" Renji smirked, "Name eight." Byakuya sighed, "Sasakibe, Kira, Kotetsu, Iba, Ise, Hisagi, Kurotsuchi, Matsumoto, even Kusajishi would be better than you." "I bet I could beat any of those guys, I'm better than all the other lieutenants!" Renji yelled furiously. "Well then, perhaps you'd be willing to prove it. If you really believe yourself, challenge all of the other lieutenants to a contest of their choosing, and if you beat at least one of them, I will admit you are not totally useless." "Oh it is so on!" Renji shouted.
Renji was standing outside the building of the squad one offices. He went inside to the head captains quarters because Chojiro was usually standing behind the head captain while he sat at his desk. "Lieutenant Chojiro Sasakibe," Renji started, "I hereby challenge you to a contest of your choosing." "Really, why?" Chojiro answered. "I need to prove to my captain that I'm not the lowest of the lieutenants, so I'm challenging each of the lieutenants to a duel of their choosing." "Can he do that, head captain?" Chojiro asked. "I see no reason he couldn't, you have the right to refuse the duel or decide the manner of dueling, so it is allowed," Yamamoto explained. "Very well then," Chojiro said, "I'm not much for combat these days, so we'll have a paperwork contest!" "Huh?" Renji muttered.
Both Renji and Chojiro were positioned at desks with a stack of unfinished paperwork on the left and a pen and ink to the right. "Wait, what are we doing again?" Renji asked. It was obvious he was still confused. "We're having a paperwork contest, whoever gets their stack of paperwork done first wins! Exciting isn't it. I've never done paperwork competitively before," Chojiro told him. "Right... You know what, I surrender," Renji admitted. "That's no fun, you challenged me! You have to stay around for it!" Chojiro yelled indignantly. "You'd think so, but no. I'm out," Renji said as he walked out of the building, "See ya."
"That was disgraceful," Byakuya lectured Renji, "You didn't even follow through with it, if this is all I can expect from you, then I may have to demote you." "What, seriously?" "Yes, I have decided that if you lose to all of the other lieutenants, you will not be worthy of being a lieutenant yourself." "Yeah, uh, I don't really think that should be part of the deal. If they get to choose the challenge, then I'm pretty much screwed. They'll just pick something I'm not not good at but they are." "Well, given your skill set, I'd say that wouldn't be difficult to do." "Whatever, I'm going to be challenging Omaeda next, so I don't think I'm going to lose the next one." "We'll see." Byakuya told him.
Renji was now standing outside the training grounds of squad two. His only real concern was that Captain Soifon would yell at him. She didn't really like Omaeda, so she would probably be glad if he lost. But Soifon would probably be mad if he interrupted their training. He walked onto the field where Soifon was instructing the troops and Omaeda was eating rice crackers. "Lieutenant Marechiyo Omaeda, I hereby challenge you to a contest of your choosing." "Huh," Omaeda responded, "You're challenging me?" "Yeah, whatever you want to do, just say it and we'll fight." "Well then," Omaeda thought for a few moments, "We'll have an eating contest!" Renji was disappointed. There wasn't any way he could beat Omaeda at an eating contest. "No way," Soifon cut in, "This is a contest to determine one's worth as a soul reaper, not to stuff your face with food." "But he said I could pick the challenge." "Stop whining, Omaeda," Soifon told him, "You're a disgrace of a lieutenant, so you can at least fight him in a respectable way." "But cap-oof!" Omaeda was cut off by a swift kick in the chin by Soifon. "Haha," Renji laughed as the smaller captain withdrew her foot from the larger lieutenant's chin. "Fine," Omaeda said as he rubbed his face, "We'll fight with hakuda."
"Alright," Soifon announced, she and Byakuya were watching the fight, along with some squad two members, "This will be a hakuda, fight. Hakuda is the art of hand to hand combat. You may use any part of your body as a weapon, but you cannot use your zanpakto or kido. Begin!"
Renji started by charging at Omaeda. He punched him right in the gut, full force. Unfortunately, Omaeda was so fat that the blow just bounced right off of him. "Hahaha," Omaeda laughed, "Did you really think that would work on me? Our squad specializes in hakuda." After explaining, Omaeda punched Renji in the chest, the blow sent Renji flying. Renji hit the ground and rolled, then he got up and ran at Omaeda, but instead of charging, Renji jumped into the air. He came down on Omaeda with a flying kick, but Omaeda caught Renji's foot in his huge hand and slammed Renji into the ground.
"It's over!" Soifon shouted from the sidelines, "The winner is Marechiyo Omaeda!" Byakuya would have sighed if it wasn't his nature to remain expressionless, "Renji, this is not looking good for you." "I know," Renji said, he was having trouble getting up, "But I've still got nine other lieutenants to challenge, right? I'm sure I can beat at least one of them." Byakuya didn't react, "Omaeda was your best chance of winning, I doubt you'll be able to beat any of the other lieutenants. Remember, if you can't win at least once, you'll be demoted." Renji sighed, "Yeah, I know."
A/N: Next chapter will be Kira, Isane, and Momo. If you have any suggestions please leave a review. I have most of the story planned out, but I still need a few ideas.