This is the first time I publish a fanfic. I hope you guys like it :) Leave comments and reviews~

There might be some spoilers if you haven't read the manga.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor any of the Bleach characters. There are a few OC (like the whole Kurayami family), but the rest of the characters are works of the mangaka of Bleach.

"Excuse me," said a white-haired student as he tried to go through a busy hallway of the academy. I'll never get there on time, he thought to himself.

Every student was looking at him, talking about him in quiet whispers. "How can he have white hair and black eye brows?" "I think he dyed his hair." "What a rebel." He had become the new topic of small talk, and it was only the first day since the Shinigami Academy officially opened.

As he was busily walking, he bumped into someone.

"Whoa!" said the other person. "Watch where you're going!"

"Yes," replied the white-haired student, very politely. "I'm sorry."

"No need to be so polite," said the other person smiling. "I'm Kyoraku Shunsui."

"I'm Ukitake Juushiro. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too!" exclaimed Kyoraku.

Every student was looking at these two, talking about them. "I heard they are super rich!" "I think they know each other from before." "I wouldn't get too close to them if I were you." "Their hair colors are complete opposites: white and straight, black and wavy." Now the two had become the topic of small talk within a few minutes of entering.

"I think they're talking about us," said Ukitake, looking around.

"So what?" said Kyoraku. "Let them talk all they want. Does it really matter?"

"I guess not," said Ukitake, now looking at his new friend.

"We should go to the ceremony thing," Kyoraku suggested with a sullen face. "He'll get mad if we're late."

Kyoraku and Ukitake left the hallway and entered the room of the ceremony. The room was big, decorated with a flag of each division of the Gotei 13 in the back. Thousands of students went in before the two, and thousands of others came in after them. They all sat for a couple of hours in silence, listening to the director and founder of the academy, Yamamoto Genryuusai Shigekuni. For the first half of the speech, most of the students fell asleep or did something else, but for the second half, everybody listened in hopes that it would end soon.

"Like I mentioned before," said Yamamoto in a thundering voice, "this academy is to teach all of you how to fight and reason in a fight. It will give you the skill to do what you want to do: become stronger. Whether that is for your own sake or for somebody else's, it does not matter. What does matter is that you give your all to protect our home from the hollows that keep appearing. What matters is that you learn how to control your powers so that you may not hurt anyone innocent.

"No matter what happens, all of the students will receive the treatment they deserve, and there will be punishments for any major mischiefs. Now, go to your respective classes."

Upon these last words, every single student stood up and clapped until Yamamoto's silhouette disappeared completely from their sight. Then they all rushed out of the room into their respective classes. The classes were divided according to the students' exam results: those with the highest scores got into the first class. Both Kyoraku and Ukitake were in the First class.

No time was wasted on student introductions: the they could introduce themselves to each other some other time. Only the instructors introduced themselves, and right after that the teaching started. The first couple classes were solely spent on the basics: sword fight and reiatsu control. Then, there was a break.

"Man," said Kyoraku, sighing. "This is gonna be tough, don't you think?

"Maybe," replied Ukitake. "But I think it's also going to be fun."

Kyoraku just laughed and said, "Probably."

Suddenly, a girl bumped into Ukitake.

"Sorry!" she said. "I didn't see you right there."

"Don't worry," said Ukitake, looking down. "I didn't see you either."

She was slim and short, not taller that 5"2', and she had long red hair tied on one side. Her eyes, Ukitake noticed, were bluish gray, which was brought up even more by her hair. As soon as they apologized to each other, the girl kept going her way.

"Wow," Kyoraku admired. "She's cute."

"Really? That's all you can say?" Ukitake just looked at him and laughed. "Let's go eat."

They went to the beautiful garden of the academy, decorated with the flowers of spring that had just bloomed.

"It's really amazing how flowers always come out even after the coldest winters," noted Ukitake, talking more to himself than to his friend.

"Huh?" Kyoraku questioned, but upon the silence of his friend, he decided not to ask anything.

The two ate pretty much in silence, except for an occasional, "This tastes really good. You should try it." They spent the rest of the day focusing on their classes, and Kyoraku chasing girls around. After the last class, Kyoraku was flirting with a girl, and her face was so red that everybody knew she was embarrassed by whatever Kyoraku was telling her.

"Someday," Ukitake warned, "a girl will come and seriously hurt you emotionally."

"I'll worry about that when the time comes," Kyoraku replied lightly.

Ukitake managed to faintly smile at Kyoraku, but deep inside, he was worried. They had met long time ago, when their families got together for business. The Ukitake household was going through a very hard time, and the head of the Kyoraku family offered to help them. At that time, Juushiro, the oldest child of the Ukitake household, was found to be the same age as the second son of the Kyoraku household, Shunsui. Their first meeting was so short that they did not remember each other when they met again in the academy, but still they both felt that they had been friends for a very long time.

The next few weeks were spent doing the same: wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, have lunch, go to more classes, rest for a little bit, and train a couple hours. After the first month, the First class started a special type of kido training: the teacher would call three people up every day to have a kido fight between the three. This would require a higher level of concentration than when doing a one versus one fight, because now they would have to look out for two "enemies" rather than one.

One day during this kido training session, the teacher called Ukitake, along with two other names.

"Ukitake Juushiro, Kurayami Haruna, and Hiroshima Aoi, come to the circle."

Ukitake stepped up and looked at his fellow students who were called up. He was surprised to see the only girl in the trio: he had bumped into her the first day of class. She looked up to him and smiled; he smiled back. Then the three who had been called stepped into the circle where the fight would take place.

"Remember, you are free to use whatever kido you wish: hado, bakkudo, and kaido," said the instructor. "When there is only one person left standing, either because the other two are knocked out or because they gave up." As he said this, the teacher stepped out of the circle. "Start!"

As soon as the teacher said, "Start," Hiroshima Aoi attacked Kurayami.

"Hadou 4, Byakurai."

Kurayami, reacting fast, casted a shiled. "Seki." (Bakkudo 8)

Hiroshima was surprised by the fact that Kurayami was able to react fast and dodge it. While Hiroshima was awestruck, Ukitake attacked him.

"Hadou 4, Juugeki Byakurai."

Hiroshima jumped and successfully dodged the attack. For a few seconds, the three just stood there, and everybody watched in amazement how fast it all had happened. Then Hiroshima attacked Kurayami again, breaking the stillness of the moment.

"Hadou 31, Shakkahou."

Kurayami jumped, and this time she countered. "Hadou 33: Soukatsui"

Hiroshima jumped to dodge, and right at that moment, Ukitake sealed him. "Bakkudo 1, Sai."

Hiroshima was bounded by the seal, but he was able to break it soon. Then, he attacked Ukitake. "Hadou 32, Oukasen."

Ukitake used Bakkudo 8, Seki, without even saying anything. Hiroshima attacked again. "Hadou 31, Shakkahou."

Almost at the same time as Hiroshima attacked Ukitake, Kurayami attacked Hiroshima. "Hadou 33, Soukatsui."

Both Hiroshima and Ukitake jumped to dodge the attacks coming at them. When Ukitake landed, however, he fell even though he hadn't been hit by anything. He started coughing terribly. Kurayami, concerned, turned to him, and saw blood coming out of his mouth covered with his hand. She ran towards him and tried to help him, but Ukitake's cough kept getting worse and worse.

Hiroshima saw this as a perfect opportunity, and started a chant. "O Lord, Mask of blood and flesh..."

"STOP!" Kurayami cried out. "HE'S COUGHING BLOOD FOR GOODNESS' SAKE!"

Hiroshima didn't listen. "...all creation, flutter wings, you who bears..."

"I'M TELLING YOU TO STOP!" she cried out again. Then she turned to the teacher and the rest of the students and said, "SOMEBODY STOP HIM!"

But everyone was in shock or panic, and no one dared to even move. Hiroshima continued. "...the name of Man, Inferno and Pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, March on to the south! Hadou 31, Shakkahou."

Kurayami was able to block it. "Bakkudou 39, Enkosen."

There was a big explosion, and smoke covered the whole circle. When the smoke finally dissolved enough for everyone to see, Kurayami yelled again. "HE'S ALMOST DYING!"

Kyoraku was the first one to move. By the time he got to the circle, Ukitake was on the floor, unconscious, with blood stain on his hands and mouth. Kurayami was kneeling next to him, with her lap right under Ukitake's head. She seemed to be very calm, now that somebody had moved.

"Call the medics," she told Kyoraku. "Now."

"Alright"

Kyoraku ran to get the medics. Meanwhile, Kurayami was checking Ukitake's pulse very skillfully, as if she had done it a million times before. Then she put her hands on his chest and frowned at whatever she felt. She looked at Hiroshima, who was too shocked to even move a finger, and frowned even more at him.

The medics came fast, and they took Ukitake on a stretch. Kurayami stood up and said, "Take him to the Kurayami house. Either my Father or my Brother should be there."

Once the medics were gone, nobody dared to move. There was a strange tension, and after a few seconds, Kurayami moved out of the circle and left Hiroshima standing by himself. Another minute of silence passed before somebody spoke.

"So, since Ukitake can't go on and Kurayami stepped out, I win, right?" It was Hiroshima.

Kurayami snapped at him. "Is winning everything for you? Somebody was coughing blood and almost dying, and you attacked him with full power. You could have killed him, and you didn't even care about that."

"So if the enemy starts coughing blood, I just stop attacking him because he is sick and I should have some compassion? Don't joke with me," he replied with a frown.

"This is not a real fight!" Kurayami raised her voice again. "It's a stinking training! You know what trainings are for? It's to make us more able to fight in battle. That doesn't mean that everybody else here is an enemy of yours. We're supposed to help each other get stronger, not kill each other." Then, she calmed down and continued in a lower voice. "If you think that attacking a fellow student in a 'battle' because he's half dying and you saw that as a perfect opportunity makes you stronger, you're in the wrong place. Power and strength are very important in battle, I admit that. But if there is no team work, if there is no desire to protect anyone but oneself, if you only want to show off, power and strength are useless. That is basically what you aimed for, and that's going to make you the weakest."

After this, she stood up and followed the path that the medics took. When she had left, Hiroshima suddenly became outraged.

"Who does she think she is? Just because she lost to me, she's calling me a weakling. What? Team work? Desire to protect others? What kind of junk is that? Why should I care about others? I live to protect only myself, because if I don't, who will?"

At this, Kyoraku replied, "You know she's right, but you don't want to admit the fact that she saw right through you and exposed you, so you're trying to turn the table against her. It's not gonna work. She has every right in the world to be mad, and you have no right to be so angry because you were and are wrong in this case." Then he turned around and walked in the same direction as Kurayami. On his way, he stopped in front of the teacher.

"Did you not see what was happening?" he asked, sincerely wondering what he had asked.

"I did."

"Then why did you not stop him?" he questioned with a little resentment and sadness in his voice.

"I knew she would block it, and I wanted to see how you all reacted to this. I'm very proud of you and Kurayami, but I'm disappointed of everybody else."

Kyoraku didn't show any reaction of surprise nor resentment at the teacher's answer and just kept walking.