Disclaimer: If I own Bleach, I am not writing this

A/n: First Bleach fan fiction…. Hope that this idea has never been brought out.

Renji bumped into a cloaked figure as he ran away form the angry shopkeeper laughingly. "Oops, I am sorry," he cried. Looking up, he saw that the person was very pretty. A shapely pale face framed by black hair, he looked extremely dignified and beautiful, more so among the filth of Rukongai. "You are very beautiful," Renji whispered. The man looked shocked. Renji saw a pair of shoes, shoes that only a shinigami wore. Then Renji was off running.

That night, he spoke to Rukia, his playmate and one he considered his sister. "Rukia, I want to become a shinigami and enter Sereitei," Renji spoke quietly. "Why? Are you unhappy here?" asked a bewildered Rukia. "No, but I yearn for a better life," Renji lied, not wanting to tell Rukia what he really thought. He wanted to enter Sereitei and get close to the beauty he saw this afternoon. Rukia smiled encouragingly at him and agreed.

The two children's reiatsu was strong for their age. Therefore they had no trouble getting enrolled in the shinigami academy. Being one with high talents for physical attack skill, Renji was put into another class with others like him. There, he met Kira Izuru and Hinamori Momo, trainee shinigami like him and Rukia.

Rukia's specialty was on kido spells. She was weaker in physical attacks but better in kido attacks, which basically means that they almost always drew when fighting each other. However, with the awakening of their zanpakuto, it was clear that Renji was more superior.

Renji had always dreamt about seeing the dark hair beauty again one day. What he had not known was that his wish was to be granted soon.

He ran to find Rukia to boast about yet another accomplishment. "Rukia!" he cried as he burst into the room only to find himself facing the dark hair beauty of his dreams. He was wearing the white haori of the captains and there was a large kanji saying Sixth on his back. The man did not take note of him and turn to leave. Rukia looked stricken and Renji himself was overwhelmed.

"Who is he, Rukia? What does he want?" Renji asked urgently. Rukia shook her head but answered. "He was the head of the Kuchiki clan as well as the captain of the Sixth Division of the Gotei 13. He came to adopt me as his sister." "What?!"

Renji was overwhelmed by the new information. He could only give his congratulations to Rukia after a short while. His dream was a captain and a noble. The noble was going to take away Rukia. There was no way for him to be noticed. He was nothing but scum from the lowest of Rukongai. How could he be able to hold his head proud when he spoke to him? Pain lanced through him when he realized that he was going to lose Rukia to him too. This was yet another reason for him to get close to the noble.

Then an idea came to him, he would trained hard and try to get to a position where the noble Kuchiki Byakuya would had no choice but to notice him. From that day onwards, he trained doubly as hard. Although he remained friends with Rukia, no, Kuchiki Rukia, he slowly distanced himself from her. She was now a noble and should not mingle with scum from Rukongai like him.

Kira and Momo told him that he was thinking too much and they were sure that Rukia would love his company. But he still stayed away from her, self-doubt and fear keeping him away.

They graduated from the academy. He went to the Eleventh Division while Rukia went to the Thirteenth Division. Renji kept track of Rukia although he stayed away from her.

At the Eleventh Division, he was introduced to the love of battle as well as new acquaintances such as Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika, respectively the 3rd seat and the 5th seat. And Renji wondered will he ever get close enough to be noticed by the noble.

Then he was notified of his elevation to the position of fukutaicho of the Sixth Division. He was glad of the chance but Kuchiki taicho never gave any evidence that he was aware of his own fukutaicho.