160 Years ago.

"Lady Yoruichi, the new squad members have arrived. Are you ready to greet them?" The young Squad 2 member stood outside of Yoruichi's captain's quarters, looking every bit as inexperienced and nervous as he felt. After a long agonising moment, Yoruichi spoke,

"Don't worry Yamada; I'm on my way now." As she said this, Yoruichi slid open the paper door sectioning off her room and strolled out, it was obvious that she had only just awoken from sleep as her uniform was slightly rumpled and her hair stuck out in every direction. With a yawn, she proceeded towards the wing where the recruits were waiting.

Yamada shadowed her all the way to the welcome room and every time he glanced towards her during the journey, it seemed to him like she only became more and more radiant, her hair had suddenly found its way into a sleek hairstyle and her clothes looked fresh and new unlike the outfit she had worn just a few minutes before. He hadn't even seen her lift a finger but she had somehow made herself presentable never the less. Yoruichi noticed Yamada staring with a confused expression at her appearance and decided offered an explanation,

"I'm head of the Shihōin family and Captain of the Stealth Force, Yamada," she gave him a wide grin, showing off her sharp incisors, "there are a lot of things that I can do without you noticing."

With this, Yoruichi used flash step to disappear from beside him, only to reappear directly in front of him, kiss him on the cheek and return to his side as if nothing had occurred. This had all taken place within a mere second and as Yoruichi continued walking down the hall, Yamada was left frozen in place with his hand pressed softly to his cheek, completely speechless. He wasn't quite sure as to what had just happened because it had been so unbelievably fast.

By this time they had already reached their destination so Yamada bowed deeply, his fist pressed over his heart as a sign of respect, and slid open the door for Lady Yoruichi before hastily rushing off to his barracks to start with the day's chores. Yoruichi frowned after him, she wished that he would drop all of the annoying formal stuff, it made her feel guilty that she received special treatment just because of the noblewoman's blood coursing through her veins. Without further ado, she stepped into the room to greet the fresh recruits.

"Kisuke!?" She exclaimed shortly after lifting her head to look at her new subordinates, it was not often that she was caught off guard but this was one of those rare moments in action. Kisuke Urahara was probably the last person she had expected to see here, although the last time that she had seen him he had sworn to her that he was going to become the greatest soul reaper of all time.

Kisuke, herself and another friend named Tessai had often played together in the Shihōin mansion on hot summer days such as this one all those years ago, she hadn't been able to see either of them that much after her training to become the head of the clan had begun, and once she had gained membership as one of the soul reapers in Squad 2, she hadn't been able to see Tessai or Kisuke at all. That had been about 40 years ago.

"Ah Yoruichi, I heard that you were going to be my new captain, well this is going to be fun!" Kisuke said with a faint fond smile at the edges of his lips, the hair that fell messily over his eyes had obstructed his vision so he used his mouth to blow the strand away from his face, this was to no avail as it quickly settled back into its original place.

Yoruichi had recovered from the shock of seeing an old friend fairly quickly and now stood with her arms folded across her chest and had a cocky smile plastered upon her face.

"Well Kisuke, looks like I'm going to have a lot of fun training you!" She laughed whole-heartedly.

"Wait a second!" one of the other new members exclaimed, "You know each other? Ah man, he's probably going to get all the good jobs now if he's friends with the captain."

"Oh, quite the opposite actually," Yoruichi smiled devilishly at Kisuke, who scratched his head and looked rather sheepish, "you see, when we were kids we had a bet on who would become a captain faster, now he's got to fulfil his side of the deal."

"You still remember that? Oh jeez, looks like my life's gonna become a living hell for the next few years" Yoruichi ignored the comment but it was clear to Kisuke through the way that her eyes sparkled, that this was indeed true.

"You!" Yoruichi said instead, gesturing to the new recruit who had spoken out only a few moments ago.

"Y-yes ma'am" he stuttered, suddenly uncomfortable under the full force of her gaze.

"I don't want you ever saying stuff like that again, do you hear me? I never discriminate against people, especially for stupid reasons like already knowing them. Apologise to Kisuke immediately."

The new recruit just looked on at Yoruichi in bewilderment; he had not expected her to react so passionately. "Sorry!" he said.

"Good, now all of you, get to work; there are a lot of petals that need to be swept from the hallways, spring is ending people!"

Yoruichi hastily departed from the welcome room, leaving the five new Squad 2 members staring after her, with expressions varying from admiration, to shock, to annoyance. She didn't care though, they were all part of her Squad now and could think what they liked, as long as they stayed devoted to their jobs and never swayed from the path of fairness and honesty, it was alright with her. She vaguely recalled another Squad member going into the room which held Kisuke and the others and showing them to their quarters, but by that time she was already half way to the training grounds where she watched the more experienced members of the Stealth Force practice their finely tuned skills on one another.

I know it's a short chapter, but I prefer to have short chapters so the story keeps fresh. More soon!