A/N: Thank you for taking the time to read my story. This is my first attempt at writing fanfiction so I can't promise it'll be perfect. In fact, it'll probably be far from perfect. To help me write a better story I ask you to please leave a review with some helpful comments. I can only learn from my mistakes and the more mistakes I see, the faster I learn.

I don't own Bleach in any way, shape, or form.

Prologue:

Ichigo Kurosaki was old. Very old. His last estimate of his age placed him at around 2000 years old. Give or take a few centuries. The only other person who could claim to be older than him was the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, Genryūsai Yamamoto. He was an old friend and companion of Ichigo's back when they were both young men and bloodthirsty. They traveled through the Rukongai and honed their skills on those who challenged them. They eventually gained a reputation throughout by their nicknames, The Sun of Death and The Bloody Moon. Roughly 1000 years had passed before the need for battle eventually waned in the two warriors and they began to see the conditions people had to live in to survive. They also saw how easily the people with power took from those without any, and this eventually led to them trying to protect the weak. Though their efforts saved many, it was another 300 years before they realized that they alone couldn't save everyone. It was Yamamoto who first thought of creating an army and it was Ichigo who thought of creating Shin'ō Academy to train their future soldiers. They spent many years working on making their dreams a reality. They wandered the Rukongai looking for powerful people that would assist them in reaching their goals and eventually had enough allies to start their academy.

After building their school, they set out on finding the students to fill the halls. Most of the potential students had a fair amount of Reiryoku but they did manage to find a handful that had enough that Ichigo had planned to groom them to be the Captains of their army.

It had been a very long time since the academy had been opened and Yamamoto and Ichigo's army was strong and continued to grow. They now had a total of five captains. The first captains of the army beside the founders were two young men and a young woman.

Shunsui Kyōraku and Jūshirō Ukitake were both found a recruited by Yamamoto who treated them as if they were his sons. Shunsui was a bit of a slacker and was known to be a womanizer and a heavy drinker. Jūshirō was a very calm person and very quick to make friends with his wide smile and happy tone. Yamamoto took great pride in the two and trained them himself to ensure that they reach their full potential.

It was Ichigo who found their only female captain. Her name was Retsu Unohana. Retsu was an interesting person to have as a captain in an army as she hated fighting. While she was very well trained with a sword, Ichigo made sure of that, her true power lay in her healing abilities. Ichigo had found her through word of mouth while looking for potential students. He had heard about a young girl with amazing powers to heal almost any injury. Ichigo followed to rumors and found Retsu. He quickly convinced her to join the academy and she soon graduated and took her place as captain and as the head healer for the army.

The first five captains all held a very close bond with Ichigo and Yamamoto as their mentors and Shunsui, Jūshirō, and Retsu as the students and eventually, children. Although it wasn't publicly shown, Yamamoto loved his two protégés as if they were his blood and Ichigo was the same with Retsu, or as he liked to call her "Little Hime".

As their army continued to grow, Ichigo and Yamamoto were approached by a being that called itself the Spirit King. The being informed them of the ongoing rampage that the corrupt souls known as Hollows were wreaking upon the human world. He asked them to travel to the human world and purify the Hollows so that they may finally rest in peace. Ichigo and Yamamoto accepted without hesitation to help the weak. In return the Soul King provided them with 7 of his finest soldiers to serve in their army and bestowed them the title of Shinigami. With a new mission before them, the entire army (now known as the Gotei 13), trained harder than before in order to protect those that could not protect themselves.

The Gotei 13 carried out their mission with great dedication for many years until one of their numbers grew tired of fighting. The decision came after a mission to the human world to fight a powerful hollow. Of the 20 soldiers that followed their captain into battle, only 9 made it back. The loss of so many of his friends and companions made Ichigo depressed and he soon wished to retire and live in the human world. Due to his immense contributions to the Gotei 13, Ichigo was allowed to leave with his powers to live in the human world. While Yamamoto was sad to see his friend as a broken shell, he let him leave in the hopes that he would one day return.

Chapter 1

Rukia Kuchiki was a young shinigami, having only been in the service of the Gotei 13 for 40 years. She had made it through the academy with high marks and was very capable with Kido. She was currently and unseated member of the Thirteenth Division under Jūshirō Ukitake. The reason why she had not been given a higher ranking was because of her adoptive brother, Byakuya Kuchiki.

Byakuya was the current captain of the sixth division and was known for being strict and cold. What many people didn't know was that he did care deeply for Rukia even if he didn't show it. His late wife was the older sister of Rukia's and she had made Byakuya promise to find and take care of her after she died. It was because of this promise that Byakuya approached Jūshirō and asked him to not give Rukia a seated position in order to keep her safe. Jūshirō reluctantly agreed and didn't grant the position she deserved.

It was because she was an unseated officer that she was given a two week assignment to purify any Hollows found in Karakura Town. She was nervous about being on her own but determined to show her brother that she wasn't weak.

Rukia had just arrived in Karakura town and proceeded to make her way towards the Gotei 13's contact in the human world to obtain her gigai. A few minutes later she found herself standing outside of a small shop with the sign "Urahara Shōten" above it. Quickly walking forward, she entered the store to find a small girl with black hair done up in two pigtails on the side of her head with to long strands falling in front of her face parting just above her nose.

"Can I help you?" The girl asked in a timid tone.

"I'm here to see Urahara-san?" Rukia replied.

"He's in the back. One moment please." The small girl whispered before promptly disappearing.

Rukia stared blankly at the spot the girl had stood before looking around the shop. Just from the public merchandise it looked as though this was just a simple candy shop, but hopefully this Urahara had the supplies she needed.

"Ohhh helllllllooooo Shinigami-sama! What can I help you with today?" a voice shouted from behind her. Being surprised, Rukia fell onto the ground.

"Are you alright down there Shinigami-sama?" The same voice asked. Looking up she saw a blond haired man wearing green and white striped bucket hat and a brown haori. Glaring at him she raised a leg and kicked him in the face.

"Do you go around scaring all you customers like that!?" She shouted at him while he clutched his now bleeding nose.

"I apologize. You were so lost in thought that I couldn't pass the chance up. I am Kisuke Urahara, owner of this humble shop, how may I help you today Shinigami-sama?" He explained with a wide grin on his face. Rukia sent him another glare but calmed herself down before things got out hand. Her brother would be disappointed if she lost her temper on a mere shopkeeper.

"I'm here for the supplies that the thirteenth requested." Rukia said while still calming herself down.

"Ahhh. So you're our protector for the next couple weeks. Good luck Shinigami-sama." He said while ducking behind the counter and reappearing with a bag of clothes and a life-less copy of Rukia.

"Here are your clothes and your gigai. Don't worry about paying now; I'll just start a tab for you." He said gleefully while hiding most of his face behind a fan. Rukia just shot him another glare and got inside her gigai.

"Thanks for the supplies Urahara-san." Rukia said while picking up her clothes, hoping to get away from the crazy shopkeeper soon.

"Be safe now Shinigami-sama!" Urahara shouted at her as she quickly left his shop. As soon as she left his wide grin dropped and his eyes gained a calculating gleam.

"I wonder how long it took to convince Byakuya to let her go on a mission by herself." He mused while walking to his back room. An old friend had dropped by to visit that he hadn't seen in a very long time.

Rukia had just finished her first week of patrolling and she found herself extremely bored. She had only encountered 4 hollows so far and they were all defeated very quickly. She had taken to sitting on top of building or telephone poles and watching the humans run around, completely oblivious to the dangers that they were in due to the hollows. Tonight was another slow night with only one hollow showing up for the entire day. Having nothing better to do, she decided to see if Urahara could use some help at the store.

She quietly entered the store and saw nobody in the front room but heard voices coming from the back room. Tip-toeing into the back of the shop, she stopped in front of a trap door where she could hear loud laughter coming from beneath. Glancing around she lifted to door and started to climb down the ladder. After going down a few rungs, she was surprised to feel sunlight on her face. Stopping her descent to look around she saw a vast expanse of rocky terrain and a sunlit sky dotted with fluffy white clouds. Looking down, she could barely make Urahara sitting at a table with a man sitting across from him. The first this Rukia noticed about him was his bright orange hair that made him extremely visible, even from the height she was currently at.

Quickly making her way down the rest of the ladder she began to make her way towards Urahara and the orange haired man. As she got closer she could hear loud laughter coming from both men.

"Maybe I should wait until later. I'm probably intruding on their conversation." Rukia thought to herself. Before she could turn around and leave she heard a deep voice shout out.

"Oi, Kuchiki Rukia, you just gonna stand there all night or are you gonna join us?" Rukia jumped, being startled out of her thoughts. She quickly headed over to see who knew her name and how they knew it. When she approached the table she quickly took in the orange haired man. He appeared to be fairly tall man, in his early 20's. His orange hair was cut short and ended just past his eye brows. He had peach coloured skin and dark brown eyes.

"Took you long enough to get down her Kuchiki. We've been waiting most of the night for you to show up." The orange haired man said before taking a long swig out of the sake bottle in front of him.

"How could you be certain that I would come here?" Rukia asked, testing his knowledge to see how much he knew about Soul Society.

"You don't have a job, you don't go to school and I scared off all the hollows so you'd get bored and come here to hang out." He replied in a cool tone.

"What!? How would you scare off a hollow? I can barely sense any reiatsu coming from you!" Rukia shouted in disbelief.

"That's because I keep most of it under lock and key. I let some off while you were sleeping last night to scare the hollows away. They may be attracted to reiatsu but too much from one source scares the weak guys off." He calmly answered.

"Just who exactly are you?" Rukia really wanted to know who this stranger was now.

"Was wondering when you were gonna ask me that." He sighed. "I suppose I should do proper introductions." He set his sake bottle down and stood up and faced Rukia.

"Pleased to meet you Kuchiki Rukia, Thirteenth Division of the Gotei 13. My name, is Ichigo Kurosaki".