Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters of settings, Tite Kubo does.

A Mistake made for Revenge

Kurosaki Ichigo had been having a really strange dream. It was one where he felt like his head was melting. The experience wasn't actually entirely unpleasant, but it was strange all the same.

Brown eyes flicked open and the teenager sat bolt upright, casting around in confusion. Realising that it really had been just a dream, he got out of bed, got dressed, and then went downstairs to have breakfast.

'Good morning Ichi-nii,' Yuzu, one of his younger sisters, called out from the kitchen, 'How did you sleep?'

'Fine thanks,' sitting down at the table, Ichigo was ignorant to the sly look his father, Isshin, was giving him. Then the man stood up and declared he was going to work and vanished out the door.

'You don't need to shout!' Karin, Ichigo's other sister, shouted out loudly, then she saw her older brother and said, 'Morning,'

'Thanks,' Ichigo accepted the food from Yuzu before replying with a 'good morning' to Karin.

After he'd eaten, Ichigo was about to leave for school when he heard a buzzing noise. It was, of course, his Substitute Shinigami badge, warning him of an impending Hollow attack. Forgetting about school entirely, he separated his soul from his body using the badge, and then, now in shinigami form, he jumped out his bedroom window.

As the air whistled around his body, he searched for the source of the disturbance, finding it near the edge of Karakura Town. Stopping in the sky, Ichigo searched hard for the source and located the Hollow quickly. Rushing down, he drew his zanpakuto, a blade named Zangetsu, and got ready to slice the slug like creature in half. Suddenly there was a flash of black and the Hollow disintegrated.

Ichigo stared, dumbstruck, until he realised there was a figure standing on the ground where the Hollow had been moments before.

'Rukia?' he could hardly believe what he was seeing, 'Is that you?'

Violet coloured eyes flicked up to him and then they widened impossibly. In a flash the shinigami was gone from the ground, appearing before Ichigo with her blade on his chest.

'Huh? Rukia?' Ichigo wasn't sure whether or not she was joking as her face was only displaying shock.

'Stop saying my name,' her serious tone was cold, 'Who the hell are you?'

'What?' now the substitute shinigami was really confused, 'What do you mean, who am I? It's me!'

'What do you mean it's you?' she didn't relax her position at all and Ichigo could feel the tip of the katana through the fabric of his shihakusho.

'We've known each other for ages!' the teenager protested indignantly, his voice coming out sounding different to usual, 'Don't you remember?'

'Oh,' Rukia sheathed her blade and stepped away, her eyes now displaying relief and amazement, 'Really? I must have made a mistake. How can this be happening?'

'I'm glad you appear to be remembering now,' Ichigo sighed, 'And I don't get what you mean about this happening,'

If Rukia's attention hadn't been completely captivated by Ichigo's head, she might've realised a couple of things then, but as it was, she hadn't noticed a single one.

'So what have you been doing lately?' she sounded shy, something that surprised Ichigo immensely.

'The usual,' he sighed again, 'Fighting Hollows and all that,'

'Right,' she still sounded quiet, but also seemingly awestruck.

'Ah,' brown eyes narrowed as Ichigo tried to work out what to say, 'Are you okay?'

'Perfectly fine,' the pair of them arrived at the park near Ichigo's school and he suddenly realised that he'd left his body at home.

'Are you certain?' for some reason Ichigo had the feeling that something really wasn't right.

'Yes I'm certain,' rounding on him, Rukia glared fiercely, 'I'm just a bit surprised that you're alive. I really thought I was mistaken! Does that surprise you?'

'Well, actually, yes it does!' Ichigo found himself yelling, 'What on earth is wrong with you Rukia?'

'Wrong with me?' she was shouting right back, 'The last time I saw you alive was ages ago. And even then I'm not sure if it was you or not,'

'We saw each other three weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure I was alive then!' Ichigo was getting really worked up over his friend's behaviour.

'Three weeks ago?' Rukia was yelling with all her might, unsure where her confidence was coming from considering her usual behaviour around him, 'Have you lost your mind?'

'No!' now Ichigo was screaming, 'But you have!'

'I'm insulted!' Rukia huffed loudly, glaring darkly, 'Last time I saw you, you acted strange enough! What's with this new act, Kaien-dono?'

Ichigo was about to shout something more when his mind suddenly registered her words, 'Kaien?'

Rukia blinked, eyes suddenly seeing everything she hadn't seen before. Brown eyes, not blue green ones, slightly shorter hair, completely different zanpakuto . . . 'Ichigo?'

'Damn right!' Ichigo sighed and rubbed his face tiredly, 'How the hell can you mistake me for your dead mentor?'

Rukia flinched at the word 'dead', but she spoke evenly, if a little surprised, 'But you really-,' she trailed off, some kind of realisation dawning in her eyes, 'Come with me,'

Grabbing a hold of Ichigo's arm, she dragged him over to the nearest shop window, 'Look,'

Ichigo looked at his reflection and his sharp remark died on his tongue. A person wearing a shihakusho stared back at him, but that wasn't the actual difference.

His orange hair, his natural orange hair, was gone.

'How-,' he broke off, raising one hand to touch his head, 'How come I have black hair?'

'You're asking me?' Rukia hoped he'd realise how easy it had been to overlook the obvious and make such a mistake.

'I can't believe this,' Ichigo was aghast, 'Who would've dared to do this to me?'

'Don't sound so shocked, really,' sighing, the petite shinigami turned to face the direction of the Kurosaki house, 'Let's go, someone in your family's bound to know something,'

'Fine,' still in a state of shock, Ichigo wandered after her.

As they entered Ichigo's room through the window, Rukia blinked, 'Hey Ichigo,'

'Yeah?' the teenager entered his body, stretching.

'How come your soul has black hair too?' the shinigami had never heard of such a strange thing happening before, 'I would've thought the dye would only affect your body,'

'Look, I don't care which part of me it affects,' Ichigo was silently trying to cope with the dramatic change, 'I just want my normal hair colour back,'

Deciding to be evil, Rukia sighed, 'You know, you'd fit into society better if you just left the dye in,'

Twitching, Ichigo rounded on her and glared fiercely, 'No way!'

'Ichi-nii?' Yuzu's voice floated through the door, 'Are you alright?'

'Oh, I'm fine Yuzu,' pausing, Ichigo added, 'Hey, would you come in for a moment?'

'What is it?' the girl slipped into his room, oblivious to Rukia's presence.

'Yuzu, do you know anything about this?' Ichigo's tone was dead serious as he tugged on his hair.

His sister blinked and began stuttering, 'D-don't b-b-blame me Ichi-niiiii,' she wailed the last part, 'It was K-karin's idea in the first place. A-and then dad got that d-dye from a w-weird man with a green and white h-hat,'

'Urahara,' Rukia blinked, then she sighed, 'No wonder it affected your soul as well then,'

'It's okay Yuzu,' Ichigo was smiling forcefully, 'Where's Karin?'

'Playing soccer,' the girl hurried away.

'Rukia, let's go,' the pair of them exited the house once more, Rukia via the window, and Ichigo via the front door, and then they ran to the soccer field.

'Karin!' Ichigo's shout carried easily, 'Come over here now!'

'What is it?' she sounded awfully innocent.

'What did you do to my hair?' the teenager glared at her. Rukia, hiding nearby as she knew Karin had a strong spiritual awareness, smirked at how concerned Ichigo sounded.

'It was a joke,' Karin was so casual as she waved a hand nonchalantly, 'I thought it would be funny,'

'Funny?' Ichigo stared at her harder, 'Forget that, how do I remove the dye?'

'Dad'd got the only stuff that will return your hair to normal,' the girl turned to walk back to the field, 'And if you try anything else, your hair will go white,'

'Aaargh,' fighting back his anger, Ichigo got ready to take on his father.

'You want to removing fluid?' Isshin nodded, seeming surprisingly calm compared to his usual self, 'Right, here you go,'

Ichigo stared at the proffered bottle in shock, 'You're just giving it to me?'

'Why not? We've all had a good laugh,' shaking the bottle, the man gave up waiting for his son to take it and tossed it to him instead.

As Ichigo caught it, he blinked, 'What do you mean you've all had a good laugh?'

'What he means is this,' the new voice made Ichigo turn, eyes landing on one Urahara Kisuke, as casual and laid back as ever, 'You've made a lot of people smile, Kurosaki,'

'Huh?' Ichigo flinched when five giant spotlights turned on, illuminating the warehouse he and Rukia had found Isshin in.

Once the light cleared from his eyes, Ichigo saw that the multiple levels in the building, exposed as the centre of each floor had collapsed long ago, contained hundreds of shinigami, a few humans, and one Quincy.

'Yoruichi! Uryu! Chad! Inoue!' Ichigo's eyes couldn't have gotten any wider, 'Renji! Ikkaku! Yumichika! Kenpachi!' he blinked a few more times, seemingly unaware that he was just shouting out people's names, 'Byakuya! Unohana! Ukitake!' gaze dropping so that is line of sight met one short captain, Ichigo continued, 'Toshiro!'

'That's Captain Hitsugaya!' the white haired shinigami shouted back, effectively cutting off Ichigo's rant.

'Why are you all here?' now over most of his initial surprise, Ichigo wondered why all of the captains, lieutenants, and quite a few members of their Divisions, were all standing in the building.

'Didn't you hear me, Kurosaki?' Urahara sauntered over, stopping before the newly black haired teenager, 'They're here because of you,'

Ichigo suddenly noticed Karin and Yuzu walk in. Yuzu carried a calendar, and Karin was holding up a sign which read, rather simply and cryptically, '2'.

'What's the meaning of all this?' the substitute shinigami suddenly noticed Rukia smirking, 'Don't tell me you were actually in on everything too?'

'Of course,' she smiled at him sweetly, violet eyes positively twinkling with pure wickedness.

'Kurosaki,' his attention was drawn back to Urahara, 'How long do you think you've had black hair for?'

'Since this morning?' Ichigo was uncertain.

'Incorrect,' taking the sign from Karin, Kisuke held it up, 'You've been like that for two days, Kurosaki. Look at the calendar if you need more evidence,'

'Huh?' Ichigo was getting more and more confused.

'You think today's the twelfth?' when the teenager nodded, Urahara continued, 'It's the fourteenth,'

'Then what have I been doing all that time?' Ichigo wasn't sure he actually wanted to know, especially as there were quite a few shinigami smirking above him.

'Ask around,' Urahara replied enigmatically, 'I'm sure everyone'll be eager to tell you,'

Yoruichi jumped down, landing with feline grace, and then grinned at Ichigo, one hand brushing her purple hair from her face, 'You're a real laugh Ichigo,'

As she and Urahara turned and vanished, everyone else began to jump from their high vantage points.

'Have fun son!' Isshin, Karin and Yuzu slipped out the door as well.

'Wait! What's going on?' Ichigo shouted out, panicking slightly.

'You should be more worried about what's already happened,' Renji chuckled wickedly, 'Who knew you could actually sing,'

Ichigo paled, 'I sang?'

'Not just singing, but dancing too,' Yumichika nodded agreeably, 'It was enough to have most of the Eleventh Division in the Relief Station for days. They were diagnosed with slight brain damage due to intense laughter,'

'What?' the teenager was getting incredibly worried.

'Ichigo,' Rukia grabbed his hand and used shunpo to take him to the top of the building, grinning at him, she said, 'Are you scared?'

'Very,' he was so pale he looked like a ghost.

'Don't worry about them,' Rukia sighed, 'It has been two days since your hair was dyed, but the worst thing you really did was stand on Ukitake's roof and proclaim your passionate, burning love for bonsai,' she paused, 'No, maybe it when you crashed the captains meeting just to say you found your long lost sister and then tried to hug Soifon and kiss her cheek. You're really lucky she didn't get Suzumebachi's second strike to hit you,' tilting her head, the shinigami continued, 'Or was it when you followed Head Captain Yamamoto around wherever he went and asked 'your grandfather' for sweets. He got Captain Kenpachi to fight you, but then you kept trying to bite the bells in the captain's hair. You called Kenpachi a-,'

'What does dying my hair have anything to do with acting like an idiot?' Ichigo cut her off, trying as hard as he could to ignore what she'd said.

'Because the dye affects your mind,' Rukia shrugged offhandedly, 'The fact that its black is really only a coincidence,'

'Ichigo!' 'Kurosaki!' 'Strawberry!' 'Substitute Shinigami!' 'You bastard!'

As the members of the Gotei 13 burst from the hole in the roof yelling out different terms of endearment, Ichigo turned and ran as fast as he could.

He didn't want to know what he'd done. He just wanted to escape from the whole nightmare. But, of course, it wasn't a dream.

'Curse you Urahara!' the scream came just before Ichigo tripped and the first shinigami caught up with him.

Standing on a nearby building, the real mastermind of the whole event, which included the programming of the dye, watched with a smile of satisfaction, 'Next time, you should think twice about insulting my love of Chappy,'

Then Kuchiki Rukia turned and stepped through the Senkaimon and began the journey back to the Soul Society.

Author's Note:

Why? I'm having way too many strange ideas lately . . .

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed - strange as it is - and I thank you for reading.