*A/N: I do not own Bleach, nor do I own the Bleach world, the Bleach characters... Sorry it has taken me so long to write another chapter. I have been extremely ill and am dealing with my illness and recovery slowly. Over the course of a year I have been in and out of the hospital so I hope that all of my fans can forgive me and understand that I haven't forgotten about my stories! I'm still trying to write and give you all the possible material I can give! Please enjoy my new chapter and you are always welcome to comment and or criticize!-T.S.*


Promotions

It had been a two whole weeks since Kiyomi had seen her brother... And reversely, it had been two whole weeks since she had received her new promotion from third seat to acting Lieutenant of the ninth squad. With her new found power of course came more responsibilities... She found herself aiding her 'Taichou' with more paper work and also found herself walking around the compound giving instructions to the men from the acting taichou... The men themselves seemed to have a new found respect for her especially when it came to doing drills and practicing sword tactics.

One particular day as Kiyomi over saw the squad's training, she was watching some of the men practicing their sword fighting drills and overheard two of them talking about their acting captain.

"How can our acting captain hold such a title when he hasn't even achieved captain status?" Asked one of the men to another as they dueled.

"I'm not sure..." Replied the second. As they continued their nonsense, Kiyomi's face turned extremely red. Anger bubbled within her threatening to seep out. With a hand on her zanpaktou, she was about to jump into the fray, but felt a hand grasp her shoulder firmly.

"Iie, Kiyomi..." Turning at the sound of the voice, she saw that the hand upon her shoulder belonged to none other than the acting captain himself.

"Taichou..." She whispered letting out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "I...I..." She began her face lightly scarleting.

"Let them talk... It's alright, really..."

"But-"

"Kiyomi... I don't need you to stick up for me... It's just talk in the end after all..."

Kiyomi sighed and pulled away her hand from her zanpaktou and looked at Hisagi and did her best to smile even though she felt hurt that he didn't want her to sort things out with the men... Doing her best to hide her emotions as usual, she continued to smile and said gently, calmly,

"Shall I end the exercises for today?"

"Hai... See to it that the men-"

Just as he was about to give her more instructions regarding the unit, she heard some of the men laughing and pointing towards her and their acting captain.

"Say... Don't you think... That our acting captain and acting lieutenant make a cute couple?"

"Now that you mention it... They do look rather close-" Two of the men within their squad had stopped performing drills long enough to chat and remark about their acting captain and lieutenant.

Kiyomi could feel her blood starting to boil as her face turned redder and redder. Placing a hand on her sheathed zanpaktou, she was about to unleash her fury upon the two men when someone else disappeared and reappeared in a flash beside the two men.

"And just what is so interesting that today that you two must talk instead of completing the task your acting lieutenant has given you?" Asked Hisagi, a slight hint of annoyance in his tone.

"Uh... Uh... Hisagi-taichou!" Replied one of the men, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. His companion gulped and looked around trying to come up with an excuse but couldn't seem to come up with anything.

"As I thought... Look, you can all talk about me... But do not bring the lieutenant into this matter, is that understood?"

"H-hai!" both replied quickly. Kiyomi could scarcely believe her ears. Was he sticking up for her? As she calmed down, she heard their captain giving out orders to the rest of the squad.

"Alright! Squad nine, that's enough practice for today! You may return to your original duties... Except for you two... Jin and Obi... I have plans for you two... Lieutenant!"

Looking at her acting captain, she quickly made her way down to where he was and said,

"Yes, sir?"

"You have a lot of cleaning to back at the office, correct?"

"Hai... that's... right... I planned on cleaning up after-" Holding up his hand, a smirk formed on his face.

"Well, you have two volunteers here that are more than willing to assist you so that... Please, put them to work as you see fit."

"Hai, taichou!" Without another word to her or the two men in question, Hisagi quickly disappeared to continue with various 'other' duties for the duration of the day.

Meanwhile...

Kiyomi looked at Jin and Obi and had a very, VERY pleased look upon her pretty face.

"Great! Helpers! Alright men, this way!" Leading them to the ninth division office where she and their acting taichou did paper work, she grabbed a dust rag, a pail of water and said,

"I expect you to have this place thoroughly cleaned by the time I get back! Do not touch the stacks of paper work on either desk and do not rummage through the desks... Is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am!" They replied stiffening up like soldiers as she handed them their equipment.

"Uh... Lieutenant?" Asked Jin rather shyly as she made her way towards the door.

"Hmm?"

"Where will you be?"

Putting a finger to her lightly glossed lips, she replied with a rather mischievous smirk on her face,

"Oooh... Probably at the tenth division visiting a friend... Don't worry I'll be back before sundown..." With that, she left the two men to clean and trotted over to the tenth division.

Toushiro's Promise

As Kiyomi made her way to the tenth division, she kind of felt bad for the men that had to clean up squad nine's office... And she worried slightly as to whether or not she could trust them to fulfill their duty... Sighing as she contemplated this, she felt something thud against her stomach and suddenly went down to the ground. Landing on her butt, she quickly looked around for the source of the accident and found a white haired blue green eyed captain sitting on the ground a few feet away from her with a mess of paper work at his feet.

"WOULD YOU WATCH IT?" She heard the angry voice say and then stop when he saw her. A smile spread on her lips as she stood up and began to help the Captain of squad ten pick up his paper work that lay scattered on the floor.

"Sorry about that, Hitsugaya-taichou..."

"Kiyomi!" He said sounding surprised as she handed him his paper work back. Grinning at him she said,

"I was just looking for you, taichou..."

"Souka..." He eyed her suspiciously. Still smiling she nodded her head. Looking around like a maniac, the young captain quickly took her hand as he tucked his paper work under his arm and lead her to his office trying to avoid squad members and other people to avoid any further 'talk' of their 'relationship...' When they finally made it to his office, Kiyomi put a hand over her mouth in order to hide the mirth that threatened to burst forth from her lips.

"Find this funny do you?" Asked Toushiro as he composed himself and sat down at his desk with his paper work. It was then that Kiyomi couldn't keep her composure and a bubble of laughter began. Toushiro turned red and murmured something under his breath.

"It's because of you that people within my squad and outside my squad think we're dating! You got me into this mess and you should-"

"Oh Shi-chan... That-that's not why I'm laughing!"

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Be-because... In all my life I've never seen you move quite so fast as you did today! It was quite hilarious!"

The young captain turned red and sighed feeling annoyed with his older sister. Clearing his throat, he finally said, "What do you want?" Kiyomi noticed he was doing his best to move forward and she finally composed herself and stopped laughing.

"I just came here to tell you... That my captain chose me to be his acting lieutenant and for that reason I haven't been as free as I normally would like to come and visit."

"You mean annoy-"

"Eh... Whatever..." She said dismissing his statement with a flick of her wrists.

"Well... Congratulations on your promotion... But...why aren't you out celebrating with Matsumoto in the usual way?"

Looking at him, she smiled sweetly and said gently, "Well... Ranni isn't here... and I'm overseeing the punishment of two of our men..."

Hitsugaya sighed. "If you're overseeing their punishment, then why the hell are you here? Shouldn't you be watching them?"

"They're only cleaning up squad nine's office... It's not anything major... Besides, I promised to be back before nightfall..."

"You... You left two men of lesser rank all alone and in charge of cleaning up the office? What the hell were you thinking?"

She put a finger to her glossy lips and said rather absent mindedly, "Well... I was thinking of coming to see you to tell you about why I haven't visited in a while..." He sighed as she continued to blabber. "Oh yeah... Today I was going to discipline some other men for talking bad about our captain... But he stopped me..." He noticed the way she acted when she was talking about Hisagi and sighed.

"You like him, don't you?"

She gave him a blank stare and rubbed the back of her head. "Huh? Who? What do you mean?"

"I mean you like Hisagi... If you were angry enough to want to discipline some men over talk, then clearly you must like him..."

"Sh-sh-shut up! What do you know anyways?" She asked turning her back to him as her face heated up.

"I knew it..." He said slyly. Now he had some dirt on her... He could use this against her when she tried to annoy him... All he had to do was push the right buttons and surely she wouldn't bother him as much anymore.

Suddenly, she surprised him by turning the conversation back to serious grounds.

"Hey... Shi-chan? Can I ask you for a favor?" She turned back around towards him and he saw sincerity in her eyes. It was times like this that he hated being her younger brother, hated being affected by the look she was giving him...

"That depends... what is it?" He said after several minutes.

"Well..." She began to nervously play with her hands. "...When I first came to the Soul Society and was made third seat of Kaname Tousan's squad... Before you even came... I vowed to myself that I would get stronger and gain the power to protect those that I cared for... But... After Aizen's betrayal... After my taichou's betrayal... I... I felt so weak... I was so weak... I've only been able to develop my shikai... Somehow I cannot seem to unlock my zanpaktou's true potential... I want to... I want to be stronger, Shi-chan! I want to have the power like my little brother has... I want to protect those I care for with my own two hands!" He could see tears begin to brim her eyes and closed his own sighing. He knew he was going to regret saying this... But he couldn't turn away from her, not when he knew she needed his help.

"Alright, Kiyomi... I will help you... But you have to meet my conditions..."

"Anything!"

"First, we train in secret-somewhere where no one will find us and at a time when no one will find us... Second, give me those damned baby pictures so that I can burn them... Third, tell no one about what I'm helping you do... And fourth..." No he couldn't tell her to stop coming to his office... He couldn't make her promise that... She was his sister and if something happened to her... He needed to make sure she was alright...

"Fourth?" She repeated, pulling out the pictures from her kimono and held them.

"Help me to clear up the rumors that we are dating... If you can agree to all of these then I will lend you my strength..." Oddly enough Kiyomi willingly parted with her treasured baby pictures and said,

"Whatever it takes, Shi-chan... I mean... Hitsugaya-taichou..." Smiling at him she brushed away the stray tears that began to fall down her cheeks.

He looked at the baby pictures-his baby pictures and sighed. "Alright then... We'll start your training whenever you have more free time... Come to the office when you have another free opportunity and we'll make more plans."

"Alright... Thank you!" Instead of squeezing him against her chest, this time she walked towards him and planted a kiss on his cheek, just as Matsumoto came barging in with a bottle of sake.

"TAICHOUUUUUU! I'm ba-Oh my! It seems I've come at a bad moment! Kiyomi you naughty girl! Sneaking away from-"

Turning towards her, Kiyomi held up her hands. "Ranni! It's not like that! Really! I... He..." ~He's my younger brother...~ the words were on the tip of her tongue but she dared not utter them. Suddenly Toushiro surprised them both,

"Rain down from the frosted heavens-" They felt the air within the office get really really cold... Suddenly both women were scrambling for the door and falling over one another.

"Eeeek! Taichou why do you have to be sooo cold?" Shrieked Matsumoto as Kiyomi let out her own shriek of fear after making it out of squad ten's office more or less in tact with a few numbed fingers and toes...