Author's Note: I hope you are enjoying the story so far! Also, thanks for the many reviews and story alerts! Arigato! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way.

Hitsugaya walked swifly down the corridors of the tenth division. On his way, he was greeted by his subordinates, and, at an even, brisk pace, he walked down to his office. Black ink of a ten kanji was written between the two doors, a white border placed around the kanji, making it visible to everyone's eye. Reaching his hand to the door handle, he slid open the doorway. He gave a brief sigh, and looked around his office. His once-so-clean and neat office was now disorganised and untidy. Papers were sprawled across the floor, making it impossible to cross without stepping on one of the million sheets of paperwork. On his desk, were two sake bottles. That made it clear than Matsumoto did not do any work at all. Not a single sheet.

Hitsugaya's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"MAT-SU-MOTO!" An ear piercing yell echoed throughout Soul Society. With that, an angry taicho stormed out of his office, and shunpoed off to find Matsumoto.

Matsumoto smirked. She was with Renji and obviously was drinking sake. They were at a local bar, crowded with people.

"Shouldn't you be heading back to your division?" Renji asked, gulping down a bottle of sake. He had received permission to leave from his taicho when he had completed his share of paperwork. But then, he was still wondering how Matsumoto managed to complete her share of paperwork, since her taicho took in the 5th and 3rd division's share as well. Renji gave out a deep sigh. However, knowing Matsumoto, she probrably just skipped it without even touching the sheets. Or, she could've drank her way out of paperwork. Which looked like she did. She was very wobbly when she got here; drunk in other words.

Matsumoto shook her head, "I'm sure my taicho won't mind, what about your taicho?"

The thought of his taicho brought back some strange memories from the morning. He had walked into the office without a greeting and well, they just finished the paperwork without a word. Then as soon as they finished, he was dismissed.

Flashback:

"You are dismissed." Byakuya gave Renji a murderous glare before Renji scurried off out of the office.

Speaking of which, it wasn't like Kuchiki-taicho to actually not drink his tea. Every morning, it was almost like one of his regular routines. Whenever he didn't drink his tea, something was on his mind; but this time, he couldn't distinguish what exactly was on Byakuya's deceitful mind though.

"What are you thinking about?!" Matsumoto's face was directly in front of Renji's, a questioning look on her face, "Don't worry about my taicho, I'm sure he won't be mad!"

Renji gave a hesitant, nervous laugh, "Really?" He looked away from Matsumoto. 'In any case, I shouldn't be with her if Hitsugaya-taicho decides to show up'

Slowly, he got off his chair, brushing the dirt off his hakuma. Right afterwards, he gave a quick glance to Matsumoto. He tapped his foot in a slow beat, choosing precise words to get away from Matsumoto. "M-Matsumoto, I just remembered that I have-"

Just then, a swift wind rushed past them, and they looked backwards to see...

"K-Kuchiki-taicho!" Renji bowed down in an elegant manner, looking down at the ground, almost embarrased to see him. How long had he been there anyways?

"Renji," Byakuya trailed off.

Renji looked up to meet the far-distant eyes of Byakuya. There wasn't much change in his taicho's odd behaviour, and he didn't want to be killed by him if he asked what was wrong.

"Bya-kun!" Matsumoto yelled cheerfully, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "Have you come here for drinking purposes?"

Byakuya was unfazed; he just pushed her arm away, uttering a brief, cold and menacing "no."

And just when things were just getting a bit better for Renji to leave...

A white-haired taicho was seen in the distance. Quickly he shunpoed over to the group.

"Matsumoto!" Hitsugaya sighed in annoyance,walking up to the bar, "Aren't you supposed to be doing paperwork?" He glanced around, his gaze stopping at Byakuya.

A brief moment of silence befell them. In the end, Hitsugaya was the one who broke the trance.

"Kuchiki-taicho, what are you doing here?" Hitsugaya folded his arms. He looked at Renji who was still on the ground bowing and then to Byakuya himself, who was looking at Renji because of his odd actions.

Upon not hearing an answer from him, Hitsugaya diverted his attention to Matsumoto.

"You've been drinking again!" He muttered in a menacing and evil tone.

Matsumoto quickly turned around and looked at Hitsugaya, pouting, "Taicho, you know I am fully uncapable of doing paperwork and-"

"Well, you should at least try to finish some of it," he snapped back angrily. A cold, fierce reiatsu filled the empty room, and in a matter of moments, the bar was empty. With another sip of her sake, she looked with emotionless eyes at her taicho. A storm was brewing.

"Taicho is such a work-a-holic," Matsumoto commented, looking away from the prodigy. With that, she gulped down another bottle of sake.

"I will NOT tolerate sake in my office." Hitsugaya stated, throwing the empty sake bottles onto the ground. Matsumoto did not even look back; she had to be very drunk at this state.

Without a moment of hesitation, Hitsugaya swapped her sake, and switched it with purifying water (taken from the 4th division; makes a person normal from being drunk). He let out a deep sigh, watching his lieutenant drink the "medicine." Soon afterwards, he placed the bottle back on the table, knowing Matsumoto would be "cured."...at least for now. She shook her head back into focus, confused at what was happening.

"Kuchiki-taicho, Renji...Taicho?!" Matsumoto flinched when she saw her taicho, a scowl planted deeply on his face. She wondered what could've made him this mad. Of course, she already knew the answer...

Byakuya remained in his cool composed state, and just stared ahead at the resolution of the heated conversation between the fukutaicho and taicho. Hitsugaya-taicho, he had to say was smart, logical and tactical, and strong for that matter; with a cool, composed attitude. In this case scenario, Ukitake would probably not know what to do. Zaraki-taicho would just fight, and so on. So he guessed Hitsugaya was a good choice for a taicho ally.

Matsumoto and Renji, he guessed, would do anything to save his friend. Well Matsumoto to save an ally and Renji to save his childhood friend. And altogether, they could make a good team to save Rukia. Renji stood at the sideline, watching Byakuya with keen interest. Was his taicho thinking about the meeting between him and the sou-taicho? He didn't know. Or was this because of Rukia. And where the hell was Rukia in the first place?

"Sorry to interupt your conversation," Byakuya said. Three pairs of confused eyes looked at the un-emotional taicho, or so they thought. Loud voices could be heard behind the doors of the bar they were at. In shocked silence, they all looked at Byakuya, waiting for him to continue.

Renji looked at his taicho, dumbstruck; when had Kuchiki-taicho ever interrupted a conversation before? Well, he interrupted when there was no conversation at all...did he even notice?

"Nanda Kuchiki-taicho?" Hitsugaya coldly asked.

"Rukia-" Realization hit Renji straight on the head, so thats what it was about.

"I knew it was about Rukia," h muttered, but unfortunately it was loud enough for everyone to hear. Byakuya gave him a death glare. His reiatsu flared up dangerously, as flower petals fell down endlessly from the ceiling, passing through the roof as well.

"S-Suimasen," Renji stuttered. He didn't want to get his taicho angry, for that would mean death; a fast, quick, instant death. He bowed down his head in apology.

"This applies to you too," Byakuya stated, staring deep into the eyes of Renji.

'It does?" Renji thought, 'He should've told me in the first place.'

"So what is this about again?" Matsumoto cheerfully asked.

Byakuya sighed, "Rukia has been kidnapped by Aizen."

"NANI?!"

Author's Note: Hope your enjoying so far! LOL! Ichigo's coming in the next chapter. I'll be updating soon...tomorrow :P

-Ja ne!