+_+_+_+_+-----

Ichigo sat looking at the oddly familiar looking river, uncaring that the rain was soaking his hair and would inevitably give him a cold if he didn't get inside.

He mentally went over a checklist that he had been forming over the last half hour.

He was in a living body, even though his own had been killed in Aizen's raid of Kakura Town: Check.

This body was about nine or ten years old, and had startlingly orange hair that led Ichigo to surmise that it could have passed as him when he was young (he had yet to find a mirror and check this theory, as the rain made the river unsuitable for this task.): Check

The startlingly familiar river had finally revealed itself to be a river that Ichigo knew had been filled in when he entered high school, (this particular river had unpleasant memories of his mother's murder for him) yet here it was with no apartment complex that had replaced it in sight: Check.

He was pretty sure that there weren't any narcotics that could affect a spirit (Renji would have told him, and if not him then Matsumoto at one of her bar parties) but just to be sure he mentally went over the schedule of his day that he remembered before finding himself by this river in the human body of a nine year old.

Let's see, five to eight watched sunrise and contemplated why the sunlight never seemed to come anywhere near his home, eight to three recounted once again how it was his fault that everyone died (though logically this was untrue, seriously who tells a teenager they need to single handedly save the world….oh right, me…), and then from three to six stare into the abyss and slowly slipped into madness…

Nope not smoking any thing, no spiritual trips, no weird Technicolor bike rides…..

Oh.

Wait.

Now he remembered.

That crazy girl kicked him in the head and he blacked out. The next thing he knew he was laying splayed in the mud, in the rain by a river.

What had she said? Something about changing the past? He chuckled darkly, but it came out too close too adorable for comfort.

Deciding that he wasn't going to get any answers sitting in the mud he wearily pulled himself to his feet and clumsily made his way to his home, trying to crush the bubble of hope that arose in his chest at what he might find there.

He kept passing buildings that he had seen destroyed himself and marveled at how untouched by war this place was.

He hesitated, hand clenched white knuckled on a fence wall, then took a deep breath and liked beyond it. Tears pricked his eyes when he saw the clinic intact. He stumbled past the road and fell onto the door hands fumbling for the knob. He forced his way inside and stood frozen in the doorway.

"Ichi-nii, why are you back from school so soon?" Yuzu's voice came from the kitchen, soon followed by the girl herself with Karin not far behind.

The tears Ichigo had been holding back spilt from his eyes as he enveloped his sisters in a hug, much to their surprise.

"I promise I'll protect you all this time!"

Karin gave him an odd look completely ruining the moment. "Ichi-nii are you feeling ok? You're acting like Goat-chin over there and we don't need two of him."

+_+_+_----

The orange haired boy laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling, a scowl smattered across his brows. It probably would have looked fierce if it wasn't on the face of a nine year old, so the effect was somewhat distorted in such a way that it just made you want to pinch his cheeks and squeal.

Well, he had hesitantly accepted that he was literally kicked into the past, and now was in deep contemplation about what exactly he should do with this ill prepared gift.

'First things first, ' he thought, 'I need to see if I still have my shinigami and hollow powers, but how?'

His frown deepened as he thought, then melted off his face like paint of a wall when the answer became clear.

A twisted look containing disgust, exasperation, and a healthy dose of annoyance formed as Ichigo said the one name that would either make his plan or somehow destroy in such a way to make it look like an accident.

"Urahara."

+_+_+_+_+---

Sorry, you don't see many bleach time travel fics, so I had to try my hand at one!

Next time: "Kurosaki-chan does you're father know you're here?"