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Broken Hearts.

Chapter 4: Chaos Ensues Part I.

Forty-Six Years Ago; November 1955:

"Misao, come back! You'll be late as it is!"

A girl with gingery-orange hair, that flew behind her as she ran from the Kurosaki estate, smirked. Her family wasn't as stuck up as the Ishida's, another Quincy clan, but her grandparents and father were rather strict, and traditional.

When she could escape, she took every opportunity. Her gray-blue eyes sparkled as she burst into the clearing, a medium sized pond in front of her. Sometimes her mother brought her there to train, and it would be a good two hours before they thought to check for her there.

"They'll never catch me," she said, smirking mischievously as she approached the pond.

Looking into the reflective water, Misao gasped, turned and in speed that would have made her family proud, had her bow out, ready to fire at the girl in the tree. Long red hair, like crimson flowers, or dark blood, pale skin with whisker birthmarks on her cheek, and her eyes were closed.

What had caused her reaction though was the Hollow mask fragment. She was confused, was the girl sleeping or meditating? For that matter, was the girl, only a few years older than her older sister, even a Hollow?

She hesitated to release the arrow, and quicker than she could see the Hollow disappeared, before reappearing about a foot to her side. Getting a better look at the fox-like mask she withheld a shiver. It truly was creepy, especially as the girl was smiling slightly. She had a bored sort of warmth in her bright, almost glowing, azure eyes, which were very fox-like.

The girl reminded her of a Kitsune.

"It's not nice to aim weapons at strangers," the redhead said.

Misao couldn't help but let her bow disappear and look embarrassed, her face turning bright red. She momentarily forgot that the girl before her was most likely a Hollow.

"Uh, I..." Misao stuttered before narrowing her eyes and straightening up. "What do you mean, you're a Hollow aren't you? Do you expect me to let you eat me, or somethin'?"

The blue eyed girl looked amused as Misao fumed, hands on her hips. She noticed the girl was taller than her, but not by much. She was 4'7 ½ and still growing, while the Hollow girl couldn't be much more than 5 feet. Probably around sixteen or seventeen she estimated with the curves the girl had. Misao herself was only ten.

"I try not to eat things that would give me indigestion or heart burn," she said, and Misao felt her jaw drop.

Did the girl just make a joke? Did she just imply that she wasn't worth eating? That's she'd make her sick if she did...Misao knew it wasn't logical but being told by a Hollow that they wouldn't bother eating them because of something so human, such as indigestion or heart burn, was offensive.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?"

Then the redhead smiled, and seconds later she burst into fits of laughter. Misao blinked, and stared at the girl in white who was now practically on her knees as she laughed, eyes tearing up.

"Haha, you're okay kid... hahaha," slowly the redhead got back to her feet, calming from her laughing fit. "I haven't laughed that much in decades. Usually people don't react like this, but maybe it's just you. So, what's your name, Little Quincy?"

Blinking owlishly, Misao finally answered, "Misao, Kurosaki Misao."

The redhead smiled in a fox-like manner.

"I'm Miyuki, Uzumaki Miyuki."

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"Alright class, before we begin today I have an announcement." she began, standing behind her desk. "We have a new student joining us today."

Ichigo glanced up at Ms. Ochi, wondering exactly who would have enrolled so late. Rukia had been the last new student, only a few days prior, another one so soon sounded kind of far fetched. Looking up once more when the door opened and soft footsteps could be heard, Ichigo's eyes widened at the sight before him.

It was...well he thought it was Miyuki. She was different though, she looked completely human, and at first he didn't recognize her. It was only through the whisker-like marks, thinner as they were, and the blue eyes – even if they lacked the slit pupils – that he had any idea it was Miyuki.

He found himself second guessing though, she looked so different. Her hair was the same red, but it wasn't up in it's usual pigtails. He'd seen her wear her hair down before, but it also looked shorter than usual.

Usually it almost brushed the ground when down, now it was as long as her calf's, and half pulled up with a white cord. It was easier to see it wasn't only messy, but lightly waved as it trailed down her back.

Her face was no longer hiden by her mask fragment, and she didn't wear the white cheongsam nor did she wear the standard girls uniform. She wore a dark red (some could say maroon) seifuku, albeit the skirt was longer in length than he'd seen. She still wore the same brown leather boots she always wore, though.

"Hello, my name is Uzumaki Miyuki," she said, smiling with a polite short bow before turning to the teacher. "I apologize, sensei, for not having the standard uniform. They are out of my size so it's being ordered, and shall arrive in a few days."

"It's alright, I understand," said Ms. Ochi. "You may sit in the free seat behind Orihime..Inoue Orihime please raise your hand."

Ichigo kept staring as Miyuki walked past him to where Orihime sat two seats over. He didn't miss the amused smirk she sent his way, and he remembered the conversation they'd had last night before saving Orihime from her hollowfied brother.

Was that a gigai?

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"Well, here you are Yuki-hime," Urahara said as he pointed out the gigai laying in storage. "Same as you left it."

Miyuki rolled her eyes, looking at the gigai and noticing the change of clothes. Turning to looked at Kisuke she narrowed her eyes.

"You didn't change the clothes did you, Kisuke?"

Urahara blinked, his fan out and covering his face as he took a step back. He'd learned that Miyuki using that tone of voice was never a good omen.

"Of course not, Miyuki, I had Ururu do it," he said, and Miyuki accepted this.

It may seem strange to someone else that a little girl, looking no older than ten or eleven, was able to lift a gigai in order to change it's clothes. But Miyuki knew Ururu was stronger than she looked, and very capable.

"Thank you, Kisuke," she said, "I owe you one."

With that said, Miyuki stepped into the gigai, which after a second responded, bright blue eyes opening. Miyuki got to her feet, and groaned at the cramps from having not used a gigai for over a decade. She usually wouldn't need a gigai to make herself seen, just focusing her chakra and Reiryoku into an even mix could make her corporal to humans, but it wouldn't do much good with the mask fragment making her less than human.

Not to mention it took control – which she did have – but she could only keep it going constantly for three days before she had to take a break and begin again. A gigai was simply more convenient, and looked more human.

"So, how's Kurosaki doing?" Urahara asked, following her out to the front of the store. "I felt him awaken with the help of Ms. Kuchiki the other night."

Miyuki frowned momentarily. "He's doing well, I don't think we'll have to worry all that much about him. Though...I have a feeling things are about to get complicated. I know enough about Soul Society to know there is a law against giving ones powers to a human."

He nodded.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Miyuki frowned slightly as she reached her seat, sitting down behind the burnt orange haired girl. She couldn't shake the feeling that Urahara had known something he wasn't telling her. She wouldn't be surprised, the man had more secrets than he did those stupid fans he used to cover his face to hide the expressions.

She remembered the first year she'd known Urahara she'd broken so many of those fan's she thought he'd begin to cry each time she broke one. Usually she ended up breaking them over his head when she used them to hit him.

As she listened to Ms. Ochi begin the lesson, she couldn't help but sneak a look at Ichigo and smirk. She had been right, the look on his face when he'd seen her was priceless.

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"So this was the surprise, a gigai?" Rukia asked as they stood on the roof for lunch.

Miyuki looked at Rukia strangely before she smirked mischievously.

"Ah, so you were listening in last night," Miyuki said, eyes being shadowed by her bangs as she looked down the few inches height difference between them at Rukia. "I thought I felt your reiatsu."

Ichigo twitched, rolling his eyes as he looked away from the two girls. One of which was trying to deny the accusation terribly. Finally Rukia gave up trying to deny it and sighed, messing with the juice box in her hands.

"So I was, I know I shouldn't have but I was still weary of you then," Rukia said, looking at the juice in her hands with concentration. "I'm sorry, now...could one of you tell me how exactly I am supposed to drink this?"

Miyuki snorted, snatched the juice box from the shorter black haired girl. "It's simple really, just poke the straw through the hole, and...drink." She handed the now open box back to Rukia who blinked.

"Strange," Rukia muttered, placing the straw in her mouth and drinking. She was pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted. Like fruit, but sweet at the same time.

"Good huh? That's why I enjoy the human world so much, we don't have such things in Hueco Mundo, and Hollows taste like pulverized crap."

Rukia and Ichigo both made a face at that, the mere imagery making them both shiver. They really didn't need to know how a Hollow tasted.

"To much information, Yuki, way to much," Ichigo said, shaking his head.

She chuckled, and then froze, looking towards the sky about fifteen feet to the west of them. It only took a few seconds for Rukia and Ichigo to do the same. For a moment she was concerned, but once the Garganta had opened and the figure stepped out, giving her a better feel of their spiritual signature, and the fact she could feel their chakra as well (which only a few people, including herself, still possessed the ability to use), she relaxed.

"A Hollow...here?" Ichigo began, surprised one appeared so close to the school.

Miyuki placed a hand on his chest, stopping his movement, and halting Rukia's words with a simple look.

"Don't worry, it's a friend," she said, and both looked at her with wide eyes, and Miyuki dropped her hand from his chest. "Hello Gaara...what brings you to the human world?"

Neither Ichigo or Rukia had noticed the Hollow had appeared on the roof with them, about a foot away, but close enough that they could get a good look at him. He wasn't but a few inches taller than Miyuki, about 5'6 or 5'7. he had pale skin, and wore strange clothes in black and maroon, with a gourd shaped sort of like a peanut on his back.

On one side of his face was a mask fragment, which was similar to Miyuki's but wasn't of a fox. It was more canine or feline like, and covered less of his face than Miyuki's fragment. It also had black swirl like markings on it, instead of being plain. He had strange, pupil-less sea foam colored eyes, messy red hair, similar to Miyuki's, and around his eyes were black rings, like a raccoon.

Actually, with his mask fragment it was easy to liken him to a Tanuki.

Rukia herself thought his stoic expression resembled her brother, but at the same time was completely different, and this man and Byakuya-niisama looked nothing alike. All things considered, Ichigo and Rukia wondered if the Arrancar was related to Miyuki, they did look similar enough.

"Yuki," Gaara greeted and looked to the two his old friend was keeping company with. He rose an eyebrow at the taller boy with shocking orange hair and felt his lips twitch up into a small smile. "Orange...only you would find a person with Orange hair to become close too. I am not surprised."

Miyuki snorted, while Ichigo twitched in annoyance, frown deepening.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped, and Gaara shook his head.

"Nothing."

Miyuki coughed, and after gaining their attention she explained, "Gaara was simply pointing out how I used to wear a lot of orange. Now days I've cut down on how much orange I wear, but when I was still human I could blind the enemy with how much orange I wore."

Ichigo sweat-dropped at this, but wasn't all that surprised. He'd seen her go crazy over orange things, and he knew her favorite time of the year was autumn when orange was a common color. She'd also always been one to help him when he was younger and bullied for his hair, she'd never had a bad thing to say about the color. She'd always praised it.

Rukia's reaction was more subtle, she blinked in shock, but was not necessarily disappointed at something else she had learned concerning the mystery that was Miyuki.

"Who is he?" Rukia finally asked, gesturing towards the redheaded man, he appeared older than Miyuki physically, maybe twenty at the most.

'Not bad to look at either', she had to admit, and that itself was a jolt to her system, she'd never thought she'd find a Hollow of all things the least bit attractive.

"I'm Sabaku no Gaara, an old friend of Miyuki's."

Both blinked at the strange surname, but shrugged it off. It wasn't like there were many with the name Uzumaki in the world, actually Miyuki was the only one Ichigo had ever heard bearing the name.

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Kuchiki Rukia," Rukia said, nodding in greeting.

She wisely didn't say much more, but in all honesty she didn't know what to say. In the last few days all her views on Hollows were being thrown out the window. She didn't trust herself to not say the wrong thing, and end up offending Gaara or Miyuki in the process. She couldn't outright trust either of them, she hardly knew either, but she was trying at least.

"Miyuki has spoken of you Kurosaki-san, though she's never mentioned a Shinigami..."

Miyuki interrupted, laughing nervously, "Yeah, Rukia is a new acquaintance of mine. There was an incident a few nights ago, and she ended up giving her powers to Ichigo."

Gaara nodded.

"I take it you'll be spending a lot more time here than, if the gigai is anything to go by," Gaara stated more than asked, and he continued, "Anyways, I come with news. Yagura found some information around his territory. Seems the Arrancar population has begun to go up as drastically as rumored. It's centered in a place nearly in the center of Hueco Mundo, called Las Noches."

Gaara had said this second part in the language they'd spoken when alive, which was simply a much older form of Japanese.

"Lost Nachos?" she asked, blinking. "Someone lost their nachos, in Hueco Mundo?"

Gaara sweat-dropped, sighing before he corrected her.

"Las Noches, it's Spanish as most Hollow abilities and such seem to be," he said.

Ichigo looked at Rukia, eyebrows knitted together at the few words they actually understood from the two. Apparently three thousand years had changed the Japanese language more than he'd given thought.

"Lost Nachos? They're discussing food?" he whispered in question and Rukia shrugged, just as puzzled as him.

"No idea," the raven haired girl replied.

Rukia was too busy trying to dissect exactly how old Miyuki may be to speak such an old, yet surprisingly similar, form of Japanese. The estimate, at least six hundred years, because she honestly couldn't pin point how old the language was. She'd say just by hearing it that it had to be one of the older forms.

Since it was so similar, and they could understand a few words, she assumed it had to be relatively close to modern Japanese. Hence why she chose the number she did (she had no idea how off she was by her estimated age).

Currently though, she knew her estimate was simply an educated guess. Unless she got Miyuki to open up about her past she'd not know much of anything. That didn't mean Rukia would be so underhanded as to pretend to befriend the Arrancar to get information, she may be curious – very curious – about Miyuki and by extension, Gaara's, past but she wasn't so cruel.

The only thing stopping her from truly trying to befriend Miyuki was the fact she had yet to come to terms with the fact the redhead was a Hollow, despite the fact she had Shinigami-like powers.

Over a century of being taught that Hollows were evil spirits that needed to be purified was hard to get past. She'd need more than a few days.

Miyuki sighed as she took in the news Gaara had given her, and she felt herself growing angry at the idea that someone had claimed territory that he had no rights too.

Especially if Yagura was right and it was a Shinigami that had created the palace of Las Noches.

When the eleven of them had chosen territories, eight of the new Bijū had chosen areas relatively close if one was to plot their territories on a map (given the fact maps didn't exactly show the exact size of an area, just general location in most cases). These areas were North, south, east and areas in between. While she and the two Uchiha's had settled into the east, northeast, and southeast areas respectively.

Though she hadn't intended it in the beginning, her territory ended up being the largest. When it came to the eleven of them, who were very close comrades and friends, they weren't as territorial, and they were all welcome in each others territories.

Back in the old days though, when Hollows knew they were more than a legend or myth, anyone who resided in their territory knew the rules. Those who tried to usurp them or trespass were dealt with, especially when it came to the nine of the former jinchūriki.

When their tenants chakra had merged with them, making them the new Bijū, the instincts and some slight personality traits had merged with them as well. Added to the fact they were Hollows... well the instincts were harder to control in the beginning. Now it was second nature to know how to control themselves.

The point of the matter, though, was that Las Noches had taken chunks of both her, Fū and Killer B's territories, more so her two friends than her own, but it still didn't make any of them happy. For now they'd let it go, as at least they knew exactly where their enemy was – and considering Las Noches and its occupants were unknowns they were automatically enemies in their eyes – and whoever had it built unwittingly placed it in such a way it was surrounded by their territories.

It put a whole new spin on the saying, surrounded by the enemy.

"I see," Miyuki finally said, reverting back to modern Japanese completely. "Thank you for the update, Gaara, I don't know when I would have been able to return to Hueco Mundo."

"We thought as much, if something hadn't of happened then you would have returned to let us know," he said, and then looked over towards the orange haired boy and smaller girl. "I must return, and let everyone know what's going on here."

Miyuki nodded.

"Right, before you go though, will you think about helping to train Ichigo," she began, ignoring the startled gasp from Rukia and she was sure Ichigo's eyes were wide behind her. "Ask Karasu and Taka for me as well. I plan to train him so he can be prepared, but my style may not be the best option for him."

Gaara raised an eyebrow at the use of Itachi and Sasuke's nicknames, and the names known to legend in Hueco Mundo, before nodding.

"I will," he said. "Be careful sister."

Miyuki waved as she watched the other redhead slash the air, opening a Garganta and leaving through it. She pushed her loose hair behind her ear and sighed.

She hadn't expected to see one of them here, but with the news Yagura had found she wasn't surprised they'd sent Gaara.

"Sister, he's your brother then?" Ichigo asked, confused, and Miyuki shook her head, smiling brightly over at the orangette.

"No, not by blood anyways. We were close friends and comrades in life, the same age, though he died many years after I," she said. "We did get that a lot though, both having similar hair colors."

"There are more of you, you mention Karasu and Taka?" Rukia asked, biting the inside of her cheek unsure if maybe asking about it was asking too much too soon.

Miyuki simply looked at her amused.

"There are eleven of us, the oldest Hollows or Arrancar still around. I'm not surprised our legend isn't well known in Seireitei, or at all. We were given the title of Kyo sekai no Kamigami, or 'Deities of the Hollow World'. Each with a name we chose to be called by other Hollows, as our given names were something more personal that we didn't desire to give to just anyone. After a while we fell into the background, as we never truly wanted such a title nor to get involved with other Hollows business. Then we simply faded into legend, into myth. Few realize we're still around. Karasu and Taka are very old friends of mine, I've known them the longest, since I was a human child in our village; unlike the others, they're blood brothers."

Rukia and Ichigo were both surprised she'd shared so much, but Ichigo at least had an idea of why she had. Miyuki didn't dislike Rukia, and she had asked. He figured Miyuki planned to tell them her past at some point, she simply wasn't ready to sit down and reveal it all.

Rukia was staring bug eyed at the crimson haired Arrancar. Her words sinking in, '...the oldest Hollows or Arrancar still around', she'd said. For that to be possible...Rukia was sure now the girl had to be near the same age as the Sōtaichō of the Gotei 13.

She couldn't be for sure unless Miyuki came out and told them how old she was, but there was no other explanation. Hollows had been around for thousands of years after all, though how old a Hollow was before they ran into a Shinigami wasn't common knowledge. They didn't go around asking every Hollow they killed how old they were.

The very idea of Miyuki being near the age of the most powerful man in Soul Society was frightening. Miyuki seemed to either not notice their strange looks, or not care as she moved on.

"You'll probably meet them in the future, if they decide to help me out with Ichigo's training."

"Training?" Ichigo asked and Miyuki smirked.

"I figure you could use a little help. Not to insult Rukia or anything, but we can't expect you to learn completely through battle experience. That's just asking for you to get hurt once you run into something that has more power than the common Hollow."

Rukia looked down, a bit guilty she hadn't thought about that. Even Shinigami were trained before set loose on missions, it was the reason for the Academy after all. She was glad that Miyuki had thought of it though.

"She's right," she muttered and Ichigo nodded.

"Alright," he said, and seconds later the bell signaling the end of lunch sounded.

"Come on, we don't want to be late," Miyuki said, and the three left the roof for their next class.