And I'm back! Ok, since most of you said don't add Chad/Orihime/Tatsuki as shinigami, I won't. Here are the current poll results in order:

13th Division - 17 votes
8th Division - 12 votes
10th Division - 11
11th Division - 10
5th Division - 5
1st, 2nd & 6th Division - 4 each
3rd, 4th, 7th, and 9th share the remaining 9 votes, while 12th has none. No one likes clown face...

A special thanks to everyone who reviewed/gave suggestions in the last chapter- quietreaper, Kero-mero, Laliath Qeutzalli, otogii, hunter of comedy, black thunder, Kreion, Aletheya, LeftHRyder, Bulble Ablaze (Make up your mind X( !), zgavreel, aprilliarsv, Arrankor, weirn08, 20BabyBoo13, pokkop14 & Dark-heika!

You guys make my day, which is a good thing cuz I'm in school, and I'll take all your opinions into serious consideration. But Ichigo can only be in one division. Which? I'm not there yet.

And just a random question. Do you guys think its possible for academy students to train in controlling their reiatsu first before doing other things like Kido training?

Remember, if you haven't voted, do so now! And if you wanna give me a reason why, by all means! Your opinion matters!

Disclaimer: Bleach, not mine. 'Nuff said.

Chapter 5: Dead Weight

9 years later

Although Ichigo had initially refused to tell Renji the nickname he'd given Rukia, it didn't take long for him to find out, since Ichigo was mostly likely to retaliate and call her a midget every time she called him strawberry, which was very often.

Much to her gratitude, Renji didn't see how the nickname fit her, since they weren't that much taller than her. He also wasn't stupid enough to call her a midget; unlike Ichigo, he wanted to live.

When Ichigo first called Rukia a midget, she refused to believe she would be that short compared to him. But now, 9 years after meeting the shinigami, she had to eat her words. During these nine years, someone seemed to have unlocked their growth mechanisms. Both Ichigo and Renji sky-rocketed in height, growing by close to half a meter in height.

Renji had (reluctantly) joined their crusade against bullies and like Ichigo, he too attained a strong and lean build.

Rukia grew too; just… not as much. She maintained her slender and petite build, but her height growth dwarfed the other two in comparison. Much to her chagrin, she was now one and a half heads shorter than Ichigo; his prediction all those years back had come true and he now could justify calling her a midget.

That irritated her to no end. Whether he noticed it or not, he'd never used it as an insult – his tone had no malice every time he called her a midget. They had been friends for way too long; he wasn't going to intentionally hurt her feelings. Rukia knew that, but it still irked her, so she settled for threatening/beating him instead, although why he kept doing it even though he knew she would probably hit him was beyond her.

It was strange though. Rukia had been a kid for a few decades, yet grew from that into a young woman within the space of 10 years. Oh well, who were they to question the flow of time anyway?

Strangely enough, the other three of their group didn't grow as much as Renji, Rukia or Ichigo did. They still looked quite young. Why, no one had any idea.

During this time, they found out as much as they could about Shinigami in case the trio ever wanted to become one. It certainly sounded appealing – the living conditions of the Seireitei sounded so much better than Inuzuri. Ichigo and Renji were more interested in the sword fighting part though. Yet, they were still reluctant to abandon their three friends just to recognize their dreams.

So, they made the most of their time in Inuzuri. They took care of as many young souls as they could handle. It wasn't easy, but it made a difference to the young souls. Some of them unfortunately died early from unknown natural causes, while others lived, but unlike the trio, they too didn't seem to grow much physically. As they grew older and stronger, taking care of the young souls became easier. It was having to see them die and be helpless to stop it that really sucked.

But at least they helped make their lives easier.

"We really should hurry up, grab what we need and get back as soon as possible," Rukia said, worry apparent in her voice. It was a very uncertain time for the people in the district. Within the past year or so, there seemed to have been a huge increase in the number of souls that were entering Soul Society. The trio was curious, so naturally they sought to find out why.

The details were hazy, but from what they could glean from the few rare souls who retained fragments of their memories, there was a huge war going on in the living world, one that involved guns.

"What the heck is a gun?" Rukia once asked.

"It's some sort of weapon that shoots small metal… things so fast that it can pierce your body," Ichigo replied without thinking.

"And you know this why?" she asked.

"Uh…" Ichigo had no idea how he knew that. "Somehow I just know. I suppose I must have seen one when I was alive."

Unfortunately, this increase in souls also brought about an increase in the number of hollows as well. Now, they could frequently hear the roar of hollows – at least once a week. They weren't as clueless as before and they now knew the danger hollows posed to souls like them (They still didn't know Hollows consumed souls). Hence, they had to be careful every time they ventured out. Who knew when a hollow would wander into the district and put them all in danger.

Currently, it was only Ichigo, Rukia and Renji who were out. Futoi, Hinso and Segahikui were back at their house. "I think they'll be fine; what's the worst that could happen?" Renji said to her.

"It's words like that which guarantee something bad will happen," she commented.

Meanwhile, Ichigo had yet to participate in their conversation. He was lost deep in his thoughts; lately he'd been having the same weird dreams. They had been infrequent at first, but they were becoming more common.

He was standing in an empty corridor – plain, empty, and unending. In front of him, about 50 meters ahead, he could see a set of shoji doors. Behind him, the corridor was pitch black and carried on and on; he couldn't see where it ended.

Light filtered in through the paper walls on both sides of the corridor. Well, they looked like paper walls, but when Ichigo touched them, they were unyielding – like solid rock walls. The light only seemed to illuminate the corridor leading to the door; behind him – it was all pitch black.

How did he get here? He felt like he knew this place, yet he was sure he'd never seen it before. Which house had a corridor that was that long?

"Ichigo…" A low gruff voice suddenly whispered from somewhere behind him. Ichigo jumped and looke behind in fright, but he couldn't see anyone.

"Don't be afraid…" the voice said, this time from the front, yet once again, he couldn't see anyone.

"Wh… Who's there?" he called out with more bravery than he felt.

"Can you… hear me… I'm here to help you…" the voice said again, this time from above him.

"And I'm supposed to trust a disembodied voice? Yeah right," Ichigo snorted to himself.

"Walk forward." This time the voice came from all directions. Ichigo didn't move. "Walk forward," the voice repeated patiently.

Ichigo hesitantly stepped forward. Nothing happened. Another step forward. "I am behind the door…"

His curiosity getting the better of him, Ichigo quickened his pace. As he did, the voice kept repeating, "Ichigo…"

Eventually, he reached the door. He slid it open.

At this point, he knew for sure that his dream carried on, yet all he would remember is a swish of black cloth, and then he would wake up.

"And there it goes again," Renji said as they heard yet another roar of a Hollow, although this time it sounded fairly close by. "Rukia's right, we should really head back as soon as we can."

Suddenly, Rukia stiffened and stopped. She turned round and began scanning the area behind them. "Renji, which way did the roar come from?"

Renji looked round as well. "I think… It was probably…" he said uncertainly.

Meanwhile, it took Ichigo a moment to realize they'd stopped, and he caught himself and doubled back before he went too far. All of a sudden, he felt a wave of monstrous killing intent emitting from a particular location. He whipped his head in that direction, but the feeling disappeared.

Looking at his other two friends, they didn't appear to have noticed anything and were still trying to determine where the hollow roar originated from.

But before he could relax, another loud roar erupted, and it was coming from the direction Ichigo was facing!

"Oh shit, it sounds like it's coming from the direction of our house!" Rukia said urgently.

That was enough. The implications were clear.

"Shit!" Renji said.

"We need to get them out of there!" Ichigo said, snapping out of his distraction. Since they were staying in the outskirts of the district, they were more likely to be the target of any hollow attacks. One surely won't be able to resist the gathering of so many souls. The trouble was, they were quite far from their house.

As they ran as quickly as they could through the streets, Ichigo felt another pulse of killing intent, but this time it was laced with raw, primal glee. And like before, it disappeared as soon as he felt it.

"We need to hurry up," Rukia urged again. But before the words were fully out of her mouth, there was a loud splintering crash and a plume of dust erupted in the distance.

"No!" Renji cried, but they were already moving as fast as their legs could carry them.

As they rounded the corner to their house, they stopped short as a horrific sight greeted them. The house had been attacked – not by one, but two monsters. They were both different in shape, but the white masks on their faces proved that they were undoubtedly hollows.

One of them was pretty large; it had a small head with a long, ape-like body, along with huge arms that reached the ground. It was standing in the wreckage of a collapsed building that they recognized as their hideout, their home for the past 9 years. None of the kids were in sight, and neither were Futoi, Hinso and Segahikui.

There was another hollow standing close to the ape hollow. It looked like a wolf, except it was considerably larger than a normal wolf. Its white mask was bloodied at the mouth, and in between its jaws, there was-

"Hinso!" Renji cried. Wrong move. Both hollows turned towards the noise and fixated their eyes on the trio. The wolf like Hollow had Hinso trapped in its jaws. It opened its mouth to stare at the trio, dropping Hinso's limp body onto the ground. His body was soaked with blood and his eyes were open, vacant, and void of life.

"Renji, no!" Let's get out of here!" Ichigo cried as he grabbed Renji's arm and tried to pull him away, but Renji remained stunned and rooted to the spot. "Rukia, help me!"

But before Rukia could react, a swish of black flashed past them and they all turned. Two shinigami had rushed past them and were charging at the hollows.

As they engaged the hollows, Ichigo suddenly felt dizzy. A strange sense of déjà vu washed over him.

The young boy watched as the man charged at the monster with a sword in his grasp. Ignoring this, the boy turned back to the woman that was lying on the ground in front of where he knelt.

"Wake up…"

A crash jolted him back to his senses. He looked up and watched in awe as one of the shinigami plunged his sword into the wolf hollow's mask, just as the large one scored a hit on the other shinigami, sending him crashing into the ground.

"No!" the first shinigami yelled, and he yanked his sword out of the wolf hollow and turned to engage the remaining hollow. The wolf hollow howled as it collapsed, but the shinigami didn't look back.

All of a sudden, Renji ran forward. "W-Wait, Renji! Stop!" Rukia and Ichigo shouted together. Renji ignored them as he ran towards Hinso's fallen body.

"Hey kid, get back! It's too dangerous!" the shinigami shouted. Ichigo turned to look at the shinigami who was battling the hollow. He'd seen Renji running towards Hinso's body and had gotten distracted as he tried to warn him away. That proved to be a big mistake as the ape hollow used the opening to attack and managed to land a hit on the shinigami.

Horrified, Ichigo and Rukia watched as the shinigami was sent plummeting to the ground, directly next to Hinso's body, which Renji was now kneeling next to. Naturally, that also caught his attention, and the trio collectively turned their heads towards the ape Hollow with fear in their eyes.

Having brushed off its opponent, it was now staring at the three of them with a menacing glare, but it made no move to attack.

"See, this is why we should have a stick with us at all times. At least we'd be armed," Ichigo whispered in a casual tone to Rukia as the both of them edged backwards and towards Renji, afraid that any sudden moves would cause the Hollow to attack. He was frightened, but right now his mind was racing as he tried to think of how they would all be able to escape.

"Are you kidding me?" Rukia hissed. "Of all the times to be griping about me refusing to let you carry a stick, you had to choose now? How do you expect to go up against that thing? And why the hell are we whispering?"

"Beats me. And I'm not going up against that thing, I'm distracting it, so that you and Renji can get out of here. We can't outrun it, that's for sure."

Rukia whipped her head round to look at Ichigo in surprise, just as Renji suddenly called to them, "Guys-"

"Shut up Renji! Be ready to run with Rukia on three. One-"

"What? No, don't be stupid Ichigo!" Rukia protested, but Ichigo cut her off again.

"I said shut up! I'm just going to distract it, that's all. Now, one- ah!" he yelped in pain as Rukia kicked his shin in annoyance.

"Don't tell me to shut up, Strawberry! I'm not letting you throw your life away!"

He glared back at her, but before Ichigo could use his glorious comeback of them technically not being alive, the Hollow roared again, causing the duo to cease their arguments and turn towards the Hollow in fright. Its mouth was wide open in a loud, bone-chilling roar, its body geared to pounce. But before it could, a sword blade suddenly burst from its mouth!

"Wha-" Eyes gravitated to the sword and everyone froze. Then, the sword was yanked out and the Hollow collapsed to the ground, dead, revealing the first shinigami that had been knocked out first.

The shinigami sheathed his sword with a huge sigh. "Whew, that was close. You kids should consider yourselves lucky that you weren't killed. Rushing in so close to a Hollow is way too dangerous for normal souls like you," he said to the trio as he walked towards his comrade, who was already getting up, although it was mostly directed at Renji.

Renji looked down sadly and did not answer, so Ichigo cut in for him. "Forgive us, shinigami Onii-san, but that boy," he pointed at Hinso's body. "He was like our family, more so to him than us," he continued, referring to Renji. "And we had many others as well, and they were supposed to be in that building." As he said that, he felt a pang in his stomach. He hadn't known the rest for as long as Renji had, but he still felt his heart getting torn as he imagined the others laying dead in the remains of the building.

The shinigami's stern expression softened at what Ichigo was implying. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that. As much as I'd like to tell you they're fine, we all know that they're-"

Another huge roar suddenly echoed from somewhere in the wilderness beyond the district. "Crap, we better go," the shinigami said to his comrade, and in a flash, they were gone.

They stood there in silence for a moment until Rukia gently tugged Ichigo's arm. "Come on, let's go find the others," Rukia said as she gazed at Renji's kneeling form as he resumed his silent mourning.

"Any chance any of them survived?" Ichigo asked Rukia in a low voice.

"I would like to say yes, but even I don't believe that," she replied as they walked towards the collapsed building that reeked of death. They both knew what awaited them, but they still held on to that silver of hope that the rest had survived.

"So what now? Do we stay here?" Rukia asked the other two as they watched the sunset from the edge of a cliff. A somber mood hung over them, all of them trying not to look behind at the graves they'd dug. Her eyes were dry but red, light streaks of tears on her cheeks, her tears already cried to depletion.

Ichigo hadn't cried, but he could still feel a horrible gut-wrenching, empty feeling in his heart. Renji… He'd been silent all the way; mourning silently even as they buried the bodies of those they had called family. Not once did he shed a tear, but they could tell he was grieving inside. He'd been hit the hardest.

But they knew they couldn't blame him, not even for rushing into the battlefield. Hinso and the others had been his family, long before even Ichigo and Rukia came along. They had survived together, worked together, played together, but now they were gone.

Just as they'd feared, they found the bodies of Futoi, Segahikui and many of the other kids within the wreckage.

It was a horrible sight. Some of them had obviously been attacked by the hollows as evidenced but the bloodied, gaping wounds and punctures on their bodies. Others had been luckier, and had been dealt fatal blows by the falling wreckage. All together, it was a bloody graveyard.

After finding the bodies came the necessary task none of them wanted to perform – burying their friends, because it meant having to accept that they were gone.

"I don't think we can stay here. Our place is gone. Sure, we can move, but it'll remind me too much of what we've lost."

"There is nothing left for us here," Renji finally spoke up, the first words he'd said in a long while. "And even if there was, I don't want to."

They stood in silence for a moment. "Let's become shinigami," Rukia suddenly said. "It's pointless to stay here. Let's become shinigami and leave this forsaken place, since we're capable of being one."

"And leave the others behind?" Ichigo asked uncertainly while looking at Renji. He wanted to leave too, but what about Renji?

"I'm sorry for putting you two in danger," he said.

"What are you talking about? There's nothing to be sorry about. You were in shock when you saw… no one got hurt Renji," Rukia said softly.

"Renji didn't reply. Instead, he glanced at her with an expressionless look on his face, which Rukia didn't notice until Ichigo nudged her.

"What?" she asked. Then, looking at Renji, she realized her words. "Oh shit, Renji, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant. I mean we didn't get killed… No I mean… no one else…" she flustered before trailing off, not trusting herself to make things worse.

"It's ok, I know what you mean," Renji told her. "We should never have left them behind."

Ichigo walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't blame yourself Renji. There's no way any of us would've known the hollows would attack."

Renji didn't reply immediately. "Rukia's right, Ichigo, let's become Shinigami. Then maybe we can grow stronger and protect others from hollows. Let's not allow anymore innocent souls suffer the same fate as everyone else. Besides, the others have also clamored for us to become shinigami. We just never left because we couldn't leave them behind. It's what they would've wanted for us."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"After all," Renji said as he looked out towards the horizon. "Why stay? We've nothing to live for here anymore."

Couple of things. Since Ichigo died in ancient Japanese times, his inner world will be different, so don't expect cityscapes.

That WWII reference is for fun, even though the timing is slightly off.^^

They never did say how their friends died in the manga, so I just decided to let my imagination run for this one! And some review responses:

Bulble (whatever you want) Ablaze: I'll try and read it, but I'm balancing school, my part-time job and writing at once X(. And you're giving me a headache with your suggestions cause you definitely present good ones. It's a good thing though :P

Lalaith Qeutzalli: Wow, you've given me lots of good ammo for the sixth. It's things like these that give me a headache :P

pokkop14: Eh, could you be more specific? I don't really understand your suggestion, especially the mafia part...

Kreion: Nope! Rukia and co. entered the Academy ~50 years from main time, and the TBTP arc was 100 years ago.

So this is the end of the Inuzuri years! Next up, the Academy! So wait for it!

Till then, hope you guys like this chapter, and see you next update, and thanks for sticking with me! Review if you can, and drop in any suggestions and nice criticisms as well!