I apologize for my lateness on this story... :( Sry, but I was super busy with finals, midterms, AP classes, and all of that crap. So to make up for it, I wrote this chapter a little bit longer than usual just to let people savor some taste :D

I love all the reviews; seriously, if it wasn't for the reviews, I would've probably forgotten this story by now...and that would be sad :(

~Enjoy, my patient readers, Kuro-chan


Chapter Seven: Missions 2

Hinamori blinked at Hitsugaya and then at the girl who ran excited up to him. A steady pulse of jealousy began to flow through her as Hitsugaya showed signs of recognition. "Karin? Kurosaki Karin? Were you the one…the soccer game or something?"

Karin smiled. The dimples on her face showed that she was someone that liked to smile a lot. "Toshirou-kun, so you are back from the Soul Society?"

Hinamori's eye narrowed, "Shiro-chan—er, I mean Hitsugaya-taichou—what is going on here? How does this human girl know our secret?"

Hitsugaya was still examining Karin as he answered, "She is the younger sister of Kurosaki Ichigo. I met her a couple years ago when I was sent on a mission to the Human World."

There was blatant displeasure in Hinamori's voice. "I see."

Karin looked curiously at Hinamori, "And who might you be?"

Hinamori smiled a little to hide her jealousy, "I'm Momo Hinamori, currently assisting Hitsugaya-taichou on this mission."

Karin frowned, "What happened to Rangiku-san?"

Hinamori and Hitsugaya both rolled their eyes simultaneously and Hitsugaya ended up explaining, "Matsumoto thought it would be for the best if Hinamori had a chance at a mission. So she requested that we pair up for this…"

"…without attaining our approval of her ideas first." Hinamori finished. She flashed a grin at her friend.

Karin turned to smile at Hinamori, "Well, I'm glad you're here. It's always nice meeting new friends of my brother."

Hinamori couldn't help smiling back despite her sour mood. This girl isn't nasty like Miyu, and just because Shiro-chan knows her doesn't mean he has any feelings for her…wait…what am I thinking? Why would I care if Shiro-chan did like her? Putting aside her thoughts, she greeted Karin, "I really don't know Kurosaki-kun that well, but it is nice meeting acquaintances of Shiro-chan and Matsumoto-san." She received a disapproving look from Hitsugaya, but continued, "And you're the first human I've ever became friends with. It would be nice if we could continue to be friends after our mission and all."

Karin walked into the classroom with Hinamori beside her and the two girls sat down next to each other in class. Poor Hitsugaya was left to sit by himself in an empty seat at the left-hand corner of the room. He sighed to himself. It seemed like the girls were already friends with each other.

As Karin sat down, she suddenly had a look of realization and happiness on her face. "Hey Momo-chan," she called to Hinamori, "Do you know how to play soccer, by any chance?"

Hinamori turned to give a questioning look at Hitsugaya before answering, "I'm sorry, Karin-chan, I have absolutely no idea what that is at all."

But Karin's excitement was like unstoppable flames, "But I'll bet you'll be really good if you try it! Toshirou didn't know anything either when he played his first time but he beat our opponents to pulp!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, and my soccer team desperately needs a female player right now since one of our girls ended up in the hospital with a knee injury during the game last week." Karin's look of determination was strong and Hinamori didn't know how to refuse.

"I guess I can try it, but I can't guarantee anything. You say Shiro-chan was really good, but that's him. He's good at everything. He became the youngest captain in the Soul Society, did he tell you that?"

"No, but you shinigami are born fighters, right? If you exercise your skills every day, you can't possibly suck at something like soccer. Please say you'll do it for me, Momo-chan! This game is really important for me and my team. My team will have to forfeit the match if we can't find a substitute player by tonight." Karin's pleads got to Hinamori. After all, Hinamori was a soft-hearted girl.

Hinamori nodded, "I'll try my best. I don't want to let you and your team down, but can I at least have an explanation of how to play the game before I just go off and play?"

Karin winked, "It is really simple compared to reaping hollows. All you have to do is kick a ball into the other team's goal and stop the other team from scoring your goal. I'm sure you'll be good at it; maybe not Toshirou-good, but you can't be worse than me." She gave Hinamori an encouraging smile and Hinamori returned it as the second bell rang.

XkurochanX

The one thing Hinamori didn't like about human clothes was the fact that it was far too tight. Okay, the skirt, she didn't really mind, but how was she expected to do flips and jump to her extreme height when the shirt was half choking her? These complaints she gave to Karin and to her surprise, Karin didn't laugh at her.

"I completely agree with you. But don't worry, for all sports activities, we don't have to wear tight shirts. You'll really like soccer then." Karin was leading Hinamori out onto the field for lunch break. She produced a black and white ball from a bag she carried and tossed it over to Hinamori. "This is the ball that you'll be playing with in soccer. See those?" She pointed to the netted figures at either sides of the field, "Those are the goals where you'll be kicking this ball into. Want to try it out?"

Hinamori frowned. It didn't really seem that hard to her. Just get the ball and kick it into one of those goal thingies, right? No problem, I don't see how hard that can get…She gently set the ball in front of her feet and gave it her best shot. The ball was lighter than she had expected and the force she had put into kicking the ball was a little over-the-top; the ball didn't only make it to the goal, but it completely ripped through the net. "Oops."

Karin blinked at her and then a wide smile spread over her face, "See, I wasn't wrong about you. You'll definitely be a great player!" She then sprinted after the soccer ball that Hinamori over-kicked.

Hinamori turned to find Hitsugaya watching them silently at the right side of the field. "Am I supposed to kick it through the net each time?" She questioned.

Hitsugaya chuckled, "No, you're supposed to lightly kick the ball into the goal while avoiding the defenders." He stepped out onto the soccer field just as Karin returned.

"Defenders?" Hinamori asked curiously, "What's that?"

Hitsugaya smiled, "For example," he kicked the ball Karin retrieved back to Hinamori and stepped in front of the goal, "Now, let's see you kick it into the goal again."

Hinamori bit her lip as her brain whirled ahead, trying to think up of a way to get pass Hitsugaya. Shiro-chan is right-handed, so I will have to presume that his right side would be better guarded than his left. My best chances of making it pass him would be to…Hinamori kicked the ball to her right and skidding around Hitsugaya, kicked it up into the air. She then used Hitsugaya as a support as she performed a back-flip, aiming the ball for the goal. Yes, it's going to work. But out of nowhere, she saw a flash of a leg hook the ball away from her. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Hitsugaya had already scored the other goal.

Shock numbed Hinamori, "How did you…do that?"

Hitsugaya smirked back at her, "It's called defense and I'm the defender, so my job is to not allow you to score my goal."

Hinamori gritted her teeth. Yes, she was a gentle girl most of the time, but she hated it when someone would mock her like that. Now her competitive side roared alive. "Again, let's go again. That's the last goal you'll ever make in so enjoy it while you can. You only caught me off guard."

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow, "Oh, so you thought that was pure luck." The smirk returned on his face, "Well, I'll show you what it means to have skills, Momo. Just watch and learn."

"If you think that was my best move, oh boy, are you wrong."

"I didn't say that was my best move either. But I will say that I think I am better than you at this human game."

"You want to bet??? That move was nothing."

Hitsugaya held out a hand, "Yes, let's bet on it."

Hinamori smiled and took his hand. She hadn't had this much fun in a long time, "Winner is supreme soccer champion of the human world."

"Loser has to admit she was wrong and has to whatever the winner says."

"How are you so confident that you're going to win?" Hinamori looked up at her white-haired friend.

Hitsugaya's jade-green eyes met hers, "I have some tricks up my sleeves."

Hinamori dropped the soccer ball onto the ground, "Prepare yourself, Shiro-chan…"

"That's Hitsugaya-taichou to you."

XkurochanX

The teacher looked around the room, "Where are Toshirou and Momo?" He directed the question at Karin who was looking a little disappointed sitting by herself.

Karin answered, "Well, they're a little busy right now with their bet but they should be finishing up right about now."

The teacher looked furious, "They're ditching class for a bet???"

"I guess if you want to put it that way. I mean, they don't really like going to class in the first place." Karin shrugged.

"What do you mean by that?"

Before the question was answered, a panting Hitsugaya and Hinamori appeared at the door. There was a smug look on Hitsugaya's face and an annoyed one on Hinamori's face so it was obvious to Karin as to who won the bet.

"Excuse us," Hitsugaya began in between gulps of air, "We lost track of the time…"

The teacher glared at the two shinigami, "You think that will make me just let the two of you go? After school detention tomorrow. Both of you! Now get in your seats before I call of the principal!" He barked.

As Hinamori sat down and wondered what detention was, Karin whispered to her, "You lost?"

The anger that had cooled down suddenly started to flame again. "You never told me Shiro-chan was that good. I couldn't get anything past him and he was scoring as if it was as easy as breathing to him! He like a wall when it comes to defense! But he's a captain-leveled shinigami and I'm not, so that's going to be my only excuse!"

The teacher began his lesson and both of the girls quieted. "Today, we're going to discuss Newton's law of Universal Gravitation. Now class, reviewing from yesterday, what is force directly proportional to?"

Karin raised her hand, "Force is directly proportional to the mass of the two objects."

The teacher nodded and smile, "And what is it inversely proportional to?"

By now, both Hitsugaya and Hinamori had let their minds wander off. Hitsugaya was smiling to himself trying to think up of something he was going to make Hinamori do while Hinamori was worrying what in the world a detention was and how she was going to spend it with Hitsugaya.

"Momo-chan?" The teacher called on her.

Hinamori blinked, "What?"

The teacher looked very displeased, "What is force inversely proportional to? At least your attention is now focused on me and not Toshirou over there now."

A blush crept up on Hinamori's cheeks but she found her voice somehow, "Force is inversely proportional to the distance squared." She answered confidently, ignoring the teacher's last comments as the rest of the class laughed away.

She looked over at Hitsugaya who raised an eyebrow at her in wonder. She blushed again and tried to focus on physics instead of the guy who clouded most of her thoughts. See, I told Matsumoto-san that this would be a bad idea. I can't focus on anything when Shiro-chan is next to me! At least this is only class; on the battlefield, it would be much, much worse.

After a long torturous hour or more, the final bell rang to dismiss all the students. Hinamori gave a sigh of relief as she gathered up her books to walk out the door. To her surprise, she was stopped by Karin.

"Oh hey, I didn't see you there." Hinamori gave her a smile, but it wasn't returned.

"Are you coming to the soccer game tonight for my team, Momo-chan?" Karin asked as the two girls walked out of the school.

"Yeah, sure." Hinamori looked back at Hitsugaya, who was a step behind them, "Will you watch for bad guys tonight, Shiro-chan?"

Hitsugaya shrugged, "No problem; you two enjoy yourselves." He gave both of them a wave and then walked towards the direction of Urahara's shop.

When Hitsugaya was far out of range, Karin lowered her voice and looked seriously at Hinamori, "Tell me, Momo-chan, you like Toshirou-kun, don't you?"


Kuro-chan's evil thoughts exposed!!!

1. Hitsugaya making Hinamori do whatever he wants? Hmm, that could be interesting

2. Alone after school detention for Shiro-chan and Momo-chan??? That sounds like trouble and romance mixed weaved together into goodness...

3. What about Karin's feeling??? Will there be conflicts (pch...yes...)?

Review: tell me what you want; I'm open for suggestions ;)