A/N: Hi there, lovely people reading my story :) here comes the chapter 10 of my HitsuKarin story!

I am very happy about all the reviews I've gotten for the previous chapter (thank you forever122, Iloveyouthismuch, Glo15Bug, biganimefan18 and one confused Canadian guest, who has hopefully gotten less confused)

Also, you may like to know that my blind senile Russian cat lady of a spell-check rests in peace now and was replaced by an amazing phenomenal beta reader that is Ickaser :) So hopefully there will be less errors and general confusion :3

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter - tell me what you think ^w^

Karin happily fist-bumped Hisagi after Retsu said that each winner earned 20 points.

"On to the second game," she yelled out happily, throwing her arms into the air.

...

Toshiro observed warily as they approached the area Retsu had marked as the start of the next challenge.

"The next game is a race!" Retsu announced cheerfully, with a facial expression that made Toshiro instantly regret his life decisions.

This was not going to be good…

…

'Race!' Karin thought with delight. 'Now, that is something I'm good at.'

"It will be no ordinary race, mind you," Retsu continued, gaining the undivided attention of her audience – even the violent blue haired guy from the red team had stopped trying to maim his teammate and started to listen with a manic grin. (A/N: violent blue haired guy… just who might that be? :D )

"Each team will get a different map with a different set of stations. On this map you will have 5 challenges you have to fulfill if you want to finish the race!" Retsu explained looking from team to team.

"Plus, there will be a special trophy worth 20 points hidden somewhere in the area of the race. Once you find it, be careful because there isn't any rule saying other teams cannot steal it from you," Retsu continued, gaining cackles and grins from several guys. Karin became convinced that the trophy stealing was indeed a very appealing idea to many.

"I would ask you not to maim the opponent team in the effort to obtain it, though," Retsu said sternly and, to Karin's surprise, looked pointedly at Rangiku.

"What, that happened once! Just once!" tall blond defended herself heatedly. Karin could see Toshiro and several others laugh while Ran glanced over to a bit ashen Gin. Interesting… She should ask about that some other time.

After that Karin watched as her host mom handed out one colorful envelope to each team.

"It is almost two thirty now. Keep in mind that every team to complete all challenges before two hours are up gets a 10 point bonus. The winning team will gain 30 points, second place gets 15, and third gets 5," Retsu swiftly explained and glanced at her watch.

"Get ready teams! As of now, the race is on!" Retsu announced, and all hell broke loose.

…

Toshiro, who had somehow been pushed into the role of team captain (with a certain chilling feeling that the position would come and bite him in the ass later), swiftly tore open the envelope the minute his aunt started the race.

All of his teammates were up on their feet and ready to get going while the other teams were hastily running around. Toshiro studied the map in his hands and saw that there was a big number one on the map, positioned on the small hill on the far side of the lake. Assuming that the objective was to get the teams as far from each other as possible, Toshiro noted the directions other teams were heading in before waving his teammates over to follow him.

…

Karin excitedly followed Rukia and Renji, who led their team into what looked like an abandoned camping area. It was rather far from the beginning of the race and she'd guess it had taken them about ten minutes to just get there. From where she was standing, she was able to see a pile consisting of scissors, sheets of paper and something that looked like a shiny adhesive tape.

The bald man that was their team supervisor and whose name she had already forgotten was lying in the grass next to the pile and snoring lightly. Without his flashy and colorful companion, he looked almost normal, apart from the peculiar face paint.

"Oi, Ikkaku, quit snoring and tell us what the hell we are supposed to do!" Renji hollered, to which the baldy shot up from his lying position straight into a standing one, his hands readied in some bizarre martial arts move and a war whoop worthy of Jackie Chen laeving his mouth.

Rukia hit Renji's head with a fan making Renji mutter grumpily about violent midgets. Karin looked at the duo with awe. Firstly, she couldn't believe Renji was getting beaten by girl barely half his size. Secondly, she had absolutely no idea where did Rukia get that fan from to begin with.

"Serves you right for swearing in front of kids, Renji!" Rukia hissed, looking pointedly at Lilynette. "And I am not a midget!" she screeched, hitting him once more.

Lilynette, who was picking dirt from underneath her fingernails, paid the bickering duo no heed and instead looked up at Ikkaku. "Hey baldy, don't waste our time. We need to be a lot faster if I am gonna beat Coyote! He promised to buy me whatever I wanted if I win," she said, making Karin wince. Was it normal for a child to be that rude to adults? And what the hell is a Coyote?

"Who's a baldy, you little pipsqueak!" Ikkaku fired back, almost grabbing the little girl and shaking her. "I'll tell your brother to lock you into the basement again, if you don't behave."

Karin arched her eyebrows, but since no one from her team seemed to be alarmed she assumed that was a normal behavior around here. Americans are so strange…

…

Toshiro turned his head as he heard a scream that sounded surprisingly similar to Kenpachi's, only a lot shriller and squeakier. Oh, well.

His team finally arrived to the hilltop where their first station was supposed to be and he was mildly surprised to see Hisana Kuchiki seated there, in a blue polka-dotted collapsible fishing chair. "What took you so long?" she asked with a brilliant smile. At times, he could see the family resemblance with Rukia. Fortunately, the older woman did not have the habit of hitting people on random.

"Hishana," little Ururu exclaimed with delight when Kira took her down from his shoulders and let her walk where she wanted. This was the first year she, too, was able to compete and she was really excited about it. Toshiro was just glad that Kira, who had magic powers over girls aged 10 and under, was assigned to their team as well.

"Are you ready for the first challenge?" Hisana asked and team Blue Dragons replied with a unanimous cheer.

…

"So, listen up bubs!" Ikkaku declared finally, after finishing the bickering with Lily. "Here you have some paper. You are allowed 8 sheets – not a shred more – some duct-tape and scissors. Your first task is to build the tallest possible paper tower! The catch is: it has to stand on its own for at least a minute and you cannot lean it on anything else. You are allowed only paper, scissors and the tape." Ikkaku explained, looking warningly at each team member, as if any rule breaking would result in serious injuries.

"That's easy, just pile them one onto another and be done with it – what are you guys waiting for!" Renji shouted gaining disapproving look from Nemu, for a change. Karin figured that the tall ravenette liked things to be done in a thought out and orderly fashion, and thus an oaf of Renji's proportions was a big black stain on her flawless plans.

"Aren't you just adorable, pineapple head!" Ikkaku barked. "Didn't Retsu tell you? The ones to gain the best result on each station will be awarded 5 bonus points!"

"We have to think about this," Hisagi stated calmly, but Karin was already deep in thought.

The only unfazed one was, unsurprisingly, Lilynette.

"I suggest you brats brainstorm. Well, wake me up when you are done!" was the last thing Ikkaku threw their way before returning to his default position in the grass.

…

Hisana stood up gracefully and smiled at the blue team. "Your first task is this!" she said, motioning her hand to a peculiar pile. When Toshiro looked closer, he could see that the pile consisted of a lot of thick woolen strings tied to a plastic ring. In the middle of the ring haphazardly sat a slim plastic tube full of water.

Toshiro arched his eyebrows. What the hell?

"It is really easy," Hisana beamed at them. "There is one string attached to the ring for each of you. You need to balance it in such a way you do not spill any water when you move the ring. Each of you has to hold one string, but you can position yourself in any way you want," she continued looking from one team member to another.

"So what, we just hold it up?" Ran asked, as she crouched, giving the pile of strings a testing shove with her index finger.

"No silly," Hisana laughed. "You have to walk with it to that tree over there and back to me." Toshiro looked over to the tree she was pointing to and then down to Ururu who was jumping around in circles.

This would be fun. Maybe. Possibly. Not.

…

"Any more ideas, people? We don't have all day, you know!" Rukia exclaimed, looking from one blank face to another.

Karin, for one, was out of inspiration.

Every single thing they came up in last three minutes turned out to have some sort of problem in the plan. However, Karin noticed the calm and collected Nemu scribble frantically over her piece of paper and hoped the dark haired girl might come up with something that would work.

…

Picking up the ring proved to be the hardest part. It didn't help any that time was counted from the moment they touched the strings.

Toshiro tried to take the initiative into his hands and gave out instructions, but the fact that Momo was constantly giggling at some nonverbal communications she held with Rangiku, Aizen was paying more attention to the girls than to him, and Kira had his hands full with making sure Ururu didn't trip, it did not go very well.

Still, they somehow made it all the way to the tree - at a snail's pace. There were a few minor spills, but nothing terrible, and they were slowly making their way back. They were almost done and Hisana was cheering on them enthusiastically from her ridiculous polka-dotted chair.

"Come on guys, only a little more!" Toshiro said, checking if his teammates were doing alright.

Somehow they'd gotten the hang of the activity in the last few meters and successfully made it to the finish. Hisana stopped the timer and started clapping. Toshiro was putting his string away when Ururu decided to excitedly run over to Hisana. Unfortunately, she forgot she still had her string in hand.

Long story short, the tube full of water they were balancing the whole time ended bottoms up on the top of Toshiro's head. And of course the traitors he called teammates erupted in laughter.

Why did he like these games again?

Well, Toshiro thought grimly, at least there wasn't that much water inside that blasted thing in the first place.

…

Karin was convinced that their construction was the most majestic paper tower ever to see the light of the world.

It was tall – she was all but certain it wouldn't even fit into a room had they been building it inside – and stood proudly on its own.

Purple team looked a little worse for wear. Renji was covered in tape and almost drove Nemu to nervous breakdown by knocking the tower over thrice. Rukia cut into her finger with scissors on accident and Hisagi had a square bald spot in hairs on his leg where Lily stuck the duct-tape on it. Karin managed to get by with only a paper cut and was convinced their tower was absolute success. Also the one minute limit of standing on its own was almost up for the paper building and Karin was certain the victory in the challenge will cheer everybody up.

…

After mandatory picture taking, the Blue Dragons moved to the challenge number two and it did not escape Toshiro's attention they were slowly headed back to the starting point.

He kept his eyes trained on the map hoping his teammates had enough sense to try and spot the trophy.

But in all honesty, as long as Ran wasn't trying to rope him into some scheme of hers, he was perfectly content on letting his team do whatever they chose.

…

Purple Rhinos took few victory pictures with their master creation and after that it was a run towards the second station.

They were quite ways away, but Karin was already able to spot the show of colors that was undeniably Yumi.

After approaching she saw that Yumichika Ayasegawa was seated on a beach chair in such a haphazard fashion Karin was afraid he might break something in his attempt to stand up, but alas, the peculiar man rose with grace and smiled brilliantly at the assembled team.

Karin wasn't the only one that had to blink few times before really believing Yumi was able to defy the laws of physics and gravity in such great ways, but apparently, the man could do about anything he desired.

"How most extraordinary beautiful, you are already here for your second task!" he said airily, bringing Karin's focus back to the competition.

Her teammates nodded, which was sign enough for the flowery man to start with explanations.

"In this challenge your team has to build a tent." Yumichika said simply.

"Are you fucking serious?" Renji breathed out, obviously not believing his own luck. "I can do that on my own!"

"Language, Abarai!" Yumi said, making a displeased tsk-ing sound with his tongue in time with Rukia slapping Renji's head yet again.

"I reckon you should stop doing that, Rukia," Hisagi said, "I really don't wanna risk him getting any stupider –if you enjoy hitting him, pick another body part."

Rukia looked as if she was contemplating the given advice while Renji tried to refute the claim of his own stupidity, unsuccessfully.

Lilynette looked bored and Karin was beginning to think the little girl had no other emotions in her repertoire.

"You will, of course, be timed," Yumichika smiled as if he was laughing on his own joke.

"But what are those for?" Nemu inquired and Karin could feel the impending doom when she saw what could only be blindfolds.

"Oh but of course my dear, you wouldn't think it was that easy, would you?" Yumi smiled and Karin looked over to a pile of tent parts with dread.

Now this will be funny.

…

Blue team found their way to the second station where they were greeted by another Kuchiki, Byakuya this time.

Toshiro noticed the parts for building a simple tent laid down on the ground at the same moment as Aizen asked: "Are we gonna build a tent, really? I could do that blindfolded!"

Momo looked at him with admiration but Toshiro was more preoccupied by the smug expression on Byakuya's face. Now that was never a good sign.

"Well good, because that's what you will be doing." He said simply and handed out the blindfolds.

…

Karin was little amazed at how well their team was faring in the tent challenge. While she personally felt like a blind madman with no idea what to do, Lilynette and Nemu proved to have a surprisingly good grasp of building a tent, blindfold notwithstanding.

Rukia's clear voice was giving out orders methodically and Karin knew they were only few steps from completing the challenge.

Yumi told them he would stop the timer the moment tent was built, every member of the team inside and zipper on the front door zipped up.

Karin and Rukia were checking for any stray parts, but it seemed all was where it was supposed to be – on the tent.

"Girls, get here, it's up!" Hisagi stated, making Renji cackle.

"Now where is the zipper," asked Nemu once everybody was inside.

"It's here, in between my legs!" Renji deadpanned.

Karin had to cover her mouth not to wheeze in laughter.

But obviously, pineapple head didn't realize his own innuendo.

But minute later, nothing could suppress Karin's laughter when she heard Renji's horrified: "WRONG ZIPPER, NEMU!"

…

Over with blue team, things weren't looking that great.

Despite Toshiro's best efforts in leadership, their team was undisciplined at best.

The strong link in this challenge was, quite unexpectedly, Rangiku.

"With number of tents I had to build during the night, I am a little disappointed this isn't going faster," she confessed, passing Shiro a stick to finish putting up the tent.

Aizen almost managed to topple the whole thing while entering the tent, fortunately, with little help from Ran, he just ended up falling on his butt.

"Is everybody inside?" Aizen asked rather sullen after his mishap with entrance.

"I think so," said Momo, but Toshiro got this strange feeling someone wasn't there.

"Guys, I don't wanna panic," piped up Kira, "but where is Ururu?"

…

Timer stopped, picture taken, Nemu and Renji still a bit flushed but nonetheless team Purple Rhinos was on the roll.

And they were slowly approaching their next station.

How big was Karin's surprise when she saw the familiar shine of bald head in the grass.

"What took you brats so long, eh?" drawled the rough voice of Ikkaku Madarame and the whole team made an abrupt stop.

"You again?!" Lily screeched, but Rukia put a stop to the impending fight before it could start.

"So what is the task?" Asked Karin, keen to get moving.

"Oh, you will like this one!" Ikkaku cackled and showed them what was behind him.

Karin observe the layout of the area with curiosity.

There were colored ropes marking two circles in the grass - a large circle with a bucket full of water in the middle and then a smaller circle with a small empty plastic tub in the middle.

"This is an area of nuclear contamination," started Ikkaku with all seriousness.

"There is a container full of toxic waste that needs to be relocated. However, both location areas are unfortunately contaminated." He said, motioning towards bucket and the circles.

"You cannot step into the marked area. The only thing you can use for moving the container are these." He finished and gave them two long thick ropes.

"Oh goodie," Hisagi exhaled and Nemu looked at the bucket unhappily.

This did not look easy.

…

Meanwhile Blue Dragons, with Ururu in tow, finally completed the tent challenge and made their way to the next station.

There, Hisana was, again, waiting for them.

She explained the paper tower challenge and left them to their musings.

…

Back in the 'contaminated' area Purple Rhinos were hopeless.

"Ikkaku, give, how do you do this?" Renji pleaded.

"Well, dumbass, most teams just use them ropes, why else would I give them to you?!" Ikkaku snapped in reply.

"Excuse me," Nemu piped up politely, "I believe I have an idea."

Karin looked at the tall girl with undiluted amazement as she explained her plan.

They could soooo do that!

…

Toshiro wasn't sure if their tower was the tallest, but it was standing and they were able to move on rather fast.

The next station was manned by Byakuya, yet again, which led Toshiro to believe that the supervisors were handling the stations for all the teams.

This station was just a rock throw from the lake and Toshiro looked suspiciously at the things laid out at Kuchiki's feet.

"So, what do we do here Byakuya?" asked Rangiku impartiently.

"Well, Ran, you have to make this duckling float." He said holding up yellow rubber duckling.

Ran arched her eyebrow.

"In this," Byakuya finished and held up what look like an old plastic pipe. It was few inches wide, just enough for the rubber duck to fit in there comfortably and without getting stuck, and about three feet tall.

Moreover, it was full of small little holes made into the plastic in an organized fashion.

"The tube has to stay here," Kuchiki instructed as he set the tube on the ground, rubber duck already inside.

"You can use these two," he said pointing to two regular buckets, "and the lake, of course."

"Tell me when to start the time."

…

Nemu's idea was relatively easy and effective, if carried out properly.

They laid out the ropes on the ground and let Lily lie on them. Then Renji and Hisagi stretched the ropes and essentially floated Lilynette into the circle. There she swiftly grabbed the bucket and guys carried her over to the deposit area, where she dumped it into the plastic tub. The only thing left for Rukia, Nemu and Karin to do was to cheer and navigate.

"You are genius Nemu!" Karin called out happily.

Nemu showed a first genuine smile Karin had seen on her face and thanked her politely.

Well, that was third challenge down, only two more!

…

Turns out it is not all that easy to fill a leaking pipe, but somehow, team Blue Dragons managed.

Toshiro was wet from the top of his spiky white head all the way to his toes, and his teammates were no different, but the duck was afloat and the timer stopped.

They all grinned at Byakuya victoriously as the guys held up Ururu squeezing the yellow duck for their obligatory picture.

…

Purple Rhinos survived red ambush looking for the special trophy, but since the purple team had yet to so much as see the blasted thing, Red Hawks passed on rather fast.

Next challenge with Yumichika and balancing a ring with water filled little tube was tedious, but they manage to complete it in decent time. And now, Karin was looking unconvinced at the rubber duck and pipe full of holes.

…

Last challenge to complete for Blue dragons was the toxic waste one. They use the conventional method – danced around the circles with ropes until they somehow managed to dump a bucket into the plastic tub.

After finishing, still rather wet from the rubber duck challenge, but happy, they discarded Aizen's idea to look for (read steal) the trophy and instead decided to hurry to place first and get points for that.

…

"I don't want to see rubber ducks for the rest of my life!" Karin moaned as she wrung the water from her tank top. Had she knew they would be getting wet, she'd have brought her swimsuit.

Oh goodie.

At least, it was finally, done!

Now they better be the first ones in the finish.

…

Toshiro thought he'd have an aneurysm when, 50 meters from finish line, Ururu proclaimed she has to go pee-pee.

And thus the rather annoyed team Blue Dragons arrived into the finish second, falling only shortly behind winning Red Hawks.

Toshiro noted with amusement that Zaraki was clutching an ice pack to his balls while Kuukaku looked a lot smugger than usual. Scary people.

…

Karin was surprised to see they were in finish fourth, but since they managed to make it before the two hour limit was up, they got the extra points for that at least.

All the teams mingled together, waiting for the rest to finish and so she set of to find Rangiku and Momo so she could chat with someone familiar.

She was surprised to find Ran alone, looking rather sourly to the distance.

"Why the long face, Ran?" Karin asked, proudly using the expression she'd learned earlier that day.

"Nothing, Sweetie, absolutely nothing," said Ran, switching from cloudy to sunny in matter of seconds. Karin did not believe the busty blonde for a moment, but perhaps, it was too early in their friendship to push it.

Kirio, the chubby lady who Karin remembered to be Ran, Isane and Kyone's mom ran among the kids and offered snacks to anyone and everyone who didn't run from her reach fast enough.

Almost half an hour later the last team finally found their way to the finish and Karin stored away a very important piece of information:

Never let little Yachiru take over the directions.

…

some more A/N: Ickaser pointed out to me, that the challenges/tasks the teams did may be a bit confusing, so do not hesitate to ask anything you don't uderstand :)