Hi guys! Who all is pissed at this little author? ::raises hand:: I wanted to finish this chapter before school started but along with alot of other things I plan it didn't go so well. I won't say much more so enjoy.

Chapter 10 - Dangers Within Not Dangers Without

The forest terrain was harder to traverse than Yumichika had first thought it would be. The unexpected roots, bushes and vines were not helped by the immense darkness. Even after Yumichika begrudgingly allowed Takahiro to use a spell to light the immediate area he was completely wiped out ten minutes into the trek and again he found himself on Ikkaku's back grumbling under Takahiro's know it all eyes. This way was much harder than running down the road as Takahiro tirelessly explained to the two men.

They had stopped for a couple of minutes and Takahiro began drawing a diagram in the only piece of open dirt. With his index finger he drew big circle in the ground then drew a small circle in the middle.

"This is basically our world. The towns and ramshackle's of our dreadful rukongai orbit around the center of the universe, the soul society." He tapped the center circle before beginning to draw concentric circles around the center. "I will not go into great detail since we want to make progress not sit here for a couple of hours." He then drew a cross right down the middle of the circle.

"All these circles and the cross indicate a major road. One thing you must always keep in mind is: all roads lead to the soul society. We are here." He pointed to the outer most ring and moved his finger into an area that was just a bit below it. He made a depression there.

"The road we were on was one that leads to the outermost ring. From there we would have traveled to one of the four cardinal direction roads. The closest one is the one that travels south from the soul society, ceremoniously called the Southern road." He chuckled lightly to himself while the duo just shared a look of disbelief about the crazy old man. "But it would have taken us a day or two to reach where the ring and the Southern road intersect. What we are doing now is simple geometry. We simply draw a line from here, the outer ring, to here, the Southern road and we have?" He paused. "Come on first to answer goes to the head of the class."

"Ugh," Yumichika rolled his eyes before answering like a child. "A triangle."

"That's right!" He exclaimed excitedly. "The fastest way between A and B is our route which is C the hypotenuse of a triangle. But what is simple arithmetic is not simple trekking. All of the area surrounding us is heavy forests since we left the plains which were over here near the inn." As he explained his finger kept dropping here and there on the makeshift map.

"The plains extend to a desert which extends to a mountain range which extends to tundra that eventually drops back into a mostly deciduous forest area." His finger had run around the circle indicating the different terrains before resting back in the depression that was the 'you are here' sign once again.

"Our area is a large and dangerous one with dropping cliffs and thick bulky trees. We should aim for getting to the main road by tomorrow morning if nothing gets in our way and then depending on how far we travel in one night. It's a faster route for sure but we do not know what else resides in these depths and that could stop us completely." He sighed looking around intently listening to the rustling leaves before he continued.

"For now though we should focus on treading some new ground. The sun will be up in a couple of hours and the heat will rise with it. If we use our time wisely we could cover a lot of ground, find a place camouflaged nicely, close to a water source, build a fire, set up our sleeping area and I could give Yumichika a quick check up all before the morning star fades from the sky. We'll sleep during the day to avoid the horrid sun and head out again at dusk." He smiled widely at the two men who were still trying to digest the long explanation of a world they had just realized they knew nothing about.

They had traveled so little in what seemed like so long they thought they had seen it all but Yumichika could not remember the last time he saw snow. It was maybe so far back it was in his real life because he certainly had never seen it in this world. He had always just figured that it never snowed in the afterlife. Although he couldn't be sure he had ever seen snow at all. His real life was all a blur now it was a miracle he had remembered his name for it was the only thing he could recall of his life. Not a family or faces or even his death. It had all been forgotten, faded away in the endless summer he had experienced together with Ikkaku. They had forged a new life that shined brighter as the past continued to fade.

"Let's get going then." Takahiro heaved himself up with a grunt from his tired bones as Ikkaku threw the lighter man onto his back even before Yumichika had a chance to argue. It wasn't long before they heard the rush of flowing water. Again the man lapsed into a lengthy speech about their after world. As they walked following the flow of the water the two men could barely keep up with the change of subject as he sped through them like an encyclopedia. It was dizzying the amount he knew and was divulging to two street rats. They were enamored by the information and intrigued.

"All water sources too flow into the soul society. It's like a magnet attracting spirit particles to it and water is very purely spirit particles. Like in a regular body water makes up seventy percent of the body so does it in these spirit bodies of ours. We too are at a level attracted to the soul society due to our bodies being composed of spirit particles but the mind is powerful. It can override our innate sense to go there. If you two can just learn to allow the spirit energy to flow you would be so much more powerful than now." Yumichika felt Ikkaku tense somewhat under him but he stayed quiet as the old man rambled on about photosynthesis in the spirit world.

After a while it became clear he was dictating some sort of college thesis to them and both had somewhat tuned him out. Yumichika found the back of Ikkaku's head very fascinating and he began to absentmindedly rub the smooth scalp with his index finger, feeling tiny bumps and grooves of scars. Ikkaku shot him look over his shoulder and Yumichika couldn't help but play with the easily irritable man. He placed his long fingers right in front of Ikkaku's eyes as if to say 'what are you gonna do about them'? When Ikkaku said nothing he put his palms back on the soft surface of the bald head and chuckled softly.

Long into the one sided conversation they came across a strong current begin in the river they had been following. It fed into rapids before going over quite a steep waterfall, forty feet high. Still a distance you could hurt yourself from if you didn't know what you were doing. Fortunately Takahiro knew what he was doing.

As they approached and Ikkaku peeked over, dangerously teetering Yumichika over the edge, Takahiro clapped his hands.

"Right! First lesson." They stared blankly at the over excited man. Ikkaku couldn't help but feel like a child resenting his first teacher. "Madarame set Ayasegawa down so I can teach you something that might come in handy." The duo didn't move. Ikkaku didn't put Yumichika down and Yumichika didn't try to get off of his back. "A little enthusiasm if you don't mind." Sighing rightfully ticked, Ikkaku let his hands slip from their spot around Yumichika's thighs and allowed the smaller man to jump off his back.

"I thought we were going to the soul society not enrolling in classes." He growled approaching the older man. Takahiro stared at him unfazed.

"Come now I can't let you go to the soul society unprepared. They might just put you into the academy and with your attitude Madarame you would surely be the first to be kicked out in centuries." He laughed lightly at his little joke before clearing his throat at the look on Ikkaku's face. "It's not all for fun. I have found our camp but it's at the base of this waterfall. It would take us until the sun was up and out to find a safe way down so instead we are going to jump."

"The fall would break our legs." Yumichika said his arms resolutely crossed in front of him as he glanced over the edge of the cliff.

"Normally it would but soul reapers have an easy way of circumventing these things. All around us are spirit particles. Like I said before they react to the spiritual energy that resides within our bodies. They attract each other because they are basically the same thing." Takahiro began walking towards the ledge. It looked like he was going to walk off it to their bewilderment and joy. "If you can attract enough spirit particles below you it can support," He stepped off the ledge and stayed suspended in the air. ",you."

He looked back at Ikkaku who looked wide eyed at the oddity. Yumichika rolled his eyes unimpressed and turned away seemingly annoyed by the old man. "It might take some time to get this completely right but you'll need it. A lot of hollows like to fight in the air. Also it's better that way so you don't destroy the landscape when fighting." Takahiro began listing the myriad of reasons why the technique was needed as he paced back in forth in mid air. Yumichika looked over at his partner silently examining his reaction. He could see Ikkaku smile some as if he had an idea. Trying to react faster than Ikkaku's stupidity was a hard task that Yumichika sometimes failed at.

"Wait Ikkaku don't!" But it was too late he had already propelled himself off the ledge. Yumichika threw himself to the ledge looking over horrified as the man plummeted to the jutted rocks below. Takahiro disappeared in a flash and soon Ikkaku too disappeared from sight leaving Yumichika to panic. They appeared beside him as Takahiro threw the bald man to sit next to the relieved raven haired beauty.

"You both are just looking for death aren't you!?" Takahiro snapped breathing hard and touching his temples with his fingers.

"We don't have to look that hard we're already dead." Ikkaku snickered and Yumichika couldn't help but smile at the statement.

"You think you are immune to death here!? How sorely mistaken you are." Something in his voice was far from kind. He looked away trying to say something else but he could only open his mouth. The sound never came out. In the end he chuckled lightly to himself shaking his head before becoming stern once more. "You're like two prepubescent boys playing on railroad tracks! Please for my sanity and for the sake of your lives please think before you do something like that again." The old man chastised them like a slap across the back of the hand. Yumichika retaliated.

"Hey! Don't lump me together with him! I tried to stop him." Takahiro raised one of his white bushy eyebrows.

"You've done some stupid things yourself in the past just because you are sometimes the voice of reason doesn't wipe the slate clean from some of the things you've done." The statement was severe before he added in a more casual tone. "I'm sure." It sounded very menacing and shut Yumichika up, for now. The man sighed as Yumichika rolled his eyes at the statements.

"Madarame let me explain something before you do that again please?" Ikkaku nodded, once again his attention on the teacher. "You both first have to learn how to attract the spirit particles to you. It's easy like I said a mind is a powerful thing and so we have to turn off what tells you that walking on air is impossible. I'll show you. Here stand in front of me Madarame." Ikkaku did as he was told and stood with his back to the cliff. "Now close your eyes. Imagine water flowing should be easy with the sound of gushing water right next to you. Imagine it soaking your feet. Do you have that image, can you feel the liquid between your toes?"

"No!" He said flatly.

"Try harder, please." The bald man began wiggling his toes before nodding.

"Ok, what now?"

"You have about five steps before you hit the ledge so walk until the edge." Ikkaku did as he was told. One, two, three, four..... he hesitated as he reached the fifth step as he knew there was probably nothing beneath his feet. He was right and Yumichika had to be signaled to be quiet while Ikkaku contemplated whether he should risk another step or not. Tentatively he moved his foot back feeling the ground hard and sturdy beneath his padded sandal. Then another foot back and another until he was at ten in his head.

At first he was confused almost certain Takahiro had lied about how far back the ledge was or maybe he had taken very small steps but at Yumichika's feverish whispers to the silent teacher he opened his eyes. He immediately dropped five feet with a frightened yell.

"Calm down Ikkaku your fine. Just keep that state of mind in play. Can you feel it? The spirit particles at your feet hard as the ground?" The bald man stayed quiet not sure how to respond. Takahiro laughed deeply. "So basically we travel through spirit particles like water. With our own spiritual energy we can shape it around us to do all sorts of things. Yumichika you should have great control over spirit particles. This exercise should be easy compared to the way you took down that h..."

"It's of no importance to me." Yumichika waved away the comment trying to redirect the conversation. "I..I can barely walk ten feet without collapsing I would probably fall to my death." He shook his head feverishly. "No, I'll never be able to do something like that." Yumichika looked away from the questioning gaze Takahiro was giving him.

"Well you'll never know unless you try." At the continued ignorance Takahiro gave up on Yumichika. "Another time I guess. Anyway we can use the spirit particles to cushion our fall so we can reach the ground safely." He sighed deeply and massaged a place in his neck shaking his head at the young man's blatant lies. "Step up here Madarame so that Ayasegawa can climb on your back."

"What?" Exclaimed Yumichika. "I am not going on Ikkaku's back. He'll kill the both of us." As Ikkaku cautiously raised a foot up in mid air his face constricted in concentration he responded.

"Scardy cat."

"Excuse me?" Ikkaku struggled to step back onto solid ground wobbly as if he were stepping on a springy sponge.

"You heard me." Jumping onto the dirt he put his hands on his hips, finally looking away from his feet to smirk playfully at Yumichika. "I called you a scardy cat." The tone was challenging. "Come on, don't you trust me?" He had that look in his eyes. Yumichika tried to look away from it but it pierced his back with its intensity. He grumbled at the smile on that goofy face that seemed to illuminate the darkened sky. Or was it the sun? It was so easy for those two to be misconstrued thought Yumichika.

"I trust you with my life but that won't stop us from hitting the ground." A warmhearted chuckle escaped Takahiro.

"I won't let anything happen to you. If the both of you were falling to your death don't doubt for a second that it would be you I would save Ayasegawa." Yumichika rounded on the old man.

"That isn't funny."

"Come on Yumichika it was a little bit funny." He glared at Ikkaku before bursting out in an angry tirade.

"No it wasn't!" He turned to Takahiro clenching his fists until his knuckles hurt. "I hate your snide remarks! You're the only one who thinks they're funny. And what about me, huh!? You're supposed to cure me. You're supposed to help me not feel like this. Instead you've been telling us all this worthless crap! If I were just a little bit stronger, dammit. I just I feel so useless and you're not helping. Why are you..."

He began to wheeze horribly his lungs almost closing up completely. Bracing his knees for support he tried to take a breath but it seemed the more he tried the more blocked his esophagus became. He clawed at his thighs trying to get himself to just take in some air but nothing allowed the air to return to his already burning lungs.

He saw the glow of green that Takahiro emitted in that blasted hand of his and he felt a soothing sensation on his chest. He tried again to take a deep breath but it hadn't done a damn thing.

"Yumichika?" There was intense worry in his friend's voice. He knew it was bad if Ikkaku sounded like that. "What's happening to him?" He demanded furiously of the witch doctor. All Takahiro could do was stammer and trip over his words.

"I...I...I'm not sure. Just... grab... hold him steady." Ikkaku wasted no time in catching his friend as he fell back not even trying to breathe at all anymore as it had become too much to fight against the constricted wind pipes. His eyes were just gazing away into the back of his head now. Yumichika could feel himself drifting away from them all. The noises becoming almost mute his body screaming for oxygen.

Takahiro placed both his hands on the chest plate illuminating the palling face immediately with an eerie green light.

"The problem is on a cellular level. It's like he's having an allergic reaction to spirit particles. I've never seen anything like this before."

"Well don't stand there gaping at him! Do something!"

"I'm trying to! It's just damn. What to do? What to do?" Takahiro removed his hands and started to pace rapidly running old lectures or papers he had read in his mind to no avail. Ikkaku readjusted the semi conscious man in his arms not sure how to hold him, wanting to be as gentle as possible. Takahiro was mumbling to himself rapidly.

"Spirit particles, he's allergic to them? They're everywhere! What to do? Ikkaku jump!" The startling demand caught him off guard.

"What?"

"We don't have time for explanations just jump!" Before Takahiro even finished the sentence Ikkaku sent them plummeting over a forty foot sheer drop. His heart was thrown into his throat, more from fear for his friend then the fear of dying in a bloody mess on the rocks below. He felt the spirit particles around them hugging tightly like a blanket slowing their decent. When they hit the ground the reverberations hit like a ton of bricks sending the closely knit spirit particles flying away from the two. Takahiro appeared in a flash throwing a green hand once more on the breathless man. For a second or two there was no movement. The man lay lifeless.

Then there was the sound of inhalation as he wheezed again and greedily gulped in air. Yumichika's surroundings still swam in a pool of the dim realization that he once again breathed. Ikkaku spoke his name several times but he could do nothing to respond feeling his eyes drift close the combination of pain and exhaustion filled his heavy limbs. As the dark sleep clouded his senses he could hear their voices echo far, far away.

"Yumichika?" A hand rested softly on his sweaty brow.

"Let him rest. He should be fine after sleep. We need to set up camp and then I can meditate on this added complication....."

The voices became so muddled within the dark he could not make them out. The surroundings soon faded but the voices remained. They became a loud din reverberating within his mind so loud the words could not be made out. They changed and merged. He could hear sounds of all sorts now. A low rumbling of many voices clustered together in a small room, pounding bare feet on dirt ground then on wood. Clinking glass and liquid in a hollow barrel. He hears yelling from such a familiar voice. Yumichika hadn't heard that voice in such a long time. He opened his eyes slowly dim candle light filling the establishment and glinting in seedy eyes. That voice came from him, it was his own yells that filled the bar. It was that particular night his mind chose to revisit while it lingered in unconsciousness. It was a night that changed the destinies of two men when they unexpectedly converged in this bar almost a half a century ago.

A.N. Instead of trying to quickly do a Naruto one shot I should have worked on this. So I came to this conclusion with school making my life a living hell I will only work on Anitics until it is completed. There are so many other projects I kind of started because of that damn Naruto fanfic and it's not even that good, ugh! Ok anyway yea this will be my top priority because dear lord I must finish something other than a one shot!