Hey guys! I've got another chapter for you guys here. I'm trying to get this chapter done as quick as possible because I'm working on it on my sister's birthday. It doesn't help considering she and her friends running everyone up and down the walls. Between that and the screaming I've got a migraine and can't think straight.

mumbles

Baka, you are one lucky son of a gun. You don't have to deal with any younger siblings.

Kyuu: Yes I do. I have to deal with yours, Zu-chan. Tell the ursanikachi I said hi, gaki.

Sorry it took so long guys, its my fault. I was at college and just got back. Gomen nasai. On with the story!

X

Sakura's Room

Sakura's face scrunched up in annoyance when the sun hit her face. She buried her head further into the warm body next to her.

'Wait….who is in my bed?!'

She thought about it for a few minutes trying to rack her brain for this morning's happenings. Most of them came easily to her, but after she got to her house the rest just wouldn't.

'Well, there's only one way to find out. And it had better not be Naruto.'

She cautiously opened her eyes but didn't move her head. Making sure that the rise and fall of the muscular chest in front of her was a steady rhythm, she slowly rose her head. Pushing a few obnoxious locks away from her eyes she nearly face-vaulted.

'Why is Toshiro asleep in my bed? And with his arm around me for that matter!'

Sakura's face scrunched up in confusion and looked up to his face as if he could tell her without waking up. His snowy white hair was more messy than usual and his eyelids covered the turquoise colored eyes beneath them. He had moved his right hand from beneath his head to rest on his torso.

She let her eyes trail down and blushed. He was well defined and wasn't too bulky with muscle.

'He's exactly your type, too.'

Sakura's face grew to a light cherry color.

'Shut up.'

Hisuikaitou chuckled.

'Sure, sure, whatever you say. Just don't do anything I wouldn't do.'

Her face was now rivaling a ruby or garnet. She buried her face in between the bed and Hitsugaya. Thanks to her zanpakuto's soul she was now receiving very perverted images.

'Hisuikaitou! Stop it!'

Hisuikaitou stopped showing her the images and rolled around on the ground laughing hysterically.

'Fine, laugh, fine.'

When Sakura was able to get her blush under control and push the, uh, vivid thoughts from her mind at the current moment, she raised her head. She could immediately feel the color coming back to her cheeks.

Toshiro had woken up shortly after Sakura had tried to burrow herself into the bed and had been waiting for her to resurface. He knew it was only a matter of time. When she finally decided to reappear her cheeks were a light pink. But when she saw that he was awake, her blush had magnified ten-fold. Toshiro raised an eyebrow. Before he could say anything his phone went off.

Sakura was relieved.

'Yes! No awkward conversation for me!'

She heard laughter and rolled her eyes stopping in the middle of her mental happy dance.

'What now? Can't you see I'm busy here.'

'Well, it only means that your conversation was put off for a while, it doesn't mean that it won't happen.'

Her face dropped.

'Why me?'

Toshiro grabbed his cell phone from the night table that he had put it on earlier that morning and opened it.

'A group of hollows near the border. Rangiku should be here soon, then join the rest of the group.'

He looked over to see Sakura in thought. He put his hand on her shoulder and gently shook her.

"There is a group of hollows near the border."

Sakura nodded and jumped out of the bed completely forgetting her conversation with her zanpakuto and skidded over to her training bag and grabbed her soul candy. Taking it out of the bag she popped it into her mouth. Her soul immediately separated from her gigai and she turned to her gigai.

"There's a group of hollows near the border stay here and cover for me if needed. I'm going with nii-san and everyone else."

"Hai! Take care Sakura-sama!"

While Sakura was taking her soul candy from her bag Toshiro had gone into his room and also separated from his gigai. The modified soul nodded and Toshiro went down stairs waiting for everyone in the living room near the door. Sakura nodded and ran down the hall and into the living room where Renji, Ichigo, Rukia, and Toshiro were waiting for her and for Rangiku to show up. Toshiro nodded and the group went outside and waited a few seconds for Rangiku to meet them.

Rangiku came running up on their right and joined the group. Toshiro quickly explained the situation and when everything was cleared up they took off with Toshiro in the lead and Sakura following behind him because she knew the layout of the land. Behind her were Rukia and Rangiku with Renji and Ichigo bringing up the rear.

They raced through the streets and as they came upon more and more people they took to the roof tops. Knowing that they would lose valuable time if they went through the gates they leapt over the wall that surrounded Konoha and into the dense forest. After making sure the last of their party was across the barrier Toshiro took off again with everyone falling back into place.

When they were about two thirds of the way there Hitsugaya stopped the group and let them take a quick break and let them catch their breath before they would confront the hollows. Sakura had perched herself onto a low branch of a nearby tree and was taking a drink from her canteen. As they had been closing the gap between them and the hollows it felt like something was going to happen and Sakura knew it didn't have to deal with the hollows.

'Don't think about it for now. We'll deal with it when it decides to show itself to us.'

'I'll try not to.'

Rangiku was enjoying watching Rukia hit Ichigo and Renji. After a while though she was beginning to get a little bored. That's when she noticed Sakura on a branch just a few meters away. She walked over towards her and jumped onto the same branch as Sakura. Said person turned to the fuku taichou with a small smile on her face.

"Hi Rangiku."

"Sakura! You know we haven't gotten to hang out yet!"

Sakura laughed, "I know we'll have to do something when we get back to the village. We should go out to eat or something."

Rangiku's smile grew. "Do you know anywhere that has some could sake?"

Sakura nodded, "Yeah, and they have really good food too."

Rangiku squealed and picked up Sakura, giving her a suffocating hug. "Oh that's great! We have to go there after we get done with the hollows!"

Sakura had somehow gotten out of the hug during the middle of Rangiku's idea and was now being spun around by the strawberry blonde. Noticing that the captain was on his way back from where ever he had gone everyone made sure that their items wouldn't be left behind and that they were ready to dive straight into getting rid of the hollows.

Toshiro dropped down from higher up in the trees and they began on their short journey. The adrenalin was rising among the group and a few of them, namely Ichigo and Renji, were ready to take down as many hollows as they could. Sakura could feel the excitement starting to flow through her veins. It had been a long time since she had fought a hollow and she was determined to take at least two of them down.

X

Naruto

After finishing his daily breakfast of instant ramen he grabbed his orange and black jumpsuit and quickly changed into it. He was almost out the door when he finally remembered that he had three guests. He widened his eyes.

'Does Renji have the same temper as Sakura-chan?'

Gulping he ran back into the living room and didn't see any sign of the trio. He ran down the hall and ran into the guest bedroom. He looked around.

'Why does the room look so familiar, and not because it's in my apartment?'

He stood there with his face scrunched up and scratching the back of his head, his eyes sweeping the room. Then it donned on him, it was his bedroom. Just as he was about to walk out the room he noticed a frying pan next to his bed.

'What's that doing in here?'

Shrugging he left his room and walked into the guest bedroom. Still he couldn't find any sign of the two shinigami or the substitute shinigami. He swallowed a lump in his throat. Who should he go to, Tsunade or Sakura?

Making his decision he took off to the hokage tower. Maybe she wouldn't hit him as hard as Sakura would, maybe. He used his chakra to scale the wall and knocked on Tsunade's window. The blonde opened the window and stood in front of Tsunade's desk.

"What is it Naruto?"

"Well, uh, you see…."

Tsunade's eye started to twitch.

"Yes Naruto, go on."

"Well, uh, when I woke up, uh…"

"Just spit it out already!"

"WELL AFTER I WOKE UP AND HAD MY YUMMY RAMEN AND I WAS ABOUT READY TO LEAVE I REMEMBERED ABOUT SAKURA'S BROTHER, ICHIGO, AND RUKIA STAYING OVER BECAUSE OF THE STORM AND WHEN I LOOKED IN MY APARTMENT THEY WEREN'T THERE! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"

Tsunade looked at him weirdly.

"Why would I kill you…? They went to deal with some hollows that appeared near the border."

Naruto peeked out from behind the chair that he had been cowering behind.

"Really, Baa-chan?!"

"Yes. AND I AM NOT OLD, BRAT!" (K/N: Haha. Brat. Gaki. That's you, Zu-chan)

Tsunade preceded to chase Naruto around her office using anything sturdy as a weapon.

X

Shinigami

They were only a few hundred meters away from their destination and the hollows. You could practically feel the adrenalin that was pumping through their veins. The thrill of approaching battle grew by the second. It had been a while since they had gotten to Konoha and had fought a hollow, and now there was a group of them.

As they approached the clearing the outlines of the hollows were becoming more recognizable. One looked like it was an overgrown baboon while another looked like squid. With one last shunpo the shinigami rushed into the group of the hollows and set to work. They made sure to steer clear of their teammates and to avoid throwing an attack in their direction unless necessary.

Using a nearby tree as a spring board, Rukia pushed herself in the direction of a rat-like hollow. Using her zanpakuto as an extension of her arm she was able to make a decent gash on the hollow as it tried to escape. She made a quick swipe at one of its limbs and was able to separate it. But she didn't see another hollow that had made its way behind her.

Renji sent a shot of white lightning towards it successfully rendering it immobile for a few moments as it continued to struggle to stand. Rukia sent a look of thanks in his direction and finished off the rat hollow with another swipe of her zanpakuto down the middle of its mask. She then started on the one that Renji was able to temporarily immobilized for her.

Rangiku had fought with a horse like hollow and had quickly defeated it. She was currently working on defeating a peacock-looking hollow. 'I wonder how Yumichika would react to this…,' she mused. She was careful to avoid the talons of the bird-like creature and continued on trying to eliminate it.

Renji and Ichigo had made fighting the hollows into a competition amongst themselves and were charging at the hollows near them with smug grins on their faces as they swiped at them. They had even made a point to take care of the hollow that was fighting with their opponent just for the kicks of it.

Toshiro had taken out the hollows that had challenged him with relative ease. From the way they had fought he knew that they were just rookies at being a hollow and couldn't have transformed more than a few weeks ago at most. Every now and again he would come across a more experienced one that gave him a little trouble but nothing that he or the others of the group couldn't handle.

Sakura dove to the left and brought her zanpakuto up and swung it downwards at an angle effectively disposing of the hollow she had been fighting for the past few minutes. She used the back of her arm to wipe the few beads of sweat that were gathering on her forehead. Seeing that they had finished off the group of hollows she sheathed her zanpakuto and walked towards everybody else when her body tensed.

'I knew something was going to happen.'

'Just keep your cool and don't do anything rash.'

'I know.'

Soon everybody else was able to feel the presence of another person. They didn't have spiritual pressure though. Toshiro looked over to Sakura, she met his gaze and nodded. The person was a shinobi and by the way Sakura's body had tensed up he could tell the shinobi was an enemy. He looked at Renji and Ichigo and saw that they were ready to spring at the possible opponent if the opportunity arrived.

Ichigo, Renji, and Toshiro were standing in front of the group with Toshiro in the middle and slightly more in front of the other two. Sakura was behind him but was in clear view of the entrance to the clearing with Rukia and Rangiku on either side of her. They were all ready to attack or defend themselves if needed.

The three females were ready to unsheathe their zanpakuto too if needed. The wind picked up slightly and the figure slowly walked towards the opening in front of them that lead to the clearing. As they got closer the silhouette of the figure was male and looked to be around Ichigo's age or so.

The figure continued their slow pace towards the shinigami and three other figures could be seen following the first figure but quite a distance behind the first figure. After waiting painstakingly for the few minutes that had passed by in a deathly quiet silence, the figure emerged from the shadows that had shrouded him.

Sakura's eyes slightly widened before narrowing, Renji had been glaring at the entrance to the clearing and his glare hardened even more. His glare wasn't his normal 'battle' glare but instead a 'you're dead if you don't run for your life.' Rukia had also recognized him from one of Sakura's old photos and also glared.

Ichigo and Rangiku could easily sense the hatred rolling off of their comrades and knew this person was someone that was asking for a death wish by coming anywhere near them, and by the way the temperature was quickly dropping they knew that the person was very unlucky that they were going to get to meet the ice wielding taichou. But the two people of their group who the hatred was radiating the most from were Sakura and Toshiro.

The figure stopped in mid step noting the aura of the group. Though he was mostly confused as to why they were wearing hakamas and kimonos. Each of them had a katana that was unique and either held within reachable distance in their obi or on their back.

He could feel that his three companions had stopped when they had started to feel the waves of hatred and killing intent coming from the six people in the clearing. After contemplating for his options for a few more seconds he decided to continue into the clearing. When Sakura was able to fully see him, she glared even harder and spat out.

"What do you want, Uchiha?"

Sasuke smirked, "What? No 'Sasuke-kun come back to Konoha'?"

Her glare intensified, "You're a traitor Uchiha, and personally I don't want to have anything to do with you."

"Oh really? Why were you on those retrieval missions then?"

"You want to know why? Well its because Naruto saw you as a brother and wanted you to come back. After all you've done to him though, I think he's finally starting to see who you really are."

"Oh really, Haruno?"

Renji interrupted.

"Yeah and its not Haruno, its Abarai."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and looked at Sakura. "So you didn't wait for me like you said you would after all."

Rukia chuckled and had a knowing smirk on her face. "No, she didn't get married although I wouldn't be too surprised if it happens shortly after this. You see Haruno wasn't her real surname, Abarai is."

The shinigami watched as his facial expression changed. His group soon came into the clearing. He looked at the shinigami. "And who are all of you?"

Rukia stepped forward, "Kuchiki Rukia, thirteenth division."

"Matsumoto Rangiku, fuku taichou tenth division."

"Kurosaki Ichigo, human shinigami."

Laughter could be heard from a red haired woman who had come into the clearing a few moments before. She fixed her glasses.

"Strawberry huh?"

Ichigo smirked, "Actually it means one guardian." Her amused expression promptly dropped and a Blue haired man chuckled.

"You suck at making fun of people Karin."

"I do not Suigetsu!"

Sasuke cleared his throat while the shinigami just stood their looking amused at the dysfunctional group. After they quit arguing the rest continued.

"Abarai Renji, Sakura's older brother and fuku taichou sixth division."

"Abarai Sakura, not Haruno, shinigami."

"Hitsugaya Toshiro, taichou tenth division."

Sasuke's eyes flashed to his kekkei genkai trying to intimidate them but failed in doing so. "Uchiha Sasuke, leader."

"Karin."

"Suigetsu."

"Juugo."

X

Well, there's the chapter for you. If you guys want me to update don't be afraid to nag at me in your reviews and if I still am slow updating feel free to pm me to tell me to get to work.

THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE YOU KYUU! mumbles You already remind me on a daily basis. Which reminds me, YOU need to update your story. And wow, I was able to actually make the chapter longer.

Kyuu: Kukuku. Ano, I do have to keep reminding you. You'll forget. sigh Gaki.

Maa, so mean. Now I'm not gonna give you your papers to go to Japan with me. So there.

Anzu: Then who's going to buy you your first bowl of real ramen.

Also! If I get enough reviews I'll post the next chapter on my birthday in a few days! It's almost done to so Kyuu will get it soon!