I don't own bleach. Sorry for the wait, I had finals.
Thank you lightningstrxu and JosELynne for proposing this chapter.
Authors Note: I'm thinking of going over each chapter and editing and lengthening them, making them have more continuity and being more of a story, it might be more than a week till the next update though if I do. But it will make the story much better. What do you think?
Ichimaru Gin had served under a dark lord before. He had betrayed people who counted on him and trusted him in both his life and his death.
He died in war. He had been forced by his master to deal with an unruly group of approaching adversaries and was blindsided by a trap set by their strongest enemy.
When he had woken up in soul society and had discovered his decrease in age and the absence of his master, things had changed for him. For the first time in his existence he had no burning desire for revenge, no master to serve and no underlings to supervise and support. Ichimaru Gin was free.
Later, when he had met Rangiku, contrary to public belief he had not fed her so he could use her later. That selfless act was the first action they he had taken for no egotistical reason, and not because his master had ordered him to either. As hard as it is to believe, Ichimaru Gin saved Matsumoto Rangiku out of the goodness of his heart.
After he had discovered the extreme presence of his Shinigami powers, more than just feeling hungry, he hadn't known what to do with himself, at first. It had taken Gin three weeks to make the decision to leave Ran-chan in that old hut of theirs and join the Shinigami Academy. Even knowing that Ran-chan would follow him eventually to Serietei didn't make the decision any easier.
The day he graduated from the academy he had thought that joining fourth or twelfth would be a good idea, and the best way to use the knowledge of anatomy from his lifetime to benefit his career. In the end he decided on fifth division because the lieutenant seemed to be the weakest, and easiest to win against if he decided to take his position.
That was the first decision that eventually put him within Aizen clutches.
He would not admit that getting involved with Aizen had not been one of his best ideas. Sure, if it worked out then he would be very, very powerful. But he should have known better. He should have known that sometimes the costs outweighed the benefits. He should have known from his days of his lifetime's betrayal what the fallout of such an attack would be. But yet again he had fallen under the sway of dark promises of power and control yet again.
If he had a chance to do it over again Gin didn't know what he would do. Perhaps he would join fourth, or perhaps he would do it allover again and sell his soul and power to the devil in fifth once more.
The expression that his Ran-chan had made when it was discovered that he was a traitor would be one that would haunt him for all eternity. The stark betrayal and hatred as well as the anger, fear, and sadness struck at his chest and mounted there causing him exquisite agony when he thought about the one he actually sort-of cared for.
And now standing on the battlefield Ichimaru Gin watched as his troops clothed resplendently in white, the color an anti-thesis of there true intentions clashed against the black tide of Shinigami. His eyes swept the battlefield; Kurosaki was fighting Aizen-taichou while the orange-haired substitute's absurdly loyal fifteenth division kept Yammy and Aaroniero Arruruerie from attacking Kurosaki's back.
The soutaichou was crossing blades with Stark and Barragan at the same time, by himself. Gin knew the shinigami would fall soon. The two espada had not even entered resurreccion form yet. The other choice was for the soutaichou to unleash his Bankai, but that would cripple his own forces under the strain of his reiatsu as well as the arrencar.
Soifon was dancing back to back with Yoruichi, defending against Halibel and her fraccion. The two shinigami were winning and it didn't seem like that would change. Urahara stood nearby keeping an eye on them as he crossed blades with Nnoitra. It was obvious that whoever finished their battle first would go to help their comrades.
He couldn't see Unohana anywhere but he suspected that there was a general relief station behind the large sand dune a few hundred meters to the north-east.
Surprisingly, Ise Nanao, the librarian that he, Tosen, and Aizen-taichou had pegged for a weakling was tearing down arrencar left and right with her bare, glowing hands. Her back was being watched, not by Kyoraku or Ukitake as he would have suspected but by an odd conglomeration. A group of five took turns moving around the semi-circle that Ise left unprotected. Feeling for the reiatsu of the group he was stunned to discover the Kurostuchi captain as one of them. The others were Hisagi from ninth and those two eleventh warriors, the third and fifth seat. As well as a reiatsu that he didn't recognize. The five were taking turns fighting against Szayel Aporro Granz, and for some odd reason doing their best to protect the little eighth division fukutaichou.
Byakuya was fighting with Grimmjow with a look of distaste on his prissy noble visage. It seemed that the Kuchiki noble was remembering his fight with Kurosaki and looking to go third-stage Bankai any minute. Grimmjow was in his resurreccion cat form and was powering up a grand-ray cero.
Glancing around for his fellow lieutenant he saw Tousen's Bankai engaged and felt the reiatsu of Zaraki Kenpachi coming from the tent of blackness as well. A rematch. He hoped the man could fend off the little pink ball of hyper-ness as well – wait, Yachiru's reiatsu wasn't coming from the tent, where was the girl? He looked around.
Hitsugaya, the little snow prince was commanding his division with a strength and nobility Gin didn't know he possessed. He was keeping his division pressing forward with minimum casualties even while faced with Zommari Leroux. Ran-chan was looking his way. He lifted his hand and gave her a little wave, and with a backwards shout to her captain she took off in his direction. "Damn" he murmured. He grasped Shinso and pulled his sword out of its sheath preparing for the onslaught.
He couldn't spot the distinctive huge armor of Komamura anywhere either yet his reiatsu was Bankai-level. He traced his reiatsu with his senses he was nearly bowled over by what he came across. "Impossible". The words left his mouth before he could stop them. Uzumaki Naruto. It was Uzumaki Naruto the man that killed him standing on that field. Not surprisingly the flower-princess of konoha and the brooding-traitor as well, fighting against each other. Closing his eyes for a moment he felt the reiatsu of the trio. Yachiru, Komomura, and Ulquiorra. He had been in such close quarters with his main three enemies from his lifetime this whole afterlife.
Yakushi Kabuto threw his head back and laughed.