Thanks you for reading! Please enjoy this next chapter!

Disclaimer: Still do not own Bleach!

Chapter 14: Confrontation

Ichigo could feel the cold air rushing by him as he leaped from building to building. He was making his way towards Inoue's apartment in search of Byakuya. He had kept his senses open the whole way there, but although he had tried his best, Ichigo was still a novice when it came to finding other people's reiatsu, and he had not been able to locate him.

I guess, I'll give it one more try, he thought as he landed silently in a playground near Inoue's home. He closed his eyes and concentrated, but still couldn't feel anything in the early morning darkness. Damn it, where is that bastard.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," a cold, unfeeling voice called out quietly from the street behind him.

Ichigo turned around slowly to face the person whose chilly voice had cut through the quiet night. He could feel his face set into a steely scowl. The leaves and dust around him whirled violently away as his reiatsu rose in time to his feelings of anger towards this person who had caused Rukia so much grief.

"What do you want, Byakuya?" he asked as he turned to face his wife's older brother, he knew the answer, but he couldn't resist being an obstinate ass towards this aloof man whom he had never completely understood. His intense brown eyes flared blue as he glared at Byakuya who stood in the middle of a pool of light from a streetlamp in front of the park. Byakuya's arrogant form stood there silently as he returned Ichigo's glare, his haori and light green scarf flapping violently around him as his reiatsu rose in time with Ichigo's. They looked liked two visions of death meeting in the dark.

"Where is Rukia?" Byakuya asked coldly, he seemed to be as hard and immovable as stone. The only thing that seemed to belie that impression was his wild eyes which were trying to burn holes into Ichigo. "Tell me now and I may not have to kill you."

"Why should I tell you where she is?" he asked as he reached behind his back to grab Zangetsu's hilt. A mocking, feral grin spread across his face as his body tensed for battle. "If she wanted you to know, I'm sure she would have stayed with you in the Soul Society."

"Do not be stupid, boy," Byakuya replied with more heat in his voice as his reiatsu whipped around him more intensely. "You are going to kill her unless you give her to me right now."

"You're the one who's going to kill her, you stubborn ass," Ichigo retorted angrily as he drew Zangetsu from his back and pointed it threateningly at Byakuya. Byakuya's eyes narrowed almost to slits as he listened to Ichigo's words. "We can save her and the twins; the only thing you have to do is go away and leave us alone."

"I can see that there is no talking sense into you," Byakuya said icily as he drew his Zanpakutou, Senbonzakura, out of its sheath. He pointed his Zanpakutou directly at Ichigo and shifted his stance in preparation to attack. "Let me see if I can beat some into you instead."

The darkness seemed to hold its breath for a moment as they faced off with each other. No breeze stirred the air and it was absolutely silent. Even the insects seemed to have stopped their nighttime chorus in anticipation of their next move. Byakuya and Ichigo continued to glare at each other for another second, and then - faster than any normal human eye could follow – they raced from their original positions to clash in the darkness.

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Karin ran along the dimly lit streets as fast as she could. She hadn't quite mastered the art of shunpo yet so she had to rely on her athleticism to get her quickly to where she felt Ichi-nii's reiatsu. He was obviously doing battle with someone, but she wasn't familiar with the other person that she felt. She suspected that it was probably Onee-san's older brother, Byakuya Kuchiki, but since she had never seen him in battle she couldn't be absolutely sure that it was him.

"Stop fooling around, Ichi-nii,"Karin muttered out loud to herself as she continued to race through the darkened streets of Karakura. She knew her brother was really bad at sensing reiatsu, but she felt sure that even he must have felt his children's reiatsu ripple through out the town. "I know you have to take care of this guy, but Onee-san needs you."

A black portal suddenly appeared in front of Karin, about 25 yards away, and a snake like Hollow and one that looked like a large bull materialized from them. They took one look at her and screamed defiantly.

Here we go again, she thought impatiently as she kept going straight towards them, her Zanpakutou, Kajibana, already grasped in her hand. I swear there's no end to them.

Karin had been destroying Hollows ever since she had left her home. The twin's reiatsu was still leaking out of the barrier even though Rukia had been able to repress some of it before Karin left. Its alluring scent was apparently still attracting the Hollows to Karakura in droves.

"Saku – Kajibana!" Karin cried out as she released her Zanpakutou into its shikai form. Her blade burst into pure flame and turned into a fiery whip. She drew her arm back and lashed Kajibana towards the snake-like-Hollow's leering white mask. The Hollow raised its arm and blocked the deadly strike; the whip wrapped itself tightly around its wrist instead of cracking the mask in half. The Hollow screamed in pain as Kajibana's heat seared its arm painfully. Karin gave a small smile of triumph as she pulled her Zanpakutou so that the snake Hollow was yanked in front of the bull-like-one who had started to charge towards her.

"Honou no hana," she called out. The fiery tip of her Zanpakutou burst into flame just as the two ran into each other and engulfed both of the Hollows in a flash of orange light. For a second the Hollows looked as if they were encased in a brilliant, flaming flower. It took only another second for the Hollows to be incinerated into nothingness. Karin pulled Kajibana back towards her as the Hollows crumbled into dust.

Damn, this is just taking me too long, she vented as she returned Kajibana to a regular Zanpakutou. She could have kept it in its shikai form a bit longer, but she had to conserve her energy since she seemed to be running into a Hollow every couple of blocks. I'll never get to Ichi-nii in time at this rate!

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Rukia was lost in a sea of pain. She felt like an eternity had passed since the first jolt of pain had ripped through her body. She had somehow gotten used to the intensity of the pain and she was able to think around it enough to know that she had to dampen the babies' reiatsu or else they would place everyone in danger.

Something has to be wrong, she thought dimly through the red haze of pain. It's not supposed to hurt this much, is it?

Every muscle in Rukia's body trembled as she fought to keep it together until Ichigo and Isshin could come to help her. Her hair clung to her sweat drenched face as the pain continued to rip her apart from the inside. She alternated between her body's desperate need to knock her unconscious so that she could escape from the endless agony she was in, and her need to remain conscious to help keep everyone safe from the Hollows the twins were going to attract.

"Ichigo…," she whispered in between panted breaths, she held on to consciousness by a slim thread.

Where are you? Rukia thought just as she felt a warm, rough hand touch her face. Her eyes fluttered open hopefully, but instead of Ichigo she was greeted by the concerned face of Isshin Kurosaki.

"Rukia-chan, can you hear me?" he asked as he tried to uncurl her gently from the fetal position she seemed to have been frozen into ever since the pain had started. He was trying to get her in a better position to examine her. "I need you to move so that I can give you something for the pain and prep you for the C-section."

"I…thought…clinic," she asked, her words coming out painfully slow.

Isshin shook his head and replied to her question before she finished. "The barrier around the clinic isn't set up so we can't take you out of this room. We're going to have to try to do this here. If we take you downstairs we'll be overwhelmed by Hollows before we can even start the procedure."

Isshin carefully rolled Rukia on to her back, and then proceeded to try and gently pry her arms away from her stomach.

"Kon met us halfway and explained to us what happened," he explained as he continued to gently, but quickly, examine her. "Luckily we were already on our way after we felt the first pulse of their reiatsu at Urahara's store."

Just then Yuzu and Urahara came into the room with all the equipment Isshin would need. Yuzu stumbled a bit from the reiatsu swirling in the room and Urahara had to catch her before she fell.

"I think Yuzu is going to have to wait outside," Isshin said as he left Rukia for a moment to take his daughter from Urahara's arms. "She isn't going to be able to withstand all the reiatsu that's going to be in this room so you're going to have to help me, Kisuke."

"What did you need me to do?" Urahara asked as he watched Isshin help Yuzu back out into the hall, despite her pain Rukia noticed that he looked a bit green as he nodded.

"I'll explain as we go," Isshin replied as he came back into the room and started to set everything up. "I would do this alone if I could, but I can't, and unfortunately, Karin is out looking for my idiot son."

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Renji was breathing hard as he finished killing his 10th – or was it his 20th- Hollow. Soon after Karin had left to search for Ichigo they had started to materialize all around the clinic. Even though most of them were small fry, Renji was having a hard time keeping up with all of them because the limiter he wore restricted his ability to effectively use Zabimaru in his shikai form. Bankai was also a definite impossibility at this point.

Damn, those bastards at Central 46, he thought angrily as he leapt out of the way a scant second before another Hollow appeared behind him and almost impaled him to the ground with its claws. It created a huge crater in the ground as it smashed its hand into the spot Renji had just occupied. What the hell made them so paranoid that we had to have almost all of our abilities sealed away?

He turned to face the attacking Hollow and was taken aback as he saw balls of energy shoot rapidly at the Hollow to destroy it completely. He turned in the direction the missiles had come from and saw Ururu Tsumugiya lowering her huge rapid fire canon down to the ground. She had grown taller, but she still had the thin stick shape of an undeveloped kid. To add to her childlike image, she still wore her hair in the pigtails that she had ever since he first met her. She smiled at him as she bowed in greeting.

"Hello Mr. Moocher," she said pleasantly as she straightened back up. "It's so good to see you again."

Mr. Moocher? Renji thought angrily as he felt a vein begin to throb in his forehead. Why the hell is she still calling me that…I haven't actually lived off of them for over a year now.

Another Hollow's cry rang through the air and Renji looked up to see one materialize in the air above him. He bunched up his muscles to leap up and destroy it when he heard a young male voice give a familiar battle cry.

"Jinta – Homerun!" Jinta Hanakari shouted as he smashed the Hollow with his oversized metal club. The Hollow was smashed to bits and Jinta landed cat like next to Renji.

"I see you're still a loser, huh, moocher," he sassed Renji as he stood up and gave him a huge smirk. He leaned against his huge club as he looked tauntingly at Renji.

"I wouldn't talk like that to someone who's still over a foot taller than you," Renji snapped back as he rubbed Jinta's one sensitive spot. The kid had grown since he met him, but he was still a midget compared to Ururu and himself.

"What did you say you freeloading, good for nothing jerk!" Jinta yelled as he took a threatening step closer to Renji. Renji smiled, he was satisfied with the rise he was able to get out of the little twerp.

"Jinta," Ururu interrupted hesitantly as she raised a timid hand out to stop them from fighting. "I don't think you should be…"

"Aw, shut up, Ururu," Jinta snapped at her as he leaped to her side and began to rub his fists into either side of her head. "Just because you're taller than me doesn't give you the right to butt in!"

"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Ururu cried as she tried to protect herself from his attack. "Stop it, Jinta! I just think we should do what Mr. Tessai and Tenchou asked us to do!"

"What are you two doing here?" Renji asked as he interrupted this all too familiar scene.

"We came with Tenchou and Mr. Kurosaki to help keep the Hollows away from the clinic while Miss Rukia is giving birth," Ururu explained when Jinta eased up enough on her so that she could respond. She stood from her kneeling position on the ground and dusted herself off. "They asked us to protect the clinic while you go and fetch Miss Orihime back to the clinic."

"Urahara and Mr. Kurosaki are here already?" he asked incredulously. "I didn't even notice…"

"Of course not, moocher," Jinta taunted him from Ururu's side. "Someone as hopeless as you can't be expected to fight Hollows and notice what's happening around him."

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Ichigo and Byakuya's swords clashed again and again as they moved like blurs of colors in the sky. The battle seemed evenly matched, but neither of them had let loose with the complete power of their Zanpakutous.

"What's a matter Byakuya?" Ichigo taunted as their swords came together with a loud crash; they were eye to eye for the moment. "Why don't you release your Zanpakutou? Or did you become a weak, spoiled little noble since the end of the war?"

"I do not need to release Senbonzakura to take care of an insolent brat like you," Byakuya replied coldly as they pushed off hard from each other and ended up glaring heatedly at the other from about twenty feet apart. "I will make you tell me where she is and then kill you so that you can never place Rukia in danger again."

"I'm not the one placing her in danger, you idiot," Ichigo growled across the air to Byakuya. "You're the one who wants to take her back to the Soul Society when it's too dangerous to move her. Besides, the twin's are almost ready to be born, if Rukia survives and they don't do you think she'd ever be happy after that!"

"She will get over it," he replied icily, as he shifted his stance once more in preparation to launch himself at Ichigo. He blurred as he disappeared from his spot and Ichigo quickly whipped Zangetsu behind him to block Byakuya's blow to his back.

"Still using the same old tricks, huh, Byakuya," Ichigo said as he tensed his arms and flung Byakuya back with his Zanpakutou. Ichigo whirled around and counter attacked with a downward slash that Byakuya parried quickly with Senbonzakura. The two of them were face to face again. "Why do you have to be such a control freak when it comes to Rukia?"

"It is because she is forever placing herself in danger!" Byakuya snapped back angrily, his icy calm finally shattered by Ichigo's words. "And you… you stupid boy, are never man enough to keep her from getting hurt. I saved her when the Bounts nearly killed her; I saved her when she lay dying in Hueco Mundo; and I was the one who brought help in time to save her when she nearly died again from Grimmjow's attack!"

Byakuya shoved viciously against Ichigo at the end of his tirade. Surprise caused Ichigo to flail back clumsily and fall back towards the ground as Byakuya's words made him rethink several things about this man whom he had always assumed had no feelings. The vehemence of those words and the feelings pure anger and hate that resonated in Byakuya's voice caused Ichigo to blink in shocked amazement. This was obviously what Byakuya must perceive as the ultimate failing in Ichigo's relationship with Rukia.

"Just by being with you she encounters one danger after the other," Byakuya hissed angrily at Ichigo as he landed on the ground near him, his eyes blazed with a fury that Ichigo had never seen on Byakuya's face before. "From the day she first met you and awoke your Shinigami powers you have done nothing, but cause her grief."

Ichigo felt his own anger rise at the accusations that Byakuya threw at him and he lashed out at him with what Ichigo's believed was Byakuya's failings with Rukia.

"You can think whatever you like, Byakuya," Ichigo snarled at him, he was breathing hard from the emotions welling up inside him rather than the fight he was having. "But Rukia has always made her own decisions on how she wants to live her life and you always seem intent on taking that away from her. She had to separate from the people she loved when you forced her to remain in the Soul Society and she was forced to run away to protect our children all because of you. She lived a lonely, isolated life after you adopted her into your 'noble' family, and when she finally chooses to find a happier destiny for herself you take it away from her."

"I admit that I've failed to protect her at times, but I've always gotten stronger so that I can keep her and everyone else who's important to me safe," Ichigo continued a little more softly as he stared unflinchingly at Byakuya. "In fact, Rukia was the one who made me realize that I can't cop out because of my failures and give up on protecting everyone simply because I doubt myself. I'll always protect Rukia and her right to live her life however she chooses even if it means kicking the ass of her misguided, overprotective older brother."

They both stood there breathing heavily from their outbursts of anger as they faced each other. The night remained silent as they looked daggers at each other from their respective positions. Then without another word they began another mad rush towards each other.

"Hadou Four, Byakurai!" a voice shouted off to the side of them. Ichigo and Byakuya leaped back from the point where they would have collided just in time to avoid being fried by a bolt of white lightning. They turned their startled faces towards the source of the attack.

"What are you two idiots doing?!" Karin Kurosaki yelled as she still held her arm up with her palm faced towards them. She seemed prepared to blast both of them with another spell if they even twitched in each other's direction. "From what I heard, both of you obviously care about Onee-san, but like a couple of stupid, testosterone numbed males you're too busy fighting with each other instead of taking care of her!"

"What happened, Karin?" Ichigo asked as he hurried toward her, instantly forgetting his fight with Byakuya. Byakuya did not follow Ichigo, but he stood quietly in the dark and listened to the conversation between the siblings. "Is something wrong with Rukia?"

Ichigo felt his face fall as he looked at the expression on Karin's face as she turned towards him to answer his questions. Karin never cried, not since their Mom died, but here she stood with unshed tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ichi-nii," she told him quietly as she lowered her hand to her side, her tears still trembling at the edge of her eyes. "It's my fault. Onee-san had to use kidou to save me from a Hollow because I wasn't paying attention. I think she went into labor, but something is really wrong because she's in so much pain and she's bleeding a lot. She also lost control of the twin's reiatsu and now Hollows are appearing everywhere."

"It's okay Karin, it's not your fault," Ichigo said quietly to his little sister as he gripped her shoulders gently. He had been so focused on his battle with Byakuya that he hadn't noticed his kid's reiatsu swirling around him until she mentioned it. "Is Dad and Urahara there already?"

"They should be, I sent Kon and my substitute self to bring them home, but I'm sure they were already on their way," Karin replied a little shakily. It seemed like seeing her brother had opened some sort of door that let her fear and guilt slip out. "I told Yuzu to get everything ready and Renji Abarai showed up at the clinic so he's taking care of the Hollows there."

"Good job, Karin," Ichigo said reassuringly to her as he turned toward his home. "We better hurry back so that we can help them."

Then Ichigo turned his back completely to Byakuya and addressed him one last time before he took off.

"I think you will agree that we'll have to put this off till later," Ichigo said without turning around. "You can follow us if you like and help us take care of Rukia - if that's what you're really here to do."

Then Ichigo swung Karin onto his back and used shunpo to speed his way home.

Thanks for reading! Hope it wasn't too confusing because there are a lot of things going on at the same time.

Sorry, but my Japanese kind of sucks so if the meanings and translations are off, then I do apologize.

Saku - Bloom

Kajibana - Fire Flower

Honou no Hana - Flower of Flame or Flame Flower

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I will hopefully have the next one out soon.