Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach(I wish though), owned by Tite Kubo

"Normal Speech"

"Thoughts"

"Hollow Speech"

"Zanpakuto Speech"

Flashback/Memories

Chapter 1, A Lone Wolf's Broken Soul

When Ichigo woke up again he found himself looking at an unfamiliar ceiling. Realizing that he was laying in a futon and that he seemed to be in somebody else's home, but who's he had yet to find out. He slowly sat up and looked at the room he was laying in. His futon was in the right corner of the room - perspective from the entrance of the room - near a pair of sliding doors to what he assumed was a garden. "It certainly sounds like one". After that conclusion he continued looking at his room. Opposite of him stood a low table with a few cushions and a candle on the table. Looking to his right he found Zangetsu leaning against the wall. He reached for him and sent a mental message to his spirits to ask for their well-being. At that the blade thrummed a bit with a positive response that they were alright. Happy that his spirits were okay he continued his inspection. On his right side there was another sliding door probably to a bathroom or something. In the corner there seemed to be a closet? Yeah, probably.

Swish!

Before the other person could even say something or finish opening the soji doors completely, Ichigo had already gotten up, unsheathed Zangetsu and stood in a defensive but alert stance before the other person. But when he looked at the person at the entrance he looked at himself? - except for the green eyes and black hair. The only person that he remembered that looked like that was Shiba Kaien. But he was dead last he remembered Rukia and Jūshirō telling him about his death. "The heck? Just how far back am I?"

Shiba Kaien looked at the man he found bleeding in the forest near the manor on his way home after work.

He was casually walking back to the Shiba Manor after a tiring day of completing paperwork after his taichou had another attack, luckily it wasn't a big one but still. Better be safe than sorry. When he felt a burst of reiatsu. It wasn't huge but could still clearly be felt, so the good fukutaichou that he was went to investigate. What he found wasn't something he was expecting though. Leaning on a tree trunk he found a man with bright orange hair with a profusely bleeding wound on his abdomen and a sword at his waist.

"Shit!!", his first priority would be checking how bad the injury is. He quickly went to the man and inspected it. He wasn't overly good at healing kido but still enough that the man wouldn't bleed out.

Once he looked at the man's face, he saw what could only be described as his twin. He practically looked like himself except for the orange hair. He doesn't know his eye color since the man was still unconscious, but still. Once he was sure he wouldn't bleed out until he made it to the manor, he lifted him bridal style and shunpoed towards it. At the manor he sent a burst of reiatsu calling for his sister and he brought the man to the closest room available. He laid him on the futon, removed his sword and continued treating his wound as best as he could. Luckily his sister was still awake and burst into the room.

Shiba Kukaku was just drinking her usual cup of sake when she felt her brother's reiatsu burst into the manor. She quickly got up and went into the direction where she felt her brother. But when she arrived into the room after she following her brother's reiatsu, she didn't expect to find Kaien doing healing kido on a man that looked exactly like him!? - except for the orange hair(again). Without him saying something she immediately searched for the family healer and brought him back to the room where she found her brother. The healer took one look at the scene in front of him and went to work on the man and asked for the supplies needed. After the supplies had been brought the healer sent them out of the room to wait.

Once both left the room Kukaku immediately questioned him, "Shiba Kaien you better explain this quickly, if you don't want me to beat your ass first and then wait for the answers.", her temper was flaring. Firstly because she was interrupted drinking her precious sake. Secondly because her dear brother brought someone home, who not only looked like him but was also injured, so she was very impatient and curious to know what he was going to say.

Kaien, who surely didn't want to feel his sister's fury, answered quickly, if he wanted to get out of this in one piece - she could be ruthless at times - knew that that was the best course of action. "I found him like that when I was walking home and I couldn't just leave him like that."

Kukaku calmed down somewhat and continued, "And why does he look like you? I mean he's practically a spitting image of you."

"I don't know.", he answered and continued, "He wasn't awake when I found him so I couldn't really ask him.", he finished. Glad he was able to save himself from the fury storm that was known as his sister Shiba Kukaku.

Just then the healer came out and said, "I treated him the best of my abilities but it's up to him now if he makes it or not. The wound was deep but by the looks of him, I'm sure he'll make it. All we can do is wait." Kaien noticed that the healer looked tired and thanked him for his service and sent him off to rest for the night. Which the healer did gratefully.

"I guess he's right. That's all we can do for him now. We should go to bed.", he told his sister and she nodded and they both went to their rooms.

So here he was, two days later standing in front of the man who had his sword ready, if needed be. He saw that the man also noticed the similarities, if the shock that shortly showed itself on his face was any indication. But right now he needed him calm, less he wanted to reopen his wounds.

"Hey, easy now. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm actually the one responsible that you're even standing here right now and not bleeding somewhere in the forest.", he raised his hands and made a friendly face for good measure. Hoping the man would settle down. But he couldn't be sure. The man showed no emotions on his face except his scowl and his eyes looked haunted. Somehow he thought that those haunted eyes didn't really suit him.

Ichigo looked at the should be dead fukutaichou and wasn't sure what to think. He knew from the stories Rukia was telling him that Kaien was good man and wouldn't hurt a fly and that he loved his family with all his being and treated people with respect and equality. But maybe he didn't travel so far back and this some sort of trick or just some weird dream. But with all the reiatsu signatures he was feeling, he was sure that this wasn't some dream or a trick and he really did travel so far back. He relaxed his stance a bit and suddenly felt stinging pain in his abdomen area and looked down to it. His abdomen and partly his chest was covered in bandages and a red spot started to form on the them.

"Oh come on!", he looked up when he heard Kaien speak and saw that he was walking towards him. "Come on, back onto the futon with you. We can talk when you're not bleeding anymore." Ichigo let himself be lead back and laid himself back onto the futon. Kaien kneeled beside him and treated him.

When he was done, he sat himself cross-legged beside him. The atmosphere was tense and neither knew how to diffuse it. It was Ichigo that spoke first, "Thank you for treating me and apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused you."

Kaien first looked at him then answered, "It was no problem and you didn't cause any inconvenience for anyone. I'm just glad we could help. So what's your name?" He was certainly curious about the man he found and brought into his home.

Ichigo thought about his answer. "I don't know how much I can tell him. What do you guys think?", he was hoping for some good answer, that wouldn't cause a big mess.

"I think it would be best to tell him just your name. We don't know if saying your family name might bring consequences for later. Especially with your father's defection later on. If that will still happen.", Zangetsu answered him.

"I agree with him King.", Shiro added, "I'm not one that likes consequences, too much trouble to be worth it.", he finished in his own supportive kinda way.

"Thanks guys.", he looked at Kaien and answered his question with, "My names Ichigo."

Kaien didn't miss the lack of family name but didn't think much of Ichigo's short moment of hesitation. "Probably because of the wound. It still didn't look very good but better than when I found him." "My names Shiba Kaien. Nice to meet you.", he introduced himself and Ichigo nodded at him.

"How long was I out?", Ichigo asked him after a moment of silence. "Two days. The wound was pretty bad but the healer did his best to heal it as good as possible. A few days rest should do it."

Ichigo nodded but at the last part of the sentence had to say something, "I wouldn't want to be a burden to any of you. You already did more than enough and I couldn't hope to ever repay you for treating me.", he never liked burdening someone. It always made him feel a little guilty.

Though Kaien was quick to respond. "Nonsense. You're not burdening anyone and you don't have to repay us. The fact that you're recovering nicely and won't die on us is good enough.", he looked at him with a look that said that any argument will be ignored and that he will stay here until he is recovered.

Ichigo saw the look and knew that he couldn't do anything about it. He sighed a sigh of resignation and accepted his fate. "Alright. I'll stay until I'm recovered enough."

Kaien looked happy at that, too happy. "Great. Someone will bring you something to eat and the healer will take another look at you.", as he finished he stood up and a few cracks could be heard from his back. He stretched himself a bit and went to the door. But before he left he turned to him. "Call if you need anything. There's practically always someone nearby." When he saw Ichigo nod he left the room and went to search for his sister.

He found her in the living room on a cushion at the low table with two cups of sake. Apparently she was waiting for him. He quickly joined her and took the offered cup of sake and drank it.

Once at his second cup he looked at her and asked, "Did you see them? The scars?"

She drank some of her sake from her cup before she answered. "From the short time that I saw him, only a few. But I can tell that there are many.", she didn't even want to know the details of some of them. Some are clearly from a blade. The others she could only think from what they were from.

Kaien sighed and looked at his cup. "Kukaku you should have seen his eyes. They were so haunted. I could see some sort of great pain in them but not much more except the apprehension he felt towards me at the beginning.", he finished his cup and refilled it again. He's probably gonna be drinking a few more cups from the looks of it.

"I can tell that you've already grown a soft spot for him and with the way I know you. You're probably not gonna let him go so easily.", she said as she looked at him and into his eyes. As all the years spent being his sister and knowing his personality. She could read him very easily.

Kaien looked at her with a sheepish expression and proved her point. "Well when you've spoken with him, how can you not? I can tell he's already seen too much for his age. What he's had to live through, I can only imagine."

Kukaku smirked at him and asked, "So what do you plan to do with him?", she could only imagine what he was going to do. But she would let him say it.

Kaien looked at her and sported a little smirk himself with a little mischievous glint in his eyes and asked her, "What do you think about another little brother Kukaku?"

Thank you for reading this far and hope you enjoyed it!!