Intro: Um... yes... another chapter! Start of training for little Kumatsurou. He gets to fight Ichigo... interesting stuff, sorta, I think... The single '-'s are just to show a jump in time, since it would be boring to type in every thing that happens every minute of the time.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. That's about all. I don't own that much more either.

It was Day 1. Toushirou stood there, holding up the large, rather ugly-looking doll. Why did that thing have to be taller than me? Even though he couldn't see them, he could hear Matsumoto, Yoruichi and Hinamori stifling their laughter as they watched the doll dwarf him completely. Why the hell did they have to come in and watch us, stupid Yoruichi, she's way too convincing. Even the boy genius' iciest glare had had no effect on Yoruichi as she came up to him to ask if the three of them could watch the training session. In fact, her smooth words and purring voice had melted Toushirou's icy defences in an instant, and he had allowed them in without much resistance.

Kumatsurou looked at the doll his brother was holding. Let's go. Jumping up, he slammed his sword into the doll. For a moment nothing happened, and Kumatsurou looked at Toushirou questioningly, but the genius had no answers. Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light, and from the doll, a large dragon appeared, a pale yellow in colour. It writhed about, before twisting itself around a nearby rock. "Raibikaritatsu…" Kumatsurou breathed. It had been quite a while since he had seen his soul cutter's true form. Toushirou glanced at the dragon, and immediately the same thought that ran through the minds of Matsumoto and Hinamori ran through his. It looks exactly like Hyourinmaru…

"Hey, Raibikaritatsu, you know what this is about right?" The large head of the dragon nodded slightly. "Good, then, yeah, go on and put Kumatsurou through the toughest training you can think of."

"Hey! Nii-san!"

Toushirou smirked. "Couldn't resist…" The great dragon's voice boomed out like thunder, yet its mouth didn't move at all.

"If you are ready then, Kumatsurou, we… will… begin!" Raibikaritatsu roared, and dark clouds filled the 'sky' of the training room immediately. Flashes of lightning could be seen, followed almost immediately by numerous crashes of thunder. "Survive this storm, and hit me with your sword." It sounded easy, almost too easy. So far there had only been a few flashes of lightning, that was easy to avoid. However, in a few seconds, the storm worsened greatly, until it was a howling hurricane. Lightning flashes were regular, and there were many of them. Avoiding them was no easy task, and with the added effects of the howling wind, it got even harder. Kumatsurou groaned as he dodged yet another bolt of lightning by an inch. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be…

Toushirou ran over to where the three girls were. He hadn't expected this. Raibikaritatsu's true power was frightening, even he could feel goosebumps forming. Luckily, the storm was focused on the small area in which Kumatsurou was fighting, and the shelter that the four of them were under was only pelted by light rains. "Aiyah! Kumatsurou-taichou's soul cutter is so scary Shirou-chan!" Hinamori whimpered.

"Why don't you ever address me properly, Momo?"

"Because you don't deserve it…" She waited for Toushirou to scowl before giggling. "Shirou-chan's a much better name for my little boy genius." She hugged him tightly, oblivious to the spectators.

"Taichou… Hinamori-san… it's probably not best to get all cuddly and stuff when we're in the middle of a storm." Matsumoto sounded impatient. Really, after all that time she had spent convincing Hinamori to go out with Toushirou, and now that they were, they couldn't seem to stop the affection, even for a moment.

"Heh… leave them alone Rangiku-san, cute little lovebirds they are should be allowed to do as they like in a storm. They won't be going anywhere soon anyway, this storm's gonna go on for another 2 days. Lots of time to…" She was silenced when Toushirou gave her his patented death glare, but only for a moment, "Lots of time to do their, couple-ish things."

"Come, little boy, if you cannot dodge these small bolts of lightning, you are not worthy of wielding my power, you are not worthy of Bankai." Kumatsurou grimaced. He had been so close that time. He had been metres away from the dragon when an unexpected bolt of lightning had thrown him back. Time to try again.

-

Kumatsurou lay back as he sat in the hot water. It was miraculous how quickly the warm water seemed to heal the various burns he had received from all the lightning strikes. Matsumoto tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to look up and splutter in surprise. When he looked up, he couldn't see anything, just two, huge, bouncy things, strapped in tightly by a red bikini. "Ra-rangiku!" The blonde smiled as the blue haired captain jumped across to the other side of the spa. "Don't EVER do that again!"

"Aww… come on, stop pretending you didn't enjoy it, you perverted little kid." Yoruichi walked up behind her, smiling in her evil way. "I'm sure you just loved that view didn't you? All you guys are soooo perverted, just like Ichigo, kept pretending he was totally innocent. I mean, come on!" Both Yoruichi and Matsumoto hopped into the spa, groaning as they did so. "Ahh… that feels great!" Kumatsurou was still gaping like a fish when Toushirou and Hinamori approached, fifteen minutes later.

"Shirou-chan! Let's join them!"

"No way. I am not undressing to go sit in hot water."

"Yes you are!" Hinamori put on her world famous pout and Toushirou tried to look away.

"No… and stop doing that every time you want me to do something I don't want to do. It's such a cheap shot."

"…" No answer. Toushirou knew that if he turned around, he would be hit by her pout, full blast. The white haired captain tried to resist, but when she started whimpering expertly, he gave in.

"All right! All right! I'll do it, just don't look while I change…" He added darkly, before disappearing behind a rock. When he came out, even Kumatsurou couldn't suppress his laughter. He was wearing a pair of swimming shorts, light blue with lots of cute snowmen dancing around on it.

"KAWAII! Shirou-chan! Those swimmers look so cute on you!" Matsumoto started to giggle, but stopped hastily when Toushirou glared.

"Nii-san… Those are, well…"

"Shut up, Hinamori bought them."

-

"So, you got it under control now?" Toushirou asked his brother, as he stood, sword in front of him, held in a defensive stance.

"Yeah… just about." The 3 days had passed, and Kumatsurou had been successful, but now he had to train to get his Bankai under control. "One more time, please…"

Toushirou didn't answer, but disappeared from view as he used the Flash Step to get behind his brother, he swung, only to find Kumatsurou's sword blocking it. "Not bad."

"Thanks. But now we have to start. Surge…"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The two brothers looked around in surprise as a screaming Ichigo burst into the room. "YOU'VE GOT TO HIDE ME IN HERE. THAT ZARAKI KENPACHI HAS BEEN DRIVING ME CRAZY TO FIGHT HIM AGAIN, AND I WOULDN'T LAST ANOTHER SPAR WITH THAT LUNATIC! I'LL DO ANYTHING… ANYTHING! JUST HIDE ME FROM THAT CRAZY BASTARD!" He launched himself at Toushirou's feet and hugged it fiercely. "Come on Hitsugaya! You gotta help me out here!"

"Fine fine. Just get off my friggin leg already. We have the training room for the rest of the day, so you can stay here I guess. Kira and Hisagi weren't going to come in until tomorrow or something, and Kumatsurou and I were planning to train anyway. But now that you're here, YOU can fight with him."

Ichigo sweatdropped. "Oi… you're a genius, least that's what I heard. I'm not going to run away from a fight just to get in another one."

Toushirou smirked. "Fine then, but you said you'd do anything. And personally, I think fighting Kumatsurou would be a lot easier on the body than fighting with Zaraki."

"Fine, I'll do it." Ichigo was annoyed. It turned out that he had to fight anyway. Hopefully this kid he was supposed to fight wouldn't be awfully strong though, then he could get it over and done with quickly. "Oi, Kumatsurou, let's go!"

Kumatsurou nodded and jumped forward to face Ichigo. "This is to train for Bankai, so I think we should release our soul cutters right away."

Ichigo smirked. "One step ahead of ya kid. Zangetsu's already released."

Kumatsurou's eyes darkened, as he prepared for battle. "Alrighties. Surge through the storm, Raibikaritatsu!" From the sword erupted a large dragon, with a spiral of blue lightning surrounding its long body. Kumatsurou stared at his opponent. "Let's get this started, Ichigo."

Sword clashed against sword as the two Shinigami tried to cut each other. Toushirou looked at the two, wondering why they were both holding back. Kumatsurou was definitely not fighting at his hardest, his movements were incredibly sluggish for him, and the other guy, Ichigo, for someone who had bested Kuchiki Byakuya, he seemed incredibly weak.

"Forget this. Time to really fight." Ichigo clicked in exasperation as Kumatsurou blocked yet another of his small swings.

"My thoughts exactly. Time to kick up the pace…" Kumatsurou disappeared as Ichigo leapt forward for a swing, reappearing behind him. "Too slow…" Ichigo missed yet again. Alright then, if that kid's gonna start hopping around with his fancy Flash Step, I'll do it as well… And so it became a battle of speed, the two of them appearing for a mere second before disappearing again. They seemed to match each other in speed, they matched each other blow for blow.

When they stopped for a moment, Ichigo glanced at the large dragon behind Kumatsurou, who had barely moved at all since it had emerged. "Oi, Kumatsurou, doesn't that pet of yours do anything? No point in summoning it if it ain't gonna do anything."

"I was thinking to save it for later, but now that you mention it…" Raibikaritatsu reared up, and dashed for Ichigo. Ichigo held up his sword to defend himself from the attack. Kumatsurou smirked when he heard the orange-haired boy's scream. "That was somewhat… pointless. Raibikaritatsu is made of lightning, and well, your blade is going to conduct it quite well. You can't block him with your sword, you're going to have to dodge him…"

"Dodge? I'll need some extra speed for that…" Ichigo bent down, and held his sword out in front of him. "Ready for this Kumatsurou? Ban… kai!" A flash followed, blinding everyone temporarily, but when they could see again, Ichigo was dressed in a flowing black cloak, his sword had turned the darkest black, and it had also shrunk. That's his Bankai? Kumatsurou didn't know what to expect from it. Something so small, it couldn't have increased his power by an awful lot, so, that would mean…

Kumatsurou found an Ichigo on his left and an Ichigo on his right, both charging for him. What the…? "Like it? Tensa Zangetsu makes me so fast I can almost appear in two places at once." Such speed. The only thing to do would be to also use Bankai.

Kumatsurou jumped, but one of the Ichigo's slashed at his foot. Kumatsurou felt a surge of pain, and when he looked down, blood was dripping from his foot. When he landed, he turned around to face Ichigo once more. Holding his sword in front of him, he waited until the lightning dragon had flown straight into the sword before muttering, "Ban… kai…"

Dark clouds formed, and lightning struck the ground around him. An extra large bolt of lightning hit the blade of his soul cutter, and immediately, it glowed, before firing off multiple streams of electrical energy. Slowly, the flashing lightning formed a dragon, a differently shaped one. The head was attached to his left arm, and the body twisted around behind him. Two large wings unfurled, and Kumatsurou stood, with a gigantic blue dragon of lightning attached to his left shoulder. The dragon roared, and about 10 metal orbs flew out from its body, each surrounded by lightning. These floated around the blue-haired captain, as if waiting for orders. Kumatsurou smiled as he saw his new sword, it was longer, and sizzled with the same electricity that the dragon was composed of. "This, is my Bankai, Seigyokuden Raibikaritatsu."

Stuff: Hope you enjoyed this little instalment... there's more to come of course. The next few chapters, well, will be more centred on the story, not so much the romance, sorry guys...