Chapter 41: Rukongai

As it turned out luck was not on the side of the rescue group. The kototsu had appeared minutes after the group had passed into the dangai. Stopping was never an option, only running. As they passed through the dark tunnel-like dimension a light appeared in front of them. With the kototsu hot on their trail, everyone pushed through to the other side all at once.

Ichigo frowned as he realized that he'd landed on top of somebody, face down. One hand squeezed something soft before he blinked and lifted his head to meet those of Inoue's. Both teenagers blushed instantly as Ichigo now knew what he'd just squeezed was her breast. Quickly pushing himself up and away from her, Ichigo looked anywhere but at his friend. "Inoue -"

" Kurosaki-" she began with some embarrassment.

"Sorry..." he mumbled softly, his face still feeling a bit hot. Standing, Ichigo held out his hand to her to help her stand up. "Let's go find the others."

Verena on the other hand had landed on something a bit harder than Ichigo, with something on top of her. Wiggling a bit it took her a moment to push the other person off of her, which turned out to be Lisa. Looking down Verena flushed brightly before quickly getting off of her brother's best friend's chest. "S-Sorry Chad." she quickly apologized. Looking around she found that they had landed in a field outside of a village. Off in the distance she could see Ichigo and the others.

"At least we didn't land too far from the others." Lisa commented, not knowing that the other two teens were thinking the same thing.

Chad brushed off the dirt from his clothes as he stood, Verena's blush still dusting her face as she stood next to him. "Why did we appear here?" Chad inquired, wondering why they had appeared away from the group.

Lisa frowned. "I don't know." she answered truthfully as they began to make their way over to Ichigo and the others.

Tatsuki frowned as she looked between Ichigo and Orihime. The two were blushing and refused to look at one another in the eye. Ichigo was standing awkwardly next to her best friend while Orihime was playing with a strand of her hair while trying not to look at Ichigo. However, before she could interrogate them on what had happened between them, Shinji spoke. "Okay, it seems we got separated when arriving," he stated looking at their now smaller group. "most have been found though." He nodded towards Lisa's group as they joined them.

Kensei stepped forward. "Yoruichi has gone on ahead to ensure that her contact will let us stay with them." His eyes turned towards the Seiretei that could be seen from where they stood. "Whatever you do, do not go near that boarder."

Hiyori glared at Ichigo. "That especially means you, Ichigo!" she yelled.

"Like I would shortie." he growled annoyance in his tone. A snort by Ishida made him glare at him, which only served to irritate the other teen.

"Why?" Uryu inquired as he tried to ignore Ichigo, which was better said than done.

"It will activate the wall in dropping down." Lisa commented. "The wall is made up of the strongest mineral in any realm. It is called, sekkiseki. This is a special mineral with properties that allow it to repel all reiryoku."

"Also," Love noted. "if anyone gets near the barrier and causes the wall to appear around the Seiretei then the gatekeeper will appear to defend the gate into the Seiretei."

"A gatekeeper?" Ichigo asked before a grinned appeared on his face.

"Wipe that smile off your face." Shinji ordered him. "You'd be an idiot to fight a gatekeeper." He rolled his eyes at the teen who shrugged.

"I could beat him." Ichigo countered.

"Undoubtedly." Rose agreed. "But we want this invasion to go unnoticed for as long as we can." He looked at the others just as Hachi appeared with others following his large form. "The head captain has to be kept in the dark about us being here until we are ready to make our move and we can't make a move until we have a solid plan."He

"Hey!" A yell caused the group to turn towards the woman making the noise. The green haired visored woman grinned at them.

"Mashiro..." Shinji internally groaned. The girl really has no idea of the meaning of stealth. Sometimes he wondered how she had even been one Kensei's lieutenant.

Suddenly the young woman gave a gasp as somebody hit her over the head. "Be quiet." Kensei told her before looking at the group. "We found a place we can hide until Yoruichi returns." he stated as he pointed a thumb over his shoulder.

"Nice." Shinji said with a grin.

The hideout turned out to belong to an older man who seemed to know who the visoreds were. Ichigo frowned as he was given a cup of soup broth to drink. Not wanting to be rude, he did just that, though the taste wasn't quite what he was expecting. Looking around their group he was that both Chad and Verena were missing. Suddenly he felt a pair of eyes looking at him causing a shiver to run up his spine.

Duck King! his hollow warned.

Doing just that, he felt something rush past his head only to hit Hyori in the back of the head. Looking behind him, he was Tatsuki fuming. Her cheeks were puffed out as a glare was being aimed right at him. Orihime seemed to be trying to calm her. "Kurosaki! What the fuck!?" Hiyori cursed at him.

He pointed over his shoulder at his long time friend. "She did it." He simply stated.

Hiyori and Tatsuki blinked in surprise at him giving that information up so easily. Hiyori grinned. "Oh?" she asked, her grin slightly creeping Ichigo out. Before anything could escalate though a noise outside caught Ichigo's attention.

Outside Verena was leaning against the wood planks of the building. The place they had appeared in reminded her of the Edo era of Japan. Back home there were theme parks built upon this era in order to teacher the younger generation what their history was and why they should be proud of it. This was the era of the samurai and it was a bloody era. She shivered at the idea of having to live in a place like this day in and day out.

Nearby she was Chad on a bridge with a little boy who looked like he knew him. She wondered who it was but really didn't want to intrude. It took a few moments before an image of a bird came to the forefront of her mind. Could it be? she wondered as she recalled the child spirit that had been trapped inside that bird. Smiling softly, she left the two be. Suddenly a commotion caught her attention as a man riding a boat came riding towards them only as the pig went to turn one way, the man riding it went through the door, crushing it.

Inside everyone went for their weapons only to pause at the sight of the pig at the entrance. A pig? Uryu wondered in amazement. A pig broke the door down?

Ichigo stood suddenly as a man stood up. "Ahhh, it seems I've gotten thrown off of my pig again..." The man turned around and looked at the older man. "Yo, long time no see old man! " he greeted the man as his hand inched down to his blade on his hip.

The man wore a do-rag upon his head, a green scarf around his neck with a sleeveless green haori vest jacket that had odd symbols upon it. On his hip was a short sword, his pants were dirty and he had nothing on his feet. "Ganju Shiba!" The old man yelled angrily at him, the vehemence in the old man's voice caused the old man to take a step back. "What are you doing here? Go back home! "

Ganju was about to say something when he took notice of Ichigo standing nearby. "What-" He narrowed his eyes. "is that punk shinigami doing here?" He stepped in front of Ichigo, ignoring the obviously hostile looks from the visoreds who were beginning to feel the need to rise and protect the youngest member of their clan. Ganju spoke again. "Yo, " His voice taking on a deeper tone. "say something. I asked you a fucking question." He tapped Ichigo's face. "What is a punk ass shinigami like you," He grasped Ichigo's face by his chin. "doing in a place like this!?" Both his annoyance and temper won out in this as Ichigo just swung his fist once and punched Ganju in the face. At the entrance of the building, Verena watched the altercation silently. "What hell!?" Ganju cried out as he landed at Verena's feet. "Why did you lunch me in the face? Are you trying to start a fight?"

Everybody felt sweat drop down their necks at this statement. The same thought coming to their minds. Wasn't he the one trying to do just that?

"That's my line you pig-riding bastard! Suddenly barging in here. Who the hell do you think you are!?" Ichigo yelled right back, his fist raised to smash it into the guy once more.

Ganju seemed to understand now, that this guy has no idea who he was. "You really don't know who I am?" he asked. "Alright, I'll tell you."

"Didn't the elder already say his name though?" Uryu asked Tatsuki who nodded.

"I'm-" he began only to be interupted.

"ENOUGH! " the old man yelled. "He is Ganju Shiba, brother to the leader of the Shiba clan, Kukaku Shiba and the deceased former leader Kaien Shiba."

"Kaien Shiba?" Verena asked causing Ganju to finally notice her.

Whoa. He thought as he took in her form and exotic beauty.

Ichigo's anger seemed to die down. "Shiba?" he inquired before a crown came over his visage. "Any relation to an Isshin Shiba?" Everyone looked between the two as the pieces of a puzzle began to fall into place.

Ganju frowned at the question. How the hell do either of these two know those names? he wondered. "He was my uncle." he answered after a long moment. "Why?"

Ichigo and Verena both grinned. So they did have more family. "He was our father." Verena answered from behind him.

He spun around towards her. "Bullshit!" he yelled at her as he pointed a finger at her. "No matter if you are beautiful, you can't trick me! I know he died childless!"

Verena blinked in surprise. "Beautiful?" she questioned. What'd that have to do with anything?

"Isshin Shiba is their father." came the elders voice. "The mark of the Shiba clan is on their swords." Both teen's looked at their swords, recalling how the elder had asked to see them before allowing them entry to his home. "Isshin's spirit is within these two." the elder declared in a somber tone. "When did he die?"

Both teen's looked at each other. "Six years ago." Ichigo answered. "A hollow called Grand Fisher tried to kill my sister and I when we were children. He fought, defeated it and then sacrificed himself to save our dying mother."

"I see." the elder said with a gentle voice. "Ganju," the elder spoke the other young man's name to gain his attention. "take them to your sister."

"But-" he began not liking this at all, especially since they wore shinigami clothes.

"Do you question your rider's choices?" the older man's voice asked as it took on a dangerous tone.

"N-No." Ganju stuttered. His shoulders slumped in defeat as he waved for the group to follow him. As they exited the building Chad joined up with them, having said good-bye to the little boy from earlier.

"Ichigo..." he began as he went to ask what was going on.

"Chad!" Tatsuki yelled as she pulled Orihime with her. The two girl's began to catch him up on what was going on as they followed Ichigo and Verena with the other in the lead.

In the Seiretei's deepest and most secure prison a group of people were looking into a caged put where one Kisuke Urahara paid unconscious. Their voices floating around the room as they decided what to do with the supposed traitor. A single man was left out of the conversation as none was aware of him or knew of his presence. Aizen Sosuke looked down upon the pitiful man within the cage and frown crossed his features as he could feel nothing coming from the other dangerous man's form. Not a single ounce of power could be felt from Urahara and that left Aiden to wonder, had Urahara truly been defeated or was this a trick? Not able to examine the other scientist just yet, Aizen left the prison quickly as it was time to begin phase two of his plan. If that was indeed Kisuke Urahara, then that only meant it was a matter of time before they would come to rescue him. Aizen grinned at the thought of fighting the young man Urahara had trained all these years. He truly hoped the boy was exactly what he thought he was because if he wasn't then there would months between now and the time he would need to be successful enough in order to do what he was meant for. Oh if only the boy truly knew what his destiny was, Aizen was certain, the boy would never have taken the steps he will have in order to stop the true monster that had yet to come out of hiding.

M-Angel: Okay, first off I'm so very sorry for not updating until now. I do have my reasons. First Thanksgiving was hectic, then I got a new Fire Kindle but my stories did not transfer over so I had to deal with that and then for over the passed week I've been very sick. Again, I'm very sorry guys. Now for Isshin being called Ganju's uncle, I recall somewhere Kukaku calling Isshin's Uncle once during the Thousand Year Blood arc, so that is where I got him being her and Ganju's uncle. This makes me think that Isshin had a younger brother at one point. I may spin with that some time in the near future.

MungetsuIchigo: Sorry for such a long wait. It really wasn't intentional. I really didn't plan for that last arc to be so long.

Dragonmasterd55: LoL. Close, but not quite.

GunBlade2018: Nobody but Aizen and his lackeys know they're still alive. As far as the head captain knows, they could have died from their hollows.

Antex - The Legendary Zoroark: I hope you like this arc. I'm hoping to give it a bit of a spin.

Anielsen33326: Yep. It's a Kisuke rescue instead of a Rukia one. ^_^

Mokushiroku115: I'm glad you are enjoying this story.