Me: ok well this is chapter 7 and the battle between me and Kenpachi will take place very soon. I have some bad news. I am starting summer school (YUCK!!!) on Friday so I will not be able to write a chapter every day like I have been trying to do so im sry bout that, but I will try my best to post as quickly as possible. I also want to say thanks to ShikallllTema for staying with me and reviewing all of my chapters so far. (This chapter is dedicated to her!) ^.^

Toushiro: ok…well…then I'll do the disclaimers for ya…Winter doesn't own Bleach…just the story line and the elemental dragon idea…the characters (such as me, Karin, etc.) belong to Tite Kubo. (however Stephany and Sterling belong to Winter)

Karin: ok enough moping about that unhappy piece of information…let's just get on with the story! *smiles*

Me: and by the way, this story will be mostly in my POV for the rest of story

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The Truth and a Fight to Remember

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Today is the day. It is the day that I am supposed to fight the 11th squad captain. I sat up and stretched. Then I reflected in my mind what had happened yesterday. As all of it came crashing down on me, I froze. Oh that's right… I have a fight today and Hyourinmaru is here also. Oh well, here goes nothing I guess… Just as I thought that, there was a knock at my door. "Come in." I said. I heard the door open and I turned to see who came in…it was Karin. "Hello Karin. What can I do for you today…or rather this morning?" I asked politely. "I'm just here to tell you that I will help you fight today. I think that Kenpachi would be an excellent warm-up for us, and then after the battle, we can go and train. Is that okay with you?" Karin asked. I smiled at her enthusiasm. "Well, here's the thing, I plan on telling all of the captains and lieutenants, and only them, about us and our…er…"special" connection…but that's only if you feel comfortable in doing so as well." I said. Karin nodded."Yeah, I'm fine if we tell them." "Alright then, let's go and get ready to fight." I said and got up, got dressed, and headed outside to confront Kenpachi about the terms and conditions of our fight.

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"Okay Kenpachi, how about this. We can have a battle, but we are a loud to have a person…"assist" us if we need it…but only ONE person, understand?" I said. Kenpachi smiled and laughed. "Sure, no problem kid." And he reached down and patted my head. I growled and closed my eyes. Suddenly, Kenpachi jumped and drew his hand back away from my head. "Ha! Did ya like that 'cause there's a whole lot more where that came from." I said and started walking away. "I will see you in one hour." I called out over my shoulder. "Fine…" I heard him grumble.

I used my light speed to run and find Karin. Of course, the first place I looked was the 10th squad office and my guess was correct. As I approached, I heard the sound of someone talking quietly and then a loud shout. "MATSUMOTO!!!" By this time I was almost at the 10th squad office door, but upon hearing the shout, I backed away from the door. It was a good thing I did to because the minute I backed away, the door flew open and out shot Matsumoto. As Matsumoto ran out, she caught sight of me and stopped running. She bowed to me and stayed in that position until I spoke. "Well hello Matsumoto. Where are you going in such a hurry?" I asked as kindly as I could. "I…um…well you see…er…" she stammered. "It's okay I know that you're running away because you didn't do your paperwork again, am I correct?" I asked her, but continued, not giving her a chance to respond,"… I know…how about this… we can make a bet. If I happen to loose in the fight against Kenpachi, then you will be officially released from paperwork for two whole months and I will give you a special surprise that I know for a fact that you will enjoy." At this, Matsumoto's light blue eyes lit up, but I wasn't finished speaking. "However, if I happen win the fight, then you have to do two months of paperwork all by yourself…and your captain's paperwork included." Matsumoto thought about this for a few seconds, and my smirk grew larger by the second. After about five minutes of just standing in complete silence, Matsumoto finally spoke. "Okay Stephany, you have a deal." I held out my hand and she took it in her hand and shook it. As Matsumoto turned to leave, I called out to her. "Oh and if it so happens that I do win and you don't keep your promise, well then…let's just say that I will personally see to it that all of the sake in the entire Seireitei will be destroyed." I turned and started to walk off to my destination (10th squad building to go get Karin) and I heard Matsumoto yell, "AWWWW THAT'S NO FAIR!!!!!" I smirked and knocked on the door. Karin opened it immediately. "Are you ready yet?" I asked Karin. She nodded in response and we started walking towards the place where the fight was to be held. Then I remembered something. "Hey Captain Hitsugaya, you are released from you duties concerning paperwork today because of the upcoming fight between myself and Kenpachi." I called over my shoulder then I whispered to Karin. "Hey you wanna race?" Karin looked at me with excitement in her eyes. "Oh yeah! You're so on!" she said. "Ok…on your mark, get set…-" "Go!!!" we heard another voice yell. Karin was so eager to run, her body moved but her feet didn't, so she fell face down on the ground. I couldn't help but laugh at her expression. It was a mix between fury and embarrassment. Karin turned to face the person who yelled and I felt bad for whoever it was (I didn't bother checking because I already knew…that's why I didn't move when the person yelled for us to go) because we were nowhere near the 4th squad district. Karin turned around and came face to face with none other than…Toushiro Hitsugaya."Y-O-U." Karin said very slowly to drag out the moment. I sighed and reached for Karin's arm. "Hey Karin, normally I would let you beat him up for this, but now is not the time. We have exactly…one minute until I am supposed to fight." Karin nodded. Ok here we go, for punishment, were gonna leave him in the dust. On your mark…get set…GO! I yelled in my mind, and we both sped off, leaving Toushiro to just stand there comprehending what just happened to him. "HEY!!!"we heard him yell. We both smirked and high-fived each other as we jumped from building to building with our light speed.

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"Alright, this is how it's gonna work." Grandfather called out. I rolled my eyes; I just wanted to fight, not listen to a boring lecture on the rules. Kenpachi looked like he was in the same vote as me. After five minutes of listening to grandfather speak, I was so excited that I was starting to lose control of my energy. Kenpachi looked like he was in a similar state. "Okay, the winner is the one who stays conscious at the end of the battle. Ready, set, GO!" my grandfather yelled and shunpoed out of the way.

"Yer goin down…little girl." Kenpachi said. Oh that did it for me. I used light speed and before anyone knew what was happening, Kenpachi's feet came out from underneath him and he fell down. I laughed and he spun his head around, trying to find where I was. His head moved so fast I thought that he might have gotten a whiplash. "Hey, I'm over here!" I yelled at him. Immediately, he got to his feet, drew his zanpaktou and charged at me, with his sword held high. I waited as he came running towards me and when he was just close enough in range, I quickly hit his hand and his hand released his sword that he was holding. As soon as his grip loosened, I quickly grabbed it and put it to his throat. Kenpachi stopped as quickly as he could before his own sword decapitated him. As he came to a standstill, he spoke. "Not too bad for a little girl like yourself." He said, taunting me…and it worked. I drew back, and with his sword in my hand, lashed out at him, giving him many cuts and burses. After a few minutes of me cutting him, I was getting a little bit bored. So I gave him a particularly large wound on his right arm, making it difficult for him to hold his sword when he got it back. "Oh come on…I bored to tears here Kenpachi." I sneered. Kenpachi had a look in his eye that made me think that he was not even close to finished. I decided to make things a bit more…interesting. I used my light speed and with a swift stroke of my hand, I removed his eye patch. As I predicted, Kenpachi's spiritual pressure increased a huge amount, but it wasn't enough to even frighten me. But instead, I excited me, hoping that now it would become more of a challenge.

"Oh little girl, you just made the biggest mistake of your life." Kenpachi growled in a somewhat excited manor. I just smirked as Kenpachi's spiritual pressure continued to grow. Kenpachi watched my reaction to the growing of his spiritual pressure and his expression was one of amusement but then became one of shock and awe at how I could still stand.

"Wow, I must have really underestimated you little girl, if you can still stand, let alone fight with all of my pressure." I just smiled sweetly at him. "What spiritual pressure?" I asked. "Oh…you mean this is your spiritual pressure? I thought that this was a baby's not yours." My words did their job. Kenpachi was smirking but upon hearing my words, his smirk became a scowl. "Well then let's just see how well you fare then little girl." And with that, Kenpachi lunged at me. I was strong enough to see his movements, and when he was a sword's length away, I decided that it was time to actually become slightly more serious. I closed my eyes and concentrated. When I opened my eyes, Kenpachi was only two feet away from me. Then I yelled "Fire, Lightning Strike!" (this is one of my attacks without Karin's help) and a stream of fire and lightning flew out of my hand and onto Kenpachi's body, fully engulfing him. I heard a slight yell of surprise before it became silent. As my attack faded, a dense smoke surrounded Kenpachi. Everyone was so quiet, that you could hear a pen drop. Then everyone heard him laugh. "Well, that was quite an impressive attack, little girl. I will admit that you caught me off guard for a split second." I looked at the man. He had burns all over his body and his right arm was bleeding profusely. "Well, I'm just surprised that you actually survived the attack." I replied. "and that was just my warm up, you haven't even got me fired up yet. Geez I'm getting so-" but my speech was cut off as Kenpachi started running towards me. Okay, I guess now it's time to really have some fun with this guy if he can withstand my fire and lightning strike. I thought to myself. Karin, I think that it's time that you summon my full potential. I may be just playing around, but I want to put some respect into these people. I looked over and saw Karin nod. "Okay Kenpachi, now watch me closely because you might never open your eyes again after this." I said as I dodged his sword attack. "I use my "help" now. Karin release me!" I yelled. Kenpachi looked at me with a confused look as he continued to charge at me. "You are now going to learn a very valuable secret about me and Karin. Captains and lieutenants, you are not to tell anyone what you are about to witness in a few seconds." I yelled out to everyone. I looked over my shoulder and all of the captains and lieutenants nodding their heads. "Okay Karin, whenever you're ready." I yelled.

Then Karin stood up and spoke. "Rise and conquer the skies, Kaze Ryuu!" As Karin said this, I felt my own spiritual pressure rise and it became so strong, that Kenpachi had stopped in his tracks. Then I felt myself grow taller and a tall had appeared behind me, along with my entire dragon body. Then I roared. "Alright, you haven't seen nothin' yet! Wind Hurricane!" I yelled and a huge hurricane formed right in front of me. "Kenpachi!" I yelled, "You are in for one heck of a fight." And with those words, the hurricane raced down to where Kenpachi was standing. Kenpachi looked stunned for a total of five seconds. Then a thought crossed my mind: was he even human (spirit I corrected mentally)? I laughed out loud at that thought and looked to see Kenpachi whip his sword around and meet my hurricane dead on. To tell you the truth, I was impressed by this man's courage.

The impact cause a big explosion and Kenpachi flew backwards into the wall. When he stood back up, he coughed up a small amount of blood. But he was far from finished. "Wow. You actually managed to hurt me, but this is nothing!" he exclaimed. I rolled my eyes at him and he snickered. "My turn," he mumbled under his breath. Then, because of the raise of his spiritual pressure, he moved quicker than I thought and he swung his sword at me, only to be stopped and parried by my tall. "Ha! You will never beat me because there is only one thing in the entire universe ("that I know of" I added mentally) that can hurt me because of my scales. They are the strongest substance in the world." I boasted. "Well we'll see about that now wont we…" Kenpachi growled. "Very well…hurry up if you must. You truly are boring me to tears." I said. Kenpachi growled a response, but I tuned it out. Kenpachi took a step back, and then lunged once again at me. This course repeated itself for about five minutes before I truly got bored, and I decided to end it. As Kenpachi took an unusually large step away from me, I used that to my advantage. "Gravity Force 8!" I yelled. Kenpachi immediately fell to his knees and then fell on his face. "This fight is over." I said and I was correct. Kenpachi had passed out from his wounds and my latest attack. I released my hold on him and he started to breath normally again, but he was still unconscious. I turned to Karin and she had a mixed expression of awe and fear. I smiled at her and changed back into my human form.

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"Whoa! That was like totally awesome! Wow!...that was an amazing battle." Karin said, bubbling with excitement. I just smiled at her. "Hey Karin. I changed my mind. Let's not train today. We can do it tomorrow, okay?" Karin looked at me and then shrugged. "Sure, no problem." I looked at Karin and she looked at me. "Hey, because you helped me out today, why don't I make it up to you." Karin looked at me and shook her head. "No it's okay, you don't have to." "Yeah you're right, I don't have to, but I choose to. So I will allow you to ask me one question, any question, and I will answer it to the best of my abilities." Karin thought on that for a few minutes before replying, and her request caught me off guard. "Okay, I want you to tell me about you and the boy that you fell in love with." She said. I froze and she noticed this. "Oh…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that of you." She said but I just shook my head. "No it's okay. I'll tell you about him…"

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An hour and a half later, Karin and I were sitting on the outskirts of Rukongai, on a hill, looking at the sunset. "Okay, I'll tell you about my…relationship with him." I said. As I spoke, Karin and I both noticed that we were being followed. I sighed and Karin stood up. "I'll handle this." She murmured to me. I just nodded and looked away. "Hey, we know you're there…stalker." Karin said and I smirked. I knew that our little "stalker" would be drawn out of hiding upon being called that…and my guess was correct. "I am NOT a stalker. I was simply interested as in where you both were heading off to, so I decided to-" "Stalk us?" Karin finished. "No! I just-" "Yeah Yeah, I don't really care what you were doing Shiro." Karin said, and turned on her heels to come and sit by me on the grass. Then what happened next caught all of us completely off guard. Hyourinmaru appeared. I stood up and glared at the dragon and my spiritual pressure began to spike up.

Then something suddenly appeared on my wrist. "What the hell is this?!" I yelled, grabbing my wrist. "It's a binding bracelet made with real (1)sterling silver." Hyourinmaru said with a glint in his eyes. "Ha ha real funny, now get it off of me." I demanded. Hyourinmaru shook his head. "No way." I growled and the temperature dropped at least ten degrease. Everyone looked at Toushiro, but he just waved his hands in front of him, indicating that it wasn't him, then everyone turned back to me. "Energy restraint!" Hyourinmaru yelled and I could feel my energy starting to leave me. "No!" I hissed through my teeth. Then I felt a hand on my arm. It was Karin. "Kaze Ryuu, you need to calm down." She whispered in my ear. I obeyed and took a deep breath that helped me calm down a drastic amount. Then I turned to confront Hyourinmaru. "W-why did you l-leave me all of those y-years ago?" I asked. Hyourinmaru released the restraint on me and sighed. "T-the boy was born…" Hyourinmaru said and flicked his tail to indicate that "the boy" was Toushiro. Then I felt a guilt rise inside of me. "But then why didn't you come and find me. You and I both know that you could move freely if you wanted to, I'm living proof of that." I said. Hyourinmaru hesitated. "There were…complications." "Like what?" I growled. "Well as you know, when our wielder is born as a human, then you become one with them and go into a deep sleep. Well, when the boy died and we were taken to Rukongai, the first district, that is where I awoke from my long sleep. But by that time, possibly twenty years had passed by and because we weren't on earth, then there was no way for me to search for you." Hyourinmaru explained. I just nodded, feeling guiltier by the second. Then I felt Hyourinmaru's tall rap around my shoulders in a comforting manor. I sighed and relaxed then Hyourinmaru whispered something. "Energy restraint release." At that command, I felt that my energy was indeed released. I looked up to see two confused faces looking at us. I sighed. "Okay, when I was a little girl, I met him," I said pointing with my thumb over my shoulder at Hyourinmaru, "and we became best friends. He even saved me once. But anyways, we started to have a relationship with each other, even though it wasn't aloud." When I said this, Karin and Toushiro looked at me with a confused look in their eyes. "He was a prince, and I was just another human…well technically I was much more powerful than any normal human because I was and still am an elemental, but that was besides the point. He was the prince and I was, for his mother cared, just another annoying human. But somehow, he was able to convince his mother to let him stay with me. Well we were together for a few years before…I had believed that he left me. Only when Toushiro arrived here at the Seireitei, I figured out that Hyourinmaru was his spirit." I said and then turned to face Toushiro. "You are very fortunate to have him. He is the Dragon of Ice and very powerful as well. He may be hard and cold on the outside, but in the insides, he is extremely kind…I would know…" I said and then I felt Hyourinmaru's tall rap around my waist as he started to speak to Karin. "Yes, that may be so, but she is the Dragon of Wind. That is why she is…what do you call it…unbeatable." "And w-why is that?" Toushiro asked, somewhat timidly. "Because without air, then nothing can live. For example, she is the master of fire because you need three things to start it. Something that will burn, heat, and oxygen. Oxygen is air and she controls that. In water, it is formed by one hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Therefore, she is the master of that as well. And earth…need I say more?" Hyourinmaru asked. They both shook their heads no and Hyourinmaru smiled. "Alright, then. I guess it's time for me to show my own wielder something." Hyourinmaru said and he began to shine. I knew exactly what he was doing, he was transforming into his human form.

As the light faded, there was a man standing in the place where Hyourinmaru was just a few seconds earlier. Then I couldn't contain myself any longer. I ran up and embraced the man. The man hugged me back and I smiled into his shoulder. The man had somewhat dark brown hair and sky blue eyes (The color of his "Hyourinmaru" scales…yes this is Hyourinmaru as a human in my opinion.) The man I fell in love with was back, and I was in his arms. Then I remembered my wielder and Toushiro. I pulled away from the embrace and the man had a somewhat hurt look in his eyes. I smiled at him and indicated with my head towards both of our wielders. When I did this, he understood what I was doing so he let his hands settle on my waist as I introduced him. "Karin and Toushiro, this is…Sterling…a-k-a Hyourinmaru when he is in his dragon form." Karin and Toushiro nodded their heads, and I turned to face Karin. "And that is the story of my…er…love life, if you will." I said with a smile and Karin laughed.

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Me: ok wow…I have been wanting to write this chapter for a long time now. I have always thought it to be cute. Well I hope that I didn't confuse anybody with the naming part. Hyourinmaru= dragon & Sterling= human ;Kaze Ryuu= dragon & Stephany= human. I hope that that cleared it up a bit, and the hint that I left (about Hyourinmaru's human name) was where the (1) was. The name of the sliver (sterling silver) was italicized. I hope that people understand.

Toushiro: AWWW! That was clever and sneaky at the same time.

Karin: yup!

Me: well I will do my best to update as soon as I can but like I said…im going to be starting summer school soon so plz bear with me. ^.^ thanks for everyone (especially ShikallllTema) for their support. PLZ REVIEW! The more reviews, the quicker ill update!!! And I'll give everyone a quick summery of the next chapter.

The next chapter is called "War and Betrayal. It's kinda obvious and original, I know, but there's gonna be another kind of twist to it as well. Anyways, Aizen has finally made his move and has proven that he will do everything in his power to over through the Seireitei, but what about Momo Hinamori choose to do? And how will this affect Toushiro and Karin's relationship?

Well that's the best summery I can give you without giving everything away…and yes there is going to be a few battles here and there…and one of them is extremely crucial and it will prove just how much Karin feels for Toushiro. Oh one last thing. I have been meaning to say this in all of my other chapters, but I have been forgetting: sorry about any typing mistakes that are in the story, im trying my hardest to make it as well as I can…well that's all. Until next time! ^.^