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WARNING MASSIVE SPOILERS

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Sorry bout the late update, I couldn't upload to the site for a while. Don't know why can anyone tell me?

Onigoto

"Hurry up Ichigo!" Rukia knocked loudly at the familiar door. "Open the damn door!"

"Yo! Rukia!" Ichigo voice came from behind her. She spun around to find him half smiling at her. "Didn't feel like getting kicked in… arg!!" he winced as she kicked him solidly in the shin. "Bitch!! That hurt!! What was that for?" he complained. Ichigo stood before her dressed only in his hakama, a towel under his arm.

"That's for sneaking up and scaring me!"

"Well good morning to you too." Ichigo stepped past her and unlocked the door to his room.

"Get some clothes on you moron!" Rukia eyed the muscles on his back shifting as he opened the door.

"I just got back from the bath house and this is supposed to be an all men's barrack anyway!" Ichigo replied without turning around. "You're about the only girl who comes here anyway!"

"If I don't come here to pick you up, you'd be late everyday moron!"

Ichigo slowly put on his kimono, his body still steaming from the hot bath. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Rukia scowled at him. She turned around, took three incense sticks from it's package, lit them with a nearby box of matches and made an offering on Kon's altar. Ichigo smiled inwardly. This had become an everyday ritual for Rukia as well as Ganjyu and himself. "Kon, you'd be so happy now if you knew how many people care for you." Ichigo thought to himself.

As they stepped outside into the crisp morning air, Ichigo scowled. "Damn that Saito bastards annoying!"

"You feel him too? Your reiatsu sensing has gotten better." Rukia replied as they started walking towards the dining hall.

"It's so damned annoying… him following me around like some puppy"

"At least he's trying to stay out of your way… give you some privacy."

"True. But I still don't like it." Ichigo turned a glance towards the direction of Saito's reiatsu before shaking his head and turning back.

They soon met with Ganjyu, Hyou, Yukino and Orihime who had gone ahead earlier to get their breakfasts for them. It had become a routine now that Ichigo was glad for and they ate at a nearby yard, on the grass while enjoying the warm morning sun. Ever since Kenjimaru's defeat Ichigo had found it hard to walk anywhere within the academy without glances, stares and whispers aimed at him. This he could live with, but it was the more daring of the girls and even some guys that constantly approached him for various reasons that he found difficult to handle. As they finished their meal and stood up to leave, Rukia had surprised them with an announcement. "I'm going to the real world on mission."

"Really" Orihime asked. "Karakura?"

Rukia nodded her reply. "My brother is sending me for a week."

Ichigo perked up upon hearing this. "Hey Rukia. Do you think you could…"

"Of course!" she answered before he could even finish. "Where else do you think I'm going to stay?"

"I have a letter."

"I'll pick it up tonight."

"At least you're good for something." Ichigo remarked at Rukia's back as she turned to leave.

Rukia abruptly turned around and took a step towards Ichigo, eyes furrowed she kicked him the other shin. "I just remembered the other one" She turned around sharply and marched off humming to herself happily.

Ganjyu laughed while Hyou, used to this pattern by now merely shook his head, Yukino giggled but Orihime just looked on, half smiling, staring wistfully at Rukia's disappearing back. "You never learn do you Ichigo" Ganjyu snorted between breaths.

"Shut up!" Ichigo frowned rubbing his sore shin with his hand. "What's first class?"

"Hoho (1)" Hyou answered.

"That's what I've got too." Orihime was excited. "Maybe we'll be doing it together!" she hoped out loud.

"I doubt it, Inoue-san. We're been assigned to different training areas." Hyou shook his head.

The class was a lot more boring than Ichigo had imagined it would be. Instead of a practical lesson they were taking notes detailing basic Hoho principles. Movements in and out of melee range, jinking, missile range and various other types of gymnastics movements that well trained humans were capable of. There was a restlessness in the class and the middle aged female instructor seemed to sense this. She raised her eyes, commanding everyone's fullest attention. "Class, today we will not be doing any practical training." Moans filled the room, a smile slowly filled the instructors face, "However, we have been invited to watch the 10th year's Shunpo training." An excited buzz ran through the class as they all filed out following their teacher.

"I would like all of you to keep in mind that not all Shinigami will be able to Shunpo and you should not feel bad if you're never able to master it." She gave a cautionary glance to the class, "Even those who can do it will find they will be completely drained after 10 or 20 steps. It is after all a high level technique."

"Sensei." Hyou asked over the noise of the class. "I heard that for captain and vice captain class, it is considered only a mid level technique."

"That's true," she answered, "however I think you're all 100 years too early to be thinking like that. Also truly high level Shunpo is almost invisible to the untrained eye which brings me to the point of today's instructions. If any of you find it hard to see the steps the 10th year are making try to focus on monitoring their reiatsu. Often a person's reiatsu will tell you how far, fast and in which direction they are traveling to."

As they crossed a long, grassy yard they finally came to a massive stone building. It was shaped like a perfect box, it's length equaling it's width and height. It's walls had no visible windows of any sort and the only opening seemed to be a small door on the wall facing them. Inside however was impressive. They were led up some stairs and came to a large room that served like stadium seating. The wall in front of them had a large window cut into the stone wall, with a view into the stadium itself. The stadium was square with a window on each wall, obviously for other viewing areas, but what caught Ichigo's attention was the stadium walls also had row upon row of poles jutting out from them at right angles. Each pole was cylindrical and roughly 40 feet in length and spaced equally from each other at nearly 50 feet apart. There were 12 rows of poles repeating every 50 feet of height, 12 rows high. Ichigo wondered what they were for before his attention was drawn to a single girl on the floor waving madly at his class. "Kurosaki-kun!!" Orihime shouted at him. His whole class turned to look at him as he sought to sink further into his seat.

He was saved however as Orihime's instructor turned around and scolded her and she promptly went back to practice. The class watched in awe as the few 10th year capable, were practicing straight line Shunpo over a distance of 100 feet, repeating the exercise ten times before stopping, exhausted. A familiar voice rang out behind the class "Well, well, I thought I could find you here." Yoruichi voice dripped with poisoned honey, then her eyes wandered over the class. "Everyone enjoying the lessons?" she asked to no one in particular.

The class gaped at the traitor turned hero Shinigami, standing beside the stern 2nd Division captain. Soifon was blushing as Yoruichi had an elbow resting on her shoulder, leaning slightly against her. "Let's make this interesting shall we Soifon." Yoruichi twirled her pony tail with her free hand.

Fighting the blood rushing to her face Soifon managed, "Yes Yoruichi-san.", as Yoruichi leant over and whispered into her ear.

Soifon nodded and walked towards the large stone window sill, hopped onto it and flashed away, reappearing on the floor next to the 10th year instructor. Words were exchanged before a second later she reappeared beside Ichigo. "You are wanted on the floor Kurosaki" She commanded.

"What? Why?" Ichigo stammered.

"Now Ichigo!" Yoruichi glowered at him flexing her fingers as if claws were going to suddenly appear from them.

When Yoruichi became like that, it was better to listen to her. "Yes ma'am!" Ichigo gulped, fighting his urge to salute as he ran down the stairs, through the hallway and onto the stadium floor. As he joined the other students the instructor eyed him suspiciously . "Name?" he asked.

"Kurosaki Ichigo. First year."

A couple of students looked at him with a mixture of surprise and curiosity. "We are going to play a game of Onigoto." The instructor began explaining the rules as he held up a red, leather glove. "The person wearing this glove is the Oni (2). They will be trying to tag the others not wearing a glove. Once tagged the glove will leave a red ink stain on the person. That person also becomes an Oni. That person must then come down and get a glove from me and join in as an Oni helping the other Oni until there are no more people left in the game. The boundary of the game is anywhere within this room and," pointing to the four windows now, he said, "the viewing area's are covered by a reiatsu field strong enough to use. Is there any questions?"

Seeing that there were no questions the instructor proceeded to call out ten names, Ichigo and Orihime were two of them. The chased were given three seconds to run. Ichigo maintained a low reiatsu pressure, trying hard not to exert too much as he Shunpo'd up to the top pole furthest away from the Oni. He turned around to see that the game had begun as the Oni leapt furiously from one pole to another chasing down one of the slower students.

"I never knew Kurosaki could Shunpo!" the first year instructor exclaimed. "Such high level technique."

"Why am I not surprised." Hyou smiled, mumbling to himself. Ganjyu slapped him on the back and laughed loudly.

"Not really. "Yoruichi answered the instructor. "This is still merely low level Shunpo." So said Yoruichi, Shunshin (3), Goddess of flash.

By now three people were Oni and Orihime stayed close to Ichigo trying to keep up with him. It was harder than Ichigo thought, trying to create speed with as little reiatsu as possible. A grin decorated his features, "This will improve my Shunpo efficiency. That Yoruichi.." His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by movement to his front and side.

Orihime had seen the movement too late and had flashed heavily to the side getting tagged in mid air across her chest. The Oni turned around and flashed a blushing smile at her and put his hands together, bowing by way of apology.

Summoning up the reiatsu at his feet, Ichigo deftly flashed backwards. "They're too slow." He thought to himself. "The Oni aren't gonna get me at all at this speed."

The first year instructor breathed in, shocked. "Backwards Shunpo! That's a high level technique"

"Bah!" Yoruichi waved away her comment, "Mid level at best."

By now there were 6 Oni and four people left. The speed had dropped dramatically, all except for one person, Ichigo. He was too absorbed in the game to notice the chorus of voices coming from his classmates. He had unofficially become the representative for the first year students in this game and they were loudly supporting him. "FIGHT OH!! KUROSAKI!! FIGHT OH!!" became their mantra.

The class was still able to keep up and see the spectacle before them. Ten minutes later they watch as a grinning Ichigo stood, perched at one of the highest poles, 9 very exhausted Oni, some sweating in a heap on the floor, some struggling to maintain balance on the poles as fatigue affected them. Outclassed, the 10th year instructor decided to call in the class and surrender to the freshman. There was a blur of movement and Soifon was suddenly beside the instructor along with Yoruichi "EVERYBODY OUT OF THE STADIUM!!" Soifon shouted. "EXCEPT FOR KUROSAKI!!"

Yoruichi stepped forward, grabbed a glove and wore it over her right hand. Soifon smiled and nodded to her as she followed the 10th years back out of the stadium and into the viewing stands. "Ready boy?!" She flashed and was suddenly behind him.

The audience gasped, the first year instructor could only utter under her breath. "So that's high level Shunpo."

"I didn't say go yet." Ichigo scowled as he flashed to a pole on the other side of the stadium. The audience left their jaws hanging open. Till now they were able to see his movements but just then, he had completely evaded their vision. "GO!!"

"FIGHT OH!! KUROSAKI!! FIGHT OH!!" Orihime's lone voice rang out across the room. Soon Ganjyu joined in followed by the whole audience, barracking for the underdog. Yukino stood up clapping in time with the cheering.

"Quite a cheer squad you have Ichigo." Yoruichi goaded as she flashed towards him.

Ichigo saw the blur of her movement and Shunpo'd down and away from her, covering four poles at a time. Focusing all his concentration on the amount of reiatsu he was using and pinpointing her location simultaneously was a difficult chore. He gritted his teeth as he tried to spot his opponent. Yoruichi had speed up so much so that she was leaving behind reiatsu and visual after images confusing Ichigo further. Suddenly he spotted her as she was about to reach the pole that he had been flashing towards. Leaning forward before he reached it, he grabbed a pole that was in between him and his final target and allowed his momentum to carry him over, and down. Flipping, he Shunpo'd downwards off his hands to a lower pole. He didn't know if it was possible to focus reiatsu into his hands to Shunpo and it hurt his shoulder and wrist badly, but he had done it. "Not bad Ichigo" Yoruichi's voice came from right beside his right ear. She had somehow managed to get behind him. "Shunpo with your hands. That's a high level technique… Bet your shoulders hurt!" She was obviously toying with him.

Ichigo flustered angrily, Shunpo'd away increasing his reiatsu use, compressing it and increasing his speed by increments. By the now the crowd was dumbstruck. With the exception of a few, no one saw anything beyond blurs. Reiatsu sensing was confusing without high level refinement and most could only tell who was going faster by how many after images were being left behind. Ichigo had four at a time and Yoruichi had eight.

Kenjimaru focused his concentration on Ichigo's reiatsu, trying to filter out the reiatsu field generated by the window and the reiatsu Yoruichi was leaving behind. How powerful was Ichigo he wondered to himself, the amount of reiatsu Ichigo was using didn't seem to correlate with the speeds they were traveling at. Hyou had given up trying to measure the level of Ichigo's reiatsu, instead he opted to estimate how many steps they had taken to determine his comrades strength. He had counted up to 150 so far. Ganjyu was lost in his own world cheering and whistling with his thumb and finger in his mouth. The sound was deafening inside the viewing area and girls were gossiping amongst themselves, the main topic of their conversations was obvious.

Ichigo glanced around as he stepped, Yoruichi was across the hall from him and angling herself in anticipation of his next move. He stepped, stepped and stepped again reaching two thirds of the way up the height of the wall. She came at him from the front, bouncing off the reiatsu field, scaring some of the first year students as a loud thump echoed throughout the room. Ichigo flashed to his left aiming for the other wall when he noticed Yoruichi had bounded back there already and headed towards him. Focusing a fair bit of reiatsu he created a field under his feet, and in mid air he changed direction and headed away. "Mid air stop and Shunpo," his instructor gasped. "That's a very high level technique!"

Kenjimaru had heard this even though he himself couldn't see it happen. He turned to his teacher and asked, "Can you do that, sensei?" She could only shake her head in reply. His face became pale when he thought back to his duel as he wondered what Ichigo truly could have done to him that day. It was obvious to him that at the very least, Ichigo's reiatsu control and manipulation was better than his, by a big margin.

Ichigo turned around furiously, looking for Yoruichi but she had left his field of vision. Then suddenly she was there, perched on his left shoulder, crouching. "Not bad Ichigo. You've learned to compress your reiatsu, using it very efficiently. Even a mid air stop. I'm impressed."

Ichigo glanced over, he was breathing heavily and Yoruichi was only starting to show signs of fatigue. A light coating of sweat painted her dark skin. He shrugged heavily, so she back-flipped off him and he started off again, flashing to the far wall. She was suddenly beside him, so he changed directions increasing his reiatsu to pick up speed, she was there again. He Shunpo'd backwards but he knew before he landed that she was behind him. SMACK!! The sound echoed throughout the hall as Yoruichi slapped him across the cheeks of his bum, leaving behind a red hand print there as if someone had groped him. The game was over. She smiled at him as he slumped to the floor panting, his face drenched in sweat. "Not bad Ichigo. You learn quick. You're able to do a fair bit with minimal reiatsu, imagine what you could do with your normal amount." She whispered so only he could hear and offered him a hand to get up, which he took.

The audience applauded loudly and Ichigo could make out words from the crowd. "I can't believe he's a first year student." Ichigo began to hate his hate of losing now. He could feel trouble brewing and it tasted like salt in his mouth. That could also have been his sweat.

As he ambled over to rejoin his class, Hyou had finished estimating the amount of steps they had each taken. He was shocked by the figure he had come up with and started to wonder if he had miscounted, after all he did not actually see the 250 steps that he had estimated based on flashes of reiatsu. As Ichigo left the stadium with Yoruichi, she leaned over and whispered to him, "There's something going on with you and I want to know what it is."

Ichigo answered her with a blank look. She continued, "The Chamber of 46 are trying to get all the original five, noble houses to come back. The Shiba house has already been re-instated as you know. For what reason, they wouldn't say and now I find out the Kuchiki house is personally responsible for your safety. What's going on and why are you involved?"

Ichigo frowned, the look in his eyes told her that he knew something but wasn't willing or ready yet to tell her. He was saved by the noise of the classes entering the hallway, all wanting to talk to this new genius, first year Shinigami. She whispered to him, "We'll talk about this later, definitely before I return to the real world." Her expression told him if he didn't tell her, he would not be able to tell anyone, ever. He felt resigned.

"Ichigo! Not bad!" Ganjyu wrapped an arm around him grinning idiotically. "That's The Shunshin Yoruichi and you held out against her."

Hyou stared at his friend with a mixture of admiration and suspicion. He was pushed roughly out of the way into Yukino by a mob of girls all wanting to ask a now red faced Ichigo all sorts of questions. Ichigo thought to use Shunpo to leave the hallway quickly and hide, but in the end all he could manage in answer was "Ahh…sure."

Ganjyu and Ichigo pushed their way through the crowd looking for Hyou and Yukino. Finding them they marched off together back to the classroom as Ichigo turned to wave goodbye to Orihime. She waved back and pointed to her bottom. Ichigo turned his head to stare down and saw a nice red handprint on his posterior. He'd have to put up with it for the rest of the day.

End Chapter 6

(1) Hoho – Movement techniques. The most famous of this is Shunpo.

(2) Oni – A type of Japanese monster or demon. In Onigoto or tag the Oni is 'it' or the tagger.

(3) Shunshin – God (or Goddess in this case) of flash. In this context it's a title meaning the goddess of Shunpo, flash stepping.

A/N: I made the count at roughly 250 before Yoruichi was tired. In the manga she states when carrying off Ichigo's body during the Soul Society arc that she was surprised she was so tired after a mere 100 to 200 steps. This was blamed on her time away from battle which was 100 years. I reasoned that with her involvement in the Arrancar war she would slowly get back to full stamina and thus only made her starting to get tired after 250 steps. Hence her ending the match soon thereafter.