AN: BLAH! Dammit! I deleted this chapter by accident on my computer… FRIKEN HELL! Now I need to write it again (well the two pages I HAD written).. ahem..yes..anyway…Now that I have taken out my anger on the keyboard… please review! XD (puts on happy smile)…ehehehhehe.. become a regular reviewer XD it makes me happy :P… YES! I got 100 reviews :P (I was just waiting to say that, actually I had written this chapter when I only had 94 reviews but shush) lol…I am now initiated into fanfiction..hehehe XD

Disclaimer: I don't own BLEACH!

A Summer Job – Business Trip (Part I)


Night had fallen on Soul Society. Ichigo looked down at his friend. She was walking, as if oblivious to anything in the world. Except, he knew she wasn't. No matter how she tried to hide it, he knew something was up.

"Rukia."

"Hmm?" Rukia answered, without looking up. Seriously, she was so short, and Ichigo was too tall, it wasn't worth craning her neck.

"You know…before…"

"…"

"…When you said that I was having a cry because I couldn't go…"

This time she looked up. "Yeah?"

"Well…It's not like I just wanted to go fight…just so you know," he finished hurriedly.

That was all he wanted to tell her? Jeez, did this guy think she was dumb? It was so obvious why he wanted to go. She knew he wasn't bloodthirsty or anything…so what was he trying to get at?

"I…" Ichigo looked away, before starting again, "I was just worried…about Yuzu and Karin…"

Rukia smiled to herself. Even before, Ichigo had been so protective of his little sisters, even though he never said anything. He usually expressed his protectiveness in actions. Now, that he couldn't really express his feelings in actions, since he couldn't go, all that was left was expressing his feelings in verbal form, something that they both knew he wasn't good at.

"You know…"

Ichigo turned back to look at her.

"I wanted to go as well."

"Huh?" Ichigo looked at her, dumbfounded. Why on earth would she want to go? Something clicked. Renji.

Rukia looked up at her orange-haired friend, and saw a look of jealousy sweep across his face. He then turned away. Jealousy? Where did that come from?

"Idiot. I wanted to go help your family as well."

She looked back up at him for understanding. Sure enough that look she saw a moment ago was replaced by understanding, and a bit of relief. What had he been jealous about?

"O-oh…" Ichigo, for once, was at loss for words. "That reminds me. I haven't thanked you properly for saving my family that night."

"Idiot. You have."

"I did?" Ichigo asked, bewildered. "When did I…"

"You saved my life. How much more proper can you get?"

Ichigo grunted. "You know what I mean." But he didn't pursue the matter. Rukia really was great. She honestly had wanted to help his family. Suddenly his aspect of her changed. Sure, she was a good friend, even if he wouldn't admit it to himself, but anyone wanting to save his family deserved a high amount of respect. If Rukia wanted to help then…

His thoughts trailed off into the silence.

They had been walking for about 20 minutes, but Ichigo felt like it was hours. They hadn't spoken since, but the silence they basked in was comfortable, not awkward.

"Rukia."

"Yeah?" She asked, not looking up.

"Uh, how long till this stupid lake anyway?"

She kept her head down and mumbled something barely audible.

"Oh, ha-ha very funny," Ichigo replied sarcastically. "Two days. Yep, you're funny."

Rukia didn't say anything. Ichigo slowly backed away from her and deadpanned. "Please tell me that was a joke…"

Rukia kept her head down. Ichigo just inhaled and exhaled.

"TWO FRICKEN DAYS?" Ichigo finally let it out. "ARE YOU TELLING ME IT TAKES TWO DAYS TO GET TO THIS STUPID LAKE?"

"Well, you didn't ask before, did you?" she retorted. "And you said you'd come!"

"Yeah I know I said I would come…I THOUGHT YOU SAID IT WAS CLOSE?"

"IT IS CLOSE! AND STOP SHOUTING! I'M RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!"

Ichigo deadpanned for the second time. "I'm in front of you as well…"

She looked away. Ichigo let out a rather large breath of air. "I'm going back."

"What?" She turned to look at him, this time

"I said, I'm going back." He met her gaze, squarely in the eye.

"Why?"

"Because. It. Takes. Two. Days. That's. Why." Ichigo managed to grit through his teeth. Seriously, what were they supposed to do for food, water, and sleep? Just sleep outside?

"Oh come on, Ichigo. Please…"

"No." He looked away from her, "There is no way, that I am going to. One, we don't even have food. Two, we don't even have water. Three, we don't have a place to stay the night. And four, it takes TWO DAYS! Did you even think about this before we left?"

Ichigo was waving his hands around in the air, looking exasperated. Rukia stifled a giggle. It wouldn't do to laugh while he was obviously in the middle of something important.

"Well, I can get water, and food, off someone I know. Also, I know a place to sleep." She looked him in the eye. "Happy now?"

"What about the two days bit?"

Men. When it got down to it, they were all the same. "Oh, yes Ichigo, I'll just move the WHOLE FRICKEN LAKE A BIT CLOSER!"

"WHY DON'T YOU DO THAT THEN?"

"Fine." Her voice suddenly returned to normal. "You can go back."

"Good. I will," and he turned around

"I just wanted to go…because I needed a break…and I thought it would be good if you came…" Ichigo froze. There was real sadness in her tone. Even if he was Ichigo, he could still tell that something was wrong. Something between her and Renji maybe? He remembered that the two childhood friends had been rather silent when they said goodbye. He decided.

"Fine. Actually, I feel like I need a break," he lied. Seriously, why did he always end up following this girl? He turned around in the direction they had been going, and because he kept his face looking the other way he missed the small smile that glanced across her features.

They settled back into silence. It was sometime before Ichigo broke it.

"So, you going to tell me where we're supposed to get food and all that?"

Rukia stayed silent for a while. For a minute, Ichigo thought that she had just made that stuff up on the spur of the moment. Like that other time when she tried to cook dinner, when Isshin, Yuzu, and Karin were away. He had asked her if she had used all the correct ingredients and she quickly assured him that she had used all the correct things. Ichigo had been sick for a week after that.

Before he got a chance to accuse her of lying she spoke. "Well, I have a friend that lives around here…well, hopefully she's still here. She likes to move around a lot, but last time I checked she was around here somewhere."

"Pfft."

After walking another 10 minutes, Rukia's face lighted up. "Yes! She is here!"

Ichigo looked in front of him, and grimaced. No way. It was her?

Kukaku Shiba slammed down the jug of sake in front of her, causing the wooden floor to shake visibly. "OI! BRING MORE!"

Her younger brother cringed. Elder sisters were scary. She glared at him. "Did you just think something bad about your older sister?"

Definitely. Definitely scary. "Uh…no…not at all!" He watched horrified, as she took out one of her throwing knives.

"Get. My. Sake," she growled.

"Y-YES!" The younger brother ran to the door, and promptly ran into the orange-haired shinigami that we know so well. "…the hell?" he said rubbing his head.

"That's my line. Look where you're running."

"Ichigo?" he looked up and grinned. "You asshole."

"You looking for a fight, bignose?"

"You looking to lose again carrot-top?"

"Pfft." Ichigo looked away. Then nearly died of fright when he saw the fast approaching dagger make its way above Ganju's head. He jumped back, flattened himself against the wall, and the knife struck just above him. Ichigo looked above him and saw the handle of the knife quivering. As soon as he got over his initial shock, he jumped from the wall.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, WOMAN! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?"

"You're stopping Ganju from getting my sake. Move it," she sounded almost bored.

"You could've just asked politely," he said underneath his breath, looking annoyed, as you do when someone throws a knife at you. But he made way for Ganju, and leaned against the doorframe. And nearly died for the second time when two sharp knives appeared extremely close to his neck.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR? I LET YOUR STUPID BROTHER GO!"

"The first one was for leaning on the doorframe. The second was for mumbling," she said in the same bored tone.

Ichigo slowly knelt down, and then collapsed on the floor. Being used as a knife target just wasn't working with him.

"Oh, hello Kuchiki-san!" her tone suddenly changed to a happy, cheery tone as she saw Rukia standing at the doorway, looking bored, as if this sort of thing was expected.

"Hello Shiba-san!" Rukia replied in the same happy, cheery voice as Kukaku acknowledged her. Meanwhile, the mass of black on the floor, formerly known as Ichigo, sweat dropped.

About 5 minutes later, when Ichigo had recovered, and Ganju had brought back the requested sake, there was some form of order in the room. Well, if you didn't count the knives sticking out of the walls, and Ichigo and Ganju, who were participating in a glare-to-the-death contest.

"So, what brings you two here?" Kukaku asked, obviously directing her question to Rukia, as the two men still hadn't finished their glare-to-the-death contest.

"Oh, nothing much, just going to visit Akanaru."

This statement made Ichigo pop out of the glare-to-the-death contest (so by default Ganju won).

"Hey! I thought we were going to that stupid lake!" Ichigo asked, ignoring Ganju, who was currently glaring daggers at him for forfeiting.

The two females sweat-dropped simultaneously. Ganju was too busy glaring at Ichigo to notice Ichigo's stupid mistake.

"What?" Ichigo asked, genuinely puzzled.

Rukia sighed, and rubbed her temples. Kukaku noticed this, and said, "Look, why don't you two boys play outside?

"But…" Ichigo zipped his mouth shut when he saw the Shiba clansmember pull out a throwing knife from behind her.

Both him and Ganju were outside the room in 0.0003 seconds. They both leaned on each side of the doorway, breathing heavily. They looked at each other, and the same thought passed through each of their minds.

Let's get out of here.

Which was fortunate, because the moment they leaped off the wall, knives appeared where they just had been leaning. They had forgotten that she didn't like people to lean on her walls.

The two men stood outside, not saying anything, which was a change.

"I don't understand women," Ichigo mumbled under his breath.

Ganju turned at the sound of his voice. "Ha. So you are a man after all."

Ichigo shot him a glare. "Shut-up." After a few moments of silence, he spoke up again. "Well, see, first Rukia tells me that we're going to a lake. Now she wants to go to some place called…" he scratched his head, trying to remember what she had said.

"Akanaru?"

"Huh? How did you know?"

"Idiot. Akanaru's the name of the lake."

"…the hell. See, I told you I don't understand women."

"No, you're just geographically stupid."

"And you have a big nose."

"Hey! You leave my nose out of this."

"We can't. It's too big."

"Akanaru, hey?"

Rukia looked at Kukaku. "Yeah…I guess I just needed a break…"

"Pfft. You don't fool me, woman," Kukaku retorted.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Rukia tried her best to look puzzled.

Rukia's puzzled look didn't work, well at least not on Kukaku. She was, after all a woman as well. "Then why did you bring him along?"

"Oh." Rukia looked down at the floor.

"What – you like him or something?" she took another gulp of her sake.

At this moment, Rukia found the floor tiles extremely interesting. "Uh…no…its just that…"

The other woman waved her hand. "Don't worry. I don't care. Now tell me what you need."

Rukia, thankful for the change in subject, quickly raised her head. "Umm…A bit of food, water, and a change of clothes, since if we stay at any inns…" she trailed off.

"Yeah, yeah…People around here don't exactly love shinigami."

"You left some stuff here from your last visit. But," she added as she eyed the folded clothes skeptically, "You sure you want to wear this?"

Rukia giggled. "Yeah, its ok. Even if it looks weird, it's what the humans wear."

"Humans hey?" the other woman asked slyly, "Since when were you interested in what they wore?"

Wow. The floor really did look interesting.

The older woman chuckled. "I'm just kidding. Here you go."

Rukia accepted the folded clothes; grateful that now she would have something else to stare at, other than the floor.

"Hmm…now for the other guy," the older woman said as she browsed through some boxes.

"This should be ok," she proclaimed, holding up an old, but well kept, gi and hakama.

Rukia looked up, and then let out a small gasp. "But that's…"

"OI! You two delinquents up there! Get your butts inside."

Ganju and Ichigo suddenly stopped fighting when they heard the dreaded voice.

"Coming!" they both shouted in unison.

They walked down the steps to the big room where Kukaku and Rukia were waiting.

Ichigo walked in and noticed Rukia wearing 'earth' clothes. She wore light baggy jeans, which hung quite low, showing the curve of her hips. A white top, covered by a yellow long sleeve blouse covered her upper body. Knowing Rukia, she had buttoned all the buttons, so the blouse was rather tight, showing off the womanly curves that Ichigo had never seen – due to mostly seeing her wearing Yuzu's dresses, or his school uniform. Ichigo couldn't believe his eyes. She looked…rather nice, actually. Scrap that last thought. NOW. He had to mentally scold himself to stop his jaw from dropping.

Kukaku Shiba noticed Ichigo's reaction, and grinned to herself. If all the clothes from the 'world' caused men to react like this, then no wonder Rukia had taken a liking to earth clothes. On the other hand, it may just be Ichigo, since there was something between those two, she told herself.

Rukia, being completely oblivious to the state of Ichigo, as she usually was, walked towards him to hand him the hakama and gi. Ichigo didn't notice Rukia, he was trying his hardest not to look at her, until she was right in front of him.

"Here. Put on these."

"W-what?" Ichigo jumped back a metre, aware of their proximity. "W-why?"

"Just put it on. I'll explain later." With that she threw him the hakama and gi, and turned him around.

Ichigo barely caught it. Her being too close was bad for his brain. "W-wait!" he cried as he was being pushed out of the room.

Rukia sighed as Ichigo resisted her. "Look, at these places…people don't particularly like shinigami. Got it?"

Ichigo got it, but how come he had to wear this olden style clothing, while she got modern-day clothing? "What? So you're going to go out dressed like that?" Whoops. Bad move. And he didn't really mean to make it come out like that. She was just too close to him, and he had never seen her dressed…so normally, he was afraid he'd do something…

Her eyes reflected hurt, but it was soon replaced by anger. "Go change," she muttered, and turned around.

Ichigo was about to say something, but noticed Ganju mouthing to him, 'Idiot,' while the older woman casually looked up to the ceiling and let her forefinger slide across her neck. This sucked. He was seriously going to get it. Or worse, he wouldn't get it at all, Rukia would just shut herself up...which was worse.

Sighing, he turned around to the empty room where he was going to change.

"Ok, I'm done."

Two out of three heads turned at Ichigo's entrance. Ichigo noticed that Rukia didn't even move her head. Damn.

On the other hand, the reaction from the other two wasn't that great as well. They were just staring, and gaping like goldfish. What was wrong? Did he put it on backwards? Or was there a huge rip somewhere that he had missed?

He saw that the Shiba woman had nudged Rukia. She turned around, and then her face joined the goldfish like gaping that the other two were making.

"…the hell's wrong?"

Silence.

"Uh…nothing, nothing… Er, Rukia, I have your provisions ready," the older woman said hurriedly, pushing a small bag into Rukia's hands. Rukia still hadn't recovered from whatever it was that had caused the three of them to gape so openly.

Ichigo looked down at his clothes. Nothing was wrong, as far as he could see. The only thing he could see that would be remotely considered 'out of place' would be that the gi and the hakama were pure white. There was nothing else, really that was strange about this outfit.

He sighed. He wouldn't get anything out of the Shiba woman, or her brother, who was still gaping. Rukia would probably tell him, after she got over what he had told her, which probably wouldn't be any time soon.

Kukaku's voice cut through his thoughts. "Ok, since that you're all ready, we'll send you on your way. Ok? Bye now! Your old clothes will be safe with us! Have fun, and have a nice trip!" She ushered them out of her house. "Bye!"

Ganju just stood there. "He seriously looked like…"

All too soon, they were on the road again, and Ichigo still was wondering what the hell the others were so astonished about. Rukia was strangely quiet, and he had noticed she was sneaking glances at him as they walked. After walking in silence for a couple of minutes, Ichigo stopped. Rukia looked at him questioningly.

Ichigo didn't notice, but instead started feeling the top bit of his clothes. There might be a hole somewhere that he didn't see. He vigorously rubbed his chest area. There wasn't. There was however, a slightly embarrassed Rukia, as he was, after all, rubbing his chest area right in front of her. Ichigo looked at the blushing Rukia, then shrugged.

He had thought of asking her what the hell was wrong with the outfit, but then thought she was still sore from his comment earlier. Which, she was.

Anyway, there were more important things now. Then a thought hit him. Maybe there had been a hole behind him, where he couldn't see! His hands traveled down to his hakama (pants). He rubbed his behind rather vigorously to see if there was any hole, even a small hole. There was none. Ichigo failed to notice that Rukia was getting redder.

But then, Ichigo thought, that if it was a small hole he wouldn't be able to feel it if he was just feeling the back of his pants fast. So, instead of vigorously rubbing the back of his pants he slowly felt the back of his pants, still failing to notice Rukia, who was getting redder, and redder by the second, as you do when a guy suddenly starts slowly feeling his, er, lower back region, right in front of you.

Dammit. Still no hole. But it had to be a hole, Ichigo told himself. Why else would they be gaping like fishes when he was wearing this damn gi and hakama, and when he was wearing his normal shinigami outfit they didn't say a word.

Then, another horrible thought struck him. What if…Oh crap. Anywhere, but not a hole there…he was so engrossed in finding the hole that he didn't notice Rukia, right in front of him who was barely holding on to consciousness, her face looking like a bright red tomato.

A tomato that had a mouth that was opening and closing, trying to tell Ichigo to stop, and what the hell was he doing to himself. She refused to let any…er, bad thoughts make their way into her mind.

Oblivious to the opening and closing mouth of Rukia, Ichigo slowly looked down. Oh, Lord, please not a hole there, anywhere but there. The thought didn't cross his mind, that if there was a hole there, Rukia would be sure to tell him about it, since…it would be kind of…awkward.

As he finally rested his gaze upon you-know-where, he expected this huge gaping hole to be staring right back at him. However, he found none. What the hell was going on? Maybe one he couldn't see.

He put his hands down to that region, and was about to feel around to see if there was any small holes hiding in the folds of the big pants, when he heard a noise. Rukia had fallen backwards. The thought of Ichigo doing that just knocked her out. Literally.


AN: Lol…hmm it was getting a bit long, so I decided to stop it there… But don't worry, next chapter, it will all be explained! I can hear you all saying, well if there weren't any holes, how come they all went weird when they saw him wearing the outfit? Well, I'll answer that next time, though it may be pretty obvious to some.. XD HEHEHE REVIEW! Thanks so much people's XD Cyaz…School tomorrow so updating my slow down a bit :P but hey, a little school never slowed anyone down...right? right? RIGHT:P