A/N: HEYYYY how is everyone! i just had to get this part of the story out of my brain since it was all i could think of and i'm kinda worried about how it turned out :( i know its bad! please bear with me! share your ideas please! PLease PLEASE Review! Enjoy!

Chapter 3

A few days has passed as they made their way to prancing pony leisurely since it wasn't the promised date with Gandalf. They still had 3 days to spare and from what the group have found out they are less than a days' walk.

"Ichigo, tell us about your adventures! Its boring walking in silence!" pippin was always the curious one. And ever since rukia had started telling how ichigo saved her from her execution, the hobbits got pretty hooked up on it and has since, bugged ichigo for more details.

"keh I'll tell you when I feel like telling you peregrine took. And looks like we're actually here."

It was nightfall by the time they reached the prancing pony. When they went inside, the bartender peered over the counter at the hobbits.

"Good evening lil masters and misses. What can I do to help you folks? If ye looking for accommodations, I've got rooms to spare but I don't think one would be enough to fit you lot." The bartender asked looking the whole group.

'We'll take the biggest and most comfortable room you have sir.' Rukia said and handed a pouch of gold to the bartender as she tried her best to calm herself down at being called little by the man. He grinned widely at rukia before taking out his large book where he jot down their name and room.

'So uh who may I place the name on?'

Ichigo and the rest were busy slacking off at the counter drinking chugging some booze down and each finding their own spot including the hobbits except for Rukia and Frodo who were still with the bartender.

"Place it under my name sir, err. Underhill. My name is Underhill" Frodo quickly thought off after Ishida warned them to keep a low profile until Gandalf appeared. Rukia nodded in approval at frodo's quick thinking and patted him before leading him and the rest to their room after acquiring the key.

The room was at the top floor(third floor actually) and was the only room there. When Rukia unlock the door, they were quite impressed at the room. They quickly called dibs on the beds

There were 2 king sized bed where one was occupied with 3 hobbits the other was occupied with the three ladies, rukia, inoue and nel. Three single beds which was occupied by ichigo, renji and ishida. Chad decided on the sofa bed cause it was long and big enough for his built body since the single beds would only have left his legs dangling.

After everyone had a quick shower, most of them immediately dozed off except for frodo, ishida, ichigo and rukia.

Frodo couldn't sleep with all the events that had happened recently. He recalled asking ichigo what kind of warriors they were.

~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~

'Ichigo, you and your friends aren't from middle earth are you? You wear such weird garments. What is it called? Where are you from?'

Frodo was asking with a hint of suspicion in his voice. Well ichigo couldn't really blame the boy since he was forced to travel with a group of strangers to an elf land because nobody else could be the vessel for a stupid evil ring. Reminds me of the time Aizen and the hogyoku that Uruhara placed in Rukia. Remembering that just made his blood boil. But Ichigo quickly shook his head and tried to find the best answer for the little man's question.

"what we're wearing is called hakama. And you're right when you said we weren't from middle earth Frodo. In fact you can say we aren't from earth anymore."

Frodo tilted his head in confusion at Ichigo but listened to him nonetheless.

"we are shinigami's. In your language it would mean death god. Now before you hobbits bombard me with spontaneous question at the same time, let me explain as best as I could. We shinigami's are from seireitei, soul society, a place you can call heaven. There many of us death gods are placed into different divisions. The gotei 13. Each having their own use and specialty like the 2nd division is the stealth and information division. The 4th division is where shinigami's with healing powers are. The 11th is the most blood thirsty division with a captain that's reiatsu, spiritual powers, is above average. You could say he's the most wildest captain who seeks the strongest opponent to fight. The 12th division has the most creepiest captain who would dissect anybody who he finds as a potential experiment subject."

Ichigo paused shuddered at the thought of Mayuri trying to capture him and cut him open to study him and his hollow. Even the rest of his friends shuddered at the mention of Mayuri's division.

"lastly you would have my division, the 14th division."

Sam looked at ichigo and spoke, '14? But didn't you mention err goatey 13? I thought that it meant 13 divisions. Guess I was wrong there.'

Ichigo grinned at the chubby hobbit "actually sam, your answer is spot on! And its called GOTEI not goatey sam"

Sam blushed a lil before crunching up his face and frowned. Definitely confused with what ichigo was saying. Rukia and Renji was laughing heartily at his expression. Sam couldn't help but blush slightly at them again and urged Ichigo to continue.

"you see before I came into seireitei, there was only 13 divisions."

'Then how did you create a 14th division Ichigo?' pippin chirped in

"I didn't create a 14th division. It was soutaicho, our captain commander's idea. It was because after the huge war against Aizen, most of his creations, arrancars and espada's were still roaming around. So soutaicho decided to have me recruit them to our side so that they wouldn't try to invade seireitei again. Or worse, resurrect Aizen."

All the shinigami's shuddered at the thought.

'What are arrancars and espada's?'

Rukia then helped ichigo by explaining a shinigami's job, from killing hollows to stronger hollows that had retained a humanoid version of them with a hole in the chest and their ranks from arrancars to espadas. Once rukia finished the important explaining of other things like quincies and normal soul and humans with very strong spiritual energy that gained powers, Ichigo continued.

"you see frodo,sam,pippin and merry, I wasn't your ordinary shinigami. I am like the espada. Only that an espada is a hollow which gained a shinigami's powers but I am the opposite. I am a shinigami that had gain a hollow's power. A vaizard. After I killed Aizen, making me the king of Hueco Muendo, it's the world where hollows and arrancars live. Soutaicho decided to keep me in soul society and made me their full time shinigami. But none of the divisions were suited for me. Hence he created a new division for me and my kind. Espada and vaizard alike. But there are non vaizard/espada members in the division. Renji is still a shinigami. He may look weak and big with all his talk—HEYYYY! - but he's actually pretty strong since he has a bankai. Ishida is a quincy like what rukia has told you. He's a very good archer, granted he is a stuck up and can be very unfriendly, but he is a good comrade and a good fighter. Chad and Inoue are the humans with strong spiritual energies that gained powers mostly because they hang around me too much heheh. Well that's about it."

'but what about Rukia and Nel? In fact I wonder about nel! How come you brought a child along with you?'

Ichigo grinned and continued explaining about rukia being a vaizard like him and nel is actually a 3rd rank espada that the child is her sealed up state. All the hobbits had their jaws on the floor and stared at the little green haired girl who was sleeping in Ichigo's lap.

~~~~~~~ End of flashback~~~~~~~

Ichigo chose the bed next to the window and sighed heavily. He closed he's eyes and tried to sleep but was awaken when he heard someone go out. He cracked an eye open and saw that frodo was going down to the bar. He sighed again and got up to follow after the hobbit and saw that pippin, merry and rukia's bed was empty too. Knowing that Uryu wasn't asleep he nodded to the quincy to be on guard when he left for the hobbit.

Rukia was taking a walk outside the prancing pony and decided to go in when she saw pippin and merry dancing on a table with mugs of ale in hand. When did they wake up? Frodo sitting at a table by himself and was about to walk over to his side but saw ichigo coming down and decided against it and went to sit in a far corner when she overheard the man beside her talking to Pippin.

"Is there a Frodo Baggins here?" she tensed up. Rukia turned her head at frodo's direction and saw that Ichigo was having a conversation with him. Stranger whom rukia could make of a ranger with his bow and arrows and hood over his head.

"Baggins?" a loud voice drew all of their attention. Pippin was at the bar talking to the ranger. "Sure I know a Baggins. He's over there. Frodo Baggins. He's my second cousin, once removed on his mother's side… and my third cousin, twice removed…"

Ichigo didn't need to be told anything and stood up, pushing frodo behind him in a protective way when a strange man came walking towards him. "He needs to come with me."

'Oh yeah and what makes you the boss here? Who are you and what do you want with frodo?!" Ichigo demanded

"I don't have much time! Give frodo to me! I need to get him out of here!" the man had his hand on his hilt and was about to pull out his sword if the orange haired boy infront of him was giving him trouble. He was going to only scare the teen boy but however failed to do so when he felt a dagger at his neck and another at his groin.

Strider's eyes widened at his current situation. "I suggest you answer him ranger or frodo won't be your only worry." Rukia's voice was venomous as she used her hollow's voice to command the human in her capture.

Seeing that he had no way out of this, strider sighed and put his hands up, 'I am strider. Gandalf told me to escort the hobbit to Rivendell. However he failed to mentioned that the child was travelling with companions. Skilled at killing too.'

Ichigo eyed strider a moment longer before nodding to rukia to let him go. Strider was grateful when she retracted her dagger from his sensitive area and she quickly grabbed the hobbits and shunpoed up to their room.

'My name is Kurosaki Ichigo. Call me Ichigo. Come with me upstairs. I believe you should explain yourself to my friends.' It was more of an order then a request. Though, strider didn't object to it.

Who are these people? They look no more than children of 17 years of age. If he had brought along friends as he claimed, then they would be around his age too. And that girl. I didn't even sensed her come up to me until the daggers were at my throat and my groin. It would be unwise to make an enemy out of them. Why didn't Gandalf mention them to me earlier? It would've cut me some slack

Strider decided that when he was to see Gandalf again, he would have to give that wizard a piece of his mind. Strider was snapped back to reality when ichigo woke his friends up. True to his thought earlier, the group infront of him was a group of teenagers who just awoke from their slumber. Well two of them atleast.

There was an orange headed girl who rubbed her eyes sleepily with a green haired child in her arms that jumped into ichigo's lap and snuggled against him. What surprised him was that the child had a broken skull on her head. Beside ichigo was a red haired boy with weird eyebrows that looked like tattoos which were connected to one another. On the second bed from the window was a blue haired boy with glasses whose glare felt like he could see through him. Strider shuddered slightly and didn't realize he walked into a large person. The boy was huge! About as tall as Gandalf with a built body probably as strong as steel! The only person he saw normal besides the group were the Halflings. And there were four of 'em.

"What's the problem kurosaki-kun? Oh my we have a visitor!" the orange haired girl bounced out of her bed and went towards strider and shook his hand vigorously and bombarded him with questions he couldn't comprehend.

"What is your name sir?" he finally caught one of her sentences and smiled at her before answering, "they call me strider. And you are?"

'Oh my where are my manners! Gomene! I am Inoue Orihime! That one beside kurosaki-kun is Abarai Renji-san, the one with glasses is Ishida Uryu-san, the little girl with kurosaki-kun is Nel-chan, the sitting beside Rukia-san is Sado-kun! The chubby hobbit is samwise gamgee, followed by peregrine took and meriadoc brandybuck!" by the time inoue finished introducing everyone, she was out of breathe and her face was red. Uryu walked up to her and slowly brought her to the sofa.

Without turning to look at strider uryu asked, "what do you want with frodo" it was more of a statement then a question. Strider cleared his throat and decided to take a seat beside ichigo before answering,

'Like I have told Ichigo and Inoue, they call me strider. I was told by Gandalf that I would find Frodo here and was to escort the hobbits to Rivendell. However Gandalf failed to inform me that you folks were their travel companions.'

"we are more then travel companions. We are to see to their safety wherever they go. Gandalf himself requested from our captain commander for help." Strider's eyes widened at the new information given from the petite, raven haired girl called Rukia.

"So why isn't the old man here himself" ichigo asked while trying to pry renji out from his bed.

'I'm not sure myself. He said he had urgent matters to attend to at that I was to carry out his promise.'

All fell silent then before ichigo spoke again, "well, since we are going to need a guide to Rivendell, welcome to the group strider, we travel at dawn. Now get to sleep! Especially you hobbits! I won't have you complaining about being tired and your breakfast's or I will hang you on a tree and leave you to die of hunger" the hobbits hurriedly scurried to their beds and went to sleep as so did the rest.

Ichigo nodded to strider, 'you get some rest too strider, chad will keep watch. I bet your journey here was with haste. So best be fit for the journey ahead' strider couldn't find himself to disobey the boy. It was like he was a born leader. But being offered to sleep after the tiresome journey he had, it was too good to decline. As much as he hadn't fully trusted them yet as they, him, he found himself feeling safe in their group. Hence, drifting off to sleep. It was going to be a long journey. And all of them felt that they were going to meet more allies and be stuck to one another for quite some time.

(A/N: told you it wasn't well written *sobs* oh well, please review! i beg for thy reviews! cause if you don't review i won't be motivated to write! *cackles madly* hahaha so review kay . sankyuuuu *love* )