Bleach is not mine :[

'Thoughts'

'Hanako/Hogyoku'

'Shiro'

"Normal speech."

"Zangetsu"

Flashbacks

Chapter 1

Things better left unsaid

Ichigo P.O.V

Blearily I open my eyes. Right away I notice something different. My body was shorter, and less muscular. My long orange hair had been replaced by short spikes. It was like a reverse-puberty.I reach to my neck to make sure that the pendant is still there. I received it from my lover when we were married. It contains scenes from our married life, I just have to pour reiatsu into it to access them. I sigh with relief as my hand encloses the worn wood and the carving of the tree upon it.

I look up as I hear a gentle voice thanking me. It is the little girl that I gave flowers to the day I met Rukia. "Thank you!" She smiles at me. I grumble a small, "Your welcome." And I head home. I guess we really did get sent to the past. Wow, Hanako really did it! 'Shouldn't doubt your friends Ichigo!' Hanako's voice replies scathingly.

On my way home I check to see if I have all my body parts with me, the trip was not exactly painless. I notice that what would have been my body if I had not come to the past was now a normal gigai. It probably changed because I 'died' during my time fighting in Hueco Mundo during the war in the future. Time travel really changes some things.

I walk in the door and try to put on my signature smirk, it feels wrong but I don't want to alert my family yet. I dodge a flying kick from 'Goatface' and instead I hug him, Yuzu and Karin. For me, they have been dead for years and now I can finally hold them again. I hide my face before they could see a tear forming in the corner of my eye.

I run upstairs after my father began weeping on my mother's picture. Something about 'finally appreciates us...'. I shove myself out of the annoying gigai and then I place the gigai into the cupboard. I stand in my soul reaper shikakusho and altered Captain Commander's haori. I became captain after Aizen began the war. They placed me as fifth division captain after Aizen left. They made me the Captain Commander after Yama-oji-san died.

It has been so long since I have seen an undamaged Karakura town. I take out my black glasses and place them on. I am too used to wearing them, besides they look cool! 'You keep tellin' yourself tha' Kingy!' I ignore Shiro's smart comment and jump out the window. My long hair is back now that I am in spirit form.

I race along the rooftops and reach a bridge on a lazy river. I stop and take a look. This is the bridge and river where my mother died protecting me. There are some flowers growing by the waters edged where she died. I walk towards the flowers along a well trodden path. The air shifts beside me. "She was a good woman Ichigo and I am sure she would be proud of you." I look beside me and see Zangetsu, Maramusa, Hanako and Shiro standing beside me. As I look around I remember all the other people who died on my watch. 'I promise mom, I will not let anyone else die!'

Before I knew it I could see Urahara's Shoten ahead. Without my knowledge I had ran here. I hide a good distance away and look at the two children playing out the front. Urahara is sitting out front petting a sleeping Yorichi in her cat form. Suddenly I felt an wetness on my cheek. I lift my hand to my face and I realise it is a tear. "Ichigo, do not despair. We are able to protect them this time." Zangetsu reminds me, putting my mind at ease. I return home and after climbing into my gigai, I fall asleep quickly. Time travel takes it out of you. Really, it does!

I woke up suddenly when I felt the familiar reiatsu of Rukia and a hollow. I slip out my gigai and then I take to the rooftops to watch the fight. As I watch I sense that the hollow is stronger than I thought. Rukia gets hit and flung against a lamp-post. Suddenly the hollow smashes through the wall and grabs Yuzu. Karin rushes out after the hand. "Help her!" Karin shouts at Rukia before rushing at the hollow. I am about to leap to their help when Rukia thrusts her sword through Karin and transfers her power to her. No, no, no! This is not supposed to happen.

As the air clears I notice the presence of not just one new soul reaper, but two. Yuzu sliced through the hand of the hollow with one of her zanpakto. Both Yuzu and Karin were now soul reapers! Both held two zanpakto in sealed form. Daisho pairs?

Karin attacks the hollow relentlessly while Yuzu covers for her. I can't take my eyes off of them. They work in perfect sync. I haven't seen this before. Rukia slouches on the ground, no reiatsu left for the moment. Above the house across from our house I can see a slightly annoyed Aizen watching the fight. When he said he had watched over my development, I would never have guessed that he meant it literally.

As the fight finished and Yuzu, Karin and Rukia headed inside I turned and shunpoed directly behind the second watcher. Kisuke really needed to learn not to intrude on other peoples business. "Yo, Kisuke. See anything interesting?" Kisuke jumped 10 foot in the air and looked at me incredulously. I take off the glasses and smirk at him."Ichigo Kurosaki?"

Third person P.O.V

Ichigo and Urahara make their way back to the Shoten in silence. Every once in awhile Kisuke looks over at Ichigo and feels a shiver run down his spine. There is a haunted, dead look in Ichigo's eyes, slightly masked by a weak smirk. The type of eyes that have lived through countless horrors, and lived as others died. The type of eyes you see on a soldier back from war, back from murder of innocents and bloodshed. The type of eyes a fifteen year old should have.

As Kisuke looks at Ichigo it is obvious that he is older in spirit than he is supposed to be. Ichigo catches his eye and a meaningful look passes from him to Kisuke, 'I'll tell you later'. Ichigo can barely hide the joy of seeing his friend and mentor again. Soon Kisuke, Yorichi and Ichigo were all gathered around a table in Kisuke's shop.

"What are you not telling us Ichigo? Why do you look older in spirit form than what should be your real age? Why do you have scars on your eyes? What the hell happened?" Yorichi bursts out at a quiet Ichigo. Ichigo puts down his glass and begins speaking. "I can't put this simply, but I am from the future. 11 years to be exact. I was sent back in time, because there is no-one to live for anymore. All I knew is dead, everyone I knew is dead." This was taken in calmly but Yorichi gasped as he mentioned everyone dead. "It all began today, in my past and your present. But many things were different..." Continued Ichigo.

Half an hour later Yorichi and Kisuke sat and watched Ichigo rise elegantly from the table to re-fill his glass. 'This man has taken on the strongest foe to the soul society and won. He has been dragged into a war at the age of sixteen and he lost everything in the process.' Kisuke's thoughts ran amok in his mind. Yorichi felt both happiness at knowing that she was one of Ichigo's mentors and remorse at knowing her death injured him.

During the sixth year of the war, Ichigo held the front against Aizen well. No hollows into the seritei and no soul reapers dying. That's when everything went wrong. Yorichi and Sui-Feng were sent on a special mission to assassinate Aizen in his base where the Rukongai used to be. Days passed and on the third day Yorichi returned with a dead Sui-Feng and fell to the floor dead. Ichigo avoided cats and never went near the Omnitsukido from that day on.

Ichigo said goodbye and left Kisuke with a warning not to place the Hogyku in Rukia's gigai.

Ichigo P.O.V

For the next few weeks I watched the growth of Karin and Yuzu. Their fight with Uryuu and Grand Fisher. He watched the partnership between their Zanpakto increase and their reiatsu increase. He was proud to call them sisters. All too soon the time came for Byakuya and Renji to retrieve Rukia for her 'execution' which was definetly not going to happen. All Ichigo had to do was wait for Byakuya and Renji to make their move. The ball was in their court.

Thanks to all views and special thanks to:

La Rose de Minuit

ctofi1

Tina

Farrafelpies

For their reviews, Byakuya brownies for you!

Please read and review. Sorry for short chapter but was finishing exams. Next chapter shall be 3000 words I promise!