"In a battle, the ones who get in the way are not the ones that lack power, but the ones that lack resolve."

~Rukia Kuchiki~

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

For the Love of Ichigo

Chapter 11

~.~

Uryu Ishida considered himself a pretty cool, simple kind of guy.

Sure, he had seen his share of weird things due to his association with one time rival, Kurosaki Ichigo. Even though he thought Kurosaki was nothing but a senseless brute, he did respect him. His persistence on protecting his friends had impressed the Quincy. After they had finally defeated Aizen and the Espada in the Winter War, Uryu had decided that it would be the perfect time to retire as a Quincy. No, that didn't mean he would ignore Hollows if they happened to appear, but it would mean that he was done with his association with Soul Society. It was not that he wanted to really retire as a Quincy but it was his experience in Hueco Mundo that made him feel retirement would be the best thing. He would never forget the cold, heartless look in the 4th Espada's eyes as he lost his left hand. Or the way he had been stabbed in the center of his chest by his rival, Kurosaki Ichigo. Even though Inoue had healed him he still had nightmares about it.

After Ichigo had left he and Inoue on top of the dome to go to protect their hometown, Uryu, for the first time in his life felt completely helpless. Even though he had given himself an anesthetic for the pain, the damage was already done. Besides, it was becoming way too expensive to keep sending his Quincy uniform to the cleaners. Even though Inoue had suggested he change his uniform to something different, he stuck to his morals. Besides he felt cooler in his white Quincy uniform with the cape.

After a blissful, trouble-free return to Karakura Town, Uryu along with his friends finally finished high school. It was the day after his graduation he had finally achieved his goal. His father told him that he was proud of him. That was the day where Uryu had finally hung up his Quincy Uniform to become Uryu Ishida, pre-medical student. Imagine his surprise on his first day at university, his one time rival Kurosaki Ichigo was a member of the freshman class. For Uryu, it was almost like high school all over again. Except this time, they were missing their own little bundle of sunshine, Inoue Orihime. Inoue always had a way of making people feel better about themselves. Standing next to her was like staring into the sun for a long time.

Blinding.

He didn't have to be a genius to know her reason for not attending the same university as he and Ichigo. Inoue obviously loved Kurosaki. Once he had asked her why she had went to Hueco Mundo. Even though he thought her reasoning was flawed, he understood that need she had to protect her friends as well as Kurosaki. It was during this conversation he felt sorry for her. For some reason unknown to him, it seemed Kurosaki remained clueless about Inoue's feelings. Sometimes, Uryu just wanted to punch the dimwitted shinigami for being so dense. But, his Pride of the Quincy stopped him from doing so. Plus it would cost a fortune to clean blood out of white.

That morning as he left his condo, he never imagined he would be caught up with shinigami business once again. As he locked the door to his condo, Uryu took out his keys pressing the alarm to his black BMW. Before he could reach out a hand to open the door, he noticed something completely out of place. A slim, green haired woman was standing in a clearing staring seemingly at nothing. She had her arm wrapped around a carrot hair colored woman. It was something about the scene that immediately caught his attention. No, it wasn't because two women were hugging, even though that was kind of attractive of him; It was the scar on the back of the neck of one of the women that had caught his attention. He remembered that Inoue had the same scar at the back of her neck. In fact, he had noticed many things about Inoue. Not only was she beautiful, she was one of the kindest women she had ever met.

He stood there for a second next to his car taking in the whole scene before him. First thing he noticed, was a dark shadow to his left hiding behind a tree. It was a face he hadn't seen in a long time. He knew that face anywhere. The blond haired, hat and clog wearing mad scientist himself, Urahara Kisuke. He would have walked over and tapped the blond haired shinigami on the shoulder, but he decided to take a moment to observe what had made the shinigami leave his shop.

Whenever Urahara was around he knew it couldn't be a good thing.

The orange haired woman turned around.

His heart caught in his throat.

It was Inoue. What was she doing? Why was she here? The last time he had spoken with her, she was packing up for her move to New York in the United States. What was she doing here?

He took a few steps until he stood next to her. He was so close that he could smell the scent of her strawberry shampoo. Strawberry? Interesting choice. She was so entranced by the scene in front of her that she hadn't even noticed him standing him next to her. He turned to what exactly had caught her attention. Sure enough, there in the middle of a small clearing, Kurosaki Ichigo was surrounded by people. The most prominent of these people were the Captain Commander of the Gotei 13. Why were they here? Did something else happen in Soul Society? If the captain commander was here, then he needed to get Inoue out of here.

He turned to the woman and touched her shoulder. It wasn't until she didn't answer, he noticed the slow moving tears that were running down her face. If there was one thing he hated was seeing her cry.

"Inoue?"

Silence.

He took a deep breath and tried again.

"Inoue"

This time it seemed she heard him. She turned to him and her gray eyes widened.

"Ishida kun?"

He smiled.

He was glad she remembered him.

"Yes, it's me. What are you doing here?"

Her gray eyes widened again thoughtfully. "I was here to meet with Kurosaki-kun but..."

Uryu turned to the scene again. Kurosaki was now arguing with the Captain Commander with a group of women standing to his side. He recognized most of the women but some of the names escaped him.

But, one face in that crowd he did remember.

He would know her anywhere just like he would know Inoue anywhere.

The dark haired woman with the violet eyes turned in his direction.

Their eyes connected.

Her eyes widened in surprise.

The last time he saw her was the day she broke up with him for Ichigo.

'Kuchiki Rukia'

0o0o0o0o0

As he stepped through the senkai gate at the edge of Karakura Town, Kenpachi Zaraki felt the overwhelming need to slaughter something. Finally, he was going to get to Kurosaki Ichigo. The little punk had a habit of running away like a scared squirrel, whenever he was nearby. Plus, he had a serious problem with his little pink haired vice-captain wanting to marry Ichigo. And then the boy had the nerve to send his vice-captain a love letter confirming his worse nightmares.

He couldn't understand why the little punk was making this so hard.

The only thing he had to do was just stand there and let him kill him.

He had even thought to tell the little punk he would make it painless as possible.

A bright smile crossed his face.

Since when did he believe in anything being painless?

0o0o0o0

As he made his way to the clearing following the thick flare of spiritual pressure in the air, Hitsugaya paused in his stride to wonder what Kurosaki would do once he found out his father was behind what was going on with him lately.

After the defeat of Aizen, Soul Society as well as Karakura Town was throw into chaos. The last thing they needed was another incident.

He stepped into the clearing only to feel the spirit pressure of none other than the Captain Commander himself. If he was correct in his assumption that all these women received letters form Kurosaki then he knew why the Captain Commander was there. Everyone in Soul Society knew of the Captain Commander's lust for the 4th division captain. Apparently, she must have gotten a letter if the captain commander was there.

He took a deep breath and took a step forward effectively cutting off the conversation between the two men. Normally he wouldn't step within a 5 mile radius of the Captain Commander when he was angry but he needed the Captain Commander to leave if he would be able to tell Kurosaki the source of all this trouble.

He bowed before the elder shinigami.

"Captain Commander, I do not think this is an effective place to discuss any problems you may have in regards to Kurosaki."

The old man closed his eyes apparently annoyed with him for stopping his impending slaughter of Kurosaki.

Hitsugaya took that as his cue to continue.

"I have some information that you may be interested in as well, Kurosaki."

The orange haired shinigami's head snapped up at the sound of his name. His brown eyes narrowed in concentration.

"I know person behind all of this. All the letters sent out to all these women as well as the ad in the paper was due to only one person"

Around them, everyone was quiet.

They were awaiting the name of the person who causing all of this confusion.

"Who is it?" Ichigo asked impatiently.

He was going to kill the person who was causing all this trouble.

Hitsugaya's teal eyes narrowed in annoyance momentarily stopping his answer. He cleared his throat again and prepared to release the name of the person he knew was going to be killed by his own son.

"Kurosaki Isshin."

The orange haired substitute shinigami eyes narrowed slightly as if everything had finally clicked.

Ichigo drew his sword calmly as if he was preparing for a fight.

Everyone instinctively stepped back.

They were awaiting the shinigami's next movement so they could get out of the way.

The only thing that was heard from the substitute shinigami were the words Hitsugaya hadn't expected to hear.

"Ban-kai"

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A/N: Sorry if this chapter is really late or if it is a fail... I usually try to update every week but I have been REALLY busy. plus I had a slight writer's block..Hopefully people are still interested in this story..Otherwise I can just stop really..Before you ask no, this is not an Ishida/ Rukia pairing...so please don't flame me...Thank you everyone who has saved this story as a fav or alerted...Your responses mean a lot to me so thank you for that...Hmm anything else...I just put up another bleach story the other day hopefully you guys could check that one out too...please Read and review and I hope you enjoy this newest Omake. :-)

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Omake/Rejected Scene

For the first time in a very long time, Kuchiki Byakuya was excited. No, not in that way pervert.

But, today was a very special day.

His girlfriend, Yoruichi, was taking him somewhere special for their anniversary. Even though they had been together for the last 5 years, he still loved spending time together on their anniversary even though he would never admit it. Just like every anniversary, she insisted that he not buy or anything. And every year he refused to listen to her. But, this year he wanted to do something special for her. In a way, he felt he should commemorate the occasion considering the fact that he had never had a fifth anniversary with anyone, his wife Hisana, included. His late wife Hisana had died days before their fifth anniversary so he had never gotten chance to celebrate with her. This was why this anniversary was special. He would get a chance to spend it with the one he loved without her dying on him.

He wanted to show Yoruichi that he was not the stick in the mud type of guy she had made him out to be around her friends. He wanted to show her that he, too, could be wild and impulsive, despite the fact he was a noble.

The day before he had secretly a senkai gate to the real world. As he walked the streets, he pondered what type of gift he could get for his demon cat.

'Jewelry?' No, she probably already had any jewelry he wanted to buy her.

'Chocolates?' Maybe, after all Yoruichi was known for her sweet tooth.

'Money?' No, considering the fact that she was a noble she had more than enough to probably feed a small country.

Out the corner of his eye, he saw a display in a window that had left him momentarily speechless. The scarf wearing noble crossed the street and strolled quickly into the shop.

Ironically, the noble didn't take a moment to read the sign of the shop he went into.

Kuchiki Byakuya, formally known as the coldest man in all of Soul Society, had coincidentally stumbled upon an adult video store.

0oo0o

That night, Yoruichi sat on the bed of her boyfriend's bedroom waiting on him to come out of the bathroom.

She wondered what he was doing in there. Sure, she knew her boyfriend felt he had a reputation to uphold but that didn't mean he should stay in the bathroom an hour longer than her doing his hair.

She didn't have the heart to tell him he looked foolish with the hairpiece in his gorgeous hair.

"Little Byakuya, are you ready yet?"she teased.

After another 5 minutes of waiting, the door to the bathroom finally opened.

She opened her mouth to chide him about being late when she found no words to speak.

There, standing before her would be a sight she would remember for the next 300 years.

Her incredibly handsome boyfriend was not only standing before her but he was standing before her without his usual elegant robes that he always wore during their anniversary dinners. Oh no, what had stop her flow of words was the sight of her elegant boyfriend standing before her in one of those black and white French Maid uniforms.

What was so bad, was the fact that he looked better in it than she did.

'Was he trying to tell her something?'

"Little Byakuya I think we need to talk"

-Fin-