Just to clarify, there is no war or anything going on. Yamamoto just likes to have a standing army, like any good leader, although, being Yamamoto, he's a little tyrannical about it. I'm not going to send Hitsugaya off to fight or anything. I know that's probably a little anticlimactic, but I don't think sticking a war into this story would do anything for it. I apologize if Hitsugaya is a little OOC in this chapter, but given the circumstances, it's the best I could do.

A bell rang at 10:30 signaling that it was time to return to the barracks. Hitsugaya grudgingly put down his hammer. He was tired, having worked a much longer day than he usually did. That, coupled with Inoue's incessant noise and the fact that he hadn't eaten a thing made this one of the most miserable days of his life, including his wedding day. On the bright side, he had exceeded his daily quota by a single sword. But he would have to pick up the pace if he wanted to get out on time.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Inoue-san," he said as he was leaving.

"Um, Hitsugaya-san," Inoue called after him. "If…if you need me for anything, just let me know…"

"I already told you," Hitsugaya growled. "You're not my slave. Besides, I'm married…"

"No," Inoue shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I mean, it's technically my job to help you with anything you require, and since I'm not much use to you in the smithy, if you want me to do your laundry or something, I can do that. It would give you more time to work, and I would feel like I was helping you out, at least a little." Hitsugaya's heart went out to her. This spunky girl shouldn't be so eager to be so docile. But that's the army for you.

"I'll think about it," he replied vaguely. "Have a good night." And with that, he headed off in search of barrack 3683K, bunk 87.

He arrived at a series of dilapidated row houses made out of corrugated tin with thin, battered roofs that Hitsugaya was sure resonated horribly in the rain. They looked like one strong gust of wind would blow them right over. Walking past numerous of these pathetic excuses for buildings and trying to avoid getting stomped on by the sea of soldiers racing back and forth in their scurry to get to bed on time, Hitsugaya finally found the building labeled 3683K and entered.

The first thing he noticed was the smell. Moldy clothing, mildewed towels, old sweat, fresh blood, vomit, and that rancid meat from lunch permeated the room. Hitsugaya suppressed his gag reflex as he walked down a long row of rusting iron bunk beds. Men in every state of dressed (and undressed) chatted unabashedly as silent women washed the men's bodies for them and picked their vile clothing off the floor, where they had been deposited haphazardly by their owners.

"Don't these people have any decency?" Hitsugaya grumbled to himself. After what seem like an eternity, he reached an empty bed labeled with a tattered sign reading "87." The ratty sheets were as coarse as sandpaper and smelled like they had just been pulled from a swamp. The fact that they were damp only supported this theory.

"Hey, fancy meeting you here!" said an unfortunately familiar voice and Hitsugaya looked up to see Saito's grinning face leaning down off the top bunk. He had a trail of dried blood caked onto his cheek, clearly a souvenir of his afternoon training session. "Can't believe we're bunkmates! 'Course, I knew they were gonna' fill that bed quickly, but damn, what're the odds? Oi, Aki-chan, come meet Hitsugaya!" A plump girl with freckles who was standing not too far away looked up and dashed over at Saito's command.

"This here's my mattress," Saito said by way of introduction. "Fat as a hen hock ain't she, but damn, this girl can take you for a ride!" He flashed Aki a smile, and she simply nodded her head subserviently. "Hey," he said surreptitiously, turning back to Hitsugaya. "I know it's against the rules and all, but I'll swap mattresses with you for a night if you like. How about it?" He winked at Hitsugaya who didn't think it was possible to despise a man so much.

"No thank you," he said coolly. He held out his hand to Aki.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Aki-san," Hitsugaya said in a friendly tone. "I'm Hitsugaya Toushiro." Aki seemed startled to be addressed so formally, but she simply bowed her head in response. Saito howled with laughter.

"Mattresses ain't allowed to talk in the kitchens or the barracks," he said as if explaining a simple rule like, 'make sure you wash your feet before bed.' "Women's gossip is just distracting, you know what I'm saying? Anyway, where's Ori-chan?"

"In her barrack I expect," Hitsugaya replied curtly, wanting very much to terminate this conversation and get ready for bed.

"What's wrong with you kid?" Saito asked, shaking his head. "Man, I'd have her in bed so quick she wouldn't have time to breathe."

"I told you," Hitsugaya sneered. "I have a wife! And I have no intention of cheating on her!"

"And I told you," Saito retorted, jumping off his bed to poke Hitsugaya in the chest, "that what she don't know don't hurt her." Hitsugaya desperately wanted to take a page out of Karin's book and deck this man in the face, and he had to exercise every ounce of willpower he possessed not to do so.

"It doesn't matter if she doesn't know," Hitsugaya replied icily. "I'll know."

"What, does this chick have three tits or something?" Saito laughed. Hitsugaya snapped.

POW! The people around them fell temporarily silent as they turned towards the pair. Hitsugaya was clutching his knuckles in pain. They were coated in blood. His blood. Saito's jaw on the other hand, seemed entirely uninjured.

"What, is he made out of iron or something?" Hitsugaya wondered. It was true that he had never hit anyone before. Sure, he was a master swordsman, but when it came to hand to hand combat, he had never had much training. But he hadn't expected Saito to be that much stronger than him. Still, Hitsugaya's fury at the moment overwhelmed his surprise and pain.

"Don't you ever disrespect my wife again!" he snarled. Saito raised an eyebrow then laughed a high, evil laugh.

"Oh, and just what do you plan to do about it kid?" he challenged. Hitsugaya narrowed his eyebrows, and he raised his arms in a ready stance, but before he could even throw another punch, Saito had launched himself at him and was pummeling him to a pulp. Hitsugaya finally managed to jump out of the way, crashing into a basin of water and causing it to smash into pieces. He kicked one of the broken shards at Saito, but he simply dodged and went in for another blow, which landed directly in Hitsugaya's stomach, and he finally retched and vomited all over the floor. The crowd around them cheered and applauded with every hit, and cries of, "get him!" and "show him who's boss!" filtered out of the crowd and into Hitsugaya's ringing ears. Saito loomed over him, elbow primed and ready for a face jab, when Hitsugaya heard a commanding voice shout,

"What the hell is going on over here?!" Hitsugaya panicked. He was hearing way too many familiar voices tonight for his comfort.

The crowd parted and a man with blue hair and a white uniform stepped forwards.

"Saito, what the hell are you doing?" Saito looked over at the man.

"Just teaching this new recruit a few things about respect, Grimmjaw-dono," he said nonchalantly, pointing his thumb at Hitsugaya,

"Eh, well that's fine, but try to keep the noise down…" His voice faded as he recognized Hitsugaya. A sickly smile spread across his cat-like face.

"Oi, Saito, mind if I have a go?" he asked hungrily.

"Not at all sir!" Saito agreed, stepping away from Hitsugaya and offering him to Grimmjaw like a piece of meat. Grimmjaw stepped forwards, cracking his knuckles menacingly. Hitsugaya gulped. He knew there was no way out of this. Everyone around him was against him, and, ironically enough, he didn't have a sword. Kicking Grimmjaw while he was drunk in a bar was one thing, but this was an entirely different situation. Even he knew that attacking his superior officer would result in horrific punishment, and he wasn't keen to learn what that was.

"Oh, I am going to enjoy this!" Grimmjaw said greedily. Hitsugaya braced himself for the punch.

"GRIMMJAW!" boomed a voice, and Hitsugaya had never in his life been so thankful to hear someone shouting. The onlookers scattered as a commanding officer thundered over to Grimmjaw and the trying-vainly-not-to-look-as-petrified-as-he-was-Hitsugaya.

"Grimmjaw," the officer continued. "Do you intend to tell me why in tarnation your bunk is the only one that still has its lights on? You're the officer in charge! It's your responsibility!"

"Sorry sir," Grimmjaw said without conviction. "But we've got a new recruit here who needs a lesson." He indicated Hitsugaya who was bleeding profusely from a cut under his eye and breathing heavily. His cheek, which had just recently healed, was bruised again.

"Oh," the officer said with a shrug. "Well then, carry on…wait." He paused and studied Hitsugaya intently, who was saying a little prayer inside his head. "Isn't that kid the new sword smith?"

"Yes I am sir," Hitsugaya replied fervently.

"You know you can't injure him beyond repair Grimmjaw," the officer said. "If he can't work because of this, it'll be your head that rolls." Grimmjaw scoffed.

"Fine," he said grudgingly. He looked back at Hitsugaya and, just for good measure, kicked him in the chest. Hitsugaya wasn't expecting it and he toppled backwards onto his bed, narrowly missing smashing his head on the frame. The officer shrugged.

"Lights out in thirty seconds!" he ordered as he left. Grimmjaw waltzed over to Hitsugaya and stuck his face into his.

"We're going to have a great time together, aren't we!" he said, trying to be as intimidating as possible and succeeding phenomenally well. Hitsugaya did his best to ignore his face, which stung horribly, and his chest, which was on fire, and return Grimmjaw's glare with one of his own. Grimmjaw smirked and pulled his head back.

"Lights out!" he cried, and the girls who were still present ran around blowing out candles. Hitsugaya was already on his bed, so he pulled the damp sheets over himself, still fully dressed in his sooty clothing, and nursed his injuries. He saw Aki and Saito climb into the bed above him, and soon it began to creak. Hitsugaya covered his head with his pillow, attempting and failing to drown out the sounds of tired bedsprings that soon came from almost every corner of the room.

"Kami, get me out of this hell hole," he muttered, trying not to vomit again as the stench from his sheets filled his nose.

"I miss you already Karin," he thought, and an image of her smiling face filled his mind. "What would you do in my position? Probably beat the crap out of Saito and Grimmjaw and deal with the consequences as they came. Maybe I'm just a coward." He understood now why the army broke people. This environment was the antithesis of normalcy. He had new respect for Matsumoto and any other woman he knew who had survived it. He knew why Matsumoto had refused to talk about her experiences. He didn't even want to think about them. But Karin had asked him to come back whole. And, as Inoue had said, having something to go back to might keep him sane.

"I promise Karin," he whispered into his (non-human) mattress. "I'm coming back in three years. And I'm coming back whole."

"You'd better," said a voice inside his head that sounded uncannily like Karin's. "Or I'll beat you worse than Grimmjaw!" Hitsugaya bit his lip to suppress a sob as the full weight of his current situation finally collapsed on him.

"I love you," he thought to the voice in his head. Instead of replying, Hitsugaya allowed the voice to fill his mind with song. But it wasn't the irritating, inane song Inoue had been singing before. This one was relaxing and soothing, just as it had been when he was a small child. And it made him feel just that much closer to Karin; and home.

Oh little bird,

Where do you go?

When the snow starts to fall,

And the wind starts to blow?

Oh little bird,

Do you still sing your song?

When the days are so cold,

And the nights are so long?

Oh little bird,

For spring do I yearn.

And so until then,

I await your return.

ooooooooooooooo

Hitsugaya and Inoue fell into a routine. Hitsugaya did his best to avoid people at all costs. In particular, he wanted to be in his barrack as little as possible. He learned how to prepare for the day in under five minutes and be in the smithy before most people had even risen from their beds. He stayed there as late as he could in the evenings, timing it so that he was back in the barrack exactly five minutes before lights out, since he had also trained himself to wash and change as modestly as possible in that scanty period of time. He skipped all meals, preferring to work. Inoue brought his food back to the smithy for him, during which time he allowed himself a short break, eating as fast as he could, both to get back to work and to minimize the amount of time he had to have that vile food in his mouth. He finally caved and permitted Inoue to do his laundry. It was technically her job after all, and he did have servants do it at home. Besides, it gave him some blessed silence for a few hours, and provided him with even more time to strive towards his goal of finishing a whole year early.

Spending so much time in the smithy also did wonders for his sanity. Sure, Inoue drove him up the wall most days, but at least she was a human, unlike those monsters walking around outside. And being in the smithy almost felt like being back at home, although he missed the creativity involved in forging ceremonial swords. The assembly line monotony of producing battle sword after battle sword was horribly boring. But he could handle boredom and Inoue's ramblings if it meant he hadn't regressed into a chauvinistic caveman.

He was doing fairly well in terms of sword production, and after a month, he had increased his efficiency so that he was manufacturing almost three extra swords a day. That would cut off a few months, but it wasn't enough to get him out in three years. And he was already physically exhausted. He needed some push, some extra something that would increase his speed, but he was working as hard as he could and he couldn't come up with anything.

Until one day when Hitsugaya turned around to go get a tool and he saw Inoue standing there, holding it out to him.

"This is what you need next right?" she asked hopefully. Hitsugaya gaped at her. It was a very specific hammer. There were at least ten others that looked exactly like it to the untrained eye.

"How did you know?" he asked dumbfounded. Inoue blushed.

"I've been watching you. Your technique is complex, but it's really not so hard to remember once you've seen it a hundred times." Hitsugaya was impressed to say the least. This whole time, he thought she was just dancing in the corner, rambling on about purple chickens and enchanted green beans, when really, she had been observing.

"I want to help," Inoue said at last. "You've been working so hard and I just sit there. I want to be useful. I can help you work faster."

"Yes," Hitsugaya agreed at last. "You can."

That was the trigger. With Inoue's help, Hitsugaya increased his production to six extra swords a day, and he was sure that after a few weeks of working together, they would improve even more.

"I can do this!" he thought optimistically. "Karin, I'm going to make it!"

Sorry Hitsugaya is so weak. It's weird to write him like this, because he's usually the officer in charge and the strongest one around, but in this situation, he wouldn't be. Plus, I don't feel like dealing with a punishment, and I think if he took on Grimmjaw, he would definitely be subjected to one. This is the darkest army chapter, so we're almost done people! And there will be some Karin in the next one. Thanks for hanging on :)