Hey there! Sorry for the delay but I had a bit of trouble with this chapter. ^^; I hope I got it to sound better in the end. As for the real Bleach, wasn't this week's manga chapter totally unfair with that cliffhanger? So frustrating!

Disclaimer: Bleach and its characters aren't mine, but this story is.

Pairings: IchiRuki, others thrown in for fun.

To Protect One Thing

Rukia's lips twitched with the effort not to show her satisfaction that Ichigo had, once again, proved why he deserved the admiration of most of the Gotei 13. Even when he was no doubt confused as to why he was being asked to be a Shinigami he was thinking of others. His…subordinates? Such a strange thought...and yet it was not unthinkable.

If he manages to regain his bankai he could become a Captain. If he can pull together a bunch of delinquents, what could he do with the Ninth Squad? Or the Fifth? Rukia wondered for a moment.

Much to Rukia's chagrin, Ichimaru Gin had been saved by Orihime. While he hadn't been given his former rank back, Rukia figured it was only a matter of time. If people learned to trust him, that was.

I can't even say 'again' because most people didn't trust him in the first place, she observed mentally.

Even those that had trusted the man before couldn't anymore, even if he had betrayed Aizen. Or rather, had never betrayed Matsumoto Rangiku. Rukia still wasn't sure if the Tenth Squad's Lieutenant was more upset that Ichimaru left to protect her or that he had nearly died.

Rukia firmly brought herself out of her own thoughts and addressed Ichigo. "Alright, we might as well get going then." She already had her things ready and had paid for the night.

"Just like that?" Ichigo asked in surprise. She had said she was going to pay for her room but…still. He wasn't quite prepared to just rush off like that.

"Just like that," she agreed easily. Then she put on her best haughty look and asked, "Chickening out?"

"Am not! It's just very sudden, is all!" And then, without really knowing why, Ichigo felt the desire to strike back playfully. "I'm sure a kid like you would know all about chickening out."

"How many times do I have to say it? I. Am. Not. A. Kid!" Rukia's response was heated initially but as she realized what had just happened she shook her head and smiled fondly. Just like old times.

Ichigo was too preoccupied to notice her smile at the sudden feeling of familiarity, both with Rukia herself and their bantering. His scowl deepened as he thought but couldn't come up with any reason behind it. He didn't mention any of his feelings to the Shinigami.

Rukia sighed, pretending to be disgruntled. "Fine, fine. Go do…whatever it is you have to do. I have to pick something up anyways." Urahara's going to get his silly bread, she thought with dry amusement, and I'll make sure it's the hardest bread that he's ever felt.

"Meet me here in…oh never mind. I'll be done soon so I'll just come find you," she added as an afterthought.

Ichigo stared at her, genuinely curious about just how she would be able to find him. "How?"

"Reiatsu, reiatsu," Rukia replied absentmindedly as she headed past him to the door of the inn. As she walked out to find what she was looking for Ichigo watched her contemplatively. Reiatsu is really that special? He wondered as he left the inn.

Ichigo made his way towards his gang's hideout. Will I be able to learn how to control my reiatsu or whatever? I can't even tell that I have any, he thought with a hint of annoyance. If he did learn would they stop him from coming back here, to where he was needed? The only reason he was going was to protect his family - the members of his gang - from himself.

He stepped into the hideout and felt relief that most of his gang seemed to be alright, judging by how few of them were sitting in the large open part of the building. Half a dozen people were sitting against the wall, drinking sake and playing cards. Hideaki, the man who had gagged Kita Sora earlier, was tending to a three men in the middle.

"Yo," Ichigo said in greeting. Unanimously, his gang looked to him when he made his presence known. There were various greetings by the different members and he waved a dismissive hand.

He approached Hideaki and placed a hand on the man's shoulder while he worked on one of his own injuries. "Hm?" Wakahisa Hideaki was a man of few words but he was brilliant. He acted as something of a second in command for Ichigo. That was why he needed to talk to him.

Ichigo drew them away from the others and looked his friend in the eyes. "I'm leaving. Rukia - the Shinigami - said I should train to be a Shinigami," he said without preamble.

The black-haired man showed no surprise. Instead he said, "I knew this day would come. Only people with reiatsu get hungry, you know. You complain about it often enough." There was some amusement in the tone and Hideaki shook his head.

"Shut up!" Ichigo snapped, though Hideaki could tell there was no real anger in it. Ichigo looked serious as he added, "Take care of them." He made no emotional goodbyes, no promises to come back. He trusted Hideaki and his gang could take care of themselves.

"You finally done?" Ichigo heard a familiar voice say from the entrance. At once all the gang members were up on their feet, ready to face the perceived threat. Rukia looked at them incredulously. "Jumpy," she muttered quietly. Ichigo and Hideaki were the only ones to hear her.

"What is that?" Ichigo asked, eyes catching on the bag in her hand. The others would calm down if he stayed calm. To his surprise Rukia grinned.

"Bread." Her pleased tone had Hideaki raising an eyebrow in amusement and Ichigo grinned.

"Must be some good bread," Ichigo commented, wondering why it made her so happy.

"Oh, the best. I look forward to using it," she told him, walking back out. Her voice drifted back to him over her shoulder again. "Come on."

'Use it'? Not eat it? Weird girl. Ichigo felt a hand on his shoulder as he went to follow her. Hideaki wasn't one for sappy goodbyes either so he merely nodded to show his support and let go of Ichigo's shoulder. The orange-haired teen nodded back before leaving the building.

After a while of walking in surprisingly comfortable silence, Ichigo decided to speak up.

"Hey Rukia?"

"What?"

"Why are you so eager to get back?"

Rukia stopped her quick walk so fast that Ichigo ran into her back. He expected her to fall due to the impact but she was apparently stronger than she looked. Or she had been expecting it.

She turned her head to glance at him and sighed. "Oh, alright, we'll take a break," the violet eyed Shinigami said. She would not admit she was eager to get him back to Soul Society and find out what was going on.

"Wha - what? No, I didn't mean -"

"On second thought, we better stop for the night. It's going to get dark soon anyways."

Ichigo spluttered in confusion for a moment until Rukia turned her cool gaze on him and he subsided with a sigh. He'd really only meant to strike up a conversation with the woman he was so oddly drawn to, not hint that she should slow down. He wasn't weak. He could have kept going for much longer.

"I'll go get some fire wood," he said, trying to fill the sudden awkward silence.

"No need," Rukia said easily, grinning slightly. She sat down and held out a hand palm up. "I can just do -" She didn't even appear to need to concentrate to make a glowing, pale blue orb float above her hand. It let out a surprising amount of light. "- this." It was a simple trick she had learned during her days in Rukongai with Renji.

"Amazing," Ichigo muttered under his breath. He didn't want to reveal that he thought much of her little…glowing thing. As it flickered out of existence (it was too early to need a fire, or magic light source in this case) he sat down across from her.

Rukia pretended not to hear what Ichigo said. She watched him sit down and lay his sword next to him. Her gaze remained on the sword long enough for Ichigo to ask, "What?"

"It's rare for someone in Rukongai to have a katana. Where did you get yours?"

"I'm not sure. When I…woke up it was with me." Ichigo wasn't really sure why he had woken up in what he'd learned was the Thirty-fourth Division of a place called Rukongai.

Although Rukia already knew he didn't remember anything she had to make it seem like she didn't. She started slowly, as if wary of the subject. She always had been a good actress. "The innkeeper's wife told me that you…don't have a name? Is that true?"

Ichigo searched her violet eyes for a moment before shrugging as if it didn't matter, that it didn't bother him at all. "Don't remember if I do or not. All I remember is waking up in that place."

Rukia forced a frown on her face. "I see. A lot of people here forget most of their past life but -"

"Wait! What! Past life?" Ichigo was confused. What past life.

Crap. She should have thought of it sooner. After all, she hadn't realized Soul Society was a place of death at first either. She'd had arrived as a baby so there were no memories of a past life at all. When she had first found out it had been shocking as well.

Rukia sighed heavily and pulled out her sketchbook and a few markers. "Listen up, I'll only explain this once," she warned him. She forced herself to ignore Ichigo's perplexed expression.

Why did she bring that out? Better yet, where'd she get it from! Hey, now that I think about it, the bread is gone too…. Ichigo thought as Rukia drew couple pictures on a few pages of the sketchbook.

She suddenly held the first picture up in front of him and his left eye twitched. What the hell is wrong with her drawings? Is that supposed to be this place? Evidently so. "This place is known as Soul Society and is made up of Seireitei and Rukongai. This is a world that souls come to when they die in the Real World." She flipped the page to show a little bunny soul leaving a bunny body.

"This is probably pretty confusing since you don't have any memories of the Real World -"

"The only thing confusing me are your drawings," he cut her off dryly, though his statement wasn't really true. He was still confused. One look at her expression told him he probably shouldn't have said that. Rukia closed the sketchbook and whacked him upside the head with it. She had better sense than to throw it. How creeped out would he be if he saw all her doodles of him in rabbit form?

Thankfully for Ichigo this seemed to calm her down enough that he felt he could risk speaking. He was trying to ignore how oddly familiar the situation felt. "That's great and all but what does it matter to me?"

Rukia had not lost herself to nostalgia. She shook her head at his question. "I'm not sure why, but you have no memories of the Real World at all, and yet you have decent reiatsu. Generally, the more reiryoku you have the more you remember about your past life. Most people that don't have any at all at least remember their names and the fact that they once lived."

She paused to let the information sink in before saying, "Well anyways, you need a name. No one at the Shinou Academy is going to want to call you 'boss.'"

"Ehhh…call me whatever you want. I don't care."

"Ichigo, then," Rukia said quickly.

Ichigo immediately began to protest. "Ichigo? Really? You couldn't think of anything besides a fruit? Besides, my hair is orange, not red!"

While he protested the name he said she could give him Rukia was using her fingers to write the kanji for the name in the dirt. "What happened to not caring? Besides, it's not the fruit. Look here." Since the sun had sunk ever lower in the sky she made the glowing orb with her reiatsu again to illuminate the name.

"You choose what you want to protect."

Well, there you have it. I debated with myself for a while about keeping Gin alive in this story. In then end I decided I could let myself have some fun with it and kept him. I just love his character too much (though he still has nothing on Hitsugaya 3). I already have a few ideas what to do with him and whatnot.

As for Ichigo's name, the kanji used for his name is not the kanji for strawberry. I remember when it was said that his name means 'to protect one thing' so if you were wondering about that, there you go.

Lastly, thanks everyone for your support so far! I'm glad you're enjoying it! Until next time! 3