A raven.

It's feathers were sleek and black and remained completely still despite the hot, humid wind that blew. The building it sat upon was black and crumbling. Fire licked at its base. In fact, there was fire everywhere, devouring everything and everyone, expect the little girl that stood alone in a clearing, a clearing created by a ferocious ring of fire.

Where am I? Hinata thought frantically. The air was suffocating and her eyes watered. The sky was black with ash. Her mouth was dry and her throat was like razor blades when she swallowed. She was wearing tattered and torn clothing that was three sizes to big and a muddy brown clock swirled around her. It was torn all along the bottom.

The raven blinked at her. Its eyes were bloody red and Hinata could see herself reflected in its jet-black pupils. It almost looked as though it wanted to speak.

Hinata's lavender eyes were distracted from the raven by a shadowy shape appearing just beyond the fire. A man, it seemed, but she couldn't see his face. He was wearing white, though, and a sword was tied to his belt.

"Wh-who are you!" Hinata screamed. "Wh-what do you want!"

He didn't answer, but the raven let out a shrill shriek and suddenly the dream shattered.

0-0-0

"Oi, Hyuuga!"

Hinata's eyes snapped opened and she found herself staring into Toshiro's face. His eyes were narrowed and a concerned light sparkled in their depths. It took Hinata's half-asleep brain a moment to realize he was bending over her, and that he was...pretty...close...

Hinata's cheeks burned crimson and she hurriedly rolled away, only to get tangled up in her blanket. Her blush darkened and she wondered why the hell she was so embarrassed. She hardly knew the guy! Or was it because she hardly knew the guy that him being close made her blush so crazily?

"Oi..." Toshiro appeared beside her and helped the startled teenager out of her blanket cocoon. Once on her feet, Hinata took to staring at them in a vain attempt to conceal the worst of her blush. "What were you dreaming about?"

"E-eh?"

"I heard you mumbling something so I came inside to check on you. Then you started yelling so I woke you up."

"Oh!" Hinata gasped, then looked around. Had she woken Ahiko or Kimi? But neither women were there and both futons had been folded up neatly and placed by the door beside one another. Hinata let out a soft sigh of relief. For a faint, horrifying moment she thought they'd been attacked again.

"Don't worry, they're just outside." Toshiro informed her.

"Th-thank goodness..." Hinata mumbled and the words had left her lips before she'd even realized it. Hinata went back to staring at her toes, and she was glad Hitsugaya had skipped right on past the dream subject. Seeing her worry seemed to have made him forget...for now. She wasn't really sure what happened herself. But she hoped it had just been some random dream like the ones she'd had when alive, and it wasn't nothing mystical like with Ookami-san.

"So, how do you like Heaven so far?" Toshiro asked suddenly.

"Huh?...Oh, um, i-it's n-not as g-good as I t-though it w-would be..." She admitted, twiddling her thumbs. Damn, and she'd been defeating that habit! Just why did this guy make her feel so self-conscious?

"Hmph. Look, Hyuuga, I have something I need to discuss with you."

"Eh?" Hinata looked up in surprise. "D-discuss with me?"

"Yes," He confirmed, and Hinata was startled at how serious he sounded. "It's about your reiatsu level."

"R-reiatsu? Wh-what's that?"

Hinata could've sworn his eye-brow twitched. "It's basically a spirit's version of chakra. And yours is incredibly high and could become very dangerous if you don't learn how to control it soon." When Hinata met this statement with a puzzled look, he sighed and lunched into an explanation. "Hyuuga, reiatsu isn't anything like chakra. It's highly unstable. If you loss control of your reiatsu, you can kill somebody weaker then yourself and you won't need to channel it in any sort of way to do that."

Hinata's lavender eyes widened. "I-is my r-reiatsu r-really that d-dangerous...?"

"If you allow it to be. But if you learn to control it, like I said, you won't hurt anyone. So I'm going to help you keep it under control until I can get you enlisted into the Shinigami Academy."

"...Huh?" What was he talking about? Shinigami Academy? When did Hinata say she wanted to become a shinigami? She wasn't even completely sure what a shinigami was, and yet he expected her to do as he said?

"It's the best choice." He explained and his eye-brow twitched again. "You need to learn how to control your reiatsu, and you can learn how to do it properly at the Shinigami Academy. But you can also learn to defend yourself better, and if you're on Shinigami level bandits will think twice about attacking you."

Now that did sound appealing, but Hinata couldn't help but feel anxious. Could she really just join this Academy on such short notice? After all, it was winter and the school year must've been coming to a close. Would she have to wait until next year before attempting to join? More so, how did one join the Shinigami Academy? There had been only paperwork to fill out in Konoha, and that had completed in a matter of seconds, her father's hand flashing across the page. Would it be the same here?

So many questions so little time, Hinata thought bitterly.

"Come outside." Toshiro instructed, and without even waiting to see if his order was followed he disappeared out the door. Hinata hesitated, but in the end decided to follow him. After all, if her reiatsu was really as dangerous as he claimed, how could she go on living here if that meant she would hurt Ahiko or Kimi?

There was no trace of the bandits outside. Not a single fragment of their shattered weapons remained and their bruised and battered bodies had been removed. Ahiko was standing by the trees with a basket tied to her arm, and she was steadily filling it with bright red berries. She looked a little pale but other wise completely fine. Kimi looked good as new and was sitting about ten metres away in an area where flowers bloomed like crazy. Hinata hadn't noticed it before and was itching to join her but she knew she had more important things to do at the moment, so she forced her feet to stay still.

"Let's go around the back." Toshiro suggested, and Hinata nodded in agreement.

They quickly moved around to the back of the house. Once there, Toshiro muttered some incantations under his breath and suddenly the area in which they stood was cut off from the outside world by a gigantic orange see-through box. Hinata tapped the side and gasped as the surface rippled like water.

"It's called Kido," Toshiro explained as Hinata stared in awe. "If you go to the Shinigami Academy, you will learn how to cast things like this."

"Wh-why did you c-cast it?"

"To protect Ahiko and Kimi from your reiatsu, because they would've still been affected even if we're standing so far away." He explained and Hinata nodded. She couldn't help but be impressed by his brains.

"Wh-what do you w-want m-me to do?"

"I want you to focus on the power inside you." He answered, and Hinata titled her head to the side. "You will feel it, trust me. You've already used it."

Hinata nodded again. She still felt painfully confused and realized there hadn't been a moment since she'd woken that she wasn't confused. She wondered if this was how it was going to be forever, Hinata out of her mind with confusion and Hitsugaya explaining all the answers. She hoped not.

Hinata closed her eyes out of habit. She had always done that went summoning her chakra, and Hinata wondered if this would be anything like bringing chakra out. She focused long and hard and searched her soul for the power Toshiro spoke of. Then she felt something twitch inside her, a creature of some kind, and she pictured a wolf, dark at first, but slowly and steadily the picture filled with light.

And suddenly Hinata was overtaken with a strength she didn't know she possessed, and she felt as though she could fly. The blackness behind her eyes vanished and gave way to the icy landscape were Ookami-san lived, and everything was more vibrant. There were more flowers and more trees and the lake had grown. She was standing on its bank, and stared into the watery depths. Hinata could see herself on the surface, and saw she was glowing a faint purple colour.

Then she felt something grab her shoulders and shake her. She tried to ignore it. She didn't want to release this power, didn't want to return to the real world. She felt so alive! She felt so powerful, the complete opposite of what she'd felt the night before! Why should she go back?

She tried to push the person away but they were persistent. She heard someone calling her name, over and over, like a broken record. She wished they would stop speaking and for a moment they did, but almost instantly they were calling to her again. The shaking grew more violent and their grip on her shoulder's was beginning to hurt.

Suddenly Hinata heard a savage roar and saw a flash of red and then the dream shattered like broke glass. Hinata blinked several times before she realized she was staring at Toshiro, and that his hands were gripping her shoulders. For a terrifying moment, Hinata saw a creature standing behind Toshiro, a gigantic dragon made of ice, but it vanished before she could confirm it's exsistance.

"Hyuuga! Oi, Hyuuga!" Toshiro yelled again, and gave her a firm shake.

"T-Toshiro-kun?" Hinata said stupidly, as though she'd expected someone else.

"Are you alright?"

"Y-yes."

"Good." And he released her.

Hinata heard something crunch underfoot as he drew back and realized with a stab of disbelief that the entire area in which the kido had been set up was covered in ice and snow. Ice had even begun to form on the kido!

"D-did I do a-all this?" She gasped, stupefied.

"No," Toshiro told her. "But you did most of it. I had to use some of my reiatsu to wake you up." And then he shook his head with a sigh. "I almost lost you."

Hinata blushed faintly. "Huh? L-lost me?"

"Yes. To your Inner World. You were drawing too much power from it and you were sucking yourself inside."

"I-I was!"

He nodded. "I should've warned you that could happen, but...but I didn't think it would happen to you. I didn't know your reiatsu was that strong. You have enough to join the Gotei 13 as a seated officer!"

Obviously, that was supposed to be good. But Hinata hadn't the faintest idea what the Gotei 13 was and wondered briefly if it was tasty, because hunger was suddenly clawing at her belly and she desperately wanted food.

She voiced her concerns in a shaky voice but much to her surprise Hitsugaya nodded in understanding. "Come inside. I'll ask Kimi to make something."

Kimi obliged without complaint and was obviously over the moon with curiosity as she sat down beside Hinata and handed out the onigiri. She had felt the reiatsu even through the kido shield and was itching to know just what Toshiro was having Hinata do.

"I take it you haven't had time to learn about the Gotei 13, Hyuuga?" Hitsugaya said as Hinata finished her fourth onigiri. Honestly, these sudden pangs of hunger would end up turning her into a glutton. Hinata nodded to Toshiro to confirm his theory, and he opened his mouth to explain but Kimi beat him to it.

"The Gotei 13 is the organization of shinigami that protects the Human World and the Spirit World from harm!" Kimi explained, barely able to keep the excitement out of her voice. She wasn't fighting for Hinata, but at least this way she would repay her for some of what she'd done. "There are 13 Divisions, each with their own Taichou. The Taichou are the thirteen strongest shinigami in the Soul Society!" Her emerald eyes glistened. "Then there's the fuku-taichou (vice-captain) who's job is fight along side their taichou and protect them from harm. Below them are the seated officers, and below them are the ultra-weak unseated officers that do nothing but whack at ultra-weak hollow."

"I-I see." Hinata mumbled and she risked a glance at Toshiro and saw he was glaring at Kimi, annoyed that she'd cut him off and called a certain group of shinigami weak. But he didn't tell her off, so Hinata took it as a sign he didn't dislike her. "Thanks, K-Kimi-chan."

"No problem, Hina-chan! So, are you going to become a shinigami? That would be so cool!"

"U-um..."

"Are you gonna go to the Academy? There's no way they'd refuse you, with that much reiatsu-"

"They won't accept her till next year." Toshiro said suddenly, causing both girls to jump. The expression on his face was clearly annoyed and seemed to say Yes, I'm still here. Hinata suddenly felt guilty though she wasn't sure how she was supposed to have stopped Kimi talking with her stuttering problem and shy personality. But she felt guilty anyway.

"Not until next year? That ridiculous!" Kimi snapped, and Hinata was amazed at how different she sounded. This was the first she'd seen her with strength and without a knife to her throat. "Hina-chan is strong! I felt it through the kido-shield-thing and she needs to go to the Academy!"

"They might let her in if you talk them to death," Toshiro muttered, but Kimi was too caught up in her ranting to hear. Hinata was glad she hadn't. This 'new and improved' Kimi would've probably attack him, had she heard the comment.

"They've gotta let Hina-chan into the Academy now! They've just gotta!"

"Calm down, would you?" Toshiro snapped. "It's the 28th today and they accept applications on the 3rd of January. I'll just take Hyuuga now to ensure a space and then she had attend when school starts without any problems."

"Can you do that?" Kimi asked doubtfully.

Toshiro twitched, and this time he didn't try to compress it. "Yes. If you haven't noticed, I am a Taichou despite my appearance, and they won't be able to turn her down once they feel her reiatsu. Until then," He pushed his onigiri plate aside and stood up. "I'm going to teach you the basics. You can't go to the Academy with as little knowledge as you have."

So the two spent the afternoon training.

As Hitsugaya only had one very real sword with him, he decided to help Hinata with the basics of kido instead of zanjutsu, the art of swordsmanship. He claimed there was a lot of boring kido theory to get through at the Academy, but once you actually start learning it can be fun and you don't really need to learn the theory anyway because it ends up being completely useless during a battle, save for the safety guide lines.

Hinata actually turned out to be quite good at kido and she guessed it was because all the jutsu she used while alive required precise chakra control. After a mere hour she'd learned how to control the amount of power she pushed into her palm and mastered the art of aiming. Toshiro praised her for that, and Hinata felt as though she could accomplish anything with his words ringing in her ears. She realized then that she did enjoy Hitsugaya's company.

Before she knew it the sun was going down and Ahiko was ordering them inside for some supper. Hitsugaya protested, saying he needed to return, but Ahiko brushed off his worries and ushered him inside. To her, he was nothing more then a stubborn child. The sword didn't scare her in the least.

"Hitsugaya-taichou," Hinata said as she and Toshiro cleared the table (having learned he was a captain, Hitsugaya had seen no excuse for her to continue calling him 'Toshiro-kun').

"Hn?"

"Wh-where will you s-sleep?" Hinata had asked that question the night before, but her answer had been 'That's not important' and Hinata's exhausted brain had expected it without a second thought. Now she refused to take that answer again and was determined to find out where he was sleeping.

Toshiro hesitated, read her face and then sighed. He pointed with his free hand towards the window, at the dark blue sky. "I slept in a tree last night."

Hinata shook her head. "Y-you can't s-sleep outside! Y-you'll get sick."

He shrugged. "I don't mind."

"B-but..."

"I can watch the forest from there," He said and there was a kind of finality in his voice that told Hinata he wanted to discuss this no further.

"A-at least take a blanket." Before he could protest she grabbed one of the blankets off the floor and held it towards him with a pleading look on her face. He glanced at her and the blanket and back again, and just when Hinata thought he might argue he sighed in defeat and took the blanket from her.

"Thanks." He muttered.

Hinata smiled. "O-oyosuminasai, Hitsugaya-taichou." Goodnight.

He nodded. "Oyosumi, Hyuuga." And then he was out the door and disappearing into the night.

0-0-0

Outside, Toshiro was sitting in a tree and the darkness of night fell upon him like a blanket. He had claimed sitting here gave him a good view of the forest, but that was necessarily true. It was night after all and near impossible to see anything. What he was really doing was thinking deeply, like he always did whenever he had spare time or when he wasn't napping.

Back when he'd gotten Hinata to summon her reiatsu, she had almost been sucked into her Inner World. But that wasn't what he was pondering about. He was thinking about when he'd shaken her and called her name in a vain attempt to force her back into reality without using his powers. Hinata had somehow wrapped her reiatsu around his throat and forced him to stop talking and though it had only lasted for second, it had still happened and it had hurt. He'd been careful not to show any concern when Hinata had finally come to, but now, alone with the darkness for company, a look of worry was spreading across his features.

He'd never heard of someone being choked with reiatsu, not like that. You could be crushed by reiatsu. You could be weakened by reiatsu. But you couldn't be choked. The reiatsu Hinata had used had really felt like hands, her hands, gripping his throat and strangling the life out of him. For a spilt second he hadn't been able to breath and for a moment after he thought he'd imagined but the reiatsu residue on his neck proved him wrong.

Just what was Hinata? How could she do something like that with her reiatsu, when Toshiro had met no captain with that ability. Not even Aizen Souske was able to manipulate his reiatsu like that and he was by far the strongest enemy the shinigami had ever encountered.

His frown hardened. This was bad. If Hinata lost control like that at the Academy she could end up killing someone...but then again that was why she was going to the Academy in the first place, to learn how to control her reiatsu and stop herself from killing someone.

There's no helping it, I'll have to keep a close watch on her. With that settled, he summoned a Hell Butterfly and told Matsumoto what he was doing. Or most of it. He hoped he hadn't caused her to worry, having disappeared for a day and a bit.

As the small black creature fluttered off into the sky, Toshiro found himself falling sleep. He tried to fight the urge but gave in after a few minutes, and faint smile played on his lips as his eyes finally closed.

0-0-0

"Get out of here."

The raven regarded the she-wolf silently, it's head titled to one side. Ookami-san snarled savagely and leapt towards it but the evil little thing fluttered up into the air before she could get her fangs into its neck.

"Stay away from Hime!" She barked at its tiny figure, a black dot against a background of snowy white sky. "I don't know who or what you are, but I want you and your master out of Hime's world!"

The raven shrieked as it retreated into the sky. Ookami-san knew it wasn't leaving, just hiding from her snapping jaw, and let out a hiss of frustration. She raised her head and howled at the sky, letting all her anger out in one sorrowful song.

The raven, meanwhile, landed soundlessly on the arm of its master, who smiled his classic smile, and then vanished.

!I own neither Bleach nor Naruto!

Hello everybody :D Ten reviews~~Thank you so much!

I apologize for this boring chapter -_- So far, there's been some sort of fight in every single one, but they can't have a fight everyday! Please bare with me!

Hinata will be joining the Academy soon. I'll finish up all this training business as quickly as possible so no-one gets board. I proof-read this so hopefully there aren't any grammar mistakes!

Thank you! Also, Merry Christmas! Only two more days :DDDD