"Gin."

Ichimaru smiled pleasantly at Aizen as he held the hogyuku, the magnificent ball of light that possessed power beyond Ichimaru's wildest dreams. It was tiny and unimpressive and lame-looking but the moment someone offered it power it became a weapon whose power was rivalled by none. And as of a few days ago, it had been growing even stronger.

"What 'appening to it, Aizen-taichou?" Gin asked as he eyed the glowing ball through his eye lashes. It had become a habit to keep his eyes forever squinted unless it was absolutely necessary to be able to see properly like when he fought Hitsugaya Toshiro.

"It's excited, Gin. This person, this child...she is exciting the hogyuku." Aizen's voice was powerful and carrying and calm. The voice of a leader but even leaders came across things they couldn't understand and Aizen wasn't even trying to hide the bewilderment in his eyes from Gin. Gin followed his gaze and studied the face that was flickering beneath the hogyuku's surface.

It was a pretty face. A little girl, around twelve or thirteen, with short black hair and interesting lavender eyes that seemed to lack a pupil. Her skin was pale but no frighteningly so and a blush tinted her cheeks. All in all, a cute little girl.

"She's exciting the hogyuku? Whatever for? Yer sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. The hogyuku has been watching nothing but her for the past four days. It has even tried to..." His voice trailed off and he blinked sheepishly. He seemed unsure of what he had been about to say but Gin wondered secretly whether Aizen even wanted to share something as important as this with his underling.

"Yer don't have to tell me if yer don't wanna, Aizen-taichou."

"Hmm."

And suddenly Aizen was standing and mischievous light blazed in the chocolate depths of his eyes. Of course only someone like Gin could pick it up after working for Aizen for so long. To the untrained eye Aizen would've looked the same as he always did, calm, powerful, cunning. Sometimes Gin wished he couldn't see the gleam in those brown eyes. Though he would never admit it the sight frightened him.

"Gin." Aizen said and instantly Gin knew he had a plan. "I need you to do something for me..."

0-0-0

He's coming!

Hinata dropped down desperately to avoid Toshiro's swing and his bokutou flew right over her head and she felt the air whistle through her air. Hinata tried to drive her bokutou's blunt tip into his chest but the skilful shinigami captain simply dodged and then brought his weapon down on her wrist. She gritted her teeth to keep herself from crying out in pain.

"99," Toshiro said as he counted aloud.

Hinata swallowed down the pain and leapt back to avoid another attack. Once the distance between them was substantial, Hinata raised her hand and shouted: "Hado Ichi: Sho!" Toshiro immediately stopped and slashed the air with his sword. The air seemed to shatter and pieces of what looked like yellow tinted glass came crashing to the ground, only to materialize into the air before making it. Then Toshiro was sprinting towards her at an unbelievably fast pace.

Hinata didn't even see the blow coming, but she sure did feel it when it hit her shoulder. This time she did cry out and didn't try to stop herself from collapsing because she knew the exercise was over anyway.

"100." Toshiro finished as he rested the bokutou's blade on his shoulder. "Sorry, did I hit you too hard?"

"N-no, I'm o-okay." Hinata mumbled as she rubbed her injured shoulder. "I just d-didn't see i-it coming..."

"You've done well, Hyuuga. You managed to hit me twice before I hit you a hundred times. You're a fast learner. You'll do well at the Academy if you keep it up." He praised and Hinata instantly forgot about her injuries. His words filled her with hope. But she she was careful not to show the full extent of her joy on her face in fear that Toshiro would laugh.

As Toshiro turned his back Hinata was suddenly over come with the need to be reckless. She quickly snatched her bokutou off the ground and stood slowly, carefully, and then sprang. Her movements were swift and fast but obviously not fast enough because Toshiro saw the blade coming from a mile away. He blocked it effortlessly and pushed back with strength no child should physically possess and sent her sprawling on the ground. She tried to scramble up but before she could the tip of his blade appeared at her throat.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"...b...being r-reckless?"

"Uh-huh. Get up."

Hinata frowned at him but stood all the same. She was finding easier and easier to open up around Toshiro even though she'd only known him for a few days. There was just something about him...something that she found easy to talk to. She found she could express her emotions easier around him but that came with a down side. Her blushing was worse then it had ever been with Naruto!

"Hina-chan!" Kimi's voice reached Hinata's ears a split second before her arms wrapped around her neck and Hinata was suddenly being suffocated. She dropped her sword and spluttered and groped desperately at Kimi's arms.

"Kimi!" Hitsugaya yelled. "You're choking her!"

"Huh? Oh-sorry!" Kimi realized what she was doing and released Hinata who stumbled forwards a pace and gasped for air. "I'm just so excited! You're taking Hina-chan to the Academy today, right, Hitsugaya-taichou? Right?"

"Yes, right." Toshiro said icily and Hinata perked up.

"R-really?" She gasped.

Toshiro nodded. "It's time. You've learned enough. Let's get something to eat, then we'll go."

Hinata wasn't sure whether to be over the moon with happiness or sinking through the floor with anxiety. Her stomach was suddenly full of butterflies and she couldn't finish her meal though both Hitsugaya and Ahiko insisted she should. Hinata was terrified that she'd be rejected. She had actually been looking forward to going to the Academy and studying to become a shinigami but she was just a kid and though Toshiro was living proof that kid's could be accepted Hinata was still afraid they would laugh in her face and send her away.

Once Toshiro and the others finished eating Hinata and Kimi cleared the table. Ahiko and Toshiro waited patiently outside, chatting comfortably, until the two girls came out. Ahiko took the bokutou back. They had been her deceased sister's and she had thought them lost until she stumbled upon them a day ago, just lying in the back of the closest gathering dust.

"Th-thank you for e-everything, Ahiko-san, Kimi-chan." Hinata said politely as she bowed in respect. Toshiro bowed too and thanked Ahiko for her kindness and graciousness. Kimi blushed and Ahiko rolled her eyes.

"Come back soon!" Ahiko called, waving, as the two wandered into the forest. "Save trip, Hina-chan!" Kimi was waving, too.

"...H-Hitsugaya-taichou?" Hinata said softly once they were well on their way. Her voice was so faint Toshiro barely heard it over the sounds of the forest.

"Yeah?"

"D-do you think e-everything w-will be alright?"

Toshiro blinked at her in surprise. He had expected nerves like this, true, but for some reason seeing Hinata like this really bugged him. "Yes." He said honestly. "I believe it will be."

0-0-0

They weren't happy. The judges.

They stared down at Hinata from their high, fancy-looking chairs with disgust etched into their features. It was more then clear that they wanted her to leave and let them be despite the fact a captain of the Gotei 13 had brought her here and insisted she be tested. One particularly out spoken judge had insulted Hinata with a curse but immediately apologized when the temperature in the room dropped several degrees and ice starting forming on his glasses.

They had Hinata sit the standard entrance exam. As Toshiro had not only been training but also tutoring her for the past three or so days Hinata could answer pretty much all the questions with moderate ease. Some were extremely easy, like 'What is a Zunpakutou?', while others were quite hard, like 'Explain the procedure of obtaining Bankai.' Toshiro had said little about Shikai let alone Bankai and Hinata wasn't entirely sure how to answer that.

Once that was finished they thrusted a bokutou into her hands and demanded she she preform several poses. Those were easy. Toshiro had forced her to run through each one ten times a day and hadn't let her stop till he was satisfied with the results. Hinata was somewhat confident she'd gotten everything correct in that part expect for the last one. She thought she might've held the handle wrong or put her foot in the wrong place.

Then they tested her physical strength and her stamina. For stamina they had her run down the length of the hall the exam was being held in and then had her jump over and duck under various things. Hinata almost tripped while ducking the third obstacle and thanked whatever god shinigami believed in that she hadn't. For strength they had her hit various things to see how far she could force them to move. She could kick it or punch it or run into it, they didn't care, as long as she hit it. Hinata had never been too good in this department but was surprised at how far she managed to push some things and completely ashamed at how little she got others to move.

Then came the reiatsu test. Hinata was positive that if she failed this test then she failed the entire exam and she wondered grimly why the put the most important part at the very end. It seemed to stupid, but then again Toshiro had told her the whole process was stupid so she shouldn't have been surprised.

They told her to summon as much reiatsu as she could. Remembering last time Hinata was careful not to prod too far into her Inner World. She had already guessed that when she started to see it instead of the back of her eye lids was when she'd begun to draw herself in, so she just focused on the image of a wolf in her mind and tried to ignore the pull of the icy land.

Power filled her but all she saw was the mental image of the wolf. The tug from her Inner World vanished and Hinata allowed herself a quick sigh of relief. She poured out as much reiatsu as she possibly could and felt stronger and stronger by the second but knew the moment someone's hands gripped her shoulders that she needed to stop.

So she took a deep breath and steadied herself and blinked several times, as though she had just woken up from a nice long sleep. The ground around her was covered in snow and ice and the judge that was holding her was shivering from head to toe, and as Hinata examined him a littler closer she realized with a small pang of pleasure that it was the guy that had sworn at her earlier. Ice was forming on his glasses again.

"Well, that was impressive." A female judge said but Hinata could tell whether she was being sarcastic or not. She gathered her papers together and tucked them under her arm as she stood. "We'll have your results complied by this afternoon. That is all." And Hinata got the feeling she'd just been dismissed so she stumbled out of the room and found Toshiro waiting for her. He was smiling.

"Well done." He said.

Hinata blushed and looked at her toes. She hadn't seen him smile before...and it really suited him, in her opinion. She wished he would smile more often but didn't dare say it aloud.

"Th-thank you."

0-0-0

That following evening a messenger came to Ahiko's hut to inform Hinata she had passed and been placed in the Advanced Class. As he walked out he thought a bomb had suddenly gone off in the hut, Ahiko and Kimi were cheering so loud. Toshiro covered his ears and looked away as Kimi half-strangled Hinata with her hugs and Ahiko patted her head so many times her hair began to knot.

Toshiro left the girls to party and searched for his sleeping tree. He found it after a few minutes of searching and quickly hoped up into the branches. Even there, he could hear Kimi talking enthusiastically about Hinata and appeared to be planning out her entire career as a shinigami. She decided Hinata would surpass the Captain-General and become the strongest female shinigami that has ever lived but she'd also get married and have seven kids.

Hitsugaya snorted at that. That Kimi was a bigger nut that Matsumoto!

Eventually the chatter began to die down and finally the lights were switched off. Toshiro sighed and stared at the house for a few moments before snuggling up against the...the bark. He shivered. That night was a lot colder then the previous nights...

Hitsugaya stopped shuddering abruptly as a warm blanket was draped over him. His eyes popped open and he rolled over to see Hinata standing steadily on the branch beside him, clad in her sleeping gear and protected from the cold by the pale grey jacket she'd been wearing when she died. Her cheeks were a quite pink and Toshiro guessed it was from the cold.

He tugged the blanket. "Thanks."

She smiled. "I-it's okay. Oyosuminasai."

"Oyosumi." And he rolled back over as he believed Hinata would just hop back down. When he realized she was still standing there he rolled back over and stared at her puzzlingly. "What's up?"

"I, um..." Hinata mumbled and started twiddling her fingers. Toshiro mentally grinned. She was unbelievably cute when she did that. "I w-wanted to s-say thank you."

"Again?"

"W-well..."

"You're welcome. Now go get a good sleep. Don't think just because you've been accepted, that we're not going to continue training. Now go."

Hinata's face lit up with joy and Toshiro realized she had expected him to leave. "We-we are? That's great! See y-you to tomorrow!"

"Yeah."

And she jumped out of the tree and hurried back to the hut. Toshiro's azure eyes followed her retreating figure and he didn't look away until she'd slipped inside. But even then his eyes lingered and he didn't realize he was staring till a few seconds later.

Blushing, he quickly rolled over and pulled the blanket close. Hinata's reiatsu was still on it and sensing it sent tingles up his spin. He swallowed. What's wrong with me?

!I own neither Bleach nor Naruto!

Mushi mushi ^^ I'm writing these really fast, huh? Guess I'm having fun. I hope you liked the chapter, Hinata's finally in the Academy! And Aizen has a plan!

Matsumoto and Hinamori will come back into the story soon ^^ I might bring Renji in, too, because I like him, and Rukia and definitely Ukitake. But maybe not Ichigo. I don't really like him for reasons I don't really understand.

Please, please, PLEASE review! I love your comments :D They make me so happy!

I also apologize for the shortness of this chapter! I'll try and make the next one longer!

Thank you!