Chapter 6: Garden

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters of Bleach.

There he lay on the bed in his room as he took one last look at the room that had slept in for all of his life under the same roof that had housed his family for…he didn't know how many generations, but it had been his home for so long. Tonight would be Ichigo's last night in his home, for tomorrow he would be leaving to follow his captain and vice captain into the Soul Society, leaving behind a good deal of his friends and his family, but he knew that it was inevitable. From the moment when he ran that zanpakto through his stomach, Ichigo's life had been a countdown to this moment, the moment when he would leave his home for good to seek whatever destiny that awaited him. No turning back the clock, this would soon be the dawn of fate and there was no escaping what surely lay ahead for him, but he could only sit there and wait for morning to come. Nervous would be the correct word to tell how Ichigo felt, he could barely sleep during the night it was so bad, but yet he could manage some hours of sleep when he was granted that one piece instead of what others gave him. When morning came, he was greeted by the familiar feeling of his father's foot on his back as he received his last wakeup call that he would ever receive.

"You have a hell of a way of waking people up, dad," said Ichigo as he flipped his father over and held him down with his hand, all the while thinking about how his life had come to this, the journey out of the house seemed much greater than it was.

"Breakfast is ready, Ichigo," shouted Yuzu from downstairs as she started putting pancakes and waffles on plates right next to omelets that had been seasoned with parsley. "This is your last breakfast here so we might as well make it the best meal you ever had and we took the liberty of inviting some friends to join us and say good bye to you."

"You didn't have to go that far, but thank you, Yuzu, I'm really going to miss you," said Ichigo as he hugged his youngest sister for what could have been the last time and deep down in his sub-consciousness, he dreaded that it would be.

"I'll miss you as well, oni-san," said Yuzu as she cried into his shirt and then the doorbell rang signaling the arrival of the other friends for the last breakfast. They were all there, Sado, Tatsuki, Orihime, Chizuru, and Ishida were all there to bid a farewell to Ichigo before he had to leave their world and become the soul reaper that he had been destined to become.

"Aw, I hate that you have to go now, Ichigo-kun, but I'm glad that Rukia will be there so you won't be lonely," said Orihime before she started giving Yuzu some cooking tips that made Ichigo sort of glad that he was leaving and at the same time sorry for his father who would be forced to live with that. "If you cook jelly in peanut butter on medium for about two minutes then you can have the best basting sauce for the squid."

"Those things…kind of don't go together," said Tatsuki as she tried to prevent the little girl from being influenced by the odd cooking of Orihime.

"What do you mean, I always make that for my sandwich and it tastes really good," pleaded Orihime as she tried to defend the recipe that was making some of the people at the table a little less hungry than they were before.

"I've gone to see him, the night of the attack by the Comillos," said Tosen as he walked into the meeting place of the leaders of Hueco Mundo. "He seems to have gained most of his former power and the inner hollow in him has been able to regain its power as well, but at the same time he has regained his ability to control it."

"He fights with his inner hollow, that hollow is his zanpakto's spirit," said Aizen as he looked at the blind former soul reaper and then looked at the figure before him that was being used to represent the man they were talking about, Saito Haijime. "Where he got I do not know and the only person to have ever gotten a peek at his bankai is Yuruichi and I have never been able to get the information out of her so as to the amount of power he has is on the vague area. Though I think the real threat to us is the son of Ishen, he may have even more power than Saito."

The white stone throne that he sat on was the best seat in the room, which had a cushion on his throne and it was occupied by the head of everything, the man with all the power in the realm. The ruler of the realm was a man who liked to put others around him in doubt and could even make those who hated him work for his benefit by manipulating them. He enjoyed doing that, he loved to make his enemies work for him and he looked at one of the shinigami that he had brought with him and wondered if he should send Tosen out to fight the captain. That way he could get a sight of what Saito's bankai was so he could measure the strength of this new threat, once more he felt the regretting of letting Saito live as he figured Saito would never side with the Shinigami. Kukkaku, the reason that there was a new threat, could be the solution for it, but he didn't want another excursion to come tearing through here and killing off some of his Espada while gaining some other allies among his own rank.

"Send something after him or someone, we need something to go and attack him," ordered Aizen, but he saw that his subordinate was shifting around uncomfortably around telling him that something was conflicting with the order. "Have you already sent someone after him?"

"I sent one of the new espada, Slither, but he was defeated without even a flash of Bankai," replied Tosen as he bowed before his leader with a since of dread coming off of him as he did it. "We could try to lead the new breed after him, but we don't know any way to control them whatever they are and even the Novistador, has no idea what they are."

"We should then watch and wait for the perfect moment to wipe him off the board before he becomes a serious threat to us," declared Aizen as got up and picked up the figure. "The die has already been cast and we can only hope that the new breed keeps his eyes off of us."

Saito looked at himself in the mirror as he groomed himself with the a comb and knife, cutting his beard into a more refined beard that was fitting of a captain because he would have to seem like he was unaffected by the exile. His hair was something that he had always kept in perfect condition, but then again it wasn't as hard as it would be for other captains to maintain their hair, such as Captain Hitsugaya. Outside was his vice-captain looking at the garden that he had made with exotic plants and sand formations to match the zen Buddhist meditation that he did during his exile to keep his mind right. With the loss of his right arm came the loss of his ability to control the hollow that was inside of him and could only do it with the help of his zanpakto. After grooming his facial hair and the hair on his head, Captain Saito Haijime walked out into the garden and sat down beside his vice-captain for one of the heart-to-heart chat that he guessed he was supposed to have with his subordinates.

"Something is eating your mind, even though it will probably die of starvation, what is getting to you," asked Saito in his own way, which he threw it around indiscriminately at subordinate and superior alike.

"It's a bit hard for me to talk about since I haven't even talked to him about it," replied Rukia as she looked down at one of the symbols he had drawn in the sand, the kanji for the word "equilibrium."

"So I guess third seat Ichigo Kurasaki is on your mind, Rukia," said Saito casually as he got up and started to draw other symbols into the sand wanting to leave his mark on his house to prove that he had been there. "I can tell that you love him just as I can tell that you are too afraid to tell him how you feel because you are still haunted by the haunting of your past."

"Why are you so sure that you know what I'm feeling right now," asked Rukia as she started to get up and go find Ichigo to take him to the soul society, but really, she was going to take him with her. He was the one thing that still tied her to earth, the link between her and the friends she had made there.

"I too love another, a raven haired woman with such beauty that I am left in awe," said Saito without turning to face her, instead opting to look at his garden for one last time. "The hardest part of exile was being away from her and I have felt that deep within my heart, especially because she does not know how I feel. If there is one thing that I have learn from all my years, it's that the longer you wait to tell them, the harder it gets to say what you want. You must make a choice Rukia, whether to tell him how you feel or risk facing an even deeper pain than that of rejection. What will you choose?"