Chapter 9: Getting to know your Captain

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Ichigo woke up late without his father waking him up with a kick instead of the alarm waking him up; in the long run it made it so that he could only wake when he was kicked. He wouldn't wake until Rukia, at her wits end and being told to run over to his room in the, kicked him out of his bed with a force that threw him from the futon and he crashed into the wall of his room. Adding insult to injury, his head was caught in the wall and it took a while for him to finally pull it out. He turned around to see Rukia staring at him, so confident that she wouldn't be hurt because she was in another squad, but she was proven wrong as ichigo got up and got her into a headlock as he started to rub his knuckles into her head.

"Ah, you can't do that, I'm your superior," cried Rukia as she tried to fight her way out of Ichigo's grasp, but his grip was too tight for her to try and slip out of. "Gomen nasai! I give! I give!"

"Okay then," said Ichigo as he let go of her and waited for her to turn around and try to fix her hair to ask, "So what are our orders today?"

"Ichigo," said Rukia so slowly and dangerously that Ichigo thought she was having a moment of contact with her inner hollow, but he could see that she was still the same just now she was releasing her murderous rage.

"Now Rukia, let's not got to hasty it was just a joke," said Ichigo as he backed up from the angry vice-captain and as he backed up he found that the door had slid open causing Ichigo to fall back and look into the eyes of his captain.

"Sorry for disturbing whatever you were doing just arrive in the practice room when you two are done," said Saito as he walked out and left Ichigo to try and get away from Rukia, but it was futile as she pulled him back into the room.

"Please don't hurt me," cried Ichigo as he was being pulled in the room, nails scratching at the floor trying to get off before his exit was closed to him. "Wait now Rukia can't we talk about this? I was only joking and you can fix your hair can't you?"

"Do you know how much energy I put in keeping my hair just like this and un ruffled," asked Rukia, her anger seeping through into her fists and transforming her aura from blue to a violent red. "It takes me a total of two hours the get my hair into the straight, perfect black hair that is never messy and after putting so much energy into it you go and mess it up!"

Ichigo tried to call out for help, but the scream was caught in his throat and all he could get out was a low sound that sounded like a man screaming as he fell down a cliff. The next sound that came from the room was the sound of a large thump and then a crash that sounded out through everywhere. One place of note that you could hear and feel the sound from was at the Tenth division Captain's office as Captain Toshirou Hitsugaya was trying to drink some tea, but as he reached for it the loud thump caused his tea to spill all over the papers that he had been doing.

"Okay now that we are done doing whatever we were doing this morning we will be showing each other our strengths," announced Saito as he stood with one leg on a foot stool and the other foot rested firmly on the ground with his sword out and prepared to strike. "Now then, you can both attack me at the same time first or fight me separately then attack me at once, whichever method is preferable to you."

"I think I'll try you out one on one just to get a feel for how you fight," said Ichigo as he got up and hefted his sword into a sword fighter's position and he could see Saito looking at Rukia, who only nodded her agreement that this was Ichigo's fight and only Ichigo's fight. She would have no part in this.

"Okay then now that we have that out of the way I believe I can safely assume that you won't lose to me with an unreleased zanpakto," said Saito as he once again called on his zanpakto and Ichigo could feel a slight chill coming from Saito as he did this. "Now then Ichigo come at with all you've got or put your sword down."

Ichigo stabbed at Saito who just smacked the sword and then did a backlash attack at the young third-seat, who blocked it quickly but the force of the attack knocked him back a bit. With little time to catch his breath, Ichigo jumped back onto the wall and then used it as a catalyst to push himself forward for the attack on Saito. Saito jumped back from the attacked and attacked the man with his sword, but Saito started to use his speed to move around the room quickly catching Ichigo by surprise. What Saito didn't know was that Ichigo had been training under Yuruichi so that he could match the speed of the captain, but the captain still had the advantage of maneuverability since he had been using flash stepping for longer than Ichigo had. As Ichigo moved in for the kill, Saito flash stepped forward then back causing a jerking force to add to the power of his backward stab and he would have skewered Ichigo had Rukia not summoned a kido to momentarily bind Saito until he broke it, giving Ichigo enough time to move back.

"Wait Rukia, this is my fight with him, you shouldn't try getting involved," shouted Ichigo at Rukia and her expression was one of anger but Saito could see behind it at the hurt that was displayed clearly on her face. The only person who was ignorant to it was Ichigo.

"Baka, he could have killed you for attacking like you had no sense at all," scolded Rukia as she hit him on the head. "Who do you think you are to attack without proper defense of your body? You're not Zaraki Kenpachi! You can't take a lot of stabs and still survive from it!"

"What do you mean I was just in the middle of flash stepping back," countered ichigo but he was immediately shut down by Rukia.

"Get up and let me help you face him before you get seriously injured," said Rukia as she moved back and prepared to fight Saito, but Ichigo put his arm in front of her.

"Are you kidding, you think you stepping in is going to do that much after all the times I've had to save you," shouted Ichigo and he was met by another slap from Rukia that sent him back a bit.

"Don't think that you don't need help occasionally! You are the worst one trying to fight everything by yourself and too stupid to see anything that's in front of you, even that people that care about you! All you think about is being 'Ichigo the hero' and board yourself up to everyone, even those that may love you. That's why Orihime doesn't chase after you anymore, she realized how stupid she was to try and chase after ichigo, he is too busy riding the top and remembering his own pain that he forgets he isn't the only one who feels hurt! I'm just too stupid to give up and try to find someone else!"

"What," asked a confused Ichigo who had been feeling the verbal slaps to his face, but the last one was a power punch that left him dazed and confused. "You said something about you being too stupid to give up. What do you mean by that?"

"I'm sure that if you really thought about it instead of just shutting everything out you'll realize what I'm talking about," said Rukia and without she ran off from the practice back to the Kuchiki family residence.

"What did she mean about that," asked Ichigo as he looked at his captain who was putting his blade back in its sheath.

"You've gone through life expecting other people to lead the way to you when you didn't understand but you'll never truly master your zanpakto if you don't know yourself," said Saito as he strung his sword up and then looked at Ichigo. "But I would use your flashstep very sparingly and don't try to attack with it until you've master it or someone stronger might stab you. For now I think you have to do some looking deep into yourself again and ask yourself that question or more importantly that hollow inside you."

"How do you know about him," asked Ichigo as he backed up a bit, not even all of the captains knew about it.

"My sword can sense it and I can sense it, my hollow and I are One," said Saito, his face turning a bit to show the hollow mask that was so frightening to Ichigo. "We both know each other and the other knows exactly what the other side wants, including the ones we love."

"I can't do that fully but I am getting better at it," said Ichigo and then he thought truly about what Saito sad and decided that he had nothing to lose by doing it. "Thank you for the information, Saito."

"Captain Haijime to you, third seat Kurasaki," corrected Saito as he walked out only to hear Hitsugaya complaining about "spilled tea."