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"So, is this the excuse you have for slacking off today?"

Hitsugaya definitely looked fed up with her sloth. Yeah, one of the seven sins, as the humans liked to say; one that annoyed him the most.

"It's not an excuse! It's real!" she protested, frowning.

"You've gotten really creative, haven't you?" he sighed, leaving the unfinished paperwork on the table and laying down on the couch. "Now, go finish them."

"You do not believe me?" she whined.

"Please, i'm immune to you now; don't underestimate me. And that puppy-eyes trick won't work on me." he said with his eyes closed, clearly intending to take a nap as he got her to work.

"But captain-"

"Shut up and finish your work, Matsumoto! You've reached the limits of indolence." he snarled.

"Great…" she sighed as she sat to finish the rest of the paperwork. He enjoyed the sight of his lieutenant working before he closed his eyes again. It definitely was a rare sight. It usually would be exact opposite: Matsumoto would be sleeping while he finished the work. Well, even he had limits of tolerance. She had to do her work at least once in a while.

...

Unohana hurried to the new kid's room. Since he had to be kept hidden for a while, she was going to examine the kid herself. He was an interesting case, as she was told by the messenger. Matsumoto definitely was thinking that she would be interested in the kid. It was almost never that Matsumoto would actually contact her directly and ask for a favor while wanting her to take a quick look at a new kid.

As she was told, the kid was almost 30 years old and had burns at the lower halfs of his limbs – bad ones. According to the information Matsumoto got from various places of Rukongai, he had been burning out of blue at his sleep for like fifteen days. As she said, it was like he was being burned by some invisible flames and it didn't stop unless he was waken up. He screamed in his sleep and clearly was in pain, but didn't wake up by himself. Matsumoto was assuming he had run away from home when the nightburns started so she was going to investigate it further about his family when she got herself some free time. Unohana was also informed that the kid had to eat in order to survive, so he definitely had Shinigami potential in him. Nice case.

She turned a corner and quickly went into the room from a door that was impossible to notice if you weren't looking carefully. The Kid's room was pretty hidden from many eyes. He definitely would be showed to the superiors in the end; but Matsumoto had insisted he would stay a secret at least for a while. Unohana knew she had something in her mind, so she had agreed. Anyhow, she was going to report if there was something too unusual about the kid – Fuji, for now. She was also informed that the kid didn't talk and give response so the real name was a mystery and Matsumoto had named him Fuji.

She pulled the white curtain to the side and entered the kid's compartment – well, literally. The kid was sitting in his bed detached, watching the sky through his window. She sensed an unusual reiatsu leaking out of him just a little. Next to his bed was Isane, her lieutenant, healing him. She noticed the bandages on his arms, went yellow because of the liquid oozing out of her burns. Even from far she could tell by the wavering in the reiatsu, his condition was far from stable. She wondered what could cause this in such a young and helpless child.

"Hello, Isane." she said, smiling.

"Ah; Captain!" the tall woman jumped on her feet. "I was trying to heal the burns just now. They are healing just like normal burns after they're rid of the alien reiatsu."

"Alien? What do you mean by that?" Unohana asked, concerned.

"The reiatsu covering the burns doesn't match with his..."

"The name is Fuji, as I'm told."

"Alright. It doesn't match with Fuji's reiatsu. It's as if someone has burnt him using kidou." Isane finished.

"I doubt there's a kidou that burns only the lower halfs of limbs. It is good that we know how to heal him now, though, we must find the root of it." said Unohana with a serious face. "Let me see."

She examined the kid more throughly. What she found out wasn't much more than what Isane had just told. Kid had an unstable reiatsu, carefully suppressed by his will; but he was unable to control it fully. He must have been training by himself, she thought. She also agreed with Matsumoto about the great Shinigami potential in him. The burns were covered with some alien reiatsu that seemed very familiar to her. It was wilder, more hollow-like, but probably the kid's own reiatsu. Had he been doing this to himself unconsciously? What was making him burn like this? It could be because of some psychological problem the kid had. She remembered Matsumoto saying he was burning in his sleep. Maybe it was nightmares. Well, this diagnosis was definitely a high possibility considering the kid couldn't talk and was somehow detached from everything happening around him. It was probably some kind of psychological problem. It'd be better if she knew what he was like before the burnings started; this way she'd be more certain. She still had to have him observed through the night, though. She had to see for herself what was happening.

"Isane?" she said.

"Yes, Captain?" Isane answered immediately.

"Can you please ask Lieutenant Matsumoto to investigate this a little further? We may need to know his medical history. Ask her to look for the parents and find out the details about his lifestyle before these burns. And, please call Hanatarou here to change the bandages. Make sure he doesn't know about the details. He must be resting now."

"Yes."

Isane quickly made her way out of the room. Unohana examined the detached kid for a while, trying to figure out more about the alien reiatsu and the connection it had with his own reiatsu. There were just a little of the alien reiatsu left since Isane had cleaned them from the burns in order to heal him, so she couldn't find out much more. The kid was mostly healed, but there would probably be scars left.

"Umm, Captain Unohana..." said Hanatarou's voice behind her, hesitantly as always. She turned around and smiled at him.

"Come in, Hanatarou."

Hanatarou came in, looking around with his usual sleepy eyes.

"Isane-san brought me here, saying I should take care of one kid..." said Hanatarou, again hesitantly.

"Yes, that's right. This kid here is named Fuji. He is a little detached and has burns. You are responsible of him for now. Please take care of him and don't get out of the room unless something urgent happens."

"OK!"

Hanatarou hurried to the kid and started changing the dirty bandages with new, sterile ones. After that he would start healing the rest of the burns and keep watch. Unohana walked out of the room. She was wondering if she should report Fuji or not; but she'd have to eventually. She was going to wait for the night and decide how urgent things were after seeing what would happen.

...

Hitsugaya stretched a little and got up from the couch he had been sleeping on. It was almost impossible to believe he'd sleep for so long, it was already getting dark. He was all stiff.

"Oh, captain! You're up! I was getting all worried!"

He felt the too familiar softness pressed against the back of his head along with the "forever flirty" voice of his lieutenant. A vein popped on his forehead as he pushed her away.

"Drop it, Matsumoto!" he growled.

"You're so cold, Captain! I was worried for you here!" she whined like a puppy.

"Shut up." he said as he glanced on the table, expecting to see unfinished paperwork still there; but he didn't see what he'd expected.

"Haaaah, and I even finished my paperwork! It was a real torture!" she kept on, "At least praise me, captain!"

"It wasn't even half of the amount you should be doing." he sighed. He had gotten enough of her whining to get used to it but somehow she still managed to get on his nerves. He honestly thought she should be awarded for such performance.

"You're breaking my heart, Captain..." she whined in her most flirty voice he was so used to hear.

"Who knew your heart could actually be broken?" he muttered to himself loud enough for her to hear.

"Jeez, Captain! What's with you today?" she snapped suddenly, "You don't believe what i say, make me do the paperwork while you sleep and then you insult my little vulnerable heart."

Hitsugaya snorted. Little vulnerable heart? Matsumoto? They didn't sound right when used at the same sentence.

"Stop it, Captain..." she whined again. "I worked my hardest, at least praise my efforts a little!"

She was definitely loving this game of hers. She had always loved irritating him, making him snap. He sometimes wondered if she actually liked hearing him shout "MATSUMOTOOO!" at her. He also wondered why she was still alive when he had wanted to struck her with lightning bolts of 5000 volts so often.

"Drop it." he said again. For a while Matsumoto stayed silent and then turned to him again with her most charming smile.

"Say, Captain," she said with a silky voice, "may I be excused from paperwork tomorrow since I've done almost five times more than I would do in one day today?"

Who are you and what have you done to Matsumoto? Was what he well would like to say; but that definitely wouldn't be rational. "And what makes you ask that?" he asked instead. Matsumoto smirked.

"See? When I act all obedient and good even you are worried." she said grinning at him.

"Oh, shut up!" Hitsugaya growled again.

"So, Captain," Matsumoto said, with her most flirty voice again, "don't you wonder what I'm up to? Hmm?"

"No." He answered clearly.

"Really," Matsumoto sighed, "You spoil all the fun! And I was going to invite you to the search I'll be doing so you'd be saved from work for one day. Even you need to take a break!"

"And who makes me work twice as more by not doing her work, I wonder..." he murmured.

"So, what do you say?" Matsumoto asked. She had clearly heard him but was pretending not to have heard.

"What are you searching for?" Hitsugaya asked back instead of answering her right away. He knew well from his past experiences that answering her without knowing every little detail would be a fatal mistake. Also, he knew he didn't want to skip his paperwork for something minor since he'd have to do more afterwards.

"Fuji's family. If I can learn more about him, he may get better, after all."

"And who is Fuji?"

"The kid I've told you about. The kid I've been searching for and found. I've brought him here, as I've already told you. Though you definitely didn't believe me. I wonder what I've done wrong for you not to believe me. Setting that aside, the kid is very interesting and I want to keep on helping him. Oh, wait; I've already told you that too!"

"I get it, don't repeat it so much." Hitsugaya growled. Really, whose fault was it that he couldn't bring himself to believe her when it came to skipping paperwork? He sighed again. "So, why do you want to search for his past so much?"

"Shall I show you something very interesting, Captain? I believe there's gonna be a big uproar at the secret room of Captain Unohana tonight. I also believe you'll understand what I mean once you witness it." She chirped with her sweetest voice, looking pretty amused about something he didn't know.

"It's already almost night." Hitsugaya claimed, calmly. Matsumoto grinned at him and walked out under the moonlight. He followed her quietly as she led the way to fourth division.

A/N: Wow, it's been such a long time since I uploaded something. Actually, it's been such a long time since I last wrote anything.I was just too busy with the exams and the stuff I had to memorize. I barely had time for myself at all. so, this is some small morsel; hope you like this. review please, I appreciate them a lot. thank you!