Here's Chapter 3! Hope you like it.

I'm sorry it the writing seems a little rough, but I really wanted to put up the next chapter and I probably didn't edit as much as I should have.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

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"What the hell is your problem!?!"

"My problem?!? "

"You're the one who can't do anything right!"

"Oh like you can do everything!"

"At least I have some sort of control over my spiritual pressure!"

"I can control it!"

"Almost blowing my arm off is not what I would call control!" Rukia was furious. That idiot had almost killed her. It had already been a month and he still couldn't control his spiritual pressure.

Rukia glared at her so-called partner. She then raised her hand and pointed her finger at him and yelled, "BINDING SPELL, NUMBER ONE! SAI!"

At her words, Ichigo's arms were immediately forced into a bind behind his back. Taken by surprise Ichigo lost balance and fell forward onto the hard floor.

Damn it!

Rukia then pulled out a marker from her bag andtoward his fallen form with an evil smirk on her face. When she reached him she leaned down and drew a mustache on his face.

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!?!"

"I was just getting some pay back," Rukia replied, laughing as he desperately tried to get out of his rather difficult situation. Plus, he looked absolutely ridiculous with the drawn mustache on his face. "To bad you don't have enough control over your spiritual pressure to get yourself out of this little predicament."

Ichigo was about to make some sort of retort but was cut off by the sensei. "All right everyone! I think we've worked enough with kido for today."

As he watched everyone sort of shuffle around, he noticed that one group was not doing anything. He sighed. Those two were at it again. Did they ever stop? Really! This had to be the tenth time this week. And it was only Wednesday! "Hey! Rukia! Get him out of that spell and switch over to the next activity!"

Rukia looked up at the sensei and put on her best acting face. "Oh I'm so sorry sensei, but I don't know how to do the counter spell!"

"Bitch," muttered Ichigo, loudly enough for her to hear.

"Watch the profanity Kurosaki." Evidently the sensei had heard him too. He gave another sigh as he quickly undid the binding spell. These two are ridiculous. "Oh, and you might want to wash the mustache off too."

Ichigo grumbled as he headed off to wash off his face. Rukia watched him go with the smirk back on her face, admiring her handy work.

"Okay," said the sensei as Ichigo came back. "Now that we are finally ready, let's move on to some hand-to-hand combat."

Rukia groaned as they got into their stances. Even though they had been fighting like cats and dogs for the past month they had gotten to know each other on some circumstances. Mainly it was that she was really good at kido while it was Ichigo who was good at Martial Arts.

Ichigo smirked. He could tell exactly what she was thinking by the look on her face. She wouldn't be winning this time. But, inwardly he frowned. It's not like can just hit her! She is a girl after all! Even though she doesn't act like it.

As they started, Rukia immediately became frustrated. Even though I keep throwing hits and punches all he does is block! He won't try to actually strike me.

"Are you really so weak that you can only block Kurosaki?" Rukia taunted trying to hide her frustration.

Ichigo growled. She really knew how to get on his nerves.

"No," he replied, trying to keep calm. "I just thought it was rude to hit a girl, especially one that could pass off as a kid. "

"Ugh!" grunted Ichigo as Rukia landed a blow to his stomach, forcing to double over.

Ichigo looked up to see a very angry Rukia glaring down at him with her deadly gaze that he had come very well acquainted with in the past month.

"Care to repeat that Strawberry?"

"Sure, midget."

"Carrot top!"

"Shorty!"

"Can all you do is mock my height?!?"

"No, you stupid bunny lover!"

"There is nothing wrong with bunnies!"

"Yeah, but there is defiantly something wrong with your perception of art!"

"Bastard!"

"Ass-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" yelled the sensei form the other side of the room. These two were now getting really aggravating. "ALRIGHT EVERYONE! We will now move on to the next thing. Everyone, get your swords and start working on your form."

The sensei watched as the Rukia and Ichigo went to go get their sword and then face each other and get in their stances. When he blew the whistle they charged at each other. When it came to swords they were both pretty much equal so they felt that there was no reason to hold back.

"Hmm," the sensei said as he watched their swords clash together. "Maybe I should have had them use the wooden swords..."

Momo looked up from her work when her roommate entered the room, slamming the door behind her. Rukia looked furious as she stormed across the room throwing her bag on the ground.

"Did Kurosaki get on your nerves again today?" asked Momo who was all too familiar with what caused Rukia to come home every night in a very bad mood.

"That would be an understatement," replied Rukia as she sat on her bed.

"What did he do this time?"

"That idiot can't do anything!" Rukia decided to just let out all of her anger. "He can't control, his spiritual pressure, he almost blew my arm off today when we – or more accurately I – were practicing kido. And since we're unfortunately partnered together we are supposed to be doing outside training as well, but I can hardly stand him as it is! Not to mention that we get into these huge fights, insulting each other every second!"

"Well, since you two obviously dislike each other, why don't you ask for a switch?" suggested Momo.

"Don't you think I already tried that?"

"Well, I don't really know what else to say Rukia, except that maybe you should try to get along with him," Momo braced herself.

"GET ALONG WITH HIM! WITH THAT ASSHOLE! ARE YOU INSANE? That's not possible!"

"Rukia, he can't really be that bad. I mean, I'm sure that you get on his nerves to."

"He started it!"

"Uhh…Rukia…I don't want to sound mean, but you really sound like a five year old right now."

Rukia looked at her friend and immediately felt bad. It wasn't her she was angry with. She let out a sigh. "I'm sorry Momo, I didn't mean to get so upset, it's just he-"

"Don't worry Rukia! I know. I understand. I didn't take any offense." Rukia looked up at her to see same happy and bubbly Momo that she had become friends with.

"Thanks Momo."

Another month passed and Rukia thought she was going to go insane. As she walked down the halls of the school she thought to herself. Did I really make the right decision to come here? So far things have been going pretty bad. Maybe I should just quit.

Then suddenly, her thought s were interrupted when she heard someone call her name.

"Hey Rukia!" Rukia turned around to see Renji coming up to her with a group of students behind him. She never thought she would be so happy to see him. She hadn't seen her childhood friend since the first day.

"Renji!"

Renji looked down at her. What was she doing just walking around? "What are you standing out here for?" asked the red head. "It's been two months already! Haven't you gotten with the program yet?"

Rukia frowned at her friend. Who was he to say that she hadn't been doing anything for the past two months? "What! Well, what about you?"

That's when Rukia noticed the group of boys standing behind him. Well it looks like he's made some friends, unlike me…

The blonde boy seemed to notice her gaze and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Izuru Kira. I'm roommates with Renji and we're both in the same class, actually we're partners," he said extending out his hand.

Rukia put on a forced smile and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Rukia."

After she broke from the hand shake, she noticed that the group had a lot of things with them and asked. "…You're carrying a lot of bags. Is there a training exercise today?"

"Yeah," said Renji who seemed please that she had asked. "We're taking a field trip to the world of the living. We're going to perform konso!"

Rukia just looked at them, trying to prevent the disappointment that was threatening to appear on her face. "What? That's not fair!" said Rukia, trying to change her attitude.

"Of course it's fair!" argued Renji. "We're the elite!" Rukia felt anger stir inside of her at his arrogance.

The group started walking away toward their destination while Renji called over his shoulder, "We'll be way ahead of you when we get back! See ya!"

"Oh yeah?" retorted Rukia. "I'm the one who will be….ahead." But he was already too far away to hear her.

As they disappeared around the corner, Rukia watched them with a heavy heart. She thought she would have been happier after seeing Renji after all of this time. He was her friend. They had known each other for a long time and had gone through so many things together. She had thought that they would go through this together too.

She sighed. I don't think I should be here anymore.

As they rounded the corner and were safely out of ear shot, Izuru smiled and looked over at Renji. "So that was Rukia, the girl that you've had a crush on since you were kids in Rukongai?"

Renji turned to look at his friend and glared at him, regretting that he had revealed that private information to him.

Izuru laughed when he saw his friend's face. "If you've known her for so long then why don't you ask her out already?"

"It's not that easy. She really isn't that type of girl."

"Yeah but still-"

"How about this," said Renji cutting him off. "I'll ask Rukia out after you do the same to Momo."

Izuru was quiet after that last comment.

Rukia was depressed as she walked down the corridor, seriously debating whether or not she should leave. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she wasn't paying any attention to where she was going. Instead she aimlessly walked around trying to come up with some sort of decision.

As Ichigo was walking back to his dorm he noticed Rukia coming his way. He was confused. Why was she down here? It's not like they had a class or anything. As she got closer he noticed that her head was down and she seemed to be in deep thought.

"Rukia?" he said not sure what was going on.

When she looked up to see him, Ichigo could also tell that she was in a bad mood and defensively brought his hands out in front of him, waiting for her to deliver a blow.

When nothing came, Ichigo slowly looked out from behind his hands and after making sure it was safe, he lowered his hands.

Rukia was back to looking at the ground. Ichigo was surprised that she hadn't done anything to him yet. Usually by now, she would have given him a good punch to the stomach or a swift kick to his shins, depending on the mood she was in. But, this time she didn't do anything. And for some unexplainable reason, it bothered him.

Rukia was vaguely aware of Ichigo's confusion and answered him. "Don't worry Kurosaki; it's not you that I mad at right now."

Ichigo didn't respond. He was too confused. Why the hell was she acting like this? This was Rukia! She was not a person to get so….depressed. Wait a minute! Why the hell would I care!

"I'm quitting," said Rukia suddenly. Ichigo jumped at that did that come from?

"What?"

"You heard me. I'm leaving," she repeated. "Actually this works out for you, you won't have to deal with me anymore."

As she said this she finally looked up and Ichigo was taken aback with what he saw. He looked into her deep violet eyes and saw pain. He also recognized something else…loneliness?

"I'm still confused as to why you're leaving," said Ichigo slowly. "Are you sure it doesn't have to do with me?"

"Well… you might have been part of it," said Rukia honestly. "But, there was someone else too…"

"Why are you letting this get to you so much?" said Ichigo.

Rukia looked up at him confused. He almost sounded concerned. "Why the hell would you care?"

"What? Well…that's not really it…I mean," said Ichigo trying to get his thoughts together. "It's more like I don't understand why one of the toughest girls I know is quitting. It just doesn't really make sense, because it seems to me like you were born to be a Shinigami."

Rukia stared up at him, shocked from getting a complement from him. "I-I'm really not that strong," she said.

"Are freaking kidding me! Coming from the girl who kicks my ass everyday!" Rukia had to give a small smile to that.

Ichigo looked at her and could tell that she still didn't really believe him and besides that she still looked pretty down. He frowned until he suddenly came up with an idea. "Come with me." And with that grabbed her by the wrist and started running down the hall.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR ARE DOING!" yelled Rukia as she was forcibly dragged down the hall. When Ichigo didn't answer she shouted again. "Would you at least stop dragging me! You're legs are to freaking long! I can't run as fast as you!"

Luckily for Rukia, the trip was short and Ichigo finally stopped. Rukia looked up at the door. "Why are we at the training room?" she asked.

"Because," said Ichigo as he walked inside, pulling her in behind him. "I want to show you that you're wrong about your decision in leaving."

Rukia just looked at him as he went over to cabinet and picked out two swords. He had to be the strangest person she had ever met. She had known him for two months and he had been the biggest bastard in the world and now he was suddenly being nice to her? It almost sounded as if he wanted her to stay. What the hell am I thinking? There is no way that's possible!

"Here," said Ichigo as he threw her a sword. "Now I know you said that I was only part of the problem, but I'm sure you would have no complaints to taking your anger out on me. Also you can use kido if you want too."

Rukia stared at him holding the sword. "What is the point of this?"

"Well, like I said you can take out some of that pent up anger and hopefully if all goes well, it will take your mind off of whatever is bothering too."

Rukia smirked. "Well…I still don't think I really get it, but if you're letting me fight you up for free than I guess I should take advantage of the situation."

"If that's how you want to look at, then sure."

And with that, they began. As the fight progressed Rukia found out that what Ichigo had said was coming true. She found that she was thinking less about what had happened to her and was more focused on her current fight. Rukia was also surprised that she was actually enjoying this. Maybe he was right, I do feel as if holding a sword and using it to fight was something that I was born to do.

Rukia finished off their duel by blasting kido right at him. Ichigo, in order to save himself from getting permanently damaged, held up his sword, which shattered on impact. Rukia then took her own sword and placed its point on his chest.

Ichigo smirked at her. "Looks like I was right."

Rukia gave him a small glare. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of being right. "I never said I was going to stay." Ichigo looked at her disbelievingly.

"But," she said. "Maybe I'll considerate it if we actually train together more outside of the regular classes like we're supposed to. That way maybe I'll actually get strong, as you say I am. Besides I doubt that anyone else would be able to deal with you."

"Fine then," said Ichigo as she put away her sword. "It's a deal. But, umm… can I just ask you a question?"

"What's the question?" She supposed that it was fair for him to ask.

"Well… would you mind me asking who made you so upset?" Ichigo was unsure whether or not she would actually be willing to answer his question.

"It was a…friend of mine, his name is Renji," said Rukia hesitantly. Why did he care? "We had known each other since we were kids. We grew up in Rukongai and we came to the Shinigami Academy together. I had thought that we would still be close here, but that really didn't happen…"

"Renji?" repeated Ichigo. "You mean that weird pineapple head?"

Pineapple head? What was he talkin- ohhh… Rukia couldn't help herself; she had to laugh at that.

Ichigo watched her laugh, confused. "Pineapple head!" more laughing. "That name really does fit him." Laughing again. Wow! When was the last time I had laughed? thought Rukia.

When she had finally calmed down Ichigo asked, "So is he still your friend now?"

Rukia's face instantly became more serious and Ichigo regretted asking his second question. "I don't know," answered Rukia. "I really don't know…"

Guessing that the conversation was over, Rukia turned to leave until she was stopped when Ichigo suddenly spoke. "Wait! Rukia!"

Rukia turned to face the orange head. "Yeah?"

"Look…um… I just wanted to say sorry," he said. "I'm sorry for acting like a jerk for the past couple of months. And I really do think that you should stay."

Rukia stared at him, surprised by his sudden apology. He was actually sorry for what he had done? … Maybe she had judged him a little too harshly these past couple of months. After all, it was half her fault too.

Rukia turned back around and started walking back to the door. But right before she left, she turned looked over her shoulder and said, "Thanks. Thanks Kuro- I mean- Thanks Ichigo."

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So...What did you think? This was a pretty important chapter, which is why it took longer for me to update.

A/N: 1.. Do you think I'm taking the story too fast? I didn't want to drag it out too long either, because I have other plans for the story too.

2. Also, I would just like you to take note that from here on the time thing in the Soul Socitey is going to get a little weird and won't completly match-up. They really aren't going to be in school for years and years. I don't want to bore you.

3. Oh and I think Rukia may have been a little OOC in this chapter.

I would also like to thank tah25 and TwilightAmethyst for reviewing!

PLEASE REVIEW!

~StrawberryShinigami