Wow! Chapter 4 got 6 reviews! Thank you so much: J'anime Manga, SplitToInfinity, shell, Angelyn, Blacksword Zero, & ninjapirate6

I was so happy with the reviews that I just had to update. So hear is chapter 5! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Does Anyone actually read these things? Anyway...I don't own Bleach.

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"Ichigo! Wake up!" Rukia yelled as see pounded on the door. When nothing happened, she shouted again. "Come on! We're going to be late!" Finding that her efforts were not doing any good, Rukia got fed up and slammed open the door herself.

When she entered the room, Rukia stormed over to the bed on the left, where the orange haired teen was sleeping. "Ichigo!" she yelled again.

Rukia received an annoyed grumble in response. "Ichigo we're going to be late!"

"What the hell Rukia?" He turned his head to consult his clock. "What?!?! It's six thirty in the morning!"

"I'm glad you've finally realized that it's morning. Now get up!"

"No way midget. It's still way too early to be getting up. Come back in a half hour." And with that he turned away from her and went back to sleep.

Rukia growled. "Look. You have this last chance to get up."

"No way."

"I think you're really going to regret that answer." Then with out another word she stomped out of the room, not missing the sigh of relief from Ichigo. Rukia marched down the hall toward the bathroom looking around for the item she needed. She smirked to herself when she found a bucket in the corner. She picked it up and then brought it over to the sink. Then turning on the cold water she filled up the bucket.

After completing her task, Rukia lugged the bucket of water back toward the room and walked over to Ichigo's bed. "You are sure, that you're not going to wake up?"

She heard Ichigo mutter something inaudible, which Rukia took as a yes. "Alright then, but don't blame me." Then she lifted the bucket up and splashed the cold water on to the sleeping boy.

Upon feeling the contact of the cold water on his skin, Ichigo immediately jumped up out of bed. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!" yelled Ichigo as he shivered in his now wet clothes.

Rukia laughed at him, enjoying Ichigo's reaction. It looks like she had found a new method for waking him up.

Ichigo stormed passed her, grabbed his uniform and headed to the bathroom. After he had left, Rukia turned to Ichigo's roommate who was just getting up.

"Sorry about that Chad," said Rukia.

The giant Mexican looked up at her and gave her a small smile. "I am use to it by now." Using as few words as possible, he did not talk much. Rukia returned the smile and headed out the door.

When she reached the bathroom, Ichigo go was just coming out. "Well, it looks like someone is finally moving."

Ichigo glared at her. "You didn't have to wake me up like that."

"How else should I get you out of bed?"

"I think the real question is: why did you feel the need to wake me up so early?"

"In case you forgot Strawberry, we are going on our first trip to the world of the living today and we're supposed to meet earlier."

"I seem to remember the meeting time to be seven thirty and just in case you forgot how to tell time, it's six forty-five."

"Well I figured that we could get a little practice in before we left," said Rukia as she led them toward the practice rooms. Ichigo reluctantly followed grumbling something about a 'crazy bitch' and 'why couldn't she have told him before?'

"Everyone gather around and stay close," yelled Hisagi to the shinigami-in-training. Ichigo, Rukia, and the rest of their fellow classmates were standing in front of their instructor for the day, Shuhei Hisagi. Just behind him were two others who were his assistants and behind them was a traditional double door, the opening to the world of the living.

"All of you are already partnered up, so you're going to stay in your pairs and once we get to the world of the living all of you will be assigned to a few souls in order to perform konso." A murmur of excitement traveled through the crowd at Hisagi's words.

"Hey!" yelled Hisagi. Everyone immediately went quiet. "I want everyone paying attention! A lot of things can happen in the world of the living. Just recently I got this scar from a hollow attack during a konso practice with the advanced class." He pointed to the fresh scratch over his right eye. A new nervousness stirred through the crowd.

"Momo told me about that incident with the hollow attack," Rukia whispered to Ichigo.

Ichigo gave her an interested look. He had only heard rumors about the incident and he new Rukia's roommate was in that class. "What happened?"

"Momo said that a bunch huge hollows attacked them during their class, but the weird thing was that no one was age to sense such giant hollows coming," retold Rukia.

"How the hell did they get out of that?" questioned Ichigo.

"Evidently there was a couple of captain class shinigami who showed up," said Rukia remembering what Momo had told her.

"Wow. I hope nothing like that happens to our class, you don't usually get so lucky twice," said Ichigo.

Before Rukia could respond, Hisagi started talking again. "Everyone will be getting a hell butterfly which is necessary in order to get to the world of the living." At this, a bunch of black butterflies flew toward the group, one to each person. "Okay now let's go," said Hisagi as he turned around and lead the group through the gate.

As they stepped out of the gate into a small town, several students looked around in wonderment, Rukia included.

Ichigo noticed Rukia's amazement at her surroundings. "You've never been to the world of the living, midget?" asked Ichigo.

Rukia was so enthralled with her the town that she did not immediately answer him. "No. I died when I was a baby so I have no memory it," she said as she examined the tall buildings. Then added as an after thought, "and don't call me midget, Strawberry."

Rukia looked around trying to figure out this new strange world. Then, as she was looking around, she briefly thought about what Ichigo had said and how he had said it. "Wait Ichigo," said Rukia turning to him. Ichigo looked down at her. "Have you ever been to the world of the living?"

"Yeah," said Ichigo as he looked out at the town, which reminded him so much of his own. "I spent most of my childhood here; I was nine years old when I died."

"So you're pretty familiar with the world of the living?"

"Yeah, I know it well enough."

"How did you die?" Rukia asked curiously. It was a common enough question in the Soul Society, but as soon as Rukia asked the question, Ichigo's frown deepened, while his eyes grew darker and she could see the pain being reflected from them. Rukia was about to tell him that he didn't have to answer the question when Hisagi spoke up again.

"I want all of the groups to line up in front of me so that I can give them the location of the soul that they have to perform konso on." Then when Ichigo and Rukia got to the front, Hisagi pulled out a map and showed them where to go. "You two are to go down here, a few streets over, near the park and there is a soul over there."

Once they were sure of where they were going, the two took off down the streets to find the soul. When they reached the appropriate street, they started walking up it, searching. As they came toward the park, they started hearing crying. Ichigo and Rukia went over to find a small girl wearing a dress and her hair up in pigtails.

As they got closer the girl, noticing the strangers' presence looked up and they saw that the left side her face was blood as if she had been in some sort of accident, which they made them conclude that this was the ghost that they were assigned. They also noticed that the girl was crying and looked terrified.

Ichigo and Rukia both walked toward the child as the scared girl backed up against the wall as much as she could. "Don't worry," said Rukia in a soft "We're from Soul Society and are here to help you."

"Wow Rukia," said Ichigo. There was a hint of humor in his voice. "I didn't know it was actually possible for you to be nice."

"Shut up Ichigo!" hissed Rukia. Then she turned back to the girl. "We won't hurt you. We're going to bring you to a better place."

The girl looked up at Rukia with a little glimmer of hope in her eyes, which soon faded when she remembered something. "B-b…b..but," she stuttered. "W-wha-t-t….a-about…t-the…m-m-monster?"

"Monster?" asked Rukia confused. Then all of a sudden, they felt it. A cold spiritual pressure over came there senses. The three heard a noise coming from the other side of the street. They looked over to see the air ripping open and a claw reaching out.

"Rukia…" said Ichigo nervously as they backed up to the wall with the small soul. A huge head with a white mask soon followed the arm as the hollow stepped out on to the street. The watched as the creature's as it sniffed the air with a greedy smile on it's face.

"….three…souls…dinner," hollow said in it's deep and scratchy voice as it looked toward the three at the wall. Ichigo and Rukia stared at the hollow as it examined it's prey, desperately trying to figure out what to do next.

Suddenly, catching them by surprise the hollow charged at them. Rukia was frozen; she knew that she had to do something, not just to save herself, but the girl clinging to her in fear. Ichigo reacted. As the hollow came in at them, he grabbed both Rukia and the girl in his arms and jumped out of the way.

When he landed, he found himself in the open area of the park. Rukia immediately pulled away from his hold and placed the girl on the ground behind them. Rukia and Ichigo then pulled out their zanpaku-tos and watched as the hollow finally figured out what had happened and turned toward them again.

This time when it charged they were a little more prepared. Rukia aimed and fired kido at the hollow, but it only fazed the beast on a small scale. Ichigo then took the initiative and charged at the attacking hollow, setting up for an attack. When Ichigo came closer, the hollow raised one of its huge hands and swung it down at the orange haired boy.

"Ichigo!" screamed Rukia as the hollow threw Ichigo back hitting him against a building. She watched as Ichigo slowly started to stand up from the debris; she could tell that he was disoriented from the blow and she could see blood clashing with his bright hair.

The hollow deciding that it would start with him, prepared to attack Ichigo again. Something deep down in Rukia's stomach churned t the thought that Ichigo probably would not survive another blow. Then as the hollow started going at him again, Rukia did the only thing she could think of.

As he tried to stand, he could feel his whole body shaking and could feel the blood trickling down his neck. His was also vaguely aware of the hollow coming at his again, opening it large mouth with obvious intent. Ichigo tried to raise his sword to protect him, but he knew in the back of his mind that it probably wouldn't do him any good.

The hollow was suddenly right in front of him, but as it came to take a bite of him, Ichigo saw a blur as something or someone ran in between the attack.

Now suddenly, fully aware at what was going on, Ichigo watched in horror as Rukia got in the hollow's path and took the blow for him. He was frozen in shock as its teeth sunk into her shoulder and she cried out in pain.

At that point, everything came to a still as the hollow paused in confusion. Rukia took this time to sputter, "What are you waiting for you idiot! Kill it!"

Her words pulled Ichigo back into reality and he quickly raised his sword, his spiritual pressure rapidly increasing. He then brought down his zanpaku-to with as much power as he could.

The hollow immediately released Rukia and both of them watched as it screamed out in pain. It then started to break off into spiritual particles, leading off with the mask , which revealed the face of man, before that too disappeared.

After the hollow had completely vanished, Rukia suddenly felt her body become heavy as she fell to the ground. Ichigo rushed over to his injured partner and examined her body, seeing that her shoulder was bleeding profusely.

Ichigo could just here Ukitake-taicho's words ringing threw his ears. Now he was really regretting not being able to heal. As a substitute, Ichigo ripped off his left sleeve and shred it into long strips wrapping them tightly around the wound.

Rukia gasped as she felt the pain from her wound. "W-what…what about the s-soul?" she asked in a shaky voice.

Now finished bandaging her arm, Ichigo looked up to see the girl standing next to him, looking down mournfully at Rukia. "She's right here."

"We…need…to…k-konso," she sputtered.

"Okay. Here, let me do it," said Ichigo as he reached for his zanpaku-to and pressed the hilt to the girl's forehead.

"Thank you," whispered the girl as she disappeared into a circle of light.

Rukia gasped in pain as she tried to sit up. "Stop!" said Ichigo as he forced her to lie back down on the ground. "You're going to make it worse if you overexert yourself."

Rukia growled. "Well then how do you propose we get back to the group?"

Ichigo gave her a smirk. "Like this," he said and with that he scooped her up into his arms and slowly started to make his way to the street.

Both surprised and outraged, Rukia began to protest. "What the hell do you think you're doing you idiot! Put me down!"

"Please, if I let you walk, you wouldn't even make it one step."

"I am fine! Now let me walk by myself you stupid strawberry!"

Ichigo was about to argue back with some insults of his own, when a very exasperated looking Hisagi appeared in front of them.

He stared at the condition of the two. "What happened?"

"A hollow showed up, but we were able to defeat it and perform konso on the soul," said Ichigo answering the instructor's question. Hisagi just gasped at them in shock.

These two shouldn't be able to do something like that at their level!

Ichigo cut off Hisagi's thoughts. "During the fight, Rukia got badly injured." Rukia opened her mouth to protest, but Ichigo continued speaking. "I'm not good with kido, so I bandaged her up as much as I could, but I'm not sure how well I did."

Hisagi looked at Rukia's injured shoulder. "It looks fine for now, though I do suggest that you keep carrying her until we get back." Rukia frowned. "We had just finished up and were heading back when I noticed that the two of you were still missing and that's when I heard the hollow scream." Ichigo nodded.

Then Hisagi pulled out his zanpaku-to and cut into the air, ripping open the gate to the Soul Society. The double doors opened, three hell butterflies emerged to lead them back home.

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I hope you liked the chapter! PLEASE REVIEW!!!

PS I would also like to thank me sister for reading and reviewing my stories! (She wanted me to write this)

~StrawberryShinigami