Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and because of that I don't think I have to put this in every chapter, so if you will please note that this disclaimer applies to all of the upcoming chapters.

Renji was in a bad mood. There was really no other way to describe it. Actually it had been like this for the past month. The reason? That stupid orange head was now in his class. On the plus side, Rukia was in his class too, but according to Renji she was spending way too much time with that Ichigo.

Renji saw them together all the time: doing homework, practicing, or even just sitting out on the lawn talking. It was true that they spent most of their time arguing, but still, he was still with her.

And it wasn't just outside of class, but during class too. Sometimes he would see them talking during a particularly boring lecture (or sometimes Rukia drawing while Ichigo criticized her). And the problem was Renji was too far away to do anything about it. Also in the training room, even he was forced to admit that their teamwork was good. They just seemed to know where to go and what the other would do.

He hated it. Why did Rukia seem so distant? Why did she seem to be slipping away so fast? And why the hell was she so close to that idiot? They had grown up together! They knew each other better than anyone else. Actually…now that he thought about it, they hadn't really spoken much all year.

And now that year was rapidly coming to an end. In month they would be taking their final exams and if all went well they would be graduating shortly after that and taking their places in their assigned companies.

Renji grumbled as he walked down the hall, glaring at anyone who would dare look at him.

"Hey Renji!" came a voice. Renji's head snapped up to see who dared to bother him.

Seeing him finally look up, Izuru walked up to his friend. "Renji! Wanna-" but he stopped when he noticed the deadly look on Renji's face. "What wrong?" Renji just glared. "What? Is Ichigo getting on your nerves again?" But, Izuru already knew the answer to his question.

Izuru let out a sigh. He was probably the only one who knew how Renji felt; they had been living with each other for the past year. "You know, I just saw Rukia a few minutes ago talking to Momo," Renji didn't seem to respond. "And Ichigo was nowhere in sight."

That made Renji start. The anger immediately washed away from his face as a more hopeful one took its place. "Where?" he asked.

Izuru pointed in the direction he had come from. "Down the hall and to the right."

"Thanks!" Renji shouted over his shoulder as he ran down the corridor.

When he rounded the corner he immediately spotted her at the other end waving good-bye to Momo. He kept running, hoping that she wouldn't go too far.

"Rukia!" She didn't seem to hear him. "RUKIA!!"

Startled Rukia spun around with a confused look on her face as she spotted Renji coming towards her.

He finally stopped right in front of her. "Hey Rukia!"

Rukia gave him an unsure smile in return. "Hi Renji. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I…um, uh…I had just spotted you and, uh, we haven't really seen each other in a while…"

"But, I just saw you an hour ago in class." Rukia didn't get where he was going with this.

"That's not what I meant." He let out a frustrated sigh. Why didn't she look so happy to see him? "I meant…well we haven't really talked in awhile and I was wonder if you wanted to, you know, maybe catch up."

Rukia's face relaxed as the confusion faded from her face, though Renji was being kind of random. "Sure! When would you like to meet?"

Renji's smile grew even wider at her reaction. "How about now?"

"I would, but Momo, Orihime, Tatsuki and I were going to go to Rukongai this afternoon for lunch."

"Well than…what about tomorrow after classes?"

"Sorry, but usually after classes Ichigo and I practice. Final exams are coming soon so we need to practice as much as much as we can." Renji's face darkened at the mention of Ichigo's name; Rukia didn't seem to notice.

"What about tomorrow night then?"

"I don't think I can. Ichigo is forcing me to read one of his books. What was the name? Shakespeare? I don't know, but Ichigo says that it's really good and he's been trying to convince me to read it for a while now." She laughed lightly to herself as if she was remembering something that Renji was obviously not a part of.

"The weekend?" asked Renji who was praying that a trend wasn't forming.

"Ichigo and I are going to visit some friends in Rukongai."

"Then when can we get together!?!" Renji's anger was starting to build again.

"I'm really sorry!" said Rukia sounding distressed. "But, I am really busy and already have plans. I'm not trying to avoid you! Really I'm not!"

"Of course not!" said Renji sarcastically. "You're just too busy with your boyfriend."

Rukia immediately went on the defensive. "He is not my boyfriend!" Renji snorted in disbelief.

What's his problem? I haven't talked to him in months and then he just suddenly shows up and expects me to go along?

Rukia's anger flared, but before she could continue Renji turned around and stormed away.

"Hey! Wait, Renji!" But, he was already gone.

Renji stomped down the hall, not really paying attention to where he was going. He was boiling. No, Rukia wasn't slipping away, she was already gone. All because of that stupid, good for nothing-

Suddenly he spotted a flash of orange out of the corner of his eye. He spun around just in time to see the one who was the source of his anger slip into the training room. With his mind clouded with anger, Renji followed.

When he entered the room, Renji saw Ichigo taking out his zanpaku-to.

"What do you want?" asked an annoyed Ichigo, spotting Renji. Ichigo hoped that he didn't want to use the training room too. Besides the guy really annoyed him; he was always glaring at him.

Renji didn't respond, he just kept looking at him, analyzing him. He didn't look that strong.

Ichigo was getting annoyed. "Hey! I said-"

"I know what you said idiot," said Renji. Then he allowed a smirk to form on his face.

Renji reached toward his zanpaku-to and started to draw it. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

Ichigo eyed him watching as he pulled out his sword and held it out in front of himself. He looked like he was going to-

Then without warning Renji lunged forward bring his zanpaku-to across from the left.

Relying on his reaction speed, Ichigo brought up his own zanpaku-to defensively in front of himself, just blocking Renji's incoming attack. Renji's glare deepened in frustration. He brought back his zanpaku-to this time planning to bring it down on Ichigo's head.

Seeing what the red head was planning and being more prepared this time, Ichigo easily dodged the incoming strike, bringing his sword down on an angle toward Renji's shoulder.

Finding that his move was unsuccessful, Renji jumped back in order to evade Ichigo's zanpaku-to. When he stepped back in order recalculated his plan of attack, he felt a pain enter his right shoulder.

Damn that lucky bastard had actually been able to draw blood.

Furious, Renji charged in, yelling as he brought his sword down once again. Taken by surprise, Ichigo was unable to move out of the way this time and ended up with a long cut down his arm.

"Shit," Ichigo swore as the blood started running down his arm. Renji smirked and came in for another attack.

Not wanting to take any more damage, Ichigo charged in to meet Renji's blade. When the two swords clashed Ichigo didn't stop, instead he brought his leg up and sent a kick into Renji's stomach.

Renji went flying back into the wall, the wind completely knocked out of him. He was breathing heavily as he tried to stand again.

Seeing that the kick hadn't knocked him out, Ichigo ran towards Renji for a second attack.

With anger still boiling inside of him, driving his body forward, Renji reached out and met Ichigo's blade with his bare hand. He then pulled the surprised Ichigo forward causing him to fall out of balance. Using this opening, Renji brought his blade across once again, this time creating a huge gash across his opponent's chest.

Ichigo's eyes went wide as the pain hit him, spreading throughout his body. He could feel his now heavy body falling toward the ground.

As he fell, Renji pulled Ichigo's zanpaku-to out of his weak grasp and tossed it to the other side of the room. A smile of victory crossed his face as he looked down at his fallen opponent.

"And here I thought you would put up more of a fight," said Renji.

Ichigo muttered something.

"Sorry. What was that?"

Renji was suddenly taken aback as Ichigo's spiritual pressure started rapidly increasing. Ichigo lifted his upper body up, supporting it on one arm while he held the other out in front of him.

Ichigo gave Renji a smirk. "I said…HADO 31!! SHAKKAHO!!"

Renji watched in shock, unable to move, as a huge fire blast shot out from Ichigo's out stretched arm, aimed directly at him. Renji was hit by the blast and was once again thrown backwards into the wall.

On the other side of the room Ichigo was lifting himself back into a standing position and then quickly ran over to grab his sword where Renji had thrown it. He looked across to see Renji, whose clothing was now charred and his skin now burned, standing up to face him again.

Both of them held their sword out in front of them and with a yell they charged toward each other, picking up speed as they went.

"WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK YOU'RE DOING!!?"

Ichigo and Renji froze, only a foot apart, before they slowly turned toward the door. Rukia was standing there with her hands on her hips glaring at the two who were frozen in the middle of the room.

Rukia stomped over to where the two were standing and turned to Renji first. "So is this what you do when you get pissed off?" She gave a quick glance at Ichigo's wounds. "What the hell is your problem?"

Renji finally came out of his stupor. "It's none of your damned business!" Rukia gave him a look before turning to Ichigo.

"And you! Don't you ever think! Or are you really that stupid!" she shouted.

Ichigo glared at her. "Why the hell are you yelling at me? This guy just came in and attacked me!"

"Look at yourself!" she yelled back. "If you haven't noticed, you're bleeding and I can't heal absolutely every single wound you receive!"

"I never asked you too!"

Renji breathed heavily, as he watched the start getting into yet another meaningless fight. He found that this would probably be the best time to sneak out.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going!" yelled Rukia, who had easily seen Renji trying to leave.

Renji, who was now at the door, turned back to face her. "I was leaving, I have no business here."

"What!?!" This time it was Ichigo. "So you just come here, randomly attack me, and then just leave?!? I wouldn't mind some sort of explanation!!" But, Renji just ignored him and left.

Rukia watched him go for a second before spinning around to face Ichigo again.

"Come here let me see those cuts." Rukia reached forward to remove the cloth that was covering the damaged skin.

Ichigo pulled back. "I'm fine! Really! Don't waste your energy on me! I'll just get this fix at the infirmary. Besides I thought you were going to Rukongai this afternoon."

"I was, but then I felt your spiritual pressure drop and rushed over just as it started building."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? So you were worried about me?"

Rukia's cheeks were tinted red as she tried to glare at him. "Why would I care?" Ichigo shrugged. "Now come on let's get you to the infirmary before you bleed to death."

"I like I said you're worried."

"No I'm not!"

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PLEASE REVIEW! I would really like to know what you think of the chapter. I know it's not the best, but I would really like to hear your comments (though please don't be too harsh!)

Does anyone think that I am taking this story at too fast a pase? I don't know- they are going to be graduating very soon and I feel like I should have put more in about their time at the Academy, but at the same time I don't want to bore you and there are other things that I want to get to.

Also, I don't think I mentioned it (though you have probably already figured it out) but their zanpaku-tos are just the normal first stage blades, they wouldn't find out the names of their swords until a little later after they graduate. I did that because when Ichigo was going through Soul Society a bunch of the Shinigami seemed really weak and I was unsure if they needed to know that to graduate. Plus, it went along with how Ichigo doesn't learn the name of his zanpaku-to until he has to save Rukia.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed for Chapter 8!

~StrawberryShinigami