A Scorpions Secret Revealed

Roko rubbed his temples as he walked down the street. He had a late night with the plans and reports he gave Gaara and working on his latest project had left him with little time to rest. Now he was headed to Urahara's shop to pick up a new batch of sweets for his class, and some pocky to act as a pick-me-up for his tired body.

Along the way Roko noticed a black cat on the roof of a house watching him to which he glared back at as his had started twitching to grab something from under his cloak. The cat took off as soon as it saw his hand move but Roko's mood was already bad now that he had seen it.

Seeing Urahara's shop Roko quickly entered only to be met with the sight of a red haired boy shoving a brush at a purplish black haired girl making his eye twitch. With a flick of his wrist Roko sent a Reiraku string at the brush pulling it out of the red haired boy's hand and whacking him on the head with it.

"Jinta what have I said about how you should treat Ururu?" Jinta who had been about to yell at whoever hit him went pale as he looked at Roko like the Hollow King(1) had come to claim his soul.

"Uhh be nice to her and always treat her with respect." Jinta said as he continued to go paler as he watched Roko pull out a scroll with the kanji for Pain on it.

"Indeed I did so what exactly where you doing earlier then?" Roko's voice was calm as he started to open the scroll slowly and Jinta watched his life flash before his eyes before Kisuke stepped in and saved his employee.

"Ma ma Roko I'm going to ask you don't kill one of my team members please." Kisuke said as he revealed himself to the group. Roko looked ready to ignore Kisuke's request before sighing and putting the scroll away making Jinta sigh in relief before Roko knocked him out with the brush he still had a Reiraku string connected to.

"So what can I do for you?" Kisuke asked while Ururu dragged Jinta to the back of the shop making him chuckle and Roko to smile for a bit before answering.

"I need my normal bag of sweats for my class and two cases of pocky." Kisuke raised an eyebrow, the sweats were common and so was the pocky but Roko only ever ordered that much when he had been working for a long period of time and got little to no sleep.

"Alright so what has you up lately?" Kisuke asked as he started to make his way to the back to get Roko's order.

"Just a project that has been annoying me lately nothing for you to worry about," was all Roko said and Kisuke nodded. He knew better than to try a get Roko to tell him if he didn't want to the man was both tightlipped and a workaholic when it came to his Art.

As Kisuke went to the back of the store to get everything Roko watched Rukia walk in a scowl on her face which quickly turned into one of surprise as she spotted her art teacher. The look quickly changed to one of suspicion as she studied Roko much to his amusement.

"Is there something a can do for you Kuchiki-hime?" Rukia's eye twitched at the hime part but didn't otherwise react as he stared her teacher down. She had been feeling strange vibes coming from the man as soon as she had met him and knew for a fact he was more than a simple teacher.

"Who are you really Akasuna-san?" Roko raised an eyebrow at that curious as to what she meant. I haven't used my powers in front of her and this gigai is designed to suppress my powers combined with my control to make it almost impossible to tell I was more than human.

"And pray tell what do you mean Kuchiki-hime?" Roko asked in his best confused voice. He had years of practice in lying to the point he could only think of three people who could tell if he was honest or not no matter what he said and Rukia was definitely not one of them.

"Your Akasuna no Roko the Scorpion of Soul Society." Roko was shocked but he hid it well as his mind ran for miles. How could she know about me I wasn't that famous beyond lieutenants, hell the Caption Commander made sure my name never went beyond the lieutenants something about it being detrimental to moral. Were Roko's thoughts as his face went from the fake confusion to completely blank giving nothing about the thoughts racing through his head.

"That is a title I haven't heard for a long time but I'm more curious about how you even know about me as my existence was kept quiet to everyone under lieutenant?" Roko's voice was calm but there was an edge to it and his eyes promised death if she didn't answer honestly.

Rukia shivered at those eyes while trying to gather her courage. She didn't think he would have reacted like this from what she remembered from Naruto's stories but that had be over a hundred and twenty years ago more than enough time for someone to change.

"My Lieutenant Naruto used to tell stories about you along with Lieutenant Gaara and him when you three were alive. He also told us about you when he thought you had died saying, 'I won't let a friend die forgotten for all the things he has done to defend our home."

Roko stopped glaring at Rukia when she said that much too said girl's relief while he looked to the ceiling processed what she said and let out a humorless chuckle.

"That sounds like him so your part of division thirteen then that actually makes sense." He said as he turned his head to look at Rukia again.

"So what gave me away? My love for my Art or the way I dressed?" he blinked when Rukia shook her head at him indicating neither were correct.

"It was the painting Orihime gave you." Roko blinked, he recalled the painting as it had been Rukia's first day at school and he had placed her next to Orihime. The project for the day was to make a painting as the curriculum had required much to his annoyance so he simply told them to paint whatever they saw fit as long as it was school appropriate much to Keigo's disappointment.

He had been doing a quick sweep of the class to make sure they were doing as they were told when he had come across Ruikia's painting of Chappy the rabbit or at least that was what she said it was he had thought it was some cross of a bear hollow and the Jubi with rabbit ears.

After correcting her mistakes and giving her a few tips on how to improve Roko moved onto Orihime fully expecting something rather creative as he had seen several of her projects before. What he saw had stopped him cold as the panting depicted a red and purple scorpion cuddled next to a bee both having happy smiles on their faces as they slept in a rocky outcrop with a few trees around the edge and a sun smiling down on the pair.

He had been so shocked he hadn't heard Orihime calling his name till she had grabbed his shoulder. Roko was never more thankful for his father's constant lectures about control or he might have killed Orihime when she made him jump. Orihime not noticing his reaction had asked him if he was alright to which he had answered that he was fine then asked her why she had painted that particular picture.

Flashback

Roko waited as the well-endowed teen smiled at him when he asked why she had painted this picture.

"Well when Ms. Kicoo asked if you were seeing anyone you said to her that your heart belonged to your 'little bee' and the back of your cloak says scorpion on it so I thought it would be nice to make this for you since your such a nice teacher." Roko was speechless when Orihime finished with her explanation. He hadn't been given a true gift it over a hundred years mostly because everyone thought he was dead. That and he had never told Kisuke his birthday and he normally destroyed Yoruichi's gifts unless they were actually useful but thoughts weren't meant out of kindness they were meant to save her own skin.

"Thank you Orihime this was truly a thoughtful gift." Roko said as he smiled, it was a smile he hadn't smiled since Ichigo's sisters had been born. With that Roko left to let Orihime finish the painting his smile still on his face.

Flashback End

"Ok and how would that have told you who I was?" Roko asked genuinely curious as to why that had tipped her off.

Rukia suddenly found her shoes to be incredibly interesting as Roko continued to stare at her waiting for her answer. She had herself in a bind now as if she said why she was dead certain her lieutenant would end up dead if not worse but at the same time she might end up the test subject to Roko's newest poison if the rumors about his less friendly side were true.

"Rukia, why did the painting tip you off about my identity?" Roko's voice was once more calm and if you didn't look at his eyes you would think it was just a simple repeat yet she felt a chill run down her spine.

"Naruto told about how caption Soifon was the only person who could ever get you to get out of your workshop as Naruto called it for more than an hour unless said matter involved a fight or poison."

Rukia could almost cut the tension in the air the pen she had as Roko's face went blank. She nearly had a heart attack when Kisuke returned with Roko's order and was staring between Roko and herself.

"Kisuke I'm going to need to borrow you phone and the training room for the day." Roko said in a deceptively calm tone as said man quickly handed his phone over to Roko who walked off to call the school and inform them he wouldn't be able to teach today.

"What did you do?" Kisuke asked quietly his eyes never leaving Roko.

"Something that I'm sure is going to lead to lieutenant Naruto's death if Roko gets his hands on him." Kisuke wanted to ask more but felt it would be safer not knowing, he wasn't one for an early grave just yet.

In soul society a man sanding a 6'2'' with short spiky blond hair, blue eyes, and tan skin along with whisker marks similar to a fox suddenly shivered as a feeling of foreboding came over him.

"I suddenly feel like going to the human world would be a bad idea right now." Naruto thought out loud while a certain fox just snorted before going back to sleep.

Back at Kisuke's shop said man had was feeling very lucky for himself that Yoruichi was on a walk right know because Roko was pissed. Said man was alternating from destroying his training room to coming up with plans to kill Naruto for his 'overly big mouth.' Sadly the man had to leave the irate puppeteer to himself as he continued to run his store.

When Kisuke got back after dealing with the mid soul he found that said training room was a wasteland and a note from Roko on the door thanking him for letting him work off some stress as the man cried at the state of the room.

and another chapter done hope you liked it.

(1) Hollow King- no this is not barragan the hollow in question is actually the hollow version of the soul king even though no one has ever met it to anyone in all of soul society's knowledge and will probably not come up in this story beyond boogieman use.