Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Tite Kubo does. I do, however, own the OCs thus far.

Chapter 8

We were halfway through the game.

You know what's cool about Sanada? He has white hair.

You know what's cooler? He looks young with it.

Speed-wise, Sanada wasn't that bad. He's actually pretty decent when he came to running. No shunpo, but he could run really fast. As in, really fast.

As predicted, we were winning, with our combined tag time of 12 seconds to their 16 minutes and 32 seconds. Two of them were so slow they were almost pathetic. The other runner, on the other hand, was faster than Sanada, which was saying something, but it just wasn't enough to compensate for the two slowpokes.

By now, we could actually win even by holding the tags for the rest of the game.

…But where was the fun in that?

I was like the wind, whirling in between the contestants, removing tags off Sanada and tagging our opponents instead. It was a simple strategy Ayame, Sanada and I came up with during our little reprieve.

But if I was akin to the wind, Ayame could only be described as lightning. She leaped around at unbelievable speeds, doing the same thing I was doing. Her movements were precise, and she was twice as fast as I was. As she darted around her targets, only her silhouette was visible to the eye.

A normal eye, that is. Shunpo-stimulated eyes are very useful. I could see her every move.

Move to your right, now! I did as instructed and avoided their fastest runner by an inch.

Of course, having a helpful zanpakuto spirit is nice too.

I learned something from the game. Ayame plays with her food. Not literally food, but stuff in general. She would dodge someone by a single centimetre to taunt them, and her timing was perfect. Every. Time.

Scary.

We were leading (obviously) 17 seconds to 29 minutes 40 seconds. In a second, which felt like ages in shunpo, the whistle would blow.

"Stop!" Instructor Hajime shouted.

Okay, so there was no whistle. Who would've guessed?

Idiot. In the past match, there wasn't a whistle either.

Really? I guess I wasn't paying attention, elf-lady.

As soon as the signal was given, everyone excluding Ayame and I collapsed onto the ground, drenched in sweat and exhausted. In stark contrast, the two of us weren't even panting. I turned and followed Ayame back to where we were before the match, not before inviting Sanada to join us. He declined, however, and rejoined his friends at the other end of the room.

"Amateurs." Ayame muttered once we returned to our spot. Despite her harsh words, she had a small smile on her face. Looks like she had fun toying with them, after all.

We conversed for a while, and I learned a little about her, through observation, of course. Her formality sounded forced, as she had a look of distaste every time she went beyond casualness.

As our talk continued, she loosened up a little. While a majority of it was mild banter, she provided one juicy piece of information which caught my interest.

"Are you taking the Onmitsukido entrance exam?" She asked. "It's in six months time. You should be able to pass it easily."

That means she's probably interested in joining the Onmitsukido.

"I'm not sure yet. I'm still deciding." I answered truthfully.

"Stop!" Instructor Hajime shouted for the third time today. I stole a glance at the timer. 14 minutes to 16 minutes, in team 5's favour. It looks like it was a close match. As with Sanada and the others before, all of them collapsed onto the ground, desperate for a little rest.

Shuhei showed them no mercy.

"Okay, now that we're done here, let's move on. We're going to Hakuda next."

There were a few groans from the floor.

"If you don't get going, you're going to be left behind." He taunted in a singsong voice.

Only two of the six heaved themselves up to join the line. He sighed and continued.

"And if you're left behind, you're gonna get lost… which means you don't have to sit for the exams." That was the deathblow.

The rest quickly got up and joined the line as well.

There you go. The key points were lost and exams.

Hope we all learned something there.

With everyone in line, we started towards the Hakuda examination site. Hakuda was…

Hand-to-hand combat.

Oh yeah…

We made our way through more passageways and corridors with yet another left turn at the fork, indicating that we were moving in a square. Or maybe not, what with all the twists and turns we took.

We passed by group two on our way there, which was led by Rangiku. Some of the candidates had bruises on their faces, and it looks like there were a few of them sent home as well…This definitely promises to be fun.

…Okay, let's get a few things straight. I am not a violent person. In fact, I'm actually a pacifist who enjoys fighting.

Not possible, Shiro. A pacifist is someone who doesn't like fighting.

Enough of the smart remarks, elf-lady. You know what I mean.

…Not really, no.

We arrived at the Hakuda examination site, which was simply a larger variation of the Zanjutsu dojo.

…Told you all dojos look alike.

The people in the room were different, obviously. There were two, and once again, of different gender. Definitely anti-sexism.

The girl was kinda short and had medium length hair. Like her fellow examiner, she was dressed fully in black. He, on the other hand, was wearing a ninja mask over his face, so nothing but his eyes could be seen. They were a steely blue. Nothing else could be discerned about him behind the mask.

We assembled in front of the two, as we did with the others.

"I'm Instructor Hattori. I am in charge of the Hakuda section." He informed in a low, quiet voice.

"And I'm Instructor Kisaragi!" She chirped in a light, bubbly voice. "Imma ninja!"

"Kisaragi, please restrain yourself from referring to the Onmitsukido as ninjas." Hattori chided while shaking his head. "This is the third time I've told you that today."

"Aw, but-" She began, looking a little crestfallen.

"No buts." He cut her off. They seemed to have a mentor-mentee relationship. From their behaviour, it seemed fairly normal for this particular argument to occur.

"Now, for your Hakuda exam, as many of you have already guessed, we will be having a spar."

Some people already started moving to find partners. I glanced at Ayame, who hadn't moved an inch. She looked a little nervous, even worried, for some reason.

"That will not be necessary." He notified.

"The spar will be free-for-all. Everyone at once!" Kisaragi briefed. "Begin!"

She and her mentor disappeared before getting caught up in the chaos that ensued.

I immediately spun and bashed a candidate's head with my elbow. Seeing three more coming for me, I decided to be smart and disappear as well before getting caught in the centre. I stole a glance at where Ayame was earlier, and noticed that she decided to shunpo away like the instructors way before I did.

I backed into a corner. After all, a cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal. Besides, there were more advantages being at the corner. No one could attack my back, and they could only come at me two by two.

And come they did.

Before they reached me, I managed to locate Instructors Hattori and Kisaragi. They were sitting on the ceiling beams, of course. There were other figures in black as well, whom I assumed were the other members of the Onmitsukido. They were probably looking out for new recruits or something.

Shiro, they're coming! Elf-lady warned.

Heeding her warning, I immediately kneed one attacker-to-be in the stomach and grabbed his head, throwing him onto his 'partner'.

For some reason, they weren't attacking each other. From what I could see, they were only targeting Ayame, who was surrounded by eight people (man, she must've pissed them off), Sanada, who was standing alone in the centre of four or five bodies on the ground, and myself, who had only three people to fight.

So they decided to gang up on us.

So be it.

I began the offensive, side kicking one in the stomach. I jumped with my leg still extended in the air, twisting and landing a horizontal bicycle kick on another guy's head. As much as I would have liked to check if they were unconscious, I noticed that Ayame was struggling to keep up with eight people.

As such, I shunpo-ed into the air and landed expertly right behind her on someone's arm. There was a snapping sound.

Oh damn, I think I broke it…

Spidey-sense tingling! I immediately crouched, just in time to avoid a back swing from Ayame. It missed me, but it took one of her opponents approaching her from the back in the stomach, sending him sprawling to the ground. Good, he deserved it.

"What the hell are you doing?!" She shouted as she reverted back to her original stance reminiscent of taekwondo. Oh boy, she sounded pissed.

"Helping you." I replied while taking advantage of the forced crouch earlier and used my leg to sweep someone off their feet before standing up again.

"I don't need your help." She proved her point by axe kicking someone in the head, knocking him out completely.

"Hey, we were a team before, and we're a team now." I said as I elbowed someone behind me and followed up with a back swing, sending my opponent to the ground.

To prove my point, Sanada, in all his glory, blind sided two guys at once, knocking both out simultaneously in a blink of an eye. His stance was one that seemed like boxing, yet from the way he moved, it was fused with some other martial art as well, probably karate. It came together uniformly into a single, unique style that was Sanada's.

Remind me not to cross Sanada, elf-lady.

I don't think you need any reminders for that.

"Hey." He gave a small wave. That's Sanada for you. He didn't need long, complicated words.

Ayame groaned. Guess my point was proven effectively.

I chuckled as I delivered a quick haymaker to one of the opponents in front of me. It seemed like Ayame didn't like our intervention.

"Whatever." She sighed.

The two people who were attacking me before (I knocked one out, it seemed) showed up to back up their makeshift comrades.

Come to think of it, why are they so against us anyway? They weren't attacking each other at all, and it was supposed to be a free for all spar, not a fifteen against three match.

You three are the best in this group. They do want to pass, you know.

Right… Ayame and Sanada disarmed their opponents in Zanjutsu, while I managed to spar toe-to-toe with a lieutenant. We displayed our prowess in Hoho, and if we excelled in Hakuda and Kido, they probably won't pass the exams.

Makes sense. Well, if that's the way they want it, so be it. No mercy!

The three of us stood back to back to back, and since there were only six opponents left, we made quick work of them.

Sanada's attacks were fast, swift, precise, powerful and any other positive adjective you could find for hitting people. His moves were never wasted, every second spent well, and his body coordination was impressive.

No wonder he took down those four people so quickly.

Ayame was pretty much the opposite. She made some very careless moves and spent a little too much time on recovery. For all her expertise in Hoho, her Hakuda was flawed. Even so, she was miles ahead of the other idiots here.

We were done in about thirty seconds. Sanada took out three candidates, I finished two and Ayame toyed with hers.

I think her toying was a habit.

Anyway, their plan backfired. By having just the three of us take down fifteen of them, they gave us more recognition, I think.

"So… do we fight each other now?" Sanada asked, out of his fighting stance.

"… Do we?" I looked up and asked. Sanada and Ayame looked up as well, finally noticing the many spectators.

Ayame's eyes widened.

Instructor Hattori leaped off the ceiling beam and landed lightly in front of us. Kisaragi followed suit with a big smile on her face. The other members simply vanished into thin air.

"Nope! We're done here." Kisaragi chirped, bouncing up and down. She was really too hyperactive and restless to come across as a ninja type.

"We have already gauged your abilities." He turned to Sanada. "Would you like a quick spar?" He asked hopefully. It looks like he noticed his skills as well.

Wait, of course he did. He's taking down the marks.

Silly me.

Yes, silly you. Elf-lady echoed.

Oh, quiet, you.

Sanada pondered about the decision before declining the invitation politely.

"I understand." The instructor said. He and Kisaragi disappeared, probably onto the ceiling beam again. They were soon joined by the same people from earlier.

"Good job, guys. There are about five favourites for the western gate exam. Three of you, one from group four and another from group three." Shuhei commended, walking towards us from the corner.

Group three, huh? That's Yosuke's group. Hope he isn't having a hard time there.

"So we wait?" I questioned, indicating the fifteen unconscious people on the ground.

"Yes. The one with the broken arm will be sent home, however." He frowned at me. "Try to be more careful next time."

I simply nodded.

The four of us had a little conversation while waiting for the others to regain consciousness. A few shinigami came to examine the injured. Turns out that everyone Sanada incapacitated was knocked out cold and deemed unfit to continue. That left us with only eight people in group one.

Thank goodness he was an ally.

During our fleeting talk, I finally learnt Sanada's first name. It's Akiro.

Our topic of conversation was the Gotei 13. Apparently each squad was headed by a captain and assisted by a lieutenant, save Squad 13, which was missing its lieutenant. Shuhei's rank took me by surprise. I thought there might've been Majors or Colonels that were way ahead of Lieutenants. We continued talking for about fifteen minutes before we were rudely interrupted by a rude awakening.

"Ngh…" One of the current eligible candidates on the floor stirred.

"They're about awake." Ayame pointed out.

Shuhei grinned mischievously. "Watch this."

"If you guys are not up in one minute, we'll be leaving without you." He said in the same singsong voice as before.

Words are powerful tools. The right ones stimulate people to do irrational things, such as getting up when you're semi-conscious.

But hey, it worked. Not only that, but two of the victims of Sanada's blows struggled to their feet as well. Their will power was amazing.

Too bad their skills didn't match it.

With ten people in line, we marched out of the dojo and to the final section, Kido. Having fired a successful Byakurai, it would probably be easy.

Don't grow too over confident, Shiro.

I think that even if I fail the Kido section, I would still pass the overall exam, elf-lady.

Just don't even imagine me failing. It's not gonna happen.

A/N: First off, I am terribly, terribly sorry that I was late. Just as I was done with the first draft, my house had a power trip. Now, I don't save my files regularly and my comp is on 24/7, and it so happened that Auto Recovery doesn't work when a blackout occurs, leaving me completely devastated. I had to rewrite the whole thing from scratch, resulting in a loss of concepts and ideas (I reread only when my drafts are done). As such, I had not much mood, but I managed to pick it back up. Sorry if it sucked, it was kinda rushed in a way.

I tried for a different style this time, leaning more toward Greek Chorus than first-person view. As in, the past chapters already broke the fourth wall a few times, but this one even more so. Please review on which style you prefer.

They would be EXTREMELY appreciated. =D

And thanks for all the reviews so far! They're very encouraging!