I do not own Bleach

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Chapter 4 Pranks at School

Hinata sat across from Ichigo, swinging her legs over the edge of her chair as she watched the other students trickle in. She didn't like being inside the building; there wasn't very much color here except for the occasional picture on the wall. There were lots of windows though.

"I'm bored," she told Ichigo, standing on the desk chair so that she would be tall enough to look him in the eyes.

"Get down from there," he whispered. "What if someone sits on you?"

Hinata jumped down and squatted by his bag. She dug through it, looking for something to do while listening to the chatter of the other students. She didn't understand what most of them were talking about; some boys were talking about a new movie that had come out, some girls were talking about clothes they wanted to buy, and others were complaining about homework. She gave up digging through Ichigo's bag and flopped on the floor, looking around for something else to do when a couple of boys caught her attention; she had heard them say Ichigo's name.

Standing, she walked over to where the boys were sitting so she could hear better. They were pointing and laughing at his hair. Confused, she turned and looked back at where Ichigo sat; his arms were crossed on the desk and his head was down. She gathered a fistful of her own hair and compared it to his hair again. Why did the boys think the color of his hair was funny? She liked his hair.

She was distracted when she heard a girl call out to Ichigo. "Good morning, Ichigo," a girl with short black hair greeted him, taking the seat that Hinata had been sitting on earlier.

Ichigo looked up. "Good morning, Tatsuki," he responded. Then he began twisting in his seat, wildly looking around the classroom. He spotted Hinata and then sighed, visibly relaxing.

Puzzled, Hinata returned to Ichigo's side, taking his hand. "Are you okay?"

He spoke in barely a whisper back to her, looking over her shoulder at Tatsuki to make sure she didn't hear him. "I'm fine, but don't vanish on me like that!"

"Sorry." She stood beside him for a little bit when her attention was drawn back to the boys who had been laughing at Ichigo's hair. "Those boys were talking about you," she told him, pointing at the boys a couple rows over.

"I know," Ichigo said so that only she could hear him.

"They were laughing at your hair." She paused a moment, but before Ichigo replied she spoke again, "I like your hair because it's like mine!" She held hers up to his, smiling.

There was a look of gratitude that flashed in his eyes before he smiled back at her. "I like your hair too."

Hinata, with another smile, began walking around the room again. This time, she could feel Ichigo watching her. Suddenly, a bell rang and the kids in the room all ran to a seat and sat down. Hinata wandered back to Ichigo and asked him, "so, is this what learning is?"

Ichigo smiled at her. "No," he said softly, glancing over at Tatsuki to make sure she wasn't looking at them, "the teacher will come in in just a minute. Then we'll start learning."

At that moment, the class quieted down as a woman walked into the room, looking stern. It didn't take long before Hinata grew bored again. Learning wasn't fun; she didn't understand anything the teacher was talking about. Tugging on Ichigo's pant leg, she told him, "I'm going to go exploring. I'll come back in a little bit."

He nodded, and she skipped happily out of the classroom and wandered the hallways. All of the classrooms were the same; there were a lot of students who all dressed the same, and there was an adult at the front of the classroom. Hinata wandered around until she came across a classroom of children who didn't look much older than her.

She watched with interest for a little bit. When one of the little girls raised her hand, Hinata was surprised to recognize the voice of one of Ichigo's sisters. She walked the rest of the way into the room. She looked the little girl up and down. She could see a little of Ichigo in the brown haired girl. When the black haired girl that sat next to her spoke, she recognized her as Ichigo's other sister. There was an empty seat next to them, so she sat down.

She ended up spending the whole morning in their class. When the bell rang again and the teacher announced that it was now lunch time, she decided it was time to go find Ichigo again. She was excited to tell him that she had learned the alphabet, and her numbers; she would need to ask him about what a last name was though, and if she had one.

It wasn't too hard to find him. She simply followed the thread of spiritual power she had connected to him. He was still in his classroom, and the teacher was still talking in front of the class. She crawled over to his desk quietly, wanting to surprise him. She slowly pulled herself up so only her fingers were on the edge of his desk, and her eyes showed as she looked at him. She didn't have to wait long before he looked down to write something on the paper in front of him. He jumped back, hitting the window he was sitting by.

Hinata's smile grew wide as she jumped up, laughing at Ichigo. It was short lived though because the teacher yelled at Ichigo for disrupting her class. Ichigo apologized before sitting down at his desk once more. Once the teacher started teaching again, he sent a glare her way; she smiled apologetically back at him. She moved to the back of the room and watched for several minutes, thinking about what she had learned in her class when the bell finally rang and the students got up. She weaved her way back to Ichigo's side, grabbing his hand.

He was startled for a moment before he looked down and saw her smiling up at him. He smiled back down at her before reaching down and pulling out a small box and leading her out of the room, and out of the school. He walked a ways until he found a nice shaded spot in the grass and sat down with her.

"What are we doing now?" She asked, bouncing and looking around at all the green.

"It's lunch time." He responded, and, already guessing what she was going to ask next, answered, "Lunch time is when you eat food in the middle of the day." Her next question surprised him.

"What's food?"

His mouth was open for a few seconds before opened the box and showed her what was inside. "Mine is pretty simple, but this is rice, and these are side dishes."

She looked down at the box. "Can I try some?"

"Sure."

He held it out to her and she reached in and grabbed a little bit of one of the side dishes, popping it into her month. She quickly spat it out; it burned her mouth. "Its gross!" She looked up to see Ichigo laughing and rolling in the grass. "What's so funny?"

It took him a moment to get his laughter in check before he could reply. "You need to eat it with some rice, Hinata!" He pulled out a strange object and carefully scooped some rice and some of the gross stuff on to it before handing her the object. "It will taste better this time," he said as he looked at her doubtful face.

She slowly put it in her mouth and was surprised to find that it truly did taste better this way. She smiled and handed the object back to Ichigo. "It was yummy this time."

He gave a smile and began to eat. As Ichigo ate, Hinata told him that she had gone to his sisters' class and all that she had learned. "Ichigo what is a last name?"

He looked up from his food. "It's your family name."

"Do I have one?"

He stopped and seemed to think for a bit. "Well, you are my imaginary friend, so I guess yours is the same as mine: Kurosaki. So your full name is Hinata Kurosaki."

"Hinata Kurosaki!" She smiled and jumped at Ichigo, hugging him. "Thank you so much!"

Her joy was short lived though when she heard someone calling "Strawberry" from across the yard. She saw Ichigo tense up from the call, looking towards the group that was approaching them. Among them were the boys who had said his hair was funny from earlier. "What's wrong?"

He gently placed her on her own feet as he stood up, brushing off his pants. He looked at the largest boy Hinata had ever seen who was standing in front of the group.

"What do you want, Aki?" Ichigo asked of the bigger boy.

"So this is where you've been hiding, Strawberry."

"I told you, my name is Ichigo; it means 'to protect', not 'strawberry.'"

The bigger boy stepped forward and grabbed Ichigo by the front of his shirt, pulling him forward. "You are what I say you are," the boy spat in Ichigo's face.

Hinata was angry. She felt her spiritual pressure rise as she watched the big boy pick on her Ichigo. She ran forward and kicked the big boy in the shin; he was pushed back a couple of inches. Ichigo was thrown off balance by the sudden change in the bully's stance. As he fell forward, he saw that what had pushed him back was Hinata. His eyes widened as the little girl wound her leg back for another kick.

Seeing what was about to happen, he pushed the bigger boy away from him, causing him to lose his grip on Ichigo. Ichigo fell on his bottom as Aki received another swift kick to the shin.

Aki gave a yelp of pain as he fell. He sat there for several moments as the whole group stared, stunned by what had just happened. "What. . . what are you waiting for? Get him! He kicked me!"

By this point, Hinata was standing beside Ichigo, glaring at the other boys. Their eyes where still full of surprise, but hardened in determination as they took steps towards them.

Thankfully, at that moment the school bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. The boys stopped and look up at the school before turning around, helping Aki back up. "It's okay, Aki; we can just get him tomorrow."

Hinata, after seeing that they were leaving, stuck her tongue out at them. Turning back to Ichigo, she smiled proudly at him. He stared at her for a while before speaking. "Hinata, you can't do things like that!"

"Can't do what?" She asked quizzically.

He bowed and shook his head while his shoulders bounced in silent laughter. "Hinata . . . you need to let me fight my own battles."

"Why?"

He stopped to think for a moment before replying, "if I don't win my own battles then how will I be able to protect you and those that I care about?"

She looked at him for a moment before nodding.

"Also, you can't physically harm people," he added.

She thought about this for a bit before nodding to this as well.

With that, they walked back to his class. After several minutes, she told him she was going to go exploring again and he nodded. This time though, as she walked the halls, she was looking for people. Ichigo had said that she couldn't hurt them physically. So she couldn't kick them, but what about other things?

She quickly found one of the boys. She sat by his desk for a long time, staring at him. What could she do to him? He was being mean to Ichigo, and she didn't like that. Her eyes dropped down to his pencil, and, out of frustration, she pushed it off his desk. He startled when he noticed it had fallen; he reached down and picked it up.

She giggled in delight. As soon as he put it down, she pushed it off again. This continued for several minutes with the boy getting increasingly more frustrated. He looked around the room as if trying to figure out why his pencil kept falling off his desk. This time, as he carefully put it down, he watched it like a hawk; Hinata just giggled and watched him. As soon as he grew bored and stopped watching the pencil, she pushed it off again. This time, the boy cried out it frustration. The teacher yelled at him and told him to leave the room until he could get ahold of himself.

With this, she started her revenge. She found all the bullies and did similar things to each of them. In one class, she kept turning the book page; in another, she moved his eraser around the desk. At one point, she just rolled the pencil back and forth on the boy's desk. This is how the story of how Karakura Elementy was haunted was begun.

When she finally made it back to Ichigo's class, after having found all the other bullies, she began doing the same things to the remaining boys. She saw Ichigo looking at her in surprise at first, then noticed that he was struggling not to laugh and was smiling. She could see him watching her out of the corner of his eye for the remainder of class, shaking with silent laughter every now and then.

When school finally ended, Tatsuki looked over at Ichigo. She had noticed that he kept casting glances across the room for the last hour and was constantly smiling; he almost seemed to be holding back laughter as well. "What's so funny, Ichigo?"

He looked up at her, still smiling. "Nothing, Tatsuki. I'm just having a great day."

She looked at him doubtfully. "Well, whatever. Do you want to walk to the dojo together?" She watched as he almost seemed to look over her shoulder at someone, but when she looked back, she didn't see anyone looking their way.

"I have a few things to finish up, so you can go on without me. I'll see you there."

She gave a shrug before looking around the room one last time to see what had made him smile before leaving.

Once everyone was out of the classroom, Ichigo stood up patting Hinata on the head, looking down at her and laughing. "You are one determined girl, Hinata."

She smiled up at him grabbing hold of his hand. Perhaps it was his imagination, but she seemed distracted for a brief moment.

"Well, let's go to the dojo then, shall we?"

"Yep!"

He walked while she skipped beside him, looking around at everything. They had been walking for a few minutes before he finally spoke again. "Thanks, Hinata. You brightened my day."

"Your welcome, Ichigo." She smiled, but it wasn't her usual smile. She seemed distracted again, like she was listening for something.

They had almost reached the dojo when he noticed that something was wrong. Looking down he saw that she wasn't skipping anymore and seemed to barely be moving forward. "Are you okay?"

She slowly looked up at him, stumbling while clinging to his hand. "I'm really tired; I don't think I can go with you to the dojo today, Ichigo."

She seemed saddened by this, so he gave her hand a squeeze. "That's okay, you've been with me all day. Do you need to go back to Ulquiorra now?"

She gave a small nod before letting go of his hand. "I'll see you later, Ichigo."

He waved. "Don't take so long to come back next time."

She smiled. "I'll be back when you need me." With a wave of her arm she took a step away from him and vanished.