I do not own Bleach

Chapter 15 The Imposter

Hinata snuck out of the cave. Ulquiorra had been so mad that she wasn't sure if he would let her go to school today. With one last look behind her showing that Ulquiorra was still asleep, she gave a small bow like Orihime does. "I'm sorry," she whispered before jumping through the garganta.

. . .

When she got to school, she was happy to see that Chad still had the parakeet. Keigo was playing with it. Hinata was talking to Uryu about her Quincy powers that she had been working on after Ulquiorra had fallen asleep, when Ichigo walked in. Smiling, Hinata bounced over to him, giving him a hug. "Morning, Ichigo!"

He smiled patting her head before looking past her at the parakeet. Rukia came in shortly after and dragged Ichigo off again.

Hinata sighed. "It's not fair that Rukia gets to spend so much time with Ichigo."

Chad patted her head, smiling. "It's ok."

Hinata gave a small smile to Chad and gave him a hug. "Thanks."

She went back to talking to Uryu. It wasn't long after she began to talk that she felt the change. Ichigo had left his body, but something was moving it. She walked over to the window.

Tatsuki and Orihime had started to eat lunch and Chizuro was being a pervert again. Hinata was looking out the window when Orihime ran over and went to jump out the window. Hinata and Tatsuki both grabbed her, pulling her back in.

"I smelled Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime yelled, still trying to climb out the window.

"'Smelled?' What are you, a dog? Plus, this is the third floor. Even if you smelled him, he couldn't come through. . ." Tatsuki's yell was cut off as Ichigo appeared outside the window.

"This is class 1-3, isn't it?" Ichigo asked.

The whole class screamed as he walked in through the window. Hinata felt her eyes narrow. This wasn't her brother.

"Youuuuuu! How'd you get up here!?" Tatsuki yelled while pointing at the imposter.

"How? Didn't you see it? I jumped. You surprised?" The imposter replied.

With that, the whole class went into turmoil talking about how it wasn't possible. It was Ichigo, but three floors?

He was looking around the room as if looking for something, but he never looked behind him to see Hinata standing there. She was reaching out a hand to grab him when he jumped, landing in front of Orihime.

Hinata couldn't hear what he was saying, but everyone seemed to be freaking out. Tatsuki was pulling him off of Orihime when Hinata showed up. His eyes went big. "Why, you are so beautiful, my lady. Please allow me to know your name." He had easily slipped out of Tatsuki's grasp and grabbed some of Hinata's hair, kissing it.

Hinata's eyes narrowed more. She was about to grab his arm when a loud bang was heard. Uryuu had slammed his book onto his desk. "How dare you, Kuroksai! I'm sick and. . ." He didn't have a chance to say anything else because Rukia suddenly threw open the door.

"That's enough!" Rukia yelled.

Hinata had just about had him when all of a sudden her feet where swept out from beneath her and she was in the imposter's arms. He took off towards the windows and Hinata gave a yelp of surprise. There was a collective gasp from the students.

"There he goes, Ichigo!" Rukia yelled as Ichigo in his spirit from appeared outside the window.

Hinata gave a cry of joy as she reached out towards him, "Ichigo!"

"Now there's nowhere to. . ." Ichigo started to say but the imposter merely squished past Ichigo and jumped out the window.

Hinata have a yell. She struggled to get free, but the imposter just held her tighter. "Don't move too much baby, or I might accidently drop you." As soon as they hit the ground, she tried again, but found that the imposter was stronger than she was in her gigi.

As it was, they spent well over an hour running through the streets. Ichigo and Rukia ran behind them, but the imposter was so fast that they were falling behind. Hinata was mad. This person had stolen Ichigo's body! She was trying to decide the best way to get rid of him when all of a sudden, he stopped. Startled, she looked up at him to see that he was looking at something below them.

Hinata looked down to see a group of three boys sitting together.

A boy with glasses was the first to speak, "Gym class sucks. I hate it."

A larger boy replied, "You kick the ball wrong and Kurosaki gets on your case."

Kurosaki? Hinata thought, looking around as she realized that they were at Ichigo's old school; they must be talking about his sisters.

The last boy had freckles sprinkled across his face. "You're talking about Karin, right? She's such a bitch!"

Hinata glared at the boy. How dear he call Ichigo's sister a bad name!

Glasses kid spoke again, "Ah! Damn it, he lost again."

His friends chuckled before freckles spoke, "Why don't you delete him?"

"Can't you even fight? Who do you think created you?" Glasses kid glared at the strange box in his hands. "Those that don't listen to their master die! BAM!"

The larger boy said smiling, "Oh, he really erased him."

"So what? I'll create a better one!"

The group broke out in laughter.

Hinata looked back up at the imposter to find that he was shaking. His eyes had gotten big as well. It was then that she felt that the imposter was scared and feared being alone. She hadn't noticed before because of her anger, but he needed help as well.

Hinata gave a gasp as the imposter jumped down, holding her in one arm as he grabbed the strange boxes from the boys breaking them. He snarled at them before jumping back up on the roofs and running again.

"Damn it. . . those kids. . . doing such horrible things. My great mood's ruined. Damn!"

He froze and turned around at the same time Hinata sensed a hollow appear. She knew it had appeared where they had just been. She also felt that he knew that as well. Hinata found herself raising her hand to his face, gently touching it. He jerked and looked down at her. She smiled and nodded back to the way they had come. He gave a sad smile back. He placed her on the roof top. "Sorry," was all he said before he took off running.

Hinata stood there for a moment before smiling and decided to use Hirenyaku. Masaki had told her about it and she wanted to see if it worked. She arrived in time to see the imposter grab the three boys and pull them out of the way of a centipede hollow. She pulled back her quincy bow and fired.

The imposter looked up after yelling at the boys to run. He had been injured by the hollow. Hinata felt her anger flair. She fired again, but the hollow dodged. A dangerous dance began. The imposter was trying his best to keep the hollow away from her, while she was doing her best to keep Ichigo's body and the imposter safe. They were standing back to back when she felt Ichigo approach. Right behind him was Rukia's spiritual pressure as well. She looked at the imposter. "Sorry." He gave her a puzzled looked before her body went limp and she crashed to the ground.

The imposter was stilling looking at her as the hollow began taunting them. It went in for an attack just as Ichigo appeared, cutting it. Hinata had to try hard not to smile as the imposter and Ichigo fought. When Ichigo randomly swung his sword and hit the hollow, she was sure a giggle escaped her throat. The imposter looked down at her as if he had heard, but Ichigo kept yelling at him. The imposter's glance caused Ichigo to look over though, and a growl left his throat. "You are fighting a hollow with her here. What is wrong with you!" They began to fight again.

The hollow, who was annoyed that no one was paying attention to it, went in for the kill, but both Ichigo and the imposter attacked it and killed the hollow. Hinata watched in wonder as the imposter suddenly jumped over, kicking the hollow into the air as he noticed the train of ants that the hollow would have killed. She listened as the imposter said that he would never hurt or let anything get killed. She truly liked the imposter.

She wasn't surprised when Uncle Kisuke showed up. She had felt him, Uncle Tessai and her cousins approaching for a while now. She watched as Uncle Kisuke held up his cane and hit Ichigo's body in the head. He had used that cane on her for the first couple of times he took her out of her gigai to teach her how it worked. When she saw a small pearl like object fly out of Ichigo's head, she knew that it must be the soul of the imposter. Using Hirenyaku she grabbed it, replacing it with a white marble she had found on the ground when she had gone to school this morning. Just as quickly she was back on the ground like she had never moved in the first place. She felt the soul give a cry of surprise at having been saved.

Uncle Kisuke grabbed the marble out of the air. "Well, mission complete. Let's go home, guys!"

Hinata smiled as Jinta yelled about how unfair the whole thing was. They hadn't seemed to notice her yet. She held the soul in her hand close to her. When she heard Uncle Kisuke tell Ichigo that he was going to dispose of the soul, she held it even closer. She wouldn't let anyone harm it, even Uncle Kisuke. The soul hummed it's thanks to her.

It was then that Rukia appeared, snatching the marble out of the air from Uncle Kisuke. When Uncle Kisuke tried to take it back, Rukia was able to fight him back with her words and in the end was able to keep the small white marble. Rukia handed it to Ichigo before slowly walking away.

Hinata decided it was a good time to get up. She slowly rose and looked around blankly. "Where am I?" she said, rubbing her eyes.

There where gasps of surprise as everyone on the roof top looked towards her. Uncle Kisuke and Tessai grabbed Ururu and Jinta, covering their mouths to prevent them from saying anything. Hinata tilted her head to the side and looked at them. "Why, who do we have here?" Kisuke asked.

Ichigo and Rukia both glanced at Hinata. "That's my cousin. He kidnapped her," Ichigo said, referring to the imposter and moving to stand in front of Hinata.

"Oh? Well what a lovely girl! Are you okay, my dear?"

Hinata smiled, "Yep! I was just kidnapped, and then there was a scary monster, and I feel asleep!" She beamed with pride.

"A monster? You saw a monster, Hinata?" Rukia was suddenly in Hinata's face, looking her up and down.

"Yep! He's over there." She pointed to were Ichigo's body was. "He could jump really high, and he grabbed me when I wasn't paying attention!"

Rukia gave a small smile and backed up. "That must have been scary. Shall we go back to school together?"

"Well, as I said, mission accomplished!" Kisuke said brightly. "It was nice to meet you, Miss. It is time for us to be going!"

Hinata had watched her Uncles carry her cousins away. Ichigo was still standing in front of her, watching them leave. When Rukia looked to see what she was looking at, Uncle Kiskue gave a salute and then took off running with Ururu over his shoulder. Uncle Tessai was close behind.

Hinata giggled, "They are so silly!"

Rukia raised an eyebrow at their antics before looking back at Hinata. "Well, shall we go?"

Hinata grabbed Rukia's outstretched hand and they started back to school.

As they walked she could feel the soul humming in happiness. She felt a frown growing on her face. He needed a body, but where would she be able to find one?

"Hey!"

Hinata smiled and turned around as Ichigo came running towards them.

"Why did you leave me?"

Rukia went to kick him in the face, but Hinata grabbed her shoulders and held her in place. "Hey!" she yelled.

"Ichigo, you're back!" Hinata said, letting go of Rukia and giving Ichigo a big hug.

He gave her a pat on the back, "You okay Rukia?"

Hinata turned back to see Rukia had fallen over backwards and was looking with shock up at her.

"Whoops! Sorry Rukia." Hinata jumped off Ichigo and went to help Rukia up. As she was pulling her up though, Hinata saw a little orange and gold lion behind her. She dropped Rukia, who gave a cry as she walked over to the lion. She gave a smile this would be the perfect body for the soul.