I do not own Bleach.

~1 month later~

Sakura took a deep breath as she sat down on the polished wood floor of the 11th division training room. She could feel sweat dripping down the back of her neck as she tried to regulate her breathing again.

"Not bad Kyoraku." Sakura looked beside her as a red head sat down beside her. "You've gotten better." Renji smirked at the young girl. He ruffled her short hair and gave her a smile.

Sakura swatted Renji's hand away. He had cut it during their first spar together. And she had kept it short since. "Yeah but I still can't even match you in a spar."

"Don't feel too bad. I am a Fukutaichou after all." Renji lounged back as another spar started in the middle of the training room.

"But I'm a 5th seat. I should be close to you at least." Sakura complained as she stretched her muscles. They were starting to relax.

"Then maybe you should be facing me instead." Sakura and Renji looked over to see a man with a bald head walking towards them. "Plus your hollow owes me a fight, Kyoraku." Ikkaku smirked as he stood in front of the brunet woman. Not many women could last long in their squad. But the girl had been coming to practice for a few weeks now, and she could hold her own.

'Finally. Let me at him.' Sakura eyed Ikkaku then closed her eyes. 'I know you don't think this is a good idea, but I'm freaking bored out of my mind.' Sakura sighed as she felt Tsubaki's restlessness. She nodded slowly as she began handing over control to Tsubaki.

A sudden hollow presence began to fill the room, but it was controlled. Everyone froze and turned to the source of the hollow reiatsu, a woman with short brown hair. Her hair faded to a pure white with her skin.

Tsubaki opened her eyes and grinned at the fearful looks some of the shinigami around her had. "Whatcha scared of, shinigami?" Tsubaki got up and stretched. "You ready for our rematch, baldy?"

Ikkaku smiled widely at the hollowfied woman. "You bet, bitch." Ikkaku tossed her a bokken as he backed up to the center of the room. "Now don't hold back this time."

"Then it's gonna end too quickly." Tsubaki spun the bokken around in her hand. It felt so light and flimsy, but she wasn't allowed to use Muso-ku in training rooms.

Both combatants stood tensed as they waited for one of them to make a move. A blur of black, white, and orange made both combatants relax again. "What do you think you're doing?" Ichigo looked from Ikkaku to Sakura...Tsubaki. He still didn't get how they could switch control so easily.

"Tch. You're no fun, Kurosaki-Taichou." Tsubaki crossed her arms and gave her Taichou a mild glare. She knew how much her mismatched colored eyes unnerved him.

Ichigo steeled his gaze as he met Tsubaki's red and black eye and her blind blue and white eye. "You're suppose to be practicing holding your mask, not switching controls to your inner hollow. Which is impressive, I will admit, but it's not what you need to work on."

'I'm taking over again.' Sakura pushed her way to the surface of control as Tsubaki handed her control of her body again. "Sorry, Kurosaki-Taichou. Tsubaki just wanted to work off some energy. Next time we will merge to do that. Since we still need to work on that as well."

"Why are you practicing merging? That's easier than switching control." Ichigo eyed his new 5th seated officer curiously.

Sakura shifted from one foot to the other. "It's not that easy for us. We can't hold it for long. And it also allows us to both use our good eyes at the same time. So it's the one time when we have our full sight. You know, since we are both half blind." Sakura pointed to her right eye as she explained.

"Right. I forget that when you are in control. It's a little easier to see on Taubaki since her eyes is completely different from her blind eye." Ichigo was always forgetting that Sakura only had half of her sight. She never showed any signs of being blind.

Sakura shrugged at her Taichou's comment. "It's okay. My eye didn't really change colors to much." Sakura brought up her bokken and blocked an overhead strike on the right side of her head from Ikkaku. "And I made sure I had no blind spots."

Ikkaku grinned as he stepped away. He had thought her guard was down. "No kidding. Now get out of the ring Ichigo. We are having a spar here. You shouldn't interfere, unless you want to face me?" Ikkaku grinned at the thought of sparring against Ichigo again.

Ichigo began walking out of the training building. "I was just checking up on Kyoraku to make sure she was practicing what I told her to. And since she is a Vaisard I have to make sure her hollow is under control." Ichigo kept walking, he could feel cold sweat starting to go down his neck.

Sakura watched as her Taichou vanished from sight. "Tsubaki is fine. She doesn't need to be controlled. She just needs some venting time." Sakura blocked a kick from Ikkaku and threw him over her shoulder. "Now then, Ikkaku, let's get this started." Sakura closed her eyes as she pulled Tsubaki to the surface with her. "Let's have a fun duel."

Ikkaku grinned as he heard her double voice. He looked at her eyes to see if he was right about what she had done. "I see yea merged with your hollow. The eyes give it away."

Sakura knew what he was talking about. Her right eye was white with a red iris and her left eye was black with a blue iris. It was one of the ways to tell that she had merged with her hollow. "Let's see if you can beat us before we run out of time."

"With pleasure." Ikkaku ran at her and swung at her waist.

Sakura took a step back as the bokken went by. She took a step forward and spun on her foot as her other leg came up. She felt her foot connect with Ikkaku's arm. Then his hand grabbing her ankle and throwing her towards a wall. Sakura placed her hand on the ground as she brought her feet down to slow herself.

Ikkaku ran at her again and tried another overhead strike. It was met by Sakura's bokken blocking and holding his up. "Didn't see you as a fist fighter. You've got a good kick on-" Ikkaku was cut off by a fist to his chin. He took a few steps back and smirked at the woman. "You've also got a good punch."

"Tsubaki likes getting her hands dirty." Sakura stepped back into a defensive stance with her bokken in front of her. "Your move."

Ikkaku shouted as he came at the woman again. He swung at her head and she ducked under it and aimed a punch at his stomach. He managed to avoid her punch and back away from her. "You really shouldn't take such cheap shots."

"I'm not a man. So you can't apply your gentleman rules to me." Sakura ran at him and ducked under his bokken again. She kicked out his legs with a triumphant grin. She rolled over and placed her foot on Ikkaku's hand that held his bokken as she brought her own bokken up to his neck. "Yield?"

"Do I have a choice?" Ikkaku couldn't move his right arm. His left arm was free, but he couldn't see anywhere he could strike at that would free him.

"No. Crotch shots don't work on woman. And a man like you would never take such a cheap shot." Sakura smirked as she saw Ikkaku sigh and relax in defeat. "Yield?" She got off of him as he nodded and let go of his bokken. She held out her hand and helped him up. "Looks like I can match a 3rd seat in fighting. Now I just need to work on beating Abarai-Fukutaichou."

"With your reflexes it shouldn't be a problem." Ikkaku stretched his neck as he walked with Sakura towards the edge of the ring. He saw her hair turn back to brown as they walked. "Looks like your merge wore off."

Sakura caught herself before she stumbled. "I noticed." She ducked down as she sensed something fly towards her head. She saw a pink and black blur fly over her head before landing on the wall. "Yachiru-chan? What are you doing?"

"Aww. Flower girl isn't in power mode." Yachiru whined as she sat on the floor with a pout.

"Power mode?" Sakura was about to ask Yachiru what she is talking about when the building began to shake and a maniacal laughter could be heard. "Crap! Zaraki-Taichou."

"Yeah. Ichigo sensed him heading this way before he left." Ikkaku leaned against the wall as he waited for his Taichou to show up.

Sakura ran towards the window, picking up her zanpakuto as she went. "Why didn't you says anything earlier?" Sakura sat on the window ledge with one leg out. "I'll see you all later!" Sakura jumped out the window as she heard the door burst open behind her. She was up on the roof and running back to 8th squad compound before the smoke cleared.

Sakura stretched as she landed in the 8th squad outdoor training area. "Ah. It's good to be home." Sakura adjusted her zanpakuto on her belt. She hadn't properly adjusted it since she had had to leave 11th in such a rush. She didn't know why Zaraki-Taichou was so interested with fighting her.

"There you are." Sakura looked up and spotted Lisa walking towards her with other Vaisards following her. "I've been looking for you. How was training with the muscle heads?" Lisa smiled as Sakura walked over to her. She had introduced the girl to the rest of the Vaisards, since she was a Vaisard herself.

"Pretty good. I took down Ikkaku-san easily, but Abarai-Fukutaichou is still too strong for me to even match." Sakura sighed as she spoke. She looked towards the two other Vaisards and gave them each a respectful bow. "Good afternoon Hirako-Taichou, Muguruma-Taichou."

"Hey kid." Shinji smirked at Sakura's complaints. "How long does your mask last during the spar?"

Sakura scratched de back of her head nervously. "I never got to use my mask. I was practicing merging, which I can hold for an entire spar, but Zaraki-Taichou came by before I could practice with my mask."

Kensei chuckled at her explanation, he knew Lisa wasn't going to be happy. "She's definitely strong if Kenpachi is interested in fighting her."

Lisa nodded as she gave an exasperated sigh. "Put your mask on Kyoraku. Then start running laps, no shunpo or sonido. Keep track of your laps"

Sakura gave Lisa a small bow. "Yes ma'am." Sakura dragged her hand across her face as her mask formed on it. She then began running around the training grounds.

Shinji shivered as he caught sight of Sakura's mask. "She sure has one creepy mask. Gives shinigami a whole new meaning."

"We thought all of ours were creepy at first." Kensei agreed with Shinji, but he knew they would eventually get used to it.

"Yeah, but none of ours looks like a human skull. Ichigo's is close, but even his isn't close to how realistic hers is." Shinji watched as the girl completed a lap. She had good endurance, and pretty adequate speed.

"And to think how much creepier it was with her shikai." Lisa leaned on Shinji's shoulder as she watched her 5th seat trip as her mask broke. "She makes all of the stereotypes that human have for shinigami real."

"I heard she got nicknamed the God of Death at the academy." Kensei chuckled thinking back to his academy days. He thought they were hell.

Shinji chuckled with Kensei at the title the girl had gained. "We certainly got ourselves an interesting new comrade."

Please leave a review.

So, it might be a month or so till the next update. I'm getting ready to move so I don't have as much free time as I wish. Plus my job is really taking it out of me. My floor feels comfortable enough to sleep on.

Thank you everyone for your support and for reading my story.