Chapter Six:

Throughout the rest of the school day, Ichigo and his group were careful to keep Kagome in their line of sight as they were still wary about this new addition to their class. She was an unpredictable variable and that worried them. Would she be a danger to them?

After one embarrassing incident in which they actually followed her into the bathroom, Kagome confronted them, more than a little bit annoyed. Her irritation seeped into her voice.

"What do you guys want?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes at the group. In a moment of pure panic and stupidity, they actually all dove for cover behind miscellaneous objects as if that could hide them from her piercing eyes and mounting anger. Well, actually Chad just stood there, inwardly shaking his head at his friends.

"We just want to make sure you aren't a threat," he spoke in his deep voice, while the others gestured frantically to silence him.

Kagome blinked in surprise. "Oh."

Ichigo jumped out from behind a trash can and stomped over to her. "What do you mean, 'Oh.'?"

"Well, if you guys had given me, you know, a reason I wouldn't have been so annoyed. Well...maybe I would have. Who the hell follows someone into the bathroom? What the hell do you think I do in there?"

Abruptly all the guys coughed into their fists sheepishly and looked away with a splash of pink across their faces.

"Okay fine, that was our bad, but what do you expect? You randomly appear out of nowhere, save Orihime and disappear only to reappear in our school and in our class!" Ichigo replied gruffly. "Of course we would be suspicious!"

"Well, you guys aren't the only ones. I mean, can't you feel that?" Kagome asked, raising an arm lazily to sweep in around her in a nonchalant gesture.

"Feel what?" Ichigo asked, confused while the others nodded thoughtfully. He turned to them. "What?"

Ishida sighed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "As usual, your reiatsu-sensing skills are completely negligible."

"What are you talking about Ishida?" Ichigo growled out, feeling aggravated and left out.

"There is shinigami crawling all over the place. To be honest, they are probably better off watching Higurashi-san for suspicious behaviour than us."

Ichigo thought about it for a second before grudgingly admitting that Ishida was probably right. Kagome's breath caught in her throat for a second as she was painfully reminded of Inuyasha.

Just thinking of the hanyou brought up upsetting memories that were probably better left buried. Thinking of him made her relive her entire experience in Konoha and everyone she had left behind. Everyone that had helped her and followed her in her quest to finally rid the world of Naraku.

Everyone she had made friends with.

Everyone she had loved.

And everyone that had loved her in return.

Kagome hunched over slightly as the memories she had been repressing bombarded her one after another, forcing her to come to terms with her loss. She grit her teeth and ruthlessly beat back and contained her grief, only to lose her control once again when she realized what she had not been able to prevent.

Neji had died.

And she had not been able to revive him.

Kagome had intended to give him a piece of her own soul in order to revive him, however Naraku had sent her spiralling back to her original dimension before she could.

"Damnit..." she whispered, ignoring the people fluttering around her in slight concern.

When she finally regained her control, Kagome looked back up at the group, standing together and looking so goddamn united that she felt hurt creep up and strangle her until she could barely breathe.

Without looking back, Kagome jumped off the rooftop and let her power cushion her landing before running.

It had been so easy.

So easy to lose herself in the heat and moment of the battle as she fought and ran her way out of what she now knew as Hueco Mundo and forget what had happened.

It was such a convenient distraction. But seeing that group of friends so happy together had been the first thing to crack her mask of normality. Seeing them so concerned for each other and the town had completely shattered it when she realized that she saw her Konohanian friends in this group.

The sadness strangled her, snaking through her body until it clamped down on her heart. Hard.

Kagome kept running until she realized that she had no idea where she was running to and slowed down. There was no one who could possibly understand what she was going through.

Who could she go to?

Just as she was about to drown in her sorrow and pain, a voice dragged her out.

"Higurashi Kagome."

Shaken, Kagome whipped around and stared, completely defenceless for the first time in a long time.

Doll's eyes, glassy and empty stared back at her in a brilliant green-blue, piercing in its intensity. Her own eyes widened in reflex and she took a half step back in her surprise.

"Such a human reaction."

"What?" Kagome asked, still frozen in her shock. When had Ulquiorra gotten there?

"Your tears."

Shaking hands slowly moved and Kagome felt her fingers touch her cheeks, coming away wet. She hadn't even known that she had been crying.

"Huh...would you look at that?" she asked lowly, the low pitch of her tone unable to hide the hesitant words and how fragile they were. Roughly, she brushed the tears away and took measured breaths to regain her composure.

"Can I help you, Ulquiorra-san?" she asked. Might as well be polite, she thought. He could have attacked her in her moment of vulnerability, but he hadn't. It made her intrigued and suspicious at the same time.

"Aizen-sama has commanded me to extend an invitation towards you. He wishes for you to join his cause."

Kagome tilted her head to the side, narrowing her eyes as she regained some of her usual spunk. "And if I refuse."

"Then he asks for your neutrality in this upcoming war." Ulquiorra replied monotonously.

"Will he be neutral in return?"

"Yes."

"I see."

Kagome turned the offer over in her head, and contemplated it for a scant few moments. Then she spoke.

"Tell your Aizen-sama that I have no need to interfere. However, if he injures anyone who is close to me or under my protection, give him this promise: I will hunt him down, and exact my revenge. And I will not. Play. Fair."

As she had spoken, Kagome had stepped closer to the emotionless man standing in front of her and let her tone lower into something just shy of dangerous in order to highlight that her threat was not an idle one.

Ulquiorra stared down at her.

"Understood."

She was understandably confused when he made no move to return to Hueco Mundo.

"Um...you are dismissed?" Kagome tentatively tried. He made no move to leave. She sighed. Well, it was worth a try. "Why aren't you heading back?" asked the girl curiously.

"Aizen-sama has instructed me to remain by your side in order to ensure that you keep your promises of neutrality."

"Ah."

Silence.

"For how long?" Kagome asked resignedly.

"I am to give my report once a week."

"Yeah, I didn't have high hopes for that one."

A sigh.

Kagome then noticed something interesting.

"What happened to all of the shinigami trailing me?" she asked.

"They have been temporarily...incapacitated."

"So you knocked them all out."

"..."

Kagome smiled before a wicked idea entered her head.

Turning to the motionless Espada, she smirked.

"Hooo~ How fortuitous."

On the outskirts of the city...

"Aw, come on! You said you would help me!" Kagome whined.

"I did not." Ulquiorra replied, the faintest hint of irritation colouring his voice.

"But you didn't say no either!"

"..."

Kagome was grinning like an idiot, both inwardly and outwardly. It wasn't a good idea to open yourself up to the enemy, or annoy them, but there was something about his completely emotionless exterior that made her want to crack his shell.

In other words, do a Naruto.

"Why do you require a sparring session?"

His question abruptly sobered her. Fights, as she had discovered, were the best way to distract herself from returning to drown in those pain, excruciating memories. And the energy she expelled tired her out to exhaustion and made her sleeps dreamless.

"Please." Something on her face must have showed her inner turmoil because in one elegant move he moved and replied,

"Aizen-sama has instructed me to keep you in the elevated human mood of happiness."

To any other person, that statement would be confusing as hell, but Kagome understood. It was an agreement that any other person would have just voiced as "Why the hell not?"

"Thank you."

That night, Kagome went to sleep thoroughly exhausted and dreamt no dreams.

"You're lying."

"I saw it with my own eyes!"

"...What do we do?"

"Obviously she's working for the other side."

"But she saved-"

"It could have been an elaborate act, all planned out by Aizen. He's done it before, with no regard to who gets affected. Remember Hinamori?"

"...Yes."

"He tore down Soul Society mentally and physically with that plan."

"I remember, alright?"

"..."

"So, what do we do about this problem?"

"We eliminate it."

"..."

"If something harmful is attached to you..."

"...sever it."

As Kagome sat through class the next day, she was on edge. Gazes piercing, sharp, confused and malicious let her feel no sense of comfort or safety. Still, she bore it with an air of quiet dignity and tried to keep herself from feeling too susceptible to attacks as she sat quite close to the front of the classroom, keeping her back open to anything harmful.

"And so, the tangent theorem proves that at the point of tangency the tangent line itself and the radius form a 90 degree angle..." the teacher's voice droned on and on, lulling Kagome into a state of drowsiness.

"Hokage-sama, these are the reports on the state of the village."

"Thank you."

Kagome felt a niggling thought cross her mind that she was in a strange situation. Hadn't she been sent back to her own dimension? What was she doing back in Konohagakure no Sato? As soon as the thought had come, Kagome shrugged it off. If she wasn't meant to be here, then she wouldn't be.

"How are the repairs coming along?"

"Slowly but surely, Hokage-sama. The last battle with the Akatsuki has heavily damaged our forces."

"Is that so..."

"BAA-CHAN!" A foot kicked the door right off of its hinges. Naruto entered and Kagome let a small fond smile spread across her face as she watched the scene from above.

He dragged Kiba in with him and they both stood at attention while Tsunade mourned the loss of yet another door. "Dog-breath said you had an assignment for me?"

"Dog-breath? I'll give you dog-breath, dobe!"

"Dobe?"

Before things could degenerate into an all-out brawl, Tsunade slammed her hands onto her desk regaining order and breaking another desk. Shizune's sobs could be heard from the other room. "Shut up and sit down!"

"Naruto, the village has been in a state of disarray since the last attack so I want you to use your kage bunshin to help with repairs. Kiba I want you to help patrol with group A at the gates."

"But that's so D-rank!"

"Yeah, exactly!"

"We have no choice! That last attack left us short on manpower because most of our men are in the hospital!" Tsunade growled. "We're lucky they're still alive at all!"

Both Kiba and Naruto took a big breath and sighed, before abruptly stiffening. Kiba sniffed around with Akamaru next to him while Naruto looked as if someone had slapped him right across the face.

Finally Naruto looked up in the general direction of where Kagome's transparent body was. She could see that he couldn't actually see her with the way his eyes darted around, not focussing on anything.

Taking a deep sniff, Naruto looked right at the frozen image of the girl and tentatively asked,

"Kagome?"

Kagome gasped and sat up as straight as she could, trying to come to terms with what she had just dreamed.

Or was it seen?