Isshin Shiba, Toshiro Hitsuguya, Momo Hinamori, Rangiku Matsumoto, and the Hopefully Sake Induced Dreams Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any character mentioned

Flash-forward / Flashback

Present

"Thoughts"

Black line = Time skip, POV, or scenery change

Toshiro Hitsuguya, Captain of Squad 10, overall genius and child prodigy, did not foresee this. But really who could? Out of all the captains in the Gotei 13, Souske Aizen had appeared to be the most trustworthy, the calmest. And yet, there he was, standing in front of the almost dead body of Momo Hinamori, Toshiro's childhood friend. Not to mention, Souske was supposed to be dead, stabbed through with his own sword, pinned to a wall.

"Looks like you found her. Sorry, I didn't mean to traumatize you, maybe I should have cut her up into so many pieces that she was unrecognizable," Souske said coolly, smiling and glancing back at the shocked Squad 10 Captain over his shoulder.

"Exactly when was it that… you joined forces with Gin Ichimaru, Souske?!" Toshiro yelled, whipping around, hand on the hilt of his zanpakto, Hyorinmaru.

"Whatever do you mean, Hitsuguya-Taicho? I've never considered anyone but Gin a comrade since I became Captain," Souske said it so calmly, so innocently, so casually that Hitsuguya couldn't stand it. When Souske hurt Hinamori, he had signed his death warrant, and now, Toshiro would be the one to carry it out.

Yelling in uncontrollable rage, the Squad 10 Captain released all of his reitsu, his spiritual pressure, "I'll kill you! Bankai! Daiguren, Hyorinmaru!"

Gin and Souske were on the platform now, avoiding the deadly spiritual attack. Yelling, Hitsuguya lunged, freezing Souske on spot, sword tearing through his chest. Souske just smiled, lifting his head up from his frozen prison. Souske disappeared, and it took a while, but finally blood spurted from a diagonal wound across Hitsuguya's chest. He would have screamed, if he had had enough time before he fell unconscious to do so.

Shooting up from his desk, the Captain of Squad 10, Isshin Shiba woke up in a cold sweat.

"Taicho?" Third seat Toshiro Hitsuguya of Squad 10 asked, looking up from the couch where he sat, doing the paperwork Isshin was supposed to be doing.

Dizzy, Isshin sat down, on the floor, as his chair had fallen backwards from getting up so quickly. Isshin slammed into the floor, so shocked that the pain didn't register.

"Toshiro?" Isshin asked, confused. He could have sworn he saw his third seat get killed by Souske Aizen, Captain of Squad 5.

The third seat rushed over, not exactly concerned, but rather annoyed, as the infamous Squad 10 Captain did it again, fell asleep doing paperwork. Drooling all over the reports he was supposed to be signing off on, which caused Hitsuguya to copy all the reports again, which was more of a pain than doing normal paperwork. Frowning, Toshiro placed a hand over his Captain's forehead. Surprised, the third seat got up, holding out a hand in an offer to help.

"Uh… what's all this ruckus about?" Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto of Squad 10 asked dumbly, waking up from Sake induced sleep.

"Help me get this idiot to the Captain's Quarters, he's burning up. Whether it's from too much Sake or some other stupid thing you two do, I can't have him messing up all the paperwork," Toshiro said, picking up the fallen chair.

Ah, so that's why he bothered to see if I had a fever. That brat loves his paperwork so much, that if his Captain threw up on them, he'd probably kill someone. Isshin Shiba just stared dumbly at the ceiling, thinking over what was hopefully just some Sake induced stupid dream and not some sort of premonition. Isshin thought annoyed, before his eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out.

Matsumoto muttered something about annoying subordinates before getting out of her chair and drudging over to Isshin. Grabbing his arms, she quickly hoisted him onto her back, piggyback style. As she walked forward, towards the thin doors leading out of the office, Hitsuguya opened the door, closing it after her as she went, following Matsumoto. Hitsuguya easily kept pace with the lumbering Matsumoto, who made no sign that she would go any faster than her painfully slow pace. That was all right with the Third Seat though, it wasn't that he felt compelled to make sure his Captain made it safely to his quarters and then taken care of, but as much as the rumor mill said he loved paperwork, it was wrong. He loathed paperwork just as much as a Captain did, but he just dully accepted its existence and need to be completed. It was even worse that his Captain and Lieutenant were famous for not doing paperwork, and when they did, it was nothing better than shoddy. So naturally, the Third Seat knew that without paperwork done, nothing much would happen and the horrid reputation of Squad 10 becoming even worse. Squad 10 was known mostly not for its combat skills, but mainly of the drunks who caused trouble wherever they went.

Sighing, Hitsuguya shook his head, annoyed with the looks shot his way once they figured out he was a third seat, and the third seat of Squad 10, no less. It was impossible to escape the reputation, besides; it was already bad enough that he was a child prodigy, seen by not really a shingami, too young by most outside of Squad 10. He felt the need to groan, but instead he just frowned as his small group passed a window, and he looked outside. It was a full moon tonight, snow falling, the sun gone down an hour ago. After this, Hitsuguya decided, he would take a break and walk around in the snow, too cold for most to be out.

Switching his attention back to his Captain, his frown deepened. It was very strange for the Captain to get a fever, even if he had drunken so much sake the floor was covered with bottles of it. Even with this weather, Isshin stayed inside mostly, sleeping or doing other non-Captain like activities. Which meant he hadn't got any sickness from outside, which meant that it probably wasn't the Sake, but definitely not the weather, which begged an important question, how did Isshin get sick?

They reached the Captain's quarters, which was basically a big house connected to the Squad 10's barracks. Going ahead, Hitsuguya pushed open the doors, standing by them to close them after Matusmoto. She came in after him, setting Isshin down on the couch in the first room, which was just a small room with couches circling a fire place in the wall. After closing the door, Hitsuguya trudged upstairs, to go get blankets and a pillow, seeing as no one had been in the house for a while, and it was almost as cold as outside. Matsumoto lit a fire with a simple kido in the fire place, and then sat down on one of the sofas closest to the fire, rubbing her arms in a desperate attempt to get warmer. A few minutes later, Hitsuguya walked down the stairs, a pillow under his arm and several blankets hanging over his shoulder.

Placing the pillow under Isshin's head, he placed all the blankets on Isshin, before throwing one of them at Matsumoto, who nodded her head in thanks, pulling her knees to her chest and pulling the blanket close around her.

"I'll be back; I'm going to go get some help from a Squad 4 member. Since I know you're not going to do any paperwork anyway, you might as well take care of the Captain while I'm gone," Hitsuguya muttered, opening the door and exiting.

Matsumoto spluttered a protest, but it was too late, the Third Seat was gone. She looked over dully at Isshin before grinning evilly, pulling out a black marker from between her breasts.

Toshiro closed the door behind him, hearing the beginnings of the Lieutenant's protest. Walking forward, he exited the warm hub that was the inside pathways of Squad 10, which were set up during the winter so that Squad members wouldn't freeze to death on their short walk to training or lunch or some other arbitrary activity not worth dying for.

Personally, Toshiro didn't see the point in the whole thing. Maybe that was because unlike most people, he found the cold comforting, welcoming, and overall a good thing. Of course, the rumor mill attributed it to his Zanpakto, Hyorinmaru, the most powerful ice and snow Zanpakto in recorded shingami history. Of course, there was no saying exactly if that was the truth or not, since Toshiro saw no point in trying to control something that obviously could not be controlled. Besides, Toshiro didn't give much thought to how people viewed him, unless it was about his child like body or his short stature, which annoyed him to no end.

Toshiro was shocked from his thoughts when he came across one of the frozen ponds of the many gardens that surrounded Squad 10's barracks. Nobody besides a Squad 10 member or another Captain would know about the beautiful, well-kept gardens, if anyone had, they would either act in awe, jealousy, or just plain rude. He looked at the pond, stepping dangerously close to its rim, leaning forward slightly. Toshiro looked at his reflection, which he hadn't seen in five years or so, and was actually taken aback.

His hair was longer, his fringe close to covering up part of his left eye, not to mention the last time he saw it, his hair was flatter, but now spikes sprung up in several places. He looked leaner, stronger, than he had five years ago, the year he had become a Shingami and joined Squad 10. His face seemed to be set in stone, a face of neutral expression, neither happy nor sad. His eyes had lost its glimmer, but that was to be expected, ever since Kusaka… He shook his head, pushing the memory aside, he couldn't afford to stare at his own reflection or reflect on memories. Taking one last look before he headed back on his Journey to Squad 4. He noticed two things. One, his eyes had a cold, penetrating stare that could make anyone squeak. And two, the one that made him smirk, he had gotten a little taller.

Toshiro didn't bother to waste energy by using Flash Step on the way to the Squad Four Barracks, he decided that Isshin could wait longer, and that this would be the opportunity he needed to relax a little and take a walk. That didn't mean he took the scenic route though, but rather took the fastest on the streets, enjoying the company that only came with no one around, the company of the wind and cold and snow. Instead of feeling cold, Toshiro felt nothing but comfort from the winter weather, which had, at times, saved and reattached whatever remained of his sanity and patience during the worst times.

Breathing in deeply, and then releasing the breath, he watched it, visible in the cold weather. Turning the corner, he found himself face to face with Lieutenant Momo Hinamori, Toshiro's childhood friend.

"Oh, Shiro! I didn't see you there," Momo said sheepishly, scratching the back of her head.

"It's fine," Toshiro muttered, brushing past her. He was not happy to see Momo. The two had drifted apart when Momo started attended the Shingami academy, and the trench that had been between them turned into a ravine once she became an official Shingami, and then that ravine turned into a lake as she became a Lieutenant, and he a Shingami. He hadn't seen her for five years, ever since before his graduation, ever since Kusaka. Despite what people whispered behind his back, he did not loath Hinamori for drifting apart, for allowing, intentionally or not, for their friendship built on many years to fall apart. Besides, Toshiro was also to blame, for not purposefully setting up meetings with Momo or seeing her on the days when he knew she was free on. It was just that seeing Hinamori brought back some bitter emotions he had once felt toward her, before he realized it was also his fault that their friendship fell apart.

Momo frowned, perturbed by the fact that he had not corrected her when she called him Shiro, "Eh, Shiro… I wanted to ask. Are you okay? You look kind of angry, and…"

Momo slowed to a stop as Toshiro turned around, a frown on his face, "Hinamori, I know what you're asking. I'm not angry at you; don't listen to the rumor mill. You should know that by now." Toshiro held back a wince as he saw the hurt on her face as he called her Hinamori instead of Momo. He realized that his face did look angry, and, maybe no one else saw it, but he did. Behind that angry face, in his eyes, was fear, and so much… so much hurt. Like nothing else, the emotion displayed on his face, behind his mask of ice, he hurt. His face indeed did look angry, to anyone, even to people who knew his well. Now, Toshiro was unreadable, unpredictable. It was the reason, he realized, people looked at him with hate, disgust, and fear on their faces. They were afraid, of him, of what he could do, of what was under that icy mask. Toshiro's face was angry, because he was angry at the world, for inflicting that pain upon him.

It took him a few moments for Toshiro to register Momo's next words, "Why are you heading toward the Squad 4 Barracks? And Shiro, what happened to us?"

Toshiro blinked dumbly before answering, "I'm headed to the Squad 4 Barracks to get some help since Captain Shiba broke out with a fever and fell unconscious." He turned. "As for what happened to us, Momo. That's pretty easy to answer. We changed, and then we drifted apart."

Toshiro Flash Stepped away, eager to get away from Hinamori, to get back to the Squad 10. He immediately regretted not just Flash Stepping earlier. He could've avoided that whole mess all together.

Momo stared dumbly at where Shiro had stood, recalling his words. "That's pretty easy to answer. We changed, and then we drifted apart." He had said, as if he had known all along that it was occurring, that eventually, they would meet again.

Back a year before his graduation ceremony, Momo had asked him what Shiro thought of her, of who she was. He had hesitated for a few seconds before answering. "Momo, you're the type of person who is shaped by others. You depend on others around you to support you. If you were part of a tree, you would be the trunk. Without your roots, your supporters, you would topple over and die, but at the same time, you help those around you grow, perhaps by gaining from your personality, it makes them feel… important I guess, like raising a child, they have the ability to shape who you are and who you will become. In that way, your roots extend, searching for more to support you, the trunk." Or at least, that's what he had said.

She looked back it now slightly perturbed, because she realized he had perfectly described her. Shiro had said a few minutes ago that that they had both changed. Momo saw that though the words sounded bitter alone, spoken by another person, there hadn't been bitterness in his voice as he had said it. Shiro had been referring to Captain Aizen. When it had once been him that had been her roots, then Izuru and Renji along with him, it was only Aizen that she relied on now to shape her. His words sunk in, he had meant that it wasn't him that had changed the most, it was her. Aizen was strong, independent, but caring, a good Captain, he had changed her, changed her so much that it was as if their personalities didn't mix anymore, that Shiro felt it so strongly for so long he had given up, on her.

It made Momo sad, that Shiro had given up on her, but maybe he was right to do so. Even before she met Aizen really, Momo realized with guilt that, she had stopped visiting Shiro often, five times a year at best, because he was gone from her mind often, only when Izuru or Renji asked about him did she visit. Each time, she never noticed how he had changed. Once a brat who had only a love for his grandmother and watermelons and gave no care to how people thought of him, he was less aloof, less carefree, and more serious. Still aloof, and of course his love for watermelons never changed, even now, but during those times, he hadn't changed as much as he had in the last six years. Something had happened, something Momo realized, she would have to find out, to understand why Shiro had changed so much in a short span of time, how he had changed so drastically.

From where the figure stood, dressed in a black short sleeved shirt, white cargo pants, and a white jacket tied around his waist. The white haired man smiled, his blue green eyes glinting, his spiky white hair shinning from the light of the moon.

"I'm glad I finished up my paperwork before I left. It looks like," the man said quietly, a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I'll be staying here longer than I thought I would. This will be more fun than I originally thought."