Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Bleach characters…

Chapter 10: Byakuya…the thief?

During many past battles, everyone around him had praised Kuchiki Byakuya for his ability to stay calm in all types of situations and for not doing things impulsively unlike some of his fellow comrades. Therefore, if anyone had caught sight of what Kuchiki Byakuya was doing right now, they would have rubbed their eyes thinking they were seeing things, thought themselves drunk because they were seeing the impossible, or even told themselves that they needed to go home and rest since they must be so exhausted because their eyes were playing tricks on them.

However, many of them would have been wrong, as they were not seeing any illusion. The noble Kuchiki Byakuya was trying to sneak into the Shiba compound, to be more precise his goal was to speak with the one who was in this past-time, the 10th Division Shiba-taichou's daughter Shiba Ichigo. He had first tried going through the front door only to be denied entrance. Then he had tried what the Ichigo of his own time would have called his uppity-noble-act to see if that would get him in, but unfortunately that trick didn't seem to work on the guards either.

"We are sorry, Kuchiki-taichou but no outsiders are allowed entry per our Clan Head or our heads would be the one rolling on the ground. Would you like to leave a message? We would make sure to pass it along to Isshin-dono when he comes back."

When Option A led to nowhere, then Option B was to force his way in; he was more than capable of forcing his way through the main entrance and incapacitate as many guards as necessary. And who knew, maybe even before he had to take down all the guards scattered around the Shiba house, Ichigo might save him the trouble and come out to see what all the commotion was about.

However, he was also well aware that if he did go with Option B, prior to Ichigo actually coming out, all sorts of alarms would be raised and he won't only have the Shibas to deal with but the rest of the Gotei 13 would most likely be descending on the Shiba compound thinking they were under some sort of invasion (who else but an enemy would dare to attack one of the five Nobles Houses of Seiretei, especially so soon after the invasion of the Shinigami Academy?).

Discarding thoughts of announcing his presence to all of Seiretei, he had to go with Option C; though it was a little more time consuming, he would have to sneak into into a non-enemy place as if he was a thief and somehow find where the youngest of the Shiba's daughter was located. Having arrived at a decision, he couldn't help but chuckle imagining how scandalize his past-self would have been at the mere thought of even thinking about doing this, let alone of actually doing it.

Shrugging his shoulders, he extended his senses and felt very small slivers of a familiar Spiritual Energy floating around the area; if it wasn't for how close he and Ichigo had worked in the future-past, he wasn't sure he would have even picked it up. He swept his senses from left to right, up and down, and with no movement near his vicinity, he lightly jumped down from the roof with a mental note to avoid stepping on any of the kido spells he could feel lying around ready to ensnare any intruder. However, he wasn't even halfway down the roof when all hell seemed to break loose.

5 minutes after Byakuya jumped into the Shiba's garden…

"Ganju, if you triggered any of the spells accidently again, I am going to make you scrub all of my division's bathroom from top to bottom!", muttered Kaien in annoyance as he quickened his pace towards the source of the silent alarm.

He had a terrible long night/day; it seemed out of the blue, but somehow nearly a quarter of his division had come down with some kind of stomach bug in the last 24 hours that had spread from one person to the next before his own captain had also caught it. Kaien had spent the best part of his night/day fleeting from one room to the next, patting backs and ordering men and women to rest.

If only his uncle was back home now and not schedule to return within the next 2 days, he would have left Ganju to him; the 10th Division captain along with a few of his men had been gone for the last 5 days heading deeper into certain Rukongai areas in an effort to see if there were any clues that could help explain the attack on the school. He try to shake the tiredness off him and told himself that his younger brother meant no harm, the guy was probably trying to help him release some of his stress in his own crazy way. However, thoughts of what insane project Ganju might have come up with flew his mind as he sensed his latest spell activate; it was the one that would activate at the mere presence of an intruder regardless of whether or not they meant harm to anyone living in this house.

Kaien flew around the corner and instead of meeting Ganju's sheepish expression, he was met with a sight that threw all reasoning power out of the window, his baby cousin was being kidnapped.

A few minutes before Kaien arrived home…

Ichigo was once again bore out of her mind; it had been 7 days since her confinement had started and it seemed that it wasn't going to be ending anytime soon. Back in her younger days, she would have thrown caution to the wind and charge right outside without a care in the world. However, with time and living through unending wars had taught her to be patient.

"We also needed time off to reassess and plan," was wisely pointed out by Zangetsu.

"You can both reassess all you want but I am all for some action," was sullenly pointed out by Shiro.

Paying more attention to where they were going, unlike Shiro, "I thought we were heading to the underground training area?"

Whipping his head around at that his partner's question, "Hey Queenie, you are starting to lose your mind. You should have gone that way and not this way."

"Shh guys, don't you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"Huh?"

"Hime, why are we sneaking ar…" Zangetsu trailed off as he finally noticed what Ichigo had felt before them.

In turn, Shiro's eyes narrowed into slits as he observed one of his least favorite people at the place he had come to know as home.

"Now what it that bastard doing here? I say we…". However, even Shiro mouth was shut closed when it finally clicked what Kuchiki Byakuya was actually doing; the man who could lecture for hours on end about decorum and how nobles should act properly was actually doing something not so noble or proper.

"…sneaking around like a thief…" cackled Shiro in glee as he rubbed in hands together in anticipation of what they could do to the Kuchiki bastard who was stupidly trying to sneak into a forbidden place.

Sliding down the wall, Ichigo took another look. Ever since Aizen's latest stupid stunt, her father had reacted in an overly dramatic manner and had forbidden any visitors to the house. Ichigo had even been told to stay put and she had protested mostly for form, she wasn't really an idiot; she knew she needed to take a day or two off to calm down and figure out if Aizen's attack had happened the first time before she had arrived in the past and if not did her arrival somehow change the past?

Also, Zangetsu, the voice of reason, had convinced them to stay home for a few more days, just to make sure they stayed off Aizen's radar for a while; Ichigo didn't release her Shikai during the scrimmage but who knew what that ego-maniac might have picked up just from those few minutes when she had helped fend off Hollows from eating anyone in the Shinigami Academy.

By the end of these past few days, Ichigo still wasn't sure about this past timeline since she really wasn't even supposed to have landed in this time period, which meant she had no way of knowing whether the past has slightly changed or not…If only she had asked more questions back in the future, if only someone else who had knowledge of this time period had come with her, if only he…There were just so many If only and she just couldn't take it anymore.

The attack was done and over with she told herself, there was no more need think about the cause and it was more important to focus on the now and to somehow take down Aizen without condemning herself. With no more news of any new random attacks happening inside or near Seireitei, and not wanting any of the Shiba's guards to follow her, Ichigo had been heading towards their underground training area when she had sensed a shift in the Shiba's wards.

About a year and a half ago, her father and Kaien had renewed and cast new spells and wards to spread like a net around the Shiba home. She wasn't sure if she would have felt the shift if it wasn't for her feeding some of her own Reiryoku into the spells to make them more stronger; she had done it unconsciously at first and then both Shiba men had continue to allow her to do it once they realized it wasn't harming her at all but was even beneficial in helping her become more in-tune with her Spiritual Energy. The spells and wards were constantly being re-charged with their mere presence in the house, but once a month they needed an extra boost of Reiryoku and all three of them took turns doing it; at the beginning, her cousin or dad would hover behind her as they walked her through the process of meditating while consciously reaching inside herself for a few strands of her Reiryoku and connecting them to re-boost the floating Kido spells created by the Shiba men (Ichigo was still dreadful at best when creating Kido spells of her own but had learned that thought she couldn't safely cast many spells, she could however consciously lend her power to other people's spells).

The shift had been slight and since it seemed that the intruder didn't mean to bring any harm to anyone residing within the Shiba compound, Ichigo figure that Byakuya was safe. However, as Byakuya jumped off the roof and at the same time her cousin's latest spell activated, did Ichigo remember Kaien's water dragon. Water from a mini-waterfall located nearby that had been flowing innocently and soothingly suddenly coalesced into the shape of one ferocious water dragon that swept directly towards the intruder.

As Byakuya was descending towards the Shiba's garden…

All in all, it did not bode well for Kuchiki Byakuya as the next thing he saw before he was even able to land a foot on the ground was a deadly-looking water dragon with jaws wide open heading straight for him. Before he could decide whether to move out of the way or defend mid-air, a flash of green cloth and the back of cinnamon-orange hair blocked his way. He heard a firm voice shout "Stop" but Byakuya wasn't going to wait to see if the water dragon listened to her, he had no other option but to grab her from behind and Shunpoed to the other side of the garden, far away from the dragon.

"Let go of me. I just need to…Crap! Duck!"

Byakuya obeyed Ichigo's shout without hesitation as he quickly ducked and Shunpoed both of them far away from the branch they had been standing on. Whether he finally sensed the murdering aura aimed at him or it was just instinct honed from the long war, he hastily cast a Kido spell just in time to form a protective shield to deflect the three water shaped arrows that had been heading straight for him.

"Kaien-nii STOP!" shouted Ichigo as she try to push herself in front of Byakuya again who had somehow between one Shunpo and the next switched their position; he now stood in front of her in an effort to serve as her shield against any danger. And the way things were going, if she didn't put a stop to this, Byakuya would either have to engage her cousin in a fight or he would find himself seriously hurt as she felt the intensity of the attack increase. Well, Ichigo had to go with the 3rd choice and finally managed to maneuver herself to the front.

Kaien arrival towards the area of the house where one of his spells activated…

Hearing one of its creators order's to stop even before he could do anything, the water dragon was force to dissolve its shape since it was the only way to stop himself from harming one he was created to protect. However, before the droplets of water reached the ground, Kaien arrived to gather the drops into three arrows then sent them straight towards the intruder who had raised a shield fast and strong enough to block his attack. He felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing the interloper's shield shatter due to Kaien's attack but it did not last long when he realized who was standing in front of him.

Kaien ignored who it was and concentrated on re-launching his attack since noone was allowed to harm his family, however, not knowing why or how, in the next half heartbeat, Ichigo had managed to slide between him and the other man. Having no other option but to cease attacking, with his hand on the hilt of his katana and in a voice that promise nothing but pain, Kaien warned, "Let her go or you won't be able to leave from here in one piece…if at all."

30 minutes after Kaien arrived home…

"Ichi-chan, look what dad got you!" announced Isshin as he rounded the corner to the family room.

He stopped dead in his tracks as his eyes moved from Kaien standing sternly on one side of the room as on the other side Kuchiki Byakuya (of all people) was currently seating on the tatami mat sipping tea.

If it wasn't for Kaien's and Ichigo's presence in the room, Isshin woud have turned back around to make sure he hadn't somehow accidently ended up in the wrong house. Though they didn't hate each other, prior to Rukia joining the Kuchikis, both families were civil but rarely visited each other; the Shibas were too laid-back for the rules-loving Kuchikis. In fact, this was the first time in centuries that a Kuchiki had volunteered entered into a Shiba home.

He passed the package he had been holding to Saki, one of two the servants that had been dodging his steps ever since he walked through the main gates. They probably had wanted to warm him about the visitor but in his haste and eagerness to finally be home, Isshin had not stopped long enough to listen to any of them.

At the same time the package left his hand, the doting and goofy man was replaced by a stern looking one. Eyes narrowed, he demanded, "Kuchiki, what are you doing in my house?"

A/N: Hi all,

Two chapters back-to-back for not having been able to upload for a while and also as thank you for sticking with me.

Enjoy this chapter, share your thoughts and see you hopefully soon though I probably won't be able to update for a while again; been having some problems at work due to one of the administrators from another dept having absolutely no clue what they are doing, but still insisting on making insanely decisions and coming with even more outrageous reasons to justify their incompetency for making one decision after the next that doesn't work out as they planned. It's always everyone's fault but their own for why things are not working out…yes, it completely makes sense why it's our fault why your unknown (I am not joking, we are not informed of anything but are expected to know about it) chaotic plans didn't work out…***shakes head at the absurdity of it all***

Keep your fingers crossed for me and wish me good luck in regards to finding a new job. I don't think any of my co-workers or I can continue to stay any longer in such a disorganize and hostile workplace where your administrators don't care about any of their employees, unless, of course, it's to blame employees for the administrators mistakes.