DISCLAIMER: I Love Bleach, but sadly do not own it.

I wrote this very late at night while I was supposed to be finishing a very important article. I suck at concentration but rock at procrastination...LOL

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"Are you sure this is going to work" Ichigo asked irritably, arcing an eyebrow at an overconfident and suspiciously cheery Urahara who was smiling behind his fan.

"Oh, of course kurosaki-san! Have I led you astray before? It is a fairly simple procedure if I assist you but you must find the way to return on your own..."

Ichigo crossed his arms gave an angry grunt.

He didn't particularly trust Urahara when he was looking so happy, it never ended well. But Ichigo was too curious to let this opportunity pass him by.

Ever since he had seen Yuruichi's animal transformation... not that it was something he thought about all the time or anything sheesh... he was interested in knowing how it was possible to transform from a human to an animal. It must be an awesome sensation, especially if he could turn himself into a really cool animal like a panther or maybe even a hawk! Yeah, he could imagine how jealous Ishida would be if he could prowl the streets as an awesome predator...

"Uh, Kurosaki-san, so how about it, you seem to be drifting off."

"Oh" Ichigo snapped out of his sophomoric train of thought... something about chasing Ishida down the street as a tiger and tearing up his ridiculous capes.

"Are we ready?" Urahara eyed the young shinigami carefully over his fan. This certainly was going to be interesting.

"Yosh!" Came the confident answer.

"You can remain in your body for this... here we go! Tiger of the jungle, fire of the phoenix, from to body to the starry heavens and their essence intertwine!!"

Urahara brought his cane down sharply on Ichigo's head!

"Ahh!" The dandilion head staggered, blinded by the pain in his head. He reached to grab the spot where he was hit and was preparing to hurl some choice works back at that damn sandle hat guy, when he realized his arms were too short! In fact his whole body was shrinking!

It was the oddest sensation! Not painful but entirely uncomfortable, and a huge puff of smoke was blocking all of his senses. His strawberry hair began to spread all over his body and his clothes fell around him right to the ground.

It took just a few seconds, but as the smoke cleared, out of a pile of school clothes stepped out a little red fox with a very familiar scowl on its fluffy features.

"Oh ho! A success!" cried Urahara.

As the smoke cleared Ichigo took a moment to take in his new body. Little paws, red fur, long bushy tail... but wait... he looked up to see a humungous Urahara looking over him.. Gahh!! I'm tiny! Why am I so small?!... he tried to hurl these questions at that damn smirking happy sandal hat guy when... Oh God..I can't talk!!

"So what say you Kurosaki-san?"...

Urahara was met by the strange sight of the little fox desperately making strange noises, gesturing with its paws and looking angrier and angrier.

"Oh dear, not able to talk hmm? Well it looks like the transformation was not entirely complete. My apologies Kurosaki-san! Oh dear dear, I'm afraid if the transformation was only partial then you won't be able to turn back on your own. I guess we'll just have to wait for Yuruichi to get back from..." BAM!!!

The very angry little fox slammed very hard into the side of Urahara's face!

Son of a bitch! How dare he!! Yuruichi, she may not be back until tomorrow!! DAMN IT!!

A fierce little battle ensued between a surprised Urahara and the seriously pissed off little fox. Ichigo was preparing to deliver a fierce scratch to Urahara's face when the door of the shop flung open.

"Hello, Urahara-san! Here are the ingredients you requested from..." Inoue's sentence trailed off as she looked at the scene before her.

The two doing battle froze as Inoue's face fell from a giant smile, to a curious look of concern... to slowly a HUGE SMILE AGAIN!!

"HOW CUTE!!!!" The auburn haired beauty lunged forward, scooped up the little fox seemingly at the speed of light and hugged him close. "Oh how soft and adorable, what a lovely colored fur, it's almost exactly like Kurosaki-kun's color!" She shouted with glee now stroking the little fox's fur.

Oh...My...God...was the little bit of thought that was able to make its way through Ichigo's head.

He never expected to find himself suddenly pressed so tenderly into Inoue's bosom, nor could he have imagined that she would be stroking his body like this!!

His entire face was enveloped in a furious blush mercifully hidden by his new fur.

At the mention of his hair color he blushed even more...she thinks my hair color is lovely?

He tried to struggle and wiggle away but that only resulted in him nestling more snuggly in her cleavage! Oh my god!! I can't believe this, no I can't take advantage of Inoue like this, she doesn't know it's me! God! But why does this feel so nice?! No, she's petting me like she would any animal, I can't enjoy this!...

Ichigo decided to stay still and ride it out, while furiously fighting with himself not to admit how incredibly nice it felt to have her sweet delicate hands stroking his back so lovingly...No, I'm not thinking anything, lalalalala...

He also tried, and failed, to keep his eyes shut.

Meanwhile Inoue was happily fussing over her new little friend... and Urahara still shocked and now a little embarrassed was sweating bullets from down on the floor.

"Uh, uh, Inoue-san...."

"Oh Urahara-san it's just adorable! Where did you get such a lovely little thing, is it a doggie? Are you going to keep him? Can I play with him? Is he new?"

Urahara couldn't stop her excited babbling... he found himself nodding without really knowing what he was agreeing to. He was trying to find a way to explain the situation but didn't get the chance as Inoue turned and ran out of the shop with poor little Ichigo still hugged tightly in her arms!

"Oh Urahara-san I'm just going to play with him for a little bit and show him my room and fix him a meal, I promise to bring him right back, thank you so much Urahara-san!"

And she was gone.

Urahara sat up solemly, pulled off his hat and sighed.

"Good luck...Kurosaki."