Chapter 05

The Great Divide

Now—

"You know… when we agreed to participate in this experiment of our breeds coming together, this was not exactly what I had in mind." Ichigo muttered, leaning back in his luxuriously seat to settle for a nap.
"Neither did I, to be honest." The pale leader sighed heavily. "They have been getting along for the past two months without fighting, I thought to reward them with a winter get away at a lodge that we own."
"As great as it sounds, the wolves can hunt in the forest surrounding the lodge, but what about your kind? Will they be able to eat off animals?" He was not trying to be funny about any of this. "I mean—"

"We have a supply of blood waiting for us in the kitchen thanks to Kurotsuchi and his daughter!" A sandy blond-haired male cheered in a sing-a-long tone. "You don't have to worry about your wolves, Silly!"

"Thanks for the confidence, Urahara-san."

After attempting to get along with one another for the past two month with little success, Toushirou thought it would be nice to be somewhere else. In order for everyone to be content and not worry about being caught drinking blood or transforming into a wolf, a private owned land was chosen. This was not Ichigo's idea… nor was it Toushirou's idea… but none other than the sly Matsumoto Rangiku herself. Due to desire of seeing a male on top of another male, she had everything planned out in order to see these two leaders in action. There was only one benefit to the entire situation to make Toushirou all the more clueless as to who Ichigo truly was, and it was Komamura Sajin.

A wolf that never goes into his human form no matter what, but the catch was, he looked almost the same as Kurosaki Ichigo's wolf form. The only difference was that Sajin was slightly bigger due to his age, and his fur coat was slightly thicker from always staying in this form. Said wolf was running behind the bus for the past hour without a care in the world if he was being seen by humans, but now they were on a small road. Something was not right however as Ichigo was watching the wolf's expressions from inside of the bus, and he was not happy about something.

Ichigo stood up in the moving vehicle. "Stop the bus!"

His outburst caused the driver to slam on the breaks as quickly as possible; causing most of the passengers to hold on tight or else be wounded. The driver turned to yell at the one who almost caused an accident on the private road, but realized that he was biting off more than he could chew. Ichigo walked over to the doors that were immediately opened for him so that he could look around for a clue as to what had the wolf so agitated. Sajin came over to him in front of the bus, nudging his face into his arm to be petted as he told him that they were being watched. The wolves inside the bus started to become restless when hearing the mental news, causing the vampires to be on edge.

"Kenpachi, come out with Ukitake-san and Kyouraku-san." Ichigo demanded mentally. A moment later, three men came out; one ready to kill, the other two were confused. "Something's out here, so we need to start working together. Ukitake-san, please go with Kenpachi to take the right side of the road, and Kyouraku-san, please take the left side of the road with Komamura-san. These are safety precautions."

"Hah! I'm taking the front then! If there's anything in my way, then I'll kill it!" Kenpachi transformed to his large beastly form, and then ran off at full speak. "Ya better keep up ya damn Blood-Sucker!"
Ichigo sight softly. "You might want to hurry up and catch him before he gets too carried away."
"Wait for me Zaraki!" Juushirou did his best to chase after the wolf that was almost half a mile away.
"We won't let anything happened to the pack or clan." Sajin announced before doing the same as the other two that had fled the scene as well with Shunsui following him; working together almost easily.

Ichigo heard faint howling in the far off distance; the call was not exactly recognizable, but it was enough to make him want to pursue his curiosity. One after another, the wolves were mentally asking if everything was all right outside as they all could see him searching the area for something. He ignored their worrying as he returned to the bus to sit in the front across from Toushirou before telling the driver that he could proceed. The wolves began mentally asking one another if everything was okay with Ichigo, but forced Hanatarou to check up on him instead. His head throbbed; this was all that he was telling everyone—the wolves at least, but Hanatarou came to a different conclusion unfortunately.

"That's no good, you have to be treated when we get to the lodge Ichigo-sama." Hanatarou frowned worriedly at the carrot top. "You should get some rest ." He brought out a syringe from his hooded sweater. "I only brought ten for our trip, so try to stay in better health." Not having any cloth to clean it, he lifted Ichigo's sleeve, and licked a spot clean before injecting some liquid into his body. "Goodnight."

Ichigo slowly… but surely, fell asleep.

"Yamada," Renji called out. "Is his pressure too high?" He received a nod, so he looked over at Tatsuki. "I know you don't like it when Rukia shares her blood with him, but it's kind of important this time…"
"I know, but we have to wait until everyone hunts so the bastards don't catch wind of anything." The soon-to-be female alpha agreed cautiously. "But we might not have time to deal with our problem—"

"Kill them all."

A voice had whispered to all of the wolves in the bus, causing them to cringe and hold their heads when recognizing the voice. The vampires turned to see the wolves in mental pain; something that they could not sense with their inhuman abilities. Before anyone could realize what was happening, Kaien jumped from his seat to grab Rukia as he ran towards the front of the bus. The door was forced open as Renji got up from his seat after Kaien left the bus to turn into his wolf form in order to grab Ichigo and throw him on his back while Rukia jumped on, and they left hurriedly.

"Abarai… calm down." Tatsuki warned cautious as the other stared at the vampires.

Renji began to show his fangs towards the group until something clicked in his mind—causing him to bring his arm up to bite down angrily. Blood began to pour heavily as he tried his best to keep himself under control rather than listening to that voice from a moment again. If he did not bother to contain himself, then everything that his leader had worked on would be completely pointless as the others would follow his example. Everyone's sensitive hearing could hear his bones breaking in his arm with a dark dangerous growl that began making the other wolves somewhat antsy.

It took a moment, but he settled down.

"Way to fight it Renji." A bald one praised.
"Although he went to the extreme." He friend sighed.
"Quiet…" A giant called out. "Did you hear someone howling?"

The wolves quieted down to listen, however, they could not hear it.

"It must be your imagination Sado-kun, could you recognize who it was?" Uryuu asked curiously.
Yasutora shook his head, "that's the problem…" It happened again, and the wolves heard it this time.
"We'll go check it out, come on Yumichika." The bald one stood up on his feet, rotating his shoulder.
Yumichika shrugged casually before standing up with him. "Of course, whatever you say, Ikkaku…"
"Sit down," Renji demanded the two, standing up firmly. "We don't have authority to wonder off."
"Better watch who you're talking down to, Renji." Ikkaku began to show his fangs; feeling threatened.

"All of you, sit!" Tatsuki roared.

…the three sat instantly.

Toushirou looked at the group that calmed down to obey the angry female, finally giving him a chance to ask them what was wrong with Ichigo. However, something in his mind had told him that none of them would give him an answer if he were to ask them a question, so he had to wait this out. It was going to take another ten minutes before they arrive to the lodge, though he could run it in two, but he had to keep the peace on the bus.

"He's stable now, he's just resting for tomorrow." Hanatarou announced to everyone in the lobby, which was everyone that was on this trip. He looked to the wolves. "Though he's worked up quite an appetite."

"Yosh!" Ikkaku jumped to his feet, stretching out his body. "Let's see what this forest has to eat!"

Toushirou turned to him, "I talked to a merchant that owes us some favors. He had shipped about two hundred gaur to this forest." The wolves looked at him. "Kurosaki said that each individual eats about twelve kilograms of meat, and most of the guars weigh about two thousand kilograms as I requested."

The wolves glanced at one another while trying their best not to drool at the thought of all that meat they were told about. Two hundred beasts, each weighing over four thousand pounds—that was over eight hundred thousand pounds of meat waiting for the taking, and they wanted it. Six of the fourteen present wolves were starting to get antsy with the thought of going hunting for something so big, they could hardly control themselves. The fifteen present vampires stared at them with slight annoyance even though the adults could understand their desire for the animals; they too, wanted their blood.

Ikkaku began running to the doors. "Alright, let's go—"

"Freeze." Ichigo demanded mentally. The wolves quickly turned to look at him in surprise to see him out of bed to check on everyone. "No one is leaving until I hear word from Kenpachi and Komamura-san, is that understood?" As the rowdy batch of wolves settled down, he slowly walked over to the window. "We all should stay inside for a little while, at least until the others come back with some information."

Most of the group looked to the ground to acknowledge the decision, and their heads immediately shot up when hearing a yelp echoing through the forest. Ichigo yelled out Sajin's name as he tried to run to the door, but fell over with a hand grasping tightly to his chest with sheer pain. Renji knew to take his idea by getting up from his seat on a couch to run to the scene with every single male wolf that was with them on this trip. The elder vampires of the group also decided to participate because there was a chance that one of their own were wounded.

"Ichi-nii, you need to get some rest!" Karin panicked, though thankful that they joined the trip.
Yuzu hurried over to his side with her. "Onii-chan, you're going to hurt yourself!"
"R-Rukia…" Ichigo cringed. "Call yours… back…" He began to pant.
Tatsuki also realized it. "You can't mean…" She felt him throb.

Orihime began to pace nervously, watching through the window. "T-Their coming closure…" She was starting to become scared. "Kurosaki-sama, if the vampires stay out any longer, they could die!"

This caught the remaining vampires attention, and all of them fled to help the ones that had left.

"Toushirou," Ichigo called. Said male stopped to look at him. "It's time for you to pay up with that blood of yours, before it's too late." He cringed as he stood up slowly to approach the small one. "Is it okay?"

Toushirou needed to help his companions, but this human was obviously in pain whereas his blood could possibly heal him. He shifted one side of his collar away from his neck to allow the other to bite him because he knew he had the fangs from biting into Rukia earlier. His face tightly scrunched when feeling the sharp fangs piece his icy flesh to drink for a mere thirty seconds before Ichigo pulled away.

"Go…" he licked his lips. "Be careful." With that, Toushirou fled to rescue the others. "That was all I had needed." Ichigo felt his body pulsate, and so he transformed into his wolf form—it was completely different from before. "Looks like my inner beast has awoken." He turned to leave—

"Wait!" Tatsuki interfered, offering her arm. "You don't want Hitsugaya finding out who you are after biting into him, right! Bite me enough to draw blood to mask his scent on you!" She was very serious.

After briefly doing as told, Ichigo ran out of the lodge to catch up to the entire fleet that went charging off into the distance. He easily caught up to Toushirou with this new found speed, and barked at him to warn him that he had company behind him. The vampire stared at the pure white beast with golden hues, and watched as it came closer to his side as if offering a ride. Once Toushirou grabbed the thick mane to hop on, Ichigo went even faster—passing the high school vampires to catch up with the older ones. They watched the beast in surprise as their soon clan leader rode on its back without care, but the wolf looked back at them before skidding to stop. This caused Toushirou to fly off and crash into the snow with a grunt of pain, and then Ichigo quickly turned to help his pack—

"We appreciate you bringing us some dinner." A black wolf announced, slowly approaching the group of vampires. Sniffing the air. "I would be more than happy to take the small one off your shoulders…"

Ichigo began snarling dangerously at the other male who quickly went after the enemy specie until he tackled it into the ground to rip to shreds. Another appeared that was white was well with a slight blue hue on the back due to the sky lighting, but it was mangy looking. It launched in at Ichigo who jumped out of the way to have the two wolves collide—instantly fighting with one another. Soon, trouble began to come as nine different wolves began to approach the group… all of them looking very, very hungry.

His head lifted up into the air; giving an Earth quaking howl that stopped the two from fighting in order to scamper away from his paws. The howl enough told them that this was the lone wolf that none of the others should attempt to fight unless they wanted to lose their lives. Soon, Ichigo's pack began running towards the scene along with a wounded Kyouraku and Sajin whom limped towards the vampire group. The thirteen wolves that were mostly foreign to the pack had began to contemplate what their choices could be, though anything was futile. A multi-shaded pup came running from its pack to approach the purely dominating male, standing on its hind legs to lick his face happily. He allowed the greeting with a watchful eye to make sure that she would not try to nibble on one of the vampires for a meal.

These wolves fed on vampires; making them somewhat of a powerful force to be reckon with.

"This land does not belong to you. Take your cub and get out, we're through here." With that, Ichigo turned to leave the meaningless commotion. However, the larger dark brown wolf would not have any of this and went after Toushirou—but instantly found his neck broken. "The stunt will cost you your life." Without much difficulty, he clamped his jaws down tightly before ripping his head off, it was an easy kill.

"He killed Yammy… just like that…" A whelp-looking black wolf called in surprise.

Though the intruding pack just went down to twelve, its only adult female came over to work her charms on the aggressive male. She found it attractive to see such a deadly sight, so she rubbed her yellow sunny tinted snow fur up against him for a tease. Ichigo bared his fangs before jumping on top of her to show his dominance, which she accepted—only until a dark raven wolf jumped to the scene to try ripping her into pieces. Tatsuki had joined the pack due to hearing the howling from earlier, only to see that a female was attempting to take her male.

It was then decided that the pack was not worth their time.

However, Ichigo's pack was somewhat cautious about the new and improved leader.

"They're not used to your new fur coat." Tatsuki explained softly before nudging the white wolf towards the lodge. "The others can go hunt, you need to rest while you can." She nudged him some more so he would leave. "If Hitsugaya realizes who you are by getting there when you do, it won't be in your plans."

"Yeah… I got it." Ichigo ran off towards the lodge.

Tatsuki sighed before looking at the other. "Renji, take Ayasegawa and Madarame with you to hunt. Kaien, go with them. The rest of you, let's go back to the lodge." With that, she began to lead the way.

The wolves cautiously looked to the beta male that agreed by heading out to go hunt with the three following him as instructed. He stopped to watch the pack head towards the lodge along with the clan, but then the other pack began to follow the large group. Renji quickly ran over through the snow to interfere with their ludicrous belief that they could join the pack, and they quickly backed off. It was obvious that they would not be allowed to hunt without knowing the safety of the others, so they had to wait for their meal. This led the stray pack to watch the group from the distance; they could not exactly fight this pack without their leader back in a flash to kill them.

Though, they had their own agenda, too.

Ichigo stood up from his seat on the bench that was set on the patio of the lodge with three cubs now running towards Tatsuki while Orihime watched the group return home. He walked to the edge of the patio to lean against the railing watching them all; most of the vampires walking into the lodge as the wolves all stood around. His instincts warned him that they would be cautious about him with his new powers, but they were already gone judging by the color of his hair that was bright orange. The leader looked at them all as he tried to contemplate what he would say to them, with Toushirou right there…

"I had a small share of his blood, but it was not enough to sustain me. Though, I'm sure you're all aware that his blood was not what had changed my appearance." Ichigo slowly walked down the few step off the patio and into the snow to approach Renji, stroking his fur. "How about the warriors go hunt, huh? Maybe herd one back here for the cubs to practice on, they need to learn eventually. Right, Tatsuki?"

"That pack has been following us though. To leave the pack…" Renji gave a light whine, nuzzling against him with some affection in hopes of him reconsidering. "Leaving the females with but few protectors?"
Ichigo smiled at the worried beast. "You and three others can go. Yumichika and Ikkaku need to get a good run…" A thought occurred to him, so he came to Toushirou, taking the whistle. "I need this."
"Yeah… sure…" Toushirou watched as he changed the pitch on the whistle as the wolves backed up.
He took in a deep breath before blowing the instrument—causing the wolves to flinch in response to the high pitch noise. "I wonder if he'll listen." Ichigo huffed lightly. "He rarely listens to anyone unless—"

The small albino-looking pup ran to Ichigo's side jumping up and down, tail wagging happily.

"—unless she's calling him, or it he wants to fight." Ichigo smiled as the vampire and wolf came to sight. The cub rushed over to greet the large dark grey wolf that return unhappily. "Don't give me that look, go hunt with Renji. Kill one, and bring one back alive for the cubs—they should start hunting soon."

Kenpachi growled at him in annoyance, but turned to leave with the three others.

"Renji," Ichigo called, said redhead stopped to look at him. "Be careful… I don't need Alpha on me."