(Konoha: A week later)

"Where the hell is Naruto?" Ichigo said scratching the back of his head showing an attitude that implied that he didn't really care about where he was, just as long as he wasn't causing any trouble.

Currently Ichigo was standing at the village gates with a few bandages wrapped around his torso to help hold him together while his body completely healed itself. He had looked at the apartment and at Naruto's favourite Ramen shop, Ichiraku's Ramen, but had no luck in finding him so far.

There hadn't been anyone as scary as Unohana-Taicho at the hospital to keep him from leaving early, or just when he felt better so he just left leaving everyone to think that he disappeared. It often led him to getting in trouble or someone would reprimand him on why he had to stay at the hospital while he blanked and then left once he thought they were finished, ignoring the cry's people were making at his dismissiveness.

"Ichigo!" roared the voice of Shaolin causing Ichigo to freeze and turn to see Shaolin approaching over the rooftops.

"Shit! Gotta run!" Ichigo thought, as he panicked and began running with a slight limp in his step while clutching his right side.

Well, maybe there was someone that Ichigo was afraid of after all.

"I found you!" Shaolin said, Ichigo having finally been caught within her vision.

Ichigo grimaced and made a glance over his right shoulder to see Shaolin jumping down from the rooftop of an apartment block, making her way towards him. Thinking quickly he looked around and ducked within an alleyway before stumbling and tripping over something.

"Owww." A childish voice sounded as a ruffling noise was made.

"That sounded like Konohamaru…" Ichigo thought before a maniacal grin came to his face. Turning around quickly he saw Konohamaru standing to his feet, rubbing his head where he had hit the ground with it before locking his eyes onto Ichigo's own and shivered in turn before shying away a little when he recognized the look on Ichigo's face. "Hey Konohamaru," Ichigo said slowly while reaching out towards Konohamaru with his left hand, still on his hands and knees, as the grin never left his face. "C'mere for a sec would ya."

Konohamaru shook his head as his back hit the wall of the alleyway. Shocked by the sudden wall he was backed up against Konohamaru began twisting his head from side to side trying to find an exit but realised that he was trapped between two rubbish bins, dirty rubbish bins. He wasn't climbing through those…looking back at Ichigo who had almost reached him he reassessed the situation. "Maybe I will have to climb through the rubbish." Konohamaru gulped.

Suddenly something flashed into Konohamaru's vision and the next thing he registered was Ichigo gripping the front of his yellow shirt and part of his red cape that hung partially over his right shoulder. "Ahhhhh!" Konohamaru screamed. However the scream only lasted for a mere moment as he soon realised that Ichigo's head was plowed halfway into the ground, a small sandal clad foot resting atop it. Looking up he saw his savior. Shaolin stood there, hands on hips with a displeased look on her face before deciding to grind the heel of her foot into the back of Ichigo's head for extra good measure.

Receiving a satisfied groan of a sleeping victim Shaolin stopped and looked to Konohamaru who had adopted a confused look to his face. "Hospital escapee." Shaolin explained causing the young ninja wannabe to look back and forth between Ichigo and Shaolin a few times before breaking into a light sweat and laugh nervously. How could he take on the monstrosity that had taken down his boss's brother after all?

Hoisting Ichigo up onto her shoulder Shaolin left in the direction of the hospital to take back Ichigo leaving Konohamaru to himself, a little confused but nonetheless still in one piece.

Konohamaru gave out a heavy sigh before letting his legs give out and slid down the wall onto his bum to allow himself to calm down before he went back to looking for Moegi and Udon to craft up a new impressive Jutsu (different version of Sexy Jutsu) for when Naruto came back from his mission to the Land of Waves.

Standing up again Konohamaru ran out of the alleyway and off to find his two friends.

(Two days later)

"Ugh, my head." Ichigo groaned from within the hospital bead he lay when the early morning light shone through the window beside him. Looking around confusedly at the environment he was in he tried to figure out how he got back in the hospital. "I'm sure I left the hospital…" Sudden realisation dawned upon Ichigo at that moment, "Shaolin." Ichigo thought furrowing his eyebrows in annoyance. "I was almost there. If I had just gotten a hold of Konohamaru I could've used a genjutsu, not that I'm any good, on him and left him for Shaolin to capture instead. Damnit."

Sitting up Ichigo grabbed a hold of the sheets that covered him and threw them off before stepping out of bed and towards a pile of clothes that had been left on a chair next to his bed. Stripping off the hospital gown he wore he uncovered a nasty bruise in the shape of a small footprint. "Ugh, Shaolin." Ichigo sighed before dressing himself in the more casual clothing that was on the chair.

Once finished Ichigo opened up the window before jumping out, not bothering to tell reception he had left yet again without permission from the staff.

Landing silently on the ground three stories below Ichigo leapt off again towards his home.

The sound of the click of a lock opening echoed throughout the small apartment in which Ichigo lived as he stepped inside. Kicking off his shoes Ichigo began walking further into the house not even bothering to turn the lights on. Ichigo entered the kitchen and opened the fridge allowing the cool air to wash over him not noticing the figure step out of a shadow from behind him as he rummaged through the fridge for something to eat.

"Well hello there Ichi-ghfj." Urahara began from within the shadows before stepping out and receiving a punch from his student who lashed out as soon as he heard the voice of someone that shouldn't be inside his home, sending him back into a wall.

"The hell are you doing here?" Ichigo roared, fist still clenched as though threatening to punch the man again.

"The Chunin exams are coming up." Urahara said unusual seriousness, tilting his hat slightly to emphasize this to Ichigo who immediately caught on and lost his anger for Urahara almost immediately.

"Yeah, so?" Ichigo questioned wondering what on earth this man was up to. Why would he need to say that? He already knew of the Chunin exams and intended on participating regardless of what Urahara said.

"You are going to "die" during these exams." Urahara said looking back up and making eye contact with Ichigo.

Ichigo didn't wave to Urahara as he left through the window to go and inform the other members of the squad that Ichigo wouldn't be coming to the next few training sessions for personal reasons. Ones that Urahara did not explain to the two Genin, but hoped that they would understand to leave alone.

He was fortunate that the two did have the nobility to leave things alone when they should even though Shaolin was very tempted to see what was going on. The problem of her going to see Ichigo was solved when Urahara looked at her using the same serious manner that he had with Ichigo. Shaolin was, however confused and became more attentive to the silent gestures that were thrown back and forth between Ichigo and Urahara. Most of the time it was easy to decipher and know that Ichigo would just be doing his own personal training.

(Time skip: Chunin exams time period)

"Chunin exams are here and Urahara's going to recommend us for them." Ichigo said to his other two teammates as they sat inside the small restaurant eating their meals.

"Are you sure we are ready Ichigo-san?" Hinata asked gently. "I mean, the kind of training we have been doing was so much harder than that at academy. It just makes me think of how skilled and powerful a shinobi or kunoichi has to be to be able to achieve Chunin let alone Jonin."

Ichigo had, over the months of the small team being together become somewhat of the leader of the group though Shaolin denied it and tried to take command wherever possible. As such Hinata often turned to them on problems involving shinobi business as they had proven to more than a viable substitute to her own father or sensei when she wanted to interact with those of her own age rather than that of adults. Although this may be the case she still found it strange that they acted a little more mature and weren't as afraid as other Genin of the same age.

"We'll be fine." Ichigo said picking up the chopsticks next to his uneaten meal. "Tch, it's probably gone cold." Ichigo muttered.

Ichigo's bad sense of timing caught on, as it had felt longer than it actually had been and subsequently burnt his tongue on the soba noodles causing him to curse silently before quickly finishing off the next few mouthfuls fast enough to avoid getting burned.

"You're an idiot you know that," Shaolin said prodding at her own meal with disinterest before looking up to Ichigo, "right?"

"Oh, would you stop getting all upset cause I accidentally set your pants on fire during training," Ichigo raised his voice a little causing Shaolin to twitch a little, "it wasn't the best of ideas for you to apply wind chakra to blow it out either."

Shaolin felt ready to throttle Ichigo for some reason, for mentioning her pants problem in a public domain or the fact that she made a dumb move was a probable answer but either way she was just in a foul mood for some reason. She twitched again as Ichigo reached over for her bowl before asking a question.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Ichigo said plainly with a straight face.

"That's it!" Shaolin thought her face contorting somewhat. So much that Ichigo began to feel a little fear. A soon to be much-welcomed entrance however ruined the little showdown that was about to occur.

"I told you we were lost!" came the loud voice of a presumably foreign ninja, the bright blue hair that spiked over the top of the small privacy barrier proving it, as no other ninja within Konohagakure had blue hair.

"Oh calm down." Came a playful reply, "We'll just ask one of the lovely people here after we've eaten something."

The voice continued down the isle looking out for some seats to be in and passed right by before selecting seats that were just a little ways down the isle from the three genin, two of which mouths were hanging wide open. Just across from them were exact replicas of two for Ichigo and one person for Shaolin that they knew in their past lives.

Ichigo having sneaked a peak looked back to Shaolin who still had her mouth open before discreetly taking away her half eaten bowl and shoving the rest into his own mouth before placing it down and getting up to head over to the other squad of ninja.

"I'll be right back." Ichigo said as he walked over.

"Fu thinks it's nicer here than back at Takigakure. No one is mean to her." Fu said to her teammates as she looked around happily, noting all the different features of the village compared to thier own.

"That's 'cause they don't know who you are." Grimmjow pointed out bluntly having already picked up the menu no longer enabling him to see Fu's saddened face. "It's probably better that way anyway. This way you'll probably be able to have a somewhat normal experience."

"Your name wouldn't happen to be Grimmjow and yours Yoruichi would it?" another voice came into the conversation.

"Yeah, what of it." Grimmjow growled, as his eyes never left the menu in front of him.

Ichigo just smirked and punched Grimmjow in the back of the head causing his face to slam into the table. "Long time no see then." Ichigo said chuckling slightly. Quickly sidestepping he avoided Grimmjow's attempt to throttle him violently.

"Ohhh, Ichiiigooo." Yoruichi purred seductively sitting up on the table crossing her legs, "You remember me right?" Yoruichi shoved her chest out to make it more pronounced to the blushing orange haired boy.

"Uh yeah, Yoruichi," Ichigo said trying to regain his cool and succeeding in suppressing his blush, "how've you been?"

"I've been great, thanks for asking. Sit down with us, come on." Yoruichi said practically shoving Ichigo into the spot next to Fu who had gained a slight blush on her face, visible even through her slightly darker skin and looked away hoping not to get noticed by either two.

"Yeah, thanks for asking jerk." Grimmjow said picking himself up from the floor and sitting back in his spot at the table but not before giving a powerful slap to Ichigo's back winding him a little, sure enough to leave a large red handprint for all to see should he take his shirt off. "You still owe me a fight for last time." Grimmjow referred to their last battle in Los Noches. Having sat back down Grimmjow picked up the menu again burying his head in it's contents so he wouldn't have to listen to all the garbage that came out of Yoruichi's mouth during the meals they had together.

"You'll probably get your chance if you're here for the Chunin exams. My team is going in as well…hey that reminds me," Ichigo rubbed the back of his head, "I'll go bring over the others from my team." Ichigo stood and left to the table he sat at previously.

Looking back over the table Yoruichi couldn't help but smirk at the quick glances Fu gave Ichigo and start teasing her for it. "So, Fu," Yoruichi began making Fu jump in shock thinking that she had been discovered, "like what you see?" Yoruichi pointed further down the isle where Ichigo stood, and by what it looked like, trying to forcefully drag one of his teammates out of their seats.

Fu flushed an even deeper red and shook her head trying to deny it. "Fu doesn't know what you're talking about, nuh uh."

"Oh don't try and deny it Fu, you know you're a terrible liar." Yoruichi pinched Fu's cheeks together molding them all over Fu's face. "You're so cute."

Fu struggled to remove her teammates hands from her face as she blushed heavily while mumbling something about a perverted cat as Ichigo returned with his teammates and seated himself back next to Fu before throwing a questioning glance in Yoruichi's direction at her behaviour making her smile mischievously making Ichigo shiver slightly.

"Yoruichi," Ichigo announced, "I'm sure you've met Shaolin before, and this is Hinata." Ichigo gestured to his teammates that stood at the foot of the table awaiting approval.

It wasn't needed though as Yoruichi jumped up and grabbed the both of them shoving them into seats as well, cramming Grimmjow up against the wall at the other end rather uncomfortably on the seats designed for two. This meant that Fu was also a blushing mess as her head now rested on the side of Ichigo's shoulder.

Looking up now because of his newly found discomfort Grimmjow saw all the new faces at the table, and while Yoruichi seemed to recognise the pint sized midget on the end of the table on the other side Grimmjow only recognized Ichigo, having never seen the other girl before. Scanning the table again Grimmjow scowled a little when he noticed the way Fu was acting while next to Ichigo, he'd be watching them that's for sure. Having checked all the nuisances on the seats Grimmjow rudely shoved back knocking Hinata of the edge of the seat. "I need my space." Grimmjow grunted for his excuse.

"Still Grimmjow, there was no need for that." Ichigo said as Yoruichi began talking to Shaolin and Hinata as she helped the girl off the floor. "We were only going to be here for a few minutes anyway, besides I've got something to ask you." Ichigo said sparking Grimmjow's interest a little. "Payment is that you get a fight with me." Ichigo noted the gleam enter Grimmjow's eyes and smirked. "We'll work together during the exams to get to the end, and if we can, rig the fights, if there are any that is, to be against us." Ichigo motioned to the group of six, themselves included.

"I think that can happen." Grimmjow grinned, "Now get outa here, I need to eat. The idiot there next to you forgot to pack lunch for our trip here." Grimmjow motioned to his sister, Fu. "And if you try anything with her, I'll kill you."

"She might hear you Grimmjow." Ichigo said only to receive a shake of the head as Grimmjow pointed at Fu's dazed facial expression giggling perversely making Ichigo freeze and hop out of his seat, walking carefully over the table and land on the floor. "Well," Ichigo clapped his hands together, "we'll leave now and let you get to your meal. Have a nice night." Ichigo waved over his shoulder, his two companions not far behind as they then split up at the entrance and headed in their own directions towards home.