A/N: Here's the next one!

Thanx to: Zanka no Tachi 31, Arrankor, Haru Hime-sama, tastetherainbow17, Adri-Swan, Apocalypse owner, TwiliFay, rhydumgirl1899, CurrentlyIncognito, JadedGothButterfly, and the guests for reviewing!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Naruto.

0—Beat and a Pulse/Two—0

Ichigo had scoured the hospital without any luck; the soul was simply impossible to locate. He understood that souls could reappear wherever they wanted to, but if they were tied down to a certain structure, they shouldn't be able to completely vanish from the grounds! He sighed heavily as he strode out of the basement and started to make his way back to Keigo's room so he could realign his soul with his body.

I'll probably have to call Rukia up to see what's going on with this soul…Ichigo scowled at the thought of going to his former teacher-of-sorts; he could already imagine the smug grin on her face as she recited something that was probably elementary for the "real" soul reapers. Great, something else that midget can lord over me until I save her ass again.

Just as he turned the corner, he caught sight of a small amount of people gathering around one of the private rooms on Keigo's floor. Someone is probably going to pass soon. Ichigo thought, pausing in his steps, unsure as to what the procedure was in such a case. Should I just wait—no. Ichigo dismissed the thought from his head almost immediately. That's pretty disrespectful, not to mention that the soul would probably be scared half to death if he or she caught sight of me waiting for them with my sword without having the time to get used to being dead. He started off in the direction of his room again, only to stop once more and turn back towards the room. It wouldn't hurt to see the face of the soul that I'll be sending off, though. This way I can be prepared on how to handle the situation. I hope it's an older person. They are usually more accepting.

Just as he started to approach the small mass of people, Ichigo had an eerie sensation of being watched. He paused, swiveled his head from side to side then shrugged when he failed to see another soul lingering about the halls. He moved forward towards the private room once again.

"Hey, you!"

The soul reaper ignored the shout, knowing full and well that the person wasn't talking to him—it had taken him a long time to learn to ignore conversations between the living while he was in this form.

"Shinigami!"

Ichigo grounded to a halt. He glanced over his shoulder once more, taking the time to pay attention to the humans who were spread out amongst themselves. His eyes narrowed as they honed in on a long haired male who appeared to be a couple of years older than himself. The stranger held himself arrogantly, and—Ichigo's eyes widened as he caught sight of a familiar set of ivory hues. They weren't nearly as lovely as those that belonged to the soul from before, but they were a close match. In fact, the family resemblance was strong between this guy and the—.

"You can see me?" Ichigo interrupted himself.

"Yes." The stranger's face was tight and a miniscule frown stretched across his lips. "You will step away from that door right now."

Ichigo's brows furrowed and glanced back at the private room, stilling when he noticed that a few of the family members on the outer edge were watching—each of them having the same eyes and features of that of the stranger and the soul from before. "Wait, another one of you is going to—."

"She is not dead. Step away from the door, Shinigami, last warning." The voice was closer, and when Ichigo turned back to face the young man, he blinked as he realized that he was several feet closer, his hands stiff at his side.

"Calm down, man. I can't stamp humans with the soul stamp. I wasn't intending on using it on someone who is still—."

"Hinata-sama will not be dying anytime soon!" The male exclaimed.

Ichigo felt his brows furrow, and it took all that he had in him to keep from screaming back at the brunet. His usual attitude wouldn't work well in such a situation; he sure as hell could see that. "Okay man, my mistake." He made a show of placing Zangetsu back on his back and moving his hands away from the hilt.

"Neji."

Ichigo glanced over his shoulder, pausing when he noticed that the family members who were previously blocking the doorway had moved aside, and in their place stood a tall, regal man with a painfully blank face. The soul reaper was immediately reminded of Byakuya and scowled. Another one of these clan oriented guys? Kami, help keep my patience in check.

"Hinata is asking for you."

Ichigo glanced back at the stranger who was apparently named "Neji" and watched with fascination as the coldness in his gaze seemed to melt just a bit as he stepped towards the room.

Neji paused when he reached Ichigo's side and cast him a cutting gaze. "If I see you lingering around Hinata-sama's room again, I will end you, soul reaper."

Ichigo nearly responded with a snort, but managed to reign in his retort at the last moment. He did, however, keep his eyes trained on the young man as he entered the room, and just before the door was closed, he caught a glimpse of indigo hair splayed out across the white hospital sheets.

The soul reaper froze.

It was the soul from before, only she wasn't in her soul form. Her soul was firmly set in her body, which appeared to be more frail than the glimpse Ichigo had of her from before.

She had been there the whole time.

"I suggest that you continue your route, Shinigami." The voice of the Byakuya-like man rumbled low. Cold ivory eyes that were whiter than anything Ichigo's ever seen were fixated on his sword for a brief moment before flicking down to meet the brown eyes of its host. "Should you appear before us again before her time, I will be forced to take action."

"Uh… Yeah…" Ichigo slowly backed up, his mind whirling as it frantically searched for some semblance of an explanation for what had just happened.

The whole family was able to see me. He thought as he strode back to Keigo's room with renewed gusto. Now that is definitely not normal.

0—Break—0

It took a while for Ichigo to convince Keigo that he wasn't dead once he was able to reclaim his body. It seemed that the young Asano had been trying for quite some time to wake the orange haired teen up; even resorting to throwing his water cup… which still had water in it.

"KEIGO!" Ichigo shouted as he was doused with cold water just as he regained control of his body. "Don't think that you being in the hospital will keep me from kicking your ass if you even think of doing that again!"

The brunet's uninjured hand shot up in its customary defensive position. "Whoa, man! You were really out of it! I was starting to think that you croaked! What else was I supposed to do?"

Ichigo climbed to his feet and made his way over to the sink, yanking some of the paper towels out of the storage above the mirror. "Pretty much anything but that, you little weasel." He muttered without venom. He wiped at his pants and shirt half heartedly, knowing full and well that it wouldn't do much to help him in this situation; the water had already soaked through.

"Sorry Ichigo." Keigo looked down for a moment before a wide grin spread across his face. "Hey, so that girl said that she'd come and visit me again tomorrow after school!"

"Yeah?" The soul reaper responded, tossing the used paper towels in the bin.

"Yup! So if you could, please tell everyone to avoid coming to visit around three. I'd like some alone time with her to… you know," Keigo's brows waggled, "work my magic."

Ichigo shook his head with a small smirk on his lips as he gazed down at his friend. "You're hopeless." He knew full and well that if he told anyone from their group of friends not to come down at that specific time, everyone would be showing up at that time to disrupt whatever Keigo had going on.

"What do you mean hopeless? I'm good enough with the chicks!"

"Sure, you're a regular Casanova, Keigo." Ichigo crossed the room and picked up his satchel before tossing it over his shoulder. "I've gotta head out, bud."

"Where are you going?" The brunet pouted from his spot on the bed, curling himself up as much as he could so that he appeared pathetic enough for pity.

The orange haired teen snorted at the look as he strode over to the door. "I've got to meet up with Rukia to ask her a few things about… school."

"A-HA~!" If Keigo's leg hadn't been broken, he'd have leapt to his feet with the fierce exclamation. "I knew that you guys had something going on! There's no way that you would be able to resist such a cute girl for so long. Man, go Ichigo~!"

"Shut up." Ichigo frowned. "I'd never go for someone as stubborn as that brat! Besides, she's too old for me." The words slipped out before he could think on them, if the gleam in the brunet's eye was anything to go by.

"Ah, so you're the type of guy to care about stuff like that. I'd never guess. Man, this is so great! I've always wondered what type of women you would go for. Poor Rukia-chan… So, you like them young~!"

"Don't say it like that you perv!" Ichigo growled, barely managing to refrain from crossing over the room and ramming his fist into the knucklehead's face. "And no, it doesn't bother me that much!"

"Me thinks the man doth protest too much~!"

He rolled his eyes and slid the door open. "Whatever. See ya later, Keigo."

"Later, dude!"

0—Break—0

Ichigo made his way over to the apartment that Byakuya had insisted on buying for Rukia*, not even bothering to knock before he jerked the door open.

Rukia paused mid-bite, half of the noodles hanging out of her mouth while her large eyes swiveled to her front door.

The orange haired soul reaper smirked at the short female as he dropped his satchel to the ground and toed off his shoes. "That's a good look for you."

Cheeks flaming, Rukia hastily slurped up what was in her mouth before resolutely placing her minute ramen on the table, her chopsticks neatly resting on top. "Erm. What is it, Ichigo?" She didn't feel the need to berate the young man, knowing that he wouldn't really be seeking her out if it weren't about their job.

Ichigo sank down to the ground with a heavy sigh. "You heard how Keigo's in the hospital, ne?"

"Yes." Rukia responded immediately, her back unconsciously straightening into her 'business-mode'. "I heard he sustained substantial injuries to an arm and a leg."

"Yeah. He's okay and all, but when I was there, I could hear the clanging of a soul chain. I used the soul badge and went to investigate, and I found this soul. Her chain looked as if it was connected to the hospital, but before I could stamp her with the hilt of my Zangetsu, she disappeared." Ichigo paused. "Later on after I had looked around for while, I was heading back to my body, and get this, she was in her body again. I mean, I know it isn't impossible since the same thing happened to Inoue before, but the thing is, all of the members of her family could see me."

Rukia, who had been sitting idly, suddenly squawked in surprise, her large eyes immediately flicking over to him. "You said everyone could see you?!"

She seems to know something… "Yeah." He nodded.

"These family members… Did they happen to give you their family name?"

"No. But they did have a unique appearance. All of them had eyes in various shades of white. I thought that it was kind of weird at the time, but…"

"Do not ever approach that family again, Ichigo." Rukia's voice was hard when she spoke, her eyes beseeching the teen to obey.

"Why?" Ichigo breathed. "Who are they?"

Rukia paused, as if deliberating on what she could and could not tell the teen. "Most information on them is classified and is only privy to captains and their lieutenants, but every soul reaper is given the name of the one clan that we are not to approach."

"And that is?"

"The noble clan of Hyuuga."

0—Break—0

"How are you faring, Hinata-sama?" Neji asked quietly once his cousin woke up for the nurse to check up on her.

The face that was once so full of life and that was always showing a bright smile was gone. The Hyuuga heiress' face was sunken ever so slightly, her eyes never shining as they used to and her hair, which was once full and luscious, was limply splayed upon the sheets. "As f-fine as one can expect with…" She paused to catch her breath. "…a condition such as m-mine." Her hand slowly drifted up to her chest, resting just over her heart.

The brunet frowned down at the wistful expression on his cousin's face, knowing full and well what she was wishing for—what she longed for. Stop thinking like that. He scolded himself. She will get better. His hand gently pulled her hand away and held it firmly in his own. "You're going to get better, Hinata-sama. I'll make sure of it."

"A-Arigatou, Neji-niisan." Hinata turned her head away from the prying eyes of her cousin. She didn't wish for him to see the tears that leaked freely from her parted lashes.

She knew that it was a lie.

0—Two/End—0

A/N: Thanx for reading! Next chapter should be longer!