Chapter 50 - High School of the "Dead"

"Renji?! Ikkaku?! Yumichika?! Rangiku?! Itachi?! Toshiro?!" Ichigo blurted out in surprise.

"It's Captain Hitsugaya…" Toshiro replied with a look of irritation.

"Why are you guys here?" Ichigo asked.

"To prepare for the war against the arrancar." Renji replied.

"The what?" Ichigo looked at Renji confused.

"You fought them and don't have any idea you dumbass? Those were the guys who nearly killed you yesterday!" Renji responded. As Ichigo tried to wrap his head around the situation, he was distracted as another figure appeared in the window.

"Rukia!" Ichigo looked at her surprised.

"Long time no see Ichigo!" Rukia smiled back at him.

"Rukia you're-" Ichigo is cut off as Rukia jumps from the window sill and kicks Ichigo in the face. The rest of the shinigami and students watched as Rukia continuously slapped Ichigo.

"We were supposed to stay undercover…" Toshiro grumbled.

"I think that we are already past that..." Ikakku replied as he pointed to a flock of girls staring at Itachi from outside the room.

"I'll stop this." Itachi said as he changed the topic. He begins to walk to Rukia and Ichigo but stops when Rukia rips Ichigo's soul from his body and jumps out the window.

'Oh no...' Itachi thought.

"Hey what happened to Kurosaki?" One student questioned.

"That woman just beat the crap out of him and he keeled over?" Another one added.

"It must be because of those dangerous looking people! Look at that guy with the funky red hair."

"That short guy has silver hair! He looks like a grade schooler."

"Why is one of them carrying a wooden sword?"

"Check out that chick with the huge brėȧsts." The boys said as they drooled over her.

"Why is that dude bald?"

"The guy with the long black hair is kind of cute." Some of the girls commented.

"Hey you're right that guy is bald!"

"Bald… Bald… Bald...Bald."

"Don't worry about it too much man...they have no idea what they're talking about." Renji tried to reassure Ikkaku.

"No no no...I can't let this one go Renji." Ikkaku said as he began to draw his wooden sword out. "Whoever called me bald, get over here right now! I'll cut you in half!"

"Then I shall ȧssist you Ikkaku." Yumichika commented as he stepped up next to Ikkaku. Toshiro and Itachi watched from the sidelines. Toshiro's face began to contort with anger as he tried to suppress it and veins started to pop out on his head.

"I really wish this was someone else's job right now…" Toshiro said as he stared angrily at his subordinates. Some of the bolder girls walked towards the group, more specifically Itachi.

"Hey, are you new?"

"Did you just transfer over?"

"You're really cute!"

"Are you single?"

"Who's the bimbo!! She's not your girlfriend is she?"

"Uchiha…." Toshiro grumbled. 'How is the most silent person in the group drawing in the most people?! What happened to covert? Wasn't he in the second division!' Toshiro thought to himself.

"Captain Hitsugaya. I'll fix this." Itachi calmly reassured Toshiro. Toshiro looked at Itachi and nodded, and the veins popping out of his face began to recede. Itachi walked in front of Ikkaku and Yumichika and looked at the students.

"Who the hell is this guy?"

"Hey look, he's walking over here." Some girls blushed.

"Is he trying to pick a fight with us as well?"

"Hey what's up with his eyes?"

"Why are they glowing like that?"

The students commented amongst themselves as they looked at Itachi. Suddenly all of them fell to the ground and the spectating shinigami watched in shock.

"Itachi, what the hell did you do?" Renji asked.

"I put them to sleep. When they wake up in a few minutes, they won't remember what just happened as if it was a dream." Itachi replied calmly.

"Well at least this can't possibly get any worse-" Toshiro commented but is cut off as another person enters the room looking down at her clipboard.

"Sorry I'm late for class. I hope you all enjoyed your lunch. Now let-'' The teacher looked up from reading her clipboard and froze as she saw all but a group of students lying on the floor.

"Shit…" The group said.

"Why is everyone asleep? Oh you must be the new…. students?" The teacher said as she looked at the group.

"Why are you holding Kurosaki?" The teacher continued her questions with panic in her voice.

"This…." Renji was speechless. He quickly turned to Itachi.

"Itachi, put her to sleep too. We can leave out of the window." Renji whispered. Itachi gave Renji an indifferent look.

"Very well." Itachi said as he looked straight into the teacher's eyes and she collapsed.

"That's it. We're leaving." Toshiro angrily yelled at the whole group and jumped out of the window. The rest of the group looked at each other before following him out.

'What a day..' Itachi thought to himself as they exited.

"I can't believe we got out of that mess…" Toshiro sighed as the group of shinigami walked down the street.

"We didn't even have to wipe anyone's memories. Uchiha did it for us." Yumichika mentioned.

"I still wanna fight those little punks!" Ikkaku yelled as he put his hand on his wooden sword.

"Where are we going to stay now?" Rangiku asked. There was a brief moment of silence as everyone looked at Toshiro for what to do next. Toshiro looked back at them nervously.

"Captain you have no idea where we are going to stay do you?" Rangiku asked.

"Hey how about we crash at Ichigo's place?" Renji suggested. "That's what Rukia did when she lived here."

"And you think he'll just allow us to stay there?" Yumichika asked.

"Well-" Renji is cut off as he felt something vibrate briefly in his pocket and quickly pulled it out to read it. "Oh it's from Rukia. We're clear to stay in Ichigo's place. But…"

"But what?" Toshiro asked as he leaned in to read the message.

"Are we seriously doing this Abarai?" Toshiro asked as the group of Shinigami stood on top of the Kurosaki household's roof.

"Yup we just wait for our cue. Ichigo should be going upstairs to his room any minute- Hey Itachi where are you going?" Renji asked as he saw Itachi jump down from the roof without saying a word.

"You guys just do what you want." Toshiro sighed as he followed Itachi off the roof.

"But the entrance…" Renji said dejectedly.

---

"What the hell are arrancar?" Ichigo asked Rukia who was sitting on his bed. "Why did they attack us?"

"I guess that's our cue." A voice said from the ceiling. Ichigo looked up at his ceiling confused as Renji, Yumichika, Rangiku, and Ikkaku's heads popped out from the light fixture.

"The hell did you guys do to my light?!" Ichigo exclaimed.

"Don't worry about it. Let me explain to you what the Arrancar are with a diagram." Renji said as Rukia pulled up a few hand drawn pictures and they began explaining it to Ichigo.

"And we suspect Aizen has set his sights on you." Toshiro added in, appearing on the window sill.

"Captain Hitsugaya you finally made it. I knew you were horrible at scaling walls." Rangiku commented upon Toshiro's arrival.

"Wait where is Itachi?" Renji questioned. 'Wasn't he with you."

"No idea." Toshiro replied before continuing the explanation of Arrancar to Ichigo.

---

"Karin, Yuzu! I'll be in the garden if you need me!" A tall man with spiky black hair, brown eyes, and thin facial hair yelled as he walked out into the backyard. He stops as a flock of crows fly past him merging together, forming a figure in front him.

"Kurosaki Isshin...no...Shiba Isshin. So this is where you went." Itachi said to the man.

He had recognized this person. It was the previous captain of the 10th division who had disappeared over 20 years ago.

"That's not a name I've heard in a while." Isshin replied as he looked seriously at Itachi. "I go by Kurosaki now. You must be Uchiha, Itachi. I heard your eyes were sharp, I can't believe you actually noticed me."

Itachi remained silent.

"You're probably wondering how I know you. I heard a lot about you from Hitsugaya when I was still a Captain. And from Urahara..."

"Urahara?" Itachi asked, curious about how Urahara knew Itachi. "Are you referring to Urahara Kisuke? How does Urahara know about me? Itachi continued.

"Do you remember that strange hollow you fought from roughly twenty years ago? It was a humanoid looking hollow." Isshin replied.

Itachi nodded.

"I fought the one with the white mask. What I didn't know at the time was that there was a second hollow that was also sent out. They were both Aizen's creations, I'm sure you are aware by now. Urahara mentioned this to me after I seeked help from him. I won't go into the details but because of that, I lost my shinigami powers." Isshin continued.

"I see...the roots of Aizen's plans are certainly spread far…" Itachi said as he remembered his fight with black masked hollow.

"Uchiha do me a favor. Keep my presence here on the downlow. I know Hitsugaya and Matsumoto are here. But I'm no longer a Captain. I'm simply the father of Ichigo now." Isshin said.

"Also when you get the chance, go to the Urahara shop. Urahara wishes to speak to you." Isshin reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Itachi. Itachi accepted the paper and opened it up, revealing the shop's location.

"Very well." Itachi responded and put away the piece of paper into one of his pockets. He nodded at Isshin before jumping over the house back into the front yard where Renji was just leaving and walking onto the main street.

"Ah, Itachi." Renji commented as Itachi landed on the ground. "We can't stay at Ichigo's so I'm going to Urahara's. He's the guy who brought Ichigo up to a sufficient level to do battle. And there are some other things I need to talk to him about. You got a place to stay at?"

"I also need to see Urahara Kisuke, so I'll be coming with you." Itachi responded. Renji nodded and the two of them walked down the street.