Adult-FanFiction.org : Bleach

A Beneficial Arrangement	By : vbruce Category: Bleach > General Views: 3827 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. That honor goes to it's original author and creator. Making no money from writing this.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. I appreciate it immensely.
***
“Mom!” Uryuu called across the courtyard before sprinting over to her and holding on tight. “We were so worried until Jyuushiro and Shunsui showed up and told us where you’d gone.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. Bya needed the help more than the rest of you did though. Anyone hurt?” Inari asked.
Uryuu shook his head then smiled slightly. “Ichigo got hit by some debris, he was hit in the head so there was minimal damage considering there isn’t anything in his head but rocks. Other than that everyone came out fine. We started tracing the lines after the fights were finished.”
“And?” Inari prompted.
“It dead ends. No energy signatures, nothing. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Uryuu said with a frown.
“It’s actually as though the signatures were wiped completely clean instead of not existing. They are there just not traceable back to anyone,” Ryuuken said, coming over to the group and hugging Inari, much to Byakuya’s surprise. “Stop scaring our son like that, woman,” he growled at her.
“Like you haven’t done the same damn thing, dragon,” Inari grumbled.
Ryuuken noticed Byakuya’s odd look and said over Inari’s shoulder. “We somehow managed to raise a child together without killing one another.”
“Though there are days it’s a wonder how,” Uryuu said. “We’ll keep trying though, Mom. They’re bound to have slipped up somewhere.”
Inari nodded. “True enough. It just bothers me that this happened immediately after we’d been discussing certain things,” she said, nodding to Byakuya. “Even before anything formal was drawn up. The fact that Bya’s family was personally targeted bothers me as well.”
“There must be a spy within the palace,” Byakuya said thoughtfully.
“It’s likely there are many,” Inari said.
“Someone has to have had this planned for some time now, Mom. It was too well put together to be a spur of the moment thing,” Uryuu said. “Perhaps someone was just waiting for the right moment to put it into action.”
“There’s also the thought it might not have anything to do with your pending marriage,” Ryuuken said.
Uryuu frowned at his father. “How so?”
“Take into account someone probably knew if the palace was attacked that everyone would go there to defend the royal family. It would leave all other areas vulnerable,” Ryuuken pointed out.
“So we have to look at the fact someone might be targeting the Kuchikis and not the royal family. Or at very least not for the reasons we’d first presumed,” Inari said. “Damn it, I hate intrigues.”
“But you’re so good at them, Mom,” Uryuu teased.
“Hn. Apparently not,” Inari said. She turned to Byakuya. “Any open enemies you can think of?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Byakuya said. “But the Kuchiki family is a long line with a history of ruthlessness. There are bound to be those who’ve held a long time grudge.”
Inari nodded. “Alright, for the time being we’ll presume all hostiles are directed at the Kuchiki family instead of the royal one. Since the vast majority of them will be staying here until the compound is rebuilt, it shouldn’t be too much trouble to keep an eye on them. Keep working on tracing down those energy signatures,” she said to Uryuu and Ryuuken.
“Will do, Mom,” Uryuu said, kissing her cheek then heading off to check on people.
Ryuuken was eyeing her narrowly. “I mean it, Inari, don’t scare him like that if you can help it. He’s already lost one mother, I don’t think he could stand losing you too.”
“He’s an adult, Ryuuken. It’s a little late to be playing the concerned father with him,” Inari said.
“As you are well aware, I did what I thought was best for him at the time,” Ryuuken said haughtily.
“Yes, I know,” she said with a sigh. “That’s what makes it even more aggravating. Your intentions were actually good in that case. Go have Captain Unohana tie you up with medical tape or something.”
“We’ll have this out on training grounds, witch,” Ryuuken said.
“Bows or blades, dragon?”
“You know which I prefer given the choice,” Ryuuken said.
She shooed him off and he left with a smirk over his shoulder for her.
“Ass,” she said, shaking her head and chuckling.
“You like one another,” Byakuya said. It had been an odd revelation considering they’d almost been ready to come to blows with dinnerware the night before but it was true.
Inari sighed. “It’s . . . complicated.”
“Simplify it for me,” Byakuya said.
“It’s a long story. Isshin and Ryuuken have been friends since Ryuuken was fifteen. At that point in time, Isshin was in and out of the living world fairly frequently because Kisuke was already there and he liked to visit. But they met because Ryuuken sensed a strong spiritual pressure in Isshin and was curious about it. When Ryuuken turned seventeen his father arranged a marriage for him.”
Byakuya’s eyebrows went up a little at that. “I thought that was no longer done in the living world.”
“For normal people, no. For the last of the Quincy . . . Souken felt it was Ryuuken’s duty to carry on the line. Ryuuken refused. He was in pre med at that point plus finishing his training with Souken and said he had no time to breathe much less deal with a wife.”
“However, he was somehow pushed into it,” Byakuya said.
Inari nodded. “Souken threatened not only to disown him but to never finish his training. You’ve met Ryuuken, he’d rather commit seppuku rather than leave something that important unfinished. So he relented and married the girl when he was twenty. Uryuu was born two years later. He and Ichigo are actually only a few months apart in age.”
“How did you get involved in all of this?” Byakuya asked.
Inari shrugged. “Babysitting more than anything. Ryuuken would often bring Uryuu over to play with Ichigo when they were toddlers and if I was visiting Uryuu seemed to gravitate to me. That’s how it started. After Rin was gone I was in the living world a lot. This was close to the time Uryuu’s mother died so I kept an eye on him and tried to help as best I could. Then Masaki died a year after that and it seemed like everyone just shut down. That was about the time that Souken started to train Uryuu. Had it been solely up to Ryuuken, Uryuu would have never known anything about the Quincy heritage or anything else. There was only one slight problem with that theory.”
“Allow me to guess. Uryuu found out on his own that he had certain abilities,” Byakuya said.
“In a nutshell, yes. He was being bullied at school and drew on them as a reflex. That made things . . . awkward for him so Ryuuken put him into private school until he got into high school. But getting back to the story, Souken had realized by that point he’d made a lot of mistakes with Ryuuken.”
“By that time Ryuuken was an adult and it was too late to make amends for past wrongs,” Byakuya murmured.
“True. After Souken was killed, Ryuuken just . . . shut down. I think the guilt ate at him more than he’d like to admit even now. He walled himself off from every thing and every one. Unfortunately, that included Uryuu.”
“Which made you angry with him.”
“Naturally. While I may dislike his parenting, I do tend to like him personally. Ass that he is. I did say it was a long story.”
Byakuya smiled a little. “You did indeed. I have a feeling that isn’t everything.”
Inari sighed heavily. “No. There’s a lot more but that’s all for another time. Sorry. I tend to ramble when I’m this tired. We should both get some sleep. Come on,” she said, indicating he should follow.
After several minutes and various passwords they were finally on Pack grounds and headed down the hallway of the barracks. Inari pushed a door open with her good shoulder. “It’s nothing fancy but the futon is comfortable,” she said before pausing just inside the doorway and giving Hanataro an odd look as he was perched on the edge of a chair.
“I’m guessing you threatened one of my whelps to get in here,” Inari said, shifting her still injured shoulder slightly.
“I do not threaten, I request. You threaten. Now it is my request that you come sit down so I can finish healing your shoulder,” Hanataro said firmly.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand you as a nephew in law, Hana,” Inari grumbled.
“You have no choice in the matter,” Hanataro said, starting to work on her shoulder.
Inari chuckled. “Bathroom is through there, Bya,” she said. “Shower and bath both, whichever you prefer.”
“It’s likely I’d fall asleep in the bath at this point,” Byakuya said, moving toward the bathroom and gently setting Hisana’s picture on a table. He went into the bathroom and closed the door, leaning back on it heavily. It had been a very long, very trying night and day.
“You’re worried about him,” Hanataro said as he finished healing Inari’s shoulder.
“Even the strongest people have a limit to their reserves of strength, Hana,” Inari said.
The healer snorted. “I’ve been telling you that for years. Now, not that you’ll listen to me but no training, no acrobatics, no firing off energy arrows at Ryuuken until that shoulder heals.”
“There goes all my fun for the day.”
“Get some rest. And Inari.”
“Hmm?”
“I do think you suit one another well.”
“It’s a business deal, Hana. Nothing like what you and Yuzu share,” Inari said, shaking her head.
“Maybe not but that doesn’t mean you can’t build on it. You both know what it is to lose someone you love. That has to count for some kind of connection. Right?” He gathered up his medical supplies and headed for the door. “You do make a beautiful couple.”
“Half of us do anyway,” Inari said. “Go detach your Captain from the great Quincy bastard and leave me alone for the next twelve hours. I’m going to pass out after I get the blood and dirt washed off of me.”
“I highly recommend that,” Hanataro said, closing the door behind him.
Inari sighed and got up from the chair she’d been sitting in. She wandered over to where Byakuya had put the picture of Hisana down on the table. He’d removed it from the frame so it was just the photograph. She picked it up and went to a small, closed cabinet and opened the doors. She gently set the picture against the edge of the one already there. “I brought you company, Rin. I hope neither of you mind sharing quarters. I also hope you aren’t too upset with your temporary home, Hisana-san.”
Byakuya had paused in the doorway, toweling his hair and watching Inari place Hisana’s picture in the shrine she had for her husband. “I presumed the sleeping robes were for me since they would be entirely too large for you,” he finally said.
She smiled over her shoulder. “You presumed correctly. Pick a side of the bed, I’ll take the other side,” she said, waving to the futon that was set up for two people.
“Which side do you usually sleep on?”
Inari shrugged and headed into the bathroom. “The middle usually.”
Byakuya nodded. “It’s less empty that way.”
“It is,” Inari said. Sometimes being understood without explaining was a wonderful thing.
- 12
- 13
- 14
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

A Beneficial Arrangement