Disclaimer: I don't own bleach or any of the characters. I'm too evil to create something that great.

For those of you who are kind enough to review and/or follow this story like your lives depended on it, I'm sorry it took so long to update. This story. I'm sorry to say that this won't be a particularly long chapter, but it should occupy you guys for a while. I'm still in a bit of a writer's block phase for this story. Ideas pop into my head when I'm trying to sleep, but for some reason, none pop up for this story very often lately. I'm in a bit of a vampire phase right now. All of my stories are being updated at least around one in the morning. Anyways, enjoy the eighth chapter!

Issin and Kaien ran toward what Kaien guessed had to be the thickest woods in the area. They were using shunpo so they had to be careful not to run into trees, which they both had a bit of a problem in that area. Kaien heard his phone beep and looked at it questioningly.

"What the hell?!”

Issin walked over to him and looked at his phone over Kaien's shoulder.

"They've all disappeared!” Issin couldn't believe it. They were on the radar only moments ago, but now they just vanished out of thin air!

"Not exactly.”

They swung around to see a man with teal colored hair and part of a mask stuck to his face. The drew their zanpakutous out of their sheaths and prepared to fight the arrancar.

The man calmly raised his arms, palms forward to signal that he wasn't there to fight. “Calm down, shinigami. I'm Grimmjow. I didn't come to fight. Just helping you guys out with the weak arrancar.”

They lowered their weapons and looked at each other, both thinking 'What the hell is going on here?!'. Grimmjow smiled and lowered his hands when they re-sheathed their swords. “I was actually expecting to come across Ichigo.”

"What do you want with him!” Issin asked dangerously, his hand going back to his zanpakutou.

Grimmjow chuckled and raised his hands like he had done only moments ago and said, “Calm down. We're not enemies anymore! I switched sides a long time ago.”

"Why?” Kaien asked. This guy was interesting. He wanted to know as much as possible.

"Got tired of Aizen telling me what to do and how hard to fight,” he said as though it were the simplest thing in the world. “And the reason I came was that I just wanted to know how the brat was doing, when I noticed all the arrancar that got into the living world.”

"Oh...thanks...” they both said at the same time.

Grimmjow thought for a moment then asked, “So, why aren't you two in the Seireitei like the other good shinigami?”

"They think we're dead,” Issin answered. He was thoroughly convinced that this guy wasn't their enemy and decided to trust him for the moment.

"That's a good reason.”

There was a short, but thick silence until Grimmjow said, “Well, I better get going. Tell Ichigo I said hi.” And with that, he turned and walked back into Hueco Mundo by the use of a strange black hole thing.

"That was...weird,” Kaien commented dryly.

"Yeah...Well, we'd better get back,” Issin said and started walking back the way they came.

"I don't want to teach them!” Kaien complained like he did when he was a kid.

Issin chuckled softly at the memory of Kaien pulling on his clothes and complaining about whatever was bothering him. “Tough!”

"Dammit!”

"Watch your mouth, Kaien!”

They looked at each other for a moment, then burst into laughter. Kaien hadn't been this happy in a long time. Issin was just happy to see that his younger brother was still alive and as obnoxious as ever.

They got back to the dojo an hour later to find Tatsu teaching the class as though nothing was wrong. Tatsu heard the door open and halted his demonstration of whatever he was doing.

"That was an awfully long bathroom break, Dad,” Ichigo commented.

"You have no idea!” Issin laughed, then unexpectedly lunged forward towards him.

"Dammit! Back off you psychotic excuse for a parent!” Ichigo screamed as he fought off his insane father. Kaien just laughed.

Issin stood up and looked at Kaien seriously. “What are you laughing at?”

"Not much,” Kaien smirked.

"Watch it. You could get hurt,” Issin warned. Kaien could've sworn he heard Ichigo in the background say, “You couldn't hurt a piece of tissue paper!”

"I'm the teacher. You can't tell me what to do!” Kaien said proudly.

"I'm older, so deal with it!”

"Dammit!”

"Language, Kaien!”

A/N: Told you it'd be short. I don't have much to say here, but I think I might have spelled a few things wrong...Oh, well.