Week one: is it heaven or hell.

It was a nice sunny Sunday afternoon as Ryu laid on a tree branch as he casually watched the clouds over head slowly move about, it had now been a week since he had been accepted into squad 2 but so far it has been about as plain as any other week. When he was first accepted he was happy that a squad wanted him but then he was surprised to find out what squad he was going to, his time living in the rugonkai district he always thought that squad two was compromised of the steath force but to only find out that it was now the kido courps as well as the hospital. It seems that a while back the squads had changed there jobs and so now squad five was doing what squad two once did so he was still getting used to his new life as a Shinigami. So far he has made neither any new friends or enemy's which to him suited just fine since he was mostly a loner by nature, and so far he has not had to attend classes cause they gave him a week to get accustomed to the new building and grounds.

" Excuse me but you would happen to be Ryu Takanuchi."

Ryu looked down towards the ground to see a pretty girl, she was about 5:10 or 5:11 and weighed in probably at 150. She had long pink hair which she had put up into a pony tail with a hair pin sticking out from behind her head.

" What if I am who's asking." Ryu said to the girl, he did not to come off harsh but that was just how he spoke to people and there was also the matter of not knowing who this girl was that seemed to be looking for him.

" I'm Ino nakanachi and I was sent by zero hidan to come first d you, something about kido class that all first years to the squad has to be at. Also if I was you I would work on how I spoke to girls cause you might get a date if you did."

Ino said as she winked at Ryu befor she turned around and walked off out of view, so since he had been summoned he might as well attend so that he tried to not get in trouble his first week in the squad.

Ryu walked up onto the group that looked to be waiting for him and Ino to get back, in front of the class Ryu could see a man and from his stature and how every one was looking at him it must be the teacher. " Welcome Mr tacanachi and miss Ino, now that you have arrived we can start class. Today we are gonna test you on your individual skills, kido,zanjutsu,hakudo and shunpo. After that we shall calculate your score before you are paired off and we have a small exhibition to see how you fight, once done with that we shall decide where to place you in the squad and which seat you shall have. Now when I call your name you shall come forward and do a kido that we ask of you." One after another members was asked to step up and one by one the numbers drindled down to Ryu, so when his name was called he stepped up. " Ok Ryu I want you to use Hadō number four to hit that target over there." Luckily Ryu had practiced this kido a lot in his spare time so he thought that it would be easy, Ryu pointed his two index fingers at the target. He tried to concentrate as he gathered the reyoku into his fingers, but he had a hard time focusing with all the eyes looking at him. " Hadō number four Byakurai." Ryu managed to shoot a stream of lightning from the tips of his fingers as it managed to hit the target even if it was the closest one and the attack was a little unstable cause his focus was a messed up.

" Good job Mr tacanachi now we shall move on to the next lesson, with that we are gonna see how well you can hold your own with a sword."

Great unfortunately this was his worst skill and he was not very good at it, but the old saying gose that the more you use something the better they become at it. He just hopped that if he failed that it did not look bad on his score, Ryu looked down at his sword that was around his hip as he remembered what happened last time he did a sparing class back at the shinigami academy. It did not go well as he was put up against some one that far surpassed him in sword skills, he ended up with a fractured wrist and a concosion that lasted a whole week.

" Ok class we better get going to the next area cause we still have a long day ahead of us and not a lot of time to get it done in."

The teacher began to make his way to the next spot for the training so the whole squad began to move out, sense Ryu did not particularly wish to partake in this part of the class Ryu was the last one to start walking and stayed at the back of the class.

As Ryu walked up behind with the rest of the class he took notice that the teachers was handing out wooden swords to all the students, at least they was not using there real blades which put a little ease to ryus mind but still using a sword just seemed off to him since they had all of the other technique to use at there hands. Ryu was the last person in the class to be handed a wooden blade, he took the time to scan it, he felt it's weight and balance which all was good. From the look of it the swords was made from a good grade of oak cause oak was a very strong wood which made the perfect supplement to use.

" Ok class today we shall practice zanjutsu the art of sword play, one by one we shall pair you up and your gonna go for five minutes sparing matches. There are only two rules that I expect you to follow, rule number one no excessive force so no trying to purposely hurt your sparing partner. Rule number two, this is to practice your sword skills safely so no death strikes are allowed if one is caught trying you shall wind up in the maggots nest for a while. So now that I have that out of the way I shall begin to pair you all up."

The teachers then partnered every one up and luckily Ryu was paired up with a girl so he just assumed that he would have the upper hand, the two people bowed to one another and then got into a stance as they waited for the signal to start. " Ok you can now begin." Before Ryu even knew it the girl was right on top of him as she had her sword swinging above her head as she had it coming down. Onto ryu, unfortunately he was not able to get his sword up in time so he was hit In his shoulder which hurt like hell but luckily nothing was broke and he could still move his shoulder with no problem.

The girl did a backflip after her first strike and then came back in but this time she was aiming for his ribs, Ryu knew that if he did not block that then he would end up with some brused ribs worse case broken ribs. So Ryu rised his wooden sword up just in time as he was able to block her strike, it was in that moment he noticed that this girl had a lot more strength then he had first thought. The girl did not know the meaning of letting up as she continued to rush Ryu with a flurry of strikes, he was able to block some of them but the rest of them managed to find there way though his guard. Lucky for him the whistle went off signaling to the class that the five five minutes was up, out of respect both parties bowed before they handed the teachers back there swords, even tho he did not like using the sword he would say that this was good practice since it was there swords that let them kill hollows so that they can enter the gotai.

Ryu had two more practical classes left to go then he had the written course to look forward to, his next class was hakuda a combat class which was based on hand to hand. ryu would rather use kido then have to get his own hands dirty but at least he was better at hakuda then he was at zanjutsu, the class all arrived at there next spot which was being used as the training spot.

" ok class i am your instructor for this class my name is xoi fang and today we shall be doing hakuda, now dose any one know what hakuda is and is used for." ryu decided to raise his hand even tho he did not like being a show off that did not mean he did not wish to get at least a good spot in his rank when they placed the men into there position. " yes mr takanuchi." ryu noticed that the whole class was now looking at him and some was even talking under there breath and some was giggling.

" hakuda is the art of hand to hand combat and is and always has been used for disarming your enemy or if one has lost hold of there zanpakto they can still fight. this method of fighting has been used since the birth of the Shinigami academy and over the years has been improved upon."

the teacher seemed surprised that ryu knew that much but just cause he was not one for smarts did not mean he did not pay attention some what while in the academy, if he did not then he would not have been able to graduate from the school with decent scores.

" that is right Ryu. Now class i am gonna split you up into pairs and you shall fight using only your body. im using a point based system so the first to hit your opponent five times shall win, also the top five winners shall receive extra credit for when we place you in the squad."

the class was then set up in sets of two, ryu got a young looking male and even tho he did not seem that strong he could sense a fighting spirit about him. the sound of the bell could be heard so with out any hesitation ryu rushed forward cause he always heard that the person who gets the first hit in a fight has the upper hand so he was aiming for the upper hand. Ryu threw a punch that was aimed for the center of his chest but he quickly moved to the side of ryu as he placed his foot forward as he made ryu lose his balance then with a single quick strike got ryu in his shoulder plexus causing him to hit the ground with a thud. " point one to zhane" looking up ryu noticed that this guy had a smirk on his face which made his blood start to boil as he got mad, he knew that he should stay calm but just the idea that this boy thinking he was better got him so mad.

twisting on his hands ryu was able to kick zhanes feet out from under his as he hit the ground. " one point to ryu" at least they was even which now he could stop acting so smug about his skills, they both managed to get back to there feet at the same time and incandescently they both threw a high kick at one another which became a tie so they both managed to score a point that attack.

" the score is now two apiece" ryu heard the teacher say as he was going around keeping track of all the people fighting. 'wow its odd he can keep track of all the points at once' ryu thought to him self as he was trying to not get distracted by all the other people fighting one another. with both fighters back to there feet and ready once more the match continued, zhane came in as he threw a left punch but ryu saw that coming so he moved to the side as he pitted his foot allowing better movement, ruy then tossed a elbow tho he saw that heading his way so he grabbed ryu by the arm and tossed him over his shoulder but lucky for ryu he was able to land on his feet which made it to where he did not lose a point. this went on for a while as each fighter was adapting to one anothers way of fighting which seemed to be getting zhane mad, the harder it was for him to knock ryu down the more angry he would get which in turn made it more easy for ryu to read zhanes moves. most of the other fighters had already finished with there fights and so now it was now down to the final three pairs to finish, if he was lucky he would get either a good grade for lasting so long or a bad one for not ending it soon enough but he would find out in the end. by now the score was three four with ryu having the upper hand at four and oh how that seemed to piss this guy off, if ryu had to guess and he was bad at that he would say this guy came from ether a ritch house hold or a noble one which would give him the idea that he was better then most people.

it finally came to a end as ryu was able to accidentally cause the guy to trip and they counted that as a point, but he was not one to take things as loosing so gracefully as he decided that he was gonna fire a kido at ryu out of spite for winning. it was a good thing that the teacher saw this coming as he managed to step in between his self and the incoming kido as he blocked it. " Mr zhane just where do you come off firing a kido at a unarmed and unready opponent just because you lost." zhanes face became raged as he could not believe that ryu was saved by a teacher from his self. " and where you get off teach getting in nobility's way when he is trying to do something, he should not even be allowed in this squad so far his scores has been shit and now he suddenly good. im a noble i should not be treated this way dammit. " the teacher just shook his head as he raised his hand and has he did two squad members came forth as they restrained him and took him away. " Im sorry ryu for the way he acted not all nobles are like that, i to am a noble and im ashamed of how he acted. but in contrast to this you did a decent job ryu as you was the second to last team to finish." he was not sure if that was a good thing or if that was a bad thing, he knew he had stamina to spare as he was not tired maybe hungry and thirsty but not tired...well maybe a little bet but he needed to tough it out until the end then go to get something. as he was walking to his next class tho he noticed that he had some jerky in his pocket so taking it out he began to chow down.