Itachi Rebirth: A Shinigami Tale

Itachi arrives back in the room wearing his new uniform.

"Good. Welcome to the Executive Militia. Since this is your first mission, I will be the one giving it to you. But after today, Yami will give you your missions. Now then, your first mission is to go to district 3 and scout the area for hollows. There have been an unusual amount of hollows appearing in that district. If you encounter hollows, send a hell buŧŧerfly back to report it and the other divisions will take care of them. Your mission is to scout, not fight so don't unless you absolutely have to. That is all." Soi Fon says as she vanishes from the room.

Yami slides his mask back over his face and nods at Itachi. The two of them step out of the room and head towards district 3. They converse briefly on the way to their target location.

"This will be a good opportunity to test how stealthy you are. Although based on what I've seen of you, you move like you are adept at being discrete. Have you been trained in this before?" Shun questions Itachi.

"I know the basics." Itachi humbly replies.

"Basics huh?" Shun says as they both arrive at a forest clearing in the third district. They sense several hollows nearby and conceal their presence.

"I'll go south you go north. We'll check this entire forest within a hundred kilometers and meet at this exact spot at sunset. If something unexpected happens, use the kido flare then quickly go back to the meeting spot. If I am not there within 10 min then leave immediately." Yami says as he hands Itachi a small cylinder.

"Understood." Itachi replies. The two of them separate and go on their own way. As Itachi silently jumps through the trees, he reaches a clearing where he sees two hollows. He notes it and keeps going through the forest, encountering dozens of more hollows within the hour. 'Why are there so many here. I can understand one or two of them can show up but this many? Something is wrong…'

As Itachi traverses the treetops, out of the corner of his eye, he notices something coming towards his head. With his sharingan constantly active, Itachi easily dodges it by leaning backwards and a blade hits the tree trunk next to him. He looks to his left and sees a masked figure looking at him. The masked figure flash steps away and just when Itachi was about to give chase, a large hollow, towering at roughly 10 meters, smashes through the trees towards Itachi. Itachi jumps out of the way but he feels a presence suddenly appear behind him. Itachi turns around to see the masked man as the masked man drives a blade through Itachi's ċhėst.

Suddenly, Itachi's body starts to break down into crows and the masked man becomes confused at what just happened. Before he realizes it, he feels a blade touching his neck as Itachi was right behind him.

"Not good enough." The masked man whispers as the hollow from earlier comes crashing through the tree trunks at both of them. The hollow winds up a punch but before it could fully throw it, its arm was cut off. It makes a loud crash to the ground and the hollow roars out, only for its roar to be cut abruptly as a blade goes through its mask into its head.

"I thought you and your partner split up?!" The masked man questions.

"We did." The figure on top of the decaying hollow jumps off it onto the branch Itachi and the man were standing on and looks at the man straight in the eyes through the holes in his mask. The man collapses to the ground and Itachi who was originally holding his asauchi to the man's neck vanishes in a puff of smoke.

The real Itachi, who was standing in front of the passed out man, bends over and unmasks him. Itachi ties him to a tree using Hainawa and releases the genjutsu. The man wakes up and looks up at Itachi. He tries to move but can't due to being binded.

"So the executive militia isn't just all talk I see." The man comments. Itachi ignores his comment and leans in looking him in the eye with his face no more than 6 inches away. His eyes glow for a brief moment. The man looks at Itachi's eyes and loses his focus. His eyes dim and he falls under an illusion.

"Who are you and what do you have to do with these hollows." Itachi asks the man who was now under genjutsu.

"My name is Kogura Tome. I was sent here to test hollow cultivation." Tome answers, still under genjutsu.

'Hollow cultivation. What?' Itachi thinks to himself. 'Why are there shinigami ȧssisting in hollow growth?'

"Who do you work for?" Itachi asks.

"I work for...I-I w-w-work for..w-or-k f-ffffffff." The man's face starts to contort and his head begins to glow. Itachi recognizes what is going on and jumps out of the way as fast as possible.

Shun strides through the trees and notes the hollow locations. 'There shouldn't be this many...this is unusual. There are too many in the area. I might need to kill some of the solitary ones to lower their numbers.'

Shun stops at the edge of a forest clearing to see a couple of large hollows aimlessly walking around it. Shun suddenly feels the cold edge of a blade on his neck.

"You're out of your league, stealth corps." A man whispers next to Shun's ear as he cuts the blade through Shun's neck.

"W-what?" The man is shocked that his blade went through Shun's body entirely. 'An afterimage?' The man turns around and Shun delivers a fierce kick to his head, knocking his mask off. He covers his face with one of his hands and has his blade drawn out in front of him with his other.

As both of them stare each other down, waiting for the other to make a move, a large explosion in the distance interrupts their concentration.

'That came from Itachi's direction…' Shun thinks as he looks back at the man who had a panicked look on his face.

'No...that explosion was from the revelation seal...why would it go off now?' The man reveals a strange bracelet on his arm and points his hand at Shun. Shun instinctively jumps back as both of the hollows in the clearing come bursting through the trees. The mysterious man uses this chance to escape and quickly leaves the area while Shun tries to fight off two large hollows.

------

The trees that once stood in the area were reduced to ashes. Itachi stood in the clearing with his arms out in front of him. He managed to cast Enkosen just in time to block a majority of the blast but his uniform was in tatters and he had minor burns scattered across his body.

'That explosion...was from a pre planted kido meant to set off only when certain information was revealed. It's similar to the curse seal.' Itachi looks around and sees his burnt surroundings. He tries to find the body but cannot find it. 'Must have been completely incinerated by that blast. Hollow cultivation…' Itachi's thoughts are cut off as he someone out of the corner of his eye watching him. Itachi looks around with his Sharingan and notices someone behind a tree trunk trying to conceal their presence.

'That person there...it's not Shun. It could possibly be an accomplice to Tome…' Itachi flash steps towards the man, leaving an afterimage in his place.

'Who is that guy?' The man behind the tree trunk looks at Itachi, seeing he is not moving. Suddenly he hears someone land next to him. He quickly turns his head and his eyes meet Itachi's gaze. The man falls to the floor and Itachi picks him up, putting him over his shoulder. 'It's not sun down yet but I should find Shun immediately and report this.' With his free hand, Itachi sends out the small flare and then vanishes as he flashes back to the original meeting spot. Once he arrives he takes out the hell buŧŧerfly and sends a message back to the 2nd division.

He waits at the meeting spot for a few more minutes before another figure lands in front him.

The new figure was Yami.

"Itachi, what happened??" Yami asks as he looks towards the figure Itachi is carrying.

"This is an ȧssailant I ran into in the forest. He may have something to do with the large amounts of hollows in this area. He had an accomplice, who unfortunately perished. They seem to have kido placed in them that explodes to prevent specific information from being leaked." Itachi said.

"So that's what the explosion was earlier. For these guys to use a method like that..." Yami ponders for a moment before sending a message back as well with a hell buŧŧerfly.

"Itachi, we will group and wait to receive further instructions before acting."

"Understood." Itachi replies and the two vanish.