Itachi Rebirth: A Shinigami Tale

Itachi made his way back to the 13th division barracks. He went to Ukitake's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in." A voice came from behind the door.

"Captain. I have to inform you of something." Itachi said as he walked in.

"Is it about the promotion?" Ukitake asked, smiling.

"I…" Itachi was surprised. He had just received the news himself.

"Haha, it's because I was the one of the few who recommended you." Ukitake said laughing.

Itachi remained silent.

"Me, Kyoraku and the oldman all witnessed your strength personally. It would not be an exaggeration to say you surpassed all of the lieutenants and a lot of the captains already. I met with Kyoraku and we both agreed that you are ready to be a captain." Ukitake said.

"Thank you Captain, I will consider it." Itachi replied.

"Great, take your time and think it through."

Itachi left the hall and went towards the training field. He still had time to think about the Captain-Commander's offer. 'Becoming a Captain will grant me access to information that has previously been kept from me, information that could have originally helped me find out Aizen's plan ahead of time. Right now, Soul Society is in a weakened state due to the betrayal of three Captains. I will accept this offer.'

----

During the next three weeks, Itachi continued training and performing his lieutenant duties. One morning while sitting at his desk, a hell's buŧŧerfly appeared with a message.

'So my promotion to Captain has been accepted but postponed until Central 46 finishes refilling and reorganizing and I'll most likely be ȧssigned to the Fifth Division. I see...also it appears Zero Division won't be helping in regards to my zanpakuto currently. As to be expected of them, they were never ones to ȧssociate themselves with the lower problems of Soul Society that do not immediately threaten them.' Itachi thought as he read through the message from Yamamoto. As he finished reading the message, Ukitake walked in.

"Captain Ukitake, how was the meeting?" Itachi asked.

"Well...not so great. Aizen had sent Arrancar to attack the world of the living. The Captain Commander decided that it would be best to send an elite squad of shinigami to stay in the human world for the time being to serve as a deterrent and to protect them if the Arrancar were to return. And you're on that squad, along with Kuchiki, Lieutenant Abarai, and Madarame." Ukitake responded as he handed a scroll to Itachi containing the mission information.

"When do we leave Captain?" Itachi asked as he accepted the scroll.

"Tomorrow morning. Don't worry about today's paperwork Itachi. I'm feeling much better so I can deal with it. And I'll have help from Kiyone and Sentaro as well. Rest up until tomorrow." Ukitake replied.

"Thank you, Captain." Itachi said as he left the office. As he walked back to his room, he read the mission information on the scroll. 'A mission to the human world...Aizen what are your goals? He sent two Captain class arrancar to scout for him...No I remember he had an interest in Kurosaki Ichigo. Is he planning to use him for something?'

---

The next morning, Itachi woke up and waited outside the Thirteenth Division barracks. A few minutes later, Rukia showed up.

"Sorry I'm late Lieutenant." Rukia apologized.

"You're not late. Are you prepared for this mission?" Itachi asked. Rukia firmly nodded in response. Without another word, the two of them vanished from their spot and headed towards the main Senkaimon.

Upon arriving at the main Senkaimon, they were greeted by the kido corps. Itachi and Rukia waited for a few more minutes and five more figures showed up. Itachi raised an eyebrow at the people who were there.

"I was expecting Renji and Ikkaku but…" Itachi looked at the three other people who were with them. "Captain Hitsugaya, Lieutenant Matsumoto, and Ayasegawa?"

"Well if Ikkaku was going, I would come too naturally." Yumichika replied.

"It's not often we get together like this so I thought it would be fun!" Rangiku added on.

"Matsumoto is going so here I am…" Toshiro sighed.

'Is this some sort of picnic...' Itachi thought to himself.

"This is a powerful team we have ȧssembled." Rukia commented as she looked at the people around her.

"That may be so but we need to be cautious. These arrancar aren't ordinary hollows." Toshiro said. "As the only Captain here, I'll take the lead. Do you all have your Gigais prepared?." Toshiro asked. The rest nodded.

"Great, then let's be off." Toshiro said.

Toshiro began walking towards the open Senkaimon and released a hell's buŧŧerfly. Itachi and the rest of the group followed him and walked through the gate, becoming enveloped by its bright light before arriving at the human world.

---

The group of shinigami arrived in an alleyway next to Karakura High School.

"Now that we're here, we'll need to use Gigai to blend in. Everyone get yours ready. After we change, we will go into Karakura High School and blend in with the students while we locate Kurosaki Ichigo." Toshiro ordered. After changing into Gigai, the group of shinigami walked towards the school.

"Is this necessary? Why are we wearing this? Couldn't we just wait for Kurosaki to come out and then approach him?" Itachi said as he looked at the school uniform as he had never seen such a style of clothing before.

"We have to approach him as soon as possible, so let's just meet him now." Toshiro replied and lead the group into the school.

"How convenient that these Gigai come with the school uniform." Rukia commented.

"Yes, well there was research done prior to-" Toshiro stopped talking when he noticed Ikkaku brought his zanpakuto with him.

"Madarame...put your zanpakuto away!" Toshiro angrily said. "This is a school, you can't bring a real weapon here…"

"Fine! I'll just use one more "school appropriate." Ikkaku said as he noticed a group of students dressed in white robes holding wooden swords wander behind a building An idea popped into his head and he immediately ran after them.

"Where is he going?" Toshiro asked, starting to show irritation on his face.

'Don't worry Captain. He's already coming back." Renji said as he pointed to Ikkaku returning around the corner with a wooden sword.

"Oh where did you get that sword?" Yumichika asked curiously.

"Don't worry about it. Come on let's go!" Ikkaku said as he slung his sword to his waist.

The group continued walking through the school while receiving various strange looks and stares from students as they walked through the hallways.

"Hey what classroom was it again?" Ikkaku asked loudly.

"How the hell should I know? Where's the memo?" Renji replied and looked at Toshiro.

"I gave it to Matsumoto." Toshiro replied. "Matsumoto where did you put it?"

"One sec Captain." Rangiku said as she began looking through her pockets and eventually her bosom as she remembered she stuffed the memo into her cleavage earlier. "Ah...it disappeared."

"Disappeared? What do you mean disappeared?!" Renji questioned angrily.

"Everyone calm down...we just need to search for his reiatsu." Yumichika pointed out, attempting to defuse the situation. Itachi shook his head at the shinigami fighting amongst themselves.

"He's in class 1-3." Itachi interrupted. The other shinigami with him stared at him and fell silent.

"I see. Well, let's go to this class 1-3 then." Ikkaku said.

"Have any of you seen Rukia?" Renji asked as he started looking around. "I swear she was just with us when we entered.

"That's true, she was just behind us. Hold on, she has been here before hasn't she? She couldn't have gotten lost…" Rangiku said.

"She can group with us later. For now we'll go to 1-3." Toshiro ordered.

"I don't want to be in a Gigai anymore. These uniforms are too tight…" Rangiku complained as they walked down the hallway.

"You can just snip them a bit like we did." Renji suggested.

"Yeah right! How would I be able to carry my bokutou like that?" Ikkaku exclaimed. "This is all your guys' fault! How am I not allowed to bring a real weapon with me?"

"It's not our fault...geez it's the law." Rangiku replied.

"Well it doesn't make sense! Who the hell would outlaw carrying swords around?!" Ikkaku yelled louder.

"Shut the hell up guys!" Toshiro yelled. "We need to be quiet and act normal so as to not draw attention to ourselves."

"Okay, but what about that Itachi over there? He has a whole hoard of girls following him!" Renji pointed to the back of the group where Itachi was being followed by a large group of girls.

"Look at that new guy!"

"He's so handsome!"

"Look over hereee!"

"Look at his hair. It's even longer than mine!"

"I hope he asks me out to prom!"

The group of girls exclaimed as they began to crowd around Itachi. Itachi ignored them and their comments.

"Uchiha?! What are you doing? You'll blow our cover." Toshiro grumbled.

"I didn't do anything." Itachi said, unable to make sense of what was happening. The girls started staring at him the moment he entered.

"Wow Uchiha. I didn't realize you were such a ladies man." Rangiku teased as they continued down the hallway a few more classrooms down until they arrived in front of 1-3.

"Alright we're here. Go on, open it up!" Ikkaku said to Renji. Renji opened the door and looked at Ichigo who was standing in front of the classroom with a confused look on his face as he saw the shinigami standing at the doorway.

"Yo! How ya been Ichigo?" Renji asked.