Itachi Rebirth: A Shinigami Tale

"Kaname." Aizen said as he saw the approaching figure.

Tousen was still a bit riled. His arm was missing. He still had a slight fear from Itachi's attack. If he was a step too late, then he would have perished.

"Lord Aizen, what is it you request of me?" Tousen asked while bowing his head.

"Your battle with Uchiha. I'm curious as to how he had managed to dismember the arm of one of my unification officials." Aizen asked as Tousen continued to bow his head.

"He was far stronger than I anticipated. He attacked me with some sort of flames. These flames could not be extinguished and burned with the intensity of Yamamoto's if not greater." Tousen responded as he grasped where he had to cut off his own arm.

"So he had an ability like that? How interesting. But seeing that your entire body is here, I'm ȧssuming the flames need time to spread." Aizen commented to himself. "Kaname, I will bestow upon you the chance to redeem yourself and grant you greater power. Do you remember what I offered you when we first left Soul Society? I will offer it to you once again. However, it is still up to you if you wish to accept it." Aizen said as he held the Hogyoku up to Tousen. Tousen raised his head, and although he could not see, he knew what was in front of him. He hesitated for a brief moment before kneeling down.

"I will accept it, Lord Aizen, for this will be true justice." Tousen resolutely responded as his body began to glow.

Aizen watched Tousen slowly begin his transformation, he instructed some arrancar to keep watch before leaving the room.

"Oh so he accepted that?." Gin said.

"It was only a matter of time. Though it seems that Uchiha played a part as well." Aizen replied.

"Is that so.."

"Flames as hot as Yamamoto's… Come along Gin, There is something I must test." Aizen said as he walked off. Gin watched Aizen walk off, following behind.

-----

A week later

"Uchiha, where are you going?" Renji asked as he and Chad sat down on the ground, tired from training in Urahara's underground area.

"I'm going out for a patrol. " Itachi responded. Renji waved goodbye to him as Itachi vanished from the room.

As Itachi traversed the rooftops, he sensed nothing out of the ordinary. No hollows or arrancar. The streets were silent with few cars and people walking about. After traversing another kilometer or so of rooftops, Itachi spotted something strange out of the corner of his eyes, a large warehouse that was completely covered by a barrier. He lands on a nearby building and continues to study the barrier. He notices the ants, cats, and birds all instinctively moving around the building.

'This is so strange, that a barrier like this erected in the city, yet it gives off almost no spiritual pressure. I wouldn't have noticed a barrier like this without the Sharingan. This barrier seems to erase the existence of whatever is in it.' Itachi thought to himself. He waited for a few minutes and continued analyzing the barrier from afar and the various cats and birds interactions to it when a figure approached the building.

'Thats... Kurosaki's friend.' Itachi thought as he watched as the young woman approached the building. She stood there for a few moments before placing her hand on the barrier.

"Stop." Itachi said as he appeared next to her.

"Eeek!" Orihime shrieked as she quickly turned to her side. She immediately recognized Itachi and breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're.. Lieutenant Uchiha." Orihime said as she regained her composure.

"Miss Inoue." Itachi nodded to greet her before continuing. "How did you find this place?" Itachi asked.

"I felt that the spiritual pressure in this place was different, so I came to explore." Orihime replied. She didn't expect to run into Itachi here. She didn't even sense his arrival next to her. It's as if he was completely invisible.

"I see, I too came because of the abnormal pressure here."

"Is it because of this barrier?��� Orihime asked.

Itachi was slightly taken back. 'She is able to see the barrier?.

"Yes." Itachi replied.

"Are you able to break it?"

"Yes, however it would alert the caster inside." Itachi said. Although he could see the barriers, he was unable to see how many people were inside the building.

"The barrier works similar to my own power, so I should be able to go inside." Orihime said as she placed her hands against the barrier. Suddenly, her fingers began to slide through and she walked straight through the barrier.

Itachi looked at the barrier one more time before placing a hand on it. 'It appears I'll have to resort to other methods to get past this.'

"Inoue, go on without me. I'll catch up shortly." Itachi said. Orihime nodded in response before heading deeper into the warehouse.

-----

"Hachi, what's wrong?" Shinji asked as his comrade began to display a look of distress on his face.

"Someone...has slipped past and entered through my barrier…" Hachi replied nervously. The group of people nearby looked in shock at what Hachi had said and began to gather around him.

"Was it a shinigami?" Love asked.

"No. My barrier couldn't have been broken into by a shinigami, not with their kido." Hachi replied. Suddenly his eyes widened as he felt another person enter the barrier.

"This can't be...someone else has also come through the barrier, except this time it was through force…" Hachi said as the other people looked at him surprised. 'Strange...my barrier is supposed to gradually restore itself in the event that it is broken but it's not closing...In fact, it feels as though the barrier is eroding.' Hachi thought as beads of sweat began to roll down the side of his face and he could no longer contain his nervous look.

"They're here…" Hachi said as everyone in the group turned around to face a large staircase with two individuals walking down it.

"A human?! No wait...that person with her is-" Kensei exclaimed.

"SHI- SHINIGAMI!" A young girl with short spiky hair shouted as she charged towards him, completely ignoring Orihime.

"Hiyori, wait!" Ichigo called out.

She unsheathed her sword and swung at Itachi's head.

Itachi remained completely calm as he watched the sword heading for his face. In response, he grabbed her arm, dispelling the attack and countered with a palm strike to her ċhėst, sending her flying back down the stairs.

A figure appeared behind Hiyori, catching her at the bottom of the staircase.. She instantly felt enraged as she looked back up and looked at Itachi.

"Let me go Shinji!!" Hiyori yelled out.

"Calm down, Idiot. Think carefully before you attack. That guy isn't a normal shinigami. He broke through Hachi's barrier" Shinji said as he looked up at Itachi.

"Orihime, Itachi!" Ichigo rushed forward and stood in front of the group, who were tense and ready to jump in to fight at any moment. "Don't attack them, they're my friends."

The group acknowledged Ichigo and the tension in the air dropped as they watched Orihime, Ichigo, and Itachi talk to each other briefly, with Orihime explaining to Ichigo what he had missed in regards to the findings of Aizen's plan.

"It'll be alright! I'll be the one to stop Aizen!" Ichigo said to Orihime reassuringly. Before walking away he looked at Itachi and remembered his fights against Gin, Grimmjow, and Tousen.

"Itachi, can you help with my training?" Ichigo asked. Itachi looked at Ichigo and nodded.

"Piss off shinigami! We don't need you here!" Hiyori angrily shouted as she approached Itachi. She glared at Itachi as Itachi returned to her a look of indifference. 'This woman...no all of these people. They are former Captains and Lieutenants of the Gotei 13. What kind of training could they be helping Kurosaki with…' Itachi thought as he looked back at Ichigo.

"I don't think he has what it takes to train with us anyway!" Hiyori exclaimed.

"Didn't he just kick your ȧss?" Ichigo replied smugly. Hiyori glared at Ichigo angrily before looking back at Itachi.

"Whatever dumbass. If you want to train with him so badly go ahead. But you won't be getting trained the right away unless it's from us." Hiyori yelled as she walked away from them.

"Let's go Itachi!" Ichigo said as he began to run towards the open field. "I'll catch ya later, Inoue!" Ichigo and Itachi quickly made their way to the middle of the open field, surrounded by bȧrė rocks on each side.

"Ichigo!" A voice yelled from nearby. Itachi and Ichigo turned their heads to see it was from Shinji.

"You sure you want to show this guy that power? I get he's your friend and all, but we're not on as good terms with Soul Society as you." Shinji said.

"Yeah, we can trust him." Ichigo replied. Shinji shrugged his shoulders before taking several steps back. Itachi looked curiously at Ichigo and he activated his sharingan as Ichigo brought his hand up to his face and a black reiatsu began to leak out. 'This power, it's almost hollow like. Just like the state he was in after fighting Grimmjow originally…'

The reiatsu in the area spiked around them as Ichigo donned his hollow mask. Itachi is briefly reminded of his fight against Nobutoshi when he was still in the Second Division. Itachi prepared himself as Ichigo charged at him.

Ichigo raised his sword into the air above Itachi before swinging down. As he swung down, Itachi managed to side step out of the way as the ground cracked and debris flew everywhere from the impact.

'That mask has certainly increased his power and speed.' Itachi thought as he looked at Ichigo's mask before counterattacking with a swift kick to the ċhėst, sending Ichigo flying back through several rocks.

Ichigo quickly got back up on his feet and raised his zanpakuto in front of him, only for his mask to suddenly break. Ichigo began to pant heavily and leaned against his zanpakuto to hold himself up.

"It seems you can only hold the mask for around five seconds." Itachi commented as he approached Ichigo.

"Yeah. I'm just going to rest a bit then we'll continue again." Ichigo said as he stood up straight again.

"Kurosaki, how did you learn to control a hollow's powers." Itachi asked.

"Well the Vizards there put me in a barrier and kept me at bay while I fought in my zanpakuto world against my inner hollow." Ichigo responded. "His last words to me...were that if I really wanted to control his power, to not die until he showed up again…"

"Your hollow spoke to you like that?" Itachi questioned. Ichigo nodded in response.

"It's kind of weird because I'm essentially looking at a mirror image of myself."

"That hollow of yours is strange. I may not have been able to imprint upon a zanpakuto, but I've done countless amounts of research over the years in order to try to do so. Your hollow manifested itself in your Zanpakuto's world. Perhaps upon manifesting within your soul, it gained some sort of individuality that most hollows don't have." Itachi commented. Ichigo looked at Itachi with a confused gaze.

"Individuality? Before I got this mask, he would try to take over my body. It happened in my fight against Byakuya and almost happened against Grimmjow but I stopped it…"

Itachi paused for a moment before responding.

"In those fights, you were pushed beyond your limit, correct?" Itachi asked. Ichigo nodded.

"You and your hollow are one in the same. It cannot live without you, as you cannot survive without it. You may have conquered it but have you ever fully acknowledged it as being part of you, much like a zanpakuto?"

"You expect me to let that thing take over me?" Ichigo questioned anxiously. Itachi shook his head.

"No. Acknowledge yourself, and all aspects of yourself. Then you will become strong. Strong enough to defeat Aizen, like you told Inoue."

Ichigo looked at Itachi before looking down at his zanpakuto. 'Acknowledge my hollow like I've acknowledged Zangetsu?'

"Itachi, I'm all rested. Are you ready for round two?" Ichigo said with a grin as he pulled his zanpakuto out of the ground. Itachi nodded as he drew his blade and prepared to clash with Ichigo once again.