Crows x Souls

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[A few months later]

It has been months after the semi-public execution of Kinjaro Tomori on the grounds of treason against the Soul Society as a whole and after his execution, the unexplained disappearances stopped and Hollow sightings reduced drastically to what was considered natural. 

During this time, Itachi tried his best to live as true as much as he could amidst the nightmares and screams that came to his mind anytime he fell asleep. 

It wasn’t easy- well it hasn’t been easy for him for years because every night he was subjected to the same dream but different faces and screams. Since the night of the massacre, it felt as if he was trapped in a Tsukuyomi of his own making. No, not Tsukuyomi, instead the infinite loop of the Izanami. 

It became even worse for him after the execution because the dreams became frequent and sometimes hard to wake up from. 

A trauma he hadn’t gotten over even after a decade. 

Even after so many internal debates and advice from Tsukuyomi, Itachi repeatedly found himself coming back to this particular sensation of feeling lost and wondering what to do. 

The night after the execution was one he had spent completely awake by staring at the night sky to pass the hours. Witnessing the execution made him question if being in the Seireitei was a wise choice. 

He might have placated himself saying that the Shinigami of Seireitei fought against Hollows but the execution was like a mockery of intentional naiveté. 

This was even worse than his Akatsuki days because then he had a directive. 

A few days after the execution, Itachi decided to stroll through the nearby Rukongai Districts just to distance himself from the Seireitei and think clearly without him trying to assign himself a Shinigami’s duty. 

One of the good things after the execution was that Yoruichi stopped snooping around his movements and even took back the group of people she had watching him. 

His stroll into the West Rukongai’s District ended up turning into something he never expected. 

….. 

[Flashback: West Rukongai, A few days after the execution]

He might have been lost in his head so much that he didn’t know when he crossed into the 3rd

Unfortunately, he was brought out of his mental therapy by the rhythmic sound of two things smacking against each other along with the soft panting from exhaustion. 

Following the sound, Itachi came across a young man, mid-twenties from his looks, or maybe his mid-hundreds, smacking a wooden stick fashioned like a sword against a tree while looking completely exhausted. 

He gave the boy two minutes before he fainted from exhaustion if he continued striking his sword only to be proven wrong when the boy barely made it to the first minute before be keeled over. 

With how close this District was to the Seireitei(so close that its tall white walls were completely visible from where he stood) he didn’t have to worry about the young man’s safety but despite that he ended up sitting on a tree for the next few minutes to see if the young man would wake up but he didn’t. 

Muttering under his breath, he stood up from where he was sitting and walked away while keeping a certain distance from the fainted soul. 

He ended up catching an animal by the type he returned to check if the boy was gone, but no he was still there. 

He made quick work with butchering and skinning the meat, silently thankful that he came with his satchel for his knives which had a little bit of salt from his Rukongai days. 

No sooner had he started salting the roasting meat did the young man start stirring up from his hour-long sleep. 

He watched as the man tried pulling himself up with the little bit of strength he got from his sleep but he just fell down breathing heavily while his eyes moved around to take note of his surroundings. 

“Stay still.” Itachi said and watched the young man freeze before his eyes widened as he finally took note of Itachi and what he was doing. “You’re still exhausted. Close your eyes and relax.”

A few minutes later, Itachi was done with the roasted meat and served some on leaves and gave it to the laying man. 

“Eat slowly. I don’t have water.” He said. 

Sure the young man didn’t need food as souls didn’t need such sustenance but eating would make him recover his energy faster. 

They spent the next few minutes slowly eating in silence and when Itachi was done, he turned around to leave but the young man called out to him. 

“Please wait!” Came a frantic shout that instantly silenced as Itachi stopped. “A-are you a Shinigami?”

“What of it?” Itachi, now fully turned, was staring at the man who fearfully took a step back as he was render under Itachi’s stare. “M-my n-n-name is Junpei. I-I want to be a Shinigami.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Itachi’s hard stare didn’t let up and the other party frantically shook his head and hands. 

“I tried taking the Shin'ō Academy exam but I failed.” He said while looking down. “Twice.”

“And like I said; what does that have to do with me?” Itachi asked again and this time the man couldn’t say anything, stuttering as his head hung low. 

He turned around and left.  

[Flashback ends] 

….. 

“Um, Mr. Shinigami, are you sure this is safe? For me?” A timid Junpei held his wooden sword, one perfectly shaped after a katana, and so did Itachi. 

How did they get to this point? 

Well, after leaving Junpei alone when they first met, Itachi met him again a few weeks later, this time in another place far away from where they had initially met. 

Of course, Junpei had been scared and frozen up when he suddenly came across Itachi for the second time but Itachi ignored him. 

Since then, almost as if Itachi was stalking him(Junpei would never let him hear of those thoughts) they met a couple of times and every time Junpei would try to get Itachi to help him but each time he was faced with simple questions like ‘why?’ ‘for what?’ and they always stomped him. 

Maybe because he was too persistent or because Itachi had nothing better to do, the next time they came across each other at where Junpei frequented for his suicide training, the young man was surprised to see Itachi with two perfectly carved swords that he gave to Junpei for storage. 

From that day, a month after their initial meeting, Itachi would pop up unannounced and if Junpei wasn’t with the swords he wouldn’t train him, something the latter quickly figured out as he started coming with both swords everyday, week in week out regardless of if Itachi showed up or not. 

Since the beginning, Itachi never told him his name, not that he didn’t want to but Junpei didn’t ask and just settled for calling him ‘Mr. Shinigami’. 

“Start.” 

At Itachi’s words, Junpei’s face turned serious and he rushed at Itachi with a downward slash which Itachi sidestepped and hit his sword to further unbalance him. 

Just like he never asked Itachi for his name, Itachi never asked him why he was hell bent on becoming a Shinigami. 

Parrying, sidestep, dodge, counterattack were the few things Itachi focused on. He knew that the requirements for entry into the Shin’ō Academy was strictly Reiatsu-based so he made Junpei’s training into a montage to kick-start his subpar Reiatsu. 

From pushing his own Reiatsu into Junpei’s body after every training session to stimulate the latter’s Reiatsu, he also made sure that throughout the duration of every training session, Junpei’s mind must be focused on trying to flow his Reiatsu into the wooden sword. 

Because of how advanced and complex manipulating Reiatsu was, he made Junpei do it just like how ninjas did with Chakra – the same way he pushed his own Reiatsu into the young man’s body. 

As if something was showing him off, Junpei finally picked up how to flow his Reiatsu after almost two months of trials and errors. Though Itachi didn’t comment on just how poor the oblivious youth was doing it. 

With the recent breakthrough, Junpei started flowing his Reiatsu into his sword and using it to attack Itachi, redoing it every time his concentration was broken. 

The dynamic between the two of them was hilarious and bad at the same time with Junpei rarely ever asking Itachi any serious questions, even about the ones with his Reiatsu exercise, and Itachi hardly speaking a word except to directly tell Junpei to do something specific. 

A small updraft of air picked up around them as Junpei blindly waved a sword with his leaking Reiatsu at Itachi who took his time to break Junpei’s concentration every time the youth was getting comfortable. 

After all, the reason behind every single exercise they did was to exert and exhaust Junpei’s Reiatsu in order to stimulate any kind of minor growth. 

It worked for genin and chunin ninjas so there was a high chance it would for him too.