Crows x Souls

“Oh, I see. You must’ve died recently and just came over from the World of the Living, but yeah. This is the afterlife, or rather District 69th, North Rukongai, Soul Society.”

Itachi didn’t know what to think, no, rather he didn’t know how to accept this foreign concept that went over everything he ever knew.

Basically, the afterlife, based on what this old man just told him, was no different than the human world. The only thing that distinguished the human world and the afterlife was how long they lived. The distinction between body and soul was pretty much the same as being basic to their own respective worlds. 

“… Is there a way I-” 

“To look for your family?” The man cut him off but Itachi didn’t express any surprise and just nodded while the man only shook his head. “New souls coming to the Rukongai ask that a lot, but all I can say is to give up. This world can be said to be endless with how big it is that you might not even find a single person you knew when alive even after spending a hundred years here.”

The old man looked at Itachi and saw that the young man didn’t look sad or downcast by that. In fact, he couldn’t say anything about Itachi’s looks as not once did his facial expressions change over their conversation. 

“What about the peculiarities of the afterlife?” Itachi asked, putting the issue of meeting his family to the side for now as the information was more important. 

“Peculiarities? Well, there’s the Seireitei where the nobles and Shinigami live. And then you have the hollows – evil monsters that go around killing and eating anyone they see. We have the Shinigamis for stopping these attacks anytime it happens.”

Itachi sat in silence, mulling his thoughts and the likely scenarios where he could put this information to use, but he forcefully stopped himself after remembering that he was no longer a rogue nin, or a ninja in general. 

This was the afterlife, or Soul Society as it was apparently called, and the last thing he wanted was leaving life the same way he did back in the Elemental Nations. 

“That will be all for now, thank you.” He stood up and thanked the man and was about to leave when they called him back. 

“Do you have anywhere to go, or are you going to continue wandering the Soul Society?” The man asked half-serious and half-joking but the reply he got surprised him a bit. 

“I’ve been a wanderer most of my life. I think I can manage.” After thanking the man again, Itachi was gone. Leaving the man the same way they met – complete strangers. 

….. 

He could have stayed if he wanted, even the old man was about suggesting the same thing, but he didn’t. 

He didn’t have any good reason for deciding to leave but something told him that he had to keep moving until he had nowhere to go, and that was what he did. 

He didn’t plan on going to the Seireitei as the man had told him that only nobles and Shinigamis had the right to live there, and he was none.