Crows x Souls

“You talk a lot. You don’t understand me. You don’t even understand yourself. You are just thugs who got lost in the mist and ended up here. You can’t even control where you are going.” — Itachi Uchiha. 

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Under the bright moonlit night sky, a pained scream was abruptly cut short following the sound of sword slicing through air and into an obstruction. 

“This good enough for you?” Gin, still wearing his unnerving smile, said to the empty wind as he swung off the blood from his blade while still looking pristine. Nothing on his whole body pointed to the evidence that he just killed a few Shinigami. 

“You could use more efficiency in your methods.” Aizen appeared behind Gin, missing the steely grey look that appeared in the latter’s eyes for a brief moment. 

“Well, I can’t possibly be picky with my methods when the Gotei 13 Captains practically have all Shinigami under their lens as potential suspects.” Gin said while shrugging. Shinigami died to Hollows every other day so there was nothing wrong if all the evidence surrounding a couple dead Shinigami points to Hollows, even if it was probably made to look that way. 

“He’s been getting real snoopy lately. Seems that both of us and a few others are under his suspicion list.” Gin said, but this time there was no smile or trace of humor on his face. 

“Vice, I don’t usually snoop around your plans but whatever it is you’re about to do, might as well do it any time now.” Gin raised his hand in a show of surrender when Aizen looked at him. “I’m just sayin’. You’re the smart one so all by you I guess.”

Despite his slippery acts of nonchalance and come-what-may attitude, the only person that has ever made Gin so terrified that he felt it at the core of his soul was the very same man in front of him. 

Aizen Sōsuke possessed every possible trait that could benefit one's success. Strength? He had it in spades and more. Talent? Life might have as well been unfair to everyone else except Aizen. Intellect; something he had in spades that frightened Gin more than his strength ever did. Cunning, Patience, Resolve, Ego, Pride, Conviction etc. Anything that it could be, Aizen had it all in reserves. 

And if it was something he didn’t have, as impossible as that sounds, he could simply fake it at the drop of a hat. 

Whether it was the self-entitled spy trying to prove something or the ignorant Captains woefully unaware of the roles they had been assigned to play, or the contemptible Noble Houses that arrogantly basked in the security and illusion of power they have held for thousands of years; Aizen had seen through every single instant action or choice they could ever make. Even contingency plans they could never think of were already seen through by Aizen. Every plan or retaliation they could put forth – even the act of going against him – were all part of Aizen’s plan. 

“It is not your place to worry, Gin. My plans have long since been set in motion. All the pieces just have to ‘naturally’ move into position for me to take it all by one fell swoop.” Aizen dug into the sleeves of a dead Shinigami and retrieved a device that he quickly deactivated with a simple flow of his Reiatsu. 

He turned to leave but stopped when he came shoulder to Gin. “And Gin, this will be the last time you continuously question my plans. Am I understood?”

“… Loud and clear, boss.”

Gin didn’t know when he started looking at the ground but he knew that by the time he raised his head up Aizen was already gone. 

He brought his hand to wipe off the beads of sweat running down his forehead. “And yet they still can’t see how terrifying you are… I can’t even pity them.” 

……. 

Today would have been just like every single day before it to Itachi were it not for the towering grinning madman that sought him out for something he would have been happy forgetting. 

It was a bit unnerving for Itachi when Zaraki Kenpachi immediately noticed that something was wrong with Itachi after a single sword swing that Itachi’s clone blocked. 

“Why are you suddenly so weak?” Was the first thing Kenpachi said after his first swing while frowning in extreme displeasure. 

“What do you mean?” The clone had asked when he saw Kenpachi just sitting crossed legged on the ground as if waiting for something to happen, and he was. 

Kenpachi snorted derisively as he stared dead at the clone’s eyes. 

“I don’t forget the feel of a memorable opponent’s blade… at least not this quickly.” He raised a finger at Itachi. “So whatever you do, bring the real you hear or I’m not leaving and neither are you.” Saying that, he stabbed his worn out blade into the ground.

Suffice to say, to Itachi, Zaraki Kenpachi was the biggest anomaly he had seen among Shinigami. Never had he heard of someone that was banned from learning any of the Shinigami combat arts, Zankensoki, or Kidō; both of which expert mastery was needed in order to be a Captain – and yet Zaraki Kenpachi had none. Just pure brute force and an insanely perceptive instinct. 

“Since you currently don’t belong to any Division, how about joining my Division?” Kenpachi asked after Itachi – the main one – arrived. 

Even if Kenpachi’s unrestrained nature clashed fiercely with his, Itachi somehow found it easier to deal with his type. His experience with(tolerance of) the likes of Kisame, Deidara and Hidan made him accustomed to dealing with their spontaneous wildness. 

That and he also was itching for a fight for a change. 

“Let’s go farther.” Kenpachi seemed to appreciate his thinking if the wide grin on his face was any tell. 

Who ever liked it when their heated battle gets interrupted? 

“Now, show it to me. That flame of yours!” Kenpachi appeared as feral as his frenzied Reiatsu that he did not hesitate to rip out his eye patch and drown the entire area in the intensity of Reiatsu. 

Itachi’s on the other hand rose up like a calm wave but the moment he drew out his black blade, it exploded like a geyser. 

Whereas Kenpachi’s Reiatsu was a golden torrential wave, Itachi’s was a murky black that darkened the brightness of everything it washed over. 

“The first time we fought, I was almost spent and I just awakened Amaterasu.” The blade thrummed in Itachi’s hand as if approving the overbearing presence of his freely flowing Reiatsu which he did nothing to restrain. “I assure you, this time will be different.”

“Why are you now suddenly talking so much?!!” Kenpachi yelled with a feral smile as he set upon Itachi with his sword tearing open the ground behind him as he closed in on Itachi. 

“Consume All, Amaterasu.” 

Kenpachi was already midway with an upperslash, cutting open the earth as he brought his blade forward. His blade had barely left the ground by centimeters when Itachi’s blade intercepted his. 

He seemed not to care and just threw a kick to Itachi’s chest which was blocked with his other arm but was forced to step backward from the force in Kenpachi’s strike. 

“Your physical strength really is immense.” He commented. 

Kenpachi suddenly jumped back and narrowly avoided the six spikes of black flames that sprouted from the ground and tried to skewer him. 

“Too sl–” 

“I know you’re passionate about every fight, but you really should stop treating it as a fun session.” Kenpachi’s words got sucked into his mouth as his chin met Itachi’s feet that raised him into the air. 

Kenpachi spun around horizontally as his feet left the ground and tried cutting Itachi but Itachi was outside the range of his blade with a finger pointing at Kenpachi. 

“Be careful.” Was the only warning Kenpachi got when a wick of flame appeared on Itachi’s finger and then started shrinking into itself until it was a small ball of black barely bigger than Itachi’s thumb. 

TZSSS! 

It practically burned away any resistance as it traveled and effortlessly sizzled through the layer of Kenpachi’s Reiatsu but the madman just didn’t care and swung down his blade in an attempt to cut it. 

TING! 

For that brief instant, it sounded as if metal hit metal, before it was drowned by the explosion of the tiny ball – not because of the loud sound but rather the lack of it. 

Kenpachi flew away like a loose kite creating craters as he bounced off the ground. 

When Kenpachi finally stood up, he looked like nothing but a body bag of blood. 

“Hmm? His Reiatsu almost subconsciously hardened to reduce the burns he suffered.”

Kenpachi ripped off his burnt off Captain’s haori and the robe underneath to stand bare chested. 

“You turned it off as soon as it exploded, right? I admit I was a bit careless. Those flames are still tricky to get past.”

Itachi nodded. “Well if you weren’t obsessively focused on ‘having fun’ then you could have completely avoided your current state.”

Kenpachi licked his blood and smirked at Itachi. “Where's the fun in that?”

“There will be no fun in it because you might die because of your carelessness and would not be able to enjoy a fight that should have been equal odds across the board.” Itachi calmly replied while his eyes regarded Kenpachi as if he were a fool. 

The key difference between the manic fiends he knew and Kenpachi was that those he knew were all geniuses, at least to a certain degree in the way they fought. 

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