Crows x Souls

"Well, ain't the answer to that freakin' obvious? Not a chance. We ain't your allies or nothin'. We're just Aizen's enemies." — Hirako Shinji.

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A/N: A very short chapter

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It would have been a lot better if Itachi had brought Kisuke or anyone from his group along because while Shinji was fine with giving the illusion of hospitality, he doubted every single word Itachi said.

Thankfully, he wasn't here to exchange words or batter information. He just needed the simplest confirmation from them and he was gone. Maybe figure out something in the meantime because with how Miyako Shiba's face was stretched taut, there was no doubt that she'd felt her husband's Reiatsu and it was making her jumpy.

"Why should we tell you anything you want to know?" Kensei Mugurama barked aggressively.

Itachi expressed no concern of being surrounded in a passively-aggressive encirclement which seemed to piss off the former Captain even more.

"The Soul Society is already suspicious of the multiple Lieutenant level Reiatsu that simultaneously popped up in this location. It wouldn't take them much time for them to figure it out-"

"That doesn't explain why you are here." Love said cutting him off.

"If we're being candid then I'm here to know why people who should be in hiding went about flaring their Reiatsu and alerting the Soul Society in the worst way possible."

The bluntness of his words both shocked and surprised them because the underlying words meant-

"I found your hideout in minutes after stepping through the Senkaimon. If I wanted the Soul Society to find you I would have done it years ago."

The air in the hideout changed instantly, taking on a more threatening draft as a few of them reached slowly for the hilt of their swords.

Watching Itachi with narrowed eyes, Shinji couldn't help but ask. "Since you clearly are of the rebellious sort, what's stopping us from concluding that you're in cohorts with Aizen?"

Itachi's reply was instant. "For the same reason."

"If Aizen truly wanted you dead at all costs, you'd be dead. You're only alive because he doesn't attach much importance to any of you."

"I would pick my next words carefully if I were you." Shinji warned.

Itachi glanced at the four blades threatening to skewer him through and the semi-activated Kidō spell glaring up behind him.

"Would it make a difference?"

"I'm only here to have just one question answered: the Hollows, was there anything special about them?"

While facing four Captains at once would be an immensely trying endeavor even for him, Itachi's stoic and nonchalant mask never cracked. He, for one, never believed whatever sparks flew would devolve into a fight between them. The exiled Captains had so much to lose from being discovered by the Soul Society.

Itachi's gaze remained fixed on Shinji's who was watching him with slitted eyes.

"Why didn't you go to Kisuke and Yoruichi?" He asked after some time.

"They didn't fight. You did." His answers, as concise and straight as it has always been.

Shinji's eyes left Itachi and went to the rest of his comrades with Kensei and Love shaking their heads.

"I don't trust him, Shinji. He's far too much for an unknown. And besides, he's withholding vital information from the Soul Society? I call every rodent-looking animal a rat." Love spoke, expressing his doubts.

Silence enveloped the room they were in until Shinji let out a weary sigh. If he could, he'd rather the Soul Society didn't hunt them down for whatever reasons. And since they didn't have a place to return to in the Gotei 13, he'd much prefer if they remained unaware of their location.

"They carried swords." He finally said.

"Swords?" Itachi asked in reply.

"… and they didn't have masks." Shinji added. "There's something unsettling about them, as if something more nasty hid under their skin."

And then there was that. The thing that twisted the tongues of all the Shinigami who had seen these Hollows.

With grave reluctance, Shinji spat it out dryly. "They felt like-"

"Shinigami." Itachi completed. His words earned him a few suspicious stares and a more contemplative gaze from Shinji.

Since he had gotten what he came for, Itachi turned around to leave only to be stopped by Shinji.

"And we're just supposed to take your word for it?"

Itachi gave them a sidelong glance before fading away, leaving his last words with them drifting through the winds.

"I have no intention of alerting the Soul Society as long as you don't attack me."

It was ridiculous. His words didn't mean shit. He knew it and so did they… But Shinji laughed.

"You're one heck of a guy, Itachi."

Maybe there was something in the middle of their conversation that the others missed. Whatever it was, or wasn't, it left Shinji in a good mood.

....

Kaien was spooked when Itachi appeared right beside him without him getting so much as a whiff of his Reiatsu.

"They weren't much trouble." He reported to Itachi to which Itachi just nodded.

"Tell the others to be careful." He warned. "If I'm right, we'll be here for a few days."

"Anything wrong, Captain?"

"For now, no. Later? Probably."

Sensing Itachi was about to leave, Kaien called out to him with concern on his face.

"Sir, is he really behind this one as well? I can't help but feel that something is off with this mission."

Itachi looked at Kaien and saw how the man's fist clenched around the hilt of his sword.

"I don't know yet, Lieutenant Kaien. It could very well be as well as not."

As he left, Itachi reflected on what he had gotten from Shinji and his group about the Hollows they encountered. As far as he was aware, the appearance of the Hollows and them clashing with Shinji's group were two separate coincidences.

'Or it could be that the waves of Hollows were simply to draw them out… but for what?'

On the other hand, Kisuke had something in his possession that was more valuable to Aizen than the whole of Shinji's group.

'Since neither Kisuke nor Yoruichi bothered showing up, meeting them right now wouldn't be wise.'

If Aizen was really going after the Hōgyoku in Kisuke's possession, then he wouldn't just stop after a single try.

'And with him gauging the strength of his former experiments, he'll be forced to increase the strength of the next group of Hollows.'

He has been very careful with concealing his presence since stepping through the Senkaimon so hopefully that was something Aizen wouldn't plan around, but knowing the man like he did, it wouldn't matter much either way.

'He's not in a position to act too passively. He still needs Kisuke's piece of the Hōgyoku to move forward in whatever plans he has. The only silver lining we have is that it seems his plans are heavily dependent on it.'

"So he's coming for it."

'No doubt. He would want to before either Kisuke or Shinji makes contact with the Soul Society.' Tsukuyomi clarified.

In other words, the next few days would be entertaining for him and hell for some. Shinigami and Hollow alike.

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