Itachi Rebirth: A Shinigami Tale

"Please give me one moment," Aizen smiled and dismissed the students. He made his way over to itachi.

"Uchiha, that was an excellent fight. Your skills have improved since the last time" Aizen said.

"Thank you, I still have a lot to work on." Itachi replied.

"Nonsense, you are easily one of the most talented individuals I've seen." Aizen replied.

Itachi remained silent. He didn't want to continue this conversation with Aizen.

"Anyway, Uchiha I know Captain Soi Fon has already assisted with your early graduation. If you are interested, the fifth division will welcome you with open arms." Aizen said.

"Thank you for the offer, but I have already accepted to be in the 2nd Division." Itachi replied with a slight bow.

"That's a shame, It seems Captain Soi Fon beat me to it." Aizen said.

"I apologize," Itachi replied.

"Well anyway, take care of yourself Uchiha." Aizen said bidding his farewell. He walks past Itachi and continues on his way.

Itachi turns around and looks at Aizen's departing figure. 'I already told him it was part of my bloodline. Two months with the resources available to captains, there's no doubt that he has researched it. He came to the tournament, but the instructor didn't mention it, so he attended without prior notice. Did he come for me? Was he trying to see if the other students would be able to force me to use my sharingan? He also kept himself from inquiring about it now, but my instincts tell me he is interested. What is he planning? Or am I overthinking it. Either way I will be ready.' Itachi thought to himself as he turned around and made his way back to his dorm.

After entering his room he laid down and looked at the ceiling. 'Almost a year here.' Itachi closes his eyes and drifts into sleep.

The next morning, Itachi changed into his shinigami shihakusho and flung his Asauchi to his back. Before leaving the dorm, he checked out with the dorm manager. One last time, Itachi went back to the memorial site of Tatsumi.

'It was a good six months. I couldn't have gotten this far without your help.' Itachi leaves his academy shihakusho at the memorial and stays there until late morning. 'It's almost noon, I should go meet with the Captain.'

Itachi walks to the other side of the courtyard where he was supposed to meet Soi Fon. He looks around for her but doesn't see her. Instead, he notices a large man with a large purple collar he has never seen before who was snacking on fried rice crackers. Itachi approaches the man and notices the lieutenant badge as he gets closer.

The man notices Itachi approaching him. He stops eating his fried rice crackers and greets Itachi.

"You must be Uchiha Itachi right? The Captain told me to wait here for you. I'm lieutenant Marechiyo Omaeda! Captain Soi Fon is busy today so I'm here in her place!"

"It is nice to meet you Lieutenant Omaeda." Itachi bows his head in respect. Omaeda reaches into his bag of rice crackers and puts one more handful in his mouth and scarfs it down before giving Itachi further instruction.

"Captain wanted me to test you somehow but didn't specify how. So I came up with something! I'm going to flash step to the division barracks and you need to keep up with me! Despite my plump exterior, I am the fastest in the second division not counting the Captain!" Omaeda boasts and laughs. "But just for you I'll slow down a bit so try to keep up!"

Itachi nods in compliance and Omaeda stuffs his bag of rice crackers into his shihakusho. He suddenly vanishes from his spot and Itachi follows.

The two of them enter Seretei and run on top of the buildings at great speed. 'Despite his looks, he is very agile.' Itachi notes. Omaeda looks behind him and sees Itachi keeping up. "Not bad, not bad!" Omaeda says as he speeds up with Itachi maintaining the same distance behind him. In a short amount of time, they reach the 2nd Squad barracks.

"Here we are Uchiha!" Omaeda says as they walk inside. "Just pick any empty room and then I have a few tasks for you!"

Itachi nods and walks down the hall. The hallway was very clean but also silent with not a single person to be seen. Itachi sees a room with no name on the door. Itachi goes into the room. It was a lot larger than his dorm room at the academy. Itachi didn't bring a lot of things with him, only bringing his Asauchi. He takes a brief look before exiting and going back to the main hall to meet Omaeda.

"Ok Uchiha, I have your first mission which is also your second test! It will be a test of speed like the last one!" Omaeda declares. Itachi nods and waits for his orders. Omaeda pulls out his wallet and takes out 100 kan. He gives it to Itachi. Do you remember where the store was on our way here?

"Yes." Itachi responds with a little bit of doubt. 'The store?' He had kept an eye out during their trip to the barracks and noted the surroundings. Although the store wasn't as important he had still noted it.

"As fast as you can, I want you to go to the convenience store and get me a 5-pack of fried rice crackers. Any flavor or brand will do but IT CANNOT BE FISH FLAVOR!"

"Understood." Itachi vanishes from his spot and goes out the door. He quickly arrives in front of the convenience store. 'This important mission is errands. Is this some kind of test?' Itachi questions as he goes in.

After a few minutes he comes back out and races back to the barracks. There was nothing unordinary during the trip. He reappears in front of Omaeda and hands him the crackers.

'So it was just an errand' Itachi thinks to himself. Even he was somewhat baffled. 'Calling his errands an important mission? What were this man's priorities….'

"Not bad Uchiha. I could have done it faster but you did okay!" Omaeda quickly opens one of the bags, causing a mess of crumbs to spill all over the floor. As he is about to put a cracker in his mouth, he feels a great amount of pain at the back of his head and drops all his crackers on the ground.

"OOW OW OW!" Omaeda yells out. Soi Fon steps out from behind Omaeda.

"YOU LAZY OAF! WHY ARE YOU WASTING THE NEW RECRUIT'S TIME BY MAKING HIM DO YOUR STUPID ERRANDS! LOOK AT THE MESS YOU MADE!" Soi Fon scolds Omaeda who starts to get on his knees and sweep the crackers off the floor. Soi Fon looks back at Itachi.

"Come with me. I need to fully assess what you are capable of before I send you out on missions." Soi Fon gestures Itachi to follow her. The two of them walk down the hall in silence. At the end of the hall, they approach a large room filled with shinigami dressed in all black with their faces covered in a mask.

"I want to get you out on the field as quickly and efficiently as possible." Soi Fon says as she gestures at two of the shinigami to step up. The two of them stand in the center of the room.

"These two have been a part of the executive militia for only a year. You are to fight both of them at the same time. I will warn you now these two are nothing like academy students. If you hesitate, they will not show mercy. I'll step in if I have to but be prepared and do not hold anything back!." Soi Fon warns Itachi. Itachi nods before approaching the two of them.

There were no words exchanged between the two of them. Without warning, they both lunge at Itachi with their blades drawn. Itachi narrowly dodges the blades and feels blood dripping from a cut on his cheek. 'These two are fast. If it was just one I could deal with it but two of them is a problem.' The two shinigami don't let Itachi catch his breath as they keep swinging their blades at him.

Itachi continuously dodges the strikes of the two shinigami. 'Their speed is amazing. And their teamwork is also very good.' He narrowly evades most strikes with a few managing to graze his clothes.

'I'll have to end this now.' Itachi's eyes suddenly emit a red glow. As the two shinigami try to stab at Itachi, he grabs both of their arms mid thrust and redirects them away from him.

'What are with his eyes?' Soi Fon thinks as she observes Itachi's movements. 'He was just barely able to keep up with those two, but now he is reacting to them easily?'

Itachi points both his hands at the two shinigami. "Bakudo 4: Hainawa." Two ropes catch the shinigami and Itachi pulls them together and slams them against each other.

Soi Fon decides to step in. "That's enough." Soi Fon says as Itachi releases his Bakudo and his eyes return to their original onyx.

"You held up better than expected." Soi Fon comments. "Your fighting skills are fine but your flash stepping still needs work. Your footwork is better than the rest of the shinigami who graduate the academy but that is not enough for the Executive Militia. She didn't ask about Itachi's eyes. Although she was curious, it wasn't important enough to her.

"Yami get over here! The rest of you are dismissed!" Soi Fon yells out to the rest of the shinigami in the room. Within an instant, they all vanish from the room without a sound. One shinigami is left in the room. He removes his mask.

"Yami, Shun reporting." He says as he kneels on the ground.

"Stand up. You are going to be Uchiha's mentor from now on. I want him caught up on flash stepping. The academy can only teach so much. I want him ready as fast as possible."

"Yes Captain!" Shun replies. Soi Fon nods then suddenly vanishes from the room, leaving just Itachi and Shun.

"Itachi right? You can just call me Shun. No need for formalities." Shun's cold look softens as he extends his hand out to Itachi. Itachi shakes his hand in response.

"So you're not officially a part of the Executive Militia yet. This is like your probation period. That last test was to see how well you react in a life or death situation which you passed. However, the Captain wants your flash stepping to improve. We'll be doing grueling training to get you caught up so you can be a full member of the executive militia. Sounds good?" Shun questions Itachi who replies with a nod.

"By the way...what was the deal with your eyes?" Shun asks curiously.

"It's an ability of mine. I can react to attacks much easier." Itachi replies.

"Oh that sounds handy. How long are you able to use it?." Shun comments.

Itachi thinks about what he just said. Back when he was still alive, he had always kept his Sharingan active as both a way of not getting caught off guard and to somewhat mitigate his blindness. 'I haven't been using my Sharingan nearly as much in the Academy as I had no need to. However, keeping my Sharingan up all the time now would be advantageous in the Onmitsukido.'

"As long as I need to." Itachi says as he closes his eyes and opens them again. His eyes emit a faint red glow and Shun looks into them.

"Now would be a good time to start training." Shun says while still looking into Itachi's eyes. Shun then flash steps backward and reappears at the other side of the room.

"Follow me outside." Shun says to Itachi. Itachi nods and the two of them vanish out of the room.

Shun and Itachi reappear again outside in the 2nd Division training field.

"You kept up well. It's like your technique improved from just watching me!" Shun compliments. "Okay watch how I move." Shun vanishes from his spot then reappears at the end of the field then back again to his original spot.

"As you probably learned about footwork in the academy, flash stepping is far more efficient when you take less steps. Here, we take that to the extreme. However, if you use too few steps and your body can't keep up, you will fall flat on your face. Get good enough at flash stepping however and…" Shun suddenly reappears a few meters away from his original position but leaves a brief image of himself in his original spot. "I'm only able to make one. I've seen Captain Soi Fon make at least ten before."

Itachi, who has been analyzing Shun's technique with his sharingan, gets ready to attempt it.

"This reminds me of how Shisui's body flicker worked...except his afterimages were tangible…"

So, that's the proper technique to this...?'

Itachi vanishes from his spot and reappears behind Shun, leaving an afterimage in his original spot. Shun is left with a shocked expression on his face as he turns around to see Itachi is both behind and in front of him.

'One afterimage exerts a lot of strength. I'll need to train considerably more to create more than ten.'

"Wow..I'll let the Captain know you're ready to show her your improvement by tomorrow. We'll be at the same room we met in earlier tomorrow morning at 0500." Shun says.

"But why don't we spar for the rest of the day so I can show you some other things." Shun suggests.

"That sounds good." Itachi replies. The two of them back up from each other and get into a fighting stance. They continue sparring and practicing until dusk. Itachi kept his sharingan active during the entirety of the training. By the time he reached his room, his exhaustion washed over him.

----------------------------------------------

The next morning, Soi Fon, Shun, and Itachi were in the meeting hall.

"Yami told me about your drastic improvement over the course of one day. Show me." Soi Fon says to Itachi.

"Yes Captain." Itachi replies as he quickly moves backward from his original spot, leaving an afterimage in its place. Soi Fon's eyes widened in surprise as Itachi had learned how to create an afterimage in only one day. She quickly regains her composure and comments.

"This is acceptable." Soi Fon says as she vanishes from her spot then reappears, but this time, holding a neatly folded outfit.

"This uniform is a symbol that you've been accepted as a part of the executive militia. You are to wear it instead of your standard shinigami shihakusho while you are part of the executive militia. Go put it on and come back here in one minute. I'm sending you out on your first mission immediately." Soi Fon orders Itachi.

"Yes Captain." Itachi replies as he vanishes from the room to go change.