"I am prepared to bear his hatred." — Itachi Uchiha.
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As they walked through the lavishly decorated gate of the Shihōin Clan, servants and subordinates of different stations and ranks bowed their heads fully whenever Yoruichi walked past them.
Yoruichi had given Soi Fon the slip to patch up any of Itachi's oblivious mistakes but to her surprise it turned out that Itachi didn't need any help in blending into the crowd that was one of the Five Great Noble Houses that basically controlled and owned the Soul Society.
As an extremely skilled stealth op and warrior with a very good head on his shoulders, Yoruichi already classified Itachi as one of the most competent people she's ever known(and wasn't that a wild thought considering how long she's lived and all the titles she held) but she also knew that dealing with nobles, and not just any noble family but THE Shihōin Clan of Soul Society's Principal Clans, was a different ball game all together.
Even his deferential mannerisms to Yoruichi as his superior was on point that it amazed the two ladies he was accompanying.
"I see you have quite the experience in dealing with nobles." She stated, quirking her lips humorously as she saw him gave the most imperceptible shrug that not even Soi Fon standing besides him registered the slight twitch of his muscles.
'His body control is better than Soi Fon's. Discovering more things about him makes me feel as if he was manufactured to near-perfection rather than it being a genius-level talent.'
She groaned mentally upon realizing that she was doing it again. She was extremely analytical that it was almost at the border of unhealthy paranoia, except that it only happened when Itachi was nearby.
Itachi was someone that she considered her equal when it came to his skill in espionage and everything stealth op related. So to her, it was like trying to gain an upper hand against an equal at every chance she could.
"Lady Yoruichi, are you visiting the young master before going to the meeting room?" Soi Fon off to her side asked after they finally got away from the worshiping eyes of the servants and guards.
"Hmm. Probably not. I'll meet him before we leave anyway." She chuckled at the adorable memories at her brother's utmost respect(read: obsessed devotion) for her. "Since he didn't barrel his way to us when we crossed the gates means that he's likely busy with the other guests."
"Then you should get ready, Lady Yoruichi. I'm sure you don't want to deal with the nuisance they'll cause you if all the other Family Heads arrived before you did." Soi Fon gave her the reminder she always did whenever Yoruichi had a meeting with her fellow Family Heads.
Just then four women appeared from the corner of the hall and followed Yoruichi into her room to get her ready.
Soi Fon and Itachi stood guard at the door in silence while waiting for Yoruichi to get ready.
"You're curious, I can tell. What do you want to ask?" Unlike normally when he'd be more than content to remain and watch in silence, Itachi was the first to broach the shared silence.
"Were you a noble's retainer when you were alive? You seem comfortably familiar with it." She asked reluctantly.
Itachi was just as clueless as to why that question was important but he answered regardless. "It's a bit complicated."
To Soi Fon's sharp memory, this was the first time he gave an answer that wasn't silence to any extremely personal question about his life.
"How so?" Now she was genuinely curious. How complicated could it be that he preferred to ignore any question that broached the topic in any way.
Itachi thought about the type of reply to give and soon came up with the most accurate example he could find.
"To a vastly lesser degree, along with the exception of her frivolous habits, I was basically Yoruichi at one point in my life."
Soi Fon's retort had almost fired off when Yoruichi's name left his mouth but she suddenly stopped and blinked owlishly at him as his words expanded in her head.
'So that means… no wonder… If he's telling the truth then that would check most of the boxes… and also the silent understanding they both share.' Her jealousy spiked for an inch moment but she schooled her thoughts as most of Itachi's actions and attitude started fitting themselves in perfect boxes that his little explanation provided.
"I'm sorry to cut short the fun you two are having but we have a meeting to attend. The guests are already waiting, let's go."
Yoruichi stepped out of her room with the four women bowing behind her. She was delicately dressed in an extremely opulent white kimono with pure golden accents and embroidery beautifully decorated around its hems.
She held a golden hand fan to her face with her purple hair neatly tied to the back and held in place with golden hair pins.
Soi Fon was already swooning with her cheeks dusted in a faint blush, something that never ceased to amaze Yoruichi, hence why she could never stop teasing Soi Fon. Her spluttered reaction was just too adorable.
She then turned to her newest companion who still remained as stoic and rigid as the day she first met him.
"Finally seeing something you can appreciate?" She asked with a smirk, needing no validation or gratification from anyone to know how stunning she looked, dolled up or not.
"… I'm hoping the overly opulent attire is a common between your Noble Families or is this meeting not as simple as you made us think?" Itachi paid no mind to the question she asked but asked his in response and her reply confirmed the bare minimum he needed to know.
She looked at him with a smile that bore a blank feeling behind it. "Sometimes it's better not to sate your curiosity, you know. Take it from me, if no one else."
Soi Fon looked between the both of them utterly lost, while the women still bowing behind Yoruichi started shivering despite anyone doing anything.
Yoruichi sighed and started walking forward while beckoning with her finger for them to follow. "You would have been executed instantly had this happened in any of the other Noble Houses, and I would have done the same had it been anybody else aside from you and Soi Fon."
"I know. That's why I asked." Itachi simply replied.
His words sounded annoying in the most patronizing way possible if anyone other than Yoruichi and Soi Fon had heard it, like the maids following behind them who wisely said nothing, so all they managed was a twitch as they were aware of Itachi's literal speech pattern.
'You'd think a ninja like him can read the room and keep social cues.' Yoruichi thought with an eye roll before slowly wiping away all emotions from her face as they got to the door of the meeting room, leaving her facial expression unfeelingly rigid.
The door opened, revealing an indoor garden with a few people already seated within.
Yoruichi left them to approach the other Family Heads, with Itachi and Soi Fon standing a few feet away from the nobles.
"Head Shihōin, so good for you to join us." An old man dressed in pure white silk that Itachi remembered as Captain Kuchiki of the 6th Division, greeted Yoruichi as she arrived in their circle before a translucent bubble covered them and muted every sound coming from the circle.
'The look and expression in their eyes and face, even the movement of their mouths, are not in synchrony.' Itachi noticed that he couldn't focus on any of their facial features and any time he tried, they were always different.
'Not an illusion, but it is most likely that the bubble blocks or scrambles any form of perception in its direction.'
He didn't bother entertaining the idea of using his Sharingan to understand what was actually going on as doing something like that, and being found out like he expects to be, would have him facing execution before the end of the next minute.
Off to another side of the garden were a few youngsters of clearly noble descent, possibly heirs, in their own circle, and a guard or two from the other Noble Families keeping the same distance as they were.
'Nobles.' Itachi thought irritably. His bias towards Konoha's nobles made it hard for him to see another noble in a good light from the get-go.
"We might be here for a while." He heard Soi Fon whisper beside him. His sole reason for accepting to go along with this charade upon Yoruichi's proposal was that he wanted to make his own initial impression of the Head of the Noble Families, and if possible their heirs as well.
When he first arrived in the Soul Society and heard of the Noble Families, he didn't put much of his attention on the Noble Families but that quickly changed upon meeting Yoruichi – Captain Shihōin – and also Captain Kuchiki and Captain Shiba, three Noble Heads who were also Shinigami Captains.
From there he learnt that the Central 46 which regulated the legislative, executive and judiciary systems of the Seireitei and all Shinigami in existence, affiliated or not, were also made up of members of the Noble Houses.
And then there was the little tidbit of information across the few books that mentioned their general history and insinuated that they basically owned and controlled the Afterlife – the entire realm that was Soul Society.
These weren't the greedy, egotistical, political minded but feebly weak old men that were the nobles in the Elemental Nations.
These were century and millennium-old Shinigami with history spanning over thousands of years, along with the coalition of strength to back it up by boasting of a few Captain level Shinigami that were the retired old Family Heads.
He knew this was his paranoia thinking to the extreme, but he couldn't deny that they were true.
His own soul searching that he struggled with, understanding the true nature of his Zanpakutō and being strong enough to wield them, and now topping it off with the bottomless trench that were the Noble Families that all too eagerly encouraged his paranoia to form a symbiotic relationship with his natural distrust and bias against noble clans – barely two years in the Afterlife and it was already proving to be a lot more complicated than the entirety of 20 years of his life.
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