"Stop being so foolish. A leader has to remain calm and detached in any situation." — Shinji Hirako.
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"I've been meaning to meet for sometime now, Captain Uchiha." Yūshirō Shihōin greeted excitedly as he sat in front of Itachi in his mansion, having invited the ever busy and elusive Captain over.
"Ahem." An elderly man standing behind Yūshirō cleared his throat, freezing the young monarch and his excited words.
"Thank you for the invitation." Itachi replied with a slight bow. The relationship between the Clan Heads varied depending on who the Captain was. Someone like Kenpachi… well no one dared to extend him any formal invitation. On Itachi's part, apart from Yoruichi – the former Shihōin Clan Head and elder sister to the current one – he safely assumed that he wasn't on any semi-casual relationship with them, mostly the youth in front of him… that was why the boy's giddiness in seeing him surprised him.
Yūshirō cleared his throat and donned on a dignified expression befitting someone of his position, only it would have appeared more effective had he looked the part.
"I have no wish to waste both of our time seeing as our station imposes on us extremely busy schedules. There are a few reasons why I requested your presence here, Captain Uchiha, one of which is your leadership over the Division that used to belong to my very dear sister."
Itachi merely nodded prompting the young lord to carry on. Before he did, Yūshirō signaled to the old man standing behind him who retreated with a sigh.
Itachi observed the casualness with which the wards and servants behaved towards their monarch, all tempered behind a steel-like respect.
"I'll be casual with you from here on out, Captain Itachi." Yūshirō said after the man left.
"I'd prefer it if you do." He noticed how the way he was addressed changed but said nothing about it. All he remembered about Yūshirō from Yoruichi apart from the grinning complaints of how clingy he was to his dear elder sister was just how precious and lovely her brother was.
"I've been wanting to meet you for a while now but the elders said that there was no need to rush, at least they did until the previous revelation about one Aizen Sōsuke."
Itachi's reply to that was a simple "I see".
Yūshirō pouted and reclined in his chair with his hands folded over his chest visualizing the perfect image of a petulant child. "Seriously, can't you talk more. And here I thought Soi Fon was a boring conversation partner. I guess elder sister wasn't exaggerating about you being socially boring."
He peeked at Itachi's reaction but sighed when he saw that they remained unchanged. He sat upright with a serious look on his face and bowed his head to Itachi from his seated position. "Thank you for clearing my dear sister's name. None of us believed the verdict that she and that bastard Kisuke were as traitorous as the crimes they were accused of."
Itachi observed Yūshirō and found no sign of deceit in his words or movements. The joy wasn't exactly experienced enough to hide such things from him.
"I found it suspicious from the beginning but my words meant nothing against the charges pressed against them. That and I was apparently one of his targets. You do not have to thank me. Yoruichi was my… friend. My confidante." Itachi almost shifted uncomfortably as he figured out the right words to use. Almost.
Yūshirō chuckled. For someone barely in his teenage years(the soul equivalent) his eyes were rather sharp, Itachi noted.
"Honestly you aren't as awkward as she made you sound. Socially inept, yes, but not awkward to that extent."
They chatted for a few minutes which was mostly Yūshirō asking about Itachi's life as a Shinigami and how it felt being the Captain of his sister's Division.
"You don't need to stall any further Yūshirō, what is it you really want to ask?" Having known the boy somewhat, they both had fell into a comfortable casualness between them.
Yūshirō bit his lips, his hesitance fading when he saw Itachi just staring at him patiently, almost knowingly too.
"My sister… Do you know where she is? I don't mean you should tell me where she is, I just want to send her a letter or something." Afraid of being misunderstood, Yūshirō came clean about his worries of his sister which were all unfounded given who she was but understandable given the relationship between them – A younger brother worried sick about his runaway sister.
It was so normal and obvious that it made Itachi smile. Yūshirō, despite being fully aware of his sister's abilities, was extremely distraught given the suddenness of her departure.
"I'm sorry, Yūshirō, but even I have no idea where they are. I want to find her about just as much as you do, and Soi Fon too, but I think we both know that finding her depends on whether or not she wants to be found."
Yūshirō's shoulders slumped when he heard Itachi's answer. He wasn't exactly hopeful for a positive answer but hearing the prettily worded 'no' still hurt.
"I'm sorry for taking up most of your time, Itachi." He apologized. Yoruichi's whereabouts was the deciding factor in him requesting for Itachi's presence after all.
"It's fine. I enjoyed our talk and I've been meaning to meet you for a while now so it all played out well."
Yūshirō's eyes gleamed at that. "Soooo, does that mean you'll visit me every so often?"
Itachi chuckled. Right, unlike Junpei, Yūshirō felt as much as he looked like a kid.
"Unfortunately, I can't give you my word on that. I'll tell Soi Fon you sent your regards." Itachi didn't remain any longer in the Shihōin Clan.
...
[World of the Living]
Hollow attacks have been on the uprise for the past few months and while the Soul Society were good at their job, sometimes sending squads of Shinigami to oversee a city, sometimes they were wiped out or too slow in arriving, leaving most places u protected for a short while.
A short while – that was all a Hollow needed to prey on hapless souls.
Well unfortunately for this group of Hollows, this city just so happened to be the same place where a group of outcasts were hiding out.
"We can't keep watching and doing nothing, eh Shinji?" Kensei asked Shinji, their de facto leader. They all stood on a rooftop and watched the rampaging Hollows below.
They had watched when the last group of Shinigami had fought valiantly against the Hollows until they were overwhelmed after being unable to catch their breaths for days of unending Hollow attacks.
Shinji understood this but it wasn't as easy a decision for him to make like the others. The others were waiting for his command but he alone, as their leader, had to bear the consequences of his decisions.
As far as he knew, he and the others were still classified as Hollows to the Soul Society and he knew the Head Captain enough to know that just because the blame was shifted from Kisuke to Aizen didn't necessarily mean that they were absolved of their 'crimes'.
On the other hand, Kensei was right. He couldn't just sit still and watch those he considered as his subordinates fight bravely to their deaths while he, a former Captain he may be but still a Captain nonetheless, watched idly by.
Kensei and Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi gritted their teeth as they watched, looking like they were about to jump in any minute now, while the others looked on at Shinji, eagerly waiting for him to give the command.
"Hai hai, stop pressuring me already." He glanced at his group of comrades behind him and smirked before eying the Hollows below with cold eyes.
"Give 'em hell."
The first two people to rush down were Kensei, the ever-so-eager one, and Miyako, the demure spouse of Lieutenant Kaien Shiba.
"I've just about had it with your sniveling growls." Kensei shouted, drawing the attention of all the surrounding to himself, before socking one right on the mask and destroying it in an instant.
"It's been so long since I've killed one of you bastards."
"Hehe, at least one of us is happy." Shinji smiled as he saw a shadow of Kensei getting in his element. "None of you want a piece of that?"
Love shook his head. "I'm good."
The others with him also shook their heads, Love pointing out an obvious fact. "Besides, between those two I doubt there'll be anyone left for us."
Kensei was like a raging bull as he plowed through the Hollows while Miyako was like a fish in water, wading and weaving through them with lethal swings following her every movement.
While the others were watching two of their friends decimate the Hollows with no relative difficulty, Shinji's attention was on somewhere else.
Upon their return Kensei and Miyako noticed the frown on Shinji's face so the former called out to him.
"What's up with the face, Shinji? Even if We're technically still their enemies I doubt the Soul Society will be coming after us anytime soon."
Shinji shook his head. "We're being watched."
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