Chapter 133 - Junpei’s Acknowledgement

"Try to stay alive, okay? That way, you and Kenny can play again some day!" — Yachiru Kusajishi. 

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Itachi found something weird with Byakuya after their impromptu meeting in the middle Districts of the Rukongai but at least he had the decency not to be too nosy in what clearly didn't concern him. He had been a little bit curious about the person that was following Byakuya around and even making him slow down for days, making him easily trackable but immediately put it to rest after just a few minutes of observing that she was normal as a soul could be.

He soon focused back on Junpei after that. Since his little test for the boy was abruptly cut short by none other than Byakuya, he scrapped the idea altogether after getting a rough idea of the boy's upper limits. Though on the average spectrum, Junpei was at a level where there was little that Itachi could still teach him. 

He had gotten the basics down to the point that Itachi could hardly pick out his mistakes unless he was being unnecessarily prickly – which Itachi always was when it came to him – and even at that there was hardly anything he could find fault in. 

Junpei's foundation was as solid as can be that the only thing holding him back at this point was his innate strength. As soul beings, there was very little in the way of physical growth if your soul as a whole didn't grow with it. 

"Junpei."

"Sir?" 

"There's little I can teach you at this point." Itachi suddenly said making the youth freeze and abruptly stopping his run and making Itachi do the same. 

"S-sir? W-what are you saying?" There was a specific emotion in his voice that Itachi couldn't fully relate to. He could recognize it, somewhat, but it was something he was hardly familiar with. 

"I'm saying that your training, at least under me, is coming to an end. I have taught you the basics of fighting to the best of my ability and there is nothing much I can teach you."

Junpei stared utterly silent at Itachi who regarded his stunned looks but continued speaking. 

"The Shinigami's Zankensoki and my own Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. You have excelled in all these slowly and surely through the decades past and have arrived at a level where all that can be seen from you is your years of effort in refining everything single thing I've taught you little by little, bit by bit. Now you are at a level where very few can say they arrived at in their lifetime. With the foundation you've built up, it is now time to build up your own path."

The pride in the dark glow of his eyes could hardly be hidden as he spoke sincerely to Junpei. And the emotion in the latter's eyes became clearer with the more words he spoke. 

"Break it down. Tear it apart. Build atop the ruins of your experiences."

The edges of Junpei's eyes glistened as he heard the acknowledgement of Itachi in its entirety, the genuine one, for the first time since meeting his teacher, confidante and role model. 

"Stand proud, Junpei. You are strong."

"Mmn." He tried. Oh he tried. But there was no stopping the sniffles that escaped his nostrils the more he tried to push down the torrent of emotions that was welling up in him untold it erupted into a sputtering geyser. 

What more words needed to be said. It wasn't as if no one else had told him he was strong. Hell, even back at the academy and even after joining the Division, both his instructors and colleagues had praised him on how strong he was becoming, especially after joining ROOT. Every now and then, someone would praise him on his genius way of using Kidō, modified Kidō even, and fusing them with his Zanjutsu in such a brilliant way. Except none of those went into his ears for long. 

As long as Itachi, Mr. Itachi, and to a lesser extent Soi Fon, saw nothing particularly interesting in it, he couldn't be bothered to acknowledge the praise. Why would he? Why would they? Of course they wouldn't. They were the ones who taught it to him after all. 

Hearing these few but heavy words, to Junpei, was worth all the years of effort and suffering he put in to learn what Itachi would call a simple technique.

"Thank you! Captain Itachi!" Junpei shouted and bowed to Itachi who let amusement leak into his voice. 

"So after years of correcting you and even more years of you ignoring my words you finally decide to call me Captain Itachi without me practically forcing you to."

"Hehe…" Junpei scratched his head in embarrassment but there was no hiding the elation he was currently basking in. 

"If you don't mind me asking, what brought this on? Why that test specifically?"

"The test was a spur of the moment thing." Itachi replied as they resumed their run at a much slower pace. "So was my realization and prompted decision."

A faint memory of all those nights out in the Rukongai teaching Junpei the basic way of holding a sword and the efficient way of swinging it to retain a proper posture flitted through Itachi's mind. 

"I guess seeing you fight without so much as a word from me finally made me realize that just as I've grown so different from my past, so have you. It was a rather heartening realization if I am to be honest."

Itachi glanced behind him and added after a few seconds of deliberating his thoughts. "And I guess a graduation present is only right given how long I've been your teacher."

Before Junpei could nod excitedly, he saw something flying his way and caught it in surprise. It was something wrapped in cloth. 

He opened the cloth and a dark mask with a frightening visage was lying amidst its wraps. 

"Glad to have you by my side, Tengu."

.....

[2nd Division Barracks] 

"Hmm? What exciting party is happening here?" Kyōraku asked as he leapt over the crowd of Shinigami gathered in one of their fighting grounds. 

"Shun-shun! Over here!" 

Over at one of the surrounding rooftops was a familiar pinkette waving over at him excitedly. 

"So what the hell is happening down there?" He asked half-bored. 

Yachiru practically vibrated with excitement emanating from her body and Kyōraku didn't miss the slight twitch of her sword.

"I came over to meet Tachi-tachi but Fon-Fon said he's been gone for a few days."

"Uh uh." Kyōraku drawled out uninterestedly. One comprehensive look at the gathering below and he got the raw gist of things. 

"And get this!"

"I'm getting it.."

"I was leaving when Tachi-tachi and Jun-jun came back but all of a sudden Fatty challenged Tachi-tachi for the role of Captain. Are you listening, Shun-shun?" She shook Kyōraku who was lying down with half of his eyelid raised. 

"Uh uh." He hummed. "Though I can't say I remember when was the last time one of those happened to me." He didn't mean it as a way to brag, only stating facts, but Yachiru saw it as the former and poured angrily. Why was it that only Kenny was challenged almost everyday when he became Captain? 

"Oh it's starting." Kyōraku pointed out drowsily, looking bored at the prospect of the "duel" because he wholeheartedly was. Its winner was decided before the sham of a match even began. 

The moment it started, the one Yachiru called Fatty, Marechiyo Ōmaeda, one of the minor regent clans under the Shihōin Clan, fell face-first to the ground unceremoniously and stayed there drooling out of his orifices. 

"Huh? Is it over already?" Yachiru asked, looking in disbelief at what she thought would have been an interesting fight. Kenny always made it a habit to let his challenger attack him with their strongest attack before retaliating so she might have been expecting something of a similar nature. 

Off to her side, Kyōraku snorted unamused. "The notion of the fight itself was uninteresting. Well, I'm glad that this farce is now over." He disappeared from the rooftop, leaving a downcast Yachiru grumbling as she jumped down. 

By the time her feet touched the ground she had lost sight of both Itachi and Kyōraku making her stomp her foot angrily before storming off to go find Soi Fon and threaten her to bring out her Captain. 

A lucky Junpei was ignorant of the advent of the grumbling gremlin that he just dodged as he was still focused on the elating and dreadful acknowledgement he had gotten from Itachi. 

After he came down from the initial high and excitement, he was faced with the fact that Itachi was no longer his teacher and he didn't know the first thing on where to begin training himself. 

Hell he realized he didn't have the slightest clue on how to build upon his existing foundation. Mr. Itachi would help – he grinned happily. Right? 

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