Chapter 71 - Progressively Growing

"He has grown. But… he's still not good enough." — Itachi Uchiha.

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Months passed in the blink of an eye for Itachi that he barely even felt time passing all that fast, showing how he was acclimatizing to the Shinigami standards sense of time.

While his main body spent most of his time hidden away except on occasions when he was called by the Head Captain or the Central 46; other than those specific times, he used a shadow clone as his stand-in.

He still remembered Amaterasu's words from months ago when she pulled him out of Benihime's inner world.

'Get stronger, Itachi.' Those were the last words he heard from Amaterasu as she had thoroughly ignored him for all these months, which was what spurred his current montage of training and meditation

Amaterasu was a pure power type Zanpakutō that subverting Tsukuyomi's control for Amaterasu anytime he used it was him going about it wrongly.

He had figured it out when he was thinking about how he would go about attaining Bankai now that he had his Shikai. He knew from his past conversation with Tsukuyomi that he was already more than halfway there and when his body was strong enough to handle the both of them, Bankai would present itself to him. But then he thought, 'why rush it?'.

He could fight off most of the Captains with an incomplete Shikai and he knew that he was still a ways off from fully mastering Tsukuyomi's Shikai state, talk less of Amaterasu that he was basically still a novice with by his standards, which further meant that he probably had no idea on how to utilize Honshin – his truly complete Shikai.

And if Bankai was at the very least a 10x multiplier of his Shikai, then it would be the best thing for all of them if he mastered his Shikai to the limit – all three of them – before attempting Bankai. But first things first, he had to at least get Amaterasu to the same level he was with Tsukuyomi which was not an easy thing to do.

Unlike how he did for Tsukuyomi, which was understanding its essence as deeply as he could comprehend, it was different for Amaterasu as he had to express it instead of understanding it.

In truth, there was very little to understand about Amaterasu. It is an undying flame – pure, direct and passionately burning.

He was currently bare-chested and panting softly with Amaterasu held in his palms while wisps of sputtering black flames were scattered over his hideout.

No clever diversions, no sneaky tactics, no underhanded play, no hidden daggers or shurikens – nothing mattered when he swung his black blade. It was a physical manifestation of an all-consuming flame that rendered moot the need of any brilliant tactic as it swallowed everything Itachi set it on, like it should… if not for what was essentially a small wisp of the flame that Itachi could currently wield.

He had long gotten the hang of it and had familiarize himself with the sensation of being a power-type fighter than the stealthy subjugation type he'd been throughout his life.

'No retreat. You have your flames; use them as your defense.'

A soft slash of his sword instantly snuffed out all the flickering flames scattered about.

He looked at the blade and sighed before sheathing it, knowing that this still wasn't enough for Amaterasu to start talking with him again.

As he sat down in the dark underground cave, his mind wondered what his target was planning to do this time. He knew that there were still people under the influence of an unknown yet very potent illusion, even among the ranks of the Captains and Lieutenants but without it being recently activated, he had no way of knowing which one was compromised unless he put them under a potent illusion of his own to trigger the dormant Reiatsu into kicking back, but obviously they wouldn't agree, especially now when he was temporarily restricted by Central 46 on how far he could exert his illusory abilities.

From his conversation with Captain Unohana, he kept an extra eye on the movement of the Kidō Corps and the Onmistukidō, easily procuring his information from them with none being the wiser. He still has no idea why Unohana was being very… accommodating to him but he didn't directly question her about it, only keeping a certain level of caution when around her.

His situation too was another thing that made it harder for his stand-in clone to move. While the Captains were reinstated after the first two months due to nothing conclusive being found, the other Shinigami that were implicated were suspended from active duty, a list which also included him.

From what he'd learned from observing the Onmistukidō, it seems that Yoruichi was leaning on the suspicion that all this were tied to the smaller noble clans as this wasn't the first time they had acted out – though it was the first time something of this nature was happening – and Itachi agreed with that thinking.

Just having an illusion user wasn't enough to get into so many places at once and at the same time without the influence of a large enough employ of people. But whatever it was, Itachi was sure that the illusion user was at the top, if not the main instigator, of the whole thing.

"The irony of this isn't lost on me." He muttered wistfully. Dying as a master illusionist and now coming across another master illusionist, was a little too on the nose for someone like him who was learning to leave his past life behind.

He sighed once again as he stood up, just getting a transmission from a dismissed clone. He had no choice but to leave as it was Yoruichi needing him to check a few of the people she caught to see if they got anything manipulating their senses.

He took his robes and swung it over his body before flashing away with Shunpo.

A few minutes later he appeared next to Yoruichi who acknowledged his presence with a nod and led him down a flight of stairs.

They kept walking in silence for a while until Itachi broke it with a question. "Is she still blindly angry at me?"

Yoruichi glanced at him with a questioning look.

"Your charge is too rigid in her ways, Yoruichi. Makes her predictable and easy to get blindsided."

"Then why don't you try telling her that yourself? It's obvious you don't want her angry at you for a stupid reason but what are you exactly doing to make her see your point?" Yoruichi asked. "This is why I hate geniuses. They always tend to overcomplicate the simplest things."

They crossed a wooden bridge and came across a high wall surrounded by a wide moat – The Maggots Nest; a detention facility under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Division that held most of Soul Society's most dangerous criminals.

This was Itachi's third time of coming here, and all the time was for the same reason; going through Yoruichi's list of suspects connected to the Hollowfication. Unfortunately, like Itachi had speculated, they haven't been able to identify anyone.

Itachi's suggestion was that he might be able to identify the technique if he sees it being cast with his fully grown Sharingan, but that meant catching the caster in the first place.

"You don't look especially angry at me. Why?" Itachi asked as they both stood before the large gate that was slowly being opened.

Yoruichi scoffed and gave Itachi a smile of ridicule. "Because I'm not as rigid and blindsided."

The gate didn't open fully but gapped with enough space for both of them to walk through.

"Commander!" Two Shinigami stood at attention at the other side of the door who led them to where the criminals were kept.

Unlike other detention facilities that Itachi knew of, the Maggots Nest didn't put their prisoners behind bars, instead letting them roam free in the dreary cave, letting the creeping madness be the ultimate punishment for the sentenced souls.

Meeting the new inmates, Itachi didn't bother with using Honshin and settled for just using his Sharingan. He was now familiar with what to look for, especially from an outsider's perspective that this was enough.

"Hmm? Not using your blades?" Yoruichi asked as that was what he used the last two times he was here.

"No need." He simply replied.

Yoruichi nodded and signaled for the two Kidō Corps members that had been waiting for their arrival to begin.

The Kidō spell Tessai used to monitor Itachi's actions were a mandatory condition to verify the truth of Itachi's words every time he did this.

"Look at me."

The six new inmates stared up to look at a pair of red eyes that soon covered their whole vision.

"Take them back. We're done here." Yoruichi said to the two guards before turning to Itachi. "Let's go."

"Not waiting for the verdict?"

"Your unimpressed expression tells me everything."

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