Chapter 25 - A Chance Discovery

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Night came and Itachi had long since shaken his pursuers from his trail, but he didn't slow down even when he came across another village.

He had no doubt that they would be looking for him throughout the night and since he could forego sleep for days, he saw no reason to slow his advance and risk them gaining on him.

Since he figured they were tracking the quadrant of his general direction, he kept his utilization of Reiatsu to the barest minimum, just enough for his movement and he was good.

Unfortunately for him, had it been anybody else in the Soul Society, he would have long since shaken them off in the first few minutes he left.

Stopping at the edge of a cliff, Itachi looked at the wide expanse before him and opted to slow down. He doubted he would come across Shinigamis but one couldn't be too careful.

With his Sharingan being able to scan for energy signatures, Itachi safely navigate his way through the night until morning came, followed by the problem.

...

Knowing he was free from Yoruichi's and Soi Fon's persistent pursuit, Itachi finally slowed down to a walk because he knew keeping up with the same speed would make his blitz past the Districts and arrive near Soul Society faster than he initially wants to.

Throughout the night, Yoruichi's proposal came to his mind. He had not been lying when he said he would think about it and give her an answer if they were to meet again.

Maybe somewhere in the back of his mind, Itachi longed for the Soul Society to have some semblance of the Hidden Leaf Village. No, not longed. Hoped.

But knowing how murky the waters of his origin village was, Itachi wasn't so keen on seeing a replica of the Leaf Village.

It was during his journey that he came across something interesting.

A Hollow hording the corpses of dead Shinigamis.

What actually drew his attention to this particular Hollow was how bereft of Reiatsu this Hollow actually was. It was so faint that it was almost perfectly melded with the energy in the atmosphere.

He had only been able to pick it up when he was scanning ahead for any Shinigami Reiatsu with his Sharingan.

Naturally he trailed the surprisingly inconspicuous Hollow through crevices and tunnels, back to its hidden place – or more aptly, storage room.

Inside the underground safe house, Itachi counted five dead Shinigamis, obviously the ones before these had already been eaten. With him being mostly ignorant of Hollows and how they acted, he settled for watching it for some time instead of just killing it, but no matter how he watched, all he could conclude, other than the Hollow's strangely silent behavior, was that this was a storeroom.

A storeroom, but not one for the Hollow.

With how the Hollow was drooling at the Shinigamis but didn't make a single move towards them, it couldn't be more clear that this place wasn't the Hollow's.

'Maybe another one. A stronger one.'

The Hollow was half the size of an average man, a very thin stature, and two faces on both sides of its body. At first sight, it was an unremarkable and weak Hollow with a body built for stealth and retrieval, which was clearly what it was tasked with.

Taking a risk, and also to gauge its senses, a part of Itachi's cloak billowed softly as it broke off and turned into a crow.

'Watch it.'

After giving the crow its orders, the two of them faded into the shadows, one hiding while the other popped away with the release of the Shadow Clone technique.

2 km away sat Itachi, the real one, with two of his fingers crossed over one of his eyes, watching the Hollow through the crow's eyes.

"It doesn't feel that simple." He muttered as he stood up. The Hollow's presence felt too thin, so thin that his Sharingan would have missed it if he wasn't so attuned with it.

The Hollow's strange behavior piqued Itachi's interest so he started keeping an eye out for anything strange, Shinigamis and Hollows alike, since it was clear that Hollow wasn't working alone.

It was likely that it had killed those Shinigamis but the fact that it refrained from eating them directly despite its hunger pointed out that there was a stronger Hollow nearby.

Itachi looked behind him, briefly wondering if he should use this as a transaction of favors with the Captain on his tail.

"We'll have to cross paths again for that."

Oh, he knew they'll cross paths again because the Captain, Yoruichi, was just that good, and he knew that he'd still be able to shake them off because he wasn't that incompetent.

With the strange Hollow now in his mind, Itachi set his sights on the next group of Shinigamis he'll come across and he did so after a few hours of traveling.

This was a much smaller cell of just three Shinigamis, perfect for anybody with a certain level of competence to sneak on. Given how unremarkable they looked, which he could tell with a simple glance, a perfect ambush was all that was needed to silently do away with them.

Going closer, he decided to listen to them since it seems that apart from their average strength, they were also chatty.

"Seriously, there's nothing this far out! The Captains are getting worried for nothing." One of the chubby Shinigamis grumbled.

The one at the front, the leader of this small group, softly chided his teammate without any heat in his words. "We've lost contact with three patrol groups, I think it warrants an investigation."

The chubby disgruntled Shinigami still wasn't convinced, or placated. "If it's an investigation, then shouldn't the team be bigger that just us three?"

The last member, the only female in their group sighed, finally fed with her companion's complaints. "Seriously? We've been here just two days and you're whining this much? Can't you save it for when we get back to the barrack?"

"Easy for you to say. Unfortunately, not all of us are as good as you are in Kidō."

"Speak for yourself."

Not bothering to listen any further to their whining, Itachi made another clone and had it keep an eye on them.

One thing he noticed however was that this group of Shinigamis was traveling in the direction he was coming from. Which meant that in an hour at most, they'll pass by the location where the Hollow was hiding.

Of course he noted how weird the coincidence was but he didn't put any mind to it, at least that was until they were a few hundred meters away from its general location.

Almost as if it was sensing them, the Hollow immediately roused itself from it drooling and started making its way towards the surface.

From the eyes of the crow keeping tabs on the Hollow, Itachi knew that there was no precursor indication that should've alerted it of the presence of the approaching Shinigami.

"Interesting." He said to himself, hiding away from both parties while keeping a close eye on them.

By the time the Hollows made its way to the surface, the Shinigamis were just a few feet away from where it'll pop out, yet they couldn't sense its presence.

Seeing the Hollow hiding its thin body between the crevice of two rocks, so close to the Shinigamis, Itachi watched closely how it would attempt to kill them; though he had no thoughts of letting them die.

He reasoned he could use the favor of keeping them alive to get Lady Yoruichi to answer a few of his questions, and also gauge the Captain's stance on the value of the life of her Shinigami comrades.

'Toxins.' He noted as he saw the tips of the Hollows fingers glistening as it started secreting little amounts of liquid.

Slowly, he focused his gaze on the leader of the group and as if reacting to his gaze, the leader, just a feet away from the hiding Hollow, abruptly turned around as he felt goosebumps on his skin.

Two pairs of eyes met in silence.

Seeing it had been found out, the Hollow pounced on the stunned man, only for it to dodge a sword swing aimed at its waist.

"Hollow!" The man finally got his voice back and screamed even though his companions were already aware.

"We can see that, idiot!" The chubby man shouted out in panic at the man he just narrowly saved. How he could react that fast, he had no idea.

Unfortunately for them, the last woman in their cell remained unresponsive, not moving or talking despite what they were facing.

"Hey, bitch mov-" Their eyes widened in horror as they saw her standing frozen with her eyes staring down at what they were all staring at.

A needle piercing into her chest.

It's attack wasn't just at the first man, they understood. It had tried taking out two people at once upon its presence being discovered, unfortunately they all missed the detached finger that shot at their last companion who was now paralyzed on her feet and having a hard time breathing.