Chapter 7: The Mystery of the Sharingan (Part One)

Transcending Bonds

Summary: What does Sasuke see beyond his blade? That is the question he struggles to answer as he slowly remembers his forgotten past. When the question does really matter and he realizes the answer, to whom will he point his blade to: his new bonds or his old ones? Originally written by Imperialpatty

"Thank you again for your help today."

"It was no problem at all. If you ever come into contact with anything supernatural, don't hesitate to call the shop again."

Uchiha Sasuke gave the client a final nod, turned and walked out their house. The client and his little girl waved him off as he stepped into the street and out of sight.

The nights were beginning to feel warmer, signaling the end of a rainy spring season. Sasuke trekked the hollow alleys of Karakura town, meticulously re-examining the receipt left by the client of the geta-boushi's shop. After the first sound of a cricket, the amnesiac heard his smart phone beep and vibrate in his right pocket, notifying him that he had just received a text message. Slipping his hand inside and pulling it out, Sasuke flipped his cell open and brought up the text, reading:

Hello, Sasuke-kun!

I know how tired you must be by now but I was really hoping you could pick up some croquettes on your way home :)

Oh, and, um be a dear and pick it up at that 24 hour Supermarket on Nagasuki. I really hate the ones that are sold at the convenience store :(

Thanks so much

P.S: Don't worry about the money. I know how frugal you are so I know for sure you have some leftover money to pay for OUR croquettes. Ta ta for now. ;p

Sasuke simply stared at his phone for a long, drawn out moment. He happily imagined shoving Urahara onto a guillotine and cutting the rope with his own blade to watch the geta-boushi's final moments of pleading and crying. His next fantasy was snapping the shopkeeper's neck with his bare hands and tossing the body from the edge of the highest building in Karakura Town. The best one though was ditching the errand and pretend to be sorry that he had forgotten to pick up the croquettes. That last option seemed like the cruelest one but there was a problem with it: Sasuke's indifferent face would lack any apologetic sense and Kisuke would use that against him, probably fake a tantrum and get him to go out again to buy what he wanted.

Sasuke sighed in annoyance, and put his phone back into his right as he took a left turn at the corner and made his way to the well known open-at-all-times supermarket. A soothing breeze caressed his visage and parted his bangs. He had been hoping to laze on the shop's roof and bask in the calming wafts of air as soon as possible. Not that he was tired or fatigued by the odd jobs but tonight seemed perfect to gaze at the stars and perhaps, hopefully, he would be able to grasp from the thick darkness of his mind, the memories he hoped to recall.

Two months had passed and although he was able to find life within a gigai somewhat satisfactory, he was wrought with envy over the people he had met and the treasured memories they occasionally shared with the shop's newest employee. Each encounter brought a double-edged feeling into his heart: an empathetic wish to also share the happiness and sadness of those people and a terrible feeling of emptiness, unable to share his own life with other humans.

Either way, the harsh truth was there: regarding that aspect of life, he was an outsider, ghost or not.

The soft breeze came to an end at a four-point intersection. It proved to be strange to Sasuke because he had gone through that path many times before and there was never a four-point intersection. Had he taken a wrong turn? It was a possibility… a very odd possibility.

Sasuke kept going straight ahead. There was a chance he hadn't arrived at the crosswalk yet.

Still...

The raven-haired amnesiac lightly shook his head, as if to shake off any sense of doubt. However, it returned two-fold when he came upon a second four-way intersection. Just then, Sasuke knew something wasn't quite right with his surrounding. He took a look back and found his field of vision blurred by a newly formed fog. His right and left were the same and only the road ahead of him were visible.

It was as if an invisible force was coercing him into going where it wanted him to be.

Sasuke slowly withdrew his soul-pill dispenser and grabbed it firmly, readying himself for anything that might happen. He continued the downward path, accelerating his steps. A single cold bead of sweat poured from his temple as he furrowed his brow. It wasn't long before he was met with another crossed road. The fog thickened, letting only but sparse lights from the unseen street poles flickering eerily. The nightly sounds were diminishing and the air seemed to be frozen in its track. With every step Sasuke took, the fog was blotting out any sign of inert civilization: the brick walls that fenced the residential houses, the sidewalks, and even the sky were beginning to look dim. The raven-haired man found himself hard-pressed to even hear the earlier chirping of crickets.

It was only until Sasuke arrived at the fourth intersection that he realized how much of an all presence stifling matter the fog was. No matter where his night ink-lacquered eyes darted, they were only met with the sinister ivory cloudy veil. He was unable to sense anything, human or not. Even a slice of life would have somewhat relaxed him. If it was the work of a Hollow, then it would definitely be the first time Sasuke witnessed such ingenuity from one of them.

The ground was no longer visible either. The fog was starting to feel more of a hassle than a worrying issue. He just wished that whoever was responsible for this would simply show up so he could end it already.

His wish came far quicker than anticipated. Even if the fog had stopped the flow of air, it didn't cover the friction created from one swinging through it. Sasuke rolled forward, evading the attacked that smashed the ground. He took note that even if the ground was no longer visible, it was still there. The proof was the concrete became cracked and slightly leveled due to the impact of the hit. Sasuke could only make out the outline of his assailant. The figure towered at least over a little two and a half meters tall and it was quite bulky.

Definitely not a human.

"Not bad, not bad at all, human." The Hollow said. Sasuke gritted his teeth. The voice came from all directions. There was no way of tracing the origin. "All the better when I'll be gnashing my teeth against your vigorous bones."

The outline disappeared from sight. Sasuke pondered how smart the Hollow was. If the next attack came from the front, then the situation would be very problematic, seeing how Sasuke couldn't see anything ahead of him but the ever irritating fog. However, if the next attack came from the back...

Sasuke heard the air sundering from a downward force from above. He sidestepped a foot away, letting the impact go through. This time, he was able to get a clear view of the thick, grayish arm that had attacked him earlier. Sasuke sighed. Leave it to a Hollow to come up with a genius field-controlling tactic, only to make the most predictable attack pattern ever known to Sasuke's combat knowledge.

Sasuke would eat his own words a second later, as he was brazenly attacked by another arm, this time coming right in front of him. The amnesiac had lowered his guard and was truly not expecting such an attack. He took the blow full force, sending him crashing against what felt like a steel pole. Relentless in its attack, the hollows arm sprung from the ground and grabbed Sasuke along with the steel pole. Its laugh reverberated, clearly demonstrating that it had the advantage.

"What a shame. It seemed like you were going to give me a run for my meal but then you thought I was just another stupid hollow, didn't you?" The masked beast said, strengthening its cold vice-grip on Sasuke. "It was but your own bad luck that you had to be Bonecrusher's prey tonight."

Sasuke ignored Bonecrusher's laugh and struggled to close the gap between his hand holding the soul candy dispenser and his mouth. "Still squirming about, human?" the Hollow said, raising his other arm. "Your will to live is admirable. Tell you what: I'll crush your feeble skull so that you won't suffer while I eat you limb by limb. Think of it as a reward from me!"

Bonecrusher threw out his arm towards the incarcerated man. Sasuke pushed the tab and swallowed the pill just in time. As soon as he split himself from his gigai, Sasuke unsheathed his sword and moved the blade in an arc, lacerating deeply the arm. The Hollow roared in pain, releasing his grip upon the new inhabitant of the Uchiha's faux body. The mod soul caught his arm before Bonecrusher retreated into the fog.

"L-Let my arm go!" He barked in rage.

"No chance!" the mod soul said with a smirk. He then turned to the amnesiac. "Sasuke-sama, use this chance to attack!"

As if you need to tell me, Sasuke thought as he sprinted along the thick arm of his assailant but before he could reach the hollow's body, the latter used one of his arms to divert his attention and used another one to tear off his held arm. The outline of his form vanished once more into the fog.

"Damn you all! You tricked me! You're no human, you're a Soul Reaper!" The voice boomed. "I'll take my time and finish you all!"

Sasuke clicked his teeth. Now he was once again subject to the Hollow's random attacks. He had to figure out a way to either dispel the fog or draw out Bonecrusher.

"Well, it's not a complete loss, Sasuke-sama," The mod soul said behind Sasuke as if he was reading his thoughts.

The raven-haired swordsman turned to his companion, giving him an inquisitive look. "And how is that Yuki?"

"Well for starters, if he had more than three arms, he would've used another for sure but he chose to retreat instead, meaning we know he has exactly three arms he attacks with," Yuki explained. "And you cut off one of them, meaning he's most likely retreated to regenerate his limb."

"That much is a given," Sasuke pointed out, having already deduced the answer. "The problem is that the Hollow gives the feeling that it's everywhere."

"How about I grab it the next time it attacks. With my two hundred kilogram grip force, it shouldn't be a problem." Yuki said, repeatedly making fists with his right hand.

"It's out of the question. This Hollow isn't as stupid as you think he is. It felt how strong your grip is. It's not going to give you that chance again." Sasuke said as he examined his field of vision. He didn't know why but the moment he had separated himself from his faux-body, it was as if the fog was thinner. He was able to make out the faint outlines of his surroundings and he could even see the faint flickering of the bent street lamp.

"Damm this fog! I can't see a thing!" Yuki shouted in frustration, earning an amused chuckle from the Hollow.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his mod-soul. "Yuki... are you sure you can't see anything?"

Yuki's face was inherent with traces of puzzlement. "I can't... can you?"

"Much better than before I was in the gigai..."

"Hmm, maybe it's because of your red eyes."

Now Sasuke was the one with utter bewilderment. "What do you mean 'red eyes'?"

"You're eyes they… they turn red when you're fighting. I noticed this the first time I inhabited your body and I just never mentioned it because thought you already knew."

Curious and worried, Sasuke poised his blade up in front of his face like a mirror. The gleam of his sword reflected a pair of deep crimson-colored eyes, with three black tomoe in the irises of each eye surrounding the pupils. This was his first time seeing his eyes in design as such. They looked menacing with his burrowed expression.

"When did I… what is this?" Sasuke voiced.

"Sasuke-sama, watch out!"

Yuki's shrilled voice pulled Sasuke's attention back to the fog; the Hollow's giant fist jabbed at him quickly, but he could see it coming. Sasuke reacted immediately, placing his foot onto the giant hand and once at the pinnacle of the strike, lifted himself off into the air.

"What an incredible fool!" Bonecrusher hollered as he watched Sasuke fly through the fog. "How many times are you going to drop your guard?"

"The only fool here is you."

The Hollow's eyes flew in all directions until they were met by a pair of glowing red orbs. Uchiha Sasuke stood, perfectly poised, on another street pole away from the fogged area, giving the swordsman a perfect view of the grotesque creature.

"What the?! How did you get there?"

"Isn't it obvious?" This time it was Sasuke's turn to smirk. "I used the momentum of your attack to propel myself out of the fog. That's all there is to it."

Bonecrusher groaned in frustration, only to follow it up with maniacal cackle.

"Heh, how cruel of you. So you decided to ditch your mod soul, here in the fog. Too bad for you because I'll kill him first and then-"

"...And now we can see all of you in your ugly glory." Yuki finished. Sasuke was able to see that the towering figure was only the bottom part of the Hollow, the tail resembling a wide, thick purple mat with several wide circled tubes sticking out. They emanated from the white fog in which Sasuke had been trapped in. The rest of Bonecrusher's body was an equally long and wide body with two arms, the third one coming out of its stomach. The body encircled the area Sasuke and Yuki were in like a dome.

Good thing I didn't try to fly my way out of this earlier or I would've fallen right into its hand, Sasuke thought. "It's about time to end this."

"Even if you escaped, you have no chance of winning!" The Hollow raged. Sasuke raised a bemused eyebrow.

"The larger the scale of the planned attack is, the more vulnerable one becomes when it crumbles."Sasuke rushed towards the hollow. The latter raised its tail and aimed it Sasuke. Blue smoke ventilated at high velocity towards the Uchiha.

"Get a taste of my poisonous smoke!" Bonecrusher roared. The poison fog masked the night sky for a while and when it dissipated, Sasuke was nowhere to be found. "Where are you shinigami?" The Hollow raged on. "Where the hell are you?"

"I take it that the only reason why you didn't use that poisonous smoke before was either it can't stay as long as that fog dome did earlier or you can't produce much of it."

Bonecrusher felt a chill run down its entire body as he realized how close Sasuke's solemn voice was. He frantically searched for the Uchiha but to no avail. All he heard was the clean sweep of the air being severed and the sound of metal being sheathed.

"By the way, I am no shinigami." The voice said. The fog had completely dissipated, the Hollow was finally able to find the Uchiha standing right in front of him, the coldest crimson stare deadlocked into his. Suddenly, Sasuke's image was severed asymmetrically and both halves falling apart.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. Remember it on your journey to hell." The swordsman said as he whipped around, quietly walking away from the disintegrating Hollow.

Sasuke arrived at the lighted Urahara shop. He was welcomed first by Ururu, who had become accustomed to Sasuke's gentle hair rub and then by Jinta's usual rowdy but a well-meant greeting. He dropped the bag of croquettes on the kotatsu and sat crossed legged across a manga novel reading Kisuke.

"Got your stupid croquettes," Sasuke said as he crossed his arms as well. Urahara snapped his book shut.

"What is it with you?" He cried out. "You don't even properly greet me and then you just toss the croquettes on my new kotatsu. You're going to eat them too, you know." The shopkeeper complained. He then took a long look at Sasuke from head to toe before adding "You look like you got jumped...you're not into gangs, are you?"

Sasuke's temple twitched with an angry vein. "I was attacked by a Hollow."

Kisuke's eyes showed doubt. "Sounds like a convenient excuse to me. I saw your motorcycle magazines and that new black leather jacket you bought some time ago. Eyeing that Road King, huh? How devilish of you."

"You snooped through my stuff?" Sasuke asked, a calm fury radiating from every pore of his body.

"As a doting father, it's important to keep tabs on my children," Kisuke said with a wry grin. "You're healthy teenager, you know? I need to steer you in the right direction."

Sasuke couldn't help but leave his mouth slightly agape. Had he heard the eccentric shopkeeper right? "Urahara..." The Uchiha called out slowly in a grave voice.

"Y-Yes?" Kisuke asked nervously as he felt the Uchiha's calm fury smothering the room.

"...I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and pretend that you drank too much sake. However..." Sasuke raised his head slightly upwards and dilated his eyes flagitiously. "...if you continue to babble like a depraved moron, I'm going to do the police a favor and draw a chalk outline very, very, very close to your physical resemblance. Tonight."

Urahara Kisuke cried tears of fright. Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta came in the room at the very same moment the cold chill had settled in. "What's going on?" Tessai asked. Kisuke grabbed the hem of the large man's apron.

"Tessai-san, Sasuke's being completely evil!" He bawled to his dreadlock sporting assistant. "He's going to kill me! Help!"

"Only if he continues to sputter nonsensical gibberish." Sasuke chipped in.

"Uwa...Sasuke made buchou cry." Jinta commented.

"But the manager makes Sasuke-san angry almost every time he talks to him." Ururu pointed out, to which the assistant trio nodded at the same time in agreement.

"I was just trying to help" Kisuke defended himself. The skeptical looks that Jinta, Ururu and Tessai threw at Kisuke indicated that the shopkeeper had obviously failed at getting their support. Kisuke sighed in defeat.

"If you want to help me, then help me figure out what's the deal with my eyes."

Kisuke adjusted his black and white striped hat. "What happened with your eyes?" he asked. Sasuke then told the events that happened to him a while ago and what he had discovered. Kisuke closed his eyes in pensive reflection as Sasuke waited in concealed impatience.

"I see..." Kisuke began. "...so you were really attacked by a Hollow. And to think I was worried that you'd join a gang, hm..."

Sasuke eyed the kotatsu. "That's a nice table, Urahara. It looks...priceless."

Kisuke almost turned a sheet of white. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Lay off my kotatsu, please. I'll stop. I promise!"

Sasuke was deadpanned as ever, prompting the nervous shopkeeper to come up with an idea. "Er, by what you told me, it's possible that you might have had those eyes even before you met us. I've never seen your eyes turn red when you're not fighting and I haven't had the chance to witness them in combat either. I propose a sparring session."

Now, this idea sounded like progress to the raven-haired amnesiac. "I agree but with whom will I be sparring against?"

"Yours truly," Kisuke said proudly.

Sasuke reconstituted his deadpanned expression. "No, really, who will I be sparring with?"

Kisuke pretended to be taken aback. "How rude! Just because I look like a weak, defenseless, middle-aged man doesn't mean I can't throw a punch or two."

Sasuke blinked in puzzlement. "But... I really thought that's what you were. I guess I'll have to see it to believe it."

If Sasuke's word were physically concrete, then they would have appeared like arrows plunging through Urahara's heart, as the latter demonstrated by clutching his chest. "My, oh, my Sasuke, you really know how to hurt a person. Maybe, I'll just sit back and relax and let you figure it out by yourself."

There was a moment of quietude that rested on Sasuke's next retort. He rubbed his chin for a while and then came up with something. "Dame-ningen."

Kisuke stood up immediately. "That's it! That's really cruel, calling me a good-for-nothing. Tessai-san, say something!" he barked at Sasuke, pointing an accusatory finger at him. Tessai let a small exasperated groan escape.

"I don't know Kisuke-san," the well-built man said, "lately you've been lazing around. In fact, you've been doing more of that ever since you hired Sasuke-kun."

This came as a revelation to Urahara Kisuke. "Even you, Tessai-san?" he asked his assistant, to which he responded with a nod. Kisuke turned to Sasuke. "You… You… YOU POISONED THIS FAMILY!"

Sasuke completely disregarded the last statement. "Yeah, whatever. Anyways, are you gonna help me with this or not?"

Kisuke gently masticated his jaws for a few seconds before he gave his answer. "Of course... even if you just so happen to be an ungrateful, mean, cruel and borderline violent man. I'm going to punish you for that tomorrow. Be there at eight!"

Sasuke got up and let out a yawn. "Ok, thanks. See you tomorrow. I'm going to sleep."

As soon as the tired swordsman was out of earshot, Jinta spoke. "Wow... Sasuke won."

"He's been winning more arguments with the manager lately," Ururu said.

"Urahara-san, snooping through a young man's belonging is not gentleman-like." Tessai chided. Kisuke let the three see his back and he turned on the television.

"Everyone... is against me..." the sandal-hat man mumbled as he began to sulk.

Sasuke woke from his peaceful slumber and allowed himself to bask himself in the simplicity of his room. It was as standard as it could get: a sliding door closet, ornamented ceiling light-bulb, a desk, and the most important piece, a bed where he was able to get a comfortable snooze. The room would've been free of use, as Urahara once suggested but Sasuke could not compromise his diligent nature by becoming a freeloader. Instead, he requested that a room fee should be imposed, to which he would pay on a monthly basis with the commissioned salary he gained from completing jobs for Urahara. Sasuke was very parsimonious with his money, keen on spending only on necessities.

The Road King happened to be one of those necessities. Flying in his soul form to his destination was fine, but Yuki didn't have any flying abilities so the Uchiha was forced to remain in his gigai and take normal transportation, something that he began to despise ever since he was stuffed in a train during the morning rush, smelling body stenches he had never smelled before. He could've sworn that a couple of humans had not taken showers for days and those incidents happened several times.

And so came the need for a vehicle, and the motorcycle seemed the most appealing and compact way to travel.

Sasuke got himself finished his bathroom routine within fifteen minutes and then hoped that the shopkeeper was awake. He met Tessai first, who was always awake as early as six-thirty in the morning.

"Morning Tessai-san." Sasuke formally greeted.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun. How are you feeling?" Tessai returned the greeting.

"Good as usual. I was hoping that Urahara was awake." The Uchiha said.

"Ah, yes, your sparring match," Tessai recalled. "Follow me."

Sasuke followed the towering man into the back of the shop. There, Tessai lifted up a trap door, revealing a staircase.

"Urahara-san is in there," Tessai said. Sasuke was taken by surprise of the trap door he had never seen before. He knew there was an entrance leading to the basement of the shop but he didn't know there was a second entrance. The thought then led him to be very skeptic of the place they would fight. Never mind that Urahara was a fighter himself.

Sasuke descended until he reached a small room and then took notice of a ladder. Since there was no presence of the shopkeeper, Sasuke began to climb down the ladder.

There seemed to be no end to the descent. Sasuke was wondering if this was another trick of Urahara but he persisted. After what seemed to be like an hour, the Uchiha finally took his last step on the ladder and turned around to see an unimaginable setting: it was a giant landscape that stretched as far as Sasuke could see. The ceiling, if it could really be called such a thing, resembled more like a semi-clear sky and only the wall that supported the ladder reminded Sasuke that this was an underground space.

"Whooaaaaaaaah! What the hell is this? Who would've thought there was suuuuuuuuuuch a huge spaaaaaaaaace under the stoooooooooore?"

Sasuke's amazement was instantly ruined by Urahara voicing his thoughts for him in such an exaggerated manner. Still, he was curiously piqued about this space."You never told me there was such a space in your shop?"

"That's because you never asked," Kisuke replied. Sasuke saw that the conversation would go nowhere so he went straight to the point.

"So, are we going to start this sparring session?" the obsidian-eyed swordsman said as he popped the pill into his mouth, ejecting his soul form out of his faux-body.

"Actually," Kisuke began, "I have an excellent volunteer for this matter."

Ururu's small figure revealed itself from Kisuke's back. She carried in her skirt some suspicious-looking equipment.

"I'll be in your care, Sasuke-san," Ururu said, bowing her head. The addressed glared at the manager.

"Don't tell me..."

"Yes, you'll be sparring with Ururu," Kisuke said jovially.

"Is that so?" Sasuke rhetorically asked. "Well, I'm not doing it."

"I know what you're thinking Sasuke-kun," Urahara said, "but there's no worry. She can manage just fine. In fact, she-

"That's not the issue!" Sasuke snapped. "Even if she can fight, I will not raise my fist or sword against a child."

Just then, the Uchiha heard two loud crashes. He whipped his head to the source, finding dust settling under Jinta and Tessai. It appeared that they skipped the ladder and jumped instead. "So, has it started yet?" Jinta asked.

"Not yet, Jinta. Sasuke's being stubborn." Urahara whined. Sasuke brushed past Kisuke and stopped in front of the equally dark-haired girl.

"Is that our fighting equipment?" he asked. Ururu nodded. "I see. Let me see it for a second."

"Oh, so you reconsidered then?" Kisuke asked, obviously thrilled. However, his enthusiasm was immediately cut off when Sasuke threw the equipment into the air and in split-second strokes of his sword, tore them into shreds.

"Aaaaaah, noooooooooo!" Kisuke cried out. "My payback plan is ruined!"

Sasuke turned his head slowly to the anguished shopkeeper, who was on all fours. "Excuse me?"

"You were supposed to wear it and then say stupid stuff like "take this, the power of righteousness" and "righteous armor, the justice headband, equip!" and some other sentai-themed stuff," Jinta explained.

Sasuke sighed, while Yuki clasped both hands on his lips to refrain his laughter. "Look, Urahara, if you don't want to do this, just tell me already. I have three appointments today. I can't waste time here."

With that said, Kisuke stood up quietly. He adjusted his hat in his usual fashion to shadow his eyes. "My apologies, Sasuke-kun, but I will carry out your punishment regardless." The manager held his cane up and pulled the hilt from the stick, revealing a stainless steeled-edge.

"A cane sword. So you think you can finally fight because you watched Zatoichi yesterday night?" Sasuke said, referring to last night's little trip to the kitchen for a glass of water when he spotted Kisuke watching the aforementioned movie.

By the time Sasuke had finished the last word of his mocking sentence, the spot at which Kisuke once stood kicked up granulated dust. The geta-boushi took a strike at Sasuke, to which the young man blocked with his own blade.

"Cheeky children should have respect for their elders," Kisuke said, applying more weight.

"And irresponsible adults should refrain from preaching to kids." Sasuke verbally countered, pushing sideways Kisuke's sword. He then backed away to give himself some prepared momentum and then lunged towards the shopkeeper.

The two exchanged furious strikes, metal grinding against another, sparks sauntering at every blow. Kisuke was impressed with Sasuke's one-handed swordplay, using his free hand to occasionally add defensive weight against the flat part of his sword to block. The two parted not too far from each other, re-calibrating their stances and their thoughts for plans of attack.

"You know, when you told me you could fight, I didn't think you were this good." Kisuke complimented.

"Same here. If you just showed some decency in your personality, I wouldn't be this surprised." Sasuke said, returning the gesture. The two did not speak to each other for a moment, carefully analyzing their last little bout.

Urahara did not show it but he was very intrigued by Sasuke's style of combat. There was no real-stance from Sasuke. It was certainly done on purpose to deceive the enemy into thinking Sasuke's guard was lax. In fact, Urahara could even go as far as to say that Sasuke wanted to provoke them into attacking him. What was really intriguing the shopkeeper was that Sasuke was fighting him as if he had always fought other people before when Kisuke knew for certain that Sasuke had only faced off with Hollows.

Of course, that was only after Kisuke took in the raven-haired youth. "Sasuke, have you fought people before you joined my shop?"

"Never."

"What about other souls?" Kisuke asked.

"I don't raise my sword against defenseless souls either," Sasuke said. "Why the questions?"

"Because you fight like you've done this on a regular basis," Kisuke answered. "Even if you don't remember how to fight with your body, your skills don't show any sign of aging from lack of combat against other people. Remember, you've only fought against Hollows. That takes a different approach when you fight them."

Kisuke was right on the money as always. It did feel strange to be able to fight so well but his body was just moving on his own.

"By the way, your red eyes haven't shown up yet," Kisuke added. Sasuke exported his attention to his mod soul.

"I wasn't lying," Yuki said as if he had already guessed what Sasuke was thinking. "You saw it for yourself."

"It's just a guess but maybe it has to do with the sort of fight your fighting," Urahara said. "At this moment, you're engaged in a sparring practice but with Hollows, you're in a fight-or-flight situation. Do you understand?"

"So you mean I must be put in a dangerous situation for my red eyes to work?"

At that moment, Kisuke showed a different smile that made Sasuke very uncomfortable. "I'm...a bit of scientist of sorts so I've been able to study on certain physiological aspects of the human and spiritual body. Even those impaired with amnesia." Kisuke said, pointing his sword at Sasuke. "For those who have amnesia, the body is armed with certain psychological responses to protect themselves: fear, anger, and even distrust."

"Where-where are you going with this?" Sasuke asked. Suddenly the air felt like a tremendous weight, a pressure Sasuke had never felt before. It was unreal and much more different than a Hollow. It wasn't malicious or ominous like one either. It just felt like raw, indiscriminate power.

"Why do you distrust Soul Reapers?" Kisuke asked, his jovial tone completely absent. Sasuke felt like he was now facing someone completely different.

"Urahara, what's wrong with you? Why do you-

"I asked you a question. Why do you distrust Soul Reapers?" Urahara released even more spiritual pressure, and Sasuke felt as if it were hard to breathe. The difference in sheer power between them was overwhelming.

Jinta watched his stare unflinching as well as Ururu. Tessai was frowning and pondering if Kisuke would actually go through with it. He stopped Yuki when the mod soul tried to take a step.

"Don't. This is between the two of them," Tessai said.

"You've never actually spoken with one before. You don't have any memories of them and last I heard from you, you never even fought one of them," continued Kisuke. "Yet here you are, your chain of fate gone, a sword at your waist-side, slaying Hollows on a regular basis, and your combat skills worthy of being called a Soul Reaper. Care to explain?"

Sasuke didn't know how to answer that. All he came here to do was to discover the mystery behind his red eyes, not debating whether or not he was a Soul Reaper. "Where are you going with this, Urahara?"

"I'll tell you what it is: it's your distrust. To distrust something or someone, you must have had a connection with that thing or person before; ergo you have a connection with Soul Reapers. In fact, it's almost better to say that you area Soul Reaper." Kisuke revealed. Sasuke was wrought with mind-numbing surprise. Him, a Soul Reaper? Impossible. His entire being distrusted-

Distrust. Connection. Memories.

"Sasuke, if your red eyes are a form of subconscious weapon for your lack of memories, then so is your distrust and the only way to link expose the shadow that blinds those two is two expose them to exactly what they are connected to. First, for your distrust..." Kisuke lowered his blade.

"...Cry, Benihime."

The sword changed shape, becoming slightly wider and becoming one edged as well. Sasuke was now completely entranced into this new side of Urahara Kisuke he had never witnessed before.

"As for your red eyes...or rather, the Sharingan..." Kisuke disappeared from sight. Sasuke looked everywhere but he was really gone. Suddenly, he felt a cold, metal sheen close to his neck.

"I told you before Sasuke. This is punishment," Kisuke whispered behind, a deceiving soft, unsettling voice. "If you don't get a grasp on your Sharingan right now..."

Blood dripped on the ground like inconsistent rain.

"You will die."

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Wolf's Honour