Chapter 1 - Hanging Dog

Itachi slowly opens his eyes as sunlight glares above him. He sits up from the ground and notices his change in attire. The red cloak he donned in his edo tensei was replaced with cheap rags. Itachi gazes at his surroundings. In the distance, he notices what appears to be a town. "Is this the afterlife?" Itachi ponders. As Itachi stands up to gain a better view of his surroundings, he notices a difference in his chakra. Itachi tries to mold chakra. "Hmm... my chakra feels different."

Itachi temporarily shelves his curiosity testing his chakra and proceeds towards the town in the distance.

Itachi arrives at the town. The streets were filled to the brim with various people all dressed similarly in rags and torn clothing. As he's walking, he notices a red banner suspended above him that says District 78. While he stops to look at the banner, he feels a slight push from someone behind him. He turns around, noticing a skinny boy with black spiky hair and black eyes who looks about 10-12 years old on the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you're going old man!"

"My apologies." Itachi helps the boy off the ground. After being helped up, the boy shakes the dust off his clothes.

"You can't just stand in the middle of the street," the boy said slightly less annoyed. "Why were you just standing there?"

"I was looking at the sign."Itachi points up at the banner above them.

"Eh, why were you staring at that? Ya new here or something?." The boy takes a closer look at Itachi's clothes and stares at him with curiosity.

"Ah now that I see it, your rags still look new. Did you just arrive here?"

"I suppose. Where am I?"

"Eh, You're in Hanging Dog, District 78. You were pretty unlucky to show up here ya know. This is one of the worst districts in Soul Society.

Itachi thinks to himself, "Soul Society? This confirms I wasn't summoned to the living world again. So this really is the afterlife." Itachi feels a shred of relief.

"Look, we can't just talk in the middle of the street, come on, we can go to my place!" the boy said looking at Itachi's slightly dazed expression.

Itachi thinks about it and decides it is a good idea to follow him as he has nowhere to go at the moment.

Itachi started following the kid to his home, taking turns through the alleys and eventually arriving at the boy's house after a silent walk. Upon approaching the premises, Itachi sees the house was a worn down shack littered with pieces of rock and wood scattered across the front yard. The roof was just bȧrėly held up by deteriorating wooden beams and there was no door, only a ripped blue curtain that served as a substitute for one. Itachi momentarily questions to himself, "Could the afterlife really have such poor living conditions like the living world?" His train of thought is interrupted by the young boy.

"By the way, I am Shou Itsuki, and you are?" Itsuki asked interrupting Itachi's thoughts.

"Uchiha Itachi" Itachi replies.

"Since you weren't born as a soul here how'd you die?" Itsuki asked curiously.

Itachi was silent for a moment. The young boy's intentions seemed innocent enough and was most likely asking out of curiosity but he didn't want to have to explain himself fighting his younger brother to the death then dying and being brought back by a corrupt snake sage and then dying again.

"I died of an incurable illness."

Realizing he might have been prying too deeply on a sėnsɨtɨvė topic, Itsuki didn't question him any further.

"Well come on in!" He said leading Itachi into his home.

Itachi enters the shambled house. The floors creaked as he took his first step through the curtains and out of the corner of his eye, he notices a mouse scurry away into a hole in the wall. He looks around and sees there are at least 10 kids living here with Itsuki. Some kids were sprawled on the ground sleeping while others were playing some sort of game with pebbles.

"I know it's crowded, but we actually have it lucky here." Itsuki reaches into his pocket and pulls out half a roll of moldy bread.

"Here, have this for now. It may not look like much, but around these parts it's hard for people to get food."

Itachi accepts the piece of bread and stuffs it in his pocket.

"Souls can get hungry?" He questions.

"Well it depends on the strength of your spiritual pressure. Stronger souls will get hungry and require food for sustenance more often. If your spiritual pressure is really high like a shinigami's, you have to eat a lot. I may not look it but I have a strong spiritual pressure so I actually have to eat!" Itsuki says feeling proud of himself.

"Shinigami?" Itachi looked at him and asked.

"Yeah! Shinigamis are these really strong people with swords who- " Itsuki is cut off as a young boy who appeared to be around 8 years old runs through the curtain with a panicked look on his face.

The boy catches his breath briefly before yelling, "ITSUKI I NEED YOUR HELP!"