Chapter 28 - Visit to the 11th Division

The man stands still as he tries to sense out the real Itachi from the fake ones. 'That one!' He turns around quickly and delivers a spinning kick to Itachi. Itachi blocks with his arm and the man goes in for a punch on Itachi. Suddenly the man feels a sharp pain at the back of his head and he falls to the ground.

An hour later later he wakes up and finds himself back in his cell with Itach waiting outside. "

"Tell me what you know." Itachi asks him. The man begins to laugh maniacally and looks at Itachi.

"I don't know anything, I just wanted to fight you."

Itachi doesn't say a word and turns around and walks away from him. 'This was a waste of time. I should have known better thinking these mentally unstable prisoners actually have information.'

For the next month, Itachi continued with his regular patrol duties at the Maggot's Nest. The Maggot's Nest became very quiet with little trouble occuring in the past month with Itachi either physically disciplining them or putting them under genjutsu.

Itachi one morning receives a letter at his door saying his time off request was approved. He leaves his room and decides to go for a walk through Seireitei. As he leaves the barracks he hears a voice calling his name from behind him.

"Yo Itachi! It's been a while!"

Itachi turns around and sees Taro Shihouin approaching him.

"It's weird how we are in the same squad but I haven't seen you in a long time! I heard you got promoted to 3rd seat Corps Commander of the Maggot's Nest! Congrats!" Taro says to Itachi.

It had already been 10 years since he last saw Itachi. Although they had both joined the same division. They had completely different responsibilities. It was only recently that he heard that a new 3rd seat was chosen for the Maggots Nest, and that 3rd seat went to Itachi.

"You're still the same lively person you were in the academy Taro." Itachi replies to him.

"Haha. I heard that the maggots nest is filled with some crazy psychos. How are you faring in there?" Taro asks.

"It's fine. I was able to subdue them" Itachi replies.

"Amazing, as expected of you right" Taro says jokingly.

Itachi remains silent.

"Besides that, how have you been? Taro asks as the two walk together.

"Good. and yourself?" Itachi replies and questions back.

"It's been going good as well. I was pulled out 2 years after you graduated. I've joined the second division and have been training since. In fact, I am already able to communicate with my zanpakuto." Taro says proudly. "What about you, how is your training going? What's your shikai?" Taro asks curiously. He knew Itachi was one of the most talented shinigamis he had seen. He had already expected Itachi to have an elementary mastery over his sword.

"I haven't been able to communicate with my zanpakuto spirit yet." Itachi says as he puts his hand on his asauchi and looks at it.

"That's weird. With your talent, I was sure you would have already been able to communicate with your sword." Taro was a bit surprised. He never expected that Itachi was unable to even communicate with his sword.

"Well with how strong you are, I'll have no chance of catching up to you if you had an actual zanpakuto!" Taro laughs and pats Itachi on the back.

"Anyway, I have to leave on a mission so I'll see you around!" Taro walks away leaving Itachi behind. 'Hmm, I am still unable to connect with my Zanpakuto. Maybe if I witness more shinigami that use it?' Itachi thinks to himself as he leaves the barracks.

Itachi walks down the open streets of Seireitei and looks around. 'I haven't had a lot of free time. It wouldn't hurt to explore a bit more.' Itachi walks a few more blocks down and sees a small building with a sign on it reading "Dango." Itachi walks in and buys a large box of dango. As he begins to walk out, he notices a familiar red spiky haired individual sitting down. The person looks at him and waves.

"Itachi! It's been a while. Take a seat here!"

"How have you been Renji?" Itachi asks him as he sits down in front of Renji. He opens his box of dango and takes a stick out.

"Well my favorite Taiyaki place was closed so I figured dango would be the next best thing. I didn't take you for a dango person." Renji says, pointing out Itachi's large box of dango. There is a short silence as they eat their dango which is broken by Renji.

"How have things in your squad been? I got promoted to sixth seat recently!" Renji says proudly.

"I'm in the third seat now." Itachi replied calmly.

Renji looks surprisingly at Itachi. 'He became a third seat so quickly. It's only been 10 years'

"Amazing, you are already a third seat. Your strength must have grown by a lot. " He says.

Itachi remains silent and takes out one stick of dango from the box and begins to eat.

At that moment an idea suddenly pops into Renji's head. He looks towards Itachi before asking.

"Itachi, how about a quick spar?. I recently awakened my zanpakuto and I want to see how much stronger I've become." Renji suggests, wanting to capitalize on this chance to fight Itachi. Itachi thinks about Renji's offer briefly. 'Perhaps fighting against Renji's shikai would give me insight on how to awaken my own'. Itachi accepts Renji's offer.

"Really, that's great!" Renji says with excitement in his voice. He had been training incredibly hard over the 10 years. He wanted to see how much stronger he had become. He still remembered the scene of Itachi being able to effortlessly kill multiple hollows within seconds.

"We can go to the training rooms in the 11th division barracks!" Renji gets up excitedly from his seat and takes off, prompting Itachi to follow him. Itachi shakes his head as he puts his unfinished stick of dango back into the box. The two make their way towards the barracks.

Renji and Itachi arrive at the 11th squad barracks. Itachi notices the squad members around the division. They all looked violent and brutish. Some of their fighting styles looked barbaric. Turning his attention away, Itachi puts his box of dango to the side before they walk into an open training field at the center of the barracks. Other members of the 11th squad begin to gather around as they see Renji and Itachi preparing to fight.

"Look at his armband. Is that someone from the second division?"

"Yeah, what is he doing with Abarai?"

"Looks like they are about to spar."

A figure drinking in the distance notices the commotion and turns around. He was a bald man. The sun was completely reflected on his scalp. He had a red mark on each of his eyes.

"What are they doing?" He asks the figure next to him.

"Looks like Abarai brought in someone to spar with." The second man replied.

"Really.. Let's go watch Yumichika!" The bald man quickly got and walked towards the crowd.

"Alright." the second man replied before following behind.

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"We may be sparring but I'm not pulling my punches!" Renji shouts enthusiastically before drawing out his zanpakuto.

"Neither will I." Itachi replies firmly, getting into his own fighting stance.

"Howl, Zabimaru!" Renji yells out as he aims his zanpakuto at Itachi. His zanpakuto begins to glow and extend rapidly, transforming into multiple segmented blades.

Itachi sees the incoming attack and jumps up in the air to dodge it. Renji quickly reacts and whips his arm up, enabling Zabimaru to rise back up towards Itachi. Itachi flash steps out of the way of the blade to Renji's shock and reappears in front of Renji. He delivers a heavy side kick into Renji's abdomen, sending him flying back several meters before crashing into a fence. Renji jumps out of the debris and sends his zanpakuto after Itachi again. Renji smiles as Zabimaru makes contact with Itachi's figure only for it to fade away as his blade goes completely through Itachi. Renji immediately senses Itachi on his left side as his zanpakuto is still retracting. Unable to defend himself, Renji takes a harder kick to his side and gets sent flying across the training field, tumbling across the ground until he is stopped by a wall. Renji shakily stands back up as his zanpakuto reverts back to its sealed state.

"Damn it! The gap between us is that large?! He defeated me in two strikes!" Renji curses himself as he sheaths his sword.

"Your weakness lies in the handling of your shikai." Itachi comments as he approaches Renji. Renji looks at Itachi confused.

"At the third strike of your shikai, it retracted, leaving you wide open. I used that as my opening to strike you."

Renji's mind begins racing as he visualizes the entire fight again and the large opening that he left for Itachi to attack him. His thoughts are quickly cut short however as a voice yells out from the side.

"Not bad!" The bald man steps forward from the audience of people watching the sparring.

"Hey newcomer! I like your moves so why don't we fight!!" A bald man jumps into the training field from the sidelines with his zanpakuto resting on his shoulders.

"Ikkaku you're going to fight too?!" Renji looks at him surprised by his abrupt appearance.

"Hell yeah!" Ikkaku runs at Itachi with his zanpakuto drawn. Itachi flash steps out of the way and reappears in the center of the field.

"You're a nimble one aren't ya?!" Ikkaku looks at Itachi and stands in place with his zanpakuto out in front of him. Itachi was a bit surprised. The bald man attacked him without much warning. 'What a violent division.' He thought to himself as he readied his stance.

"Extend, Hozukimaru!" Ikkaku holds his zanpakuto horizontally out in front of him opposite to the sheath slams the two together. His blade glows and he rushes in at Itachi. Itachi observes his zanpakuto closely with his sharingan and sees it has changed its form into a polearm as he swings it at Itachi. Itachi dodges the initial swing but Ikkaku lets out a smirk as his zanpakuto breaks into segments and wraps around Itachi. The bladed tip of the segment stabs straight through Itachi's body only for his body to vanish. Itachi reappears behind Ikkaku and sends a kick at him, only for it to be blocked as Ikkaku reforms his zanpakuto and blocks it. Ikkaku's feet skid a few feet away from his spot from the force of the kick but he turns around and grins.

"Lemme ask, what's your name? I'm 11th Squad Junior Adjutant 3rd class. Madarame Ikkaku!." Ikkaku says as he grins at Itachi, deeming him worthy to introduce himself to.

"2nd Squad Corps Commander 3rd class. Uchiha Itachi." Itachi replies formally to Ikkaku.