Chapter 51 - The Arrancar Arrival

"So this is the place huh…" Renji said as he looked at the old wooden exterior of the building with the words "Urahara Shop" posted on a sign on the roof. There were several large metal doors covering the exterior of the shop, indicating it was closed.

"Guess we'll just wait out here for it to open up I guess." Renji commented as he sat down in front of the shop and leaned against one of the metal doors. Itachi continued to look at the shop and activated his sharingan.

'There are four reiatsu signatures inside...they must have some reason for not letting us in. It's understandable considering Urahara is considered a fugitive to Soul Society.' Itachi thought to himself as he deactivated his Sharingan and waited outside with Renji.

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"They are still out there sir!" A young red haired boy said as he spied on the two shinigami standing outside.

"They must be troubled....I wonder what they want from me? And they're both lieutenants from Soul Society?" A blond man in a white and green striped bucket hat replied.

"Hey one of them is staring at the shop. Woah.. It looks like his eyes are glowing red." The red haired boy said, surprised. Boss I think he can see us. He is staring at us like he can".

"Red eyes? I see, So it's him then...okay let them in." The man said.

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Itachi stood in front of the shop, looking at the sky while Renji was still sitting down with his back leaned against the metal door. Suddenly, one of the metal doors began to rise and the two of them looked at it curiously as a tall, lean blond man with a dark green robe walked out.

"Uchiha, Itachi right?" The man said as he looked at him before turning to look at Renji. "And Abarai, Renji as well. Now what would two lieutenants of the Gotei 13 want with a shopkeeper with me?"

"I talked to Isshin. He told me to see you, Urahara." Itachi replied.

"Well yes, I have been meaning to speak with you." Urahara responded. "But what about you Abarai?"

"I wish to train under you. I witnessed myself how strong Ichigo had become from your training." Renji said as he bowed his head.

"Well, take a seat inside for now, Abarai. There are quite a few things I need to talk about with Uchiha here." Urahara said as he turned around and gestured for them to follow. The two of them followed him inside and Urahara took Itachi to a back room while Renji looked around the shop.

'What does he need to talk to Uchiha for..?' Renji wondered as he looked around the store.

----

Urahara and Itachi sat down in a brief moment of silence before he started to speak.

"I saw you fight that black masked hollow about twenty or so years ago. You certainly have some interesting abilities that may come in handy against Aizen. The first thing I must know about are your eyes. Eyes like yours haven't existed in the history of all of Soul Society that I've dug through. From the limited data I gathered from your fight, I've came to the conclusion that your eyes give you some sort of precognition and that the bone structure you summoned was not from your zanpakuto, but from your eyes." Urahara said. Itachi narrowed his eyes. 'Urahara Kisuke, his intelligence is impressive' Itachi thought to himself.

"Your analysis is correct, Urahara. I'm impressed with the information you gathered with limited intel." Itachi nodded. "I've been curious myself as to why I've run into nobody else with my eyes. I come from an entire clan of people whose eyes match my own." Urahara's eyes widened briefly upon hearing that there could be more people with Itachi's abilities. Itachi closed his eyes then opened them again, revealing his sharingan.

"These eyes are called the sharingan. There is another ability they possess that your analysis did not see." Itachi said as the room began to fill with crows. The crows surrounded Urahara before coming together to form multiple figures of Itachi standing around Urahara.

"Aizen's zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu, allows him to place those that see his zanpakuto under perfect hypnosis. My eyes can do something similar when someone looks into them. However, Aizen's ability seems to be permanent. I'm not sure if this is the case, but his Kyoka Suigetsu seems to work in the same way my genjutsu works. If so, I should also be immune to it while I am using my sharingan as there is no illusion that my eyes cannot see through." Itachi said as he reverted his sharingan back and the multiple copies of Itachi standing around Urahara dissipated.

"What an interesting ability…" Urahara commented as he looked around the room then back at Itachi's normal eyes. "I'll certainly need your help for my plan, but there is something I want to test first."

"And what would that be?" Itachi questioned.

"For this plan of mine to work against Aizen, you must be sufficiently strong enough. And by that, I mean you must be able to force Aizen into a corner with your power. Why don't we-"

"We got trouble. There's an arrancar outside." Renji said before leaving to go outside the shop.

"This is perfect. Deal with the arrancar outside and I'll gauge if you're strong enough." Urahara said. Itachi nodded before vanishing from the room and reappearing outside next to Renji.

Itachi looked at the arrancar in front him.

'This one should be no problem for me. However, there are 5 others. In addition, there's one that is far stronger than the others as well…' Itachi thought to himself.

"Renji, call for a limiter removal." Itachi said as he activated his Sharingan and jumped up to meet the Arrancar.. "The others will struggle fighting these guys if they aren't at full power."

"Uh...yeah." Renji replied as he pulled out his denreinshinki.

"Are you here to stop me, brother?" The long, blond haired arrancar asked Itachi. "I am Yylfordt Granz, Arrancar 15."

Itachi looked at the arrancar briefly before looking away in a different direction where he sensed the greater reiatsu. 'I need to get over there…'

"Don't just look away when you're about to die!" Granz said as he charged in at Itachi only for Itachi's body to break down into a flock of crows. Itachi appeared behind him and cut at Granz, only for him to stop it with his own blade.

'This limiter is troublesome but I don't have time to deal with him.' Itachi thought as an ethereal ribcage began to manifest around him and a skeletal arm punched Granz away. Granz raised his guard up in time to block the punch. Granz regained his balance in the air and wiped the blood dripping from his lip.

"Not bad, I actually felt that one!" Granz yelled as he took a step towards Itachi, only to fall to one knee and began to cough up blood.

"You bastard…" Granz looked at Itachi angrily as he wiped more blood from his mouth and raised his blade in front of him.

"Skewer, Del Toro!" Granz yelled as his body morphed and a yellow reiatsu began to envelop him. As the reiatsu diminished, his upper body and head was surrounded by thick armor with two sharp horns on his head.

"Now die!" Granz charged at Itachi with his horns. His horns managed to slightly crack the ribcage of the susanoo but could not penetrate any deeper. Itachi raised his palm and coldly stared at Granz.

"Hado 90: Kurohitsugi."

A large black box surrounded Granz as several black spearlike protrusions lacerated all sides of the box. The box disappeared shortly after and the bloody, limp body of Yylfordt Granz fell to the ground as the armor surrounding him from his resurreccion eroded away.

'That kido just now...was the same one Aizen used against Captain Komamura.' Renji thought to himself in awe of what he just saw. The Susanoo around Itachi faded away as Itachi landed on the ground next to Renji.

"Renji, go help the others, they'll need your help while the limiter is being removed." Itachi said to Renji.

"But what about you?" Renji asked.

"There's someone I need to deal with." Itachi said as he looked in Ichigo's direction.