"Time doesn't heal anything, it just teaches us how to live with pain." — Itachi Uchiha.
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Byakuya and Ginrei were having one of their rare afternoons where the Clan Head and his predecessor did nothing but sit in their magnificent gardens and drink tea, and maybe talk about clan affairs if there is anything new to talk about.
The topic on this calm afternoon was centered around Koga Kuchiki, where Ginrei, between slow sips and generous timing, told Byakuya whatever little there was to know about Koga that the young heir didn't already know.
"Ultimately, it was the coalition of his pride and the misinterpretation of my mistake. Calling it more than that is trying to justify one and placate the other."
"Such a thought never crossed my mind." Byakuya said softly, with a tone that suggested his displeasure with the thought but was too polite to say it.
Ginrei chuckled and remarked softly. "You're like me in many ways, Byakuya, but sometimes I wish you were more like Sōjun."
Byakuya only gave him a look over his cup but made no comment on the remark. He was more sensible than that.
The two of them shared a look over their cup before their eyes drifted to the entrance of the gazebo where a shadow just landed.
Both men regarded the Snake mask the Shinigami wore and recognized the authority of his trespass.
"A Kasumioji uprising is underway. Make haste to the Kasumioji Compound. Lady Yoruichi Shihōin and Clan Head Yūshirō Shihōin have been promptly notified."
That was all the shadow said before he disappeared.
"Do you recognize that man?" Ginrei asked, looking at the spot where Snake had been.
Byakuya shook his head. No matter how much he tried to, he couldn't remember that distinct flavor of Reiatsu that thrummed under the reptilian mask. He could hardly even make sense of it when the man had been standing a few feet from him.
"That man has a penchant for finding talent. Or is it aligning himself in the midst of them?" Ginrei stood up, still looking calm and genial but the air around both grandfather and grandson was anything but.
This was taboo. Taboo against every foundation the Soul Society stood on. One that was about being perpetrated by a Principal Clan no less.
Ginrei sighed. His hands rested on the hilt of his Zanpakutō. They both knew that regardless of what happened, a lot of blood will be shed today.
This wasn't like before where splinter cells and uppity vassals thought they could uproot the status quo. If that was so then Itachi's shadow wouldn't have bothered informing them and the Shihōin.
"He had not been notified yet. That gives us just about enough time to be there." Ginrei said, noting that the Head Captain's Reiatsu hasn't risen to a point.
However, immediately they crossed the gates of their Clan, the pressure of a Reiatsu not unlike the Head Captain's crashed into the Seireitei and kept over it.
"Ah." Ginrei sighed again. So much for enough time. Now the Head Captain was definitely notified. "Don't dawdle."
Byakuya said nothing to his grandfather's words and simply applied his Shunpo in a fiercer momentum, pushing him ahead of the old man and sending him rushing towards the Kasumioji. First it was Koga Kuchiki and now it was the Kasumioji—Byakuya's heart blazed with a righteous fury at the thought of such traitors trampling on their Noble Pride without a care in the world.
This had to stop.
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...….
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[POV: With Itachi]
Itachi's breath came out in a slow and faint hum as he looked at the two halves of the body laid out on the floor.
Some parts of the body had been burnt down to the bone while the rest were covered by the black carapace of the Bakkoto that was slowly flaking off.
For a second he just stared at the corpse, paying mind to nothing else, not to his wounds or even the thoughts in his head. He just stared at it and then tore his eyes away after a few breaths.
"Sir," the two Shinigami that had arrived when the battle ended finally spoke.
"Take the body." He said and they immediately responded and immediately started wrapping up the body with special cloth and sealing Kidō.
As they were wrapping the body, Itachi's vision shifted for just a moment and instead of Amagai's face, the face shifted swiftly through the faces of his students before stopping at Soi Fon and then at Junpei's.
He didn't blink. He watched Amagai's face as it was wrapped up, while his mind tried to convince his eyes that it saw nothing strange.
"Dismissed." He said after they finished up the task. They hesitated for a moment and one of them bravely opened his mouth to speak.
"S-should we notify Captain Unohana for her presence?"
Itachi looked at him and he shivered. "Overseer Hao…"
The man straightened up and gave him a salute. "Dismissed, sir. Loud and clear."
He wasted no second with them and rushed towards the Kasumioji Estate. His anger that had been simmering down as he made his way over flared up with renewed vigor as he neared the Kasumioji Estate. His senses were already locked in on all the notable Reiatsu present and the Main Compound a little further inside.
His arrival was heralded by two Shinigami being engulfed by black flames and consumed so fast that they couldn't get out a scream before they met their end.
It was pure chaos in the areas around the Main Compound as Shinigami fought against Shinigami, some sane while others were slowly being consumed by the Bakkoto they wielded.
He met up with Yoruichi, Ginrei and Byakuya who stood just at the edge of the Main Compound as they were being barred entry because of the barrier around it.
"You're late." Byakuya said without sparing Itachi a look as continued staring at the barrier with a mild frown. "Do we take this as admission of guilt?"
"Them locking the doors? No. Everything else? Yes." Yoruichi replied but her eyes remained on Itachi, scanning his current state.
"I can't say I'm a fan of the latest trend." She whispered near him, regarding the last time something like this had happened and how quickly he had gotten injured. The last time had been just his hand. This time had the addiction of a side of his face.
Itachi did not give her a reply but turned towards Ginrei and simply asked. "Do we simply attack it?"
"At specific points, yes, which I'm trying to determine." The old man replied as he peered into the barrier. "The Head of the Kasumioji is still a child. The Matriarch died recently."
That was information he wasn't privy to, and looking at Yoruichi, neither was she.
"Elders or not. It does not absolve the Kasumioji." His words sounded like a severe threat, and other than Ginrei's eyes tightening, the former Clan Head said nothing to it.
Ginrei frowned when he saw Itachi unsheathe his Zanpakutō. "Hold on, Captain Uchiha. I'm almost done with the barrier."
"I'm done with it." Itachi said. He wasn't anywhere near the top Kidō experts among the Shinigami, but he was one of the best when it came to dismantling it.
Amaterasu.
The desolate flames latched onto the barrier and started to greedily devour it—the flames licked even more enthusiastically when the barrier started fighting against it.
Itachi stabbed his sword into the barrier where the flames were most focused on and retreated a couple feet away under the stares of the curious Nobles.
He could have simply used a lightning jutsu but not only was it nowhere strong enough, it also lacked the component potency for what he needed it for. So rather than go for a cheap imitation(Reiatsu derived-jutsu), he went for a bonafide Kidō(soul component destructive arts).
"Hadō #78: Zangerin."
Sheer destructive energy with a slicing edge and a golden glow surrounding his hand. He held onto the Kidō after casting it, to their mild surprise, but the spell was just the first component.
The golden glow dimmed at a sudden rate and then black flames bloomed out of it and consumed it whole—still it did not explode. Ginrei and Byakuya who were not as familiar with Itachi couldn't help but be genuinely impressed by the absurd level of control that Itachi showed to not only hold a high level spell after casting it, but also sublimate the spell with a foreign element and still keep both spell components under control without any explosion…. All without any incantation.
Their surprise didn't end there as Itachi used one more component – chakra change of form – to change the form of the blackened Zangerin to that of a Chidori.
He looked at where his blade was struggling to sink into the barrier, and the Nobles, understanding what he was about to do, instantly flash-stepped away the barrier.
His burnt hand held the modified Kidō-jutsu and his eyes, locked on its target, remained veiled with an embalmed fury.
His Shunpo took him directly to the hilt of his blade and without any measure of hesitation, he drove the spell against the hilt of his burning Zanpakutō.
"Inferno Style: Onyx Chidori."
There was no explosion but there was the grating sound of the atmosphere being torn against itself as the barrier's energy form stilled into something solid before it was viciously pierced through.
The cracks that appeared all over the barrier had a black tint to them that spanned the entirety of the Main Compound, before swiftly bursting open with a soft gust of wind.
"You could've at least warned us." Yoruichi chided as she and the others appeared on his side, but once again he did not reply as he simply walked into the Kasumioji Main Compound.
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