Crows x Souls

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Yoruichi tapped her feet anxiously against the ground as she waited for Kisuke to pick up. She knew the airhead wouldn't pay much attention to his personal pager since he no doubt has little to no use for it given all his important notices are given to him directly from the Captain Commander or to his hell butterfly.

After what felt like minutes, the pager beeped and showed a visual of Kisuke who had huge bags under his eyes. 

Yoruichi didn't mention anything about the bags, acting like she didn't see it, not that she had managed to get a word in before he opened his mouth. 

"Hmm, Yoruichi?" Kisuke bent his head sideways as if to check her surroundings in a wider range. "You couldn't find him? Or did you play with your food and mistakenly killed him?"

The embarrassment she felt at those questions, from Kisuke no less, made her feel even worse. 

"He ran away." She gritted out. 

Behind her Soi Fon had her head at the ground, feeling twice the embarrassment her Captain felt seeing as how she failed to even do anything – twice. 

She had rushed in with emotions too high to think clearly and fell to the illusions so easily that she didn't even know when she put in one. 

The man was an anomaly. A very dangerous one. 

"He ran away?" Kisuke looked at both of them incredulously. "Am I that sleepy that it's affecting my ears? No, I don't think so. Maybe it's the signal. Or maybe…." He then started mumbling incoherently to himself. 

Yoruichi groaned, regretting the fact that he was not at arm's length so that she could hit him across that dome of his. "He got the slip on us and bolted."

A hint of seriousness slithered into Kisuke's face as Yoruichi said that. Of course he knew how playful Yoruichi could be sometimes, but he also knew just how difficult running away from her could be. It wasn't impossible, but was hellishly difficult. 

"He's figured out his Shikai release; it's an illusion-based Zanpakutō." 

"Hmm, those are very rare and generally not that strong, but tricky to deal with nonetheless." Kisuke commented. "So he got the jump on you, both of you, with an illusion?"

Yoruichi scratched the back of her head irritatedly. "Basically. His Shikai aside, he's a very tricky one to deal with. Subterfuge, distraction, camouflage, tracking, covering his tracks, deflections – he was no doubt a very skilled warrior and assassin during his life."

Now fully seated and staring directly at Yoruichi, Kisuke's heavy eyes hidden under his front bangs were squinted at her. "That's too much of a compliment, Yoruichi. You're going to make your dear Lieutenant very jealous if you continue."

"You! Mind your own business, damnit!" Soi Fon immediately lashed out, something she would never do to any other Captain. In her eyes, Kisuke was just a lazy slouch, a slightly competent one, who got promoted to Captain because Lady Yoruichi brought his name up to the Captain. 

Yoruichi waves off their bicker and gives Kisuke a brief narration of what happened during her fight with Itachi. 

"That's interesting. His eyes aside, these exoteric Kidō spells you mentioned he did have already piqued my interest. Want me to come over?" He scratched his stubble, eyes almost gleaming at the prospect of learning new Kidō spells. "I agree with you that all those techniques couldn't have possibly being his Shikai abilities, but from what I understand from what you've told me, his illusions would be a problem?"

"Yes. I have no idea when it affected me or it's activation requirements. Being caught off guard by it again could prove fatal."

Normally, she never would have called Kisuke for a help on a mission she could easily handle, but those illusions were tricky. Even with her Reiatsu control, it was hard for her to track Itachi's sword movements. 

"I think there are some information about illusion-type Zanpakutōs in the archives. I'll call you if I find something useful." He said, pondering over the few options he had. "I guess I'll be pushing my sleep back. I should have Hiyori clean up my office." He kept mumbling even as the intermission was cut off from Yoruichi's side. 

"Lady Yoruichi? Wouldn't it be wiser to just knock him out quickly and take him with us back to base?"

With her speed that topped Itachi's, knocking him out quickly before his illusion takes effect was easy for Yoruichi but she didn't, why? 

"Taking him back to the Soul Society forcefully will do neither of us any good." She knew people like Itachi. Trying to force him to serve under her was akin to spreading nails in her backyard and expecting never to step on one. 

Still, the question remained – why did Yoruichi even care about recruiting Itachi? 

For talent? She's never fought for any of the geniuses that graduated from the Shin'ō Academy. Not even making an effort to recruit the ones proficient with her division. 

Uniqueness? That was even more untrue. Yoruichi, as an extremely carefree person, very much preferred the mundane and dull settings in places and people than any level of uniqueness they might have. 

No matter how hard Soi Fon thought on it, all she could speculate on Yoruichi's reasons were blanks. 

She could ask, quite easily, but she refrained from doing so. If she were to ask for answers on every single thing, how would she learn on her own? 

"Let's go, Soi Fon. We have a crafty one to catch." 

She twisted her shoulders to get a few knots out before leaping in search of Itachi. 

….. 

[Itachi Uchiha POV] 

'She's started tracking me down.' I frowned at the feedback from one of my clones. 

She somehow was able to pinpoint my general direction and give how she slowed down for a bit when she passed the clone, it could be that she's tracking me with something else. 

This Shinigami Captain, Yoruichi Shihōin, is even more eccentric than the man from before. For one thing, she didn't carry a Zanpakutō like the other Shinigamis I've seen. Hidden weapons yes, but no Zanpakutō. 

Another thing is her speed and strength. 

While there's a certain pride everyone has in their abilities, me included, I would, without any bias, class myself as one of those with impressive speed that keeping up with opponents faster than me is never an issue. 

While she's not the fastest person I've seen, as that would be the Lord Fourth, she definitely the fastest I've ever had to keep up with. It felt like trying to keep up with Shisui and that is a comparison that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. 

It was never a part of my plan but at least that fight did serve a good use to judge how effective my Sharingan makes me. Escaping a Captain should be no issue, as long as their peculiarities are something I can react to. 

"I can't use a jutsu to throw them off if they're using something to track me, then I'll improvise."

Stopping at a tree, I weaved small amounts of Reiatsu through my fingers and drew a simple pattern on it. 

Basic seals like these are something every ninja from Chunin upwards are required to learn. 

The most use you can get from them is trap formation, but in a world of ninjas, trap formations are the number one thing to look out for when in unknown terrains. 

….. 

Soi Fon climbed to the highest vantage point she could see and took a look around to see if she could pick up anything in the distance, but so far nothing. 

He was good at hiding his tracks – too good in fact that even the Captain of the Stealth Force was having a hard time picking up a trail. 

This was the third time that they fell for his diversions. Diversions that they couldn't see even after falling for it. 

"I told you he's good. He's steadily making us doubtful of which direction he is taking and if not for the last one, I would have thought that we were going in the wrong direction."

Soi Fon agreed. They had to use Yoruichi's tracking skills in conjunction with the device she borrowed from Kisuke to point out a general direction that even they were doubtful of. 

"His anti-tracking techniques are like the ones we use in the Division." She said. 

Yoruichi let out a soft hum as they ran side by side. "Not just his anti-tracking, even his fighting style and movement technique bear similarities to the way the Stealth Corp utilize Hakuda, Zanjutsu and Shunpo. It's the same principle, but entirely different way of utilization."

If Itachi could see through some of her techniques, of course she could see through his. 

If she had to say it, apart from the Captain Commander's Lieutenant Sasakibe and Captain Shunsui's Lieutenant Kaien, she didn't see any of them topping Itachi in combat master. Even when they had Kidō, he had his own techniques to counter. 

Now why was she keen on finding him once again? 

Others would go into an evaluation of her character and the weird change she was displaying since looking, but if anyone was to ask Yoruichi, or even Kisuke for that matter, the answer they would give is simple:

'She's just bored. Nothing else.'