Crows Fly Forever

DISCLAIMER: Don't own Naruto or Bleach. Enjoy reading.

I got this idea after seeing fics where Itachi goes to Seireitei and becomes a shinigami, but I wondered to myself. What would happen if he went to Hueco Mundo instead, as a hollow? Well let's read and find out!

Uchiha Itachi watched the last moments of his life flicker away, the last thing he actually saw before the flashbacks of how he lived his life was his otouto's shocked face as he smiled at him with bloodstained eyes.

"Sorry Sasuke…there won't be a next time…it ends with this…" and with a final, non-Itachi like grin, the light left his eyes and he collapsed next to the shocked Sasuke, who had fallen unconscious shortly after, before being collected by Madara and his body being taken by Zetsu, the man who looked half plant, half human.

Some time later…

He didn't know how long he had been waiting there in that spot…was it days? months? years? He didn't know. Wasn't there supposed to be a Shinigami coming to eat his soul or something? These were the thoughts of a long dead Itachi as he was rooted to the spot with a chain shooting off somewhere in the distance attached to his chest. He was clad in his blood stained mesh shirt and shinobi pants, his legs had long become transparent though when he died.

As he pondered the situation, he idly noted the small mouth like things appearing on the chain, eating their way up to where it was connected on his stomach. Thinking, he tried to cast Amaterasu on the chain and hopefully stop the spread but the black flames went right through the chain, as if it were an illusion. He didn't have any more time to experiment as the chain mouths had seemingly quickened their pace, all the way up to the chest plate that covered Itachi's chest.

His eyes widened when a white bone like substance poured out his mouth and attempted to merge around his face.

"No…NO! My memories, I'll never let you have them! You hear me? NEVER!" He cried when he felt like his mind was being wiped. Slowly but surely, his memories were returning, albeit a little slow but he would remember…after all, time lasts forever in death. He stayed still as the material continued to expand and cover his entire body before he disappeared in a bright flash.

A few seconds later, a gate had appeared where Itachi had been and a man in a black kimono with a sword strapped to his side walked out. His light blonde hair was covered with a green and white striped bucket hat. He looked around with a frown, realising nobody was dead, and returned back inside the gate.

Meanwhile…

Itachi felt his vision returning to him. Wait. His vision? He could see again? He silently revelled in the fact even though he was still cursed with his Sharingan eyes. He wondered, was this how Madara felt when he obtained the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan? Seeing again felt fantastic to the Uchiha prodigy. He tried to get up…

And failed, as his body wasn't the humanoid one he was accustomed to. Indeed, from a viewer's perspective, he wasn't human anymore at all. He looked like a monster out of a nightmare. He had a pitch-black avian-like body and a bone white mask that was shaped like a crow with two red tear streaks going down his 'face'. Also, he had the slashed symbol of Konoha on his forehead in red. His eyes were a glowing red, with three swirling Tomoe's spinning inside, seemingly trying to hypnotise someone.

He stretched his new wings slightly, seemingly like he had them all his life. Indeed, shinobi training often required infiltration methods involving animals as spies so one had to be familiarised with their chosen animal, luckily for Itachi, he chose a crow. Taking flight he observed the land around him. It reminded him of the deserts of Sunagakure, for it seemed and most likely was endless. The black night sky contrasting with the white grains of sand slightly reminded him of the Tsukuyomi due its barren landscape. Then he realised something…he could remember his memories! Hell, he was tempted to cry out in joy but his cool, calm personality would never allow such a blow to his pride, so he settled for a satisfactory Uchiha smirk. He had to frown though. His crow body was rather on the tall side, so it made the moving of his new appendages a little rickety, but he got used to them after a while. Soon he heard his stomach growl.

He pondered why he was so hungry all the time, after a few months of flying in this wasteland he had encountered several masked creatures like him, but sadly they lacked any form of intelligence and kept yelling that they would eat him. After a few hard fought battles, he learnt that he had to eat to survive. While he was disgusted with this logic, he had to abide by it and also learnt how some even went after human souls. These kinds repulsed him greatly so he didn't even grace them the mercy of eating them for their power. No human deserved that to happen to him or her…well, except Madara. That bastard deserved the worst for every crime he committed. Now he was getting off track, so back to the matter at hand.

Over the course of a few years, he devoured a numerous amount of his fellow masked brethren, which he quickly learned were called Hollows, souls that died with large regret and emotion. He laughed a little, although it came out as a scoff. Him? Having such emotions? Foolish, just like his foolish little otouto…

He paused at the thought. Sasuke was actually the only person he cared about back when he was alive. His little brother…what ever happened to him? Had he gone to heaven? Reached the place that he piously told him existed when he was younger? He did not know, but he decided not to dwell on the past. That only brought more misery. Suddenly, a thought came to him.

"Perhaps the reason I became a hollow…was because I regretted leaving Sasuke all alone in the world? Was that my reason?" He questioned himself as he idly looked at a group of hollows waltzing through the area towards a forest…wait. A forest? In a desert? Was he getting delirious or was there an ACTUAL forest underneath all this sand.

Yes apparently, for the small group literally dropped into the huge hole exposing the forest. Itachi was tempted to follow them but he suddenly realised something crucial. The forest looked too cramped for him to truly spread his wings and fly. So, without pause, he turned to fly away…and came face to face with…a woman? Well not face to face exactly, as she was standing a little distance away from his position.

Yes, finally he found a goddamned person was here in this barren wasteland! So it wasn't just full of monsters! He observed the woman who was also silently observing him.

The woman was quite tall; she had long blonde hair that for some reason reminded him of the nine-tailed Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, that was sectioned into different strands. Her skin was dark, making the hair stand out even more. Her eyes were a piercing green and she had long yellow eyelashes. Her outfit was…rather revealing, as seen when Itachi averted his eyes out of respect and the woman eyed him with carefully concealed amusement. Her outfit was a very small white-cropped jacket that exposed her midriff and part of her 'assets', which covered up to her lower face, concealing something. Her lower half consisted of white hakama pants that exposed her hips and upper legs slightly. The thing that took Itachi's notice more than anything else (except the outfit, which remained imprinted thanks to his seemingly permanent Sharingan…damn pervy eyes) was her rather unusual looking sword. Also, the reiatsu energy she gave off was astounding! Much more than anything else he had faced before. He and the woman kept staring at each other in silence. Itachi liked silence in a number of ways. Nobody to talk his ears off like Kisame…no one to try and piss him off like Deidara…or randomly babble like Madara did under his guise of Tobi…he shuddered at the memory of the orange masked menace…

The woman eyed the Crow hollow with interest. It was very good at concealing its presence and she had only noticed it because she was on a small training trip out into the deserts with her Fraccion and they had gone ahead to the forest of Gillian to train. Suddenly, she spoke out to it.

"I find it interesting that a hollow wouldn't choose to get stronger by going into the forest." She remarked off hand as she had observed the earlier scene of him considering it but refusing in the end. The Crow's reply caught her with slight surprise.

"There is no such things as shortcuts…Power is meaningless if you cannot control it, and I refuse to become a mindless beast…" Itachi replied. "And besides…I wouldn't be able to spread my wings and fly in such a cramped place…" He remarked with mirth as he flapped his wings.

Smiling slightly, although unable to be seen due the coat, the woman nodded slowly before walking off. Just as she turned around, she spoke one more time.

"I hope that you do not die here…your views are rare for a hollow…" She said as she walked away.

Itachi considered what the woman had said. Were there really few hollows with stable minds like him? That made him thankful that he didn't end up like the others he ate. Pausing, he considered again. Perhaps those he ate didn't have control of themselves or lost their wills when they died. That would imply that if he failed to retrieve his own memories and intelligence, he would have ended up like them? Beasts driven by instinct to feed? He shuddered and actually felt glad that he lived on for once in his cursed existence as a hollow. At least he had control of his afterlife. He paused once more (doing that a lot, he noted), did that mean that the woman he had conversed with was the same as him? Would he ever attain a human form again? Many questions needed answers and if there was anything Itachi hated most, aside from annoying chatterboxes, it was complex puzzles. While he was a fair strategist, he usually employed only a small array of them, as he didn't want to get confused if he used a large number of them in rapid succession. Deciding to just put it off for the time being, he flew into the night sky of Hueco Mundo, under the white moon.

The woman from earlier walked through the dense forest of Gillians, the huge miserable trees brought discomfort to even the most emotionless hollows. The beasts that roamed its depths were repulsive, mindless beings that had great power but lacked any superior will to use it. They were a waste of time in her opinion, for what good was power in the hands of a mindless drone such as a Gillian. Their tengu masks informed all of their failure to stand out and only those who's mask differed, which rarely showed up, could weald their immense power successfully to a degree just below Adjuchas…

Breaking from that trail of thought, she happened upon a clearing where her Fraccion were training. All three were female. The first was a tomboyish girl with dark blue hair and mismatched eyes. She was clad in a white sleeveless coat and white hakama pants. Interestingly, she had a horn fragment in the centre of her head. The next woman was wearing a more revealing outfit than herself, consisting of a small top, just covering her assets, armoured bands on her upper arms and forearms and a white short skirt. Her hair was wavy brown covered with a bone tiara and her eyes were a green similar to her own. Her skin colour was slightly darker than hers was though. The last woman was more feminine compared to the others, with a long white dress with sleeves covering her hands and a black fur collar. Her hair was a wavy dark green and her eyes were a pinkish colour and she had three pink dots under her right eye. On the right side of her head rested a three-pronged hairclip extension. They turned to look at her before bowing slightly.

"Harribel-sama!" they greeted the now named Harribel as she nodded.

"I hope that you have improved your teamwork…" with that, the four prepared to engage in combat…

With Itachi…

He had been flying over some ruins in the desert. He often wondered if Hueco Mundo was once a city judging on the architecture that he observed. Soon, he noticed a rather strange dome in the distance, but for some reason, he felt repulsed not to go near. He continued to fly, looking for anything to quell his hunger. He hated that he had to cannibalise his 'brethren', as loathe as he was to admit, but he chose that path by not eating the souls of humans. So he started to climb the ranks.

After a few short months of eating the hollows, he felt his body begin to change. Slowly, his crow form disintegrated and was replaced by the towering form of the Gillian, with the key difference being his mask, which remained the same crow mask with the slashed leaf symbol and red tear streaks. Walking forward, Itachi felt the ground collapse beneath and fell into the black abyss.

When he woke up, he realised that he was in the forest he saw months ago when he was a regular hollow. It morbidly reminded him of the Forest of Death in Konoha what with its dead looking huge trees that blocked out any light.

The next few weeks passed in a blur for Itachi as he consumed Gillian after Gillian. After finishing his final Gillian, he felt his body begin to undergo evolution once more. His Gillian body continued to shrink and break down until he reached a size similar to his first form. There wasn't much difference in his Adjuchas form than his normal hollow form. The only key differences were that his mask became more refined and his body was slightly smaller. He gave his new wings a test flap, and was soon on his way to find others like him…

Itachi watched as a pack of Adjuchas crossed his path. This was it. This would be his test of power! He slowly waited for the right time to attack…there!

He swooped down and drove one of his clawed feet into the mask of a tall humanoid, eliciting a scream from it before it keeled over. The others, a group of 5, looked back in alarm. Finally, one spoke.

"W-what the fuck, asshole? Guys! Let's kill this bastard!" The apparent leader, a mole hollow, yelled. The others, with yells of agreement, charged at Itachi recklessly. Itachi closed his eyes and then reopened them quickly, revealing the all too familiar Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Amaterasu!" He called as the black flames escaped his eye in search of a target. They found it when one of the hollows screamed in pain, causing the others to jolt at their fallen comrade as he was burned alive.

"You bastard!" They cried and moved in on him. Itachi sighed, this would be draining. Closing his eyes again, he reopened once more and said the word that would end the entire battle.

"Tsukuyomi…" The word bled through the area as it melted into the world of the Tsukuyomi. Crosses raised themselves from the ground and the white sand of Hueco Mundo became a pitch-black sea, with the moon shining red ominously above. This, naturally, caused quite a bit of panic amongst the group.

"W-what's goin' on?" The Mole leader yelled in panic.

"The Tsukuyomi…is mine to command…" Itachi's ominous voice rang out. Suddenly, before the hollows, emerged a young man with a katana. This man had long black hair tied up into a ponytail. His attire consisted of a black cloak with red clouds, black shinobi pants, and shinobi sandals. His eyes were what they remembered though, those spinning red orbs of death…

As the man stepped into the Tsukuyomi, his appearance inverted, making the colours reverse themselves. The man seemingly multiplied and surrounded the group, easily dwarfing their already short numbers. One of them spoke out to the terrified creatures.

"…I'll keep cutting you like this…for the next seventy-two hours…" He whispered just loud enough for the group to hear. Screams of pain echoed in distance.

Itachi looked at the fallen group before eating one of them. He only needed to feed on one Adjuchas a day to stop his regression to Gillian so he just limited himself to that. Flying away tiredly, he had no idea that he was currently being observed by forces unknown.

In the halls of Las Noches…

Aizen had been observing the Crow hollow for a while after Harribel reported it…or him he should say. Yes, the man was certainly interesting. Those eyes of his…

Getting off track he remembered. He would have to send out his Espada on recruiting missions to build up his army. Thinking on whom to send after the Crow, he came to a quick decision. He looked to his right.

"Gin…fetch Harribel here for me would you?" He asked the fox faced silver haired man, who just kept smiling as he left to do as ordered.

Meanwhile…

Itachi had recovered and was currently pondering on something. How did his vision not deteriorate when using Tsukuyomi? When he was still alive it left him with a large blur but now…it didn't even take as much energy to draw from. Though he based that as his chakra being converted to reiatsu, he didn't think he would feel up to using it repeatedly. Perhaps these cursed eyes were good for something after all…

Wait…were those footsteps? So…the woman he met before wasn't the only person…Looking to confront these people, he became surprised. Standing a short distance from him was the blonde dark skinned woman from before, although she wasn't alone. Accompanying her were three other women. The first was a tomboyish angry looking woman with a horn on her head, the next was a woman that looked like she came from the amazon, finally the last woman looked like a Japanese noble with the way she held he long sleeved hand over her mouth.

"…It has been a long time woman…" He commented and the blonde woman blinked before suddenly seeming to remember something.

"You were the one I encountered a while back, correct?" Receiving a nod in return. She then informed him of the proposition with Aizen-sama.

Hearing this, Itachi analysed what was underneath the underneath as Kakashi constantly preached. This man, this Aizen, was building some kind of army to combat with a place called Seireitei, a place where purified souls go when they pass on…Seemed a bit pointless to him when it came down to it. If it were him, he would plan in secret and execute it without the shinigami knowing. Such was the way of how a shinobi would operate…but he wasn't a shinobi any more was he? Sure, he could still use taijutsu and his Sharingan, but a majority of his abilities in life would have to be recreated through reiatsu in this world. Coming to a decision that wouldn't hopefully bite him in the ass, he answered.

"Very well, lead me to this 'Aizen-sama' if you please." He followed the group of women through the desert, idly listening to the amusing bickering of the other three women.

"All I am saying Apache, is that you shouldn't be so quick to anger…as proved when the Gillian almost ate you, weakling." The longhaired dress wearing woman said to the tomboy, which prompted outrage.

"Shut it Sun-Sun!" Apache yelled to the now named Sun-Sun.

"Both of you stop arguing, I'm getting a headache." This came from the amazon woman. Apache looked at her and sneered.

"Oh? How can you get a headache when you don't have a brain, Mila-Rose!" Apache mocked, causing Mila-Rose to run up and begin another round of arguing while Sun-Sun went to talk to Harribel.

"Harribel-sama…Are you familiar with this hollow?" She gestured to the airborne Itachi, who was gliding across the desert.

"We've met before…back when I took you and the others to the Forest of Gillians." She said. Sun-Sun just continued to observe the hollow in the air as they made their way back to Las Noches.

END OF CHAPTER 1

Okay…I was getting kind of tired always seeing Naruto end up as a hollow. I mean, it's not like he's the only character that can be used. I figured that Itachi would be a good candidate. Itachi will be the ONLY character appearing from Naruto unless there are flashbacks. The pairing for this is Itachi/Sun-Sun but I can't write a lemon to save my life, so I'll just put it under T rather than M.

Thanks for viewing and please review!

Endogetsu