"Ikkaku, there's still one missing. It's reiatsu spiked a few kilometers east from here." Someone called out to the angry bald man, Ikkaku, who furiously stomped on the ground.

"Damn it! Why are these things so slippery today? We have to kill them fast or else Captain Zaraki will cut off our ears. Lead the way, Yumichika." Ikkaku said to his friend with urgency.

Not wasting anymore time, the rest of Squad 11 followed after Yumichika towards the last place the Hollow's reiatsu was registered.

This time around, they were hunting down four Hollows and while it was a relatively easy thing with their numbers and strength, this group of Hollows immediately turned tail as soon as they saw one of theirs almost being killed. Well the Hollow did die, but the thing was that the other Hollows ran away before they even killed the one they left behind.

"Oh, I'll personally kill that slippery bastard." Ikkaku grinned menacingly as they got nearer and he could feel the Hollow's faint reiatsu.

Yumichika, who was beside him, frowned a little. "Just try and keep an eye on him this time. We are chasing this one for the second time because you taunted it instead of instantly killing it."

The group of Shinigamis behind them laughed at Ikkaku's slip up, angering the bald man even further.

"Ahhhhh! Come here you bastard!" Ikkaku lost it and rushed forward as soon as he locked in on the Hollow's reiatsu. "Die!"

...

Itachi silently followed the group of Shinigamis from a good distance behind after getting their general direction.

He had been able to watch how they fight and so far, only three people stood out from this group.

The bald one, Ikkaku, was most likely the strongest with how he carried the greatest momentum and how he seemed to be higher ranked than the others who called him the 3rd Seat.

The second would be the one with the colorful feathers on his eyelashes, Yumichika, the 5th Seat.

From what Itachi saw, he didn't do much but his speed and reflexes didn't lose that much to Ikkaku with how relatively calm he looked during the whole fight.

The last person, Makizo, wasn't that much impressive strength-wise but what drew Itachi's attention to him was his sword, or rather what it became after the man chanted a few words.

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While it still remained a sword, it was no longer a katana. It was now a normal longsword with one of its edges being red, and it released an explosion every time the sword's red edge struck something.

As they hunted the last Hollow, the group maintained a circle around Ikkaku and the Hollow where Itachi could comprehensively note the man's abilities.

His durability was very noticeable given how he got hit a few times and shrugged it off with only a few bruises as he slowly tortured the Hollow to death.

He could clearly have killed the Hollow much quicker but it seemed like he wanted to enjoy the battle while also torturing the monster.

"That's the last of them, Ikkaku. We should get going or else the Captain might just storm out to find us for taking so long, thinking it's a strong Hollow." With Yumichika's reminder stopped Ikkaku's fit and without wasting any more time, they left.

After they left, Itachi left too with more thoughts and questions about the sword on his hip.

He had only picked it up because he figured it'd be better to have a weapon on hand than not, not knowing that it would turn out to be something more.

His questions of the sword's nature was the reason he refrained from using it and letting his energy seep into it. His ignorance and cautiousness regarding this strange afterlife made him naturally skeptical and extremely analytical of everything he saw.

...

After meeting Ikkaku and his group, Itachi decided to be a little experimental with the sword and once more started letting the flow inside his body move into the sword.

Two weeks had passed since that day and though there were no changes with the sword, Itachi didn't worry. He'd expected it'll most likely take a long time before any changes showed on the sword.

As he was basically free everyday and rarely trained, except when his thoughts started acting up, most of his time was spent meditating, not because he wanted to but he realized that it made his flow travel into the sword in the best way possible.

Most times when he meditated, his thoughts were centered around the sword and the effects of the change it had on the user.

If he classified the sword's transformation as an advanced technique, that means that each transformation possibly gives a qualitative increase to one or more of the user's aspects, but the increase is relative to the user.

The reason why he considered it relative to the user was because even though the man named Makizo's sword changed and he obviously got a little stronger, he still felt that bald man and the one with the feathers on his eyelashes could still beat him.

So if Ikkaku were to use the same technique and his sword changed, he'd be vastly stronger than Makizo.

'Is it some type of strength multiplier?' He thought. The Sharingan also acted as a strength multiplier of sorts, at least that was one of its basic attributes.

He still had a lot of questions about the sword since he was basically going in blind and he had no idea if there was something else needed to influence the sword to change. He doubted just sharing his flow with the sword was everything he needed to do.

Not to mention that it might take months or Sage forbids, a few years, because as far as he knew each of those Shinigamis he saw were probably more than a hundred years old.

"I'll have to find a viable alternative in the meantime." He said as he looked at the sword. Or course he'll continue looking for a way to unlock his eyes, not just waiting for the sword to show a sign, any sign in particular.

Right now, not being with his eyes while he knew they were there slightly irritated Itachi. He was a seasoned fighter, with or without the Sharingan, but he knew just how limited he was without it.