Land of Earth. It was a land filled with majestic mountains and canyons.
Rocky and barren, the most of the land in the area seemed unusable for people to make a living.
Being vastly different in characteristic than many other lands, it seemed to be a very bad location for the inexperienced ninjas to camouflage to.
"Having lived in such a tough area, the ninjas of Iwagakure always hold a belief that they are the strongest among the ninjas of all the nations."
Seated at the peak of one rocky mountain, the shark-like man, robed in a black cloak with red cloud symbols, explained to a young man, who wore the same cloak as him.
The shark-like man, Kisame, was holding onto a huge, mystical sword named Samehada. Its blade, while being leaned on Kisame's shoulder, was wrapped around the bandages such that its appearance was hidden.
The young man's name was Hidan. There were five huge scrolls at his back, and no one knew what they contained.
"To them, a shocking revelation arrived years ago in a form of one shinobi. His name was Uchiha Madara, the legendary Ghost of the Uchiha."
"...So you're saying that there may be evidences of Uchiha Madara in this area."
"Yes."
Hopping down from where he was seated, Kisame chuckled.
Hidan quickly followed, jumping down along.
"It was during the First Shinobi World War. Madara reached the land of earth by himself, without any Konoha ninja with him. The Second Tsuchikage, Mu, and his disciple who is now the current Tsuchikage, Onoki, faced Madara."
"And the result was?"
"A complete, devastating defeat of Mu and Onoki."
Hidan's eyes narrowed upon hearing Kisame's answer.
"Even with their infamous Dust Release, one that supposedly requires a combination of three different nature transformations—fire, wind, and earth, they weren't able to go even against the wielder of sharingans."
"...How? The Dust Release is well known for its destruction. Even if the sharingans are known to have many functions, not only is Madara unable to copy the Dust Release Techniques, but there is almost no way to win against the Dust Release in the aspect of the ninjutsu..."
Hidan then paused, having remembered something.
"Unless..."
"Unless?"
"...It's something like that 'Yang Release' that Akashi is capable of using."
"Heh, aren't you thinking too highly of the leader?"
Kisame chuckled at Hidan's words, but didn't deny it.
"We should be quite near—oh?"
The two then came to a stop.
"Mhm... I see, I see."
Kisame looked around. His smile widened into a feral grin, having recognized the enemies.
"I guess it isn't too strange for us to be seen. This terrain is the exact opposite off what the land of water has got to offer."
One by one, the ninjas of Iwagakure dropped around them.
"Hoshigaki Kisame... the rogue ninja who was recently regraded as S-rank... did Konoha hire you?"
One standing right in front of Kisame and Hidan growled, having recognized Kisame's face right away.
"State your business."
"Heh... that's none of your business."
Kisame, exhibiting an excited demeanor, looked as if he was about to move at any moment. Then, a hand stopped him, coming from Hidan.
"...What?"
"Stay back, Kisame. I need a practice."
Said Hidan, cold and calm.
'...'
Unlike Kisame, Hidan wasn't someone whom the Iwa ninjas could recognize.
Kisame scratched his head.
"I mean, isn't this too much for your first time?"
"Not at all."
Hidan unrolled two huge scrolls at his back, revealing Shibuki and Kiba, two of the seven swords that used to be in Kiri.
"Here. I no longer have a use for this."
Akashi, finding no use for Kiba, handed it over to Hidan three years ago.
Now, Hidan held two swords with his arms.
"There are still three more at his back..."
One Iwa shinobi commented as he glared at Kisame and Hidan.
"And what's with those black cloaks with red clouds?"
The other one remarked, finding a chill as he glanced over Kisame and Hidan's cloaks for some reason.
Then,
"It's show time."
As Hidan dashed toward the Iwa ninja right ahead of him, the battle began.
__________
"...What a sight."
Standing at the edge of a cliff, the duo, Biwa Juzo and Maito Gai, stared at the scene ahead of them.
There were two enormous statues of stone staring at one another. One depicted the image of Senju Hashirama the First Hokage of Konohagakure, while the other depicted the image of Uchiha Madara.
Between them was a waterfall. A beautiful scene it was, but the beauty of it seemed to have reached only to Juzo.
Gai, having grown as a young man now, was solemn.
The fact that they were currently in the Valley of the End, one of the most famous landmark of the land of fire, didn't matter to him. The fact that they entered the borders of the land of fire, the land under the protection of the Konohagakure that holds his father jailed, was the one that mattered.
Juzo peeked at Gai for a moment before snorting lightly. Taking his eyes off Gai, he then muttered,
"It is said that this place is where Uchiha Madara lost his life. Senju Hashirama retrieved his corpse afterwards and gave it a proper burial to it... yet somehow, Madara's name is still heard today."
"..."
'The chance that any information that may shed some light to the mystery of Madara is here may be very slim, but we have to try nonetheless. Issue is...'
Juzo's eyes roamed around the scene.
"Five... six... hm, there's more than I expected."
With Valley of the End located near the border between the land of fire and land of rice fields, it was only natural that the ninjas of Konoha would be stationed.
"How troublesome."
Juzo sighed.
"Secrecy is the key. Should we get discovered by other ninjas, we need to kill them without an exception, for our existence may get leaked to Madara who's out there somewhere. Yet, we need to investigate. This means that there is only one way to do this..."
"Let me do it."
Finally, Gai spoke. Filled with rage and hatred, he looked ready to lash out.
"We just have to kill them, right?"
"...Sure, let's do it together—"
"No. I'm doing it by myself."
As Gai slammed his fists together, the wave of energy exploded around his body.
"Eight Gates is... a technique that I mastered only thanks to the help from your father. It's only natural that I teach it back to you."
Gai, recalling the teachings of his father and Akashi, persistently trained himself in the aspect of taijutsu over the years.
"Remember Gai... a person's true youth ends when one turns their back on their beliefs and joy!"
'My true youth, father... involves freeing you from this accursed village of leaf.'
"Yikes."
Reading Gai's state, Juzo raised his hands.
"Fine, have your way."
Gai's figure shot from his position, diving straight at the nearest shinobi wearing the forehead protector of Konoha.
"H-Huh?!"
The last thing that that shinobi saw, before his death, was the fluttering black cloak with the red cloud symbols.
__________
Sitting in the darkness where the only source of light was a ball of fire that he held in his left palm, Akashi was found reading through the very book that he previously discovered in the Shizen compound.
Tobio Shizen. His surname was Tobio, and his name was Shizen. Many scholars who resonated with his researches gathered and took on his name, Shizen, as their surname. They married and gave births to children, and that was the birth of the Shizen clan.
Unlike the other ninja clans who were primarily interested in raising their power, Shizen clan was solely interested in studying the nature of chakra. Instead of the combat techniques, the foundation prospered in the Shizen clan. Over the generations, the members of Shizen clans gradually came to be talented in the aspect of the chakra control and manifested what we named it as the 'Energy Release', enough for others to consider it as a bloodline limit.
Hozuki clan originated from Kirigakure. They were known to have an ability to turn their bodies into the water, and naturally, they had a strong aptitude for the water nature. However, an anomaly was born into the clan, one who possessed the fire nature instead of the water. Lacking the ability to morph into the water as well, he was driven out of the clan, village, and the nation. Running away, he settled in the land of grass with an ambition to prove everyone wrong, by lifting a Hozuki clan of his own.
Shizen clan, not interested in the outside matters, left the Hozuki clan untouched. The Hozuki clans grew over the years, and before the Shizen clan realized, they stood as the strongest clan in the land of grass. Gaining the support of the daimyo as well, they established the ninja village, Kusagakure, and all the other clans were to bow to them. Hozuki clan then began to chip away the strength and prosperity of the Shizen clan. Hozuki clan wished to weaken the Shizen clan who are known to be as powerful as them, and to attain the 'secret' of the Shizen clan's Energy Release.
Shizen clan didn't fight back. Instead, even as they weakened, they instead chose to make peace. They sent off the daughter of the clan head, who married the heir of the Hozuki clan. The daughter of Shizen gave a birth to a son, and the name of the boy was Hozuki Heiwa.
Grown up as the member of the Hozuki clan, Heiwa was tasked with stealing the secrets of the Shizen clan. Over the time, however, he grew fondly of the peace-seeking Shizen clan over the Hozuki clan.
Upon learning that Hozuki clan was planning to strike and exterminate the Shizen clan one night, Heiwa, deciding to betray the Hozuki clan, told this to the clan head of Shizen. However, it was far too late by then, and the clan head of Shizen knew this.
The scroll that contained everything that the Shizen clan learned thus far, termed the 'Energy Release', was left at the hands of Heiwa. Heiwa ran, knowing that having the scroll fall under the hands of the Hozuki clan may bring forth the war and disaster.
...That was the end of the book.
'Scroll, huh.'
Akashi knew that there was no thing as a scroll.
He deduced by the end of the reading that the book left the accurate details regarding the 'Energy Release' on purpose.
Hozuki Heiwa, no, Shizen Heiwa, was likely the name of his father.
The fact that his father ran away with the scroll meant that he learned the fundamentals of the chakra that the Shizen clan discovered, the essence that was capable of giving a birth to the Energy Release.
'But really, is that all there is to it?'
By practicing and utilizing the Energy Release, Akashi realized three years ago that at the end of it, there lied the Yang Release.
Unlike Energy Release where the Shizen clan was thought of as the sole clan capable of using it, Yang Release could be said to be used by a few in the world. One example was the Akimichi clan of Konoha who were said to be able to augment their bodies.
It could be said that their abilities to use Yang Release was engraved in their blood. They didn't know how it really worked; they simply was able to do so thanks to their bloodline limit.
If others were capable of generating a drop of Yang energy, just enough to make notable changes to their bodies, Akashi was able to extract a boundless amount of it—as much as his chakra reserve allowed.
Akashi wanted to learn the next step.
Now that he mastered the Yang Release, he wished to learn how to extract the Yin Release, the spiritual energy that lied on the opposite pole from the Yang.
He came to the Shizen compound, thinking that they may have an idea to it, but so far, he didn't manage to find any.
'My father...'
Akashi thought of the possibility that his father may have left something more, but shook such a thought off, not finding it likely.
'He was busy running away and hiding from the eyes of the others. Furthermore, should he discovered something more, he would've taught it to me just as he did with this Energy Release.'
This meant that from here on, Akashi was completely on himself to find out the rest. Such was one of the reasons why he tried learning the medical ninjutsu, but it didn't really help him in figuring out the extraction of Yin.
Yin and Yang. Yin-Yang Release.
His goal was to reach the stage that only the Sage of Six Paths was heard to have ever reached, the legendary Yin-Yang Release.
After all, to defeat the strongest Uchiha to have ever existed, the user of the Mangekyo Sharingan,
'And... likely, something more than just sharingans,'
Such a feat was necessary.
Breathing out, Akashi closed the book and pushed it to the side. The fire on his palm died.
He walked outside the dark room, where Mei was seated, staring at the outside view.
It was raining outside, making him feel a little nostalgic.
"...Finished your reading?"
"Yes."
"Any information of worth?"
"No, unfortunately."
"Then..."
Mei stared at Akashi knowingly, and he nodded.
"When others return, we will initiate our next plan."
Konohagakure infiltration, that is.