In the middle of Konoha's cemetery, a silver-white-haired man stood, holding onto a pair of flowers.
His name was Hatake Kakashi.
"...Obito, Rin."
The sunlight shone over the tombstones. Two names were revealed to have been carved: Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin.
"Sorry I couldn't visit more often. The war just keeps going on and on, not knowing when to stop. I just came back from the border that defends Kiri's invasion, and... hah, I don't know what to say."
Kakashi blinked his two eyes, recalling the tragic events of past that caused his teammates to depart from him.
"They say that Minato-sensei will be the next hokage. It's surprising to hear how he was chosen instead of Orochimaru-sama, but Hokage-sama probably had his reasons."
Placing the flowers down, Kakashi began to talk for quite a long time, staring at the stones as he did so.
Some would depict him as having gone crazy, Kakashi was aware. Still, he couldn't stop doing this.
The war took many things away from him. His father, and now, his teammates.
"I am scared that... even Minato-sensei would, one day, fade away like you."
It was a horrifying thought. If such thing were to happen, Kakashi knew that he would break.
"This... is actually the top secret information, but... Minato-sensei's son will be born soon. I guess you never know."
Kakashi's eyes, leaving the stones, wandered over the blue sky.
"He'll be just like us, born in the midst of the war..."
Speaking some more, Kakashi left the cemetery.
Another figure then walked in.
Glancing over the flowers laid out in front of the two tombstones, this person angrily kicked them away.
Gently, he placed down another flower he took out, down on the tombstone of Nohara Rin.
"The moment you died due to the plot of that Kiri, Rin, nothing mattered any longer."
Beyond his orange mask of swirly characteristic, Obito spoke gently as if speaking to a lover.
"Watch, Rin. Soon, this village will get to feel what you felt when they threw you into the death."
This time, what Obito's doing won't be for the sake of his goal.
It would just be a reckless act based on his hatred for the village, one that he used to love.
__________
Akashi stood some distance away from the magnificent wall that defended the Konohagakure.
"...There is a barrier. There must be."
His eye roamed over the air right ahead of him. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to see it, and therefore, confirm its existence.
Unfortunately, he didn't possess a dojutsu of a sort.
"And how strange..."
Akashi noticed that unlike what they expected, the number of ninjas currently residing in Konoha was huge, as if something was about to happen in the village.
"Many of them got a vacation at once, apparently."
Juzo reported, sharing what he eavesdropped.
"What then, Akashi? Should we retreat?"
"Retreat? No."
Mei asked, and Akashi chuckled.
Turning, his eye gazed at a shinobi of Konoha who seemed to be on his way back to the village, without having sighted Akashi and his group.
An object left Akashi's hand, shot toward the shinobi at his blind spot.
It was a hit. Without the shinobi noticing, the object attached itself at the back of his left thigh.
"What did you do just now?"
"Think of it as a pellet of some sort."
"...A pellet?"
"Which has the seal of Flying Thunder God inscribed on top."
"...Ah!"
Mei finally realized what Akashi did just now.
"Then..."
"I purposely made it sticky by using Water Release: Starch Syrup."
Raising his left hand, Akashi showed the existence of a gooey substance on his fingers. Then, they were instantly incinerated by a quick burst of fire, which disappeared right after the disappearance of said syrups.
"Due to its size, it won't stick for long. After 5 minutes or so, the pellet will come off the ninja."
"Then, all that's left for us to do at the moment is..."
"We wait."
The ground beneath them softened, before they disappeared into the very ground.
By the time the scouts of Konoha came across the area, there was nothing that they could find. They continued their search, trying to identify anything that may be a threat to the village.
...
'Truth to be told, a human being's "chakra reserve" actually refers to one's innate physical and spiritual energies. After all, moulding chakra means spending physical and spiritual energies.'
Akashi referred to a passage of a book that he read in the past.
He didn't know to what extent this information was true, but he did know that some extent of it was correct.
'Physical energy is Yang, and spiritual energy is Yin. They exist as two different phenomena, and would never have gotten mixed should the Sage of Six Paths didn't spread the ninshu.'
And Akashi's specialty involved the reverse. He extracted 'Yang' out of chakra consisted of Yin and Yang.
The other Yang Release techniques used by the other ninjas couldn't truly be considered the Yang Release, when they contained some degree of Yin and other impurities as well. It was simply the use of conventional chakra that held some characteristic of Yang, rather than Yang itself.
The key here was the 'impurity'.
Akashi, as he practiced the Yang Release, came to learn that the impurities that he was removing from his chakra could be classified as the 'positive chakra' and 'negative chakra'.
A being with Yin and Yang attains the existence. A being that exists feels, experiences, and accumulates the innate chakra—positive and negative—of the world. Positive chakra comes from positive emotions, while negative chakra comes from negative emotions.
This meant that the nature is just as alive as any other. The 'nature chakra' that Akashi read in the past, probably was the mix of positive and negative chakra as well.
'Senjutsu...'
Otherwise known as the Sage Art.
It could be said that apart from the 'extraction of Yin', learning or gaining more information of the senjutsu was another goal of his.
'But there is only so much that I can learn with books alone.'
Akashi assumed that those with animal-like characteristics, those closer to the nature than the humans, may have more information regarding the senjutsu.
'Summons... but where am I to find them at—'
BOOM.
Akashi couldn't think more as a vibration reached all the way to the underground that he and his group currently hid in.
"Hah?"
Juzo raised an eyebrow, finding this unusual.
"...It's come from the village."
Gai muttered.
"I was about to say that it is time, and well,"
Mei added in a cent,
"Looks like there was no need for me to say so."
"What is happening?"
They exited the underground, returning back to the surface.
It was a deep night.
At the center of the world's strongest hidden village, a beast stood proud and tall.
Nine-tailed fox. For whatever reason, it was free.
"This is..."
Akashi narrowed his eye.
"Minato. What happened to your wife?"
"Akashi."
Mei called him.
"What do we do now?"
"...If anything, it's become easier for us to infiltrate."
Akashi turned, facing the group.
"Juzo and Gai. Locate Dai and rescue him. Kisame and Hidan. Sneak your way into the Uchiha compound and investigate. Mei, go with Kisame and Hidan."
"What about you?"
"I wasn't planning to do this, but..."
In the end, Jiraiya was his benefactor. Minato was... he wasn't sure if he still was his friend or not, but something similar to that.
It won't sit easy on his mind to leave them be.
"I got a work to do. Don't mind me."
"Heh... don't die."
Akashi operated the Flying Thunder God technique, teleporting the group past the invisible detection barrier.
After, the group separated, all disappearing from the spot with a blur.
__________
Senju Tsunade's body trembled as she witnessed the mighty nine tails wreak havoc upon her village.
She witnessed it all. The sudden appearance of a masked ninja, blood-flying—
She then breathed just before the suffocation, having realized that she was holding her breath.
Yes, she couldn't do anything as her hemophobia immobilized her. She watched as Minato took his boy back from the masked ninja, the masked ninja taking Kushina meanwhile and proceeding to release the nine tails...
"K-Kushina... no..."
She was currently in Minato and Kushina's house, along with Kushina and her newly born baby. Minato teleported them to here.
"How... could this happen..."
Tsunade managed to treat the surface wounds, but the constant leaking of chakra wasn't something that she could fix; the only way to do so was to re-seal the nine tails back into her.
Currently, Kushina was unconscious, holding her son as she laid on a bed.
Tsunade, with deep dark bags under her eyes, looked back and forth between the nine tails just outside and the red-haired woman.
'Must I... thank the war?'
If not for the war, Tsunade wouldn't even be in this village. She couldn't fathom what Kushina's state would've been like should she wasn't on site to treat her immediately.
'...No. If it wasn't for the war, both Jiraiya and Orochimaru would've been present. That masked man wouldn't have dared to invade the village...'
Even now, the nine tails continued to destroy. The villagers were flying toward the edges, trying to get as far away as possible from the tailed beast.
Then, Tsunade's eyes widened as she saw the nine tails gaping its mouth open and revealing its sharp teeth.
A dark ball of energy began to gather.
'...Bijuudama!'
It looked like the nine tails' eyes were headed to a particular location. Tsunade's eyes followed, but she couldn't clearly see what lied far ahead.
Bijuudama was then fired, only for it to be teleported out of the village.
An enormous explosion rose from a far site away from the village, causing many to shudder.
"It's Minato!"
"Minato-sama!!"
Tsunade, looking intently, finally got the sight of Minato.
Also, the sight of that masked man suddenly appearing behind Minato, before pulling him into the same vortex that he appeared from.
"Minato...!!"
Tsunade cried, but to no avail.
Thankfully, the gap of time that Minato earned was just enough for the Hokage, Hiruzen, and the other elite ninjas of the village to arrive.
"Keep the beast occupied!!"
Hiruzen ordered firmly. With a puff, the ferocious-looking money appeared by his side.
"Let's go, Enma!"
"Right!"
The monkey transformed into a huge staff, which Hiruzen held with both hands.
The ninjas then charged altogether. The nine tails lashed its tails out, roared, and fended itself off against the various attacks.
Even though the ninjas were quickly getting worn out, they were, at the moment, able to keep the tailed beast occupied.
"Long time no see, Tsunade."
Tsunade flinched as a voice was suddenly heard by her side.
"Can you explain it to me, of what's going on?"
Slowly, she turned.
The first thing that she came to see was a black cloak filled with the symbols of red cloud.
She then saw the handsome visage of the man, as well as his brown hair.
An image from the past overlapped.
"...Akashi?"
Tsunade whispered, never having expected to meet the boy from Ame years ago, an orphan whom she healed back to the form.
"Tsunade. And..."
Akashi's eye headed behind Tsunade, at the red-haired woman, Kushina.
"She must be Minato's wife, Kushina."
Akashi then frowned, having noticed how dire her state is.
"...She is dying."
"What are you doing here?!!"
Finally regaining her senses, Tsunade cried. Though her body trembled from the ongoing hemophobia, she gathered a courage to glare at Akashi.
"Are you in the same team as that masked man?!!"
"...What? A masked man?"
Akashi expressed a genuine confusion.
"Yes!!"
Tsunade growled,
"That man with sharingans!! One who took the nine tails out of Kushina!! One whom Minato is fighting right now!!"
She then read a genuine shock in Akashi's eye, and paused.
"You..."
Tsunade's words didn't reach Akashi's ears, however.
Turning back to view the nine tails, Akashi chuckled, darkly.
"So you're telling me... that Uchiha Madara is here."
That was even more reason for him to act.