Within the darkness, Akashi opened his eye, having woken up from a deep slumber.
He yawned as he lifted his upper body. In a sitting form, he clenched his right hand before loosening it. Repeating the process a few times, he stood up.
Reaching a nearby table, Akashi proceeded to get himself a cup of water and emptied it. Leaving the cup, he took in a deep breath.
'A week has passed since this finding.'
Akashi revealed a piece of paper, a copy of whatever was written down in the Uchiha compound's Naka shrine.
His eye, which is well-adapted in the darkness, had no trouble viewing with a small amount of light. However, that didn't mean that he could decipher these bizarre, scribble-like objects drawn on the paper.
Placing the paper back in, Akashi reached the door.
'I've now fully healed. Then, the next thing to do is...'
Akashi opened the door, gently. Exiting the dark room, he entered a bigger, living room of some sort.
Akashi looked around. Judging by how the third room was closed, Mei was still asleep.
Looking through the windows, Akashi saw that it was still early in the morning; the sun hadn't even risen from the horizon yet.
Akashi decided to train for the time being—something that he didn't get to do for a while.
Exiting the house, Akashi entered the vast, grassy plain.
There were the rustling noises of the wild animals, but no other human was present at the site.
Turning back, Akashi viewed the house that he had just exited.
It was old and unsightly. Its inside, to be truthful, wasn't that enjoyable either.
This house wasn't built by Akashi. It had existed in this location for a good amount of time, in the land of river—the land that he used to train under Gin's guidance.
By the time Akashi and Mei discovered it, it had long been abandoned, likely because of the ongoing war.
"...Look how fast the time goes."
Akashi unsealed Ryuma and held it with both arms.
He usually preferred to grab this sword with one hand only, so that he could use ninjutsu or other arts simultaneously, but the basis of the kenjutsu that Gin taught him lied in using both arms.
It was for this reason that early on, Akashi's fighting style depended on the manifestation of fire chakra around the blade; ninjutsu used to be nothing more than the assisting factor of his kenjutsu back then.
Akashi swung the blade, vertically, from up to down.
Although the blade was swung fast, no sound was emitted. There was no whooshing sound of the air, no breeze of wind; it was as if Ryuma was completely silent.
Akashi, lifting the blade once more, repeated the motion.
Again, silence.
Such was the blade of a ninja. Deadly, of course, but above that, silent. Hidden. Unconventional.
Although he had to exchange some degree of power in exchange, the might of a blade that is obvious and easily identified was of no use to a shinobi. Besides, if Akashi were to ask himself today if kenjutsu was still his greatest card in a battle... he would say that it's debatable.
Over time, Akashi's sword-holding form slowly changed.
From a vertical slash to a diagonal slash to a horizontal slash to a stab.
Round, spinning slash. Wide arcs as if parrying multiple weapons. Feints. Backstep, combined with a sudden charge—another stab.
Akashi's motions became stylish and vibrant. It was as if he was battling an imaginary opponent, and whoever was spectating the scene would wonder just what kind of person that 'imaginary opponent' could possibly be, to push him to such an extent.
Then, fire surged from Ryuma. As Akashi continued to swing the blade, the fire mystically left a trail along the blade's path. It was not only more stylish but simply magnificent.
For years, Akashi's techniques existed to defend himself and reach his goals. However, at this moment, it solely existed to bring him the sense of fulfillment—the feeling of being alive.
'Yin... Yin Release. Yang belongs to a physical portion, while Yin belongs to a spiritual portion.'
As he continued his movements, his thoughts slowly drifted into what he had been contemplating for years by now.
'My extraction of Yang involves the purification of what can be considered... the consciousness—no, that may not be an appropriate way to say it in some context. It's more like... characteristics.'
Akashi has begun to sweat from the intense exercise he got himself into. However, his eye, staring at the thin air, seemed to suggest that he didn't notice the ongoing stress to his body.
'Yang is nothing but pure energy with the potential to be differentiated into numerous types of energies, be it heat, mechanical force, electricity, et cetera. Therefore, extracting Yang from those means removing the process of the so-called differentiation... which means, if I were to talk of extracting Yin instead, it is the energy that manifests them into the physical world that I need to discard.'
Discarding the physical portion and taking the spiritual, the defining portion of a substance?
Akashi couldn't understand how such a thing could be done.
But of course, this was expected to be hard. Even this Yang Release that Akashi achieved today wasn't just his to do. It was after the years of research of the Shizen clan, and their successful pass-down of the information to Akashi in the form of the Energy Release, that he managed to see the fruit of it.
Anyhow, Akashi couldn't think of a correct answer, no matter how many times he tried and attempted.
He knew that he was missing something. He attributed it to the positive and negative chakra that can be considered as the impurities that exist in substances along with Yin and Yang.
Positive and negative chakra—now these were something entirely different from Yin and Yang.
Chakra, crafted through the mix of Yin and Yang, can be, technically, 'regressed' or 'transformed' through one's emotions. The chakra linked with positive emotion becomes a positive chakra, while the chakra linked with negative emotion becomes a negative chakra.
The point is, once a chakra attains the properties of positive or negative, it is no longer reversible. Thus, 'impurity.' If Yin and Yang could no longer be extracted, they need to be removed from Akashi's perspective.
The idea of positive and negative chakras is linked with that of natural energy. After all, being impure means, by all means, the most natural.
Akashi placed his focus on the art of a sage, senjutsu. He deduced that since the animals are closer to and more familiar with nature than humanity, he was thinking of seeking the ninja summons who hold profound knowledge of their own.
The problem was, how? And where?
The prominent ones that he could think of were Jiraiya and Minato's toads, Tsunade's slugs, Orochimaru's snakes, Hiruzen's monkeys, and Hanzo's salamanders. Of course, Akashi doesn't expect to have success with them, not that he won't be able to force those ninjas to do as he wishes, but that the summons would unlikely be willing to cooperate.
'Apart from reaching Nagato, that's another task to think of.'
Wondering how long he's been swinging the blade, Akashi finally stopped, returning to reality.
He found out that he was now completely drenched in sweat. Collecting his breath, he turned and found that Mei was standing near the house, watching him.
"For how long were you there?"
"For you to not notice my presence... now that's new."
Mei, clearly surprised, remarked.
"But I just came."
She then paused, looking around the scene.
"I can see why you would loosen up, though. Anyone would become softened when they get to see something as beautiful as this."
"Well, I can't deny that."
Akashi chuckled as he sealed Ryuma.
"Have you..."
Mei then asked,
"Thought of what you'll be doing after your goal? After... you deal with Madara?"
"After, huh..."
Akashi shook his head.
"No, I haven't. But I think..."
Looking up, Akashi's eye wandered over the clouds.
The sun had already risen, and it was, at the very least, past 8 am.
"I'll probably be travelling around, wandering."
"...Forever?"
"Heh, what else can I do?"
Akashi shrugged as Mei spoke bitterly.
"I am, after all, the worst criminal wanted all over the world."
"...No, not all over the world."
Mei then denied.
"There must be somewhere out there. Somewhere beyond the Elemental Nations."
"Mei—"
"Let's take a long trip outside. Then, settle in a place that no one knows. Then..."
Akashi saw insecurity in Mei's eyes.
"What is it that you're worried about?"
"...Do you know how you sound, Akashi?"
Mei said grimly.
"You sound as if... you're going to disappear one day. Someone who finds no joy in living."
Akashi sighed lightly before he smiled.
"Why don't we talk about this some other time?"
Not wanting to dwell on this matter, Akashi was the first to walk back into the house.
__________
Under the night's sky, Yahiko viewed the scenery of the Amegakure from a high rooftop, wistfully.
His mind seemed to be lingering over a memory as his eyes swept from house to house, landmark to landmark, people to people.
"...I can't believe that our return date is postponed."
To him, the red-haired fellow, Nagato, joined, with his unique, purple-colored eyes filled with rings that surrounded his pupils, glowing mystically.
"From three days to seven—to potentially, never."
"Hanzo received a letter from Hokage, eh? Of making peace with others."
"Well, yeah."
Yahiko shook his head as he smirked playfully.
"Now, it may be a little too early to say that. The officials of each village would have to meet up. It would be one huge meeting, huge enough to call it a world congress."
"Peace... now that sounds strange."
"It won't really be the peace that we are seeking, however. There would still be fights underneath; it will just... no longer be as blatant as this."
"...Still."
Nagato pursed his lips.
"I want to believe that true peace exists and is possible."
"So do I."
There was a moment of silence before Nagato asked,
"You were thinking about Akashi, weren't you?"
"I... yes."
Yahiko sighed.
"I can't help but wonder what he's doing now. He made it out alive through those hellish events in the past, before sacrificing himself the second time for our sake. We now live the lives more comfortable, as the official citizens and ninjas of Ame, but... what about him?"
Nagato's face darkened, resonating with Yahiko's words.
"Do you know that Konan is barely able to sleep these days?"
"...Yes."
"She keeps on saying that she's having the nightmare of Akashi dying with no one next to him."
"But then..."
Nagato spoke in a shaky tone,
"What can we do? If we admit our connection with him... we'd be throwing away what he gave us. We'd be making his efforts, his sacrifices, useless."
"I know. We discussed this many times in the past, and I don't plan to repeat it. It's just that... I feel like sometimes, this world is too harsh to Akashi."
"...Yes, I agree."
With nothing more to add, the two looked down on the street.
Compared to the gloomy past of Ame, they were now more thriving—in the middle of the war, at that, ironically.
The biggest change came from Hanzo, who had a change of mind after that fateful night, when Akashi assaulted him.
He was no longer a power-chasing, cold dictator. He has become more logical and more sensible. It could be said that he returned to who he used to be in the long past, the passionate leader of the rain.
And as such, Yahiko and Nagato found the street in their view beautiful. They could see a glimpse of what the peaceful world would look like from it—
"...Nagato."
"Yes, I saw it too."
Yahiko's face stiffened as his eyes caught onto one man.
Suspicious, he thought.
"Let's go."
Watching as the man of his interest disappeared into an alley, Yahiko acted. Nagato followed.
The two disappeared from the rooftop, leaving no presence in the site.