The night has come. The sun has set.
Konohagakure felt that this night, more so than the other nights, was ominous.
It was silent. Far too silent.
Shivering as the barren land failed to preserve the heat that it absorbed during the day, the people of Konoha stayed within their tents as the ninjas took a careful patrol around the area.
Said ninjas, exhausted and devastated, nonetheless fulfilled their duties. Even though the village that they loved was practically gone, it was the word 'ninjas of Konoha' that still defined who they were.
"...Red moon."
Looking up, Senju Tsunade whispered.
It was just as she said.
Before anyone realized, the dark night had become the crimson night, illuminating the world below with the bask of red.
"What an arrogant bastard you are, wasting chakra for a genjutsu as useless as showing everyone a red-colored moon. To think that we used to consider you as a cautious individual..."
Turning, she then spoke toward a tent near where she stood,
"Stay inside, Kushina. He is coming."
Tsunade's hands trembled, but she lifted them to form a hand seal.
"Kai!"
Upon a powerful burst of chakra out of her, the red moon dissipated, not just for her but for everyone.
Stepping forward, she loudly ordered,
"All ninjas, stay on guard! Protect the civilians! Do not let that man have his way!"
"A man?"
"He is here?!"
The civilians and ninjas murmured among themselves. Most of the ninjas were genin at best, for the majority of the elites had already passed away from the previous battles.
Therefore, Tsunade's words were nothing but a warning at best; they are burdens whom she can't rely on against the approaching calamity.
Now, staring at the pitch darkness ahead, Tsunade focused.
She bit her lips. Hiding her trembling hands at her back, she whispered to herself,
"If I didn't save you on that day... would everything have been different?"
Tsunade remembered the young boy of Amegakure during the Second Shinobi World War named Yahiko, seeking to treat his group of kids.
Little did she know that everyone would be dead except for the monster in front of them.
Hattori Akashi.
'What exactly happened? What made you like this today?'
Tsunade was filled with intrigue.
However, now wasn't the time for her to be immersed in the thoughts of the past.
He has arrived.
"You haven't run away. How come?"
From the darkness, a man revealed himself.
The black cloak that he wore was filled with symbols resembling a red cloud.
His hair was hazel... no, Tsunade saw that in comparison to Akashi from the other world, whom Orochimaru brought around two weeks ago, the hair color of this one, whom they've known for so long, was closer to red.
His eyes, both intact, were filled with violet-colored rinnegans. Glowing dangerously within the darkness, they seemed to be threatening to release a powerful jutsu at any time, at any moment.
There was no doubt. This man was the current era's strongest shinobi.
"...Run? To where?"
Tsunade remarked dryly. There was a hint of exhaustion in her tone as well.
"Who knows how many people you marked with Minato's Flying Thunder God that you stole?"
Tsunade knew that that man had numerous tricks up his sleeve.
"Well, you still had an option to discard all these... burdens."
"Heh... true."
Tsunade chuckled at that, trying to hide her fear.
"...Where is he?"
Then, the man looked around, looking for someone.
"My look-alike, that is. Wasn't he supposed to be your trump card?"
"How the fuck would I know? Orochimaru took him away."
"Hah—! So they were the ones who ran away instead of you!"
The man, Hattori Akashi, grinned, as instead of launching an attack, he sat down on the ground below him, cross-legged.
As Tsunade frowned at this act of mockery, he spoke,
"With the death of Namikaze Minato, there no longer exists a ninja capable of opposing me. Through a ploy of mine, I managed to kill my dogs as well... before they bit me back. Literally, there no longer exists any variable that can change the tide of the world."
His rinnegans glowed brilliantly within the darkness.
"Throughout the heaven and the earth, I alone am the honored one."
There was a pause. Tsunade hated the fact that she was unable to refute such a bold statement.
Instead, she asked,
"What is your goal? What is it that you're aiming for by collecting the tailed beasts?"
"Oh, that?"
Hattori Akashi pointed at his eyes.
"Do you know to whom these eyes belong?"
"Uzumaki Nagato... the brother of yours whom you betrayed. Who else?"
Tsunade spoke as if speaking an obvious.
"Nagato... right, that was his name. Anyway, wrong."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed.
"What do you mean?"
"I, too, reacted the same way as you before. Turns out that these eyes were from none other than Uchiha Madara himself, who implanted his own eyes into Nagato."
"...How come?"
"I don't feel obliged to answer that question."
"Then why mention this now of all times?"
"It is through Uchiha Madara that I got learn about the 'Eye of the Moon' plan."
Hattori Akashi frowned, expressing his clear dislike for the idea.
"He was rambling about how a powerful genjutsu would be cast on a world scale, allowing everyone to embark on a wet dream of their own. To do that, tailed beasts were needed, he said."
Tsunade couldn't follow. The information that she was hearing sounded like it came from another world.
"And I said to that, heh, why would I help him with that? When this world already is mine to take?"
Slowly, his grin widened.
"So I collected all the tailed beasts. I will lock them up. They will be for no one to use but me. No one will be made a jinchuriki. No one will be given a tool with a sliver of a chance to stand on the same ground as me."
"..."
Tsunade could feel the greed emanating from the man.
However, above that, she felt hatred for Konoha.
"...What did we do to earn your hate? Why do you plan on annihilating us when you seem to be fine with the survival of the other ninja villages?"
"Getting personal, aren't we?"
Hattori Akashi closed his eyes as if trying to recall the memories.
"Fine, I'll tell you why. The first time I met you, that fateful day when I killed two kids and took the rinnegans, thanks to the orange-haired boy—who was stronger than me during that time—being away, I know what you folks did."
"...What?"
"You attempted to kill me. Specifically, that Jiraiya whom I personally ripped apart a few weeks ago."
Tsunade now remembered when Jiraiya mentioned how the rinnegan is dangerous and must be in the hands of the reliable.
Considering his greedy and ambitious traits, he probably ordered one of the subordinates to kill Hattori Akashi during the chaos, the assault from Hanzo of the Salamander that caused them to fall back.
"That was something that he decided personally, on his own!!"
"Do you think I care?"
Tsuande was at a loss for words. The fact that his rage wasn't quenched by the brutal homicide of Jiraiya... he was nothing less than a psychopath.
"I almost lost one of the rinnegans during that day. Should I not have awakened the power of these eyes..."
Hattori Akashi gritted his teeth, for he felt the rage building up in him as he remembered the memory that still haunted him to this day.
The good mood had died, and now foul-mooded, he spat out,
"It was a nice experience, being able to converse with a corpse. However, toward the end, I have nothing but displeasure in me."
He sighed,
"And here, I was thinking of letting you live for some more time. How unfortunate."
He abruptly slammed his right hand on the ground, still seated.
"Summoning technique,"
There were numerous eruptions of smoke behind him.
The witnesses fearfully back-stepped; such reactions were done instinctively.
There were five gigantic and monstrous animals, whose eyes were exhibiting the rinnegan-like traits.
They roared simultaneously. The wind ferociously blew, and Tsunade had to shield her face and put strength into her legs to prevent herself from being blown away like tents and a good number of people behind her.
"Tsssunade."
Then, a voice spoke to her from below. Looking down, Tsunade found a small snake talking to her.
"The reverssse sssummoning technique hasss been prepared."
She didn't realize the snake's presence at all. It signified that she focused everything on the enemy ahead of them; she felt a chill down her spine, having realized that if Hattori Akashi wanted, he could have set up a sneak attack to end her life.
"Snake? Reverse summoning technique? Orochimaru?"
Tsunade, unfortunately, wasn't a combat ninja. She always knew that her lack of combat tools had to be mended. She managed to do so by improving her ninjutsu, but the fact that her body was always too weak to fight remained the same.
Hence, she, although haven't spoken, has already given up. Such was also the reason why Hattori Akashi was being lax on her; there was a zero percent chance that the remaining people of Konoha would be able to resist his power.
"Hattori Akashi, the Doombringer, will be dealt with-sss by the traveller from another world, the Swordsssman."
The roar finally ended. Crouching, the monstrous summons prepared to dash toward the panicked people.
"Sssignal for a retreat. Orochimaru will sssoon join you."
Then, said summons leapt toward the people.
At the same time, with a small puff of smoke in the middle of the ground, the same five summons of monstrous appearances were diced into countless pieces before they even realized.
With the same eruptions of smoke from which they appeared, they disappeared.
"...Hm?"
Hattori Akashi raised his eyes.
Two individuals stood ahead of him.
"Orochimaru, and..."
His rinnegan eyes twinkled.
"...Oho, so we finally meet."
Akashi stood, wearing the exact same cloak as his other self—the black cloth that had many red clouds engraved on it.
"No rinnegans. Instead, you lack an eye."
Hattori Akashi, as he observed Akashi's characteristics, laughed mockingly.
"So you failed, didn't you? Then lost an eye pitifully, hah!"
"..."
Not bothering to reply to a taunt, Akashi slowly raised Ryuma with his right hand, pointing it at his replica, whose personality seemed to differ drastically from his.
"As you can see, he possesses rinnegans. For some reason, he is capable of using it without side effects; he has an extremely large chakra reserve—matching the level of a jinchuriki almost."
Orochimaru spoke with nervousness by the side.
"I suppose that... this is also where you two differ. He, who has a huge chakra reserve, versus you, who has incredible chakra control."
"You already heard beforehand, but let me tell you one more time."
"He is a ninjutsu specialist. He doesn't have a preference for using a long sword like you. With rinnegans, he has an aptitude for all five natures, but among all, his Fire Release is the most notable, known to be stronger than that of Uchiha Madara."
Orochimaru took a deep breath.
"Are you sure that you'd win?"
Akashi, blank-faced as he calmly faced his enemy, stated,
"Of course."
"...How? How are you so sure?"
Akashi, without removing his eye from the enemy, replied in a solemn tone.
"Because I must."
Knowing that there was no more time to exchange words, Orochimaru quickly backed as planned.
Hattori Akashi, now standing back up, placed his palm towards Akashi.
"Universal Pull."