"Uchiha Madara... to think I would hear such a name pop out of your mouth, of all things."
Within the darkness, the two men sat around the campfire, the only source of light present.
"What a story, I must say. It looks like you've been through a lot, eh?"
Gin, the man who died a long time ago in Akashi's memory, was the person whom he was talking to.
Akashi felt a turmoil of emotions. He was glad to see Gin once again, but that meant...
"...Am I dead?"
Akashi raised his hand and gazed upon it.
His heart was punctured by Uchiha Madara's will or chakra or clone that was left in the world of genjutsu.
Now that Akashi reflected upon the event, he wondered why he was so quick to trust the unknown entity named Chakka in the first place.
"Dead... yes and no."
Gin then responded, sternly as he stared into the fire.
"Have you heard about the ghosts? The evil spirits who roam around the world?"
"What about them?"
"It is said that after the death of the physical self, should the spirit of the deceased hold so much regret and grief that it refuses to leave the mortal world, it becomes the malevolent spirit that remains bound to the world."
Gin sighed,
"I suppose... that that's me. Well, kinda."
"Am I in the same situation as you?"
"Well..."
Gin chuckled as Akashi asked,
"You seem to be a little different. In fact, you are the strangest case that I've ever seen."
"How so?"
"Think of it this way. You suffered a physical death within the world of genjutsu, which could also be called the spiritual world. Don't you think it's paradoxical?"
"In the first place, something was off about that genjutsu world."
Akashi pondered as he heard Gin's opinion.
"The physical sensations that I felt during my stay in that world... it was as if it were the real world of its own. I'm not too sure if even the finest combination of fuinjutsu and genjutsu can result in such a production."
"...Sharingans truly do wonders, don't they?"
Akashi narrowed his eye at that, wondering how Gin is able to know all the details of what he's gone through when the explanations that he gave weren't as detailed.
"Uchiha Madara likely possessed numerous Sharingans. Through the use of many, he probably, somehow, succeeded in somewhat replicating what Rinnegan is capable of."
"...You should be more specific. There are far too many abilities that Rinnegan grants."
"Eye of the Moon Plan."
Then, Gin suddenly winced as he held his head with a painful expression.
"What... huh? How... do I know... all this...?"
Akashi, with a grim expression, turned his gaze away from Gin and looked into the fire. All of a sudden, Gin felt strange to him; it felt as if his memory of his past mentor was getting corrupted.
Nevertheless, Akashi had to know.
"What about the Eye of the Moon Plan?"
"Ugh... I don't know how I know all this, but... it is essentially the reflection of a powerful ocular genjutsu off the moon to trap the entire world within its effect."
Akashi felt the chill as he heard this.
"And... you say that Rinnegan is required for this?"
"No... even Rinnegan isn't enough. It needs to be the ultimate progenitor of all the dojutsu, the Rinne-Sharingan."
"How can Madara achieve that state?"
"By becoming the jinchuriki of ten tails."
Akashi's eye widened, realizing why his other self in the genjutsu world was after the tailed beasts.
"Ten tails... I've never heard about such a thing before. However, if I were to make a guess based on what I know so far... it is the ultimate form when all the tailed beasts are assembled together, no?"
As Gin nodded, indicating that Akashi's thought was exactly correct, Akashi felt himself gritting his teeth out of frustration.
"Then, as I remain stuck here, be it dead or alive, in the world outside..."
Be it Uchiha Madara or that masked man, someone was running it all down.
__________
"...Here we go."
In the snowy Land of Iron, the land of samurais, the leaders from all over the world gathered.
Amegakure: Hattori Hanzo.
Konohagakure: Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage, together with Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
Sunagakure: Rasa, the recently appointed Kazekage after the disappearance of the third Kazekage.
Kirigakure: Kaguya Toshiyuki, the clan head of Kaguya Clan who rose to the seat of the fifth Mizukage after the take over of the village along with the Funato Clan.
Kumogakure: A, the third Raikage, along with his son and expected successor for the title of Raikage—also named A.
Iwagakure: Onoki, the third Tsuchikage of the village.
It was a perfect three-to-three division as the leaders of differing factions stared at one another in caution and hostility.
The griefs and hatred that were generated through this Third Shinobi World War were extremely deep. Only by annihilating each other would these frustrations truly be vented.
However, they, at the same time, knew that there was no future should they decide to do this. Civilians will continue to suffer. The world will become a place impossible to live in.
"Thank you to all for gathering."
It was Mifune, the general of the Land of Iron, who broke the ice.
Slamming his blade down to garner everyone's attention, he spoke in a firm manner.
"We have all gathered here as per the request of Tsuchikage. It is to negotiate about the peace... to put an end to the war that will prove nothing but the endless destruction."
"...Peace?"
Orochimaru, frowning in a contempt, bickered at that.
"They initiated the war, pushed us to the brim with inhumane homicides, and now that the table has turned, they want to negotiate peace?"
"Hah! Say that again, you slithery snake!"
A, the third Raikage immediately lashed out with veins popping out of his eyes.
"Did you think we would sit and watch as Konoha hogs all the resources and breach our missions behind our back?! If anything, this war is on you!"
"There was a rumor that the reason why Kumogakure behaves in a brainless manner is because their leader is just as idiotic... it seems that the rumor was true, after all."
To A's shout, the Kazekage, Rasa, snorted.
Visibly offended, A, with the reddened face, slammed his gigantic fist atop the table, shattering it with nothing but a pure force.
"...Raikage-sama."
Then, his son and successor, A, spoke up to the Raikage, shaking his head negatively as he did so.
Understanding his intent, Raikage, regardless of how his body trembled in rage, sank back into his seat.
"...It surely is starting rough, but,"
At last, the Tsuchikage, Onoki, opened his mouth, speaking cautiously.
"Regardless of the hatred and losses that we may have suffered from each other... it is true that none of us are able to continue the current war. Am I wrong?"
No one responded to that, and Onoki interpreted the silence as an affirmation.
"Too many ninjas died. Far too many... and in the end, there is no winner in this room. There are only those who lost, and if we were to continue fighting, we will continue to lose more."
"...With due respect, Tsuchikage-dono, I don't think you're in the position to speak of those words."
Hiruzen then spoke, coldly.
"If we were to trace back to the start of the war, it was the abrupt invasion of iwagakure to Kusagakure, securing a path to directly infiltrate the Land of Fire under the protection of Konohagakure."
In silence, Hiruzen and Onoki glared at each other.
Onoki knew what Hiruzen exactly wanted; he wanted the spoils of war.
The reason why Onoki called for this negotiation of peace, in the first place, was because all the ploys he made failed. Although Konoha wasn't faring well, as long as they remained allied with Amegakure, they would likely prevail over Iwa should the war continue.
The biggest evidence that Iwa would lose, above all things, was the deaths of their jinchurikis, Roshi and Han.
After all, who would believe that the SS-ranked criminal, 'Red Blade' Akashi, would appear in Amegakure out of the blue and proceed to single-handedly deal with two full-fledged jinchurikis? Without any trouble at that?
'One way or the other, Red Blade has connections with Amegakure. This provides them the massive advantage. Thus, I must convince Hanzo, not that monkey.'
Rolling his thoughts, Onoki was about to open his mouth once more, trying to keep himself as calm and rational as possible.
"We—"
However, they couldn't continue the meeting, as the interruption arrived.
"Greetings, fools."
Everyone in the room froze as one man, wearing the red battle armor, walked in.
Mifune, immediately drawing his sword, pointed it at said man. After doing so, he realized that all the guards—be it ninjas or samurais—were all killed.
"Uchiha..."
Onoki couldn't believe his eyes.
"Madara..."
The intruder had the exact same appearance as the prime Ghost of the Uchiha whom he lost against years ago.
"You..."
"Hm? Aren't you that weakling from years ago? What is someone like you doing here?"
Madara, standing with the pair of Rinnegans gleaming dangerously on his eye sockets, stared at Onoki in a mocking manner.
"Well, no matter."
Walking past the group, Madara took a seat on one empty chair and crossed his legs.
"Today, I came for one simple reason."
Hiruzen silently eyed Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Jiraiya nodded, while Orochimaru clicked his tongue as he was seemingly calculating for the upcoming possibilities.
Hanzo's expression darkened as he learned that the ninjas of Amegakure who followed him were likely killed along with the others.
Madara declared,
"To kill you all here, on this spot."
It truly was a bold declaration.
__________
Akashi clenched his fists angrily as he learned that it is impossible to escape this space.
He tried to venture into the darkness, only to find the same campfire and Gin, even though he was sure that he wasn't walking in circles.
He tried to see if there was anything that he could break. Log, campfire—all of them, for some reason, didn't break no matter how much effort he spent.
"Again,"
Watching Akashi's desperate actions, Gin shook his head.
"Whether you escape from here or not isn't up to you."
He then pointed his finger at Akashi,
"As I already said, you are in a paradoxical situation. You are dead yet not dead. The only way to resolve this issue... is probably to resolve it within the world where you died."
"..."
At last, Akashi stopped his attempts and sat down on the log.
"I can't feel the chakra at all."
He muttered, and Gin nodded.
"Of course. Chakra is the mix of physical and spiritual energies, after all. With spirit alone, we cannot exert chakra."
"How strange it is... it's as if my body forgot how to draw it."
Akashi paused. Then, he looked at Gin with that of a suspicion.
"And again, how do you know all this?"
"..."
"In the first place, you were never a knowledgeable person. Your expertise lied on kenjutsu, which is completely irrelevant to the topic that you spoke of."
"I—"
Gin, about to say something, suddenly froze.
Suddenly, Akashi felt the change in the atmosphere.
"I tried to keep myself hidden, but it looks like there's no point in further maintaining it this way."
Gin spoke with a different voice and tone that echoed within Akashi's head.
Gin closed his eyes. When he opened them back up, instead of his usual eyes, there sat Rinnegans.
"You are..."
"I am the harbinger of peace and order... and my name is Hagoromo."
The one who was talking to Akashi... was none other than the Sage of Six Paths himself.