When Akashi opened his eyes, he was, together with Konan, standing within a room made off of metallic frames for sturdiness and security.
They were standing around the shattered pieces of what used to be the red orb.
Someone gasped. Turning, Akashi saw that it was Mei, who just noticed their reappearance.
"You..."
Mei, with a clear relief, was about to say something, but swallowed her words. After all, she found a shocking change on Akashi,
"...Your eye."
"Mei."
Akashi nodded, as Konan by the side was still trying to get her senses together, holding her head in pain.
"How long has it been since I entered the orb?"
"A week."
Akashi grimaced. It meant that the time within the orb flew at the same rate as the reality.
"Come. Let me explain to you what happened during your absence, as we walk."
...
The hall was silent.
The armed ninjas guarded the building fiercely, especially because their leader, Hanzo, wasn't present in the village at the moment.
"After the loss of their jinchurikis, Iwa called for a conference to discuss about the peace. The rest of the Akatsuki members are still one the way. Meanwhile, after making necessary arrangements, Hanzo left this village..."
"He allowed you to remain here?"
Akashi was clearly surprised.
After all, with Hanzo gone, it was logical to say that Mei was the strongest ninja within the site. Should she wanted, she could have taken over the village.
Hanzo could have made some restrictions to ensure that should Mei had an ulterior motive, there were means to safeguard. The fact that Hanzo didn't take such an action showed his trust.
"Yes... but not because he trusted me. He trusted you."
It felt strange.
For the most of the time in his life, Hanzo was someone whom Akashi identified as his foe, regardless of their connection by the blood. It was also true that deep in his heart, he loathed Hanzo for being absent when they needed him.
"He doesn't know me, and still, just because I am biologically his grandson, he gives his trust? Even when I attempted to assassinate him in the past?"
"...That, Hanzo did talk about, in the past."
Walking behind the two, Konan spoke up and earned their attention.
"He knew that the true purpose of your assassination attempt was the 'performance.' He identified your ulterior motive to frame us as the 'heroes' of the village and applauded you, saying that you possess the blood of Hattori."
The more Akashi pondered upon the idea of ninshu, the more he felt unsure of this man named Hanzo.
"Things used to be so simple back when we were young."
Akashi dryly remarked.
"Higher ups are evil. They are the causes of the war. Corrupted ones must die, and after that, peace would surely come... that's what we used to believe."
"And now?"
Mei asked.
"This world is grey. There is no point in meddling with the matters of others. Hatred, peace, whatever it may be... to hell with those. I'm too occupied pursuing my own happiness anyway."
"So... you are saying that dealing with Uchiha Madara won't resolve issues."
"No, it won't."
"Then why are you doing this?"
In the past, Akashi didn't have a clear answer to this.
Now, he did.
"For the sake of my inner peace."
Everything was clear.
"This isn't the act of peace or nobility. It isn't about saving the world."
It was about taking the revenge. It was about ending the nightmare of a life that he lived, and having a fresh beginning, a new dawn for the sake of his happiness.
"I'm not a saint."
Konan and Mei smiled at that.
Konan, knowing how much Akashi sacrificed for his close ones, always had a deep guilt in her. She wished that he would pursue his own happiness, not others'.
Mei saw how dangerous Akashi's mental state used to be. Finding the purpose of his own meant that he managed to cast away the shadow in him, and she was glad for this.
"I am a ninja."
Akashi stated as he recalled how this story began—when Danzo killed his family and in the middle of the run, he was saved by a random shinobi of Ame.
Now, they stopped in front of the huge door.
It was the door that leads into Hanzo's office.
With Hanzo not present, Mei casually opened the door, revealing Yahiko who looked busy dealing with all the paperwork.
"...!"
The moment Yahiko heard the noise of door creaking, he stopped and looked up. His eyes then widened as three people entered his sight.
"Akashi! Konan!"
There were dark bags under his eyes, indicating how worried and exhausted he was from all the works.
"Thank god... thank god..."
His eyes grew teary as he repeated whispered in relief.
"And... your eyes..."
Standing up, he slowly took steps toward Akashi, mesmerized by the fact that Akashi was no longer lone-eyed once again.
"How..."
It was an understatement to say that Yahiko was exhilarated. The weight that crashed his heart with guilt—the fact that Akashi lost his eye to keep the Konoha shinobi away from them—now disappeared after years passed.
"I received the details from Mei, Yahiko."
Patting Yahiko by the shoulder, Akashi immediately spoke, not wishing to waste time.
"We can put personal matters aside for later. For now, tell me, is there any update from Hanzo yet?"
Yahiko calmed himself down, knowing that Akashi was right. After a brief pause, he shook his head.
"...No, not yet. It has been almost a week since he left, and it's starting to worry me..."
"You may be overreacting."
Mei was the one to add her own thoughts to this matter.
"The time required to travel all the way from here to the Land of Iron, no matter how fast they go, should take at least three days. With there being a high chance that messages would get caught in the middle and lead to our vulnerability, Hanzo may simply have chosen not to send any message."
Yahiko reluctantly nodded at that.
Akashi wasn't done asking, however,
"What about that masked man whom we met before? Did he reappear yet?"
"No, not even once, thankfully."
"Well, it is true that you gave him fatal injuries during the last encounter."
Yahiko shook his head for the second time, and Mei added her cents.
The fact that the exact replica of Uchiha Madara's image in the genjutsu proved Akashi that there was a very high likelihood that Madara did still exist in the world.
The point was to track him down and kill him, ending it all for good. Problem was that there was no way to locate him down unless he decides to reveal himself.
However, this didn't mean that nothing could be done. Akashi knew that sooner or later, Madara will make his move, for Akashi now knew what the Uchiha's ultimate goal was.
Eye of the Moon Plan.
"...Mei. Change of plan."
"Hm?"
"Communicate to other members. Tell them that instead of gathering here in Ame, to monitor the statuses of the known jinchurikis."
"I can do that."
Mei nodded.
"Tell me why though."
Akashi's gazed lingered on Mei, before they also breezed past Yahiko and Konan.
"Simply put, Madara will be collecting all the tailed beasts to put the entire world in genjutsu."
The faces that they showed Akashi after his statement was quite hilarious to look at.
"Huh?"
Yahiko, breaking out from the trance, seemed to be confused. He opened his mouth, about to say something, only to hear a large sound of explosion from the outside.
"?!"
Immediately, their eyes headed out the window, toward the edge of the village's wall where a smoke was rising up.
"Yahiko-sama!"
A ninja then barged into the room, stoic and urgent.
He looked startled for a moment as he saw Akashi in the room, but quickly redirected his attention at Yahiko.
"There is an attempt of invasion to outside! Weird thing is... our enemies don't seem to be human!"
"What?!"
Full of confusion, the group quickly left the room, straight away heading toward the area of the explosion.
"Look!"
Upon arrival where many ninjas were on guard, the one who led them pointed down.
As the smoke cleared, there was... nothing.
Just as Akashi's eyes perceived the view, he understood what was going on.
Flicking out a kunai, he imbued it with Energy Release. The kunai, leaving his hand, flew toward the shinobi who led them all the way here, and struck his neck before he could deal a fatal blow to Yahiko.
"What... even..."
Yahiko looked vividly shaken, for he was almost back-stabbed.
"Wake up. That isn't one of this village."
The kunai, after drilling its way out of the shinobi's neck, disintegrated because it was unable to handle the potent Energy Release. Meanwhile, the shinobi's form began to melt—now completely white from head to toe. While it maintained a male humanoid figure, Akashi doubted that it was a human.
"You are?"
Mei calmly asked as she too flipped out a kunai of her own, holding it in a reverse grip with her right hand.
"...Well, at this point, there is no point in hiding."
This white figure grinned as its body continued to crumble down, being unable to recover from Akashi's strike.
"We are Zetsus. I suppose that you can consider us as Madara's pawns."
As the white figure then completely crumbled down, the supposed ninjas who were on guard around them began to turn into these white figures named Zetsus, one by one.
"After all, no matter how strong Madara is, he can't be doing all this by himself, right?"
As they surrounded Akashi and his group, one of them spoke.
"And well, after identifying Black Zetsu's betrayal, he began to look for alternative ways to enhance his plan."
"Thus, he made us! Well, more like he duplicated us, who are the dumber versions of our original!"
Akashi furrowed his brows, not understanding who this 'Black Zetsu' was or how exactly the act of duplicating these creatures happened.
However, those weren't of importance. What mattered was that they were Madara's—as they explained—pawns.
'They have the ability to transform into any appearance, making them great at infiltration. However, they should be vulnerable against the chakra sensors with there being no way to match the chakra signatures. Furthermore, they don't seem possess a threatening combat skill, being at the level of chunin at best.'
There was no need for Akashi's group to deal with these Zetsus, for the backup immediately arrived.
The Ame ninjas, forming formations of their own, quickly dealt with these Zetsus without much of a problem.
In the matter of minutes, all the Zetsus surrounding them were dealt with.
However, they all knew that this was just the beginning.
"Damn it...!"
Yahiko cursed as he turned to the captain of the ninja squad that helped them out,
"Jonin Takada. Gather the available chakra sensors and identify any of these creatures that managed to infiltrate the village. The damage must be minimized—"
He, as the substitute of Hanzo, was currently serving as the brain of the village. Given the authority, Yahiko was in the process of giving orders to the ninjas, only to pause as the ridiculous scene entered his sight.
"...Huh?"
Yahiko was dumbfounded.
Similarly, Konan and Mei looked shaken.
Akashi's eyes narrowed as he looked beyond the wall that they were currently on top of.
A huge army of White Zetsus were rushing by, numerous enough to fill the barren land with nothing but white.
"H-Heh..."
Then, a weak voice spoke. Turning, they noticed that on a disintegrating puddle of white, a mouth was speaking,
"Surprised? What if I tell you... that this is happening all around the world?"
Then, before anyone could say anything in response to that, the mouth, along with the white puddle, disappeared, signalling that the being died.
"Ten-thousands... no, hundred-thousand at the very least."
One of Ame's ninjas mumbled in fear, completely petrified along with the others.
"...! Look!"
Then, another Ame ninja with a keen sight pointed out what he saw.
"Here is the group running from the front of those monsters!"
He squinted his eyes, trying to get a better view. He then shrieked,
"I-It's Hanzo-sama!"
Many appeared shocked. They too leaned forward to view the scene, and saw that seemingly exhausted jonins were carrying Hanzo, who was evidently injured, quite severely.
"What... what just happened?"
Yahiko whispered with a darkened expression.
As they were reacting on the wall, Hanzo's group as well as the army of White Zetsus were getting closer to the village.
"Akashi, wait!"
It was at this moment that Akashi hopped down from this extremely tall wall, landing on the barren land.
Konan shouted with her hand shot out, but he was already far down below.
"You just came out of that genjutsu! You haven't recovered yet!"
Akashi, with his eyes locked on the unconscious body of Hanzo, grimaced.
Pushing this bizarre feeling aside for now, he closed his eyes as he unveiled the sword that's been with him for years, Ryuma.
"It's quite late, but... my bad for not noticing sooner."
It was as Hagoromo said. Ryuma was at the verge of breaking.
Today would be its last battle.
"You've been through quite many things with me."
Akashi took a step forward.
At this moment, the world around him was black. There was nothing except for him and Ryuma.
Although others were terrified of how countless the number of these White Zetsus were, Akashi knew that quantity meant nothing in front of his blade.
For the last time, his prized blade ignited into a burst of brilliant light.
Yang Release.
Akashi knew that throughout his life, he won't be finding a blade better than Ryuma.
As Hanzo's group passed by him while giving him a bewildered look, Akashi kicked off the ground, flying toward the rushing army of White Zetsus.
The lightning coursed through Akashi's body, indicating the use of Lightning Release: Chakra Mode.
Then, he disappeared from everyone's view.
A second after, the heads of the frontline Zetsus were cut off their necks, flying powerlessly.
A second after that, the number of flying heads amplified.
The bodies of the rushing White Zetsus began to get pulverized as if they were being put into a mixer.
Only then did the spectators realize that Akashi was at work, single-handedly blazing his way through those creatures.
Not even the single one of them were allowed to touch the wall of Ame. Akashi, moving at the inconceivable speed, performed the perfect combination of kenjutsu and ninjutsu, showing everyone what it meant to be the ninja swordsman.
This process of one-sided, one against a million battle, lasted for hours.
The number of spectating ninjas increased as time went by. In silence, they watched this unbelievable scene.
Is there anyone else in this world capable of something like this?
The answer would be no.
If there was a debate going on in the past, now, there was no one who could deny that 'Red Blade' Akashi was the strongest of them all.
The sun was about to set, basking the world in gold.
'Goodbye,'
As Ryuma sliced the neck of the last remaining White Zetsu, Akashi spoke in his mind,
'Old friend.'
Following the completion of the act, a slight crack appeared on Ryuma.
Then, it shattered. The most durable sword in the world broke, now having its shards falling down to the ground.
"Ryuma..."
Mei looked visibly shaken by this, for she, having been a Kiri kunoichi in the past, knew how durable the blade was.
Akashi stood in the middle of the battlefield, with hands not holding onto anything.
The silence enveloped the scene, and no one knew what to do.
After all, the SS-ranked criminal once again protected the village from the outside harm.