Akashi Uzumaki

Forest of Death

The Forest of death has always been a perilous and mysterious place in Konoha

It was built by the first Hokage with his wood style when they built Konoha.

The Forest of death is home to thousands of terrifying, violent, and dangerous beasts ready to devour anyone who makes their way into that dreadful place.

Some places in the forest of death are so dangerous that even Jonin needs to think twice before making their way there, and of course, anyone desiring to make his way in must request authorization as ninjas often die there, and yet every year numerous Ninja enter the place as it is a great training place where they can push them self in a somewhat controlled environment.

In the center and most dangerous part of the forest, an underground lab had been created, carefully hidden from everyone's sight.

"Wiou!" A sharp sound sounded with a bright light shown as a stranger ritual was performed in the small and dimly lit laboratory.

When the light disappeared at the end of the ritual a man approached before looking at the result of his work.

"Finally a good result!," After a few minutes, Hiruko a white-haired man with red eyes dressed in an over-sized high-collared coat was looking at creating a combination of a tiger and a snake.

After a few minutes of making sure that everything was well with his creature, he smiled in delight.

"Good, good, you're still alive, well and strong. Yes!" He exclaimed "I finally succeeded! My plans, my ambitions, my dreams of creating my own ninjas' village, and dominating the ninjas' worlds is in sight with that technique, my technique, the Shimera, hahaha..." After jubilating for a while he regained his calm.

"Calm down, don't get carried away because of the initial success this is only the beginning, this is just the first small step, of a long series,"

As a ninja of Konoha the strongest village and as a scientist he knew of the power of wielded by the ninjas and the Daimyos, this is why he knew how dangerous what he wanted to accomplish was.

Hiruko's gaze turned toward another room of his small laboratory where was stored the bodies of ninjas that he had killed and scavanges from everywhere including konoha his village.

While Hiruko was still proud admiring his creation, and planning his next steps a small white snake was quietly sliddered on the roof not far behind him.

"Hgh!"Feeling a chakra suddenly appear behind him Hiruko froze completely his previous jubilation forgotten.

The White Snake opens its small mouth and from there, a human hand reached out followed by another then a head with long red hair.

"Ouahh, that is really fun, what a strange feeling, but I him not yet tired from it, that is weirdly entertaining, no wonder that those two sannins have that technique, I'm happy that I asked Orochimaru to give that technique to me!" Akashi said with a white smile on his face as he stood on the roof looking at Hiruko below him.

"Hope you're alright snakeal?" He looked at the snake that slid on his shoulder

"Still not used to that, huh," he looked at Snakeal who seemed to give him a reproaching look.

"What?! No, I can travel in your body too like you do with mine," Akashi said

Another reason why he asked that technique was that his link with snakeal had strengthened and become so strong that he could easily share vision with the snake and now he could instantly appear everywhere using his snake as a medium.

"You... Akashi Uzumaki!?" Hiruko said with gritted his teeth as he saw Akashi standing on the roof but there was some relief in his tone.

"Tap," dissipating the chakra on his feet Akashi let himself fall beside Hiruko who hurriedly flickered to the other side of the room before screaming.

"What are you doing here Uzumaki?!" Ignoring him Akashi looked at the creature in front of him.

"Hmm, very impressive!" he said admiring the chimera walking around on the table examining its own body.

"Cough," Hiruko let out a cough to calm his nerves before looking at Akashi's call and stern expression.

"What are you doing here your Highness the Sky Prince?! You are on forbidden ground, the forest of death is a sacred place of Konoha created by the first Hokage himself. Not only did you infiltrate the forest of death you also invaded a secret laboratory of the village, where I am performing secret research. Are you trying to create another conflict between our nations?!"

"Impressive performance, very convincing, Hiruko," Akashi said coldly as he looked at Hiruko with a smile, he met Hiruko several times in his outing with the sannin after all this young man was one of their friend of the same generation.

"Unfortunately for you, I know better. I know that this is your own personal project. I spent a lot of time just to make sure that it was really the case and that you weren't secretly cooperating with your superiors."

"What?!" He exclaimed gritting his teeth as his eyes looked at Akashi as if he was seeing him for the first time before screaming

"What do you know of the internal working of the village? I have the necessary authorization to proceed with my experience. You are just a little prince of a foreign nation, leave now before I have to call for your arrest on grounds of spying on the secret of my village!"

At that point Akashi could see the veins bulging on Hiruko's temple as he took a fighting stance as he was genuinely furious about Akashi's presence there.

"So this is your approach, huh, it would have worked on another but not me!"

Even though he sneered at Hiruko's posturing he had to admit that he was extremely smart, even in that situation he quickly tried to turn things around, if Akashi didn't have the information of the original story he might have been fooled.

"So if I go see the Hokage and tell him or the heads of the clans what you are doing with the corps of their members, that you are experimenting on your comrade of the village he will have your back."

Akashi looked around the place not bothering to look at the ugly expression that appeared on Hiruko's face.

"This impressive what you manage to accomplish by yourself, if you have asked Orochimaru or Danzo, they would have probably given you their full support," he said ignoring the threat behind him.

"Who is he really? How much does he know?!" Hiruko thought trying to find a solution to his predicament.

Akashi could nearly see how Hiruko's mind started to work at full speed and he could understand why he was so confused after all nobody I've ever noticed anything wrong with him, not the Hokage and his special force the Anbu, not the elder Danzo and his root, and not any of his friends who included even the three legendary sannins.

Nobody noticed the darkness his him or his ambitions, he had fooled everyone from his closest friends to the great dignitaries and the strongest and most experienced ninjas of the world, and yet Akashi that kid that arrived at Konoha a few months ago and who met not even a handful of time seemed to have completely figure out what kind of person he is.

"Chimera technique is the name right?!"

He saw how Hiruko stiffened at his words completely shaken before he closed his eyes for a second.

When he opened them he had regained his calm and Akashi could see the determination burning in the man's dark eyes.

"You you've made a mistake coming here alone!" The determination in hiruko's voice was obvious,

'He has regained his calm, good!'

"What?! Do you think that you can kill me, you can barely be called a Jonnin, with your intellect, you should've understood that I do not want to kill you on the contrary, I admire your intellect and way of thinking..."

"So what!?" Hiruko cut him off his anger blazing again "You think I will work for you when I refuse to do so for my own nation?"

"Of course, your Hokage, and his men will have you killed or imprisoned you for your work, Danzo will make a slave out of you, same with Orochimaru. I am different, you will have support and will be relatively free of your actions, we have the same kind of vision you and me, what do you think?"

He understood that the offer of Akashi would be beneficial to him and was maybe his only way out as in that situation it was sure that Akashi would kill him in case of refusal.

And yet he looked at him defiantly.

"No!"

It was all he said but at that instant, the temperature in the laboratory dropped by several degrees as they both released their murderous intent.

"Pride will only lead you to an early grave!"

"My pride and confidence is what brought me success in my endeavor and will allow me to surpass even the sannin, I will not lower myself to work for a kid."

"Then died!"