Naruto: Akatsuki

Akashi realized at some point, that there was no right or wrong in this world.

Such were simply the characteristics used to describe a person, and not more. 

And it was the same in this scenario, where he was about to face the numerous Kumo ninjas, all by himself, while being under the watch of Sasori's predatory eyes.

There would only be winners and losers, and no more.

As soon as Akashi thought as such, the Kumo ninjas moved. They began to flip through a small number of hand seals and bellowed their cheeks.

"""Lightning Release: Lightning Ball!"""

The blindingly bright lightning balls all surrounded Akashi, flying toward him as they sizzled the air.

A and B tensed up as they saw that the attacks were launched. They knew that although what they were seeing was the bombardment of ninjutsus, this man won't be someone to go down that easily.

It was just as they expected. Akashi didn't dodge but simply let the balls strike him simultaneously. The sparks flew everywhere while drying up the air. 

Within the explosions of lightning, the silhouette of Akashi faded. As the lightning died, there was the sudden expansion of,

"...Ash?"

The ash swept across the area, causing the near-most Kumo ninjas to cough in confusion. 

'Ash? This is...!'

Though the use of ash wasn't common, it wasn't necessarily unusual. All the Kumo ninjas knew that what was unlaid in front of them was the application of the fire release.

'A Kiri ninja with the fire nature...'

A's eyes sharpened; he felt the anger in him rising further as he realized that Akashi didn't fully go out the last time he's fought the masked man.

"B!"

"Let's go, big bro!"

A and B then dashed at a rapid speed after draping the lightning armor around their bodies. The speed at which they dashed was so fast that it seemed as if they disappeared.

When they reappeared in the sight of other Kumo ninjas, they were standing around Akashi who seemed to be intending on assassinating one of the Kumo ninjas who didn't even know that Akashi was there.

""Lightning Release: Double Lariat!!""

Two arms slammed onto the front- and back-side of Akashi's neck. Moving in an opposite direction and coupled with the sharpness brought by the lightning armor around them, Akashi's neck was severed, before he, again, exploded in a fit of ash.

"Ash..."

A frowned, feeling irk about it as he was now covered in ash.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Guess."

Suddenly, the Kumo ninja whom A and B saved spoke to them, smiling cockily. 

"Bakayaro!!"

"B! Wait—"

B immediately acted, body-slamming the Kumo ninja who was acting strangely.

The Kumo ninja screamed from pain as he was flown back from B's attack. Vomiting blood as he did so, he fell and groaned. 

"...Huh?"

B froze, clearly confused. 

"...Genjutsu!"

A gritted his teeth.

"We're in a genjutsu right now! Everyone who can hear me, quickly dispel!"

"...Fuck!"

A, B, and the other ninjas quickly raised their hands and formed a particular hand seal.

"""Kai!"""

The shroud of ash—one that they weren't aware due to the intensity of the battle—disappeared. 

Standing back in the plain, they saw that Akashi, without moving a single step, was still standing, surrounded by the Kumo ninjas.

The Kumo ninjas blinked their eyes, having realized that they hadn't moved a step since the very start.

'What is it that I watched then?'

B remembered the sensation of the blood of his comrade on his hand. Contrary to what he experienced, the exact same ninja was fine and alive, just as stupefied as any other.

'Just... just who is this man...'

A felt humiliated.

He knew that the ninjas of Kiri usually preferred using kenjutsu as their main way of fighting. Be it the ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, or other techniques, they were all used to support their notorious kenjutsu skills, because they believed that such was the most efficient method in abiding by the title of the bloody mist.

However, the one standing in front of them, 'Taka', was different. Though he proved himself to be one of the seven swordsmen with Kiba blades in his hands, he, much to A's surprise, actively used genjutsu in deceiving them. 

Coupled with his fire nature, which tends to be rare in Kiri, his style reminded A more of Konoha's fighting style rather than Kiri.

"...Everything about you was strange from the start."

A growled.

"A mysterious man who suddenly appeared as one of the seven swordsman... unknown yet with a skill level high enough to go on par with me..."

What A was doing at the moment wasn't simply the act of letting his anger out. 

Unknown to Akashi, a few ninjas of Kumo were currently underground, trying to sneak attack Akashi from below. A was buying time to let their plan go to fruition.

"There is no way that I can let go of a man like you! Be it one way or the other, you will surely become a nuisance for us in the future!"

Just as A said, five Kumo ninjas burst out of the ground surrounding Akashi. Then, Akashi found a pair of hands pulling his legs down; he was embedded into the ground within seconds, vulnerable to the attacks of the surrounding ninjas.

The kunais were thrown at a point-blank range, all landing on Akashi without fail. 

Silence. As the Kumo ninjas saw that no blood trickled out of Akashi's body, they took a step back.

Then, Akashi exploded into a load of ash, again.

Deja vu. 

Once again, Akashi disappeared. He then reappeared behind one of the unaware Kumo ninjas.

A and B quickly intervened to stop Akashi's advance without thinking. 

"Huff... huff..."

A's breathing quickened—not due to the fight, but rather, due to the rising frustration.

Raising his lightning-covered arm, A blocked the incoming attack from the Kumo ninja whom he and B just saved from Akashi.

"B! Don't kill him!"

Come to think of it, everything was strange.

The genjutsu that was placed on them right now, was it really a genjutsu in the first place?

Genjutsu involved the manipulation of the target's chakra flow. By altering the flow, it specifically manipulated the five senses of the target. 

This meant that each genjutsu is limited to one person only. Having multiple people placed under the same genjutsu, in one pit? It was akin to having two or more people share a dream together. In other words, it was impossible.

Another indication that this phenomenon wasn't a genjutsu, was the fact that their attempt to break free from the genjutsu via the genjutsu kai technique didn't work.

"...No. However, the only way to explain this sight-altering effect is genjutsu and nothing else."

As B grabbed the crazed Kumo ninja who was trying to attack them, A brazenly punched himself on the cheek, hard enough to make him spill blood from his nose.

"Big bro! What are you doing?!"

"As I expected..."

A grimaced while ignoring B, seeing that even pain failed to release them from this mysterious prison of hallucination.

__________

"...What did you do to them."

Standing in front of Akashi in the disguise of 'Taka' was Sasori of the 'Red Sand'. 

Behind them, there stood the Kumo ninjas, all alive but frozen as if entranced by something invisible. None of them moved but stood silently; Sasori felt an interest piquing in him as he saw the phenomenon.

Akashi had to resist an urge to snort.

'Sasori of the Red Sand.'

Seeing as Akashi effectively subdued his enemies without much trouble, Sasori immediately decided to reveal himself. After all, Sasori too was aware that Akashi already found out his presence; the only reason why Sasori remained hidden was to strike Akashi when he had weakened after the supposed combat against the Kumo ninjas.

"So what did you do."

Sasori demanded an answer. His dull eyes began to sparkle with an evident curiosity. 

"...Red Sand."

Akashi had no reason to answer, however.

"It looks like a bug has finally decided to reveal itself after buzzing around me for over a month."

Sasori flinched, as if not having expected himself to have been found out since the start.

"...How did you know?"

Yet another question to ask, Sasori thought as he found a grin making its way onto his face.

Without responding, Akashi drew his twin Kiba blades. As he did so, he peeked at his back, viewing the supposedly immobile Kumo ninjas.

The 'genjutsu-like phenomenon' that those Kumo ninjas were placed within was an extremely fine set of devices that Akashi built after a vigorous research of genjutsu and fuinjutsu back in Ame.

It required him to hide twelve different seals around the area; it could be said that this was something akin to a trap. 

The first five seals altered a human being's five senses. The sixth seal specifically generated the image of Akashi to the enemy's sight. The seventh seal altered the enemy's perception, making them think that an act of holding out the useless hand sign was the genjutsu kai technique.

The eighth seal, ninth seal, tenth seal, and hence on... continued, and altogether, generated one small world of illusion, one that the enemies won't be capable of getting out unless they knew how to specifically decipher the system or waited for the chakra within the seals to run out.

There was the third option of one individual having a large chakra amount enough to overload the system, but considering the number of seals, it was an extremely difficult matter to achieve.

'Theoretically, Killer B, being the jinchuriki of the eight tails, should be capable of doing it, but...'

As far as Akashi knew, Killer B was currently unable to control the tailed beast within him.

"Well, I will learn it one way or the other!"

Sasori held his arms wide open as he grinned psychotically, throwing five scrolls in the air. 

With puffs, five dangerous-looking, humanoid puppets revealed themselves from within the clouds of smoke, before Sasori attached the strings made out of his chakra onto their bodies.

However, by the time Sasori threw the scrolls, Akashi, after stabbing his Kiba blades on the ground, was already going through hand seals.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire."

It was one of the most common fire release techniques, widely distributed all across the elemental nations. Because of its simplicity, it was one of the ninjutsu that Akashi used the most.

Over the years, as Akashi's fire nature continued to grow in an abnormal manner, there have been changes. 

As Akashi now spat out the numerous sparks of fire, Sasori saw each one of them growing into huge, destructive balls of fire that struck his puppets immediately after their reveal.

Boom.

Explosions arose, and Sasori found his grin faltering as, in contrast to his expectations, Akashi's vigorous fire managed to penetrate the chakra-enhanced wood of his puppets and burned them crisp.

"...Huh?"

Sasori's face twitched.