Naruto, Madara is my girl.

Fierce, brutal, and over-the-top deadly-every burst of Akira's chakra twisted the terrain underfoot. The ninjutsu rolled out loud enough to make the trees tremble each time he fired off another round. Wave after wave of enemies came charging toward them with confidence in numbers, and one by one, they dropped just as quickly. Dead weight, every last one of them.

Akira wiped blood off his sword without even looking at who he'd killed. Tobirama stepped beside him, dragging his blade across the ground to clean it too.

"Which batch is this?"

Akira snapped the neck of the last ninja standing with one hand and flicked his wrist to shake off muscle and blood before replying flatly.

"Eighth. Tobirama, is your strength getting worse or are you just letting these guys chase you off like chickens?"

Tobirama didn't take the bait. He rolled his eyes and bent to loot weapons off the fallen bodies.

"They're nothing on their own. What matters are those two brothers."

Akira already knew which ones Tobirama was talking about but answering directly would raise suspicion. It'd be way too easy for Tobirama to figure out Akira had knowledge he shouldn't have unless he'd seen it firsthand or worse, come back from the dead using some forbidden technique.

Tobirama stood straight again and slapped his hands clean before speaking up.

"They're called Kinkaku and Ginkaku. Rank S with chakra to back it up. Word is, they carry relics belonging to the Sage of Six Paths himself. No one escapes them alive, so reports are thin."

Akira scoffed.

"Six Paths relics? That's it?"

Tobirama's eyes narrowed in offense. He was happy to take some teasing earlier, but now?

"They killed the Second Raikage because they weren't satisfied with how peace talks ended and let's be honest, I doubt even I could've taken the Raikage alone."

Akira shrugged like none of that mattered.

"You're just weak. And those relics they're not hard to deal with if you know how."

Tobirama didn't even bother reacting to the insult this time.

"Oh? Enlighten me then."

Akira grabbed one of the enemy's torn sleeves and tied it into messy knots before tossing it at Tobirama's face.

"Here. That'll fix it."

Tobirama caught it midair and frowned.

"What is this?"

"A gag. Put it in your mouth, it stops them from sealing you."

Tobirama stared hard at the cloth, only now realizing what Akira had made it into.

"...Don't think I don't know what this is actually used for."

Akira grinned and stepped closer, eyes gleaming.

"What's it used for, then?"

Tobirama stiffened and tried to backpedal from the implication.

"I-you-shut up-"

"Pathetic," Akira said with open amusement and waved one hand dismissively. "Anyway-the Six Paths Relics only work through word based sealing techniques. You speak certain keywords, they use that to trap you. It's stupidly unfair."

Tobirama's face lost some color.

"So if I don't say anything-"

"Innocent," Akira cut in sharply with narrowed eyes. "What if I shout your name? That counts too."

Tobirama's jaw locked as the implications sank in.

"Once they get you to speak, even just to respond. they've already set up half the seal," Akira added. "Gagging yourself ruins their setup and forces them into direct combat. Cuts their power in half instantly."

Tobirama studied him briefly, then turned away. He found another scrap of clean cloth from one of the fallen and fashioned his own gag before tying it tight between his jaws.

"For Konoha," he grunted through clenched teeth as he mentally buried whatever pride he had left beneath tactical necessity.

When he turned back toward Akira to check if he was doing the same thing, he noticed Akira hadn't moved at all.

Akira shook his head and held up two soldier pills between his fingers with that same shit-eating grin stretched across his face.

"Found these in one of their bags. I'll keep them in my mouth, if I try to talk, they'll stop me faster than any gag ever could. So yeah... no cloth for me."

Tobirama tore the dirty gag from his mouth and glared at him in silence while breathing deep through his nose. Fists clenched tighter as he tried not to yell outright and failed internally again and again until he managed to suppress himself with one sentence:

"For Konoha."

Focused again, Tobirama looked back up with narrowed eyes.

"There are other Relics too-what about them?"

Akira rolled his shoulders in a relaxed shrug.

"The rest? They're not sealing types, so I've no clue how they work. Don't waste your time on what we don't have info on."

Tobirama grimaced but nodded anyway. If Akira knew any of this from records the Uzumaki clan kept hidden away, it only made sense now that Tobirama felt regret for ever ignoring their archives's worth in past years.

"If I make it back, I'm consolidating intel from every clan I've ignored so far."

"IF you make it back," Akira replied bluntly without looking at him again.

They cleaned up fast, neither commenting on how many corpses surrounded them anymore and both sensed incoming chakra signatures almost immediately after.

"Flanked…" Tobirama tightened his grip around his blade handle, then nodded slowly when he felt pressure closing in on both ends.

"Great," he said simply before popping another pill into his mouth and readjusting his cloth mask over his face for dignity's sake.

They didn't wait long.

Laughter boomed above the trees ahead-deep, ragged, proud of itself long before anything else happened.

"Hahaha! Finally found you… Tobirama."

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