The origin of ninshu, the ninja creed.
The god of all ninjas, who is said to have broken free from the chains of samsara.
Otsutsuki Hagoromo.
Slowly, the semi-transparent figure, robed and holding a black and metallic staff, emerged form Gin's figure.
This mystical-looking entity, with horns protruding out of his forehead, left Gin who sat back on the log, who is now unresponsive with his head dropped low.
"Gin, such is the name of this man. Unintentionally, a sliver of his chakra was left within the blade you received from him... protecting you from all the harms up until now."
Akashi's eye headed toward the unmoving form of Gin.
"..."
"No blade is unbreakable. No matter how mighty it may seem, limitations exist to crafts made of the earthly objects. By the time he appeared by your side in here, he was nothing but a hollow shell... meaning that the death of the blade, too, is near."
Ryuma, the prized blade of Kiri that Akashi succeeded from Gin.
Hagoromo was telling Akashi that such a blade was at the verge of its end.
With a calm attitude, Hagoromo walked toward the side. Akashi's eye followed the moving figure of the mystical man, and he continued talking, now moving onto a different matter,
"This area is what you would consider a limbo. It is the crevice between the life and death, the place of ambiguity and freedom."
Hagoromo tapped his staff against the ground that Akashi didn't know existed. It generated a clear sound as ripples spread centring the staff's base.
"There were couple of times in the past when I visited the mindscapes of human beings, but for me to be visited by a human instead... it truly is the first time this has happened. And this intrigues me."
Akashi watched as the ripples disappeared into the darkness beyond. He wondered if this dimension that he and Hagoromo stood within was endless; nothing made sense.
"However, that isn't what is important at the moment. What you must be invested in must be... whether you will end up dead or back alive."
"And you stated that the matter has left my hands."
Akashi remarked in a monotone, and Hagoromo nodded.
"You were killed within the genjutsu world. Yet, instead of the spiritual death that was supposed to happen, a physical death took place... because said genjutsu world was the application of the Eye of the Moon Plan."
Hagoromo's expression darkened as he said this.
"Even Uchiha Madara doesn't have the full understanding in this ritual. It isn't the mere process that achieves the dream lives of all the human beings... it is the preliminary step to unseal the Rabbit Goddess, Otsutsuki Kaguya."
"...So in the end, even Uchiha Madara, the puppet master of many events around the world today, is under the manipulation of another being."
Akashi thought of how ironic it sounded.
"The ultimate purpose of the Eye of the Moon Plan, therefore, is to convert all life forms of the world into chakra batteries. To do so, the 'physical traits' of human beings must remain—which ended up in the creation of an unstable world that cannot simply be defined as the 'genjutsu' world."
Hagoromo was saying that everything that led Akashi to his front was nothing but a sheer happening, something that no one expected.
"Gamamaru prophesied that it will be the Child of Prophecy to save or destroy this world. The future that I saw was the pair of young men, one reincarnates of Indra and ASura, standing before me. However..."
Hagoromo turned to look at Akashi.
"At this moment, you have broken through the ties of life and death. Without Rinnegan and Six Paths chakra, you have broken yourself free from the yarn of fate."
"Now, aren't you getting lengthy with your words."
Akashi commented, cold-faced.
"Free from the fate? More like... being helpless."
Being free from the fate meant that he was free from all laws of the world at the moment.
Chakra, life, all the concepts of the Elemental Nations no longer applied to Akashi right now. With all that he's done being tied to these natural laws, there was nothing that Akashi could do to get himself out of this situation without an external help.
"...All this is a speculation even on my part. What I can tell you with a fair degree of confidence, again, is that the only way to save you is from within the genjutsu world where you died at."
"Because the complex array of fuinjutsu sealed my body away, before I suffered the 'physical' death within it."
Hagoromo nodded before placing his hand out.
"Thus, I have a suggestion."
Akashi narrowed his eye.
"I will let you borrow the power of Indra and Asura, the power to break through this world of limbo and save your loved ones."
"And what is the repercussion of accepting the deal?"
"...After a day, you will perish. Without a trace."
Hagoromo gazed into Akashi's eye as he said so. It was as if he was peering right into Akashi's soul.
"Your soul will be shredded into the oblivion. You will die the most agonizing way possible, and it will be the eternal death."
"Is that so?"
Sighing, Akashi sat down on the log next to the unmoving form of Gin.
Many memories flashed into Akashi's mind.
All the hardships he's gone through, all that he's done to save his loved ones...
Yet, he always held a degree of hollowness in his heart. His other self was right in some aspects—that he was a lonely being.
He tried to search for reasons to continue living after Madara's death, to ease this hollowness in him. There certainly were many times when death sounded sweet in his ears.
Now, facing the option to save everyone from hands of Madara at the cost of his life, Akashi felt a sense of freedom fill him. It was as if his body became light, as if he became free from a burden that was pulling him down.
It was perfect, fitting the exact scenario that he perhaps was wishing for.
Too perfect, in fact.
"..."
Once again, opening his palm, Akashi looked into it.
"Perhaps..."
When Akashi was young, he hated the feeling of helplessness. Therefore, he grit through the hardships to become a strong shinobi whom he wanted to be.
However, was that really the only way? To brute-force through everything?
Perhaps... the reason why Akashi was lonely, was because he was unable to trust those around him.
He didn't view them as someone of equal standing. Deep in his mind, he viewed them as those whom he must protect.
'...Konan.'
Akashi knew.
Although he told her to leave the genjutsu world, she wouldn't listen to him.
No matter how long it took her, she will attempt to bring him back to life. No matter how foolish and impossible it may seem, as long as he was roped into it, she wouldn't give up.
"...You are the creator of ninshu."
Akashi finally spoke once again, breaking the silence.
"In the first place, the point of chakra was to give us the better understandings of ourselves and the others. The essence of chakra is no different than the essence of human life, which is the act of bonding with others."
Slowly, Akashi closed his eye.
Gathering his legs, he entered a meditating pose.
Nothing could be felt. But that was fine. The point wasn't to feel, but to empty.
"Therefore, I would trust."
"...Is that so?"
At last, Hagoromo broke his stoic expression and chuckled.
"Then, I too will trust in the will of the humanity."
Ultimately, Akashi refused Hagoromo's offer. He chose the uncertainty over the guaranteed victory.
He decided to set his own path, to pursue life over death.
Little did Akashi know that the ripples Hagoromo formed were no longer there. Interestingly, the ripples were still morphing the shape of the ground—except that said ripples were centred off Akashi.
Hagoromo turned to gaze at the unmoving form of Gin.
Surprisingly, Gin managed to raise his head slightly and give a weak nod, causing Hagoromo to chuckle once more.
'Akatsuki, huh.'
Daybreak.
Through the fire within Akashi, the world of darkness will be illuminated.
Knowing that his role was over, Hagoromo walked away from the site, anticipating for the arrival of the new dawn.
__________
"Still not leaving?"
There was nothing but white around them.
Konan, still holding onto the cold body of unresponsive Akashi, caressed his cold cheek with a soft expression.
Madara—or his chakra that was left within this genjutsu world—was still present at the site as well. Unable to understand Konan's action, he relentlessly pointed his finger at the exit that still remained.
"Akashi is dead. He won't return. Foolish girl, what even is left for you to do in here?"
The genjutsu collapsed the moment Akashi died. Konan, being a foreigner, wasn't the primary target of it in the first place. Currently, the only thing that was confining Konan was the fuinjutsu portion of the orb, which was easily escapable thanks to the vivid exit in front of them.
Madara, full of disbelief, continued to shout at Konan.
However, no word seemed to reach her as her eyes didn't cease to leave Akashi who was within her embrace.
"...You look so peaceful. You really wanted to rest, didn't you?"
Konan whispered.
"But... you know that you cannot go yet. We need you. This world, no matter how it doesn't deserve you, needs you."
Her eyes held all the emotion that it could contain. Above them all, there was desperation.
"Ever since I could remember, you were my hero. Without Akashi, Konan cannot exist."
Konan didn't know what she was doing, or why she was doing all of this.
Nothing made sense, but it all didn't matter to her.
Numerous memories of the past ran through her mind.
All the stuff that they did together, all the strife that they've gone through, the separation that they suffered because of Akashi's sacrifice...
By the time Konan realized, she was brazenly pushing her chakra into Akashi.
"What are you doing?"
Madara frowned at that.
"What do you think you're doing? It isn't even the conventional medical ninjutsu that you're performing!"
Yet, he felt goosebumps. The instinct that he honed through countless fights he went through told him that Konan must be stopped.
So he did, immediately dashing toward Konan and slashing his battle fan, Gunbai.
However, Gunbai went through her, meaning that he could no longer interfere with her.
"My figure..."
Madara realized that his time was up; that the chakra that his original self injected was about to run out.
In horror, he watched as the seal on Akashi's hand, one that was formed with him when he was taking the persona of 'Chakka,' was glowing once again.
"Transfer of chakra..."
Slowly, his eyes widened.
"Ninshu..."
Unfortunately, he didn't get to watch any further, as his form disappeared from this world of white.
__________
"...!"
Madara momentarily froze as he felt a disturbance along with a foreign memory. It belonged to the chakra that he injected into the orb that sealed Akashi and Konan, which has now returned to him.
However, he quickly regained his poker face, as he looked at the powerhouses of the world who had him surrounded.
"Shall we dance?"
Pushing the thoughts aside for now, Madara revealed a bloodthirsty grin as the killing intent that he emitted swept through everyone in the room.
__________
Sage Mode involved the incorporation of the natural energy that was composed of positive and negative energies.
Those positive and negative energies were the embodiment of what one would call the emotion.
While they are helpful in entering the Sage Mode, they are conversely nothing but impurities in achieving the ultimate Yin-Yang Release.
Now, Akashi knew. To get rid of positive and negative energies, and to therefore reject the nature, was to free oneself from the chains of emotion.
Therefore, he emptied all thoughts in him. Because there was no thought, there was no emotion.
There only existed the inner peace, as his tired soul finally got to rest from all the worries and turmoils it was put under.
And, a sliver of white energy, looking like a thin thread, travelled down from the pitch-dark sky.
As it reached Akashi, he felt the warmth that it contained.
Ba-Bump.
He heard the sound of his heart beating. He felt the life. He felt the Yang that he was familiar with.
Konan was sending her emotion to him. He could understand how she felt. He felt the strong desire in her to bring him back alive. He felt the love.
Slowly, calmly, and peacefully, he carefully handled Yang that he received. It steadily swirled within him, mixing with his soul, Yin.
As the twin opposites swirled, the size of Yang began to grow.
Patiently, Akashi continued on the process.
Yang continued to grow and grow more, and then—
—With a click, Akashi knew.
Yang achieved the size of Yin, completing the golden one-to-one ratio.
When Akashi opened his eye, he was no longer in the black world of limbo.
Instead, he saw the concerned and yet overjoyed expression of the familiar purple-haired woman who saved him this time around.
"A-Akashi, your... eye..."
That's when Akashi realized.
He didn't open an eye. Instead, he opened eyes.
In place of the scar, there was a full-fledged eye, the organ that he lost years ago. Once again, he became two-eyed.
He didn't over-react. He simply embraced Konan, and they stayed like that for a while.