Naruto: Akatsuki

"Peace?"

"Peace?"

As Gai weakly whispered out of curiosity, Akashi felt as if the voice of his younger self rang in his ears.

"The day that the kids like you get to laugh and play around without any worry. The day that no one has to die. The day that no hatred lingers by. Though it's impossible... yes, though it's naive..."

The voice rang in Akashi's mind. For some reason, though it wasn't a pleasant past to think of, he felt nostalgic to some extent.

"Peace is..."

Akashi muttered, feeling responsible for explaining what peace meant to Gai. However, he had to pause in the middle, for he himself didn't understand peace either.

He attempted to define it in many ways. He used to set it as his goal, then denied its existence. In the end, peace was such a vague term, one that may be interpreted differently by different perspectives.

Akashi soon realized though, that there was no need for him to explain for now at least, for Gai in his grasp, out of exhaustion, seemed to have fallen asleep.

"..."

Akashi looked up.

In his view, the snow continued to rain. To others, it was a ferocious blizzard to avoid, but to him, for some reason, this seemed nothing more than heavy rain—except that it was snow instead of rain.

Familiarity, yes. It was a matter of experience.

Just as how Akashi was exposed to cold and rain all the time, his life was filled with violence and grief—enough for him to be drawn to the idea of peace.

"Beyond that red cloud."

In the end, what even was the 'thing beyond the red cloud' that Akashi's younger self spoke of?

Looking at Gai, Akashi felt as if he was standing at a crossroads. Depending on the choices he makes, the outcomes as well as who he is—everything will meet a critical change.

Akashi was now a ninja just like his mysterious benefactor, one who made his own choices.

He was now yet another one who knew and understood the reality, someone who's grown accustomed to the norms of this world.

And to some extent, Akashi found it ironic. Whenever he thought of making choices, he always linked it to the idea of 'peace', even though he claimed the he no longer cared about it.

...He was certain of one thing, however—that although he may not, the children deserved peace.

__________

"Huh?!"

When Gai opened his eyes, he was in a warm, wooden room. With his eyes widened, he quickly looked around before groaning in pain as he realized how injured his body was. 

Flopping back onto the bed he lied on, Gai tried to calm his rapidly beating heart, but to no avail.

"Mei!"

In fear, Gai cried, but there no longer was the red-haired older girl who was there to greet him.

Instead,

"?"

there was a taller guy with long, messy brown hair and an equally messy beard. His hair, though long enough to cover his lone eye, wasn't able to hide its sharp gleam.

The memory of what happened before flashed back to Gai. Gai's eyes widened as he found himself shivering,

"Red... Blade..."

"Akashi, more like."

Akashi responded plainly. As he did so, his hand was holding onto a cup of water awkwardly, and he seemed to be pondering what to do with it.

"Want some water?"

"..."

"...Guess not."

Gai didn't respond. After some silence, Akashi ended up draining it himself.

Gai, as if petrified, didn't move or say anything for a while. Feeling awkward, Akashi simply stared back at the boy, trying to think what to do afterward.

Then, Gai gritted his teeth as if having made up his mind. Standing up boldly from the bed only to fall back and groan in pain, Gai shouted,

"I've been—"

His words were interrupted by Akashi as the latter clasped his palm over the child's mouth.

"Shh,"

Akashi raised his finger up,

"Try to keep your voice as quiet as possible. This place isn't as safe as you think."

Gai froze once more in realization. Gai nodded slowly and Akashi removed his hand.

"I've been... looking for you. For a year."

Out of anticipation and dissipating fear after seeing that Akashi didn't have any bad intent on him, Gai whispered.

"Look for me?"

Akashi raised his eyebrow at that.

"Interesting. The only ones interested in me were either bounty hunters or tracking ninjas of hidden villages."

"It's... it's about my dad. Maito Dai."

"Dai? That name..."

Akashi revealed a subtle surprise for a brief moment before his visage returned to that of a poker face.

"...Yes, I do remember him. Wasn't he a shinobi from Konohagakure?"

"He's been arrested and imprisoned. Apparently, he betrayed the village and killed other ninjas from Konoha. But I know that there is no way that he did that, no way—"

Out of anger, Gai's voice began to go up again, causing Akashi to cover the former's mouth for the second time.

"Betrayal?"

Akashi recalled what happened during that time—the event that occurred four years or more before.

"I was attacked by Shimura Danzo's subordinates. Correspondingly, my path overlapped with Kakuzu, who was interested in my bounty. Kakuzu killed Dai's teammates, and we joined hands to kill Kakuzu—"

Only one scenario explained everything. For Dai to be accused of treason without a proper investigation, there had to be Danzo's involvement. For Danzo to be involved in this scenario... this meant that Danzo made a deal with Kakuzu, probably to kill Akashi.

Akashi chuckled as he removed his hand from Gai's mouth.

"Seems like a scum still finds a way to mess with other people's lives even after his death."

"...So you do know. That my dad is innocent."

"Seems like so. Your dad didn't look like someone who'd betray either."

"Then—"

"Then what?"

Cutting Gai's words off, Akashi reasoned.

"I'm not a ninja of Konohagakure. Rather, I'm a criminal wanted everywhere—either for the money above my neck or for my service. My words hold no credibility, and I have no reason to personally invade the nation of millions of ninjas to rescue a man whom I barely know of."

Naive. Idealistic. And because of that, innocent. Watching Gai reminded Akashi of his younger self.

"T-then..."

Gai's head dropped to the ground,

"What's the point of my year-long journey?"

The sorrow freely exited through Gai's eyes as he was no longer able to hold his emotion.

"My dad was all that I had. But he was arrested and deemed as a criminal. People, everyone there started to mistreat me. I was treated like a dirtbag, open for anyone to kick. I had no one to rely on, and I had no power. I am unable to do anything by myself. What... what am I supposed to do here..."

Back in the past, Nagato was sick. Akashi also found himself helpless, not knowing what to do. And what was his eventual action back then?

Seek for help. Gai was technically doing the very same thing.

"It wasn't that I wasn't aware."

Gai muttered.

"I knew that trying to seek help from an S-ranked criminal of all things is the same as committing suicide. But will you believe me if I told you that your presence is safer than those people of Konoha? Their words were killing me. They spat all kinds of curses at me, saying that it was my dad's fault that ninjas died, and after Danzo died too... it became worse. It was unbearable, enough that I may end up killing myself. I had to get out with a goal in mind.. even if it was unrealistic."

Maintaining his impassiveness, Akashi observed Gai. His hand gestures, expressions, and overall body language—they were all genuine and candid.

...Frankly speaking, Akashi held a slight caution against Gai.

Gai may have been on the same side as the ninja whom Akashi killed, trying to make Akashi let his guard down before revealing his intent. Child soldiers were pretty common in this cruel world, after all.

Gai truly was Dai's son. And he, in almost every aspect, didn't seem to have been trained. His behaviours, skills, prowess—everything told Akashi that Gai was on the level of a civilian boy.

And though Akashi didn't mention, he could think of one way to help tackle Gai's issue—in an indirect way though.

"Take some rest."

As Gai was left in his state of a nigh despair, Akashi spoke as he stood up.

"Don't give up though."

As Akashi stated, Gai looked up. Akashi, with his back, turned away and his head turned to look at Gai, had his lone eye twinkle mysteriously; Gai couldn't tell if Akashi was meant to appear mischievous or not.

"Who knows? A miracle may occur. You never know, that's how the life goes."

Leaving such a message, Akashi exited the room, leaving Gai by himself.

And now, standing in the hallway—of one inn that Akashi managed to find in a snowy town, he shifted his eye to the right.

Just as he did so, he found a broadsword with its sharp end placed right in front of his neck.

"Try anything and your neck falls."

Zabuza growled from Akashi's back. Akashi seemed unfazed.

Walking up front toward Akashi and Zabuza, across the hallway, was the red-haired girl, Mei.

"Where is Gai?"

"...Three, is it?"

Then, Akashi said lazily, causing Mei and Zabuza's eyes to widen.

"Your technique of ambushing from the back with a sword as huge as this... suggests that you belong to Kiri. At the same time, your blade reeks of the stench of the blood."

Akashi's blue eye casually swiped across the blade held in front of him.

"Knowing that Kiri is in a state of divergence, and finding a couple of distinguishable traits between you and them, it is likely that you killed those other Kiri ninjas. They were quite proficient as well, as evident from your injuries."

Mei grimaced. It was as Akashi said.

After a battle that they barely pulled off, they quickly tracked Gai down, which was only possible because Ao, their third member and the only adult on the team, was the sensor type, being able to sense chakra. Gai unconsciously leaked chakra as he panickily ran—probably as a body's natural instinct to run as fast as he could by enhancing his body.

From a small amount of information, Akashi learned many things. At the same time, Zabuza began to calculate—the chance of the current Akashi being a clone.

"Have your third man get down first. Then we speak."

Then, Akashi mentioned the biggest secret that Mei and Zabuza were hiding, causing Mei to click her tongue.

"We're quite close to Yukigakure. Surely, you don't want yourself caught up in a mess you won't likely survive, no?"

Yielding to Akashi's words, Mei signaled. In correspondence, Ao appeared next to Mei with a stoic expression.

Tension seemed to be rising as the three fell silent.

Feeling insecure, Zabuza didn't release his blade next to Akashi's exposed neck.

In this state, Akashi stated,

"Gai is safe. I tried to give him water but he didn't seem thirsty."

And that statement seems to have taken away all the tension.

The three Kiri ninjas found themselves dumbfounded.

An S-ranked criminal abducted a young boy. With this criminal well known for being bloodthirsty, the chance of Gai being safe seemed highly unlikely. Honestly speaking, this violent trait was one of the reasons why Mei attempted to recruit him; she thought that to match the violent tendencies of her enemies in Kiri, they needed someone just as violent.

They expected something akin to a gruesome torture, one that severs some limbs here and there.

But safe, he said. Atop of that, he attempted to add on a dry joke.

Akashi sighed as he slowly pushed Zabuza's blade away with his bare hand. After, he pointed at the door behind him,

"We talk inside, 30 minutes at best though. After, prepare to put on a disguise and leave this place. I won't kill you..."

His eye looked at each one of them with an underlying threat,

"...yet."

Afterward, Akashi returned to the room with three more, much to Gai's surprise.

"Did you have enough rest?"

Akashi asked, and Gai found himself mumbling,

"That was like... 5 minutes of time...."

Things seemed to be turning out in a weird manner.