Н‘¾Ð‘¯Ð‘¬Ð‘Μ Ð‘»Ð‘¯Ð‘¬ Н‘¾Ð‘°Ð‘Μ𝑫 Н‘©Ð‘³Ð‘¶Ð‘¾Ð‘º €¢Ð’Ƒ𝒙Н’Ƒ• The Five Kage Summit

“I will stay”. Were the words that left the lips of the boy next to him. Those were the words Sasuke wished to hear. The ones which he wished the hear the last time they met. And now… He finally got the answer. The boy had tilted his head, violet eyes staring at him from beneath the thin lashes. “Were those the same words you wanted to hear the last time we met?” He leaned away from the wall. “The same words you almost begged me to say?” He asked.

“Yes”. Sasuke found himself admitting. It was the truth, he had wanted him to stay… He had wanted to hear those words from him…

Akashi blinked at the confession. “Well, now you heard them…”, he tapped the pad of his fingers on the bed covers, “… You know… When you asked me to stay back then, I almost did”. Since it felt like it was confession time, he would confess. He wasn’t ashamed of his thoughts and it seemed Sasuke wasn’t either. “I struggled a little with what I should do… The village or myself? The village or myself? … I kept on asking inside my head and I got an answer… One life was not worth more than a thousand others”. A laugh resounded in front of Sasuke and he found himself looking at the laughing redhead. “How stupid that thought was… A thousand lives were not worth more than one… I realised that too late”.

“But you realised it”. Sasuke spoke up. “You still realised it and that’s why you’re here… That’s why you left Konoha… Because you have a goal which needs to be achieved”. Ah… That’s right… When he said it like that, Akashi realised something else.

Sasuke and he weren’t so different after all… They both did what had to be done for the fulfilment of their goals… They hurt people who cared about them and left them without a second thought… And yet, Akashi had blamed Sasuke…

He hadn’t understood him at that time… He thought he did, but he really didn’t… He blamed him for leaving even though he said he wasn’t blaming him… He told him he hated him…

And yet, here he was, in the same position as the boy in front of him was…

How was he so blind? How didn’t he understand?

He was a stupid, naive, little, boy… A boy who didn’t understand anything…

But things were different now… He went through agony to get to this point… He did things he never would have thought about before… And he is not going back… No matter what happened…

He will never return to Konoha…

“We are not so different in the end, are we?” Sasuke heard him speak up after a while of silence. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be in deep thought, judging by his furrowed brows. They weren’t so different? Well… He was right… They both did things they didn’t regret to achieve something important to them… So, no, they weren’t different… Not at all…

“Seems like we’re not”. He agreed, looking away and towards the room door.

“You are still with those three, eh?” He glanced back at the question and saw that Akashi had one eye open while staring at him.

“I am”. Akashi closed the eye at the answer, before he let himself fall side-ways onto the bed. He stretched his arms and legs, releasing a sigh at the audible crack in his back, before he glanced at the raven-haired boy besides him.

“Now you got four people”. The redhead reached a hand forward and grabbed the hem of Sasuke’s shirt, just holding it between his fingers. Sasuke looked down at him and found himself not being able to look away. Those bright violet eyes of his were staring straight at him and those lips of his had curled up into a small smile. “The more the merrier, is that not what they say?” The boy asked. His eyes may have been bright, but they were still filled with indifference.

Oh, how Sasuke longed for them to look at him the same way they looked at him those three years ago.

“It is”. Akashi rolled over to his back and released Sasuke’s shirt at the answer. His arms spread across the bed and he closed his eyes, breathing out a sigh. Sasuke couldn’t help but think he looked peaceful like that. He looked like there was not a single thing he worried about… Not a single thing he thought about…

“Konoha was destroyed”. Sasuke looked at him at those words. But… His eyes looked sad…

“I know”. Was the raven-haired boy’s reply.

“Then why do you look so sad?” Akashi questioned, watching as Sasuke bit his lips in something akin to frustration.

“I was supposed to destroy it”. Akashi was taken aback at the confession. He wanted to destroy it? Why? It had done nothing to wrong him, so why?

“Why?” Akashi asked, staring at the dark ceiling above their heads. Sasuke remained silent and stared blankly at the wall on the opposite side of the room. The redhead rolled to his side and glanced up at the other boy. He was expressionless, but he could see something akin to regret in his eyes…

Regret? What for?

“I killed Itachi”. Ah… So he was right… He had fulfilled his goal… But, that didn’t tell him why he wanted to destroy Konoha… “After that, I was found by Uchiha Madara”. Uchiha Madara?! How the hell was he still alive?! He shouldn’t be alive! Akashi sat up in alarm at the revelation. “He told me the truth about why Itachi did what he did… He told me that the elders ordered Itachi to kill our clan, because the Uchiha’s wanted to take over the village by using the Nine-Tails”. Sasuke finished.

“Uchiha Madara? So he was alive… after all this time”. Akashi mumbled. Who would have thought that the man would survive for so long? And… The elders? Who even were the elders? “Who are the elders?” He asked, but Sasuke didn’t turn to look at him.

“The Third Hokage didn’t agree with their methods and he wanted to deal with things in a peaceful way, but the elders went behind the Hokage’s back and that man… Danzo-!” He didn’t even finish his sentence, when he felt hands grab at his shoulders. He was harshly turned to the side and was met with a sight he didn’t expect.

A shiver went down his spine at the sight of those violet eyes of his. They were absolutely livid…

“Did you just say Danzo?” The boy growled out and Sasuke bit back a wince as the grip on his shoulders harshened. What was going on?

“I did”. He answered and Akashi grit his teeth together at the reply. The redhead clenched his eyes shut and released him, leaning back onto the wall as his body shook in poorly restrained anger.

“That scumbag will die”. His voice was low as he said that and his hands gripped at the bed covers. “He will die by my hands!” His eyes snapped open, violet replaced by crimson red. Sasuke watched them light aflame in pure hatred…

Even the word hatred couldn’t describe what Akashi felt…

“Why?” Sasuke found himself asking… He knew little to nothing anything about Akashi since he left the village those three years ago, and he didn’t know the reason for so much hate towards the man.

He wanted to know.

Those crimson eyes of his glanced at Sasuke. “The boy who’s name I called out, Shinya, was a part of my ANBU team, along with two other members…”, he bit out, eyes narrowing in Sasuke’s direction, “… What I did not know, was the fact that he was also a hidden ROOT member…”. Sasuke observed how the redhead behaved. Every part of him indicated that he was in a state in anger, but why…?

Why were his eyes so sad?

“Danzo had put him on my team…”. His eyes flickered between violet and red. “Time passed…”. The colour settled back to violet. “He kept his cool while on missions and he focused purely on them… But, as soon as we had free time, he would chase after me…”. Sasuke could swear he saw the boy’s lips quirk up in a sad smile. “He always told me stupid jokes, ones which were so stupid that they became funny…”. The grip he had on the covers relaxed and he took a deep breath. “We got close… Really close…”. Sasuke knew what that meant.

They were lovers…

“For a while, I finally felt something I had not felt for a long time… Happiness… Comfort… I felt safe, like nothing could hurt me if I had Shinya by my side…”. The raven-haired boy felt his heart throb inside his chest. Akashi had really loved that boy… He loved him… A sense of regret flooded through Sasuke at the thought of that. “I got this scar on my very first ANBU mission… If it were not for Shinya, I would have been killed…”. Akashi reached a hand over his scarred eye and dug his fingers into the skin around it.

“What happened to him?” Sasuke asked, seeing that Akashi had grown silent for a while now.

“Shinya was ordered to kill me… by Danzo”. Sasuke’s eyes widened at the fact. Danzo wanted Akashi dead? What for? Because he had the Nine-Tails inside him? Because he was dangerous?

“Is that why you want Danzo dead?” He asked, watching as Akashi’s expression fully shifted…

Sasuke felt his insides twist at the sight of those broken eyes… What the hell happened to him? Just what the hell did he have to do?!

“No… That is not the reason…”, he mumbled and looked away. “I killed Shinya”. Sasuke froze in place at the confession. He… killed Shinya? “He begged me to kill him and I drove a blade straight through his heart… I held his body in my arms as the life drained out of it…”. He took a deep breath and released a shaky one as he grit his teeth. “I had to kill my lover… The boy who gave me his world and wished for nothing in return… The boy who chose my life over his own…”. Sasuke watched as Akashi leaned forward.

“The blood on my hands will never be washed away and for that very same reason… “. The boy had raised his hand in the air, “… I will watch as Danzo drowns in it…”, and slowly clenched his fist shut.

“Seems like we have a common goal”. Sasuke spoke up, meeting eyes with the redhead. “Danzo will pay… for everything”. As they looked at each other, Akashi couldn’t help but think…

Those words of his sounded like a promise…

Without thinking, he leaned forward and their lips collided in a brief kiss. As he pulled back, he was met with the widened eyes of the other boy. “What was that for?” Sasuke asked and glared at him.

“Felt like it”. Akashi leaned back, but not before a hand wrapped around his wrist. He glanced between the hand and the other boy, raising his brows in question. Sasuke gave no such thing, instead, he shifted forward and pushed Akashi down with a hand on his chest.

“What was that for?” Akashi asked, blankly staring at the boy over him.

“Felt like it”. His own words got thrown right back at him. It almost seemed hilarious to him at that moment.

Sasuke tightened the grip he had on his wrist and leaned down. Just as their lips were about to connect once more, Akashi decided to speak up.

“Are you sure you should be doing this? Karin is right outside the door in three… two…”. Before Akashi even got to one, a knock came from the door behind them. Sasuke released the boy under him with a sigh and leaned back, getting off the bed. Akashi remained in the laying position and closed his eyes.

“Come in”. The door opened and in walked Karin.

She looked between the two of them with a suspicious look on her face, before she spoke up. “When are we leaving?” She asked, not looking away from Sasuke. The said boy glanced at the redhead on the bed and turned back to Karin.

“Right now… Akashi, your things are on the table, get ready”. Then, without another word, he walked past Karin and out of the door, leaving the two people in the room. Akashi sat up and lowered his legs onto the ground, lightly pushing off the bed. He ignored Karin and walked up to the table in the corner of the room, grabbing all of his stuff. Once he was done, he reached for the blade on his back, just to touch empty air. He clicked his tongue as he remembered what happened.

The blade had broke while he fought with Naruto… Seems like he will have to rely on his kunai and chains for a while…

Damn it…

He turned around and saw that Karin was staring at him. “What?” He asked, making her blink at him.

“Oh, you’re not taking that cape?” She pointed at the black cape on the table. That was left there for him? He reached for it and grabbed it, swinging it over his body. It was red underneath. After he secured everything, he followed Karin out of the room.

As he exited the room, he found himself in a long hallway… The place they were at seemed to be abandoned? Where the hell was he? Karin led him into a room and there he saw Sasuke, Suigetsu, a… younger Juugo and some humanoid creature with white skin. “Who is that?” It asked, curiously glancing at the redhead in front of itself.

“Akashi”. The said boy introduced himself with a barely restrained grimace on his face… The thing was plain creepy, to say the least. After that brief introduction passed, all of them exited the building.

_

“Where are we going?” Akashi questioned as he ran next to the raven-haired boy, while looking at the humanoid creature run in front of them. They were following it for a little while now.

Sasuke didn’t look at him as he answered. “The Five Kage Summit is being held… Danzo had become Hokage and we are going there now”. What?! Danzo?! What the hell happened to Tsunade in the meantime?! Even she was a better choice than Danzo!

“I see…”. Was the only thing Akashi said.

_

After a while of running, they had reached a snowy area. Akashi could see his breath from how cold it was… Good thing he had decided to take the coat.

“It sure got cold”. Suigetsu commented.

“The Iron Country is right up ahead”. The humanoid thing said.

“Hold on… There are a lot of chakra signals up ahead”. Akashi spoke up as Karin whipped in his direction. She knew he was a sensor, but he noticed it before she did! Just how strong of a sensor was he?!

“Stop”. 

_

Suigetsu had went on to scout ahead by using a jutsu to turn into water. “Looks like security has tightened quite a bit due to the Five Kage Summit”. Was what he said when he returned.

“Juugo, use the animals to find a route inside the assembly with the lowest security”. Sasuke had turned to Juugo as he said that.

“Got it”. Juugo answered.

After a little while, a giant owl landed on his arm. “Well?” Sasuke asked.

“There’s a route to the west we can take. There are fewer guards as well”. Was Juugo’s explanation. Sasuke nodded and glanced at both Akashi and Karin, before he started.

“Akashi, Karin, be on lookout for the locations of the guard’s chakra”. Akashi tightened the cloak around himself as a cold breeze went through. “We’re going to begin our infiltration”. He declared.

“I’m going too?” Karin asked, raising her hand in the air.

“You couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to use your abilities, no?” Suigetsu jumped in, grinning at Karin.

Sasuke turned to the humanoid creature. “You’re not needed anymore”. He had intended to ask it to point out Danzo to him, but now that Akashi was there, he had no use for it anymore. “You can leave”. The thing turned around and went away without a word.

_

The four of them made their way to the west route. “Wouldn’t it be better to set up an ambush and kill him before the summit?” Suigetsu questioned. “I’m tired already”. He almost whined.

“Are you stupid?” Karin asked. “If the Hokage’s escort runs late, they’ll figure out that something’s wrong”. She turned to look at Suigetsu. “The samurai reinforcements will sniff us out, and what do you plan on doing if the other Kage show up?” She enquired. “Also, we know nothing of the abilities our enemies have. It’s better to devise a surprise attack, then retreat to safety”. She added, turning forward to look at Sasuke. “Right, Sasuke?” She cheerily asked.

Sasuke stopped, making Akashi and Juugo stop. “Just focus on the chakra of our enemies, Karin”. He told her.

“What about him? He can also do it, right?” She pointed at Akashi and he raised an eyebrow at her question.

“That doesn’t mean you get to slack off!” Suigetsu jumped in, before Akashi could say anything. Karin angrily turned around to glare at Suigetsu.

“Shut your trap!” She yelled.

_

After that, they found the entrance and sneaked in without being noticed.

They watched as a lot of people walked inside and around the place, before a group of three entered. Akashi felt his blood boil at the sight of the old man. “That is him… That old man in the middle”. He gestured at the man as he grit his teeth.

Sasuke was in a similar situation. “So, that’s Danzo?!” He harshly whispered out, narrowing his eyes at the old man.

_

The four of them landed down as everyone started leaving and hid behind a giant pillar. “Where is he?” Karin questioned as she looked around. Akashi also couldn’t find him… Something was definitely wrong. Then, all of a sudden, the samurai he had sensed earlier started to rapidly move.

“Something is happening… The samurai are on move”. Karin nodded her head in agreement.

“Looks like they’re searching for us”. She added.

“Huh? Why?” Suigetsu questioned. “We haven’t done anything that would make them suspect us”.

“It’s probably Zetsu”. Juugo spoke up. Zetsu was the name of that humanoid creature. Sasuke turned to the side as footsteps resounded around them. He whipped his coat off and pinned it to the side with his kunai.

“Everyone hide”. He told them and they did as he asked… Everyone except Akashi. “I thought I told you to hide”. Sasuke turned to him as the footsteps grew closer.

“I do not follow orders from you… You know that, right?” Without another word, Akashi shook his cape of and climbed up the pillar. Sasuke followed after him a few seconds after. They waited until the samurais came closer and as one of them stopped next to Sasuke’s cape, the said boy descended upon him, knocking him out in the process.

The others grew alarmed and readied their blades, running chakra through them.

“I’m quite annoyed right now… If you go after me, I won’t go easy”. Sasuke warned them, but they ignored his warning.

“That’s our line!” The masked samurai said and slashed his blades across the space in front of him. The chakra split from them and whipped towards Sasuke. But, before it could hit him, he used his lightning-charged blade to dispel it, causing it to hit the pillar above his head.

“He repelled it?! It’s just like our sword technique!” One of them exclaimed and a moment later, all of them dashed towards Sasuke. Akashi readied his chains as they came closer. Then, when they were close enough, he stopped focusing chakra on his feet and dropped down along with the chains. Before his feet even his the ground, he whipped his hand forward and the chains darted ahead. They wrapped around each of the samurai, binding them in place.

“How about you finish them off? I can sense it… Your chakra… You are itching to bury your blade into something, are you not?” He told the Uchiha as he landed next to him. He glanced at Sasuke, feeling his own fingers twitch. Ah… It takes so much restraint to not just rip each of them apart at this point… His ANBU days sure have gotten him used to killing… He almost wishes for it now.

Sasuke lowered his blade and dashed forward, slashing at each bound samurai. From the side, Akashi noticed even more of them. He bent his knees and grabbed a kunai from his pouch.

This is going to be fun.

He threw it forward and before it made contact with the samurai, he teleported to it with another kunai already in hand. He stabbed it into the side of the man’s neck, since it was unprotected, before spinning on his feet to evade a slash from another one. Crouching down, he grabbed the falling sword of the first samurai and ducked under another slash, lowering himself onto the ground. The samurai stumbled over the one on the ground and Akashi got up, twirling the sword in his hand and reverse gripping it.

Jumping up, he felt the air below his feet shift and he glanced down to see another one of the samurai. How nice… He took another kunai and threw it down, making it impale the ground. As the samurais looked up at him, prepared to send a chakra wave at him, he teleported to the kunai on the ground and spun in a circle, cutting the two samurai around him. They groaned and collapsed onto their knees as the back of them were cut. Twirling the sword in his hand, he approached them.

They turned around to face him just in time to see him thrust a sword and a kunai into their skulls. A moment later, he pulled the both of them out and watched as the two samurais fell backwards onto the ground. As he prepared to whip the blood off the sword, he glanced up in alarm. “Sasuke! Something is coming!” He exclaimed as the ceiling above them broke and through it fell three people.

Akashi and Sasuke jumped back to evade the falling ceiling.

“Brat!” Came the yell from the wreckage as a big man appeared out of the wreckage. He threw his cloak off, revealing a muscular form. A thick layer of lightning chakra covered him from head to toe. “I’m gonna teach you the fear of true rage!” The chakra violently shifted across his body. Akashi felt Sasuke shift from besides him and he was too late to stop him from taking off.

“Sasuke!” He reached a hand forward and chains whipped after him. One of the men besides the giant man did hand-signs, but before he could hit Sasuke with anything, the said boy was pulled back by the chains. A huge wave of water barely missed him. “Do not engage by yourself! I think that is the Raikage!” He exclaimed as he readied himself for any kind of attack.

An oncoming wave of chakra made Akashi grit his teeth. They were trying to use Genjutsu against them! He forced a blast of chakra out of his body and the Genjutsu was disrupted before it could even take place. But, the Raikage and one of his men had closed in on them. The man swung his blade down and the Raikage used his arms. Akashi whipped in front of Sasuke as he sensed Suigetsu’s arrival and made the chains wrap around the sword in his hands.

Raikage’s arm connected with the sword and Akashi felt the massive strength break the ground underneath him as he tried to hold it back. Akashi heard something akin to a sword breaking and he glanced behind himself just in time to see Suigetsu’s sword break in half. “Brat! Don’t look away during a fight!” The Raikage forced his arm down and Akashi grit his teeth at the pressure.

“Do not call me a brat!” He yelled back and moved to the side, making the Raikage slam his fist into the ground, breaking it in the process. Akashi reverse gripped his sword and as he spun on his feet to try and slash at the man, he noticed the other one had slashed at him. He slammed his sword into the guy’s and skidded back a few feet. He glanced behind himself and saw that Sasuke and Suigetsu had retreated to the wall, so he decided to do the same. Moving out of the way, he side-stepped the oncoming slash and jumped back, joining the others.

In the meantime, Juugo had jumped down to them. Suigetsu whined about his sword being broken and Juugo said it was probably because of the crack it got when they fought the Eight-Tails.

“I thought I told you not to interfere!” Sasuke almost growled out at them.

“What’s with your tone? We just saved your ass! Then again, I’d expect that from you”. Suigetsu jumped in.

“Sasuke… Do not jump in by yourself”. Akashi added, glancing at the raven-haired boy.

The one guy who didn’t join the fight turned out to be a sensor.

“I’ll take care of him”. Juugo said and his curse mark spread across his body, completely changing his appearance… But it seems like his appearance wasn’t the thing that change most, because… “I’m gonna rip you apart!” He let out a maniacal laugh as he said those words.

“He actually let himself be overcome by his impulse to kill”. Sugetsu commented, making Akashi huff out a laugh.

“Let the boy enjoy himself a little”. Akashi twirled the sword between his fingers and threw it from one hand to the other.

“Since when are you so cheerful?” Suigetsu raised his brows, making Akashi look at him with a smile on his face.

“Cheerful? Not really… I just missed the finishing aspect of fights…”. He trailed of, making Suigetsu’s expression twist in confusion.

“Which is?” He questioned and was immediately taken aback at the shift in Akashi’s behaviour.

“Killing, of course!” The sword was gripped in his left hand as he grabbed a kunai with his right. “That is the best part, is it not?” As soon as the question left his lips, the Raikage slammed into Juugo and crushed him into the wall. Suigetsu used this opportunity to dash at the sensory type on the enemy team. Unfortunately, he was blocked by the sword wielding one.

Juugo had seemingly passed out, until various things protruded from his body and a giant amount of chakra was released in a giant blast of energy. The blast forced everyone to stop what they were doing. The sensory type got caught up in Sasuke’s Genjutsu and promptly passed out from it. Juugo exited the indent he created in the wall and laughed once again. Then, Akashi shifted to the side, evading the Raikage and watching as the said man slammed into Juugo, sending him flying into the wall far away from them.

While Suigetsu was fighting with the sword-wielding one, Akashi stepped closer to Sasuke as they stared down the fuming Raikage.