The hideout felt awfully stuffy for the last few days. So, without alerting anyone of his plan, Akashi silently slipped out and into the forest outside. He hadn’t been outside for who knows how long.
And the wind?
He missed it… He missed the feeling of it on his skin… The cold breeze which sent waves and waves of shivers down his spine…
It made him feel alive…
The moment he stepped foot outside, he was greeted with a different sight…
The sun had poured out its brilliant oranges and reds into the horizon like a pot of molten lava… It was starting to set, which gave him the idea that it was late in the day… Akashi had no way of knowing what time of the day it was while he was inside the hideout, but now, he knew…
There was no wind to greet him… No bright sky to meet him…
The thing which overwhelmed his sense of sight, was the crimson colour which painted the world around him.
_
He walked through the dense forest ahead and felt the grass crunch beneath his feet.
So different from the constant clicking of the hard ground he heard inside the hideout.
He stopped and leaned his head back, closing his eyes in the process. Fresh air flooded through his lungs.
“Do you feel free?” The fox’s voice resounded from all around him, but he knew where it came from.
“I do not”. His whisper should have been carried away by the cold breeze… But there was no breeze this time. He felt like he was anything but free… The world around him caged him in… Caged him in with the pain… It let the pain drive through him… Destroy him completely and utterly…
Leaving nothing behind…
The world was his cage…
“As you are mine”. It whispered deep within his mind and said nothing else after that.
_
The forest got thinner and thinner the further he walked through it, until, he arrived to a small clearing. It wasn’t anything special, just a little small space in which trees didn’t grow and the only thing it had, was a small, little, space in which a few different flowers grew.
Akashi walked up to it and crouched in front of the flowers, extending a hand towards them. The petals felt soft on his skin. He twirled them between his fingers, but did not pick them.
That would be the equivalent of killing them.
“They’re flowers”. The fox commented inside his mind. That was what they were… Just flowers… “Then pick them if you want to”. Akashi pulled his hand back, petals still stuck to the flower, and stood up.
“I do not want to pick them”. Without another word, he walked away from the flower bed and into the dense forest ahead.
_
The sun was sinking faster and the whole sky had turned into blood. It cast an eerie glow across the surfaces it touched.
Akashi extended his bare hand in front of himself and watched as it, too, was covered in crimson.
The sun’s dying rays were nothing compared to the blood on his hands.
_
He halted in his movements as soon as he sensed an oncoming chakra signal. A few of them, to be precise. For some reason, they were all coming towards him from different directions.
What was going on?
They approached him at a fast speed and it was only minutes until they arrived. He reached for a kunai and immediately threw it as high as possible. It sailed up, through the trees, before it embedded into one of them. Akashi teleported up to it, grabbed it, and hid himself in the thick leaves, hiding his presence as much as possible.
Those chakras didn’t feel familiar at all… He had never sensed them before…
Just what was going on? Were they sent after him? Why? To capture him? To kill him?!
He took a deep breath to calm himself. He had to remain calm and collected.
He stopped with his thinking as soon as the chakra signals disappeared. Every single one of them.
In that moment, something slammed into his back and he was harshly thrown forward. He reached his arm forward and impaled the tree in front of him with a kunai. Barely having enough time, he kicked away from the tree and pulled out the kunai, just in time to jump over a masked ninja. The ninja had thrust his blade forward and into the tree.
So they were trying to kill him!
Coating his feet with chakra, Akashi had softened his fall onto the ground beneath him. He spun around and ducked under a punch which was thrown at him, successfully getting behind the masked ninja. He curled an arm around his throat and pointed the kunai to his chest. “Who sent you?” He growled out, tightening the hold he had on him.
The ninja heaved in a forced breath, but said nothing in reply. “Who sent you?!” He demanded, but still didn’t receive a reply. Then, he spun around with the ninja in his arms and saw another one darting towards them, blade in hand.
There was no way he was going to-!
A hot flash of pain went through his shoulder as the ninja’s blade pierced through the both of them. Akashi was forced to let go of the one he was holding, and watched as he slumped onto the ground…
Dead…
Just how much did they want him dead?! What the hell?!
He clamped a hand over the wound and shifted around, bolting out of there. The ninja had pierced through an artery and Akashi could already feel the blood dripping through his fingers.
Two pairs of footsteps followed after him.
Those ninja were different from regular ones… Much different…
_
The sky was darkening with each second that passed by and Akashi’s arm was starting to grow numb from blood loss.
Damn it… They somehow got his left shoulder… Did they know he preferred his left hand? Or was it just a coincidence?
If it wasn’t… Then he was in trouble…
He jumped up a tree and hid behind it, taking a deep breath and activating his healing jutsu. The warm green glow momentarily made him relax, but that was a giant mistake.
His eyes widened as a blade pierced through the tree he was hiding behind and narrowly missed his neck by an inch. He immediately pushed away from the tree and jumped, turning around just in time to see the blade be pulled back and the ninjas dart towards him. Akashi raised his right hand and the chains morphed into a blade of his own.
He deflected a shuriken which was thrown at him and threw a kunai with his left hand, biting back a wince as it throbbed in pain. The kunai sailed through the air, but was also deflected and thrown somewhere to the side.
A chakra spiked in one of the ninja and he saw them doing hand-signs. Not a moment later, a giant ball of fire was thrown at him. Since he was still in the air, he had no other choice but to teleport to the kunai which was probably already on the ground. As soon as he did that, he heard grass crunch from behind him, which alerted him of another’s presence.
Hearing the familiar sound of a blade cutting through air, he whipped around and blocked the hit with his own. “Who sent you?!” He questioned, pushing back against the ninja. He received no answer in return, so he forced his blade forward, subsequently breaking the ninja’s own. The broken part of the blade went sailing through the air and Akashi extended a chain from his body to grab at it.
As soon as it was in his grasp, he brought his chain back, along with the broken part of the blade, and pierced it through the ninja in front of him. “I will not repeat myself again… Who sent you?” The ninja’s hands wrapped around the blade which stuck out through his chest as blood dripped down his lips. Yet again… All he received as an answer was pure silence.
“So be it”. He twirled his blade and thrust it forward, making the ninja gurgle as it cut through his throat. Blood spurted through the wound and Akashi felt it stain his face, but he paid it no mind.
The ninja was dropped onto the ground… Unmoving…
Akashi reached a hand to wipe at his face, smudging the blood across his pale skin.
There was still one left…
He silently turned around shifted his fingers around the blade he held. The ninja in front of him stood still with his blade readied, prepared to move in a moment’s time. Akashi couldn’t help but find this situation a little amusing. The man in front of him thought he could take him on… What a joke… He twirled the blade in his hand and stared at him.
“Shall we dance?” He grinned and bent his knees, kicking off a moment later. His blade slammed into the ninja’s own and he pushed forward, watching as the sparks of their clash lit up the man’s mask.
That mask…
In that moment of hesitation, the man pushed Akashi away and lunged right after him. The redhead stumbled backwards and his eyes widened as the blade of the man pierced through his side. The pain raked through his body, making Akashi grit his teeth. Not even a moment later, Akashi pulled his head back and whipped it forward, slamming it into the man’s own.
The man pulled the blade out, leaving a trail of blood on the ground and took a few steps back, holding his head.
“You… You are not Konoha ninja… Why are you after me?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at the man. Why was a ninja from a different village after him…? That made no sense…
“I am not obliged to answer your question”. Was the man’s answer. Akashi felt his patience run thin at the reply. He was not obliged? He was not fucking obliged?!
Then so be it.
“Neither am I obliged to let you live”. The two of them stood still as they faced one another. Both of them tightly gripped their blades and bent their knees, prepared to take off. Akashi gripped his kunai and made the first move by throwing it at the man. He aimed straight at him. The kunai whizzed through the air and just before it reached the ninja, Akashi teleported to it and brought his blade down.
The man raised his own blade up and blocked the hit, feeling the ground beneath his feet crack from the force of it. Akashi spun in the air, whipping his blade around and forcing it on the man once more.
The ground cracked even further.
The man pushed up and Akashi was forced to move back. He landed onto the ground and sensed a major amount of chakra be gathered. He glanced between the man and the blade he was holding just to see a bright, crackling, light cover the steel of the blade.
Lightning chakra.
The man readied his blade and dashed forward, the light of the lightning lighting up his form. Akashi narrowed his eyes, letting the Nine-Tail’s chakra flow through his own blade. The ground beneath his feet broke as he pushed off towards the man, leaving a crimson flash in his wake.
The world around them went into a standstill as they neared one another.
Akashi gripped the blade in his hand and felt the Nine-Tail’s chakra course through his arm, strengthening each and every nerve inside of it. As he reached the man, only few feet away from him, he forced his arm down, feeling it connect with the man’s own blade.
The space around them distorted, lighting everything up.
A crack resounded from in front of him and Akashi watched as the man’s blade broke clean in half and whizzed past the man’s head, barely missing him by an inch.
Forcing his blade even further, it slammed into the ground, destroying it and creating a giant crater under their feet. The man had managed to jump away at the last second.
Akashi straightened up and glanced at the man who was not so far away from him.
The ninja watched as the redhead in front of him stood still… Not moving an inch…
Those violet eyes which seemed to be glowing in the darkness of the night… The blood which was smeared across his pale skin…
They gave him an…
… Otherworldly appearance…
Glowing chains slowly extended from behind his back, gently hovering above his still form.
The ninja stood on guard as he faced the young boy… He may be young, but he was not to be underestimated… They received strict orders to dispose of him by any means necessary…
He was not to be left alive…
He was dangerous…
He was a threat…
He needed to be eliminated…
“You know… I can sense it coming from you…”. The boy in front of him grinned, sharp teeth flashing in the dead of night as he took a few steps towards him. The chains swirled behind him, twisting and bending at all kinds of angles. “The fear… You are afraid, are you not?” He tilted his head, violet eyes shining with mirth.
The ninja stood his ground.
“It overwhelms each part of your body…”. The blade in the boy’s hand pulsated with crimson light, lighting up the boy’s appearance with each pulse it released. “You cannot defeat me… and you know that”.
Then, the ninja felt himself freeze in place as the pressure around the boy increased.
Crimson chakra slowly climbed up the golden chains, coating each and every part of them in its vile light. The ninja could feel their strength from where he was standing… He could feel their destructiveness…
There was no way he was going to defeat this boy.
“Do you feel the fear coursing through your veins?” The boy questioned, nearing him. “Do you feel it gnawing at the back of your mind?” With every step he took, the ninja felt the pressure increase. “Do you feel it clenching around your heart?” The chains extended past the boy and the ninja couldn’t do anything, but await their arrival. “Do you feel it filling every pore of your being?” The chains slowly curled around him, not touching, just… hovering.
As the boy stopped in front of him, he whispered in a tone so light… In a tone so soft…
“You should”.
The last thing the man saw was the blank look on the boy’s face, as the chains tightened around him and the world exploded in a brief moment of pure pain.
Akashi watched as the chains curled tighter and tighter around the man in front of him. Cracks upon cracks came from his broken body.
“You’re as ruthless as ever”. The fox commented within his mind. Akashi paid it no mind… When the chains pulled away, blood dripping off their glowing form, the man’s body slumped onto the ground.
Crack…
Came the last one.
“Is there a reason I should not be?” Akashi asked out loud, willing the chains away. They receded back into his body along with the blade he held in his hand.
“No”. That was the last thing the fox said.
_
Akashi remained in the forest for a while…
Just staring at the full moon…
The moonlight had cast an eerie glow over everything around him…
He saw its, cold, pale rays on his own body, but he didn’t feel the coldness…
He didn’t feel…
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