Mei swallowed her saliva as Akashi faced their enemy.
In less than a week, they've gone through numerous enemies and battles.
Kumo ninja troops, A-B Combo, Sasori, Minato—it was a series of battle one after the other, strenuous enough that no average ninja could endure it.
Unknown to anyone, Akashi's body and mind was filled to the brim with nothing but an exhaustion.
However, he didn't show it outward.
'It seems that...'
Akashi had to suppress an urge to chuckle,
'I've become far too used to dire situations like this.'
Yugito lashed out at Akashi, at a speed that Mei wasn't able to read. Raising Kiba at a speed that appeared slow in Mei's eyes, Akashi smoothly countered Yugito's slash with the blade.
He then twisted the blade such that it was now stuck right in-between Yugito's claws.
After, the lightning crackled—running down Yugito's skin frighteningly.
The sizzing noise of burn occurred. Yugito—no, the beast—cried in pain as she backed. With the chakra yet bubbling around her, her burned wound rapidly healed, causing Mei to grimace.
Akashi narrowed his eye.
'Healing factor. Nigh endless reserve of chakra. In comparison...'
He was exhausted. There wasn't much chakra left in his reserve.
It meant that there was no time for him to waste; the faster this fight ended, the better it was.
'Using Ryuma...'
No, Akashi concluded. He needed something more impactful.
CLANG.
Raising Kiba again, Akashi blocked Yugito's claws. Yugito's mouth then opened and she breathed out the blue flame at him.
"Mei."
However, Akashi didn't falter. Immediately after his call, Mei, having completed her hand seals, spurt out the huge load of water,
"Water Release: Water Bullet!"
The water collided against the blue flame. Hot steam—hot enough to burn skins—arose, and the collision resulted in a tie. Even though water holds a natural advantage against fire, the fire breathed out by Yugito was at a magnitude above the ones that other ninjas usually performed.
Yugito roared within the steam. There was a strong gust afterward, immediately sending the steam out of the area. Then, the chakra bubbling her body began to morph.
The blue fire ignited around her entire body similar to how A and B draped lightning around themselves.
The two tails in Yugito realized that as long as there was this fire armor, Mei's water release won't be of much difficulty.
Mei pursed her lips upon that sight.
"...Give me time."
"How long?"
Mei spoke, and Akashi asked.
"Ten seconds."
Akashi decided to comply. Without a hand seal, a shadow clone appeared next to him. Then, with a puff, his body was suddenly replaced with a wooden stump.
Yugito leaped from her position at a rapid speed, but was unexpectedly met with Akashi's blade at the next moment—due to him having appeared right in front of her via the body replacement technique.
CLANG.
Yugito, with an unbelievable reflex, blocked Akashi's attack with her claws. The lightning then met blue fire.
BOOM.
An explosion. Akashi and Yugito were blasted in the opposite direction. Regaining their balance mid-air, Akashi quickly went through a fast series of one hand seals. On the other hand, the blue fire around Yugito's arms widened.
"Fire Release,"
Akashi spat out the multiple balls of fire,
"Phoenix Sage Fire."
With a roar, Yugito swung her arms wide, sending forth two huge blue fire that morphed to resemble the faces of cats.
The shadow clone of Akashi, which was on a standby below, raised his right hand. Said hand, straightened out, was encased in a sharp-looking wind. The clone then swung the hand, blasting an arc of sharp wind that joined Akashi's technique.
Fire mixed with wind. The already intense fire blasted by Akashi intensified even further. Afterward, it collided against Yugito's blue fire.
The sky exploded in a spectacular manner as red and blue mingled, swirling like that of a terrifying fire tornado.
Akashi and Yugito, both unharmed as the collision ended in yet another draw, landed on the ground, skidding back from the gust generated by the explosion.
"Akashi!"
Mei then called from the back. Akashi blurred out of the scene, before Mei's cheeks bloated,
"Boil Release: Acid Wave!"
A huge load of mist-like substance was emitted out of her mouth, engulfing the entire area in front of her rapidly.
Before Yugito could do anything, she was taken over such substance as well. Then came, an excruciating pain that reached the tailed beast inside her, causing her to cry uncontrollably.
The mist-like substance—acid—quickly dissolved into whatever it came in contact with. The trees, grass, dirt, whatever it may be, began to melt and crumble. Yugito's skin was turning purple as the corrosion began to affect her.
Although her healing factor was at work, so was the corrosion; Yugito seemed visibly petrified by the effect of the technique on her.
'At least A-ranked in terms of lethality,'
Though Akashi as he observed the severity of Yugito's state from Mei's single jutsu.
Given enough time to prepare, Mei was capable of harming even the tailed-beast-ridden state of a jinchuriki.
...However, it wasn't enough. Slowly but surely, Yugito was recovering.
And once she has fully recovered, Akashi was sure that she would target Yugito over her; now was the best chance that they had.
"Then, it's my turn."
Akashi closed his eye.
'Eight Gates.'
Then, a sudden burst of chakra from his body,
'Gate of Opening.'
Gate of Healing.
Gate of Life.
Though hidden behind the mask and his attire, his skin began to turn red, which was shown through his exposed hands.
When he opened his eye back, it lacked a pupil.
"Mei."
"Huff... huff... yes?"
"I'm sacrificing one Kiba."
"W...hat?"
Mei seemed startled by it, by there was no time to waste.
Boom.
Akashi leaped from his position, at Yugito who was now curling her body up on the ground. The blue fire around her intensified, meaning that her defense has gotten tighter.
With a whoosh, the fire arose around the lightning-encased blade of Kiba. Without exploding due to the contact of two different types of energies, they swirled in harmony. When seen closely, one would find a thin line of wind that separated the layer of fire and lightning; wind was serving as a natural insulator of lightning and at the same time, a fuel for fire.
It was an unbelievable chakra control, one that only one person in this world was capable of performing.
And as if that wasn't enough, the three elements then completely mixed.
Heat evaporated. Crackling noise ceased. The gust around the blade was no more.
All that was left, was the green grow around the blade. A small crack then formed on said blade. It then began to spread. Clearly, the blade wasn't able to handle this energy contained in it; one blow would be enough to break it into shreds.
A pure energy. In other words, the pure extract of 'Yang'. That's what this green phenomenon was.
'Energy Release.'
Yugito's hair around her body stood up as she sensed an immense danger. Quickly standing up, she shifted her cat-like eyes in the middle of the ongoing pain, but it was too late by then.
Akashi made a stabbing motion.
The blade stopped right next to Yugito's face, as Akashi intentionally missed her. Then, it crumbled down into iron dusts.
Yugito was already unconscious by then. The tailed beast possessing her has retreated back into her mindscape from the impact of it, even though the technique hasn't directly hit Yugito.
With a thud, Yugito fell. Then, with a thundering noise, everything—be it trees, grass, whatever it was—were instantly reduced into shreds, unable to handle the transmission of pure energy from now non-existent Kiba blade.
Witnessing such a sight, Mei froze. What was once a forest has now become a plain, filled with corrosive fluid generated by her technique.
Akashi let go of the remaining hilt of the blade. The hilt, as it fell, too began to crumble down into dust. By the time it hit the ground, its form was no longer distinguishable, existing as a pile of fine grain.
"You too..."
Mei whispered in a realization.
"You too have a bloodline limit."
'...And the world isn't aware.'
She felt the goosebumps growing on her arms.
The opened gates in Akashi's chakra veins closed, ending the Eight Gates technique. He then fell down on one knee, huffing as he no longer was able to conceal the rising exhaustion.
However, there was no time to waste. With shaky legs, Akashi stood back up, gritting his teeth as he did so.
"...Let's find Hidan. We leave right away."
Within the week, Akashi fought numerous. In those fights, the only one whom he killed was Sasori.
If Mei's speculation were to be correct, Kiri will betray Konoha. That naturally meant that Kiri will join hands with Kumo and Iwa. To make themselves seem like affiliated with the current Mizukage, Akashi intentionally left Kumo ninjas alive. Even if such were not to be the case, Kumo won't necessarily be hostile to Kiri even if Mei manages to take over Kiri.
Simply put, this was one of the most ideal futures that Mei could think of, and it was achieved through the sheer strength of this one man.
'Strongest ninja in the world...'
Hanzo of the Salamander.
'God of shinobi...'
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Professor.
Mei came to think that perhaps, the one who deserved such titles weren't them, but the shinobi in front of her.
Then, she dismissed those thoughts as she saw Akashi walking away from the scene. Quickly catching up to him, they then proceeded to leave this land of hot water.
Truly, a complete mayhem it was.
__________
[Few Days Later]
"...Taka?"
Just as how Konoha, Suna, and Ame met to discuss their alliance, Kumo and Iwa too met for the purpose of talking about their future stance and plans.
There were status reports of the current war, of how much gains and losses that they had. Though Kumo and Iwa didn't trust each other, they did trust the distrust that each other had toward Konoha.
It was a shallow alliance, but it won't break anytime soon.
Then, within this meeting, one name popped up.
Taka of Kiri. The man who bulldozed through the elites of Kumo's ninjas.
"Never heard of him. One of the seven swordsmen? Strange..."
"That isn't the point."
Enraged in humiliation yet relieved of his people's survival at the same time, the third Raikage growled.
"For a reason unknown, he didn't kill a single one of mine. They were subdued... even the jinchuriki of two tails who lost the control over the beast."
Subduing an enemy without killing him or her was harder than the simple action of killing. This showed that the shinobi named Taka was at a level much higher than the elites of Kumo; at the combat level of a Kage at the very least.
Question was, why? None of the Kumo and Iwa had an answer to that.
Or so they thought, until,
"Now, why are you having all this party for yourselves? Without me?"
a young, short man, wearing the forehead protector of Kiri, revealed himself along with other ninjas of Kiri next to him.
His pupil-less pink eyes seem crazed, yet mindless. They seemed full of emotion, yet emotionless.
"...What is the current Mizukage of Kiri doing here?"
Raikage raised an eyebrow. He slowly stood up as if getting ready to fight, revealing his hot-tempered personality.
However, the third Tsuchikage, the aged man of short stature, Onoki, raised his arm as a sign for Raikage to stop his action for a moment.
"Forget how you managed to learn that we would be meeting at this place, at this time. What matters now is... why are you here, Mizukage?"
The Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, grinned widely. He then relayed a simple fact.
"Kiri will be betraying Konoha."
It was just as Mei and Minato predicted.