The sun was already setting as they crossed back into the hidden paths of Uzushiogakure.
Akashi walked ahead, carrying their wounded mentor on a chakra-supported stretcher. Aiko stayed beside the stretcher, carefully monitoring his vitals with every step.
No one spoke much.
Even Riku — usually loud and joking — kept quiet. The memory of that fight still crackled in the back of their minds like fading lightning.
---
In the silence, Akashi reflected.
The moment it had happened — when the Emperor Eye had flared and everything had fallen into place — he hadn't felt rage. Or fear.
He had simply become…
120% of himself.
No hesitation. No doubt. No inefficiency.
Every muscle moved with purpose.
Every action served an outcome.
Not detached. Just… complete.
And that was what disturbed him most.
"That version of me didn't care about mercy or theatrics.
It just wanted to win."
---
But now, carrying his mentor home, the weight of care returned.
He wasn't a machine.
He didn't want to be.
The power would be a tool — not a master.
---
Arrival and Whispered Reactions
As they entered the village gates, alert bells rang from the inner towers.
Healers rushed to take over the stretcher.
Tama ran to debrief. Riku finally spoke — voice low:
"You didn't just fight back out there, Akashi…
You commanded that field."
Akashi didn't respond.
He simply nodded and turned toward the high compound.
---
Ashina Waited
His grandfather stood by the central stair of the old Uzukage Hall.
Still. Arms folded. Wind stirring his long white hair.
Akashi approached slowly.
Ashina said nothing for a moment.
Then:
"It's awake, isn't it?"
Akashi nodded.
"It made me... more."
"I didn't lose myself. But I wasn't quite the same, either."
Ashina studied him. Then motioned for him to follow into the old war room.
The war room of the Uzukage Hall was quiet, lit only by faintly glowing chakra lamps and the steady sound of the sea beyond the walls.
Scrolls lined the walls — strategies from past conflicts, detailed maps, old correspondence between allied clans.
But Ashina focused on none of them.
His eyes remained on his grandson.
Akashi stood still, arms crossed, the Emperor Eye hidden for now but its presence still lingering — like heat in the air after lightning strikes.
---
"You've changed," Ashina finally said, pouring tea into two small ceramic cups.
"Not in your heart. But in how the world must now see you."
Akashi accepted the cup silently, sipping with the practiced grace Ashina always drilled into him.
"It wasn't another self," he said.
"It was me… but sharper. Cleaner. There was no doubt, no waste. I knew what had to be done — and I did it."
Ashina nodded, gaze heavy with memory.
"That's what power does. It doesn't change who you are. It simply removes everything that's not essential."
He set his cup down.
"The eye you now bear — it is not just a tool for vision. It is a lens for judgment. You'll see weakness, advantage, failure before it happens. But that's the danger…"
He leaned closer.
"It will tempt you to command, when sometimes you must guide."
Akashi looked into the ripples of his tea.
"Am I ready for that?"
"No," Ashina said bluntly. "And that's why I'll still train you."
---
The Door Bursts Open
Before Akashi could reply, the doors to the chamber slid open with a sharp clap.
A rush of footsteps. Familiar scent.
"Akashi!"
His mother.
Uzumaki Reina — tall, strong, radiant in her crimson robes and braided hair — stormed in with fury and fear blazing in her eyes.
She scanned him for blood, wounds, signs of chakra burnout.
"Why didn't anyone tell me you were hurt?! I heard about the attack. About Kumo shinobi. About Ay! You could have—"
She stopped short, seeing the calm in his expression… and the faint, subtle shimmer still lingering in his right eye.
Ashina, silent now, stood back.
Reina walked forward, hands cupping his cheeks.
"You're not hurt?" she whispered.
Akashi blinked. And for the first time in hours, he smiled gently.
"No, mom. I'm okay. I'm here."
She pulled him into a fierce hug — one hand tangled in his hair, the other pressing to his back like she could shield him from fate itself.
He let her hold him.
Because even emperors need mothers.
---
Ashina turned toward the war maps, allowing them that moment. But his mind never stopped calculating.
If the boy could force Ay to his knees at six… what happens when the world learns of him?
---