There was a stretch of silence — not empty, but heavy.
The kind that tasted like unanswered questions.
Akira's gaze didn't shift from the moon.
Kakashi waited, unsure whether to speak or simply exist beside him.
Then Akira's voice broke through the quiet.
"Kakashi… do you know why I try to become stronger?"
The question caught Kakashi off-guard.
Not because it was strange —
but because he realized he had never truly asked himself the same.
In the shinobi world, strength was a given condition.
You trained because if you didn't,
tomorrow might never arrive.
A kunai, a betrayal, a missed step —
any of it could decide whether you lived to see the sunrise.
So when Akira asked something so basic… so human…
Kakashi found he—or anyone he had ever known—had never answered it.
He had learned jutsu because that was what a shinobi did.
He became strong because weakness meant death.
He led, he fought, he protected, and he endured
without ever questioning why he walked that path.
Akira didn't wait for Kakashi's confusion to settle.
Akira exhaled, his eyes dimming with something older than power.
"Kakashi… I hate choices."
Kakashi blinked, caught off guard by how soft yet heavy the words were.
"Hate… choices?" he echoed.
It wasn't something a shinobi usually hated — choices were their profession, their daily bread.
Akira clarified before confusion could settle.
"Someone once asked me something long ago."
He didn't move, but the air around him changed — the way it does when someone opens a door into their past.
"If there was one person on one side…
and five people on the other,
and you had the power to save only one group —
which side would you choose?"
Kakashi didn't speak.
He knew what most would answer.
Akira smiled faintly.
"Like anyone would, I said five.
Because losing one was better than losing five."
He paused.
"Then he asked —
if there were ten people on one side, and a thousand on the other,
who would you choose?"
Again Kakashi held his breath.
Again Akira answered without hesitation.
"I said a thousand.
Because ten deaths were better than a thousand."
The moon seemed to darken behind a passing cloud.
"Then he asked —
if there was one person on one side,
and a million on the other…"
Akira's voice slowed, quietly haunted.
"Just when I thought the answer was obvious, he said—
'And that one person is your mother.'
Which side do you choose?"
Kakashi didn't need answering —
he could feel the silence that followed.
Akira chuckled, but there was no humor in it.
"I couldn't answer.
So he continued."
His gaze hardened slightly.
"If there were three people on one side —
your mother, your father,
and the woman you love —
and on the other side,
the lives of the entire planet…
which side would you choose?"
Kakashi swallowed.
Even an ANBU captain knew he could never answer that cleanly.
Akira wasn't finished.
"Then he twisted it again.
Two people on one side,
and the entire planet on the other —
including your mother."
His eyes lowered.
"Which side would you choose?"
He let the question linger — raw, uncomfortably human.
Then Akira said quietly:
"I hated every scenario.
I hated that the world asks questions where someone must die."
There was no tremor in his voice —
but Kakashi could hear the old ache.
"So the first thought that came to me was —
why can't I choose both?"
He let that rebellion breathe.
"And that's when I realized something.
Anyone who forces such choices on you…
is stronger than you."
Akira's tone sharpened — clear, lucid.
"Because only someone weaker —
in power or intellect —
can be trapped in cages of morality
built by others."
He looked back to the moon, but this time there was fire in his eyes.
"So I craved strength.
Not to rule the world.
Not to destroy it.
Not for glory or women."
His voice deepened —
not dramatic, but absolute.
"I seek strength so I never have to choose.
So I never have to sacrifice one for another.
I want the power where I look at both sides
and say—
'I save them all.'"
---
"Kakashi… do you know how strong I am now?"
"That's easy," Kakashi answered.
"The strongest in the ninja world."
Akira shook his head slowly, almost amused.
"I can indeed be called the strongest in this world.
But there are two—maybe three—who can fight me on equal grounds.
Even though they are sealed… or hidden."
Kakashi's breath stopped for a moment.
He could only think of two names — Hashirama and Madara.
Akira turned toward him,
and something shifted in his eyes.
One tomoe Sharingan rotated
Two tomoe Sharingan rotated
Three tomoe Sharingan rotated
Mangekyo Sharingan rotated rapidly and from within those eyes Purple eyes formed with concentric circles in it. There were Six-Tomoe in it with three on each circle.
Six-Tomoe Rinnegan.
Kakashi felt his heart lurch.
He knew that legendary sight —
one of the Three Great Dojutsu.
A myth beyond the Sharingan and Byakugan.
But why… how… did Akira possess it?
Kakashi's voice cracked.
"Rinnegan? Akira… why do you—"
Akira simply lifted a hand.
"Another day. That story takes time."
He looked back at the moon.
"So Kakashi, now tell me again… what do you think of my strength?"
Kakashi was silent.
There were no words large enough,
no scales high enough to measure something he couldn't even comprehend.
Finally he exhaled.
"I don't know who you count among your equals.
But I know… you are the strongest person I've ever known."
Akira's smile was faint — neither proud nor arrogant —
just a fact acknowledged.
"Yes.
That's what I'm saying, Kakashi.
I am the strongest in this world.
If I wish, with one move I can destroy this entire world.
Not first-Hokage-vs-Madara destruction,
but planet-ending devastation. "
Kakashi involuntarily stiffened.
Akira never joked about this kind of thing.
He didn't need to lie.
Akira's tone remained calm — almost disturbingly casual.
"If all I sought was peace,
I wouldn't need Hokage, councils, or diplomacy.
I could simply destroy the four villages.
Right now, four precise strikes from me could obliterate the center of all four capitals."
His words hung between them like the moonlight —
white, sharp, undeniable.
---
Akira did not stop there.
His eyes tracked the moon's shape, but his voice shifted—
quieter, farther away.
"Kakashi… do you know something?"
Kakashi turned toward him.
"To you — and to every shinobi in this village —
the ninja world feels vast."
He gestured loosely at the horizon.
"Most people born here will never see the full world.
There are lands they will never step on,
mountains they will never climb,
oceans they will never cross."
He smiled—
not kindly, but almost pityingly.
"But to me?
In the larger canvas of reality…
this 'ninja world' wouldn't be large enough to be called a stone."
Kakashi froze at the wording.
Akira continued, as if speaking of a truth so obvious it almost bored him.
"Beyond this earth is another world.
A world so vast that traveling from one corner to another
could take millions of billions of years. "
His voice brimmed with scale Kakashi couldn't comprehend.
"So vast that even if we spent every second of our lifespan traveling,
we would not reach the nearest planet."
Kakashi's mind buckled.
But Akira wasn't done.
"So then, naturally… I asked myself:"
His eyes narrowed.
"Why should I spend decades of my precious life
guarding a place called Konoha, instead of seeing this beautiful world, seeing this beautiful Universe."
His tone wasn't hatred—
it was cold logic.
"Why should I waste years protecting people
who could very easily curse me tomorrow?"
Kakashi tensed.
Akira's words hardened like steel.
"These are the same people who once begged
for White Fang's service —
but abandoned him over rumors,
forcing a hero to die alone."
His gaze flicked toward Kakashi,
not accusing—
but reminding.
"The same people who looked at a newborn child—
Naruto—
and decided he was a demon."
His jaw tightened.
"They bullied him.
Rejected him.
Starved him.
And if the ANBU hadn't intervened,
they would have killed him."
His voice was low.
Each word carried decay—
an old, tired disappointment.
"And these are the people
I am expected to protect?
Just because they placed their 'Hope' on me?"
He let the question burn.
Not loud,
but heavy.
"Why?"
The word hung in the air like a blade,
left suspended for Kakashi to answer—
though Akira already knew he couldn't.
---