On the battered coastline, Shinji sat quietly, resting with his eyes closed.
The battle in the Six Rings World had taken a lot out of him. He had basically fought with everything he had, and at his level, recovering from such exhaustion wasn't easy. So though he looked fine on the surface, he still hadn't returned to his peak.
Especially when it came to purging the Plague Overlord's corruption—it had cost him a great deal of Chakra. Even thinking about how much Chakra he'd lost made him wince.
Far away.
Naruto still couldn't believe Shinji was the Akatsuki Organization's leader, "A." He circled Sasuke, asking, "How is that possible? How could Shinji be the leader of the Akatsuki Organization?"
"What's impossible about it?" Sasuke replied casually.
"But it's Shinji!" Naruto said. "The Shinji who went to school with us and ate barbecue with us!"
Sasuke looked exasperated. "Do you think everyone's as stupid as you? Stop using that idiot brain of yours to judge other people!"
Then he looked back at Shinji, his tone changing. "I consider myself a genius, but compared to Shinji, I'm just mediocre. Naruto, the Shinji you know is only the façade he chose to show you!"
"A façade?"
Naruto was confused.
"The real Shinji is so astonishing you can't even imagine it!" Sasuke said. "In front of him, all those so-called geniuses at the Ninja Academy—not just there, but in the entire village—would instantly lose their luster. That goes for you and me, too!"
"I'm not doubting Shinji's talent!" Naruto muttered. "I just can't understand how he became the Akatsuki Organization's leader. He has nothing in common with some awful villain!"
"Villain?" Sasuke glared at Naruto and snorted. "You're an idiot. You don't understand anything. You have no idea what Shinji and I are up