Trying to challenge someone above your level only works if you're exceptionally sharp, your traps are deep, and you're going for ambush or assassination. In a straight-up frontal fight, it usually just means getting yourself killed.
Naruto stepped closer to Tsunade again at that point.
"Granny Tsunade, please. Let us go find Sasuke."
Tsunade had stayed quiet through all of that, but now she looked toward Akira with a helpless expression.
"Do you think this is a good idea?"
Akira spread his hands and smiled without the slightest sense of responsibility.
"Don't ask me. You're the Hokage. I'm not taking the blame for this one."
Seeing the pleading looks on Naruto and Sakura's faces, Tsunade finally let out a long sigh.
"Fine. I approve it. But Kakashi is still laid up in bed and will probably need time to recover, so your team is missing a jonin leader."
The instant she said that, Naruto and Sakura both turned their eyes on Akira like searchlights.
The answer seemed obvious. A ready-made elite jonin was standing right there.
Akira immediately waved both hands and made his refusal clear.
"Stop right there. I already said I'm not getting involved in this. Find someone else."
Naruto and Sakura couldn't hide their disappointment after being rejected that cleanly.
"Granny Tsunade, then who besides Kakashi-sensei can take us?"
Tsunade thought it over for a moment.
"I do have one candidate in mind."
"All right. I'll have the person I choose meet up with you later. For now, go back and wait."
Sakura gave Akira one last lingering look before finally dragging Naruto out with her.
Once the door closed, Tsunade rubbed at her temples.
"They're impossible. The second they hear Sasuke's name, it's like they lose their minds."
Akira only smiled and said nothing.
Then Tsunade suddenly looked up at him.
"By all rights, Sasuke used to be your teammate too. And yet you really don't feel much about any of this?"
Akira leaned back in his chair, expression calm.
"I do. I just see it differently from them. I think Sasuke really does need to go out and see the world for himself, to figure out what he actually wants. People only really understand their own path after they've lived through enough."
"So honestly, I support Sasuke going to Orochimaru as a kind of study abroad. If I'd truly wanted to stop him back then, he wouldn't have made it even half a step out of Konoha."
That made Tsunade laugh.
"I never thought you'd be able to justify it like that. If this had been earlier, I'd have called it nonsense. But now..."
Akira looked over at her.
Tsunade only smiled, leaving the rest unsaid.
Even though she didn't spell it out, Akira understood perfectly well. Little by little, he had influenced the way she thought. She was starting to accept more of his strange logic than before.
Even if she didn't fully agree, she would still leave room for it out of respect.
Because in Tsunade's heart, Akira stood in a category of his own.
Even if Nawaki and Dan came crawling back out of their graves, there were certain things about her stance now that still wouldn't change.
Akira stood and wandered over to the window, resting both arms on the sill as he looked out over the village.
"Some things are frustrating when you're living through them, sure. But I think life needs a few unavoidable moments like that. Those are the things that give memories their weight later."
"Sasuke's the same. His life was never going to follow an ordinary path. Once he's gone out there and been battered around enough, he'll figure out what he really wants."
Tsunade leaned back in her chair and smiled thoughtfully.
"So you're saying an imperfect life is the only kind worth remembering?"
Akira's lips curved slightly.
"That's the idea. Though personally, I'd still rather life go a bit more smoothly. Imperfection may be artistic, but some holes hurt like hell when you fall into them."
"Sakura wants to chase Sasuke because she loves him. I let Sasuke walk away, but I don't stop others from going after him, because of you... and because I respect what all of you want."
Tsunade's heart gave a sudden jolt. She turned and looked at the young man standing by the window.
She didn't say a word, but warmth rose quietly in her eyes.
The two of them stayed in silence for a long while before Tsunade finally broke it.
"What makes you so sure Sasuke is stronger than both Naruto and Sakura right now?"
Without turning around, Akira answered calmly.
"Talent isn't something you can argue with. Sasuke ran in the first place because he saw Naruto's strength rising fast and got shaken by it. At that point Naruto had Jiraiya-sama personally training him, so naturally his growth sped up."
"Sasuke isn't stupid. He wanted a legendary teacher too, someone on the level of one of the Sannin, so he could catch up to Naruto and eventually have a shot at killing Itachi."
"And more importantly, what Orochimaru wants is Uchiha blood and the Sharingan."
"That tells you everything. It means Orochimaru's understanding of the Sharingan is definitely at an expert level."
"If the Uchiha had no Sharingan, then at best they'd just be ninja with somewhat above-average chakra."
"But once Sasuke starts using the Sharingan properly, his combat ability rises by multiples. Naruto can't match that right now, and Sakura's even further behind."
Tsunade nodded slightly.
"There is some logic to that."
Akira continued, "And then there's their foundation. Sasuke's talent always outclassed Naruto's by a wide margin. Naruto's training efficiency was constantly dragged down by the Nine-Tails inside him, so there was never any real comparison there."
"I have every reason to believe Sasuke's current strength has already moved past the range of an ordinary jonin, while Naruto at best is sitting around standard jonin level. And that's only if you count the Nine-Tails' chakra. Take the fox away, and he drops further."
That wasn't Akira being biased against Naruto.
It was simply the truth.