"It's your turn now," Kanon sneered.
But the Raikage's assault came again, his right arm lunging toward her in a heavy punch.
THUD!
This time, Kanon did not phase through the attack. Instead, she blocked the strike with a single hand. To the shock of everyone present, her slender arm did not shatter.
"Impossible! To withstand my..." A, the Fourth Raikage, was stunned. This was the first time since meeting the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, that he had felt so powerless against an opponent. But this fifteen-year-old girl was different from the Yellow Flash, she was stopping him with pure, frontal force!
"Let go!"
Crrack.
The sound of bone snapping echoed, but it wasn't Kanon's. It was the Raikage's own hand that had fractured.
At that moment, green steam erupted from Kanon's body. The Eight Inner Gates, the Sixth Gate, the Gate of View, was now open. Combined with Sage Mode, her speed and power had reached the absolute limits of human capability.
BOOM!
The shockwave of the punch rippled through the air, doubling the Raikage over like a broken reed. Kanon chose to fight head-on, crushing her opponent with sheer, overwhelming strength.
Behind the Raikage, the pressure of the fist blasted outward, leaving a three-meter-wide crater in the wall. With a single blow, the Raikage lost consciousness. But Kanon was far from finished.
She kicked the Raikage into the air and unleashed a barrage of punches. Terrifying friction-induced flames pierced through the Raikage's skin repeatedly.
"Asakujaku: Morning Peacock!"
Fifteen seconds later, the Raikage fell, utterly unresponsive. Yet, a crimson skeletal hand hoisted him up again, while another skeletal fist smashed into his chest.
The Raikage spat out a mouthful of blood; the sheer agony had forcibly awoken him from his blackout.
"Languish in the genjutsu of the Mangekyo..." Kanon said coldly. "Tsukuyomi!"
The Raikage's consciousness vanished instantly. In the Tsukuyomi realm, he was subjected to an eternity of torment by countless Kanons wielding Kusanagi Swords, while flower petals as sharp as blades rained down from the sky.
"Time to die!"
Kanon raised her Kusanagi Sword to decapitate the Raikage, whose eyes had rolled back into his head, his body a map of gore and trauma. At that critical moment, a surge of sand snatched the Raikage away.
Gaara looked at Kanon with deep wariness. Having already gathered the unconscious Temari and Darui, he quickly retreated with the heavily injured Raikage.
Kanon didn't give chase. Her battle with the Five Kage was inevitable; there was no need to rush the ending. If she killed them all now, there would be no fun left for later.
"Flee like rats in the street," she whispered. "Keep running, until you realize this world holds nothing but despair."
Kanon twirled her Kusanagi Sword with a flourish before sheathing it at her waist. She glanced at the cooling corpse of C on the ground with a mocking smile, stepping over his head without a second thought. Ignoring Kurotsuchi, who was trembling in the distance, she walked toward the heart of the Five Kage Summit.
Once Kanon was gone, Kurotsuchi leaped back into the battlefield. The once-orderly hall was now a wasteland of ruins, reeking of blood, shattered bone, and torn flesh.
"Kanon Uchiha... she's terrifying..." Kurotsuchi remembered their duel years ago. Back then, Kanon didn't possess such thick, frigid killing intent. She had fought like a normal girl, never dealing such cruel, lethal blows.
What could have happened to change her so completely? Kurotsuchi wondered.
…
As Kanon walked, her sensory abilities pinpointed Danzo's location.
"The Mizukage, Tsuchikage, and Danzo are all there?" Kanon huffed. Her sensory skills were now on par with Karin's; there was no way they could hide from her.
Inside the Summit hall, Fu Yamanaka realized they were being tracked.
"It seems the enemy has a sensory type as well."
"They'll be here soon. What should we do?"
"This is fine," Danzo said evenly. "We can use the chaos of their arrival to make our escape."
Ao shouted at Danzo's group: "Stop whispering over there! I am also a sensory type. Even though our location is compromised, you are not to move! We will handle the enemy!"
Onoki's lips curled into a slight smirk. He was starting to find this summit quite interesting.
…
Inside the wooden house built by Yamato.
"Lies! You're lying!" Naruto roared.
"How can this be..." Yamato's pupils contracted.
"Stop joking around. I don't believe a word of it!" Kakashi said, though his voice lacked its usual edge.
"It's no lie. This is the truth behind Itachi, and the beginning of Kanon's tragedy," the masked man said.
"Liar... liar!" Naruto's body shook uncontrollably.
When he was only six years old, worried about nothing more than a stomachache, Kanon had already watched her sister Izumi be ruthlessly murdered before being forced to jump off a cliff herself. To survive that, only to witness the death of her parents… Naruto couldn't even fathom that level of agony.
He remembered Kanon in the hospital, wrapped in bandages, yet still forcing a smile for him. She had forced herself to be "sunny" just to face him. The realization felt like a hand squeezing his heart to pieces.
Her words from back then echoed in his mind…
"If only I had been by your side then..."
"I'm glad you weren't."
"I have nothing left... I don't want to lose you or my brother too..."
Those words from a six-year-old girl tore through his soul.
Watching Naruto's breakdown, the masked man said casually, "In a way, you should thank me. I was the one who didn't kill her. If Itachi had done it, she would certainly be dead."
The masked man let out a cold chuckle. "Besides, Sasuke and Kanon turning out like this was a gamble for me. I wondered if they would inherit Itachi's will to protect Konoha, or choose revenge. In the end, they chose revenge. Their nature aligns with mine. Sasuke's goal now is to destroy Konoha that pushed the Uchiha to the brink! And Kanon is the same. To her, this is just a 'trifling matter' of her childhood, Naruto. You're already breaking; your heart is too weak."
"What?!" Naruto gasped. Such suffering... and he called it trifling?
"I don't know the rest, nor can I say," the masked man smirked at Naruto.
"Why... why would Sasuke and Kanon... why would they choose revenge?" Naruto lowered his head, his heart aching as if two knives were twisting inside him.
"It can't be helped. That is the destiny of hatred for the blood-stained Uchiha clan. It is a curse inherited since ancient times."
The masked man looked directly at Naruto. "Kanon once craved peace and hope. That she has become this is entirely due to the actions of your Konoha. Of that, there is no doubt."
Kakashi lowered his head. Regarding Kanon, he knew more than the others, yet he had been able to do nothing...
"As their teacher, you are nothing but a failure, Kakashi," the masked man taunted. "All that skill, and yet you couldn't see what was in your students' hearts. You are a failure of a teacher, just like your own master was. Nothing but a piece of trash."
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