As the dust and debris settled, Han, the man feared as the "Steam Ninja," lay with his eyes rolled back. It was clear that the previous Lotus had inflicted devastating internal damage.
But as the Five-Tails Jinchūriki of Iwagakure, falling here was not an option.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself up, his expression turning grim. Beneath his crimson armor, the impact of Kanon's Lotus had left visible fractures snaking across the plating.
"You're not bad, kid," Han muttered, his voice heavy with exertion.
"In that case, I'll have to show you what I'm truly capable of." His expression hardened as thick plumes of steam erupted from his body, hissing with lethal pressure.
Standing opposite him, Kanon, clad in the Akatsuki's signature black cloak embroidered with red clouds, pushed herself off the ground. Her petite frame stood defiant, rooted to the spot. She watched in silence as Han continued to build his steam pressure; she wanted to witness the true, unbridled power of a Tailed Beast.
Sure enough, a massive white tail manifested behind Han. Before Kanon could even react, he had closed the distance, his fist hurtling toward her face.
But Kanon was an Uchiha. With the heightened perception of her Three-Tomoe Sharingan, her combat instincts were pushed to their absolute limit. In a flash, she raised her Kusanagi Sword, intending to parry the blow with the flat of the blade.
"Block? You think you can block this?!" Han sneered.
BOOM!
A massive explosion of force sent Kanon spiraling backward dozens of meters, her boots carving a deep trench into the earth.
Han didn't relent. His speed had surged past the supersonic, moving so fast that even the Sharingan struggled to track his trajectory. He delivered a heavy, earth-shattering kick toward the spot where Kanon had been blown back.
Another violent explosion rocked the battlefield. Under the sheer force of Han's strike, the entire area was leveled into a desolate crater.
Kanon, at the epicenter, was his singular target.
The ground and the surrounding forest had been transformed into a wasteland. Han's kick was devastating, yet as the dust cleared, his pupils shrunk in shock.
Kanon stood before him, completely unscathed. His heavy strike had passed straight through her body as if she were a ghost!
Han attempted to retreat after the missed strike, but he found his limbs unresponsive. When he looked down, he realized he had been ensnared from all directions by heavy iron chains.
"When did she use Shadow Clones?!" Han gasped.
Kanon offered no explanation. Dozens of her clones surrounded him, each gripping a length of the binding chains.
"Shadow Clone: Majestic Destroyer Flame!!"
With a sharp command, dozens of seas of fire converged on Han at the center. After a terrifying explosion that echoed all the way to the Hidden Stone Village, Han collapsed, his body charred and his spirit broken.
…
Hidden Stone Village.
Kurotsuchi frowned as she caught sight of a faint orange glow on the horizon. Though the distance was vast, the fact that the light reached the village spoke to the sheer scale of the explosion.
"That chakra..." Kurotsuchi muttered, a trace of worry flickering in her eyes.
"Should we go take a look?" Kitsuchi asked quietly beside her.
"We're close enough that the old man shouldn't complain. Let's move."
With a mutual nod, the two shinobi leapt toward the heart of the fire.
…
At the center of the battlefield, Kanon stood with her hands behind her back. Her clones had vanished, and Han lay motionless within the tangle of chains. The power of her last attack had been so overwhelming that even with the Five-Tails' chakra, Han could not withstand it.
"A mere Jinchūriki, yet you dared to challenge an Uchiha? Ridiculous."
"Five-Tails... captured," Kanon murmured.
She began to walk toward him, the rhythmic tap of her shinobi boots against the scorched earth echoing in the silence. But as she drew closer, Han's body began to undergo a violent transformation. Though he remained in human form, a torrent of dark red chakra erupted from his pores, coating him in a bubbling, translucent shroud—the Tailed Beast Mantle.
"It seems it won't be that easy."
The moment Kanon spoke, a massive arm of red chakra lunged forward, piercing through her midsection. She instantly activated the ability of her Flower Realm, allowing the attack to phase harmlessly through her.
Confused by the lack of physical contact, the Version 1 Han hesitated for a split second. Kanon capitalized immediately, swinging her Kusanagi Sword. The blade struck the dense, dark red chakra skin, but the resulting shockwave sent Kanon flying backward.
"Chidori Sharp Spear!"
A massive blade of blue lightning descended from the sky, striking down at Han. It was futile; Han swatted the lightning aside with a single clawed swipe, the force of the motion obliterating the remaining trees in the vicinity.
"So this is a Jinchūriki..." Kanon's expression grew icy.
The semi-transformed Han moved with blistering speed, his blurred form lunging at Kanon with feral strikes. Every claw swipe met only air, passing through her intangible form. Meanwhile, Kanon's counterattacks were razor-sharp; in terms of taijutsu, she had surpassed even the likes of Rock Lee.
"Eight Inner Gates! Gate of Opening, Release!"
She unleashed a Swift Shadow Barrage, her high-speed taijutsu finally inflicting visible pain on the semi-transformed Jinchūriki.
"Sixth Gate: The Gate of View, Open!!"
Kanon roared as green energy erupted from her body. She unleashed a flurry of punches so fast they ignited the air itself. The friction between her fists and the atmosphere generated a barrage of fire and shockwaves, relentless and suffocating.
This was the high-level taijutsu she had mastered alongside Konin within her inner world. Its name was...
"Morning Peacock!"
BOOM!
The ferocious assault sent the semi-transformed Han crashing backward. Kanon watched him go, a flicker of surprise crossing her mind. He was still moving. Was this the fabled regenerative power of the Tailed Beast Mantle?
Han, now resembling a mindless beast more than a man, let out a primal roar from the center of the crater. Kanon's gaze turned cold.
"Very well. I, Kanon Uchiha, shall show you my full strength!"
As she spoke, pink markings appeared around her eyes. Within her crimson Sharingan, the pupils shifted into the serpentine slits of Ryūchi Cave, with three tomoe slowly rotating within the yellow irises.
This was the fruit of her training: Sage Mode.
"Sage Art: Gracious Deity Gates!"
At Kanon's command, five massive red gates crashed down from the heavens, pinning Han's five tails firmly to the earth. The Jinchūriki roared in fury, struggling against the seals, but his movements were completely neutralized. The battle was over.
…
Thousands of meters away, Zetsu and the masked man known as Tobi appeared from the shadows.
"Recruiting her was definitely the right choice," Tobi remarked, a cold sweat forming under his mask. "Her power exceeds my expectations. Even my Kamui can't penetrate her Flower Realm."
Tobi felt a strange sense of irony; he almost wanted to thank Danzō. Driving someone this powerful away from Konoha was undoubtedly the most foolish mistake the village had ever made.
"Do you think we can control her, Obito?" Zetsu asked.
"No. She has her own will, and right now, she's stronger than I am." Tobi watched the distant battlefield. "Even without those eyes, neither of us would necessarily be her match anymore."
"Regardless, she has joined the Akatsuki. Let Pain and the others handle the rest..."
…
At the center of the devastation, Kanon looked down at the pinned Jinchūriki with an indifferent gaze. She wove a sign for the Multi-Size Shadow Clone Technique.
Suddenly, twenty Kanons, all empowered by Sage Mode, surrounded the Five-Tails Jinchūriki. Ten held massive, whirling spheres of chakra, while the other ten gathered crackling blue lightning in their palms.
"Sage Art: Massive Rasengan!"
"Sage Art: Chidori!"
The twenty clones descended simultaneously upon the trapped Han. The resulting explosion was cataclysmic, wiping out everything within a several-kilometer radius.
When the dust finally cleared, Han lay in the center of the ruin, his armor shattered and his body bleeding profusely. He lay there, gasping for breath, as broken as a dying dog.
Kanon stood over him, her face hidden behind her fox mask, expressing nothing but cold calm.
"The Five-Tails capture is complete."
With a soft murmur, she drove her Kusanagi Sword through the palm of Han's hand. The sharp, agonizing pain forced a hoarse scream from his throat.
"Does that hurt, Han-jisan?"