Watching the others vanish, Sasori turned his attention to Kanon, his voice low.
"Kanon-chan, what's the deal with the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki?"
"The first one to start screaming, that's him," Kanon replied noncommittally. She felt that Sasori likely wouldn't take Naruto's life, especially with Kakashi and that old woman, Chiyo, by his side.
With that thought, Kanon stayed silent. Let them cause their scene.
"Hmm? What kind of description is that?" Sasori asked, sounding perplexed.
"Don't you have any more specific traits, Kanon-chan?" Deidara added, equally confused.
"That one trait is specific enough. You'll see soon enough."
"Honestly..." Deidara shook his head, helpless.
As Guy went to break the seal, Kakashi's group stood ready just outside the barrier of the hideout.
Deidara, growing impatient, looked at Kanon, who was sitting nearby with her legs crossed. "Kanon-chan, why are they taking so long?"
"I don't know. They should be breaking in any second now."
"So slow!!!" Deidara growled, scratching his head in frustration.
"Waiting is part of the excitement, isn't it?"
"But Master Sasori, aren't you the one who hates waiting the most?"
"I am. I hate it more than anything..."
The moment Team Guy broke the seal, Sakura shattered the massive boulder with a single strike. Meanwhile, Team Guy found themselves intercepted and stalled by their own clones.
"Finally here?" Deidara let out a cold laugh.
"Indeed," Sasori said flatly.
Only Kanon remained seated on a jagged rock behind them, legs crossed, fingers tracing the surface of her fox mask. She waited in silence for the inevitable.
When the four intruders finally leaped into the hideout, their pupils constricted in unison.
"Are we too late?" Kakashi's brow furrowed.
Deidara and Sasori stood their ground, while Kanon sat perched atop Gaara's lifeless body, her expression indifferent.
Naruto's eyes went wide. Seeing Gaara beneath Kanon's slender legs, his pupils began to tremble violently. Deidara stood beside her, wearing a mocking smirk.
"So, which one is the Jinchuriki?"
Faced with the sight of Gaara's corpse and Deidara's arrogance, Naruto's teeth remained clenched. His expression grew increasingly distorted as his blue eyes shifted into crimson slits. His entire body shook with a primal, berserk fury.
"You bastards!"
"I'll tear you to pieces!"
Hearing Naruto's roar, Sasori and Deidara immediately focused their attention on him. Kanon remained masked; whatever expression lay beneath that fox visage was known only to her.
"The first one to start screaming..."
"So it is him," Sasori's flat voice cut through the air like a barb, chilling to the bone.
"Looks like it," Deidara chuckled.
Naruto looked at Kanon, who sat unmoved atop the silent Gaara, his expression twisting with pain.
"Kanon, you...!"
"Where do you think you're sitting?!"
Despite Naruto's shouting, Kanon merely let out a soft chuckle. She gave him no answer.
"No doubt about it. The first one to howl is the Jinchuriki."
"Kanon-chan, you really have a knack for spotting traits."
Naruto looked at the unresponsive Gaara and began to shout at him as well. "Gaara! Why are you just lying there sleeping?"
"Gaara, get up!"
"Hey! Gaara, can you hear me?"
"That's enough!" Naruto yelled, preparing to charge, but Kakashi's voice stopped him.
"Wait! Naruto!"
"Stop! You should understand by now." Kakashi's expression was calm, yet a flicker of suppressed anger was visible in his eyes.
"Yes, yes. Actually, you understand, don't you?" Deidara said, reaching down to pat Gaara's cold, stiff face.
At this gesture, Naruto's rage boiled over, fueled by both hatred and tears.
"Give Gaara back to me..."
"Give him back, you bastards!!"
"He was my friend..."
Upon hearing those words, Kanon stood up. She slid her mask up to her forehead, revealing a smile that bordered on the deranged.
"I was too, once," Kanon whispered. That frantic look in her eyes caused everyone to freeze for a moment.
"You..." Kakashi looked at her with a heavy gaze.
"As of now, no one in Konoha is my friend. You are all the villains who hurt me. That is enough to drive anyone mad."
"Kanon, I see it now. You've truly become a fanatic."
"Are you looking for excuses for killing Gaara?" Kakashi pulled down his headband, his crimson Sharingan, its three tomoe spinning, glaring directly at the twin-tailed girl standing before the Akatsuki members.
"Not at all. If he were stronger than me, he wouldn't be dead, would he?" Kanon smiled, turning her gaze toward Naruto. Within that hollow, flat expression, a hint of mockery emerged.
Seeing their sorrowful faces, Kanon's tone turned oddly playful, yet biting. "Oh? Why are you all so heartbroken over this guy?"
"If it were me lying dead on the side of the road, you'd all just walk past. You might even give me a kick, wouldn't you?"
"But him!" Kanon pointed behind her at Gaara.
"What? Is it because he's the Kazekage? Or because he fought a battle with you? Do you only mourn geniuses like him?"
Kakashi and the others were speechless. Kanon's frantic declaration left everyone, even Deidara and Sasori, in a stunned silence.
"Do you really disapprove of Konoha's ways... and the Hokage's actions so much?" Sakura furrowed her brow, finally finding her voice.
"Yes. I do," Kanon snapped, cutting her off instantly.
"Have you ever actually seen the filth outside Konoha, Sakura? Outside the ninja world's little bubbles?"
"Have you ever truly left that soft, comfortable circle of yours?"
"Everyone is screaming and shouting at each other. Every living person is a victim of circumstance."
"No one ever stops to put themselves in another's shoes."
"It's nothing but clan massacres and assassinations."
"Do you think Konoha higher-ups, like Danzo or the Third Hokage, ever cared about the plight of people like us?"
"Would they ever try to understand, or are they just selfish and self-serving?"
"Those elders think we'll just sit there like good little children and accept reality!"
"They believe, from start to finish, that we are nothing but puppets for them to manipulate!"
"Is this your ideal Konoha? Is this the village you're so proud of?!"
As Kanon's speech grew more frantic, escalating almost into a scream, Kakashi and the others, even Chiyo, bowed their heads in a shadow of shame.
"Kanon... not everyone in Konoha is a bad person," Kakashi tried to reason.
Kanon's manic expression vanished instantly, replaced by a surge of pure fury and malice. Her face contorted with rage.
"You are a bad person, Kakashi..."
Looking at Kanon's twisted, dark expression, even Naruto felt a sudden chill.
"You said you would protect us, but every time, it was just empty words."
"What you say and what you do are never the same. You just saw my brother and me as useless burdens holding you back."
"You gave us hope, only to watch us fall into the abyss time and time again. You're no different from those Konoha elders. You're all cut from the same cloth."
"I know our lives mean nothing to you. So now, I want to tell a joke to you and the Hidden Leaf Village."
Kanon's voice rose in pitch, her emotions reaching a fever pitch as her expression became completely unhinged.
"No, Kanon, stop this," Kakashi said, his face etched with pain.
"When you give hope to a 'failure' who luckily survived the massacre of her entire clan by her own brother..."
"When you turn a blind eye to someone betrayed and targeted by their own village..."
"Kanon, don't say another word!"
"When you show up late every single time and still try to pull that person back into the mud!!!"
"I'm sorry... I am so sorry!"
"What do you think you'll get?!!"
"That wasn't our intention! Konoha isn't what you think it is!" Kakashi tried to argue back.
"I'll tell you what you'll get!!!"
"You bastards are going to get exactly what you deserve, your retribution!!!!"
Kanon screamed, her Mangekyo Sharingan erupting with a blinding, blood-red light. A colossal red Susanoo materialized. Within the ethereal armor, Kanon stood with streaks of blood running like tears down her face, her eyes filled with infinite hatred and darkness as she glared down at everyone present.
————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]