"It seems you finally possess the same eyes as I do."
"Have you already killed those most precious to you?" Itachi asked mockingly.
"This power... it isn't what you claim it is. Stop trying to brainwash me, Itachi," Kanon replied coldly.
Itachi let out a soft sigh and rose from his chair. "Such remarkable confidence."
Kanon finally shed her Akatsuki cloak, the corners of her mouth curving into a beautiful yet sharp arc as she gazed at the elder brother who had once been so kind to her.
In a secluded corner nearby, Zetsu watched the confrontation unfold. His expression was etched with shock; up until this moment, neither Kanon nor Itachi had moved an inch. This was the traditional Uchiha style of combat, a duel of genjutsu. However, it was glaringly obvious that Itachi was being pushed back.
"The Mangekyō Sharingan... it is a unique set of eyes. From the moment they awaken, they begin a descent into darkness," Itachi stated. "The more you use them, the faster they are sealed away."
"Kanon, your vision has already started to blur, hasn't it? One day, your Mangekyō will lose its light forever."
Kanon merely laughed at him with disdain. "What does that have to do with you? I have finally reached this stage, the moment I fulfill my first objective!"
Itachi let out a faint chuckle. "You speak as if you've already seen my death. But you cannot defeat me while I possess the Mangekyō Sharingan. Because... my visual prowess surpasses yours."
"Is that so? Still as arrogant as ever, Itachi."
The moment the words left her lips, Kanon moved. Simultaneously, Itachi reacted.
Kanon's hand blurred into a spatial vortex, frantically drawing out shuriken and hurling them at Itachi. The precision with which she targeted his blind spots left even Itachi stunned. The angles of her strikes were so complex that he couldn't have replicated them perfectly himself, yet Kanon's shuriken play was flawless.
This clash of projectiles was no longer a head-on exchange; they were ricocheting weapons off one another to strike from the periphery. Sparks erupted in a full 360-degree radius around them.
It was a contest between Uchiha geniuses, but Itachi quickly sensed something was wrong. Kanon's shuriken trajectories were too inconceivable; defending against them was becoming an impossible task. If he couldn't defend, he would have to go on the offensive.
"Clone Explosion!"
Suddenly, another of Itachi's clones charged through the hail of shuriken, brandishing a kunai as it lunged at Kanon. Sparks continued to fly everywhere—the sky, the ground, and even behind them were obscured by the metallic flashes.
Kanon performed a backflip, narrowly evading the explosive clone's reach. But as she moved, the clone detonated behind her, and a torrent of black flames surged forth. It was Amaterasu. Kanon caught sight of blood leaking from Itachi's eye.
The terrifying black flames swept toward the sky. How could Kanon possibly dodge mid-air? Itachi finally felt a sense of relief in his heart. If Amaterasu connects, the battle is over.
However, high in the air, Kanon pressed her palms together. A Shadow Clone materialized instantly, grabbing her and hurling her body out of the Amaterasu's path.
Itachi was aghast. She used a Shadow Clone to change her trajectory in mid-air?
The clone then transformed into a shuriken and was hurled back at Itachi. Itachi staggered, barely managing to dodge the projectile.
No, that's not right!
Itachi's eyes widened in horror as the shuriken passing beside him transformed again.
It was Kanon's real body!
The Kanon in the sky vanished in a puff of white smoke, leaving the Kusanagi Sword to fall toward the ground. Meanwhile, Kanon's slender hand had already balled into a fist, slamming directly into Itachi's face.
He was sent reeling, crashing violently into a stone wall.
Despite the blow, Itachi's combat instincts remained top-tier. He pushed off the wall and leaped into the air, firing three shuriken at Kanon. Kanon spun her body mid-flight; the three blades grazed her neck, waist, and slender calf, but failed to draw blood.
Using the momentum of her rotation, Kanon launched two more shuriken. Itachi was forced back once again, and blood began to flow from his other Mangekyō.
"Tsukuyomi!"
Suddenly, Kanon felt herself pulled into a crimson dimension. She found herself bound to a cross, surrounded by five versions of Itachi, each wielding a katana.
"My foolish little sister... die with your hatred."
The five clones thrust their blades toward Kanon's abdomen. In the physical world, Itachi reached out, intending to retrieve Kanon's rose-patterned Mangekyō Sharingan. He truly intended to take them, at the very least, he couldn't allow these eyes to fall into the hands of anyone else.
But as Itachi's hand reached for Kanon's eye socket, he froze. His hand passed right through her.
Kanon, supposedly trapped within the Tsukuyomi, miraculously broke into a smile. Itachi was struck with terror. Kanon was indeed under the influence of the jutsu, yet she was acting as if nothing was wrong.
She delivered a devastating kick to Itachi's midsection. Itachi went tumbling across the ground, coughing up a large spray of blood.
Within the Tsukuyomi realm, the bound Kanon remained, and the five katanas successfully impaled her, or so it seemed. Itachi looked up in shock as a rose-shaped Mangekyō pattern appeared over the red moon in the sky. He finally realized the truth: This wasn't his Tsukuyomi!
The nightmare realm shattered instantly. It was simple. Kanon could use Tsukuyomi too!
The moment Itachi had attempted to trigger his technique, Kanon had already activated hers. Itachi, believing himself to be the director of this play, had suffered a catastrophic backfire.
Itachi struggled to his feet, but his body was unsteady. Cold sweat poured down his face. He had been countered and suppressed within his own signature domain.
Zetsu, watching from the shadows, was equally stunned.
"How? Why didn't Kanon collapse after being hit by Tsukuyomi?" White Zetsu asked, bewildered.
"No, she didn't get hit..." Black Zetsu noted calmly. "She released her Tsukuyomi before Itachi did. Kanon's talent has already surpassed Itachi's imagination. This fight is getting interesting."
"You... you cast Tsukuyomi... before I did..." Itachi's voice trembled.
"This was the illusion I showed you. Doesn't it feel wonderful? To see everything you planned suddenly flip on its head just as it was about to become reality?" Kanon sneered. "In that Tsukuyomi just now, you saw the vision you wanted to see, but now... I'm going to make the real ending a reality."
Continuing a battle of genjutsu was pointless. From the moment Kanon successfully countered his Tsukuyomi, the mental war had lost its meaning. The Uchiha siblings would now have to let their raw strength do the talking.
Sure enough, Itachi retreated, his hands moving into seals so fast they were a blur.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
As the massive sphere of flame surged toward her, Kanon's hands flew through seals at a speed even Zetsu couldn't track.
"Has the Tsukuyomi made your vision that blurry?" Kanon whispered before shouting, "Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
An immense sea of fire collided with Itachi's fireball. However, Kanon's chakra reserves were far beyond anything Itachi could have imagined. The terrifying wall of flame swallowed the fireball instantly. As Itachi leaped to escape, Kanon thrust her Chidori Sharp Spear upward, blasting Itachi through the ceiling.
An orange ribcage manifested just in time to block the Chidori strike. While suspended in mid-air within the orange skeletal frame, Itachi finished another set of seals and spat out a violent fireball.
At the edge of the crater, Kanon walked directly out of the flames, her body intangible.
In the next heartbeat, Itachi felt the space around his neck twisting into a rose-shaped vortex. Horrified, he manifested the Susano'o's arm to hurl a Yasaka Magatama, barely preventing his neck from being snapped.
This was another ability of the Flower Realm. Seeing the Magatama flying toward her, Kanon used the Flower Realm to instantly warp the projectile away.
When Itachi's vision cleared, his expression was grim. Pink pigment had appeared around Kanon's eyes, the mark of Sage Mode.
"Sage Mode?!"
Itachi immediately threw himself off the mountain. In his peripheral vision, he saw a massive, spinning shuriken of light whistling over his head.
"Sage Art: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken!"
The high-density chakra screamed through the gloomy sky, instantly obliterating a mountain in the distance. The deafening roar left Itachi shaken, but it wasn't over. The moment he landed in the forest, Kanon materialized another Rasenshuriken and hurled it at him.
Facing the high-density natural energy that hummed with a piercing screech, Itachi had no counter. He could only flee. But the radius of the explosion was too vast; he couldn't outrun it. Blood leaked from his Mangekyō as he summoned the Susano'o to its full form to tank the hit.
Kanon's Rasenshuriken was even more powerful than Naruto's current version. In an instant, the impact sent Itachi flying, staggering through the wreckage.
Kanon wasn't about to give him a moment's peace. Just as she began to charge a third Rasenshuriken, an orange light flashed through her body.
It was the Sword of Totsuka. Itachi had actually drawn the legendary spirit weapon, driven by the desperation to kill the sister standing before him.
As the Totsuka Blade impaled her chest, Kanon looked at Itachi with absolute composure.
"Detaching the Susano'o from your body... you're certainly bold."
Itachi crawled up, trembling. His Susano'o stood behind Kanon, separated from his physical form. But things were not as simple as he hoped. Kanon had remained intangible the entire time; the Totsuka Blade had passed through her as if striking air. She simply stepped out from the spectral blade, unharmed.