Amegakure.
Only half an hour had passed from the moment Kanon lost consciousness to the moment she bolted awake.
Kanon gasped, her heart hammering against her ribs. She had been trapped in a nightmare, a recurring loop of watching Jiraiya die right before her eyes.
She looked down to find her clothes had been changed; she was once again wearing her short-sleeved shirt adorned with the Uchiha crest and the symbols of Ryūchi Cave. Beside her, Konan had drifted off to sleep.
Kanon lowered her head, gazing at Konan, who had always treated her with nothing but kindness. She truly didn't know how to face Nagato now. He had personally killed her master, who was also his own master, right in front of her.
It was a brand of cold resolve she didn't possess. She knew that if she were ever forced to choose between her principles and her bond with Jiraiya, she would lose; her heart simply wasn't hardened enough yet. She couldn't raise a hand against her mentor, nor could she strike down her best friend, Naruto.
Suddenly, Konin's voice echoed from within her.
"You... you're just too kind at your core. Even after enduring so much agony, you still remain so gentle."
"You understand everything that's happening, yet you still can't bring yourself to hurt those you once cared for. In the end, you're the only one who gets hurt."
"Kanon, your inner self is being thrashed by a violent storm right now, isn't it?"
Hearing Konin's words, Kanon's body began to shake violently. The massacre of her clan, the sight of her parents' corpses, and now her master dead at her feet. She wanted to cry, she desperately needed to cry, but her tear ducts felt like parched earth. Her face contorted in a twisted grimace of grief, but no moisture came.
"Konin, I want to cry... but why can't I?" Kanon asked internally.
"Because you've reached a point where you can't even feel the physical pain anymore. Your innate kindness is making this mental anguish a hundred times worse."
"Kanon... the flower in your heart is about to wither."
Kanon gave a microscopic nod, and Konin fell silent. Inside the Flower Realm, Konin felt the tempest raging in Kanon's soul, and her own heart ached in response.
She let out a long, heavy sigh. "Kanon, you have many people you want to protect... but I only want to protect you."
"I really don't want to see you suffer anymore... but the time hasn't come yet."
Konin closed her eyes. When she snapped them open again, her gaze had shifted, revealing a new and terrifying depth.
…
Aware of Kanon's movement, Konan woke up.
"Kanon, you're awake?!"
Kanon gave a slight nod.
"About Jiraiya-sensei... I'm sorry..."
"You weren't the one who did it," Kanon said tonelessly. "Why apologize?"
At that moment, the door creaked open. Nagato, looking gaunt and skeletal, rolled his wheelchair into the room with his head bowed. Seeing his true form, Kanon's pupils shrank. A flicker of rage flared in her eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a chilling, hollow calm.
"I... I am sorry." Nagato offered the apology personally, his voice heavy with uncharacteristic sincerity.
"Nagato... doesn't your heart ache?" Kanon lunged forward and grabbed Nagato's collar. "That was our master!"
"Kanon!" Konan cried out.
Kanon's eyes trembled as she looked at Nagato's mangled legs and his emaciated frame. Eventually, her grip loosened, and she let go.
"Nagato... I will never forgive you."
"I didn't come here to ask for your forgiveness," Nagato replied, his head still lowered. "I came only to apologize." Between the Hidden Rain and Jiraiya, he would choose the village every single time.
Kanon slumped back onto the bed, pulling her knees to her chest and burying her face in them.
"I just wanted him to live... to live long enough to see the era I dreamed of... where even the weak could find happiness," she whispered, her voice trembling, a sound that pulled at the heartstrings of both Konan and Nagato.
"That era... it sounds beautiful. Peaceful," Nagato said softly.
"Yeah... but he's not here to see it."
"I understand how you feel," Nagato continued. "But you must also know... I did what I had to do."
Kanon didn't answer. Her gaze shifted to Konan.
"Konan-nee... what is the status of Itachi?"
Konan hesitated, but Nagato spoke up. "Your brother, Sasuke, has already engaged Itachi. The battle has reached its climax."
"What?!" Kanon bolted upright. Sasuke was fighting Itachi now?
She scrambled to get out of bed, but her legs were like jelly. She stumbled, nearly hitting the floor before Konan caught her.
"Kanon, you're still too weak!"
However, both Konan and Nagato were taken aback by the sheer desperation in Kanon's eyes.
"My body doesn't matter! I have to get to Itachi!"
Kanon's Three-Tomoe Sharingan flared to life as she attempted to trigger the Flower Realm, but a stabbing pain shot through her skull. A trail of blood-tears leaked from her eye.
"Kanon, your ocular power hasn't recovered! You're overdrawing your Sharingan!" Konin screamed in her mind.
"My brother is in danger... I have to get there..."
Kanon knew better than anyone: Sasuke only had the Three-Tomoe. He didn't have the strength to kill Itachi. Even an Itachi half-crippled by his previous fight with her was more than Sasuke could handle. Once the Susanoo came out, Sasuke would be at Itachi's mercy.
She couldn't lose her brother right after losing her master.
To Kanon, the idea of a Three-Tomoe user defeating a Mangekyō user, especially one as formidable as Itachi, was a lethal delusion. If they both fought at full strength, Sasuke would be crushed.
Ignoring her staggering steps and the protests of her body, she vanished from the room, leaving a stunned Konan and Nagato behind.
"She's gone..." Konan murmured.
"Yes," Nagato nodded slowly. "Now, prepare to capture the Nine-Tails. That toad likely took intel back to Konoha. We must strike first."
…
Inside the Flower Realm.
Kanon clutched her bleeding eyes. Despite the agonizing pain, she didn't stop. Her cheeks were pale, and her blood-tears stained the ground as she limped through the dimension.
Eventually, her ocular power failed completely. She coughed up blood and collapsed face-first into the dirt.
To the current Kanon, chakra consumption was a minor concern, but the depletion of her dōjutsu was a massive hurdle. She was only fifteen; the constant, high-intensity use of her Mangekyō over the past few days had taken a devastating toll. Coupled with the emotional trauma of Jiraiya's death, her mind and body were at their breaking point.
Even the short period of unconsciousness hadn't been enough to recharge her eyes. She was more vulnerable than she had ever been.
But her fear for her brother pushed her past the pain. Sasuke was the last piece of family she had left. She refused to fail him now.
As she crawled through the field of Red Spider Lilies, a girl who looked exactly like her materialized by her side.
Konin looked down at Kanon with deep worry, her voice rising to a desperate, angry shout. "I know you're hurting, but this is reckless!"
Then, Konin's voice broke into a sob. "Your vision is so blurred you can barely see the path ahead, can't you?"
"Konin... that's my brother!"
"But your body—"
"My body doesn't matter! Konin, take me to the battlefield... if my brother dies too... what's the point of me being alive?!"
"Please... don't make me regret this for the rest of my life. I'm begging you..."
Kanon pleaded, her blood-tears soaking into the soil. Seeing her like this, Konin understood there was no stopping her.
She knelt down and helped Kanon up, supporting her weight as they moved toward the spatial marker for the Uchiha Hideout.
"Konin, I'm sorry..." Kanon whispered, seeing the grim, worried lines on her duplicate's face.
"Don't be sorry," Konin replied softly. "I don't care about those people as much as you do. I only care about you."
"So, this time, please don't..." Konin trailed off, the words catching in her throat.
Kanon didn't quite understand what Konin was hiding, but she managed a weak smile and reached out to pinch her duplicate's cheek.
"Don't worry, Konin... I'll be fine."