"You're lying!"
"Itachi told me himself, it was Madara, it was you who made the Nine-Tails attack the village!"
"You let the Uchiha endure years of unjust suspicion, and you conspired with Itachi to toy with our clan!"
The masked man merely shook his head faintly. "That was a lie Itachi told you."
"The Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha sixteen years ago was a natural disaster."
"Itachi was afraid that you might eventually learn the truth."
"So, to leave nothing to chance, to ensure you would never trust me, he lied."
"That is why he implanted the Amaterasu in your eyes."
Sasuke gritted his teeth. "How am I supposed to believe that? That man was a monster!"
"He slaughtered our kin! He was a criminal who colluded with the Akatsuki!"
Sasuke's roar caused the masked man to glance at the girl beside him, Uchiha Kanon.
At that moment, Kanon was expressionless. She lay on the bed, her eyes hollow, as if the life had already left her. Had it not been for her faint breathing, the masked man would have thought she was already dead.
"Itachi bore a heinous crime alone, one that could never be washed away. After defecting from the village, he even infiltrated the Akatsuki."
"He monitored the organization that threatened the village from the inside. At all times, his heart remained with Konoha."
"And likewise, he was always worried about you."
The masked man then told Sasuke about encountering Itachi in Konoha three years prior.
"He even went so far as to ask me to kill his own sister... and in the end, he tried to kill Kanon with his own hands. Everything he did..."
"Shut up!"
Sasuke was on the verge of a total breakdown. He looked at his sister, who was being swallowed by despair in silence, and he couldn't let the masked man continue.
"Kanon, don't believe him! Everything he's saying is a lie!"
Hearing Sasuke's frantic shout, the masked man spoke calmly:
"I have proof. The proof is that you are still alive."
That single sentence struck Sasuke like a physical blow. His world collapsed; the foundation of his hatred began to crumble.
"Those eyes you're so proud of... they failed to see a single thing your brother and sister did for you out of love."
"You couldn't see through even a single layer of the illusions Itachi wove."
"Uchiha Itachi killed his lover, killed his superiors, killed his parents, and killed his clansmen. He even tried to kill his most cherished sister for your sake."
"But the one person he could never bring himself to harm... was his precious little brother."
"He yearned for peace and loved his village. But in his eyes, there was something more important than the village, the clan, or even his sister..."
"Uchiha Sasuke, it was you!"
"Until his final moments—no, even after death, he was thinking of you, striving to grant you new power."
"He wanted to fall by your hand. He wanted Uchiha Sasuke to be the one to avenge the Uchiha clan, not Uchiha Kanon."
"He intended to mold you into a hero of Konoha. He suffered through the agony of a terminal illness and endured the heavy wounds from his battle with Kanon, all for his beloved brother."
"He had to fight you, and then he had to die before your eyes."
Sasuke's eyes were vacant, but Kanon suddenly sat up. Her expression had settled into a terrifying stillness, a pathological deadness of the heart.
What a cruel joke the world had played on these siblings.
A sister who had been discarded time and again since childhood, and a brother who was protected at the cost of everything. How poetic. How ironic.
Now knowing the truth, Kanon and Sasuke stood by the shore. Their gentle older brother felt as though he were standing right before them.
Kanon watched the distant sunset with ashen eyes. Beside her, Sasuke's tears had already begun to fall.
When they were young, after Itachi carried Sasuke home but had to leave to train with Shisui, Kanon would only receive a poke to her forehead and a soft apology:
"Forgive me, Kanon. Go play with Sasuke."
When she grew a bit older, and at six years old had mastered exquisite shurikenjutsu and wanted to show Itachi, she only received:
"Forgive me, Kanon. I don't have time today. Maybe next time."
And at the very end, during their death match, even as her blade pierced his heart, all she received was:
"Forgive me, Kanon... Sasuke..."
"This is the last time."
As the sun dipped below the horizon, Sasuke's tears flowed uncontrollably, turning into streaks of blood. Unnoticed, Team Hebi had come to stand beside the siblings.
Zetsu and the masked man sat far off, waiting for the two to compose themselves.
In Sasuke's eyes, the tomoe began to shift and warp. The gentle brother had never truly left; he had followed Sasuke all along with a restrained, silent love.
The sea breeze kicked up spray tinged by the sunset, smearing the blood on Sasuke's face.
Kanon's black hair fluttered in the wind. Her gaze remained hollow, her expression radiating nothing but despair.
Unlike Kanon, Sasuke's face was a mask of grief and regret.
His tears turned to blood as the Mangekyō Sharingan finally surfaced in his eyes.
Kanon didn't care about Sasuke's Mangekyō. Watching him weep tears of blood, her own pupils shifted into a rose-patterned Sharingan, and she suddenly burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha! Hahahaha!"
Everyone was stunned by the sudden outburst and turned to look at her.
Kanon had finally broken. The exhaustion, the pain, and the "flower" within her heart had finally withered.
She laughed wildly in front of everyone, like a madwoman.
But her tears of blood were no fewer than Sasuke's.
"What is 'right' isn't necessarily what 'ought' to be done, is it?"
"No matter what you say, he is still the executioner who slaughtered our clan."
"I am his sister too... so why did he choose to throw me away every single time?"
Kanon's laughter faded into a calm, a terrifying, deathly calm.
"I will never forgive him. Never..."
At that moment, Sasuke raised his Kusanagi Sword, leveling the tip at Kanon's throat.
"I won't allow you to speak of Itachi that way. Take it back."
Having understood the truth, Itachi was now more important to Sasuke than anything else, surpassing even his own sister.
He didn't choose to do what Itachi wanted him to do. Instead, he chose to be Itachi's brother, an Uchiha who lived for his love and his hate.
Looking at the brother she once knew, now pointing a blade at her with fury in his eyes, Kanon felt a sudden, chilling sense of estrangement.
The distance between them caused her pupils to contract to their limit. The rose pattern of her Mangekyō warped, shrinking into a singular, sharp point.
Kanon thrust her palm forward. Sasuke's Kusanagi pierced through her hand, but she didn't even flinch.
The sudden move left Sasuke stunned. Blood leaked from his Mangekyō; he couldn't believe Kanon would do this.
"Now that you know the truth, you're going to carry out Itachi's will too?"
"You're going to put his plan back on track? Is that it, Uchiha Sasuke?"
"He simply chose you, and heartlessly discarded me!"
"If that's the case..." Kanon walked forward with a cold sneer, the sword still in her hand.
The members of Team Hebi watched in horror, especially Karin, whose eyes were wide with shock. Sasuke was equally paralyzed.
As Kanon stepped forward, the Kusanagi slid through her abdomen. The cold steel entered her front and emerged, stained crimson, from her back.
But Kanon could no longer feel such pain. Her heart was already dead.
Sasuke let go of the hilt. He stared in disbelief at his hollow sister, the blade impaling her through and through.
"Then go ahead and kill me. Fulfill your brother's will and finish off the person who should have died long ago."
Suddenly, Kanon's expression shifted back to her old, gentle self.
"Sasuke-nii... are you going to discard me too?"
"Oh, no. I shouldn't say it like that anymore. It should be: Uchiha Sasuke, go inherit his will, and discard me once more."
Blood spilled from the corner of her mouth. Her Mangekyō patterns were needle-thin as she locked eyes with him. Her manic expression was unrecognizable to Sasuke. Was this truly his sister, Uchiha Kanon?
She pressed her forehead against his, their faces inches apart.
"The moment you chose Itachi's will, you had already abandoned me," she whispered.
"Therefore, I will negate Itachi's will."
"The peace Itachi hoped for... I will destroy it all!"
Kanon stepped back. Her Mangekyō had fully transformed; the rose pattern, driven by the deepest despair, had constricted into pinpricks.
She gripped the Kusanagi in her abdomen and wrenched it out. Blood splattered across Sasuke's face, but Kanon's expression didn't change. She tossed the sword onto the ground like trash, and the Flower Realm space began to bloom around her.
As she faded into the Flower Realm, Kanon gave Sasuke one final smile.
It was a smile that twisted like a knife in Sasuke's heart.
Because that smile was so distorted, so hopeless, and so utterly heartbreaking.