At those words, Naruto froze in place.
"What do you mean by that, Granny Shima?!" Gamakichi demanded.
"Look closely at your surroundings!"
Naruto scanned the horizon. Through the settling dust, he caught sight of the Great Stone Faces, the Hokage Rock.
"Could it be?!" Gamabunta's voice rumbled with shock.
"Can you imagine who could have done such a thing?" Shima's expression was so grim it was agonizing to behold.
"Is it the leader of the Akatsuki, Pain?! He feels exactly like the one who was standing on Jiraiya's shoulders," Fukasaku noted.
Naruto's pupils, those horizontal yellow bars of Sage Mode, shrank. An invisible roar of fury filled his heart.
"Pain..." Naruto's voice was low, bordering on a growl.
"It wasn't Pain!" Shima interrupted, cutting through the collective rage.
"Eh?!" Naruto looked confused once more.
"I saw it with my own eyes while I was out getting groceries."
"The person who destroyed Konoha was an Uchiha..."
"It was Kanon!"
Upon hearing that name, Naruto's pupils constricted to their limit. He felt as though he might lose consciousness.
It had finally happened. While he was away training in Senjutsu, Kanon had leveled the entire Konoha.
His heart throbbed violently. His mind was flooded with memories: training together, fighting side-by-side, laughing and joking with Kanon. They had been such close friends, right up until the moment she defected from the village and became a rogue ninja.
Naruto shook his head, tears spilling over uncontrollably. The pain in his chest felt like a serrated blade carving through him. "Kanon... why? Why would you do this?"
He felt a soul-crushing heartbreak, a wound deeper than anything a physical enemy could ever inflict. His body began to tremble, not out of fear, but from a profound, unspeakable sense of loss and sorrow.
Naruto sank to his knees, his hands pressing into Gamakichi's skin. His tears dripped onto the toad's head. He had once believed that friendship and bonds could overcome any obstacle, but now, he felt a crushing weight of loneliness and despair.
At that moment, Tsunade emerged from the ruins. Seeing Konoha, a village standing since the dawn of the shinobi era, reduced to such a wasteland, her fury ignited. She had just used the Creation Rebirth technique to protect the villagers.
The Yin Seal on her forehead had completely vanished.
"Unforgivable... I will never forgive you... Pain... Kanon Uchiha..." Tsunade gasped for breath.
Many shinobi had barely survived thanks to Tsunade's jutsu. Whether they knew Kanon personally or not, they now understood the true terror of the Uchiha.
"Are you alright, Hinata-sama?"
"Yes, I'm fine..." Hinata nodded.
"If anything had happened to you while Hiashi-sama and Hanabi were away, it would have been my lifelong shame. Please, don't worry about me," the Hyuga guardian said. Hinata began to dress the wounds of the branch-house shinobi.
Meanwhile, Shikamaru's situation was less optimistic.
"You okay, Shikamaru?"
"I mean... what was that?! That move Kanon just used?!" Shikamaru asked, cold sweat pouring down his face.
Shikaku approached from a distance. "Are you alright, son?"
"Sort of. But my leg is broken."
"Breaking only a leg in an attack like that... you should consider yourself lucky," Shikaku said solemnly. "That Uchiha girl... she has exceeded all of our expectations."
"To think Kanon possessed such terrifying Ninjutsu... yet she didn't use it from the start. That means they had another objective..."
"But I think Kanon's objective has already been met. She said she would destroy Konoha." Shikamaru looked around at the wasteland and took a sharp breath. "Pain's objective, however, is likely Naruto."
"If we're relying on luck, no amount of lives would be enough. We were very fortunate this time."
"If you're going to cry, you'd better hope Kanon doesn't launch a second attack like that," Shikamaru said flatly to the woman beside him.
Near Sakura, a Hyuga shinobi activated his Byakugan, peering through the smoke toward the battlefield. He saw Kanon half-kneeling on the ground, laughing manically, and he saw Naruto, his heart breaking as his vision was still obscured by the dust.
"That's... it's Naruto!"
"Naruto?!" Sakura gasped.
Just then, the dust cleared. Naruto saw Kanon, weeping blood-red tears and laughing like a madwoman, and he saw the Deva Path slowly approaching him.
Kanon's moment of euphoria passed, and her gaze finally landed on Naruto. Though his face was a blur in the distance, she knew it was him.
"Look, Naruto! I told you! I told you I would destroy Konoha! I succeeded!" Kanon screamed toward him.
Seeing the girl who once yearned for peace and sought a flower field transformed into this lunatic, Naruto felt as if his heart were being squeezed by a ruthless hand.
He bit his lower lip and said nothing. Because of what she had done, the people of Konoha would never forgive Kanon. Could he even forgive her himself?
The Deva Path, approaching steadily, spoke in a flat tone: "You've saved me the time I would have spent searching for you."
"Looks like all six of them are gathered," Fukasaku said grimly, looking toward Kanon in the distance. When Jiraiya died, she had been the one who wept most bitterly. In such a short time, she had become this… a creature of madness, consumed by hatred.
Tsunade stepped out in front of Naruto and the others.
"I am the Fifth Hokage!"
"Kanon Uchiha! Pain! You bastards... you have trampled upon the treasures and dreams of our ancestors! I will never forgive you!"
"As Hokage, I will settle this here and now!"
"Ancestors' treasures? Dreams?" Kanon stepped forward, glaring at Tsunade with murderous intent. Beside her, the Deva Path gave a cold sneer.
"It seems you've come to understand my pain a little, Fifth Hokage."
"Indeed. But we weren't looking for you."
"The one we want is..." As the Deva Path spoke, the Asura Path behind him lunged toward Tsunade in an instant.
BOOM!
"The one you're looking for is ME!!!" Naruto pulverized the Asura Path in a single strike.
Tsunade watched his back in awe. For a moment, she saw the silhouettes of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and Jiraiya.
"There's no need for the Hokage of Konoha to deal with these guys. Granny, stay back and go have some tea!"
"Naruto...?" Tsunade murmured.
On the sidelines, Sakura was frantic. "What happened? I can't see from here!"
"Amazing! He took down one of the Pains in a single blow!" the Hyuga shinobi exclaimed.
"Naruto... you..."
Gamabunta looked at Naruto and spoke to Fukasaku. "Gramps... do you see those two familiar shadows?"
"Yeah! It seems little Naruto has surpassed both Jiraiya and Minato."
Pain stared at Naruto. "Naruto Uzumaki..."
"Let's settle this!" Naruto roared at Pain. "Gamakichi! Take Granny Tsunade to a safe place!"
"Granny, let me be the one to defeat Pain."
"Tell everyone in the village not to interfere! If I have to fight while protecting everyone, it'll only make things harder for me!"
Tsunade nodded. She pulled a small Katsuyu from her robes and placed it on Naruto. "Then take Katsuyu with you. She can be of some help; she has information on those guys."
Fukasaku took the slug and told her, "Katsuyu-girl, hide inside Naruto-boy's clothes."
"Understood!"
Naruto kept his back to Tsunade and asked quietly, "I probably shouldn't ask this now, but I can sense everyone's chakra through the natural energy I'm drawing in."
"Kakashi-sensei... is he out of the village on a mission?"
Tsunade remained silent. In that silence, Naruto found his answer.
"So Pain did it..."
"I understand."
"Let's go, Gamakichi!"
Pain watched Naruto, preparing to move, when he felt a tug on his cloak.
"I'll handle this," Kanon's cold, detached voice rang in his ear.
"You... Kanon, are you still able to?"
"This fight," Kanon said softly, "is between him and me."
Pain nodded. The remaining five Paths stepped back behind Kanon.
Naruto and the residents of Mount Myoboku watched as Kanon, her eyes stained with blood, stepped forward. They all recognized the girl who had once dreamed of a world of flowers. But now, she projected a sense of profound alienation, a hysterical, absolute despair.
Facing the massive form of Gamabunta, Kanon's frantic eyes locked onto Naruto.
"Naruto, it's time for you to move on, too."
She bit her finger and slammed her slender hand against the ground!
"Summoning Jutsu!"