Naruto knelt on the ground, his heart wrenching in agonizing pain as he watched the tragedy unfold. Even though he was already in his Nine-Tails Mode, Kanon's assault was far from over. She drove a brutal knee strike directly into his face.
As he staggered backward from the impact, Kanon raised a single hand. A highly compressed Rasengan expanded instantly, swelling until it was larger than Naruto's entire body. In a flash, it completely engulfed him, its violent, churning currents grinding against his form.
Standing nearby, Kakashi activated his Kamui. At that exact moment, however, Obito utilized his own Kamui from a distance, cleanly nullifying Kakashi's spatial distortion.
Might Guy forced his way into the roaring Rasengan by unleashing the Seventh Gate of the Eight Inner Gates, determined to rescue Naruto even at the cost of sustaining severe injuries.
"Forcing your way into a Rasengan? Foolish."
The moment Guy emerged from the swirling vortex with Naruto in his arms, his entire body was already covered in extensive wounds. Before he could even steady his footing, one of Kanon's Shadow Clones instantly seized upon his exposed vulnerability.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
This opportunistic strike caused the pupils of both Might Guy and Naruto to contract to their absolute limits. Caught completely off guard, they possessed zero chance of evading the incoming sphere of flame and had no choice but to brace for a direct hit.
Just as the massive fireball was about to incinerate the pair, Guy threw himself entirely over Naruto, intending to use his own back to shield the youth from the cataclysmic blast.
However, Kakashi's Sharingan spun wildly, tracking the critical split second. Having already completed his hand signs beforehand, he slammed a single palm hard against the earth.
"Guy! Just keep running!" Kakashi roared across the clearing.
Instantly, a massive Mud Wall erupted from the soil directly in the path of the oncoming flame. The Great Fireball Technique was successfully intercepted, and for no other reason than that Obito had failed to keep Kakashi pinned down, having been suddenly swarmed by a contingent of the Allied Forces.
"Did they escape?"
Kanon casually swung her blade, severing the head of a nearby Iwagakure shinobi with a single stroke, before twirling the weapon in a flawless flourish and snapping the Kusanagi Sword back into its sheath.
Standing beside her, Obito directed his gaze toward Naruto, whose severe injuries were currently undergoing a rapid, chaotic regeneration. He sneered, "Protecting this rabble... it will only continue to make you weaker."
Naruto glared at Obito with absolute hatred, gritting his teeth as he spat, "Someone like you who actively pursues solitude... you could never understand! Having everyone standing by my side fills me with absolute joy! Just from that alone, a limitless reservoir of power wells up inside me!"
Suddenly, a violent torrent of chakra erupted from Naruto's body. Stepping out from Guy's supportive hold, his shattered leg bone, which had just been broken by Kanon, snapped fully back into place. He lunged across the terrain, charging straight toward Obito.
Without warning, a streak of Chidori Sharp Spear slammed directly into the earth, blasting a massive crater into the battlefield. The explosive concussive force sent Naruto and a cluster of nearby Allied shinobi flying through the air.
Kanon retracted her slender left hand, her expression completely devoid of warmth as she murmured, "Then you can go straight to hell along with your precious 'everyone.'"
Deep within the freshly blasted crater, Obito felt a touch exasperated. Had he not preemptively shifted into his intangible state, that Chidori Sharp Spear would have caught him in the blast radius as well.
Utilizing his Kamui, Obito phased out of the cavity and reappeared directly adjacent to Kanon, casting a mocking sneer down at Naruto as the youth struggled back to his feet.
For some inexplicable reason, whenever Obito stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Kanon, a poignant sense of familiarity washed over him, a lingering echo of what it used to feel like to stand beside Rin.
He stared at the young Uchiha girl next to him, wrapped in her crimson trench coat. Taking in her delicate features, her precise height, and her slender build, he couldn't help but think that if Rin had survived to adulthood, she would likely be around this exact same height.
With those thoughts drifting through his mind, Obito turned his gaze back to Naruto, his tone chillingly flat: "Since you boldly claim that the agony of your comrades' deaths constitutes your bonds, why force yourself to protect them in the first place?"
Hearing those words, Naruto's irritation flared to a boiling point. "Cut out the twisted logic! I am completely sick and tired of your endless lectures! Stop talking out of your ass, you bastard! I already told you, as long as it's for the sake of my comrades, I will endure any amount of agony! I refuse to abandon these bonds! Even if a mindset like that is purely self-indulgent, the thing that inflicts the greatest agony upon me..."
Naruto thudded a fist heavily against his own chest: "...is having no comrades left right here! Period!"
Standing beside Obito, Kanon's lips curled upward into a graceful, mocking smirk. Naruto's impassioned speech had absolutely zero emotional impact on her; if anything, it only made her want to laugh.
She fixed her gaze on Naruto, delivering a single question that caused his pupils to contract instantly in sheer horror.
"What if your comrades want you dead?"
The moment the words left her mouth, Naruto was struck completely dumb, his jaw slack as he stared blankly at her. The rest of the battlefield fell into a stunned silence, save for the Konoha shinobi led by Kakashi, who could only lower their heads in grim guilt.
Feasting on Naruto's speechless despair, Kanon extended both arms outward, a pair of Big Ball Rasengan spinning into existence within her palms.
"Naruto Uzumaki, you might as well choose to be slaughtered by your own comrades. Aren't they the precious allies you love so dearly?"
With a casual gesture, Kanon hurled the twin Giant Rasengan directly down into the ranks below.
An instant later, a cataclysmic explosion ripped through the ground. Both Kanon and Obito slipped smoothly into their respective space-time vortexes, reappearing a safe distance away from the roaring blast zone.
"Old man Madara, what exactly are you doing over there? Have you gotten so ancient that you need to stop and rest your feet?" Kanon mocked.
"You brat, I'm currently sensing something," Madara replied, his gaze locked onto the distant horizon.
"Sensing what?" Kanon leaped gracefully back to his side in a few swift bounds.
"There's no mistake. This chakra..."
In an instant, Madara's expression contorted into something thoroughly feral, his Rinnegan trembling slightly within their sockets.
Possessing a sensory acumen that easily outstripped Madara's, Kanon had long since detected the approach of the four Hokage, Sasuke, and the others toward this theater of war. But what of it? In the presence of the Uchiha, there were only enemies forced to their knees and corpses littering the dirt! A few mere Hokage meant absolutely nothing to her.
Right at that moment, the Ten-Tails let out a horrific, guttural roar, causing the entire surrounding landscape to vibrate violently.
"Dad! The terrain is about to collapse!" Kurotsuchi screamed in panic.
Only then did Kanon turn away from Madara, casting a cold, indifferent glance toward the colossus. "I almost forgot... I still need to help untangle you first."
With those words, Kanon's figure vanished on the spot, a rose-colored vortex materializing directly in front of Kurotsuchi and Kitsuchi.
Catching sight of Kanon's sudden arrival, Kitsuchi's expression warped in sheer terror. "If we execute the caster, this Earth Release: Sandwich Technique will be shattered instantly!"
Without a fraction of a second's hesitation, Kitsuchi forcefully hurled Kurotsuchi clear of the area.
"Dad!!!" Kurotsuchi shrieked in despair.
Her screaming did nothing to alter the outcome; Kanon was not an individual who stayed her hand for the tears of an enemy.
A massive, skeletal hand forged from crimson chakra manifested, clamping down around Kitsuchi and hoisting him into the air. Without offering him so much as a second glance, Kanon turned her torso around, projecting her voice across the battlefield toward Naruto's position.
"Naruto Uzumaki! Look closely!"
Naruto was still floundering in the existential dread of Kanon's previous question, but at her shout, his head snapped around automatically. Kurotsuchi, having been thrown clear by her father, was currently screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Kanon Uchiha! Stop it!"
Kurotsuchi charged forward desperately, her fists shifting into solid stone as she battered against Kanon's Susanoo, but her strikes failed to inflict even a single iota of damage. The massive skeletal hand gripping Kitsuchi delivered a casual backhand swipe, sending Kurotsuchi flying through the air. She coughed up a violent spray of blood as she crashed into the dirt, knowing with agonizing clarity that her father had sacrificed his positioning solely to ensure her survival.
Seeing that Naruto's gaze was locked onto her, Kanon commanded her Susanoo to hoist the pinned Kitsuchi directly before his eyes.
"Feast your eyes on exactly how powerless you are right now!"
The moment the words left her lips, the skeletal hand clenched shut with absolute, crushing force. Kitsuchi was instantly pulverized into a fine mist. An explosion of mangled flesh and crimson blood erupted outward, painting the skeletal fingers of the red Susanoo as the gore trickled down its frame.
Kurotsuchi's piercing wails of grief, Naruto's absolute despair as he collapsed to the earth, and the agonizing laments of the surrounding Iwagakure shinobi blended together in that exact moment, echoing in Kanon's ears like the movements of a flawless composition. It felt as though a magnificent symphony and an elite choir were performing an exclusive masterpiece just for her, a sensation that left her very soul feeling thoroughly cleansed.
She harbored no fear toward Kurotsuchi or the rest of the rabble; to her, they were nothing more than a disorganized mob.
On the other side of the clearing, however, the Ten-Tails was growing increasingly volatile. With the Earth Release: Sandwich Technique completely shattered, its furious roars reverberated across every corner of the battlefield. The surrounding space began to fracture from the sheer acoustic resonance alone; the sonic pressure inflicted immense torment upon the Allied Forces, causing blood to leak directly from the eardrums of several shinobi.
The beast was preparing to unleash its cataclysmic technique: Cataclysm. If it succeeded in executing the attack, the Allied Forces would be completely annihilated by the resulting upheaval of heaven and earth.
Naruto no longer possessed the luxury of mourning Kitsuchi's demise; the power radiating from the Ten-Tails at this moment was far too overwhelming, leaving no avenue of escape for anyone present.
Obito cast a cold glance back at the raging monolith behind them. "Because they severed the primary connection between myself and the Ten-Tails, and Kanon has abandoned all attempts to control it... I can no longer keep this beast under wrap. It is about time I become its jinchuriki."