A pillar of crimson light soared into the high heavens. Within Kanon's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, a massive, blood-red skeletal framework manifested.
This was the moment Kanon would stake her very life to protect her dream!
She, Kanon Uchiha, would absolutely not take a single step back!
Both of their bodies radiated a searing, ominous crimson aura.
"Why... how can Kanon open the Gate of Death too...?" Kakashi stared at the distant Kanon in absolute horror. It was one thing for Guy, but for Kanon to open the Gate of Death when she was still so young was unthinkable.
Minato broke out into a cold sweat. If Naruto were to witness this, he would completely break down. Opening the Gate of Death meant that Kanon was fundamentally sentenced to death.
"How could it come to this...?" Minato's expression grew deeply solemn. Was there truly a need for a fifteen-year-old girl to push herself to such an extreme?
Looking down at Kanon and Guy below, Madara finally understood what she intended to do.
"The crimson steam..."
"So this is the blood vapor... unique to those who open all Eight Gates?" Madara noted, nodding slightly.
Anyone outside the Uchiha clan would fail to recognize the exact hand sign Kanon had formed just before opening the final gate.
Indeed, it was Izanagi. But could it truly rewrite the fatal side effects brought about by the Gate of Death? This was an unprecedented gamble that the Uchiha clan had never attempted before. Kanon was blazing a trail that no one else had ever dared to walk.
As the former leader of the Uchiha, and currently the person who understood Kanon best, he called out to her:
"Go, Kanon! With chakra of this magnitude, you are the strongest of this era!"
Boom!
Kanon's Gate of Death erupted with a force even more violent and overwhelming than Guy's, her features twisting into a display of raw, breathtaking intensity.
Madara then shifted his gaze toward the distant Guy. Compared to Kanon, Guy's presence was visibly lacking.
"It seems you aren't anything special after all."
"Like the withered, fallen leaves of autumn... nothing more than a drop."
Guy offered a slow nod, making no attempt to deny Madara's words.
"You're right. But I won't just wither and rot away."
"I will become the nourishment for the fresh green leaves. And when those new leaves bud and spring arrives... that is the climax of youth! The moment it burns its brightest scarlet!"
Kanon suddenly unleashed a cataclysmic burst of chakra. The resulting shockwave tore across the battlefield, generating a gale-force updraft that Kakashi and the others simply couldn't withstand, sending them flying backward.
"As an Uchiha, I will never run away. Before that dream is realized..."
"I will absolutely never stop my advance!"
"Might Guy, come..."
"Dying strips everything of meaning! This world is rife with endless disappointment. Youth is fleeting, beauty fades, and your precious youth will ultimately be ground to dust by the passage of time."
"You will reduce to a handful of yellow dirt and a silent headstone, all of it a hollow illusion in the end! Only by living can you truly feel it all!"
In an instant, Kanon and Guy took a single step forward, their movements indistinguishable from instantaneous teleportation.
"Evening Elephant: First Foot!"
Boom!
Might Guy threw a devastating punch, the colossal localized vacuum forming a slipstream of pressurized air that smashed directly toward Kanon.
Kanon neither dodged nor deflected. Matching Might Guy's form precisely, she countered:
"Evening Elephant: First Foot!"
Boom!
The two cannonades of pressurized air collided head-on, but everyone watching realized instantly that Might Guy was being overwhelmed by Kanon!
Because when Kanon unlocked the Eight Gates, she was simultaneously maintaining her Sage Mode.
Right before their eyes, Guy's Evening Elephant was forcefully repelled by Kanon's counter-thrust.
"Oh no! Guy!"
Boom!
As the twin air cannons detonated against one another, Might Guy was blasted backward, plowing face-first straight into the earth.
Blood immediately seeped from the pores of Kanon's arms, the severe backlash of the Gate of Death. Yet, having unleashed the final gate, Kanon paid such trivial agony no mind.
Crucially, unlike Guy, Kanon retained the ability to mold chakra for ninjutsu; even while straining under the Gate of Death, she could effortlessly weave her techniques.
A bolt of blood-red lightning cracked across the battlefield, homing directly toward Might Guy's position. In a flash of crimson light, Guy phased out of the area, vanishing entirely from his spot.
"Tch, is the velocity of the Gate of Death too extreme to lock onto?"
However, the toll of the Gate of Death affected them both equally. The sheer agony Kanon experienced from executing a high-velocity physical assault like the Evening Elephant was a torment Might Guy would have to endure just the same. Under these identical conditions, Kanon held every tactical advantage.
"It hurts, doesn't it... Might Guy?"
"..."
Might Guy stared at Kanon in grim silence. He felt as though his entire skeletal structure was on the verge of shattering into dust. Yet, looking across at Kanon, he couldn't comprehend why she could still offer him a cold, mocking smirk. Does she not feel the pain?
An agony of this caliber was something Kanon had long grown accustomed to. Even if her flesh were torn to shreds or her limbs hacked apart, Kanon would never cry out in pain, for physical torment could never match even a ten-thousandth of the agony locked within her heart. Realizing Guy felt the same, she prepared to launch a relentless sequence of attacks.
"I won't give them another single opening," both Kanon and Guy resolved simultaneously.
Watching the clash unfold, Madara was privately shaken. Pressurized air cannons of that caliber were fully capable of bypassing his defenses and inflicting horrific, potentially fatal damage.
This realization left Madara with a lingering sense of dread; had he chosen to duel Guy alone without Kanon's intervention, he likely would have suffered severely due to a critical lack of intelligence on the technique.
In the next instant, Madara's eyes widened in astonishment. Both Might Guy and Kanon were literally treading upon the air itself, sprinting into the sky.
"They're actually running through the air... How can they maintain such terrifying velocity?!"
Boom!
Their fists collided with a resounding crack, forcing both Kanon and Might Guy back several steps.
The sheer compression of the air generated by their impact warped the surrounding space multiple times over.
"As expected, a battle of that caliber is completely beyond our ability to intervene," Kakashi lamented.
"What are Might Guy and Kanon actually doing?!" Gaara inquired, turning a bewildered gaze toward Kakashi.
Kakashi turned his head to explain the mechanics to Gaara: "The Eight Gates Released Formation is a technique that forcibly strips away the body's natural limits, channeling one's latent power to its absolute maximum."
"It's the ultimate evolution of the very same technique Lee deployed right in front of you back during the Chunin Exams."
"Once those limiters are removed, the resulting power can surpass the combined strength of the Five Kage dozens of times over."
"However... that power is strictly temporary. Once the technique runs its course, the user... will invariably die."
"Then doesn't that mean...?"
"Yes. Kanon will die too..." Kakashi said, his voice heavy with regret.
Today, he was faced not only with the loss of his dearest friend, but in all likelihood, the demise of his student as well.
Yet, if this sacrifice secured their victory, it was a price they were willing to pay, and the only viable strategy left to them.
"But Guy appears to be entirely outmatched by Kanon," Gaara observed.
Minato closed his eyes. In the end, he resolved to provide tactical support to Guy to counter Kanon's onslaught.
"We need to back Guy up. Listen closely to my plan!"
Kakashi turned to Minato and interjected, "Sensei, Kanon has Madara providing backup, and Madara's black weaponry is incredibly problematic."
"Our priority should be to neutralize Madara's interference, thereby carving out a clean opening for Guy to press his attack."
Minato had already completed his strategic assessment.
"Those weapons aren't a projectile type that requires activation; they are a permanent, state-altering weapon capable of shifting forms at will."
"Anything touched by them will disintegrate into nothingness, yet the tactile sensation remains distinct."
"Furthermore, those black spheres have an effective operational range of roughly 70 meters..."
"Beyond that threshold, his control over them lapses."
"Since they exist continuously and remain completely visible, your Kamui will be effective against them."
"If we can draw the battle away from Madara, we can nullify his control over the spheres, which should allow us to support Guy."
Kakashi looked at Minato, a look of grim resignation settling over his features. "To be perfectly frank, Sensei... my left eye has begun to lose its sight."
"If I am to precisely lock onto a target with Kamui, I need to be at point-blank range."
"Gaara, can you prepare some sand for me?" Minato requested.
"Do you intend to use my sand to carry Kakashi up into the air?"
"Yes. However, I need you to perform one more task for me."
"Understood. Leave it to me. Kakashi, take my kunai."
Boom!
A cataclysmic detonation in the upper atmosphere violently dragged everyone's attention skyward. Madara and the rest of the shinobi locked their eyes onto the aerial battleground.
The blinding cadence of the high-altitude clash unleashed a ceaseless torrent of shockwaves, cratering the surrounding landscape and kicking up multiple mushroom clouds.
As deep craters gouged into the earth below, the two crimson streaks collided repeatedly at a velocity that blurred the senses. A taijutsu exchange of this intensity was proof enough that the physical prowess of Kanon and Might Guy had evolved far beyond anyone else on the battlefield.
In the next heartbeat, the distinctive screech of a Rasengan erupted violently in midair. A massive vortex of spiraling energy completely engulfed Might Guy. Concurrently, Guy drove a desperation punch squarely into Kanon's chest, tearing a gaping, bloody wound into her torso.
But the exchange was far from over. Kanon's operational speed was simply too extreme; the exact instant the Rasengan detonated, she had already maneuvered directly behind Might Guy's blind spot. Utilizing the massive crimson skeletal arm manifesting from her back, she smashed Might Guy down, hammering him straight into the dirt.
At that exact moment, a colossal surge of chakra erupted from Kanon as her Susanoo stabilized into its Armored Complete Body. A titan spanning hundreds of meters materialized over the battlefield, but unlike a standard summon, this Susanoo moved with the exact, blinding velocity as Kanon herself.
The Complete Body Susanoo actually began executing the Evening Elephant in midair, raining a continuous barrage of pressurized air strikes down upon Guy's position.
The titanic entity swung its colossal fist, the sheer displacement of the wind generating a concussive shockwave that forced Might Guy's own vacuum blasts right back at him.
"Guy!" Minato roared.
Seizing the precise window, Gaara hurled Minato's Flying Raijin kunai into the fray. Just as one of the Susanoo's Evening Elephant strikes slammed directly into Minato's body, he called out, "Gaara, perfect timing!"
Minato immediately released a second kunai, sending it slicing clean through the framework of Kanon's Susanoo.
"Tch, tactical interference?!" Madara muttered. Manifesting his Truth-Seeking Balls, he fired them directly toward Might Guy. Since the alliance was utilizing coordinated assists, he saw no reason to hold back.
However, the golden flash materialized once more upon Minato's thrown kunai. Bearing a shattered body that was on the verge of collapsing into dust, the Fourth Hokage pushed past his limits to force one final Flying Raijin displacement.
Minato's torso intercepted all four Truth-Seeking Balls simultaneously before he instantaneously flashed out of the blast radius.
"What?!" Madara noted in genuine surprise. Concurrently, Kakashi, having been lifted by Gaara's sand directly adjacent to the anchor point of Kanon's Susanoo, instantly triggered his visual technique.
"Kamui!"
The defensive plating guarding the chest cavity of Kanon's Susanoo was abruptly twisted and warped away by the spatial distortion.
"Guy! Strike now!" Minato bellowed.
Guy channeled every ounce of his remaining strength into a final, devastating punch. Kanon threw up her hands to brace for the impact; she deliberately chose not to deploy her Flower Realm, opting instead to anchor her true body to absorb the full weight of the strike. To achieve her ultimate goal, an act of this nature was absolutely mandatory.
Guy's fist slammed squarely against Kanon's crossed arms, the sheer kinetic transfer tearing her clean out of the Susanoo's protective core.
A massive trench spanning nearly a thousand meters was carved into the wasteland. Guy stood at the epicenter, panting violently for breath as his body strained under the toll.
Deep within the cavernous crater at the far end of the trench, Kanon was left half-kneeling on the dirt. The crimson skeletal shroud surrounding her had completely shattered. Her red trench coat hung in tatters, revealing her form-fitting fishnet armor beneath, as she coughed up a violent torrent of blood.
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NOTE: This fic has been completely translated. If you want to read the whole story head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]