Naruto stared at Kanon, his expression turning solemn. He knew all too well that Kanon was one of the only two Uchiha remaining.
Unlike Sasuke, she was not someone preserved by Itachi's design. Because of that, she had never been burdened with the hopes of her fallen clan; everyone had pinned those expectations solely onto Sasuke.
Yet, looking at Kanon's sheer willpower at this very moment, even Naruto felt his own conviction waver.
"But the Infinite Tsukuyomi... the Sage of Six Paths told me—"
Before Naruto could even finish his sentence, Kanon cut him off.
"Even if it is a mistaken path, I will not harbor a single shred of doubt. The true meaning of 'will' is to believe blindly in yourself."
"The only things you can trust are the things your own eyes witness, and the world you have personally felt and touched."
"If I am wrong, does that automatically make the Sage of Six Paths right?"
"No one can truly dictate right from wrong. Only one thing in this world is absolute."
Staring into Kanon's unyielding eyes, Naruto asked in a hushed tone, "What...?"
"Strength. Only strength determines what is right. The victor decides the truth, while the defeated are forever deemed wrong."
"That is the cruelty of this world, the harsh reality of existence. Therefore, I will become the ultimate victor. I will write the chapter Pervy Sage wanted to see, fulfill the dream I desire, and bring about the peace my senpai so desperately craved."
By now, the Allied Shinobi Forces were drawing closer. Very few of them remained. Seeing that Kanon made no move to attack, the survivors began to close the distance.
Shikamaru and the others approached with extreme caution, guarding her closely. The remaining members of their graduating class, along with Gaara supporting Tenten, had also moved up to the front lines.
Once, this specific group had been hailed as the very future of the shinobi world. But now, Temari, Shino, and Neji had already fallen one after another.
Kankuro glared daggers at Kanon; it was she who had taken Temari's life. Kiba felt the same burning resentment, the deep scar of Shino's death permanently etched into his heart.
Just as Kiba was about to snap, Shikamaru held out an arm to stop him. He looked directly at Kanon and asked, "Is this the only answer you found after traveling the entire shinobi world?"
"Then you should understand that the Infinite Tsukuyomi is a lie!"
Kanon turned her head. Her Rinnegan merely cast a fleeting glance toward Shikamaru, but in that instant, a suffocating, terrifying pressure descended upon him. It compressed the air in his lungs, making it entirely impossible to breathe.
Seeing Shikamaru collapse to the ground, Naruto gasped in shock and rushed to support him.
"Shikamaru, are you okay?! Kanon, there was no need to cast a genjutsu on him!"
"No, I didn't use genjutsu. He is simply too weak..." Kanon's expression gradually grew cold.
It was always like this. Naruto was exactly the same as he had always been, and his reaction only darkened Kanon's mood further. He always stood on the side of others just to oppose her.
She had done absolutely nothing but glance at the man, yet Naruto immediately jumped to conclusions.
Kanon's face completely iced over as she stared down at Naruto.
"I have never been your friend. Our status has always been that of enemies. Even if I kill him right now, what could you possibly do about it?" As she spoke, Kanon thrust her hand forward. A terrifying gravitational pull instantly dragged Shikamaru up through the air.
"Hey! Kanon, st—" Before Naruto could finish his plea, everyone's pupils constricted in horror. Kanon's black receiver had already impaled Shikamaru clean through the heart.
Shikamaru's eyes widened in shock. Before he could utter a single word, the light left his eyes.
"You all seem to have misunderstood something."
"Did you assume I held back my hand because I was defeated?!"
"To me, slaughtering the rest of you makes no difference at all!"
Locking eyes with Kanon's frigid gaze, Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs to those beside him, "Run! Everyone, run!"
"Too late, Naruto." The moment the words left Kanon's lips, the twelve-tomoe Rinnegan in her left eye flared with brilliant light. The flow of time around them instantaneously slowed by dozens of times. Kanon calmly walked forward until she stood directly in front of Kiba.
Slash!
The Kusanagi Sword swept cleanly across his throat.
Her silhouette blurred. In that frozen fraction of a second, Ino, Tenten, Kankuro, and Choji, everyone who had been standing closest to Kanon, were decapitated in a single, fluid motion.
Finally, Kanon's blade halted right against Hinata's neck. She paused, refrained from slicing down, and sheathed the weapon.
Time snapped back to its normal flow. Everyone's expressions froze in a state of utter shock. From Kanon's perspective, they had simply been slowed down, but from the perspective of Tenten and the others, it had happened in a literal blink of an eye!
In a mere fraction of a second, Kanon had slaughtered them all.
Watching the severed heads of his peers hit the ground as blood sprayed through the air, Rock Lee, whom Gaara was still supporting, let out a roar of absolute despair and rage.
Naruto's pupils dilated. He couldn't comprehend why Kanon was taking things to such a horrific extreme.
"Kanon... what did they ever do wrong?! Why did you have to kill them?!"
The only response Naruto received was a devastating roundhouse kick. Even in his Six Paths Sage Mode, he was sent flying by the sheer force of Kanon's strike, crashing into the earth and creating a massive crater.
This display left Sasuke, who was standing further away next to Kakashi, completely at a loss.
The rest of the onlookers felt the same chill run down their spines. Kanon was terrifyingly decisive; when facing the peers she grew up with, she didn't show a single ounce of sentimentality.
Naruto dragged himself out of the deep crater, his entire body trembling violently. "Why..."
Kanon's voice carried across the battlefield, crystal clear. "If I were not strong enough, would I even have the right to stand on equal footing and speak with you?"
"Would you still be here denouncing my ideals? I'm afraid I would have long since become a corpse beneath your blades."
"Such is the nature of strength; there is no such thing as an equal dialogue to begin with. This shinobi world has been ruled by the Kage for far too long. Now that the Kage have been executed by my hand, I will fill the vacuum of the world's strongest shinobi."
"Naruto, the entire world wants me dead. And that includes you, doesn't it?"
With those words, Kanon turned and walked slowly into the distance. Staring at her retreating figure, Naruto felt the distance between them growing further and further apart, and his heart sank with it.
"Naruto-kun... are you alright?" Hinata ran over, gently pulling Naruto to his feet.
Aware of the scene behind her, Kanon did not look back. Since this world was drawing closer to its end, she would let the two lovers spend what time they had left together.
Kanon let out a soft sigh, lifting her gaze toward the sky. There was no one by her side; there was only the lonely wind and her own solitary shadow.
Sasuke watched her go. He didn't feel that Kanon's back looked grand or powerful; instead, it radiated an overwhelming sense of desolation, helplessness, and profound isolation.
As her older brother, a wave of intense guilt washed over him. Perhaps if Itachi hadn't existed, he would have stood firmly by Kanon's side, dedicating everything he had to help her realize her current dream.
But the Infinite Tsukuyomi was wrong. That was an undeniable truth told to him by the Sage of Six Paths himself. Yet, just as Kanon had said, right and wrong did not truly exist in this world, there were only choices, and only the strong possessed the power to make them.
This realization plunged Sasuke into a deep, agonizing contradiction. He stared at Kanon's back, marveling at how such a small, fragile silhouette was currently waging war against the entire shinobi world.
'Niisan... is what we are doing truly right?' Sasuke looked up at the sky, his resolve beginning to waver. Yes, at this exact moment, he too was shaken. The grand, righteous image of Itachi had always been an absolute anchor in his heart.
But now he was looking at Kanon, his own little sister, who was never supposed to have survived the night of the clan downfall, yet had spent her entire life bleeding for a dream she refused to abandon.
To make that peaceful field of flowers a reality, she had pushed herself to this extreme, even at the cost of her own life.
He was shaken. For the sake of her childhood dream, Kanon had never changed, nor had she ever wavered. Does that field of flowers truly exist?
Sasuke closed his Rinnegan, the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in his right eye spinning faintly as a memory suddenly echoed in his mind.
It was a promise he had made to Kanon back at the Final Valley: "Kanon, I'm not strong enough right now. But once I get stronger, I promise I'll make you the happiest girl in the world."
What was he doing now? Thinking of this, Sasuke stared back at the lonely figure in the distance. Her crimson Uchiha trench coat fluttered in the wind as she sat far away, silently watching the blood-red moon hanging in the sky.
Looking at her from behind, he couldn't see her expression at all. Was she crying? Was she smiling? Or was she completely blank?
But soon, Sasuke received his answer. For there, tracking down Kanon's cheek, were tears. She was undoubtedly weeping.
The helplessness of being misunderstood, the despair of having no one to rely on, the agony of being abandoned by family, and the heartbreak of pointing weapons at her closest friend.
Countless contradictions converged into single droplets, spilling silently from the corners of Kanon's eyes.
Her shoulders trembled faintly, as if carrying the grief of the entire world. Perhaps beneath this moonlight, she desperately wanted to cry her heart out.
But there was no longer a brother by Kanon's side, nor a warm blanket to hide under. She was fifteen years old now; she could no longer wail loudly like she used to.
————
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]