In the hospital, Sasuke sat by the bedside, his eyes fixed on his younger sister, whose body was almost entirely cocooned in bandages.
Kanon had staked her life on the battle against the masked man, and in the end, she had survived. But Sasuke had no idea just how narrow that survival had been. Had she faltered for even a fraction of a second, she would have become another ghost claimed by the masked man's blade.
Seeing his only sister wrapped in layer upon layer of gauze, with patches of crimson blood still seeping through, felt like a knife twisting in Sasuke's heart. Of their entire clan, only the two of them remained.
As for Itachi Uchiha, the traitor who had slaughtered their kin, Sasuke had already excised him from the family. Such an atrocity was unforgivable.
Yet, looking at Kanon, Sasuke felt a flicker of relief amidst the agonizing pain. She was alive. She was the only family he had left in this world.
Sasuke's mind drifted back to the Night of the Massacre, to the way Itachi had looked at him with such coldness, his eyes burning with madness. How could such a monster be his brother? As images of his father, Fugaku, and his mother, Mikoto, lying in pools of blood flashed through his mind, tears began to fall.
The droplets traced paths down Sasuke's cheeks and fell onto Kanon's hospital bed. He slumped forward, burying his face in the covers beside her, the flames of revenge in his heart growing more intense with every passing second.
…
Another day passed, and Kanon remained unconscious. Her injuries were catastrophic. Even the chief surgeons at the Konoha Hospital felt a chill when they recalled the state of her body—she had been "riddled with holes."
They couldn't fathom what kind of brutal combat a six-year-old girl could have endured to end up in such a condition.
Meanwhile, at the Ninja Academy...
Sasuke sat alone at his wooden desk while the rest of the class buzzed with hushed rumors. At the front of the room, Choji and Shikamaru seemed to be discussing a trip to the snack shop, but elsewhere, the whispers were sharp.
"Did you hear? The Uchiha clan... I think they were wiped out."
"I heard, I heard! My dad said the same thing."
"Apparently, that guy over there is the only survivor."
Naruto stood in the doorway, completely stunned. His pupils shrank as he stared at the solitary figure of Sasuke. His body began to tremble.
Sensing Naruto's presence and the strange aura around him, several students scrambled away, putting meters of distance between them and him.
"The Fox is coming out! Everybody run!"
"The evil Fox is showing up at school!"
Most of the class turned to stare, but Sasuke remained motionless, seemingly numb to the surrounding drama.
Naruto's strength failed him; he dropped to his knees, his hands braced against the floor. Students began throwing pencils and notebooks at him, but he didn't react. His mind was entirely consumed by the image of a girl in a blue coat with flowing black hair.
The girl who was the first to acknowledge him. His very first friend. The girl who, only days ago, had invited him to watch the moon and brought him three-color dango. His best friend, the one person who truly believed he could become Hokage.
A biting morning wind blew in through the window, but the chill was nothing compared to the icy void in Naruto's heart. He stared powerlessly at the ground, his azure eyes brimming with tears.
"Kanon... is dead?" Naruto whispered. He couldn't bring himself to believe it, yet the rumors seemed absolute.
He remembered her smile, radiant enough to outshine the sun. Her dark, spirited eyes always sparkled with determination and hope. It was Kanon who had given him strength in his darkest hours. She had once told him: "Living your life with a dream in your heart is a beautiful thing."
She had promised to always believe in him, to cheer him on until he achieved his dream. But now, her light had been extinguished, swallowed by a ruthless fate in the midst of a massacre.
Naruto felt as though a flicker of dawn had appeared for a fleeting moment, only to be devoured by an endless, suffocating darkness. The sensation made it hard to breathe. When the teacher finally arrived, Naruto was in such a state that he had to be carried to the hospital.
Closing his eyes, Naruto saw a montage of Kanon's gentle, smiling face. He saw the two of them lying on the grass by the cliff, chatting the hours away. The memories cut through his heart like twin blades.
As he drifted into unconsciousness, he found himself back on that cliffside. The girl in the blue coat was sitting beside him, listening to him complain about the frustrations of school and the loneliness of his life. In his vision, she handed him a bento box, telling him she had made it herself so he could get some proper nutrition.
Scene after scene flashed by—all the times they had talked, and all the times Kanon had brought him homemade meals to help him save money for his household.
Naruto's thoughts returned to that final night. If only I had gone moon-watching with her... maybe I could have protected her. Maybe she'd still be alive. A wave of crushing regret washed over him.
In the dark corners of his subconscious, a voice echoed from behind the bars of a massive cage.
"It's your fault she's dead."
"No! I didn't know this would happen!"
"If you had been there, would she have died?" The voice was ethereal and deep, piercing through Naruto's defenses. "It's on you. You had the power to protect her, yet you failed."
"Kanon... I'm sorry... it's all my fault..."
"There is still a way to fix it. Come... come closer. Undo this seal, and I will help you bring her back to life."
Naruto froze, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead as he stared into the darkness of his inner world.
The next moment, he snapped awake. He was lying in a hospital bed, and a familiar figure stood beside him.
"Jii-chan..."
"Naruto, how are you feeling?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked with concern.
"I... I'm okay." Naruto sat up, but the tears wouldn't stop flowing.
"I heard you calling out 'Kanon' just now. Are you talking about Sasuke's younger sister, Kanon Uchiha?" Hiruzen took a puff from his pipe, watching the distraught boy.
"Yeah..." Naruto choked out. "But she's gone..."
Seeing the depth of Naruto's grief, Hiruzen understood.
"Naruto... if you're looking for Kanon, she isn't dead."
"Jii-chan, you don't have to try and comfort—" Naruto stopped mid-sentence. "Huh?!"
He looked up sharply at the smiling Third Hokage. "Jiichan, you're not lying to me, are you?!"
"Why would I lie to you?"
A surge of pure, unadulterated joy erupted in Naruto's heart. His friend was alive! He leaped off the bed and grabbed Hiruzen's robes excitedly. "Then where is she? Where's Kanon?!"
"Come with me."
Hiruzen led Naruto out of the ward. Naruto couldn't contain his impatience, constantly urging the Hokage to walk faster.
"Hahaha... alright, Naruto, stop pushing. We're almost at her room."
They reached a room on the far left of the hospital's fourth floor. The nameplate on the door listed two patients:
Sasuke Uchiha
Kanon Uchiha