Naruto watched the scene unfold with rapt attention, his anger simmering. Why was everyone so eager to challenge the Uchiha clan?
"Hey, you know I'm an Uchiha, and you still dare to challenge me to a duel?" Sasuke asked, his voice dripping with condescension. "How ignorant. Do you even know what this name represents, Bushy Brows?"
"Then let us settle this!" Rock Lee declared, his fighting spirit blazing. He tucked his left hand behind his back and raised his right, dropping into a textbook combat stance.
"Hold on!" The previously silent Naruto suddenly shouted, snapping everyone's attention toward him.
"Kanon, lend me your water bottle for a sec," Naruto whispered urgently.
"What for?"
Taking the bottle, Naruto didn't hesitate, he poured the remaining water directly over his head.
"That's better! Now I'm awake! I almost drifted off there for a second."
"That was my last bit of water!" Kanon cried out, her face a mask of mock despair.
Naruto stepped past Kanon and turned to Sasuke. "Leave this Bushy Brows guy to me!"
"Hey!" Sakura yelped in surprise, but Kanon's lips curled into a tiny smirk.
"Go for it, Naruto! Knock him flat!" Kanon cheered.
"Don't worry, I'll have this wrapped up in five minutes."
Lee looked confused. "It is not you I wish to fight. My goal is the Uchiha."
"Sasuke this, Sasuke that! You people are so annoying!" Naruto barked.
"Naruto, my last name is Uchiha too," Kanon whispered in his ear.
"Ah, right, sorry! But you know what I mean!" Naruto apologized to Kanon before charging straight at the distant Rock Lee.
The moment he threw a punch, it was parried with effortless grace. With a swift Leaf Gale, Naruto was instantly defeated, sent tumbling across the floor.
Kanon and Sakura stared in disbelief. He had been one-shotted.
"This guy... he really is strong!" Sakura noted, her voice tense.
Lee didn't stop there. He began to taunt the rest of Team 7. "I declare here and now: none of you can defeat me. Do you want to know why? Because I am the strongest Genin in Konoha!"
Kanon's brow furrowed. It was one thing for this Rock Lee to provoke her brother, but to instantly humiliate her friend was another matter entirely. For Kanon, who cherished her hard-won friendships above all else, this was unforgivable, regardless of Lee's earlier confession.
She brushed off her blue Uchiha high-collared coat and stepped forward.
"Interesting. I'll take him—" Sasuke started, but Kanon cut him off.
"Kanon? You're going in?!"
"Nii-chan, let me handle this. Otherwise, we'll run out of time." Her tone was unwavering.
Sasuke and Sakura glanced at the clock. She was right; they only had thirty minutes left before the deadline.
"I can end this in five," Sasuke said confidently.
"Nii-chan. Let me," Kanon insisted.
Seeing her determination, Sasuke stepped back. He felt a swell of pride; his little sister was so eager to stand up for him.
"Kanon Uchiha... I do not wish to fight you..." Lee said, looking conflicted. He clearly still held feelings for her.
However, sensing her resolve, Lee knew he couldn't hold back. The air in the hallway grew thick with tension.
"I am an Uchiha as well. You'll have no reason to hold back, because this duel won't last more than a minute," Kanon said softly. Her voice was youthful, yet it carried an absolute, chilling confidence.
Only one minute? Is she serious?
Lee grit his teeth. He knew she was Sasuke's sister, but he had never seen her in combat. He only knew that she trained as hard as he did every single day. He let out a small smile. "Very well, Kanon! From this moment on, I shall view you as a true rival!"
"You'd better."
The moment the words left her lips, Kanon vanished, leaving only a blur.
"So fast!" Lee felt the sheer speed. Just as he registered the displacement of air, he raised his arms to block, but a fist slammed into his left cheek.
Lee spun through the air and crashed hard. Kanon didn't let up for a second. She closed the distance instantly, grabbed his green jumpsuit, and slammed him into the floor.
CRASH!
The wooden floorboards splintered into a massive hole. Lee finally realized the gravity of his situation. He tried to counter-attack, only to find himself launched into the air.
Suddenly, dozens of Kanons appeared around him. It was Naruto's specialty, the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and Kanon's execution was flawless.
A barrage of Kanons struck the airborne Lee from every angle. He coughed up blood, and as he hit the ground, Kanon pinned him by the throat. Her Sharingan, now fully matured with three tomoe, glowed crimson as she stared down at him with icy indifference.
In that heartbeat, Lee's own eyes mirrored her three-tomoe Sharingan. He was caught in her Genjutsu.
It was over.
Kanon released the neutralized Lee and dispelled the illusion as the onlookers watched in stunned silence. Lee lay there, gasping in pain, his mind reeling. He had been defeated in Taijutsu... by a girl younger than him!
Kanon looked down at his disheveled state and offered a small, sharp smile. "Good effort. But I'm just better."
Sasuke was frozen. He had seen it, Kanon's three-tomoe Sharingan. She's already fully matured her eyes? He grit his teeth. I'm not working hard enough. He knew that for an Uchiha, the Sharingan matured through trauma; the fact that hers was complete meant she had endured far more pain than he had. He felt a wave of crushing guilt. He was the older brother, yet he only had two tomoe.
Lee struggled to his feet, his gaze fixed on Kanon. The bandages on his hands began to unravel. "I have worked so hard... why can I still not defeat a genius...?" His resolve hardened.
Kanon stopped and turned back, her eyes narrowing at the bandages coiling around his arms. She had heard of this, she even knew a similar technique involving chains. But Lee was using bandages?
She smiled thinly, drew two shuriken, and pinned the ends of his bandages to the wall with a flick of her wrist. The accuracy was terrifying.
"You—!" Lee started, but she cut him off.
Kanon walked up to him and placed a hand on his cheek. "In this world of shinobi, 'hard work' is the last thing you should use as an excuse," she said quietly.
"Because hard work is the baseline. Everyone does it. It is the smallest, least noteworthy thing to brag about."
As she spoke, memories flashed through her mind: the training from age six to now, the life-and-death battles, her parents lying in pools of blood, and the cold, dismissive eyes of Danzo. She let out a self-deprecating laugh. "Realize that fact, find an unyielding will, and then start climbing toward the peak."
As she finished, a booming, "youthful" voice echoed through the hall.
"Well said! Did you hear that, Lee?!"
Everyone turned to see a red tortoise, a summoned beast, wearing a Konoha headband around its neck. Lee immediately dropped to his knees in front of the tortoise.
"You saw everything, sir?"
"Lee! Were you about to use that forbidden technique?"
As Kanon helped Naruto up, the two of them watched the scene with total bewilderment.
"What... what is that?" Naruto asked.
"I have no idea," Kanon replied, genuinely baffled.
The tortoise began to scold Lee. "It... it looks like he's getting a lecture from a turtle," Kanon whispered.
"Is that turtle his sensei?" Naruto wondered.
"Probably," Kanon nodded. Why else would Lee be so respectful?
"Hey! You two, give it a rest!" Sakura snapped.
The voice from the tortoise spoke again. "Idiot! Do you think a flimsy excuse like that works on me? You know exactly what it means for a ninja to reveal their trump card!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Are you prepared for the consequences?!" the tortoise demanded.
"Yes..."
"Then, Guy-sensei, if you please!" As the tortoise finished speaking, a man appeared on its back. He was a carbon copy of Lee: green jumpsuit, bowl cut, and eyebrows even thicker than the boy's.
Kanon, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stood there, paralyzed by the sheer absurdity of the man's entrance.
"Man, you guys are just overflowing with youth!" Might Guy roared.