"Kanon! Go for it! Don't you dare lose!" Naruto roared from the balcony, his voice booming as Kanon stepped into the center of the arena.
Kanon turned back and pumped a fist toward him. It was their unique shorthand for friendship, and in that instant, Naruto understood perfectly. He reached out his own fist, "bumping" her from across the distance.
"Guy-sensei, can Kanon really do this?" Sakura asked softly, looking at the man beside her.
"She is far more complex than we imagined... even I don't know the true extent of her power." Might Guy shook his head. He knew that the young Uchiha girl below was, like her brother, hailed as a genius of her clan.
But Guy knew something else: the girl below had endured training even more grueling than Rock Lee's.
When Kanon was eight, Guy had happened to pass by the cliffs behind the Uchiha compound and saw her training her Taijutsu alone. If a commoner works hard, can they surpass a genius? But what if the genius works just as hard?! That chance encounter had left a profound mark on Guy's soul. Now, no one truly knew what Kanon was capable of.
"Don't worry, Kanon is incredibly strong!" Naruto said to Team 7, his voice brimming with confidence.
"Naruto, why are you so sure?!"
"Because since the day I met her, I've seen every bit of effort she's put in. Kanon is fighting toward her dream with everything she has. No matter what, I believe she'll win!" Naruto stared intensely at the girl below.
On the other side of the floor, Kankuro, his face painted in purple kabuki patterns, let out a faint smirk. During their last encounter, he hadn't been able to deploy his puppet, Karasu, and had suffered a humiliating setback at Kanon's hands. This time, he would make the Uchiha girl taste defeat. Recognizing her strength, he released the bandages on his back the moment he landed, summoning Karasu.
A puppet, huh? Kanon thought. She had studied puppet mastery in her inner world with Konin.
"You recognize this?" Kankuro asked, narrowing his eyes as he saw her lack of surprise.
"I've heard a thing or two." Kanon pulled a kunai from her leg holster, her gaze locked onto him.
She settled into a combat stance. In this moment, the "genius sister" of the Uchiha was ready to unleash her true brilliance. Every person in the hall watched with bated breath. Kankuro was a prodigy of the Puppet Technique, and Kanon was the pride of the Uchiha; the match-up had everyone on edge, even the usually lethargic Shikamaru.
"Any objections?"
Seeing both remained silent, Hayate Gekko leaped back.
"Begin!"
The moment the word left his lips, Kanon charged straight at Kankuro.
"A head-on rush?!" Kankuro grinned. "I guess a 'genius' attack is nothing special after all."
Kankuro's fingers twitched to intercept her, but a second later, he froze. The chakra threads he was manipulating felt no resistance—they passed right through her.
"What?!" Kankuro's face paled in shock.
Seeing his reaction, Kanon's lips curled into a smirk. Up on the balcony, Kakashi, who had just returned from seeing Sasuke to the infirmary, chortled softly. "It's a genjutsu."
Indeed, Kankuro had already succumbed to a Genjutsu. Kanon hadn't actually moved; she had cast the illusion the very instant the match began. Realizing his mistake, Kankuro prepared to release the Genjutsu, but Kanon gave him no such window.
She wove a series of signs.
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Poof! In a cloud of white smoke, five Kanons appeared before Kankuro.
The original Kanon launched a kick toward Kankuro's chin, but mid-strike, she twisted her body and redirected her leg. A hidden blade suddenly shot out from the puppet where her foot would have been.
"Hidden weapons?!" Sakura exclaimed.
Kankuro's fingers danced, and the other Shadow Clones vanished into smoke.
"As expected of an Uchiha, putting me under a Genjutsu instantly," Kankuro muttered, as Karasu began to rattle and move with deadly intent.
As the puppet lunged at her with claws bared, Kanon performed a backflip, weaving signs with blinding speed during the rotation.
"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive sphere of flame roared toward Kankuro.
"Dammit, I won't fall for the same trick twice!"
Kankuro commanded his puppet to leap back, but as it did, three shuriken flew out from within the flames. They were deflected shuriken, curving through the air to strike from his left.
"How is that possible!" Kankuro panicked, forced to use Karasu as a shield.
Kakashi smiled proudly from the balcony. "Focusing only on the shuriken is a bad move," he explained to Naruto and Sakura.
Just as Kankuro blocked the shuriken, he failed to notice Kanon's next move. To his right, a massive wall of water erupted.
"Water Release: Water Wall!"
A towering surge of water crashed toward Kankuro. Even Kakashi hadn't seen exactly when she had finished the seals.
"The match is decided. If she follows up now, Kankuro is finished," Guy analyzed.
"A classic feint. No matter how good the puppeteer is, one slip-up is fatal," Kakashi added.
But Naruto looked confused. "Kakashi-sensei, why hasn't Kanon won yet?"
"What?!" Kakashi snapped his attention back to the floor.
Kanon was simply standing there, arms crossed, watching Kankuro climb out of the puddles of the Water Wall.
"You..."
Kanon cut him off before he could speak.
"You wanted to fight me, didn't you?"
"I'm going to defeat you head-on, fair and square!"
"Use your strongest attack. I won't attack your flank again, and I won't retreat from this spot."
"Before the proud Uchiha, there are only kneeling enemies and fallen corpses. Only a head-on duel is worthy of the Uchiha name!"
Kanon stood her ground, hands on her hips, shouting at the distant Kankuro. This was what Sasuke always wanted to do and say; since her brother had been forced to leave, she would finish this in his stead! She chose the flashiest, most honorable path to victory.
Kakashi and Guy exchanged a look of shared helplessness.
"Kakashi, your student really is a hot-blooded idiot. She should have been in my class!" Might Guy joked.
"Tell me about it..." Kakashi sighed.
Naruto's eyes shined with admiration. "She's so cool!"
Among the Sand ninja, Gaara's hands were trembling with the urge to kill. He desperately wanted to face her, but luck hadn't paired them together. Temari, meanwhile, was growing worried for her brother.
"A mere eleven-year-old brat, insulting me like this!" Kankuro gritted his teeth, standing up despite being soaked. He decided to unleash every hidden mechanism within Karasu. As the son of the Kazekage, he refused to lose here!
"You fool! Have you forgotten why we're here?!" Temari screamed from the balcony, seeing Kankuro's intent.
But Kankuro wasn't listening. His only goal was to kill Kanon Uchiha.
As Kankuro readied his puppet's ultimate traps, Kanon calmly dropped into a half-crouch. In her palm, a swirl of pure chakra began to rotate violently.
"What?!"
Even the Third Hokage looked on in shock.
The sphere of chakra in Kanon's hand was the signature technique of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, the Rasengan!
"She knows that jutsu?!" Guy gasped.
"What is that?!" Naruto and Sakura asked in unison.
"The Rasengan... a jutsu developed by the Fourth Hokage."
Naruto and Sakura gaped. A jutsu from the Fourth?
"How did she learn it?!" Guy turned to Kakashi.
Just as Kakashi was about to shake his head, a white-haired man approached from the shadows of the hallway.
"I taught it to her."
Jiraiya stood there with a smirk, his eyes full of pride as he watched Kanon.