Nagato took a few swift steps toward Kanon and caught her collapsing form in his arms.
"Kanon, are you alright?!"
"Senpai..." Kanon murmured. Her Sharingan shifted into a dynamic pattern once more. It was the Tsukuyomi.
Understanding her intent, Nagato offered no resistance to the illusion.
Within the Tsukuyomi realm, Kanon took control of Nagato's body.
"Since you have made your choice, then let me perform the final act you all wish to see, one last time as your sister..." Kanon said softly. "Consider the release of the Reanimation Jutsu my parting gift to you as family."
The Reanimation forces had already been mostly sealed away. Aside from Madara and Nagato, the remaining reanimated shinobi could no longer sway the tide of war. Kanon had no doubt that Madara possessed the means to break free from the contract anyway.
Removing these anomalies from the equation might actually work in favor of the main battlefield. At this stage, maintaining the Reanimation Jutsu had outlived its strategic necessity.
With nobody left to interfere on the main battlefield, things would be much cleaner. Besides, Kanon had never particularly liked this technique; undoing it would allow both her and Kabuto to fight without restraint.
Looking into the distance, she saw Sasuke and Itachi both wearing expressions of profound anguish. Kanon simply threw her head back and laughed aloud.
"Hahahahaha!"
"Don't look at me like that, you two. Once this jutsu is undone, I will no longer have any connection to either of you..."
Controlled by her will, Nagato's hands wove the necessary signs.
"Reanimation: Release!"
Instantly, a brilliant light began to radiate from both Itachi and Nagato. But in that exact split second, Kanon formed another hand sign.
"Reanimation: Release!"
The light enveloping Nagato abruptly halted, and his disintegration stopped. While the rest of the reanimated dead across the battlefields began to dissolve, Nagato, under Kanon's precise manipulation, had broken free from the jutsu's binding control.
"Kanon... you!"
"Go back and see Konan-nee, senpai... and then head to the main battlefield to assist my original body."
Nagato looked down at the dying Kanon, his expression torn with pain.
"I am merely a shadow clone, and my time is almost up. Thank you, senpai... Go, to the main battlefield."
"I understand," Nagato nodded slightly. This was Kanon's final command, and he would carry it out. He cast a venomous glare at Sasuke before vanishing instantly; protecting Kanon's original body was all that mattered now.
Sasuke, however, paid no mind to Nagato's parting glance. His eyes were locked onto Itachi, and then shifted to Kanon, who was collapsed on the side, weeping and coughing up blood.
"It seems everything I did was in vain..." Sasuke muttered.
"When I broke out earlier, it was Kanon's shadow clone that released me. That was when I found you."
"The only reason I followed you all the way here was to confirm whether the words of Tobi and Danzo were true..."
"But what I confirmed was far more than just that."
"Confronting you and Kanon on this battlefield brought back memories of the past."
"The way I used to look up to my older brother when I was a child... and the urge I felt to protect my little sister."
"But that is exactly why I cannot bear to see things as they are now."
Sasuke cast a pained glance at Kanon, who lay helplessly on the ground with her limbs severed, and then at Itachi, whose body was gradually dissolving into light as the Reanimation Jutsu came undone.
"The closer we attempt to be, the way we used to be, the more I understand you, but that only brings Kanon more suffering."
"And it only deepens my hatred for Konoha, the root cause of this entire tragedy."
"This hatred burns even more fiercely than before. Konoha caused all of this..."
"I know how you want me to act."
"Perhaps because you are my brother, you feel compelled to deny my path."
"But precisely because I am your brother, nothing you say will make me stop."
"Even if it is the Konoha you sought to protect, I will tear it down."
"Because it has brought nothing but endless suffering to me, to you, and to Kanon!"
Hearing Sasuke's words, Itachi's body began to tremble. He took a faltering step toward his younger brother.
"I can feel my consciousness fading away."
"Before we part forever, let me give you the answer you seek."
"There is no longer any need for me to lie."
Sasuke's eyes widened. Even Kanon managed to lift her head, her gaze fixing on Itachi.
"What I did was exactly as Tobi and Danzo said. Allow me to show you both the absolute truth."
Itachi activated the Tsukuyomi with his right eye. In an instant, the world shifted for both Kanon and Sasuke as Itachi's memories flooded their minds.
The illusion conjured images of a six-year-old Kanon and a seven-year-old Sasuke, standing in stark, tragic contrast to who they had become.
Sasuke stood uninjured, but Kanon was mangled, broken, and drawing her final breaths. Yet in this moment, she could not utter a single word.
Because she saw the truth. It was Itachi who had begged the masked man to slaughter Izumi and herself.
A wave of profound heartbreak surged deep within Kanon's chest, throwing her into a violent fit of coughing. As dark crimson blood spluttered from her lips, the shadow clone glared at Itachi with absolute, incandescent fury. With a final, agonizing breath, she vanished into a cloud of white smoke.
Neither Sasuke nor Itachi paid attention to the clone's dispelling. Sasuke stood frozen, his heart churning like a violent sea; he had long since forgiven Itachi, but the weight of the complete truth was staggering.
"I have shown you the whole truth... I hide nothing from you now."
"I always lied to you, asking for yours and Kanon's forgiveness, while always pushing you both away with these hands."
Itachi raised his hand, stepping closer to Sasuke.
"I wanted to keep you out of the darkness. But looking back... perhaps if I had trusted you both, you and Kanon might have had the power to change our parents, to change the Uchiha clan."
"If only I had faced you both honestly from the very beginning..."
"If we had stood on equal footing and spoken the truth..."
"But I failed, and saying all these things to you now will not change your mind."
"So, this time, I want to at least leave you both with the truth."
Itachi reached out, gently bringing his forehead against Sasuke's.
"I am happy to have been your older brother..."
"It is alright if you and Kanon can never forgive me."
"No matter what you and she choose to do from here on out... I will love you always."
"Sasuke... take care of your little sister."
With those final words, Itachi's soul ascended toward the heavens, a gentle smile gracing his face as he looked down at Sasuke one last time.
…
Five minutes prior. The Five Kage Battlefield.
Boom!
A terrifying explosion blasted Mei Terumī backward. A massive Susanoo fist smashed into her mid-air, followed instantly by dozens of crimson Susanoo fists raining down upon her in a relentless barrage.
Gaara's sand managed to intercept half of the blows, but the sheer force of the impact still left Mei severely wounded, sending her crashing into the dirt.
Gaara fared no better. Faced with a hundred Susanoo clones, the sheer volume of attacks overwhelmed him in a matter of exchanges. He was blown backward by the concussive force, crashing right beside Mei.
The two of them struggled to their feet, staring at the army of hundreds of Susanoo clones with absolute horror.
"Too strong..."
"How can we possibly defeat her..."
"Indeed... at this rate, we won't last..."
Nearby, Tsunade's body had already been pierced through, riddled with hundreds of wounds. Yet, powered by her Mitotic Regeneration, she continued to furiously trade blows within the swarm of Susanoo.
The Fourth Raikage, having just withstood a direct punch from a Susanoo, deflected another and shouted over to her.
"Hokage, you're being reckless! Even if you can't die, your stamina won't hold out at this rate!"
Tsunade parried an incoming blade and yelled back at the Raikage, "This is a battle where we bet our lives! There is no better way!"
"Yes, a wager of lives," Kanon's voice drifted out calmly.
A shadow clone erupted from the earth directly beneath Tsunade, thrusting a spinning sphere of chakra straight into the Hokage's abdomen.
The devastating, grinding force made Tsunade's eyes roll back into her head.
"Sage Art: Super-Big Ball Rasengan!"
The Rasengan against Tsunade's stomach expanded rapidly, launching her high into the air. Before she could recover, three Susanoo palms slapped downward in tandem, burying the Hokage deep into the shattered earth.
"Hokage!" The Raikage moved to intercept, but a cold voice whispered directly in his ear.
"You should worry about yourself first."
Suddenly, a massive crimson hand clamped around the Raikage's body, pinning him.
"Tsukuyomi."
"Damn it...!"
The Raikage instantly found himself bound to a cross, his flesh being flayed by falling flower petals for what felt like weeks on end.
"Curse it... to think I would be brought down by visual genjutsu..."
The Raikage dropped to one knee, all fighting spirit drained from his body.
"Time for the finishing blow, Raikage," Kanon smiled. Her Susanoo raised its massive broadsword, swinging it down toward the helpless Raikage.
However, a massive stone hand erupted from the ground, snatching the Raikage out of harm's way at the last possible second.
Watching from a distance, Kanon's original body clicked her tongue in mild annoyance. "Tsk. Saved by the old man, huh?"
Across the field, Onoki utilized his chakra to forcefully disrupt and break the Tsukuyomi binding the Raikage.
"Forgive me, Tsuchikage..." the Raikage muttered, nursing his head.
"That brat Onoki... the gap in combat experience is really showing through," Madara observed casually from a distance.
"Why haven't you left yet?" Kanon asked, looking over at Madara.
"Compared to the Nine-Tails over there, I'm far more interested in watching the show unfolding here. So, I came back," Madara replied with a light chuckle. "Are you having fun?"
"It's decent," Kanon nodded, her lips curving into a slight smirk. "The old Tsuchikage used his Weighted Boulder Jutsu to stop my Susanoo and save the Raikage. I suppose the older ginger really is spicier."
"I almost want to step in and play along with you," Madara remarked smoothly.
"Then let's play together in a bit." Kanon offered no further objection. Her crimson Uchiha coat fluttered in the wind as she looked down upon the Five Kage. "The crowd is a bit dense. A hundred clones feels about right; any more than that and it gets too cluttered to see anything clearly."
Hearing Kanon's critique, Madara simply smiled with supreme indifference. "If it were me, twenty-five would be more than enough."
"True," Kanon conceded easily. "That does sound about right."