"Kanon Uchiha... only six years old and yet you possess such courage. Impressive," the masked man's voice drifted out tonelessly.
Before he could even finish his sentence, Kanon hurled a shuriken at him.
"A single shuriken?" The mysterious masked man didn't even bother using his intangibility; he simply shifted his body slightly to let it pass.
However, he was a veteran of countless battles with extensive combat experience. When he noticed Kanon's hands were already weaving signs, and with such startling fluidity, he felt a flicker of genuine surprise.
It can't be…
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Following Kanon's cry, the single shuriken multiplied into dozens in an instant. They collided mid-air, ricocheting to cover every possible blind spot.
Forced to act, the masked man had no choice but to activate his intangibility. As he watched the swarm of shuriken pass through his body, he felt a lingering sense of wariness. This Uchiha girl was only six, yet she had already mastered a Rank-A ninjutsu.
Her execution was flawless. Using her one-tomoe Sharingan to calculate the trajectories, she had used the mid-air collisions to create a localized zone of absolute suppression.
"I must admit, you truly are full of surprises." In a blur of a Body Flicker, the masked man appeared directly in front of Kanon, his blade swinging down in a lethal arc.
Poof!
A cloud of white smoke erupted.
"A Shadow Clone? When?! Was it during..."
"When she threw the shuriken," the man realized. "She knew that move wouldn't hit, so she used a clone as a decoy to lure me in!"
The masked man spun and slashed behind him. Sure enough, another Kanon appeared, thrusting a kunai toward him. But his combat experience was too vast; he had read her maneuver perfectly. His sword sliced toward her chest.
"Die." As the masked man delivered his cold judgment, the blade tore through her, only for another poof of smoke to echo out.
That Kanon was also a Shadow Clone. At that exact moment, the ground beneath him burst open!
The real Kanon erupted from the earth, her crimson one-tomoe Sharingan trembling with focus. But as her kunai lunged toward the masked man's jaw, it passed through him once again.
Having used the momentum of her burrowing strike to leap into the air, Kanon began to analyze the data from her tests.
Why isn't he attacking me right now? Is he unable to? Her mind was in a state of high-speed brainstorming. No, it's not that he can't attack, it's that he mustn't. If he's intangible, he can't hit me either...
He only becomes solid when he wants to land a blow.
As she reached this conclusion, Kanon landed and put distance between herself and her opponent.
"It seems you've already figured it out. As expected of that man's sister, a true prodigy," the masked man said calmly.
"What is your goal?!" Kanon demanded, her Sharingan spinning as she maintained a wary stance.
"My goal? I am simply fulfilling a request from your brother, Itachi. I am here specifically to kill you," the masked man replied coldly.
"Liar! Itachi-nii would never do such a thing!"
The masked man didn't rush to attack again. Instead, he let out a soft, mocking laugh. "The timing should be about right. Your parents have likely been slaughtered by your brother's own hand by now."
"Shut up!" Kanon's face twisted with rising fury.
"Hahaha... no one would have guessed that the one to murder your father and mother would be your precious brother." The man's voice grew increasingly cruel.
"You masked bastard, stop talking!" Kanon snapped her fingers together, forming a cross-shaped seal.
"What?! That seal..." The masked man was stunned once more.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Dozens of Kanons materialized around her.
"She even knows this jutsu?" The masked man's katana danced through the clones, dispelling them into clouds of white smoke one by one. Finally, as he swung his blade down on a specific target, Kanon saw her opening.
There's only one chance. I have to make it count.
In that instant, the forest was bathed in a blinding white light. Even the masked man was momentarily distracted by the deafening sound of a thousand birds chirping in the distance. His three-tomoe Sharingan widened as he saw the lightning crackling in Kanon's hand.
"Chidori!"
Kanon lunged, her speed reaching its absolute limit. Unless the masked man abandoned his downward strike, he would be impaled by the Chidori.
"Where did you learn that move?!"
Kanon ignored the question, charging forward with suicidal resolve. The masked man chose to retreat into intangibility; his sword and his body phased through her.
But he was waiting for this exact moment. As she passed through him, he flicked his wrist, hurling his katana toward the opening in Kanon's unprotected back. However, the moment the blade left his hand, a sense of dread washed over him. He finally understood.
You weren't betting on that moment... you were betting on this one!
He had been so distracted by the Chidori that he had completely forgotten the Shadow Clones! To his side, a clone had finished its hand signs.
The katana sank into Kanon's abdomen. She coughed up a spray of blood but endured the agony, spinning around. Despite the hole in her stomach and the blood staining her lips, she knew she couldn't falter.
On the other side, the clone that had been waiting for the masked man to solidify his arm to throw the sword unleashed its technique.
"Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
ROAR!
A terrifying wall of fire descended like a collapsing sky. Amidst the intense heat, several kunai were hidden within the flames. The blast sent the masked man flying, and a hairline fracture appeared on the surface of his mask.
"Damn... I actually took a hit from this brat!" The masked man stabilized himself, using his space-time ability to suck the remaining flames into a void before looking back at Kanon.
"Little girl... I won't fall for that again." A suffocating, terrifying killing intent erupted from his body.
Kanon's breath came in ragged gasps, but the situation allowed for no rest. Gritting her teeth, she gripped the katana lodged in her gut and wrenched it out, casting it aside. Blood dripped from the wound as she dropped to one knee.
It didn't work?
Fine. Then the winner will be decided in a single heartbeat...
I must be ready. If I fall here, how will I ever find that field of flowers and the peace I long for?!
It was time to uphold her Ninja Way and her dreams. Steam began to rise from Kanon's skin, and the atmospheric pressure around her began to distort.
"You truly do give me one surprise after another." The masked man's voice was a mix of madness and clinical calm.
"Eight Inner Gates: Gate of Opening, Release!"
Suddenly, the veins on Kanon's forehead bulged. Her pale, beautiful face was flushed a deep, violent red. In this moment, she was truly putting her life on the line.
"Second Gate: Gate of Healing, Release!"
"Third Gate: Gate of Life, Release!"
"Fourth Gate: Gate of Pain, Release!"
Her voice was steady even as the steam erupted from her body with increasing force. The masked man braced himself, wary, waiting to see just how far this girl could push herself.
With a single step, the girl vanished, her silhouette dissolving into the night.
"So fast!" The masked man activated his intangibility the moment he turned his head, narrowly avoiding a punch. In this state, he couldn't deactivate his intangibility—the girl's speed was so great that any moment of solidity would result in a devastating counter-attack.
It had become a battle of endurance and chakra. Whoever's time ran out first would be the one to lose everything.