Kanon followed the Anbu operative to Danzo's office.
"Is this the place?" Kanon asked.
"Yes. Let's go in."
He knocked on the door, and a raspy, aged voice drifted from within.
"Enter."
Kanon stepped into the office and immediately saw Danzo sitting behind the main desk. Bandages swathed much of his body, but the deep wrinkles of age were etched clearly across his face.
"So, you are Kanon Uchiha?" Danzo asked, his eyes narrowing into slits.
"I am. And you are, sir?"
"I am the leader of the Root, Danzo Shimura." He paused, studying her. "The Chunin Exams begin in half a month. I have seen your potential, and I wish to invite you to join our specialized Anbu branch, Root."
Kanon blinked, staring at him in surprise. "Me? Join the Anbu?"
"Correct. Your father, Fugaku Uchiha, surely left you many secret techniques to have raised you to such excellence. Come to Root; it is the only place where your talents can be fully realized."
However, Kanon spoke with immediate, quiet resolve: "I refuse."
"Good. Then I shall look for—wait, what?"
Danzo froze. He had assumed she would agree; after all, joining the Anbu was a dream for most shinobi. This Uchiha remnant actually dared to reject him?
Kanon's reasoning wasn't nearly as complex as he imagined. It was simply because Itachi had joined the Anbu. She had no desire to set foot in a place associated with the brother who had destroyed everything. She wanted to carve her own path, far away from Itachi's shadow.
"I have no interest in the Anbu. So, the answer is no." She turned to the door. "If that's all, Danzo-sama, I'll take my leave."
Kanon was about to exit when Danzo slammed his palm onto the desk with a deafening crack.
"Do you think this place is some public latrine?! That you can just come and go as you please?!" Danzo's voice was like ice. He was incensed that a mere Uchiha survivor dared to show such defiance.
But Kanon was not one to be easily cowed. She didn't even look back as she walked out of the office.
Once she was gone, the remaining Anbu operative dropped to one knee, trembling. Danzo was on the verge of an explosive rage.
"That Uchiha brat... what arrogance! I cannot touch Sasuke yet, but do you think I cannot deal with you?!" Danzo stood up and looked at the ninja beside him. "Amano, you know what to do."
"Understood!" Amano rose and vanished from the room.
…
Walking away from the headquarters, Kanon wondered why Danzo was so insistent on her joining. But remembering the fury in his eyes after her refusal, she felt certain she had made the right choice.
With the rest of Team 7 away, she spent the afternoon training at her usual spot. But when she sat down for dinner that evening, a wave of loneliness hit her.
"Sigh... I wonder how nii-chan, Naruto, and Sakura are doing..."
She sighed softly, feeling the sting of being left behind because of that Anbu summons. "Forget it. I'll go out and eat."
She threw on her blue Uchiha coat and stepped out the door. Almost immediately, she sensed something was off. Her sharp intuition prickled.
"Konin," she whispered to her inner consciousness, "am I being followed?"
[Yes. You're being watched], Konin replied instantly.
Kanon's heart skipped a beat. Why was someone stalking her? She walked toward the bustling streets of Konoha, trying to lose herself in the crowd, but the feeling of being pursued only grew stronger.
The enemy was in the dark, and she was in the light. If she showed she had noticed them, she might never learn their true identity. She ducked into a ramen shop, acting as if nothing was wrong, and ate her meal as usual.
After finishing, she muttered to herself, "Well, since everyone else is on a mission, I might as well take a walk."
She headed toward the outskirts of the village. Hiding in the shadows, Amano felt a surge of triumph; the girl was walking right into a trap. He donned his fox mask and adjusted his black cloak, tailing her silently.
Kanon skipped and hopped along like an ordinary girl out for a stroll. Amano smirked behind his mask. A brat is just a brat. He had his orders from Danzo, and he intended to carry them out.
Suddenly, he struck!
A kunai whistled from the brush, but Kanon was faster. She kicked off the ground, spinning mid-air to let the blade pass harmlessly beneath her.
"What?!" Amano gasped.
"Waiting until we were outside the village to move, were you?" Kanon's voice was flat and calm. "I've already found you."
In a flash, she vanished and reappeared in the thicket, her own kunai driving toward Amano's throat. As an Anbu, he was prepared for such a strike; he drew his katana, the steel clashing against her kunai with enough force to throw her back.
The moonlight caught the porcelain of his mask.
"It's you!" Kanon recognized the mask from earlier that day. "Did Danzo-sama send you to kill me? Why?!"
Amano offered no answer. He leaped into the air, his blade gleaming as he brought it down in a vertical cleave. Kanon moved like a phantom, flickering away from the strike.
She didn't need to hold back anymore. This man intended to kill her, and he was doing so on the orders of a high-ranking official. The realization that the village leadership might have sanctioned her death sent a chill through her soul.
After a burst of white smoke, ten identical Kanons surrounded Amano, each one weaving a rapid series of seals.
"Multi-Shadow Clone: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
This was a combined technique Kanon had developed with Konin's help. Amano had never seen such a scale of attack; before he could even attempt to flee, ten waves of fire merged into a literal sea of flame. In an instant, his body was reduced to ash.
As the clones vanished, Kanon dropped to one knee, gasping for air. The technique had drained a massive amount of her chakra.
The result was a victory, but her heart was heavy. Someone at the highest level of Konoha wanted her dead. The Uchiha were gone; she had barely survived the "Masked Man," and now her own village was turning on her.
Before she could process the weight of it, another figure erupted from the brush, another Anbu.
"No!" Still weakened, Kanon couldn't dodge. A heavy kick caught her square in the ribs.
Crr-ack!
She was sent flying like a cannonball, smashing through a tree trunk. She hadn't sensed a second assassin. If this man had been there the whole time, why hadn't he saved his comrade?
Before she could move, a blade pierced through her back and out her chest. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks as she watched the blood-stained steel protruding from her abdomen. The cold, agonizing pain flooded her senses. A bitter, absurd smile touched her blood-flecked lips.
I survived the massacre... only to be killed by my own people?
As the blade was wrenched out, Kanon collapsed. Her eyelids grew heavy, but her sheer will to live fought to keep them open.
In the dim light of the forest, a man walked toward her. She recognized him instantly: Danzo.
"A remnant of the Uchiha... and they call her a genius? She hasn't even awakened the Sharingan," Danzo said, looking down at her dying form. "Nothing more than a waste of space."
"I'm leaving," he told the remaining operative. "Clean up Amano's body and 'dispose' of her."
With those cold words, Danzo turned and walked back into the darkness.