"Once again, Izanami-sama, we can't express our gratitude to you enough for this."
Kannon was left in confusion as she looked to her side, and saw a woman with tanned skin and dark brown hair speaking to her. The pair of them appeared to be walking side by side, and over her shoulder, Kannon could see multitudes of more familiar yet also unfamiliar faces following them, all looking like they were equipped for war.
Is she talking to me?
"Uh, it's okay," is what Kannon wanted to say, but instead, her body reacted of its own accord.
"There's no need. If you want to thank anyone, thank the Uchiha for the delegates they sent to us."
As those words left her lips, Kannon was left in shock. There was no denying that this was indeed her body, but for some reason she had no control over any of it. It was as if it had been pre-programmed to run of its own accord, and now, she was relying on autopilot. Deciding to sit back and watch, Kannon let things run its course, wondering if this was all just some kind of weird dream.
"Hiroki does seem to be quite the likeable gentleman," chuckled the woman with Kannon, who was carrying what appeared to be a sheath slung over her shoulder. "He mentioned that it was only because of your favour that your council agreed to sending us shinobi- and not just any shinobi, but your finest ones."
"If we're going to be dealing with something that threatens the entire world, then there should be no reason for any of us to be hiding our strength. Isn't that right?"
The woman chuckled, and as she did so, a name randomly popped into Kannon's head: Touka Senju.
"I can see why you're the Ōgami," she said in admiration, patting Kannon on the arm. "I look forward to working with you. Rest assured, we can take down this threat if we work together."
"Indeed. Now, what's our plan of action?"
Kannon felt a stirring, as if this information was stuff that she needed to pay close attention to. Whatever the threat was, she had no idea; all she knew was that for some reason, something was urging her to listen carefully.
***
"Look, she's starting to wake up!"
As Kannon began to stir, sitting next to her was Gaara, who instructed Naruto to go and fetch Tsunade right away. Only a day had passed since she had been mortally wounded by Tera, but she was looking good in terms of recovery. In that time, Temari and her squadron had since returned to Suna, albeit with two of their shinobi suffering from further deadly injuries from Tera too. This added to Gaara's curiosity, who could not fathom how Tera could do so much damage in such a short span of time, especially in her current state.
"... huh?"
Gaara grabbed one of Kannon's hands, squeezing it reassuringly as she began to open her eyes.
"Kannon!" he breathed in relief, as the Kurotsuki blinked and reached up to rub her eyes, only to be met by surprise at the bandages that covered half of her face.
"What the fuck?!" Kannon removed her hand from Gaara's grip and sat up straight, feeling a stinging pain all over her body as she did so.
"Kannon, don't move too fast!" warned Gaara, seeing the pain on her face as she realised the error of her ways. "Look, you're in hospital, and you're lucky to be alive. Do you remember anything?"
"That doesn't matter," groaned Kannon hurriedly, waving away the Kazekage's concerns. "It wasn't Tera. Look, it's Sora, and we have to stop her before she fucks everything up again."
"Sora?"
"Yes, Sora, the one who owns Tera's chakra!" said Kannon in exasperation, trying to throw her hands into the air but reeling from the pain. "She's back, she's taken over Tera's body, and-"
Kannon's visible eye widened in horror as she realised what needed to be done.
"In- in my dream, the four clans got together and worked to split apart Sora," she began explaining, looking frantic and becoming more and more agitated as she explained further. "Uh, uh... Kurotsuki, Uchiha, Uzumaki and Senju! They separated her spirit from her chakra, but- if we remove the chakra from Tera, we'll kill her!"
"Kannon, please, just relax and take a deep breath," said Gaara, leaning over the panicked woman's bedside and urging her to lie back down. "Please, you need to tell me from the beginning. I don't understand what you're saying. Breathe slowly. In, and out. You've suffered some serious injuries- you need to take it easy."
As he patted Kannon's chest in comfort, the woman breathed slowly as she relaxed back into her pillows, closing her eyes and recollecting her thoughts. Then, she began to recount everything she had dreamed of as accurately as possible.
"Sometime before the Warring States Era, Sora terrorized the mainland, so much so that the Uchiha and Senju knew that they had to put aside their old rivalry to take her on together... they tried doing so, but failed drastically. So then they went and looked for other clans to help them- the Senju managed to enlist the help of the Uzumaki, and the Uchiha didn't like that they were on the short end of the alliance, so they sent delegates to the Land of Darkness to ask for my family's help. It wasn't easy, but they got it..."
Kannon frowned as she tried to remember everything, feeling as if she had lived an entire lifetime in the span of a few minutes.
"The four clans got together and devised a plan... they agreed that Sora was too powerful to be sealed away as she is, so they decided that they would separate her chakra from her spirit, and keep them separate so she could never pose harm to anyone ever again..."
"Okay, so they split her into two."
"Her chakra... went to the Kurotsuki, and her spirit went to the Uzumaki..."
"How did they split her, Kannon?"
"Her chakra was too immense at the time to be divided itself, so in its entirety it was cut out of her... the Kurotsuki and Uchiha were in charge of the extraction, the Uzumaki and Senju dealt with the sealing..."
"Okay, so the Kurotsuki and Uchiha extracted her chakra, and the others completed the sealing?"
"Yeah, yeah... well, the Uchiha extracted her chakra... the Kurotsuki handled the rest of her..."
"What do you mean the rest of her?"
"Even without her chakra, Sora was still fighting fit and able to cause damage... if she had been a human, she would've been dead... so they were in charge of weakening her down to the core so that the others could seal her away with ease... they fought for a long time... and were careful not to kill her because it would result in her spirit being released out of their control..."
"Does this plan still apply to how we're going to deal with Tera?"
At the mention of Tera's name, Kannon opened her eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling.
"No. With Tera, all we need to do is extract the chakra... but since her body is human, she'll... well... she won't live."
Gaara sat back down, shaking his head at Kannon's revelation.
"That can't be," he said tiredly, rubbing his temples. "The whole reason we kept her here in Suna was to keep the Uchiha from doing that to her. You're telling me that's the only option we have?"
"Do you think I like the idea any more than you do?!" snarled Kannon, making Gaara wince for even saying something like that. The Kurotsuki groaned and covered her face, unable to think fo any other solutions.
"Well... for now, that's all I can think of," sighed Kannon in disappointment. "The longer we wait, the more people Sora will kill. At this point, I don't think she cares about taking people's chakra anymore: she's out for blood."
"Considering she nearly killed you, I'm not surprised. She almost killed two of Temari's shinobi too."
"The one good thing I can see coming out of this situation is us being able to separate the chakra, rather than have it all combined as this big mass," continued Kannon. "Thanks to the chakra nurturing Tera while she was in her mother's womb, to nurturing both Ayumi and Shisui in her own, it's been lessened just enough for us to split it up into multiple parts."
At that moment, the door slid open, and a winded looking Naruto was walking in with Tsunade, who looked concerned at Kannon's present state. While it was a relief that she was awake, the anxiety evident on her face wasn't reassuring.
"Kannon," she said sternly, looking for an explanation. Kannon lifted up one hand, asking for silence.
"Please, before we do anything else... Naruto, can you call Sasuke for me?"
"Of course," said Naruto, taken aback by Kannon's immediate question. "Do you mean, right now?"
"Yes. Right now. I need to speak to Sasuke."
"Right. While you do that, Gaara can inform me outside. Correct?" asked Tsunade, beckoning for Gaara to follow her out of the room. "Judging by the look on your face, Kannon has already got you up to date with everything. Do me a favour and pass it on."
"Of course, Hokage-sama."
Touching Kannon's hand once more as he stood up, Gaara followed Tsunade out of the room as Naruto placed his phone on Kannon's chest, putting it on loud speaker so that she wouldn't have to hold it.
"Who are you calling?" asked Kannon, glancing down at her chest to try and see the caller ID.
"Itachi's home number," said Naruto. "It's safer than calling Sasuke directly."
"I see."
There was a sound on the other side of the line, followed by a small, "Hello?"
"Is this Itachi?"
"Yes, this is me. Who is this?"
"Oh my god, Itachi, you need to get Sasuke on the phone," begged Kannon, unsure of how she was going to break the news to the Uchiha. "It's urgent. Really urgent!"
"Okay, okay, relax," said the Uchiha smoothly. "Give me a couple of minutes."
As Itachi walked off, a faint, "Not even a hello? Tch," could be heard.
"So, uh... what's going on?" asked Naruto,nonetheless wiser as to what their situation was.
"Sora's taken over Tera's body," lamented the Kurotsuki. "There's only one way to get rid of her, once and for all."
"What is that?"
"We have to extract her chakra," said Kannon, making Naruto gawk in confusion.
"I thought we were trying to protect her from that?" asked the Uzumaki, taken aback by Kannon's words. "You're not serious, are you?"
"Of course I'm serious, Naruto," snapped Kannon, wishing that she was just in a bad dream and that she wouldn't have to do anything to hurt Tera. "No, it has to be done. And I know Tera wouldn't want to be the one hurting all these people. It's better to sacrifice one life instead of a thousand others, right?"
"This is too sudden. You're joking, right?"
"Naruto, I'm-"
"Hello?"
There it was. The one voice she dreaded hearing.
"Hi, Sasuke," squeaked Kannon, her heart pounding in absolute fear. She had no doubt in her mind that Sasuke would go berserk once he knew of what had happened.
And more importantly, she knew that he would be mad at her the most.
Look after her.
He had told her to look after Tera. And she couldn't even do that.
"Kannon? Where's Tera?"
Kannon looked over at Naruto with wide eyes, frozen and unsure of what to tell the Uchiha. It was then that the Uzumaki swept in to Kannon's rescue, taking the phone off of her and holding it before his face.
"Hey, duckbutt," said Naruto carefully, taking a deep breath as he thought of what to say.
"Naruto? What is it? Make it quick."
"So, um, I don't know how to break it to you, but Tera's body has basically been taken over by a bloodthirsty spirit that our ancestors sealed away years ago, and now that she's reunited with her chakra, there's a very good chance that she's going to kill everyone in her path unless we get her first," said Naruto in one breath, as Kannon waited with bated breath for the Uchiha's response.
"What? Naruto, I don't have time-"
"Sasuke!" called out Kannon with a dry throat. "Look, I'm really sorry for everything, okay?"
"Kannon? What the hell is going on?"
"Sasuke, when can you get to Suna?" asked Kannon, now deciding to just be straightforward. "Please. We need you here."
"Sasuke, push the invasion forward," pressed Naruto. "Push it forward, and get your ass to Suna as soon as possible."
"That's easier said than done, idiot. Where are Tera and the kids? Are they okay?"
"Did nothing I say go through your thick skull?" scowled Naruto into his phone. "Tera's in trouble, but Ayumi and Shisui are fine. Shisui looks a lot like you."
"In trouble?! Why?!"
"I JUST FUCKING EXPLAINED EVERYTHING TO YOU IN ONE SENTENCE!" yelled Naruto, making Kannon's eyes widen in surprise. "Use your fucking ears!"
"I don't have time for this! I'm coming to Suna!" retorted Sasuke. "Wh-"
"THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU TO DO! HURRY UP!"
"Shut the fuck up! Where's Tera now?"
"She's disappeared into the desert!"
"Are you serious?! She just had a fucking baby-"
"Yeah, no shit-"
"What the fuck!"
With that, Sasuke hung up on the Uzumaki, who looked at Kannon with a grimace.
"Well... that went better than expected, right?" he said with a small grin, scratching the back of his head.
Meanwhile, Kannon looked like she had seen a ghost.
"He's going to kill me!"