Spring of Returning Light

Inside the Uchiha Clan's command tent, dim candlelight flickered, illuminating several elderly faces etched with wrinkles and calculation.

"That branch orphan who calls himself Yue Uchiha is a mad wolf born to kill."

An Elder gulped down a mouthful of rough liquor, undisguised fervor gleaming in his cloudy eyes.

"In just half a month, he and Hikari have already taken down three Senju Clan outposts! The strange gravitational force released by his right eye leaves even the Senju elite jonin utterly helpless."

"He truly is a weapon granted by heaven. In some ways, he's even sharper than 'Hikari.'"

Another high-ranking Elder stroked his chin, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "But the sharper the blade, the greater the risk of it turning on its owner. Still, he's blind in one eye, and hatred has completely clouded his judgment."

The Elders exchanged cold smiles.

Over the past half month on the battlefield, Yue Uchiha had indeed demonstrated a terrifying degree of dominance.

He was like a tireless meat grinder. In a group battle, the gravitational control of his right eye, Amenominakanushi, was an overwhelming advantage.

Yet after every outburst, Yue would obligingly reveal a fatal weakness.

He would clutch his bleeding right eye and cough violently in the muddy water. His blindness in his left eye would leave an unmistakable blind spot in battle. He would even collapse and convulse in a pile of corpses after exhausting his chakra.

These utterly convincing reactions of someone on the verge of death were all carefully acted out by Yue, who used his superb acting skills to fool the observers hidden in the shadows.

He understood the psychology of those in power all too well.

A flawless powerhouse whose strength had no apparent limits would only invite endless suspicion and plots.

But a terrifyingly strong revenge machine with a short life, riddled with weaknesses and dependent on the clan to survive, was the perfect tool.

Clearly, Yue's performance had struck a chord with the Uchiha Clan's leadership.

"He uses his ocular jutsu without regard for the cost, so it must consume a great deal of his ocular power. I suspect that's why he went blind in his left eye. A tool this useful and convenient mustn't break so easily."

The Great Elder finally spoke, his withered fingers tapping on the table.

"Since he's so useful, we can't let him burn out too soon. Starting today, have him use the Spring of Returning Light alongside Hikari."

"Great Elder... the price of the Spring of Returning Light..."

"It doesn't matter." The Great Elder raised a hand to cut him off.

"Those low-ranking Uchiha, or clan members who've been gravely injured on the battlefield and are no longer of any value—their Sharingan, whether Two Tomoe or Three Tomoe, are wasted sitting in their eye sockets. They can't be used as top-tier fighters, nor can they pave the way for the clan's great ambitions."

The so-called Spring of Returning Light was never some miraculous natural spring. It was a blood-soaked ocular power transfer array devised by the Uchiha Clan during this brutal Warring States Period.

It had been named for the way ocular power surged like spring water during the transfer.

In underground chambers, the leadership imprisoned clan members who had been crippled by injury, defied the leadership, or were simply deemed "expendable" for lacking talent.

Using brutally cruel Sealing Jutsu, they forcibly kept the prisoners' Sharingan activated. Like squeezing juice from sugarcane, they drained the ocular power and life force from their eyes, drop by drop, until it gathered into a cold chakra that could nourish a Mangekyo.

"A small sacrifice is necessary for the Uchiha's glorious revival."

"Everything for the Uchiha."

An elderly woman sighed.

She had finally put an end to the tragedy caused by the unrestricted use of Izanagi back then, yet she still couldn't put a stop to the madness that had always churned in the depths of the Uchiha's hearts.

Now, she was old, and the Uchiha had returned to the darkness of her youth.

In the dim command tent, the Uchiha leadership's darkness and madness had utterly twisted the meaning of "family," taking the cruelty of clan members preying on one another to its extreme.

Meanwhile, in a drafty tent some distance from the leadership's quarters, set aside specifically to house their tools,

cold rain dripped through gaps in the torn canvas, splashing into little puddles in the muddy ground.

Uchiha Hikari sat quietly on a wooden crate used to store Explosive Tags.

She was still wearing the same loose-fitting, deep-blue battle uniform, smeared with mud and dried blood.

Her left arm had been slashed open several inches by the Senju Clan's Wind Release Ninjutsu. The flesh gaped, and bright-red blood trickled from her pale, slender fingertips, dripping into the muddy water with a steady "drip, drip."

But Hikari seemed unable to feel any pain. She simply stared blankly at the black, rainy night outside the tent, her large, dark eyes empty.

"Damn it, can't this wretched Warring States weather let up for two days? I can't even find a dry mat."

With a complaint that shattered the mood, the tent flap was roughly thrown open.

Yue Uchiha came in, cursing under his breath and carrying a dusty medical kit.

He shook the rain from his cloak, then deftly rummaged through the corner for some relatively dry firewood. A wisp of Fire Release chakra slipped from his fingertips, and he quickly lit a fire.

The warm glow immediately drove away the chill inside the tent.

Hikari turned her head woodenly to look at this "fellow" who was always chattering and making noise. Her gaze remained blank.

Half a month had passed, but she still hadn't gotten used to Yue Uchiha's behavior.

In her understanding, once a mission was over, a weapon only needed to sit quietly in a corner and wait for its next order—or for the leadership to drag it away and force chakra into it.

But ever since this man named Yue Uchiha had arrived, a kind of noise called "chatter" had entered her world.

It was annoying, yet somehow she found it less annoying than the other Uchiha.

It was a contradiction. Uchiha Hikari wasn't good with words and didn't know how to describe these conflicting feelings.

Yue brushed the dust from his hands and turned to look at Hikari. His eyes immediately fell on her still-bleeding arm.

"Are you stupid or something?"

Yue strode over and dropped onto the wooden crate across from her. "You're practically bleeding a river, and you're just going to sit here and let it dry?"

"It's only a superficial wound."

Hikari's voice still held no inflection, cool and detached, with the numbness of someone who kept the world at arm's length. "It'll scab over on its own in three days. It won't affect my Hand Seals. I'm a weapon. Weapons don't need to..."

"Forget the weapon crap!"

Before Hikari could finish, Yue reached out without the slightest hesitation and tapped her forehead with a light karate chop.

"Pat."

The sound was quiet, but Hikari froze as if someone had used a paralyzing jutsu on her.

She stared blankly, covering her forehead. Her empty eyes widened slightly as she looked at the young man before her, unsure what to do.

Why had he done that?