Bonds

Growing up, all she had ever received from the higher-ups were cold commands, whippings, and the ruthless draining of her eye power. Never had anyone struck her with such an action... so much like an elder scolding an unruly child.

As she recalled, perhaps only her parents, who had died long ago, had done so.

"Even a shuriken needs its blood wiped off and a little oil applied after use to keep it from rusting."

Yue paid no attention to Hikari's stunned, vaguely confused reaction. He simply grabbed her injured arm with domineering force.

A little girl of twelve or thirteen had suffered such a serious wound without making a sound.

As someone with at least a shred of conscience, Yue naturally could not turn a blind eye to it.

With a ripping sound, Yue tore open a roll of clean bandages and carefully wiped the dirt from around the wound with medical alcohol.

The sting of alcohol on the wound made Hikari's body tremble faintly on instinct, but she clenched her lips shut without uttering a word, merely staring at Yue with those aloof and stubborn eyes.

"If it hurts, cry out. Nobody's going to laugh at you."

As he applied medicine with a cotton swab, Yue nagged like an old mother who worried herself sick.

"Look at you, skinny as a bean sprout. Keep losing blood like this, and tomorrow you won't even be able to stand on the battlefield. Then this one-eyed cripple will have to carry you while running, and I don't want to drop dead in Senju Clan territory from exhaustion."

Under Yue's thoroughly unrestrained scolding, a faint crack finally appeared on Hikari's eternally expressionless face.

"You... talk too much."

Hikari held it in for a long while before squeezing those icy words through her teeth.

"You think I'm too noisy? You'll listen even if you do."

"I like that look on your face when you're unhappy but have to hold it in."

Yue rolled his eyes without a care, then deftly tied an exceptionally pretty bow around her wound with the bandage.

"From now on, if you get hurt, even if a kunai only cuts the skin, you must bandage it immediately. I can't stand seeing someone get injured in front of me. Understand?"

Hikari blankly looked at the somewhat ridiculous bow on her arm, then at Yue's face, which appeared especially serious in the firelight, carrying all the air of a grown adult.

Her mind could barely process information so far beyond anything she knew.

"Why?"

Hikari asked softly. The icy arrogance had vanished from her tone, replaced by a nearly innocent foolishness. "We... are only tools. Wasting medical supplies like this does not serve the clan's interests."

Yue's bandaging hand paused slightly.

Looking at the little girl before him, who clearly possessed the power to destroy the world yet had been tortured until she had lost even the instinct to cherish herself, the softest part of his heart ached sharply.

Though he had long known this world was damned, facing such a scene again still filled him with indignation.

"Why do there have to be so many reasons? Just listen to me."

He leaned closer, his remaining right eye fixed tightly on Hikari's hollow gaze, then gave her another chop on the head.

"Listen up, little girl. I don't care about weapons or whatever else, but here with me, as long as you can still breathe and bleed, you're a living person!

"Since those old bastards handed you over to me and put you on my team, then as the older adult, I have a duty to look after you. From now on, if I say you won't break, then you'd better live in one piece. If you dare lose an arm or a leg, I won't just scold you—I'll knock your head too. Understand?"

Hikari stared blankly at Yue's face so close to hers, feeling that this person was truly far too noisy.

Yet it seemed a crack had opened in her heart, which had been frozen for ages.

"A living... person..."

This rare warmth was completely torn apart by the absolute darkness of the Uchiha Clan higher-ups the following morning.

"Yue, Hikari. The Great Elder summons you. Go to the Spring of Returning Light and receive your blessing."

A masked Uchiha ninja coldly lifted the tent flap and delivered the order.

When Yue and Hikari walked side by side into the heavily guarded underground cavern at the deepest part of the camp, an overwhelming stench of blood and desperate resentment rushed at them.

Hikari, walking ahead, seemed long accustomed to the atmosphere here. Her little face returned to its dead stillness and cold aloofness, like a sharp blade returned to its sheath.

But the moment Yue saw the sight before him, his pupils contracted sharply. His fists clenched tight beneath his sleeves, his nails nearly digging into his flesh.

What kind of "spring" was this?!

At the center of the dim cavern was an enormous, incomparably sinister blood-red formation.

At more than a dozen points in the formation stood cold stone pillars.

Bound tightly to every single pillar was a living member of the Uchiha Clan!

Among them were wounded people missing an arm, frail youths who had only just awakened a one-tomoe Sharingan, and even low-ranking clansmen who had tried to flee in terror.

At that moment, their mouths had been brutally sealed by a secret technique, leaving them unable to make a sound.

Their eyelids had been forcibly propped open with iron wire, their Sharingan forced to remain activated.

As the formation operated, strands of dark-red chakra mixed with life force and eye power were violently stripped from their eye sockets as though sucked out by a pump, gathering atop a black stone platform in the center of the cavern!

This... was the secret technique he had been so eager to obtain for replenishing eye power.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

He had thought he had already seen all the darkness the Ninja World had to offer. He had never expected there to be something capable of sinking even lower.

Who would have thought that the ninja village era he had considered so dark was actually civilized by comparison?

The Great Elder stood beside the stone platform. Seeing Yue's "shocked" expression, he let out a smug, cold laugh.

"Remember this. This is the foundation that allows the Uchiha Clan to dominate the Warring States era! Those weaklings and cripples, rather than dying as cannon fodder on the battlefield, might as well become 'spring water' and serve as nourishment for tools like you! Go! Stand on the platform and accept the strength granted to you by the clan! With this power, you can take revenge on the Senju Clan!"

Yue abruptly lowered his head and clenched his teeth, forcibly suppressing the killing intent and nausea in his eyes.

Naturally, he was not someone with some obsessive moral purity. Though this power was disgusting, he would not refuse it.

When he raised his head again, his face had already taken on the fervor and madness of someone twisted by hatred.

"As long as I can have my revenge... even if I have to eat the flesh and drink the blood of my own clansmen, I'll do it without hesitation! Thank you for your blessing, Great Elder!"

Yue laughed loudly, pretending to be a complete madman as he strode onto the stone platform.

Hikari followed behind him, her eyes still hollow without a trace of emotion.

Like a precise machine, she expertly took her designated position.

"Buzz—!"

As the Great Elder formed hand seals, the formation erupted in blinding red light.

The low-ranking Uchiha clansmen bound to the stone pillars began convulsing violently. Vast amounts of dark-red eye power surged crazily into Yue and Hikari along the patterns carved into the ground.

"Ugh!"

The instant he came into contact with that chakra, Yue felt an incomparably cold surge of resentment, venom, and despair rushing straight into his mind through his meridians.

But he quickly calmed down after realizing that the eye power in both his left and right eyes was rapidly replenishing.

Half an hour later, the formation's light dimmed.

The dozen or so clansmen on the stone pillars had completely turned into dried corpses with sunken eye sockets, crumbling into dust in the wind.