Bonds

Growing up, the higher-ups had only ever given her cold orders, lashes, and the extraction of her ocular power; never had anyone treated her with this gesture—one that felt almost like an elder scolding a disobedient child.

In her memories, it seemed only her parents, who had passed away so long ago, had ever done such a thing.

"Even a shuriken needs to be wiped clean of blood and oiled to prevent rust after use."

Yue ignored Hikari's dazed and somewhat bewildered reaction entirely, authoritatively grabbing her injured arm.

A girl of twelve or thirteen, suffering such a heavy wound, yet not making a single sound.

As someone who still possessed a shred of conscience, Yue naturally could not turn a blind eye to this.

With a "hiss," Yue tore open a roll of clean bandages and used medical alcohol to meticulously wipe the sand and grit from the edges of the wound.

The stinging pain caused by the alcohol made Hikari's body instinctively tremble, but she bit her lip hard, remaining silent, only staring at Yue with that cold, stubborn gaze.

"If it hurts, just scream. No one's going to laugh at you."

Yue muttered on like a nagging, over-anxious mother while applying medicinal powder with a cotton swab.

"Look at you, thin as a bean sprout. If you keep losing blood like this, you won't even be able to stand on the battlefield tomorrow. When that happens, I'll have to carry you, and I'm a one-eyed cripple—I don't want to die of exhaustion on the territory of the Senju Clan."

Listening to Yue's blunt, unceremonious nagging, a faint crack finally appeared on Hikari's perpetually expressionless face.

"You... are noisy."

It took a long time for Hikari to squeeze these cold words out through her teeth.

"Complaining that I'm noisy? Even if you think I'm noisy, you have to listen."

"I just like the look on your face when you're unconvinced but forced to hold it in."

Yue rolled his eyes without a care, his hands moving nimbly to tie an incredibly pretty bow with the bandage over her wound.

"From now on, if you get hurt, even if it's just a scratch from a kunai, you must bandage it immediately. I can't stand seeing people get hurt in front of me. Do you understand?"

Hikari stared blankly at the somewhat comical bow on her arm, then looked at Yue's face, which appeared exceptionally earnest and mature under the flickering firelight.

Her brain struggled to process this information, which was completely outside her parameters.

"Why?"

Hikari asked softly, her tone no longer carrying that cold arrogance, but instead revealing a kind of ignorant naivety. "We... are just tools. Wasting medical supplies like this is not in the interest of the clan."

Yue's bandaging motion paused slightly.

Looking at this young girl who possessed the power to destroy the world, yet had been tortured to the point of losing the instinct to "cherish herself," the softest part of his heart couldn't help but ache.

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

"Why so many whys? Just do as I say."

He leaned in closer, his only remaining right eye staring fixedly into Hikari's hollow pupils, before giving her a light chop to the head.

"Listen well, little girl. I don't know anything about weapons or whatever, but here with me, as long as you are still breathing and bleeding, you are a living, breathing person! Since those old fossils handed you over to form a team with me, as the older adult, I have an obligation to look after you. From now on, I won't let you break, and you must stay in one piece for me. If you dare to lose an arm or a leg, I won't just scold you—I'll knock your head in. Do you hear me?"

Hikari stared blankly at Yue, who was so close, feeling that this person was truly noisy.

Yet, a gap seemed to have opened in her long-frozen heart.

"A living... person..."

This rare warmth was completely shattered the next morning by the utter darkness of the Uchiha higher-ups.

"Yue, Hikari. The Great Elder summons you to the Spring of Returning Light to receive his grace."

A masked Uchiha ninja coldly pulled back the tent flap and issued the order.

When Yue and Hikari walked side-by-side into the heavily guarded underground cavern at the deepest part of the camp, a thick, nauseating stench of blood and desperate resentment rushed toward them.

Hikari, walking in front, seemed long accustomed to the atmosphere here; her small face returned to its dead, cold state, like a blade being returned to its scabbard.

As for Yue, his pupils contracted violently the moment he saw the scene before him, and his fists, hidden in his sleeves, clenched so tightly that his nails nearly dug into his flesh.

This was no "spring"!

In the center of the dim cavern, a massive, extremely evil blood-red formation was etched into the ground.

At the dozen or so nodes of the formation stood cold stone pillars.

Tied tightly to each pillar was a living member of the Uchiha clan!

Among them were wounded soldiers missing limbs, thin youths who had just awakened their single-tomoe Sharingan, and even low-ranking clansmen who had tried to flee out of fear.

At this moment, their mouths were crudely sealed with secret techniques, preventing them from making a sound.

Their eyelids were forcibly held open by wires, their Sharingan forced to remain in an active state.

Under the operation of the formation, strands of dark red chakra, mixed with life force and ocular power, were being forcibly stripped from their eye sockets as if by a pump, converging toward a black stone platform in the center of the cavern!

This... was the secret technique for replenishing ocular power that he had been obsessing over.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

He had thought he was well-acquainted with the darkness of the ninja world, but he hadn't expected there to be a way to break the bottom line even further.

He had not expected that the era of the ninja villages, which he had deemed so dark, would actually be considered civilized.

The Great Elder stood beside the stone platform, watching the "shocked" expression on Yue's face, and let out a smug, cold laugh.

"Remember, this is the foundation that allowed the Uchiha Clan to dominate during the Warring States period! Those weaklings and cripples—rather than dying like cannon fodder on the battlefield, it is better for them to be transformed into a 'fountain,' becoming nourishment for tools like you! Go! Stand upon the stone platform and accept the power bestowed upon you by the clan! Only with this power can you take revenge against the Senju Clan!"

Yue abruptly lowered his head, gritting his teeth hard as he forcibly suppressed the killing intent and nausea rising in his eyes.

He was certainly not a man with moral hang-ups; although this power was disgusting, he would not refuse it.

When he raised his head again, his face had already been replaced by a fanaticism and madness twisted by hatred.

"As long as I can have my revenge... even if it means eating the flesh and drinking the blood of my own kin, I will not hesitate! Many thanks for the Great Elder's grace!"

Yue let out a loud laugh, feigning the persona of a complete madman, and strode onto the stone platform.

Hikari followed behind him, her eyes remaining as hollow and ripple-less as ever.

She was like a precision machine, skillfully standing in her designated position.

"Hum—!"

As the Great Elder formed his hand seals, the formation erupted with a blinding red light.

Those low-ranking Uchiha clansmen tied to the stone pillars instantly began to convulse violently, and a massive amount of dark red ocular power surged frantically along the patterns on the ground, pouring into the bodies of Yue and Hikari.

"Ugh!"

The moment he made contact with that chakra, Yue felt an extremely cold, resentful, and desperate emotion rush straight into his mind through his meridians.

But he calmed down quickly, for he discovered that the ocular power in his left and right eyes was being replenished rapidly.

Half an hour later, the light of the formation dimmed.

The dozen or so clansmen on the stone pillars had completely withered into hollow-eyed mummies, turning into dust as they scattered in the wind.