Naruto: Under the Banner of the Clans

"Where are we!?" Renji shouted in panic as he woke up.

Standing before the two young children, Akeno calmly observed their reactions. Renji woke up in a panic and surprise, while Fubuki looked calmly awake, having been so for some time.

The sun was still high in the sky, and they could hear the sound of waves crashing against the island cliff.

Fubuki's demeanor contrasted sharply with Renji's. Calm and quiet, the young Yuki seemed prepared for any eventuality.

Stopping Renji's incessant shouting, Akeno raised his hand and, as always, began to calmly explain. "Don't worry, I am the one who saved you from the tailless demon. My name is Akeno, pleased to meet you."

"Tailless demon?" Renji asked, looking intrigued. "So that was the name of that monster?"

"Yes, the monster that defeated you is called the tailless demon, Reibi. It feeds on dark thoughts and has a surprising ability to survive many things."

"I must say I was impressed by your abilities to fight against it," Akeno continued. The battle hadn't lasted long, only a few minutes, but many ninjas had died. The two young ninjas before him had fought to the end with impressive passion and strength, which was worth recognizing.

Facing an enemy who could regenerate and reattach any severed part of its body, who could move fast enough to evade every ninjutsu, and who possessed such dark chakra, lasting as long as they did was already remarkable.

"What do you want?" Fubuki asked, clearly annoyed. "I do indeed thank you for saving us, but I fail to understand why we ended up so far from the arena and the city. So, what do you want?"

Fubuki wasn't seeking praise or explanations. If he hadn't understood that Akeno had saved him from that monster, he wouldn't have waited so long after waking up to listen and would have already left to rejoin his clan.

"Let me get to the point," said Akeno. "I see you're in a hurry, so I'll be brief. As far as this world is concerned, you're dead, and I'm sorry to say your families must be mourning your deaths at the hands of that monster, leaving behind only your chakra-drained corpses."

"Fubuki Yuki, Renji Senju, I invite you to come with me to a very distant place where you can achieve far greater things than here. I know you don't know me, and you'll probably doubt my words, but the truth is, you should have died today. If you return to your respective clans, you will surely die."

"If you agree to follow me, then we will fight together against opponents of power beyond anything you can imagine, and we will create a legend that will traverse the world."

"Powerful opponents..." murmured Fubuki.

"Create a legend..." murmured Renji.

"I know you are capable of great things, and together, we could achieve our dreams and become much more than we were destined to be. Fate has abandoned you, but I offer you a second chance. Come, take my hand, and let us become brothers," said Akeno, extending his hands to the young ninjas.

Renji dreamed of becoming someone, and Fubuki was addicted to combat and action. A world of cultivation was the ideal place for these two young boys to flourish.

Hope City

Waking up in his world with two new recruits asleep beside him, Akeno could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

While Fubuki had easily accepted his offer, Renji had been less receptive to his invitation. Fubuki could be described as unsociable within his clan, wanting only to fight and become stronger.

But Renji was different. He wanted to become someone great and powerful, someone who could make his clan proud. But that didn't mean he could easily accept abandoning his clan and its obligations to join Akeno.

That had delayed Akeno somewhat in returning to his world.

Now that they were together, Akeno had recruited six of the greatest clans in the Naruto world.

Uchiha, Senju, Uzumaki, Hyuga, Kaguya, and Yuki.

Now, he could move on to the next step of mastering chakra and training them to one day become the patriarchs and matriarchs of their respective clans.

How exciting! The very idea of elevating these clans in the world of cultivation made his inner fanboy incredibly joyful.

And why not recruit clans from other worlds? Even if the system limited him to saving six different clans, he had other plans to overcome that limit.

As Akeno entered a meditative state to regain his lost Qi, Izaya and Maiko, who had stayed in the room waiting, looked at the two new members of their group still asleep.

One had spiky hair and wore the Yuki clan emblem on his back, while the other wore nondescript attire, though Izaya could still guess his identity since Akeno had originally gone to recruit a Senju.

"So a Senju and a Yuki..." said Izaya, his white eyes scanning for any distinguishing features on their bodies. "Byakugan!" Opening his eyes, he activated his Byakugan and saw their chakras. "Strong," he murmured, his eyes especially fixed on the young Yuki.

"...so, the Senju boy is a descendant of our ancestor's brother?" Maiko timidly asked Izaya.

Since arriving, she had tried to get as close as possible to the others. Chikara and Kaede were surprisingly easy to talk to, but Izaya, while not unkind, remained somewhat aloof and serious, which only heightened her shyness.

She had never made friends after all.

"Yes, if what Akeno says is true," Izaya replied, still looking at Fubuki. "With them, I suppose we're complete."

With that, all they had to do was wait for them to wake up. Deactivating his Byakugan, Izaya turned around only to see Maiko's shocked look and the sensation of a blade at his throat.

"Hello, Fubuki Yuki, nice to meet you," Fubuki said with a big smile and his kunai at Izaya's throat.

"How!?" Izaya screamed inwardly. He had turned around for just a second but was already completely mastered by his opponent.

Even Maiko, who should have been able to see everything, had only seen a blur between the sleeping Fubuki and the Fubuki before her.

Under this palpable tension, Akeno decided it was time to stop this ridiculous situation. "Fubuki, put away your kunai. It's impolite to greet your brothers this way. If you want to fight, you'll have plenty of opportunities later."

With an amused look, Fubuki sheathed his kunai and raised his hands in the air to show his harmless status. "Sorry, I thought you would act faster, Hyuga."

"You!" Izaya activated his Byakugans, glaring into Fubuki's eyes, not hiding his anger.

Before his white eyes, Fubuki didn't hide his smile.

"Ow my head..." waking up in the middle of this staring confrontation, Renji stood up and gradually regained his senses.

With both awake, Akeno was pleased and couldn't wait to finally test his theory. "Izaya, calm down and go get the other two; it's time to see how we can each obtain our coveted powers."

Initially ready to fight at any moment, Izaya quickly regained his composure. At ten years old, he was clearly the most serious of the lot.

But more than that, he was surely the one who wanted Qi power the most compared to the others to break his cursed seal.

Leaving the room to fetch Chikara and Kaede, Akeno turned his gaze to the two young boys. "I guess I can welcome you to the world of immortals. I also think an update is in order for you two."

"For one, no attacking your comrades; see them as your brothers and sisters. Secondly, you can ask them anything you need to know about this world. And thirdly, especially for you, Renji, know that the Senju clan has a familial link with all the clans of your comrades, and in short, your clan has been manipulated in the shadows since its inception to fulfill the plan of a certain entity."

The explanation was brief, but at some point, Akeno had gotten tired of explaining the same things over and over with each rescue.

But Fubuki seemed to dislike long explanations, and Renji clearly hadn't listened to anything except the last part.

"What other clans?" he asked.

Pointing to Maiko, Akeno began to introduce. "This is Maiko Kaguya; the one who left is Izaya Hyuga, and the others who are coming back are Kaede Uzumaki and Chikara Uchiha. With you two, that makes six people from six different clans in total."

Taking a few seconds to think, Renji stood in place in silence, until he exploded, "Kaede Uzumaki!? The young princess of the Uzumaki clan is here!? And how come an Uchiha!? How come a familial link with these demons!?" Renji cried out in one breath.

Seeing this, Akeno sighed deeply. "This is going to be a long explanation again..."