Naruto: Under the Banner of the Clans

A few hours earlier, Chikara and the others woke up in a dark and damp place, surrounded by walls made of earth and roots.

They remembered perfectly what had happened. The attack, and then the abduction.

Even though they were stronger than they appeared, their attackers had gone all out, moving so fast that they had no time to react.

Chikara tried to break free from his bonds, but to no avail. Somehow, they were deprived of their Qi. Their captors had surely used a means to seal or disrupt their cultivation.

Looking at his companions, Kaede and Maiko, Chikara saw in their eyes that they were ready to break their seals to try and escape.

But when they attempted to unlock the seal suppressing their chakra, they found it impossible. Whatever had been done to them, they could neither use Qi nor chakra.

"Come on!" Forcing his seal to open, Chikara felt a backlash that caused him to cough violently.

The pain was excruciating.

It wasn't just Chikara who felt this pain; Maiko and Kaede also tried to force the seal without success.

Hearing the coughing and the clinking of chains, a scruffy man with dull eyes wandered into view, pacing before the children, staring into the eyes of those who dared to lift their heads.

Just as this man seemed ready to leave without a word, a raspy voice echoed from the depths of a passageway. "This kidnapping is a much bigger risk than usual. I think we should get a little something out of it! Bring me two children!"

At the sound of this voice, the man in black robes turned around with an undisguised grin, revealing rotten and missing teeth. "With pleasure."

He approached the children slowly, as if selecting a fine wine.

Gazing at Chikara and the girl next to him, he grabbed them by the hair and dragged them off, delighting in their terrified screams.

"Chikara!" Kaede and Maiko screamed in fear.

Chikara was scared—not just for himself, but also for the girl by his side. "Let me go!"

Dragged by their hair, they were taken to an empty room dimly lit by a weak light.

"Stay here and behave," the man said with a chuckle.

In this depressing atmosphere, Chikara felt ashamed of not being strong enough.

He had made significant progress since arriving in Hope City, increasing his chakra reserves, perfecting his techniques, and advancing to the third level of cultivation, Qi Refinement.

In fact, they had all managed to improve to the level of Qi Refinement—a remarkable feat in just two months. This was only possible thanks to their lineage and bodies, already enhanced by chakra, which had immense potential for storing energy.

Looking at the girl his age beside him, Chikara understood her fears—she had never been prepared for war.

"Xue Lian, are you okay?" Chikara asked hesitantly, seeing the tears streaming down her cheeks.

Trying to pull herself together, she couldn't stop the tears from flowing. "I... I'm fine... I just... sniff... I'm so scared!"

Crying uncontrollably, ten-year-old Xue Lian was terrified and unable to compose herself.

"I'm scared! Waaaah!"

Chikara was also scared, but he was just better at hiding it. His training in the Uchiha clan had given him slightly above-average mental resilience.

"Don't worry, Xue Lian, we'll get out of here, you'll see. I'm sure the master is already looking for us."

If it wasn't the master, Chikara was certain Akeno would do everything in his power to find them. He held onto his faith.

Seeing her continue to cry and tremble, Chikara tried his best to comfort her. Growing up in the Uchiha clan hadn't given him much experience in these matters.

"You know, I almost died once. You could even say I was killed... And then, just when I thought it was over, Akeno saved me. He gave me a chance—a chance to live.

Even when everything seems lost, you have to keep hope alive. I still have hope," Chikara said, forcing a reassuring smile.

In a small town like Hope City, everyone in the sect branch knew each other. Even though Xue Lian didn't know him personally, she knew who Akeno was.

The young cultivator from one of the Empire's largest cities, Glory City.

He claimed he came because he felt more useful here, but some suspected there was another reason. In any case, when he arrived in Hope City, he brought with him six talented young children.

Calming down a little, Xue Lian was curious about Chikara's past. No one knew where they came from or why they ended up in Hope City. Even the other children, who had become close to them, had no clues. "How? How did you almost die?"

Remembering the night his outpost was attacked, Chikara seemed to drift into his past. "It was during an attack. It was nighttime, and I was exhausted from training.

Suddenly, I heard explosions, then screams..."

For Xue Lian, she seemed to understand Chikara's feelings; many orphaned children had lost their families during attacks on their villages.

The story Chikara described was the same as many others. Strikingly similar to hers...

"Then, it was war... I fought, and then I encountered an opponent I couldn't defeat..."

...

Back with Kaede and Maiko, eight of them waited in silence, looking for any opportunity.

Maiko tirelessly tried to grow her bones using her Kekkai Genkai, but without success.

To do so, she still needed chakra to infuse calcium into her body.

In this state of waiting, every minute felt incredibly long.

...

"I remember my mommy. Before she... She loved me and protected me," Xue Lian said with emotion. "My daddy, he liked working more than staying home..."

"Even though daddy wasn't around much, mommy made me happy. We lived in a small village, surviving off farming and daddy's work."

A few tears rolled down her cheeks as she recalled her happy memories.

"But one day, daddy left. I don't know why... Mommy cried a lot that day. She said he chose work over our family...

I was six."

Catching her breath between sobs, it was both difficult and soothing for her to share her past.

"And then, the day came. A pack of wild deer at the Qi Refinement level came to our village. Mommy... mommy sacrificed herself for me..."

Crying her heart out, Chikara didn't know how to comfort her. His memories of his parents were very faint—they had died when he was very young. In the end, it was only his grandmother who raised him.

"When I found myself alone, without parents and without neighbors willing to take me in, men from the Empire came and sent me to Hope City to become a soldier against the Chaos Empire.

But from the first day, they abandoned me too—alone on the streets, with no money or help... It's thanks to the master's kindness that I survived..."

Speaking of Master Fang Qin, Xue Lian felt reassured.

Time passed, and Xue Lian calmed down. "At night, mommy would sit next to me in my bed, holding a book in her hands. Always the same book, but each time she told me a new story..." Smiling faintly, the sweet memories of her mother seemed to comfort her.

But just as she regained some hope, the man returned to the room silently, grabbing Xue Lian violently by her hair. "Noooo! Let me go!" Screaming at the top of her lungs, Xue Lian began to panic again.

Chikara squirmed on the cold floor, trying once more to break his bonds. "Let her go! You bastard, let her go!"

Ignoring him, the man kicked Chikara in the stomach and left the room with Xue Lian, who was pleading.

Stunned, Chikara could still hear her cries echoing down the corridor.

Xue Lian was brought to a room where another man waited with a sinister smile.

Approaching her face, the man ran his hand through her hair, as if inspecting the quality of the goods.

"Magnificent, a fine specimen, and such a clean, pure face." Stroking her cheek gently, the man's eyes radiated malice.

"Such a shame we'll lose this pretty face..." he said, turning her head to the side to show her what he meant.

One second...

Two seconds...

"Noooo! Please! I'm begging you!" Screaming as loudly as she could, Xue Lian pleaded desperately.

From afar, Chikara heard the screams, the sobbing, and the sheer terror in Xue Lian's voice.

"Please! Waaah! Don't do this! Waaah!"

Each scream felt like a dagger to Chikara, stabbing him relentlessly. He had made her believe everything would be okay...

He felt guilty...

"Nooooo!"

Suddenly, the screams stopped, and for a moment, the world became calm, empty, silent...

Chikara felt an unbearable pain in his heart. Without realizing it, his eyes turned red, with a tomoe spinning in each one.

"No, no, no," he lamented over Xue Lian's fate, unaware of the new power surging through his body.

The seal meant to suppress his chakra forcibly broke, driven by this newfound energy coming from his head. Freed, the chakra flowed eagerly through his body, pushing his strength to another level.

As the chakra coursed through his Tenketsu, it purged a strange waste clinging to his body.

Overcome by a terrible urge to vomit, Chikara retched a foul black and yellow substance onto the floor.

And as this substance left his body, Chikara felt free—completely free...

With his Qi and chakra usable again, Chikara turned her gaze towards the door. His eyes displayed a breathtaking hatred and thirst for murder.

His eyes had become real Sharingans!

ILLUSTRATION