Chapter 100: People from Future

The blade remained steady against the woman’s throat. A thin line of blood already marked the skin where the edge rested. Kael’s knee kept her sword arm pinned; his other hand held the short kunai with the calm of someone who had already decided how far he was willing to go.

One of the remaining three stepped forward, hands raised, palms open.

"Wait. Don’t hurt her. We don’t mean you any harm."

Kael coughed once. Blood flecked the back of his hand. He wiped it across his pants without looking away from the speaker.

"No harm?" His voice stayed flat. "Look at me. I’m coughing blood because of the last ’no harm’ you tried. So tell me who you are, or she dies right here."

Silence stretched. The forest seemed to lean in.

The girl in the middle—dark purple hair visible beneath the edge of her mask—looked toward the one with long blue hair marked by distinct pink streaks and rounded loops at the tips. Panic edged her voice.

"What should we do?"

The blue-haired girl kept her eyes on the hostage. "I don’t know. She was the one leading this."

"Use your ability on him again," the purple-haired one urged.

"You think I haven’t tried already?" came the tight reply.

A third figure—dark blue hair—moved between them, voice sharper, trying to cut through the rising tension. "Stop panicking, both of you. We know he can’t kill her."

Kael’s gaze flicked to her. "And why can’t I kill her, huh?"

The dark-blue-haired girl flinched. "No—no, it’s not like what you’re thinking. I mean... you can kill her any time you want. But I believe you won’t." The words came out rushed, almost pleading, as if the idea of looking like a monster in his eyes mattered more than the blade at her teammate’s neck.

Kael’s mouth tightened. "Shut up and tell me what you people are doing here."

He had never seen these four in any version of the story he remembered. Their faces were hidden, their clothing unmarked, yet something about the hair colors tugged at the edges of memory—colors that should not exist in this time, on these people. The thought was impossible. He pushed it down and kept the kunai firm.

The woman beneath him moved.

Her eyes, visible through the mask’s narrow slits, shifted. The tomoe of a Sharingan spun into existence. The genjutsu hit like a wave of thick water. Kael’s vision tilted. The trees around him stretched and swayed. His grip loosened for half a second—just long enough. She twisted, drove an elbow into his ribs where the earlier Chidori had already bruised deep, and rolled free.

Kael staggered back against the trunk of the nearest tree, one hand braced on the bark, head rolling as if he had drunk too much sake. The four figures closed ranks, watching him carefully.

The blue-haired girl with the pink streaks spoke first, voice low and frustrated. "Why didn’t you use it before?"

The black-haired woman—the one who had just broken free—answered without taking her eyes off Kael. "I didn’t know he was this strong. Not when he’s still so young."

The dark-blue-haired one took a step closer, concern slipping into her tone. "Are you okay, Pa—"

"Hey, idiot." The black-haired girl’s voice cut across her like a blade. "What were you about to say?"

They stood close now, clustered in a tight half-circle, bickering in sharp, familiar tones that somehow made the impossible idea in Kael’s mind grow louder. He let his eyes stay half-lidded. Let his breathing stay uneven. Let them believe the genjutsu still held.

Then he straightened.

The drunken sway vanished. His stance settled clean and balanced. Blood still marked the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were sharp again.

"Okay," he said. "Enough with the acting."

All four tensed at once, hands moving toward weapons or seals.

"How?" the black-haired woman demanded. "How did you escape my Sharingan?"

Kael rolled one shoulder, testing the bruise. "My clone already found the rest of my teammates. I don’t need to play weak anymore."

The canopy above them rustled.

Shadow clones dropped from the branches in a silent, coordinated rain—dozens of them, forming a loose ring around the four women before any of them could scatter. The real Kael stepped forward through the circle of identical faces, closed the last distance to the black-haired woman, and caught her wrist before she could form another seal. One sharp tug spun her around. His free hand yanked the mask away from her face.

Dark eyes. Sharp features. The unmistakable lines of an Uchiha mixed with something softer that should not have been possible in this era.

Kael looked at her for a long second. The other three had gone very still. He did not speak the name that rose unbidden in his mind but muttered inside his mind Sarada Uchiha. He did not look at the blue hair with pink streaks and say the other name that belonged decades in the future. He did not acknowledge the purple hair or the dark blue in any way that would reveal recognition.

He simply held the unmasked woman’s gaze and kept his voice even.

"Start talking," he said. "Who sent you. Why the hypnosis. And what are you doing here."

The forest held its breath. The circle of shadow clones waited without moving. Somewhere deeper among the trees, the real answers were still hiding—but for the first time since the scream, Kael was no longer the one being hunted.

He waited, blade still in hand, and let the silence demand the truth.

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Give me power!!! Plz 😣