Chapter 124: Please

Kael slowed his steps just enough for Sakura to fall in beside him as they left the Hokage tower’s shadow. The afternoon sun sat high and clean over the village rooftops. He glanced sideways at her with the same easy half-smile he had used earlier in the doorway.

"Come by my place later," he said, voice low enough that only she would catch the edge underneath. "We can finish what got interrupted this morning."

Sakura’s cheeks colored almost at once. A string of decidedly unprofessional images flickered behind her eyes—doors locked, clothes discarded, the familiar weight of him. She opened her mouth to answer.

Sarada stepped between them so quickly it was almost a body-check.

"Mo—Sakura," she corrected herself, the word tight. "Didn’t you say you had to go to the hospital immediately? Shizune asked for you."

Sakura blinked, the heat in her face cooling under the reminder. "That’s right. Shizune needs the updated supply inventory before evening rounds." She looked at Kael with genuine regret. "Sorry, Naruto. Maybe some other day."

Kael’s gaze slid past Sakura and settled on Sarada for a heartbeat too long. "Okay," he said, drawing the words out with deliberate weight. "Some... other... day."

Each syllable landed like a quiet promise aimed directly at the younger woman. Sakura, already turning toward the hospital road, missed the undercurrent. Sarada did not.

Sakura left with a quick wave. Kael and Sarada continued in the same direction for several blocks, the silence between them thick enough to taste. He did not speak. She did not either. Only when he reached his apartment door and slid it open did Sarada move—stepping in right behind him before he could close it, then shutting the door herself with a sharp click.

She stood in the middle of the small living space, arms crossed, dark eyes bright with anger and something closer to panic.

"What are you doing?"

Kael dropped his keys on the counter and turned, expression mild. "You’re going to have to be more specific."

"What are you doing with... with Sakura?" The name came out strained. She had almost said *Mom*. The correction sat visible on her face.

Kael leaned against the counter. "You told me not to sleep with Sumire because she’s from the future. Fair enough. Sakura is from the present. So what’s the problem?"

Sarada’s jaw tightened. "You can’t do this to her."

"So I can sleep with Sumire then?"

"No. You can’t do that either."

Kael let out a short, dry breath that was almost a laugh. "A man has needs. You’re standing here telling me to stop seeing the people who are already in my life. Why should I listen to you? Why do you get to decide?"

The question hung between them. Sarada’s mouth opened, then closed. From his side the logic was clean and infuriating. She had arrived from a ruined future with knowledge she could not fully share and expectations he had never agreed to meet. She could see, with uncomfortable clarity, how she looked from where he stood: an outsider issuing orders about his bed and his choices.

"I know how this seems," she said finally, voice lower. "I know I can’t just decide your life because I know pieces of a future that isn’t fixed anymore. But please. Stop doing it with them. I’m asking you. I’m *begging* you. Just this once, listen to me."

Kael studied her for a long moment. The stubborn set of her shoulders was pure Sakura. The dark eyes were pure Sasuke. The desperation underneath was something new.

"And what about my needs?" he asked. "You want me to cut off the people who already take care of them. Finding others isn’t as simple as you make it sound."

Sarada’s throat moved. "I can help you find someone else. What do you think of that?"

Kael’s head tilted. The smallest smile touched the corner of his mouth. "You can help me, huh?"

The implication landed exactly where he intended. Color drained from Sarada’s face, then rushed back in a hot wave.

"Not me," she said quickly. "Of course not me."

"Okay." Kael reached for the door handle as if the conversation had ended. "Then I should call Sakura. She only left a few minutes ago. She’ll still be on the hospital road."

"Wait." The word came out sharp, almost frightened. Sarada stepped forward without realizing she had moved. "Please."

Kael kept his hand on the handle. "Then are you willing to take their place?"

Silence filled the apartment. Sarada’s breathing had gone shallow. Every instinct she had—daughter, shinobi, survivor of a dead future—screamed against the corner she had walked herself into. She could still refuse. She could walk out, report nothing, and watch him continue exactly as he had been. Or she could step into the space she had just tried to empty and keep him away from both Sumire and the woman who was her mother in every timeline that mattered.

Her voice, when it finally came, was barely above a whisper.

"Please..."

"Are you willing or not?"

Sarada closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them the fight was still there, but the desperate calculation had already finished.

"...Okay."

The single word settled into the quiet room like a sealed contract. Kael released the door handle. The smile that returned to his face was slower this time, and far more satisfied.

Inside the small apartment, Sarada Uchiha stood with her hands closed into fists at her sides, the weight of what she had just agreed to pressing down on her shoulders, and the man who wore her father’s friend face watched her the way he had once watched her mother—patient, certain, and already deciding how he would collect.

---

Give me power