Chapter 99: Strangers

The dunes stretched endlessly under the late afternoon sun, heat shimmering above the sand in wavering lines. Temari and Kankurō led the way as guides, the former keeping a measured pace while the latter scanned the horizon with narrowed eyes. The Leaf team followed in loose formation—Shikamaru and Choji a short distance back, Ino and Sakura side by side, Sasuke walking alone near the rear. Kael kept to the middle, senses stretched thin. The system’s new reward sat quiet in the back of his mind, but the desert itself felt wrong. Too quiet. Too still.

They traveled through the evening without incident until the sand began to give way to unexpected green. Sparse scrub thickened into low bushes, then into actual trees—tall, dense, their canopies interlocking overhead until the sunlight fractured into scattered beams. Kael slowed, frowning.

A forest. In the middle of the desert.

No one else seemed to question it. Temari only adjusted their heading and kept moving. Kankurō muttered something about old oases and strange chakra residues. The others accepted the change of terrain without comment. Kael filed the anomaly away and said nothing. Whatever waited ahead, drawing attention to it now would change nothing.

They climbed into the branches once the undergrowth grew too thick for easy ground travel. Movement through the canopy was faster, quieter. At a fork in the upper paths the group split by unspoken agreement into two units of four. Kael took the lead of one: Sakura and Sasuke behind him, Temari bringing up the rear. The other group—Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, and Kankurō—angled off to the left and vanished among the leaves.

For a while the only sounds were the creak of branches underfoot and the distant whisper of wind through leaves that should not have existed here. Temari closed the distance until she walked the same limb as Kael.

"About last night," she began, voice low enough that the others would not hear.

Kael did not look at her. "I understand you have feelings for Shikamaru. Last night made me realize I don’t want to interfere in your affairs. What happened stays between us. Use what you learned or don’t. That’s your choice."

Temari opened her mouth, then closed it again. Whatever she had planned to say died under the flat finality of his tone. She fell back a step, expression unreadable.

The scream cut through the canopy like a blade.

A girl’s voice—high, sharp, terrified—echoed from somewhere far to the left. Kael’s head snapped toward the sound.

"Ino."

The others froze for half a heartbeat. Then Sakura’s presence simply... vanished. One moment she stood on the branch behind Sasuke; the next the space was empty. No sound of falling. No rustle of leaves. Just absence.

Kael and Sasuke locked eyes. No words were needed. They launched forward in the direction of the scream, leaping from branch to branch at full speed. Temari followed a fraction behind. The forest blurred past. The scream did not repeat. The canopy grew denser, the light dimmer. They ran until the direction of the original cry lost all meaning, until every tree looked the same and the air itself felt thicker.

Kael glanced back.

Temari was gone.

He skidded to a halt on a wide limb, heart slamming. "Wait—where is she?"

Sasuke turned, equally startled. Before either of them could speak, something dark and fast snared Sasuke’s ankle from below. The force yanked him backward off the branch with brutal speed. Kael lunged, fingers brushing Sasuke’s wrist for a fraction of a second before the other boy was ripped away into the shadows beneath the canopy.

"Sasuke!"

Kael dropped without hesitation, crashing through lower branches and hitting the forest floor in a controlled roll. The ground was soft with old leaves and strange moss. He spun in a full circle. Nothing. No Sasuke. No Temari. No Sakura. Only towering trunks packed so tightly that the remaining sunlight barely reached the earth. The air hung heavy and still.

A powerful impact struck him squarely between the shoulder blades.

The force launched him forward. He hit the ground hard, skidded, and rolled back to his feet just in time to see a hand crackling with blue-white electricity drive toward his chest. The jutsu connected. Lightning seared across his ribs and hurled him backward into the trunk of a massive tree. Bark exploded. Pain flared white-hot through his torso.

Kael pushed himself upright, coughing once. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and stared at the figure who had just used Chidori.

Only one person in this forest should know that technique.

But the Sasuke of this timeline would never attack him like that.

Two voices drifted from the shadows between the trees—female, low, edged with frustration.

"Why isn’t your skill working on him?"

"I don’t know. It should have taken hold the moment we touched him." ℯℯ𝘭.

"Then we take him down the hard way. We can’t leave him conscious."

Four figures stepped into the fractured light. All female. All faces covered by dark cloth or porcelain masks that left only their eyes visible. Their clothing was practical, dark, unmarked by any village symbol Kael recognized. One of them still held residual sparks of lightning along her fingers—the same woman who had just driven the Chidori into his chest.

Kael’s stance settled lower. The Unbreakable Mind reward sat quiet and solid behind his thoughts. Whatever hypnosis they had tried, it had failed. That bought him time. Time and the need for information.

"Who are you?" he asked, voice steady despite the ache in his ribs.

One of the masked women tilted her head. "He’s still conscious. Strike him."

The lightning user moved first.

She closed the distance in a blur, Chidori reforming around her hand with a sharp, rising scream of electricity. Kael did not meet the jutsu head-on. At the last instant he sidestepped, caught her extended wrist with both hands, and used her own momentum to pivot. He dropped his weight, twisted, and flung her over his hip. She hit the ground hard on her back. Before she could roll away he was on her, one knee pinning her sword arm, the opposite elbow locked across her throat. A short blade—pulled from his pouch in the same motion—pressed cold against the side of her neck hard enough to draw a thin line of blood.

The other three froze.

Kael’s breathing stayed controlled. Blood from the earlier impact still ran down his chin, but his eyes were clear and cold.

"Talk," he said, voice low enough that only they could hear. "Who are you. Where did you take my team. Answer, or she dies first."

The woman beneath him struggled once. The blade pressed harder. She went still. The remaining three shifted their weight, hands moving toward weapons or seals, but none of them advanced. The forest around them remained unnaturally silent, as if the trees themselves were waiting for the next move.

Kael kept the blade steady and waited.

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Give me power!!! ☺️