"...Tell me... what if we are giving Hikaru-kun entirely too much credit?"
Neji's Byakugan narrowed instantly, his body tensing slightly at the Sannin's mocking tone. "What are you implying?"
Orochimaru let out a low, breathless chuckle, his gaze shifting slowly across the flames. He locked eyes first with Ino, then slid his piercing stare over to Neji, before finally letting it rest heavily on Sasuke's stoic face.
"What if Hikaru doesn't even know that your younger selves exist in this timeline?"
Orochimaru asked softly, letting the question hang in the freezing night air.
The silence that followed was suffocating. Ino blinked, her teasing expression completely vanishing as the sheer weight of that statement hit her.
"Think about it..." Orochimaru continued, his long tongue briefly catching the edge of his lip. "What if all of this—the confrontation in the snow, the minor ripples, the chaos—was simply bound to happen?What if these aren't deliberately calculated traps designed to lure us out, but rather the natural, chaotic friction of a timeline trying to correct itself? "
"You are running yourselves ragged, treating every shadow like a shinobi who is there to hunt you all, when Hikaru might completely be blind to the pieces we are trying so desperately to hide."
"That's completely absurd!!" Neji countered sharply, his voice rigid with absolute
dismissal.
"Hikaru is a master strategist. To suggest he is acting completely blind to the anomalies in this era goes against everything we've observed about his intellect. We cannot afford to assume he is ignorant."
"Yeah, give me a break, snake bastard!!" Kawaki spat, his grip tightening on his knees as he glared across the fire.
"He's the one who ripped the timeline open. He's the one who started this war. Are you seriously trying to sit there and paint that monster as some kind of innocent person who doesn't know what he's doing?"
Orochimaru's smile didn't falter. He simply tilted his head, his purple earrings swaying gently against his pale neck.
"Oh, I am not saying Hikaru-kun is truly innocent, Kawaki-kun" Orochimaru hissed softly, his eyes dancing with a sinister amusement.
"Make no mistake... he is the sole cause that your younger selves, along with all of you, exist within a single timeline. He started the fire, yes... but starting a fire does not mean you can control exactly where the smoke will go."
"He created the chaos, yes... but he may not be the all-knowing god you are making him out to be."
"He's right."
The words were quiet, but they carried the weight of an iron anchor dropped into a still pond.
Every head turned toward the deepest shadow of the clearing. Sasuke hadn't moved an inch, his dark cloak still wrapped tightly around his frame, his single visible eye staring fixedly into the dying embers of the fire. The crimson blush from earlier was completely gone, replaced by a grim, hard reality.
"Sasuke-kun?" Ino whispered, her voice laced with sudden unease.
Sasuke slowly closed his eye, taking a steady, measured breath. "Orochimaru's right. We're looking at this from our own perspective because we know exactly who is hidden in this timeline. But to Hikaru... the past is just a resource to manipulate. He tore open the fabric of time to achieve his own ends, but that doesn't mean he has a map of every single disaster he caused."
He opened his eye, looking directly at Minato and Neji, his tone flat and unyielding.
"If we treat every single event like a deliberate trap, we play entirely into fear. We become paralyzed, second-guessing every move because we think he's ten steps ahead.
Sometimes, chaos is just chaos. And if Hikaru is truly blind to our younger selves...then our own fear is the only thing that's going to give them away."
The silence that followed Sasuke's initial declaration was thick, suffocating, and laced with a sudden, sharp hostility.
Neji's jaw tightened, his fingers digging into the fabric of his kimono as his Byakugan flared, the veins around his temples bulging with sudden, intense pressure.
He didn't look at Orochimaru; his fierce, unblinking glare was locked entirely on the Uchiha.
"You're being incredibly reckless, Sasuke." Neji said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, low register that completely cut through the wind.
"Blind? You think Hikaru is operating in the dark? Look at the hard evidence. He didn't just rip time open randomly—he came to this specific era because our younger selves are out there right now. Whether it's a young Izuna, or even our own childhood selves running around these borders..."
"...he deployed units to systematically hunt down and eliminate us before we could ever grow up to oppose him..."
"...that isn't chaotic friction. That is a targeted, cold-blooded attack on the living."
"He's right." Kawaki growled, standing up fully from the grass, his shadow stretching long across the firelight. His chest rose and fell with heavy, irritated breaths as his Karma mark seemed to throb in the darkness.
"You're lying to yourself if you think that bastard doesn't know exactly whose throats he's trying to cut open. He's trying to erase our entire existence from the root by hunting down the kids we used to be. To sit there and call it 'just chaos' is giving him the perfect opening to slaughter those kids!"
Sasuke didn't look up, but his single visible eye darkened, his chakra suddenly flaring in a cold, oppressive wave that caused the campfire flames to flicker violently.
"You're still thinking far too small." Sasuke said, his voice flat, icy, and entirely devoid of emotion. He finally raised his head, his gaze cutting through Kawaki and Neji like a physical blade.
"Hikaru didn't enter this timeline just to hunt down a bunch of kids who are already walking around. He didn't come here to find a young Izuna or a childhood version of me."
The firelight danced dangerously across Sasuke's pale features as he delivered the real, chilling prediction.
"He is heading straight for the Uchiha compound. He came to this specific era for one ultimate reason—he is going to eliminate the child currently growing inside Mikoto's womb."
The revelation dropped like a catastrophic weight into the center of the clearing.
Ino gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as her entire body went rigid.
Minato's analytical expression completely shattered, his blue eyes widening in absolute horror as the sheer, terrifying scale of that looming possibility ringed in his mind.
"W-What...?" Ino stammered, her voice shaking as she looked at Sasuke. "Inside... Mikoto? Sasuke-kun, that's... that's you. He is going to kill you before you are even born?"
"Exactly." Orochimaru's voice slithered back into the fray, his chest vibrating with a dark, twisted amusement as he backed Sasuke up.
"The ultimate substraction. If Sasuke-kun never takes his first breath, the entire future rebellion disappears before it can even start. That is Hikaru's main target. The other strange events—the enemy squads on the borders, the fights in the snow—are just the messy side effects of a powerful monster moving through a fragile era."
"That makes absolutely no sense!" Ino suddenly yelled, her fear turning into fierce, defensive frustration as she stepped forward.
"How could Hikaru possibly know the exact timeline of her pregnancy? How could he know that Mikoto is pregnant with Sasuke-kun right now in this exact month, in this exact year? It's completely impossible information for an outsider to pinpoint so flawlessly!"
"She's right," Minato interjected, his voice uncharacteristically sharp as he stood up, his Hokage instincts taking over.
"Even within the village back then, that information would have been highly guarded and private until the later stages. For an enemy from a completely different era to execute a targeted strike on an unborn child requires a level of precise, inside intelligence that defies logic. It implies he isn't blind at all, Sasuke. It implies he sees everything."
"I don't give a damn about his reasons anymore." Kawaki snarled.
In a fraction of a second, the ground beneath Kawaki's feet exploded into dirt and flying grass. He didn't use a jutsu; he used pure, raw physical speed, transforming his right arm into a jagged, hardened blade of modified shinobi ware as he launched himself directly across the fire.
"You're letting your own past blind you, Uchiha!" Kawaki roared, bringing his transformed blade down in a brutal, crushing arc meant to split the earth.
CRASH!
Sasuke didn't even draw his sword. Moving with the fluid, grace of a skilled shinobi, he slipped inside Kawaki's guard.
His left hand shot out like a lightning strike, his palm catching Kawaki's throat with enough force to stop his movements entirely, while his right foot swept cleanly behind Kawaki's heel.
With a harsh grunt, Kawaki shifted his weight mid-air, his karma-enhanced strength flaring as he broke Sasuke's grip on his throat.
He spun sharply, driving a vicious, heavy elbow toward Sasuke's jaw. Sasuke blocked it with his forearm, the sheer force of the impact creating a shockwave that blew the campfire embers high into the dark night sky.
They bounced off one another, landing heavily in the dirt, their eyes locked in an absolute, furious stalemate.
"Step down, Kawaki." Sasuke warned, his voice a low, terrifying growl as his Sharingan spun into life, bleeding red in the darkness.
"Go on... Try it!" Kawaki spat back, his body tense, ready to tear the forest apart.
They didn't hesitate. In the next second, both of them charged forward again, their furious glares locking in the dark.
Kawaki threw a heavy, karma-powered punch, while Sasuke met him head-on, his forearm blocking the strike with a brutal force that echoed through the trees.
They clashed over, a blur of raw speed and anger, but before they could even blow their attack on each other, a bright yellow flash sliced through the blinding smoke.
Without making a single sound, Minato appeared right between them. He moved so fast that no one could even see him move.
With a sudden grip, his left hand grabbed Kawaki's transformed arm, completely stopping his weapon, while his right hand pressed firmly against Sasuke's chest, holding him back with unbelievable strength.
"That is enough!" Minato snapped.
The sheer force in his voice was deafening. The warm, sheepish father figure they had been teasing moments ago had completely vanished.
Minato's blue eyes were wide, fierce, and entirely consumed by a cold, commanding fury.
A terrifying pressure rolled off him, heavy enough to make the surrounding trees groan against the sudden weight of his chakra. He had completely lost his temper.
"I do not care what era we are in, what timeline you came from, or how tense we all are.."
Minato said, his voice dangerously low as he looked back and forth between Sasuke and Kawaki.
"You are teammates on a mission. The moment you turn your weapons on each other is the moment we fail. I will not tolerate infighting in my squad. Am I clear?!"
Kawaki gritted his teeth, his jaw tight as he slowly dissolved the jagged blade on his arm, stepping backward with a angry look.
He stared into the dying embers, his chest tightening with a cold, frustrated certainty.
'Sasuke is too attached to the past. He is only looking at Hikaru through the lens of who he used to be back then, completely failing to realize how much that monster has evolved. If he keeps hesitating because of his dead clan, I'll bypass him entirely and eliminate Hikaru myself.'
Sasuke closed his Sharingan, the crimson glow fading back into black as he lowered his arms, turning his face away to stare into the dark woods. Beneath his stoic expression, his chest ached with a heavy, quiet desperation.
'Let them think what they want. They don't understand the bond I once shared with Hikaru, or how badly I need to end this with the least amount of pain possible. I have to stop him cleanly before he reaches the compound. I already watched my mother die once in my own lifetime... I won't let her die a second time in this one.'
From the edge of the clearing, a soft, dry chuckle broke the heavy silence. Orochimaru leaned back against his tree trunk, his golden eyes gleaming with pure, unadulterated amusement as he watched the tension boil over.
'An unborn child holding the key to the future resistance... what a deliciously twisted fate. I cannot wait to see if Sasuke vanishes into mist or becomes something entirely new.'
Beside the fire, Neji hadn't moved an inch, but his entire body was rigid with stress. His Byakugan remained fully activated, veins bulging at his temples as his mind raced at a frantic pace, calculating the terrifying math behind Sasuke's future prediction.
'If Hikaru kills even one of us in this era, the entire timeline collapses. Whether it's an unborn Sasuke or anyone else here, the disaster will be exactly what Bolt warned us about after the Partial Tsukuyomi Incident back home, when he told us what happened to his own timeline...'
'We aren't just protecting individuals anymore; if a single life from our past is wiped out, our entire existence shatters.'
"We are chasing ghosts in these woods.." Neji spoke up, his voice tight and strained as he finally broke the heavy silence.
"If we want real answers—if we want to know how Hikaru is getting his intelligence and whether the Uchiha compound is truly his target—there is only one place where all those threads connect."
"KONOHA...." Ino whispered, her voice quiet but firm as she stepped closer to the fading fire, her hands trembling slightly as a protective dread washed over her.
Minato let out a long, heavy breath, his suffocating chakra slowly receding into his body as he composed himself, though his mind remained hyper-vigilant.
'If Hikaru knows so much about us, it means someone inside the village is secretly helping him. I have to protect my home, and I have to stop my team from fighting each other.'
He looked at each of them, the anger in his eyes settling into a grim, unyielding resolve.
"We rest for the remaining hours of the night. Tomorrow morning, at first light, we move out..."
"We are going to Konoha—"
---
Here's a longer, funnier, spoiler-filled Author's Note version that keeps your style intact:
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📢 A MESSAGE TO THE READERS!! 📢
╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗
✦ AUTHOR'S NOTE. ✦
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
Greetings, my beloved readers! ❤️✨
Well...THAT escalated quickly. 😭😂
One minute everyone was sitting peacefully around a campfire discussing theories...
The next minute Kawaki and Sasuke were trying to redecorate Fusagakure using each other's faces. 💀💥
And poor Minato had to activate his full "angry team captain" mode.
I honestly feel bad for him at this point. 😭🙏
Now then...
A very important thing about this chapter:
⚠️ THIS CHAPTER WAS NOT A FIGHT CHAPTER.
It was a THEORY CHAPTER. 🧐♟️
Almost every major character presented a different interpretation of Hikaru's actions.
🟢 Neji believes Hikaru is deliberately hunting their younger selves.
🟢 Kawaki believes Hikaru knows exactly what he is doing and is already ten steps ahead.
🟢 Orochimaru believes everyone is overestimating Hikaru.
🟢 Sasuke believes Hikaru's true target lies elsewhere.
Notice something? 👀
Nobody agrees. Absolutely nobody. 😭
And that is exactly the problem.
Everyone is looking at the same board...
But everyone is seeing a different game. ♟️
Now let's talk about THAT reveal. 😶
"The child currently growing inside Mikoto's womb."
Yeah...
Sasuke basically looked at everyone and said:
"What if the target is me before I am even born?" 😭💀
Whether he is correct or completely wrong...
That single statement changes the entire direction of the story.
And my detectives... 🔎👀
Did you notice something else?
The chapter never actually confirms who is right.
Not Neji. Not Kawaki. Not Orochimaru. Not even Sasuke.
Interesting, isn't it? 😏
Another thing:
Please pay attention to the internal thoughts near the end of the chapter.
Especially:
👀 Sasuke's thoughts.
👀 Kawaki's thoughts.
👀 Neji's thoughts.
👀 Minato's thoughts.
Those paragraphs are MUCH more important than they appear.
Some future conflicts are already hiding there. 🤫
Can we please talk about Sasuke for a second? 😭😭😭
Because what in the world is wrong with this man?
Everyone is sitting there discussing strategies and theories...
And this guy casually drops:
💀 "I need to stop Hikaru before he reaches the compound."
Sounds normal, right?
Then he follows it with:
💀 "I already watched my mother die once in my own lifetime. I won't let her die a second time."
And suddenly everybody is crying. 😭
But what caught my attention even more was this:
Sasuke doesn't just want to stop Hikaru.
He wants to stop him with the least amount of pain possible.
😭😭😭
Do you all realize how insane that is?
The man is literally preparing himself to kill the greatest threat in existence...
Yet he still cannot stop caring about him.
That level of attachment doesn't happen overnight.
That level of attachment doesn't happen between ordinary friends.
So naturally...
I know many of you are now asking:
🧐 "Author... what exactly happened between Hikaru and Sasuke?"
Simple answer.
😌
Just keep following the story.
Their history is much deeper than what you've seen so far.
And trust me...
You have only seen the tip of the iceberg. 🌊
And can we please take a moment to appreciate Minato? 😭
My man watched:
✅ A timeline crisis.
✅ A philosophical debate.
✅ An unborn baby becoming a military objective.
✅ Two teammates attempting murder.
All in the same night.
Someone give him a vacation. 😂🙏
Finally...
The team has reached a conclusion.
No more chasing shadows.
No more guessing.
No more theories.
If the answers exist anywhere... They exist in one place.
🍃 KONOHA 🍃
And trust me...
The moment they step inside the village...
Things are only going to get worse. 😭✨
Until next chapter,
Stay safe. Stay suspicious.
And keep your eyes on the details. 🔎👀
Because some of the biggest clues are already on the page.
Now let's talk about something interesting. 😏
Many of you noticed Neji mentioning a certain name:
👤 Izuna
And some of you probably thought:
"Okay... cool name."
NOPE. 😂
That is not just a random name casually thrown into a conversation.
Izuna is an extremely important character.
A VERY important character.
And your kind author will absolutely be talking about him in the future. 😌
For now, just remember the name.
Store it somewhere in your brain.
You will need it later. 🤫
And then we have this little section:
"If Hikaru kills even one of us in this era, the entire timeline collapses. Whether it's an unborn Sasuke or anyone else here, the disaster will be exactly what Bolt warned us about after the Partial Tsukuyomi Incident back home..."
👀👀👀
Now we have TWO mystery terms.
⚡ Bolt
🌙 Partial Tsukuyomi Incident
Before anyone starts writing conspiracy theories in the comments...
Yes.
Bolt is a person.
And yes.
Partial Tsukuyomi was an actual incident.
What incident?
✨CLASSIFIED✨
Who is Bolt?
✨CLASSIFIED✨
What happened during that timeline collapse?
✨CLASSIFIED✨
Why does Neji sound so terrified when mentioning it?
✨CLASSIFIED ✨
All I can say is that the Partial Tsukuyomi Incident is one of the most important events in the entire story.
In fact...
It is one of the reasons this that this gang from the future cane to the past. 😭
I especially like ending with
"some of the biggest clues are already on the page" because Chapter 26 is one giant foreshadowing chapter disguised as an argument. 😏🔥
And keep your eyes open for the clues I keep shamelessly throwing at you. 😌✨
— Your Author ✍️🌙
⚡NEXT CHAPTER ⚡
A new morning rises over Konohagakure... ☀️🍃
But not every dawn brings peace.
Far from the busy streets of the village, a terrifying discovery is about to shatter the silence of one of Konoha's most powerful clans. 👀
Three bodies... A frightened scream... Locked gates...
And an emergency that can no longer remain hidden. ⚠️
As the village slowly awakens, important figures are suddenly called together for an urgent meeting.
But what exactly happened?Who is responsible?cAnd why does the atmosphere feel so strangely wrong...? 🤫
Meanwhile, elsewhere, the wheels of fate continue to turn. ⚙️
Some questions are about to be asked.
Some answers are about to appear.
And some mysteries will only grow deeper... 🌑
🌀 A peaceful morning...
🌀 An unexpected summons...
🌀 And a chapter filled with questions.
👉Chapter 27:The Bodies In The Garden— An Urgent Summon
The sun may be rising over Konoha... unaware of what awaits it. 👀🍃✨
SNEAK PEEK LINES 💬
"....You saw nothing. You heard nothing. If you tell a single person about this garden, you will be punished severely...."
"....They demand your immediate presence."
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—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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