"The gap in strength... is this vast..."
Shizuka bit her lower lip. In that instant, all the harsh training, the confidence and skill honed through countless life-or-death battles—before this man, they were as fragile as a child's sandcastle. One wave of the tide, and they crumbled without trace.
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. When she reopened them, the depths held only deathly calm.
"So be it." She spoke softly, her voice carrying no resentnt, only resignation's exhaustion. "Please give an end."
She didn't close her eyes, didn't lower her head. She simply looked straight at Naruto—waiting for the conclusion that should fall.
But Naruto only flipped his wrist. "Clang." The kunai was casually tossed to the ground.
"I already said..." Naruto's voice held no victor's arrogance, only helpless seriousness. "I never wanted to fight you—much less kill you."
Shizuka froze. "...Why? Why won't you end it? I lost... The defeated should accept the fate of the defeated."
"—That's not any kind of fate!" Naruto's voice suddenly rose. "That's just a rule your village made up!"
His gaze looked straight into her eyes. "Wagering a marriage contract? You clearly have soone you love in your heart—I have soone I love too! A marriage contract... should only exist between people who love each other!"
"...What?" Shizuka seed pierced by these words, her calm mask shattering abruptly.
She who could calmly accept death suddenly stood up sharply, her voice exploding with long-suppressed fury and pain—"What do you understand about ?! Can only exist between those who love each other?!"
"You—soone whose loved one is right beside them, within reach—don't spout such nonsense here!!"
Her entire body trembled, fingers clenched tight, knuckles white. "No matter how strong you are... can you guarantee—that fate won't take away the person you love?!"
Naruto was silent for a mont. "I can't give a one hundred percent guarantee."
"But I'll stake my life protecting her."
"Everyone says that—!! Stake your life?! Easy for you to say! You denied my fate, said it's just an insignificant rule—!"
She stared at him intently. "But if one day... this world truly takes away the person you love! Will you still have this high and mighty attitude?! Will you still be able to say so lightly 'rules can be broken'?!"
"I won't let that happen."
"Promises can't change reality—! If you really can't save her... if you really..."
"I'll die with her."
A few words, calm, clear, without any hesitation, yet they left Shizuka completely frozen in place.
"...!!!"
For a mont she couldn't make a sound. Several seconds passed before she seed to find her breath again. "...Are you an idiot?"
She stared intently at Naruto's face, trying to find even a trace of insincerity, bravado, or naive inexperience.
But there was none. Only calm, devout seriousness.
Naruto's cheeks ward slightly, but he didn't look away. Instead, eting Shizuka's dazed gaze, he slowly began speaking.
"When I was small... I was always alone."
His voice wasn't loud, carrying a kind of dull warmth sinking into mory. "I had no friends. Everyone in the village... for certain reasons, they all hated . Back then, I couldn't find a single person to talk to."
He paused, the faintest smile appearing in his eyes. "But she appeared just like that—Uchiha Satsuki. She was different from everyone else... Satsuki as a child had such an interesting personality."
"Despite having a soft, kind heart, she always chose the stiffest way of speaking, using particularly clumsy excuses to show concern for others."
His smile deepened slightly, recalling specific scenes. "Back then I thought... she was truly adorable."
Shizuka listened quietly. Her tightly clenched fingers had loosened sowhat without her noticing. Naruto took a deep breath, his gaze becoming solemn again.
"Sorry. I said a bit much, even though I'm not good at talking about these things... Also..."
"You're right... I probably truly don't understand what it feels like to lose the most important person."
"But you call this 'fate'—"
His voice lowered. "I've seen what true 'fate' looks like. Soone, because of so-called 'fate,' decided to personally kill their parents, massacre their entire clan, and arbitrarily decide their sister's life and path."
"Soone, because of 'fate,' locked themselves in darkness for ten years, not even daring to open their eyes."
"She thought... that was the only way. But that wasn't 'fate'—that was the despair she forced onto others."
Shizuka froze. Naruto continued, voice clear and firm. "Your village told you—after losing your beloved, you can only live for the village, marry soone you can defeat, soone powerful yet emotionless whom you don't know."
"But this isn't a rule. This is a cage."
He turned around, raising his arm to point at the audience seats—Satsuki was staring intently at the arena, fingers unconsciously gripping the railing, black eyes unblinking, as if ready to rush down at any mont.
"The real rule should be—"
"Unless you're a fool like , if you truly love soone, even if they're gone, you'll stake everything—to make this world they lived in better."
"Not turn yourself into a sacrifice, offered to a 'victor' you don't even know."
Shizuka's breathing trembled slightly.
"I don't know the person you loved..." Naruto's tone gentled. "But I think, if he truly loved you—he would never want you to spend the rest of your life living as an empty shell."
"Much less want you to treat yourself as a 'war trophy' and give yourself to soone else."
Naruto's voice slowly seeped into her frozen heart. "He would want you... to see the sky he saw, eat the food he liked."
"Along with his share—"
"Live well."
Naruto looked at her and finally said. "If you truly want to fulfill your 'fate'—"
"Then beco Nadeshiko Village's first leader who... doesn't need to rely on 'marrying a man of equal strength' to make the village prosper."
"Break that absurd rule. Let future girls... not have to experience your pain. That is the true fate he left you."
"!!!"
Shizuka's eyes flew wide open.
Tears surged out, streaming down her pale cheeks. She raised her hand to cover her mouth, shoulders shaking beyond her control.
She suddenly crouched down, curling up, burying her face in her knees. No sound erged, yet that trembling spine was more deafening than any crying.
Naruto didn't step forward. He simply stood quietly in place, leaving this shattered space to her.
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