Chapter 412: Pathological
It was over.
This storm sparked by Jiraiya's romantic debt from decades ago had finally settled.
Shizuka and her attendant didn't linger. Before departing, Shizuka stopped at Konoha's main gate, turning to look at Naruto who'd come to see them off.
She fell silent for a moment. Those eyes that had once been filled with deathly stillness and self-destructive impulses, though still marked with exhausted red traces, now showed a different glimmer in their depths.
"Thank you."
She said softly. No excessive words, no polite pleasantries. She simply looked at him deeply. Naruto could sense—that aura of self-punishment that had shadowed her for so long, that deathly qi, had finally dissipated.
Replacing it was a kind of slowly awakening, bewildered yet faint exploration of "the future" itself.
The Nadeshiko kunoichi even bowed deeply to Naruto at ninety degrees. "This debt of gratitude, Nadeshiko Village will not forget." Then she straightened, turning with Shizuka to merge into the flow of people leaving the village, never looking back.
"Phew... finally over!"
In the Hokage's office, Jiraiya let out a long breath, vigorously patting Naruto's back, face full of pride and satisfaction.
"Well done, Naruto! Worthy of being this sage's disciple! That duel was resolved beautifully, hahaha!"
"You have no right to say such things!"
Kushina at the side immediately bristled, eyes glaring at Jiraiya still shooting sparks. "This trouble was caused by you from beginning to end! And you dare take credit here?!"
"Uh..." Jiraiya's momentum immediately deflated by half, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "I didn't think back then... that my later disciples would be this amazing, making the wives delivered to their doorsteps superfluous..."
He sighed, tone carrying genuine emotion.
His two disciples, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Naruto—every single one had girls circling around them since childhood. Growing up, the girls who liked them were eager to "be taken home as wives"...
Why though?
He was clearly the master, right? Handsome and dashing (self-proclaimed), powerful, with works filling shelves (the Icha Icha Paradise series). Why hadn't he managed to win Tsunade's heart yet?
Life was truly unfair.
"That... Jiraiya-sensei," Naruto spoke up at an opportune moment, interrupting his master's increasingly distant resentment. "Since everything's finished, can I leave first?"
As he spoke, he could feel Satsuki's gaze beside him locked tightly on him—from the match's end until now, she'd stayed glued to his side, fingers hooked on his coat hem. She wanted to go home.
"Oh, of course." Jiraiya snapped back to attention, pulling a thick envelope from the drawer and pushing it before Naruto.
"By the way, for this matter, that commerce association sent over the ticket sales commission... Though the process was a bit annoying, the result was fairly satisfactory. I'm recording this as an A-rank mission for you."
He tapped the bulging envelope with his finger, corners of his mouth pulling into a mischievous grin. "However... this commission amount far exceeds S-rank mission pay. Kid, you made quite a killing this time."
Naruto accepted the envelope, feeling its heavy weight. He wasn't particularly excited about it, only nodding calmly.
---
Returning home, Naruto felt somewhat apprehensive—he'd said so much to Shizuka on the arena. Would Satsuki be jealous?
After all, those words involved "loss," "death," and sympathy for another woman's pain... Any one of those words might touch Satsuki's sensitive nerves.
But he quickly discovered Satsuki didn't seem to be thinking about any of that at all.
She simply changed shoes silently, walked into the living room, then sat on the sofa and beckoned to him—her eyes holding something heavy, waiting for confirmation.
Naruto sat down as indicated, secretly hoping this storm could truly pass. They'd finally confirmed their relationship, yet one thing after another kept cropping up without even time to breathe.
"Naruto..."
Satsuki's voice sounded. "That sentence on the arena just now... were you serious?"
"That sentence? It was..."
"Would you die with me?"
She asked directly, without any circumlocution. Naruto immediately understood what she meant—that statement blurted to Shizuka: "I'll die with her."
"I was serious."
His answer held no hesitation.
"However—that's only if... I can't pull you back to this world."
Satsuki froze, fingers twisting tightly at her coat hem. "...That... how... could you change methods..." Her voice lowered, as if testing, yet pleading. "Even if I died or something... you just remembering me would be enough..."
"No."
Naruto's refusal was firm. "'Die with you'... doesn't mean that at all."
"Eh?" Satsuki raised her eyes, confusion flashing through her pupils. "Then what does it mean?"
"It means—'No matter where you go, I'll find you.'"
Possessiveness was somewhat terrifying. If it were someone else facing such heavy, nearly obsessive feelings, they might fear, might retreat.
Starting from Naruto's birthday night, Satsuki had personally opened the floodgate suppressing emotions in his heart. Since then, he no longer concealed it.
"It's a bit extreme, right..." Naruto smiled, gaze softening. "But I think... Satsuki might like it?"
He was right.
Satsuki's cheeks flushed crimson at a visible rate, the blush spreading all the way to her ear tips. Her eyes shone startlingly bright, churning with dizzy happiness and a kind of completely understood, overflowing satisfaction.
"Ah... this..." She somewhat flustered averted her gaze.
"It's fine, it's all hypothetical anyway." Naruto's tone was relaxed, continuing to guide. "Let's hypothesize again—just hypothetically."
He looked at her, eyes carrying mischievous seriousness. "If it were me... who died before Satsuki, what would you do?"
Satsuki was silent for several seconds. "...I would keep searching until I found a way to pull you back to this world."
"Is that all?" Naruto keenly detected her hesitation.
Satsuki lowered her eyelids, voice even softer. "...I'd probably... turn Naruto's body into a puppet... to prevent decay."
"Then I'd probably use forbidden techniques... to seal Naruto's soul at my side."
When she said this, she felt uncomfortable—too extreme, too pathological, too unlike thoughts a "normal person" would have.
But Naruto only listened quietly, face showing not a trace of surprise or rejection.
"Sounds good. That way I could continue protecting you."
Using the calmest tone to say absolutely abnormal, extreme, pathological content. And facing this extremity and pathology—he chose complete acceptance, even... felt satisfied.
Satsuki stared at him blankly. Something in her chest was violently swelling, ready to burst through her throat.
"Satsuki asked me just now if I was serious..."
Naruto reached out, gently ruffling her hair. "With you... I've never had a 'not serious' option."
"Not before, not now—even on the day we reach 'death'... there won't be."
"...Mm."
Satsuki suddenly responded with a low sound, then—she threw herself into his embrace.
Arms tightly circling his waist, face buried deep in his neck. Naruto said nothing more, simply embracing her in return, palm gently stroking her thin spine.
But not long after, Satsuki suddenly raised her head.
Her eye sockets were still red, yet the depths held no tears. Replacing them was an eerie, scorching radiance.
Those pitch-black pupils had unknowingly transformed into crimson—the Mangekyo Sharingan's intricate patterns slowly rotating within, emanating dangerous yet beautiful ocular power fluctuations.
She gazed deeply at Naruto, her look so devoted it seemed she wanted to carve every inch of his contours into her eyes.
Then—
Rumble.
An extremely light energy hum sounded.
The ocular technique activated.
Naruto's expression changed dramatically—this wasn't a technique aimed at him. Black flames, soundlessly, began burning from Satsuki's own body.
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