Naruto: Naruto's Uchiha girlfriend is too arrogant

Chapter 403 "Protection"

"Shisui! Get to the point! Just explain the truth about Itachi!"

Naruto's voice came through the mask, unusually urgent. Shisui's words were too detailed and too clear—he brought Satsuki here tonight to unravel the fog in her heart, not to add another layer of guilt to her burden.

Dark details from her memory surged up, and Mikoto immediately stepped forward and gently pulled Satsuki, whose lips had lost all color, into her arms.

"It's alright... that was a long time ago... it's all in the past."

She stroked her daughter's trembling back, her voice as gentle as if she were soothing her to sleep as a child, "Their plan never succeeded. Naruto will always, always be by Satsuki's side."

She gently pressed Zuoyue's face against her shoulder, her fingertips stroking Zuoyue's slightly cool black hair. "Back then, you knew nothing... It was definitely not your fault."

Satsuki's pupils continued to tremble subtly, reflecting no light. "They...want to use me...to take Naruto's life..."

She knew the consequences of the Tailed Beast being extracted—the Jinchuriki would undoubtedly die. That assumption was like a cold blade, slowly slicing through her breath.

"Mom...I don't want to leave him...What should I do...?"

Her voice grew softer and softer, but the light in her eyes dimmed little by little, like stars swallowed by the tide. The overwhelming impact had trapped her in a cycle of obsession; if she loosened her grip even slightly, everything real before her would shatter.

"If you dare to leave that person's side—"

A deep, menacing voice suddenly broke the crumbling silence. "That person will chase you to the ends of the earth and bring you back."

His voice was calm, yet carried an unwavering, terrifying resolve. "Even if it means keeping you locked up forever—I won't let go."

The leader's obsessive declaration was something Shisui shouldn't have tried to decipher, but something invisible was pressing down on the air, making it hard for Shisui to breathe for some reason.

Zuo Yue's reaction was unexpected. She slowly raised her face and looked at Menma. In those unfocused eyes, a faint but stubborn light began to shine.

"...Really? Is it true?"

Her voice was soft and trembling, as if she were confirming whether her lifeline was real.

"Yes." Menma answered without hesitation, "After everything is explained—you're not allowed to go anywhere. Understand?"

After those words, a heavy silence finally fell over the room. Satsuki instinctively wanted to reach out and hold Naruto's hand, hoping to draw some reassuring warmth from his body temperature—but as Naruto, she couldn't.

So, after loosening her embrace, Mikoto still gently held her daughter's cold fingers, silently offering support.

Shisui swallowed hard, forcefully suppressing those unnecessary thoughts. The leader had said to get to the point. The reality he described might be too stark... Don't overthink it, just focus on doing what needs to be done.

Stop trying to guess what the leader is thinking.

He took a deep breath and spoke again.

"Well then... I'll continue."

"At that time, there was a high-ranking official in Konoha—his name was Shimura Danzo."

"He harbored deep resentment and malice towards the Uchiha clan, and even secretly plotted to find an excuse to completely eliminate them. At that time, I... was completely unprepared for the Konoha leadership."

He seemed to be mocking his past naiveté. "I revealed the eye technique of my Mangekyou Sharingan—'Kotoamatsukami.' Its ability is to completely alter a person's will without them even realizing it."

At this point, Shisui turned his gaze to Fugaku and bowed slightly. "I had planned to use this technique on you, the clan head, and several other elders, at the clan meeting. I apologize."

"But please rest assured—I have never actually implemented this plan."

Fugaku's eyelids twitched violently. So, back then... he was almost completely brainwashed without even realizing it? And there was even the ability to "completely alter one's will"...

Mikoto unconsciously clenched her fingers, feeling a slight chill at her fingertips at this terrifying ability, but Satsuki was only slightly dazed and did not seem too surprised.

"And the reason the plan failed... was that Danzo attacked me." Shisui's tone couldn't hide the pain that had been suppressed for many years.

"He laid an ambush and attacked me... He stole one of my Mangekyou Sharingan eyes. With only one eye left, I can't complete my plan."

"So... I made the wrong decision. I placed all the responsibility on Yuzu's shoulders. My recklessness and arrogance... indirectly led to the night of the genocide."

His gaze fell on Mianma, filled with gratitude and lingering fear. "Fortunately, the leader intervened. He saved me from jumping off the cliff, otherwise I wouldn't be alive today."

"I originally thought... Yuzu could inherit my will, find a balance between the village and the clan, and make the right choice..."

Before the words were finished, Uchiha Yu, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up.

"I...I made a mistake..."

Her voice trembled with a broken quality. "But I want Satsuki to live... I don't know... if there's any other choice..."

Her words were filled with the pain and loneliness of being misunderstood—the path had been completely rejected, the plan had failed utterly, and at this moment, she could only find a faint sense of resonance in the only person she wanted to protect.

"You want me to live... what exactly do you mean?!"

Satsuki's voice suddenly rose, sharp and on the verge of collapse. "Uchiha Itachi! Protect me? So you could almost kill Naruto! What about Dad and Mom?! What were you trying to do back then?!"

She realized it—the "breath control test" was a lie from beginning to end. But what... is the truth?

"...At that time...Danzo approached me."

Uchiha Yu's voice trembled even more violently, each word seeming to be squeezed out from between her teeth. "He said... he'd make a deal with me..."

"He told me... if things continue like this, the Uchiha coup will happen sooner or later. Then... the Great Power will take advantage of the situation and cause war to break out..."

Yu's breathing became rapid. "But if I were to act... and kill all my clansmen... Konoha would agree... to spare Satsuki. So that Satsuki... could one day revive the Uchiha clan..."

This is the truth of what happened back then.

Menma finally couldn't hold back any longer and interjected in a deep voice, "Not everyone in the Uchiha clan is a hawk. Not to mention those innocent civilians, children, the elderly... even infants."

"But what I want to ask is, you clearly knew that Danzo was the culprit who almost caused Shisui to commit suicide. It's one thing that you didn't avenge him back then... but why did you choose to cooperate with that guy instead?"

"I...I don't know..."

Yu's voice was so faint it seemed to be fading away.

"At that time... I only wanted to fulfill Shisui's last wish... He said that Satsuki had to live... the rebellion couldn't happen... other countries couldn't take advantage of the situation... so I..."

She spoke haltingly, her logic so chaotic it was suffocating. Menma remained silent for a moment—perhaps some people's thought processes really don't need to be tried to understand.

"Protect me...then...why did you do that?!"

Satsuki's voice trembled, tears welling in her eyes. "You almost killed Naruto! You stabbed him... with your own eyes!"

She finally asked the question that had been burning in her heart for ten years.

Why did you do that?!

"Menma... he broke his promise..."

Yuzu kept her head down. "He saved the rest of the Uchiha clan...only eliminating the hawks...I don't know what methods he used..."

"I clearly... killed my father and mother... but Menma saved them..."

"I need to awaken your Sharingan... but if Mom and Dad aren't dead... I can't afford to gamble that..."

"Ugh..."

Zuo Yue suddenly bent over and covered her mouth, her stomach churning and spasming, acid burning her throat—but she couldn't vomit anything. She couldn't vomit because it wasn't food, but the truth that had rotted in her heart for ten years.

That cold hand wasn't gripping her stomach, but her heart, crushing the last remaining warm memory she had of her "sister," turning it into bloody slag.

Protect?

For her own good?

So Itachi could cut open his mother's chest, so Itachi's sword could pierce Naruto's heart, bringing his beloved to the brink of death—and the reason was her? Herself?

"Ha...haa..." Satsuki arched her back, her shoulders heaving violently, a chill emanating from her very bones. She suddenly began to tremble, as if all the bones in her body were colliding with each other, screaming, wanting to escape this body that had been "protected" and defiled.

Unforgivable.

How could I possibly forgive?!

"Uchiha Itachi!!!"

The moment Zuo Yue straightened up, two balls of blood-red fire burst from her eye sockets—her Sharingan transformed amidst a wail, the three tomoe being swallowed and reassembled by the darkness surging from the depths, turning into a pair of wildly spinning kaleidoscope totems.

The nightmares and traumas accumulated over many years were transformed into burning hatred.

"BOOM—!!!"

Yin Release chakra surged forth, forcefully pushing the air apart from Satsuki, forming a visible purple shockwave. The stone slabs on the ground cracked inch by inch, the cracks spreading wildly to the base of the walls.

The entire stone chamber groaned under the strain, and dust poured down from the ceiling like a waterfall, threatening to burst from the inside by the rampaging force.

"Satsuki! Stop!" Mikoto's exclamation was drowned out by the roar of chakra.

The purple torrent had spiraled out of control, tangling and solidifying, with bones piercing through the void, and a massive purple skeleton rising from the ground.

The skull slowly raised its head, and two blood-red flames, exactly the same as those in Zuo Yue's eyes, ignited in the empty eye sockets.

The energy was still growing wildly. Purple chakra climbed and intertwined along the bones, flesh and blood were growing, and armor was being forged.

Satsuki looked at Yuzu.

Looking at the person who had closed their eyes and trembled in the darkness, the one she had called "sister" countless times, Susanoo followed her gaze and slowly raised its massive bone hand, aiming it at Yuzu.

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