"Huh?! You... you, what are you talking nonsense?! Idiot! I don't... I don't have that kind of ignorant idea!"
Sure enough, just as Kakashi expected, Satsuki instantly broke through the defense. She jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on, her cheeks quickly turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, and wisps of white smoke even began to exaggerate from the top of her head.
Her eyes were looking around in panic, but she didn't dare to look at Kakashi, and her voice seemed a little incoherent.
"Hey..." Kakashi complained in his unique lazy tone, "If you want to refute others, you should at least show a slightly more convincing expression, right? The way you look now will only make everyone feel that you have a guilty conscience."
"Really... really!"
Satsuki stamped his feet angrily and tried to turn the finger on Kakashi, "Obviously it's you who reads such unscrupulous books all day long, so your mind is filled with such messy thoughts! Don't think others are the same as you!"
"About this, I'm afraid you have some misunderstandings about me." Kakashi shook the "Icha Icha Paradise" in his hand, "This is just an ordinary romance novel, although it does have some... um... artistic processing elements."
"Besides, the focus of the question now is not about what books I read. Please answer my question directly."
"Really! I told you I don't have such thoughts!" Satsuki was still making the final struggle, "I am a descendant of the Uchiha Clan! I am the one who has to shoulder the heavy responsibility of reviving the clan! How is it possible... how is it possible to think about that... that boring thing all day long!"
Her rebuttal sounded aggressive, but to Kakashi it was unconvincing.
"Your current situation is more like being coquettish than fiercely opposing." He repeated the core question clearly, "So, admit it, you like Naruto, right?"
"... Hmm."
A few seconds later, all Satsuki's excuses and disguises melted away like ice and snow illuminated by the sun.
In the end, the result was simpler than Kakashi expected. Satsuki only persisted for an extremely brief moment, and his whole person instantly transformed from an angry kitten to a girl immersed in shyness.
Looking at the student in front of him who was so arrogant just now, but now so candid and cute, the corners of Kakashi's mouth could not help but rise slightly.
This kid... seems to be more frank than he thought.
"If you like Naruto, why don't you just go and explain it to him?" Kakashi looked at Satsuki who was almost shrinking into a ball, and his tone slowed down, "I think that guy takes good care of you. Maybe he has the same idea?"
"No! Absolutely not!" Satsuki raised his head suddenly, with obvious panic in his voice, "What if... what if he rejects me! You should also understand that truth! If... if he is rejected, maybe even the current relationship cannot be maintained! In that case... in that case..."
She couldn't imagine how awkward the distance between the two would be after being explicitly rejected by Naruto. Just thinking about that possibility made her heart feel as uncomfortable as being squeezed tightly.
"So you are afraid of this..."
Kakashi was thoughtful and tried to cheer up the disciple, "You can actually have a little more confidence in yourself. I remember that you are quite popular in the class, aren't you?"
After Kakashi quit Anbu, in order to take Genin with him, he would occasionally go shopping at the Ninja Academy. Naturally, he knew that the outstanding and powerful second lady Uchiha was very popular among men, although all the men who tried to approach her were rejected mercilessly by her.
"Popular?"
Hearing this, Satsuki had a puzzled expression on his face, as if he didn't understand what Kakashi was talking about at all.
"Well," Kakashi nodded and further explained, "Besides Naruto, you should also have received a lot of advances from other men, right?"
"Is there any?"
Satsuki tilted his head, the confusion in his eyes became more obvious, and the expression didn't look like he was pretending at all.
Kakashi is a little confused now. He watched Satsuki's reaction carefully, and suddenly realized a somewhat cruel fact - for Uchiha Satsuki, except for Uzumaki Naruto, I am afraid that no one worth caring about had left any trace in her heart at all.
Those so-called "suitors" are probably no different from the pebbles on the roadside in her eyes, so they will naturally not be remembered by her.
"..."
Kakashi was speechless for a moment, so he had to change his approach and try to wake her up, "Well, let's think about it from another angle. Satsuki, you like Naruto, you have admitted this. Are you willing to continue in this state of unrequited love in your current state, where you can only watch from a distance?
"I told you! Even if we can't maintain our current relationship! I can't cause trouble to Naruto!"
Satsuki's emotions became excited again, with a hint of crying in his voice, "The current situation... there is nothing wrong with the current situation! I like this feeling... How can you put pressure on others unilaterally!"
The more she spoke, the more excited she became, trying to persuade Kakashi with reason, "If it's just a feeling of admiration, that impulse won't last long! If you really like it... you have to think about the other person! So... so like now... it's good to be able to stay by his side... to be able to look at him... there's nothing wrong with this situation..."
However, as she spoke, her voice gradually dropped, and her original strong defense became weaker and weaker, and in the end it almost turned into a choked soliloquy.
Tears rolled down from her dark eyes uncontrollably, and she hurriedly raised the back of her hand to wipe them away.
"As long as... as long as I can stay with him... I will be very satisfied... really..."
Finally, she almost sobbed as she spoke out this most humble wish deep in her heart.
"..."
Seeing the disciple in front of him who was still stubbornly quibbling just now, and in the blink of an eye he burst into tears and revealed his true feelings, Kakashi was completely speechless, and a complex emotion surged in his heart, which was both funny and filled with a hint of indescribable emotion and emotion.
This child's feelings are far more humble than they appear on the surface.