"...Was the gap in our strength really that vast...?"
Shizuka bit her lower lip. In that instant, all the grueling training of the past, the confidence and strength honed through countless life-or-death battles, became as fragile as a child's sandcastle before this man—one wave, and it vanished without a trace.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, her gaze was deathly calm.
"Fine," she said softly. There was no resentment in her voice, only the weary resignation of someone accepting her fate. "Then please give me an end."
She did not close her eyes or lower her head. She simply stared straight at Naruto—waiting for the ending that should have fallen upon her.
But Naruto merely flicked his wrist. With a clatter, he casually tossed the kunai onto the ground.
"I told you..." There was no victor's arrogance in Naruto's voice, only earnest helplessness. "I never wanted to fight you in the first place—let alone kill you."
Shizuka froze. "...Why? Why won't you give me an end? I lost... A loser should accept the fate that comes with defeat."
"—That isn't fate!" Naruto's voice abruptly rose. "That's just a rule your village made up!"
His eyes looked straight into hers. "Using a marriage arrangement as the wager? You clearly have someone you like—I have someone I love too! A marriage arrangement... should only exist between people who love each other!"
"...What did you say?" It was as though those words had stabbed Shizuka deeply. The mask of calm she had maintained shattered at once.
She could calmly accept death, yet now she suddenly sprang to her feet, her voice exploding with long-suppressed rage and pain—"What do you know about me?! It can only exist between people who love each other?!"
"You—someone whose beloved