After spending so long in power, Haku had a clear understanding of her own position.
What she had said to Sasuke in the Treehouse earlier had clearly gone a little too far.
She had thought that, after taking her outside alone, Sasuke would mercilessly mock, belittle, and threaten her.
Instead, his calm gaze and words were starting to make her panic.
"Not at all."
Looking at Haku's ashamed expression, Sasuke smiled. "On the contrary, Naruto has told me more than once that you're as pure as a blank sheet of paper. Turns out he was right."
"You've spent nearly three years with him, and he's carefully nurtured you into an excellent Daimyo. It's perfectly normal that you developed feelings for him during that time, or even fell in love with him."
"Those feelings made you instinctively hostile toward me when we first met. I understand that."
After personally killing his older sister and avenging his parents and clansmen, Sasuke had come to understand many things that had once puzzled him.
If Haku had behaved this way when Sasuke was twelve, he would certainly have mocked and torn into her without mercy.
But he would not do that now. In fact, he greatly admired her courage to love and hate openly.
For him and Naruto to end up together, they naturally had to share many interests.
Love someone, and you love what they love.
Naruto would never reject the people or things Sasuke liked.
Likewise, Sasuke certainly would not dislike the people or things Naruto liked.
This was how people viewed emotions and relationships once their hearts had awakened.
If their values had been completely incompatible, Naruto and Sasuke would never have ended up together.
Hearing Sasuke's words, Haku's eyes dimmed, and her voice grew much more dejected.
"What good are