Chapter 11: The Question

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Apply the special medicine to the affected area and massage it for twenty to thirty minutes, twice a day, morning and evening. For the best results, use it together with a chakra massage device.

Unfortunately, there was no compatible massage device at home.

She thought she would place an order tomorrow morning and try it once tonight.

Although Haruna had something weighing on her mind, extending her leg still brought her back to herself with a stab of pain from the movement of her joints.

Her legs had grown increasingly uncomfortable over the past six months.

It was probably because she had been too eager to rehabilitate them, placing too much strain on her legs.

Her ankles in particular could not tolerate even the slightest chill. They were also constantly aching, making Haruna miserable and seriously affecting her quality of life.

She really ought to seek proper treatment.

Haruna glanced over and saw that Naruto had no intention of looking away. Besides, it was only her leg, so she could not be bothered to speak up or move elsewhere.

After all, they were still husband and wife.

She turned slightly to the side, lifted her skirt, and began applying the medicine.

The instant it touched her skin, she drew a quiet breath inward.

The fiery, prickling pain was truly unpleasant.

No wonder the instructions said the medicine was irritating and needed to be quickly spread and emulsified with a chakra massage device in order to ease the irritation and help the body absorb it.

But she had no massage device, and her own chakra was blocked…

The thought made her feel even more irritable.

The special medicine had already been applied to the affected area. Knowing how precious it was and how difficult it had been to develop, Haruna endured the prickling pain and continued massaging.

Then again, this little pain was hardly worth mentioning.

Compared with what she had suffered in the past, this was no more than something that might make her frown.

It was the stable, peaceful married life that had dulled both her body and mind, lowering her tolerance for pain.

Haruna’s thoughts wandered as she rubbed in the medicine, but when she reached one particular spot, her movements came to a halt.

Her ankle.

After years of rehabilitation, she had originally become capable of performing low-intensity ankle exercises on her own.

But the intense, grinding pain that had persisted recently had severely restricted her range of motion.

She could no longer reach her ankle without exerting more force.

And if she used more strength, her ankle and knee joints would swell and ache throughout the night, the pain boring into her bones until she needed painkillers to fall asleep.

…

Then so be it. She would take them.

She had long since grown to hate this fragile, useless body with every fiber of her being.

The girl lowered her eyes, shadows falling across her lashes.

Pain was the finest punishment one could inflict upon the body. It would also teach this disobedient ankle who its master truly was.

Haruna hated pain under ordinary circumstances, but she liked the pain that came with treatment.

It made her feel as though this useless body were being purified.

Yet just as she was about to handle herself roughly, her right hand was firmly restrained.

“Let me do it.”

Naruto’s voice was as gentle as ever, but his actions contained not the slightest hint of yielding. He was utterly resolute.

“Let go.”

“Does it hurt?” he asked. “I saw that you were uncomfortable just now.”

“That has nothing to do with you. You should be focusing on other matters.”

“It does have something to do with me.”

His voice was soft. “Whenever I see you suffering, I hate my own uselessness with all my heart.”

“I can’t simply pretend not to see it.”

“…”

Haruna’s lips moved faintly before she said stiffly, “You’re already more than capable.”

Everyone loved him. There was no one who did not.

And Uzumaki Naruto’s noble character was entirely deserving of the world’s love and admiration.

If she had not married Uzumaki Naruto, she would probably have been one of the countless people who looked up to him.

But they had ended up together.

He was a radiant moon suspended high in the heavens, and by sheer good fortune, its light had reached a dark gutter like her.

Yet the moon reflected in the gutter’s murky waters was murky as well.

They were both trapped within the whirlpool, unable to escape.

The blond young man did not answer. He leaned forward slightly and gently enclosed her ankle in his hands.

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He lowered his eyes, studying the faintly swollen flesh of his wife’s leg.

Haruna’s skin was pale from years without sunlight, making the redness and swelling all the more stark and conspicuous.

“I should have noticed sooner.”

His voice was so soft that it seemed he feared even a slightly heavier tone might worsen her pain.

Maintaining that posture, he knelt on the carpet, bracing one hand against the surface of the sofa beside her leg.

It was an even more intimate position. Naruto’s gaze was like a torrential rain descending from the heavens, impossible to escape, silently enveloping her.

He said nothing, yet the forceful, intrusive presence of him made her deeply uncomfortable.

The inexplicable irritation in Haruna’s heart intensified. Her mouth went dry, and she found herself unable to meet his eyes with the sharper, loftier gaze she was accustomed to using.

Pride and indifference were supposed to be her strongest weapons.

But when Naruto gently seized her ankle…

Her most fatal weakness had fallen into the hero’s hands.

“Don’t touch me. I don’t need your help!” Haruna began struggling at once, heedless of the pain.

It was a warning utterly without effect.

He said sternly, “Do you want to take painkillers with every meal? That won’t do your body any good.”

He used a little technique—Naruto knew exactly how to keep from hurting her while also preventing her struggles from causing her further pain.

Because of that, his presence seeped even more deeply into her, and his gaze became especially firm and commanding.

Haruna’s cheeks grew hot. She felt her heart beating faster.

They had not been this close, this intimate, for a very long time. She was unused to it, and her body’s reactions were all wrong.

Naruto, however, was thinking of nothing else. He was only becoming more determined to take part in Haruna’s treatment.

He worried deeply about her condition.

Ino had no idea that Koharu’s thoughts in this regard had already become dangerously extreme.

“You want to—”

Haruna flushed with shame and anger. She wanted to accuse him of molesting her, but given their relationship, the words felt absurdly inappropriate.

“What exactly are you trying to do?!”

“My chakra control is extremely precise. I can take the place of a massage device.”

“I don’t need it!”

Ignoring the pain, Haruna tried to yank her leg back by force. Yet she suddenly realized that she could not summon any strength at all.

“Haven’t we spent the past three years this way? Let me help you one more time, Koharu.”

“I’m very worried about you.”

Even someone with a heart of stone could not reject such helpless and tender concern.

But if he did not love her, then he should stop treating her so well out of a sense of responsibility, you great saint!

A surging emotion cried out within her, congesting her chest with a sour, stifling ache.

She resented him more and more.

The girl glared at Naruto, wishing she could bite him.

She wanted that bite to be vicious enough to draw blood, to leave him unable to maintain that natural expression of perfect concern, to force him to see the wound and finally understand the intensity of her suffering and resentment.

But she did not bite him.

Nor did she reveal the hatred carved into her bones.

Her emotions gathered until they reached their limit, only to dissolve into a bitterness that could not be expressed, a涩ness too difficult to voice.

This was their marriage.

“…Just this once.”

As Haruna spoke, she felt that her lips had gone slightly dry.

Naruto’s expression immediately brightened.

“Thank you.”

“What is there to thank me for?”

“Because I want to thank you, Koharu. Even though this may cause you pain, you’re still enduring it and giving me the chance to care for you.”

“Every time I feel your kindness, Koharu, I become even more certain that I have to rid you of your pain.”

“…”

She turned her gaze away.

Those cold, rigid emotions gradually softened, becoming helpless, sour, bitter water that once again soaked her heart.

Naruto could not do it.

And she hated such a pure, radiant moon.

Hated it.

Hated it so much.

*

Naruto was applying the medicine to her.

Because of the difference in their builds, and because the application had to continue for half an hour, he simply knelt on the carpet.

Haruna pressed her lips together and quietly watched him carefully spread the medicine, massage the area, and guide her chakra.

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What else could make him maintain such focused humility?

Haruna could think of nothing.

Whenever people spoke of Uzumaki Naruto, they thought only of his courageous stance, unyielding even in the face of death.

His hands were broad and warm, while her bare ankle was pale and fragile. Together, the contrast made the sickly delicacy of her body even more apparent.

Naruto’s movements were meticulous and gentle, the pads of his fingers caressing her ankle.

A tingling, faintly painful sensation flowed into her veins along with his warm chakra, bringing with it the illusion of pain.

Then it traveled through her blood to every limb and bone.

Not even the most advanced and expensive medical care could achieve such attentiveness. Only a loved one could treat her with such delicate consideration.

For once, Haruna felt comfortable.

But the blond young man’s expression grew increasingly solemn and grim, his azure eyes cold as frost.

This was the first time he had realized that Haruna’s condition had deteriorated to such an extent.

And her spirit was falling together with her body.

“Why have you never told me that your muscles had already…”

Every day, Naruto helped Haruna change her shoes, but she always kept her socks pulled tightly over her feet, refusing to reveal even the slightest bit of skin.

He respected her and would never deliberately pry. Only now, upon discovering that her body was silently wasting away, did he feel the sharp anger of having been kept in the dark.

Haruna thought that, in truth, her ankles were the least of it. The real ugliness lay above her knees, hidden beneath her dress.

Under ordinary circumstances, she would rather die than let Naruto see it.

But tonight, they were going to settle their divorce. Letting him see her now would be the perfect way to make him give up completely.

Had he not been disgusted by her deformity on their wedding night?

A sense of moral responsibility could never defeat instinctive physical disgust. Otherwise, there would not be so many men who cheated after marriage.

But Naruto had barely allowed his tone to grow heavier before he remembered that Koharu could not bear such weight—

So his words abruptly changed course.

“It’s all right. We have medicine now. My technique will be more effective than a massage device.”

“We’ll treat you properly.”

“I was going to seek proper treatment anyway,” she said.

“You never—”

His tone softened sharply once more. “Koharu, you haven’t been treating yourself properly at all.”

“That isn’t the point.”

At last, Haruna turned her gaze back and looked into the hero’s eyes.

“The medicine has been applied. Naruto, let’s continue discussing the divorce.”

His hands still glistened with the sticky medicinal oil. He stopped moving, and his expression fell silent.

It was the first time Haruna had shown such determination.

It was also the first time Naruto realized how much the two of them resembled each other. They were both stubborn to the core.

He said, “Do you remember? We once swore before our parents’ graves that we would care for each other and never part.”

“I don’t want a divorce.”

Haruna said, “We were too young then, and we made that promise too lightly. Our parents would understand.”

“But I meant it. Your condition cannot be managed without someone beside you. If we separate now, I’ll be terribly worried and blame myself.”

“Terribly, terribly worried.”

Unlike the oppressive tenderness that usually left her unable to breathe, Naruto’s voice had shed its outer shell. At that moment, it held nothing but pure sorrow and heartache.

Perhaps it was merely a fleeting, unconscious revelation of his true feelings. But what made it different was—

For some reason, when she saw the moisture in his eyes and the pain plainly written across his features;

when she realized that every word came from the depths of his heart;

Haruna’s face suddenly grew hot. It was as if a tiny flame had begun to singe her heart, leaving behind a prickling, tingling ache.

She felt the faint stirrings of infatuation.

She actually liked seeing Naruto suffer.

In that fleeting moment of dazzled confusion, the words that had lingered on the tip of her heart all evening—words that had perhaps required every ounce of madness she possessed to form—floated lightly from her lips.

“Why do you insist on blaming yourself like this?”

“Don’t tell me you’re in love with me?”

The girl’s tone remained as sharp and cold as ever, touched with a faint mockery that pretended indifference.

But only she knew the truth hidden beneath the words that had slipped out.

Once again, fate had arrived at a crossroads.