Nindō 0109: Confrontation

The next day, Hanabi took the kids to sightsee according to their itinerary while Naruto and Hinata went off to do their own thing. It was time for Naruto to start making up to his wife for the grief he had caused her.

Of course, one day together was far from enough to get Hinata to forgive him. She spent the day acting cold and short with him, thoroughly testing his patience. Naruto played the simp perfectly, completely ignoring the callousness of his wife's responses as he acted like a perfect gentleman.

By the time they returned to the resort, the kids and Hanabi were already back and playing around.

Naruto didn't get lucky that night.

Or any subsequent night for the rest of the trip.

They spent some days together with the family, where Hinata showed just how good of a ninja she was by acting as if nothing was wrong between her and Naruto. On other days, Naruto courted his wife, seeking her forgiveness. While there weren't any concrete results, Hinata was already mellowing down as her responses naturally got somewhat less cold. Still, he had realized by their second date that she wasn't going to let him have it easy. She still hadn't forgiven him for his actions; that much was easily discernible to him. But he could tell that she also wanted things to go back to the way they were.

Finally, they all returned to Konoha. The kids and Hanabi were very satisfied and happy, while Naruto and Hinata had a festering issue that they made sure to keep away from the kids. That included Hanabi. She simply believed that Hinata had called off her plans for a threesome after her fight with Naruto. While a little disappointed, she wasn't going to let that ruin the trip for her. She was her usual bubbly self throughout the trip and enjoyed it to the fullest with the kids.

While Naruto got back to his Hokage duties after a week-long vacation where his clones had dealt with everything, Hinata had a certain person whom she wanted to meet.

Hinata left the house a few hours after everyone had gone about their business — Himawari at the academy, Boruto doing missions, and Naruto at the office.

She made her way through the streets to the more populated side of the village, closer to the district center. On the residential street, she located a specific house by its number before knocking on the front door. Immediately, Hinata heard the sound of hurried footsteps as the single occupant practically ran to the door.

"Clone-sama! You're finally back!" An excited redhead wearing nothing but a bra and trousers opened the door. "I thought you'd … abandoned … me."

Seeing the impassive face of the village's First Lady instead of the familiar blonde man, Karin's brain short-circuited, and she froze in place.

"Hello, Karin," Hinata said flatly, not letting the Uzumaki gauge her feelings.

Unfortunately for Karin, the overwhelming malice emanating from Hinata was as blinding as the sun to her Eye of the Kagura.

"Mind if I come in?" Hinata gave her a once-over, and Karin felt the maliciousness emanating from her intensify.

"P–please …" Karin shivered with fear and stepped aside before running to her room and putting something on.

[You couldn't have given me a heads-up?]

Karin didn't receive any response and felt terror striking her heart, realizing that she was on her own right now.

Seconds later, the redhead exited her bedroom, only to see Hinata patiently taking off her sandals.

"H-here, you go, ma'am," Karin, suppressing her inner panic, quickly grabbed a pair of unused house slippers and placed them in front of Hinata with a sense of deference in her actions.

"Thank you, Karin," Hinata looked at the redhead who was kneeling in front of her, still holding the slippers. "You can get up now …"

"Yes, ma'am," Karin shot up while keeping her head lowered and stepped back. "Please, sit," she gestured to the couch as Hinata nodded and sat down. Karin still stood by deferentially as if awaiting Hinata's following command.

"Sit," Hinata said. "I'm not going to kill you or banish you from the village."

"Yes, ma'am," Karin said stiffly before sitting down on the armchair adjacent to the couch.

"So, I hear you've been fucking my husband …" Hinata's words froze Karin in her place. "Tell me, do you always answer the door half naked, or is my husband the only one?"

"I–I …" Karin stuttered, unable to come up with any words.

"Speak up, girl." Hinata's flat tone turned cold. "Do you try to seduce everyone who knocks on your door?"

"P-please don't talk to me as if I'm a loose woman …" Karin felt that she had to speak up, even though her response came out with a squeaky voice. "I have a debt to repay to Hokage-sama … that is why …"

"So he threw money at you?" Hinata asked. "Or something else? Like that pardon you received during the council meeting last week."

"None of that …" Karin shook her head. "It's because he healed me— the scars that covered my body because of my innate ability to heal people." She shifted her collar to show Hinata the Uzumaki symbol on her neck, her Dominion Mark. "He gave me this seal that heals me from those nasty scars that ruined my body."

Talking about her past relaxed Karin as she stopped stuttering and spoke with a calmer voice.

"Those scars … they were the bane of my existence. I had to live with the memory of every person who had bitten me. Do you know what my lowest point was?" Karin, for the first time since the surprise appearance of Hinata, looked the woman in the eyes. "When I started forgetting the faces of the men and women who had left the scars on my body. When I was a naive child, every night before I went to sleep, I used to recall the chakra frequency of each person, giving them all a name. I hoped I would one day grow strong enough to kill them all. I started forgetting the names before I was even freed. Those scars … by healing them, the Hokage truly has my full devotion. Whatever he asks of me, I shall deliver. I would walk through fire if he asked me to."

"That would be a painful death …" Hinata said.

"I owe everything to him …"

"So you repay him by enabling his self-destructive ideas?" Hinata asked. "Encouraging him to burn down his marriage?"

"… Hinata-sama," Karin said after some thought. "I have never wanted him to myself. I just feel lucky that he decided to give me more value than a random subordinate. This seal … is more than just something to heal me. It can control me … it is like a brand of ownership. He never told me about any of that, but my sensitivity toward chakra allows me to observe the way it interacts with me and my body. For this seal, I am nothing more than an object. Some…thing that belongs to the Hokage. I am simply glad that he treats me as more than some slave. I don't want anything more. I do not want to become some kind of second wife for him, either. I completely recognize that you are his wife, his only wife. He made sure that I was aware of that fact."

"What if I decide to bring you home?" Hinata said. "As the slave that you don't wish to be considered. What then? Will you obediently fulfill the duties of a maid and serve your master whenever he so desires?"

Karin felt fury bubble inside her at Hinata's disrespect, but she was aware that she was in the wrong. She had to present a submissive and accepting yet firm demeanor.

"If … the Hokage asks that of me. I will do so," Karin said. "But he will not do so. He would not bring chaos into his family by adding a harem situation into the mix."

"And what would you do if I asked you to do that?" Hinata's eyes glinted in a way that sent alarm bells ringing in Karin's head. The maliciousness that she was feeling from Hinata at this moment was palpable and intense enough to hamper her breathing.

"I would refuse. I don't want to explain the awkward situation to your kids. Nor do I want you to have to do so."

"Naruto will not be fucking you anymore," Hinata said flatly, the malice radiating from her suddenly receded in Karin's senses, calming the redhead down.

"We didn't really go that far, ma'am …" Karin said. "I don't know if it was just a coincidence or not, but we didn't go beyond fellatio."

"Aren't you a doll," Hinata snapped at her with a smile that was anything but a smile. "For the foreseeable future, your relationship with him won't go beyond the research center that he's working on. His clone won't be coming to deliver groceries to you either. You are a free woman with a salary. Take advantage of that."

Hinata told her about a few more minor things before getting up and leaving. Karin wasn't even able to offer the woman a glass of water and was left dazed and confused.

[Fucking hell, you couldn't have given me a heads-up?]

She suddenly cursed in her head, intending for her words to reach Naruto.

[She would've known. You do not want to see her angry. Trust me. You did well.]

[I felt like she was about to stab me in the chest and take out my heart. How much angrier can she get?]

[She's already calmed down significantly by now. If it was just after I told her, she would've done exactly what you're so scared of her doing.]

***

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