Naruto: Naruto's Uchiha girlfriend is too arrogant

Chapter 591 The True Face Beneath the Shell

Naruko's voice came from the side. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly, a smile tinged with both heartache and helplessness. She chose to understand Gaara.

Gaara nodded blankly, and after a long while, he slowly raised his head. A warm, yet bittersweet, feeling welled up inside him.

The sight of them cooking together like a married couple made him feel like he was in a beautiful dream.

After a while, the oil began to heat up, and a transparent, slightly distorted ripple appeared on the surface of the pot. The surface of the oil was no longer calm, and tiny bubbles kept rising from the bottom of the pot, bursting on the surface of the oil and making a soft "crackling" sound.

Gaara used chopsticks to dab a little batter, then held it above the pan, preparing to toss it into the oil.

Just at this time.

"Gaara!! What's going on?! The chakra you gave me isn't obeying my commands at all!!"

A voice suddenly exploded in Gaara's inner world. The voice was so loud that Gaara felt his eardrums rupture in that instant, and that his brain was turned into mush in that instant.

That was Shukaku's voice, filled with undisguised anger. It was so angry that its voice became shrill, sharp enough to pierce Gaara's ears and penetrate deep into his brain.

The enormous sound caused Gaara, who was already sleep-deprived, to have his ears ring for a moment, and then he couldn't hear anything at all.

His vision went black, his head throbbed with pain, and his body began to tilt, falling in a direction he couldn't control.

As darkness fell upon him, Gaara instinctively reached out his hand in the instant he lost his sight and hearing, trying to steady himself by grabbing onto something.

"Gaara!!"

Then, a terrified voice rang in my ears.

The voice came from very, very close, from the mouth of the person whose arm he had grabbed. A hand grabbed him, and then, a sizzling sound—the sound of oil sizzling over.

Also, the sound of the chair suddenly standing up was the sound of Kankuro and Temari rushing over from the dining table.

When Gaara regained his sight, the scene before him left his mind completely blank for a moment.

While processing this visual information, his brain was also rapidly deducing what had just happened. He understood.

What I instinctively braced myself against just now was a pot of boiling oil. A pot filled with hot oil, the temperature of which was as high as 160 degrees Celsius.

In that instant, Naruko grabbed Gaara. With one hand, she grasped Gaara's wrist and pulled him away from the stove, while with the other hand, she reached for the overturned oil pan.

He used his palm to support the tipping pot from the bottom, holding it in mid-air to prevent it from tipping over again and to stop the remaining hot oil from spilling out.

But the hot oil that had already been spilled couldn't be taken back.

The oil pan was empty; not a single drop of the hot oil that was supposed to be poured over Gaara landed on him. Instead, it all dripped down Naruko's arm.

"Are you alright?!"

Gaara's voice boomed, and he saw Naruko's face showing an expression of suppressed pain. She didn't scream, didn't call out, didn't make a sound.

"Gaara!"

Kankuro and Temari were startled by the sudden accident. Temari rushed forward and was the first to rush to the stove.

Her fingers trembled as she took the oil pan from Naruko's hand and placed it on a corner of the stove.

Kankuro breathed a sigh of relief. Although the scene was heartbreaking, it was the best outcome for Naruko Uzumaki as a puppet.

The puppet won't feel pain, won't leave scars, and won't get infected from the burns. The puppet can be maintained afterward by simply removing the damaged shell, sanding it, repainting it, or replacing it with a new shell, and it will look brand new.

Kankuro silently said these words to himself, as if trying to convince himself, or perhaps to comfort Temari who was feeling sorry for him.

His breathing was a little faster than usual. He told himself it was okay, she was a puppet, it was okay.

However, Kankuro noticed that Gaara and Temari in front of him had suddenly stopped moving.

Their bodies froze completely, even their breathing stopped. Gaara's head remained bowed, and Temari's head remained bowed as well, both of their gazes fixed on the same spot—Naruko's arm.

"What's wrong?"

Kankuro sensed something strange. He took a step forward and walked to Gaara and Temari's side. He lowered his head and followed their gaze to Naruko's arm.

At that moment, Kankuro's eyes widened, just like the other two, so wide that the whites around his pupils were completely visible, and his teeth were trembling.

On Naruko's scalded arm, large areas of white appeared. It wasn't the black of charred wood, nor the mottled appearance of melted paint, nor the reaction that any "man-made object" should exhibit when exposed to high temperatures.

As combat ninjas who understand human anatomy, everyone is acutely aware of the consequences of injury.

That's the color of a person's skin after it's been burned.

The arm, pale with a faint pink tinge and swollen with burn marks, is completely real—made of flesh and blood, not a puppet!