Dream Team (NaruHina)

#38 Justice

The daimyo looked at the scene in front of him with confusion evident in his eyes.

Naruto was holding the weapons of his samurai commander while the man himself was kneeling in front of him, his hands tied behind his back.

Looking at his other guards they didn't seem to be angry at the shinobi but had a look of disgust and disappointment on their faces.

"What is the meaning of this." The man asked as he reached Naruto and Ankoro.

"Tell him." Naruto demanded coldly, as the man in front of him didn't answer the daimyo's question. Since Ankoro still didn't talk, Naruto shook his head, before handing the scroll he had gotten from the bandits to the man standing in front of him.

"We got this from a group of bandits that was supposed to attack the convoy. We managed to defeat them and found it on one of them." Hinata explained as the daimyo read the contents of the scroll.

"I had high hopes in you Ankoro." He stated sadly as he finished reading the letter.

"What you did is treason. And you know the punishment for it." The kneeling samurai nodded, even though it was a statement not a question.

"Since you have served me good, in earlier times I will give you the decision of how you want to die." The daimyo said, causing Ankoro to raise his head a bit.

"I would like to go the way a Samurai would." He almost whispered, his voice shaking a bit. Nodding the daimyo asked a samurai for his shortsword. Handing it to the kneeling man Naruto and the other shinobi watched closely as the man bowed, resting his forehead to the ground, mumbled a few words, before rising again and taking the sword into his hands. With one final look at the daimyo Ankoro plunged the blade into his stomach and made a horizontal cut, effectively disemboweling himself. Dropping the blade he held his hands in front of his face and stayed like this until the life left his body and he slumped forwards. The daimyo bowed slightly, before he turned around and went back to his carriage.

Cleaning the sword Naruto handed it back to the samurai it belonged to, watching as Ryujin went through a series of hand signs, breathing a fireball onto the corpse. Watching the fire burn, Naruto felt Hinata place an arm around himself.

"We are almost in Ishigakure. Come on, we need the rest." She whispered as they turned away from the burning corpse, and caught up to the carriage that was already moving forwards again, the four captured bandits lying unconscious on the baggage.

"I had thought it would get easier with time." Ryujin stated as Hinata walked beside her.

Looking at the genin the Hyuuga smiled sadly seeing the expression of guilt and sadness on her face.

"It never does. You just learn to hide how you feel about it." She replied, looking towards the front of the carriage where Naruto was talking with Lia. Yeji placed a reassuring hand on her sister's shoulder.

"How do you keep going with all the guilt?" The younger sister asked, as the gates of Ishigakure finally came into view.

"I have someone to share it with." Hinata said a small smile forming on her lips as she looked at Naruto.

"What can we do if we don't have someone to share it with." Ryujin asked, earning a smile from the purple haired jonin.

"But you do have someone to share it with. I didn't mean it in the way that Naruto and I are a pair, but rather that we are partners and that we can talk about everything. Whenever we have to kill someone, we talk about it. Often not on the same day, but eventually we talk about it and it helps a lot to just have someone to talk to. You have your teammates to talk to and if you want you can even talk to us about it." Hinata explained, earning a thoughtful nod from the two sisters.

Passing the gates, Naruto and his team were officially off duty. Knowing that the daimyo would stay in the village for two days the group decided to head to the hotel the daimyo had booked before anything else. Departing from the daimyo and his retinue who were going to the official welcoming with the village elders, the group passed a variety of small food stalls before making it to the hotel.

"We will meet you outside the gates at midday." Naruto said to the three genin, as they went out to get something to eat. They had agreed on a small training session on their day off so that their skills wouldn't get rusty.

Making their way into their own room Naruto and Hinata saw the single bed and laughed. Of course the daimyo was only expecting one jonin so he had booked only a one person room for the adult. They didn't mind at all, since both were not moving much in their sleep but it still seemed a bit funny.

"I can't get his face out of my head." Hinata admitted as they laid next to each other on the small bed.

"Me neither." Naruto stated, knowing that his girlfriend was talking about Ankoro.

"I mean, I get that he betrayed the daimyo and his punishment was death but why this? He died in so much pain." Hinata said, remembering the pain filled eyes as the samurai plunged the sword into his stomach.

"I don't know why he chose suicide. But it was his choice and the daimyo had respected it. I also think that there would have been faster and less painful ways to kill him. However he wanted it that way." Naruto said agreeing with the girl that it was gruesome to watch.

"I just hope that I don't dream of his face." Hinata mumbled as she placed her head on the blonde's chest and closed her eyes.

"Me neither." The boy said, kissing the purple hair on top of her head before closing his eyes as well.