The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

13: A Question of Justice

[OP: "Passerine"--The Oh Hellos]

Shine and Wally were in a more relaxed mood, till they got back to the compound and Momo and Camie owned up to what they'd told Shikamaru.

Shikamaru himself had stalked away as soon as they reached the grounds.

Wally had completely forgotten that he didn't know about it--and it made him feel guilty. He'd been upset about not saving them all to begin with, and this made it worse.

Shine was a bit more resigned to it coming out since she expected these things to happen, but she didn't like that he was upset.

"Still, we always knew he might be," she said.

"Does that make it okay?" Momo asked, miserably. "I feel as if we murdered his father ourselves--and Ino's."

Sasuke glanced at them.

No one else was listening in (except for Temari, though she was pretending not to), but Sasuke always had a 6th sense of knowing when something was going wrong in the internal workings of the group, if he thought it might affect him.

He wasn't sure what Momo was talking about though.

Wally gave him a look like "move along", and he pretended to do so, but he just blended into one of the shadows where none of them could see him.

"We didn't murder anyone," Shine insisted. "We tried."

"But the fact is that we really could have done more," Momo said. "I always thought so."

"Sounds like you're reacting this way because you didn't like it either then," Wally said, rubbing his head. "But I feel you, honestly. I never felt like choosing not to save someone was the answer."

"We didn't choose not to save them--we chose not to do it in a way that was giving away too much," Shine said. "We talked about all the ways it could have backfired if we told them directly what would happen. We limited ourselves to warning people about where the bad guys would pop up and what powers they might have. That was risky already. But to tell them exactly what would happen, it doesn't usually prevent those events."

"That's a good point," Wally allowed. "But couldn't we make exceptions that going against people's choice thing? If someone tries to jump off a roof, you should stop them, right?"

"I agree, if you're a normal person," Shine said. "But if you have god-like powers at your disposal, then you have to be careful how you use them. Not going against people's choices is a big part of it. I didn't like it either, but it's how it is."

"But aren't there exceptions to rules?" Camie wondered. "What if we did screw up?"

"Sometimes," Momo said, "it just sounds as if you care more about those rules than about people suffering."

There was a dreadful pause.

Even Sasuke, who didn't like any of them, couldn't believe Momo had said that to Shine.

Temari nearly dropped her fan.

Shine stared at Momo.

Then, the strangest thing of all, she didn't even get mad. Maybe she was too stunned to. Instead she just said the first thing that came into her head:

"I remember a time when you would enver have objected to that openly," she said, strangely. "You have changed, Momo. I'm glad that you've learned to think beyond just rules."

Even Camie thought that was a bit bizarre of a reaction to that.

Momo was flummoxed.

Wally only thought that Shine might break down and cry; he knew her better and knew her weak points more than they did.