The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

14: Shikamaru And Ino's Anger

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

"Someone like that," Sasuke said finally, "even if they claim to worship the same God, and then still do evil...so what is the point of all this?"

"That's the right question," Shine said. "What is the point if evil still happens?"

Shine smiled.

She could smile after that. Sasuke almost couldn't bear it. Even leveraging a troubled thing about her past didn't make her act angry.

He felt sick again, but it might have been from envy more than disgust, if he'd been aware enough to know it.

"You don't feel a thing about this?" he said. "Even though you said it was so bad."

"My feelings about it have changed. Once I was angry and sad and depressed," Shine said. "But I was younger then, and I've come farther since."

She sat back down slowly. "The pain can go away, you know..."

Sasuke frowned at her again. "Even if that's what happened to you, in my case there's too much injustice to ever stop feeling angry about it."

"I hope you don't stop feeling angry about injustice entirely," Shine said. "But is that really why you're angry?"

"How could it not be?"

"It feels more like you're angry that you cannot stop these things," Shine said. "And that, also, you cannot appeal to God and say that He must stop them. God will not cater to your whims, or mine, and that is the hardest thing to accept. It's easy to assume whatever we're asking for is right...but is it? Are we sure?"

"Then you are saying that it was right for them all to die," Sasuke said.

"We've talked about this before," Shine said. "And I told you that, if they were wicked, God could have struck them all with fire from heaven, and I could not say it was wrong for Him. How can God do wrong? He's the one who decides what is good and evil. If He does it, it is good. But there are things God can do, because He is all knowing, that we are not allowed to do, because we aren't. One day we will judge entities for Him, but that day will be when we can know the way He knows, at least a little. For now, we don't know what we're talking bout. We have the choices that are right in front of us. That is what God allows us to see--the good and evil of each choice we make...not each choice He makes."

Sasuke still was glaring at her.

"I realize this is not going to comfort you because you don't believe in God, or if you do, you do not love Him," Shine said. "And many a bitter person has rejected God because of the evil in the world, as if it was God's idea to make the world evil. But it never was. God made it good. Look, I can't make you accept this, and I will not try to. I chose God because I would have gone mad otherwise. That does not make me braver than you, perhaps. I chose Him because I knew I must or I would never be free. I have suffered plenty, though maybe not the way you have, and God has gotten me through it all. He does take care of His own, but we don't get away from the suffering. He helps us through it...not always out of it. But I do know that the evil one wishes much more suffering to happen to us than actually does. Evil would have us all live in pure misery if it could...so any good moments...that is God's interference in our lives. You may choose to find that it is not enough--but I think, if you were truly honest about your life, you would know that it was enough to make a choice with. And I can assure you at least that for everyone in your clan, there was enough for them to make a choice if they were old enough to make one."

She sighed. "As for the innocent lives...God will take care of them. But it's still a tragedy. What do you want me to tell you? If I told you it was good, you would rightly scorn me. If I told you it was proof that God is not good, I would be lying to you. You know what I believe about this now. Are you asking me to change that because you're angry about this?"