The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

27: A New Leaf

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

Silence.

"Would he?" Temari said finally.

"I think he would," Kankuro said. "That's just what he'd be worried about. That's why radical religious groups threaten the shinobi villages--because people are more loyal to them than to the village. Gaara, as a leader, believing that way is very problematic if that's how it came off...and if we, his followers, also talk that way, then we'll sound radical."

"But," Sasuke surprised them by speaking, "if that is how you feel about it, shouldn't you admit it? You think this is more important than your village, don't you?"

They looked very uncomfortable.

And Shine didn't say anything to counter Sasuke's question to them.

"I..." Temari said slowly, "well, I guess, at bottom, you could say it. But it's not as if the village's well-being is in conflict with this. So why worry about it?"

"It could be if they hear about this," Sasuke said.

"I'm sure they wouldn't react that extremely," Gaara said. "They know how we are now."

"And villages never turn on people on a whim," Sasuke said cuttingly.

"Why don't you lay off?" Shoto said. "Stop twisting the knife."

"I thought it was a reasonable question," Sasuke retorted. "Perhaps the Tsuchikage is right about you then. If you are that committed, and he's not, then what is there for him to understand?"

"Are you calling us traitors?" Temari said hotly. 

"To the shinobi way of life, you might be," Sasuke said.

Whether that was actually even an insult from him or not, it was hard to say, but it made them angry.

"Why don't you back off?" Kankuro said. "We're not traitors. We've done nothing but try to help the shinobi force, and if this is the thanks we get for it, then we're not the problem."

"Projecting your way of thinking onto us is not an indictment against us," Temari added. "It's your problem."

"Wait a minute," Shine spoke up, as Sasuke tensed as if for a fight. "Sasuke's point might be worth thinking about. How far are you willing to go for this? Even if you only wanted peace, peacemakers have not always been well received throughout history, particularly ninja history. And this is something more than peace. Would you die rather than renounce it to the villages? Even if they said that peace was not an option if you continue to profess this is the truth?"

Gaara looked stricken. "But peace is the goal we have, and the thing we set out to do for the world.... How can we abandon that?"

"How can you have peace without the thing that gave you peace in your soul?" Shine asked. "What if that thing is not something that people like? Or want...? Does that make it wrong?"

"I'm... Perhaps not, but, for the sake of protecting the village, perhaps we shouldn't stress that point," Gaara said.

Shine stared at him in the most disappointed way they had ever seen her look at Gaara.

"I never thought I'd say this," she said, getting up, "but I think Sasuke may be closer on this one than you are, if that's really what you think."

That shocked them all.

"How dare you say that?" Temari said.

"How dare I say it?" Shine said. "Excuse me?"

Tension was rising, you could feel it. In Karin's case, literally.