Naruto // Justice // Sakura
Title: Justice
Pairing: None
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Summary: It was just another mission but a chance encounter will question some of Sakura's beliefs. "There is no true justice."
“Why?”
Sakura paused. She had been on her way back to Konoha when she had encountered a B-rank missing-nin, ex-Konoha. It had been easy enough to subdue him. She had only been on a simple espionage mission and her captive seemed to have been in a recent battle that left him exhausted. He was easily recognizable as the criminal who had recently tried to kill a village elder. It had been big news for a while. She had been ready to deliver the finishing blow when the captive had asked her that simple question.
“Why what?”
“Why are you going to kill me?”
Sakura stared at him incredulously before replying in an flat voice, “Isn’t it obvious? You have committed treason against your home, abandoned the village you pledged you loyalty to…when you became a traitor you signed your own death warrant. Konoha doesn’t tolerate traitors after all.”
He stared at her with his hollow eyes. The corner if his mouth turned up ever so slightly. “Ah…but isn’t that a bit hypocritical of you?”
Sakura wondered why she was bothering to converse with this man who was as good as dead. However, Inner Sakura was bristling from the indignation of being accused and reasoned that if he was ‘as good as dead’ then it wouldn’t matter whether she argued with him or not. Privately, Sakura agreed and it had been a while since she had last spoken to anyone anyway. She had always been a social creature by nature.
“You’re the Hokage’s apprentice, yes? Aren’t you trying to bring back that Uchiha traitor?”
Although Sakura had mostly overcome her childish crush, some part of her was still fiercely defensive when it came to Sasuke.
“Sasuke-kun is different! He is doing a service by trying to eliminate a highly dangerous criminal,” stated Sakura, expression torn between defensive and sadness, “He didn’t do anything wrong!”
The statement had been more forceful than she had originally intended and it was followed by a deafening silence. The criminal’s smirk became more pronounced and mocking. “Maybe, maybe not. But last time I checked a traitor was anyone who defected from the village and I seem to remember someone saying “Konoha doesn’t tolerate traitors.” So Kunoichi, I’ll ask you again, Why are you going to kill me?”
Sakura was speechless at first. Deep down, she knew what this man was saying was true but she still wasn’t ready to come to terms with it. Not yet. As she cursed her sudden mental blankness, she uttered the first word she could think of.
“Justice.”
With just that word, the smirk was wiped off his face. His whole demeanour changed and in place of that mocking attitude was a mask of deathly blankness. Somehow, Sakura knew that she had said the wrong thing.
“Justice? Tell me Kunoichi, what is this justice you speak of?”
His outburst had startled her however Sakura quickly regained confidence as she remembered she was the one with the upper hand.
“You attempted to assassinate a village elder,” she argued. Briefly she wondered why she was bothering to argue at all but that thought was quickly dismissed, “You have no honour and as a loyal kunoichi it is my duty to exact justice.”
The missing-nin’s response was instantaneous. “Honour? Duty? Justice?” he spat out those words as though they were something particularly nasty, “Do you know what it means to be a Shinobi?”
Sakura started to respond but the missing-nin cut her off.
“A shinobi is a tool.” The blank mask was back on. “We are hired assassins who are expected to do exactly what’s asked.” A bitter smile crossed his face briefly. “Shinobi are the lowest creatues on Earth. All we do is kill and kill whether for ourselves or for money.” He paused before continuing in a low hiss, “There is no justice.”
A small part of Sakura understood what he was saying. However, Sakura was still young and she still retained some of her idealistic views of how Shinobi were. After reorganising her thoughts, she replied.
“Justice does exist,” she replied evenly, “You are over-complicating the subject. You have done wrong and you will be punished for it.”
“What a naive little girl,” Sakura opened her mouth to protest but she was cut off swiftly, “The world is not simply black and white. Who’s to say what I did was right or wrong?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“No, it isn’t” The smirk was back on his face. “You over glorify your village too much. Put too much faith in one thing and eventually it will come around and stab you in the back.”
“What...”
“There is no true justice in this world. Only justification and excuses for our actions.”
“I know that but…” “Do you really know?”
Sakura hesitated to answer and that was all the answer he needed.