Myrmidon Chapter 35

Tribunal

Three hours after the last of the Ants had been rounded up, Ging approached Netero from behind. The Chairman hadn't moved from the top of the hill in all that time, observing the process of East Gorteau reorganizing. It was a fascinating, once in a lifetime sight, but he hadn't been able to appreciate it.

"You're wanted," Ging said without preamble. The man looked invigorated. He'd been speaking with Sasuke Uchiha and assisting in gathering the Chimera, along with his son. Ging probably hadn't had that much interaction with humans in a year, and the man was obviously enjoying it.

Unusual for him, but he was in the presence of unusual people. That was Ging's ideal environment.

"By?" Netero asked, sure he already knew.

"Naruto wants to talk with you."

"Oh?" Netero stood up and turned to face his Zodiac. "What about?"

Ging laughed. "What else?" He pointed over his shoulder. "Bottom of the hill. When you have the time." He turned and waved goodbye. "Good luck, little butterfly."

Netero chuckled. He could waste their time. Perhaps take a nap. Certainly he could use the time to think. But in the end, Naruto Uzumaki was interesting, and more than that, dangerous. Testing his patience in the name of pettiness was something Netero might have entertained several decades ago, but now it was out of the question.

What he found at the bottom of the hill surprised him, but only at first glance.

Everyone present was seated on a stone. It was a patch of rocks sparse and covered in moss, and none came up past his knees. Naruto had taken the shortest, but his height had rendered him more than equal to everyone else. Hinata was to his left. The woman seemed calmer, and Netero could not blame her. Her husband was here; she was perfectly safe now. Nonetheless, her whole body was tense, and she stared straight ahead with a frigid expression.

She was staring at the King of the Ants, who was seated to Naruto's right.

Meruem was staring at the ground like an embarrassed child, unable to make eye contact with the woman staring him down.

Netero laughed, and everyone present switched their focus to him.

"What is this?" he asked. "A little quorum?"

Naruto smiled. "Something like that." He gestured to a stone across from him. "Would you mind joining us?"

Netero didn't respond. He just took a seat, curling one leg up under himself and propping his face in his hand. He peered at the others with curious eyes. The Chairman was already sure he knew what the purpose of the meeting was.

But if that was the case, why was the King there?

"We're here to decide your fate, huh?" The King looked up at him, its expression unreadable. Netero grinned. "Or was the decision made without me?"

The King refused to respond. Netero was sure he read a bit of anguish in the thing's eyes. Who could blame it? A creature without peer, designed to rule from birth, and here it was at one man's mercy, waiting for him to decide if he should live or die. It was a little cruel to have him here, seated next to his judge, jury, and executioner, wasn't it?

He could stop his heart here, Netero thought, and make that decision for himself. Wouldn't that be interesting?

'Only if Naruto doesn't agree it's necessary.'

Netero looked to Hinata, and she glanced at him. Her lips pursed.

Well. No reason not to let this play out. The situation was almost ideal. Netero sat back.

"No decisions yet," Naruto said. "You're our Hunter here, Netero. The Chairman, in fact, so I'm going to assume you speak for the rest of them." The man's blue eyes were painfully earnest.

"Ha!" Netero chuckled. "That's not how Hunters work… but if this mission fails, I'll be the one to take the blame, so here, I can serve."

"Your mission," the King said. "To wipe me out?"

Netero shifted, watching the King's tail flex. They both knew that at this range, Naruto would be able to act before either of them, but that didn't dull their instincts.

"Our contract didn't even consider you," Netero said bluntly. "You weren't supposed to exist. As it is now, the other Ants could walk away. They're too much like… humans now. They took in our flaws." He shrugged. "I have no taste for killing without reason. Our mission was to remove the Chimera Ants as a threat to the Mitene Union. At the moment, we've mostly succeeded."

"Bar me." The King smiled humorlessly.

"Bar you," Netero agreed. "You're too dangerous to live." He looked back to Naruto. "Why are we even having this conversation? You fought the King. You should know better than anyone what needs to be done."

"He's right, Naruto." Hinata spoke up, her voice quiet but firm. Netero gave an appreciative nod. "We should just get this over with, and leave." Her head dropped, her hair hiding her face. "I want to go home."

"I understand that." Naruto sighed, a worried expression dragging his eyes down. "Both of you. I understand that." He knocked a fist into his knee. "But that's why I have Meruem here. If he's got to die, I want him to understand why."

The King laughed. "What would be the point, if I would be dead?" He stood up, and Netero and Hinata both tensed. Naruto remained seated, his head almost level with the King even while the latter was standing. "To make yourself feel better?" the Ant sneered.

"A little," Naruto admitted. "But I don't want to kill you. That's why I let you surrender."

Now, it was Hinata who stood. "Do you know how many people he's killed?" she demanded. "He massacred dozens taking that Palace. When he was waiting inside, he murdered several others, just because they couldn't beat him in a game! The only reason Komugi is still alive is because she kept winning! And more than that, he was going to destroy this whole nation! All those people you saved Naruto, all of them would have been eaten alive, or worse, turned into Ants!" Her hands curled into fists, chakra sparking around her knuckles. "Every person those Ants have eaten, everyone who's suffered, it was because of him. To build him, and then to serve him!"

She breathed out harshly. "If he walks away… all those deaths will go-"

"Unavenged?" Naruto suggested quietly, and Hinata's nostrils flared.

"Yes," she spat. Netero observed the lover's quarrel with amusement. What was the import of that word, he wondered.

"Yeah…" Naruto said, his shoulders sagging. "But that's the problem. I got no problem believing all that. I know you're telling the truth, Hinata." He frowned. "But the Mereum I fought… wasn't any of that." He sighed and looked at the King. For some reason, the Ant looked ashamed. "When I fought him, the only thing he was thinking about was defending a little girl."

Netero considered the absurdity of the situation. "Do you see my problem now?" Naruto asked, and Hinata bit her lip. Netero continued to quietly observe. "It feels wrong."

There was a moment of the silence, and the King retook his seat.

"You can't make that decision on what you feel," Netero said. "Only on what has happened."

"Why?" Naruto asked, and Netero shifted back at the sincerity of the question. The Hokage's eyes shone with conviction. "I'm not being rhetorical! Why? Can you give me a reason? Because I'd like one!"

His mind wasn't made up, Netero realized. He'd gravely misread the situation. Naruto wasn't naive, he just had strong principles. The Chairman had been approaching this from a completely wrong direction.

Dread flashed across his mind: what else had he misinterpreted?

He considered approaching more cautiously, but decided against it.

"Don't be so conceited," he said instead, and was gratified when Naruto leaned in with interest instead of flinching back. That had been a gamble. "Even if the King has changed, perhaps for the better, that doesn't change the reality of his past actions." He laughed. "You can't escape consequences by saying 'Ah, that was the me of ten years ago,' no matter how much you've changed over time. That would be convenient for me, but it's just not the case. For something like the Ants, with their sheer processing power, a month might as well be a decade." He snorted. "And even if the King now is a being of pure altruism-" He glanced at Mereum. "Are you?"

The King started. "Am I a being of pure altruism?" he asked, and Netero cocked his head.

The Ant blinked and sat back down. "I don't know." He rested his chin on one hand, apparently mulling the question.

The Chairman smiled. "Even if the King had an epiphany and transformed into a being of pure altruism, he would have to answer for his past actions. More than that, no matter how benevolent he became, he would still be an enormous danger."

"More than nine-million people had their free will ripped away in a second," Hinata said. "To defend Komugi, yes, but Naruto, he did it in a moment, without hesitation, at the slightest threat. Like a dog raising its fur. That's beyond even you."

"Hmm." Naruto leaned back and crossed his arms. "I agree completely."

The King frowned and dropped his head, but Netero raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected that answer. "You do?"

"Of course," Naruto said. "I wasn't trying to say that the King was a different person or anything like that. And he definitely has to answer for what he did." He looked at his wife. 'Everything he did."

Hinata looked back. "But?" she asked. Netero realized he was very glad to have her on his side in this argument. She was perceptive and sharp. It was a shame he wouldn't have more chances to fight alongside her.

Naruto raised his hands in a mock surrender with a full smile. "You got me," he said. "But, does that mean he has to die? That's another part of the problem." He looked to the King. "You're just too damn strong, Meruem."

"You couldn't cage me," the Ant said softly. "So if you mean to punish me, the only meaningful punishment is-"

"Death." Hinata sat down, hands falling into her lap. Some of the murderous energy had gone out of her.

"Well, we could seal him," Naruto said. He stood and began pacing, hands clasped behind his back. "Shove him into a box or something. But that would be even worse. Hell, Kurama might not even let me."

Kurama? Netero didn't know the name, but both Hinata and the King had reacted to it. Was there someone standing above even Naruto, directing him? The fire casting the shadow?

"Is that what that was?" the King asked, and Naruto nodded. "That thing is sealed inside you? Is that how you beat me?"

"Part of it," Naruto said. "My cloak is borrowed from him."

The King laughed. "And yet, you would have beaten me without it. I guess I'm still looking for a way out."

"Maybe," Naruto shrugged. Was he truly humble, or just putting on an act? Netero thought it was the first, but the man was a world leader: he had to be practiced at lying.

"Kurama?" Netero asked. Hinata put a hand on her husband's shoulder.

"Naruto is a Jinchuriki." Netero blinked, a distant conversation from more than a month ago echoing in his ears. A society built on human sacrifice.

"I'm aware of that." He looked at Naruto, his eyes dropping to his stomach. "So Kurama is the Nine-Tailed Fox? Morel didn't tell me it had a name."

"He has a name, yeah," Naruto said. "And he's the reason the King's still alive. At the end… he was the one who made Meruem stand down. There's no way he'd let me get away with just sealing him up after that."

"Hmm." Netero looked to the King with renewed interest. "How did the fox change your mind? I would have assumed you would fight to the death."

"I had planned to." The King opened and closed his hands, which could easily squeeze through Netero's bones as if they didn't exist. The Chairman watched the idle motion with a bit of fascination. "I intended to make him kill me. But that thing…" He fell silent, and then looked up to Netero. "It was old. So old that I couldn't comprehend it. It commanded my attention. It reminded me of a promise I'd made."

"Interesting." Netero scratched his chin. His leg was starting to fall asleep, so he changed them out, shifting his left under his body and letting the other dangle off his stone. "Interesting. Then, Naruto, what punishment would you put forward, if at all?"

"I've got no idea," Naruto said. "That's why I've got all you here. I wanna hear all options before taking the final one."

"Naruto…" Hinata said. "He's not a child. You're being too…"

"I know," Naruto said, taking her hand. They looked into each other's eyes. Netero wasn't a man who usually respected privacy, but something about that look made him feel an intruder. "But I'd rather be too soft instead of too harsh."

Hinata's eyes narrowed. "He's cruel." She said it plainly because it couldn't be hidden in the lines of her face. The King had been cruel to Hinata, and it was obvious to anyone who looked for it. "And not the cruelty of a child. Our children can't be safe, in a world with that kind of cruelty."

Meruem stayed silent. Was he unable to defend himself, or unwilling? Maybe he thought Hinata would attack him if he spoke. If that was the case, Netero thought, he had misjudged the woman. She had moved beyond any attempt at direct assault.

"Yeah…" Naruto said, squeezing her hand. "But there's always going to be that kind of cruelty, no matter what." He smiled. "No matter how hard we try. But this one is gone." His face hardened. "I killed it. And Meruem knows that too."

"How can you say that?" Hinata whispered, and Naruto gave her a sorrowful smile.

"Meruem's not a child," he said. "Listen."

Hinata did, and so did Netero. Naruto looked at the Ant as he spoke.

"There's just no other word that fits, cause he's unique. He has an incredible amount of intelligence, and zero wisdom. None. Zilch." The Hokage frowned. "He was cruel to me too. But inside that storm, it was obvious. He was cruel because he had no context for that cruelty, not because it was inherent to his nature. He took pleasure in it because it gave him a path to victory, but he had no way of understanding its consequences."

"That's wrong." Hinata shook her head. "He knew exactly what he was doing."

"I did." The King stood up. "Don't infantilize me."

"You're lying." Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Both of you. You-!" He leveled a finger at the King. "Sit down. And Hinata-" He turned back to his wife. Netero was surprised at the Hokage's tone; the man had gone from mild to commanding and impassioned in an instant. "We've both seen inside him. You know as well as I do, and as he does. As silly as it is, he was cruel for the same reasons he wanted to conquer the world or some other nonsense. When he surrendered to me, he surrendered that too. He's not a child, but he was like a baby, just shoving things in his mouth. He was still exploring sensations, and consequences."

"How can he understand consequences, if he's not punished?" Hinata asked sharply.

"How can he understand consequences if he's dead?" Naruto shot back.

"Why are you doing this?!" Hinata shot to her feet. "Why don't you care what he did to me?! To you! To this country, and the Hunters?! What's wrong with you?!"

"I already told you!" Naruto pronounced, standing up as well and towering over his wife. "I'm doing this because I don't know what to do!" He shook his head, growing more and more frustrated. "Is it better to punish him too much, or not enough? Why do I have to make the decision? Just because I'm strong?! Whatever the duty of the strong is, it's not this!"

The words struck Netero like an electric shock, and unconsciously he shot to his feet. "Duty has nothing to do with it." The Hokage gave him a puzzled look. "Duty is a sham."

"What?" Hinata asked, and Naruto echoed his wife's question. Netero felt his heart beat, thrilled at his own honesty.

"Why worry about 'duty'?" he asked. "It doesn't matter what your duty is. Just do what you want!" He laughed. "It's not as if any of us could stop you! Why worry about it, with strength like yours? You are beyond duty!"

"No one is beyond that! And, well I don't know what I want, you old bastard! That's why you're here!" Naruto shouted back, and Hinata laughed at her husband's suddenly brutal honesty.

"Don't be blind!" Netero said. What had come over him? Was he really that fed up, so quickly? God, these shinobi were infuriating. "It's obvious you want to spare him. Maybe even train him! You're practically infatuated with the damn creature. Why not just take him and scuttle back to your home? Take it out of our business, and then soothe your conscience in your world!"

"So long as the portal exists, that's not an option," Naruto said. "Your problems are ours, and the… the other way around."

"Vice versa?" Hinata suggested, and Naruto snapped his fingers.

"Yes, that! Thank you!" he exclaimed, planting a quick kiss on her forehead. The woman, whom Netero had seen destroy dozens of Chimera Ants with her bare hands, blushed.

"Perhaps the portal is the problem then," Netero suggested, and Naruto bristled. "You've been put in a position where you feel a duty to solve our problem." The Chairman sighed, feeling the fight leak out of him. This wasn't going where he wanted. "My apologies. You never should have been in that position in the first place. That's the real problem here."

"That's not the problem," the King said. He had his face cupped in both hands now, his tail idly whipping back and forth behind him.

"Pardon?" Netero asked, and the King pinned him with his deep purple eyes. Netero considered them with interest. Naruto was at least partially right. These eyes were nothing like the eyes of the creature who had tried to rip him to pieces in Peijing. There was more to them than hunger and fear.

"I thought," the King said, "that it was my duty to rule."

"That was just how I was born," he continued. "Born with a duty to rule. But now, there's a disagreement over my duty, and my life…" He smiled. "And it's predicated on duty. I'm starting to get it." The King laughed. "Much more complicated than any game. There isn't even a win state..."

"What are you talking about?" Hinata asked, and the King shifted his gaze to her, his mein becoming more mournful.

"It's simple," he said, spreading his palms. "In fact, you already know what I'm talking about, I just haven't been clear enough. The source of our previous conflicts, and this current one, all came from differences in duty. I thought it was my duty to rule, and you thought it was your duty to destroy the Chimera Ants. Now, that duty has shifted to defending your family: you gave up on the grander goal when the scope of the danger I presented…" He grew a little less enthusiastic, to Netero's amusement. "When I made it clear to you what a danger I was. Naruto is the same way: I saw in you that his duty was always to protect what was important to him. But now, I've confused those priorities by surrendering: how can he murder someone who is essentally helpless and still justify to himself that it was in the name of defense?" The King laughed. "'Proactive Defense,' perhaps. Certainly, you could go there. Especially with me."

He looked at the Hokage. "But are you willing?"

"Well done," Netero said dryly, "on summing up the situation. We're lucky to have such wisdom from the mouth of… whatever you are. But did you have anything to add?"

"I believe so," Meruem said. "I don't think any of us are correct here. Perhaps that's juvenile of me, but it's tempting to assume a middle ground." He pointed at himself. "Total control, without reservation. Even switching my duty to defending Komugi maintained that at the core." Then at Naruto. "Defense of the self, and what makes the self. The twine, right Naruto?"

The Hokage crossed his arms and nodded, listening with interest. Netero didn't understand the reference. Then, the King looked at Netero.

"And you were telling the truth," he said, tilting his head. "You don't believe in duty at all. To you, it's just being strong, right?"

Fielding questions from an overgrown cockroach wasn't exactly Netero's favorite activity, but he felt no compunction in answering.

"That's all there is to it," he said, and the King smiled.

"I don't think any of those are right," he said. "They've all failed us. They're too absolute. If you stick to one strategy no matter what, you develop blind spots. I took my absolute leadership as absolute strength, and look where it led me." He chuckled. "I brought the very man who'd defeat me to me. And now, he can't even make the simple decision to kill me!" He looked at Naruto. "That's funny, right?"

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, maybe a little. It helps if you think your life is funny."

"It is, maybe, a little absurd." The King looked down at his hand, opening and closing it and watching the pull of his tendons, tougher than diamonds. "And short. That's part of the absurdity. If it ends here, all the more so."

He looked up at Netero. "I'm curious. If strength is all there is, and I'm stronger than you, why did you oppose me at all? Why come here, why take the contract for the Ants at all?"

'Why?'

Netero wondered himself. Why had he done anything, become the Chairman of the Hunter's Association even? In pursuit of further strength? No, that wasn't it.

'Because I wanted to lose.' Netero was surprised at the clarity of his thoughts, but he was sure they were correct. 'It's been so long since I lost. I wanted to remember the feeling. What better than you, an opponent who would never consider me a possible threat unless I proved it? Even though you weren't supposed to be born...'

The realization was gradual in how it slowly came together in his consciousness, but like most things in Netero's life the actual moment of understanding was sudden and violent.

'Bad news,' he'd said, and he'd turned and smiled at the rest of the team. 'There's an Ant up there that could kill us all.'

"I came because I thought the Ants might be a challenge. And once the situation became obvious… I wanted you to be born," he said, and Hinata jolted at the admission.

"Netero-!?" she started to say, but he waved off her concern.

"I didn't act on it," he said. "It was just a thought I had. When we realized how dangerous the Ants were, when we saw Neferpitou that first day and I realized there was a creature in this world that could kill me without hesitation, I wondered what the King would be." How refreshing, to be honest.

"But in the end, I only had a chance to fight your shadow." Netero coughed. "It was something, but not what I wanted. A shame."

The King tilted his head. "If you had fought my real body, you would have died. That can't be what you wanted. You didn't have the strength to overcome me."

Netero resisted the urge to bite back. "There's more to strength than the strength in your body," he said instead, and touched his chest, placing his hand over his heart. Hinata glanced at him. "I hold something here that could have destroyed you, no matter how a battle between us went."

"Your heart?" the King asked. He blinked. "A connection? A loved one?"

"Ha!" Netero barked, and to his astonishment Hinata laughed too, a single suffocated snort. "More literal, I'm afraid. But there's no reason to worry about that. Where were you going with all this talking?"

"Of course," the King demurred. "My point was, I think you're all wrong. But the only one I've seen actually change their duty…" He pondered. "Ever, actually... has been Hinata."

"Oh." The woman sighed softly. "So?"

"So... " The King sucked in a breath. It was the only time Netero had seen the Ant look uncertain. "Do you think there is a middle ground?"

A middle ground?

"What do you mean by a middle ground?" she asked. The King looked down.

"I think you're the only person who can reconcile this," he said. "You've seen the most. You've watched me since before I was born. As much as it stings to admit, you're the only one I'd trust to decide my life."

You're the only one I'd trust to decide my life? Had the King really just said that? Netero's laugh was harsh, and everyone started at it.

"You'd leave your fate with a woman you tortured?" Netero was incredulous. "I took you for smarter than that, Ant." Did he want to die? No, that didn't fit. The King couldn't comprehend self-destruction.

But then, he and Naruto had both rationalized his surrender as a kind of death. Maybe he was just taking it one step further.

"You know what my decision would be, Mereum," Hinata said after a short pause. "You already know."

"In that case..." the King said, clambering off his stone. He knelt slowly, as if he were wearing something heavy, and presented his neck. "I would accept it."

Netero froze, and so did Hinata. Naruto was the only one who seemed unphased, watching the proceedings with a resigned look. The King's actions threw even Netero's mind into a jumble. It wasn't natural. These weren't the actions or movements of a King of the Chimera Ants. They were humble, and suicidal.

Netero's dread returned.

This was what he had misunderstood. That was why he'd felt so ill at ease. It wasn't just Naruto.

It was the King himself.

###

He would accept it?

For a solid minute, Hinata was sure that meant the King had accepted his own death. She'd step forward and shatter his spine, burst his skull. She was sure she could now. She'd once said that she could probably kill the King if he dropped his guard and let her. That was exactly what was happening here. There hadn't been any need for this meeting. The Ant wasn't resisting. Naruto wasn't needed.

But even though it would be ridiculously easy, she didn't step forward and break the Ant's neck.

Why didn't she? Was she actually a coward, after all this time? Hinata worried that this place had reduced her to the scared little girl she'd once been, unable or unwilling to commit violence, even necessary violence.

No, that wasn't it. Listen to yourself. You're a woman, you have children, you've killed. There's no difference between the King and all the other Ants in that respect.

It was something else, something obvious. She'd already admitted it to herself. She didn't want to fight anymore. She could kill, she just… didn't want to.

Hinata was done.

She looked down, regarding the King. He remained as still as a statue, his entire body relaxed and his gaze stuck to the floor. He really was ready, she marveled. He'd given up his life that casually. The King never would have bowed to someone, or surrendered his life.

The only person he had ever surrendered to before her husband was Komugi. But that had been in games, not life. By surrendering in a battle, forfeiting his life-

Naruto was right, she thought. As usual. That was a little infuriating to be honest. Why was her husband so damn perceptive? It really was that simple. He'd killed the King. He and Kurama had, by forcing Meruem to surrender. What remained looked just like the creature that had tortured her, but that King was…

Gone.

The King that had threatened her children had been slain by her husband. What was she doing, staring at this thing's neck now? What would she gain from killing him? Peace? She doubted it. Hinata had never felt peace from killing. Even when she'd almost killed Neferpitou, she'd felt relief at best. But now, like this, killing someone as they knelt in front of her, exposing their neck, not resisting? That wasn't who Hinata Uzumaki was.

Maybe if she had relied more on her ancestor's chakra, she'd be ruthless enough to be the executioner Meruem was asking for. But for better or worse, Hinata wasn't Hamura, and she didn't intend ever to be.

Meruem was still dangerous, even if the King was dead. Unbelievably dangerous, she thought. Mereum had sent millions of people to protect the life of a single girl without any consideration for their will. He'd hollowed out an entire country in a moment. But that was a different kind of danger from the dead thing that had fed her phantom children to her.

Hinata took a deep breath.

She remembered the blood-stained nest, and the collected misery of every human whose lives the Ants had stolen months ago. She remembered the King's tombstone teeth, bared in a hateful grimace as he threatened her family.

Don't forget. Can't forget. But what was the point of driving it so deeply into her heart that she saw it every time she closed her eyes, when all it would bring her was more pain?

She closed her eyes, unable and unwilling to forget everything she had seen, and released everything with her next breath.

She felt lighter. There was a weight on her mind, a migraine in waiting, that had just vanished.

Hinata opened her eyes and looked at her husband. He was watching her with obvious concern. It almost made her laugh. He was strong enough to solve all of this in an instant, she thought, but life had taught both of them there was more to solving things than strength alone. He was looking to her for guidance, just as the King was. Right now, she held more power than either of them.

But it wasn't just power. It was a partnership. Even with the King, in a strange way.

A partnership changes both sides, Hinata thought. Naruto had changed her for the better, and the King for the worse.

Which would she rather keep?

She sighed, and with her husband's strength she discarded her hate.

"In a case like this," she started to say. Her voice was soft and quiet, and she saw both Naruto and Netero strain to hear. "Someone who's too strong to punish can only be taught."

The King looked up at her, a confused look in his eyes.

'He really thought he was about to die. That's what he thought of me. That's what he made me.'

She locked her eyes on his, searching for any sign of deception. But there wasn't even a sliver of it. His body, his chakra, his eyes, everything bled sincerity. The King's aura hadn't been screaming since his fight with Naruto, but his intent still leaked from it without regard for subtlety. Hinata had no choice but to accept it.

"If they can't learn, they die," she declared, still looking the King dead in the eyes. The Ant hesitated, and then nodded. "There's no more room for compromise than that."

The King dropped his head again and spoke.

"Thank you."

There wasn't anything more than that.

"Hah." Netero chuckled. The Chairman crossed his arms. "I misread you, Hinata. I thought you would kill him immediately."

"I would have," Hinata said honestly. She looked from the King to her husband. "If I hadn't had time to think about it."

Naruto laughed, much more honestly than Netero, and reached out to grab her hand. "Now what, then?" he asked. There was something in his eyes that Hinata hadn't seen in a long time: relief.

"Now…" Hinata said, and she found that she couldn't help but laugh. "Now, I guess we have to figure out the rest."