After the raid on which Naruto had met the Tok'ra, things proceeded in a relatively routine manner for some time.
Babies were born, the periodic raid was conducted, the Empire expanded, infrastructure was built and other such things happened.
Oma still hadn't made a reappearance, causing both Naruto and Xanna to wonder if they'd scared her off for good, but they didn't seek the ascended woman out. If she didn't have the fortitude to return after getting a little inside look at Naruto's head then she wasn't worth playing with anyway. They expected that she would show up eventually though, as they had occasionally sensed her looking in on the planet.
It was on one of those lazy, uneventful evenings that found Naruto and Xanna reclining together on one of the spacious balconies of their palace that overlooked the city underneath.
Erius apparently had a smaller axial tilt than Earth, resulting in smaller temperature deviations around the year, though the difference wasn't too big. The area that they were situated in was about analogous to Greece as far as distance from the equator was concerned, though there was less ocean nearby since it was not a peninsula.
The weather sometimes slipped to uncomfortable levels...uncomfortable for most people anyway, since they were quite impervious to such pedestrian discomfort and Akitsu was perfectly capable of cooling herself off if it got too hot and had an absurd resistance to cold. Aside from those uncommon times, it was mostly mild and comfortable, though you would be hard pressed to notice that at the moment with the furious thunderstorm that was going on.
Naturally, this meant that Naruto and Xanna were getting soaked in the downpour, but since that was the idea, it was all good. They weren't bothering with clothes and simply enjoyed the rain and wind while they cuddled.
Xanna was laying with her back to Naruto's chest and both had their sopping wet hair tossed carelessly out of the way. Naruto had a hand draped across her chest, but there was nothing sexual about it for a change, just a married couple enjoying a lazy day of doing nothing.
Frequent lightning strikes cast odd shadows over the city, the rain fell in thick sheets and the wind howled violently. This region of the planet didn't get storms like this often...in fact, this was by far the worst one to have happened since they'd taken over.
It was the type of weather that could drive a man to introspection, and that was exactly what it did to Naruto.
Thinking over the time they'd already spent here, Naruto realized that he had to be over fifty years old by now. He'd lost track of the exact number since the year on Erius was longer than it had been on Earth or in the Elemental Nations, about 20% longer if his estimation was right.
Almost as old as Tsunade when she died. He mused, using the hand that wasn't draped across his wife to touch the crystal necklace she'd given him.
She'd have been laughing her oversized tits off if she knew that I made myself Emperor after refusing to be Hokage. He thought wryly.
Ironically enough, it looked like he would also be fulfilling Jiraiya's dream of making a world without war, something that he hadn't given even two seconds of consideration when the man had told him about it. It just wouldn't be the world that the Toad Sage had had in mind. Well...Erius at least wouldn't have any wars fought on it...the rest of the galaxy was a different story.
Over thirty years had passed since their apotheosis and the time spent on Erius was the first significant time span that Naruto had spent around the same group of mortals since then.
It had been odd, seeing them grow old. Tia, that would be assassin that he'd played psychiatrist for, was now a mother with teenaged children of her own and she should be approaching fifty herself soon. He was glad that the way she'd transferred her case of Stockholm Syndrome onto him had blown over fairly quick. That had certainly taught him to tone down somewhat on the double entendres or else have some women start thinking that he was actually interested in them.
Setsuna was firmly into her thirties by now and probably had a decade of active service left to her at best, provided she didn't get the urge to start a family of her own. It seemed unfair that Te'lok, who was twice her age, would still be able to keep going for at least another forty years before age started slowing him down.
Naruto didn't much care about the unfairness of it truth be told, nor did he see any tragedy in a shorter life span. What mattered was what you did with it rather than how long it lasted.
That aside, he really liked Setsuna and wanted her around for a bit longer. He wondered how she would react to the idea of having her life extended.
She'll probably love it, that girl has a serious axe to grind with the Goa'uld. He thought, snorting softly to himself.
A soft hand caressed his forearm, it's owner apparently roused by his snort.
"Something on your mind husband?" Her voice was perfectly audible despite the loud storm.
"Just thinking that I've become a dirty old man." He replied wryly.
"Hmm?" Xanna returned, not understanding what he was talking about.
"I think I'm over fifty years old now." He elaborated.
"Oh, I see." She had for the most part stopped paying attention to the passage of time long ago. Even the self estimation of her age was more of a guess than anything more accurate.
Turning her head slightly, she looked up at his face, noting that he was starting to give off the same sense of agelessness that all those who were older than their bodies suggested eventually acquired. Looking merely at his face, one would think he was somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties, but he was getting a presence that indicated otherwise.
She smiled up at him, remembering how unhesitatingly he had discarded pieces of his humanity for her, culminating in the abandonment of his mortality. All because he loved her and wanted her so desperately.
Placing a hand on his cheek to guide his head, she scooted upwards and awkwardly craned her neck to give him a kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too and not that I'm complaining, but where did this come from?" He asked bemusedly once the kiss was over.
"Nowhere in particular." She smirked and settled back against him.
Still bemused, he nonetheless let it go and they went back to staring at the beautiful display of nature's violent power.
Another fork of lightning crackled across the sky, momentarily lightning it up and it was shortly followed by a loud peal of thunder.
Getting an idea, Naruto smirked and grabbed hold of the storm with his mind, directing the lightning in a particular pattern.
Xanna smiled widely when the next lightning bolt turned out to be distinctly heart shaped.
"My, what strange weather we are having." She said with light amusement.
The next lightning bolt spelled out 'N + X'.
"Oh, now that is just juvenile." She laughed. "What are you, fourteen?"
"Senile dementia, could happen to anyone you know." He quipped back.
Xanna patted him on the cheek mockingly and spoke in an equally mocking tone. "Don't be absurd beloved, you were demented long before you were in danger of going senile."
They lapsed back into silence and stayed that way for an indeterminable amount of time. Their soaking wet cuddle was interrupted by a hesitant sounding knock on the door.
Exchanging a curious look, they both got up to answer, since it was very unusual for any of the servants to bother them so late.
They dried off as they passed through the actual bedroom, giving the sleeping form of Akitsu an amused look. The Ice Sekirei got very sleepy during storms and was currently wrapped in an abundance of blankets and hugging a pillow.
The young woman on the other side of the door looked very relieved when it opened. That relief rapidly shifted to embarrassment when she saw that neither had bothered getting dressed.
"I am sorry to bother you so late, but there is a large group of people waiting at the main entrance." She stammered nervously.
"What do they want at this hour, and in this weather come to think of it?" Xanna asked, both baffled and slightly irritated at the interruption.
"Sections of the city are becoming flooded due to the storm and they had nowhere else to go." She answered, wringing her hands anxiously. "They are promising that they will stay out of your way, but I did not want to admit them without your permission."
Naruto and Xanna exchanged a look, both having completely forgotten that this kind of weather was actually a big problem for most people.
"Let them in and give the empty rooms to the families with young children, the rest will just have to bunk in the hallways." Naruto said, to the visible girl's visible relief. She was new and still hadn't adjusted to the fact that neither he nor Xanna were inclined to be dicks to random people just because they could.
They were only dicks to specific people, because it was fun.
"There should be extra bedding and sleeping mats in the last room of the ground floor eastern wing." Xanna added, to which the girl nodded and hurried off.
"We have a room with extra bedding and sleeping mats?" Naruto asked. This was news to him.
The horned woman had a look of focus on her face for a few moments before she spoke. "We do now."
"If you're not careful I might start thinking that you actually care about people's comfort." He teased.
"Hardly, " She snorted. "but we do not need to put up with petty jealousy right now, nor do I feel like listening to them complain about their aching backs for as long as they are here."
"You're all heart." Naruto jibed and hugged her from behind.
"I guess we'll need to figure out some kind of water drainage system to keep this from happening again." He mused, nuzzling his nose into her hair. "Keeping track of all our projects is actually starting to become a problem without spamming the world with clones."
Xanna had to agree, it was starting to get a bit much for just them to do unless they started cheating, which she didn't want to do. There was the constant need to incorporate all the new people that Naruto's raiding brought to the planet. Then there was the drive to push along the education level of the people, which had many problems of its own, chief of them being that the people themselves saw little value in it just yet. Aside from that, there were dozens of issues cropping up that any budding society faced, with more showing up all the time.
Making clones to handle all of that simply wasn't feasible unless they wanted to support all levels of society by themselves, which they didn't.
"It appears that it is time for you to get another lesson on running a nation." She said, starting to pull him towards the bed.
"Oh?" He replied, the grin in his voice audible. "What lesson would that be?"
"Delegating responsibility to underlings."
Naruto blinked at his wife's teasing reply, having expected that there would be sex. He looked on owlishly as she crawled under the covers next to Akitsu and then he sensed her reaching out to the storm, adjusting it so that it would dissipate within an hour or so.
Apparently she didn't want the palace to be full of temporarily homeless people for any longer than it had to be.
"Get over here and spoon me." She commanded imperiously, making room for a clingy Akitsu to latch onto her like a limpet.
Snapping out of his little daze, Naruto chuckled to himself and did as she said. "If only people knew how much of a cuddler you were..."
"Then they would be wise to keep their thoughts on the matter to themselves." She retorted archly and wiggled into a perfectly comfortable position between the two of them.
There had been periods when she slept for decades at a time out of sheer boredom, so having someone hold her was a luxury that never got old.
A smile bloomed on her face when she felt her husband shifting in an attempt to put his erection somewhere out of the way. As usual when this situation happened, he failed and eventually sheathed it between her thighs where she could feel it throbbing in time with his heartbeat.
No doubt it would be hours before he managed to fall asleep, the oversexed idiot.
He would be a lot of fun in the morning though.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A few days later.
Khepri stared at the crowd around her and tried to figure out what was going on. She'd received an invitation to come to the palace to discuss an opportunity and all of the people around her had presumably received the same.
There was nothing they had in common that she knew of, as there were both humans and Jaffa of both genders and from many backgrounds present.
She hadn't really been sure whether to even accept the invitation or ignore it, as it had been specifically worded to make it understandable that she could refuse without repercussions. Still, eventually curiosity had won out and here she was.
That curiosity was only being stoked by the few people she recognized.
She exchanged a nod with Nala, the leader of the Bast Guard from the fateful raid that had seen her belief in Bastet's divinity and benevolence thoroughly crushed. They'd gotten to know each other in the aftermath and were on friendly terms, though they didn't see much of each other anymore. Last she'd heard of her, Nala and most of the other women in the Bast Guard had joined the Emperor's army and occasionally butted heads with some of the male Jaffa who still thought that women shouldn't be fighting.
She also caught sight of Ling and exchanged sneers with the annoying bastard. He'd been stuck in that training camp just like her and had been just as vocal with his opinions on women as she had been with hers on men. Unfortunately for him, Setsuna was a woman and had a notoriously short temper for disrespect. Nobody had been overly shocked that she had been rather more brutal with him than with others.
Khepri grimaced at the memory of Tarnor singling her out as well, for much the same reason. While the scarred Jaffa hadn't had an excuse to administer beatings the way Setsuna had, he had still been perfectly capable of inducing misery in other ways.
Both of them had learned to keep their mouths shut on the issue of gender, but their mutual dislike was there to stay.
Further contemplation of the situation was cut off as the door to the room opened and the two people who ruled the planet entered unannounced.
Naruto had never put much stock in the idea of announcing oneself before entering a room and he was plenty loud enough to not need it in any case.
"Goooood morning people!"
Xanna might have had someone announce their entrance, but it would have been just plain embarrassing if Naruto barged into the room in the middle of it.
There was a short clamor as the room full of people returned the overly cheerful greeting, though not without a degree of hesitant confusion. Most of them had met one or the other at some point and were a bit wary as to what was going on.
"Now I'm sure you're all wondering what this is all about, so lets get right to that." Naruto continued, getting nods and mutters of agreement.
"Some of you have been with us since the beginning or nearly so." Xanna picked off where he left off. "As such you will know best how quickly our Empire has expanded, but even those of you who have joined us relatively recently are no doubt able to see it."
More mutters of agreement and some people were starting to get an inkling of what this was about.
"Those of you who have been called here have been deemed to have the potential to help with the day to day running of the Empire and aiding in its future growth, as it has become difficult for just the two of us to keep track of everything. Should you be chosen for this and should you accept, you will be vested with the legal authority to act on our behalf within the limits of what will become your responsibility."
Khepri was rather incredulous at hearing this. She had been under the distinct impression that both of them had a very low opinion of her and quite a few others in this room. After her stay in the Emperor's training camp, she had been left alone to do whatever she wanted with her life as long as it did not violate any of the laws that the two horned rulers had set down. She hadn't been sure what to make of the sudden summons but this had not been what she was expecting.
"Some of us " Naruto took over, throwing a pointed look across the room. "have had our disagreements and differences in opinion on how things should be, but that is mostly behind us now."
Though nothing showed on her face, Khepri internally fumed at the smug wink he threw her way. She would take the distant superiority of the Empress over the his mocking friendliness any day.
"The positions possible will range from regional to those encompassing the whole of the Empire and will cover areas such as education, food production, police and others." Xanna said, once again taking over the narrative. "You are only mortal and we are not unreasonable, as such it will not be expected of you to handle everything perfectly and you may come to us for help if you do not know how to act in a certain situation."
At this point, her eyes narrowed dangerously and she spoke in a tone of undeniable warning. "Know however, that we will continue to be active on our own and will be watching for anyone who may be...misusing...the power of their position for their own ends. If you accept this duty, then you will serve the people of the Empire, not yourselves, your friends or whatever personal beliefs you may hold. If you think yourself unable to hold true to this, then it would be wise to refuse this offer and return to your lives as you are."
The warning caused the entire room to visibly stiffen, all of them well aware by now that both Emperor and Empress tended to be rather heavy handed when administering punishment, though it was still better than the Goa'uld in most ways.
"You say that we will serve the interests of the people, yet it seems to me that we will be serving your interests rather than theirs." Nala challenged boldly.
A hush fell across the room as nobody could quite believe that she had just dared say that.
Contrary to the feeling of general apprehension, Naruto grinned widely at the ballsy challenge. Being female Jaffa warriors, Nala and her fellow Bast Guard had often found themselves at odds with the men, despite his explicit approval of women as warriors. It had been hilarious watching them butt heads and it had turned Nala into the type of woman that tended to challenge anything.
His wife was not as amused about being openly challenged as him, but she had long since moved past the instinctive violent reaction that such a thing might have inspired in times past.
"Do not flatter yourself, you do not have the ability to serve any of our interests." She said haughtily.
"Some of the women have the ability to serve my interests." Naruto admitted grinningly, to the embarrassment of said women.
"You do not have the ability to serve any of our non-sexual interests." Xanna corrected. "The decision to create this Empire was not made out of ambition or need, but out of the simple desire to see if I could and Naruto has even more inane reasons."
"So this is all just a game to you?" Someone asked, traces of incredulous outrage in his voice.
"Would you have preferred to stay under Goa'uld dominion?" The horned woman asked archly. "It is a game to them as well, they merely take it more seriously. Look past the injury to your pride and you will see that you benefit greatly from our presence."
The budding outrage was swiftly deflated by those words, all of them having been thoroughly disillusioned with the idea of living under the Goa'uld. Many of them had personal experience with how much better they had it now. True, they didn't agree with everything, but they would not want to go back.
"In case any of you were wondering 'why me?'..." Naruto went on before anyone else could speak up. "That would be because all of you who are present here had the courage to speak out against us at one point or another. It would be easy to place people who would agree with us blindly into these positions, but we want you to think. Regardless of where you came from, this is your home now and you should have some input on its development."
As the crowd started to mutter among themselves again, this time with a more optimistic tone, Khepri had to marvel at how blatantly manipulative that had been. First they openly admit to seeing the whole thing as a game and then explain away this delegation of power as a gesture of goodwill to allow them a say in the direction of their lives...pending their approval of course.
She wasn't sure if she was only catching this because she had prior experience with how manipulative they could be, or if it really was that obvious and the others simply didn't care.
Not that it matters much. Khepri thought sourly. One way or another, they would have things the way they wanted them.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A few years later.
One day, in a random fit of boredom, Naruto had decided to install a set of swings in the palace garden for reasons that nobody had ever properly explored.
It was a simple construction of metal with wooden boards to sit on that was somewhat beyond the current technological ability of the planet, but nobody asked too many questions about that. Word of the strange device had gotten around due to curious and gossipy servants and fairly soon, carpenters had been making their own versions with wood and rope.
It proved predictably popular with children, which was something that earned Naruto a great many barbed comments from his wife, even though he had eventually persuaded her to try it out.
It was currently in use by them and Akitsu, who found it fun just as Naruto did.
"I was thinking that we may want to make the executions public." Xanna mused, swinging her legs to keep up the momentum of the swing. For all her scathing commentary on Naruto's childishness in putting a playground item in their garden, it had turned out to be a rather good spot to do some thinking.
"I don't see why, we're not trying to hide it or anything, but I don't want to make a spectacle out of it either." Naruto argued back, swinging right next to her.
"It would better serve as an example if it was visible for all to see, a warning to others that may have considered committing such crimes." Xanna said back.
"That's nice and all, but most people aren't going to do something like that anyway and the ones who are probably aren't going to be too disturbed by the sight of a few executions anyway." He reasoned in turn.
In front of them a light bloomed and coalesced into the form of the long absent Oma Desala, temporarily disrupting the conversation.
"Well well, look who came to visit." Xanna drawled, immediately conjuring up a physical body for the newcomer and stuffing her into it.
"Greetings once again." Oma greeted, betraying no reaction to being made suddenenly corporeal, having mostly gotten used to the sensation by now.
She did take a quick glance at her clothing though. An elaborate robe of layered black and purple silk that did not truly reveal anything but hinted at everything.
Could be worse.
"Nice." Naruto commented, not stopping in his swinging.
"Pretty." Akitsu agreed, also continuing to swing.
Any reply from Oma was cut off as Naruto launched himself from the swing to land right in front of her with his arms spread widely.
"HUGS?"
The ascended woman simply looked at him neutrally and did not move.
Naruto however was not deterred and enveloped her in a massive bear hug in spite of her lack of enthusiasm. "HUUUUUUGS!"
"Let...go of me!" She managed to get out with impressive coherency despite having her cheek mashed into one of his pectorals.
"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGS!"
Oma released a long sigh that communicated such a wealth of weary exasperation that even the most energetic people would lose the will to continue pestering her. Naturally, Naruto continued to hold on for a long while despite the fact that the woman he was hugging had her arms and legs hanging limply with a passive resistance to his antics.
Back on the swings, Akitsu shook her head sadly at Oma's behavior. Hugs from Naruto weren't to be taken for granted, even if he did hand them out like candy. She felt sorry for the poor woman that didn't know what a wonderful thing she was resisting.
Eventually, Naruto put her back down on the ground and grinned at her as if she had actually returned the hug. "So what can I do you for?"
Frowning and deciding to ignore the mixed up wording of that sentence, Oma opened her mouth to speak but was cut off before she could.
"Ah ah ah!" Naruto tutted and sat back down on the swing. "get swinging."
Sighing in a long suffering manner, Oma pointed out a flaw in his 'request'. "There are no more swings available."
"This is true." Naruto admitted and hummed consideringly at the conundrum. "Akitsu, come sit on my lap."
The Ice Sekirei eagerly vacated her seat and plopped into his lap, wiggling her rear until she was comfortable.
They started started swinging their legs together and Akitsu smiled happily. This was great.
"Wheeee."
"So cute!" Naruto exclaimed and clamped his lips on her pale neck, sucking on it and giving her a hicky in short order.
Akitsu squealed in both surprise and pleasure at the sudden assault on her neck.
A pebble smacked into the side of Naruto's blond head with a resounding 'thunk' that implied it had been thrown with considerable force.
"Do rein yourself in husband." Xanna said dryly, turning another pebble around in her hand.
"But...that 'wheee'! It was adorable." Naruto protested.
"Yes, it was." She agreed. "It was also a blatant manipulation by Akitsu to keep your attention on her."
The Ice Sekirei went pink at being discovered and ducked her head.
"That's...pretty impressive." Naruto admitted, having honestly not picked up on it. He suddenly had to wonder how many times the quiet woman had pulled one over on him like this. Surely he was not so easily manipulated by cuteness?
"it was also rather cheeky." Xanna said archly. "Candlewax tonight I think."
Akitsu bit her lower lip and pressed her thighs together as hard as she could, trying desperately to control the heat rising between them, not helped by the fact that she could feel Naruto's own arousal poking at her. Though it sounded like a punishment, she loved it when Xanna brought out the candlewax, even if it was going to be unbearable. The horned woman could hold her helplessly on the edge between pleasure and pain for hours at a time, keeping climax a hairsbreadth away until she was left sobbing for release.
It was amazing.
She bit her lip even harder as her nipples stiffened so much that she could almost feel the phantom sensation of stinging droplets of candlewax dripping over them. When the fire between her legs started becoming almost physically painful, Akitsu realized that she had to leave or she was going to start molesting Naruto then and there. Normally not a problem, but if Xanna had already interrupted once, then that meant that she couldn't do that right now.
"Haaah...excuse me...I have to...go."
"By all means." Naruto said with a grin. Even if he couldn't smell the nearly overpowering scent of her arousal, Akitsu's strained speech would have clued him in on it.
The Ice Sekirei wasted no time hopping off his lap and walking rather jerkily towards the palace.
"And Akitsu..." Xanna called out with a somewhat mean smirk on her face, making the Sekirei stop instantly. "...no touching yourself."
Naruto stared hungrily at her retreating back at the tiny whimper that escaped from Akitsu's throat. Truth be told, he was having trouble restraining himself from chasing her down and taking her against the first available surface at this particular moment.
Fortunately, his wife's throaty chuckle distracted him and pulled his attention over to her.
"I do believe we've turned sweet little Akitsu into a sex addict." She said humorously.
"Smells like it." He agreed and turned to the third person present, who had been silent as a mouse and pretending that she didn't exist for the past few minutes. "What do you think Oma?"
"She is clearly where she wants to be and it is not my place to comment on your lifestyle." The ascended woman answered stoically.
Alteran culture had frowned upon those who stuck their noses into the way others lived their lives...Though displays such as what she had just witnessed would have still been considered highly inappropriate for such a public space, but this was not the Alteran culture.
Xanna stood from her swing and approached her, laying her palm gently on the ascended woman's cheek and leaning in with a murmur. "We could show you a thing or two about our lifestyle. I assure you that it would be most...enlightening."
Oma didn't quite jerk away, but she did very pointedly step back and lean out of the touch. "No thank you."
Despite spending millennia as a technically genderless spirit, she still identified as a female and had never had any such interest in her own gender. And this was after disregarding the fact that physical pursuits no longer interested her.
"Your loss." Xanna said with a wicked smirk and sat in Naruto's recently vacated lap, gesturing towards one of the empty swings on either side of them. "Sit."
Naruto and Xanna started kicking their legs to build momentum, while Oma simply sat there unmovingly.
"Omaaaaaa~," Naruto sing-songed when he noticed her lack of motion. "there's no point in sitting on a swing if you don't actually swing."
"Is this truly necessary?" The ascended woman asked in exasperation.
"Nothing is truly necessary, yet we continue going through the motions of an irrelevant existence in an uncaring Universe." Xanna spoke philosophically, and quite over dramatically.
Oma sighed with an air of defeat and started kicking out her legs, feeling like a child all the while. It was a small price to pay to get them to listen to her, but it was just so damnably absurd. Seriously, bringing out existential philosophy as an argument for why she should use a swing?
"So, what were we talking about again?" Naruto asked once they were all swinging.
"We were debating the merits of making the executions of our worst criminal offenders public to serve as a warning to others." Xanna said.
"Ah, and I was against it because I don't think it would achieve anything worthwhile." He nodded to himself.
"I too would advise against it." Oma added her own opinion. "Aside from being ineffective as deterrents, public executions would also damage the mentality of the people as a whole."
The horned duo both blinked and looked at her in confusion, not understanding what she was talking about. "Damage...their mentality?"
"Unlike yourselves, most people are not able to see another person being killed and remaining unaffected. Such a sight on a regular basis would undoubtedly instill a certain indifference towards the value of life and increase the likelihood of base behavior."
The light of realization entered their eyes and they nodded. Neither one of them had any kind of respect for life for one reason or another and didn't really understand what the big deal was. Even with Oma's explanation, they didn't quite grasp it, but they would take her word for it.
"I'm surprised you're not objecting to us even having executions." Naruto commented.
"Would I be able to convince you to abandon the practice?" The ascended woman asked dryly.
"No, but I expected you to try anyway." He replied with a smirk.
Oma simply sighed and made no further comment on that. Perhaps one day, but at the moment such a thing was simply not going to happen, the brief joining with Naruto years ago had made that abundantly clear to her.
The Alterans had long ago taken a more philosophical view of death in any case, so the deaths themselves did not bother her overmuch and she could not tell them how to punish their criminals in any case. She was more concerned with the long term impact it would have on the civilization they were making.
"A thought occurs husband." Xanna said pensively.
"Is it a dirty one?" He leered.
"Not particularly. I was just considering that Oma obviously wishes we weren't so quick to kill people and it occurred to me that there may be a better use for our slowly growing criminal population."
Oma looked towards the horned woman with interest and even some shock. While she had been impressed with the fact that they had assembled a form of government and filled it with people who were willing to argue with them, as that was an important first step on the path to something more democratic, she had not expected anything even remotely lenient from their justice system for some time.
"Do tell." Naruto urged with a smirk, keepings his hands on her waist and keeping her pressed firmly against his still rock hard erection as they kicked their feet out on the swing. For all that the conversation was important, his mind was mostly on the upcoming fun.
"There is always difficult work to be done that nobody wants to do, so why not have the criminals do it? The ones with lighter crimes would be allowed to return to their lives after a certain period of time, while the ones we were going to execute would work until they eventually died." Xanna explained her idea.
Naruto mulled it over for a while. It would certainly be a way of avoiding the need to build prisons and he was going to kill the rapists, child molesters, unrepentant murderers and the like anyway. Might as well get some use out of them.
Oma was not nearly as sanguine about it as him and knew that she had to derail this before it got any momentum. Slavery as a punishment was an order of magnitude worse than simple executions and simply could not end well. She didn't even know why she was surprised that Xanna's idea had turned out to be something like this.
"I advise against it, such a practice would cause great damage to the culture you are creating as well as to your own reputations. It would polarize your people and be a serious point of contention." She said empathically.
Xanna was less than moved by the argument however. "The culture would adapt, what people think of us is irrelevant and Humanity is petty enough to always argue about something anyway. We may as well give them something or else they will make it up themselves."
"I don't see what the problem is." Naruto said with a shrug. "We'd need to separate criminals from the rest of society anyway and they had to know the consequences of their actions when they chose to commit a crime."
In other words, they expected the general population to simply 'deal with it' and had instantly dehumanized the criminals to the level of 'problems to be solved'...at least in the case of the worst offenders.
Oma hid her frustration with their thinking well and approached from a different angle. "You would need to have guards watching them at all times and it may be the spark needed to ignite a rebellion against you since it would rightly be seen as you practicing slavery similar to the Goa'uld. It would be more trouble than it is worth."
That got them to rethink their idea. While there was no hope of anyone unseating them by force, rebellions would be...troublesome.
"Fine then, we'll stick to the executions." Naruto huffed, somewhat disappointed. He'd considered it a rather good idea, but Oma did have a point and it likely would end up being more trouble than it was worth.
"Don't be so hasty Naruto." Xanna said, getting their attention. "Perhaps using them as slave labor would not work so well but what about entertainment?"
"Entertainment?" He asked in bewilderment. "How exactly could we use a bunch of rapists as entertainment? I mean sure, killing them is kind of fun for me, but..."
"We could organize gladiatorial death matches." She announced smugly. "It would be the perfect way to get rid of them, while still making some use of them."
"This is your worst idea yet!" Oma interjected, frustration starting to leak into her voice. How could two people that were otherwise so levelheaded and reasonable be so blind to how badly that could end?
"And pray tell, why is that?" Xanna asked, irritation seeping into her tone as well.
"Disregarding the immorality of blood sports, it would serve to glorify successful gladiators in the eyes of the spectators in spite of them being criminals. Worse still, you would soon find yourself facing a shortage of criminals as demand for more battles grew and this is not even mentioning that it would turn your people into bloodthirsty barbarians."
"She might have a point." Naruto admitted with some reluctance, having thought it was a pretty good idea himself.
Oma could have slumped in relief. She hadn't imagined just how exhausting it would be to steer these two immoral monsters away from the worst ideas.
Xanna settled down, though she still had a sour look on her face. Yes, Oma probably had a point, but she had really thought it was a good idea. Even she would have been able to enjoy it, which was not something that could be said about a lot of things at her age. She was starting to understand her husband's feelings on the matter of ruling a nation. Being responsible really sucked sometimes.
"We could still have a volunteer gladiator league, though it would probably be better to restrain it to non-lethal types of entertainment." Naruto said, noting his wife's unhappy mood and trying to cheer her up.
"It just wouldn't be the same." She sighed, got up from his lap and started walking away.
"Now look at what you did." Naruto scolded and followed her.
Oma stared at the golden mane swishing over his retreating back, having to consciously suppress the urge to grind her teeth together.
Had Naruto seriously just scolded her for convincing them not to implement a barbaric and completely backwards means of punishing criminals?
"Maybe she wouldn't have gotten upset if you weren't both psychopaths." She muttered to herself with a fair bit more vehemence than you could normally find in one of the Ascended.
Then again, most Ascended didn't interact with anyone and thus neatly avoided any stressful situations.
...And she was stuck in a physical body again because they would undoubtedly be busy with each other and Akitsu for the foreseeable future. Lovely.
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