So, I’ve been thinking about this for awhile, and the answer I came up with was kind of confuddled. Not really an answer at all, really. Just aimless talk.Â
Basically, Konoha is a police state. Sort of. They’re at war consistently throughout the entire series to the point that their entire life is militarized. So things like rape, murder, etc are dealt with within that context.
Usually dishonorable discharges, and things like that. Ideally. At least on paper.
But then there are issues with clan: if a clan member rapes another clan member, is it something the clan itself deals with (marriage, removing them from the clan) or is it something Konoha is responsible for? And another thought, the Uchiha were the police force in the series, are they allowed to regulate their own, or is it considered a conflict of interest? Who watches them then?
If it’s a crime between multiple clans, what system is used to settle the dispute and deal out punishment?
And it’s interesting, because if you look at a character like Orochimaru, he is EASILY one of the worst characters in the series. If you look up human rights violation, he is the picture next to the definition. But he is never punished. In fact, he makes his own shinobi village, and there is… apparently no recourse for this? He’s even allowed back into the village later?
What is the logic there? Is it because he is one of the Sannin, and Konoha does not want to deal with the political fall out of disavowing one of their own? Is it because he is a powerful enough threat that they’d rather have him as an inactive enemy, one they will deal with later once they settle other concerning matters?
I’m tangenting with no point, but the tldr for me is: Konoha has laws against rape, murder, and all the other Big Bad Sins. It just doesn’t enforce them. Because this is war, and they aren’t going to sacrifice their strongest soldiers just because they got a little handsy with a kunoichi who thought she knew better.
(That was deliberately crude, btw.)Â
