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The Blessed Realm	By : susanna Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1746 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: Naruto, his friends and the world he lives in don't belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto. I write this story only for my pleasure and I don't make any money with it.

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Chapter Ninety-Nine: Protection failed
The staff withdrew to consult about their impressions of the group discussion. Sasuke still felt irritated as he had not been able to take the discussion seriously as a test, but people in Music Town had weird criteria for choosing their future policepeople which he still didn't understand. After some minutes one of the staff members called inside the boy who had said the people who had been beaten down had brought this upon themselves, and after a short time he returned, packed his stuff and left. Naruto asked him why he had to go.
“Too emotional and impulsive,” the boy said, making clear that he did not want to discuss this with his competitors.
The rest of the group had passed, and together they waited for the last element of the entrance test: single interviews. All of them felt pretty confident by now, including Sasuke, who had no idea what the single interview might be about. He listened to the other candidates' chatter without making an attempt to participate in it: listening to the sound of other people talking was enough for him – he was part of the group, even without speaking himself. His thoughts wandered: his life would change again, his plans for revenge were put off even further, but becoming a policeman he would continue his clan's tradition. He was content that again he had found people who accepted him, just as he had been content when he had been accepted by the gay men of the dance class: These chattering girls would be his people now. He did not mind that their chatter was all superficial (first about school, then about the best places for going out in the evenings, then gossip about common acquaintances.) He did not trust them to be good policewomen, not even according to the criteria of Music Town, where policewomen were expected to face criminals without fear, without intention of attacking them and without the means to survive a fight if fighting was necessary. He'd protect them, he decided.
One by one the candidates were called to the staff's office, and one by one they returned smiling. Only one girl returned and packed her stuff without saying a word, and when the other girls asked her what had happened she refused to speak. It was Naruto who went outside with her to comfort her and give her courage. Sasuke felt jealous even though he should have been glad that at least for some minutes Naruto left his side.
He was the last candidate to have his interview. He thought it was by chance, but in reality it was because the admission committee had needed to find a way to deal with Naruto. It had not escaped them that he followed Sasuke everywhere, and they had got curious about him, so they decided to invite him to join Sasuke for the interview.
Naruto was surprised, but he followed the invitation. The committee, five persons altogether, looked scary, and Naruto was glad that he was with Sasuke to protect him. The first questions were actually directed at himself.
“So you're his friend,” they said.
“Boy-friend, actually,” Naruto replied.
Sasuke took his hand, grateful for this admission.
“Do you support your boy-friend's plan to become a policeman?”
“Definitely. He really wants it, and I want him to be happy.”
“Do you think he will make a good policeman?”
Naruto considered it. “He's an excellent fighter,” he said. “He's strong and courageous and doesn't lose his nerves. He's also a bit stiff and rigid and does his best to be all correct, just like you.”
People smiled, but the smile was rather ironic than friendly.
“What else is he good at?” the head of the committee continued to ask.
Again Naruto had to think. “At the restaurant, where we worked until recently, he was good at refusing people another drink when they were drunk.”
“I was also efficient at drawing beer,” Sasuke said. “You always spilled half of it.”
“Yes, that too. He's also good with very small children. He reads stories to them. He's also good at teaching taijutsu to our class of six-year-olds.”
“You teach taijutsu to children?” they asked, turning now to Sasuke himself. He explained about it.
“You get along with them?”
“Yes. All in all, I mean.”
“They listen to you and follow your orders?”
“Most of the time.”
“He can be quite strict and commanding,” Naruto took over again. (At the moment Sasuke didn't look strict at all, but rather insecure.) “No child would dare to disobey him.”
The committee turned to Naruto again: “So there's various things he's good at,” they said. “Also, we have heard that the two of you have to manage your own household and do so considerably well, even though occasionally you still need some support from grown-ups.”
“We don't. They just insist on interfering.”
Again the head of the committee smiled, but the smile was not friendly.
“We understand it's difficult for you to accept the interference of grown-ups after having mangaged your own affairs for years. - So you think that not only you yourself but your boy-friend too is well able to look after himself?”
Again Naruto thought before he answered. “He isn't - he needs me. Without me, he'd forget to eat and drink. I have to cook for him. Without me, he's stay at home, brooding, he'd never go out and have fun.”
“Without me, you'd still live in your room in the attic above our old restaurant and spend your time dreaming of Konoha,” Sasuke replied.
The committee pretended not to have heard him.
“So this is why you don't leave his side now.”
“I'm his friend, that's why I stay at his side. I need to comfort him in case he fails.”
“Other people get comforted when they arrive back home.”
“With him it's different. I need to look after him to prevent him from doing something stupid.”
“What kind of stupid?”
“Running away. Leaving Music Town and deciding to take out Danzou by himself.”
There was a silence of several seconds. Sasuke made use of it: “I haven't done anything stupid since I arrived in Music Town.”
“Because I look after you.”
“Because in Music Town, contrary to Konoha, People know the difference between right and wrong.”
He had raised his voice, but he soon got a grip on himself again. He turned to the committee: “Your boss may have told you that I have attacked the jinchuuriki of the Cloud in order to capture him and deliver him to Akatsuki. I regret it. I am ready to accept punishment.”
“It's not for us to decide about your punishment,” the head of the committee replied. “What interests us is whether you might forget about right and wrong again and let your emotions dictate your actions, with or without your friend looking after you. So if now you tell him to leave, so that we may talk to you by yourself.”
Sasuke straightened. The day's challenges had been very different to the challenges he was used to as a ninja, and he felt exhausted. He sensed that convincing the committee that something like his attack against Killerbee wouldn't happen again might become difficult. He also felt that Naruto's interventions had not improved his chances, so being told to tell him to leave came as a relief to him.
“Please leave. I have to face this on my own. I can face this on my own.”
Naruto got up. He was not stupid, and he knew that if he refused to leave it was the end of Sasuke's career as a policeman. He got up and kissed him on his cheeks before he left, and Sasuke kissed him back. “Good luck!” he said.
He did not return to the other candidates but decided to wait for Sasuke in the corridor, feeling much more nervous now than during the written exam. He hated written exams and he had not any problem with Sasuke facing them on his own, but he considered himself better at dealing with people, and Sasuke facing the committee all by himself felt scary to him. He wished he could protect him, but he was also aware that actually he had not been very helpful when he had talked to them. He had a bad conscience, and he hoped that Sasuke would make up for his blunders. Still the idea that Sasuke might succeed on his own, that he might have learnt to survive in Music Town without him, Naruto, and get along with the place's inhabitants in spite of occasional irritations made his heart ache, even though he knew that this was stupid.
Sasuke returned from the room, looking exhausted, but also smiling, and less tense than Naruto would have expected. They did not have to wait long until the door opened again and people told him that he had been accepted.
Sasuke felt mainly relieved, but Naruto was just happy and all ambivalence was gone. “You've made it,” he said. “You're going to be a policeman! All your dreams will come true! Soon you'll be a real citizen of Music Town, and no one will guess that you haven't been born here. All that remains for you is learning a musical instrument.”
Nothing was further from Sasuke's mind at the moment.
“Congratulations from our side too,” the head of the committee said, watching the boys embrace. “We're happy to welcome you in our team.”
With the boys they joined the rest of the candidates. They were told that classes would start tomorrow and that then contracts would be ready for signing, but that this evening the training programme would start with an invitation to dinner for everyone to welcome them so that they got to know each other. Actually the candidates had already got to know each other during the breaks, still almost all of them accepted. People went home to tell their parents that they had succeeded, and Naruto felt sad that he could not do this too, until Sasuke reminded him that if he, Naruto, had waited for him at home, he too would now have someone to return to and tell him about his success.
They went home to dress up, and then, during dinner, the tension of the day melted away. Even the members of the committee relaxed and told some anecdotes about previous entrance tests, Naruto entertained several girls all on his own, and under the influence of some alcohol even Sasuke got talkative and told his future colleagues that his parents had worked for the police and that they had been murdered. There was the silence he was used to by now, and one of the girls tentatively pressed his hand.
Sasuke leant heavily against Naruto: he felt tired and exhausted, and worse drunk than he would have expected after a single glass of wine. He felt content and at peace, accepted with his sorrow and his dreams, and he generously overlooked that no one here would support him in achieving his revenge.
Naruto felt ill at ease. Making the girls laugh and supporting Sasuke's weight helped him cope with the situation, nonetheless he was highly aware that no one else had brought their partner and that he did not belong. When dessert was served the situation got even worse as people began to ask him questions about himself: Where he went to school or what kind of job he had, and he told them that he had just lost his job and that else he was a ninja too, just like Sasuke, and did not need to learn another trade.
“Then you must be an excellent fighter too,” a member of the committee said.
“I am.”
“Have you ever considered joining the police too?”

“But the police here don't fight, do they?”
“We try to avoid it. But this does not mean that we can't fight if necessary. You're good with people, aren't you?”
“I am.”
“That's what we need.”
“But I'm not good at the stuff Sasuke needed to learn for the test,” Naruto still objected.
People shrugged. “You can learn it,” they said. “Just consider it. You have to do something, after all. You cannot stay at home all day, or accompany your friend without having any plans of your own.”
When they returned in the evening Sasuke stood in front of the small shrine he had built for the photo of his family. Naruto sat on the bed, waiting for Sasuke to join him – it was the same every evening, and every evening it were difficult moments for him, making him feel lonely and excluded. He knew that this was important to Sasuke and that it were only a few minutes and that after these minutes Sasuke would join him in bed, still he was always glad when these moments were over.
This evening Sasuke took particularly long, and Naruto, who normally sat all silent while waiting for him, moved and stirred the cover of their bed, so that Sasuke got aware of him. He turned around, took Naruto's hand and drew him to his side. Again he stood silent, his arm around Naruto's shoulders now, and even though Naruto did not feel as excluded as before he still got restless when Sasuke did not speak.
“What are you thinking when you stand in front of your family's picture like this?” he asked.
“I wonder whether my parents are proud of me,” Sasuke replied. “I tell them I'm going to be a policeman, and I ask them to approve of my decision, even though here in Music Town it's mostly women who work for the police, and they try to do their job without fighting. I hope they would have been content with this. I tell them that I've found someone I love, and I hope that they are content with this too. I tell them that we'll find a way to have kids even though we're both men, and I hope they're happy for me, happy that I have found some happiness.”
“I'm certain they're happy for you,” Naruto said, laying his arm around Sasuke's hips. He could barely speak: he felt moved that Sasuke had now included him into these moments of silence in front of his small shrine (he would continue to do so in the future), but he also felt a bit sad.

A/N: Thanks again for your reviews and your plusses! You can find my answers at http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/14965-blessed-realm/ .It is now possible to access the thread without registration at the forums.
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The Blessed Realm