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The Blessed Realm	By : susanna Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1767 -:- 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.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
Chapter
Ten: Underage

Naruto
left as his shift in the restaurant began, and Sasuke decided that it
was time to relieve Karin. He took a deep breath – after the
intense discussion with Naruto it came as a relief to be outside, to
get some fresh air, and to get rid of the emotions that had been
roused by the discussion. The sky was still blue, there was a soft
breeze going through the narrow street, softening the heat of the
day, couples were walking leisurely hand in hand or even arm in arm,
which would have been a rare sight in Konoha. No soldiers anywhere,
nor anyone carrying weapons – people really seemed more relaxed
than in the ninja countries.

He
found the hospital, went to the reception desk – he felt
insecure: even though he had left his katana at Naruto's place he
could not help feeling that everyone was watching him, recognizing
him as a stranger who did not fit in. He envied Naruto for the
apparent grace with which he moved in this town, always knowing what
to do. For example he would have known how to persuade the lady at
the desk to let him see his companion...

“We
will have to ask whether it is okay for you to visit him,” she
declared. “You must understand, we cannot just let anyone walk
into our patients' rooms just at their liberty – they need to
rest, and we have to protect them. What was your name again?”

Sasuke
hesitated and immediately realized that this was a mistake. He had no
intention to tell his real name, but if he now gave her a wrong one
she would get suspicious. Maybe tell his real name, and let this
woman doubt him.

“You
have a name, don't you?” she said.

“Sasuke”,
he mumbled, hoping that he would at least be able to keep his family
name secret.

“And
apparently you are too young to know your whole name”, the lady
sighed. “I will see what I can do for you.”

She
began telephoning around, and Sasuke hoped for the best while he
waited for her answer. Idly he looked into the entrance hall, and in
the stairhouse he discovered Karin helping someone push a bed through
the corridors. She saw him too and waved at him, and he went towards
her without waiting for the woman's answer.

“Moving
him out of intensive care”, she explained. “He no longer
needs it.”

What
a fool, Sasuke thought. Looking for a Blessed Realm, where he can
find healing, and still he endangers his life and his health by
getting drunk so badly that he needs intensive care. Why again did we
save him after our fight against the Hachibi's jinchuuriki?

“They
have wondered about his medical condition”, Karin continued.
“They have never had a patient who needed that many
transfusions, or that much liquid. The parts of his body that have
been jelly all the time had shrunken to a third of their normal size,
but now he's back to how he was before he got drunk, and looks again
as a normal person.”

Sasuke
remembered that Suigetsu's legs and arms had looked frighteningly
short when they had taken him to the hospital. He left it to Karin to
negotiate with the doctor to give him permission to stay at Sasuke's
side until he woke up, and she, like Naruto, seemed to have some
natural affinity to this place – she easily found the words
that made the doctors give in.

Time
to think about his plans for revenge while he was waiting and
watching his companion's sleep. Time to contemplate the changes in
Konoha's administration, and to decide whether to kill only those
responsible for the death of his family, or the whole population.
They support that Danzou, he thought, they are just as guilty as he
is. But somehow imagining how he would hunt them down with his
Amaterasu did not give him the satisfaction it used to give. He
wondered if the pain about the murder of his clan had faded, he
forced himself to think of the moment he had found them dead, with
Itachi standing over them, how they had been lying in their blood,
still war, but already lifeless, how he had been scared that Itachi
might kill him too, how he had been thrown into loneliness and
despair.

The
pain was still there, he felt it physically as if someone was
stabbing him in his heart, but he did not sink into darkness, as he
normally did. Maybe it was because again there was someone to hate,
he decided, that Danzou...

A
doctor came to see Suigetsu, checking his vital functions. His breath
and his circulatory system were both stable now, and he gave him some
more sedatives so that he might sleep through the night. He intimated
that they might take him off the IV the next morning, if he had woken
up by then.

“It's
these parts of his arms and legs that seem as if they were almost
fluid which are worrying me”; he went on. “We have never
seen anything like it, and we have no idea what to do about it. We
would like to keep him here for some more days, so that we can do
some further tests.”

Even
further postpone their departure, Sasuke thought. “He's a water
nin”, he explained. “They have special abilities. For him
it's natural.”

Only
that for water nins it was also natural that they could retransform
into the solid state that was normal for everyone else.

“A
water nin”, the doctor repeated thoughtfully. “We have
heard of them, but we have never seen one. We would be grateful if he
stayed for a bit longer, so that we can study the way his body works.
Just to help, so that in case of another emergency as the one we had
this morning we know better what to do.”

“It's
not necessary”, Sasuke said. “I'll see to it that he does
not get drunk again.”

Knowing
that Suigetsu had been subjected to various medical experiments at
Orochimaru's place he did not think that Suigetsu would approve of
any more tests, nor that he would want the secrets of his water body
figured out. He hoped that they would release him without any further
trouble – Sasuke had already understood that people here even
though they did not approve of fighting still had their own methods
of gaining control over others. I will fight for him, if necessary,
he decided. They will feel the power of my wrath if they are
attempting to retain a companion of mine.

“Only
if he agrees, of course”, the doctor continued. “Is this
really his natural state? Bones and muscles just stopping as if they
were cut off, and in their stead some kind pudding that is barely
able to keep its form? Can he walk at all?”

“He
can”, Sasuke answered. The doctor did not need to know that
Suigetsu had to rest after every hundred metres. “We are
grateful that you helped us this morning and accepted him to your
hospital, but we are just passing through, and we don't want to stay
longer than necessary. How much will it cost, anyway?”

“We'll
talk about this when he's well again. His health is more important
than money. Are you worried that he won't be able to pay?”

“I
know he won't be able to pay. I will pay for him.”

“You
don't have to. The nurses told me that he's just a chance
acquaintance of your group, and that you don't even know his family
name.”

So
that's what Karin told them, Sasuke thought, grateful that she had
guarded some sense of secrecy.

“You
are not responsible for him”, the doctor tried to comfort him.

“I
am”, Sasuke replied. “He has been my companion for
several months. I am going to pay for him – do everything he
needs to get well again.”

He
saw pity in the doctor's eyes – he was not that pathetic, was
he? He was caring for his companion, he was offering to pay.

“Don't
worry”, the doctor repeated. “We will find a solution.
You won't have to ruin yourself.”

He
must have noticed Sasuke's cold looks, forbidding any further
questions, and he left. Sasuke's thoughts returned to his plans for
revenge, and he made an effort to make them more concrete. Somehow
infiltrate the Hokage tower – at least this was an advantage of
Danzou having been appointed Hokage, he would know where to find his
enemy. Maybe he could allow himself to be taken prisoner, and then be
taken to the Hokage tower. But then he'd have to see that they did
not put any restrictions on him to prevent him from fighting –
maybe Naruto might be helpful with that. He'd probably not even care
to bind him, he'd just trust him to follow him, and then take him to
the Hokage's tower to present him to Danzou, and then he could kill
Danzou before they knew what was happening.

Maybe
these ideas might be turned into a plan, he thought. He'd have to
make sure that Naruto got out unharmed, and without any suspicion on
him that he might have conspired with Sasuke to kill Danzou –
maybe best not tell him about his intentions so that he would not
have to pretend to be innocent. But then he'd have to conceive of a
plan to persuade Naruto to take him to Danzou. About himself Sasuke
was not concerned – dying after he had killed Danzou was part
of his plan.

He
did now realize how time was passing while his thoughts circled
around his plans for revenge. He was opened. Sasuke looked up,
expecting a nurse or the doctor again, or Juugo to relieve him, but
it was Naruto.

“What's
the matter? What's happened?” Sasuke asked.

“Nothing”,
Naruto answered, taken back by the rather rude reception. “I
came to relieve you. I thought you must be tired.”

“You
might have sent Juugo.”

“At
this time of the night?”

Naruto
had sat down on the border of Suigetsu's bed, as if it was only
natural that he should take the next shift of watching over him.

“What's
the problem?” Sasuke asked.

“They
don't approve here of children being on the street after nightfall”,
Naruto explained. “Or of them sitting up through the night,
even if it is to watch over a friend of theirs. He will take over
tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah.
I have already noticed that they are spoiling their kids here. Not
letting them do anything real, or trusting them to look after
themselves. Remember how we spent a whole night practising to climb
trees using only our chakra?”

“Sure
I do”, Naruto answered, surprised that Sasuke was being
nostalgic again. He paused and smiled, and Sasuke smiled back and
then looked down, as if smiling was embarrassing to him.

“They
have a different attitude towards children here, and you won't be
able to change it. You should be careful for yourself too – if
they ask your age, tell them you're eighteen, not sixteen. I do the
same. Only when you are eighteen you are considered a grown-up here.”

“We've
been considered grown-ups from the day we graduated from the
academy.”

It
was not entirely true. There had still been Kakashi, looking after
them, caring more for him than anyone ever had since his family had
been slaughtered. He guessed that for Naruto it had been the same,
only that there had also been Iruka.

Uncalled,
Madara's words on Itachi came to his mind. A boy who loathed war and
strife, and only desired peace, and a man who worked tirelessly to
keep his village safe and stable... Sasuke had been six at the time
of the massacre, so Itachi, who had then been thirteen, had seemed a
big boy to him, almost grown-up, and certainly out of his reach. Now
he was sixteen, and when he thought of how he had been at the age of
thirteen it seemed to him that then he had been a mere child, very
far from being grown-up.

“They
won't change their law for you”, Naruto repeated. “Just
tell them you're eighteen.” He looked at Sasuke's face: Still
fine-featured as a girl's, even worse than at the age of twelve, yet
as it was rather feminine than childish, and as his body was
certainly that of a grown-up man, it would work.

“They'll
believe you”, he said.

I
won't stay for long anyway, Sasuke thought. It won't matter if I lie
about my true age for two days.

“Are
you sure you want to keep guard?” he asked again. “He is
my companion, not yours. You are not responsible for him.”

“He's
my guest”, Naruto replied. “You go and get some sleep.”

Sasuke
understood that it was futile to resist any longer.

“Here
are the keys”, Naruto continued and passed them over, his
fingers touching Sasuke's for a short moment.

“You'll
find the way, won't you?”

“Certainly.”

He
got lost even before he had left the hospital – a nurse
addressed him when he was erring through the empty corridors, and
helpfully showed him the way out. He forced himself to get focussed,
so that he would not lose the way again. How could such an accidental
touch confuse all his thoughts?

He
found Naruto's place but just when he had arrived at the door he
decided to take a short walk. He definitely needed some time to get a
clear mind again.

A/N:

Kinai:
Thanks for the compliments! Usually I update on Sundays.

Midnight
Essence: Waves back! And I am still working on the
Snowflake – I am now busy with Step Five. It turns out that I
have far too many ideas.

Sneakyfox:
Thanks again for faithfully reviewing every chapter!

Yes,
I like to write a mature Naruto. He is no longer twelve, but sixteen,
after all, and I like to think of both boys as being rather
intelligent and mature for their age, though not in an unrealistic
way. And also – hey, a mature Naruto is canon now!

Concerning
Sasuke: His aims are different, so he does not think about what makes
a political leader, at least not as much as Naruto does. He has to
learn other things.
- 12
- 13
- 14
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The Blessed Realm