The Blessed Realm

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine: Training

The next morning the head of the police called Sasuke and Naruto to his office. They feared he'd tell them off for being on sick leave in the afternoon and dancing in the evening, but he didn't even mention it.

“There's good news for you,” he told them when they had taken a seat on the other side of his desk. “We arrested another of Madara's accomplices. The weird shark guy, as you called him.”

“Kisame?”

“Apparently that's his name. He's really a strange person, but not as weird as the plant guy. Madara has a weird taste when it comes to companions, but then he's weird himself. Anyway, we got that shark guy now. Madara can't last for much longer, and then you can move freely again.”

“Kisame's one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist,” Sasuke said. “How were you able to arrest him?”



“One of your friends did it, actually. He's one of the Seven Swordsmen too, so you shouldn't wonder.”

“Did they fight?”

“No. Sword fighting is not allowed in town. You should know this by now.”

“How did it happen then?”

“They met, and indeed their impulse was to start a fight, only that your friend did not have his sword with him, so they decided to go to your friend's place and fetch the sword. On their way, however, your friend remembered that he wanted to attend a concert of the man you attacked in Cloud Village, Killerbee. He told Kisame to accompany him, as he should not die before having listened to some decent music. At least this is what he said when we interrogated him. After the concert Kisame, Suigetsu and Killerbee decided to have a beer or two, and also some cocktails, the sweet stuff for women, as Suigetsu was of the opinion that Kisame should have tasted some good beer before he died even though Kisame apparently prefers the sweet stuff. So they had a tour around the bars and night clubs of Music Town, and when we arrested Kisame at four a.m. he did not offer any resistance. It's difficult to interrogate him, though, as he complains of a horrible hangover.”

“I met Kiseame once, and he didn't appear very bright to me,” Sasuke said. “But I wouldn't have expected him to act in such a stupid way.”

The head of the police shrugged. “We've asked him why he agreed to explore the night life of Music Town. He had difficulties focussing on his answer, but he said something on the line that as Madara's ally he had never had the opportunity to explore the bars and night clubs of any town. So it's really a pity that he cannot continue his research, as he's now in prison. Right at this moment our people are busy writing to the daimyou of the ninja countries, asking them for charges against Kisame, so that we can put him on trial.”



Sasuke and Naruto did not know what to say. An arrest of Kisame was not what they had expected, and they had no idea what to make of it.

“Madara is now without allies, and the ninja countries have located his base. Even with his space-time-ninjutsu he can't be at his base to defend it and at the same time search for you in Music Town and try to lure you into cooperation. He'll soon understand that his situation is hopeless and surrender voluntarily. So you should be glad. When we've arrested Madara you'll be permitted again to move around in Music Town without extra protection. I guess this is more important to you than the fact that soon the threat against Naruto will be removed.”

It wouldn't happen anyway, Naruto thought. Madara had never been able to abduct him or Sasuke against their will, not if they stayed side by side. Now that the kyuubi's chakra was dispersed all over his body it had become impossible to separate it from his own.

“Certainly it's good news,” he said.

“You'll be allowed to go on patrol again,” the head of the police continued.

“I'll enjoy that,” Naruto answered. Sounding a bit more enthusiastic than before: going on patrol was something he had missed.

They went to their class, and their classmates, who had listened to their teachers while Sasuke and Naruto had been talking to the head of the police, told them that they were supposed to start training for demonstrations. No one had expected it that early, but people told them that around Christmas there were always demonstrations against the commercialization of music and the five big record labels that had more or less divided the market among themselves. As in addition to these traditional demonstrations there were now also the current, more spectacular ones against the new concert hall the forces of the police were extremely stretched, meaning they'd need everyone, including the first year students.

Sasuke and Naruto still had only vague ideas about demonstrations: For them they were events where people chained themselves to a building or a block of concrete so that the police had to liberate them. Sasuke wondered whether they'd learn to use a chainsaw, but instead they were taken to the dojo where they normally did their martial arts training. Various objects were standing on the floor: cushions, chairs, but also weird objects of rubber foam.

The teacher asked who among the students had already participated in a demonstration, and about two thirds of them showed up.

“You'll be the protesters. We've marked a streetcrossing here...”

Sasuke saw now that the objects on the floor formed a pattern indicating the borders of a street and a side street departing from it.

“... and the protesters are supposed to turn left, but instead they try to stay on the main road. The police has to see that they take the route that was agreed on. You block the way, you talk to them, you don't use any violence, but you don't let them pass.”

There it was again, Sasuke thought: In Music Town people got into conflicts about taking this or that route on a demonstration, but they would not fight.

People took their posts. Those who were acting as demonstrators were told to look fierce and determined, making clear that they were not just dropping out of the demonstration but really leading the demonstration, or at least part of it, down a different road.

“You aren't supposed to use violence either,” the teacher told them. “This is training for a peaceful demonstration. If anything, you circumvent the police, but you don't confront them directly.”

They did their best as they approached those who were acting as police, looking grim and instinctively forming some kind of block. Sasuke felt how the people next to him closed their lines too, as if they were getting ready to fight. He himself managed to remain relaxed, knowing that the people approaching him weren't a match for him, but he made up his mind to protect those next to him who were on his side.

It was ridiculous, he thought: no one was going to fight, and if someone did, a simple taijutsu would stop them. He could understand the other students, though: they must feel outnumbered.

Naruto seemed perfectly relaxed, mostly (in Sasuke's opinion) because he was still quite confused by the situation. Only when the students who approached them were only at a metre's distance he straightened, smiled, or rather beamed at them, and told them in a perfectly calm manner:



“I think you missed the turn. You should take that direction” (he pointed to the side street) “and follow your companions. You can't go straight ahead, because, as you see, there's a festival for children over there.”

Role-playing Madara had been effective, Sasuke thought. Naruto had learnt to improvise.

“So you see, there's nothing to be gained by taking this road,” Naruto concluded.

The students acting as protesters were confused. They had not expected this, and none of them knew how to react. The teacher broke off the scene.

“You were far too aggressive,” she told the students acting as police. “I told you explicitly that this was supposed to be training for a non-violent demonstration. I could sense your aggression, and, even worse, your fear, from the other side of the room. You should have talked to them, as Naruto did. What have you learnt those last few months, after all? Talk, talk, talk, don't fight. At least you should have supported Naruto when he started to talk. So now try again.”

She gave the students acting as protesters some time to come up with a counter strategy and then they started the scene again.

After two more attempts Naruto was told to change sides, so that his companions could no longer leave everything to him. He had never been to a demonstration, nor had he ever watched one, but he understood the rules of the game quickly and enjoyed coming up with reasons why he and his friends needed to take the forbidden route, like explaining that they wanted to take a short cut.

With Naruto on the opposite side Sasuke could not resist the temptation of taking up the challenge of finding answers to him: “It may be a short cut, but it's dangerous. You can't take it.”

“Dangerous because of you?” Naruto replied.

For a second Sasuke considered saying, yes, then he remembered that he was supposed to act in a deescalating way.

“Not because of us,” he said. “It's just dangerous. We are here to protect you.” He tried to imagine what kind of dangers there might be in Music Town. “There's a huge building-site over there. You'd fall into the hole.”

“I don't fall into holes,” Naruto said, forgetting that he was role-playing.

“You do. You fall into every hole in the street if there's no one to look after you.”

Again the teacher broke off the scene as they were getting childish. “I forgot that you have no idea how people behave at demonstrations,” she said. “Maybe it's better if you take a break and just watch.”

They sat side by side, leaning against each other. Naruto was beaming, but not as openly as on other days: Sasuke rather felt than saw it. It was again that other kind of happiness, the one that came from inside. Later Sasuke was called back to training, so that he too could learn how to hold back a group without using violence.

“You don't need to find fanciful explanations,” the teacher said. “It's okay if you do, but there's always the risk that their explanations are better than yours. So it's less risky to tell people that there was an agreement about the route and that they should stick to that agreement. Don't hesitate to sound like a broken record. Just try not to appear aggressive.”

It was not that difficult in the end: Sasuke just had to remind himself that he was far stronger than his opponents, and that they did not stand any chance against him. Imagining them to be little children was helpful too, most of all when the teacher changed her instructions and told the protesters to be more aggressive.

Naruto was allowed to stay on the sidelines, watching his classmates. He was content with himself, but even more he was content with what he was being taught here: don't fight, don't shout, don't assert yourself. Just talk and try to confuse your opponent, and maybe make him reconsider his intentions. No one had ever taught him this in Konoha. Naruto knew that Sasuke loved Music Town and preferred it to Konoha, but only now he began to understand him.

He also enjoyed being singled out as the one who had figured out before anyone else how to deal with such a situation. Normally he was just an average student, while Sasuke, investing a lot of work and ambition, had become a top student again (though not the top student.) For the first time Naruto enjoyed being a policeman.

The young people at the riverside were less enthusiastic when they heard about Naruto's experiences.

“That's not the real thing,” they said. “the real thing is violent battles between police and protesters, or the protesters getting surrounded and being caught in a kettle with no opportunity to go to the toilet.”

People here had weird ideas about what constituted an unbearable hardship, Sasuke thought.

“Sometimes they get beaten up brutally.”

“We were taught not to use violence,” Naruto said.

“That's what they tell beginners. They want you to believe you're the good guys. They want you to believe you're in the right when one day you beat up some protesters: You did your best not to employ violence, so if you did it all the same it was only because the protesters did not leave you any other option.”

“Also, your classmates who acted as demonstrators were fools. Real demonstrators are not that easily confused. They won't be held back just by talking, but insist on going where they want to go. They'll just do it, and then the police will use violence and say they didn't have a choice.”

“That's the real thing. They're friendly as long as you follow their instructions, but if you don't they show their true face.”

“But there are agreements,” Naruto said. “People told us that the route of the demonstration is the result of a cooperation meeting between the police and those who organize the demonstration.”

“Cooperation is a beautiful word for what happens on these meetings! The route is enforced on the protesters, and it's all supposed not to hinder people who are doing their shopping on Saturday afternoons, and then they are told to declare it's a result of some cooperation.”

“They have good reason to depart from it! But the police will beat them up for it,” another young man added.

“They're the same everywhere. They're servants of the state, and they'll fight mercilessly everyone they consider an enemy of the state.”



“They don't kill people in Music Town,” Sasuke said.

“They do! You'll see it yourself when you're no longer a first year student.”

“If you want you can have a look at our side of the conflict,” a young woman added. “We train our people too. We teach them how to react when the police begin to get aggressive.”

 

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.