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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.

Chapter List
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Chapter One Hundred-Thirty: Unexpected Support
There were a lot of discussions at the meeting for protesters when the young woman who had invited them introduced Sasuke and Naruto as policemen-to-be who wanted to learn about demonstrations from the demonstrators' point of view. They were suspected of being spies, who'd pass on important information about tactics and strategies.
“We won't!” Naruto said. “We aren't traitors! We are ninja: we are true to our friends!”
People looked at him as if he had said something extremely weird.
“They're from Konoha,” the young woman said, excusing them. “And they haven't had any opportunity to watch a demonstration or participate in one. They've been here only for a few months.”
This new piece of information changed people's attitude: People got curious and more open: “You're really from Konoha? How did you manage to escape?”
“I fled during the days of chaos after Pain's attack, right before Danzou established himself in the position of Hokage.”
“You must deem yourself lucky, considering what he's putting the village through.”
“Actually not,” Naruto replied, mostly for the sake of contradicting these people whom he considered a bit weird. “I wish I were with my friends and could help them. I had to flee because Danzou was targeting me in particular, but I'd prefer that the threat against me had not been greater than the threat against anyone else, so that I could have remained there and be with them and support them.”
“They want to learn our techniques of resistance so that they can apply them against Danzou,” the young woman explained. “Their interest has nothing to do with working for the police here in Music Town. It's just about Konoha.”
Now people's faces brightened with wide smiles: “You want to fight Danzou? Of course we'll support you. Welcome!”
Some people still contradicted, and there was a discussion of half an hour before a consensus was achieved: They would teach them some general techniques as blockades and sit-ins, which were generally known among the population of Music Town, but they would not tell them the specific actions and strategies that were planned for the next demonstration.
“Like this you won't be able to tell your superiors anything they don't know already. Though sometimes we wonder how little they've learnt in recent years about sit-ins, and about our determination.”
By the time the discussion ended Sasuke and Naruto had stopped to care about its outcome: they were just glad that people had stopped discussing their right to participate in the demonstration training while they were listening. They had begun to wonder whether they even wanted to participate as they were not certain whether they liked the group: they liked the young woman who had invited them, but the rest were even weirder and crazier than their friends from the riverside.
Their behaviour changed, however, after they had come to a decision, and after the decision had been accepted by Sasuke and Naruto. They were welcomed a second time, and then they were taught about sit-ins: they learnt to hold fast to their neighbours to make it as difficult as possible to break the line of protesters, and they learnt the best position for the moment when they were finally carried away: the position that was least painful to them and most inconvenient to the police.
Most importantly, however, they learnt that they were not allowed to get aggressive and fight back. They were only allowed to protect their faces. Sasuke and Naruto offered the group to teach them a taijutsu move that was more effective than just covering their faces with their lower arms: diverting the attack. It was a purely defensive move according to their own standards, but people told them that for a sit-in it was out of question, as it would be considered violence and resistance here:
“The police tries to criminalize us. Some people have even been sued for protecting their head with their arms. We've engaged some lawyers for their defense, and we hope for a decision that makes clear once and for all that protecting your face or head while you are being beaten up does not count as violence or resistance,” the coach who was responsible for the training told them.
“Why does protecting yourself count as violence if you don't hurt anyone?” Naruto asked.
The coach shrugged. “Ask your superiors at the police.”
Knowing to fight they quickly learnt to prevent themselves from being (literally) carried away, and even found some new tricks to stabilize the chain of protesters, which they taught the whole group. Feeling neither fear nor hatred it was also easy not to panic when some trainers, acting as police, tried to break the chain and carry them away, contrary to some of their fellow would-be demonstrators. One of them was no longer able to control himself: he shouted at the people who tried to carry him away and used his elbows to defend himself. After the third attempt he decided to take a break, and after explaining that he used to be beaten up in a similar way by some kids on the playground he and the coaches came to the conclusion that it might be better if he did not participate in the sit-in and rather joined the regular demonstration.
When training was over the whole group had coffee and tea. Naruto told them that what they had practised resembled some of the games he played with the kids at the project he and Sasuke worked at on Friday afternoons:
“Normally we play these games with them when regular training is over. The kids are supposed to feel how strong they are if they stick together as a group. They're not allowed to hurt their opponents, that's us, either.”
People nodded understandingly. “That's a valuable lesson you teach them,” one of them said.
“We call it the Will of Music,” another one added. “If you need to achieve something you need to work together. You need to listen to each other, and everybody has their own voice.”
Naruto fell silent, considering the differences between the Will of Fire he had learnt to value, and the Will of Music. He had been taught to protect his precious people and use the anger that arose in him when his precious people were attacked as a source of power.
People had taught him to use his anger, but not to use the kyuubi. No wonder it had been so difficult to tame him. He reached out to the demon within him: “There's no need to get angry at people here,” he told him. “Here they play childish games, but they don't hurt each other. Here you're safe.” Then he leant against Sasuke: “We've learnt to cooperate too, haven't we?”
Sasuke nodded: his thoughts were elsewhere: “It's fine that you practise controlling your fear,” he told the coaches, “and I guess it's a great experience for children to perceive how strong they may become when they work together. But I don't see what you achieve. In the end the police always win.”
“They do, but we may delay them. Last time we delayed them for several hours.”
“But what do you gain by delaying them?”
“Next time there'll be more people. Then we'll delay them for a couple of days.”
Sasuke did not press any further. These were weird people, and their logic escaped him. He waited until the evening when he and Naruto visited Juugo's fostermothers.
“We spent the afternoon playing games,” he told them. “We played the kind of games we usually play on Friday afternoons with the kids of the project we work at. We play them when they are too tired to focus on their training and need to exasperate themselves and have some fun. They get an opportunity to feel their strength, but they are not allowed to hurt anyone. Only that people here consider this a valid way of protesting against a policy they don't approve of.”
The two women asked for more precise information, and after some lengthy explanations they understood that Sasuke was talking of sit-ins and blockades as a way of protesting against the new concert hall.
“They know that in the end they're going to lose,” he said. “And still they just sit on the street and accept that they're carried away.”
“They set a sign,” one of the women replied. “They show they're against the new concert hall, and by sitting on the street they make clear they're serious about it.”
“I would make sure that they could not carry me away. That would be my way of making clear I'm serious.”
“It's a good thing then that you've joined the police and don't side with the demonstrators,” the second woman said. “Just make sure you don't use any disproportionate violence.”
“Why should I do this? They're like children: I could not hurt them.”
The women smiled, making Sasuke feel that they did not take him seriously.
“Does it ever work?” Naruto asked. “I mean, do the protesters ever achieve their aims?”
“They do, though normally not in the course of a single demonstration. But some politicians are already wavering and wondering whether the new concert hall is really a good idea.”
“Politicians change their mind because people demonstrate?”
“Sometimes. It's not common, but occasionally it happens. It happens when they realize there's a majority with the protesters.”
“It would not work in Konoha,” Sasuke said. “In Konoha, people would just laugh about them. Danzou would also laugh about them and never change his mind. And he would not be content having them carried away. He'd send ANBU to fight them. He would not care about majorities.”
The women were silent. “I guess it's more difficult in a militaristic society as Konoha,” one of them finally replied.
“I wonder how it comes that people here fight at all,” Naruto said. “We've trained both with the police and with the demonstrators, and both sides told us to remain calm and not get aggressive even when the other side attacks you. But when both sides refrain from violence, how does it come that they fight at all?”
“Most demonstations remain peaceful, actually.”
“But both sides tell stories about how the other side attacked them and brutally beat them up.”
The women looked at each other. “Sometimes it happens that there's fights in the streets. That's the demonstrations that stick in people's minds. They're getting rare, though, fortunately.”
“But each side says it's the other side who starts the fighting,” Naruto said. “Whose fault is it then?”

Again the women looked at each other. “You work with children don't you? Haven't you ever listened to them after you ended a fight? They'll both blame the other for starting it.”
Naruto had to admit that this was true.
“It's the same with demonstrations. Both sides see themselves as the good guys.”
“You need to understand this if you're really planning to save the world and establish peace between the ninja countries,” the second woman added. “In practically every war both sides hold the other side responsible. It's never their own fault: as if the leaders of countries were still in kindergarten. That's why it's so difficult to end a conflict.”
“Weren't you offered to participate in a seminar on solving conflicts between kids? Maybe you should accept the offer. When you've learnt to solve conflicts between children you'll also be able to solve conflicts between countries.”
“I don't think so,” the second woman said. “Politicians are more difficult than children. They're more immature, and they crave their people's recognition.”
“But that makes their conflicts easier to solve, not more difficult...”
The women spent some time discussing the differences between politicians and kindergarten kids. Sasuke and Naruto listened without believing their ears, or knowing whether they should take them seriously. Only when their discussion ended Sasuke spoke again:
“But even though both sides always claim that the conflict is the other side's responsibility it's not always true that both are equally responsible. Sometimes it's clear which side started the conflict.”

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