The Blessed Realm

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Nine: Music Town is not helpless

When Fugasaku had left the boys embraced, both of them following a deep desire of their hearts. They opened their mouths to kiss and let their hands wander over each other's bodies, they undressed quickly to feel each other's skin and hear each other's heartbeat. They got aroused, but they did not think of having sex yet, just of being close.

“You won't leave me to become a wandering priest, will you?” Sasuke said.

“I won't. And you won't leave me to have sex with someone else?” Naruto replied.

“I want to have sex with you, not with anyone else,” Sasuke said. “I'll show you.”

He caressed Naruto's ass in a more careful, more seductive way, then he led him to their bedroom...

The next morning Naruto informed Sasuke about their invitation to visit Juugo's fosterfamily.

“It's for you too – if you have time,” he said.

Sasuke nodded. “I'll come,” he said, sounding as if he had expected the invitation. “I don't have any plans for the evening. Everything is ready now.”



Naruto still felt confused, even though he no longer worried that Sasuke might leave him.

“Tomorrow you'll understand,” Sasuke said when he saw his confusion, and Naruto understood that he had to be patient, and that asking any questions was useless.

It happened that on this morning Sasuke found the article with the transcript of Danzou's speech to the people of Konoha that Sakura had sent them some time ago. He reread it and shook his head. He kept thinking about it while he and Naruto went to the training center, and during their first break in the morning he chose a table some metres apart from the other students to write something himself. Naruto watched him anxiously, but as it was obvious that Sasuke was not having sex with anyone else he respected his desire for some time on his own. He felt even more at his ease when at the end of the break Sasuke joined him and showed him what he had written: a draft for an article he wanted to publish in one of the major newspapers of Music Town (not Urban Lady again.) Naruto began to read:

I have come to Music Town as a refugee with my friends, and after a couple of months I think it's time to thank both the town itself and also its inhabitants for the warm welcome you gave us. We were refugees and rogue nins without a home of our own, but you accepted us with open arms, you helped us find a place to stay at and a job to earn some money to survive. You gave us the opportunity to train for a career that suits our skills and our personalities, you pay for our training, you make allowances for us and help us to understand your customs when we feel confused.

Konoha is proud of its tradition of love and comradeship because from an early age children are trained to fight for the village and for each other, and to sacrifice themselves for the village and for each other if necessary. From their point of view, you, the people of Music Town, appear selfish because you spend a lot of time dancing and making music and hanging out with each other, enjoying yourselves. To people in Konoha who have learnt to devote their lives to Konoha it appears as if your life has no higher purpose and as if having fun is the only aim you can think of. They see that you rarely risk your lives for your friends, so they believe that you have no idea about the pleasure that comes from forgetting yourself and no longer caring about your own wellbeing but only about the wellbeing of your friends and village.

It's true: you rarely risk your life for your friends. You avoid fighting in general, and you rarely get into situations where you are in danger of being killed, so your friends don't need to sacrifice themselves for you. This does not mean that you're selfish, however: You have found a lot of other ways to help your friends without risking your life. You have extended this attitude to us, too, even though we were not friends, but strangers.

We found friends quickly here who did everything they could in order to help us adapt to our new life in Music Town. They accepted us as part of their family: of real families where people care for each other, not of trees where people are regarded as leaves the tree can well dispense of in autumn, but also in summer as there's lots of other leaves. You've also helped us find a higher purpose for own own lives, a purpose that transcends bonds of personal loyalty, or the loyalty to one's village. We have learnt that justice and peace are more than a dream, but that they're real and that they're worth working for, and that they concern all mankind. We've learnt that for all of you music – good music – is a purpose that transcends your daily life. We've learnt that music – good music – is much more than a passtime, but something that makes life truly human, and give you a purpose that transcends yourself. I want to thank you that you've taught us that life is about much more than just about fighting.

When Naruto had read that article in the form of an open letter to the people of Music Town he thought for a while, then he crossed out the word “I” in the first and last sentence and wrote “we” instead. Sasuke put away the draft, then they had to return to their class.

During their lunch break they left the training center and went to the publishing house of the best-known newspaper of Music Town. Naruto knew that this was another chance to watch Sasuke deal with a social situation their classmates would not have dared to enter, but by now he had learnt that although Sasuke was still a bit awkward and lacked sense for what was appropriate and what not, he had still developed his own techniques of coping with difficulties that arose from such situations.

The first person they spoke to was the woman in charge of subscriptions: Accepting new subscriptions, cancellations of subscriptions, and old people who had not got their newspaper at 6 a.m. When Sasuke showed her the article he had written she referred him to her colleague who was in charge of advertisements. He also read Sasuke's text.

“This does not belong to the advertisement section,” he said. “It should be published in the regular section. But I can't decide this: you should talk to one of the editors for this.”

“Can you intodruce me to them?” Sasuke asked.

“I'll show them what you've written.”

Sasuke got a bit nervous when the man disappeared with his text. To his relief he returned after some minutes with a young woman.

“I can't decide whether your text will be published,” she said. “I have to wait for my boss. And it will definitely not be published tomorrow.”

“Is this because you're afraid of provoking Danzou?”



The woman looked irritated. “I haven't thought of this,” she said. “It's just because we need to see how many other articles we have and whether we will be able to fit you in. Why do you ask?”

“I ask because last time we did an interview with Urban Lady we got problems with the administration of Music Town because allegedly it was our fault that Mitokado Homura died from a heart attack. We were told to ask the administration for permission if we wanted to do another interview.”



“You gave an interview to Urban Lady?”



The woman looked at Naruto, then at Sasuke, and then at Naruto again.

“I remember. You've inherited the rights to Icha-Icha, haven't you? I've seen your photo on the back cover of the Gutsy Ninja.”

“Yes, that's me,” Naruto replied.

The woman wrote down this piece of information and attached the note to the article. “It will increase the chance that your article will be published,” she said. “Do you have time to wait until my boss returns?”



“No,” Sasuke answered flatly. “Our lunch break is over. We need to return to our work.”

“Of course. When are you able to return?”

Sasuke told her .

“We'll see you then. By then we'll also be able to tell you whether your article will be published, and when.”



Sasuke and Naruto left and returned to the training center. In the afternoon they had to go on patrol, but when this was over they returned to the publishing-house.

“I have good news for you,” the young journalist said. “Your articles will be published though only in a few days. But it's too short: it needs to be fleshed out.”



“Shall I rewrite it?” Sasuke asked.

“We'll do it together. Just follow me to a room where we can talk.”

She led them to the publishing-house's meeting-room where she asked them a couple of questions, based on the text Sasuke had written. She mainly wanted to know more details about people in Music Town they had made friends with, people who had helped them cope with life in Music Town. “People need stories,” she said, “not abstract concepts.”

They told her more about the gay community that had welcomed them as new members: “They made us feel that we belong to them,” Naruto said. “You may say that they supported us, but it's closer to the truth if you say that they included us in their system of mutual support, making us help other people too. It was not easy to accept that I might be gay, even though my heart had always been yearning for Sasuke when we were separated from each other, but now that I have got to know the gay community of Music Town and learnt how they care for each other I'm proud that I'm one of them.”

The woman took notes.

“It's not only them,” Sasuke continued. “And they shouldn't be the only ones who get mentioned, because we don't want to offend all the other people who also helped us. It's people who became our friends, but it's also strangers we met in town, and it's officials of the town itself. They should be mentioned too.”

The woman took notes. “We will include them. People will consider it weird if you present homosexuals as the most helpful people in town.”

Including all these stories into Sasuke's text turned out to be much more difficult than she had originally believed, and when they had managed the text was extremely long and had lost its character as a letter of thanks to the people of Music Town. The woman decided to return to the original version and write an extra article that contained the stories Sasuke and Naruto had told her. She wrote it mainly herself, but she let the boys watch her, and included their suggestions and corrections. When they had finished she showed the result of their combined efforts to her boss. He, too, made some corrections and told them that in a few days the articles would be published.

“I have been to the town hotel, and consulted the major about you. I would not have done it normally: we have a free press here, and may print what we seem fit to be printed. However I did not want to get you into trouble, or to endanger your careers at the police. The major remembers you well, and she also remembers that the interview you gave to Urban Lady led to Mitokado Homura's death from a heart attack. We think, however, that this was not because of what you said, but simply because your interview had shown that you are both alive and in alliance. We don't think that anyone will die because of your article. Also we have made up our mind that even if Danzou takes offense we won't care. We are here in Music Town, we are independent of Fire Country and Konoha, and we won't let Danzou dictate what we may or may not print in our newspapers. We are not helpless: we are protected by a complicated and well-balanced system of treaties. If Konoha threatens us because of what you wrote all the other ninja villages will come to our rescue.”

“Are you certain that they will risk your lives for you?”

“They will. All ninja need music, just as anyone else does, and we have the monopoly for music on the continent. They won't let Music Town fall. Also, Konoha is much weaker than she used to be: The attacks against Madara's hideout, or the hideout of the man who pretended to be Madara, made clear that Konoha is isolated. The other villages did not accept Konoha's help, first because Danzou's sabre rattling had annoyed them all, and second because Konoha lacks the capacity for any substantial support. What Danzou had to offer was just some symbolic contribution, as Konoha's forces are needed to protect the village against an attack from outside. That's not my own opinion, it's what Danzou said. Of course the other villages did not take well the hidden accusation that they'd backstab Konoha while they were all busy taking out Madara`s hideout, so they turned down Konoha's offer. Danzou is quite an outcast now among his colleagues.”

“Hasn't he be an outcast for quite some time now?”

“It's got worse since this affair. The other kages are people too, and they don't like being insulted. They've ceased to fear him, however, they know he's weak. Konoha has lost a lot of her ninja, mostly from desertion, and even among those who remain he had lost his support. They resent that Konoha is no longer the best respected of all the ninja villages. They won't follow him if he orders them to attack Music Town. Also it's clear that he does not provide over the kyuubi. He can't threaten us any more. It's well-known that the two remaining jinchuuriki live in Music Town. We're no longer helpless.”

He looked at Naruto. Apparently he knew that he was the kyuubi's jinchuuriki.

“We don't intend to use the kyuubi,” Sasuke said. “The kyuubi is happy these days, with Naruto caring for him. He doesn't want to fight.”

“No one wants that,” the man said. “It's just in case we get attacked. But of course we hope that we won't get attacked.”

 

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.