The Blessed Realm

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Six: Hero

Naruto knew quite well that people in Music Town did not think well of his favorite songs and that they just indulged him because it was his birthday. He knew that a handful of songs were enough, and that he must not give a concert. Hearing people cheer for him, and hearing some of them say that maybe these songs weren't as cheesy as they had formerly thought them to be, was enough for him.

He was out of breath, he was in some kind of trance: drunk with happiness. He had been in that state from the moment the party had started. Now he sobered up a bit: he put away the guitar and took the microphone.

"I want to thank you all,” he said. “No one has ever celebrated my birthday before. I didn't even miss it, as I had no idea how it's like to be the center of your own birthday party. Now I discover it's just wonderful. I want to thank you that you've come to celebrate with me.”

He paused, his eyes searching for Sasuke. He found him, and even across a distance of several metres the warmth and happiness in Naruto's eyes were almost too much to bear for Sasuke.

“But most of all I want to thank my friend and lover, who has organized this party and kept it secret from me, because he wanted it to be a surprise.”

People looked at Sasuke, who felt embarrassed. Naruto made a gesture that invited him to join him on stage. Sasuke hesitated: he did not want to present himself to everyone in women's clothes. He had dressed up for Naruto, not for anyone else. The guy from Earth Country, who was still standing next to him pushed him forward.

“Naruto's waiting,” he said. “You can't disappoint him now.”

Sasuke went forward, highly aware that everyone was looking at him. He had wanted this to be Naruto's party, with Naruto in the spotlight, he had not planned to be in the spotlight himself. He entered the stage, he saw Naruto beaming at him and opening his arms for him, and he forgot about himself, he just responded to Naruto's gesture and opened his own arms for Naruto and embraced him. For some seconds they held each other, their cheeks resting against each other, then Naruto started to kiss Sasuke's cheeks, and then his mouth, too, but only very carefully as neither of them wanted to get aroused on stage. Naruto dissolved the embraces and turned to his guests.



“He has acknowledged me as a human being when I was a child, even though everyone else considered me a monster. He taught me to behave like a human being.”

“Don't be stupid,” Sasuke said. “You were always human, and you always behaved like a human being. We have met quite a couple of kids here who behave just like you did when you were a child, and no one considers them monsters. They're considered a bit difficult, but nonetheless they're human children who need to be cared for.”

He spoke to Naruto, not the audience, still a couple of his words got amplified by the microphone. People looked confused.

Naruto did not answer to Sasuke but continued speaking to his guests: “Now he has organized a party for me so that I could celebrate my birthday just like any other person here in Music Town.”

No one had told Naruto that people in Music Town celebrated their eighteenth, not their seventeenth birthday with a party of this order of magnitude. Also no one had told him that ordinary teenagers did not deliver speeches on their own birthday.

“I consider myself really lucky that you are my lover now,” he concluded his speech.

His band, understanding that people wanted to dance again, started to play. Naruto led Sasuke from the stage: people made room for them so that they could dance. It was an English Waltz, and when Naruto opened his arms Sasuke accepted that this time he would follow. He still needed to recover from the scene on stage. He was also glad when after the first round some other couples joined them so that people did not only watch him and Naruto.

They left the area for dancing when after a few dances the music changed to a Slow Fox which they had never learnt to dance. Holding each other in their arms and kissing was easier when they were not dancing. It was also easier to kiss and embrace when no one tried to talk to them, which, however, was exactly what people did from the moment they had sat down.

“What were you talking about?” they asked. “Did people really consider you a monster when you were a child?”

“I was the kyuubi's jinchuuriki,” Naruto said. “People feared it might get out of control.”

“People did not see that he was still a child, even though the kyuubi was sealed into him,” Sasuke said, laying his arm around Naruto's shoulders. “They did not see that he suffered from loneliness just as any other kid without family.”

“And you saw it?”



“I saw it, but after my family's death I was too busy with my own suffering to do anything about it. And before my family were murdered my mother had warned me against making friends with Naruto. She told me that people might consider it an attempt to secure the kyuubi for the Uchiha clan.”

“Did she say this?” Naruto asked. “You never told me about it.”

“I had forgotten her words. The scholar we talked to at the university brought them back to my mind. She said this when we had just entered the academy. I wondered about you, and talked about you to my mother, and she warned me against approaching you because it might be interpreted the wrong way.”

“Still you accepted me as your friend and as a human being when we were put into a team.”

“My clan was already dead at the time. Following my mother's advice had not saved them.”

“Still after Iruka you were the second person to acknowledge me as a human being. You shared your food with me during Kakashi's bell test.”

People were still listening to them, trying to figure out the meaning of their words. Naruto had to explain to them what Kakashi's bell test had been about.

“How old were you then?” they asked.

“Twelve,” Sasuke answered.

“And you really stood by him when everyone else despised Naruto and considered him less than human?”

“He did,” Naruto said.

“That's quite an achievement at that age” people said.

“He would also have sacrificed his life in order to save mine” Naruto continued, but this did not make a great impression. Situations when you had to sacrifice your life in order to save another person were beyond the scope of experience of people in Music Town.

“Standing by someone who is despised by everyone, and risking that you will be despised too takes quite some courage, and also an independent mind and a capacity to judge for yourself. Most children will conform to their peer group, or follow their teacher's words. Most grown-ups will conform to their group and their superiors, actually. Standing up to them and sticking to your own judgement is quite a feat.”

It was the kind of heroism people in Music Town knew and understood, Sasuke thought. They had no idea what it meant to fight and to kill or be killed, but they knew what it meant to take position against your group. Sharing his food with Naruto at the age of twelve turned him into a hero according to the standards of Music Town, just as it had secured him Naruto's love and gratitude.

He felt dizzy, as he had felt when he had stood next to Naruto on the stage, but not as embarrassed. He had always seen himself as a fighter, and this was what he had excelled at. He loved Music Town, but it had not always been easy for him to accept that what he was good at did not count here. It had not been easy to accept that Naruto was better at most things that were considered important here. Hearing that his actions as a twelve-year-old turned him into a hero in the eyes of people in Music Town came quite as a surprise.

“Sasuke never cared what other people were thinking,” Naruto said, laying his arm around Sasuke's shoulders, and somehow people understood that now the discussion was over. Also, one of the young women from the riverside called them to look after Sakura.

“She is tired,” she said. “I think she wants to go home.”

The boys were at a loss. Both were enjoying the party, and neither was in a mood to go home.

“I can accompany her,” Naruto said.

“You can't,” the young woman replied. “It's your birthday party. You have to stay.”

They arrived where Sakura was sitting. She had never learnt to dance, and she had not managed to associate with other people here. Some of the young women who had already met her in the morning had pitied her and drawn her into a conversation, but now she was tired.

“I can go home with you,” Sasuke said. “But I'll have to return later, because I have to see that everything is tidied up before I return the keys to the caretaker of the community center.”

Naruto heard clearly that Sasuke said this from a sense of duty, and out of pity for Sakura, and that he would have preferred to stay. Sakura heard it too.

“You're happy here,” she said. “I don't want to spoil the party for you.”



“I'll accompany her home,” one of the young women said. “Just give me your keys.”

They were like this in Music Town, Sasuke thought: always looking for pragmatic solutions.

“I can go to your place on my own,” Sakura said. “I am a ninja myself: I don't need anyone to protect me. Just give me your keys.”

Neither of the boys had thought of protecting her. (There was nothing to protect her against in Music Town.) They had just wanted to be polite, both of them having a bad conscience because they had not spent any time with her.

“You're tired, and you don't know the place,” the young woman said. “It's easy to lose one's way in the dark. Just give me your keys.”

Sasuke gave the keys to Sakura. He felt weird.

“Now you can't get home without me,” Naruto said. “Now you're bound to me.”

“You're bound to me,” Sasuke said. “You'll have to stay with me until the party is over and until everyone has left. You'll have to help me sweep the floor and carry the tables to their original places.”

“With pleasure,” Naruto replied, drawing Sasuke closer to himself, so that their hips bumped into each other, and then kissing him on his cheeks. He was not aware of what he was doing, because this was how he always behaved, and people in the gay community accepted it (making allowances for him and Sasuke because they were young and cute), their new classmates had got used to it by now, and their friends from the riverside showed their affection just like Sasuke and Naruto did, if they happened to have a partner. Only Sakura's irritation made him realize what he was doing, and that he hurt her.

“You can always come home on your own,” she told Sasuke. “Just ring the bell. I'll open the door.”

“Rather go to bed,” Sasuke said. “The party will last well into the morning.”

“You must be tired,” Naruto added. “All the time I forget that you spent a couple of days on the road, traveling to Music Town. It must have been an exhausting journey. I'm sorry that I don't have more time to spend with you. It's just that the party could not be canceled, and this morning's guest could not be disinvited.”

“It's okay,” Sakura answered. “I'm sorry I forgot about your birthday. If I had remembered I would have waited until tomorrow.”

“Don't say that! It's great that you came today. It's wonderful that you joined us to celebrate my birthday. I could not have wished for a better surprise. Now take some rest. Tomorrow we'll have time to spend together. Then we can talk, and we can show you the town.”

Sakura stood up, and the young woman got up with her. She smiled at both boys, but her smile was rather sad.

“See you tomorrow,” she said.

 

 

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.