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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.

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Chapter One Hundred Fifty-One: Dance Tournament
It was time to get ready for the dance tournament. Sasuke and Naruto had a shower and packed the clothes they wanted to wear for dancing, and also some make-up. They left, and on their way they posted the letter to Hinata.
The tournament was to take place in the principal concert hall of the town, at the central place right between the town hall and the main temple, in a real ballroom with a stage for the tournament itself, with tables at the sides for the audience and for dancers who needed to take a break. There was some space between the tables so that people from the audience could dance during breaks. There were also lots of flowers: on the tables, under the windows, and to the sides of the stage. It was a huge tournament with a long tradition going back to the times when Music Town was still the Hidden Village of Music, but same sex couples had participated only for the last five years.
Sasuke and Naruto found their friends assembled at two tables that stood next to each other. People embraced and welcomed them.
“You look quite at ease,” the guy from Earth Country said. “Did you follow my advice?”
“What advice?” Naruto asked.
“He told me not to get into an argument with you before the tournament but to have some good sex instead,” Sasuke said.
The man cringed. Sasuke had learnt by now to understand the other gay men when they hinted at having sex, but he still had to learn to talk in a similar way.
“We did,” Naruto said, smiling and drawing Sasuke closer to his side. It was not only the memory of the sex, however, that made him smile, but even more importantly the memory of the moments before this: their decision to leave Music Town and return to Konoha. He felt at peace now.
“You don't need to tell any details,” the man said, and Naruto stopped thinking about the afternoon and returned to the present. The man's clothes caught his eye.
“What's that funny thing around your neck?” he asked.
“It's a bow tie. Haven't you ever seen one?”
“It looks ridiculous. And you look ridiculous in your suit. You don't look like yourself.”
“You can't wear jeans and a T-shirt when you participate in a ballroom tournament,” the man replied. “You would show a lack of respect for the audience, the jury and the other participants.”
Sasuke thought that the man and his husband looked more dignified than on other days. He considered it cool. Still he was glad that he and Naruto would wear ordinary black pants, though very tight ones made from some elastic material, and ordinary black shirts, but silken ones.
“You should hurry,” the man said. “The sorting rounds start soon, and you still need to change and to check in.”
He showed them where to check in. They told their names to the woman behind the counter, and she ticked them off from some list. “From the Center of Music Town – is that correct?” she asked.
“From Konoha, please,” Sasuke said.
The woman looked at him.
“Yes, write down that we're from Konoha,” Naruto said.
The woman took some notes. “The programme has been printed already,” she said, giving a copy to each of them. “But I can tell the people who do the moderation that you are from Konoha.”
They thanked her, and she gave them bracelets that entitled them to free soft drinks and a number complete with safety pins. “Have fun!” she said. “I wish you a successful tournament!”
They went on to the changing-room, where they met some friend of theirs, but also a lot of strangers, mostly the male halfs of opposite sex couples, but also gay couples they had never seen. Sasuke applied a new layer of gel to his hair, and he managed to persuade Naruto to let him apply some gel to his hair, too, making it stand out to all sides.
“Looks cool,” he said.
Naruto insisted on wearing the number, so Sasuke pinned it to his back. They watched in fascination how other men donned some make-up foundation not only to their faces, but also to their necks and those parts of their bodies that were not covered by clothes. Naruto was glad that he did not have to look more tanned than he was. Sasuke might need to look a bit darker, he thought, and he shared his observations with the guy from Earth Country, who had returned to the cleaning-room to comb his hair (again.)
“That's only for the top couples,” he told Naruto. “And in the end what counts is how you dance, not how you look. You don't have to look like a Latin lover.”
He had to explain the term to Naruto, who finally understood why a man from their club who normally dyed his hair blonde had not done this for a while and had now cut his hair very short so that you only saw the new black hair.
Sasuke did not use any make-up to appear more tanned than he was, but he applied eyeliner and some mascara. He had also brought dark blue mascara and eyeliner for Naruto, and Naruto knew that he could not decline the offer without offending him.
“You can also have some powder,” the guy from Earth Country said. “Put it where your skin is a bit shiny, or a bit red.”
Naruto followed his advice. “We're not doing drag, are we?” he asked.
The straight men at the mirror next to them started to look.
“No, it's just so that you look better on stage. The light there is quite cruel, and people see you from far away. Also, you look better on photos if you use some make-up. Now take some rouge too!”
He had to help him apply it.
“You look great,” Sasuke said, then he remembered this afternoon's feelings and said: “That's for the audience. I like you best as you are.”
Naruto felt like himself again. He also remembered what Sasuke had said: that he liked him best when he looked serious. He did not need to smile at everyone all the time. Now he smiled because he was happy.
“I also like you best as you are,” he said, removing some mascara from Sasuke's cheek. “I even like the gel in your hair, as it always makes you look as if you had just left the bed.”
Again some of the straight men looked at them, and they realized that this was not their own community center where the rules of conduct were less strict than elsewhere. They left the changing-room and joined their friends from their dance-club: There was still some time left for warming up and practising your sequence one last time before the sorting rounds started, but only very little space, as everyone tried to do this at the same time. In the end the woman with the microphone divided the time between couples with even numbers and couples with odd numbers.
Slowly Naruto got more excited. With all he and Sasuke had gone through these last weeks winning or not winning the tournament was not really important any more, but now he wanted to show what he was capable of.
The tournament started with the sorting rounds: Couples were divided into classes according to their level. There were five classes for the opposite sex couples, but only three for the same sex couples. There had been intense discussions about this, because the same sex couples had felt discriminated against, but in the end they had to give in. When there were as many same sex couples as opposite sex couples there would be five classes for them too, they had been told, but this year, the tournament for same sex couples was much smaller, and so there were only three classes.
Also, the same-sex couples started the tournament as if they were only a prelude to the real thing. They tried to make up for it by bringing more friends and cheering louder than the straight people, who all seemed very serious and dignified.
There were several rounds even for the sorting, as there were lots of couples, and as the ballroom couples started and as they all had to dance three dances, Sasuke and Naruto had to wait for quite some time. They watched their friends and embraced and congratulated them and told them they had done well, even though the guy from Earth Country and his husband had messed up the quickstep, suddenly forgetting which figure they wanted to dance, and standing still for almost ten seconds until they decided to start again from the beginning.
The mood was still rather relaxed, as this was not about winning or losing or even entering the final round, but just about getting sorted into the right class. Most couples knew quite well which class they belonged to, and didn't even aspire to enter a higher class. If they were unlucky it meant that they had to dance a dance they had not practised, and it decreased their chances of entering the final round. Only some of the top couples were nervous, most of all a couple who hoped to be admitted to the A-class for the first time. (They had spent a lot of time improving their Viennese Waltz, the dance that was the prerogative of the A-class dancers.)
There was a short break before the Latin couples started. Sasuke wanted to take another look at his hair, and he wanted to take a look at Naruto's hair, too. They returned to the ballroom just in time to walk onto the stage with the other couples for their first dance. They lined up right behind some friends of theirs, with a couple they had never seen following them. They were drowned in the music, and in the general good mood. Even Sasuke smiled as they became part of their group of dancers, and waved at the audience. It was the music, too, that made him smile, a samba that had been popular all summer, with not much melody, but a lot of rhythm, so that he could feel it in his belly and his feet, and he felt the excitement, as this music had always announced the highlights of festivals and parties. Now he was not a member of the audience but among those who entered the stage.
Naruto was mostly glad that Sasuke had partly lost his nervousness. He looked determined when they took position before the first dance, the rumba, started as if he was focussing on a fight, but when Naruto smiled at him he returned the smile and lighted up again.
“We'll show them,” he said when Naruto laid his hand in his own. Naruto nodded: he could not answer as the music had already started, and Sasuke led him into the first figure.
Sasuke was leading and Naruto was following most of the time, still Naruto felt that he needed to reassure and support Sasuke. He smiled at him, and Sasuke smiled back and gained confidence. When he turned around Naruto smiled at the audience, flirting a bit, and he saw that Sasuke also smiled at the audience. He had rarely done this during training, but now he just could not stop smiling.
The rumba had lasted for only ninety seconds. They waited at the side of the stage to watch the other couples and the first round of the cha-cha. The second round of the cha-cha it was their turn again, and Sasuke did not feel insecure any longer.
Dancing the cha-cha was always fun, and Sasuke allowed himself to be infected by Naruto's good mood, and with the jive, which was Naruto's favorite dance, he just trusted they'd do well. They had danced their sequence a hundred times, and they no longer had to focus on getting the figures right. The most difficult part was to wait until they had left the stage before they embraced. Sasuke drew Naruto into his arms and held him for several seconds, and Naruto understood that he was simply happy.
They dissolved their embrace as other people were tipping their shoulders because they wanted to congratulate and embrace them too. Naruto was soon surrounded by a lot of friends, while Sasuke found himself standing next to their dance teacher.
“You did really well,” the dance teacher said. “People see that you enjoy dancing. They see that your smile is not frozen as with most other couples. They see it's genuine. You still have to learn to smile at people as Naruto does, but you've made great progress too.”
The compliment felt weird, and Sasuke was glad to return to their friends, who embraced him just as they had embraced Naruto, and told him he had done really well, and he and Naruto embraced the other couples in the same way, telling them that they had been great, even when they had really messed up. No one cared about the straight couples, even though some of the men were quite attractive in Sasuke's opinion. The women wore far too little fabric on their bodies for his taste. He turned his attention again to his own friends, who were now discussing the other male couples: their dancing, their looks, and their costumes. There were quite a few same sex couples who were not from their community: some were from other dance clubs where they were tolerated by the opposite sex couples, but some were from the ninja countries, mostly from the capitals and other big cities: there, too, gay communities had been forming for some years. Most of the couples who had traveled to Music Town were aiming for the top classes: people took on themselves a journey of three days only if they wanted to win.
People stopped chatting when the moderator announced that the jury would now announce the division into classes for the ballroom couples.

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