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The Canalized River	By : susanna Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 944 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
A/N
and answers to reviews at the end of the chapter

Chapter
Sixteen: The Good Guys

Sasuke
left it to his team to set up the camp and prepare dinner. (At the
beginning of their journey there had been some conflicts about him
doing his share of the work, but by now they knew that he had
accepted his duties and that on an evening as this, when he was busy
with his own thoughts, they could trust him to make up for it later.)

The
hill where they had found refuge had not survived the fight
undamaged: One side of it had been cut off by the kyuubi. Sasuke
stood at the edge, looking down at the devastation. Still the thought
that it was Naruto who had destroyed the landscape made him shiver.
Chivalrous Naruto, kind to the weak, brave in front of the enemy,
true to his friends...

Sasuke
preferred not to linger on that last thought. And still to think that
Naruto's personality had been changed completely by the nine-tailed
demon-fox...

He
had witnessed such a change when he had fought Naruto in the Valley
of the End. Naruto had fought using the demon's raw chakra as a
weapon, but the price had been that he had partly lost control over
himself – he had seemed halfway out of his mind, being more
like the demon than like himself.

And
still together with fear and anger there had been love in the mix.

Sasuke
himself had been out of his mind as well, and worse so than Naruto.
He had thought that he had been acting rationally, finally having cut
himself from all bonds that would impede his clear thinking, and
indeed, when they had fought, he had not been overcome by his
emotions. It had seemed very simple: He had his aim, and he would do
what was necessary in order to achieve it. Only that he had forgotten
some other important points, for example that he would become like
Itachi if he treated other people as means to his ends. He had no
right to decide about other people's lives and deaths.

He
did not particularly like the memory of their fight at the valley of
the end, and he put it away.

Naruto
being controlled by the kyuubi... Being not much older than Naruto,
Sasuke had no conscious memories of kyuubi's attack on Konoha and of
his having to be sealed into Naruto, and then he had fallen under the
taboo that the story should not be told to any children. Of course he
had heard rumors of the demon's attack and of the Yondaime defeating
it, and he had also heard some stories about his clan's history with
the nine-tail, but only when he had met the kyuubi inside Naruto he
had been able to put two plus two together.

Suigetsu
came to fetch him for dinner. Sasuke felt his chakra long before he
could see or hear him, and he talked to him before Suigetsu addressed
him.

“Sacrifices”,
he said. “It's all about sacrifices.”

“Sorry”,
Suigetsu replied, “you don't mind telling me what you are
talking about?”

“It's
the same, always and everywhere. Orochimaru sacrificed people for his
immortality jutsu, my brother first sacrificed his best friend Shisui
to get the Mangekyou Sharingan and then the clan to test his
capability, or whatever the real purpose of this massacre was.
Akatsuki are hunting down Naruto and the other jinchuuriki in order
to achieve their dark aims. Even in Konoha they have sacrificed
Naruto to save their own hide.” He did not tell how once he
himself had been ready to kill Naruto.

Suigetsu
had now caught up and was standing at Sasuke's side, looking down at
the site of the fight. Their eyes did not meet.

“Sometimes
sacrifices have to be made”, Suigetsu said. “You will
learn this when you become a leader in war as you sure will one day:
Sacrificing some soldiers to save the rest of your division. Your
heart will bleed at the occasion, not knowing why you sacrifice one
and spare the other, but you will do it, because otherwise all will
die.”

“Soldiers
are soldiers”, Sasuke replied. “They became soldiers
fully aware that one day they might have to sacrifice themselves. I
am talking about sacrificing an infant in order to save the village.”

“So
what? People have done it all the time. It's simply a question of
numbers: One infant versus thousands of villagers, all equally
innocent.”

“But
in Konoha they still think that they are the good guys, because they
did it for some higher good: The well-being of the village.”

“Most
people think of themselves as the good guys”, Suigetsu said.

“Orochimaru
did not. He knew that it was all for his selfish aims.”

“Don't
be naive! He still thought that he was one of the good guys. Only his
world view was a bit twisted: He thought of himself as a genius,
while all others were of little value, and he believed that the world
would profit if he could make his immortality jutsu really work,
without him having to change bodies every three years – and the
timespan was shortening with every body he used! - while the death of
some dozens or hundreds of us mere mortal humans would not make any
difference. And though I don't know much about Akatsuki and their
aims, I am pretty sure that they consider themselves the good guys as
well.”

“I
don't consider myself one of the good guys. I have no ambition to be
a hero and sacrifice myself for some people I hardly know.”

“Of
course not. You sacrifice yourself for the honor of your clan. - And
still you think that you are better than your brother.”

“At
least I haven't killed anyone.”

A/N:
The first of several short or very short chapters because chapters
get longer towards the end of the story. Chapterwise I am now almost
half in the story, wordcountwise it still less than one third.

Spoon:
Thanks for your comment! I will answer tomorrow!

Lady
Laran: Thanks for your comments! *goes to reread the story and
check if it is not overdone* Honestly, my intention was to make
both Jounin talk like normal, sensible, well-meaning grown-ups.
- 15
- 16
- 17
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The Canalized River