The Blessed Realm

 Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven: See you in Konoha!

They embraced the Ph.D. student because they saw that he was too shy to do this from his own accord.

“Come back and tell me about the insurgency when it's over!” he said. “And remember: for this you need to stay alive.”

They thanked him and left in order to see the experts of the university. They gave them the letter of the experts from the police, and also the Ph.D. student's regards. To their relief the experts did not cast a glance at the documents and declared that they were faked, but explained to them that they were printed on the right kind of paper, with the right typeface, in the right colour.

“If they're fakes, they are well-made fakes, forged by experts.” they said, but they also told them that they would have to do some more tests. They would inform the experts at the police and the publishing-house, meaning that Sasuke and Naruto did not have to return there themselves and tell the news to the journalists.

“It's out of our hands now.” Sasuke said when they left the experts. He had been carrying the documents all day, but now his hands were empty, and he felt weird. “There's nothing to do for us any more except picking up the copies of the newspaper tomorrow morning.”

They went to visit Juugo's fostermothers. Sakura was there, too, and they told her to visit the Ph.D. student and gave her one of the keys to their flat. They told them about their change of plan, and Naruto told them about his intention to distribute the newspaper among the people of Konoha to encourage them to stand up against Danzou. The women had prepared a meal with several courses, and also some food for the journey.

“Come back!” they said when they parted. “Take care of yourselves!”

They embraced, and then Sasuke and Naruto embraced the little girls, and also their older brothers. The latter were a bit stiff at first, but then they decided that on such an occasion it was okay to be embraced by men. They also embraced Sakura, but this felt very awkward.

They visited their class: they had never thought that saying good-bye might take a whole day. Their classmates wished them luck and a quick victory, and even those who weren't close to them seemed impressed by their intentions to participate in a real insurgency, and they were genuinely concerned and told them they hoped that they would not get hurt.

It was time to visit the guy from Earth Country and his husband. It felt weird to have breakfast in the afternoon, but it didn't really matter. Both Sasuke and Naruto were very emotional by now. They felt their friends' sadness and despair and were affected by it. Suddenly their departure began to feel real. They tried not to show their feelings: they exchanged gossip, and Naruto spoke about his intentions to change Konoha. In the end the two men told them to accompany them to the gay community center so that there they could say good-bye to their fellow dancers. They felt overwhelmed by people's emotions, most of all those of the people they had not really been close to. They did not know what to make of them.

“We can't stay to dance with you tonight.” Naruto said. “There's some other people we also need to say good-bye to.”

The guy from Earth Country and his husband accompanied them outside. One time after the other they embraced them, holding them tight. It was dark, so Sasuke and Naruto could not see their tears, but they could feel them. They kissed them on their cheeks and even on their mouth, but without using their tongue.

“Come back! Stay alive! Take care of yourselves!” they said one time after the other. “We'll miss you!”

“We'll miss you too.” Naruto answered, feeling his own tears now on his cheeks. “We'll return! Definitely!”

After a quarter of an hour they parted. Both Sasuke's and Naruto's hearts hurt. They'd miss Music Town, and they'd miss the friends they had found here.

They knew where to find their friends from the riverside: now that it was too cold to hang out at the river they normally met in some pub in the vicinity of the university (most of them were students.)

“We've been talking about you.” they said when Sasuke and Naruto entered the pub.

“What? Why?” Sasuke asked, wondering how and when they had heard of his and Naruto's intentions to leave Music Town.

“We've been discussing the article you wrote for the newspaper.”

Sasuke felt blank. He had almost forgotten about the article.

“The picture you paint of Music Town is quite flattering.”

“Is it?”

“Yes, really. You still havent't understood anything. It's all nice and shiny on the surface, but you haven't seen the dark side.”

“I've seen a lot of Music Town, and compared to the dark sides of Konoha it's all a light gray. Really, it's you who haven't understood what your town looks like to people like us, from Konoha. You spend your time discussing what's wrong in Music Town, but you have no idea what's right here. I mean, even that you have leisure to hang out and discuss the shortcomings of Music Town is one of the things that's right here. Go to Konoha, then you'll see that your lives here are easy and bright compared to what people go through there.”

“Thanks for asking us to compare Music Town to the worst dictatorship on the continent.”

Sasuke was silent. He felt angry.

“There's other places on the other side of the world.” one of the young women said. “There they have real democracy. There, power and wealth are not concentrated in the hands of a few families. That's what we should aim for. Here they think that rule of law and trying to do what people want are substitutes for real participation.”

“So why do you spend your time hanging around, discussing what's better on the other side of the world? Why don't you do anything? Why don't you participate?”

“Discussing is participating. Words change the world.”

Sasuke fell silent. Fortunately Naruto now joined the conversation.

“We stumbled upon one of the dark sides of Music Town when we went to the newspaper to get Sasuke's article published.” he said. “We needed the consent of the higher-ups of Music Town because we already got into trouble when we gave that interview to Urban Lady.”

“You shouldn't have asked for the higher-ups' consent, nor should the newspaper have asked them for their consent. That's censorship, after all.” one of the young women said.

“They gave their consent.” Naruto answered. “There was nothing offensive about Sasuke's article. On the contrary, as you said it was rather flattering. Even when they complained about the interview in Urban Lady they didn't consider it offensive to Music Town, but they feared that it might offend Konoha. Sasuke's new text is even more offensive to Konoha, but the higher-ups of Music Town don't mind. They think that they're able to fight off Konoha, with me, the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki and also the Hachibi's jinchuuriki defending Music Town.”

“So why do you feel surprised?”

“I thought that people in Music Town did not believe in violence. I thought they trusted in a complicated system of peace treaties to keep them safe.”

“That's just a euphemism for trusting in the other ninja villages' ability and willingness to protect them. They trust in military strength, just as everyone else, and now that they feel strong themselves, with the Kyuubi and the Hachibi within the walls of Music Town, they trust in their own strength. Their trust in peace treaties was just the consequence of their own weakness. They're not better people here than elsewhere.”

“But they expect me to fight for Music Town if Konoha asks them to extradite me. How should I fight my own friends?”

“Are you still loyal to Konoha?”

“I'm not loyal to Konoha, but I'm still loyal to my friends who live there. I don't want to fight them. I don't want to fight at all. I don't want to use the Kyuubi. I'm glad I was able to befriend it so that it's at peace now.”

People went silent. Naruto wondered whether they understood his position.

“You might flee westward.” one woman finally said. “When Konoha threatens to attack Music Town, and Music Town puts you under pressure to use the kyuubi against your own friends, you may leave Music Town and search for the countries beyond the mountains, beyond the desert, beyond the sea, and find refuge there. Konoha can't attack them. There you'd be able to learn more about the people in your book. And one day, when the situation is safe again, you'll be able to return and to tell us about life in those places.”

Naruto considered it: Being a refugee again, in a place that was even stranger than Music Town. He still remembered his first weeks in Music Town, when everything had been strange and when he had felt lonely and desperate and longed to be at home. This time it would not be that bad: this time he would have Sasuke at his side. Still leaving Music Town and all the people he knew here in order to search for the mysterious places that had inspired the changes in Music Town seemed like an act of desperation and not like an adventure that might be a lot of fun.

“It doesn't matter.” he said. “We won't flee westward. We'll join the insurgency against Danzou.”

“You're returning to Konoha?”

“We are. We came to say good-bye.”

They saw the admiration in their friends' faces. They were no longer teenagers who needed to be taught about politics. After some time people started to whisper among each other.

“We'll come with you.” one of them said.

“To Konoha? What for?”

“To participate in the rebellion.”

“What?”

“We too want to make this world a better place.”

“It's too dangerous for you!”

“It's not more dangerous for us than for you.”

“We are ninja. You aren't.”

“Still we can contribute to the rebellion.”



They were good at talking, Sasuke thought. If Naruto wanted to stick to non-violent tactics they might be useful. The problem was that they themselves did not believe in non-violent means as Naruto did, and that their theories were beyond the understanding of the inhabitants of Konoha.

“When do you plan to leave?” people asked.

“At five a.m. We need to pick up the newspaper first.”

He explained about the documents Sakura had brought to Music Town.

“We'll leave before daybreak. When I came here from Konoha the journey took me three days. This time we hope to make it in two.”

Again people were whispering, discussing Naruto's announcement among themselves.

“Five a.m. Is a bit early. We need time to pack. If we leave at ten or eleven we'll still be in time.”

“You can't come with us. You'd slow us down. We are ninja. In wooded areas we travel by jumping from tree to tree.”

“Then we'll follow you at our own pace.”

“It's still too dangerous.”



“We'll join a revolution. It may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“You'll have to face Danzou! You'll have to face Root! You may die.”

“We can look after ourselves. You can't tell us to stay – it's our own decision.”

Someone asked who was going to come with them the next morning, and about half the group decided to go. Without believing their ears Sasuke and Naruto listened as their friends discussed the details of their adventure: where and when to meet, what to pack, how to travel. At least, saying good-bye was not as sad and heart-breaking as saying good-bye to the rest of their friends.

“See you in Konoha!” they said. “Don't defeat Danzou before our arrival!”

Sasuke and Naruto hoped to be able to take him out of office before their friends joined them. It was too dangerous to have them with them when the rebellion was still going on, but they and their ideas might be useful when they were reorganizing Konoha.

They went home without talking. They kissed and made love when they went to bed, but they did not go over three rounds. Afterwards they stood in the living-room completely naked, holding each other in their arms, just feeling each other's bodies.

“It's like a dream.” Naruto said. “But I am also sad to leave Music Town. We'll come back, however, at least for visits.”

At five a.m. in the morning they arrived at the publishing-house of the newspaper. People had been considerate: instead of ten copies of the whole paper they gave them a hundred copies of the article.

They left Music Town before daybreak.

 

A/N: There's a long epilogue to my story at ffnet, but I did not want to post it here as here they are rather strict about long A/N.