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The Blessed Realm	By : susanna Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1746 -:- 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.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
Sorry,
I know this is a bit later than
usual. I have been to the Japanese summer festival of my town (which
happens to be the twin town of Hiroshima.) I have seen some Kendo
fighting and traditional Japanese archery and listened to some
traditional Japanese music – well, more or less traditional, it
included a violin. Oh, and there were some Akatsuki around, having
picknick.

Chapter
Fifteen: A New Promise

“You
see, this was not that horrible”, Karin said. “No need
for drama. Now you'll no longer have to pretend that everything is
fine while you continue knocking over glasses, making us read the
small print to you and running into trees. Just get glasses and
everything will be fine.”

Sasuke
hadn't said anything since they had left the doctor, and had left it
to Naruto and Karin to find them a café where they could sit
in the sun and decide how to go on. Naruto was a bit worried: He
empathized with Sasuke and pitied him – no longer perfect, no
longer an invulnerable fighter, but hurt at the core of his pride,
his eyes. Yet on the other hand Karin was correct: If Sasuke suffered
from myopia, denying it was no solution, and so there was no
alternative to accepting the facts and getting glasses. He was,
however, quite glad that it was not him who needed them.

“I
mean, it's only glasses”, Karin continued. “You can
always take them off if you want to be pretty.”

“I
could if I were as stupid as you”, Sasuke retorted, and the
insult shocked Naruto as if it had been directed at himself. The
relationship between Sasuke and the kunoichi of his team seemed a bit
difficult.

“In
my eyes you will always be pretty”, he said to comfort Sasuke.
“With or without glasses.”

Sasuke
spilt some water (not from overlooking the glass and knocking it
over, however.) What had he done to make Naruto say this?

“In
my eyes too”, Karin added.

“And
I had just thought that getting glasses might be good for something”,
Sasuke snapped back.

Things
seemed pretty bad between the two of them, Naruto decided.

“We
can get some that are particularly hideous”, he suggested, “if
that is what you want.”

Looking
pretty was actually the least of Sasuke's concerns. He did not plan
to seduce anyone – this was what occupied Karin's mind, his was
busy with important matters. It was rather – it was that he
could not imagine himself fighting that Danzou with glasses on. How
would it look like? He'd seem like some weakling, or like that idiot,
Kabuto, who spent more time in his laboratories than actually
fighting, or at least training to fight. He was different – he
was strong, and a fighter.

He
could take off these glasses for fighting, to be sure. On the other
hand he was rational enough to know that to fight he would need to
see clearly.

He
finished his drink. “Let's get over with it”, he said.
“Where do I get these glasses?”

Naruto
shrugged. “I have seen several stores in the center of town.”

Karin
accompanied them back to the town hall, but she didn't join them to
look for glasses. “I have promised Juugo to relieve him in the
afternoon”, she said. “He wants to meet again with the
same children he played with yesterday. - See you later! Naruto, make
sure that he doesn't chicken out!”

“I
will”, Naruto answered. “I promise you that we will
return with glasses that will make him look even prettier than he is
now!”

Neither
Naruto nor Sasuke had ever been to an optician's store, and neither
of them had an idea how to do this. Sasuke had the prescription from
the doctor and thought he'd just give it to the shop assistant and
get some glasses in return, but before he could do this, Naruto had
already asked a shop assistant for glasses “for my friend”
and had been shown upstairs, to the men's department, where Sasuke
realized that things were going to be much more complicated than he
had imagined: Hundreds, or even thousands of glasses were looking at
him from the racks, threatening him: This is what you will be from
now on. He slowed down his steps

Naruto
was impressed too. He had not thought that there would be so many
glasses to choose from – though, honestly, they all looked the
same to him. He had no idea where to begin.

“Let's
look for your size”, he said. “Do you have your
prescription at hand?”

Sasuke
showed it to Naruto, but nowhere was there any big, underlined number
with “size” above it. “I think they're sorted by
colour”, he said and headed for the black ones.

They
sold them without glass, he realized. It made sense, of course, and
he was glad that he would not have to choose this or that frame just
because it happened to have the correct strength. Of course this was
not of much help as they all looked equally horrible to him.

Naruto
was at a loss too: Only slowly he saw the differences.

“Some
are made of metal, some of plastic, or horn”, he pointed out.
“Which do you prefer?”

“Metal”,
Sasuke answered. “I don't want to look like Karin.”

On
occasion I will have to ask what is the matter between the two of
them, Naruto thought. He turned to those with the metal frames and
finally saw that they were all different in form: Some were round,
some were rectangular, and also, they were different in size. It was
not of much help: he had no idea which ones might suit Sasuke.

A
shop assistant turned up behind them. “You may try them on, of
course”, he said.

“What
for?” Sasuke asked. “They don't have glasses anyway, so I
won't be able to tell whether they fit.”

“Maybe
then we should first determine the strength you need.”

It
took Sasuke some seconds to understand him, then he showed him the
prescription. “We've already done this. We just have to choose
the frame.”

“Well,
then perhaps you'd like to try them on to see whether they suit
you...”

Sasuke
really didn't care. He was sure he'd look like an idiot with any of
them.

“Maybe
these...”

The
shop assistant put a pair on his nose, and Sasuke froze at the
intrusion of his personal space.

“No”,
Naruto said, saving Sasuke from deciding whether to say “no”
because he didn't like them, or “yes” because he was
convinced that he wouldn't look better with any of the others either.
(Actually he hadn't even looked into a mirror.)

“Well,
they might be a bit too big”, the shop assistant admitted. He
took another pair from the rack, and this time Sasuke caught his
hand, took the frame from him and put it on himself.

“They
are better”, Naruto decided. “But not perfect. What about
these?”

He
pointed at another pair, the shop assistant passed it to Sasuke, and
Sasuke put it on.

“No,
definitely not. He looks like a strict teacher now.”

“Well,
this one has rounded corners...”

Naruto
was getting into it: Seeing how minimal differences made Sasuke look
like a different person. He learnt to rule out certain types (the
butterfly-wing shaped ones, for example) without even making Sasuke
try them on.

“I
see you are going for something neutral”, the shop assistant
said. “Maybe you'd like to try some colourless ones as well.”

He
had brought a whole collection, and Naruto made Sasuke try them on
too. Some were quite okay, but none was perfect.

“Can
I have some paper, and something to write?” Naruto asked, and
after providing him with these issues, the shop assistant watched how
Naruto tried to make notes of the frames that had been okay (though
not perfect). “the rectangular one from the second row with the
rounded corners and the broader upper side.” After some time he
showed Naruto where to find the numbers of the frames.

“We
also have a mirror”, he told Sasuke. “If you want to
have a look at the frames your friend has chosen for you.”

Hesitatingly,
Sasuke obeyed. He did not see the point of it, as he was sure that
he'd look stupid, but he could not refuse without embarrassing
himself even more. As he expected, he hated them all.

“Yeah,
put on the second one again!” Naruto said. “I think it
was best.”

Sasuke
did so, and Naruto drew a circle around the corresponding number. He
thanked the shop assistant, then they left for the next store. Naruto
looked forward to it – trying out glasses on Sasuke was fun,
actually. He had a bit of a bad conscience for it, however, knowing
how much his friend was suffering.

Their
visit to the second store was rather short. Naruto had now understood
how buying glasses worked, so he went straight ahead for the men's
department, where they were greeted by an elderly assistant.

“I'm
still busy”, she said. “You may begin looking for
yourselves; I'll join you as soon as possible.”

So
they went again for the black frames – Naruto had gained some
experienc now at choosing which ones would do, and some were actually
quite fine, but again, none was perfect. Sasuke's passivity was a bit
worrying, but then, Naruto had given his promise to Karin that he
wouldn't let him chicken out, and that they would find glasses that
made him look even prettier than he already was.

The
shop assistant had joined them without noticing it. “You might
look prettier if you tried to smile”, she suggested to Sasuke.
Naruto felt him freeze – it was the kind of remark Sasuke was
not able to deal with. He reached out for him – he really liked
touching him, he realized, and Sasuke did not seem to mind.

“He
is pretty enough as he is”, he told the shop assistant. “You
might need glasses yourself, if you don't see this.”

It
was stupid, of course, as the woman was wearing glasses already.
Maybe she needed stronger ones.

“We
will look elsewhere”, he told Sasuke, loud enough for the shop
assistant to hear. “There's another shop down the street. We
don't have to buy anything here.”

He
led him outside, his arm around Sasuke's shoulders. Sasuke was
absorbed in his pain and suffering horribly by now, and glad for the
warmth Naruto offered to him – it were not only the glasses any
more, it was also that this place seemed to hate him. He liked it,
actually, he was, all in all, enjoying his stay in this town, if
people were not always making fun of him, humiliating him, expecting
him to smile. But he just could not force himself to smile when he
was needing glasses.

It
was no longer simply about not being a fear-inspiring avenger when he
was wearing glasses, it was that he would have to part from his face
as it was now: He would keep it of course, but as his sight was
getting worse, he would no longer be able to see it clearly without
glasses. At the moment he still had an idea of how he looked like,
but with the Mangekyou Sharingan, it would deteriorate more and more,
making him need stronger and stronger glasses and stopping from
seeing his own face clearly without them – curse Itachi!

He
followed Naruto to the next shop – it was obvious that Naruto
enjoyed himself, but he meant well, and so Sasuke was ready to put up
with it. He was grateful that Naruto had defended him against the
shop assistant, and he distracted himself by wondering whether Naruto
really thought him pretty. It was a nice thought, and letting Naruto
choose the glasses he thought him most handsome with was probably not
the worst choice.

The
shop was unusually big, and they were left alone to choose for
themselves while the shop assistants were busy discussing what they
wanted to do for their colleague's wedding which was going to take
place in two weeks. Naruto even had to wait for a few minutes until
they had time to give him something to write, else however he was
content that they wouldn't be bothered but could try out the frames
by themselves. He considered himself an expert buyer of glasses by
now. Round, oval, rectangular, butterfly-winged, fancy – they
had secured themselves a table, and Naruto sorted the frames by form,
and then in the order of how they looked. Though still, none of them
was prefect.

Sasuke
remained compliant, putting on even the weirdest frames Naruto
brought him, which he would have rejected after a single look in the
first store, and funnily it was with these weird ones that he dared
to look at himself in the mirror.

“With
these you look like some old scholar”, Naruto would say. “Wanna
have a look?” and Sasuke would look into the mirror and agree
to it.

They
ended up with a lot of notes about which models had been okay. Naruto
made Sasuke try these on again, and drew a circle around the ones
that were best among this selection. Sasuke felt the jaws of fate
closing around him: Trying out glasses that were ridiculous, knowing
that they were ridiculous and that he would not have to wear them,
was fun – the thought that in the future he would have to wear
some more or less decent glasses all the time was not.

He
expected Naruto to decide that they would purchase the frame he had
just declared the best, and also better than the one he had found in
the first shop.

“So
shall we get that one?” he asked.

Naruito
shook his head. “It's okay, but -” he sought for words to
explain it - “it's not really you. I am looking for glasses
that make you look like you.”

Sasuke
was moved by these words and he smiled, but only faintly; Naruto knew
that the events of the day had exhausted him. He put his hand around
Sasuke's shoulders again, he felt more confident about it now, and
Sasuke, after getting tense for one moment, relaxed, and Naruto
relaxed too.

“Why
can't we just buy some glasses that are okay?” Sasuke asked.
“Did you not say that I will always be pretty in your eyes?”

“I
did – and I will see that it comes true. I won't give up before
we find glasses that are perfect.”

For
all Sasuke was going through, and for all the pity he felt for him,
Naruto was in heaven: Sasuke was with him, he allowed him to be close
to him, to care for him, to comfort him, and he was going to stay for
some more days – he felt warm and elated, and he wished that
this moment might last forever.

He'd
see that Sasuke would smile too, he thought, even though he needed
glasses.

A/N:

Sneakyfox:
Thanks for your review and your compliments! The next chapter will
contain some more humiliation for Sasuke, but then it will be over,
at least for the time being. I hope that he can still be the source
of amusement...

Kinai26:
Thanks for the compliments too! I don't find these tests that
horrible, but this is mostly because I want contacts... It
were different before my mother had allowed me them. I think that
when one looks at the fight against Killerbee Sasuke is quite able to
swallow his pride and accept help – he even did after the fight
against Deidara. It is only that during fights or directly after a
fight he just does not realize that he might need help (as after the
fight against Itachi.) And, yes, affection is blooming, but it takes
them time – after all, Sasuke and his team have only arrived a
few days ago, and they still have to get used to each other. I try to
let the blossom open up a little bit more in each chapter.

The
question of revenge is a complicated one, and I try to find a
complicated answer in my story...
- 17
- 18
- 19
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