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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
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Chapter
Nineteen: What about your friend?

They
went home, and Sasuke's glasses were admired appropriately by the
patron's daughter. “They suit you”, she said. Then she
drew them into some smalltalk, asking Sasuke which parts of town he
had already seen and what Naruto had shown to him. Sasuke told her
about the botanical garden (but not about the gay couple he had
observed.)

“The
botanical garden?” she asked back. “But is it not boring?
When my younger cousins come for a visit I always make sure to show
them something exciting, as the empty coal mines in the old
industrial parts of town. My cousins are a bit younger than you, but
I can imagine that you will like them too.”

So
after listening to her directions they set out for the mines and
participated in a guided tour. Naruto found them quite interesting,
but Sasuke, who was not very talkative to begin with, fell more and
more silent when they were enclosed by the darkness underground,
illuminated only by the lamps on their helmets.

“I
have seen enough subterranean mazes to last me for a lifetime”,
he told Naruto when they were safely back in the sunlight. “And
I have spent more time in insufficiently illuminated rooms where I
could not even read than I have ever dreamt of. I still hear the
cries of Orochimaru's test subjects who were held prisoners in the
deepest layers of his lair, angry and passionate when they had just
been captured, but with time getting more and more silent and rather
crying than shouting, and then going crazy in despair and horror,
tearing one's heart apart, when they were finally dragged to Kabuto's
laboratories to be first mutilated and terribly transformed and then
killed. I'm glad I left it behind me – I don't want to see any
of it again. - And in these mines, people too have died. Our guide
mentioned it, and never got back to it, as if she did not care, but
people have died here on a regular basis, despairing when they were
cut off from daylight and fresh air.”

Naruto
had completely missed this point of their guided tour. He wanted to
tell Sasuke that it had been his own choice, but the horror and the
compassion in Sasuke's voice forbade it. So when they returned, and
the patron's daughter asked them how they had liked the mines, Naruto
told her that they had been a bit too creepy for their taste.

She
shrugged: “Maybe the toy museum will be more to your liking.”

They
decided to give it a chance the next afternoon. Naruto set to work,
and Sasuke again turned to the newspapers to search for articles on
Konoha. He found one: The Hokage had cancelled a joint manoeuvre
practice of the Sand and the Leaf that had been agreed upon when
Tsunade had still been in office, under the pretext that with Konoha
still busy rebuilding the village there were other priorities.

The
glasses still felt weird, and he was glad that after the patron's
daughter had left them, the restaurant was empty except for Naruto
and himself. It had been bad enough that in the park and later in the
mine he had felt as if everybody was staring at him – even
though in the mine it had been too dark for it. Only seeing clearly
was not bad at all, and he didn't even have to get used to it. Still
there was something he had to try:

“What's
the most difficult of all the tasks you have to do here?” he
asked.

Naruto
shrugged. “Drawing beer”, he said.

“Show
me!”

Naruto
did as told, even though he had no idea what Sasuke was up to. When
he began to explain his actions Sasuke interrupted him. “Just
show – don't tell!”

Naruts
irritation grew when he saw Sasuke's Sharingan. “You're
cheating” he exclaimed. “This is not fair!”

“It's
the point”, Sasuke replied, and Naruto had to admit, though
only to himself, that he had been a bit foolish.

Sasuke
was pleased with the results of his experiment: With the glasses, the
chakra around Naruto and within him appeared much clearer, just as
physical objects did.

“Now
let me try”, he told Naruto, and drew another beer, just in
time for the first guest. He spent the rest of the evening helping
Naruto, which was okay, as it was a weekday and there was not much
business anyway, just the regulars, so there was not much opportunity
to mess up. After some time (and some compliments from the female
regulars) he felt less insecure about his glasses, and even let the
customers engage him in some smalltalk. He was not good at it, but he
discovered that with most guests it sufficed to say “yeah,
sure” every five minutes to make them go on talking. (He did
not even have to listen.)

Reading
newspapers, he realized, had become boring, all the more as he had
realized that they did not give him the information he needed if he
wanted to meet that Danzou when he was on his own, so that he'd kill
no one else. He'd need some information from inside, maybe he could
send Karin or Juugo into the village, as they would not draw any
suspicion on themselves, but they would not get close to the Hokage.
It would be best to have someone from the Hokage's entourage to help
him, yet who might that be? He did not expect even Naruto to
personally know anyone close to Danzou.

The
next morning brought a surprise: Suigetsu asked him for money.

“I
need to buy drums, and percussion instruments”, he said.
“There's a jam session this evening in one of the neighbouring
pubs. Everyone can bring their instrument, and then they play some
rock or jazz.”

Sasuke
was surprised.

“Everyone
can join?”

“That's
what they told me.”

“Even
if they can't play?”

“I
can play. Maybe I've got a bit rusty, but it will soon wear off, I am
sure.”

Suigetsu
had unexpected talents, Sasuke realized. “So you play both rock
and jazz?” he asked.

“Only
rock”, Suigetsu answered. “But without instruments I
cannot play.”

Grudgingly
Sasuke gave him the money he needed for drums and equipment. It was
quite a lot.

His
days had gained a certain rhythm now. In the morning he would go with
Naruto practising putting contacts into his eyes and taking them out
again (he was getting better at it), and in the afternoon they would
do some sightseeing – this time the toy museum the patron's
daughter had recommended to them. There was an exhibition “toys
and war” with toy weapons from the last hundred years: In the
first room, there were tiny, rather crude daggers, swords and shields
from the time before the foundation of the village, when because of
the then prevalent civil war families had been too poor to buy toys
so that they carved them from wood for their toddlers, while the
older children were supposed not to play but to help out with the
daily work or train their fighting skills. During the time of the
Hidden Village of Music toy weapons had become more sophisticated.
Still they were mainly aimed at children younger than seven, to make
them appreciate fighting skills and raise their eagerness to join the
academy and become ninjas. There were also miniature castles with
small figures of ninjas to besiege and defend them, with the most
detailed figures resembling famous ninjas of the village, encouraging
little children to take them as role models and re-enact famous
battles between the village and its opponents.

After
the demilitarization of the village there had been a demilitarization
of children's rooms too, as war most now abhorred and people thought
that they might raise children as pacifists if they just kept them
from any contact with anything that even remotely reminded them of
fighting or war. Only within the last decade this had changed again,
as people had found out that their strategy did not work out and that
kids kept begging for toy weapons. The new strategy was to see that
weapons were rather fantastic and did not resemble any weapons that
identifiably belonged to a certain country.

Both
Sasuke and Naruto felt uncomfortable. What was distant past to the
locals had been reality to them, and worse, even though Sasuke had
left his katana on Naruto's wardrobe, they felt as if they were part
of the exhibition, presented to the amusement of the locals who
thought of them as some weird people come to visit them from their
past. They agreed that the exhibition was boring as it didn't show
anything they didn't know before they had even reached the last room
of the exhibition that might have been most interesting to them, the
one that showed toy weapons as they were fashionable in Music Town
now.

In
the evening, Naruto again had to work, while Sasuke decided to
accompany Suigetsu to that musical event they had been talking about
(jam session or whatever it was called), mostly in order to prevent
him from getting drunk again. Suigetsu did not mind, he suggested
that Sasuke might push him around in his wheelchair in case this
became necessary. They ended up using the wheelchair to transport
Suigetsu's musical equipment, and Sasuke wondered how they might
divide all this stuff between Juugo and himself once they continued
their journey, considering that they had to carry Suigetsu himself
too when he got tired.

They
arrived early, allowing Suigetsu to find himself a good spot and
enough space to put up his his drums and percussion, then Suigetsu
socialized with the other musicians (apparently he had already been
acquainted with some of them.) People also attempted to draw Sasuke
into some conversation, but most of their attempts ended after a few
lines:

“So
which instrument do you play?”

“None.
I just came to accompany my friend.”

“But
you like to listen to music, don't you?”

“It
depends on the music.”

“So
which is your favourite band?”

At
this question Sasuke would shrug, making the person who had been
talking to him realize that he was indeed a hopeless case.

More
musicians had arrived, they took some time to discuss which song they
wanted to begin with (it had to be well-known and not too difficult),
then Suigetsu sought eye contact with the other drummer, they began
to play and after some seconds the other musicians fell in. Three
times they interrupted themselves as they had lost the rhythm (Sasuke
would not have noticed it), then they were content and turned to
another song. By and by other musicians arrived, but Sasuke remained
the only one who just listened. Suigetsu was popular and got quite a
lot of recognition for his performance, and even Sasuke could see
(rather than hear) that he was more sophisticated than the other
drummers, his hands moving so quickly between his various instruments
that Sasuke had to activate his Sharingan to follow their movements.

After
some ninety minutes of playing Suigetsu had collected three offers
from semi-professional bands to join them, and decided to take down
his equipment. “It's too full now”, he explained. “It's
no longer fun with all the beginners who have just arrived. Anyway,
they will soon begin to play jazz, which I don't know anything
about.”

They
moved to the front foom of the pub – the jam session was taking
place in the back room. The whole pub was situated in the basement of
one of the old houses in the center of town, with huge pillars of
stone supporting heavy vaults, that in their turn sustained the
weight of the upper stories. It made sense to host musical events in
such a place, Sasuke thought, as like this no one would be bothered
by the noise.

Suigetsu
had found them a heavy wooden table in one of the niches between two
barrels carrying a low (but vaulty) ceiling, so that they had some
privacy to discuss some urgent matters that had been on his mind, as
Suigetsu declared, for quite some time now.

“It's
about your friend”, he began.

“Naruto?”
Sasuke wondered what should be the matter with them. During the last
days they had been closer than Sasuke had been with his team.

“He's
okay, isn't he?”, Suigetsu continued.

“Sure
he is. He is my friend.” Sasuke felt irritated, having no idea
where Suigetsu was getting at.

“What
are your plans with him?”

Sasuke
felt caught. Had he been too careless, allowing Naruto to get too
close to him, even to touch his hands and shoulders and embracing
him?

“You
don't intend to include him in your revenge, do you?”

Sasuke
was relieved – Suigetsu was on a completely different track
than he had thought.

“No,
certainly not.”

“So
what are your plans?”

“Maybe
Karin can divert him.” It was an idea of the moment, and,
coming to think of it, not one he was particularly fond of. “Or
he'll just stay here while we take revenge against the rest of
Konoha.”

“And
when we meet him again, after dealing out revenge against Konoha?”

Sasuke
had not thought about this question, as he had not planned to survive
his revenge. But his team would, hopefully, and then they somehow
would have to deal with Naruto.

“Tell
him it was not about him. He has nothing to do with the murder of my
family, or with ruining Itachi's life, or discriminating against my
people and segregating them.”

“Just
as Itachi's strike against your clan was not about you as you had
nothing to do with the coup d'etat they were planning. - He probably
still has friends and family in Konoha.”

“Friends”,
Sasuke said. “He never had any family.”

Naruto
cared about Konoha, he reminded himself, even though he had to leave
it. His behaviour when he saw pictures clearly showed it.

“I'll
do the fighting”, he said. “You will just assist me
gathering intelligence. It won't be your responsibility. He won't
take revenge against you, and I am ready to suffer for the
consequences of what I will do.”

He
had not told his team that he planned not to return from his revenge,
and he did not intend to tell them. The darkest, ugliest parts of his
revenge were his business and his alone – he didn't want anyone
else to get involved with them. Even keep his own team out of them.

Suigetsu
simply raised his brows and Sasuke knew that it wouldn't work. Naruto
would not believe that his team had nothing to do with his revenge,
as little as he thought that the population of Konoha had nothing to
do with the discrimination against his clan.

His
impression was that Naruto and his team got along well. He did not
want them to become enemies. He did not want Naruto to become like
himself, taking revenge for Konoha. He wanted him to remain as he
was.

“Anyway,
destroying all of Konoha is only our last resort”, he continued
without much passion. “Our priority is killing the Hokage. Only
if this proves to be impossible we will obliterate the whole
village.”

“Thanks
for the update on your plans”, Suigetsu answered, giving Sasuke
a bad conscience again. “Any ideas yet how to achieve this
aim?”

Sasuke
hesitated. He had a lot of plans and ideas, but he knew that they
were all rather half-baked. “Somehow make Naruto take me to the
Hokage, but without binding or blindfolding me. Take me to the Hokage
when he is together with his cronies, the two councillors, so that I
can kill all three of them at once. Juugo or Karin can find out about
this or even better, we should try to get help from someone within
Konoha, perhaps even the Hokage's own entourage. Naruto might help us
with this. He's bound to have some friends in Konoha whom he might
contact.”

“So
we are going to take him with us? Because a few minutes ago you
suggested that he'd stay here, while we strike against Konoha.”

Sasuke
thought about it. Taking Naruto with them would make it easier to
kill Danzou and the Elders, but no one else. On the other hand, if
this turned out impossible, so that he'd have to destroy Konoha as a
whole, it would be better to keep Naruto as far away as possible. In
the end, considerations of another kind brought the decision.

“We
are taking him with us. He's not safe while he's here. He's the
kyuubi's jinchuuriki, and Akatsuki's after him.”

“So
we will defend him against Akatsuki when they come for him? You're
asking a lot of us.”

“It
won't be a problem. I can control the kyuubi. Besides, he is my
friend.”

“So
what do you suggest? Shall we fight him and bind him and abduct him
as we did with the Hachibi's jinchuuriki?”

“No.
We'll just invite him. The most difficult point will be to persuade
him that he might need protection. He can be very stupid about this.”

“Well,
he's your friend, isn't he?” Suigetsu said. “You are
bound to have some things in common, if you are friends. Are you
going to inform him of your plans for revenge?”

So
far Sasuke had thought that he wouldn't: “If he doesn't know,
no one can blame him. He won't get punished and he can still become
Hokage.”

“So
that's your dream?”

“Yes.”

“He
will pretend having captured you, but accidentally he has forgotten
to bind and blindfold you, he insists on presenting you to the
Hokage, then, when you begin to fight Danzou, he won't intervene, and
still they will believe that he had nothing to do with your revenge.

“But
he will intervene: When Danzou is dead, he will kill me. He'll be a
hero and people will make him Hokage.”

“Oh,
will he”, Suigetsu said. “So again, let me summarize your
plan: Naruto, who is a refugee, returns to Konoha even though he is
still in danger of being shut away, takes you to the Hokage, allows
you to kill the Hokage without intervening and only kills you when
you have succeeded – and then people celebrate him for killing
you and thus avenging the Hokage and make him the new Hokage. Won't
they think that it was all a plan of Naruto to become Hokage?”

He
shouldn't have told his plans to Suigetsu while they were still as
half-baked as they were, Sasuke thought.

“I
think that you should inform him of your plans. Otherwise he might
decide to protect the Hokage and kill you before you have killed him.
Or he will decide not to kill you at all.”

The
former was no problem, Sasuke thought, as Naruto would not be able to
kill him before he wanted to be killed, but the latter was. Why did
Suigetsu have to make things comlpicated?

“But
we have observed that informing us of your true intentions is not
part of your policy either.”

It
was not like this, Sasuke thought. It was just that he didn't want to
burden his team with the horrible decisions he had to make. On the
other hand, Suigetsu had a point. Not telling Naruto about his plans
was just too risky. He'd tell him about his intentions to kill
Danzou, but not about destroying the village if the former plan
failed. He'd have to choose his words carefully if Naruto should
consent even to killing Danzou. Wait until they were already
approaching Konoha, and at the moment only invite him to join them.
He'd talk to him about it when they returned to Naruto's place.

The
waitress came to ask them whether they wanted some more beer, but
Sasuke declined to Suigetsu's disappointment. Better leave, they did
not need another day at the hospital with Suigetsu suffering from
alcohol intoxication. They went home.

A/N:
I have realized that in canon, Danzou is much more evil than in my
story. I'd never have thought it – I have always hated him and
tried to make him look not too badly in this story.

Kinai26:
Thanks again for your review, and your patience! Glad that you like
my Sasuke – and, well, yes, I have promised Sasunaru, and I
will keep my promise, only that I am taking my time, as I want a
sound base for their love.

CR:
I am not a native speaker, and I am not a teenager, so I am not good
at English teenage slang, and I will rather refrain from trying than
making a fool of myself. Writing correct English is enough of a
challenge for me. I will see however what I can do to make them sound
differently.
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The Blessed Realm