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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
- 25
- 26
- 27
Chapter
Twenty-Three: Planning Revenge

After
standing silently side by side with Naruto for several minutes,
Sasuke's mind turned again to more practical questions.

“Have
you thought about your promise?” he asked. “Do you have
any idea how you will keep it?”

“I
haven't thought about it yet”, Naruto answered. “Work was
very busy yesterday.”

It
was not entirely true. He had thought about what he had heard, but
not about how to turn Danzou out of office. He did not know why
Sasuke's story had made him come to this resolution, while Sai's and
Nagato's had not – maybe because Sasuke was closer to him than
Sai or Nagato. No, he decided. Murdering a whole clan of one's own
village was definitely worse than what Danzou had done to the other
two. Konoha was ruled by a murderer, and could not remain so.

“Do
you have any ideas?” he asked Sasuke in his turn.

“Sure”,
Sasuke answered. “My plans are not perfect yet, and I will have
to change them, now that you are helping me, but I have a lot of
ideas.”

“Will
you tell me about them?”

Sasuke
hesitated. Telling Suigetsu about his plans had been bad enough,
telling Naruto would be even worse. “We'd somehow have to get
into the Hokage tower”, he began. “I'll send my team to
do some spying. It would be too dangerous for myself, but Juugo or
Karin won't rouse any suspicion. Maybe your friends in Konoha can
help as well. Our aim will be to find out about Danzou's habits, so
that we can attack him when he's on his own, or, even better, when
he's together with those two Elders. I only want to take revenge
against them, no one else.”

Naruto
raised his brows, and Sasuke realized that he should not have said
this: Naruto didn't have to know that he had ever considered killing
not only Danzou and the Elders, but everyone, and then burning down
the entire village. It was obvious that Naruto would never consent to
this (and of course he had to become Hokage of something when
Sasuke's revenge was completed.)

“There
won't be any moment when Danzou is on his own”, Naruto
answered. “He's the Hokage, heavily guarded at every second of
the day, and also during the night.”

“That's
where I'll need your help. You aren't a rogue-nin, at least not
officially. Officially you are hidden away at some secret place in
Konoha. People will wonder when they see you, but they won't take you
prisoner. You will tell them some story: that you've been sent by the
Hokage himself on a secret mission to retrieve me, and that he had to
cover up for it by telling that you were safe at that hidden place –
the other villages did not have to know that Konoha's jinchuuriki had
left and could not defend his village. I'll act as your prisoner. You
may even blindfold me, only the fetters should be fake so that I can
easily shake them off. You'll tell people that you have to take me
directly to the Hokage.”

“Sakura
won't allow for it.”

“You'd
have to explain it to her.”

“Still
the guards won't let me in. They won't be any random shinobi, but the
Root ANBU who are closest to Danzou. They'll wonder why they've never
heard of this mission to find you and they know that I'm your
friend.”

“Maybe
my replacement, what was he called again, can help us. He is a member
of Root, isn't he?”

“Your
plan includes a lot of help from me and my friends. What will remain
for you?”

“Killing
Danzou of course.”

“So
we will have to do the tricky and dangerous parts, so that you can
finally slay an old man. What honour is in that?”

Sasuke
was silent – killing Itachi would have been a proof of his
strength, and a proof that he had been able to gain this strength
without acquiring the Magekyou Sharingan. Now he had obtained it
without even wanting it, and gained immeasurable power, while Danzou,
unlike Itachi, was really just an old man.

“Old
or not, he is responsible for the murder of my family”, he
said.

“But
can you really do it? Strike down an old man, unable to defend
himself?”

Sasuke
had seen pictures of Danzou. He had seen the harsh lines on his face,
making him appear as if he had never smiled, he had seen the cruelty
in his single eye, and he had not felt any pity at all, just the wish
to wipe him off the earth.

“I
was only seven at the time of the massacre”, he said. “Unable
to defend myself. And still if things had gone according to to his
plans, I would have been killed too.”

“Still”,
Naruto said. “You don't want to be like them, do you?”

The
day before, when Sasuke had told him how they had planned to kill
him, Naruto had burnt with hatred and anger, and with all his heart
he had desired to make Danzou pay for what he had done. Today,
however, the thought of killing an old man scared him. Only if he
called before his inner eye again how Danzou had cold-bloodedly
ordered the murder of a whole clan, he froze with disgust, he wished
that Danzou had never existed, and his heart grew hard.

I
must not give in to it, he thought, remembering Nagato. For some
seconds he hesitated, then he decided to tell Sasuke about him.

“When
I saw the debris that had once been Konoha I did not feel anything
but hatred. Well, not at the beginning when I was confident of my
newly-gained power. Then I just thought of defending the survivors
and fighting off the aggressor so that he could do no further harm.
But when my jutsus were not strong enough to defeat him, I grew
desperate, and my hatred became like a flame, eating me up from
inside, until I turned into the kyuubi.”

Sasuke
nodded. Naruto's images were not the ones he would have used, but the
mechanisms of hatred and despair transforming into the desire for
revenge were all too familiar to him.

“But
when I stood before the aggressor, I refrained from killing him and
talked to him instead and learnt how he, too, had been used and
betrayed.”

“It
would not have worked with Itachi”, Sasuke said. “He
wanted me to kill him. He wanted to preserve his secret of how he had
been ordered to murder the clan by the top echelon of Konoha, rather
than have me forgive him and turn against the village.”

Naruto
had no idea what to make of this remark. He waited for further
explanations, but when there didn't follow any, he continued, taking
up Sasuke's remark without understanding it:

“Itachi
was used, Nagato was used – maybe Danzou is being used too.”

“Danzou?”
Sasuke asked, taken back by the suggestion. “Who would use
him?”

The
Akatsuki with the mask, who is behind everything, Naruto thought. But
maybe he is being used too, and was turned bitter by some betrayal
that happened in his youth.

“And
where does it end?” Sasuke continued. “The one who used
Danzo was used by someone else, and that one by someone else again,
until we get back to the days when Amaterasu herself still walked the
earth.”

The
chain of hatred, Naruto thought, starting in the dawn of time.

“And
who will be held responsible for the murder of my family then? We
cannot travel back in time and punish those who started it back then.
Stick to your promise!”

For
the first time in his life Naruto would have loved to step down from
a promise he had made. He must have been all emotions yesterday, he
thought, not able to think properly.

“And
what will happen then?” he asked, trying another way of
dissuading Sasuke from his plans. “He is the Hokage of Konoha.
All involved in killing him will get executed for treason, murder,
conspiracy and an attempted coup d'etat.”

“I'll
take it upon me. You've been used by me, after I tricked and
manipulated you. Tell them I have caught you in a genjutsu, if
nothing else works.”

His
original plan had been that Naruto should kill him (after he had
taken down Danzou) so that he would be appointed Hokage for this
heroic deed. Suigetsu had suggested that he should talk to Naruto
about this part of the plan, lest he would try to kill Sasuke before
he had killed Danzou, or refuse to kill him at all, but Sasuke could
not bring himself to tell this Naruto.

“Besides
when you are Hokage, you can grant mercy to all the helpers and have
only me executed. It will be up to you.”

Suggesting
to Naruto to have him executed seemed more acceptable than that he
should kill him with his own hands. Naruto thought differently, of
course.

“How
should they make me Hokage after I participated in a conspiracy to
murder the previous Hokage? And how shall I have you executed?”

“Someone
will have to pay the price for killing Danzou. I am willing to pay.”

“No
way”, Naruto said. “Your plan is rubbish. Talk to me
again when you have found one that does not include your death.”

There
is no such plan, Sasuke thought. Not when Danzou is Hokage and all of
Konoha will stand up for him. But I have to stand up for my family,
avenge them and die for them.

Naruto,
when there was no answer from Sasuke, opened his hand (the one that
was not lying on Sasuke's shoulder) in a gesture that invited
Sasuke's family on the photo to join their conversation.

“Your
parents would not approve if I have you executed”, he said. “I
have promised you yesterday, and I will promise you again: Danzou
will have to pay for his crimes, I will become Hokage, you will
return to Konoha as a hero of the Leaf, as you deserve, and have a
bunch of kids who are just as cute as you once were.”

Sasuke
was silent. Refounding his clan was not really what had been on his
mind these days.

“That's
what your parents would want for you, I am sure”, Naruto
continued. (It was what he hoped that his own parents would have
wanted for him, at least.) “Did you not tell me that your
happiness would have been your mother's first priority?”

“When
did I say this?”

“After
the play we saw last week. At the festival.”

Sasuke
remembered. He should be more careful with what he said. “She
loved me, but I love her too”, he replied. “I cannot
leave her unavenged.”

Naruto
shook his head. “But not by getting killed yourself. We'll find
our own way to make Danzou pay. Just have faith in me.”

Sasuke
gave up. He should not have listened to Suigetsu when he had told him
to inform Naruto about his plans. Now that the damage was done it was
impossible to return to his original intention of returning to Konoha
without Naruto and burning it down with his Amaterasu while Naruto
was safe in Music Town.

“So
we have a deal”, Naruto said. “I help you get your
revenge, and you don't set out on your own to do something stupid.”

“I
guess so”, Sasuke answered.

Naruto
was very pleased with himself. Sasuke would stay. He would no longer
have to worry about his departure, and hope from day to day that it
would be postponed again.

“What
about your team?” he asked, suddenly remembering their quest.
“They are still looking for that place that does not exist, so
that they can find healing for their wounds.”

“You
may join us”, Sasuke answered, surprised how easy inviting
Naruto suddenly had become. “I have already discussed the
matter with Suigetsu, and I am certain that Karin and Juugo would be
happy to have you with us too.”

Naruto
hesitated. The invitation came unexpected, yet he felt the warmth
Sasuke had put into it, and his heart opened to him. He would not be
separated from him again, he thought – on the other hand he
liked Music Town, even though he had felt rather lonely there before
Sasuke's arrival, and also Sakura's letter would not reach him in the
wilderness.

“You
don't have to decide now”, Sasuke said. “We'll stay for
some more weeks, as Karin is having her bitemarks removed, and who
knows what will happen then. They don't seem very eager to take up
their quest.”

He
wasn't eager either and even considered staying without his team if
Naruto refused to leave. Here he had access to newspapers, telling
him about the current situation of Konoha.

All
the time Naruto had been leaning against him, with their arms lying
around each other's shoulders, but now that there was nothing more to
discuss, Sasuke's awareness of Naruto's physical closeness
intensified. Naruto's hair was tickling his cheek – he liked
it, and he was tempted to caress his shoulders, but he did not dare,
lest he betrayed himself. There were other advantages to this place
than just newspapers, he realized, and he might make use of his time
while he was stuck here, waiting for Naruto to come up with a plan to
get their revenge. Maybe he was lucky.

“Do
you really think that it is possible to be in love and not know about
it?” he asked, remembering that Naruto had seemed to believe in
this idea just as well as Karin.

“Why?”
Naruto asked back, surprised by the sudden change of subject. “Have
you come to the conclusion that you might be in love with Sakura
after all?”

“No,
definitely not” Sasuke replied, almost physically hurt by
Naruto's question. It took him some seconds to calm down and overcome
his disappointment.

“What
about you?” he asked. “You've always been in love with
her, haven't you? Why do you try to press her on me? Have you ceased
to like her?”

Naruto
hesitated with an answer. “I am not sure. I've been in love
with her, but she always loved you, and me she only saw as a good
friend. Besides, if I get together with her, you will be left out,
but I could be happy for the two of you if you'd marry and have a lot
of kids I can babysit.”

He
was leaning heavily against Sasuke, and his voice betrayed his
sadness in spite of his claim that he could be happy for his friends'
sake. Sasuke wanted to comfort him, but again he did not dare - he
would take his time. For the moment he was content with what he had
heard: Obviously it was possible to be very confused about whether
one was in love or not.

“We'll
return to Konoha together and make this Danzou pay”, he said.

A/N:
It's a weird coincidence that I released these chapters just when we
get Naruto's reaction to the story of the Uchiha massacre in the
canon. My own chapters were written some weeks ago, however.

Sneakyfox:
Thanks again! I have just realized that I messed up the chapter
numbers – it's in chapter 24 that we get Sasuke's first
reaction to the Gutsy Ninja. The chapter is already written –
next week you will be able to read it.
- 25
- 26
- 27
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The Blessed Realm