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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
- 30
- 31
- 32
A/N
at the end of the chapter

Chapter
Thirty-One: First look with your normal eyes

Sasuke
relaxed and turned his attention to Naruto, who was standing next to
him, breathing in the fresh air with his mouth and nose and the
beauty of the place with his eyes: The azur of the sky, the white of
the trees in full bloom, the dark brown of their stems, the light
green of the woods beyond the hedge.

“We
have to go now”, Sasuke reminded him.

“Why?
It's lovely here.”

“It's
Juugo's mind, not yours or mine. And don't tell anyone what you have
seen.”

“Why
not? I mean, this does not seem like anything one has to be ashamed
of.”

“That's
not the point. Beautiful or ugly: it's his mind and it should remain
private. People are not meant to see into each other's hearts.”

“And
still you do it.”

“Yeah.
That's the essence of the power of the Sharingan: Get into other
people's minds in order to see through their jutsus, to predict their
actions and to manipulate them. The better one has mastered it the
deeper one can see into them and the better one can manipulate them.”

“You
did not do it just now however.”

“Of
course not. Juugo's my companion, not my enemy. I want to help him,
not to hurt him.”

“You
were in my mind as well, weren't you?”

“Part
of it. It's your visualization of your chakra system, or part of it.
I did not go as deep as I did with him, and the images I saw have all
been created by your own mind.”

“You
mean that there's more to my mind than this?”

Naruto
was being foolish again, Sasuke thought. “I would be very
astonished if there wasn't”, he answered.

“Can
you let me see it?”

“Are
you sure you want it? You want to know what's inside you? And you are
ready to let me see it as well?”

“Sure,
why not?”

Everyone
admires him for his courage, Sasuke thought, and nobody realizes that
he is just not able to see any danger.

They
left the orchard slowly, turning around one last time as they both
knew that they would not see it again. Sasuke led Naruto to the place
in front of the kyuubi's cage, but the cage was open now, and the
bars were broken. They went around and even had a look into the cage.

“The
lowest chakra point”, Sasuke told him. “You should now
have access to it and be able to fully integrate it into your chakra
system so that you finally can become a man.”

“Why?
What! Why are you insulting me again! I am no less a man than you!”

“I'm
not insulting you, I am just telling you how it is. The kyuubi was
sealed within you in a way that almost completely blocked the
exchange of chakra with the lower parts of your body, subduing as
well the production of male hormones. Don't blame me, I did not do
it. Karin will confirm it if you allow her to check your chakra
system, which I would not advise you to do. I can see your chakra,
while she has to sense it.”

Naruto
looked bewildered. “I don't know who's worse”, he said,
“she or you.”

Maybe
I went too far, Sasuke thought. Maybe I should not have told him
about this lowest chakra point.

“You
still want to allow me to see this visualization of your chakra
system?”

“I
do.”

“Then
let's go upstairs.”

Corridors
and stairs were partly destroyed.

“The
effects of the kyuubi leaving its prison”, Sasuke explained.
“Don't worry, we won't be hurt. It's just your mind after all,
and if something goes really wrong I will protect you.”

Upstairs
there was an equally ruined building, similar in style to the system
of corridors below. Naruto wanted to have a look at it, but Sasuke
led him outside.

“It's
not worth it. It was the upper part of the kyuubi's prison. In a few
days it will be completely fallen down.”

There
was a town around the building: Not a particular beautiful one, nor
its particular beautiful parts, but its industrial districts. Most of
it seemed deserted and the buildings were in various states of ruin,
be it from neglect or from the destructions caused by the kyuubi.
Small rivers were running through the town, all canalized, all
smelly, with a lot of debris floating on the surface. Some of them
were yellow with pollution.

Naruto
was looking more and more depressed, and Sasuke was desperately
looking for a way out. There had to be one. He looked into Naruto's
eyes, his Sharingan still activated, and finally he saw that the town
was not completely flat but gently sloped. Now when they came to a
crossing and he had to choose a direction he did not choose randomly
any more but decided for the road that went uphill.

The
slope got steeper but the town went on: Deserted factories,
warehouses and workshops. Only if you looked closely you would notice
that most of the buildings here had only one or two stores, and that
they had been deserted for years so that nature had begun to take
over. The patches of wilderness got larger and more frequent and
better connected as they went further uphill, until there was mostly
wilderness with some bricks and half-broken walls and fragments of
streets in between.

The
bushes grew higher here and the first birches and pines could be
seen, soon there was a wood, or was it an abandoned park? - some
hundred metres to the side of them there was a fake temple –
and finally after going straight uphill through the wood they found a
clearing with a spring in its middle. The ground was covered with
grass and yellow flowers which would disappear when in summer the
foliage would grow so thick that too little sunlight got to the
ground.

Sasuke
spread out his cloak so that they could sit down without getting wet
from the dew.

“We'll
stay here”, he announced. “If you like it here.”

“Sure
I do”, Naruto answered with a hoarse voice. He looked around,
moved by the beauty of the spot.

“You
did not make it up, did you?”

“What?”

“This
place – I mean, it's lovely, and the town below was so dreary –
you did not make it up to make me feel better?”

“I
cannot make up something like this”, Sasuke answered. “I
mean, have you ever tried to visualize something? Something you made
up, or a place out of a dream, or even a real place that you
remember? Can you get it as richly detailed as this?”

Naruto
looked around: the patches of sunlight between the trees, the dead
leaves from last year, the drops of dew, the miniature waterfalls
where the stream had to jump over a stone, the wasps and bugs
crawling around, the one-week-old beeches with their two dark green
leaves that did not look like beech leaves at all. One had them still
caught in the beechnut so that it looked as if it wore a hat.

“I
can't”, Naruto said. “But I thought that you could, being
a genius and all. Still that place...”

“I
thought you liked it.”

“It's
so different from the rest. How can that be?”

“I
know you”, Sasuke said, comfortingly touching the back of
Naruto's hand. I knew that this” – he pointed to the town
below - “could not be everything.”

Naruto
took his hand and pressed it. “Yes. Thanks.”

He
was in thoughts, and moved, and Sasuke left him alone for a while,
then he continued: “You know, it sounds all so great, the power
of the Sharingan, looking into another person's mind. But to see
truly you have to look with your normal eyes first. With Juugo it was
the same: I knew him, and thus I knew that there had to be a place as
this orchard. If you don't look with your normal eyes first, then
with the Sharingan you will only see the ugly stuff, as this town
down below. That's the stuff you use to hurt a person, and if you
want to be really mean, you'll look for the stuff that's hidden deep
below. That, by the way, will be what decides tomorrow's fight:
Whether it's them or me who are better at finding the really bad
stuff.”

“I
will be at your side”; Naruto said, pressing his hand again.

Still
a fool, Sasuke thought. How does he think that he might help? He has
never been good with genjutsus. Yet this time he kept his thoughts
for himself.

“How
did you learn all this?” Naruto asked.

“What
do you mean? Making use of the Sharingan?”

“Yes.
Who taught you?”

“There
are not so many Sharingan users around who might have taught me,
remember?”

“Sorry.
You could have stayed in Konoha and learnt from Kakashi, however.”

That
one hurt. For a moment Sasuke thought that he might have stayed
indeed. Then he reminded himself of all he had learnt during his
years at Orochimaru's lair additionally to the use of the Sharingan,
which he had mastered quite well by himself.

“I
had taken some scrolls of my clan with me, mostly historical
documents and legends about the clan's origins from the time before
the foundation of Konoha. They did not give me any instructions,
however, rather hints what to look for. The rest I figured out by
myself.”

“And
that other thing – looking for what is beautiful?”

“I
found out when I had to help Juugo.”

“Have
you ever had a look into your own mind?”

“It
does not work with yourself, just as you cannot get out of a genjutsu
by touching yourself or as you cannot have sex with yourself.”

“It's
not that bad”, Naruto replied.

“No,
it's not”, Sasuke answered. Actually he had never really
indulged in it because fantasies of women did not turn him on,
because he had not yet had the courage to admit to himself that
fantasies of men might do and because touching himself without any
fantasies did not do the trick. It always took him a long time to
finish, which meant that he did not do it often as he had other
things on his mind.

“Whatever”,
he said. “Whom should I have allowed to have a look into my
mind? Itachi? He did it without my permission when I went after you
and Jiraya and he only used it to torture me.”

“I
am sorry”, Naruto said.

“I
am sorry”, Sasuke replied. “I should not have let him
turn me crazy.”

Sasuke
sensed that Naruto wished to put his arm around his shoulder. He did
not know how to respond to that wish – he did not know whether
he actually wanted Naruto's arm around his shoulder. They had got too
close in too short a time already... He decided to take Naruto's
hand.

“I
told you already: It's over”, Naruto said. “I am still
alive. Don't mention it ever again.”

He
looked into Sasuke's still activated Sharingan, and suddenly it was
very easy: Sasuke just had to retreat instead of entering the other
person's mind as usual, and to take Naruto with him.

Naruto
knew instinctively that now it was his turn to take Sasuke with him.
He rose and offered Sasuke a hand up.

Down
in the town they had not been able to see the top of the hill because
it had been hidden in clouds, but now the mist had lifted and they
could see further uphill. The forest went on and they followed a path
that led them upwards; soon they crossed a street and then the forest
looked different: brown and dreary instead of bright green. Neither
had the trees opened their leaves yet nor were there any grass or any
flowers on the ground. As they went on there were patches of snow,
first dirty and muddy with a lot of puddles between them, then they
got white and not watery at all, and finally the ground was not brown
any more at all but all covered in snow.

Naruto
looked at Sasuke: His face was blank, immobile, emotionless, more
than ever since they had met today. Naruto was not the fool he had
been three years ago who was not told anything personal because
people thought him too dumb to deal with it. He had learnt to
recognize sadness and despair and he realized that he had to do more
than just to walk on – he had to find a place that would
comfort Sasuke as the clearing with the spring in its middle had
comforted him.

Sasuke
would not be of any help. He had become all passive by now, just
letting himself be led.

Naruto
himself found the wintery forest quite enchanting. Even the tiniest
twigs were sugar-coated with snow, the dark brown and white forming a
delicate irregular pattern, delicate as Sasuke himself, Naruto
thought, and the sparkling white gave a great contrast against the
bright blue sky. Frozen drops of water covered the twigs' lower
sides, and from the stronger branches one icicle grew next to the
other.

The
ground itself was not all white as Naruto saw now: There were animal
tracks everywhere, destroying the perfection of the blanket of snow,
there were dark branches that had not been able to support the snow,
and the landscape itself even was not all black and white: Young
beeches still carried their dry red brown leaves, which looked quite
pretty against the whiteness of the snow, and the mountain ashes were
full of bright red berries. Great tits and robins were feeding on
them. There were a lot of birds around, one just had to look for
them, blue tits, chaffinches, blackbirds, wood pigeons, even crows,
though fortunately no ravens, all looking for food and apparently
finding some.

One
of the robins looked at Naruto. The raven with the Sharingan came to
his mind, but the robin was quite different. Most of all it was
friendly, and also it was probably not a human in bird form. It
seemed to call him, and Naruto followed it taking Sasuke by the hand
and dragging him with him. They left the path, went through thickets
to a patch of fir trees with low hanging branches full of snow. When
they left the firs the snow was on their shoulders and their
trousers, but then they had almost arrived at their destination: The
robin led them to an abandoned garden, already partially gone wild,
but still a garden with flower beds and rose bushes, artificial
little streams and a pond with a fountain, now of course all frozen.

Naruto
followed the robin to the central flower bed, and there they stood
and looked around.

Sasuke
had not spoken a word since they had changed roles, but now he did:

“What
have I done?” he asked. “Winter everywhere – even
here.”

Naruto felt sorry for him and he put an arm
around his shoulder and he would have liked to draw Sasuke to him or
to take his hand and caress it but he did not dare. He did not think
that Sasuke would like it – even putting his arm around his
shoulder was rather audacious.

He
tried to comfort him with words instead: “You just have to look
around a bit”, he said. “Like the birds. They don't sit
on the branches and complain about the snow, they go around and
search for food, and they find berries in the bushes and seeds below
the snow on the ground. Don't you see the snowdrops over there, and
the buds for the new leaves? There will be a new spring.”

He
had never been good with words, and now he was neither, so he finally
drew Sasuke into his arms and held him. After some seconds of
awkwardness he felt him relax and give himself into the embrace.

A/N:
Some words about the title of this story

The
title was a working title. It came to my mind because I created the
story by taking my list of unanswered questions, of speculations
about how things might be connected, of quirks with the original, of
dreams of romantic and melodramatic endings, and put them all into
one story. I thought it would be a rather quick short story of some
20k, flowing straightly and rashly to its ending, instead of taking
one extra turn and then another by introducing new characters and new
mysterious jutsus and unforeseen revelations as the original does. I
did not think that my story would gain novel-length...

Flowing
straightly and rashly to its ending – that's how I came up with
the title. My friend and beta eowyn unquendor thought that the title
was about my own thoughts about the manga all put into one story.

I
would never have believed however that some actual canalized rivers
might appear in the story.

Spoon
and lexjamandme: I got your reviews only this morning. I will
answer to them tomorrow.

XZanayu:
Thanks for your comments! You will soon learn about the kyuubi's
motivation. :-)

Jazzy2may:
Thanks for your comment! I think I understood it, even if you wrote
it at 4am. You like the story even though there are some things you
don't like about it, most of all cliffhangers.

My
problem is that I don't recognize my cliffhangers. I know how the
story goes on and what is happening, so I don't realize that people
who don't know my story will be frightened. I can only say that I
post my chapters in quick succession.

LadyRonin:
There won't be no more weakening of the seal: Naruto has removed it.
It has not happened when he lost control, but it was a conscious
decision.

Sasuke
released him for some time so that he could wake up Karin, but you
are right, it is not very logical that this was possible when the
kyuubi was still in Juugo's mind.

For
the rest: Wait and see.
- 30
- 31
- 32
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The Canalized River