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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
- 31
- 32
- 33
Chapter
29: Rescuing Juugo

Sasuke
accepted the invitation even though he was not pleased that Naruto
thought that leading him with dancing gave him the right to treat him
as a girl when the dance was over. He was even less pleased when the
three girls Naruto had talked to during the break asked them whether
they might do something together and Naruto invited them to join. He
could have done without them, Sasuke thought, yet he did not want to
drop out and leave Naruto to the girls.

These
last days he had often thought about the time when they had still
been teammates in Team Seven. He should not have simply turned down
Sakura's stupid request for a date then, he had now realized, but
rather have accepted and invited Naruto to join, turning what Sakura
had intended to be a tête-a-tête into some normal hanging
out with friends.

It
would have been impossible then, as Naruto had been particularly
jealous and annoying at the time. Now, however, he would not chicken
out only because Naruto had invited some girls. He'd see that they
would not lay hands on Naruto. Well, actually he had no idea what to
do. Naruto might like the girls. He liked Sakura, didn't he? Dying
after he had completed his revenge and knowing that Naruto would
marry Sakura and be happy with her was the most realistic prospect
for him, Sasuke – he had to consider himself lucky that Naruto
had agreed to dance with him.

So
while Sasuke was lost in his thoughts Naruto and the girls had
discussed where to go for some ice-cream. Like football, ice-cream
was an import from foreign countries, and it was sold at special
places which only served ice-cream and perhaps some tea and coffee.
(The latter was also an import.) They were popular among young
people, as they were cheap, but if you wanted you could spend a lot
of money on some extravagant bowls of fruit and ice-cream, complete
with liquor and whipped cream. Naruto urged the girls to choose one
of these. (Sasuke went for an espresso.)

“Do
you have a job that you can afford this?” one of the girls
asked.

“Sure
I have”, Naruto answered. “Don't you?”

“I
work as a cashier in a super-market, but it's only for a few hours a
week and I need all of it for clothes.”

“That's
why I invite you.”

“I
used to have a job too”, the next girl said. “But I had
to quit because it didn't leave me enough time for school.”

The
third girl nodded, suggesting that she had taken the same decision.
“What kind of job do you have?” she asked.

“I
work as a waiter in a restaurant.”

“Oh,
I used to do this too. It was quite lucrative because of the tips,
but I was expected to stand in whenever someone was ill, and after I
had said no a number of times because I had to work for school I was
told that I did not need to come again as I was not reliable.”

“How
do you manage?” the second girl asked. “Combining school
and a job?”

Naruto
looked at her confusedly. “I don't go to school. I'm not a
child, am I?”

Now
the girls were confused.

“I
used to go to school as a child, but I hated it.”

“But
you have to go to school, haven't you? I mean, you don't get any job
if you don't go to school.”

“What's
wrong with being a waiter?” Naruto asked.

“Well,
it's okay, but anyone can do it”, the former waitress said.
“For later you want a real job that earns you some real money
and takes some qualifications, don't you?”

“Sure”,
Naruto said, thinking of his plan to become Hokage.

“And
for this you have to go to school”, the girls concluded.

Sasuke
was listening to the conversation. He was quite content that Naruto
had not managed to impress the girls as he had hoped. He was also
glad that he had managed to stay out out of the conversation as he
did not want to tell them that he did not go to school either. (Also,
the girls seemed stupid and superficial to him.)

They
had begun to explain the local school system to Naruto, effectively
silencing him. He was not able to follow them, the only thing he
understood was that it was very complicated and very important. Only
when they had finished he tried to reassume his usual confident
attitude: “See you in a week!” he called, smiling and
waving at them. They smiled and waved back, yet Sasuke was convinced
that they were rather glad to leave. Well, he did not need them, did
he?

They
had seen less and less of Juugo these last days. He still existed,
sleeping on the floor when they returned from work and sometimes,
very rarely, they got up before he had left.

A
few times Sasuke had managed to talk to him: “Are you doing
well?” he had asked. “Do you regret that we have to wait
for Karin before we can resume our quest for that Blessed Realm?”

“It's
okay”, Juugo had answered. “I'm fine. But if you will
excuse me now: I have to play.”

Later
Sasuke discovered that if he wanted to have any meaningful
conversation with Juugo he had to ask him what he played: Then he'd
get one story after the other about playing ball and playing cards,
about playing in the forest and playing at the riverside, about
finding treasures in the attic and building a log cabin in a tree.

He
trusted that Juugo was happy and looking after himself, just as Karin
and Suigetsu did, and his greatest worry was how he might persuade
them all to leave this town, be it to find that legendary Blessed
Realm or to return to Konoha, once Naruto had managed to come up with
a decent plan to gain him revenge.

It
happened to be on their day off that Juugo was again brought to their
consciousness. The patron's daughter knocked at the door, telling
them that two women were waiting for them in the restaurant, wanting
to talk to them. When they arrived downstairs, neither Sasuke nor
Naruto had any idea who they were.

“Are
you Juugo's friend?” one of them asked Naruto, who happened to
be the first to come down the stairs.

“I
am”, he answered.

“I
am”, Sasuke corrected him.

“Is
Juugo at home?” the woman continued, with a sense of urgency in
her voice.

“No,
he's somewhere outside, playing with his friends.”

Both
women looked desperate.

“Why?
What's the matter?”

“They
should have been home by now. They should have been home two hours
ago. We know they often forget the time but not for two hours and not
when it's well after nightfall.”

“Juugo
can look after himself, and he'll protect his friends too. I know
him. He's a reliable companion.”

Now
he remembered where he had seen the women before: At the festival
they had sat next to him; they had been the mothers of the boys Juugo
had taught how to juggle.

“He's
very responsible for his age”, the woman said. “But
nonetheless he's just a kid. Aren't you worried at all?”

Concerned
for his enemies and concerned for his little friends, Sasuke thought.
Sometimes these last days he had been afraid that Juugo might end up
killing some other child, but he had not the heart to tell him to
stop seeing his new friends and had silenced his conscience by
telling it that Juugo would not meet these kids if he did not trust
himself to control his homicidal impulses.

“We've
been looking everywhere”, the second mother said. “We've
even alerted the police, but they told us to wait a bit longer and to
ask ourselves whether there was no other place where they might be
and where we had not looked. This is when we remembered that Juugo
had told us that he was living in the attic of some restaurant with
some friends of his, and we hoped to find them all here. Now I guess
we will have to return to the police.”

“You
want the police to hunt them down?” Sasuke asked. “They're
your kids, aren't they?”

The
women were as shocked at his words as he had been at theirs.

“We'll
help you”, Sasuke added quickly. “We'll find them before
the police gets at them. Have you already looked for them in the
patch of wood at the riverside?”

“You
don't think they're there, do you? Not when it's all dark.”

“Juugo
told me that they had been playing there recently. Don't worry, we'll
find your kids and they'll all be fine.”

The
women didn't seem convinced, but they accepted the offer. Sasuke told
Naruto to fetch Karin; he himself wanted to stay with the women. He
was curious about them: Never before had he met any females who did
not immediately try to flirt with him. With these, there were no
hidden glances, their minds were busy with their kids and when they
talked it was only about them. Also, they always looked directly
into his eyes.

They
got to the little forest and scanned the area just where the trees
began, but there was no sign of any kids. It was futile to search
under the foliage of the trees, even for Sasuke, as it was inkblack
there.

“They
can't be there”, one of the women said. “They should have
enough sense to return before it's impossible to see one's own hand.”

“They
must have had an accident, or they've been kidnapped. We should go
back to the police.”

“What
can the police do which we can't?” Sasuke asked.

“For
once, they have dogs and flashlights.”

Dogs
might have been useful, he thought, and he should have thought of
flashlights. It didn't matter, however. They had Karin, who was
better than any dog. When she and Naruto finally arrived she just had
to cast her jutsu and knew in which direction to look for the kids.

“How
do you know?” one of the women asked.

“Female
intuition”, Karin answered.

Both
women were impressed, and they were even more impressed that both
Sasuke and Naruto accepted as reliable information what Karin's
“female intuition” had told her. (Naruto mostly because
he trusted that Sasuke knew where to trust Karin.)

They
offered to fetch the kids by themselves but the two mothers insisted
on coming with them. They were obviously scared and kept treading on
twigs or getting burnt by nettles but they refused to stay behind.
They were true mothers, after all, overcoming their fear to rescue
their kids. They arrived at the tree where the children had built
their log cabin, and after some calling, Juugo let down the
stepladder. Sasuke climbed it first, followed by the two mothers,
with Naruto as rearguard. He found two very tired little boys, tired
but too scared to sleep, while Juugo was watching over them.

“I
told them you'd find us”, he said at the sight of Sasuke. “I
told them not to worry.”

“You
might have led them out of the woods yourself”, Sasuke replied.

“They
would not trust me to find the way.”

“You
might have carried them.”

Juugo
pouted. And blown up my wrong identity as a kid, his expression said.

The
two mothers arrived now on the platform too. Sasuke watched how their
sons' expression changed from fear and exhaustion to joy and relief,
and then again to the typical coolness of big boys who can look after
themselves and don't need to be protected by their mothers. They
would accept their mother's embraces but pretend that it was rather
about comforting them than about being comforted.

On
the ground Karin had waited for them, and they all got safely out of
the woods.

“We'll
have to tell the police that we found them”, one of the mothers
said.

Karin
wished them good-bye, as she would have to get up early the next day,
but Sasuke decided to accompany them. He was curious about the kind
of police they might find in this town.

It
turned out to be quite an unimpressive building, similar in size and
style to the houses that surrounded it. He was told however to visit
the head quarter in the center of town, which would be more to his
satisfaction.

In
the reception hall they found a woman in uniform sitting behind a
desk. She recognized the two mothers immediately.

“So
you've found your kids”, she said. “So that's good news.
Next time you get home before your mothers get worried.”

“That's
not possible”, one of the boys said in a very serious tone.
“They always worry.”

“Well,
then”, the policewoman said. “Don't hesitate to call us
again when they're missing.”

They
left the building.

“That's
all?” Sasuke asked. “Won't there be any punishment?”

The
mothers were silent for a few seconds.

“You're right,
actually. You'll have to stay inside for the next week! No playing
out of door, so that you learn to be back in time.”

The
boys protested as if they had been sentenced to death and bargained
until they were down to three days.

“Can
I still come to visit?” Juugo asked when the argument was
decided.

“You
may”, the women answered after some consideration, knowing full
well that this would make their sons' punishment even less harsh.

A/N:
Again a chapter that has been divided into two parts. This first half
is again a culture shock chapter – the next chapter will be
more emotional. (And soon we will head with full speed into the love
story. Promised.)

Last
weekend I was ill, which is why there was no chapter. Next week will
be better, however, chapter 30 is almost ready to be sent to my beta.
(At the moment I am most worried about Part III of the story, which
will be about the boys' return to Konoha. Part II is planned, so you
can be certain that I won't stop writing, except in case of really
bad RL trouble.

Oh,
and I have seen several movies in a Gay and Lesbian movie festival
that took place in my town, which is probably the main reason why I
fell ill: Too little time, too little sleep, but a lot of
inspiration. The most impressive movie was “City of Borders”,
a documentary about a queer bar in Jerusalem. If you have the chance
to see it, do so.

Nami:
Thanks for your review. Yes, Naruto is still convinced that Sasuke
should come together with Sakura, even though Sasuke has never said
that he might be interested in her.

That's
an interesting observation: Sasuke has all that Naruto longs for,
without caring about it... It's fascinating for the canon too. (Hopes
that Sasuke's characterization in the canon will gain some depth
soon.)

msuzumaki:
Sure they are both men and will remain so. And they swap roles.

Many
thanks for the compliments! :-)

ladygizarme:
Thanks for the compliments to the dancing chapter! There'll be more
dancing soon.

I
guess you are not content with the current developments for Sakura in
canon... I hope I can do better. There will be another letter soon.

Sneakyfox:
Many thanks for your compliments!
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The Blessed Realm