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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
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A/N
at the end of the chapter

Chapter
Thirty-Six: Controlling the Kyuubi like a pet

Naruto
had often dreamt of kissing and being kissed: Touching soft lips with
his own, letting his tongue run smoothly along the opening between
the lips. The dreams had been nice, but now he discovered that
reality was completely different.

It
was no longer some anonymous woman out of a daydream whom he kissed,
it was no longer some visualization of Sakura or Hinata that did
exactly as he wished, it was Sasuke, his own living Sasuke,
approaching his lips with his own, touching them, opening his mouth a
bit with his tongue – not shoving his tongue into Naruto's
mouth, as Jiraya's heroes would have done, but gently parting his
lips and waiting for his reaction. Naruto opened his mouth and
welcomed Sasuke's tongue with his own, and then he entered Sasuke's
mouth himself.

Sasuke,
his Sasuke, who had been a dream for more than three years, was now
with him in flesh, and he was not cool and aloof any more, but warm
and gentle, and still everything Naruto had ever dreamt of, generous,
noble, clear-minded, courageous.

His
tongue was caressing Naruto's upper lip now, his hands were holding
his head, as if he was something unbelievably valuable. Naruto had
never thought that someone might consider him worth anything (which
was one of the reasons that he was always ready to put his life on
the line) and that it was Sasuke, most admired of all the boys in
Konoha, who thought of him as someone really precious – not
just something that had to be protected because it contained the
kyuubi, but someone who was really precious so that he should be
treated with care, just as Sasuke was now carefully tracing the lines
of his face – it was too much for his heart to comprehend.

They
were not kissing any more, but looking at each other and smiling –
that is, the corners of Sasuke's mouth were slightly twisted upwards,
but his eyes were beaming, and warmth flowed from them into Naruto,
and he smiled widely but his eyes filled with tears out of sadness
that Sasuke had forgot how to smile.

They
kissed again, opening their mouths for each other's tongues but also
for their whole persons. I want him inside me, Naruto thought,
fragile and strong, easily scared and valiant, having great issues
with trust and intimacy, but having also a generous, loving heart.
His tongue in my mouth, and mine in his, beautiful, gracious
creature, and then Naruto did not think anything any more, just felt
the warmth spreading from his mouth to his body, his blood rushing to
his sexual organs. Both boys moved, so that they could press their
bodies against each other, their hands wandered under their shirts,
touching naked skin.

Sasuke
would have been scared, had he still been able to think enough to be
scared, but he had given up all conscious thought and deliberation
and was following his passion only now. He kissed Naruto's mouth, his
cheeks, his eyes, his ears, his neck. He had wanted him since he had
been a kid, funny, ever-friendly, ever-happy Naruto, he had envied
him, he had wanted to be close to him, so that some of his happiness
might rub off, though at the same time of course he had refused to
allow himself any happiness. Funny, ever-friendly, ever-happy Naruto
- a cute kid then, a clumsy teenager now, feeling uncomfortable in
his skin, but already there was the promise of the future man,
strong, confident, ready to hold and protect him, just as he, Sasuke,
was ready to hold and protect Naruto.

He
was a good choice, and being gay was a fine thing with a partner as
Naruto, who was so different from the girls who wanted to play
psychotherapist but who were not ready just to help and protect and
hold and comfort him when he needed it. For them he was just a pretty
doll, sadly suffering from some irrational fixation on his revenge,
whom they could embrace and attempt to heal at will, forgetting that
he was a person with his own ideas and wishes and feelings.

Naruto
was embracing him as well and kissing his neck, but it was all in
response to Sasuke's own embraces. He tried him by withdrawing a bit,
and Naruto stopped immediately, looking at him confusedly, then
Sasuke kissed him again, following his own passion, giving himself to
Naruto's passion. He felt Naruto's body under his hands, strong,
muscular, manly, he pressed him against his own, he felt Naruto's
erection and knew that Naruto felt his own. He was embarrassed about
it, he did not want Naruto to think that he wanted to do anything but
kissing. He pretended not to notice, and Naruto did not mind, only
his kisses got more passionate now, his tongue deep in Sasuke's
mouth, and Sasuke concentrated on answering to them and tried to
forget what was happening in the lower regions of his body.

His
Sharingan allowed him to see chakra, but he had no particular talent
for sensing it. Still he knew what was happening: He was open for
Naruto, and Naruto was open for him. Naruto felt it as well: They
were open for each other, body and soul, and he also knew that though
they might be only kissing now he would be ready to go all the way
when time came. It was no loss to be gay, not if the partner was
Sasuke whom he had longed for for so long. He would not have it
otherwise now.

They
were only kissing, and already open for each other, and chakra was
free to go from one to the other, and the chakra systems connected...

“Sorry
to disturb you, boys,” Suigetsu said, “but the kyuubi is
moving. Something seems to be going on outside.”

Slowly
they remembered where they were and what time it was and that there
was a world outside with men like Itachi and the guy who could turn
into a raven, who would both be all too happy to make use of the
occasion if they found the two of them kissing. So Sasuke and Naruto
dissolved their embrace, but they did not completely break the
physical contact, nor interrupt the chakra flow between them. They
went outside where the kyuubi had got up on its four feet, its tails
raised, its head lowered, growling angrily at the men who had
arrived, but just as with a dog its open aggression was only a sign
of its nervousness and fear.

The
boys went around it and met their opponents: Itachi and the stranger
who could turn into a raven. Naruto quieted the kyuubi:

“We
will protect you”, he said, then he turned around, looking into
two pairs of Sharingans.

Sasuke,
whose arm was still around his shoulders, drew him closer.

“We'll
make it”, he said, suddenly feeling confident. “They only
have each other, but I have you.”

He
wondered about himself. This morning he had been dissolved in sorrow,
then he had been dissolved in passion, but now he was perfectly calm
and focused, more than ever when he had been fighting Itachi, not
angry any more, but oddly detached. He remembered Suigetsu's words:
“There is no way to understand a mind as Itachi's.”

Staring
at each other, waiting for the other to show a sign of nervousness or
fear or even give himself an opening: The Uchihas fought like cats.
Naruto was rather like a dog: his rashness and impulsivity were
well-known both to enemies and friends, and so everyone waited for
him to make the first move. But just as a dog might be scared of a
cat though he is much bigger and stronger, just because he does not
understand that weird creature's behaviour, Naruto felt insecure amid
these men with their genjutsus he could not do anything about.

Then
Sasuke struck. He had seen an opening and got into Itachi's mind,
taking Itachi's companion with them. With Naruto's chakra supporting
him it was possible to catch two men in one genjutsu... Naruto was
still at his side, ready to fight, conscious both of the real world
and of the nightmarish world that was Itachi's mind, just as Sasuke
himself was.

The
landscape resembled what one would find on the moon: Bare stones and
no water, and the sky was deep black as it is when there is no
atmosphere. Yet Itachi was not shocked or depressed as Sasuke and
Naruto had been when last night they had looked into their minds.

“Do
you really think that you can defeat me like this?” he said.
“Do you really think that I might be hurt by this empty barren
landscape? You are wrong: I created it myself. I searched it and
destroyed everything that might cause me pain or fear.”

So
this is the source of Sasuke's crap about severing bonds in order to
get stronger, Naruto thought.

The
guy who could turn into a raven was not even defending himself
against the genjutsu. He was just standing around, smiling
arrogantly, confident that he could not lose. He was not helping
Itachi either.

It
turned Naruto angry. Only Naruto could be turned angry because Itachi
did not get any help from his companion, Sasuke thought amusedly, but
this was what he loved him for.

What
a relief to be allowed to get angry without fear of awakening the
kyuubi! Finally Naruto could use his anger to summon all his own
chakra, and none of the kyuubi's! He created a bunch of kagebunshin,
not only of himself, but also of Sasuke, which was possible because
their chakra systems were still connected. They attacked from all
sides with kunai and swords and shuriken.

They
were of course no real threat for Itachi and his companion but they
kept them busy so that Sasuke could do some thinking: This lunar
landscape could not be everything, he knew, there must be something
else, something deeper, something that had caused him to become like
this. Something from the time before he had murdered the clan –
from the time when they had still been a family.

Naruto's
kagebunshim lured them all forward, so that they got to see more of
the landscape. He found a crater, and after a sign to Naruto the
kagebunshin lured them all inside.

On
the ground there was a new landscape: not barren stone any more, but
ice, which was a progress, because ice was frozen water after all,
and Antarctica was still a continent on Earth.

“Do
you really think I still feel the cold?” Itachi asked, but he
must, as they all felt it now, while they had not felt the cold of
outer space at the other place.

On
and on the kagebunshin made them go, until they came to a crack
between two giant glaciers which was filled with dark green water.

This
time Itachi was afraid, as if he knew that if he sprang down into the
rift he would find another world where he was still more vulnerable
than in this one, but his companion did not seem to care, and the
kagebunshin did not leave him any choice.

Naruto
had thought that he would end up in icy water but he did not: There
was another landscape below, yet this one was not natural but
artificial: It was made of glass and of concrete, similar to some
modern quarters of the capital of the Fire Country that he had once
visited on his journeys with Jiraya. Even the floor was made of
glass, and below the glass there was darkness, so that they saw their
reflections in the glass.

Sasuke
looked for a way out of that mental dimension, another crack or hole,
but there was none.

“I
told you”, Itachi said. “There's nothing that would still
cause me any pain or fear: Don't look for something beneath, where
there might still be some warmth or softness. There is no other
dimension. This one is real. This is what is really inside me, and
this is what the outside world really is.”

It
cannot be everything, Sasuke thought. Even with him there must be
some reason why he had become like this. Then he discovered that what
he had first taken for skyscrapers made of glass were actually
mirrors, a special kind of mirrors that magnified Itachi, but left
the rest of them their original size. So this was the world Itachi
dreamt of.

Naruto
had understood it as well. The kagebunshin spread out, one pair to
every mirror, and when they were all in place they turned them around
in one single moment. Now they showed an Itachi who was scaled down
and much smaller than the rest of them. The real Itachi who was
standing between all these mirrors had also shrunk, because in this
dimension what he thought about himself became real.

Behind
himself in the mirrors were the images of other Akatsuki; His own
companion, magnified so that he looked like a giant, and behind him
some other nameless, faceless figures with the typical black and red
Akatsuki cloak.

“So
your friend is useful for something after all”, Itachi said to
Sasuke, “but you don't defeat me like this. I have always known
that I am small compared to my leader and his plans.”

We
will get him, Sasuke thought, it is just a matter of time, as in
chess when your opponent has lost all his strong pieces. He has lost
this fight the moment I got into his mind.

The
kagebunshin turned the mirror a second time, and this time the
figures vanished and the mirrors showed nothing but the glass
landscape without any living being at all – even Itachi who was
still standing between the mirrors and who should have been reflected
did not show up in the glass panes.

“This
it it!” he called. “This is the world as it really is!”

This
is it indeed, Sasuke thought, as he watched Itachi grow transparent.

“You
are nothing”, he said. “There is nothing alive in your
world, not even you yourself. You always wanted to be strongest, and
now you are vanishing into nothing.”

“I
am strongest”, Itachi said. “I was stronger than all the
other Uchihas, I am stronger than all the Jounin and ANBU of Konoha
who did not dare to hunt me down. I am second only to my leader who
has acquired the power of Uchiha Madara himself and who will restore
the glory and dignity of the name of Uchiha that was destroyed by the
members of our clan when they were content to be second and to serve
the hokages.”

Sasuke
was not even angry – he just shook his head hearing all this
nonsense.

“How
could you do it?” he asked. “He's not even from our clan.
He's just an impostor.”

“He
has the true power – he knows the true purpose”, Itachi
said, having become almost transparent by now. “Blood is not
important – families are not important – persons are not
important. Only the name and the power are.”

And
with these words he vanished completely. The landscape of glass
vanished as well, and they found themselves back in the real world:
with Itachi passed out or even dead, the dimension that had been a
visualization of his mind could no longer be kept up.

His
companion prodded his body with the tip of his foot. Itachi did not
move.

“He
was not important anyway”, he said to Sasuke. “He was too
weak in the end, relying entirely on his genjutsus, and besides, he
never had the capacity to control the kyuubi. I do not need him any
more. You, Sasuke, are stronger, you might become my new companion.”

“And
be discarded as Itachi when I am no longer useful.”

“You
will never cease to be useful. You know that I need you to control
the kyuubi just as you need me to summon it. Together we might rule
the world.”

Yesterday
he might have been tempted – today he just did not care.

“I
can force you to cooperate”, the man said. “You know that
I can.”

Sasuke
had forgotten the Mangekyou Sharingan – he panicked even before
he saw the pattern in the other's eyes change its form, remembering
how yesterday he had been forced to relive the day when his family
had been murdered, how his world had broken down, how again he had
felt lost and cut off from everything that had been precious to him,
how the pain had been so intense that it had been almost physical.

Naruto
felt him stagger and steadied him with his arm. He sensed Sasuke's
chakra flow go crazy, breaking down at some points and rising to
unhealthily high levels at others, and though he had never really
been interested in medical questions he knew from last night's
adventures what this meant: Parts of the organism were going through
whatever bad experiences were caused by the Mangekyou Sharingan while
other parts were trying to protect themselves against it. As their
chakra systems were still connected, Naruto could stabilize Sasuke's
chakra flow with his own, forcing Sasuke to remain conscious and –
Sasuke regretted his intervention as much as he was glad about it –
to relive the memories of that day.

To
see them all lying dead again, his world breaking in parts – to
see it and remain conscious, with Naruto at his side, holding him
firmly. His world might have broken down that day, but he was still
alive, and for him there might be something new. Not for them,
however, they would remain dead, whether he kept mourning or avenged
them or just went on. He realized that so far he had only been
mourning for himself and the broken world of his childhood, never for
their lost lives.

Slowly
Naruto led him out of the house, then they climbed one of the stairs
that ran along the walls of the houses, leading to the roofs, but now
leading into daylight, as if the street with all the corpses was in
truth some subterranean labyrinth. Upstairs they found the wintery
landscape they had visited in the night, and now it did not seem
dreary at all but was a relief after the nightmare they came from.
Some of the snow had melted away and Sasuke could see now that what
he had taken for a garden was in truth a graveyard. He'd have to bury
them but never forget them. He would remember them while he tended to
the garden.

All
the time while he was recovering from the effects of the Mangekyou
Sharingan Naruto had been ready to protect him, yet their opponent
had not attacked but just waited for the Mangekyou Sharingan to break
Sasuke, not considering the possibility that Sasuke might fight it
off.

“Itachi
lied to me”, he said when Sasuke finally straightened and
looked at him again, a fierce determination in his eyes. “You
do have the Mangekyou Sharingan, or you would not have been able to
counter it just now.”

“I
don't”, Sasuke replied. “You see, my friend is still
alive.”

He
tried to hit the man with his chidori blade, but his opponent evaded
it easily. Naruto was beginning to form his wind chakra shuriken, and
Sasuke lent him his left hand for it as Naruto's own was still around
Sasuke's shoulder. They were fed up with this man's crap, and they
would finish it now.

They
gasped when the man summoned the kyuubi.

“Don't
you hurt it!” Naruto shouted. “You don't use it for your
evil purposes! It's just a creature of nature, it's innocent, it does
not even know of good or evil! It's not meant to be used to cause
destruction!”

For
the first time during this fight he was tempted to let go of Sasuke
and just rush at that man and break his control over the kyuubi.
Sasuke however held him firmly in his grip.

“Worried
that someone might hurt your cute little puppy”, the man said.

“Calm
down”, Sasuke whispered to Naruto. “He cannot use the
kyuubi. Not on his own.”

“But
he has power over it.”

“Not
enough.”

“He
will make it fight us.”

“I
will be able to control it. Calm down.”

Naruto
did not try again to break free from Sasuke's grip, but he did not
calm down. How could he, with the kyuubi slowly walking towards the
man, all nine tails hanging to the ground as if it did not want to
follow the man's call – it was so depressing, his fox-demon,
his companion for all his life, just set free against all reason, and
already prisoner to someone else's will.

“Kyuubi”,
he shouted. “Come back! Don't let that man use you! He's evil!
You hear me, he's evil! He will use you to kill us, and then destroy
Konoha and the fire country and the rest of the world!”

Both
boys held their breath when the kyuubi turned its head and looked at
Naruto. It took a first tentative step in their direction, then a
second, the third was not tentative any more. Still they did not know
whether it was coming because Naruto had called it or because the man
had ordered it to kill them. Only when it had almost arrived they
trusted that it would not attack.

Naruto
welcomed it with open arms, caressing its snout, burying his hands in
its long, thick fur. Sasuke hesitated, he still felt a bit insecure
with the kyuubi, not knowing whether it would allow him such an
intimacy, but then he gave in to his longing to stroke its long,
shiny hair.

Their
opponent made a second attempt to summon the kyuubi. It struggled,
torn between its own wish to remain with Naruto and the man's
superior power. After several seconds it gave in, turned round and
went back to the man.

When
it was halfway, Sasuke understood its intentions.

“Call
it back!” he shouted at Naruto. “Call it back! It's going
to kill him!”

It
was too late: The man had caught Naruto in his Mangekyou Sharingan.

A/N:
The title of this chapter – not the content! - is the only
thing I changed about this fanfic as a reaction to the recent
revelations. The original title was a bit lame, and I thought that
this one fitted it.

This
is the last regular chapter. Tomorrow you will get an epilogue. (You
see, the story cannot end like this.) Thanks to you all for following
this story and commenting on

it
and being patient until the boys finally meet! I hope you enjoyed it!

XZanayu:
I think this chapter answered your question! ;-) Thanks for
commenting!

eimi-san:
Thanks for your review! I just got it this morning – I will
answer more with tomorrow's chapter, which is the epilogue –
sorry, I think it is among the qualities of an author to know when to
stop a story.

LadyRonin:
Thanks for your compliments! :blush: I am glad that your questions
get answered – I hope that this chapter answers even more of
your questions, and if not, there is still the epilogue, and then I
can answer to all your questions without fear of spoilering my own
story.

That
I make you think out of the ordinary is one of the greatest
compliments you can give to me. I am glad that you look at Juugo
differently now.

lexjamandme:
Thanks to you as well for your compliments! :blush:

Reading
and doing something else at the same time? It is just not possible.
(Well, I usually eat and read at the same time, or listen to the
radio.)

Hebi
were a joy to write. I just wonder why so few do it – I did not
do much more than take up what had been offered to me by Kishimoto in
the chapters after the fight against Deidara, but also in the
ninja-cat town, or when they go and look for information.

Halskr:
Thanks for your comment, and thanks for staying with the story.

The
bit about the dark half of the kyuubi being in Juugo was made up by
myself. Canonwise the Yondaime took it with himself to the Underworld
when he sealed the rest of the chakra into Naruto. Though I can well
imagine that this is not the last word on this matter.

When
I wrote this story during the Pein-versus-Jiraya arc I was a bit
annoyed about the simple pattern of good versus evil that was being
established. Light against darkness, the Shodaime against Uchiha
Madara, the descendants of the Shodaime (biological or through
teacher-student-relationships) against the Uchihas in general, and,
horrible to think of it, one day perhaps Naruto against Sasuke.

So
this is how my story came into existence, with an interesting team
Hebi that has no place in a world that is divided into good versus
evil.
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The Canalized River