Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

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
- 58
- 59
- 60
Chapter
Fifty-Six: Not all powerful

The
man got up to prepare some more coffee. “How's life going?”
he asked when he returned. “Apart from the fact that you and
Naruto are lovers now. How are you getting along in Music Town? Did
you already encounter something that's weird and confusing, or are
you adapting smoothly?”

“We
are adapting well”, Sasuke said. “It's a much better
place than Konoha. I like it here.”

“The
situation in Konoha won't always be as bad as it's now. Danzou won't
be Hokage forever.”

“We'll
see to it.”

“Yes,
I forgot.”

The
man still did not take his and Naruto's plans seriously.

“Is
it not difficult to adjust, coming from such a different culture?”

Sasuke
shrugged. “We are ninja. We observe and learn to fit in, so
that as perceived insiders we are even better able to observe people.
We are doing quite well, I think, even though sometimes people here
are really weird.”

“In
which way?”

“Life
is so much easier for them, but they don't seem to realize. They take
everything seriously, even if it's just a trifle.”

“Sure
we take things seriously”, the man said. “It's our life.
We take our lives seriously.”

“People
mean well though. They try to be friendly, even though our way of
life is far removed from theirs, and they cannot grasp the
difference.”

“What
do you mean?”

The
first example that came to Sasuke's mind was how he and Naruto had
been made to fight and risk their lives at an age when in Music Town
they would still have been considered children. For people here,
fighting was just a game, nothing real. Death was not real.

“It's
how people react when they hear that both my parents died when I was
still a child. They are always very shocked, and then they say
something completely inappropriate.”

“Do
we? What did I say?”

“You
said that I probably wished that I was one of those young people who
got turned out by their parents for being gay.”

“Well,
yes...” The man looked into his cup of coffee. “I guess
it's because a loss as yours is so horrible that it is not possible
to find words that would do it justice. So one just says something
and hopes it's not too bad.”

“It's
okay”, Sasuke said, smiling, content that he had gained the
upper hand in this conversation now. “I know you mean well. You
are just not used to horrible events as these. In Konoha, with its
war orphans, people are. But they are not better than people here.
People in Konoha -” He sought for words while taking another
sip of coffee. His sorrow had turned up again, including the familiar
feeling of falling into an abyss, yet he managed to keep it at bay:
There was the table in front of him, there was his cup of coffee,
there were the racks with calendars of naked guys, there was the man
sitting opposite to him, listening intently and doing his best to be
compassionate in spite of the inadequacy of his words. All that
surrounded him reached out to hold him and prevent him from falling,
while in Konoha things and people had withdrawn, letting him fall
deeper and deeper.

“People
in Konoha would tell me that I have to be brave now and that it was
my duty now to hold up the honour of my clan. In Konoha with its
casualties from wars and missions, orphans are normal, and they are
expected to deal with it, Only that I was neither a war orphan not
did my parents get killed during a mission.”

The
man looked expectantly at Sasuke.

“My
parents got murdered.”

“Murdered!
I always took it for granted that they got killed in an accident.”

“We
are ninja”, Sasuke said, indignantly. “We don't die in
accidents.”

“Sorry,
I forgot. Being murdered is really much worse.”

The
man was still shaken and did not talk for half a minute. “How
did it come to this?” he asked when he could speak again.

“The
administration of Konoha ordered their assassination.”

Sasuke
watched how the shock on the man's face deepened. In some perverted
way he enjoyed this.

“Now
I understand why you don't care about returning”, the man said
after some time.

He
was doing it again, Sasuke thought, talking in a way that's
completely inadequate because he cannot express his true feelings.

“It
was my own brother who performed the murder because no one else would
have been strong enough”, he said.

He
watched the man gasp for air.

“They
forced him to kill his own family? I know that you have a different
culture in the ninja countries, with different moral standards, but
that's not about culture, is it? Even ninja know that one must not
kill one's own family, don't they?”

“Yes,
normally”, Sasuke answered.

“How
old was your brother then?”

“Thirteen.”

A
mere child, according to the standards of Music Town. “He was
one of the most talented ninja of his time. He had the power to do
it.”

“But
not the wisdom or strength of character to refuse...”

Sasuke
felt offended that the man talked in a derogatory way of his brother.

“Thirteen!”
the man continued. “How can one make a child of thirteen turn
against his own family? He must have taken permanent damage from it.”

“He
had to leave Konoha and eventually he died.”

Sasuke
did not consider it necessary to tell the man that Itachi had died in
the course of a fight against himself. He had not killed him, had he?

“And
no one asked any questions when a thirteen-year-old killed his own
family? Children don't do this out of the blue normally.”

Sasuke
shrugged. He enjoyed the conversation, shocking the man with the
horrors that had determined his life, but also, on a deeper level, he
was glad that the man felt horror and disgust where this was
appropriate, confirming Sasuke's judgement.

People
here are different, he thought. People here know what's good and
normal, and therefore they also know what is not.

“My
brother was called crazy”, he said. “They pretended that
he had turned megalomaniac. He himself acted the part when he talked
to me after the massacre. It occasionally happens with
extraordinarily talented ninja that they turn crazy, and it was just
bad luck for my family that it happened to one of theirs. There was
not much compassion for me, or those who had been murdered. I guess
people thought that we deserved it, as we've always been the
strongest clan of Konoha, and we were always feared and envied for
this. We've even been ghettoized. I grew up in a tiny section of the
village which I only left to go to school. I did not notice the
discrimination, however, I thought that every clan was confined to
its compound.”

The
man listened. The news that the clan had been ghettoized had shocked
him just as much as the news that they had been murdered, yet the
nature of this shock was different. There was no open horror but more
nervousness and awkwardness with what Sasuke had told him, and Sasuke
thought that he could watch the man processing his words.

“What
was the official reason for the ghettoization”, the man asked
when he had finished thinking.

“There
were rumours that they were responsible for the kyuubi's attack
against Konoha”, Sasuke answered. “People agreed that it
was necessary to have an eye on them.”

The
man listened intently. Sasuke grew nervous.

“You
don't ghettoize people in order to spy on them”, the man said.
“On the contrary: Ghettoizing people makes spying more
difficult. To spy on a group of people you have to infiltrate them
and to mix with them. If people are ghettoized they know who's one of
them and who's not, and they will distrust any outsider. The only way
to effectively spy on them is to turn one of them into a traitor, and
that's not easy, because he sees the injustice his people suffer
from, suffering from it himself.”

“They
managed to persuade my brother to betray the clan”, Sasuke
said.

“Sorry,
I forgot. What did they promise him?”

“Nothing.
He spent the rest of his life in misery.”

“Then
why did he follow their orders?”

“They
told him that he had to do it in order to prevent another possible
ninja world war.”

“Oh,
sure”, the man said, sounding as if this was completely absurd.
“There are a lot of ways to prevent a war. Making a child kill
his own family, however, is not one I've heard about before.”

“He
was told that our family was planning a coup d'etat. They'd cast
Konoha into a civil war, weakening it considerately, and then all the
other ninja nations would attack it.”

“Why
should they? They don't attack now, even though it's been
considerably weakened first from Pain's attack and then from the way
Danzou prevents it from recovering. People in other countries still
remember the last war, they don't want a new one. And also, a
successful coup d'etat would not necessarily have weakened Konoha.
Normally it's when the defeated party calls a foreign power to help
them that you either get a civil war or an occupation. So this is
what you and Naruto will have to avoid too: Don't get any foreign
help, but make sure that your opponents won't be able to call for
foreign help either.”

Sasuke
wondered whether it was the danger of weakening Konoha that had kept
Naruto from coming up with a feasible plan. He himself did not care
very much about it, of course.

“And
then of course, having the conspirators murdered by their own child
is not the normal method to prevent a coup d'etat. The normal method
is to arrest the conspirators and make public whatever evidence you
have. Normally a plan to overthrow a regime is obsolete the moment
it's discovered, as then it's very easy to take counter-measures.
You don't even have to kill the perpetrators, though of course it's
necessary to put them on trial.”

“This
may be true for ordinary people”, Sasuke replied. “But we
are ninja. My family were extraordinarily strong ninja. They would
not have let themselves be arrested by some ordinary ninja.”

The
man looked incredulous. Sasuke realized that he had actually defended
the administration of Konoha.

“Still
they were not all powerful, were they. How were they supposed to
organize a coup d'etat anyway? They were ghettoized: they did not
have any support among the population.”

“They
were still in charge of the military police. They would have been
strong enough to scare everyone.”

Somehow
Sasuke did not like the idea of his family being weak and powerless.

“Still
there would have been many ways to prevent a coup d'etat, apart from
making a child kill his own family – if they were planning a
coup d'etat at all.”

Sasuke
tried to follow the man's words. He was convinced that the massacre
had not been justified, no matter whether his family had been
planning a coup d'etat (and the man had confirmed his judgement, had
he not), but also, somehow he hoped that they had been innocent, and
he tried to figure out the man's position on that question. He had
difficulties to keep a clear mind however.

“It
all seems very suspicious to me: Ghettoizing a whole family, and then
forcing one of their own kids to murder them, but never standing up
to it and telling the population that they have been saved from a
great danger, or providing any evidence. Normally governments are
proud of such an achievement. They want to show the rest of the
population what they did for them, and they want to show them that if
they plan anything similar they will be caught, but that those who
are loyal don't have to fear anything.”

Sasuke
tried to make sense of this words. It was not the way of ninja, he
thought, who loved doing things in secret.

“I
told you that it does not make sense to ghettoize people in order to
spy on them: It makes sense however to ghettoize them if you plan to
kill them. They are already assembled and clearly separated from the
rest of the population, there's only a limited number of exits –
it's all much easier than seeking them out one by one among the
general population, giving them a lot of time to hide and escape, and
if the ghettoization has gone on for some years, they will also have
lost their connections to people outside the ghetto who might help
them. Most frequently of course people have often been ghettoized in
order to discriminate against them and to keep them poor and
powerless and cut off from information and education. But not to spy
on them.”

Sasuke
had not yet thought about the possibility that the administration of
Konoha had intended to kill the clan from the moment they were
ghettoized – that he had lived under a permanent threat of
death for all his life. He had only sensed that something was wrong
from Itachi's entry to ANBU, when the administration's plans had
become concrete.

“Your
family was not he first that was murdered on the ground of some
dubious accusations, nor will it be the last. You don't know anything
about history, do you?”

Sasuke
shook his head. He was feeling dizzy suddenly, so that he had to grab
the table in front of him to avoid falling into the abyss that opened
to devour him: He and his people had been intended to die even before
they had become guilty of anything, even a supposed coup d'etat. They
had been intended to die because they were too strong and therefore
unpopular, or for some other irrational reason. Those who had planed
their murder had followed some well-known pattern. He had managed to
stay away from the abyss, focussing instead on his attempts to seduce
Naruto, but now it was right in front of him, pulling him in: he had
no right to live, just as the rest of the clan. Thinking of his
revenge no longer helped to get out of the abyss, as he had delegated
the task to Naruto now. Holding fast to his cup of coffee that so
clearly belonged to Music Town and had nothing to do with being a
ninja was everything he could do now.

The
man got up to prepare another pot of coffee. As he passed Sasuke had
laid his hand on his shoulder.

“I
don't want to hurt you”, he said. “That other people got
murdered too does not diminish the wrong that was done to you and
your family. Still you should do some reading to gain a better
understanding of the mechanisms behind your family's murder.”

“It
won't make me reconsider my judgement”, Sasuke replied, laying
his hand on the man's and holding it fast.

“No.
But you'll better know who, or what, is responsible for it.”

Sasuke
let go, and the man left to actually prepare the coffee.

“What
about you?” he asked when he returned. “Konoha is
targeting you too, I assume.”

“Yes,
sure. They've done so since I left the village.”

“It
would be a good idea to get some official status. Apply to be
accepted as a political refugee. Being gay would be sufficient,
normally. Being a talented dancer would be sufficient too. But if you
can claim that the government of Konoha is responsible for the murder
of your family, and that you are on their death list too, you will
certainly be granted the status of a refugee.”

Sasuke
considered it.

“It
would mean to make public who I am and where I am.”

“Only
who you are. The administration won't tell Danzou about your abode.”

“They
won't accept me: I'm a deserter and a rogue-nin: a criminal according
to the rules of ninja.”

“Not
according to our rules. We don't consider it legitimate to recruit
children as soldiers and then hunt them down when they try to escape.
We defy these rules: You will be safe here. Just get official status
as a refugee.”

He
would no longer be a fugitive, Sasuke thought. Or still a fugitive,
but one who had found safety. He could stop running. Well, he had
stopped running since his arrival in Music Town, but he was still on
the alert. If he was officially accepted he would have found a place
to stay.

“What
if Danzou sends for me?” he asked.

“The
government will deny this request.”

“This
is Music Town. And it's Konoha you're facing, the strongest of the
ninja villages. What if he threatens to attack Music Town in order to
take us by force?”

“He
won't. We're not helpless. Music Town is protected by a complicated
system of treaties, ensuring that if any of the ninja nations attacks
us the others will come to our aid. And they will: Music Town is the
richest place of the continent. None of the ninja nations will allow
us to fall into the hands of one of its rivals, least of all those of
Danzou. He's not very popular. All the other ninja villages are
acting against him, going as far as they can without risking an open
war.”

Sasuke
thought about it. “Naruto, when he's Hokage, will renew the
peace treaties.”

“Oh,
yes, sure”, the man said, sounding a bit irritated. “Anyway,
there are lots of deserters nowadays. They are no longer hunted down,
but they are accepted as refugees. They have to take up a civilian
occupation and are no longer allowed to work as ninja, but else they
are left alone. Konoha is weakened by these desertions even worse
than by its losses on risky missions.”

Sasuke
had neglected the newspapers recently as he had been busy making
love, so he was not informed about these latest developments.

“Danzou's
not all powerful. He's actually rather weak, and if it were not for
the kyuubi no one would take him seriously. You've heard about it,
haven't you? It, or rather he, the jinchuuriki, is said to be hidden
away in one of Danzou's dungeons and everyone fears that Danzou will
let it loose if he feels threatened.”

Sasuke
leant back, smiling.

“He
won't.”

“What
do you mean?”

“Danzou won't let loose the kyuubi.
Naruto's the jinchuuriki.”

The
man was speechless. Sasuke enjoyed it.

“Don't
worry. We can control it. I'm Uchiha Sasuke, you know.”

The
man seemed completely unimpressed. It made sense: If he had ever
heard the name Uchiha he would have heard of the massacre too.

“I
have wondered for some time why Naruto has left Konoha”, the
man said. “With you it was obvious, or so I thought: You had
left because you were gay. But Naruto made such a fuss about not
being gay that he must have had another reason. In the end I came to
the conclusion that he had accompanied you as your friend. But now
it's clear why he fled.”

He
thought a bit more. “You don't intend to use the kyuubi to turn
Danzou out of office, do you?”

“We
don't”, Sasuke answered. The idea was tempting, though: he
should tell Naruto about it. “Naruto wants to be Hokage of
something”, he said. “And also, it's too risky for him.
We can control the kyuubi, but only as long as it's safely confined
within Naruto.” Somehow he was glad that caring for Naruto was
an excuse for not using the kyuubi. For all his outward confidence
the idea of actually having to use the kyuubi was scary to him.

“That's
a wise decision. The damage caused by the kyuubi would be worse than
anything Danzou could do.”

As
if I cared, Sasuke thought. He cared for Naruto, though.

The
man got serious again, leaning back and looking at Sasuke as if from
far away. “I'm sorry”, he said. “This is all pretty
much beyond the usual range of my experience. I have no idea what it
means to get between the millstones of history. But I'll do my best
to help you. Both of you, I mean.”

Not
with removing Danzou from office, nor with accomplishing my revenge,
Sasuke suspected.

“Whatever
I can do to support you to build a new life here, both for yourself
and Naruto, I will do”, the man continued. “But you
should really apply for official status as a refugee. You can't live
here without it. You can exist, but you cannot live. Naruto too.
You'll be granted it easily: No one's interested in Danzou having
access to the kyuubi.”

“I'll
think about it”, Sasuke said, feeling a bit overwhelmed, not
only by the man's offer and the way he was pushing him to make his
stay in Music Town official, but also by his analysis of the
political situation.

The
man got up to make some more coffee, and again he casually patted
Sasuke's shoulder in passing him.

“I
know you've been through a lot”, he said. “But it's over
now. Just allow yourself to accept some help.”

A/N:
Thanks again for your reviews and your plusses! You can find my
answers at
http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=14965
- 58
- 59
- 60
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Blessed Realm