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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
- 5
- 6
- 7
A/N
and thanks at the end of the
chapter

Chapter
Three: Of Children and Sharp, Pointy Items

Sasuke
still burnt to read the article on the title page of the newspaper
Naruto had bought, but he would rather have rather bitten off his
tongue than admit it. There would be enough time and opportunity, he
thought, now that his teammates had more or less asked Naruto to give
them shelter for the night. He hated it – it was not at all
what he had planned. Enter town, buy some food, leave: this had been
his plan. But when they had discovered the last carts of the parade
his team had urged him to stop and watch, even though for his taste
there had been far too many half-naked ugly people, and the music was
too loud and seemed to be nothing more than noise in his eyes, or
ears. They had insisted on being allowed to have a look at the
festival itself, and on sitting down and getting something to drink
and simply having a break and enjoying themselves – and now
they were stuck at this place until tomorrow morning.

Sure,
it had been his idea to go over to Naruto and invite him for a drink,
so that he might get some information on Konoha. So far he had not
got any, and he had no idea at all how to open this subject. He did
not want to give the impression of still caring about his home
village (and encouraging Naruto to renew his efforts of dragging him
back), and of course telling Naruto the truth about his need for
information was out of question. Maybe his idea of getting any
information had been unrealistic from the beginning, he thought,
maybe he should not have addressed Naruto but rather have bought the
newspaper himself.

But
a newspaper would not tell him what he most longed to know: What
Naruto was doing in this strange place, apparently on his own, far
away from Konoha. He would have to be patient – he could be
now, this at least was an advantage of them staying at Naruto's place
for the night... He decided to relax and to accept the new situation:
at least his team were happy, which was of no little importance: They
had been complaining lately saying that he did not put enough effort
into their search for a place which probably only existed in their
dreams. He just wondered how long it would take them to realize that
their quest was hopeless – hopefully before he ran out of
money. Indeed, staying at Naruto's place had some advantages.

It
was still an awkward situation, after so many years of avoiding him,
and nothing to talk about, only a lot of subjects he'd rather not
touch. Again he envied Naruto who dealt with the situation far better
than he did: discussing the bands that played at the festival with
Suigetsu, both showing an astounding knowledge of foreign music. Only
sometimes he looked to his side, at Sasuke, and then Sasuke felt that
Naruto was nervous too, and that his discussion with Suigetsu at
least partly served the purpose of covering up this nervousness.
Sasuke felt strangely satisfied with this discovery.

Suigetsu
brought another round of drinks, which Sasuke paid for: Another of
these mixes of lemonade and beer. He liked it actually – he
liked the bitterness, which, as he did not know, was the bitterness
of beer. He felt a bit drowsy, which he attributed to the sunny
afternoon and the forced inactivity – having no experience with
alcohol he did not recognize that he was a bit drunk. He did not mind
it – he could afford being a bit tired, he thought, not
constantly on the alert – no one would attack them in this
peaceful town, in the middle of a market place full of people, and he
could not do anything here either, just listen to Suigetsu's
explanations about different styles of punk music.

Next
to them there were two women with a bunch of children each, the
oldest were two boys of about twelve, quite independent already,
running around by themselves most of the time and only occasionally
returning to their mothers to ask them for money they needed for the
various children's games that were offered here. Only later they got
tired and returned for good, showing their mothers the plastic toys
they had won at some arrow-shooting or ball-throwing stand, and the
mothers accordingly admired the toys and congratulated their sons for
their achievements.

Children's
games, Sasuke thought. At their age I was already a genin, doing
serious missions, risking my life. Risking my life to protect Naruto,
his thoughts went on, and he smiled inwardly. It had been the second
happiest time of his life, the happiest being of course the time
before the murder of his family, before Itachi had begun to behave
strangely.

This
is a lazy place, he thought, people spending a whole day eating and
drinking and listening to music, playing silly games and spoiling
their children with prizes for achievements that would have seemed
ridiculous to him when he was seven. But he recognized the smile on
their mothers' faces: It was the same as his own mother's smile, or
Itachi's smile, when he had succeeded at something. He had always had
difficulties accepting their praise, as he had always known that it
was still far behind what Itachi could do.

Since
the guy who claimed that he was Uchiha Madara (Sasuke still was not
sure whether he should believe him) had told him that Itachi had
murdered the clan on orders of the Leaf Sasuke had thought a lot of
his family and the time when they had still been alive and when
Itachi had still been a loving brother... He wondered how Naruto
reacted to these mothers and their kids, having no conscious memories
of a mother at all.

Actually
Naruto did not pay them any attention. He was far too nervous and
excited about his own situation: It's not real, he thought, it cannot
be real, and he went on talking to Suigetsu as if they would all
vanish once they fell silent. He is here, he thought, in flesh and
blood, a bit gloomy and brooding all by himself instead of blending
in with the general joy of the festival, but this is only proof that
it is really him. They will stay at my place, they will still be here
tomorrow morning. His thoughts stopped. Formerly they would have gone
on: Finding Sasuke, persuading him to return, bringing him back to
Konoha in triumph and handing him over to Sakura. Not fighting and
forcing him to return, however, he had long ago understood that this
would not work, even though his teachers still seemed to believe that
they could use it as an incentive to make him train harder. As if he
needed this! But none of his jutsus, nor his strength would help him
when it came to persuading Sasuke to return, he'd need words for
this, and often when he had lain in his bed before falling asleep he
had thought of such words, and dreamt of meeting Sasuke and saying
them, and Sasuke would be moved by his words and come back. But in
his dreams they had always met somewhere in the wilderness, and they
had been on their own, not surrounded by thousands of people and by
Sasuke's own team, and most important of all, Sasuke had behaved
completely differently. None of his words would do now.

He
could only try to enjoy these moments when Sasuke was sitting next to
him, close enough for him to reach out and touch him, and then talk
nonsense to Suigetsu, pretending he knew about music when all he knew
were the bands that had happened to play at the restaurant where he
worked. He drank too much, now beer without lemonade, then he
realized that it was foolish to spoil this evening with Sasuke by
getting drunk and stopped.

Workers
were still busy fastening the outdoor dancefloor, the musicians
adjusting their loudspeakers, but more and more people turned up,
waiting for the dancing to begin. A juggler appeared, making use of
the crowd that had already assembled. Naruto had seen him before on
other festivals and knew that his performance (and his jokes) were
always the same, yet since he liked it he turned around to watch the
juggler. Sasuke's companions were also curious, even Sasuke turned
around without losing his usual appearance of detachedness. Naruto
wondered if he had ever seen a juggler: There weren't any in Konoha,
and Naruto himself had seen his first juggler during his journeys
with Jiraya, but he had been nothing compared to the jugglers who
performed in this town.

Sasuke's
companions also behaved as if they were seeing a juggler for the
first time in their lives, cheering with the crowd and shouting
“yes!” when the juggler asked: “Do you want to see
seven balls?” and when he complained that he had not heard
anything, they shouted louder. When he lit his torches Karin got all
stiff and scared, and when he began to juggle them, and let some drop
– accidentally as he pretended, purposely as Naruto knew –
she screamed at a high-pitched voice, and when the juggler asked:
“Shall I juggle with five torches?” she shouted “No!”
at the top of her voice so that everyone turned at them.

“Don't
worry, it's just normal fire”, Suigetsu comforted her, making
Naruto wonder what abnormal fire might be.

Only
the boy in Sasuke's team – Naruto had forgotten hs name as he
never said anything – looked completely unimpressed, and when
the juggler lighted even more torches to juggle them with an
assistant he just said: “Odd numbers are easy – what's
difficult are the even numbers.”

Not
only his companions but also the families sitting next to them stared
at him.

“You
mean you are better than that guy?” one of the twelve-year-old
boys asked.

“Sure
I am. Sasuke, give me the kunai!”

Wordlessly,
Sasuke passed them over, and he juggled with three, five and seven,
but also, as he had promised, with four and six kunais. Blank metal
blinked in the sun, and Naruto had difficulties following the kunais'
trajectories in the air. The children were in awe.

“Can
I try too?” the boy asked.

“First
learn to juggle with balls”, Sasuke's companion replied.

The
other boy checked the kunai: “They are real”, he said in
a mixture of horror and fascination. “Really sharp. Cool.”

The
two mothers looked disapprovingly, finding this not cool at all. I
should have warned Sasuke about local attitudes towards children and
weapons and children and weapons in combination, Naruto thought. He
remembered his first real mission with Sasuke, how he had cut his own
hand swearing never again to stay back behind Sasuke as he had during
their first fight. Sakura had protested against it, calling him an
idiot, not understanding how important this was to him. Girls never
understood, he thought, just as these mothers did not understand that
their sons needed to learn how to deal with weapons, or that they
needed to learn risky and dangerous things as juggling with sharp
kunai. They thought that even juggling with balls was too dangerous
when it was done between tables full of glasses and sent the boys
away: Other children followed. The professional juggler seemed
irritated, he pretended to continue his show as if nothing had
happened but Naruto noticed that it was much shorter than on other
occasions.

It
was all for the better as the first dancers were now appearing. In
the newspaper Naruto had read that there had been a tournament in the
morning, and that now the finale was going to take place. The music
had started, and the first couples were entering the removable
dancefloor: Two women first, then two male couples. He felt Sasuke
stiffen in shock and surprise – maybe I should have warned him,
Naruto thought. His companions looked a bit sceptical too, but not
surprised as they had read about the tournament in the festival
programme.

“What's
that?” Sasuke asked. “What are they doing?”

“Dancing,
what else?”

“But
two men? Out in the public?”

“They
do. It's Gay Pride Day, and it's traditional that they open the
dancing. Later you can dance too.”

“I
don't dance”, Sasuke snapped back. “Anyway, what's Gay
Pride Day? What are they proud of?”

A/N
and thanks:

Sneakyfox:
Thanks for your review! Yes, it is fun to show Sasuke in a situation
where he is completely helpless! :-)

Midnight
Essence: Thanks for your compliments! I am continuing my work
with the Snowflakes, and the story will take up speed...
- 5
- 6
- 7
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The Blessed Realm