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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
- 66
- 67
- 68
A/N
at the end of the chapter

Chapter
Sixty-Four: Naruto mourning

Sasuke,
who was more into newspapers than Naruto, discovered them first:
Shikamaru and Temari on the cover of one of the women's magazines.
She was visibly pregnant now, but all the same she wore a traditional
dress with many layers of silk and intricate embroidery. Shikamaru
wore traditional clothes too, also made from silk, very stiff and
very heavy. Sasuke bought the magazine as a present for Naruto, who
devoured it and searched the pictures for people he knew. “There's
Choji”, he said. “And Sakura! And there's Sai, seems he's
part of Danzou's bodyguard. - Have you seen Kakashi anywhere? I guess
he was not admitted to the wedding, as he's no longer a ninja.”

Sasuke
felt weird, looking at the pictures. So this was what Sakura looked
like now. Quite pretty, actually, though he was really no judge for
female beauty. He looked at Choji, at Shikamaru, at Ino, who was a
bridesmaid, but he did not feel anything. They had been his
classmates and his comrades, but he had never been close to them.
Naruto had told him who had joined the team to save him from escaping
to Orochimaru, but he had never felt that it was himself whom they
had risked their lives for. It had only been his outer shell that had
been working for Konoha, while his true self had been suffering from
the loss of his parents and longed for revenge. If they had really
cared for him they'd have talked to him about his family, and they
would have offered him support for his revenge. Naruto had always
cared, and Sakura (who was the only person on the pictures he felt
anything for) – well, she had improved with time, though she
had often been really annoying.

Naruto
looked at the pictures without moving. Tears ran down his cheeks, and
Sasuke laid his arm around his shoulders and took his hand to comfort
him even though he did not share his sorrow.

“If
I had not had to flee to this place I could be celebrating with
them”, Naruto said.

Sasuke
was quite content that Naruto was not celebrating with his friends
from Konoha but sitting here with him in Music Town, but he remained
silent and kept caressing Naruto's hands.

On
the way to their dance class Naruto bought all the women's magazines
and gossip papers he could find, and spread them out on the floor, so
that he could see all the cover pages at once. The other men, when
they arrived, asked him what he was doing.

“The
groom's one of our former classmates” Sasuke explained.

“Really?
And he married a princess? Must be great, suddenly having a famous
friend. He looks stately in his formal attire.”

Others
had a look too, and made stupid comments about the good looks of the
young ninja, while Naruto was looking for even more people he knew.

“You
miss them”, someone said, finally noticing that Naruto did not
care about the beautiful clothes of the wedding guests. Naruto
nodded.

“Have
you considered going too?” the guy from Earth Country asked.
“It was not in Konoha, but in Suna, wasn't it?”

Naruto
shook his head. He had not considered it – he had not even
known the exact date of the wedding. No one had considered inviting
him.

“It
would have been too risky”, Sasuke said. “Danzou was
there too.”

They
might have made use of the opportunity to kill him without being
punished, as the Kazekage might have protected them, he thought.

“I
guess he would have made sure that none of the Leaf nin were able to
talk to them”, the man's husband contradicted. “Being
there and not being allowed to talk to their friends would have been
worse than not going at all.”

“He
won't last forever”, the guy from Earth Country said, patting
Naruto's shoulder. “His power is waning, and you are not so
much banished as you have escaped to freedom. Even now, it's easier
for you to travel around, if you just avoid Fire Country, then it's
for your friends to leave Konoha.”

Sasuke
wanted to say that they would make sure that Danzou would not last
forever, but he decided against it, realizing that not all of the men
were close friends.

Juugo's
fostermothers showed more patience looking at the wedding pictures
and listening to Naruto when he told them the names of his friends.
In the end, however, their little daughters claimed the magazines for
themselves: They were mostly interested in the women's beautiful
clothes.

Naruto
also told the mothers of his bad luck with his story about the
Rikudou Sennin.

They
shrugged: “There'll always be people who are not content with
what you say. Don't grow any grey hair – it's far too pretty as
it's now.”

“So
you think I should continue talking about the Rikudou?”

“No,
better not. Don't provoke the parents. They're irrational, but it's
better not to provoke them. I mean, you did not inflict any harm to
the children, or indoctrinate them, so there's no reason for a bad
conscience. You just told them a story about the merits of
cooperation over fighting each other. That's not exactly some arcane
knowledge, accessible only to a few select people. These parents only
don't want their kids to learn that the Rikudou Sennin was all in all
a decent person. They want their kids to hate him because he founded
a religion, or at least a religion different from their own.”

Naruto's
confusion grew: The Rikudou Sennin had been a good man, hadn't he,
dreaming of peace and salvation, so why should anyone hate him?

“But
they want their kids to learn about peace”, he said. “Why
do they want us to confine ourselves to teaching taijutsu, which is
basically fighting, but not tell them about the origins of ninjutsu,
which are really about peace.”

“They
think that practising taijutsi in itself helps you to find inner
peace, and that you don't have to know the philosophical system it's
based on. It's quite a widespread belief”, the woman said.
“Maybe you should ask them yourself.”

“And
you may ask them whether there are other persons they prefer as
heroes of stories about peace and cooperation”, her partner
added. “Some political leader perhaps, or a fictive character
or the founder of the religion they themselves believe in.”

“But
what if the founders of these religions did not believe in peaace or
salvation?” Naruto asked.

“Oh,
most of them did. Most religions start being about peace and
salvation and only later change in character.”

Naruto
thought about it. Religion in the ninja countries was definitely not
about peace and salvation. People went to temples for ceremonies, of
if they wanted divine support for a mission, or for some loved ones
they were concerned about. When he had been very young Naruto had
sometimes sneaked into a temple when no one else was inside, and lit
a candle, hoping that it would take away the hatred people bore
against him. Once a priest had caught him and driven him out of the
temple, calling him a thief. Naruto had not known that you were meant
to pay for the candles. Later he had rather trusted in his friends,
and in himself, than in any of the gods that were honoured in the
temples of Konoha. He wondered whether these Gods had anything to do
with the Rikudou Sennin. He hoped not.

With
his eyes he searched for Sasuke, who had got him into this mess,
first by telling him to get the book about the Rikudou Sennin from
the library and then by suggesting to him to tell one of its stories
to the kids: but Sasuke was far away, having gone to play with
Juugo's fostersisters. It was an unusual thing for him to do, as
normally he found these girls a little scary: They were all too
girlish, and too confident in their girlishness. (He did not have any
problems with the girls from their taijutsu class, though they were
about the same age, just not that girlish. Naruto also felt
uncomfortable around Juugo's fostersisters, but he was better at
keeping him at a distance: Sensing Sasuke's insecurity the girls had
grown a fancy for him.)

This
day, however, it had been Sasuke who had addressed them, asking them
to show thim their books about horses and to tell him more about
these strong and gracious animals, and they had taken him to their
corner of the garden where they had shown him their farm of toy
horses.

“It's
not a real farm for rice or vegetables”, they said. “It's
a place where women and girls live with horses, and girls who are
unhappy living in a town may come and join them.”

Sasuke
found the concept rather strange, but he decided to discuss it with
the mothers rather than the daughters. For the moment he was content
listening to the girls as they told him the names of the horses and
the different breeds and how to care for them.

Naruto
did not feel like joining his friend. He looked out for Juugo and the
other boys, so that he might play football with them, but they had
gone to the swimming-pool with some of their friends. Juugo's mothers
were busy washing the dishes.

Not
knowing what to do he took Sasuke's history book that was lying on
the bench. Sasuke had brought it to read it after lunch when everyone
was too tired to talk, but now he was playing with the girls instead.
Naruto had long waited for an opportunity to read this book without
Sasuke watching him. He started at the beginning, but soon he grew
bored with reading about the negotiations that accompanied the
foundation of Konoha and the establishment of the ninja system and
turned to the parts he was truly interested in: Whether Nagato and
Yahiko had really been rebels (they had, leading a rebellion against
Hanzo who had been the head of a Quisling regime installed by
Danzou), and then to the end of the book, curious how much of his own
lifetime was covered.

He
was lucky: Just the last chapter of the book was on the kyuubi's
attack. (Sasuke would have to get a newer one to learn what people
here knew about the Uchiha massacre.) Nervously he searched for the
first page of the chapter:

After
Konoha's defeat in the Third Ninja World War people naturally sought
for explanations. Tragically, a large fraction was accessible to
propaganda that it had all been the fault of the Sandaime, Sarutobi
Hiruzen, who had been too soft and too indecisive to crush Konoha's
enemies in one forceful blow. Small tactical mistakes were overblown
to tragically harmful choices, decisions that turned out wise in
hindsight were dismissed as cowardly or simply not mentioned. The
most popular accusation, however, was that contrary to its opponents
Konoha had not provided over a bijuu. After the devastations of the
Second Ninja World War Sarutobi had decided against a new
jinchuuriki, a decision that was supported by the majority of the
population of Konoha at the time. But now the pendulum changed
direction and more and more people thought that this choice had
unnecessarily weakened Konoha and demanded that Sarutobi should
resign. Moderate voices who pointed out that none of the other
countries had actually used their bijuu were silenced.

To
his opponents' surprise, however, the Sandaime managed to turn his
resignation into a last victory by suggesting Namikaze Minato as his
successor. As a popular war hero Namikaze was supported by the whole
population of Konoha, except for those on the extreme left and the
extreme right. Gaining the approval of the daimyou and the relevant
institutions of Konoha was just a formality, and the hawks in the
administration of the Leaf had gained nothing by forcing the Sandaime
to resign.

Naruto
stopped reading: He had expected the Yondaime to share his family
name, Uzumaki. Then he remembered that for this, people would have
had to know that he was the Sandaime's son. His father had told him
that his life would have been in danger if people had known the truth
about his descent. Maybe he should reclaim his right name now, Naruto
thought, here in Music Town where he was not threatened.

He
turned to the pictures: There were a lot of them, showing the
Sandaime, Danzou, the two councillors and the Yondaime, his father.
He kept staring at the latter: He had never seen a photo of him, only
his stone portrait on the Hokage mountain.

“That's
quite a good-looking man”, one of the mothers said, returning
from the kitchen with some coffee after doing the dishes and sitting
down next to Naruto.

“He's
my father”, Naruto said.

“Is
he?” She looked at Naruto, then at the picture.

“I
should have guessed. You take after him.”

“Thanks.”
Naruto smiled and blushed and turned again to the picture.

“Does
he know that you are in Music Town and that you have fallen in love?”
the woman continued to ask.

Naruto
shook his head. “He's dead. He was the Fourth Hokage of
Konoha.”

“Oh.
I had not thought that your father was such an important person.
Well, he must have been, if you can find his photo in a history
book.”

Her
partner had now joined them. “What about your mother?”
she asked. “Does she know you're here? What does she think
about you having turned out gay?”

Naruto
shook his head again. “She's dead too. I don't have any
conscious memories of her. I don't know how she died, or when. She
might even be alive, living in a place far away from Konoha.”

“You
grew up without both your parents?” The woman asked. “Who
has looked after you then?”

“The
nurses in the central orphanage of Konoha, I guess”, Naruto
answered. “I have hardly any memories of the time. My memories
set in when I had to leave the orphanage and get my own place at the
time when I entered the ninja academy.”

“How
old were you then?”

“Six,
I think.”

Both
women looked shocked. One of them took his hand, the other lay her
arm around his shoulders. Naruto felt tempted to explain to them that
it was all okay and that in Konoha standards were different, just
what he had told the husband of the guy from Earth Country after
informing him that he had been an orphan for all his life. He decided
against it (partly because Sasuke was busy playing with the girls and
would not see him being comforted.) He had suffered a lot, so the
women's sympathy was appropriate, and it did him well, but it also
hurt, reminding him of sufferings he did his best to forget.

“Wasn't
there anyone to take you in?” one of the women asked.

He
shook his head. “I was turned into a jinchuuriki during the
kyuubi's attack”, he said. “I was my village's ultimate
weapon that could explode at any time. People were afraid of me and
would not dare to go near me.”

The
women looked even more shocked, and also confused, but they did not
seem to be afraid. The arm around his shoulders remained where it
was.

“How
can a human being be a weapon?” the arm's owner asked.

“By
containing a bijuu within him”, Naruto answered. “In my
case it was the kyuubi that attacked Konoha at the time of my birth.”

He
turned the pages of the history book, searching for a picture of the
demon fox, but there was none. However he found a photo of the site
of the fight after it was over: Amidst torn up trees, broken boulders
and deep clefts in the earth there was the corpse of the Yondaime
and, in some metres' distance, he himself, Naruto, just as tiny as
their friend's nephew on the photo he had shown them. Naruto had
never seen a picture of himself as a baby and seeing one came as a
shock: The loneliness and the desolation of the child on this place
devoid of all human and non-human life overwhelmed him, and for the
first time he just could not help feeling sorry for himself.

“That's
me”, he told the two mothers, then his voice broke.

A/N:
My break got longer than I originally intended, as I
had forgotten to ask my beta about her vacation. She left just when I
arrived from my own vacation. But this does not mean that I intend to
abandon my story, just the opposite, I have written the first drafts
of a lot more chapters, and I have also done some planning.

I have been cycling
during my vacation, taking a long distance cycling track (the
Flanders Route). These long distance tracks tend to take a lot of
turns and detours meaning that if you think that a place is near
there will still be some extras before you actually arrive. I fear
that the same has happened to my story – it's getting longer
and longer as I think and dream about it, with new people and some
extra turns. But I have a plan, with a clear aim and some clear
landmarks on the plan, and we have already passed a number of these
landmarks, and I have passed even more landmarks in the chapters I
wrote during my vacations. I plan to finish the story.

I just hope that I
finish my story before the canon ends. Rewriting the chapter was a
bit weird – I had written the first draft when before the most
recent revelations. As I say, I have a plan, and the plan includes
some revelations about the past. My
stories deviates from the canon after the fight against Pain, and
everything that comes after this fight, including backflashes and
revelations is an inspiration to me, but will only be included if it
fits into my own plan.

Thanks
again for your reviews and your plusses! You can find my answers at
http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=14965

I
would prefer to answer here, but this is against the rules. I also
wished that the thread was accessible without registration, but it's
not my decision.
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The Blessed Realm