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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
- 8
- 9
- 10
A/N
and
thanks at the end of the chapter

Chapter
Six: Not a kagebunshin

Sasuke
was the first to wake up in the morning. He looked at the floor: His
three teammates had been able to find Naruto's apartment and get a
key. There was a smell of alcohol in the air.

He
looked to his side: Naruto was still sleeping. He had not changed at
all, Sasuke thought, still sleeping on his back, exposing himeslf to
anyone who might attack, and he still wore T-shirts with childish
prints, be it an animal, the name of a band, or a symbol taken from a
popular story or a game. Sasuke did not recognize the symbol on the
T-Shirt Naruto was wearing now, but it was clearly ridiculous. Why
did Naruto dress like a child when he might have been quite a
good-looking man?

He
sat up to be better able to look at him. Naruto, when he was
sleeping, looked really idiotic, and he could only hope that with
him, Sasuke, it was different.

Soon
they would leave again, he realized. When his team had woken up they
would ask Naruto where they could do their grocery shopping, and then
say good-bye. They might visit on their way back. He just hoped that
his team would understand in time that the place they were looking
for did not exist, so that Naruto was still there when they were
passing through this town again.

He
felt some regret at the thought of leaving – not much, and
remembering that staying meant to betray his family soon let him
forget this regret. Enjoy the break while it lasts, use it to form
plans and hope that his team would soon regain its sense of reality.

Recall
every second of the day and night he had spent with Naruto, get aware
of all the details and store them safely in his memory, so that
later, when they were searching for that Blessed Realm again, he
could dwell on them in the evenings when Karin and Suigetsu were busy
with their pointless arguments.

Extend
these last moments as much as possible. Look at Naruto while he could
do it without being noticed – his messed up hair, his half-open
mouth. Reach out to touch him, just his shoulder, very carefully –
suddenly his wrist was caught by Naruto. Probably he had not been
asleep at all.

“I
did not want to hurt you”, Sasuke said.

“You
really think I am a complete idiot, do you? Did you believe I would
let you stay in my room even in my bed, while I was asleep, if I did
not trust you not to try and kill me?”

Sasuke
felt embarrassed and a bit ashamed.

“You
did not try to kill me in Orochimaru's lair either, did you? Or when
my kagebunshin found you in the woods?”

Sasuke
was silent, being reminded of what he was most ashamed of.

“No,
I didn't”, he answered to Naruto. “I just didn't want to
be dragged back to Konoha. I didn't wish you any harm, nor do I now.”

Naruto
was waiting for what Sasuke had not mentioned, and Sasuke knew that
he was waiting and that he knew that Sasuke knew that he was waiting.
He knew that he had to talk; he had often imagined this moment and
sought for words, though he would not have believed it if anyone had
told him that it would be like this, with him sitting in Naruto's bed
and Naruto lying by his side. None of the words he had thought of
would do now.

“In
the Valley of the End, however”, he began, speaking the words
one by one as if it hurt getting them out of his mouth. “There
it was different. There I really wanted to kill you. I was out of my
mind then, and foolish. Every moment since then I have been glad that
I did not succeed.”

“But
you could have killed me, if you had wanted to, couldn't you? You
beat me – I was unconscious and helpless and at your mercy.”

Sasuke
remembered well – how he had missed Naruto's vital points in
his first attack, and how Naruto had been lying on the ground then,
very similar to how he was lying on his bed now, and how he had
simply not been able to take his life and turn his living breathing
friend into a cold corpse. He remembered the wave of tenderness that
had overcome him then, just as it overcame him now so that he had to
restrain himself from reaching out and touching Naruto's shoulder
again.

“I
came back to my senses in time”, he explained, not wanting to
go further into detail.

Suddenly
Naruto remembered how he had been overcome by the kyuubi during his
fight against Pain. He as well had been glad to discover that he was
not responsible for any more deaths or destruction.

“I
did not want to be like Itachi who was ready to kill innocent
people”, Sasuke continued. He did not mention that it had also
been his desire to assert himself as independent of Itachi that had
held back his hand then. “I should have remembered in time. I
am sorry. Please forgive me.”

“Oh,
never mind”, Naruto answered. “It happens to all of us
that sometimes we are out of our mind.”

Sasuke
felt awkward, not relieved as he had imagined that Naruto's
forgiveness would make him feel. Rather a bit rejected – maybe
he had deserved it. At least he had now summoned the courage to ask
for forgiveness, and no longer had to worry about it.

Naruto
got up. “So at least it was not on a whim that you spared me.”

“No,
certainly not, what makes you think so?” Sasuke asked back,
rather confused.

“You
told me yourself when we met in Orochimaru's lair.”

Sasuke
dimly remembered that somehow he had had to dispel Naruto's
conviction that he actually cared for him and might return to Konoha.
He had to be careful now, too.

“I
have no idea”, he said. “I must have been talking
rubbish.”

“Yes,
probably. Let's go and get some rolls while your team is still asleep
so that we can have breakfast together.”

Before
you leave, he wanted to add, but he did not have the heart for it.
“There's a bakery on the other side of the street.”

They
got ready - staying at Naruto's place had its advantages, Sasuke
thought while he was having a shower – then they got to the
bakery.

“Don't
buy your groceries here”; Naruto told Sasuke while he waited in
the queue. “They are too expensive here. There's a supermarket
that will open around noon.”

Sasuke
had not thought of it – he had been staring at the newspapers:
there was the Sunday edition of the Morning Messenger, but also the
other newspaper with the picture of Konoha on the title page. Sasuke
tried to decipher it from where he was standing without being too
obvious about it. He cursed Itachi for giving him the Mangekyou
Sharingan, and himself for using it – his eyesight was
definintely getting worse.

Naruto
took the Morning Messenger from the rack when it was finally his
turn. “You don't need to buy that one”, he told Sasuke.
“We've got it at home and won't need another copy.”

Sasuke
cursed himself and decided not to ask Naruto for that newspaper.

“Anyway”,
Naruto continued when he had finally purchased his rolls and
croissants so that they could leave the bakery. “Why did you
just touch me for if it was not to hurt me?”

He
must not know the truth, Sasuke thought, the truth that there had
been no other reason for touching Naruto than that he had wanted to
do it.

“I
needed to know whether you are real”, he said. “Your true
self and not a kagebunshin.”

“You
really seem to think I am an idiot, don't you? I have wanted you back
for more than three years now – how could I leave the
experience of meeting you to a kagebunshin? And if I were a
kagebunshin, be assured that my true self would be on his way to meet
you as soon as possible.”

Sasuke
looked cute when he was confused, Naruto realized, without any of his
usual appearance of coolness and superiority, and he decided to
continue: “Maybe you should postpone your departure, to make
sure that you meet my original self as well, just in case that I
might be a kagebunshin. For my original self is much more awesome
than all my kagebunshin in combination.”

A/N:
This chapter was originally part of chapter five, but I divided the
chapter in two parts mostly because last week there was a lot of work
to do and I simply was not able to edit the whole chapter in one go.
I wondered whether I should post two chapters this week, to make up
for it, but then I decided to use the time I gained for some planning
and on the first draft. (The story is not prewritten...) Anyway, the
next chapter will bring some new events.

Sneakyfox:
Many thanks again for your review, and for the compliments on my
English. Indeed, I am not a native speaker, and I am also no longer
young, and so I have decided that rather than making a fool of myself
by using colloquial „young people's language“ without
really knowing its details, I would use a style that is a bit too
formal. But of course I know about contractions, and I will try to
use them more often.
- 8
- 9
- 10
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The Blessed Realm