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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.

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Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Sixth Letter
Finally a letter from Konoha arrived. It was addressed to Sasuke, so Sasuke opened it and had a look. (He did the same with the rest of Naruto's fanmail, as he still considered it necessary to protect him.) He began to read:

Dear Sasuke,

Thanks for the photos and the two copies of the Gutsy Ninja you and Naruto sent us! I was pleased to see what you and Naruto look like these days, though the foreign clothes that are fashionable in Music Town don't suit you well. Yet nothing will make you look ugly! Only the photo where you and Naruto are kissing looks gross. I have shown it to Hinata, and she thinks it gross too. She sends her regards, however, and she asked me to tell you that she's glad that you and Naruto are doing fine. She gives her thanks too, both for the book and the photos: They give her courage to hold on and keep resisting, to work for Danzou's demise and hope for your and Naruto's return. Most of all the Gutsy Ninja gave her a lot of joy, reminding her of Naruto's courage, his persistence and also his enduring love for peace.

We show both the photos and the book to people whom we trust to be sceptical of Danzou, and they feel encouraged too. To see that Naruto is well off in another town and not hidden away in some secret place gives us confidence that Danzou is not all powerful.

We don't show the picture where you kiss, of course. People would be disgusted, and it would not advance our cause. So we are glad that you sent some other picture too.
The picture where they weren't kissing also clearly showed that he and Naruto were lovers, Sasuke thought. People were weird, he concluded.

People are not certain what to think of you. They still remember that you mysteriously survived the murder of your clan and that a few years later you deserted from Konoha. Some wonder whether the murderer did not have a good reason to kill your clan. Others wonder whether he had a bad reason to kill the clan, and that sparing you was part of his evil plan. Hinata doesn't care what people say, however. If you make Naruto happy it's all fine with her, and she will forgive you whatever you may have done.
Everyone distrusts me, Sasuke thought, even Hinata, even when she tries to appear friendly and sends her regards. He could not blame her: his attack against Killerbee was not easily forgiven. He continued reading:

Also, reading about the town you're staying at and reading the Gutsy Ninja gives us hope that there is something else than the permanent state of war Danzou keeps talking about, so that one is not constantly under the strain of having to protect oneself.

The newest development in Konoha is that we have stopped doing missions. The situation is too dangerous, Danzou says, so every shinobi is needed at home to defend the village, otherwise the other countries would unite and attack us.
Sasuke, who was still following the newspaper on a regular basis, wondered: He had read harsh criticisms of Danzou, both from politicians of other countries and journalists from Music Town, but not any open threats.

We suspect, however, that the real reason is that too many people have deserted. Missions have always been the weak link in preventing desertions, most of all now that hostile countries welcome deserters with open arms instead of hunting them down as rogue nin, as they should.

On the other hand, not going on missions reduced the death toll. Most people feel relieved. I am relieved too, as for me this means less work.

My mother agrees with me and Hinata that the threat from outside is just a pretext to abandon missions. Sai, however, doubts it: He told me that the new edition of the Gutsy Ninja was widely discussed among Danzou and his advisors. Everybody knows now that Konoha no longer provides over the kyuubi, and other countries might see this as an ideal opportunity to attack us. Of course thanks to Akatsuki they no longer provide over their bijuu either, but their regular forces are much stronger than those of Konoha as they haven't suffered from a complete destruction. Danzou expects an attack any moment.

They can't admit this, however, as they don't want people in Konoha to know that Naruto has managed to flee before he was put to that secret place. For this reason the Gutsy Ninja isn't available in bookshops in Konoha, and the two copies Naruto sent us are everything we have. The administration wants us to believe that they are still as strong as ever, so that no one dares to resist them.

Concerning your question whether I knew how the Second Ninja World War started: I have never heard any details about the attack on Amegakure. Actually I don't know much about the war at all, only some stories about the Sandaime and his advisors heroic deeds that helped end the war. I asked my mother about it, and she said that it's well known that the Second Ninja World War was started by Konoha. She was a small child when it happened, living in the capital of Fire Country with her own parents. A lot of civilians in the capital were angry at Konoha then, saying that the daimyou should put it on a shorter leash and give it less autonomy, but then news arrived that Amegakure had been taken over with hardly any losses and people stopped criticizing Konoha. When finally it became known that the Hidden Cloud had been planning a strategic alliance with Amegakure, which would have given them a decisive advantage, everyone praised the wisdom and foresight both of Danzou and the Sandaime. It was not known at the time that Danzou, not the Sandaime, was mainly responsible for the attack: people spoke mostly of the ninja regime or the ninja administration, not taking any notice of the differences between different fractions.

Inspired by my question my mother spoke to some of her own colleagues and neighbours, asking them what they remembered of the start of the second ninja world war. Most of them remember that Konoha attacked first, and they also remember that Danzou initiated the invasion of Amegakure. They don't blame him however. “It was necessary”, they say. “Otherwise Kumo would have taken it for itself.”

When my mother reminds them that the war as a whole did not go well but ended with huge losses on both sides and no substantial gains for anyone people say that this was later and has nothing to do with the original attack against Amegakure.

So my mother warns us against using the attack on Amegakure as a way to persuade people to join our side and rise against Danzou. Most supported it, even though they are critical of the war as a whole.

My mother also warned us again against making public our suspicion that your clan was murdered on orders of Danzou. Sai has taken up searching for documents in the Hokage's private archives. Apparently there have been some weird activities of members of your clan, like breaking into the Hokage's tower and the head quarters of ANBU and Root. Of course this does not necessarily mean that they were planning a coup d'etat. Sai tries to find out more.
So maybe they really did something, Sasuke thought, and had not been innocent. He had avoided the thought all the time, blaming only Danzou and directing his hatred against him. But maybe they had done something and, in some way, deserved what had happened.

There is also some other news. Hinata is pregnant. The child's father is Neji, and they plan to marry soon. Danzou tries to put obstacles in their way, but it's unlikely that he will succeed, not when she's pregnant already. Public opinion is that one should not separate a child's parents. Danzou senses that with this marriage Hinata intends to strengthen her position as head of her clan. Both he and Hinata's father would have preferred her younger sister Hanabi, her father because Hanabi is a stronger fighter, Danzou because Hanabi has not yet made any unreasonable requests, as asking about your wellbeing. With Neji at her side, who is now the strongest shinobi of the clan, nobody can question her status as head of the clan. Hinata's most important aim, however, is to abolish the separation between the main house and the branch house and to unite both lines.

A side effect of her pregnancy is that Danzou now has to accept her retirement as a shinobi. He has established a rule that mothers-to-be are exempt from active duty as fighters: Konoha is in need of new ninja and cannot risk their lives and health by risking the health or life of their mothers.

He was not happy about this particular pregnancy, of course. He summoned Hinata to his office and accused her of betraying Konoha, refusing to risk her life for the village as it is the duty of every shinobi. I went with her, as I had to confirm her pregnancy. She stood silent and did not say anything and she suffered a lot from his reproaches, but in the end he ran out of breath and of words. He cannot do anything, not even force her to abort the baby as we have made sure that the whole village knows about her pregnancy so that people would wonder if she does not walk around with a baby in her arms in due time. People would notice, and remind him of his own words that women have their own share of the burden of strengthening Konoha in giving birth to future shinobi and shouldn't risk their life fighting. Indeed, Konoha has to rise its birth rate, as a lot of people have died or deserted and the number of active shinobi has considerably decreased.

Danzou cannot do anything about Hinata's pregnancy, but he has taken other means. He has abolished the special role of the old clans, particularly the clan council. It's a step directed against Hinata, preventing her from making use of her position as head of one of the most powerful and most respected clans in Konoha. But also he has got rid now of the last institution that might have set boundaries to his rule, as the ANBU council and the Jounin council are both dominated by his followers now. The clan assembly hasn't assembled since the attack of the kyuubi, and it hasn't had any political significance for years, still merely by existing it stood between Danzou and absolute power, and now it's gone too.

Danzou claims it's a step to more equality among ninja, as the clans no longer have a special role in the administration of the village, just as all ninja take an equal share in the hardships and risks of protecting the village, no matter whether they are from one of the clans that founded Konoha or from a civilan family that has immigrated to Konoha only one or two decades ago. He also plans to dissolve the clans' compounds amd make people live with their core family only, as most civilians do, but this takes time and effort. We fear that dissolving the Hyuuga clan and cutting their special bonds of loyalty will be his first aim.

So this is how things are going in Konoha. I am glad that you and Naruto are doing fine in that other place. It seems to be a better place than Konoha at the moment, even though its sexual mores are somewhat relaxed.

With love, Sakura.

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 .It is now possible to access the thread without registration at the forums.
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The Blessed Realm