The Blessed Realm

Chapter One Hundred Three: Life

It took both Naruto and Sasuke some time to get used to their new life – it was not more work than before, as they had lost their jobs in the restaurant, but they had to get used to getting up early (and to not being able to have sex before getting up. After some days they found out that it was better to have sex in the afternoon than to wait until just before they went to bed.)

With time, however, life got more quiet again, and Sasuke found time to write to Sakura:

Dear Sakura!

Thanks for your letter, and thanks for taking up again your investigations into what my family actually did. Don't risk your life though, and also tell Sai not to risk his life. It's not worth it. It would be a great comfort for me, however, if I knew for sure that my family did not do anything wrong.

He thought of his attempts of meditating and getting in touch with the universe: not only he himself but his family too had been rejected. Only people in Music Town took his existence for granted and did not care about the universe itself. He returned to his letter.

But even if they did something wrong it would be a great relief to hear that what they did was not enough to make them deserve death. Here people think that no one deserves death, except those who have killed someone themselves, and even this is widely debated. Also it's consensus that no one should be killed on a mere suspicion.

I have now a lot of opportunities to learn all this stuff as I've been accepted as a policeman in training. Naruto has been accepted too, though for him it was mainly because he didn't know what else to do. We have both lost our jobs as waiters because our patroness didn't pay taxes for us, so he needed to do something. He enjoys it though. Most of all he enjoys learning foreign languages, and in the evening he always tries to spot some tourists and engage them in a conversation. They only last for a few minutes however, as then Naruto runs out of words, but he makes up for it by laughing and smiling.

The other students have learnt several foreign languages from an early age. That we have to start from zero, and that we need to be granted a private teacher just for the two of us shows us again how we were kept in ignorance in Konoha, not knowing about anything that happens in the rest of the world, not even knowing much about our own countries.

So thanks also for asking around what people in Konoha now remember of the Second Ninja World War, and thanks for finding out that people approved of the attack on Amegakure when it turned out successful, even though it constituted the beginning of a long war with a lot of casualties.

He tried to remember his feelings when he had read this, but it was difficult. What he felt now was mainly emptiness, but he did not know how to express it.

I'm grateful that you and your family don't approve of the attack against Amekagure, however.

Our training as policemen is very different from what it would have been like in Konoha if my clan had still been in charge of the police. In Konoha, the Uchiha were in charge of the police because we were the most efficient fighters, meaning that we were able to deal with strong ninja who had turned criminal, but here the police avoids fighting. When I'm on patrol, normally with some woman, I'm expected to watch and listen and not do anything. If I'm lucky I'm allowed to talk to the victim while my colleague talks to the perpetrator. The idea is that I learn from her how to talk to people in a way that makes people obey. I still haven't discovered the trick, nor have I watched any of these women fail. They have discovered however that both I and Naruto are good at dealing with drunk people.

He remembered the episode: He and his colleague had been called to a pub where a man refused to accept that he wouldn't be served another beer. He had reacted instinctively: laying his hand on the man's shoulder and guiding him outside, saying “you better leave now” and repeating it several times as otherwise the words wouldn't have entered the man's brain. The man had not offered any resistance, and outside Sasuke's colleague had taken over. She had led he man to his place where his wife had recieved him, not very happy that he was brought by the police. Sasuke had gained a lot of respect on that occasion, and people had let him do more of the talking from then on.

As neither the police nor anyone else is supposed to fight people have developed weird ways of dealing with conflicts. For example, if people want to protest against decisions of the administration of Music Town they get themselves into situations where the police has to rescue them. Everyone considers this perfectly natural and rational: the police, the protesters themselves, and also citizens who have nothing to do with the conflict.

He thought for some seconds before he continued.

Actually, being a member of the police now too, I am determined that I too will do my best to rescue these protesters, and prevent them from getting killed.

Again his thoughts wandered to his clan. He tried to imagine what would have happened if they had tried something like this in Konoha in order to protest against their ghettoization, chaining themselves to the cenotaph with the names of Konoha's war casualties for example. They would have been killed, he thought, and people would have made fun of them, thinking them foolish and nothing else. He was thankful again that now he was in Music Town where such forms of protest worked, and then he thought that even without trying such a form of protest his clan had been killed. He returned to his letter.

There's also more conventional forms of solving conflicts in Music Town. Some of our friends have got into trouble for hanging out and making music after ten, for example...

He did not write that he and Naruto had got into trouble too – into worse trouble than their friends, as for them now (or rather again) standards were higher than for ordinary citizens. They had been told that they would be expelled from the training center if ever again they were found with people taking drugs, and it had taken Naruto half an hour to convince their superiors that they were not taking drugs and that they would not end their friendship with people who had always inspired them and had always been loyal to them, even helping them move to another place.

Sasuke had been silent on that occasion and let Naruto do the talking. He had again felt the ground open beneath his feet when it had been suggested to him that the career he had worked so hard for was endangered.

… but now people set up negotiations to find a compromise between the young people who make music and the neighbours who want to sleep. It's their way here. Rules are not everything but they change them instead of breaking them.

I'm also learning horse-riding. You might have seen horses on pictures in history books: the warriors of old rode them. Here the are extremely popular among girls of the age of twelve.

It had taken him some time to understand the jokes about females and horses, but when he had understood them he had plainly told the male riding-teacher that he wouldn't want Naruto to follow the tiniest gesture of his hands and that the riding-teacher should rather reconsider his relationship to his wife.

You'd love horses too. They are strong and beautiful and they perfectly follow their young mistresses' wishes.

So we're both doing fine here, and people around us are glad that now we have started meaningful careers. They understand that for me it's important to continue my clan's tradition, even though the police in Music Town is quite different from that in Konoha.

(Actually he hoped that it was not that different, because the more different it was the more similar it was to ANBU.)

People tell Naruto that he should do something else when he has finished his training, for example study at the university to learn the stuff he needs when he is Hokage. I consider studying law in order to understand the different legal systems of the world, but only after my training as a policeman as I lack the regular qualifications for university. My ninja degree isn't of any value here.

Give my regards to Hinata, and my congratulations for her marriage with Neji. I'm sorry that the Clan council was cancelled, but I hope she'll find other ways of keeping the clan as honourable and respected as it always was.

Take care of yourself! I hope that soon there will be better news from Konoha.

Yours, Sasuke.

Actually Sasuke did not care about the Hyuuga Clan or about the Clan Council. It had been the Clan Council, after all, that had decided about the Uchiha's ghettoization. (He had read about it in a history book he had found in the library of Music Town. Only the Clan Council could decide about a punishment directed against a whole clan.) He did not care much about Konoha any more. He still stood in front of his family's picture for some minutes every evening, but he mainly silently told them what had happened during the day, mostly during his training, and he hoped that they were content with him.

He gave the letter to Naruto so that he might read it, and when he had finished reading Naruto added some lines of his own:

Dear Sakura!



I am glad to hear that there are no missions any more in Konoha so that fewer people die and you have less work. I wish that there were also other, better news.

Sasuke and I are doing well. We have found a small apartment for the two of us, and we have new jobs now, meaningful jobs as people keep telling us. It feels weird: as if we were going to stay. Sasuke would like to stay, I think, but my heart is still with Konoha. He can't stay anyway, no matter how much he wants it: he still doesn't play a musical instrument. I'm now learning to play the guitar, however, and maybe later some other instruments with strings as the banjo or the ukulele.

It was mainly a consequence of his birthday show. A man who had listened had asked him whether he could imagine being a singer and speaker for their his newly founded band, and when it had turned out that Naruto didn't play any instrument he was made to learn the basics of guitar-playing: just some harmonies were considered enough.

People try to explain to me the difference between real music and the cheesy stuff they export to the ninja countries: they always make me play the most difficult chord possible, difficult both for the player and for the listeners. Sasuke normally accompanies me to rehearsals and listens, and maybe he learns too, but I am doubtful.

I'm sorry that the Gutsy Ninja is not available in Konoha. I wished that people in Konoha could share Jiraiya's dream of peace, and I am glad that you lend out the two copies I sent you to everyone who's interested.

Take care of yourself!

Love, Naruto.

Naruto also wrote to Hinata:

Dear Hinata !

I wish you all the happiness of the world for your marrage with Neji, and I wish your child happiness health and a long life! I hope it will be able to grow up in a more peaceful Konoha and not have to fight from an early age.

My heart is with you and your reform of the Hyuuga clan, and I hope that they are successful. I understand that Danzou does not approve of you being head of your clan, but I think you'll be the best head it had for generations.

I wish I could be with you and help you, both with your reform of the clan and with your efforts to spread dreams of another Konoha.

Love, Naruto.

He let Sasuke read his lines to Sakura, but not what he wrote to Hinata. He also added another three copies of the Gutsy Ninja to the letter.

 

A/N: Thanks again for your reviews and your plusses! You can find my answers at http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/14965-blessed-realm/ .It is now possible to access the thread without registration at the forums.