The Blessed Realm

Chapter One Hundred Six: Learning new ways to protect your friends

Sasuke had invited the reporters of Urban Lady to his and Naruto's own place, with the result that far less make-up was possible than at the magazine's building itself. Also it helped that there was no make-up specialist present, only a photographer who had brought a collection of liquid make-up and powder and concealer in different shades. She sent the boys to the bathroom so that they might apply the stuff themselves (they also used some mascara they had among their own supplies), and they felt much more comfortable like this than with some stranger touching their faces. With the photographer there had come a journalist with notebook and tape-recorder.

They agreed that first they'd take a walk around town so that the boys could tell the two reporters about their life in Music Town while photos would be taken at their favourite places. Naruto left it to Sasuke to choose the route and the places, and Sasuke led them first to Heroes' Park, where they were photographed sitting hand in hand on the lawn. The photographer told them to look deeply into each other's eyes, and Sasuke told how here he had first seen that being gay was a respectable way of life in Music Town. The reporters then tried to explain how gay people were still far from having equal rights, but Sasuke cut them short by telling them that he had learnt by now to counter silly jokes about horses.

They went to the head quarter of the police where they were photographed arm in arm (and the photographer regretted that they did not have their uniforms with them), and Sasuke told how hard he had needed to work for the entrance test, and how everything he had learnt in Konoha was useless here.

In the gay community center only the entrance area to the ballroom was open, meaning that they would have to be photographed there, but the photographer asked the barista for permission to push the chairs and tables to the wall (there was only one other guest present, and he was sitting at the bar and chatting with the barista and now watching curiously what the boys and the two journalists were up to) so that Sasuke and Naruto might perform some dance steps and be photographed dancing. The journalist with the notebook used the time to talk to the barista and the other guest and to listen to their stories about how they had all thought that Naruto was gay and Sasuke in denial when they had first come to the place, and how it had taken them some time to discover that it was the other way round. The woman took notes, and when Naruto realized what was happening he felt embarrassed.

They visited the municipal library too, and both boys explained what it meant to them, and then they went to the dojo where they still taught taijutsu to their group of small kids, and the photographer insisted on them posing in some spectacular fighting positions.

Sasuke would have liked to introduce them to his horse too, but as the horse had nothing to do with Naruto the two reporters suggested that they'd rather return to the boys' place and that there they'd talk about the Gutsy Ninja. Naruto felt happy about that decision: it had been a pretty weird afternoon with Sasuke doing most of the talking, and even developing some kind of friendly outgoing facade, which only Naruto noticed, as he knew how Sasuke was like on other days, and how stiff he was normally when he talked to women.

He himself was rather thoughtful on that day. He was wondering what he would tell during the interview itself, and busy searching for words both about Jiraiya and about his dream of peace. He was glad when they arrived at their own place.

Sasuke prepared tea and coffee and served cookies, while Naruto had already sat down with the two journalists to sign their copies of the Gutsy Ninja. They explained to him the structure of the interview: He'd first talk about his life with Jiraiya, then about how Jiraiya had found his dream of peace, then about Naruto's own ideas for achieving peace. When Sasuke joined them at the table the journalist pressed the button of her tape recorder.

“You've been a student of Jiraiya for a long time,” she started the interview. “How was it like to live with him?”



“It was a bit weird, as I was still a child and Jiraiya preferred cheap hostels with assorted brothels to stay at. More than once he returned to our room badly drunk with one or two women in his arms. But as I grew older I learnt to cope with it, and I met some interesting people that way, and learnt a lot about life. I guess it's not what you consider appropriate for children, but I enjoyed it.”

“You say you were Jiraiya's student. So what did he teach you apart from letting you share his life?”

“Ninja arts of course. Ninjutsu and taijutsu. I've never been good at genjutsu, but Jiraiya taught me to counter it.”

“But we all know that Jiraiya was not only a ninja but mostly a great writer. Did he try to teach you something about literature too?”

“He made me proof-read Icha-Icha,” Naruto said. “I didn't appreciate it at the time, though. People tell me it's because I'm gay, but I guess it was because I was too young. Maybe I should give it another try. The real thing is better though than books.”

He took Sasuke's hand. Sasuke caressed his back, content that Naruto had (somehow) said that he was gay.

“Kids here are different of course. They read the Gutsy Ninja for the sex scene.”

“Yes, let's stop talking about Icha-Icha and rather talk about the Gutsy Ninja,” the journalist said, glad about the change of subject. “Did Jiraiya make you proof-read the Gutsy Ninja too?”

Naruto shook his head. “The book was written before I was born. I am named after the Gutsy Ninja. It's been out of print for over ten years.”

The journalist looked at him, waiting for more explanations, then she understood that she needed to ask a more precise question.

“How did you learn that you were named after a fictional hero?”

Naruot renamed the days of his Sennin training, and the sorrow after Jiraiya's death, and his wish to make the murderer pay for it.

“It was only after Jiraiya's death that I learnt about the Gutsy Ninja and the dream of peace he tried to convey with it. Later I also met the man who really inspired Jiraiya's dream, Nagato from Amegakure. He hoped that one day there would be a way to protect your friends without killing anyone else.”

The woman's look got blank, and Naruto remembered that in Music Town there were few situations where people needed to protect their friends by fighting, or even worse, by killing someone else.

“Nagato felt for his enemies too, and therefore he dreamt of peace,” Naruto continued. “Jiraiya felt inspired by his dream, and thus he wrote the Gutsy Ninja, and my father, the fourth Hokage, felt inspired by the story's message too, and so I got named after the Gutsy Ninja.”

He paused, thought for some seconds, then he continued: “So with my father and with my teacher dreaming of peace it's become my dream too. It's my heritage, and I will do everything to make the dream come true.”

“And what do you think? Will you be able to achieve it?”

“I will,” Naruto answered, smiling and leaning back. “If I wouldn't believe it's possible I might give up already, but giving up has never been an option for me. I will succeed in making the world a better and more peaceful place.”

The journalist remained sceptical. “But how are you going to achieve it?” she asked. “I mean, there's always been wars. People have always been given to hatred and selfishness and fear of strangers.”

Naruto shook his head. “It's true, people have always been fighting. They've always hated whom they feared, and were hated by them in return. There's always been a circle of violence among the ninja countries, and no one was able to break the chain of hatred. But I will. People will learn to understand each other, and then there won't be any more war.”

He watched Sasuke getting nervous. The journalist looked irritated.

“People will see that they all suffer in the same way, and they will stop hating each other,” he continued.

“But is this not a bit naive?” the photographer now asked. “There's always been conflicts, and you cannot simply make vanish the grudges people hold against each other.”

“It's Jiraiya's dream, and I'll stick to it, even if people consider it naive. I'll not stop believing that people are able to live in peace.”

The women looked at each other. Both took another sip of tea. Naruto felt that he had not made much progress in convincing them of his dream.

Sasuke decided now to come to his support. “You may think that Naruto's dream of peace is naive because you in Music Town don't have any serious problems. You look at the ninja countries and think that in a society that's still dominated by clans and tribes under a thin layer of formal structures and modern institutions war is the natural state of affairs. You develop theories to explain why some ninja village attacked its rival, and think it impossible that one day these patterns might change. But people who've lived through war and survived it know about its real horrors. They know that without peace there is no chance for happiness, and to them a dream of everlasting peace is not naive, but a vision and an aim to strive for.”

The two journalists turned to him. It took them a few seconds to adopt to the new situation.

“I understand that peace is vital to everyone, and most of all to people who have survived war. But the question is whether you think it possible to achieve it.”

“Of course I do,” Sasuke replied. “People in other parts of the world have managed, so why shouldn't we? Ninja aren't more stupid than other people.”

“So you think it's possible to avoid all conflict?”

“It's possible to avoid the fighting. The ninja countries have managed to avoid war for about twenty years now, and there's no reason why they shouldn't continue on that path.”

“But hasn't it always been the same? After a war there's a time of peace, and when the ninja countries have recovered their strength there's a new war.”

“They would need to ensure that this doesn't happen.”

“But how can that be?”

“Well, first, they'd need some viable peace treaties. Not only treaties about borders and territories, but also treaties for free trade and for travelling freely. When people see the advantages of these treaties they'll stop longing for war.”

“You think this is possible?”

Sasuke shrugged. He wasn't prepared for this interview, but he felt the need to support Naruto, who was obviously even less prepared to answer the journalist's critical questions.

“Some such treaties have already been signed,” he said. “Just recently there was a cooperation treaty between Rock and Sand, with trade agreements and plans to exchange experts to share experiences about negotiations with private employers.”

“And you think that this will last, and not become obsolete when there's a new war?”



Sasuke shrugged again. “People feel bound by treaties they consider fair. I've learnt this when I watched football matches here in Music Town. People cheat but they accept punishment when they're caught. They know that if they don't the match will be over.”

The journalist was perplexed, and silent for about a minute. Sasuke realized that in order to win this game he did not have to say something particularly wise or intelligent, but mostly something that was weird and off-hand so that the journalist would not know how to react.

“But what if people don't want to play?” she finally asked. “What if they consider the most recent peace treaty not fair?”

“Then they'll have to renegotiate it. That's what people in other areas of the world do.”

Again the journalist was silent for several seconds.

“Do you think that people in the ninja countries are ready to accept this? After all they've been fighting each other since their foundation. People got killed, and their loved ones blame other countries for their death. Grudges and distrust have been growing for about a century.”

“But they know that their own armies killed people of the other side too, don't they?”

“They do. But this was always only because the other side started the war.”

This time Sasuke had to think.

“But only those who didn't start the war can argue in this way.”

“Everyone tells their own version of how the war started. Just compare history books from different countries.”

“I have only read those from Music Town,” Sasuke said. “In Konoha we weren't taught any history at all. Don't history books in Music Town tell the truth?”



“Our historians do their best to find out the truth,” the journalist acceded. “And I don't doubt that in the academies of the ninja countries too there's historians who are mainly motivated by their desire to find out the truth. Still there's a huge pressure from the daimyou to present the history of the ninja countries in a way that makes their own country look good.”

Sasuke had never thought about this, and it took him quite some time to come up with a solution.

“Why don't historians unite, and stand up against the pressure from their daimyou? That's what they do in other areas of the world: Historians from different countries meet, they exchange views and research results, they grant each other access to their countries' archives. Like that together they find out who started it all, and then this is taught to the population, and conflicts and grudges are no longer passed down from generation to generation.”

Again he had managed to silence the journalist for several seconds.

“You make it seem very easy,” she finally said. “So if it's that easy, why hasn't peace been achieved by now?”

“It has been achieved. The ninja countries have been at peace for the last twenty years. People want peace, after all. They know that cooperation is more profitable than fighting.”

Not only the two reporters but also Naruto was looking at him now. Sasuke felt inspired and excited and went on talking, developing his ideas as he went along.

“I've read what your scholars wrote about the Gutsy Ninja. They consider the book trivial because its only message is that cooperation is better than fighting, and no one needs Jiraiya to learn this. But when I say people know it and that therefore techniques from other areas of the world might work here too you stare at me as if this was completely ridiculous. We don't only have to learn from other continents even. We have our own traditions too, or the ninja countries would not have been able to end the continent wide civil war some eighty years ago. We just have to dig out these traditions.”

“But only a few years after the foundation of the modern ninja countries the first ninja world war started,” the journalist said. “The peace that was achieved then did not last long.”

Now Sasuke had to think how to continue.

“The main obstacle to peace are people like Danzou,” he said, “whether they act from the shadows or whether they have become Hokage and move in the spotlight. People like him perceive everything in strategic terms, they see threats everywhere and make their fellow-citizens see these threats too, and their only way to deal with a threat is to annihilate it. They feel entitled to attack other countries, maybe even successfully at first, but they don't hold in mind that wars have a tendency to escalate. Naruto told you of Nagato, who was the true model for the Gutsy Ninja: He trusted Danzou, and this was the ruin of his dreams. If people want peace they need to learn to recognize figures as Danzou, and not fall in for them. They need to learn that men as Danzou need to be put to trial, not be made Hokage. That's what civilized people do.”

Sasuke had run out of words, but he was very content with himself. He smiled. Naruto was mostly glad that Sasuke had stopped talking and that he could speak again.

“If people elsewhere are able to learn to trust each other and to understand that we are all human, people in the ninja countries will be able to do the same. We will be able to create peace in the ninja countries. Just look at the letters I receive from everywhere: if all these people who share Jiraiya's dream unite we will be able to achive peace.”

The journalist smiled. “We hope that you are right,” she said. “We all need true sustainable peace, after all, don't we?”

She switched off the tape recorder. “I mean it,” she said. “If I asked you some critical questions it was because I wanted you to come up with some concrete suggestions about how to create peace. But don't worry: It will be all okay. You are seventeen, idealistic and good-looking. People like that. They don't expect you to come up with a solution to one of the oldest problems of mankind. If you want to come across a bit wiser, and if it's okay to you both, we will make it appear as if some of your friend's answers were actually yours.”

Naruto felt humiliated, and now also offended. “I don't need that,” he said. “Print exactly what we said, and make clear who said what. Sasuke's my boy-friend, but we don't agree about everything. I want people to know what I myself think.”

The woman shrugged. “As you wish.” She finished her tea and got up. Her colleague followed her. “You'll find the interview in the next issue of Urban Lady. We wish you success with your dream of creating peace. We really do.”

Both boys felt empty and exhausted after the women's departure when they were tidying up and doing the dishes.

“They don't believe in peace,” Sasuke said. “Peace in the ninja countries, I mean. For them peace in Music Town is enough.”

Naruto was busy with something else. “You did not have to speak up for me,” he said. “I can speak for myself.”

Then he embraced Sasuke and kissed him and rested his head on Sasuke's shoulder.

“I'll help you with your plans for peace,” Sasuke said. “Danzou will be put to trial. That's what civilized people do.”

 

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.