The Blessed Realm

Chapter One Hundred Ten: Necessary Sacrifices

It was only when the two people had left that Naruto told Sasuke who they were: Officials from the government of Music Town, only one or two levels below the mayor herself. To Sasuke, this came as a shock: just when he had begun to build himself a life he had managed to get into the focus of the administration here, too. He discussed it with his colleague when he was on patrol during the evening shift.

“I've read the article and the interview,” she said. “The photos were nice, and you found some friendly words about Music Town. You shouldn't say, however, that what you like best about Music Town is that people here don't kill each other. It makes you appear quite weird and exotic.”

Sasuke asked more specifically whether she thought that he might get into trouble.

“Probably not. You are just some young immigrants. Urban Lady should get into trouble for exploiting your naivety, but they'll have their lawyers and spokespeople who will remind the administration that there's no censorship in Music Town and that they can print whatever they want. You are more intimidable, that's why they confronted you, not Urban Lady.”

By now Sasuke was used to being called naive, but being called intimidable was on another level. His initial impulse was to remind the woman that both he and Naruto were powerful shinobi and not easily intimidable, but then he remembered that both of them had been impresseed by the two officials. He wondered why the editors of Urban Lady would not have been impressed, but after some thinking he knew the answer: They knew about the law.

“Do you think it was my fault that Homura died?” he asked his colleague.

“Of course not,” she replied. “It was his own bad conscience. We discussed it during our lunch break, and we were all of the same opinion. I guess a lot of those in the administration would agree to us too, but they can't afford to speak openly because they don't want to offend Fire Country and Konoha. When Danzou requests that you should be delivered to Konoha they'll remind him that Homura died from his illness.”

Sasuke nodded: he felt content, but not completely. He did not trust Music Town to remain firm.

Naruto did not have to work that evening, and after spending some time alone in their flat, thinking about the two officials who had worried him too, he decided to go to the riverside and meet his and Sasuke's friends there.

“On your own today?” they asked. “What happened to Sasuke?”

“He's working,” Naruto answered.

They nodded understandingly, though they still wondered. Naruto had never before joined them on his own.

“We got into trouble,” he said when there was a break in the conversation. “It's because of the interview we gave to Urban Lady.”

“I've read it,” one of the young women said. “My mother buys it regularly, and when I saw your picture I got curious. It was quite funny actually.”

“For me it's serious,” Naruto replied. He wished that Sasuke was with him: He would have answered her in the appropriate arrogant tone. “We need peace in the ninja countries. It's the basis of everything else.”

The young people shrugged. “There's more important things,” one of the men said. “Sometimes you have to fight. You want to get rid of Danzou, don't you?”

“But not by openly attacking him. We could do it of course: we are strong enough. But we don't want Konoha in ruins, and we don't want to hurt anyone.”

“Sometimes sacrifices are unavoidable,” the man replied.

“Not for us,” Naruto said. “We fight for the people of Konoha. We don't want to kill them.”

There was a silence of several minutes while he considered his friends' words. Looking up to the street he saw a dark figure under the trees – nothing suspicious, but still unusual, as normally people here did not hide but went to the riverside with their friends, chatting and not caring about being seen or heard.

He then returned to his original subject: “We've run into trouble with the government of Music Town,” he said. “They reproached us with challenging Danzou.”

“I thought this was the purpose of the interview,” the woman who had read it said. “I thought you had decided not to stay hidden any more.”

“The government is full of cowards,” another man said. “Always balancing their relationships to the ninja countries, always careful not to offend anyone. They don't have the courage to stick to their own opinion. You shouldn't listen to them.”

“They told us not to give any more interviews without consulting them,” Naruto replied.

“Don't listen. You've been accepted as a refugee and a prospective citizen. You have the right to speak your mind just as anyone else, so don't let them intimidate you.”

“But don't give any more interviews to Urban Lady,” one of the women said. “They are just a commercial magazine. Give interviews to some more intelligent papers.”

“And do some research before your next interview,” a woman suggested who had not spoken before, “so that you actually have some answers to your interviewer's questions.”

It was then that the figure under the tree disappeared and reappeared next to the group. It as the space-time-ninjutsu Naruto knew well by now. The young people stared at Madara: There were a lot of people in Music Town wearing weird clothes (themselves among them), but a cloak with bright red clouds and a mask that covered the whole face were rather unusual. He still held his copy of Urban Lady in his hands, which made him look even weirder. Naruto felt frightened, even though he tried not to: with Sasuke at his side he would have felt safer.

“You're searching for peace, Naruto, aren't you?” he said. “I can offer you peace.”

Naruto was taken by surprise.

“What kind of peace?” he asked.

“Don't fall for it,” one of the women said. “He's probably from some weird religious sect, trying to proselyte you.”

“What kind of peace?” Naruto asked again.

“The true, lasting, endurable kind of peace. The kind of peace that lasts not only for a year, or a decade, or a century, but forever.”

“You see: a weird religious guy,” the woman said.

“You're talking about death,” another woman said, speaking directly to Madara. “Because dying is the only way to achieve this kind of endurable peace. In life, ordinary peace is all you get.”

She sounded as if she was certain that the words she spoke were true, but also she sounded concerned.

“Don't worry,” Naruto said. “You don't have anything to fear of him. He's not interested in you.”

She shook her head and reached out to him. The man who sat on Naruto's other side slapped his shoulder. (He was not gay, and everything else seemed embarrassing to him.) As if they considered me under the influence of some genjutsu, Naruto thought. But Madara was no genjutsu, and people in Music Town had probably never heard of genjutsu or learnt how to counter it.

“You don't need peace, Naruto, do you?” another man said. “At least not the religious kind of peace. You like to be active and to have fun. With peace, you'd be bored to death within ten minutes.”

“I don't offer the religious kind of peace,” Madara said. “Or if I offer it I offer it as an extra to the peace I offer to the world. That's what you're looking for, aren't you?”

“Yes,” Naruto answered hesitatingly. He had, somehow, known all the time that Madara had not spoken of the Inner Peace the priest at the main temple had talked about.

“What kind of peace can you offer?” he asked. “Haven't you made Nagato betray his dream of peace? Haven't you sent Sasuke to abduct Killerbee?”

“For peace, sacrifices are necessary. It's just a few, but hundreds of millions will be saved.”

“Nagato spoke of killing hundreds of millions.”

“Hundreds of thousands, actually, to save hundreds of millions. He was never good with numbers. Also, he misunderstood the concept. Hundreds of thousands, or hundreds of millions, will live. The only thing that's still needed is the kyuubi.”

“What about the Hachibi?”

“That too.”

“And we'll die in the process of extracting the bijuu.”

“Two lives against the hundreds of millions who afterwards will live in peace and won't have to die for any foolish politician's lust for power.”

Naruto listened. It sounded more acceptable than hundreds of thousands dying, the option Pain had offered him. He tried to remember that fight, but he was no longer certain what exactly had seemed so despicable about Pain's plan: The idea of having to sacrifice himself, or the idea of hundreds of thousands (or millions) dying for that weapon Nagato wanted to create. Two people dying sounded more acceptable than hundreds of millions.

“You said that peace is the most important desire of your heart,” Madara continued, holding up his copy of Urban Lady. “Aren't you ready to sacrifice for it? What kind of prophet of peace are you that you value your own person higher than your dream?”

Naruto was seriously in trouble now. Peace had always been his greatest dream, and he had always been taught that you should be ready to sacrifice yourself for what was precious to you. If he died for peace he'd sacrifice himself for all the people in the ninja countries.

Madara interrupted his silence.

“There may be a way to save you, as the kyuubi is the most powerful of the bijuu, and also you haven't yet tamed it, so that it's still clearly separated from you, and its chakra is not yet flowing through your chakra channels. It may be possible to extract it without killing you.”

Naruto took a breath and straightened. “What about Killerbee?” he asked, and when Madara didn't anwswer, he continued: “I won't consent to Killerbee's death.”

He felt that people around him had also held their breath, and now they were breathing again.

“He's talking rubbish,” one of the men said. “He hasn't explained in any way how he wants to use the bijuu to create peace.”

“Aren't they huge masses of chakra?” one of the women asked. “How is it possible to use large masses of chakra to create peace? I mean, peace comes about when people start to talk to each other, doesn't it?”



“Don't listen,” a second man said. “He's obviously crazy.”

Madara, realizing that no one was taking him seriously, vanished.

“Do you know that guy?” one of the women asked.

“He's the head of Akatsuki. He's after Sasuke and me, and probably after Killerbee too.”

For some seconds people were silent, shocked.

“Have you told the police about him?” the same woman asked, and then, after some seconds of thought, she corrected herself: “Have you spoken to your superiors?”

Naruto shook his head. “Madara is an extremely powerful ninja. You've only seen his space-time-ninjutsu, which he uses to move from one place to another, or from one dimension to another, but he's got other powers too. The police here is good at preventing fights between football fans, at finding children who haven't returned home when it's dark, or at helping drunk people find their way home. They are not good at dealing with a ninja of Madara's level. Sasuke and I will do this by ourselves.”

People nodded. They also preferred to rely on themselves, as they had little trust in the capacity of the police of Music Town.

“We'll accompany you to your place,” the woman said. “Just in case the guy returns.”

“It's not necessary,” Naruto answered, feeling embarrassed and humiliated.

“It's okay,” one of the men said. “You look shaken. You shouldn't be alone.”

 

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.