The Blessed Realm

Chapter One Hundred Sixteen: Thaw

The women left, and when Sasuke and Naruto accompanied them downstairs to the front door they saw that a lot of their colleagues, most of them in plainclothes, were on patrol around the building.

Upstairs again they discussed how they should deal with their new situation:

“If Madara really attacks we'll have to protect all these people who are trying to protect us,” Naruto said. “And we'll have to do it without inflicting too much damage on the town.”

Sasuke sat on the window sill, looking at their colleagues outside.

“We might lure Madara to some uninhabitated place,” he said. “Maybe to that garbage hill where we practised with Killerbee.”

“Or we should leave the town and wait for Madara to confront us somewhere in the wilderness. It might be the best way to protect the town.”

“People would try to prevent us from leaving.”

“Then we'll have to sneak out,” Naruto said. “We're ninja after all.”

“We'd be in trouble on our return. If it comes to the worst we'd be rogue nin again. But I guess we have to take this upon us if we want to protect the town.”

Their eyes met, and they smiled sadly, because neither of them liked the idea of leaving Music Town, but then Naruto smiled more broadly: they were united again, ready to fight side by side, ready to protect Music Town.

They did not immediately pack their stuff, however: it was too late tonight to leave. The next morning, right after breakfast, some colleagues rang at their door bell and offered to accompany them to the training center: they were serious about protecting them and making sure that they did not go anywhere on their own. The only good thing about this was that instead of going on patrol Sasuke and Naruto were sent to the labs where people analyzed evidence from the sites of crimes, which was much more interesting than telling off people for smoking on playgrounds.

It could not go on like this. Restrictions on them were too severe. In the evening when they had again to report to the secretary and wait for permission to go home Sasuke informed her that he needed to go to the ophtalmologist.

“It's just to pick up my new contacts,” he said. “I've been there already to get them fitted to my new eyesight.”

Naruto was surprised: Sasuke had not mentioned anything about new contacts, and obviously he had even been to the ophtalmologist without him, Naruto, noticing anything. He had not been told that Sasuke's eyesight had worsened. He wondered about their estrangement: It was not that he considered breaking up, on the contary, it made him feel more acutely how he longed for Sasuke and how his heart would break if they decided to end their relationship. It was breaking now: something important had happened to Sasuke and he had not told him. How was he supposed to protect him if Sasuke did not inform him that his eyesight had worsened?

 

The secretary informed her superiors about Sasuke's request, and after some time, which they spent waiting impatiently in the secretary's room, they were allowed to leave: Sasuke needed to see well, after all. Next time, however, he should inform the police earlier than just a minute before he intended to go, as they needed time to give new orders to the plainclothes policepeople responsible for their protection.

Indeed, when they left and went to the ophtalmologist they saw again their colleagues in all the streets, walking around, sometimes chatting with each other, and having an eye on them. One of them did not notice them until Naruto greeted her: she was first embarrassed, then she got angry and told him off, explaining to him that in order to maintain her incognito it was necessary that they pretended not to know each other.

Only at the ophtalmologist's place they were no longer under observation. Sasuke headed straight to the counter, where the doctor's assistant greeted him.

“You've come to pick up your contacts, haven't you?” she said, smiling. “They have just arrived this morning. Do you have the money with you, or shall we send the bill?”

“I have the money with me,” Sasuke said. “I also want to talk to the doctor, if that's possible.”

“It's possible, but you will have to wait.”

They waited silently, sitting side by side in the waiting-room, not reading any of the magazines. Naruto reached out to hold Sasuke's hand, and when Sasuke got called he got up with him and followed him to the doctor's room.

“Is it okay if he's with me?” Sasuke asked.

“It's your decision.”

Sasuke did not have the heart to send Naruto away, even though actually he would have felt more comfortable without him listening to his conversation to the doctor. (Actually he had hoped that the doctor would have sent him away.) At least now he could protect Naruto in case Madara turned up.

“So what is it that you want to ask me?”

“I need to know how strong these contacts may get, or how much worse my eyesight may become before I have problems that cannot be solved by new contacts.”

“Minus twenty dioptries is no problem. You are still far from that, and also, I don't think it will happen. Myopia often gets worse during adolescense, but normally it stabilized once you've grown up. So there's no need to worry. Maybe you need stronger contacts in two years, but then your eyesight will remain as it is. Though, actually” - he looked at Sasuke's file - “this was quite a large drop since we last met. Maybe we should have an eye on it. Maybe we should check your eyes in some six months again.”

“Or I return when I notice that my eyesight has gone worse again, so that I need again new contacts.”

 

“That's possible too. If there's another big drop we'll have to check whether you suffer from some underlying illness that causes it. But I don't think so. Probably you just grew a bit during these recent months, and your eyes grew too.”

Sasuke didn't think that he was still growing.

“But you'll soon stop to grow, and your eyes will remain as they are for the next thirty years, and then you'll need reading-glasses.”

Sasuke tried to imagine himself at the age of forty—seven. He'd be a successful policeman, on one of the upper levels of the hierarchy, spending more time behind his desk than on patrol. Or he'd be chief of the police in Konoha, also spending most of his time behind a desk. He'd still be with Naruto, hopefully, and they'd have a couple of kids. He could think it, but he could not imagine it. He'd die young, or he'd go blind and die lonely and desperate.

“So don't worry. We'll meet again in two years, as this is the normal life expectancy of contacts. Does this answer your questions?”

“It does,” Sasuke answered. “Many thanks for taking time to talk to me.” He got up.

“That's my job.” The doctor got up too. “So see you hopefully not too soon.”

It took Sasuke some seconds to understand that this was well-meant, and not an expression of dislike. “Yes – hopefully not too soon.”

 

“Or we meet somewhere else in town by chance,” the doctor said, realizing that his words had hurt Sasuke.

“Yes. Maybe. Good-bye.”

He and Naruto left the doctor's place. Sasuke was silent, and Naruto sensed that the conversation with the doctor had stressed him more than he wanted to show.

“Let's get something to drink,” he said.

He bought a coke for himself, and some coffee to go for Sasuke, and also some food, and then found them a park bench to sit on. There were policepeople all around them, some smiling, some looking rather annoyed, but Naruto did not care.

“Now tell me,” he said. “That's not ordinary myopia, is it?”

Sasuke shook his head. “It's the Mangekyou. I got it when Itachi died in front of my eyes. I can use Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, I can control the kyuubi, and I will slowly turn blind. If I use the Mangekyou often I turn blind quickly.”

“So that's it,” Naruto said, processing the information.

“I'm lucky that with these contacts my eyesight is normal again. I just fear that one day there won't be contacts strong enough to help me.”



“I'll be with you then,” Naruto said. “I'll lead you around.”

He laid his arm around Sasuke's shoulders, but Sasuke did not react. Being led around by Naruto was not what Sasuke wanted, and it was not how he envisioned their relationship.

“Maybe doctors here can do something that stops the process of turning more and more myopic,” Naruto suggested.

“They don't know anything about ninja curses here,” Sasuke replied.

“You think you're cursed?”

“The Uchiha were cursed, and now I'm the sole survivor, so I carry the full weight of the curse.”

“That's rubbish,” Naruto said. “Ask our friends here: they will all tell you that you're not cursed.”

They had lived long enough in Music Town now to know the locals' reactions to such a story.

“People here have no idea. They are well protected as children, and even as grown-ups they are firmly convinced that nothing bad can happen to them. They have no idea what it means to be cursed.”

“But not all Uchiha were cursed, were they? Not everyone had the Mangekyou?”

“They were all cursed, and they are all dead, even those who did not have the Mangekyou. And I as the only one who remains have the Mangekyou now too. Itachi made sure that I got it, and now I will turn blind.”

“You shouldn't have fought him,” Naruto said, regretting his words immediately. He did not want to hurt Sasuke.

“He made sure I'd fight him,” Sasuke replied gloomily. “He made sure that I considered him crazy and a criminal, a monster who didn't deserve to live. He wanted me to be with him when he died. He wanted me to get the power of the Mangekyou, and he didn't care that I'd turn blind.”

“He was a ninja, and thought the way ninja think. He thought that for you power would be most important too.”

“He saw to it when he murdered the clan. He made sure to teach me that power was more important than anything else, that being powerful allowed you to do everything you want and that only power could prevent you from doing it.”



They were silent for a while. Naruto reflected on Sasuke's words, thinking that the murder of the clan might indeed have made him come to such a conclusion, and Sasuke wondered why Itachi had wanted him to acquire the Mangekyou if he was actually acting on order of the administration.

“He wanted me to be able to control the kyuubi. He wanted me to support you as a jinchuuriki, and to be a means of turning you into the village's ultimate weapon.”

“But we don't need that now,” Naruto said. “Killerbee teaches me to control the kyuubi on my own. You won't have to activate the Mangekyou again.”

He drew Sasuke closer to himself, and then kissed his cheek and his shoulders. He thought a bit.

“You activated the Mangekyou last time we practised with Killerbee, didn't you? That was the weird pattern in your eyes when you turned up within my mind. That's why your myopia suddenly got worse.”

Sasuke nodded.

“You didn't have to. I would have managed by myself.”

Sasuke remained silent. He looked hurt.

“I know that I looked scary with one of the kyuubi's tails,” Naruto said. “But in the end I would have managed to get it back under control. It was not necessary to risk your eyesight for my sake.”

“What should I have done then?” Sasuke asked. “Waited for you to sprout two tails? Or three? Or four?”

Naruto imagined the situation from Sasuke's point of view: watching him, Naruto, desperately trying to get the kyuubi back under control, apparently without success.

“It's not just about us,” Sasuke said. “It's about the town too.”

He cared, Naruto thought. He had not jumped into his mind in order to control him and to gain power over him, but because he had really seen this as a last resort. He had not done it easily, and he had risked his own eyesight for it. He had cared not only for him, but for Music Town too. Naruto felt deeply moved, and something within him melted. Some of his trust that Sasuke was basically a good person returned. He kissed Sasuke on his cheek again, and this time Sasuke returned the kiss. Naruto laid his hand on Sasuke's thigh and let it wander to his crotch: a bold gesture in public, even according to the standards of Music Town, but Naruto didn't care. Sasuke searched for his mouth with his own, and for the first time since an eternity (actually only a bit more than a week) they kissed without reserve, thinking only of the kiss and not of a dozen other things. (Most of all they did not care about the policepeople who were still watching them from afar.)

Sasuke broke off the kiss to look at Naruto and caress his whisker marks. “I want you human,” he said. “That's why I intervened.”

“I don't want you blind,” Naruto answered, caressing Sasuke's cheek bones and his brows, and then carefully kissing his closed lids.

“Blind's still human,” Sasuke said.

 

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.