Let me be your eyes

-Chiba Hiro

Summary: Naruto has been blind since birth, but that's the least of his worries. His parents think that because he is blind-for possibly forever-he'll be weak for the rest of his life and that he'll be under constant protection and surveillance. He yearns to be free from his eternal prison and overprotective and paranoid parents. One day though, he is pushed beyond the limits of what he could take, so he runs away, far away. But, who is this girl he meets along the way? Will she be the one with the key to his freedom? NarutoxHinata pairing. Please R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its content. All of it belongs to the rightful creators! Enjoy!

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Prologue-

In a hospital somewhere in Tokyo, eight years ago-

A young woman with vibrant red hair and dark brown eyes was currently under labor, and was expecting a child, a boy. Her husband, a tall man somewhere in his late twenties with golden blonde hair and ocean blue eyes, sat right next to her, holding her hand comfortingly. They had been married for two years, and the woman, named Kushina, wanted so very badly to be a mother, and finally she was getting the chance to be one.

In just a few hours her son will be born and she'll finally be able to cradle her young in her arms lovingly, like she had seen many mothers do. She once felt a twinge of jealousy that these women have something that she didn't have, and that was a child of her own. Now she was finally getting that chance, the chance she had been waiting for since she started attending college and met her husband-to-be, Minato.

She loved children, and worked at a children's daycare. So, in essence, she has firsthand experience in taking care of children within the ages of 6 months to four years old.

Minato, on the other hand, had very little contact with kids younger than six, so, in essence, he is terrible at taking care of babies, no questions about it. He'll have to leave the hard part to his wife who had experience working at the daycare for years. But, even though he was terrible at taking care of kids, the thought of having a son of his own excited him to no end. He wondered what his son would be like.

He had grown up extraordinarily to a wealthy business family, and went to private school for the majority of his life. He got the top grades in all of his classes, and participated in many extra-curricular activities at school. In essence, his father was proud of him and had high hopes for him. He graduated with honors and got a scholarship to the top school in Japan, Tokyo University. It wasn't until University that he finally met Kushina. At first, she didn't acknowledge him, and often preferred to be alone. But that all changed once Sophomore year came and he finally worked up the courage to talk with her.

In the years he had spent observing her from the sidelines, he had learned that she came from a very similar background to his own, but chose not to take over her family business, preferring to work with children when she grew older. At first glance, Kushina gave off a silent and aloof aura. But, boy did that change once he finally talked to her. She was a chatterbox that would almost never stop talking. Soon enough, they both hit it off, and Kushina began to warm up to Minato, or had she always been that way? No way to tell now since that was all in the past and this was their happy present. Anyway, they immediately began going out together.

One day Minato found the courage to propose to her, and she said 'yes!'. She agreed to it, but only on the condition that he wait to put the engagement ring on her after they both got their degrees. So they did and had a very happy time together engaged. Then came the wedding day two years ago, and now this...

It wasn't that he disliked children, he just hadn't had that much time to spend time with any children. Minato was not your ordinary twenty-nine year old in fact, he owns his own business, the Namikaze Co., which was one of the most influential businesses in Tokyo.

He had taken over the company's position as president after his father, Makoto Namikaze passed away…Anyway, as heir to the company's former president, Minato naturally had to take over since he was directly related to his father. Duh! Of course he would be chosen to take over. He had been expecting it for a while, and now he was at the top thanks to his…dearly departed father. The cause of death was an unknown cancer that he had been suffering for years since he turned 60.

Not long after Kushina was finished, a beautiful baby boy was cradled in her arms lovingly. Minato looked upon his son with pride. He would become the company's next president, he just knew it. The baby surprisingly, had a head of spiky blonde hair like Minato, and had peach-colored skin like him (but no whisker-like markings on his cheeks), but they couldn't tell what color his eyes were because they were shut tightly

"Oh, what should we name him?" Kushina asked, a warm smile directed at her baby.

"I know! How about Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze!" Minato exclaimed with glee, and Kushina agreed with him immediately.

"Naruto…that's a very nice name." she grinned. "I like it!"

"So it's decided then!"

Then, the doctor, Shizune, came in to examine the baby, named Naruto, and gives him the necessary immunizations and left just as quickly to leave the happy couple with their new baby.

One week later-

They had finally gotten the results for Naruto's test, and it wasn't looking good at all. The entire week since they had returned home, Naruto had yet to open his eyes. They called his doctor to ask if she knew anything about it. Kushina may not be entirely knowledgeable when it came to medical terms, but she knew it wasn't normal that your baby hasn't opened his eyes at all since birth.

Doctor Shizune theorized that maybe Naruto will open his eyes in time, so they waited until that happened, but it never did come. The only time they knew he was awake was when Naruto started crying.

Three weeks later-

Naruto had yet to even open his eyes and Minato and Kushina were very worried, so they confronted the doctor yet again. So, she performed the necessary tests, and discovered something very serious. But how does one break bad news to the parents of a four-week old baby.

Dr. Shizune went through many scenarios in which to tell them, but she didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. One of the worse things about being a doctor was that if something bad came up in a report she had to be the one to tell the patients what went wrong, or if they'll live another week. She hated it so much that she cried her eyes out in the bathroom for thirty minutes.

When she finally calmed down and splashed her face to rid it of the tear tracks that stained her cheeks, she brought young Naruto back to his respective parents. What had surprised them was that Naruto had finally opened his eyes for the first time since he was born. Indeed, he had Minato's eyes, an ocean blue hue, but something was wrong. Baby Naruto's face was devoid of any emotions and showed no indication that he recognized these people.

When Kushina and Minato finally looked closely at their son's eyes, they noticed how there were no pupils in his blue irises, and were oddly clouded and hazy, instead of bright and shining like Minato's. Something was definitely wrong with their son, and Kushina was determined to find out what that was.

"Doctor, is Naruto okay?" Kushina asked seriously, looking deeply into the doctor's own dark eyes very intensely.

"W-well…define okay?"

"Stop joking around with us and tell us what was wrong and why our son hasn't opened his eyes for the last few weeks." she said evenly, though her tone made no room for any 'beating around the bush'.

"I'm very sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Namikaze…" she sighed in defeated sadness. "But…your son…is blind."

"W-what?" Kushina asked, crestfallen. She knew perfectly well what the word 'blind' meant, but she was currently trying to deny every inch of it. "No. No! I-it can't b-be t-true, can it?" she hesitated and stuttered nervously.

Dr. Shizune's red-rimmed eyes closed, trying very hard not to shed tears in front of them. She had spent the last half hour trying to pull herself together, and she would not allow herself to break down now. There was always later…no, that wouldn't be very characteristic for a doctor of her caliber, besides her old teacher would scold her harshly, so instead, she turned her head away from Kushina's and Minato's hopeful gazes, slowly nodded, and abruptly left the room.

Minato and Kushina both cradled their son in their arms and cried freely for how hard it will be for their son in the future. They knew that because of the turn of events, Naruto would never be able to experience the world and its beautiful colors and shapes firsthand. Minato thought because of it, Naruto would always be weak because of it. Kushina, reluctantly agreed with him. After all, how could one live without being able to see the world around him? They certainly didn't know how it felt, and suddenly shed tears of pity for their hopeless and disabled son.

Baby Naruto, through it all, had nothing to contribute to his crying parents, not even crying with them, so he just drifted off to sleep quietly in their arms.

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Next chapter: Runaway