Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.

AN: Alright everyone so this story is actually a gift for someone. This is actually the first time I've ever done this so please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Chapter 1

With Itachi

I am going blind. I have been diagnosed to have Dry Macular Degeneration. And now here I am sitting on this uncomfortable hospital bed listening to this doctor who has the artificial tone of voice telling me about my condition. I look around at the blank white walls and clean white surfaces. The overwhelming sent of bleach fills my nose and goes straight to my head leaving a dull ache which is not helped by the droning voice of the doctor in front of me. God I wish I was elsewhere.

My whole life I've only ever thought of one thing, protect my brother, and now for the first time ever I'm afraid that I may no longer be able to continue doing that. When we still lived with my parents it was hard to tell how each day would go. Our mother was often shut off from my brother and me, she never really had the time for us, and when I was younger I didn't understand why. It was because she was sick. She didn't have any physical illness that would physically prevent her from taking care of her children, but she had what doctors called a mental illness. She was bipolar. Some days she would be this enthusiastic happy woman who everyone wanted to be around, but I only ever saw that side when we had guests over, most of the time she was severely depressed and sometimes she wouldn't even bother to get out of bed.

Those were the good days, and I know that sounds bad but when you look at what I considered the bad days you might understand. On the bad days she would get so angry she would take it out on my brother and I, though more so on me then him, which was how I wanted it. He was my baby brother and it was my job to protect him. When she got in a mood she would often lock us up in the basement or if we were lucky our rooms. She would then forget we were in there and we wouldn't be let out until our father got home.

My father was never really home but when he was my brother and I got to experience his habitual smoking. God I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. Whenever my father was at home, which wasn't often, there was a constant steam of that nasty smoke coming from my father, and he even smoked at the dinner table. My brother would often complain, and I did at first too, but the complaining was often followed by a hard smack to the face. We soon learned to just bare the smell in silence. Life was much the same day to day until the incident.

My brother had just started school this year, he was six and I was 13. It was the first year that neither one of us was left at home with our, excuse me for not being politically correct but I don't really give a fuck, but, crazy mother. We were over a third of the way though the school year when we came home to find a silent house, not necessarily uncommon but far more eerie then it had ever been in the past. I told my brother to sit at the table to start working on his homework while I went to check on our mother. What I found I will never forget.

I knocked on her bedroom door and got no answer so I gently nudged the door open and peered in to see if she was asleep on the bed, but no such luck, I did hear the sound of running water though. She must be running the bath and that's why she didn't hear us when we came in. I moved into the room and knocked on the bathroom door and still got no reply so I slowly opened the door just in time to see the pinkish colored water spill over the edge of the tub. My heart stopped at the sight of my mother's weightless, lifeless body floating in the shallow blood dyed water of the tub. It was one of the old fashioned tubs that you are meant to soak in. My mother's face looked so relaxed that for a moment I thought she had simply fallen asleep until the cold water hit my toes bringing me back to reality. The icy water made me tear my eyes from the jagged red lines on my mother's wrists to look down at my feet, the white socks I was wearing where soaking up the blood mixed water. My eyes followed the waters trail back to where my mother lay.

My body moved on what seemed to be auto pilot. I watched as my feet took me closer to my tub and my hand reaching for the faucet and turning off the flow of water. Now the only sound in the room being the solitary drips as small drops of water hitting the surface of the full tub causing ripples to disturb the now quiet surface. I couldn't help but stare at my mother serene face. I can't seem to move or think, just stare.

"Itachi," called the quiet voice of my brother. "Is mom here?" The sound of my brother voice woke me from the nightmare I'd walked into. I turned and left the room closing the door behind me. I found my brother standing at the door outside our parent's room.

"Don't go in there Sasuke," I said closing the door behind me. He just nodded before following me back to the kitchen. He went back to his homework and I called our father. I knew I had to called him first, I don't know who else I would need to contact, I mean I was 13, how was I supposed to know what to do when someone died in your house.

I went to the other room so Sasuke wouldn't over hear. The phone rang 5 times before my father's receptionist picked up the phone. "Hello you've reached Mr. Ulchiha's office, how can I help you?"

"Um this is Itachi; I need to talk to my father." There was a pause on the other end of the line before the woman told me that my father was busy. I told her it was urgent and she said I would just have to wait till my father could call me back then hung up the phone. I thought for a moment before I called my grandpa, he would know what to do.

This time the phone only rang twice before my grandmother's cheerful voice answer the phone. "Hello Grandma, can I talk to Grandpa?"

"Sure sweetheart just let me go get him." A few minutes later my Grandfather answered the phone.

"Hello kiddo, what's the surprise call for?"

"Grandpa... mom's dead." There was silence on the other end for a moment.

"You and your brother just sit tight your Grandma and I will be there before you know it, just stay away from where your mother is. We'll be right there, don't worry."

Ten minutes later our grandparents showed up and the police and ambulance shortly after that. The rest of the day passed in a blur. All I really remember is that for the next couple of weeks my brother and I stayed with my grandparents. I don't even remember seeing my father, with the exception of the funeral.

The first couple of weeks back at home were quiet. Sasuke was sad about our mother's passing but he was never really attached to her, so her death didn't have to big of impact on his life. I was just more relieved to not deal with her mood swings anymore. Our father was at home even less then before and when he was home he seemed to smoke even more which hardly seemed possible. I was pretty much left to take care of my younger brother. I cooked breakfast and supper, cleaned the house, helped Sasuke with his homework, and pretty much raised him. My senior year I finally convinced my Grandparents to take Sasuke in with them so that I could go to college without worrying that my brother was being left alone and uncared for.

For five years I had time to myself for the first time ever. College was amazing, and really some of the best years of my life. I didn't have to worry about my brother and I was free from the horrible smell of cigarette smoke and my clothes didn't smell like an ash tray any more. I made friends and could finally live a life that was my own. Those five years were the best five years of my life. Who'd have thought that four years later right after getting a great job promotion at my law firm that this would happen to me.

"Now there is no real cure for this but we do have some options. There are some laser treatments we can do to slow down the process, there is also a medication which would be injected in to the eye and there are some vitamins that I would suggest taking in order to slow the vision loss. Now we don't have to make any decisions right now, but I'm going to give you some reading material to look at so that you can make an informed decision. Now all you need to do is set up an appointment with the receptionist to schedule another appointment so we can decide how we are going to be moving forward from here." The stuffy doctor finally took a breath and snapped his folder closed. "Well that seems to be all, have a nice day Mr. Uchiha." With that he walked out of the room leaving me to find my own way out.

I made my way to the receptionist how had a smiley face button on that said, 'A smile makes the world a better place.' What a load of crap! I quickly made my appointment for two weeks from today and quickly headed for the exit.

Almost to the door I ran into someone. He fell back on the floor with an umph. "Sorry about that, I guess I didn't see you," I apologized and offered a hand to help him up.

"No worries, it's not like being knocked over will kill me or anything," the guy laughed and scratched the back of his blond head before looking up at me with a smile. And what a smile it was. Clear blue eyes shown with such freedom that it seemed nothing could hold it back. The tanned face was crinkled with smile lines and it seemed that the grin would totally take over his face. Suddenly it seemed that today wasn't actually so bad, so what if I was going blind, at least I got to see this smile. Then I thought back to the receptionist's button and I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Hey what's so funny, do I have something on my face?" The guy asked.

"No you don't have anything on your face, you just reminded me of something that I read earlier."

"Ok, well I'm Naruto... and you are?"

"I'm Itachi."

"Nice to-"

"Naruto we need to hurry up or you're going to be late for your appointment." A blond man that looked like Naruto's clone only older walked into the building with a red headed woman.

"Oh come on what's the rush it's not like I'm dying this minute."

"Naruto, that is not funny. Now wait here with your father while I get us checked in and take a seat, no need to over tax yourself." The woman said before rushing off to the check in desk.

Naruto looked like he had a retort on the tip of his lips before his dad cut him off. "Just leave it. Come on lets go find a seat somewhere so you can read your book while we wait." His father started walking away but Naruto looked back at me.

"Well it was nice bumping into you; maybe I'll see you again." He gave me another of his beautiful smiles before following after his father. Stupid button or not a smile can make the world a better place.

AN: Don't forget to review!