Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters are not mine unless, in the future, I will be able to amass funds enough to conquer the entire Naruto empire…which is…nowhere near possible.

A/U Readers may find this chapter a tad bit frustrating and utterly depressing.

Chapter 1

Uchiha Speaks

'I am truly blind.' Uchiha Sasuke thought bitterly as he plodded through a field, feeling the mud beneath his feet and tripping clumsily on the holes beneath the wet grass.

It was raining, hard. That much he knew as he carried on in his now black world, 'feeling' his way to a tree towards the center of a steep hill. He knew that he was there once again like he always was when the weather turned nasty.

One hand held an umbrella, what color it was, Sasuke wasn't able to know, and the other clutched a big, clean towel against his chest.

"Naruto." He called, his eyes focused nowhere in particular. The dobe had chosen this time to mask his chakra. Whether Naruto was clueless that blind people were not able to see or that he was just plain inconsiderate, Sasuke did not want to know.

"Naru." Sasuke called more firmly as he inched closer to what he thought must be the tree trunk where Naruto would usually spend his rainy days. After a few seconds of silence, he finally let out a low hiss, his temper getting the better of him.

"Dobe, if you don't want company then just say it!" he bit out, not really knowing whether he was actually in the presence of another person or not.

"Hn." Came the reply. Sasuke could almost sense the amused glint in those blue eyes as he adjusted his position to face where the voice was coming from.

"Didn't know you could pick up Uchiha language dobe."

Sasuke whipped around when he heard Naruto chuckle in response, his voice now coming from behind. 'Since when did the dobe get to move so fast?'

"And I…" the laughter in Naruto's voice rang clear against the pitter-patter of the rain around them and Sasuke stopped to admire how two sounds can fit so well together – Naruto's voice and the rain.

"…Did not know that an Uchiha can actually talk to trees…Uchiha." Naruto continued. Sasuke flushed in embarrassment, remembering how echoes now confused him in his blind state.

"Hn."

Still with some coloring evident in his cheeks, Sasuke felt a wet finger lightly trailing a path from between his eyebrows down to the tip of his nose. It was one of the gestures that Sasuke had come to understand as 'Gotcha' whenever his irritation showed by the furrowing of his brows.

The said finger made its way to the back of the hand that held a towel where Naruto playfully traced wet swirls of water, enjoying how they made Sasuke's already pale complexion near translucent.

"And here I thought we were having a normal conversation for once." Naruto laughed at Sasuke's reply as he cocked his head and dropped his hand to his side, seeing how Sasuke's milky-black eyes seemed to contract at the loss of contact.

"Is that towel for me?"

"Hn."

"Nice to see you recovering well, teme."

Naruto laughed as a pale hand shoved the fluffy towel rigidly to his face. Newly-blind people certainly were much more thoughtful than their original seeing selves. He looked up as the pellets of rain stopped, seeing that Sasuke had moved the white-colored umbrella he'd brought with him closer to Naruto and away from himself, getting him a bit wet in the process.

"All I wanted was an apology, not penitential display." Naruto said, his voice dropping as he remembered the events from a week earlier.

Seeing the steely resolve in Sasuke's eyes to keep the rain from hitting Naruto and the umbrella on him despite getting himself wet and shivering, Naruto stopped his attempts at pushing the umbrella back to Sasuke's position and sighed.

Naruto pried the umbrella away from Sasuke's trembling fingers, pulling the shivering form closer by the hand as he encased Sasuke with the towel and sheltering them both from the rain.

"C'mon. I don't want to suffer from Sakura's temper when she finds out you got sick again because you came out here." Naruto took his hand and led them towards the village, keeping Sasuke a little behind him while making sure that Sasuke was still kept away from the rain.

"Hn."

Sasuke's morale dropped even lower, if it was at all possible, as he felt Naruto's need to be away from him radiating from him in waves. The silence was evidence of this, it was crisp, it was polite at best and it hinted at the lonely nights that Sasuke would have to spend in the Uchiha compound alone for at least a couple more days.

Or at least, that was what he hoped. If this would continue for another week…no. Sasuke shook his head, clearing his head of such thoughts. He did not need this now.

Sasuke let himself be pulled by Naruto's firm hold of his hand as he leaned his head slightly on Naruto's shoulder blades. His senses were overwhelmed with the feel of Naruto's surprisingly soft palm, his throbbing headache, his fast developing fever and the lump that's decided to lodge itself in his throat for nearly a week.

Blind, red-cheeked and hot breaths coming out in rapid, short gasps, he tripped on the cobbled stone path, feeling himself on the verge of blacking out as he felt Naruto's quick movements save him from crashing face first into the Konoha's deserted streets.

Naruto let out a growl as he pulled Sasuke upright by the sleeve of his black yukata, eyeing the flushed face and the slight shiver that Sasuke tried to disguise.

"You're sick."

Silence greeted Naruto's ears as Sasuke continued to face the ground, his pained breaths evident as Sasuke clung to his arm and gripped the black turtleneck jounin uniform for support.

He couldn't afford to keep it to himself anymore. The longer Sasuke kept this up he knew; it would get much worse. Worse than having your supposed best friend hold you at an arm's length with resentment. Why had he let it go on for one fucking week? His hold on the cloth on Naruto's chest became even tighter, his resolve never to look or sound weak and desperate going out the window.

"I'm sorry already."

Sasuke let out a shuddering breath, his voice merely a whisper as he felt the lump on his throat grow fainter and his world shut down before hearing Naruto curse about the end of the known world and the blind, Sasuke the asshole Uchiha, being sick.

A/U: Reviews and the like will be greatly appreciated. There is not much character development in this chapter, although succeeding chapters will have a lot of them and the characters here are somewhat OOC. But, that's all part of the plot people.