[A/N] This is a new story, and as it stands it can go either way, as a yaoi or straight and still work out beautifully. However that is not up to me, it is up to you. There's a poll on my profile where you can go vote as to which you want. The outcome of the story will be ultimately the same, but the interactions and friendships will be majorly different.
Chapter One: Introductions
"You never told me how long I was going to be staying here, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto complained as he moved his boxes of few belongings into his new house of residence. Iruka had come along to help him with the move, and to also introduce him to the person he would be staying with.
"That's because I don't know, Naruto," Iruka grunted as he set a particularly heavy box down. "The date was set indefinitely."
"Ehhh, that's lame," Naruto whined as he also set down a box, the last one they were moving in.
"You shouldn't be complaining about it. You're not living in an apartment anymore, and living here free of charge. That doesn't exactly happen to every therapist-in-training." Iruka stated rather matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, yeah, I got that already!" Naruto said as he stretched and looked about the room.
It was fairly big for a bedroom, rather Japanese-oriented with sliding doors, and a futon folded up neatly in a corner away from all the brown boxes scattered every which way. The room had two drawers set up in opposite corners, and a television set in the middle of the left wall set on the floor.
"Didn't even know houses like this existed anymore," Naruto noted to no one in particular.
"Of course they do, but this is just one of the older homes in this area, and was never knocked down for reconstruction like what's being done to most of the houses these days. The owner of it now wants it to stay this way, because it's what's most familiar to him." Iruka said to catch Naruto up on the owner's history.
"Because he's blind right?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah," Iruka said as he stood from his kneeling position on the floor where he was opening the brown box he was carrying with a knife. "It's hard enough that he had to learn to do everything over again from going blind, but also having to re-memorize the place where he lives would have been too much stress on the mind. That's why he's preferred people come to him than the other way around. He feels more secure." Iruka handed the knife to Naruto and motioned for him to open his box.
"So, where is he? I haven't seen this Sasuke guy since we came here!" Naruto said as he took the knife from Iruka and began opening his own box and taking out its contents.
"I believe he's in a room somewhere in the back of the house. I think that's where he said he would be, anyways." Iruka said in thought as he tried to remember what he had been told a few days ago. "He said we could go see him once you were settled and comfortable."
"Did he really say that, Iruka-sensei? Cause this person doesn't exactly feel like the warm type to me," Naruto questioned. He began putting some of his clothes from the boxes in his drawers.
Iruka shrugged. "Well, something like that. But anyways, you need to be careful with him, Naruto. There's a reason why he's the way he is, and it's a very sensitive subject with him."
"Yeah, I got it. 'Approach every situation with caution.' But I don't get it, why have me instead of someone more experienced, if it's something so sensitive?"
Iruka motioned for Naruto to come sit with him on the floor as he explained more. He opened the messenger bag he'd brought along with him and handed Naruto Sasuke's file. It said 'Patient 10037' on the extended label. "That's because professionals have tried to help him before, but it didn't work. If anything it only made him worse. So now we decided to try someone more on his level, kind of on a more casual level, than a professional and patient relationship. That's why you're living with him, and also to help him around the house. He's had caretakers before, but he's driven them all mad." Iruka paused here so Naruto had a chance to open and examine the file.
"Driven them mad? What, you mean his insanity is contagious?" Naruto asked as he studied the picture that was clipped to the papers inside. Though the teen was only eighteen, as given by his birth date, it looked like he had taken a trip to hell and back. His eyes were deep black and clouded over, as if he had never seen the light before in his whole life. His hair, that reached just a bit above his shoulders, matched the color of his eyes. His face had a sunken quality to it, obtained through years of solitude, like this person would never be happy again.
"Not likely, Naruto. I mean he usually drove them out of the house with his own insanity, screaming in the middle of the night, lashing out in bouts of rage for no reason, and being a danger to those around while he's in one of his less-than-pleasant moods. They simply couldn't handle it, they said." Iruka explained as Naruto continued to study the file.
According to his papers, the patients name was Sasuke Uchiha. He had suffered severe mental trauma about eleven years back, and because of it lost his sight. He was admitted to a mental hospital where he underwent 24-hour surveillance and heavy mental-rehabilitation to try and recover his sight. However every method to date had failed. This they believe it was due to the patients unwillingness to want to recover his sight, and more or less refused to participate. The hospital was forced to let him go after he passed a mental test, saying he was technically well enough to be admitted back into the public. Since then he hasn't left his house, preferring to be home-schooled than to return to a public one for the blind. Many psychiatrists visited the house to help rehabilitate Sasuke, but they were all unsuccessful. They thought psychotherapy would work the best with his case, since he had been mentally and physically changed due to the event. And so now they're trying to introduce a more permanent second party to him, to see if a change in environment and people interactions would get him to open up and fix what's wrong.
"Whoa, that's heavy man," Naruto sighed as he skimmed through the more important parts of Sasuke's detailed papers.
"Sasuke isn't necessarily all for this, but after he went back to the hospital for a mandatory mental evaluation last month they found he had slipped below what was acceptable for him to be in the public and around people. The doctors said that he either be re-admitted back into the hospital, or have a therapist or psychiatrist with him at his house every day for at least four hours. He settled on this arrangement." Iruka finished explaining to Naruto as the boy stared at the picture, lost in thought.
"So," he started slowly, getting his thoughts together, "the hospital sent me because they thought I was more age appropriate?"
"That's the idea. Thought it would help him relax if there weren't intimidating adults around him all the time."
"I guess," Naruto said, a bit unsure about the whole arrangement. He handed the folder back to Iruka, but he waved it away.
"You keep that to put all your notes on him in, then turn it into the hospital at the end of every week. Preferably on Saturday they said, around morning. They said this could take weeks, months, or years, but since you were the one ready enough for just about any length of time, they appointed you. Once again, the date is indefinite. It all depends on how fast Sasuke recovers." Iruka sighed. "I just hope you can help."
"Don't worry, Iruka-sensei! I'll do my best! He'll be better in no time!" Naruto exclaimed as he stood up and went to go put the file on his patient away. "Okay! So can we go meet him now?"
"That's probably okay, since he knows we would be coming today," Iruka said as he also stood up. He walked to the door and Naruto followed behind.
"But man, this house is enormous! How can a blind person get around without getting lost?" Naruto said as they walked down the maze of hallways and turns.
"Sasuke has lived in this house since he was born. He was able to memorize his way around before he had went blind, so it wouldn't have been too much more difficult as to moving into a new place all together. It was the day-to-day things that became a hassle. Things like fixing himself food, or taking showers. Those were all things the hospital had showed him how to cope with, and why he was appointed so many caretakers despite their fail-streak."
They had finally stopped in front of a door that had appeared to be at the very back of the house in a corner. A rather large corner. Iruka knocked twice on the door, and after a moments pause they heard someone say "come in."
Iruka pushed the sliding door aside and they both stepped in.
The lights were off in the room, and the windows were covered in dark curtains that stopped any light from sneaking in.
"What the heck? Where are the lights in this place," Naruto grumbled as he searched the wall near him for a switch. In finding it he flicked it on and turned back to look out into the room.
In the middle on the floor was where they found their person. Sasuke was sitting on his futon with his back turned to them. He was wearing what seemed to be pajamas, complete with a dark long-sleeved shirt and long dark pants.
Naruto and Iruka stood there by the door awkwardly, waiting for someone make the first move as they studied the back of their patient and the room they were in. It was very neat, but only carried the simple necessities for daily living. Then again it would have been weird to see anything else when the person living in the room was blind. There wasn't really much point for decorations he couldn't see.
"Sooooo," Naruto tried to begin conversation. Sasuke's head turned slightly to his voice in recognition of their presence. Naruto saw this and took it as a sign to continue. "Uh, hi. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'll be the one staying with you for a while. Nice to meet ya!"
Sasuke didn't respond, only turned his head back the fraction he had moved it in the beginning.
"I'm Iruka Umino from the hospital, we talked earlier this week? I'm just here to make sure everything was okay and help Naruto move in. He'll need a few more days to become situated and then he'll be ready to start some sessions with you." Iruka also tried to start conversation this way, but received even less of a response than Naruto did. After a few more moments of silence Naruto found he couldn't take it anymore.
"Hey come on man, at least say something!" Naruto said as he walked further into the room and around Sasuke so he could fully see his face, and plopped down right in front of him.
From this angle Naruto could study Sasuke better, which would hold far better results than a picture. Just like the picture though, his eyes were still that cold clouded-over black that held the depth of black holes. They weren't focused on anything in particular, naturally because they lacked the ability to do such a thing. His face still held that sunken look to it.
Sasuke had a frown on his face, as he rather disapproved of the sudden intrusion of his personal space. This Naruto Uzumaki person was rather rude, he thought. It wouldn't be long before he was gone.
There was another long pause. Sasuke closed his eyes, almost as if in thought, then opened them again. He held his hand out to where he deemed Naruto would be sitting. At Naruto's confused look Iruka began to explain.
"Since Sasuke can't see he uses his hands to understand how people look. By doing this he can get a pretty good idea of how you look." He nodded towards Sasuke, encouraging Naruto to let him do it.
After understanding dawned on Naruto he scooted forward so he was within reaching distance of Sasuke's hands. He took Sasuke's hand and brought it up to his face so Sasuke could examine it.
He started at his left cheek, then made his way down to Naruto's chin, then back up his nose, traced over his eyes, eyebrows, forehead, and finally the right side of his face. The whole time this was happening Sasuke had his eyes closed, as if trying to paint a picture in his mind of what he was feeling. Once satisfied that he had it right he let his hand fall back into his lap and opened his eyes, however he still showed no interest in speaking to either of them.
"Hey so, do you usually just stay in this room, or what?" Naruto asked to try to get to know Sasuke somewhat. After once again receiving no response Naruto started to get annoyed. "Hey! Helloooooo? Can you speak? Nobody told me you were a mute, too," he said as he got in Sasuke's face even more.
The teen twitched. He could feel Naruto getting closer to him with every word he spoke, which was far too loud for his liking. Why did they have to send the most annoying person they could find? Surely this person wasn't a real-
Sasuke was cut off from his thought when he felt a finger connect with the middle of his forehead, prodding him over and over again. Without even thinking about it, he reached out and grabbed it to stop it from its incessant poking.
This surprised Naruto, much to Sasuke's amusement, but he was still very much annoyed with him feeling he could just touch Sasuke so casually. He began to bend the finger backwards, to emphasize that he didn't like being touched.
"Ow ow ow ow owwww! Okay okay I got it!" Naruto said as he tried to squirm out of Sasuke's grasp.
After he felt he had proven his point Sasuke let go, allowing Naruto to finally take a safe distance away from him, just outside of his current reach.
"Ah, I probably should have warned you, he doesn't really do well with strangers, much less them touching him," Iruka said quietly from the entrance where he still stood.
"Gee, ya think?" Naruto half-yelled at Iruka. "Fine then, I'll just leave you alone in here to be depressed forever, since you seem to love it so much!" Naruto practically stomped back to the entrance where Iruka was waiting, with a sympathetic look, almost as if to say 'this isn't going to be easy, but I wish you luck.'
Had Naruto been watching Sasuke when he said those words he might have seen him flinch and cringe, and get ready to say something. However, the fact that he had missed his chance was known when the lights to his room were turned off and Iruka made his polite good-bye and Naruto just said "Hmph!" and stomped down the hall. His door was slid shut, and once again he was left alone in the darkness.
"Naruto, I don't think I need to remind you that you can't say things like that to him! That's a very sensitive subject!" Iruka chastised as they made their way back to Naruto's room.
"Yeah, whatever! He's just a stuck-up kid!" Naruto huffed in defiance.
"Who's the kid now?" Iruka sighed. "Anyways, I'll have to be getting back to work in a little bit, so I'm going to have to leave you here." Iruka said as they made it back to Naruto's room and he picked up his messenger bag. "Try to be polite with him, and get on his good side. Remember, you're going to be living with him, and his therapist. It wouldn't help any if you're not at least on speaking terms," Iruka almost pleaded with Naruto.
"Yeah I got it, Sorry Iruka-sensei, I'll try harder next time," Naruto said almost as if it pained him to apologize.
Iruka just smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair. "I'll come by later to see how you're doing. After work." And with that he left.
Left to his thoughts Naruto let it travel back to Sasuke's file. This was going to be harder than he thought...