Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or this picture. If only I could, but I can't. ;P

"I can't see anything," was the first thing Sakura thought. Her vision was blocked by a piece of cloth. She raised her hand to try to remove it, but someone else stopped her.

"Ohayou Sakura-chan," a familiar voice drawled. Racking her mind, she realized it was Kakashi, her late mother's cousin.

"What happened? Why can't I see?" she demanded, allowing panic to enter her voice.

"...You were in an accident," he finally said, after a moment's silence.

"Did it have to do with a gang?" she asked quietly.

He nodded before remembering that she couldn't see. "Yeah. You shouldn't worry too much about it though."

"Was it Orochimaru?" Her voice tense, fists clenched. Despite him telling her not to, she pursued the topic. But she couldn't help it, anything to do with that horrid person make her furious. Even though she was in her second year of college already, Saura could still remember the man, no monster, who darkened her last years of high school.

"...He was involved," Kakashi answered with a sigh. For once, his book was no where in sight, not that she could see of course.

Sakura willed herself to calm down before asking him the question that was bugging her since she woke up. "Why can't I see?"

Kakashi sighed once again, and tried to come up with a way to break it to her gently. But he gave up and simply told her the truth, because while the truth hurts, it does less damage than a lie. "During the accident, your eyes were injured seriously. Your right eye is no longer functioning, and while your left eyes wasn't that damaged, it's going to deteriorate. But you will be able to see somewhat."

I'm blind? she sucked in a sharp breath. "So I'm blind," she stated flatly, clenching and unclenching her fists. Although she knew the truth, she still wanted to hear it from him directly.

"Yeah," he said lamely.

Sakura took a shaky breath, before opening her mouth to say something. To her surprise, she found herself unable to say a single word, and she closed it. It happened a couple more times before she croaked out, 'Where's Naruto and Sasuke?" The only response to her question was silence. Closing her eyes, she let a dry laugh escape her lips. Kakashi winced as her laugh eventually turned into a choked out sob. After graduation, the two of them disappeared. What hurt the most was that the three of them were close childhood friends, siblings by everything but blood. After all they have been through, you would have thought that they would have left her a note or something. If they didn't even contact her after they left, why would they now? She closed her eyes, feeling a wave of emotions crashing through her. Rage, anger, sadness, frustration, hatred, grief, bitterness, but most of all, sorrow. The emptiness, the hole in her heart when they left, never fully healed. The part of her that remained empty, all because of their selfish decision. Her stomach felt like there were butterflies in them, flying around creating a storm, causing her to feel nauseous. A soft whimper escaped from her.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi said quietly, trying to comfort his cousin.

"No," she shook her head, "it's fine." Her voice was thick with emotions. "I'm sorry, I want to be alone," she choked out.

He looked at her sadly, but complied to her requests. Gently, he let the door close with a soft click!. Even from behind the door, he could hear the wrangled sobs that Sakura was trying to hold back.

Sakura could feel the tears silently stream down her face. Why? she thought, Why did it have to be me? She curled up, her face resting on her knees, and soobed. All of the pent up frustrations and pain led to this. She shuddered as she tried to stop her crying. I'm tired of crying, for Naruto, for Sasuke, for my parents, for me. Everything I do, I cry. In the end, it does nothing. Just this last time, I'll be weak, just the one time. After this...I'll live a life that I can be proud of. Mom, Dad, Naruto, sasuke, just you watch, I'll be someone who you will be proud of. And she did.

Several Months Later:

Though as difficult as it was at first, Sakura eventually got used to being blind. After a whole bunch of tripping and bumping into people and inanimate objects. (Kakashi likes to point out that technically she's only half-blind.) Either way, she was going to go completely blind in a couple of years, so the pinkette better get used to a life of no vision as soon as she can. The students didn't treat her any different. And you must be wondering how. Well the truth was pretty simple. They didn't know she was blind. Sakura wore non-prescription, colored contacts. Plus, she asked her professors to not treat her any different. So to the rest of the student body treated her the same, the weird pink hair girl that was always in the Top 5. She didn't let her disability get in the way of her studies. Sakra already loved to learn, her brain soaking up information like a sponge. Usually, she was in the top three, but her ranking dropped after that. Well, she was doing her best to regain the spot back. Here at college, she was by herself. Sakura hadn't talked to most of the old gang since graduation. She and Shikamaru were the only ones who attended Konoha University, which wasn't really that surprising. The others weren't...the sharpest knife in the shed. Even with that, she doesn't run into him much, as their majors were completely different. Hers was medical, and his was engineering. The rare occurrence that they do see each other, they would sometimes grab a coffee or dinner, but their relationship was purely platonic, bordering brother-sister. So, Sakura had one friend in her school. Well, for now anyways. That would all change soon.

She was in her advance calculus class. They were all required to take calculus, she just chose to take it in her second year. The class was available for all students, but since it was advance, most were third or fourth years. "Hey," Shikamaru muttered, as he pulled out a chair next to her.

"Hi," she mumbled, flashing a small smile. With her limited vision, she could see the brown, spiky blob that was his hair and some details, but barely. Sakura saw his gaze flicker to where a blonde was sitting by herself. She could see a scowl on her face, and her hair was put up into 4 pigtails. "Is that your crush?" Subaku no Temari she thought silently. A smirk crept up onto her face. Shikamaru tore his gaze away from Temari.

"No," he answered sharply.

A mischievous sparkle gleamed in her eyes. "Then you wouldn't mind if I do this," she could sense his glare, but she ignored him as she strode up to Temari. "Hi Subaku-san, you're in my English class, right?"

The said girl scowled as she looked up. Her frown softened as she recognized Sakura. "Yeah, just call me Temari. Subaku-san makes me sound old. What do you need?"

"My friend and I were wondering if you would like to sit with us," she answered with a gentle smile.

"Your friend?" Temari questioned, raising her eyebrow. Sakura nodded and pointed to where Shikamaru was sitting, staring at them with his frown plastered on his face. For once, he was wide awake and not sound asleep in class. Temari smirked, "Sure, why not." She followed the pinkette to where the lazy ass was sitting. "What's up, crybaby?"

Shikamaru groaned and buried his head in his arms. Despite his moaning and groaning, he could feels the corners of his mouth lift up into a smile. Apparently so could she, as her smirk grew wider. He glared at her, but scooted over, giving her a silent message. She slipped into the seat next to him, that wasn't occupied by anyone. Sakura watched the two of them banter with a growing smile. Silently, she slipped into her seat and waited for class to start.

"Welcome to the first class of the semester." Kurenai-sensei greeted the class. "Starting off we're going to do a project." And cue the groans. Kurenair-sensei chuckled, clapping her hands to grab their attention. "Unfortunately, you will not be able to choose your own partner, but you will next time." The ebony-haired woman smiled and began to call out the names of the partners. Sakura tuned her out until she heard her name. "Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Shisui."

Uchiha Shisui? she frowned. Sakura recalled Sasuke once complaining about some named Ita-Itaku? and was it Shisui? Just her luck, she had to work with more Uchihas. The world seemed to love right now, doesn't it? Glancing to the side, her left eye caught Temari and Shikamaru working together. The pinkette was about to comment when someone interrupted her.

"Hey Sakura-chan," a stranger's voice said, cheerfully. Startled, Sakura looked up. He had short black hair and charcoal eyes that were full of mischief. He definitely had the looks of an Uchiha but was by far, way too hyper to be one. Did the cold and aloof personality of an Uchiha skip him? Wait, did he just call me Sakura-chan? She raised a pink eyebrow, a guy she had met just now, already calling her by her first name?

"Uchiha-san, right?" she asked carefully. He reminded her a lot of Naruto.

"Just call me Shisui," he grinned, pulling a chair over next to her. Shisui sat the improper way, his chin resting on the back of the chair. His legs were on either side of his seat, straddling it. Sakura's heart wrenched painfully. He was like a Naruto who looked like Sasuke...The gods were punishing her, weren't they?

"So, Uchiha-san," she said, but before she could say anything else, Shisui pouted.

"I said that you could call me Shisui," he whined. Slowly, she shook her head in disagreement.

"As I was saying Uchiha-san, we can split our work in half, and put it together in class," Sakura explained taking out her binder to write it down.

"Aren't we supposed to work together?" Shisui asked, his eyebrows furrowed. "Let me go ask Kurenai-sensei," as he got up to leave, Sakura stopped him.

"Alright! I'll work together with you," she said quietly. The last thing she wanted was for her teacher to get angry at her for not cooperating with her partner. She played with her fingers, her head faced down, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Sakura-chan?" Shisui asked, his voice full of concern.

"Sorry," she muttered, rubbing her right eye. It had started to ache once again. "What did you say?"

"Are you okay Sakura-chan/" he frowned, "Maybe you should go to the nurse-"

"No!" she shouted, quickly getting on her feet. Her eyes widened, "Sorry, I'm fine really." Sakura glanced around, and was relieved that no one in the class noticed her sudden outburst, save for the concerned looks that Shikamaru, Temari, and Kurenai-sensei gave her.

"If you say so," Shisui said reluctantly. Although he agreed to her lie, he did not quite believe it. "About the project…" Sakura tried her best to focus to what he was saying, she really did. Sakura had nothing against him but her aching eye gave her a major headache and everything he said sounded like he was talking underwater.

"We can meet up after school at my place to work on this later," his voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Oh yeah, sure," she mumbled, not quite hearing what he said, but agreeing to it nonetheless. The two of them were silent, but she could feel his stare on her. "What?" she snapped in annoyance, finally get fed up with it. Normally she wouldn't have been this rude, but with her aching eye and pounding headache, you couldn't have blamed her for being a bit snappish.

"Sorry," he blinked, "But I kinda need your number so I can contact you about where to meet up." He rubbed his head sheepishly, a grin on his face in true Naruto style.

Sakura was quiet, lost in nostalgic memories of when Naruto used to do that. Guilt seeped in her when she realized he wasn't trying to be rude on purpose. Muttering an apology, she pulled out her phone. Sakura stared at it stupidly, "Uh…"

"What's wrong?" Shisui asked.

"I…don't quite know what to do," she admitted sheepishly.

Shisui stared at her before erupting into laughter, "S-sorry," he choked out as he wiped his tears away. "I don't mean to offend you or anything, it's just that my cousin is also like that," his grin grew mischievous, "Maybe you guys should go grab dinner sometime."

Sakura looked at him in disbelief, "Uchiha-san, are you trying to set me up with your cousin? Whom, I have never met?" She just met the guy, and already he was trying to set her up on a blind date?

"I'll take that as a no, then. He'll be so sad, no girl has ever rejected him before," he grinned. Shisui glanced at the clock, "Here, I'll type it in," he offered, grabbing the device out of her hand and inputting his number before she could answer.

Sakura mockingly glared at him, and accepted it. "Thanks." The bell rang and she gathered her stuff and walked out the door. Behind her, Temari and Shikamaru followed, bickering like an old married couple.

"Shisui," Itachi's calm voice interrupted whatever crazy thoughts that were running through his cousin's head.

"Ita-chan!" he grinned, "I found the perfect girl for you!"

Itachi merely raised an amused eyebrow at him, far too used to his cousin's antics. "Oh really?"

If possible, Shisui's grin grew broader. "Yep!" he cheered as he and Itachi walked out to their next class. Itachi only spared him a glance, but thought nothing of it, following his cousin. If only he knew what changes the girl his cousin talked about would bring.

Author's Note:ItaSaku, while it's considered a crack couple, I've always adored the two of them. I don't know, the two of them just click, you know? I just can't imagine Sakura with Sasuke (no offense to any Sasuke or SasuSaku lovers) because well, he needs to get his act together before he can love anyone. He's also another thing the two of them have in common. They sacrificed so much for him, and yet he rejected them, trying to kill both of them on numerous occasions. He just...Well, the story is about Itachi-sama and Sakura not him, but he and Naruto will make an appearance in later chapter. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!

KiraKiraSempai~!