So I knew when I posted the epilogue that it would be controversial. The fact remains that if I hadn't posted that very short epilogue it would have been abandoned. The story is not done, but that part is. There was no where for that plot to go. I felt about a week after I posted it that it should have been the last chapter in that story. But I also knew there would be a sequel but starting a new job with conferences every weekend time got away from me. But I hope you will forgive me on the basis that I have a short story 3-5 chapters to follow it up.

So enjoy the sequel.

The Boy

The world was dark, but it was loud.

Very loud. Rui could hear every small animal, every swish of the wind on the leaves. In this dark world he only had Kieko, his father who taught him how to recognize the different sounds. How to walk without a stick, how to fight relying solely on his ears where Kieko explained that most people had their eyes. But Rui had no eyes. Just scars, someone had stolen his eyes. He didn't who, neither did Kieko. Then in his ninth year they were attacked. Then Rui was on his own, no Kieko to help him negotiate the dark world that surrounded, he walked aimless each day and slept under hedges safe each night until someone attacked him, with sticks. A man and two boys. They had started by throwing stones at him and when he had become out of breathe and sluggish they had hit him hard enough to knock him.

When he came too, he was in a room that smelt like nothing he had ever smelled before. It was a sour smell, strong enough to hurt his nose, he could hear someone talking in the hall, three voices actually. Two women, one strong voiced, another stuttering, was she crying? Then a man whose voice also shook. He tried to hear pasted them, he could hear someone in the room breathing quietly. Slow deep breathes. They were mediatating.

His hands reached up to touch a bandage on head, over the scars where his eyes would be. His face felt different. Before he could touch the bandages covering the scars, he heard the meditating person move, and institutively reached out his hands to grab the person. To defend himself.

"Don't touch them." A gravelly voice advised "You are in Konoha. What do you remember?"

Uncertain, Rui lay his hands in his lap.

"Someone hit me on my head with a wooden stick, they pelted me rocks. Why can't I touch my face?"

The man ignored the question, Rui could sense him to his left, hovering, he had to be a ninja, his movements almost silent and the man didn't flinch.

"One of my best men brought you in. We've been looking for you for ten years boy,"

"Looking for me?" He asked, turning his head towards the voice, as the door let out a grinding noise as it opened. He heard the crying man remark to someone called Naruto that he needed to get that door fixed it had swollen in Konoha's damp climate. He could head the women snuffling as she followed the crying man to his right side, standing only half a foot away from his bed, like they were scared of a blind man in a hospital bed.

"Yes, looking for you, do you have a name boy?" asked the gravelly voice again, and Rui noticed yet another person, standing at the foot of his bed, there was a clatter as they picked up something, the sound of metal hitting wood.

"Rui." He answered, hesitantly "my father called me Rui," He heard the man gasp, and something dropped to the floor with a loud thump. Sounds of sobbing filled the air in the room as the women cried, he heard the man kneel down, and relized that's he had dropped to her knees as the man with the gravelly voice continued as though nothing had happened.

"Rui huh? I am Naruto the Hokage here in Konoha. Do you know what that means?" Rui nodded, and the man, Naruto, continued

"You said your father gave you that name, can you tell me about him?"

"he found me as a baby in the earth country. He said he thought I was a kitten my cry was so weak, he drip fed me goats milk then raised me as his own. Father thought someone stole my eyes and abandoned me, but he knew no one with eye based jutsu were missing a member so he just kept me. He loved me very much, Sir,"

"What was his name?"

"Kieko," He could still hear the sobbing couple to his left, and a horrible thought occurred to him what if they were the couple who his father hadn't found. He had made some inquiries over the years but everyone just assumed he had been abandoned because of his facial deformity. His father had loved so much he had wanted to believe it was true.

A women cleared her throat the person at the end of bed, and he felt the man next to him pull back, as foot steps approached the door, a light switch clicked, on or off he couldn't tell you. Then he heards the rustle of curtains closing before the footsteps came to him.

"Rui I am Uzumaki Sakura, I have been looking after you while you have been in Konoha General. I am going to check you over using my medical ninjutsu now is that okay?" Rui nodded, as he felt her jutsu sink into his skin, where he eyes should be, and he felt movement where previously there had been none. He heard her mumur to the others in the room that everything appeared to be fine, all hooked up, but could Hinata double check. The sobbing women took a loud calming breath and then say an odd word that started with B. She too said it was fine, and Sakura let out a satisfied sigh before he felt her turn back to him.

"Rui, an elder of the Hyuuga clan here in Konoha donated his eyes to you. I know this must be a shock, please understand that the eyes were not given under duress and that while the man who gave them to you was in his thirties they are physically fine. All the pathways are connected so with you permission I would like to remove the bandaging now," Rui for the first time in his short life could not believe his ears. He nodded not trusting his voice, then he felt Sakura reach up to unravel the bandages. As they fell from his face he could see for the first time, the color of his eyelids as Sakura explained that the color he should be able to see was red, and told him to take his time. There was a good chance it would be overwhelming at first. He waited until he adjusted to this strange new color then he reached a hand up to feel the back of the eyes. He could see the imprint of his finger against the lid. He grasped, trying it on the other eye, same thing, then slowly opened them. The room was dark with shapes moving in it.

"We thought it would be best to keep it dark at first," Naruto said to his left, "Sakura says the light might burn your eyes since its been awhile since they used, and you aren't used to having them yet,"

He had no reply to this so instead he reached out his hands to see them for the first time, his eyes adjusting to the dark enough to make out forms, then he looked at Naruto,

"What color is your hair?" He asked, and he heard the man chuckle, "It's yellow, but my kids both have red hair like yours," Rui nodded, his father had explained that he had red hair that never seemed to lie flat and stood out shockingly against his pale skin. He looked to his right, Sakura's hair was light but stood out in the dark of the room.

"Mine is pink," Rui nodded not trusting his voice as he felt something wet leak from his new eyes. He knew what this was, these were tears, Kieko had cried sometimes, he knew the feeling of tears.

He had eyes.