It was a calm and quiet night. Nothing out of the normal until a thunderous pound echoed through out a small house located a top of Hokage mountain. A small boy just under five foot stomped his feet through the house. Angry. He was angry. That was the mood he was showing, but in reality it was something much more tragic.
This boy dashed out to the back porch, and plopped down sitting on the edge. He pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face into his lap. The black hair that was streaked with various strands of silver fell over his arms. By the way his body was shaking and quivering, it was easy to tell that the child was crying. A sniffle here and moan there. He wasn't hiding it. He hated crying. It showed weakness, but that's exactly how he felt right now. Weak. Powerless. Dependent.
"Wuff!" It was the yip of a small dog. It broke the boy's self destructive train of thought causing him to look up. The dog took advantage of the boy's exposed face and began assaulting it with a barrage of licks. A frown couldn't stay on his face for long until he started laughing and giggling. "Enough enough..." he said scratching and petting the dog lovingly. The dog plopped into a seated position and began panting, tail going crazy wanting nothing more than for his owner to start playing with him.
"Let me tell you a story,
I am an Uchiha, but that's just because of who my father is. What's really interesting, but highly ironic, I'm blind. How does this work out? I have the blood of a fearsome and powerful clan flowing through me. Their history, their legacy, their power, and I'm not sure if I will ever be able to fully utilize this power. For a clan whose gift was exceptional eyesight, it's as if some greater force is playing a cruel trick on me making me blind. Unfortunately, being blind didn't seem to enhance any of my other senses. Compared to other kids my age, the only thing I have up on this is a slightly better sense of smell. Maybe they could use me as a ninja to smell out the enemy! What a joke, they have ninja dogs for that. I can't compete with the up and coming shinobi of my age, and I'm being out shined by a dog. How humiliating is that?
So. Me saying "I am an Uchiha" is really just a formality. I am only an Uchiha by blood and relations. Apparently my father, who I have learned was named Itachi, drank a little to much sake one night and met my mother. A simple 'hit it and quit it' and my mother was pregnant with me. By the time she found out Itachi was already long gone. I'm the son he never knew existed. I find it funny that the Uchiha clan has this infamy about them. Power hungry, murderers, the greatest fighters to exist, and all it takes is one night to pass along immeasurable power. Maybe that's why I was born blind. I was given too much power at an early stage in my development in fried my brain and wiped out my sight, or more of what I believe, some cruel joke of a higher being making sure the Uchiha power stays in check. It's kind of like something knew what my father did, and didn't want a life time of planning to go to waste because of a one night mistake. However it happened, I am a 'genin' and can't see a thing. Part of that is actually a lie. I'm not really a Genin. My friends are. They passed through the academy and have moved on to training, yet here I am stuck with my mother feeling helpless as ever. I hide my surname from everyone because let's face it, if I told someone that I was the son of the great Itachi Uchiha they would laugh at me, ridicule me, or spit in my face. Something. They wouldn't believe me. I might disgrace my father's name even worse than I already am by just being blind."
Rei laughed and wiped at his eyes. He could feel the tears beginning to build up and sting at his eyes begging for a watery escape. He stood up in the brisk night talking to his little pet dog. His mother got it for him as a seeing eye dog, but he never saw the dog as being that. No instead he saw him more as a confident. Someone he could talk to and let it all out and be sure that he wouldn't tell anyone else. The dog yawned and set its head in Rei's lap. Sniffing and giving a slight giggle Rei forced a shaky smile and began petting the dog. He sat out on the back of his house's porch and stared out into the distance never getting to fully appreciate the greatness of the view the property had. It was off the side of the Hokage cliff and over looked the entire village. This time of night all the lights would come on and just make the whole city look so much better than it does during the day. Being not too far from bars and other restaurants it wasn't uncommon to hear a couple drunken lullabies or two. It's funny because his mother swears up and down that she can never hear them, but he knows what he hears cause his dog usually gets a little more active when the singing starts.
"Rei." A womanly voice called from inside the house. It was his mother. A very caring woman, but he couldn't tell you what she looked like. All he knew was she took great care of him with his 'condition' and all.
"Yes mother?" he responded.
"You have a visitor."
A visitor? Who would come all the way up here just to see him? It's not like he didn't have any friends or anything. He just wasn't expecting someone tonight. Confusion filled the boys face and he looked towards the dog tilting his head just as the dog would but laughed it off turned to head inside. He was curious. Who would come out this far?
The blind boy found out very quickly. The visitor wasn't the quietest person Rei knew, and easily made his presence known. The door shut behind the new comer and Rei could hear a soft thud on the floor followed by a jingling of a bell. It was an animal of some sort and just took off down the hall proceeded by a storm of barks.
"Heya Rei!" the red headed child yelled happily and as energetic as ever. If there was one kid that respected Rei more than any other in the world it was Shimo. Well Shimo and his little pet Kiki who usually resided somewhere within Shimo's clothing. Whenever Shimo would come over Kiki would jump out and run off to go play with Rei's dog. That little Sasu fox always likes to aggravate the poor dog, but is smart enough to never get caught. Today was no exception and Rei figured that was what dashed through the halls. Shimo gratefully thanked Rei's mother for letting him in the house with a bow and a huge wide smile revealing all his white teeth and widening his sparkling purple eyes. The things they say about red heads being a bit hyper active, crazy, loud...Shimo was all this and then some. Most times it was a challenge getting him to just shut up for more than a minute. Even then that was a mile marker.
"So why were you not at school today?" Shimo asked a little concerned stepping foot in the door. The moment Shimo mentioned this his mother shot a dirty glare to Rei, who must have felt it because a visible chill ran through the blind child. "Ooh" Shimo bit his lip and glanced to the side and then back to Rei's mom and then back to Rei, "Did I say school? I meant...Er..." he was fumbling over his words, "I meant I missed you at recess." he said with a childish laugh trying hard to cover up ratting out his most dearest friend. It was truly an accident. Sometimes Shimo had to admit he had a hard time shutting his own mouth. Rei's mom, of course wasn't buying this. The damage was done and she walked away. Shimo knew what that meant, Rei was going to get in a bit of trouble later and that thought brought and embarrassed and ashamed red tint to the boy's cheeks. It was almost as red as his hair, and it was times like this that the boy was glad Rei was blind and unable to see that. It wasn't long though before Shimo's innocent smile returned to his face. "So where were you?" he asked again in a slightly hushed voice. Rei had turned his head and began to walk upstairs. "Oh do not tell me you are still on about that!" He called after Rei, but he didn't get an answer. Shimo caught a glance of Rei's mother peeking her head around the corner to look at him with a raised eye brow. "Uh uh..." he stuttered not knowing what to say, smiled scratched the back of his head and ran up the steps to chase after Rei.
When he got to the top of the stairs he saw that Rei's door was already shut. A rare but worrisome frown made its way onto Shimo's face and he slid the door opening, stepping inside silently, and shutting the door behind him with the same amount of care. There Rei was sitting on his bed staring blankly at the floor in front of him. Shimo stood silently, not knowing what to say. He knew what was going through Rei's head. How could he not. Shimo was the only non animal person that Rei told his situation to. To this day, Shimo regrets that small chuckle he made at the end of the story. Rei took offensively where as Shimo laughed along the lines of 'Is that all? I thought you were upset about something serious.' it took a bit of persuading to get Rei to believe him that his laugh was not meant to be condescending. "Rei." Shimo began but stopped not knowing how to rightfully continue, "You know I have faith in you becoming a shinobi. This condition, it is just readying you for things to come." Rei didn't move, he didn't make a sound. "You know I understand this more than any one else. You know who my father is, and you know my situation." Still the blind child did not move, nor acknowledge that Shimo was talking. Shimo knew though, that this was sinking in. He couldn't explain it, just knew the wheels were turning.
Shimo sighed and walked over to Rei and plopped down on the bed next to him. "Look, I want to show you something." The choice of words he had made Rei furrow a brow and shoot a dirty look in his general direction. Shimo seemed to think it was funny and laughed like he always does about anything. He jab Rei gently with his elbow to witch Rei couldn't help but laugh and smile a bit. "There you see? Everything will be okay." he said laughing again. "Here." He reached into the sleeve of his obnoxiously over sized shirt and pulled out a blue cloth with a small rectangular slab of metal in the center. Engraved on the metal was a spiraling leaf. The mark of Konoha. Shimo forced it into Rei's hands and watched as the Uchiha played with the head band for a short bit of time before he saw the pale eyes grow wide and his jaw drop a little.
"Is this?" Rei asked in slight disbelief
"It is." Shimo replied with a proud smile and light laugh. He took the head band back and tied it to his head. He jumped to his feet and struck a kung fu pose. "So how does it look?"
Rei raised a brow and scrunched up his lips like he was upset, but then lost an internal fight and laughed a bit. "You look awesome!" To which the two children laughed.
Shimo smiled and undid the head band and tied it around his waist like a belt. He walked over to the window and admired himself in the opaque reflection. He grinned widely and placed his fists on his hips in a super hero like pose. "I think I kind of like it right here." Shimo turned back to face Rei. "How about you and I go talk to sensei tomorrow and see if he will let you make up the test. I know you can do it. I have confidence enough for the both of us that you will succeed." To which Rei smiled and nodded.