AN: Yes, I know that the first chapter was crap. It'll be better, though. I knew but didn't know how to start the story, so I put in an informer, then I thought, wow…I kinda like this person. So then came Ryu. Oh, I spelled gouge wrong…I spelled it gorge. Sorry for people who might be looking at that and thinking of me as a stupid person. I don't blame ya. Oh, and if water Javel is wrong, tell me. I live in a French province so we call it l'eau de javel and it's translated into that, so I don't exactly know if it's the right translation :;

Lost in the Rain

A fading hand trembled as it was brought up to the face of the blond Hokage. He clenched it, feeling only a small sensation from it. He began to stand up, stumbling against the wall behind him. He looked at the legs that once were whole. He needed to find someone who was willing to help him. Naruto couldn't see him like this. He'd worry too much. His stomach growled for food. Arashi held a hand to it, able to feel his organs.
"I'm sorry, Naruto…"
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Ryu felt a sharp pain course through his eye sockets. It began to burn. He felt this sometimes before, but never like this. He stopped walking and held his hand over his eyes, as if it would help the pain.

"Come on, Ryu! Don't get left behind!"

Naruto shouted from ahead. Ryu felt the pain pass. He knew why the pain came. He didn't know why it left.

"Y-yeah! I'm coming!"

He began to walk faster towards them.

"Huh? Ryu, your eyes are bleeding…"

"Don't worry about it."

He lifted two fingers to touch his bandages, feeling a moist liquid on it.

"That's not normal!"

Naruto shouted, backing away. Ryu's shoulders slouched. Of course it wasn't. The blood from his eyes was there because of the curse that came with the gorging…to bleed every time someone were to see the truth about his eyes. The truth that the nurse almost saw.

Jiraiya removed the bandages from his eyes.

"That's not healthy. Let them bleed out until it dries."

"You're not worried?"
"If you know what it is and you're not freaking out, then it's something normal for you."

Ryu smiled and took the bandages off his eyes. Blood seeped through his shut eyelids.

"It's a week's walk from here to Lightning Country."

"That's right. There are faster ways. We can travel to Iwa and take a direct ship the port just before Lightning in a day. It will then leave again to Kumo in Lightning Country."

Ryu explained to them, pulling his hood back over his head.

"It'll rain soon…that will delay their traveling time by half a day."

Naruto looked up at the sky.

"But it's sunny outside!"

"You'll see."

Jiraiya stopped.

"There's a village in front of us."

He told them, making sure Ryu knew.

"Which one?"
"Taki village."

Ryu looked down. Of course…it would still take a day for them to reach Iwa. Better spending only 2-3 days instead of a week of walking.

"Let's eat lunch. Naruto, take Ryu and find someplace good to eat. I'll go gather information."

"Yeah right! More like spy on women!"

Ryu laughed loudly. To him, it felt like a weight was lifted from his chest. Laughing was something he rarely did because of always being alone. He didn't mind in the beginning, but after a while, the pain in his chest of being lonely was almost unbearable.

Ryu was snapped out of his thoughts by the skirmish ending abruptly, Naruto and Jiraiya looking at him with a smile. He couldn't see it, but he could feel their light emotion of happiness.

"What is it?"
"Nothing."

Naruto replied cheekily.

"What happened!?"
Ryu felt his face rise with heat of embarrassment. What did he do that was so wrong?
"You have eyes, kid."
Ryu began to freak out. His hood had been pulled down when he was thinking and his eyes opened.

"No…"

He breathed and put his bandages back on his eyes.

"But they weren't there when the nurse took off your bandages!"
"Naruto…what world do you live in?"

"Huh…? What do you mean?"

"Nevermind…I'm still blind."

For someone who was a thoughtful person, he only used his brains to think about others and not so much into logic. Ryu sighed.

"Come on."
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"Ryu…"
Naruto began to speak to his new friend in a questioning voice, eating more ramen.

"Yes?"
"Do you remember your parents?"

He didn't answer. His parents were the only people on his mind but also one of the few people he never saw in his entire life.

"No."

He answered, splitting chopsticks.

"What's your story?"

The blond pried, hoping to get answers out of him. Rain suddenly began to fall by the bucket full.

"I have none."

He replied, his voice beginning to come out in small tones. Naruto knew that Ryu had been hurt badly and it had nothing to do with his eyes.

"I thought you said that your eyes had been gouged."

"I never said that they weren't put back."
Naruto's heart skipped a beat or two. A cold chill ran up his spine as he shook it off.

"Like a horror movie, isn't it?"
"That had to hurt."

Naruto began to say to himself, imagining his eyes being gouged. All the blood pouring out of, not one, but two eye sockets.

"It did. I almost died from just the pain."
Ryu added to Naruto's comment. He smelled his ramen come his way so stopped leaning against the table.

"Oooh! Ramen is here!"

Naruto began to get excited as he cracked apart two chopsticks, beginning to scarf down his ramen.

"I would love to see again, though."
Ryu stated in the middle of eating. Naruto gave him a weird stare.

"I wouldn't mind not being able; it's just that I don't know how anything looks like."

"Then we'll get Tsunade-no-baa-san to get your eyes healed!"

Ryu doubted that.

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The new boy tossed and turned in his sleep that night as he thought back to what Naruto said to him. His eyes would get healed…? How? There was no way that they could connect all the nerves again. He wanted to see again. He never appreciated seeing anything until the days his eyes were gouged. His world was dark. Cold. Alone. No one wanted a blind person because of their handicap. Why? It was only his eyes. Nothing else changed. Why did they have to treat him differently?

Ryu listened to the rain patter against the roof and window. He felt his bandages begin to become wet again. They saw his eyes, now he had to deal with the punishment. Pain came with the blood that seeped through his eyes once again in the day. He lifted his head from the pillow and felt his way around the room towards the bathroom and began to clean himself up.

His mom and dad were the only people in his life that he wanted. No one dared to tell him about them. Ryu could remember the cold attitude towards him when he was placed in foster care. He could remember the beatings he got just for being there. He never knew why. Just that it hurt…Orochimaru came into his life and he turned down the offer to go with him, making the snake bastard stick his fingers in his body to pluck out his eyeballs and then give him the agony of replacing them. The blood tissue to keep the eyes alive reconnected after a while, making the eyes still alive…but the pain of having eyes and not being able to see was vast. Ryu took off a glove, feeling the scars on his hand that were left over from a beating. He remembered that time clearly. Cut open with a knife and then dipped in water javel. The only reason he could think of why that happened was because of his special abilities.

"What's wrong…why are you still awake…? It's almost three o'clock…"

Naruto rubbed his eyes as he entered the bathroom, flicking on the lights.

"It's nothing. Get back to sleep."

"Your eyes are bleeding again?"
"Yeah."

Naruto sat on the rim of the tub in front of Ryu.

"Your hands!"

"It's nothing."

He pulled the glove back on it, feeling more blood dribble down his cheek.

"Why are you trying to hide so much?"
"I'm not hiding."
"Yes you are! You don't even take off your cloak or gloves when you sleep!"

Ryu made no effort to look at Naruto.

"Did you know your father really well, Naruto?"
"What do you mean?"
"I never knew my parents."
Naruto looked down, knowing the feeling.

"Uzumaki Arashi is my father…I've met him for only a few months if that long really passed. He always looked out for me and never yelled at me for anything unless it was really bad. He saved me when I was about to die…actually…he saved me twice…it's my fault that he's running for his life."

Ryu nodded, the blood stopping slowly. The lights flickered on and off until the power gave out.

"Do you care that I'm different?"
Naruto blinked a few times.

"Why should I care?"

A smile began to etch itself on the boy's hidden face. Ryu kept his head bent towards the ground.

"I don't know, you tell me."

"You're just like me then?"
Ryu looked up at Naruto and understood what he meant.

"We better get some ice before the milk starts to go sour."

Ryu told Naruto, changing the bandages in his eyes and letting the old ones soak in lukewarm water.

"How can you know where anything is!?"

"I just do."

He walked with ease out of the room. The halls on the outside were quiet. A clap of thunder resonated throughout the corridor. Ryu stepped out in the rain, opening his covered palms to the sky, tilting his head backwards to feel the rain on his face.

"This is what I want to see…"

He told Naruto.

"I want to see nature. You, Jiraiya-sama and your father…"

Naruto walked beside Ryu, putting a hand on his shoulder. Ryu turned his head towards him. There was an unspoken respect between the two men.

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The two boys walked back into the room, finding the old toad sennin snoring twice as loudly as before. Ryu knew that he was awake. He waited until Naruto finally fell asleep before making his way beside the old man.

"You saw us, didn't you?"
He put a hand on his shoulder, taking it away after feeling the vibrations of his chest heave a few times as if he were asleep.

"Arashi-sama is almost dead. He asked me to pass on this message to you: 'Don't worry about me. Make sure that Naruto is well. I know you managed for Naruto to get out of the village.'"

He continued.

"He wanted me to tell you this in person. The next part is: 'I've met up with Akatsuki. They are on the move out for jinchuuriki. Be careful.'"

The white haired man only realized that he stopped pretending to snore to listen to Ryu.

"Why do you have to tell me this in person?"
"Akatsuki attacked him. That is why he's so weak and can't perform the jutsu on himself. That is why he's fading twice as fast as usual. You have to find him because he can't stay in one place for too long and large search parties will cause trouble. Jiraiya-sama, he sounded weak. I tried to take care of him for a while, but he wouldn't take any of it. He knew I was blind even though I had my face hidden. He seems like a good person. I wouldn't want that to go to waste. Please, if we can hurry to save him…"

"Don't worry. We'll be taking the early ship tomorrow as soon as we can."

"Arigato…good night, Jiraiya-sama."

Ryu went back to his bed and fell asleep, exhausted from the day. Jiraiya lay awake listening to the storm.

"Stupid idiot…don't be dead before we find you…"

He spoke to himself, turning on his other side.

Naruto had tears of anger streaming down his face. He heard everything. His face was scrunched up in pain and pure hatred towards the people who hurt his father. They were going to pay one way or another.

'Dad…I promise I'll save you…I swear it…'

The blond haired shinobi clenched a fist in front of his face, wanting to kill Akatsuki now more than ever.

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AN: There. Another chapter. Really, I'm just rushing the beginning a bit, I find. I'm very sorry for that.-sigh- I will make up for it, though!