First Notes (or Authors Notes, what ever)

Bista: Sorry people. That line thingy that makes a really long line isn't working right now, so this is going to have to do. Anyway, chapter 4 is up. It's named for the little bits of Oto that we get to see.(wink, wink)

With any luck, you'll hear from Mali for the first time (that is, if we can get on the computer at the same time which could very well take forever and I apoligize in advance for that)

Yeah, Sasuke's going to seem a little Ooc in this chapter, so be warned. Oh, and I only just found out what that means, (yeah, I'm stupid, got a problem with that?) so if anyone doesn't know what it means (because I hate using something someone doesn't understand but I'm sure everyone knows anyway) it means 'out of character'. Yeah, there was probably no point to that.

Anywho, it's my turn to type out chapter 5, but I'm going on vacation on the last two weeks of August and then school starts (for me) so... yeah, it might take me a while to get that one out. Also, I'm going to an Anime Convention (Anime Evolution 2006) so I don't have any time that weekend, so... again, it's probably going to take me quite a while. Once again, I apoligize in advance.

I really do talk to much, don't I? Mali's turn!

Mali here. This is my first time typing out things before the story starts so it might completly suck who knows. I wrote chapters 2 and 4 and will be typing out every other even number.

Just as a warning off hand since school will be starting next month I'll be quie busy. You know with homework, piano, field hockey and gymanstics and stuff that takes up huge chuncks of the day. The chapters in the school year will be reasonably slower.

This is my first time acctually uploading a chapter too.

Since our family doesn't have T.V. (yes we live without the t.v. we only have DVD's and videos) I am kind of stuck on everyone's actions and personality's before Sasuke went off to Sound. I know what happened I just can't seem to get it into my head when I'm typing so be patient I will eventually (that is a BIG eventually). So on that matter the only episodes I know really well are 1-15.

According to Bista I like to type nonsense. That was new to me, so I guess that's kind of my style. We try our best to have the writing content me relativly the same so hope we don't get you too confused. On the with chapter!

Chapter 4:

A Plan

"What's wrong?" Kabuto asked Orochimaru. Kabuto had been on a mission in Sound so he had not heard of Sasuke's disappearance.

"Sasuke's gone," the Snake slowly said a smirk appearing on his face. An unnaturally long tongue lolled out, but Kabuto had gotten used to it by now.

"Really? But, how did he get away?" asked a disbelieving Kabuto.

"It doesn't matter right now…"

"What? Why not...?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"I found it!" triumphantly said Tsunade to Jiraiya who looked at her through confused eyes.

"Found what? Is there something you have been neglecting telling me?"

"No, well kind of. Shizune and I have been looking up blindness for a couple of weeks. We haven't found anything but last night I remembered a book I had read a few years ago on bringing back sight to people who are blind."

"What purpose does this serve?" Jiraiya asked. He still hadn't clued in that there might be a very important meaning to all this.

"Well, did you hear of Naruto fighting Sasuke two weeks back?"

"Yeah."

"Did you hear who won the fight?"

"No."

"Good," smirked a clearly amused Tsunade, getting ready to tell the ridiculously hard to believe story.

"So, who won?"

"They were both lying on the ground when Sakura and Kakashi found them in the training grounds where they became Genin. They've seemed to take a liking to that particular spot; I have absolutely no idea why..."

"Go on..." Jiraiya said, beckoning her to continue.

"Okay; from what I've heard, Sasuke and Naruto made some kind of deal: that if Sasuke won Naruto had to stop teasing him about being blind and Sasuke agreed to... oh I don't know."

"Just hurry up!" The other shinobi said, clearly starting to get annoyed with all the hold backs from hearing the victory of Naruto (well, so he thought Naruto would win. Who wouldn't? Everyone who knew Sasuke was blind would have guessed that since he couldn't see that Naruto would win).

"Okay, okay. Well, to continue what I was saying, the bargains were called off."

"Huh? Why would they do that? Didn't Naruto kick Sasuke's butt?"

"Not really."

"But I've been training him! Teaching him everything I know! Okay well, not everything but close to it!"

"Hold it. I don't think you understand."

"Fine, tell me what I don't understand then."

"Over the years Sasuke's been gone, he has developed a chakra sensing ability so high, I don't even think I could match it. That almost makes up for being blind. They told each other that they wouldn't go easy on each other and would give the fight everything they have."

"Go on..."

"He also showed jutsu I've never seen. Sasuke can't use the Sharingan, but he has been able to boost the use of the Chidori to five instead of two."

"Really? That's all well and dandy, but who won?"

"Well, the way it turned out, they tied," Tsunade finished, waiting for a reaction from the other ninja standing opposite to her in the library.

"What, they tied!" Jiraiya shouted, amazed that Naruto could tie with a blind ninja.

"What I mean is that they didn't finish; Naruto couldn't beat Sasuke and Sasuke couldn't beat Naruto. Sasuke's amazing being he's blind. From Naruto's injuries it even looks like the Kyuubi got out too. Sasuke has grown enormously over this time period and imagine how strong he would be if he gets his sight back. That would be scary, a ninja of his strength running around with someone like Naruto. Still, if he does get his sight back he'll be able to use the Sharingan and I want to know if he has the Mangekyou yet (1). But let me look something up in this book, about the surgery on his eyes."

"Okay, I'll just sit over there and look at some books."

After a half hour passed, Tsunade finally found the part of the book she was looking for.

"I found it!"

"Oh, finally! You know, you could've used the index. You know, that part of the book, the last few pages...? It tells you where to find things."

"Yeah, I checked and it wasn't under there."

"Okay, well then what did you find."

Tsunade's expression immediately hardened then went soft and sad. "The operation on his eyes will be difficult to do and if his eyes do heal normally he only has a 30 chance of living through the operation and a 70 of not living. That's the part I'm worried about."

"So, do you think we should go into surgery or not?"

"I don't know. I guess I'll tell Sakura to ask Sasuke if he would be willing to risk his life for the operation. Then she can report back to me."

"Okay, let's try this. I sure hope it works."

"It will or it better. I hope it works too."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

A little while later, Sakura had been told by Tsunade that Sasuke would only have a 30 chance of living through the operation and that even if he did make it though the surgery they still wouldn't know if his eyes would go back to normal. At this news, poor Sakura had almost dissolved into tears in Hokage's office.

"Come on Sakura, pull your self together," she thought semi-calmly. "All you have to do is go tell Sasuke that they might be able to give him back his sight but the only has a small chance of living. I can do this. You don't want to look like a fool in front of Sasuke anyway, do you!"

"Hey, Sakura are you okay?" asked a blonde shinobi. Sakura had completely forgotten that she was already at the meeting spot and she guessed that her expression looked sad.

"Hmm… yeah, I'm fine," she lied to her comrade. "I just… well, is Sasuke here yet?"

"Nope, and that's kind of strange for him to be late. I mean, he's never been late before has he?"

"Well no, but if you looked at the time, you would have figured out that there is still five minutes until the time we were supposed to be here."

"Oh, really? My bad; besides, knowing Sasuke he usually arrives right on time."

"Yeah, that's him all right"

"Are you by any chance talking about me?" asked a very bored looking Sasuke. Looking into the tree above them they saw the dark haired shinobi with a horrible injury decorating his left cheek.

"Sasuke are you all right!" cried a bewildered Sakura.

"What in the world did you do to your face?" Naruto shouted.

"Oh, that…" after a half a minute of silence he continued. "I, uh, I was running… yeah that's it… I was running... actually, I was jumping from tree to tree when I hit a branch on the tree and fell. Nothing of great concern, really."

"How could a tree do that?" exclaimed Naruto, who was confused at how the mark got there. "It looks like a piece of skin has a been cut out and look: there's two small hole thingies in the middle." Naruto didn't believe that Sasuke got the mark from the tree and never would.

"I want to get the truth about so many things; all of these things about Sasuke like why he didn't try to find Itachi and figure out if Itachi massacred the Uchiha Clan to get a higher Sharingan thing or if there was a more personal matter. Why doesn't Sasuke like to smile? Maybe because... oh who knows!"

"Yeah, sorry Sasuke but I don't think a tree could have done that to you," the blonde pouted. "There must be a different reason that you're not telling us. You don't have to lie just tell us, I mean seriously, it really looks like it's hurting you. It looks like animal took it out."

"Fine… I'll tell you..." cringing, Sasuke's arm moved up to where his cursed seal was.

"Sasuke is you cursed seal acting up again?" asked Sakura who was wandering over to see more of Sasuke's shoulder. "Sasuke, its surfaced! What happened!"

"Well, it acts up when I summon snakes and when I sense Orochimaru."

"Oh, you mean the jerk who gave you the cursed seal in the first place?"

"Yeah. In the woods. I thought it'd be faster if I just cut through the forest but it's hard for me to sense snakes since I was around them so much in Oto. I summoned one last week because I thought I sensed Orochimaru's chakra so the snake was supposed to try and find it but on the way here a different summoned snake that wasn't mine... well, it attacked me."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"So how did the 'finding Sasuke' go?" Kabuto asked his employer causally.

"Fine," the snake Sannin said over the scroll he was looking at. "I just wanted to know exactly where he was at that precise moment in time."

"I see... what are you working on now?"

"Well, you see... Kabuto... I have a plan."

Kabuto was confused. "Don't you always have some kind of plan up your sleeve?"

"Be quiet you moron, I'm trying to concentrate!"

"Well, sorry!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"You're LATE!" yelled Team Kakashi (minus Sasuke) as their sensei entered the training grounds three hours and forty-five minutes late.

"Well you see I well… umm…" Kakashi lamely started.

"Let me guess: you were helping an old lady?" Naruto exaggerated.

"You crossed a black cat on the way here and had to take the long way?" added Sakura snickering when Kakashi turned to her and gave her a glare that seemed to say, "shut up you idiots! I have a perfectly, legitimate reason for being late".

"Or you just plainly slept in and didn't feeling like getting up and showing common courtesy to other people?" Sasuke said, his voice cold and under control but did Kakashi detect something else? Did the Uchiha's emotionless mask-like-face show pain? Sasuke was sitting under the shade of a tree but his arm was over the spot of his cursed seal.

"Hey Sasuke, you okay?" asked Kakashi, walking over the boy.

"Fine," came the impassive response.

"I see..." Well that's just like Sasuke. He's obviously in pain but he decides to completely ignore it and pretends to other people that he's fine and he just feels like putting his hand on his shoulder.

"Stop lying Sasuke!" Naruto cut in. "Just before Kakashi-sensei got here you were telling us why you got the mark on your face and that it surfaced again and that you were attacked by one of Orochimaru's snakes because you can't detect them or Orochimaru, right?" Naruto finished with a slow exhaling sigh.

"Shut up Naruto! Could we just start training?"

"Sure, but don't you want to know why I was late?" Kakashi questioned them for he had a good reason this time. The others grumbled an okay. "Okay, I'll stall for a little awhile longer just to make sure Sasuke's cursed mark doesn't get father out of control and get completely out if he ends up sparring with Naruto."

"Well, I was walking to Hokage's office to drop off the report of our training and she said that she thinks that it's incredible that you, Sasuke, can move, as in dodge kunai and such with... well, your disability shall we say? Oh yeah, one more thing, she asked me to ask you Naruto: did the Kyuubi get out during the fight?"

"Well…" Naruto hesitantly answered "Yes, but not much..."

"So the chakra was his. It didn't feel like yours."

Sakura didn't pay much attention to the conversation. She was too busy worrying about how to approach Sasuke about the matter at hand and to top that off he wasn't really himself today. Searching his face for some small amount emotion to appear, she decided he looked like he was in pain but she already knew that. What else?

Meanwhile Sasuke was also having trouble focusing on what was being said. His head ached from the bite on his face. His curse mark was really starting to hurt and today wasn't the best of his life. In fact, it was in memory of one of the worst.

"Hokage figures that if she can find some way of getting Sasuke's sight back, he'll most likely be stronger than you or even me when your Sharingan matures and all."

"What? That's so unfair!" Naruto suddenly shouted "Stupid Uchiha Clan; why do they have stupid special jutsu they can do and I'm stuck with having trouble learning any kind of jutsu? It just so unfair, BELIEVE IT!"

"What is it with you and 'Believe it?" Kakashi asked his voice back to being bored.

"Sasuke… Sasuke…" Naruto said, waving his hand in front of Sasuke's face. "...Sasuke! Are you paying attention or not!"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm listening," Sasuke lamely answered, shaking his head slightly.

"Sure you were," Naruto teased. "Stop staring into space, you idiot!" the blonde shinobi snapped at him but wished he could take those words back. The stare the raven haired Uchiha gave him made Naruto feel lower than the dirt.

"Sorry," he muttered, not bothering to take his eyes of the ground.

"Whatever."

After clearing his throat, the silver haired ninja decided to break the silence. "So to continue what I was saying, she thinks that she found, well, let's say instructions for surgery that may be able to bring back your eyesight."

Thinking that he misunderstood his sensei, he asked if that were really true and Kakashi laughed, reassuring Sasuke that yes, he was sure of what he said. Hope welled up inside of him and Sasuke actually gave a small smile that was barely visible but Naruto caught it and gave a huge toothy grin.

"No Sasuke-kun! Don't go under the surgery!" Sakura yelled, unable to contain herself any longer. "Tsunade-sama said that I was to tell you that the surgery will make you un-blind. But even then your eyes may not return to normal and you'll only have a 30 chance of living through the operation!" Sakura finished. She couldn't bear to have her precious Sasuke die.

"I... don't know," Sasuke admitted. "I have to think about it. Tell her that I'll get back to her when I've decided what I'll do," the Uchiha stated. His tone sending telepathic-like messages that the conversation about his eyes was to end there. He absolutely HATED having to talk about being blind.

"O-okay" Sakura plainly answered, unsure of how to react.

"So… so umm what kind of training are we doing today? You haven't told us yet!" Naruto impatiently demanded, completely changing the subject much to everyone's relief.

"Well today I thought that we could just brush up on some chakra control skills."

Quite annoyed Sakura and Naruto yelled out 'again' in unison.

"Yes again. But today, instead of running at the tree like I taught you in Wave Country, you'll be starting at the bottom of the tree."

"What, you mean we can't run at it?" Naruto yelled.

"Yes."

"What, you're kidding right?" Sakura asked in disbelief. "We could barley do this while running! Well, I could, but what about Naruto and Sasuke? How do you expect them to do it again, let alone walking?"

"Too bad for them then," Kakashi smirked, keeping his voice rather dull.

At the end of training all three ninjas had made it to the top. Naruto had a bruise on his head and shoulder from falling and Sasuke and Sakura only had a few scrapes from how they landed or scraped against the tree.

"Kakashi-sensei, how did we do today?" Naruto asked eagerly. "Come on, tell me!"

"Well to tell you the complete truth Naruto, you did very well on the exercise."

"Yay me! Hey, where's Sasuke going?"

Team seven's blind team mate was slowly walking away from the group, his head lowered but his hand still clasping his shoulder. Now everyone was suspicious.

"Well, let's see shall we?" Kakashi said slyly as he put his finger to his mouth and motioned for Sakura and Naruto to follow him.

About twenty minutes later they arrived in front of the Uchiha Compound gates and saw Sasuke head toward the cemetery farther in.

Kakashi cursed under his breath and slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. "It's that day again isn't it? I can't believe I completely forgot!"

"Huh? Forgot what?" Naruto asked, still completely clueless.

"Well, do you remember just after we came back from the Wave Country when Sasuke said he was going for a walk?" Naruto shook his head but Kakashi continued anyway. "Well do you remember that Sasuke didn't come back till late that night? We were worried that something might have happened because he told us he was going on his walk in the early morning and ended up missing lunch and dinner? Well when he got back I kind of demanded from him to tell me where he had been and do you know what I found out?"

"No."

"Well, apparently, he had gone to the Uchiha Cemetery meaning…"

"Meaning what?"

"Today is the day Sasuke's clan, Uchiha, were all murdered by Sasuke's only still living relative, Uchiha Itachi, exactly six year ago. Sasuke comes here every year to pay his respects to his deceased family. I'd bet even when he was with Orochimaru, he came here secretly."

"You mean he doesn't live here?"

"No, he doesn't live in the Uchiha Compound."

"Oh," Naruto quietly said. "So that's why Sasuke was so quiet during training today," Naruto thought to himself. "Is this why Sasuke wants revenge on his clan so badly? To kill his brother and avenge his parents?"

"Yes, are you only just getting this now?" Kakashi asked, sarcasm hinting in his tone. "Gosh Naruto, in all your days of being around Sasuke did you never clue in to that Sasuke may be a double orphan (2) too? That he wasn't just the plain, skilled, popular kid that everyone saw on the outside?"

"Well you see… I, umm…" Naruto started only to be cut off by the man with the messed up hair cut.

"Shh! Naruto be quiet! Look over there" said Kakashi, kneeling beside him beckoning to where Sasuke was.

"What? Oh, he's crying..."

-------------------------------------------------------------

Back in Oto...

"I got it!" Orochimaru started with the sound of triumph in the Snake's voice.

"Huh? Got what Master?" asked Kabuto, not having the slightest clue what the Snake was talking about.

"Well you see… I have a marvellous, stupendous, flawless plan!"

"Don't you always?" The ninja asked, making it sound like more of a statement that a question. Kabuto pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose as he said this as they slipped down his nose quit often.

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

Last Notes (or Authors Notes, what ever you want to call it):

(1) - Tsunade doesn't know what you have to do to get the Mangekyou Sharingan, therefore it's natural that she thinks Sasuke might have it. Or does he have it...

(2) - Taken from ArimaSkitty's 'Two Brothers'. It simply means that someone that has been orphaned and then put in an adopted family or something, and then gets orphaned from them. If I was to put it any more simplier, it means someone that has been orphaned twice. Any of you smart people out there know what a triple orphan would mean?