Chapter 9

They were still in the hospital as Tsunade tried to keep everything quiet until at least Sasuke was healed. Sasuke had his hands over Sai's as the ninja explained to him the next step in rehabilitation. Apparently sign language included more facial expressions than he was doing or something.

Right now you have your hands over mine so that you can feel what I'm signing. However, sign language is not only about the hands but also about the facial expression to convey emotions. Sai paused in probably some reflection that he didn't quite understand because he couldn't understand.

Sasuke didn't care. Yes?

You don't use the facial expressions because you can't see to copy them and don't know they're there because you couldn't see them. So to emphasize sadness or anger or whatever, we need to tell you explicitly. Like "Naruto is angry, really angry his face his red and pinched" where as if you could see you wouldn't need the description.

Your point?

You need to start including those in your sign language so that you move from tactile sign language to let's say standard sign language for lack of a better phrasing. When do you have the bandages removed?

Sasuke sighed.

He had his eyes closed beneath the bandages now and he was eager to take them off and see but— Sakura says a few more days still.

Apparently since Tsunade and Sakura were such adept healers the process had gone a lot faster than normal but still he was impatient to see. He could stick his head out a window, smell the grass and the tress, distant cooking, feel the wind on his face and the sunlight heating his hair and his skin, and maybe hear some indistinctive ambient noise but he wanted to see the sky, which he couldn't sense at all like this.

Sai seemed to be nodded and then lifted Sasuke's left hand's fingers to his face while his right still cupped Sai's hand. Let's start signing expressions.

This was going to be a long day.

Itachi looked out the window into the sunny sky with huge puffy clouds drifting to the west. He couldn't see the sun but its shine was high above the window indicating that it was noon. Its rays enveloped him in soft warm light making the whiteness of the room glimmer in his glazed eyes.

It was the last time he probably would ever see the sky and anything at all. Unless by some miracle his end of the operation worked. His brother's hand was on his a gentle heat in the shadow of the room. Everything was blurry and beautiful and for once, for once, it felt like he was doing the right thing. Even in his numbed drugged body he felt a warmth spread from his aching heart to his chilled fingertips and toes.

Every night he dreamed about this last vision even as he lay awake in the darkness now waiting for death and it gave him the strength to keep going. He wanted to be there for when Sasuke opened his eyes to the sun as he did but clearer. He couldn't move, could barely speak, was hardly ever awake but he wanted to stay for his brother. To honor the promise he had made his father all those years ago.

The door creaked open and several pairs of footsteps followed. Itachi tensed his instincts kicking in even in his drugged state. They didn't smell like the hospital and they didn't walk like Sasuke with slow calculated steps. There was the clink of kunais. Fear pooled in the pit of his stomach.

"It's been a long time, Uchiha Itachi," a cold unmistakable voice said.

Danzo.

No.

Itachi couldn't do anything not like this.

"It has reached my ears that you've given your eyes to your little brother and that the Hokage is harboring a criminal. My my this is quite the scandal. Not to mention treason," Danzo continued. "I've got a few options now don't I? And you have a choice, don't you?"

Itachi gritted his teeth trying to summon any strength he had left.

The bed shift as the old man sat down. "I can report this treason to the elders and have you, your brother, and the Hokage executed. I can kill you now and then find your little brother who seems to now possess something that I want. Or . . ."

"Or . . . what?" Itachi croaked out closing his aching eyes tighter against the agonizing jolt that started to throb in his body.

"You can give me Sasuke's eyes. I know what's behind those bandages. I'll let your dearest little brother live if you give me his eyes to add to my . . ." The man coughed. "Collection."

Itachi didn't say anything. He had a hunch that Danzo had taken his deceased clans' eyes based on his knowledge of Danzo's affliation with Orochimaru but he had hoped in his thirteen year old naivety that the man would change and use that power to protect Konoha. Konoha has been attacked several times since then and the man has done nothing to protect it except bid his time in the shadows plotting god knows what.

Shisui appeared in his mind handing his last remaining eye to Itachi asking him to protect both their clan and their village. He remembered reaching out to grab him—save him and failed. He had bargained for Sasuke's life back then too and failed. He didn't protect their clan. He murdered them to save their 'name.' But effectively destroyed Sasuke and turned traitor himself. He didn't protect their clan, he cursed it and then abandoned his beloved village. And that was when he did have the power to make a change. When he wasn't lying on a damn hospital bed forcing his heart to keep beating.

"Oh my, you didn't die, did you?" Danzo asked mockingly.

Itachi's fist cleneched.

"I'll give you some time to think about it," Danzo offered. "I see you're quite . . . incapacitated. But if you die, I'll make the choice for you, Itachi."

The footsteps receded and the door closed leaving Itachi alone.

And in his dying weak isolation he started laughing.

And then coughing.

And then hyperventilating.

And then—

He made his decision.

Sasuke was in his room standing by the window and letting the sun bathe him in warmth. He was sick of being at the hospital and wanted to smell the outside world again, to be in the outside world again. Sai had just left trying to train Sasuke on facial expressions but he couldn't get it. Fingers spread over the artist's face didn't tell him much about what his face actually looked like. He could kind of tell his expressions but Sai kept telling him they weren't perfect. Of course they weren't perfect but they would be. Sasuke was going to have a Sharingan and then this memorizing business would be back to normal and he would see his brother again.

He would get to see Naruto again.

But that would be it. There was no magical cure for his hearing loss and there never would be. He was so grateful for Itachi's eyes else he would have had to live blind and deaf until he died an old useless man or was killed a young useless ex defect from Konoha. But he wished, though he would never admit it, he wished that he would hear Naruto again clearly. He wished that he could have made different choices.

He clenched his fists. How did Naruto always get into his head? And why, why did the idiot's lips keep flooding his thoughts, the thrumming of his hot heart against Sasuke's own body. He couldn't take it! It made him feel trapped and weak and lost . . . and found all at the same time.

There was a sensation in the air that he recognized as the whoosh of the door opening. The floor vibrated with soft footsteps as though the person didn't want Sasuke to know they were there. Yeah well joke's on you, Sasuke thought, he was used to using his remaining senses to get around by now. They were sharper but he needed to focus on them more now so he noticed more.

He didn't turn letting the person think he didn't notice though he had the impression that the person was speaking. He couldn't really hear much especially since his hearing aid was busted but something had changed in his environment audibly.

Enemy, his instincts told him. Enemy. He wasn't completely helpless as long as he acted quickly if they made a move and he didn't mistake where they were. Back tensed, he felt them move around somewhere in the room. Sasuke longed for his katana or at least a kunai.

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder as the intruder used him as a boost to jump out the window. He tried to grab the ankle but had no idea where it was and ended up grasping air. The door swooshed again and someone else entered stamping on the floor hard twice to get his attention. Cherry blossoms filled the air.

"Sakura?" he spoke. Did you see anyone just now? Someone was just here.

She took his hands and placed them on top of hers to answer.

No. I didn't but your door was ajar. Are you sure someone was here?

"Yes," he snapped angrily.

Sakura paused as if considering something. I'll talk to Tsunade. Maybe she knows something and we'll change your room. Anyway, it's time to check your eyes. Keep them closed at first and I'll dim the lights.

He sat down on the bed as Sakura presumably closed the curtains. Heart pounding as Sakura's hands slowly unspun the gauze around his eyes, he waited until the gauze fell away.

Okay, Sasuke, open slowly and let me know if there's any pain.

His eyelids felt moist and he wanted to rub them but instead he slowly wrenched them open. He had felt the power growing, his chakra replenishing and righting itself within his body once more. Could feel the moment when Itachi's eyes connected with his body and the chakra move freely between his brain and the eyes restoring that which had been lost. It had been like a thrum, a vibration, a thrill within him that made him want to cry the moment he noticed it.

Maybe it had been right after Sai's first visit when he woke up in the middle of the night noticing the change. Sasuke had bolted upright, feeling around the bandage holding back the tears.

But there was still the fear that he wouldn't be able to see. Itachi had been nearly blind himself apparently.

Gently he eased each eye open—

Light assaulted him, burned all the way back into his brain. Months. Months of darkness and blindness and being lost and confused. He tried again slowly, blinking rapidly against the onslaught of the sense regained. Nothing was focused as he lifted his head. There were shadows and then shadows, something standing in front of him, a light to his left streaming through probably a curtain and igniting something pink? Sakura's hair. He squinted closer. Two eyes, dark but he knew they were bright green, a nose and lips.

It broke.

"I . . ." His throat vibrated and moved with his voice.

His heart as he saw the walls come into view, the bed, the crinkle in the sheets, his hands, the nails gnawed to the wick, and Sakura's face with her eyes full of concern and her lips pursed in concentration.

"I can see you."

Her lips moved. 'Sasuke.'

He saw it! His name on her lips. He started shaking, something wet streamed down his cheeks. He saw it. He saw his name on her lips.

"Sakura."

She gathered him to her chest as he broke down in sheer unabashed joy. He could see. Her hair was pinker than he even remembered. Her eyes greener. She brought him to the window and opened the curtain bathing them both in bright light.

Green. Yellow. Blue. Reds and oranges and houses and people and animals and a bird high above gliding through puffy white clouds. Konoha in summer.

If the wetness of his tears on his cheeks had been a rainstorm, it slowly became a hurricane as he trembled with inexpressible joy at everything and knowing, knowing, that he would see Naruto soon. That he could be a ninja again. That he could see his brother and his friends and his village and his home.

He was home.