Disclaimer Alert: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. Full rights go to Masashi Kishimoto, the original creator.
Chapter 1: Blind
It was the middle of January. That meant climbing up the steps of the Konoha Hospital would be difficult at best due to the thick coating of ice and snow adorning the pavement. Putting one foot in front of the other carefully, Sakura closed the doors of her car and clicked the 'lock' button on her keys until she heard a distinct signaling sound. The woman pushed the button three more times for extra measure. It was a harmless tick that helped her feel more secure.
This small nonsensical habit conveyed Sakura's tendency to always quadruple-check things no matter the circumstance. Something that small spoke volumes about her as an individual. You could not become the leading doctor of the country's largest and most efficient hospital if you did not quadruple-check your work.
As the doctor traversed through the alabaster snow, she silently thanked herself for her choice in attire this morning. She internally battled with herself before leaving her apartment, debating whether to make a major alteration in her wardrobe. Until now, Sakura wore the same thing every single day- a white medical coat that stretched down to her mid-thigh, a wine-colored, knee-length pencil dress underneath, and equal color-matching heels. Over the years she had been employed at Konoha Hospital, she had become an expert at bolting from room to room in the ruby 2-inch pumps and making it look easy.
At the pleading of her subconscious from this morning, Sakura opted to not wear her trademark pencil dress today and instead sported a pair of simple black slacks. The turbulent wind from the outside coupled with its slick surfaces would not have bode well if Sakura chose to wear anything but pants. The material of the slacks cut across the top of her ankle and faltered where the ebony curve dipped down to reveal the equally dark sheer tights that she wore underneath. The business slacks were a gift given to her on her 20th birthday last year by Ino. With Sakura's specific request that her best friend not get her any articles of clothing that showed more than 5 inches of skin, they finally reached a consensus on the professional piece of clothing.
Sakura's medical outfit was always complete with the shining nametag detailing "Sakura Haruno" pinned to her medical coat, where her name was fitted neatly atop the first line. "Leading Doctor" was positioned underneath the line. Sometimes, despite Sakura's professional and composed demeanor around her subordinates, she would giddily run her thumb across the lettering just to assure herself it was not a dream and that she in fact had been awarded the title.
Of course, the woman would prefer to throw on a pair of scrubs and tennis shoes and call it a day. Unfortunately, being the leading doctor of any hospital required much less general fieldwork and required much more about making impressions and advising her subordinates. It was not that Sakura minded the latter… it was just that her heart and soul were in treating patients and successfully reviving them.
Sakura Haruno surmised that this very fact was the reason her heart was skipping some beats today.
Today, at around 1 P.M. according to her schedule, was the day that Itachi Uchiha would be arriving at her hospital to receive specialized treatment from her and her alone. A deep heat that contrasted with the nipping freeze of the outside disseminated through her cheeks first, her nose, and then her neck. To anyone who would have asked Sakura why she was so red suddenly, she would have expeditiously blamed the arctic cold for assaulting her skin.
Sakura would never admit that she was beyond nervous to receive such an influential patient into her hospital, let alone be the sole one to treat him.
Itachi Uchiha was the greatest genjutsu user in the world. He was highly publicized, acclaimed, broadcasted, and above all, feared. He had never lost or quit a match in his two decades of fighting in global tournaments.
He had been competing for almost his entire life until he finally overexerted himself and landed in Sakura's medically trained lap. This particular overexertion was not anything like a pulled muscle, a fracture, or even a few broken bones. Itachi overexerted himself in one of the worst ways possible and it was something that commonplace doctors could not remedy.
Itachi's famed status made her future treatment of him become publicized rapidly. Once it was suggested that Sakura Haruno would be the one to take on Itachi's case, it spread like a corrupt wildfire over every media outlet from her hometown of Konoha to Kumogakure to even Yugakure. Ino and Naurto alerted her that it was already in the news yesterday even though they had not even announced it officially from the Medical Board Meeting.
There was no doubt Sakura Haruno would be under extreme pressure from the media for the next few months, or even years depending on how rapidly or slowly Itachi adjusted to her chakra treatment. But she would not rush anything to get out of the tense spotlight.
The woman hugged the extra layers around her more tightly to protect herself from the biting chill of the air (and to camouflage the crimson spread threatening to betray the cool composure of her face). She noted with some amusement that the shoeprints in the snow were surrounded by rather larger more body-sized indents. After stifling laughter with her hand at the thought of her team nosediving into the ground, Sakura made sure to not meet the same fate as them by carefully observing her every step. A myriad of stiletto-made holes poked through the wintery coat, signaling that Sakura was indeed not the only one who wore heels today. Unfortunately, none of the women on her team were permitted to wear pumps of any sort due to their proximity with patients and medical equipment, so this meant that the female Directors of the other hospitals were already inside and warm.
Sakura ascended the stairs that lead to the glassy double doors of her hospital without lapse. After sucking in a large amount of crisp air in a futile attempt to usher the heated crimson away from her appearance, the Konoha lead doctor pulled the right entryway door open to be met with the last person she expected to see this early. The slender cane in his hand tapped gingerly against the threshold underneath them, almost touching Sakura's concealed toe. Too astounded to say anything, Sakura stared in pure bewilderment as the man gazed in her general direction while clicking his cane deep into the snow heap that the cyclone had brought in. Sakura's eyes bluntly, albeit crassly, raked the man's entire form from his upscale leather boots to his expensive winter overcoat. She focused on nothing in particular until she saw his eyes.
It wasn't like Itachi Uchiha could see her coarse expression or the way she scrutinized him, anyways.
Any person with an ounce of medical knowledge could determine that the man in front of her was 100% blind in both of his eyes.
A coal-black color that ordinarily would have been strikingly brilliant was diminished and demolished by a hazy opaque silver. The silvery hue within Itachi's eyes reflected no light even in the bright fluorescent light of the hospital- Sakura could not even see an iris within the murky depths. His lengthy eyelashes framed the unseeing eyes very beautifully though if that was any redemption for his broken ocular organs.
It was then in the middle of her brisk examination did the man clear his throat politely.
"Hello, Doctor Haruno," the sightless man greeted softly. Itachi retracted his cane and instead offered her his hand to shake. Without thinking, Sakura stole his hand in both of hers to stop him from sliding and falling onto the floor because of the snow. The woman heard a gentle chuckle from the man as she bent her knees to brace the both of them. Without making an attempt to remove her hands from his, Itachi spoke again.
"Doctor Haruno, I am an able-bodied blind," he said. As if to prove his statement true, he condensed his cane into a small piece, inserted it into his black coat's pocket, and opened the left door of the hospital with relative ease all while Sakura still had a death drip on his other hand. After illustrating his point, he glanced back unseeingly at Sakura with a gentle smile. This particular smile would have traveled up and lightheartedly danced into his eyes had the man not been blind. Instead, this smile did little to convey his true emotions as his eyes just did not reflect how he really felt.
Eyes were the window to the soul, after all. Gentle smiles were not.
Sakura slowly disentangled her two hands from his one and sensed the familiar burn of crimson infiltrating her face again. She again somberly thanked that this man could not see anything because she truly looked like an idiot the way she stared and reddened underneath his blind gaze.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Uchiha-sama. Forgive me for already drawing conclusions," Sakura said and bowed to him. Again, Sakura was well-aware that Itachi could not see, but she did it out of respect rather than if he could see it or not. The smile that Itachi wore when demonstrating his capability to be self-sufficient tilted up a little bit at one corner. He could detect the microscopic rush of air that developed from Sakura's bow.
"It is a pleasure to meet you as well. If you don't mind, I forgot my phone and I need to go get it from the car that brought me here before the interview," Itachi told Sakura. Sakura was so preoccupied with preventing him from slipping (which she would not do again, she swore to herself) that she hadn't focused on the way he spoke. The man had a velour voice that was only made more pleasant with his extremely proper manners. He made the motion of reaching into his coat pocket to retrieve his cane but stilled himself when Sakura spoke up.
"Uchiha-sama, if you don't mind me asking, how did you know that I am Doctor Haruno? There are hundreds of cars in the parking lot and even more people in the hospital," Sakura called out to him inquisitively. She was genuinely curious about the way he compensated for his blindness.
"Noises that may be useless and trifling to many others are important to me," Itachi said to her, pointing down to the slender and short baton of her heels.
"You determined that I am most likely a woman because of the sound of my heels, but what led you to the conclusion that these particular shoes belonged to me?"
Sakura wanted to slap herself in her oversized forehead for asking all these questions when she had just met the man. It was the medical researcher in her- she could not help it. She was already hungry to begin her treatment and examination of Itachi that Sakura was sure she was coming off as impolite. Itachi's abrupt and unintentional entrance into her life earlier than expected was a welcome one as Sakura loved early starts, but she would need to be careful and not overwhelm him with queries when they weren't even in his hospital room.
"I heard your car signalize that it was locked four times as I was walking downstairs," the blind man said to her. "That trait belongs to someone that is overly cautious and if your reputation precedes you, it's that you like to play it safe even if you know something works."
Sakura again stared wide-eyed at him. She was positive that she looked like a doe in the headlights right now at his introspective response. Itachi took this time to withdraw his cane again and extended it to reach his leather boots, appearing as if he was beginning to make his exit into the outside world.
"That trait is the reason you were assigned to me, Uchiha-sama. Organs as hypersensitive as eyes are not something you can play around with," Sakura remarked playfully to Itachi as he pushed open the door further. The man once more turned to face her direction with the same smile he had bestowed upon her throughout the duration of their conversation.
"I never implied that trait was a bad thing, Doctor Haruno."
With a flurry of bleached snow permeating into the building that signaled Itachi had departed the hospital, Sakura felt her body temperature rise even as the chilled chalky flakes enveloped her in every direction.
The Board of Medical Directors served as an organization to collude, cofunction, and co-produce the best medical results for hospitals around the globe. They all came together in special events like this to review possible discrepancies in future treatment, equipment, and even related staff. This year's event- to unanimously declare Doctor Sakura Haruno of Japan's Konoha Hospital as Itachi Uchiha's caregiver and thus, the doctor who would consequently heal his blindness.
The question of the pink-haired woman's competency to treat such a high-profile man was not up for debate- it was universally agreed on that Sakura Haruno was among the best. After the woman finished her training under the highly praised Medical Director Tsunade at a paltry 17 years old, she was pushed into the healthcare and public spotlight by being promoted to lead doctor of a hospital at the youngest age ever. Sakura was only 18 years old when she acquired the title from the Medical Board.
Simply put, Sakura Haruno was no stranger to publicity and cameras. But after entering the large room which housed Medical Directors from all over the world, she couldn't help but feel bashful and shy in front of the multitude of screens and microphones being shoved her way. The woman had never laid eyes on this much equipment in her life all in one room before- there had to be at least one million dollars of technical paraphernalia in this room alone, not to mention the cameras that were probably installed in the parking lot and corridors.
All of the reporter's eyes and the Director's eyes were on her. Queries were launched at her with each one being louder than the next, hoping to drown the previous query out with a higher volume. If Sakura thought she looked bewildered before upon meeting Itachi Uchiha accidentally, she should see her face at this second. The woman sought out her past mentor Tsunade amidst the sea of faces and was pleased to see an empty chair to the left of her. A polished name card, embroidered with the name SAKURA HARUNO in golden, bold lettering, was present atop the desk nearest to her old teacher.
Sakura was so elated to recognize a friendly, non-threatening face that she barely ascertained the questions dying out at a rapid pace. It wasn't a naturally occurring drown-out due to respect or lack of questions. It was a drown-out that was entirely abrupt and bizarre. The eyes that had previously been focused on her all simultaneously gravitated towards the same spot behind her. Sakura hadn't heard the door open nor did she hear it close, blaming the deafening cacophony of reporters for it.
"Uchiha-sama, how do you feel about being under Doctor Haruno's supervision? Do you believe she can heal your blindness?" a tall, older-looking reporter with blue eyes and grey hair bellowed out from behind the mass. This reporter's question sparked a domino effect of endless inquiries that followed the same pattern of increasing loudness until Itachi raised his hand up as a means to silence them. Sakura felt the man take a stride from behind her and to her left side.
Sakura wordlessly noted to herself that Itachi preferred using the left sides of things, indicative of his usage of doors and standing positions. This was something she could positively use, as her right side was her dominant side. With Itachi's dominant side being his left and Sakura's being her right, she could help lead Itachi easier if need be.
He did not have his white cane in his possession, instead choosing to lightly grasp the material bunched up around Sakura's right elbow to guide him to her precise location. It was an intelligent decision in hindsight to abandon the walking tool in favor of her arm due to the uneven conglomeration of bodies bordering them, but Sakura was uneasy being in such proximity of what was basically a stranger right now. Itachi Uchiha was going to be under her care shortly so it was best that they become accustomed to each other sooner rather than later; however, Sakura was not used to such an intrepid but careful touch from her patient.
She looked to the other subject of the reporter's interests and drank his image in again for the second time today. He stared straight ahead to the back wall, another clear indicator of his complete blindness. Itachi's lack of wrinkles, strong jawline, and long, healthy hair made him out to be maybe 5 to 6 years older than herself. Sakura deemed him around the age of 26- the perfect age to begin strong operations on him. He was young enough to be able to bounce back from lengthy, substantial treatments, but he was also old enough to be able to adapt and overcome the potentially strenuous treatments.
The advertisements and aired tournaments on the television did this man no justice in terms of his physical appearance. The pixelated version of Itachi was a faint shadow of the man that stood before her right now. He was a beautiful man no doubt, but Sakura was more eager to delve into his family tree and root around for genetic disorders and hereditary background.
The blind man released the material just as swiftly as he had seized it, the seeping warmth from his long fingers just a brief memory. The room, still impressively hushed from Itachi's hand gesture, awaited his answer to the first question drifting in the air.
"I believe that I am in more than capable hands under Doctor Haruno's care here at Konoha Hospital. If anyone can successfully restore my vision, it will be her."
Tsunade nodded towards the doctor and her future patient from her seat at the Medical Director desk, a twinkle of mirth frolicking in her eyes. The pride she felt for her former student upsurged through her ample chest at Itachi's confident statement.
"Therefore, I hereby formally accept treatment underneath her."
The room erupted into rounds of cheers and applause. Instead of more questions being lambasted at the doctor and her patient, waves of positive encouragement made their way to them in cycles. People were careful to not clasp Itachi's shoulders too hard for fear of him losing his balance, but more readily clasped their hands sturdily on Sakura's shoulders and back. Sakura frowned deeply at all of the attention, mildly annoyed that the media was turning into a stampeding circus rather than a professional interview. Cameras gyrated around them as more and more people piled together to congratulate the pair. Sakura instinctively grabbed the material of Itachi's elbow just as he had done earlier.
As she turned to look at him to affirm that he was alright in the mass hysteria transpiring around them, she met (or in his case, didn't meet) his pearly gaze. He had switched from looking at the back wall to looking at her now. The small smile that was plastered on his face from when they had first encountered each other was a tad bit wider now as Itachi leaned down to say something in her ear that nobody else could hear.
"Doctor Haruno, please smile. It looks better for your hospital."
How did he know that she wasn't smiling?
Itachi Uchiha was already 2 for 2 today in surprising her with his ability to see while being blind. He continued to gaze at her until she cracked the slightest of smiles. Content with this, he turned to face the back of the wall again.
Damnit! How did he know to turn the other way when she smiled?
Sakura would have to thoroughly probe his eye cell levels whenever she escorted him to his personal hospital room. There was no way that this man was 100% blind, even though the complete murkiness of his eyes and absence of irises told a different story. He was too damn perceptive to be that blind when he had told her many things throughout the day that indicated otherwise. She finally emancipated Itachi's sleeve when the uproar around them fizzled out. He walked himself to his seat in the center of the room without his cane and settled himself in after feeling the creases of his desk. The same colored and manufactured nameplate that Sakura had at her desk was present on his, instead spelling out the name ITACHI UCHIHA.
The actual professionally conducted interview began as soon as Sakura took her seat next to her former teacher. She responded to each inquiry as best as she could, being extremely vigilant to not promise to the interviewers or Itachi that she could restore Itachi's vision to 100% capacity. She was not one to make empty promises for the sake of the media's opinion, but she did assert that she would work day and night to treat him. The questions bounced between Sakura and Itachi mostly, with a few questions peppered in directed towards Tsunade.
"Medical Director Tsunade, what makes you believe that your former student is able to treat such a disease in such a high-profile man?"
Tsunade would have sneered if there weren't 50 cameras on her.
"It is well-known that Doctor Haruno has a special healing technique that she learned from me, even surpassing my capabilities. She naturally possesses meticulous chakra control which she can use to target damaged optical cells and leave healthy cells alone. If done correctly, it is almost like chemotherapy, but without the detrimental effects that chemotherapy has."
After Tsunade answered, another reporter went to Itachi asking if he trusted Sakura to not damaged his small amount of remaining healthy eye cells.
Sakura could tell that Itachi was beginning to become mildly annoyed with the incessant and repetitive questions, but he still politely answered them with some semblance of interest for the media's sake. Sakura suspected that his outstanding social graces were many of the reasons why Itachi was successful with the people and why he was in so many high-level promotions- not only was Itachi the world's most exceptional fighter, but he was svelte with his speech patterns and mannerisms.
It was a terrible shame that the man would be confined to a hospital bed in an unfamiliar room with an unfamiliar doctor who would be prodding and poking within the innermost depths of his damaged eyes every day.
Sakura didn't disguise the way she kept stealing glances at Itachi. He was her patient, after all, and from the public's eyes, it looked like she was just woefully glancing at a man who had fallen from glory. She noted with curiosity that Itachi never looked towards the general direction of the interviewer that was asking him questions at their respective times. His direct field of vision constantly included her in it.
Maybe this was how he kept correctly guessing those things today. He would centralize his entire self into one thing or person and read them like that. Disregarding and tuning everything and everyone else out could prove beneficial in discerning an individual's physicality. This still wouldn't explain his supernatural capacity to accurately conclude why Sakura wasn't smiling and when she was smiling. Unless Itachi was bluffing, which Sakura was beginning to think at this point, he was perhaps psychic.
An interesting question broke her away from her internal speculations.
"Uchiha-sama, how exactly did you go blind?" a smaller news reporter asked quietly when Itachi picked her to come forward.
Sakura was surprised that this question hadn't been asked nor answered yet. If it was answered, Sakura hadn't been paying attention. Itachi looked a little more annoyed at this distinct question than all the other ones.
"Over-usage of a special type of eye genjutsu. Unfortunately, Doctor Haruno advised me before this interview to not speak about my medical condition in detail. It's bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, you see."
This time, Sakura's grin was genuine. That was a shrewd, untruthful, and clever way to avoid a chain event of more questions asking that Itachi go into supplementary detail about it. The term "over-usage" was an extremely broad description of Itachi's intricate condition that Sakura would soon come to know intimately. Sakura nodded towards Itachi to signify her approval of his white lie, forgetting his blindness for a split second.
She was surprised to see him nod back after a few seconds.
As soon as the Medical Directors ushered Itachi and Sakura into the former's generous hospital room (suite was more like it), Sakura closed the door. It must have run Itachi a pretty penny to afford the topmost medical room in Konoha Hospital- Sakura had momentarily forgotten that her hospital had an 8th floor. This part of the hospital was reserved for famous clients who could afford rooms this grandiose. The room was equipped with a great expanse of pharmaceutical and medicinal equipment as any other room would have, but with a king-size bed, a sectional leather couch, a balcony overlooking the city, and even a hot tub seated comfortably in the corner of the room. There were a myriad of other things that really stood out to her (like that 90-inch television and the grand piano near the sectional that Itachi would never use) in terms of their extravagance, but Sakura brushed it off. To her, this was just another hospital room where she would treat another patient.
Further reinforcing to Sakura that this was just another hospital room and nothing special, she caught sight of all the wiring and machines bedecking the floors and walls of the room. They were located mostly near the bed where the patient would most likely spend most of his/her time.
Itachi chose to insert his room's key in his wallet pocket as he could not link it to his keychain. Sakura knew that he no longer could legally drive after his accident and made do with what he had. Itachi withdrew his white cane and began to tap it back and forth on the mahogany floors and through the air. Once he was confident in his bed's position, he removed his winter coat with extreme grace for a blind man and folded it neatly on his pillow. The now seeable muscles residing within the confines of his thin long sleeve were just as svelte as the way he spoke and conducted himself.
He sat down on the bed crisscrossed and Sakura took this as her cue to approach and question him. She knew that they were both exasperated from all the questions and just wanted to be left alone, but she was eager to start today.
"Uchiha-sama, I want to begin today if that is alright with you. I will only be asking questions about your family's medical background and your Sharingan," Sakura spoke to him from the middle of his bed. She had brought her clipboard up the elevator with him and reached into her pocket to draw out her pen. However, the writing utensil was nowhere to be found and Sakura's expression soured.
How could she bring a clean clipboard with nothing to write on it with?
"I'm not sure where your pen is, but you will get wrinkles if you keep frowning like that," was Itachi's velvety reply to her conundrum. Sakura snapped her head up after fishing through her pockets and her expression tightened even more if such a thing was possible.
"I think I lost my pen because I have been so busy trying to figure out why you're in my hospital to receive my blindness treatment if you can see everything that I do, Uchiha-sama," Sakura bit out impatiently, hating the way she didn't know how Itachi could keep deducing all of these things correctly. She emphasized particular words with a poisonous tone warning Itachi to not keep it up. She was trying to remain professional, but it seemed like everything Itachi directed towards her was teasing. A dark chuckle not unlike the one he had given Sakura at the doors of Konoha hospital spilled from his lips.
The room remained quiet as Sakura cheaply used her heightened chakra senses to locate her pen's vague outline on her body. She finally discovered it being in her slack's pocket, not her doctor's coat. Sakura rolled her eyes at her own stupidity but made an astonishing deduction based on the little scenario she had just completed.
"Uchiha-sama, you are still able to feel my own chakra outline?"
Itachi's dark chuckle spilled from his mouth again and he nodded. No sparkle was present in his dull eyes, but his eyelids did raise a little bit in admiration.
"Yes, Doctor Haruno. Many other people's chakra are dull and hazy to me, but yours is exceptionally strong and clear-cut for me. I do not have to strain myself to feel yours, as you have one of the most powerful chakra signatures I have ever felt before."
Sakura's trademark red unfurled throughout her body, starting with her throat and neck first this time.
"Even though your Sharingan is extremely impaired and you cannot see at all, you use your chakra sensing to determine my facial expressions and my movements. You did this every time today when responding to my feedback, correct?"
"Correct. I was simply teasing you back when we met about the heels and the car clicks. I knew you were Doctor Haruno from the moment you arrived in the parking lot."
After scribbling everything down on her clipboard, Sakura's distaste for Itachi's teasing turned into full-blown, rabid curiosity.
"When you say other's chakra signatures are 'dull and hazy', could you explain that to me in further detail?"
Itachi ran his long, slender fingers through his neat, inky locks.
"If a powerful genjutsu user with a decent amount of chakra were to enter this room right now, I would think that they are very far away due to the low amount of chakra I am able to sense from them. Only if I heard them open the door would I know that they were in the room."
"Uninhibited eyes, Sharingan or not, are really important for sensing chakra. It is one of our gateways, after all, so I'm not surprised to hear you say that," Sakura said to him, chewing on the pen in her hand.
"You are 100% blind with no vision at all in either eye, correct?" she continued.
"Correct."
She was too busy scribbling his answers on her clipboard and was gearing up to ask him another question when a rapt knock at the door echoed through the expansive suite. Sakura rolled up her medical coat and checked the watch adorning her wrist- it was already 5 P.M., which was the time that patients gathered in the cafeteria to eat. However, one of the perks of Itachi's costly medical suite was that he got food delivered to him privately and he was able to eat in his room.
"We could continue this over dinner, Doctor Haruno?" Itachi asked this time instead of the other way around. Sakura smiled and obliged, now comfortably knowing that Itachi could "see" her and wasn't some sort of psychic freak like she earlier thought.