Title: Blind Love.
Author: Philosophia.
Pairings: SasuNaruSasu. More as the story progresses.
Rating: NC-17 in future chapters.
Beta: This chapter was beta'd by Luthien Wildglen and Ruby Lips! Thans to both of you!

Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue. Live on garbage as it is. D:

Please read this!
I am really sorry for taking so long to update! This chapter was really hard to write, and I'm not really happy with it, but I've done my best.
This means that reviews would be highly appreciated; Harsh ones will probablt break my heart, but I need it. I need so much constructive criticism as I can get. Thank you!

Review replies.. Um, here's the deal. I am completely confused as to why it says that I have replied to, like, 0 reviews. Has anyone gotten their reply?

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Chapter four: Thy unrelenting past.

It'scold, Sasuke thought.

Why is everything so cold

The fever-struck boy didn't notice that he was sweating, and pulled the covers tighter around him.

Wait…

Covers?

He fingered the smooth covers… Smooth like silk against his burning, cold skin.

He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt so heavy..

He turned around; burying his nose in the pillow he had under his head, and inhaled.

That scent…

Itachi?

"Nii-san?" Sasuke coughed as raspy words were forced to form on his vocal cords. Why was he in his nii-san's room? He'd better get out before nii-san came home, or he'd be angry with Sasuke. He never said anything, but Sasuke could always see it in his brother's accusing eyes. Sasuke tried to sit up, but his weak body just fell back again.

Why was he in Itachi's room anyway? Maybe mother had put him there.

Mother...

Mother...

…Eight year old Uchiha Sasuke stared at the motionless bodies of the Uchiha branch family members. They weren't dead, he told himself. They were just hurt. Unconscious.

Sasuke froze up as memories seemingly blocked his throat, preventing his lungs from drawing in oxygen. He clawed at his throat, but it didn't help. It just continued.

…"Brother! Father and mother are..!" Sasuke stared at his parents' bloody bodies, then he turned his eyes to his nii-san as tears clouded his vision. "Why! Why?! Who the hell… this…!?"

"If you want to kill me… Curse me! Hate me!"

Sasuke gasped for breath. He forced his stiff body into a sitting position and grabbed his chest as tears welled up in his closed eyes. Brother had… Why had he…?

The scene changed, and…

Sasuke stood behind a grey-haired boy with cold eyes.

"This is how we do it," Kabuto turned around, sporting a smirk as he pushed his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose. "We are elite ninjas, such nonsense as villages shouldn't matter to a shinobi."

Sasuke turned his eyes to the crying woman in front of them. They said she was a traitor. But no, she hadn't betrayed her village. She had tried to sell out Orochimaru.

A flash of a Kunai, and the week Sound-nin's eyes rolled back as she fell down.

"Remember, Sasuke-sama, that it was your village, the villagers, that made you weak."

Sasuke forced his eyes open but was only rewarded with more darkness. Why couldn't he see? His eyes, what was wrong with his fucking eyes?!

The snake-like face of a man was all Sasuke could see. The man's smirk was cunning and evil-

"You've been here for two years, Sasuke-kun," the man cooed into his ear and forced the Kunai deeper into Sasuke's shoulder. "This is the most valuable lesson you will ever learn."

Sasuke grit his teeth and glared at the man.

"There will always be pain, Sasuke-kun. Accept it. Become one with it. You need to understand it, Sasuke," Orochimaru said and twisted the Kunai, ignoring Sasuke's scream.

Sasuke was hyperventilating. He forced his body out of bed as memories rushed to his brain- but he couldn't see his own fucking hand in front of him. He clawed at his eyes and emitted an agonized cry- they were still there, but why weren't they working?

Memories of a bright young girl with red clothes, of a lazy masked man with white hair – of his best friend with sunshine smiles- they all faded behind the memories of Sasuke's brother, fuelling his hatred.

"I'm doing the right thing," the dark haired boy said from his position on the bed, holding his knees close to his chest, rocking back and forth gently as he tried to convince himself that the life he lived was the life he wanted to live. "I'm doing a good thing, the right thing. They understand. I have to get strong, so I can kill him. So I can finally gain peace…"

Sasuke stopped rocking and banged his head on his knees in frustration.

"Right for whom?"

Sasuke blindly stumbled forward. In his emotional state his senses were a jumble- was someone behind him? In front of him?

Sasuke suddenly collided with something hard. A wall. He bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to calm down his ragged breathing. If he fainted now the enemy would be able to take him down. Trembling hands were dragged roughly along the wall, searching for the door that would take him out of this fucking hell.

Sasuke worked hard. He fought with little to no sleep, ran on practically sheer will-power alone and obeyed Orochimaru's orders like a lapdog.

It felt good. Being under pressure constantly- being observed, analyzed, criticised. It left no time to remember.

"You know, Sasuke-kun,." The snake sannin had sat Sasuke down to have a conversation with him one day. "There are some things I think I need to clarify, and I intend on telling you nothing but the truth."

Sasuke had sent Orochimaru a dark glare, telling him to hurry up so he could continue training him.

"I hope you know that I intend on using you as nothing other than my container."

Sasuke kept quiet.

"I will use it to destroy the leaf village."

Sasuke turned his eyes to the ground.

"And there is no way for you to escape your fate now." Orochimaru observed the boy carefully.

For a few seconds, all that really could be heard was the deafening silence.

"So?" Sasuke then said coldly. "I don't care what happens to me, as long as I get my revenge."

Sasuke stood up and left.

His hands suddenly touched air.

Sasuke quickly stumbled out of the room. What now? His eyes were open wide, as if he was hoping for his vision to return to normal any second now. He swayed as the consequences of not calming down caught up with him- Blank. For a second, at least it seemed that long to Sasuke, neither light nor darkness reached Sasuke.

"NO!" Sasuke roared angrily..

There had been a fire, blood, regret, betrayal and memories. Sasuke stood in the middle of it all, the smell of burnt flesh stung his nose as the corpses he had left behind incinerated. Kabuto had escaped, but Sasuke had bigger things to worry about, Sasuke realized as Orochimaru appeared in between him and the door out.

"No!" Sasuke yelled again as the smirk on his sensei's face widened.

"I won't let you escape," Orochimaru had said simply with a calm tone of voice, as if standing in a burning house didn't faze him at all.

"…don't really think he's fit for training yet, he's got a really high fever," Naruto told Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei as they stood in Sasuke's living room. The jounin and chuunin had come by just a few hours after Naruto himself and Sasuke had left Tsunade's office, just as Tsunade had said they would; Kakashi with food and Iruka with Naruto's personal belongings.

"I would have thought that Tsunade had personally healed him." Iruka admitted with a soft air of surprise. "It was made obvious that the guards were hired to keep Sasuke from escaping, not to keep him healthy and alive."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "I wasn't allowed to see him until today, but I don't think that's the way he's supposed to look. He must be very sick.. We should take him to the hospital."

Naruto shook his head at the proposal. "I don't think that'll be necessary, I've already cleaned up and bandaged his wounds and they don't seem to be that-"

An agonized cry and a loud thud cut off Naruto mid-sentence. His eyes widened and he reacted immediately, rushing into the hallway with Iruka and Kakashi behind him.

Sasuke was bleeding. He was bruised and battered, and if he lost more blood he probably wouldn't make it.

But Sasuke would win. He would sure as fucking hell win. He wouldn't let the disgusting Sannin use his body to destroy his home village.

"What about revenge?" Orochimaru whispered into his ear as he drove the kunai further into Sasuke's side. "You have gotten strong, Sasuke. Stronger than I thought you would. But you need to get stronger."

"I don't care!" Sasuke whispered with the promise of murder in his voice. "I want to get out of here; I want to live a normal life!"

Orochimaru chuckled. "Stop fighting it, Sasuke-kun."

It was all Sasuke had ever wanted, really. A normal life. He just hadn't realized until now that he could live a normal life, with his friends, without having to avenge his murdered family.

Yes, Sasuke wanted to live a normal life.

And he was ready to fight for it.

With some odd mix of desperation, rage and determination, he grabbed Orochimaru's hand which held the kunai currently lodged in between Sasuke's lower ribs.

"Chidori Nagashi (1)!"

Sasuke's body was suddenly covered in electricity. He stared Orochimaru in the eyes as he forced the electricity to Orochimaru's body, and concentrated it on his heart.

Naruto swore as he saw Sasuke's limp body on the floor outside the room he had left him in. He walked up to him, aware of the fact that both his former senseis were following him close behind. Sasuke's face was paler than usual, his hair damp and his face covered by a light sheen. A weird frown was on his face- and for a moment, Naruto thought Sasuke was in pain.

Naruto reached down a hand to shake Sasuke awake- but was surprised when Kakashi's fingers were suddenly curled around Naruto's wrist, stopping him from touching Sasuke.

"Don't," Kakashi said simply, watching Sasuke with his uncovered eye.

Naruto stared at Kakashi oddly. "Wha..?" he said in a confused tone.

"He's dreaming." Iruka's voice was again soft as he watched Sasuke from a small distance. "And by the looks of it, it isn't a nice dream."

Naruto stared from Iruka, to Kakashi, to Sasuke.

They were right. Behind Sasuke's closed eyelids, his eyes were moving rapidly from side to side, indicating that he was dreaming, and it probably wasn't a peaceful dream. The rhythm of his breathing was irregular, Telling Naruto that it must be a nightmare.

Naruto crouched down to examine Sasuke's face better, and Kakashi let go of Naruto's arm.

"It's probably because of the fever, but we shouldn't move him until we are sure that he won't harm us in his sleep. Many accidents have occurred while waking up ninjas from nightmares, and him not being able to see us will only make it worse." Kakashi's low voice was bored, and Naruto couldn't stop himself from scowling. He, a member of the ANBU, should have known that better than anyone else.

Naruto then sighed and nodded. "And because of the fever his senses are probably messed up," he whispered as he turned his face back to Sasuke's. "I wonder what Sasuke's dreaming-"

"NO!"

Naruto gave a startled yelp as a fist flew out of nowhere. He automatically forced his body back, bending his spine painfully- as he registered what had happened he was already balancing on his hands and feet in a bridge.

"Shit-" Kakashi dodged a fist as Iruka rushed to help Naruto up.

Sasuke was standing up, pressed against the wall as if to keep someone from attacking from behind. Some of the wounds on his unclothed torso had started to bleed again from the strain. He was panting heavily, hands pressed into deadly fists at his sides and his eyes were wide open..

Unfortunately, it was obvious that Sasuke's mind was somewhere completely else.

He should have known.

Of course Sasuke should have known better than to underestimate Orochimaru. That Orochimaru wouldn't be taken down that easily. Even though the Chidori Nagashi was Sasuke's strongest jutsu, Orochimaru was a Sannin that had defeated two kages (2); he was Sasuke's teacher for god's sake, and held a clear advantage over him.

Sasuke stared with some sort of sick fascination as Orochimaru's shaking hands formed seals in a completely foreign pattern.

Suddenly, a huge monster of some sort was behind Orochimaru.

And then it all clicked.

Sasuke's eyes widened painfully as he backed away from Orochimaru on instinct- too bad the fire prevented him from moving where he wanted, and it was easy for the Sannin to follow.

Kabuto had told him about this technique- it was the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, which the third hokage had used to destroy Orochimaru's arms. The same technique that the fourth hokage had used against Kyuubi...

That technique would be used against Sasuke.

His blood red eyes scanned the room for a way to get through the flames safely, but the only way to get out would be to get past Orochimaru; and that wasn't really an option, seeing as the huge monster was right behind him.

A surprised noise almost made its way past Sasuke's lips. His eyes were starting to burn painfully, and Orochimaru stood much closer to Sasuke than he had just seconds ago, with the large death god standing right behind him.

It hurt. Oh yes it fucking hurt- it was as if his eyes were in the middle of the slowly spreading flames- and it was unbearable. Sasuke emitted a pained noise as he blinked- squinted- but nothing worked.

A form of panic that Sasuke had never felt before settled like a small knot in Sasuke's stomach.

"I'll let you live," Orochimaru hissed as blood dribbled down his chin. He took a hold of Sasuke's shoulders, bringing his face closer to Sasuke's. "I'll let you live, but I'm going to make sure you wish you were dead."

Blood splattered over Sasuke's cheek as Orochimaru coughed, but he couldn't bring himself to care about that as his vision faded into black around the edges. He wanted to push Orochimaru the fuck AWAY from himself- but he just stood frozen to the spot, as if Orochimaru's weak arms had nailed him to the wall.

"I'm going to make sure the only desirable thing about you is ruined, Sasuke-kun. I'm going to make sure no one will ever want you again."

Sasuke really panicked as he opened his eyes wide- but it didn't help the burning pain in his eyes, and it didn't help his vision from fading.

"You'll be completely useless… To your village, to your friends, to your dead clan members… To the entire world. Oh yes, Sasuke-kun… I'm going to make sure you wish you were dead."

The words were like a bullet to Sasuke's heart as he understood what was going on.

By then, he could barely see anything at all. "NO!" He yelled and pushed Orochimaru away from himself harshly, as if hoping that he would push away his words as well. As if hoping he would push away Orochimaru's last curse…

..hoping that it would stop Orochimaru from taking what Sasuke treasured, cherished and valued most in the entire world with him into the grave.

The last thing Sasuke ever saw was Orochimaru's triumphant smirk as he fell backwards.

The three shinobi stared at the blind boy as he suddenly bent over, pressing his fists into his eyes.

"Fuck!" he yelled.

"What the hell was that about?" Naruto whispered to Iruka.

"He's confused. It's the fever, his mind can't comprehend that he's woken up from the nightmare," Iruka answered. "It's either that, or he's playing confused to have an excuse to attack us."

Why are teachers always too goddamn smart for their own good?

"That can't be it!" Naruto said furiously.

"I don't really care what he's doing," Kakashi said slowly. "We need to get him restrained anyway."

"But Sasuke's-"

The boy in question seemed to respond to his name. He preformed hand seals with a speed Naruto had only seen once before, and that was also by Sasuke.

'Chidori!'

The sound of a thousand birds flapping their wings grew in the room, as Sasuke summoned chakra into his hand. A marble-sized ball of blue chakra formed in Sasuke's right palm, then grew. Iruka reached for his shuriken-holster. Kakashi bolted at Sasuke.

But of course the dark-haired boy moved faster, seeing as no one was really prepared for a sick boy to move as fast as Sasuke obviously could.

Naruto breathed heavily as he was pushed against the wall. He thought he saw Sasuke mouth Orochimaru's name, but didn't have time to think about it as Sasuke's hand came down on him.

Adrenaline surged through his body. Kyuubi's chakra was starting to…

Stop him. Don't hurt him.

And helpless as Naruto really was, he did the first thing that came to his mind.

He tapped Sasuke three times on the left shoulder.

The ANBU-signal, telling him to wake up.

It was a freak accident really.

Sasuke assumed that the most powerful source of chakra was Orochimaru- so he surged at it.

It was Orochimaru.

It had to be.

It sounded a bit like Naruto, but- how?

He had been with Orochimaru moments ago…

…Orochimaru had taken away his eyesight, and he wasn't dead- he was there, alive, and Sasuke would fucking kill him, oh yes he would, because if he did, Sasuke would get back what Orochimaru had taken…

Right?

Right.

And just as he pushed back a body that was slightly too short, a bit too warm and much too hesitant in hurting Sasuke; just as he pushed forward the Chidori, he felt it.

Three light taps on his shoulder, leaving traces of a familiar sort of chakra.

A chakra he remembered being red.

And Sasuke woke up.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes. Somewhere in the background, Iruka clung onto Kakashi's arm as they waited for someone to make the next move.

But all Naruto saw was a mass of blue-black hair.

He slowly let go of Sasuke's bandaged shoulder, which he had grabbed so hard Naruto was sure it would bruise in a few hours.

And finally his mind caught up.

Relief flooded his mind and he slid down the wall, dimly noticing that Sasuke's fist had just barely missed him, piercing the wall next to his head instead.

It was all silent for a few seconds, until Sasuke pulled his fist out of the plaster wall, stumbled back a step before falling to his knees in front of Naruto.

Kakashu walked up to Sasuke and put his hands on Sasuke's shoulders(3). Sasuke jerked violently, wishing that whoever it was would understand and let go of him, which Kakashi of course didn't do.

"Can't let you escape," Kakashi said slowly, softly.

"I won't let you escape," Orochimaru said calmly.

Sasuke's leg spun out of nowhere, but Kakashi jumped out of the way, then put his index fingers right behind Sasuke's ears, pressing lightly in warning on his pressure points.

"Don't fucking push it."

"Where is Orochimaru?" Sasuke's low voice was laced with fury.

Naruto, still not moving from his spot by the wall, answered.

"Sasuke.. it was a dream. A memory. You're back in Konoha now."

Sasuke's eyes widened.

"B- he was right here!"

"It's the fever," Kakashi mumbled.

"But- he took my e-" Sasuke's jaw snapped shut and his expression hardened.

Sixteen years old, Kakashi thought to himself. Ninja grew up too fast.

Sasuke's fist once again slammed into the wall right next to Naruto's ear, making Naruto's head snap up and his eyes open.

He was met by two onyx eyes, that were so cold and yet so angry and even more passionate and why, whywhywhywhy would anyone ever want to destroy something so beautiful?

"I need them," Sasuke forced out through gritted teeth. "I need…"

Sasuke's other fist joined his first on the other side of Naruto's head.

Sasuke closed his eyes and bowed his head.

"For God's sake, I'm an Uchiha!"

---

Okay, um.

First of all: Glossary! Yay! The first one is a manga spoiler, but it's nothing, really.

(1) "This is a version of the Chidori, in which Uchiha Sasuke gathers a great amount of chakra throughout his body instead of just his hand. He is then able to force it out producing a Chidori-like effect which surrounds his whole body. This technique was first implemented to stave off Naruto, Sai, and Yamato's combined counterattack. Anyone who comes in contact with this technique gets shocked as well as temporarily paralyzed."

(2) Orochimaru killed Yondaime Kazekage and Sandaime Hokage.

(3) Easy access to pressure points behind the ear. Um, I don't know how to explain this; right where the jawbone and the "scullbone".

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

I am.. REALLY sorry about the delay. But believe me when I say, I had some really big problems with this chapter. It was EXTREMELY hard to write. Sasuke became OOC all the time, which was annoying. Ha. I've rewritten it probably over 20 times, and I'm still not that happy with it. Meh.