"I'm sorry, Sasuke," the head Med-nin said as Sasuke sat stiffly on the cold metal table.

"But hasn't medicine advanced enough by now?" He refused to open his eyes. The doctors and nurses didn't need to see his off-centered eyes anymore.

Sasuke was aware of the slow turning of pages, too precise to be actually read.

"Even if we can fix lack of blood flow that has inhibited the visual center of your brain from working, your brain wouldn't know how to interpret the information around you." The doctor's voice was cold. "It's a miracle in itself that you were still able to activate the Sharingan."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. How was he ever going to avenge his family and take down his brother if he couldn't get his sight? And now it wasn't even a question of whether they could heal him or not, it was a question—or a fact—that Sasuke wouldn't be able to understand his world visually ever even if he did manage to get his sight.

The doctor pressed his hand to Sasuke's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I truly am."

He pushed the doctor's hand away and jumped off the table reaching out for the doorframe. He heard the nurses move aside for him to pass.

Fire boiled in his veins.

He yanked his retractable cane from his ninja pouch.

"Sasuke…" Kakashi said lazily. "You don't have to follow the same path as Itachi did."

…

Sasuke slammed into a branch somewhere overhead with Sakura slung over his shoulder. His leg pulsed in pain from the two-inch deep kunai wound. He concentrated his chakra into his hands and felt along the branch until he guessed they were out of sight.

"Sasuke…" Sakura's voice said slowly. He heard her shaking her head trying to wake herself up out of the genjutsu. "Sasuke! You're hurt!"

He clamped his hand over her mouth, his bangs falling in his face, "Where is he?!" he hissed. "Can he see us?"

"Who—oh—no, no he can't." She was trembling. "What do we do? Where's Naruto?"

As if on cue, Naruto's voice boomed in the forest.

"VERY FUNNY, GUYS! JUST LEAVE ME TO DEAL WITH THE GIANT SNAKE!"

The branches were shaking and there was that cold hissing laughter from down below.

"You think I don't know you're up there?"

"Who the hell is this guy?!" Naruto bellowed.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Sasuke growled pushing Sakura's worried hands away and moving towards the idiot's voice. He stayed close to the branch practically moving on all fours so he wouldn't fall. He felt hands grasp his shoulders.

Instinctively he grabbed a kunai and pressed it against their neck until he felt the familiar hot pulsing chakra of Naruto.

"Hey hey hey, Sauce-gay."

Sasuke pushed him off. "We have to get away. This man down there. He's crazy! He did something to Sakura."

"He looks gross."

"You can see him!?"

"Of course he's staring at you."

Sasuke felt something drop in the pit of his stomach. He should have been able to sense if someone was watching him. Where was his head at. He winced as he leaned on his bad leg to stand up.

"I'm going for it!"

"Going for—?"

Sasuke heard Naruto jump off the branch toward the mystery person.

"WHOEVER YOU ARE, YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT FOR MESSING WITH MY FRIENDS!"
"Naruto you idiot!" Sakura yelled.

"Hn." Sasuke whirled toward the voices and focused all his chakra in his eyes trying to perceive what was happening. He kept hearing Naruto screaming, the popping noises of exploding clones and the hissing of giant snakes.

He pulled out his own kunai.

"WHAT ARE YOU SCARED, SASUKE!?" Naruto suddenly screamed. His voice was quaking under the pressure of battle.

I'm scared.

He'd said that to Itachi. He felt the sensation of tripping over his dead aunts and uncles. He was going to throw up.

…cling to your wretched life…

His life was not wretched.

He fell back as a giant force and shadow appeared before him. He smelt the foul bitterness of snake venom.

"Oh come now, little Uchiha, are you going to make this so easy for me?"

Naruto let out a roar like a feral animal.

Sasuke backed up instinctively as the great mass moved toward him and invaded his chakra space. He foot hit the edge of the giant branch. Oh fuck—

A hand grasped his.

"Don't worry, little boy, I got you." Naruto was pulsating with power. Something was off about his aura. Something 'colorful.'

Sasuke reached out tentatively and his fingers grazed the lines indented in Naruto's cheek.

What are you? He wanted to say.

But then something clicked in his brain.

Foolish otouto.

"I'm not a little boy!" He pulled out a tagged kunai and threw it right over Naruto's head and heard the satisfying explosion as the snake's head burst into bits of meat and blood.

"EW! SASUKE!" Naruto complained but his voice sounded pleased.

"Okay, Naruto," Sasuke said groping for the idiot. He smelled terrible like cold old meat mixed with acid and ramen. "I need you to help me pinpoint his location." He found the boy's hand and found that it was slimy. "Ugh! What happened to you?"

"Well while you and Sakura were playing hide and seek I got eaten by a giant snake!"

"Hn."

Something changed down below and the creature began laughing again. Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hand and they went flying off into the branches. Sasuke's head was spinning. He hated jumping through the trees; he lost his sense of grounding.

His head was pressed against Naruto's slimy windbreaker. His skin crawled. God, Naruto smelled horrible. Sasuke felt his stomach turn.

"Maybe we should just give him our scroll…" he grumbled.

He felt the boy shifting. As much as Naruto annoyed Sasuke, at least he could always depend on him. Then, Naruto grabbed his collar pulling him up to force Sasuke to look at him—well, joke's on him, he thought bitterly.

"THE SASUKE I KNOW WOULD NEVER SAY THAT!"

Oh, god this kid was so annoying. Couldn't he see what this creep did to Sakura—

Where was she anyway?

"Look at that the Uchiha is getting the demon fox all riled up…" came that slithering voice. It gave Sasuke chills.

Suddenly Naruto was swept away and Sasuke dropped to the branch, clinging to it for dear life.

"H-h-hey!" Naruto was screaming.

And Sasuke could do nothing.

"Oh look, even the mark that imprisons the demon is showing." There was a low chuckle. "How interesting… But I didn't come here for you…just yet."

Naruto screamed.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled from somewhere high up. "Naruto may be an idiot but don't get so down on yourself!"

"I believe in you!" Naruto screamed before Sasuke heard the boy's body hit one of the trees.

"At least Naruto wasn't afraid to fight!"

Sasuke whirled activating his Sharingan and opening his dead eyes wide. "Just shut up! Both of you!"

He pinpointed the pulsating shadow below using his other senses to define the man's chakra. This wasn't a female at all. That chakra definitely didn't fit the body. Who was this guy?

He flew at the man, pulling the cords and attaching them to the trees, spinning around the creature before it could move and tying it to a trunk. There was wild laughter.

"I knew it!" The sound of a tongue slowly licking lips.

Sasuke shuddered.

"You're perfect."

Sasuke paused for half a second—Perfect? Then he pulled the cords tight, took a deep breath, centered his chakra. "Fire-style! Dragon flame jutsu!"

He felt the flames burn his esophagus from his rush but he aimed true, using the cords to aim for him. There was no way his flames missed. He felt the body of the creature incinerate.

Silence.

The flames cooled.

Sasuke moved toward the shadow focusing all his chakra to his senses, his Sharingan. The abnormal chakra was untouched.

Laughter flooded his ears.

"You're soooooo perrrrfect!"

"Oh my god, Sasuke!" Sakura screamed. "What is that? Do you see her…or his face! It's peeling off!"

"I knew your chakra didn't align with your body." Sasuke's voice was cold. "Who are you?"

The shadow jumped at him. Sasuke flew backwards trusting completely in Sakura to grab him. He felt little warm hands on his shoulders. His lips turned up in the smallest most indiscernible smile.

"This was really all I came here for."

What?

The man creature clapped his hands in a handsign. Something stretched and broken like skin over bone, and then there were two sharp needles in Sasuke's neck. His body froze.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Stop yelling my name and help—Sasuke thought before fire coursed through his veins. Hair drapped over his shoulder and lips kissed his neck where the fangs were. A small voice whispered.

"I can give you the eyes you've always wanted."

And then he didn't hear anything else. The world shook. His Sharingan dissipated and crows screamed in the distance.

There was nothing but dark nightmares and pain.

Nothing.

Blackness and pain.

Nothing.

…the eyes you've always wanted.