Author's Note (the one and only). Sasuhina. For the lack of a better title. This was initially written out of pure crack in my native language in order for me to refresh my rusty Lithuanian syntax, when I was studying in Korea. However, people sort of liked it, so I decided to translate it into English and post it in international sites as well. Please keep in mind that it was written in'08 October – '09 January and there definitely are some inaccuracies with the manga, since there have been some significant changes in the plot during these months (Kishi-san gave me a heart-attack a few times v.v). Anyways, not sure whether people will read it much here, but any kind of comment is very welcomed :)

E. ^^

06/03/2016 Going through the story again and fixing the clumsy English. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it more readable.

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-1-

When you have nothing, you need nothing. When you see nothing, it usually boils down to one of the three options:

* you're blind;

* the sight malfunction is not permanent (could be induced by a certain drug);

* it's too dark in the room.

In this case, however, all the variants were possible. What was more, Sasuke was lying with his eyes closed, and he totally wasn't interested in the possibility to see. It was pitch-dark at midnight in the middle of winter. He didn't know there was not a single star in the sky. The sky was covered with a thick layer of clouds that did not let the ground get cold, but, at the same time, it was oppressing the village. The streetlights weren't much of a help. The dismal weather made the usually bright light look dim and wan, as if one was looking through a smeared glass bottle.

His ward's window was covered with dark curtains that wouldn't have let in any ray of sun even on the brightest day. Everything looked gloomy in the small room: ghostly white walls, Spartan chair at the patient's bed, and even the patient himself who looked more like a Grim Reaper than a young man in his early twenties.

Sasuke was blind. For a couple of weeks now. On that day, Sakura stormed into his ward like a typhoon and blocked his sight nerve via chakra channels. He hasn't opened his dark eyes since then. The eyes that have been causing him a severe migraine for a few years already. Their light would fade from time to time, and sometimes the eyesight would get sharper than that of any bird of prey. When he scandalously returned to Konoha (after planning and trying for several times to wipe his hometown off the face of the Earth), Sasuke tried to use the sharingan as seldom as possible and depend solely on his taijutsu and ninjutsu, but the blood was some sort of a curse. The more you knew, the more you had to sacrifice in order to retain the knowledge or use it.

Needless to say, when illness is there for a long time, eventually the person gets used to it and learns to live with it. Therefore, soon enough Sasuke was no longer surprised when his sight would disappear in the middle of a day, and he would have to trust his hearing and touch, trying to get back home through the busy streets of Konoha. That was one of the reasons he didn't go on any mission. Perhaps the Fifth hag would have given him the highest class missions, but he wasn't so crazy about his abilities to actually volunteer and risk a mission. Maybe he was a highly individualistic emo prick, but he wasn't completely dumb.

However, that didn't go for long, because eventually the dumb blonde understood everything and ratted him out to Sakura. Sakura, in turn, told everything to the old hag and Sasuke didn't even register as he was swiftly hospitalized, and he had to suffer weird analyses and experiments every single day. Everything, ranging from a mere eyesight checkup staring at a table of geometric shapes to the most fantastic medical jutsu, which would only leave him hungry or cause his back to itch terribly, somewhere in between the fifth and the sixth rib on the left.

He was so tired of everything that he had no wish to object to any of that. He was taking it in silence, without any positive or negative emotional display. He didn't say a word when even the Hyuugas were asked to "save Uchiha Sasuke," even though under normal circumstances his right eye would've started twitching and he would've had terrible stomach cramps. However, right now he didn't care at all. He could've easily called out for the Team Hawk. He knew that these days they were undertaking Konoha's S-class missions. But whatever. He had no wish to hinder them. Besides, that madwoman Karin would start fussing over him again… Of course, after all these years, he's begun appreciating people's concern and everything, but as of now he only wanted peace and quiet. Sasuke was sure his chances to get better were very slim. An Uchiha could have only been healed by another Uchiha. But he was the only one left. Now REALLY the only one. The person with one sharingan wasn't a real Uchiha anyways.

So, after a few months of a totally futile search for the cause of the illness and after sending all the Hyuugas to hell (Sasuke partially believed the clan wasn't even trying to help, they merely stood there for a few days in front of the analysis data just for the sake of it), Sakura decided to block his sight nerve so that his eyes wouldn't deteriorate any further until she finds the reason mangekyo damages the eyes so much. "You would go blind sooner or later anyways if we don't cure you," she had told him then. "So what's the difference: being blind for a short time right now, or being blind for the rest of your life later?"

He had just shrugged and let her blind him. At least she was no longer the crazy girl from the Ninja Academy who used to be all over him back in the days. She was really professional, and she was genuinely trying to find out what had gone wrong. She moved on. The dumb blonde moved on. The whole damn Konoha village had moved on. He was suspended in time.

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Sakura rubbed her tired eyes and looked out of the window. It was snowing again. In big nice snowflakes. They were falling one after the other, fluttering above Konoha in the middle of a dark winter night, covering the village in a white fluffy blanket of a treacherous beauty. She sighed and concentrated on a pile of papers on her desk again. Now, as she was basically a senior medical ninja, the scope of her work has expanded tremendously, but it basically meant she had to deal with all the paperwork. Sometimes, she just wanted to clench her fist and punch these papers into the hospital floor, but that would have destabilized the entire building, so she would control herself and write further.

And now there was this Sasuke Case on top of all that. She didn't want admit it, but she had no idea what caused the illness. There had to be some reason for it. Some kind of a clue, hidden in his iris, at the bottom of his eyes, in his blood or DNA. Perhaps she just wasn't adept enough in blood limits. That was why she had asked the Hyuugas for help, hoping that at least Neji or Hinata would help convince the old heads of the clan to help their former comrade (or the former traitor, most of the people considered him that really). After all, it was a common belief that sharingan has evolved from byakugan. However, the young generation wasn't even allowed to approach the Uchiha. The old bogies merely stood there for a couple of times, watching the examination, and, eventually, they walked away, after giving some absolutely abstract and ambiguous piece of advice.

Sakura couldn't blame them. Uchiha, with a high-level mangekyo sharingan, was a very handy yet unstable weapon, but a blind Uchiha was a harmless mediocre jounin and an inexhaustible source of information. Especially now, as he would answer any question about any technique he knew. Unless one would ask something about himself, Uchiha was calm and lazy like an overeaten leopard.

Sakura signed another document and put some stray strands behind her ear. The pink hair was at her elbow level again and she was seriously considering cutting it because long hair wasn't practical. For one, it was getting in the way on missions and at work. Second, she was becoming more like the Fifth, and she didn't want to be compared with her teacher at least in that aspect. Especially as Naruto would remind her eagerly every single time that "you still need to grow to babà Tsunade's b00b level… maybe you should drink some concoction or something?"

The medic broke her pencil in half and looked at her hand surprised. There, she got carried away again. She shook her head and stood up. Her office was spacious, but without all those shelves with files and books it would've been even bigger. She sometimes wished she had some sort of a mechanical gadget, just slightly bigger than her pinky or at least smaller than a human head, to store information. She should mention it to the Konoha's scientists. Enough with all that ninjutsu. About time to think of technology.

She switched off her table-lamp and grabbed a few paper files with the intention to bring them to her superior's office. She also was going to visit Uchiha Sasuke before leaving the hospital. Actually, she would've gladly skipped that last visit, but it was necessary to check his health indicators, and, besides, she had promised Naruto to look over their former teammate. It was neither her duty nor obligation, but he was constantly alone. Alone in absolute darkness. It must have been terrible.

Sakura smiled. Perhaps the word "terrible" was not present in Sasuke's personal vocabulary. However, as she headed towards the door she felt her stomach churn with anxiety. The girl knew why. She was afraid she would feel pity the moment she'd cast her eyes on Sasuke. She was afraid he would feel her pity. She had spent way too many years with him to not realize her pity would only upset him further.

When she reached for the handle, she heard a silent knock. Sakura opened the door surprised and met transparent foggy eyes. Hinata pushed back her snowy fur hood, and smiled tentatively.

"Hinata-chan?" Sakura blinked.

"Sakura-chan," Hinata unzipped her warm Eskimo jacket and pulled out a dark blue notebook, "I copied a chapter about blood limits from a book on our clan, just as I promised," she offered Sakura the notebook, "I hope it helps."

Sakura took the notebook dumbfounded and opened the first page. Lots of lines in a neat and tidy handwriting were telling of the eye structure and special skills of particular clans. She remembered Hinata had promised to look for any kind of information that would be useful in Sasuke's case, but she had to be extra careful as to not raise her father's suspicion. Every single member of her family would have realized immediately she was trying to help the Uchiha. Therefore, it took her two weeks to finally keep her promise. Suddenly Sakura wished there were more people like Hinata, who helped without any reward or secret agenda; who helped simply because they were genuinely kind.

"Thank you very much," Sakura said silently, thumbing the pages. She bit her lip, trying to hold back a lump in her throat.

"Are… are you alright?" in the course of a few years Hinata learned to leave her stutter behind even in Naruto's presence, but even so her speaking manner remained quiet and demure.

"Actually…" Sakura leaned onto the door and looked at the girl in front of her. They have never been too close. Hinata wasn't Ino, but there was something in that dark-haired girl that made her trustworthy. "I don't want to go to his ward… I don't want to pity him," Hinata weighed down her head, when Sakura's turquoise eyes glistened with tears. "But I also don't want him to be alone… and I still need to deliver these papers to my superior…" she perked up suddenly. "Do you have a curfew?"

"Excuse me?" Hinata looked up surprised. "I… me… I have no curfew. I'm... an adult."

"Could you spend some time with him, please?" Sakura cupped Hinata's hands. "It starts to get to me me; I can't take another night like this."

"Me?" Hinata blinked. "But I… I don't even know him… I've never talked to him properly in my entire life…"

"There's no need to talk," Sakura shook her head. "Just sit next to him for a while, please? At least for 10 minutes. Pretty please," Hinata gulped as those turquoise eyes pierced right through her.

"A-alright."

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To be continued…