Darkness in Light

Naruto's finally managed to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, but the Uchiha's sight has gone. Naruto is assigned to look after the blind Sasuke until his sight returns, if it returns. May be a little Sasuke OOCness. SasuNaru. Slight Sakura bashing.

Words in Japanese:

Demo – But

Hai – yes

Iie/iiya – no

Naruhodo – I see

Urusai – shut up

Chikushou – damn it!

Oyasumi – goodnight

Ohayou – good morning

Ano – um…

Gomen/gomen nasai – sorry

Haiyaku – hurry!

Teme – bastard

Dobe – dead last

Usuratonkachii – total moron (and/or words to that effect)

Baka – idiot

Nani?/eh? – what?

Third person view

Sakura was pacing up and down the hospital room, she was a nervous wreck, she half hoped half dreaded the moment when Sasuke would open his eyes.

"Sakura-chan quit pacing, it's making me nervous 'ttebayo," Naruto muttered.

"I can't help it. I'm just so…ugh…Sasuke-kun, wake up soon," Sakura said.

Naruto mentally rolled his eyes. She's gone back to the way she was before, Sasuke-kun Sasuke-kun Sasuke-kun, that's all she'll care about now, I'll be out of the picture again for sure. He thought.

He sighed. He'd never liked the way the old Sakura treated him, he didn't want her to go back to that.

Naruto had gotten over his crush on Sakura years ago, realising the true reason that he pursued Sasuke so relentlessly.

It hadn't occurred to him that he was in love with the Uchiha. He'd never been in love before, his stupid kiddy crush on Sakura hardly counted.

Naruto sat next to the wounded Uchiha's bed, Sai, Kakashi-sensei and Captain Yamato had left long ago.

Now, only the original members of Team 7 were left in the room.

Heh, which means Sai and Yamato-daijou will have to go somewhere else, I wonder what'll happen to them. Naruto thought.

His thought patterns were broken by a small groan from the waking Sasuke.

"Sasuke!" he cried leaping up and leaning over Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura ran to the other side of the bed and waited anxiously for her long-time love to wake up.

"Come on Sasuke-teme, wake up already, do you know how long I've been sitting here when I could be training, and my legs are cramped because of you 'ttebayo," Naruto blabbered.

Sasuke groaned louder. "Should have known the first thing I'd hear would be you complaining dobe," he said gruffly.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried happily. "I'll go and get Tsunade-sama and tell her you're up,"

Sakura left the room, skipping in her happiness as she went to the Hokage's office.

Naruto grinned and sat back down. "So, the Great Uchiha finally falls off his high horse 'ttebayo, hehehehehe," he said.

"Just so you know, I'm rolling my eyes right now. Dobe." Sasuke muttered.

Naruto chuckled.

Sasuke sat up and opened his eyes.

"Naruto where are you right now?" Sasuke asked, his voice suddenly panicked.

"Right here Sasuke, right next to you," Naruto said gripping a pale hand. What was wrong with Sasuke?

"I can't see anything." Sasuke said.

"Eh? Not anything at all?" Naruto exclaimed.

Sasuke turned and the cobalt eyes that were merely cold and distant in the past, were now flat and lifeless.

Naruto gasped. "Sasuke…"

That must have had something to do with Naruto's Vermillion Rasengan that had hit Sasuke right in the face during their battle.

The door opened then and Tsunade strode in, followed by a smiling Sakura.

Sasuke reacted to the sound at his head twitched in the general direction Tsunade was in.

"Well well well, looks like you finally check in for good Sasuke-kun," Tsunade said. "You've caused us a ton of grief, mostly Naruto here,"

Sasuke's hand twitched in Naruto's.

Tsunade looked at his chart. "Let's see, most of your wounds are totally healed, so you should be able to leave by tomorrow afternoon," she said.

"Then comes the matter of punishing your actions against the Leaf," she added.

"Baa-chan!" Naruto snapped. "Not now, Sasuke just woke up, you can't put that on him straight away, that's hardly fair 'ttebayo,"

"It's hardly fair the way he's been treating people and acting for the last few years." Tsunade retorted.

"Demo –"

"Naruto. That's enough." It was Sasuke who had spoken. Naruto fell silent.

"It doesn't matter whether you speak in my defence or not, it has to be dealt with eventually." Sasuke suddenly sighed. "Except for the fact that I can't see,"

Sakura gasped. "You can't see Sasuke-kun?" she cried.

Well duh, that's exactly what I just said, idiot. Sasuke thought irritably.

He glared in the direction where her voice had come from, as did Naruto, not that Sasuke knew that.

"Hm. That is quite strange, your optical wounds have fully healed. I deduce it's a mental thing, your body has gone into shock and hasn't woken up," Tsunade said.

"Will it go away?" Sasuke asked.

"Well that all depends if your body comes out of the shock or not. If may take some time, or it may not go away at all." Tsunade answered.

"So you mean he might stay blind forever?" Naruto exclaimed. "This is all my fault 'ttebayo!"

"Naruto." Sasuke snapped. "Shut up, baka it is not your fault. It's my head,"

"Demo Sasuke –"

"But nothing, listen to me, it is not your fault. Understand?"

Naruto sighed. "Hai."

"Good."

Tsunade smiled wryly, getting an idea from the situation.

"Well, I think it best to delay all trial proceedings until Sasuke-kun's sight has returned, Naruto, you'll look after him until then," she said.

"Hai! I'll do my best 'ttebayo! Though I don't know how easy looking after this teme is going to be," Naruto grinned.

Sasuke's mouth twitched upwards a little. But not so anyone noticed of course, he was still an Uchiha, defeated and tired or not.

"Well then, it's settled, you'll be moving in with Naruto tomorrow," Tsunade said smiling.

"If you don't mind Tsunade-sama, I'd rather leave sooner, I hate hospitals almost as much as the dobe hates vegetables." Sasuke said.

Naruto laughed. "He's got that right 'ttebayo." He said.

"Alright then, I'll sign you out now, you can leave when you're ready." Tsunade said.

"Come along Sakura,"

"Demo, Tsunade-sama –"

"Sasuke-kun will still be here later, but right now we have work to do."

"Demo…*sigh* alright." Sakura and Tsunade left the room and Naruto looked at Sasuke.

"It is true that blind people have sharper hearing?" he asked.

Sasuke cringed. "Yes. And either stop talking or talk softer, because your voice was too loud before, now it's a hundred times worse," he said coldly.

"Oh. Gomen." Naruto said.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow in the direction Naruto's voice was coming from.

"Are you ill?" he asked.

"Eh? I'm not ill," Naruto said looking perplexed.

"You sure? Because I think I've insulted you twice now and you haven't yelled at me and call me a teme yet. We were always at each other's throats back –" Sasuke broke off abruptly.

" – Well, you know… Before." He said dully.

"Yeah, we were, demo…I dunno I just think things might be easier if we didn't always argue, at least not seriously. It'd be better if we didn't mean any of it, if it was just jokes 'ttebayo," Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded. "I can do that I suppose. Though you're still an utter baka,"

"Hmph! Teme!"

"Baka."

"Teme!"

"Baka!"

"Teme!"

Sasuke laughed. Naruto stopped making his mock-anger face to appreciate the way Sasuke looked when he laughed. Naruto didn't remember ever seeing Sasuke laugh.

"Ne, come on teme, if you're going to move in with me, we'd better get your stuff and head over," Naruto said standing up.

He slung Sasuke's pack over his shoulder and gripped Sasuke's hands, helping him stand.

"This is going to be difficult, maybe we need to get you one of those long sticks that blind people have," Naruto muttered.

Sasuke scowled. "While I totally resent that comment, you're probably right."

Naruto grinned. Just like old times.

Carefully, Naruto led Sasuke by the hand out of the hospital, and out into Konoha towards his apartment.

On the way they were stopped by villagers.

"Naruto-kun! I wanted to offer my congratulations on bringing Sasuke-kun home at last!" a shopkeeper bellowed.

Naruto grinned. "Thanks a lot." He said.

"Naruto-niichan I heard you kicked Uchiha's butt!" Konohamaru shouted.

Sasuke sniffed indignantly. "Oh he did not." He said.

Konohamaru chuckled. "Bet you're just saying that. Ne, Naruto-niichan can you train with us later?"

"Maybe, I gotta take care of the teme for a bit, but we'll see," Naruto replied.

"Okay!" Konohamaru grinned.

"Naruto-sama!" a little girl cried. "Did you get hurt on your last mission? Someone said you were dead and I cried so hard, it's good to see you're not though,"

"No, no I'm fine, nothing can hurt me, at least not until I become Hokage 'ttebayo," Naruto said.

They continued on their way and Naruto saw Sasuke rolling his eyes. "What?" he said defensively.

"Look at you, regular little hero in the village aren't you? And I see you're still aiming to be Hokage," Sasuke smirked.

"Keep talking like that and I'll lead you into pole," Naruto said humourlessly.

"You wouldn't dare." Sasuke said stoically, though his grip on Naruto tightened nonetheless, making Naruto grin smugly.

"Here we are, home sweet home," he sang opening his door.

Sasuke wrinkled his nose. "Smells like a cupboard you leave closed for years, don't you ever open your windows?" he said.

"Well I don't spend a lot of time here, I'm usually only here to eat and sleep, then I'm off training or on missions," Naruto replied opening his windows wide.

"You know, I don't think you've ever been in my apartment, this'll be the first time 'ttebayo," he chatted.

"Pity I can't see it," Sasuke muttered, low enough so Naruto couldn't hear.

"When you're sight comes back I'll give you the grand tour," Naruto rambled.

"Naruto."

"Huh? Oh, right gomen nasai." Naruto came back to Sasuke in order to lead him around, he sat Sasuke on the couch and he laid down.

Naruto sat on the ground by his head and Sasuke's hand came to rest on his shoulder.

"So…what do you want to do?" Naruto asked.

"Just…talk." Sasuke said.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You want me to talk? You always hated it when I talked a lot 'ttebayo," he said.

"Yeah well I want you to talk now. Tell me about your training with Jiraiya," Sasuke retorted.

Naruto looked down. Once, he would have leapt at the opportunity to tell Sasuke all had done to bring him back, but now…

"It still hurts. I know it's been a year or so, but he was still my master, and it hurts to talk about him in the past tense," Naruto said.

Jiraiya was dead, and Naruto didn't want to think about him.

Sasuke's tightened on his shoulder.

"I'll make you a deal. You talk about Jiraiya, and I'll talk about my family, that way we'll both be talking about things we'd rather not think about, it's fair then." He said.

Naruto's eyes widened. He was going to tell him about his family?

"Okay. So, let's see it's been about five years now, so five years ago, I left to go train with Jiraiya-sensei to get stronger to get you back…" Naruto began.

He went on to tell Sasuke all about his adventures, and Sasuke didn't complain once when his voice reached high decibels when he got really excited.

He told him that they went to visit Inari, in the Land of Waves – "Did you know they named that bridge after me? I didn't 'ttebayo," – and went to the Land of Tea to see Idate.

Then they went to Curry of Life shop to visit Grandma Sunshow and Kuroshi. They went to all of his previous missions had gone to visit people, then they set out on paths anew.

Naruto told him about the lands he saw and the people he met, and the fights he got into, and the intense training, and Jiraiya's perverted books.

He said he was attacked by at least fifty wild animals while training, and got into over eighty fights with people over different reasons, some serious some stupid.

"And then after two and a half years Jiraiya-sensei says I'm finished and we go back to village, I was so excited to see everyone." Naruto said.

"Of course I was devastated when Shikamaru told me everyone was either Chuunin or higher, while I was still a genin, but I was more skilled than some others so that was fine,"

"And then there was Gaara. I was really pissed off that he became Kazekage before I could become Hokage, but really happy for him too. Then when we heard about the Akatsuki, of course I had to go help him,"

He told Sasuke about the mission, then meeting Sai, the battle at Tenchi Bridge, and this concerned Sasuke greatly. Naruto told him not to worry because it was a small outburst compared to some other battles.

Naruto told him all about the missions he'd been on, the battle with the Peins and the meeting of Nagato, what Madara had said in the Land of Snow, what Sakura had told him there too.

"She said she was in love with you? Just to get you to stop pursuing me?" Sasuke said disgusted.

"Yeah, that's when I…got over her. I don't want to like a person who lies about that kind of thing, even if they have good intentions from it 'ttebayo," Naruto replied.

"Woah, you got over Sakura. I remember when she was all you ever thought about," Sasuke said.

"Oi! That's not true, I thought about you, actually if you really look at it, you were the only thing I thought about, even if it was just to insult you and grumble that Sakura-chan loved you so much," Naruto retorted.

"Hn."

"There it is! The famous 'hn', I was waiting for that teme," Naruto grinned

"Well I wouldn't want to let you down now would I dobe?" Sasuke smirked.

"No, that's why it's your turn to talk. So talk 'ttebayo," Naruto said.

"Oh. Okay well, where do I start…I suppose from the beginning," Sasuke muttered.

He told Naruto about his life before the Uchiha Massacre, of how Itachi was always that much better than him, no matter what Sasuke did he never compared to Itachi.

"That's just like me and you," Naruto said.

"Yeah I suppose you could think of it like that. Except you're stronger than I am now, or maybe just as good, I forget," Sasuke said.

"Heh. I'm definitely better than you teme, otherwise you wouldn't be here right now 'ttebayo,"

"…That's true I guess. Anyway, that's when I started getting jealous of my brother, and set up a rivalry, I was so sick of everyone telling me about how great he was, and no matter what I did, no one ever mentioned me."

Naruto listened, saddened by the tail already. That was like him, it was always about Sasuke, not Naruto.

"My father thought the same thing. Don't get me wrong, I loved Itachi, like I loved all my family, but it seemed like father was always disappointed in me. My mother said it would pass, but I don't think it would have."

He told Naruto about the happy memories he had about his family and Itachi, then paused, refusing to recount the events of the night when all he loved were killed. But Naruto didn't want to hear it anyway.

"Naruhodo. You know that's a lot like us." Naruto said.

"…I know. I didn't mean to make it that way I just…didn't care. I was too wrapped in my own ambitions, I forgot how might have been making you feel." Sasuke said lowly.

"From an Uchiha, especially you, that's a golden apology, and I accept 'ttebayo," Naruto joked.

"Good because I'm not going so far as to actually say I'm sorry, Uchihas just don't ask for forgiveness, it's a rule."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Right."

He looked out the window. "It's late. Wow time went fast just now huh 'ttebayo. We'd better go to sleep," he said.

Naruto pulled Sasuke up and led him into the bedroom, he let Sasuke settle in before he turned off the light.

"I'll take the couch since there's only one bed, and I don't think I have a futon." Naruto said.

"Naruto wait," Sasuke's hand shot out and grabbed his sleeve with deadly accuracy.

"What is it Sasuke?" Naruto asked leaning close.

"…Don't go." Sasuke's voice was small, like a wounded child.

And in truth he was terrified, he couldn't see anything, and he felt vulnerable and weak because of it. He hated it.

He needed Naruto, and in those two words he conveyed all of that to the blonde, and he slipped under the covers with him.

"Okay, I won't go. I'll be right here," he took Sasuke's hand to show him where he was.

"Oyasumi Sasuke," Naruto mumbled settled down.

"…Oyasumi…Naruto…" Sasuke murmured.

It was oddly comforting to have Naruto asleep beside him, the blonde fell asleep quickly and rolled to bury his face in Sasuke's hair.

His breath tickled Sasuke's neck and he rolled slightly to face him, wishing he could see something.

Closing his eyes he raised a hand, brushing Naruto's hair as he tried to remember the exact colour of it.

His hand moved down across his cheek, feeling the difference in altitude between his skin and the lines on his cheeks, running his thumb down the whiskers.

He moved down the neck and felt a leather cord. He pulled slightly and ran his hand down the cord until he came to a cold crystal.

He ran his fingers over it, feeling the texture of the crystal, and he wondered where he'd gotten it.

Sasuke didn't remember ever seeing Naruto with it on before. His hand found the blonde's shoulder and went lower, his fingers brushing a bandage and he winced.

He found several cuts and a few bruises on the blonde, and more bandaged sections, he thought there'd be more where he couldn't feel.

Finally feeling calm enough to sleep, he relaxed his tense form, his forehead inches away from Naruto's, not that he would know that.

Eventually, Naruto's even breathing lulled him to sleep and he fell into sweet dreams.

. . . . .

End of chapter one

a/n

I don't know how many chapters I'm going to do for this, and if you have any ideas that would make my story better, don't hesitate to tell me.

So be a dear and click that button down there? See, right there? Come on you know you want to.