Chapter Text
Naruto was so frustrated. This always happened. All the time, actually, and he hated it. At least he knew what to do. He ran, taking the group of villagers chasing him all around the village, gradually losing them a few at a time. By this point, he was an expert in this. He already knew his way around the village blindfolded, they couldn’t really corner him anymore.
His confidence and complacency ended up being his doom, though. He wasn’t paying attention, was too used to the villagers following a set script, and wasn’t ready for them to change their pattern. He ran down an alley, one that would let out a black over, only to find that it was blocked off. He didn’t know if it was a coincidence, or if it was by design for the villagers to corner him.
Either way, it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that he wasn’t able to run from them past the boxes blocking the entire alley off.
He turned around and looked behind him in fear, looked at the villagers coming up on him, slowly stalking forward with cruel smiles on their faces. They all looked the same to Naruto, like they wanted his head on a pike.
There weren’t a ton of them, this time. It was only about 10 villagers that had been chasing him, and they all seemed to know each other. He tried his best to shrink into the boxes behind him. He knew that he couldn’t let them know that he was scared, it would only encourage them, but it was so hard to not cry, to keep his face still, to not shake.
Once they were about 20 feet away from him, most of the crowd stopped. It was just one person in the front who kept coming toward him. Naruto tried to make his face look angry, but he wasn’t sure how successful he was. It had been so, so long since they had caught him, and the last time was still one of his worst memories. He dreaded to know what they would do to him this time, and he kept looking around for a way out.
His luck remained out, however. The villagers were blocking everything in front of him, he didn’t see any windows or footholds on the walls around him to use as leverage, and the boxes behind him were unhelpfully solid and not moving.
He was well and truly trapped.
Fuck.
The man at the front of the crowd stalked closer, his smile getting more and more devious. “Well, well, well, what do we have here? It looks to me like we’ve managed to corner a demon fox.” The crowd behind him laughs, seemingly at his joke. “You know, I know we’re not allowed to kill the demon fox, might release worse things, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t… preemptively cripple it. Prevent it from hurting us ahead of time, as it were.” These words strike fear in Naruto. Cripple? What were they going to do to him? What could be counted as crippling? Would-would he be able to recover? What-what were they going to do to him? The man stalked ever closer. There was nowhere for Naruto to run, as the man came ever closer and Naruto was frozen as the man reached or him and grabbed him by the collar.
The movement broke Naruto out of his stupor, and he started to struggle and scream. Please, please, please let him attract the attention of some passing shinobi, please, please, please let some opportunity come up or him to escape. Something! Please!
Nothing happened. If someone heard him, no one came, and he wasn’t able to get free from the man.
The man must have gotten angry with his struggling, and he took Naruto by the collar with both hands and slammed him headfirst into the wall of the alley, stunning him.
After that, everything was swimming, and Naruto couldn’t fight back anymore. He couldn’t even move. He just hung in the man’s hands, unable to stop anything that was going to happen.
Though, it wasn’t long, only seconds, before his vision started to fade away. The last thing he saw before he blacked out entirely was the back of the man as he was being thrown over his shoulder.
When Naruto wakes, he can’t tell immediately that he is awake. Everything is dark, darker than it should be. Even in the middle of the night, when he wakes up, he can see well. He has great night vision.
And now he can’t see anything.
He panics. Is this a nightmare? Is he dreaming of endless darkness, an abyss that he can never get out of, again? His panic started to make him hyperventilate, and he swiveled his head around and around, trying to see something, anything. It was futile. He was in pure darkness. This only made him panic more. He relied on his sight. His sight was better than most people’s. What-what was he going to do if he couldn’t see?!
It took him a long – very long – time, but he eventually calmed down to where he wasn’t hyperventilating anymore, just shaking and sniffling. It was at this point that he realized he couldn’t feel anyone in the room with him. In fact, there were no chakra signatures nearby at all. He was completely alone, in the dark, somewhere where he didn’t know where he was.
What was going on?
Another long while later – Naruto couldn’t really tell how much time had passed, though he thought it had been a few hours since he had woken up – he started moving around wherever he was. He stood up, slowly, carefully, paranoid that he was going to run into everything and bump into everything. He couldn’t tell any of what was around him at all.
It took him slowly – so slowly – exploring and moving around, trying to get any idea of where he was for him to figure out that he was in a warehouse. An empty warehouse, with no one around. He kept feeling and bumping into boxes. Whoever that man was from before, the one at the front of the crowd, he must have dumped Naruto here when he was done doing whatever it was that he had done. Whatever it was that he had done that had taken his sight.
Oh, god. He was blind. This was really real. This wasn’t one of his usual nightmares, he was blind – he forcibly stopped himself from thinking about that. He shut it away in his mind where he kept all of the things that he couldn’t let himself remember or think about. He had to get out. He had to get out of here and hope that one of the people who followed him around in masks would be nearby this time.
Please. He needed someone to be nearby. Please. He-he hated this so much, but he needed help.
He had no idea what to do.
Please.
Luck was on his side. Sort of. He eventually managed to find a door and his way out of the warehouse. He had no idea how long it had been. It felt like it had been days, but he wasn’t hungry enough for it to have been days. He didn’t know what to do. He was absolutely terrified. He couldn’t see. At least he could tell when someone was nearby and no one was.
Until someone was. He didn’t sense them until they were right in front of him, and he felt the wind from their landing in front of him first. It startled him, and he jumped, stumbling backwards, and whimpered. It took him a moment, but he recognized the chakra signature of the person in front of him. It was one of the masks that followed him around.
He couldn’t tell which one it was, but it didn’t really matter. They wouldn’t speak to him – never did – and he didn’t know what to say. How to ask for help or explain, or, or, or…. Anything. So he doesn’t say anything at all, and he just sits down and curls up and whimpers and cries some more.
The mask picks him up, and carries him back to his apartment. At least, he thinks its his apartment. The bed that he’s set on feels like his, at least. Feels familiar. What is he going to do?
Naruto just sat on his bed, doing nothing for a long time, and eventually he fell asleep.
When he woke up, it was morning. No one had come to his apartment. No one had found him. He had stayed in his bed ever since the mask had set him there. And either the mask hadn’t told anyone what happened or no one cared. Probably no one cared. No one ever cared about him or what happened to him.
He would have to do this and figure this out on his own. He couldn’t sit here on his bed forever. He was starting to get hungry. And his skin felt absolutely filthy. He could feel what he thought was blood on himself, and it felt like he was covered in dirt and sweat and who knows what else.
He guessed that was a place to start. He could try to figure out how to get to his bathroom and take a bath. He knew his apartment. He knew where all the rooms were and where everything he might need was. He could-he could do this.
He could.
Kami, this was so terrifying. He inched closer to the edge of the bed, feeling how close he was carefully until he unsteadily put his feet on the floor and stood up.
He could do this.
He could.
Really.
He slowly started walking in the direction that he thought his door was, sticking his hands out in front of him so he could feel when he got to the door.
Why was he so scared? He knew his apartment. He knew what should be there, and what shouldn’t. He knew the layout of his apartment. He even could walk it in the dark. Why did this feel so much worse than just being in the dark?
He slowly – so slowly – made his way out of his bedroom, down the hall, and to the bathroom. Inside the bathroom was the next hurdle. He needed to fill the bathtub, and then wash himself, then make it back to his room, figure out how to tell what clothes he was grabbing, put them on, and then he could be clean and changed.
Kami, he couldn’t do this.
He couldn’t. This was so so hard. And he still couldn’t see. None of his injuries were lasting before, but his sight wasn’t coming back. He wasn’t recovering. And he knew better than to try and go to the hospital or talk to a medic. None of them would ever treat him. If he could even get there in the first place, when he couldn’t see.
It took him a long time to gather his determination and keep trying to get clean, but the feeling of his skin being dirty was bothering him more and more and more, so, after a while, he continued.
He imagined the layout of his bathroom, guessed where in the bathroom he was, and slowly, carefully, moved toward where he thought the tub was.
And…it was! He was a little off, it wasn’t in the exact position he thought, but he reached it. And once he did, he could feel along the tub to get to the edge where the faucet was, and turn it on. Next step was to fill the tub. He could do this. This one wasn’t so hard. He just kept his hand in the tub and waited for it to fill to the amount he wanted.
After that, washing went easier than he thought it would, though he did think that he might have missed some spots, as he couldn’t see if they were dirty.
Next thing for him to do was….food. He was hungry. He didn’t know how long it had been since he had eaten, didn’t know how long he had been unconscious. He definitely hadn’t eaten since he was in the warehouse, so at least a day.
Oh Kami, this was…..he couldn’t do this.
As hungry as he was, Naruto didn’t go to the kitchen after that to try and figure out how to cook and get himself food, when he couldn’t see. Instead, he went back to his bedroom, and curled up on his bed and just… lay there.
A long time later, Naruto wasn’t sure how long, since he couldn’t see the sun or the light to judge time, there was a knock on his front door. There weren’t a ton of people who would come to his door, and even fewer who would knock. And maybe they could help him.
He jumped out of his bed, tripped on his blanket, and fell to the ground with a thud, in his rush to get to the front door and let the person in.
The commotion made a lot of noise, and the person on the other side of the door called out, “Naruto? Are you alright?”
It was Jiji! Jiji was here! He could help him! So Naruto called out, “Jiji? Is that you? Are you there? Please, Jiji, help!”
Jiji sounded worried, “Naruto?! I can’t open the door, Naruto, with the wards in place. I need you to come open the door so I can come in, ok? Can you do that, or are you too hurt? I can get in if you can’t, but I’ll need to break the door.”
Naruto considered this for a moment, and he wasn’t really sure. He knew the layout of the apartment, but….it would probably take him a long time to get there. “I-I don’t know, Jiji. Maybe?”
Jiji sighs and takes a deep breath. “Ok, Naruto, why don’t you try? If you can’t do it, then I can always break down the door later. Ok?”
Naruto nodded, then realized that Jiji couldn’t see him through the door, “Ok, Jiji. I-I’ll try. It might take me a while, though.”
“That’s alright, Naruto. As long as you don’t need medical care immediately, it’s ok if it takes a little while.”
And take a while it did, even though Naruto managed it. He slowly inched his way toward the door, holding his arms out and feeling his way along the walls as he went. When he finally got to the door, he ran his hands along it, looking for the locks so he could unlock the door and then disarm the wards.
It was slow going, but he eventually got the door unlocked and the wards disarmed. He absolutely did not want to open the door himself, though. He knew Jiji was on the other side of the door, and it was probably only Jiji, but…he couldn’t know for sure. There could be masks with him, or someone else, or anything, and he would never know.
So, instead, he backed away slowly, until the backs of his legs his something and he stumbled. “I-it’s open now, Jiji.”
When Naruto heard Jiji open the door and come in, he curled up in a ball and put his face in his knees, while he waited for Jiji to really come inside.
Jiji very slowly inched his way toward Naruto, and spoke low and calm as he asked, “Naruto? Are you ok? Can you tell me what happened, and where you’re hurt?”
Naruto whimpered a little and shook his head. He didn’t know what had happened. And even if he did, he didn’t know if he would be able to really talk about it. “I-I don’t know what happened. I was running and running and running away from the villagers again. And-and they caught me this time. And-and the next thing I knew, I woke up, and I can’t see! I can’t see, Jiji!” Everything that had happened his Naruto all at once, and he started screaming as loud as he can, screaming and crying. He broke down, unable to really process what had happened.
Jiji didn’t say anything, he let Naruto scream and cry, not saying anything or touching him until after Naruto had calmed down. “Alright, Naruto. I want to have a healer look at you and see if they can do anything about your sight or at least figure out what it is that’s wrong, ok?”
Naruto just shook, not answering, so Jiji sighed and said, “Ok, Naruto, well, I’m going to summon a healer to look at you. I won’t leave, but I am going to step away a little bit, to get someone here.”
Naruto heard Jiji step away, apparently to the window, open it, and call out, “Hound, go to the hospital and get a trustworthy healer.”
Naruto didn’t hear anything from Hound after that, though he presumably went to get a healer since Jiji didn’t say anything else either. Jiji came back to Naruto and sat down on the ground next to him, and together they waited for Hound and the healer.
It wasn’t long before there was another knock on the door, making Naruto jump. Jiji reassured him, “It’s alright, Naruto. It’s just the healer. I’ll go let them in, so we can figure out what to do next, ok?”
Naruto silently nodded his head and then listened as Jiji walked to the front door, opened it, and then greeted the healer. “Hello, Hanako-san. Did Hound tell you what’s going on?”
Naruto heard a woman’s voice speak, saying, “He didn’t fully explain, Hokage-sama. Just that my services were needed here.”
Naruto heard the two of them coming toward him, and he scooted as far back against the wall as he could, panicking. He didn’t know this Hanako person! Almost no one was nice to him or liked him, they weren’t going to, either, they were going to hurt him!
Jiji sounded exasperated, sighing and saying, “Naruto, Hanako-san isn’t going to hurt you. Even if she wanted to, which she doesn’t, I am here, and I could stop her. We need her to examine you to see if we dan figure out what’s wrong with your eyes.”
Naruto whimpered. He didn’t want Jiji to be angry with him, but he was so scared. He didn’t want anyone to touch him. He didn’t want to let anyone hurt him, and almost everyone wanted to hurt him. But he didn’t think he had a choice, either. So, when Jiji told Hanako-san that he couldn’t see, and that his eyes needed to be examined, Naruto didn’t say anything. And when she came close to him, and told him that she needed him to lift his head so he could look, Naruto whimpered, but he did it. He lifted his head and didn’t pull away, even if he flinched, when she grabbed his chin and put her hand over his eyes. He didn’t pull away when he felt her chakra enter his system, and he didn’t pull away even when she let go and let him hide against the wall again.
She addressed her next words to Jiji, “Well, Hokage-sama. I can tell you what was done, and I can tell you what the damage is, but, perhaps, the most pertinent thing is that it’s irreversible. If we had, perhaps, been able to treat it immediately, then maybe we could restore a bit of his sight. As it is, however, it’s impossible. He will be blind forever. Perhaps Lady Tsunade could do something to let him see at least shadows, and maybe colors again, but without her, we can’t do even that.”
It was permanent. He was never going to see again. Never see the sunset or the Hokage Monument, or the village from the cliffs. How would he get around? How would he cook? How would he become a ninja? How would he do anything?
Jiji was silent for a few minutes, and Naruto couldn’t hear anything, so he couldn’t tell what was going on, until he said, “Thank you, Hanako-san. In that case, I don’t think we need your services here any longer.”
Naruto heard footsteps as Hanako left his apartment, and then he heard Jiji speaking again, probably from the window with what he heard. “Hound, please come inside.”
He was speaking to the same person that went to go get the healer. Naruto heard nothing, but whoever Hound was, he had to have come in, since Jiji closed the window and set the wards before speaking again. “Hound. Please remove your mask.” Hound was one of the masks? “I have a new, ongoing mission for you. You will still take other missions once this one is in a stable place, and you will receive ongoing mission pay for this.” Why was Jiji talking about this? What did it matter? Why did this have to happen in Naruto’s apartment? “This mission is just as top secret as your other missions. I need you to support and help Naruto navigate life without sight. Please, introduce yourself. You may use your real name with him for this mission, and you may speak to him as needed. Him, and only him.”
One of the masks was going to talk to him? And help him? What? Naruto then heard a very soft voice from a few feet in front of him, startling him since he didn’t know Hound was that close. “Hello, Naruto. My name is Hatake Kakashi.”
He’d never heard of him before. He didn’t know what to say, so he just said, “H-hi,” not moving from his spot against the wall.
Once the introductions were over, Naruto heard Jiji speak again, “Guidelines for this mission. Actually, this is important for the both of you to know. Naruto will need to learn how to use his natural sensing ability, and, for the time being, will not leave his apartment for anything. I will send someone over to set up more wards, to keep this place additionally safe. Anything that Naruto needs outside of this apartment, you will get or do, Kakashi. Grocery shopping, clothes shopping, anything. Naruto, if anyone knocks on your door, you are not to answer it. I will have the wards set up so that myself and Kakashi can come and go and no one else, not even you. There will be no exceptions. If there is something that Kakashi cannot do that someone needs to come in for, like repairs, Kakashi can come to me and request permission for whoever needs it. I will assess on a case by case basis. Kakashi, help him learn how to navigate this apartment and take care of himself in here fully and completely. I will come by regularly to assess if it is safe enough for him to venture out of the apartment under supervision.”
He was to stay in here? For now, that was great, going outside without his sight was far too much, but, “Jiji? What-what about the Academy? I’m supposed to start later this year.”
Jiji sighed again and just said, “You probably won’t be able to go to the Academy ever, Naruto. Even if we can get you to a point where you are able to go out into the village again, without your sight, you wouldn’t be able to go on missions or fight or anything. We’ll have to figure something else out for you when the time comes.”
He couldn’t be a shinobi? He-he’d never be a shinobi? What-what was his life going to be like without that? What was going to happen to him? Was he going to have to stay in this apartment, locked away from everyone and everything forever?