Konnichiwa, Mina!

Hello, everyone! I'm here with a brand new NaruGaa fic! I promised people who enjoyed Mr. In-The-Closet that I'd be back with an even better story. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks and finally have the whole plot outlined. I'm soo excited to get started. It's 6am here, and I've been awake in bed thinking about the ending since 3am. I jumped straight out of pit, went downstairs and turned my laptop on to get started!

I hope you enjoy it. I know I'm going to enjoy writing it!

Disclaimer -- If I owned Naruto, then I wouldn't be here writing these stories. I'd be putting them in the anime.

The name is Naruto Uzamaki. My birthday is on the 10th of October, which makes me a Libra, I'm sixteen years old, and before last summer I attended the famous Konoha Academy. It's a school for the kids with the highest of intelligence or, of course, the kids with parents who have the highest of wage slips. I fitted into the first category. My adopted parents aren't rich, but they knew I was special when I took an online IQ tests at the age of 13 and completed it with a score over 160. Those online quizzes are usually just made for fun and entertainment, so Jiriya and Tsunade made me take a real one at some school. When the score came out even higher, I was shipped off to the academy.

Once there, I made quite a few friends -- ranging from the richest to the roughest of the school, and I made a few enemies. My friends called me 'Naru', but my best friend called me 'usuratonkachi'. It means 'thin hammer' in Japanese, so I get the odd feeling that he was calling me useless.

The teachers there had a disliking for us. It could've had something to do with the fact we set one of the science laboratories on fire once. It wasn't out fault, I mean, who lets a bunch of 14 year olds play with dangerous chemicals, anyway?

As Mr. Kabuto jabbered on about how, "Chemical changes take place on the molecular level. A chemical change produces a new substance. Examples of chemical changes include…" The rest of it went a bit like this, "Blah. Blah…. Blahblahblah. Burning. Blah. Blah. Irritations. Blah. Blah. Chronic Diarrhoea. Blahblahblah. Uzamaki! Uchiha! Inuzuka! No, don't touch--" But that's not how the fire started… but it was how everything else began. And, it's also how my story opens.

I was looking pretty snazzy, even if I did say so myself. The long, white lab coat hung low below my knees and buttoned up at the front to keep my clothes safe from whatever experiment we were about to attempt. The goggles flattening the sides and back of my hair didn't add much to the ensemble, but what do you expect from something that resembles the size of glasses that even the most blindest of students didn't wear. I tried pushing my ears back flat against my head, but the goggle's strap kept popping them out. I looked like some bloody pixie boy, but a pixie boy wearing a cool lab coat non-the-less. It's not like the rest of the class was in any better condition. Even the apparently 'hottest' boy in the academy, who stood at my left, looked a bit like a dweeb with his brushed-to-the-side, black bangs being squashed against his pale face. And the boy to my right, well, his hair was always a mess, so no real difference there.

The white board at the front of the class currently wore a complicated formula which would be our next exploration, and our teacher, Mr. Kabuto, stood pointing at certain particle structures with a long, wooden stick.

"Hey, Naru. Watch this," Kiba said as he waved his hand through the open flame of the Bunsen sitting on our workbench. The fire swallowed his fingers and spat them back out as the digits emerged from the other side undamaged. He was always one for showing off, but that trick didn't impress me. Now, if he'd have left his hand in the flame for ten seconds without skin damage, then that would've been a cause for applause.

I pulled the flame away from him when he began melting his pen in it.

My face was so hot even my eyes were beginning to sweat. But it wasn't from the Bunsen. The cause was located somewhere within the region of where the lab goggles were sitting on my face. I scrunched my nose. God only knew who else had worn those ridiculous things on their face. The kid could've had spots, or worse, impetigo. If I woke up with red splotches over my skin the next day, I was going to sue big time. I pulled the goggles up onto my hairline to let my pores breath.

Sasuke, the black-haired emo dude to my left, held his cheek in his hand and leaned on the bench's surface as he used tongs to pick up little sheets of paper and set them alight in the flame. I hadn't moved it to his side so he could begin playing with the damn fire. What part of 'no flammable material near the flames, class' didn't those two understand? Sure, Kiba's hands weren't flammable, but his damn long, white lab coat was. I shook my head and rubbed at my eyes when Kiba nudged me with his elbow.

"Dudes, check this out." He pulled out a plastic bag filled with white powdery substance from the draw beneath the lab bench. "What is it?"

I snatched it from him. "Sodium Lauryl Sulphate," I read on the label. We hadn't learnt about it yet, but if the big 'DO NOT TOUCH. DANGEROUS' sign wasn't an indication to leave it alone, then I didn't know what was.

"Pass it here." Sasuke grabbed it from me. It looked as if we were playing a game of Pass the Parcel. Or, more like, Pass the Dangerous Chemical.

"Put it back," I said, leaning over to grab it. For all we knew the substance within it could've be poisonous. I wouldn't have put it passed the academy to have something lethal within grabbing distance of the students. The whole place was full of equipment that could kill you within seconds. I felt more as if I were in a training group for the CIA than a school.

Kiba snatched it from Sasuke's hands. "Look, there's a hole." He was right. Small, white particles were seeping from a small hole in the corner and trickling to the ground.

"Then put it back."

"Nah, way, man. I wonder if it does anything when it's heated."

Okay, I know what you're thinking now. "Kiba must've put the powder in the fire, then the lab blew up." Am I right? Is that what you thought? Well, you'd be wrong. Now, let's all remember that my eyes were still exposed to open air while everyone else was smart enough to keep their goggles on, shall we?

"Stop playing with it."

"Stop grabbing."

"Quit it, you idiots."

"Uzumaki! Uchiha! Inuzuka! No, don't touch--"

But it was too late. The bag split open. The tiny particles flew into the air. And Kiba, Sasuke and I just stood their watching the Sodium Lauryl Sulphate float to the ground in little clumps. And that's where it rested.

No explosion. No dropping dead students. No chemical reactions at all. To say the least, I was kinda disappointed.

But then my skin began to itch where it'd landed. Kiba was already scratching at his hands like a dog, and Sasuke was sneezing left right and centre. It wasn't a terrible itch. Just a little reaction, I'd had much worse in the past.

I blinked, and my eyes watered. My eyes opened and closed a few more times, letting the moisture build up, and I rubbed at them. Science lesson number one: Don't rub any mucous-developing area when you have chemicals on your hands. And apparently, especially not when you have Sodium Lauryl Sulphate because to say it stung like a bitch would've been the nice way of putting it.

"My fucking eyes," I practically screamed. They felt as if they were bloody melting. I was going to lose my fucking eyes! I covered my face and contorted my body as the sheer pain engulfed my whole face. I jammed my body forward, knocking my forehead on the solid work surface.

"Dude, what's wrong?" Kiba grabbed my shoulder.

"Get his face under cold water. Now, boys!" Mr. Kabuto shouted, and I felt my head being forced down before feeling freezing water pouring on my head. Kiba and Sasuke had dragged me over to the sinks by this point. But it wasn't the bloody back of my head that needed assistance from the cold liquid, it was my eyes! "Scrub his eyes."

At this point I didn't care that the whole class were laughing at me. They could all go fuck themselves sideways. I spluttered water as it went into my mouth, nose. The damn Uchiha was trying to drown me! I knocked him away with my elbow and stumbled backward, knocking over whatever had been on the workbench behind me. The sound of metal crashing over, papers crumpling and vials falling over was all I could hear before a scream erupted from every member of the class.

"Don't panic!" Mr. Kabuto shouted over the screaming. Don't panic? Don't fucking panic? Everyone was screaming and running to the door, I couldn't see, and he's saying 'don't panic'?

There was another high pitched scream, but it hadn't come from any human. It was a squeal that sounded as if something was about to blow. Then crackling.

"Everyone out the class!"

I tried opening my eyes, but the pain forced them shut again.

"Fuck. The Butane." Kiba's voice wasn't next to me anymore, it was merging with everyone else's shouts and screams. Heat crept up my leg. I kicked my limb, but it didn't go out. I'd caught myself on fire, and it sounded as if everyone else was leaving the classroom in a mad dash toward the door. Papers crackled and the exploding scream got worse. "Sasuke, I can't get to him. Get him away from the Butane before it blows." Something beat at my leg as I thrashed around, the heat went out, and my arm was pulled. My body staggered. By the sounds of it, more papers were catching fire around the room.

"Get out of there, boys!" Mr. Kabuto shouted from the direction of the door. "Uchiha, Uzumaki. Now!"

There must've been something squeezing my chest because my lungs instantly clenched. My guess was toxic smoke, and the boy coughing beside me just about managed to squeak out, "Naruto, c'mon." My body staggered again as I was pulled toward the direction of the door. The heat burned at my skin and crackled around us as we moved.

A door slammed and the crackling died down. We'd gotten out, we were safe. But the lab wasn't so lucky. In fact, the science lab was screaming. Screaming. More screaming. Then… BANG.

I'd been in the infirmary for a week. It turned out that Sodium Lauryl Sulphate was a harsh detergent and wetting agent used in garage floor cleaners. Apparently it rapidly absorbs and retains in the eyes, brain, heart and liver, which may result in harmful long-term effects. I couldn't even take the bandages from my eyes, so I hadn't seen what state Kiba and Sasuke had been in when they'd came to see me. Apparently Sasuke's hair was singed and he had burns running down his arms from where his coat had caught fire. Kiba had managed to get away without any damage. They'd came and sat with me every day when classes ended and repeatedly told me that I was a moron. Well, excuse me, but who was the idiot playing with the damn chemicals in the first place? I was the bloody victim in all of this. The whole Southside of the science department was gone, though.

I curled my fingers around the bed sheets and pulled them higher as I yawned and turned onto my side. I can't tell you how boring laying in a bed with no vision for a week is, all I knew was sounds. My hearing had definitely increased. I could hear the whispered conversations of the workers in the infirmary. Even the very low whispers, like the ones I was hearing now, sounded like a normal toned conversation to me. I wasn't nosy, just bored.

"What do you think's wrong with him?" One of the nurses said from just outside the room.

"I don't know. He looked in a terrible state. Poor little thing." Aww, how sweet. They were worried about me.

"Yeah, I know. I put him in the bed beside blindy-Mc-firestarter." Eh? Who-e-Mc-what-what? Bloody nerve of some people. Wait, there was someone else in the room with me?

"He was still unconscious the last time I checked. Passed out when his father left. When he was brought up here, we found strange marks all over his body."

"Really? What did they look like?"

"I'm not too sure. They could've just been birthmarks."

A new student, eh? Maybe I should warn him about the Sodium Lauryl Sulphate.

The sound of small glass objects hitting against each other filtered from the bed beside me as well as small whispers. The guy must've been awake. "On what has now been sown," the guy whispered, letting the words flow off his lips in a low, deep voice. "Thy blessing, Lord, bestow. The power is Thine alone. To make it spring and grow. Thy blessing, Lord, bestow. The power is Thine alone. To make it spring and grow." I lay silently, listening to the guy repeat some prayer. I should at least let him finish before introducing myself. He must've thought I was asleep, so I didn't want to embarrass him by letting him know I'd been eavesdropping. "Thy blessing, Lord, Bestow…" He paused and the sound of glass clanking against each other stopped. There was a rustle in his covers and a small groan before his prayer went off on a tangent. "Oh, God. Please. Please I don't want this demon inside of me anymore." Demon? What the hell was this guy on about? Great, I was sharing a room with someone who had a screw loose.

I faked a yawn before pretending to wake up for the first time. I sat up and blinked behind the bandages. Black. Darkness. The only thing I'd seen for a week. What a bore. I wanted to see the psycho 'demon' child, so I could describe him to Sasuke and Kiba later when I told them and had a laugh about it.

Turning my head in the 'demon child's' direction, I smiled. Hell, I didn't even know if he was looking at me. For all I knew, he could've been blind as well. "Hello?" I said.

A clank came from the floor as something was dropped. "Oh, heavens."

"What was that?" I asked. I have no idea why I tilted my head to the floor to see what had been dropped. You'd have thought a week without sight would've reminded me that I couldn't see…

Pitter-patter of feet came from my left as the boy obviously got out of bed to pick up whatever he'd dropped. "My beads."

"Your what?" This guy wore beads? Wait until Sasuke and Kiba got a load of this. Maybe school wouldn't be that boring this year, after all.

"My beads," he answered softly. There was a small pause. Before, "You can see me?" Of course I couldn't bloody see him. Could HE not see the bandages around my eyes. "What happened to your eyes?" There we go. Give the boy a medal.

I grinned in the direction of his voice. "Science lesson number one. Don't rub sodium lauryl sulphate into your eyes. It stings like a bitch, and you'll probably lose your eyesight."

"You're blind?"

"For now." Was I blind? I hadn't thought about it like that. I just thought my eyes needed some healing time. They'd be fine. Naruto Uzumaki was not going to go blind. I had too many things to do. Too many things to SEE. "So, which category do you fall into?"

"Category?" his small voice sounded so lost.

"Are you rich or smart? You only get into this academy if you're one or the other." Having a conversation with someone you'd never seen, thinks has a demon within them, and wears beads isn't something you do everyday. I tried to get a mental picture of what he looked like by the way he sounded. Small voice. Small person. Probably skinny and pathetic looking. Wears beads. Nancy boy(what does a Nancy boy look like?). Thinks he has a demon. Crazy. Well, in my mind, he was a small, skinny, brown-haired kid with thick glasses. Maybe he could've given those lab goggles a run for their money.

"I don't know," came his reply.

He didn't know. The fuck is wrong with this guy? Obviously rich. I mean, the question wasn't THAT difficult. If he didn't understand it, then he'd be screwed when he was out the infirmary and in class. Actually, why was he in the infirmary? "What're you doing here?" I asked.

I could imagine him shrugging before realizing I couldn't see him. "I don't know. My father left me. I shouldn't be here."

I wanted to shake my head. Obviously the type who wanted to be at some normal school. Brains or money could be a curse sometimes. But that wasn't what I meant. Okay. Let's make this a bit more simpler for him. "Why are you in the infirmary?" My voice went flat.

"I didn't feel too good. I was halfway to my new room when I passed out. we'll probably be going as soon as someone comes here to release him." We? Him? Yup, this boy had a screw lose.

A fainter. That happened to some new students. Coming from a regular school to a CIA training ground sometimes threw newbies off guard. Too much to take on their first day. I'd been the same. But then again, walking into a school and seeing a group of teenagers dangling a student out the top floor window would give anyone the heebie-jeebies. Apparently it was some mathematical experiment. I wouldn't attend my math classes for the first month out of fear of being dangled out a window. They weren't low windows, either. The academy was set in an old castle (sort of like the posh schools you see on TV. Built with old stone bricks, large wooden doors and huge windows.) and it was a good 300 foot drop to the ground. The whole inside had been renovated, though. You wouldn't be able to guess what the inside looked like from standing out.

"Right… Anyway, I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"I'm… Gaara."

The door to the infirmary opened and the clicking of high heels against tiled flooring entered the room. Paper crumbled as the nurse obviously lifted a sheet over her clipboard. "Mr. Uzumaki. I've been informed to release you. The bandages can't come off yet, but we have one of your friends here to help you back to your room."

"Yoh." Sasuke, great. He'd probably help me walk into a wall for burning his hair. "Ready to go, blindy?"

"Fuck you, Uchiha," I said, swinging my legs off the bed and standing. I put my hands out.

"I'm here, genius."

"Then hurry up and get over here. Unless you haven't noticed, my ability to see isn't at it's greatest right now."

He grabbed my arm and started dragging me toward what I guessed was the door and hopefully not a wall to slam my face into. I turned and waved into the darkness where Gaara's bed was. "I'll catch you around. Maybe we'll have a class together." I really hoped not.

"Who're you talking to, usuratonkachi," Sasuke said as he stopped walking.

"Gaara." I leaned in closer to where Sasuke's ear should've been. "I don't think he's all there in the head."

The room fell silent. I really hoped he hadn't heard me. Maybe we weren't as far away from the beds as I thought.

"I don't think he's the only one not 'all there'. Are you sure that stuff didn't effect your brain as well?"

"What?"

Sasuke paused and let go of my arm. His voice became serious. "There's no one there, Naruto."

I turned, even though I couldn't see the bed. "The guy with the beads."

"What guy?"

I tried to punch his arm, but he must've moved. "Stop screwing around. The guy in the bed. I know he's there, I heard the nurses talking about him earlier. Gaara, say something."

"There's a guy in the bed on your other side, but he's asleep and his nametag says Sai. C'mon. I'm taking you to get some rest. You need it." My arm was grabbed again, and I was pulled from the room, but not before turning back, seeing nothing but darkness and hearing the beads clanking together again and a small whisper.

"Now the light has gone away. Saviour, listen while I pray. Asking Thee to…"

We left the room.

Confusing, no?

Well, halfway through that, I decided to take a completely different route to this story. I'm not too happy with it, but I don't usually get the voice down until a couple of chapters in, so I might come back and edit this one a bit. Hmm. I just read through it, and it doesn't seem like almost 4,000 words. Bah...

Please R&R. I always update quicker when I know people are enjoy it.