Disclaimer: Naruto, his friends and the world he lives in don't belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto. I write this story only for my pleasure and I don't make any money with it.

Sorry, I know this is a bit later than usual. I have been to the Japanese summer festival of my town (which happens to be the twin town of Hiroshima.) I have seen some Kendo fighting and traditional Japanese archery and listened to some traditional Japanese music – well, more or less traditional, it included a violin. Oh, and there were some Akatsuki around, having picknick.

Chapter Fifteen: A New Promise

“You see, this was not that horrible”, Karin said. “No need for drama. Now you'll no longer have to pretend that everything is fine while you continue knocking over glasses, making us read the small print to you and running into trees. Just get glasses and everything will be fine.”

Sasuke hadn't said anything since they had left the doctor, and had left it to Naruto and Karin to find them a café where they could sit in the sun and decide how to go on. Naruto was a bit worried: He empathized with Sasuke and pitied him – no longer perfect, no longer an invulnerable fighter, but hurt at the core of his pride, his eyes. Yet on the other hand Karin was correct: If Sasuke suffered from myopia, denying it was no solution, and so there was no alternative to accepting the facts and getting glasses. He was, however, quite glad that it was not him who needed them.

“I mean, it's only glasses”, Karin continued. “You can always take them off if you want to be pretty.”

“I could if I were as stupid as you”, Sasuke retorted, and the insult shocked Naruto as if it had been directed at himself. The relationship between Sasuke and the kunoichi of his team seemed a bit difficult.

“In my eyes you will always be pretty”, he said to comfort Sasuke. “With or without glasses.”

Sasuke spilt some water (not from overlooking the glass and knocking it over, however.) What had he done to make Naruto say this?

“In my eyes too”, Karin added.

“And I had just thought that getting glasses might be good for something”, Sasuke snapped back.

Things seemed pretty bad between the two of them, Naruto decided.

“We can get some that are particularly hideous”, he suggested, “if that is what you want.”

Looking pretty was actually the least of Sasuke's concerns. He did not plan to seduce anyone – this was what occupied Karin's mind, his was busy with important matters. It was rather – it was that he could not imagine himself fighting that Danzou with glasses on. How would it look like? He'd seem like some weakling, or like that idiot, Kabuto, who spent more time in his laboratories than actually fighting, or at least training to fight. He was different – he was strong, and a fighter.

He could take off these glasses for fighting, to be sure. On the other hand he was rational enough to know that to fight he would need to see clearly.

He finished his drink. “Let's get over with it”, he said. “Where do I get these glasses?”

Naruto shrugged. “I have seen several stores in the center of town.”

Karin accompanied them back to the town hall, but she didn't join them to look for glasses. “I have promised Juugo to relieve him in the afternoon”, she said. “He wants to meet again with the same children he played with yesterday. - See you later! Naruto, make sure that he doesn't chicken out!”

“I will”, Naruto answered. “I promise you that we will return with glasses that will make him look even prettier than he is now!”

Neither Naruto nor Sasuke had ever been to an optician's store, and neither of them had an idea how to do this. Sasuke had the prescription from the doctor and thought he'd just give it to the shop assistant and get some glasses in return, but before he could do this, Naruto had already asked a shop assistant for glasses “for my friend” and had been shown upstairs, to the men's department, where Sasuke realized that things were going to be much more complicated than he had imagined: Hundreds, or even thousands of glasses were looking at him from the racks, threatening him: This is what you will be from now on. He slowed down his steps

Naruto was impressed too. He had not thought that there would be so many glasses to choose from – though, honestly, they all looked the same to him. He had no idea where to begin.

“Let's look for your size”, he said. “Do you have your prescription at hand?”

Sasuke showed it to Naruto, but nowhere was there any big, underlined number with “size” above it. “I think they're sorted by colour”, he said and headed for the black ones.

They sold them without glass, he realized. It made sense, of course, and he was glad that he would not have to choose this or that frame just because it happened to have the correct strength. Of course this was not of much help as they all looked equally horrible to him.

Naruto was at a loss too: Only slowly he saw the differences.

“Some are made of metal, some of plastic, or horn”, he pointed out. “Which do you prefer?”

“Metal”, Sasuke answered. “I don't want to look like Karin.”

On occasion I will have to ask what is the matter between the two of them, Naruto thought. He turned to those with the metal frames and finally saw that they were all different in form: Some were round, some were rectangular, and also, they were different in size. It was not of much help: he had no idea which ones might suit Sasuke.

A shop assistant turned up behind them. “You may try them on, of course”, he said.

“What for?” Sasuke asked. “They don't have glasses anyway, so I won't be able to tell whether they fit.”

“Maybe then we should first determine the strength you need.”

It took Sasuke some seconds to understand him, then he showed him the prescription. “We've already done this. We just have to choose the frame.”

“Well, then perhaps you'd like to try them on to see whether they suit you...”

Sasuke really didn't care. He was sure he'd look like an idiot with any of them.

“Maybe these...”

The shop assistant put a pair on his nose, and Sasuke froze at the intrusion of his personal space.

“No”, Naruto said, saving Sasuke from deciding whether to say “no” because he didn't like them, or “yes” because he was convinced that he wouldn't look better with any of the others either. (Actually he hadn't even looked into a mirror.)

“Well, they might be a bit too big”, the shop assistant admitted. He took another pair from the rack, and this time Sasuke caught his hand, took the frame from him and put it on himself.

“They are better”, Naruto decided. “But not perfect. What about these?”

He pointed at another pair, the shop assistant passed it to Sasuke, and Sasuke put it on.

“No, definitely not. He looks like a strict teacher now.”

“Well, this one has rounded corners...”

Naruto was getting into it: Seeing how minimal differences made Sasuke look like a different person. He learnt to rule out certain types (the butterfly-wing shaped ones, for example) without even making Sasuke try them on.

“I see you are going for something neutral”, the shop assistant said. “Maybe you'd like to try some colourless ones as well.”

He had brought a whole collection, and Naruto made Sasuke try them on too. Some were quite okay, but none was perfect.

“Can I have some paper, and something to write?” Naruto asked, and after providing him with these issues, the shop assistant watched how Naruto tried to make notes of the frames that had been okay (though not perfect). “the rectangular one from the second row with the rounded corners and the broader upper side.” After some time he showed Naruto where to find the numbers of the frames.

“We also have a mirror”, he told Sasuke. “If you want to have a look at the frames your friend has chosen for you.”

Hesitatingly, Sasuke obeyed. He did not see the point of it, as he was sure that he'd look stupid, but he could not refuse without embarrassing himself even more. As he expected, he hated them all.

“Yeah, put on the second one again!” Naruto said. “I think it was best.”

Sasuke did so, and Naruto drew a circle around the corresponding number. He thanked the shop assistant, then they left for the next store. Naruto looked forward to it – trying out glasses on Sasuke was fun, actually. He had a bit of a bad conscience for it, however, knowing how much his friend was suffering.

Their visit to the second store was rather short. Naruto had now understood how buying glasses worked, so he went straight ahead for the men's department, where they were greeted by an elderly assistant.

“I'm still busy”, she said. “You may begin looking for yourselves; I'll join you as soon as possible.”

So they went again for the black frames – Naruto had gained some experienc now at choosing which ones would do, and some were actually quite fine, but again, none was perfect. Sasuke's passivity was a bit worrying, but then, Naruto had given his promise to Karin that he wouldn't let him chicken out, and that they would find glasses that made him look even prettier than he already was.

The shop assistant had joined them without noticing it. “You might look prettier if you tried to smile”, she suggested to Sasuke. Naruto felt him freeze – it was the kind of remark Sasuke was not able to deal with. He reached out for him – he really liked touching him, he realized, and Sasuke did not seem to mind.

“He is pretty enough as he is”, he told the shop assistant. “You might need glasses yourself, if you don't see this.”

It was stupid, of course, as the woman was wearing glasses already. Maybe she needed stronger ones.

“We will look elsewhere”, he told Sasuke, loud enough for the shop assistant to hear. “There's another shop down the street. We don't have to buy anything here.”

He led him outside, his arm around Sasuke's shoulders. Sasuke was absorbed in his pain and suffering horribly by now, and glad for the warmth Naruto offered to him – it were not only the glasses any more, it was also that this place seemed to hate him. He liked it, actually, he was, all in all, enjoying his stay in this town, if people were not always making fun of him, humiliating him, expecting him to smile. But he just could not force himself to smile when he was needing glasses.

It was no longer simply about not being a fear-inspiring avenger when he was wearing glasses, it was that he would have to part from his face as it was now: He would keep it of course, but as his sight was getting worse, he would no longer be able to see it clearly without glasses. At the moment he still had an idea of how he looked like, but with the Mangekyou Sharingan, it would deteriorate more and more, making him need stronger and stronger glasses and stopping from seeing his own face clearly without them – curse Itachi!

He followed Naruto to the next shop – it was obvious that Naruto enjoyed himself, but he meant well, and so Sasuke was ready to put up with it. He was grateful that Naruto had defended him against the shop assistant, and he distracted himself by wondering whether Naruto really thought him pretty. It was a nice thought, and letting Naruto choose the glasses he thought him most handsome with was probably not the worst choice.

The shop was unusually big, and they were left alone to choose for themselves while the shop assistants were busy discussing what they wanted to do for their colleague's wedding which was going to take place in two weeks. Naruto even had to wait for a few minutes until they had time to give him something to write, else however he was content that they wouldn't be bothered but could try out the frames by themselves. He considered himself an expert buyer of glasses by now. Round, oval, rectangular, butterfly-winged, fancy – they had secured themselves a table, and Naruto sorted the frames by form, and then in the order of how they looked. Though still, none of them was prefect.

Sasuke remained compliant, putting on even the weirdest frames Naruto brought him, which he would have rejected after a single look in the first store, and funnily it was with these weird ones that he dared to look at himself in the mirror.

“With these you look like some old scholar”, Naruto would say. “Wanna have a look?” and Sasuke would look into the mirror and agree to it.

They ended up with a lot of notes about which models had been okay. Naruto made Sasuke try these on again, and drew a circle around the ones that were best among this selection. Sasuke felt the jaws of fate closing around him: Trying out glasses that were ridiculous, knowing that they were ridiculous and that he would not have to wear them, was fun – the thought that in the future he would have to wear some more or less decent glasses all the time was not.

He expected Naruto to decide that they would purchase the frame he had just declared the best, and also better than the one he had found in the first shop.

“So shall we get that one?” he asked.

Naruito shook his head. “It's okay, but -” he sought for words to explain it - “it's not really you. I am looking for glasses that make you look like you.”

Sasuke was moved by these words and he smiled, but only faintly; Naruto knew that the events of the day had exhausted him. He put his hand around Sasuke's shoulders again, he felt more confident about it now, and Sasuke, after getting tense for one moment, relaxed, and Naruto relaxed too.

“Why can't we just buy some glasses that are okay?” Sasuke asked. “Did you not say that I will always be pretty in your eyes?”

“I did – and I will see that it comes true. I won't give up before we find glasses that are perfect.”

For all Sasuke was going through, and for all the pity he felt for him, Naruto was in heaven: Sasuke was with him, he allowed him to be close to him, to care for him, to comfort him, and he was going to stay for some more days – he felt warm and elated, and he wished that this moment might last forever.

He'd see that Sasuke would smile too, he thought, even though he needed glasses.