We wear a thousand masks, a thousand faces, none of them real. They're just our façade to be the person everyone wants us to be. The true one is embedded deep within our souls. Unarmed. Vulnerable.

I watch as people walk by me. All of them are wearing their masks, and it is pathetic, even though I know I do the same thing. I don't understand them, and I don't want to. I am different, an outcast in their little fantasy.

The war is over. Konoha is once again the place I call my residence – not my home, never my home; my home is not four walls, it's a heartbeat – and I've been reinstated as a Leaf Shinobi. In other words, life seems to have come back to normal. Except…

"Sasuke!"

That voice. The one person I always want to run into, yet hope that I don't have to face. I halt. Making sure my mask is in place, I turn around.

I take a deep breath. "Naruto. What is it?"

He grins, smile reaching his ears, a twinkle in his eyes. "I have news!"

"Yes I already know they're going to make you Hokage; that's not news," I say dismissively.

"Not that!" he says, "It's…something else!"

He is sunshine and liquid gold, and I know I cannot live without him by my side.

"So what is it, loser? I'm busy, I don't have all day."

He lets out a small huff. "Yeah, yeah I get it. But – " the smirk returns to his face. "You won't be too busy on my wedding day, right?"

I feel my breath catch in my throat. Wedding.

I feel myself free-falling into an obsidian abyss. Dammit, no. I cannot let the mask slip.

"Hn."

Naruto scowls. "Bastard, at least congratulate me or something. It's not every day your best friend gets married!" His grin is back in place. "So Hinata and I decided that it's going to be a small thing – just close friends and family, in honor of Neji. Sakura and Ino have put themselves in charge of handling everything, and you should just see those two trying to…."

I tune his voice out. Wedding. Hinata. So he is leaving me alone after all. He won't be my Naruto anymore. I want to grab him by his shoulders and shake him till he sees what's been in front of his eyes all along. I want to slam him into a wall, pin him with my body, and ravage him. I want to shout into his very soul that he is mine, mine and nobody else's…but my voice, it never comes.

Itachi suddenly pops into my mind, and I feel that whirlpool of pain I have buried somewhere deep inside me threaten to rise to the surface. Why am I always the one to be left behind?

"Huh, Sasuke, did you say something? I didn't quite catch that."

I swallow the bitterness back, struggling to keep my mask from falling off. "When's the wedding?"

That ear-splitting grin latches itself onto his face again. "Next month," he says. "Can you believe it – just a month and I'll…" his grin slips a bit, features taking on a more somber expression. He looks down at the ground, contemplating something.

I bite down on my lower lip, wishing things had gone differently. I want everything to go back to when it was just him and me. When I used to be the center of his world. So maybe I was a little selfish to always want him chasing after me, but isn't that what people do when they don't want to let go of someone they love?

"Naruto."

He looks up at me, blue eyes filled with an emotion I cannot place. "Sasuke, I…"

I ball my right hand into a fist, nails digging into skin. "I have to get going; my genin are waiting for me, and I really don't like being late."

He nods, eyes still not leaving mine. It's almost as if he's…searching for…

No.

"Congratulate Hinata on my behalf, Naruto."

I turn around and start walking before I break in front of him. Keep on walking. Don't turn around.

"Congratulate Hinata? You never even congratulated me, bastard!" he shouts cheekily from behind, but I never return it. I keep walking through the streets of Konoha and into the woods till my knees finally give in.

I let my mask fall to the ground, where it shatters into a million pieces. Uchiha men don't cry, I tell myself, but somehow, I am powerless against the wracking sobs that heave through me.

We wear a thousand masks, hiding ourselves in them. Our masks are testaments to the fact that underneath it all, we're just a bunch of vulnerable humans that are capable of feeling the kind of pain that threatens to destroy our very existence. Our masks shield not just our own selves from pain, but others too. Because at times, we have to be strong, not for ourselves, but for others.

It's just nature's way of protecting its young.

It's my way of protecting him.


A.N: Okay so I have a lot of ideas regarding where I could take this if I turned it into a chaptered fic, but I don't know for sure if I'm gonna go ahead and do that, or just leave it as a one-shot. What do you guys think? ^^