Naruto the Mask Adventure

"It wasn't supposed to be this way!" was the only thing Naruto could say about his current situation.

-Flashback-

It all started two months ago when Sasuke defected from Konoha. Life had changed for everyone who knew him. Most people seemed sad, others seem indifferent, but for one Naruto Uzumaki, life changed drastically.

"How can I get Sasuke back if no one will take me seriously?" Naruto mumbled to himself as he sat on his bed in his one room apartment.

'Why is it the no matter how much I try, no matter what I do, I can't do anything right or make anyone happy?' thought Naruto while thinking how he could make things better for everyone.

Despite what people may think, Naruto is far from an idiot. Far from the hyperactive knucklehead everyone thinks his is. At an early age he learned that people are more afraid of a smart enemy than a dumb one. Being picked on as a child by his fellow villagers, Naruto learned how to hide, both physically and mentally. So he created a fake identity in which he could hide in plan sight. As a result, Naruto grew to hate violence, in all its forms, but also a great scenes of humor, and the biggest love for non-lethal pranks you have ever seen.

Recently though, Naruto's fake identity began to work against him. It hit him on his latest mission. A simple recon mission to Rice County to find any sign of Orochimaru or the Sound village. He found documentation in an abandon warehouse that could have lead them to Sound, but it was in code, when none of his fellow squad mates could figure it out, even Sakura, Naruto decided to let his true self out.

"Guys, I think the code says that the Sound village has moved as a whole northwest from it's previously location." Everyone just looked at him as if he was an alien. "Naruto, there is no way any of use could know what the code means, lets just take the info back the Konoha." Said Sakura as everyone started to pack up for the trip back. Naruto wanted to protest, but stayed silent knowing that there was no way that they were going to believe him. Days later, when they made it back to Konoha, the Intelligence Office cracked the code, only to discover that Naruto was right.

Everyone started to look at Naruto differently, but not with looks an approval, but of indifference and some of fear. After a week of these looks, Naruto finally figured out what was wrong, it was what Sakura had said to him when he asked why she has training herself do hard, "I just want things to go back to the way they were before." That's when it hit him, everyone from his old class giving him those indifferent looks, Tsunade still treating him like a child no matter what he did.

Nobody wanted him to change. Nobody wanted a Naruto who wasn't a loud hyperactive knucklehead who couldn't do anything buy himself. With a Naruto who needed help, everyone else felt better about themselves. When you know that there is someone at the bottom, then you know that you're not that somebody.

'I'll have to test that.' thought Naruto as he got of his bed and walked towards his closet. He took off his bright orange jacket and his sage green t-shirt. As he looked through his closet he found a black t-shirt with an orange flame spiral on the front. Next to it he found a black jacket with a thick high collar and thick arm cuffs. 'These will do perfectly.' Thought Naruto as he put them on and took off his headband and placed it and the nightstand next to his bed.

'I think Hinata will do' thought Naruto as he left is apartment. Naruto knew all about Hinata's secret "crush" on him. It has hard not to notice when someone was following you ninety percent of the time.

It wasn't until he reached the training grounds next to the forest that he called out for her. "Hinata, you can come out now!" and on cue, Hinata Hyuga came out from behind a near by tree. "Hello Hinata." Naruto said on a confident voice not heard for him that seemed to scared Hinata more that he thought it should. "Hello Naruto." Said Hinata in the same quite voice she always has.

"Hinata, I got to ask, what it wrong with everyone, you, Sakura, even Tsunade seem to be upset that I'm not as loud or as dumb as I used to be?" asked Naruto while full well knowing the answer.

"Naruto isn't supposed to be smart, Naruto isn't supposed to be able to do things on his own, he is supposed to ask for help, to work towards his goals, Naruto is supposed to be Naruto." Hinata said with a soft voice while looking at her fingers as she poked them together that honestly scared the crap out of Naruto.

"Ok, Hinata I need you to go home so I can train." Naruto suggested hopping that Hinata would go away.

"Ok." Said Hinata as she walked away. 'She scares the crap out of me.' Thought Naruto as a shutter ran down his spine.

"It wasn't supposed to be this way!" Naruto yelled as he turned and started to walk further into the forest. He never noticed a pair of brown eyes watching him the whole time.

-Present-

'Everything has gone wrong, everybody was supposed to like the real me, everybody was supposed to support the idea that I wasn't an idiot.' A depressed Naruto thought as he walked through the forest. He hated that everyone wanted him to be an idiot so they would feel better about themselves.

"What a bunch of assholes, they don't like it, so what! I want to be normal; I don't want to be a fake anymore. I just want to be me. Just wish it wasn't so hard." Naruto spoke out loud to himself as he came to a stop at a random tree and sat down at the base.

That is when he felt his hand brush against something hard. As he turned to look, he saw a strange mask.

"What the?" Said Naruto as he picked up the mask to get a better look. The mask was made of hard wood, but it was colored of a mix of several different greens. It was simple in design, two eye holes and a hole for the mouth. It seems to only cover the face, but not the whole head. A metal strip ran down the middle of the mask with four evenly placed stubs that stopped were the nose would be. It also had a strange logo on the forehead that seemed to resemble an "L".

"This is one ugly mask, how is it even supposed to stay on your face?" Naruto said as he turned the mask around to look at the inside.

The inside of the mask then glowed green from left to right. Naruto was so socked by this; he didn't even notice that his eyes change for their normal sky blue to a bright greenish-yellow, or that he started to more the mask closer to his face.

"What the hell? Why did this mask just shine?" Naruto said as the mask was now inches away from his face. The mask then jumped from his hands and smacked onto his face.

"WHAT!" Naruto yelled as he reached up to pull the mask off. His eyes already returned to there normal sky blue. When he touched it, he nearly yelled out in fright. It felt as if the mask was alive and was starting to stretch and expand around his head. He could feel it shift and mold on his face. As he tried to remove the mask, no matter how hard he pulled, it wouldn't budge. He could feel the ends of the mask connect with each other on the back of his head. The mask then connected with his mouth and eyes, he could feel the mask was forming around his nose, and the metal strip seemed to melt into the mask. The mask changed from its normal hard wooden, green colored state into a new smooth, lime green rubber like texture. The last thing Naruto could think of to do was to yell, "HEEEELP MEEE!"

Naruto then felt his body jerk to the left, before it jerked hard to the right. So hard he began spinning. Instantly, he seemed to turn into a mini tornado. A human sized, green, yellow, black, and orange tornado. No matter how hard he tried to yell, the wind and thunder of the tornado was louder. The oddest thing was that the colors were layered, yellow was at the top, followed downward buy lime green, then black, and finally orange. After about five seconds the colors change and Naruto's yelling stopped. The yellow at the top changed to a crimson red, the green remained the same, the black became orange, and the orange at the bottom turned black.

The tornado continued to spin through the trees, even smashing several down as it came to a halt in an open clearing. When the tornado came to a sudden stop, a new figure could be seen stand in a green smoke cloud. When the figure walked out of the smoke a new Naruto could be seen for the first time.

This new Naruto now had crimson red hair, but still in his classic spiked fashion. He was now wearing the same sage green t-shirt he had with his old outfit before his decided to open himself up to the world, but it had the same spiral flame design of his new black t-shirt but in red. Over his new t-shirt he was wearing an orange short sleeve dress shirt with no breast pockets and was completely open to show his new sage green shirt underneath. He was wearing a pair of black baggy cargo pants with noticeable pockets on the sides of his knees. On his feet his was wearing a pair of classic black and white sneakers. The most obvious change was that the skin on Naruto's head was now lime green from his chin up, covering his whole head. His whisker marks now gone, and his ears seemed to be covered by the same "skin" that now covered his face.

Naruto felt different, like a whole new person, but the only thing that he could think of to say in the calmest voice he has ever heard himself say was "Dattebayo."

-To be continued-

First Chapter of my new Mask story. Hope everyone enjoys it.

NomaxXN at was kind enough to make a picture to go with this chapter. [.com/messages/#/d3ra9p9]