Hello, everyone! So, this is just a short little side thing I felt inspired to do and share with you all. I don't plan for this to be very long, or take very long to get to the better parts. :P I came up with the idea a few days ago after a talk with a friend, and was just dying to show it somewhere. I plan for the chapters to be short, but if you'd prefer I make them a bit longer, just let me know and I'll try to accommodate! Enjoy!

He was the head of the spear that battled to save the ninja world. He fearlessly took on a physical god, and for a time, he had to do it alone. He's teetered on the precipice of death countless times over the course of his short life, and has attained a near-insurmountable level of power. And now, he's nervous about attending a masquerade ball. Go fucking figure.

It's something of a tradition for the Hokage to host events like this in their home every year at about this time, something that Naruto, being the antisocial ragamuffin that he was in his youth, never really cared for attending, and would often overhear things about afterwards. Usually, it's an unthemed little party where people can dress up in whatever costumes they want, but Tsunade decided this year to make masks a theme for the ball.

It was Hinata who recommended that he go this year, and she even went so far as to provide a fancy little orange-and-silver fox-like half-mask the day prior for him to wear. She assured him that he'd enjoy it, and Naruto knew that if there was anyone whose words he could put faith in, it was Hinata. But the more he thought about it, even as he readied himself to go, the less sure he was that this would be as fun as she suggested.

These cryptically forewarning thoughts presently keep Naruto held at bay before the entrance to the Hokage Residence. His mask was on, and as far as he could tell, he looked nice enough in his black suit and orange tie. The soothing sounds of flute music and light drumming drew his ears in, but the rest of him was rigid with tension for several moments.

It'll be fun, Naruto.

He closes his eyes and runs a scarred hand through his unusually-kempt hair as he reflect on Hinata's words, letting the echoed memory of her soft voice try and coax him into loosening up.

I promise.

With a deep sigh, Naruto does his best to let the nerves melt away, and urges his body forward, one step at a time into Tsunade's home, following the music until he finds himself in a vast ballroom among a crowd of frozen, masked faces. The majority of guests at the ball had on half-masks like he did, of various shapes and colors, and with sometimes stunning, flashy decorations like feathers, frills or tiny gold or silver chains, and the outfits and costumes he spotted were no less extravagant and gaudy. A few of the guests walked around with masks that concealed their face completely, like ANBU. One or two wore masks that simulated expressions like happiness, but the vast majority of masks were completely stoic.

Naruto takes one look around, finding no wonder in how he could have thought this would be a bit weird. He forgot just how creepy masks are. Seeing people that move their bodies and make idle gestures as if their talking, but their face never changing… it was surreal to him. Even with half-masks, it was weird. Almost all expression comes from the eyes and the eyebrows. With those hidden, everyone around Naruto looks uncomfortably uncanny.

It'll be fun, Naruto.

This line runs over and over again through Naruto's head as he tries to ease that tickle in his spine that made the hairs on his nape rise, but he can't relax. He can't shake the feeling that he's being watched from somewhere. Shutting out the noise around him for a moment, he slowly turns his head back and forth a few times as he lingers near the entrance. Eventually, he spots her, several feet away, very close to one corner of the room.

There a woman stands, with pale fair skin and silverish-white hair that has a single gloomy streak of blue on her right side. She wore a short white kimono with its sleeves ending at the elbow and the hem ending just above her knees. Her attire was trimmed light blue, and similar-colored stripes were visible along the short sleeves, and even painted along the sides of her bare lower legs. All twenty neatly-trimmed nails were painted a glossy light blue, and the shimmering hue was even present on her soft, small, smiling lips.

The woman's half-mask is what entrances and unnerves Naruto all at the same time. Its base is silver, and it is dramatically stylized with light-blue trim and stripes just like her attire, giving her the appearance of an almost ghostly white tigress. What makes this woman's appearance stand out, however, is that her mask has no visible eyeholes. The way that her mask's stripes are placed and patterned, it's obvious where the eyeholes are supposed to be, but there's only silver base. As far as Naruto knows, the woman he's looking at is completely blind. And yet, her head is turned as if she's looking right back at him.

That cold shiver tickles Naruto's back again, and it takes him a moment to tear his eyes away and start to walk forward, trying to pretend he never noticed her there. He goes for a few steps, walking, whistling, trying to catch a couple of words from the nearby conversations to distract himself. Eventually, he has no choice, and turns his head to look back at where he'd seen her, to find out if she was still… 'watching' him. Naruto blinks as he sees that the space where that odd woman was once standing was now empty, and as he looks around quickly, he finds that she's nowhere to be found. That bad feeling returns.

"Jeez…" he mutters to himself, sighing and nervously scratching the back of his neck.

It'll be fun, Naruto, she said… Whatever faith he had left in those words was vanishing quickly.

Hope you guys enjoyed it. The next chapter will be up as soon as possible!

~M.H.C~

May all you Hearts beat with Calamity!

Till next time!