Author's note: I don't own Naruto. This is a one shot drabble that came to mind when I thought of our prom, which is themed "Masquerade". Review as you please, I don't think I'll be turning this one into a story as its a bit too complicated. And, yes, it is very short. Sorry!

The Masquers

It was in the deepest hours of night when I first donned my mask. It was the blackest hours of the new day when I was presented in finery to the Masquer. And it was then; in the darkest hour of a land's golden years that I lost everything that was precious to me. I became an apparition, a nameless figure with every changing faces within this city's endless masquerade of order. For he, the Masquer, has orchestrated every life within this city to his own means. Because the city is his stage; its people are his audience. And I… I am the marionette with which he turns them to his own ends.

One would think that such a life is simple, a directed production of perfection that is merely black and white. But it is so much more, for within this set order, chaos runs uninhibited. For the outcome will always abide by the Masquer's plan. I ensure that this is so… but I too am a puppeteer in this show. And ultimately, I will dance my own song within this city.

Everything about us is nothing more than a shadow, except for the masks that we don. From a geisha to a leopard, we transform. There is only one in which we are ourselves: the original mask that is my face. It is simpler, this way. For it is only in this face that I have concern for my actions. For donning a mask is much like switching souls; guilt clings only to those things it was committed with.

Pains, Sorrow, even grief mean nothing to me. I only know their role behind the mask that I play. Love, too is beyond my grasp until I enter its role. But Rage, Anger, Power… these things come to me easily and no mask restrains them from my mind and it is for that reason that I can so easily deceive him who stole my heart away.

In the most elaborate of my performances, I will shed my mask and shatter the illusion, as I orchestrate the Final Masquerade that will end all time.