I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
Written in memory of my paternal grandmother, who passed away 16/8/2008.
Wear A Mask
Konohamaru says many things that he doesn't mean.
He doesn't mean it when he accuses Udon of being a 'dripper'.
Nor does he hope Naruto takes it to heart when he takes back the blonde's leadership and replaces it with rivalry.
He certainly doesn't mean it when he says he wants Sarutobi dead.
Konohamaru doesn't know how to say things without making a fool of himself or portraying the wrong image to another. So he forges himself a mask and wears it. He hides behind it whenever he is troubled, but when he can't handle the pressure, the mask cracks like fragile glass and he is bombarded with the shards.
The mask falls apart the day he meets one Naruto Uzumaki, shattering to the older boy's determination.
It reforms and becomes something stronger.
But it's not invincible, and it breaks again, on the day the Third Hokage dies.
Before he met Naruto, Konohamaru constantly barged into his grandfather's office and challenged him to a duel, each time more persistent than the last. He knows that he will be recognised if he defeats the Hokage, and that's certainly what he wants. But a small part of him knew that the Old Man was, well, old. He wouldn't be around all the time for Konohamaru to kick around, so he had to be quick and snappy about it.
Yet… Konohamaru took it for granted that his grandfather hadn't dropped dead yet, so he is utterly shocked when Ebisu takes him to the roof and he finds Sarutobi lying broken on the ground, bloody.
But he is smiling, and that is what hits Konohamaru the hardest.
No warrior smiles in battle, not even when he knows his time is up. Konohamaru had tried to hold back Sarutobi from the battle before he entered it, but his grandfather had only smiled and patted his head and murmured words that the boy did not understand.
Sarutobi smiles when he is alive, and he smiles when he is dead.
The smiles are one and the same.
Konohamaru doesn't get it. He doesn't think he ever will, and he wonders if he will ever want to.
He still figures it out someday.
Konohamaru Sarutobi knew about Hokages before he could even fit his pudgy fingers around a kunai.
But it's not until he is twelve that he realises what a grandfather truly is.
Then he thinks… that perhaps he doesn't know his as well as he thought.
Surely, Sarutobi had a mask of his own. His had many sides:
One is his Hokage self.
Another is an efficient killer.
The third is a sensei broken by his students' parted ways.
The last face is that of a grandfather that Konohamaru would go through fire and ice to keep.
The young Sarutobi thrusts himself into the licking flames and frozen sheets without hesitation. But he can't bring back the Old Man, and his face becomes ravaged in the process of escaping.
That's why Konohamaru decides to wear a mask for the rest of his life.
But his is a splintered wreck, beyond repair.
So he borrows his grandfather's.