Becoming Human

Chapter Two: The Masks We Wear

Review Responses:

Guest: The Council are the same people that make up the village, just acting in association with each other to make political choices, and of course they'd have a grudge against Naruto and their inability to emphasize with him made them view him as a weapon. The part of the first chapter you were referencing was also from the perspective of a jaded Kakashi, who was rightfully pissed off that a boy was turned into an ANBU drone so early in life, during an era of peace.

WindyCitySlayer1: Thanks for your support.

Void: Thank you.

Girrr: Huh? Thanks for the review.

One Day Later.

Naruto ripped the cap off the last bottle of beer in his fridge, downing the forbidden drink within mere seconds before tossing said bottle in a rather large pile of bottles next to him. If anyone knew what he did on his spare time if it wasn't for the damn demon within his gut clearing the alcohol out of his system at a super rate then he'd never pass a psych exam. At age 13 Naruto has a rather long laundry list of issues which include: depression, alcoholism, and a mild case of PTSD to top it all off.

In the hours since his forced discharge from ANBU had been spent coping with the loss of the one thing that gave him purpose, the one thing the damn that shut the fucking demon in his stomach up, and now he had to get ready for a nice day of playing ninja with a bunch of borderline civvies who thought they were oh so special. The thoughts of stepping into that place made him want to try that dying thing again. At least then he didn't have to face his own problems in a room full of brats, nope the seconds of peace he had when he went under were a blessing in comparison to having to go back being Naruto Uzumaki; village idiot or village monster depending who you asked.

Iruka wasn't bad; they shared some type of bond, but as a man who didn't know how to handle a relationship that wasn't with Dog, who was basically a grown up version of Naruto so they remained acquaintances for the foreseeable future. Other than that he had never been close to any of his classmates other than to rope them in for a prank to test the limits of his strategic prowess, while keeping up the masquerade of a ball of Orange energy that could bounce about forever.

His alarm rang, meant to awake him in time to get ready for school, but Naruto groggily stood up and grabbed a beer bottle and threw it at the annoying alarm which caused immense pain to his brain which was already thinking at a pace far beyond the speed his neurons could function at. Naruto walks into his bathroom before turning on the water to the shower which began to warm up. He shed his clothing and bristled at the cold air touching his skin which was covered in scars that had been too deep to heal in their entirety.

He took a step into the now warm water, taking a deep breath as he felt the heat massage his tired muscles. His mind began to focus, though just slightly lessening his physical pain.

"You damn well know that you could never have friends like that old fool wants: your hands are soaked to the bone in the blood of your enemies, both foreign and the villagers we had much fun slaughtering all those years ago."

"Shut up." Naruto weakly responded to the Kyuubi, he knew all too well the game the bastard fox was trying to do by playing on insecurities. Normally he didn't even bother replying to the demon's attempts at making life hell for his captor, but this time he simply didn't want to hear the bitching and restatement of facts he knew to be true.

"Insolent pest! One day when you give into me and I will use your own hands to rip the village that you love so much to shreds. I wonder how Kakashi will feel when he sees the brat that he brought back would be the one who ripped his spine out of his body!"

"Stupid Fox; he'd be dead when you do that, duh." Naruto smirks at the little witty jab, "Besides if you went anywhere near him he'd probably sick his dogs on you and we both know how you feel about dogs." he grabs soap and begins to clean his body as small traces of red line the drain as the blood of the men he killed that had come to dry on his hair.

His response seems to have silenced the demon's excessive chatter, but Naruto knew that the creature would be back at him tonight when he finally went to sleep when he would go through a particularly gruesome session of memories and nightmares as a repercussion for wounding the poor little Kyuubi's ego. He'd get back at it anyways by putting the creature to work extra hard to purge the alcohol from his system that he'd drink to stop said issues from reappearing in his dreams.

What would he do now? Not having anything but Genin-level work and training with Kakashi and the team with the annoying Uchiha bastard would leave a huge opening in his schedule. Normally he had little time to be concerned with anything outside of sleeping and messing around in the Academy before being sent off on another mission and practicing the techniques with actual Shinobi. Now...he had nothing but a demon, a drinking problem, and time to look forward to. As sick as it made him he had to start thinking of something else he could do to fill the time in his life so that the demon could be pushed down into the prison within himself and he could have a semblance of control over his own body.

He shut off the water and steps out of the shower while grabbing a towel and using it to dry off his skin before walking back into his room and grabbing another orange jumpsuit. Naruto had plenty of the same shirt, after all the expectation of him was to be the same hopeful goofball that people didn't get close to due to the fact that he'd annoy them to death if they ever got close enough.

Soon he began to fantasize about what it'd be like if he could just loose all restraint and let his classmates know about the real Naruto Uzumaki. Man, Sasuke might have a mental breakdown if he found out that dead last was actually a Jonin level killing machine capable of beating him in a single move as if he were a civilian, then maybe he'd learn some damn humility instead of his weird inferiority/superiority complex thing going on.

Unfortunately, some things are better in fantasy land, opposed to in practice: if he gave into such impulses his cover would be blown and before he knew it he would be a missing-nin under a new pseudonym, leading choice of which would be Wasabi—he still didn't know why he'd come up with that—and then he'd likely be exterminated by Kakashi. That didn't sit well with him as giving the smug sonofabitch the honor of killing him, only because he knew that Kakashi would use the rather large sum of money he'd get on his porn. It didn't sit well at all to have known that he lived an entire life just so that Kakashi could spend the blood money from his head on more of those perverted books he used as his emotional cover.

In about ten minutes Naruto collected everything he'd need for the day and began the walk from his apartment to the Academy. Within minutes he could feel the burning gazes of the people who hated him more than anything as Naruto pretended not to see the emotional impact he still held on people he never knew and would likely never end up knowing. As was the life of Naruto Uzumaki, and it made him miss the anonymity of his mask all the more as Fox was figure who had the full respect of anyone around him or they were dumb enough to not know any better and ended up losing lives, body parts, or sanity.

Soon the Academy became apparent as did his classmates who stood together in two groups, one lead by a bunch of fangirls harassing the Uchiha—which he had no sympathy for—and the other group being the entire male population and a few girls like Hinata who couldn't be bothered with approaching Sasuke, whether it be due to shyness or the fact that they could see through the boy and know that he was just a little shit in an even smaller bowl. The second wasn't likely but he had hoped that one day some girl would be smart enough to see that, hell he could marry a girl who had the brainpower to see through Mr. Dark and Brooding's facade to see the pathetic child for what he was.

All of a sudden he could feel the gazes of almost every single student turn to him, "Naruto! I'm shocked they even let you back into the Academy after Iruka threw that fit after you drew on his face with that permanent marker." the boy Kiba praised him with a proud glint in his eye. "You got him real paranoid now; he always drinks coffee in the middle of the day now, you should check it out he still has the same mustache you drew."

It was always fun when Naruto would get suspended from one of his pranks whenever he knew he had a long mission that would take him out of the village. Of course Iruka knew the whole time and begrudgingly played his part in keeping a cover story that would make sense as to why Naruto would be absent from the Academy for sometimes weeks at a time. They had an unspoken competition going on to see how many pranks Iruka could thwart and how many Naruto could execute to perfection. It was a childish battle of wits at times, and others a true test of Naruto's training in stealth, deception, and trickery when he'd plan on how execute a prank like a military operation.

"Why don't you flock to the loser...he looks desperate enough to listen to you grovel." Sasuke exclaims to the crowd of girls that crowd his personal bubble. To be frank he was glad for the excuse, but he also wanted to give the idiot a taste of his own medicine since all the girls together could almost be as loud and annoying as Naruto when they flock together.

Naruto, who still felt a little drunk sighs, "Can you not? It's still a little early for the shrieking, besides I'm starting to think that you're gay since you don't want to talk to your little fanclub." Immediately it was as if Naruto had just gone deaf all of a sudden before the rage of a bunch of fangirls began to bubble over as he was surrounded by shrieking women. "...what did I do? Oh God, make it stop."

"Be quiet!" Sasuke speaks up as he moves to the front of the group. "Did I really hear that from the idiot who doesn't even know what chakra is?" The fangirls begin to squeal and shriek in glee at their man standing up to Naruto, "We could go right here right now." the blonde offers.

Sasuke slips out into his stance before throwing a punch at Naruto, who caught the fist and then slipped it behind Sasuke's back, and he then pinned the boy to the ground, helpless as all the girls look on with shock.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Sakura."

"I don't know, Ino, because what I'm seeing looks impossible..." The girl looks at Naruto and notices the completely new air around him as if he was a completely different person...not the foolish, but constantly happy boy she had remembered. It had only been two weeks since the incident with the marker, and now Naruto was handing Sasuke his ass.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Iruka exclaims as he opens the door to see Naruto pinning the subdued Uchiha while straining on the dark-haired boy's arm. "Let him go and go to my Office, NOW!"

Everyone stood in shock as Naruto let go of the arm and stood up while walking casually into the Academy as Sasuke looked to Iruka, "You come too; I have no doubt that you had something to do with this." the other boy growls and follows Naruto in as Iruka closes the door leaving a bewildered crowd of students coming to terms with what just happened.

"Is it just me or is Naruto actually kinda cute now."

"You too?"

"Nah, he's just another meathead that drew poor Sasuke down to his level!"

"...I'm just glad that that troublesome Sasuke got shown his place." Shikamaru exclaims to the group of guys who all grinned like it was Christmas aside from the Nara boy who stood apathetic as ever to the situation outside of the small bit of satisfaction at the cocky son of a bitch getting shown up by dead last Naruto Uzumaki. It actually made him feel like he could do something similar as the other dead-last just above Naruto, though it was only because of his vice of loving sleep way too much to be invested in much more than he had to."

Kiba smiles, "Once Naruto broke up the monopoly on the girls that means that we have a chance now!" he looks at the other guys who look somewhat confused until Sakura looks over at them. "Yeah right! It was probably just a trick! Naruto could never challenge Sasuke in a fair fight."

The boy shakes his head, "No way! How could you watch that and say he used a trick? Sasuke got flat out dominated and that doesn't happen with a trick, and it's not like you got any proof." the girl scoffs. "Of course he can! I'll find proof if you want to bet on that! When I do you should have to eat that stupid coat!"

"A bet? You're on! If you can't get proof before the exams it means you owe me a kiss."

Sakura balks at the request: dog breath? No way, but internally she knew that she had too much pride to give in and back down.

"Fine! I'll even bring you some wasabi to eat with it since you seem to be a glutton for pain!"

"I don't even know what glutton means!"

"Of course you don't know, DOG BREATH!"

"PINKIE."

"...This is all too troublesome."

"SHUT UP SHIKAMARU!"

"What a bunch of drags you guys are."

Ino glances at her very angry friend/love rival with a confused expression on her face, "Uhhhh, Sakura?" she turns back to Ino, "What!" she exclaims still slightly heated from her debate with Kiba. "How are you going to convince Naruto to tell you that he cheated? I mean he isn't exactly gonna be honest with it."

Sakura pales at the comment; if she wanted to win the bet—which she definitely wanted to do—she would need to actually spend time with the boy and convince him to confess. She quickly thought of all her options before blushing at the thought of the only one that made any sort of sense.

"...I might have to go on one of those dates that Naruto has been bothering me for every single day." She turns her head from Ino, who she for sure knew would laugh at the thought of Sakura actually going out with the boy that most girls hadn't thought about ever asking out, much less accepting an invitation.

Ino did as Sakura had expected, bawling her eyes out as she laughed at the notion of Sakura and Naruto sitting in a restaurant somewhere as he made a fool of himself and Sakura sitting there fuming at his antics in front of everyone.

"...He better eat that shirt..." Sakura grumbled to herself while doing her best to ignore Ino's ear piercing laugh. The embarrassment ended when the door to the Academy opened and a much calmer Iruka let everyone inside.

Soon all the students began to split off into classes and taking seats as the day began as if it had been a completely normal, which to that point had been anything but.

Sakura took her normal seat and noticed that Naruto was already seated and looking a bit more happy than when she first saw him. Sasuke sat alone like always and was the opposite, far more broody than normal as he gave a death glare to anyone who sat close to him.

The class lecture for the day was a review for the final exam that would take place four days from now on Friday as Iruka and Mizuki went over the jutsus that they'd need to perform in order to be promoted to the rank of Genin and receive a Sensi on Saturday after the team distribution. Normally Sakura would be completely invested in the lesson and the ramifications that it would have on her future, but today she found herself focused on Naruto and inevitably inviting him out on a date. She really wanted to get him alone to do it so that everyone wouldn't make fun of her as a result of asking out the class clown.

In her intent focus on Naruto she began to notice slight differences: one was his apathy towards the lesson, which was different since he usually chimed in every once in awhile with some stupid comment in relation to the lesson or some joke, but now he was just simply completely uninterested in the lesson, and the second thing was that the review sheet had been long since filled in at the start of class, despite the due date not being until Thursday.

Before she knew it the school day had come to an end with only a few minutes left and Naruto had yet to ask his daily question that typically was extremely annoying, but now the absence of which now was equally annoying as she would have to ask Naruto herself, making things a lot more annoying then it ever had to be.

Time ended and Sakura made her way to Naruto's desk at the front of the classroom with a bright blush covering her cheeks, "...Naruto? I have a question." his bright blue eyes moved to hers, "Yes Sakura?" she twiddles her finger anxiously. "...M-maybe you'd like to go out with me to eat soon? Sometime like tonight?" His eyes widen, "Like a date?" she chokes on the words for a second. "Yes a date."

Naruto squints his eyes for a second as he begins to process this...odd request; it hadn't always been part of his cover that he had a crush on Sakura and now that she had come to him asking for a date was screaming too good to be true, but at the same time he knew it wouldn't be in his best interest to turn down an offer that would make him look equally suspicious if he said no, besides he had time and figured that maybe this could figure into filling the time gap his schedule now held.

"YES!" He exclaimed a little exaggeratedly, playing up his enthusiasim with energy he barely had left in the tank after a night of exhaustion. Sakura tried to not cringe at his excitement, "When do you want to go...where do you want to go?" she questions and he doesn't even have to think about it. "Ichiraku, of course! I can go whenever you're ready!"

"At least somebody was excited for this." Sakura thought to herself. "Meet me at my house in two hours, I'll be out front and we can go together." She handed him a piece of paper from the side of her review. "That has my address on it and the directions you'll have to take when you get close."

Naruto took the paper and for now the two split ways as they travelled back to their respective homes. Both uncertain of the night that laid before them, and little did they know that it would be the start of something that would end up changing both...for better or worse.

Sakura's House

Two hours passed like nothing and Naruto found himself in the one dress suit he had for a mission that required him to act as a civilian at a wealthy teenagers birthday when the ANBU wanted to find out how his father had been running a local political machine when multiple people came to, "talk business." and to make a long story short Naruto had impaled a man with a cake knife, but that didn't matter right now.

He knocked on the door and a very aggravated Sakura stepped out in front of him as she prepared to insult him before noticing the suit he wore. "I didn't know that Naruto even owned a suit." She thought to herself as the boy looked relatively well done for a guy who she never knew had attended anything that would require any type of formal clothing.

"D-Did you buy that just for tonight?"

"Yup." Naruto lied. At this point the words just flew off his tongue since lying had become first nature, especially when a good lie meant the difference between life and death, there was no room for the truth. It would make him look even better, "Why should I care about her opinion? She's normally just like the rest of them!" he would soon find out what her reasoning was for this whole experience.

"Wow...okay." Sakura exclaimed, "I appreciate the effort." she really didn't know what to expect next from him when he looked at her. "You look beautiful." Naruto exclaims and the girl fumbled over herself as she looked into his deep blue eyes as he spoke..."Control yourself! This is Naruto! I have to defend Sasuke's honor." she began to think of a response. "T-thank you."

The two teenagers walked together for about twenty minutes before they arrived at Ichiraku. The girl at the counter had an extremely giddy smile immediately at the sight of the the boy and girl. "Naruto, I see you've brought a friend with you! I guess things have really changed in just two weeks!" Sakura watched the interaction with much intrigue; it seemed as if Naruto had cultivated an interesting relationship with the staff.

"Yeah, this is Sakura! You know the girl I used to talk about, Ayame."

"This seems like a really special occasion, I'll tell you what, just for tonight everything is on the house." A man calls out to the boy from the kitchen space. "Thank you Mr. Teuchi!"

The girl, Ayame, handed the two menus to Sakura and Naruto as the girl began to browse the menu looking for something that looked good. Naruto, however looked content and knowing of his order. "I'll take the usual." Sakura read the menu for a minute before looking at Naruto. "What do you recommend?"

"Pork ramen is pretty good, you should try."

"I guess I'm trying something new tonight."

"What! You've never tried ramen?"

"Well I have, but it was a long time ago...Anyways how do you think you're going to do on that test on Friday?" Naruto smiles, "I'm going to pass, believe it. I know you will too, wouldn't it be cool if we were on a team together? We could do anything! Just like the Sannin!" a small smile crossed her face at the boy's confidence in her. It was rare that anyone showed faith in her abilities as everyone she had known up to that point was either Sasuke who had a mean streak of putting her down...even if she deserved it, a rival after his heart, or her parents who were civilians without the first clue on what being a Kunoichi meant. Almost never did she get any type of approval or a peer saying that she was worth anything, and it still felt good, despite coming from the person she least thought would be capable of making her feel this sense of pride.

"Well I am number one Kunoichi in our class for a reason." Sakura states, "I can totally prove myself to Sasuke." and almost immediately the weight of her own slip up hit her like a truck when she looked to Naruto and saw his happy look vanish and then his eyes drew to the table.

"I'm sorry, Naruto..."

"It's fine, I guess I just don't understand why everyone is so obsessed with him...it's just that he hurts everyone around him all the time and everyone comes back to him as if he was a saint that can do no wrong...I just think you deserve to be treated better than that, even if it isn't with me."

Sakura felt her cheeks flush once more at the boy's slight but true show of care for her well being. It made her feel conscious hurt all the more when she thought back on how she brutally insulted Naruto for no reason other than slight indiscretions which mostly came when she stepped in between Naruto and Sasuke. It made her process the words as she remembered every time Sasuke would kill her self esteem by calling her an idiot, ugly, and stupid...it also made her see the exact opposite in Naruto as he'd shown only respect and honesty so far...maybe it wasn't that bad that this was happening.

"I'll take the pork ramen then."

Naruto grins widely, "Good choice. I gotta go to the restroom and I'll be right back." she nods at him before starring forward with a blank gaze as she began to process the odd feelings she had begun to feel when he smiled at her.

Previously Sakura had never paid Naruto any attention because of how his personality was and her feelings for Sasuke. She'd never necessarily thought him as bad looking, moreso she had always wanted the thing that everyone wanted...maybe her competitive side confused Sakura when it came to Sasuke...

"Ms..." An old woman caught her attention, "If you want to leave right now I will pay your tab so you can leave before he comes back." Sakura felt rage build up within her, "You...you...how dare you ask me to do such a thing! Not only is that completely indecent and disrespectful to ask the food is already free because of him."

"You don't know him? Look it is better if you leave, people are staring and they notice that you're here with him. It would hurt your reputation if people started to say that you were hanging out with that boy."

"Let them stare! I know Naruto enough to know that he's a good guy. If that hurts my reputation so what!" Sakura by the end felt like she was confessing something to herself and accusing who she used to be as recent as the time he picked her up from her house. Damn Naruto was infectious! Her curiosity in the boy grew more and more with each second and as to why an old woman would try to get her to ditch Naruto for no good reason...was this similar to what he dealt with at the Academy? He was close to almost nobody and everyone else paid little attention to that fact and essentially left him as a lonely outcast.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Naruto marching back to the table and the old woman scurrying off at the sight of him. Sakura looks at his face and he looked as if he was completely content with the world despite her previous proclamation of love for Sasuke on a date.

"Naruto...do you know that woman at the table behind us?"

"No, why?"

"She came over here and offered to pay my bill so I could leave, she also said something about people staring at us and I do see people staring now..."

"Oh...p-people have never accepted me in this village. Ever since I could remember everyone avoided me like the plague or beat me as a child for no good reason. I guess that they don't like to see a girl like you associating with me."

"People used to randomly beat you in the street? Naruto how did you live through that?" It sounded unbearable to her that as a small boy that the village would attack him for no reason at all, it made more sense when she thought about the staring.

"They couldn't hurt my dream...I always wanted to be Hokage so that one day people can see me as a hero and someone that they can look up to as an example." Naruto internally knew that his dream had been impossible, but it was true that before Kakashi brought him in off the street to educate him on being a Shinobi that his dream had meant a lot to how he managed to get through childhood.

"If you want to leave, feel free. You shouldn't have to deal with the extra stuff because of me."

"...That takes guts, Naruto." Sakura looks back at the people who still watched from the corner of their vision. She felt empowered by his dream and wanted to show these bastards that kind of thing wouldn't fly. "Let's give them something to stare at. If they won't respect you then I guess I don't want respect from them either.

Sakura turned to Naruto and kissed him directly on the lips as the eyes of all the people looking at the two, as did Ayame's eyes as she turned to view the display with the bowls of ramen. The girl almost dropped both before steadying herself and giving a very proud smile at the sight.

Naruto felt the full shock of what just happened while internally debating whether or not that the kiss was a blessing or curse yet. The part that was a teenager's heart fluttered as the most attractive girl in his agegroup had done what he had thought impossible.

And the night was still young.

Chapter Two End

Here is the start of the romance portion of the story, but as of now it's a one sided thing to a degree. Naruto still has problems of his own to deal with and the fact that he is a very good liar and Sakura is into the mask he wears in public with no clue as to the baggage he comes with. The kiss was half and half a romantic gesture and flipping off the people who discriminate against Naruto, but we will definitely see this part of the story get further elaboration as the rest of the date is covered and how Sakura has a different view of Naruto.

I thank you guys for the support I got on the story so please do keep it up and I will try to work on my next chapter and have it done ASAP.

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As you saw at the top I want to reply to all the reviews I receive at the top of the previous chapter until the amount becomes too vast to handle all of which and even then I will respond to common questions in order to avoid running on and elongating things for little reason.

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Thank you, and have a good day.