How to Break a Mask
Author: Kinomi Akai
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto...I would probably pay a lot more attention to the plot developments...
Summary: An incident at the festival on Oct. 10th reveals that there is a lot that everyone doesn't know about Naruto. Smart!Naruto, Sasunaru/Narusasu, Rated M to be safe
Pairings: Sasunaru/Narusasu, mentions of KakaIru.
Warnings: Shonen-ai, yaoi, boy x boy, whatever to want to call it. Any Sakura bashing will end starting now.
"Blah" – talking
'blah' – thinking
'blah' – Kyuubi talking
Last time:
'Right, kit?'
'You're right.' He replied, and with another sigh, he lifted himself from the couch. He ran his hand through his hair and with one final push off of the dirty fabric, he went to make some tea for his last remaining cup.
Chapter 9: The Training Grounds
Sasuke had immediately headed to the training grounds to blow off some steam. No matter what Naruto said, Sasuke couldn't understand his reasons. He was furious at Naruto, and furious at himself for being furious at Naruto. He didn't even understand his own reasons for being so angry. He didn't like caring about other people. Hadn't he made sure he wouldn't care about anyone else? Didn't he go out of his way to not make friends?
Villagers quickly moved out of the way as the steaming Uchiha stomped past. He barely noticed his surroundings until he reached his destination. Showing no mercy, Sasuke began mercilessly beating the wooden post in front of him. He payed no mind to the pain in his fists; his thoughts had fully consumed him.
'But you do care about Naruto.' A traitorous voice interrupted his internal rantings.
Sasuke paused, and let his tired body lean against the mangled pole. His balled up fists fell to his sides in exhaustion as his adrenaline finally ran out. He may be stubborn, but he wasn't an idiot. Taking a deep breath in and letting it out through clenched teeth, he slowly realized what he needed to do.
"Sakura..." Kakashi started, as they walked side by side. "Both Sasuke and Naruto have serious reasons for why they act like they do. They are both...difficult situations."
Kakashi paused. Sakura was quiet.
"But I wonder, if you had started to act differently...more maturely, if you could have pushed them in the right direction."
Sakura made a pained noise.
"But I am just as much to blame," Kakashi's gaze was on the ground.
"N-no," Sakura said. "No, you're right. The way I act with them isn't even how I feel. I don't even like Sasuke that much anymore." She shook her head. "Not that way, anyway. I just...really wanted to be part of the team. And that's the only way I knew how," she finished quietly.
Kakashi glanced at her.
"Hm. Then I guess we both have a lot of work to do," he gave her a kind smile.
She sniffled, and smiled back. "Yeah."
Tsunade was just starting to make a plan for revenge. She needed to make sure the message was given to the right people, however. She had her suspects, but she needed to know for sure.
'There's no way I could get Naruto to tell me. Stupid brat is too noble. Maybe...'
It was then that her thoughts were rudely interrupted by a Uchiha-shaped rocket bursting through the doors.
"I want names," was all Sasuke said.
Tsunade smiled, but it was not kind. "How convenient. It seems our interests are aligned."
She handed him the folder she had been working on. It contained her list of suspects, along with the general background of each individual and evidence as to why they would be implicated. Sasuke flipped through it. She saw his sharingan-red eyes speed from side to side, memorizing each page. Her smile grew wider as she realized just how furious the boy was. He glanced up at her after he finished his reading.
"I need to be sure." She said simply.
He nodded, and was gone.
It took him longer than she would have liked, to be quite honest. But she could hardly complain when she came back to her office; Sasuke had been so thorough that the stacks of paper on her desk were nearly taller than she was. With widened eyes, she turned to the man in question.
"There should be enough to have each one in prison," he spoke quietly, "and to have the certain...individuals put down."
She raised her eyebrows. Several of those people were very prominent in society. To have a powerful or simply rich member of Konoha killed was a very difficult task to accomplish. As Hokage, she really ought to interrogate Sasuke about his methods of information collection. As a friend of Naruto, she really could care less what he did to any of them. She was sure they deserved each and every thing that came to them.
Perceptive as usual, Sasuke spoke. "I didn't do anything illegal. There are several important clan members that were only too happy to help."
'Clans, of course.' Tsunade thought. 'The Yamanaka clan's jutsus would make interrogation a joke. I'll have to remember to scout out that Ino. She seems sadistic enough...maybe I can convince Ibiki to take on a new apprentice.'
The paperwork looked to be tremendous, and normally, Tsunade would have been at the farthest bar in town. Well, anywhere but near paperwork, really. But the thought of finally getting revenge for the treatment of Naruto was enough to convince her to do any amount of paperwork. That being said, she certainly wasn't above forcing the Uchiha to suffer with her.
"Summarize each file. We'll start with the most...important individuals, and hit them all at once. We don't want anyone to get any ideas of escape, after all." She said, making sure to call Shizune. They were in for a long few nights. The Kyuubi issue would be dealt with once Naruto had had justice.
Sasuke moved his still-red eyes to the first file, and handed it to her, and began to speak.
Naruto was freaking out a little. It had been a week since he had seen Sasuke; he hadn't seen him anywhere. Despite training being cancelled, Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura had still met up at the bridge several times. For some reason, Kakashi never said a word about Sasuke's absence. Sakura had nearly done so several times, Naruto was sure, but she had always held her tongue. This new quiet side of her was very odd.
The last interaction Naruto and Sasuke had had was to yell at each other. That certainly didn't make Naruto feel any better about his current situation. He knew the Uchiha had issues with his emotions, hell, Naruto knew he had enough of his own, but he hadn't expected Sasuke to disappear like this. Despite Kyuubi's reassurances that he would have to run into Sasuke sooner or later, Naruto was nervous. He regretted what he said, what he didn't say...and he was more confused than ever.
Strange things had been happening to him recently. First of all, he kept seeing Kakashi-sensei everywhere, not just his training. They never interacted, but he was always around. The reasoning behind that was obvious, but he wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or happy about it. On one hand, it felt like he was being coddled like a child. On the other hand, maybe that was what being cared for felt like. Naruto was sure that Kakashi knew he was noticed by Naruto. Naruto was oddly comforted by the honesty that his sensei was showing by watching him in plain sight.
Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Ino the other day. She noticed him from a few meters away, and specifically walked towards him. If that wasn't weird enough, she had hugged him and whispered that if he ever needed anything, she would be happy to help him. Naruto was sure that his smile was more than a little awkward when he had thanked her, but she hadn't been fazed. Then, a few days ago, Ino suddenly showed up at his apartment door with her team, and asked if he would like to have dinner with them.
"We were passing here on our way back from training," was the reasoning behind the request that she told him. Naruto didn't believe that for a second, but Kyuubi screamed at him until he accepted her request. Surprisingly, he had a lot of fun.
At one point, he had fallen back to walking beside Asuma. He had given Naruto a knowing look before saying, "She's gone a long way from her fangirl days, but something especially recent has changed her. I suspect it was something to do with one of your teammates."
When Naruto had tried to ask Ino if she had seen Sasuke or Sakura recently, she wouldn't give him a straight answer. While it might be his bias towards his teammates talking, that kind of secrecy probably meant Sasuke. He felt an uncomfortable bubble of emotion at the thought of Sasuke blatantly ignoring him, and yet, talking to Ino. Sasuke didn't even like Ino.
Naruto shook his head to clear his thoughts. What was he, jealous?
'Probably.' A familiar voice echoed through his head. Despite the fact that the fox couldn't see his face, Naruto narrowed his eyes.
'Jealous of what, exactly? Ino's being nicer to me than anyone else; Asuma said her fangirl days were over, anyways.'
'Not quite who I meant, but don't you worry your little brain about it.'
"Hello N-naruto-kun." Naruto had been so entranced in his own thoughts and talking to Kyuubi that he hadn't realized someone was right in front of him.
"Oh, Hinata-chan!" He felt his familiar fox-like grin split his face. "What's up?"
Her eyes were much more focused that he remembered them being. He couldn't help but notice they didn't quite match the smile on her face.
"I am on my way back h-home," she gestured to the bags in her hands, "to...drop off what I've gotten."
Naruto glanced over the unmarked bags, noticing he couldn't tell what they carried.
"Do you need any help?" He offered.
She shook her head, a softer look coming into her eyes. "N-no, thank you, Naruto-kun. I will see you later."
"Ah, okay," he said as she walked past him.
'Everything's so weird right now. It can't all be because of me...'
'You'd be surprised what an influence you have. You know everything can't be coincidental.'
Naruto internally rolled his eyes, and went back home.
He was different now. The change in Naruto was glaringly obvious, and Sakura didn't know what to think about it. They had been told to always look underneath the underneath, and they had failed spectacularly. All of them.
She swallowed, thinking back to the dressing down Kyuubi had given her. She was right, though, she knew that. She was ashamed at how she allowed her insecurities to control her actions. But changing out of that habit was proving to be harder than she had thought. She still had the urge to snap remarks at Naruto, she had even had the urge to blame him for the disappearance of Sasuke-kun at first, but she realized how ridiculous she was being. Kakashi-sensei had not even been surprised. He probably knew exactly what Sasuke-kun was up to, and, judging by his actions, he approved of it as well.
But Naruto...how had they failed him so badly? How had she simply accepted the glares and whispered words that followed him? Kiba-kun was loud and obnoxious too, and none of that followed him.
The pink-haired girl sighed. She wondered if there was anything she could do to help...but probably not. Tsunade-sama was already working on it, of course. Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun probably were too. What could they possibly need her for?
She suddenly stopped walking. She recognized those thoughts. They were the exact thing that got her into this mess.
With a furious turn, she changed direction, and marched towards the Hokage's office.
Both Sasuke and Tsunade jumped when the door suddenly slammed open, turning to stare with wide eyes at the disheveled figure in the doorway..
"What ever you're doing to help Naruto," the pink-haired girl said, "I want in."
"Welcome home Kakashi," Iruka greeted the silver-haired man at the door. The mood had been a great deal more sombre around the house since the events of Naruto's birthday. Kakashi hadn't been able to keep the secret from his lover, and Iruka hadn't exactly reacted favourably.
He could honestly say that he had never seen Iruka so furious. The mild-tempered man had screamed curses, flailing against Kakashi's attempts to hold him back from going out and doing something that would more than likely land him in prison. It took nearly all of the silver-haired man's strength to keep Iruka in his arms, but Iruka's anger quickly dissolved into sobs. Kakashi held him close, and allowed his tears to fall as well. Both men had grieved over their failures towards Naruto that night.
A quiet calm had settled over the area, now. Their relationship had become only stronger from their shared determination to protect Naruto. Neither man could blame the other, for both had failed their charge.
And both would rather die than fail him again.
A/N:
Am I on a roll or what? I hope it lasts. I'm completely addicted to ALL THE KINDS of Sasunaru fanfiction right now. This chapter is shorter than normal, mainly because I couldn't get over the feeling that it had to end there. HTBaM is kind of wrapping up now, it's crazy! Let me know what you guys think of it, and how you'd like it to end.
Also, I hope I've made up for some of the mistakes that Naruto's friends made in the past. What do you think of them now? Are they realistic?
Until next time!
- Kinomi