Chapter 14 – The Boy Behind the Mask

A/N: Ugh, my Windows files got corrupted and I had to format my computer, which included all of my half-written latest chapters. I had to start this from scratch after writing a good 1500+ words. Oh well.

On a side note, since it would seem that Inari's town doesn't have a name... Ugh, I'll just call it Funkytown for this whole chapter and work it out later.

Again, sorry that updates are coming in like snails, but as I said in my profile (if you checked), I've recently become completely bogged down by important schoolwork, so my free time has lowered greatly. However, I guarantee that this story will reach its end one day. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into my regular pattern of weekly updates, but it doesn't look like it'll be that way anytime soon. Forgive me, and I hope you can enjoy this chapter.

Edit: Ah, I accidentally called Shizune, Shizuka. Oops, sorry! Changed it already. Thanks for people who noticed, and no, it wasn't the new character... Hehe.

"Hokage-sama, we really can't wait any longer," Sakura urged Tsunade urgently. "If we don't get started on the planning now, we won't have enough time!"

Tsunade looked impatiently at the door, expecting the energetic blonde to burst in suddenly, apologizing hastily. She sighed in defeat. "You're right, Sakura. Let's begin explaining everything to the boys..."

A loud eruption from the roof was heard, followed by a piece of the roof falling to the ground in front of them, followed by a loud Naruto, yelling in surprise as he crashed onto the floor. Everyone stared at him quietly, still in a strange state of shock.

"Um, nice of you to drop in, Naruto." Sakura finally said after recollecting herself. "It would've been smarter not to have broken the roof, however," she said with irritation. Normally, she would have hit him hard, but she was desperate to start explaining the plan to everybody.

Naruto stood up groggily, dusting himself on quickly as he joined the boys, the girls standing by Tsunade to assist her. Everyone had already showed up, and it appeared that they were only waiting on Naruto. Tsunade gathered the boys' attention.

"Okay everybody, pay attention, we've got a lot of things to get through and not enough time to get through it." Everybody responded unenthusiastically at first, but Tsunade managed to perk them up by breaking a nearby table in half with her pinky. "Now then, you all know that we're going to be reenacting the Fourth Hokage's story, and Sakura has already produced a wonderful script, which you will be receiving now."

Sakura and the girls handed out rolled-up scrolls, and the boys unwrapped them, reading curiously.

"Uh, you guys noticed that all the cast lists are blank?" Shikamaru said matter-of-factly.

"We didn't need a guy with 200 IQ to point that out, Shikamaru," Sakura scolded, rolling her eyes. "In case you guys didn't realize we haven't picked out parts yet. That's what we're going to start doing now, beginning with the most important role: the star."

All the boys around Naruto suddenly stood to attention. They all saw this as an excellent chance to score back some brownie points with the girls that were so easily taken away by the illustrious Boxer-sama.

"Well, for someone to play a part like that, they'd have to be able to remember a lot of lines," Shikamaru stated. "And frankly, I have my concerns as to whether or not anyone else here could remember them as well as i could."

"Hmph, to play a role as important as that, you would have to be of the most royal bloodlines. I would play this role well," Neji said icily, staring daggers at Shikamaru.

To everyone's surprise, Sasuke was also after the lead role. "I agree that it should be done by someone of a decent bloodline, but frankly, we all know Neji is not as good with people as i am."

Everyone stared at Sasuke with a dumbfounded expression. "What, you don't think I'm good with people?"

The dumbfounded stare continued.

"I'm good with people."

The stare continued.

"...Screw you all."

"Well, I think you need somebody that has lots of life and energy for such a part!" Lee announced enthusiastically. "Someone with stunning good looks, dashing charms, and a hip personality! But where can we find such a person?" Lee looked around dramatically, before slapping his face with a surprised look. "Wait a minute! I fit that description!"

"No!" everyone yelled suddenly. "Not Lee! Please!"

As Lee ran away vowing to kick trees down five hundred times before returning, Chouji, Kiba, and Shino were about to have a go, but from the looks from the girls, they already knew the answer.

And so everyone's eyes landed on Naruto, who was still spinning slightly after crashing through the ceiling.

"Do you girls think Naruto should have the part?" Tsunade asked them, somewhat worried. She wasn't sure of whether or not Naruto would feel comfortable being a part of a play that told his story.

The girls looked at Naruto inquisitively, including Hinata, although she was much more discreet about it.

"Well, he has the right hair for it..."

"He looks pretty similar to the Fourth Hokage I've heard about, I suppose..."

"Well, not exactly."

Everyone turned to the door, where Jiraiya had just walked in. "True, Naruto looks very much like the Fourth Hokage..."

Naruto looked at everyone curiously, his dizziness finally leaving him.

"Naruto is definitely uglier than the Fourth..."

Naruto suddenly felt like someone had just hit him on the back of the head with a rock.

"Stupider than the Fourth..."

Another rock.

"And Naruto is nowhere near as skilled as the Fourth either."

Naruto was already sprawled on the floor in depression.

"Besides," Jiraiya continued. "I'm sure Naruto has no interest in taking the part."

Naruto puffed in annoyance. "What the hell are you talking about, Ero-sennin? Of course I want this part! Let me do it!"

Jiraiya sighed silently. He was secretly trying to veer Naruto away from taking the part, fearing he would feel uncomfortable doing it. "Well, there is one thing that Naruto and the Fourth have in common..."

Naruto looked up at Jiraiya hopefully.

"They're both extremely annoying!" he bellowed, laughing.

Naruto huffed in annoyance. "Stupid pervert. Fine, don't give me the part if you're all going to be like that."

During this time, the girls were busy discussing something in a huddled group. After a minute, they broke up and looked at the boys.

"Okay, we've decided who will play the Fourth Hokage."

The boys looked up hopefully.

"The Fourth will be played by... Naruto."

Everybody stood with a face of shock and disbelief, but none as disbelieving as Naruto, whose jaw was glued to the floor in surprise. At that moment, Lee came bursting in, sweating like a pig and panting heavily.

"D-Did I miss anything? Everyone? Why are you all looking like that? What happened? Am I the Fourth Hokage?"

A quick trip was made to Funkytown by Naruto and his fellow performers and stage hands, led by Jiraiya and Shizune. Tsunade reluctantly left Jiraiya in charge of preparing everything at Funkytown, and sent Shizune to fill in for her insecurity.

"Haven't been here in awhile, don't you think, Sakura-chan?" Naruto commented, grinning at the thought of meeting his old buddy Inari again.

"We're here to do work, idiot, so try not to wander away, you've got to practice for the play." Sakura whipped her hands into a shoulder bag she was carrying and pulled out a copy of the script, handing it to Naruto. "I'm giving you one ahead of time so you can start memorising your lines as soon as possible."

Naruto lit up. "W-Wow, you're giving me such special treatment? You finally care about me! You really, really, care about-"

He was cut off as Sakura punched him in the mouth, almost knocking Naruto out completely. She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I'm giving it to you first because you're going to have to study for longer than everyone else. Not only do you have the most lines, you also have the shortest memory span. Even a goldfish can remember more than you!"

Naruto weeped silently as the group continued to a hotel that was reserved for them. To everyone's shock, the hotel was a very low-budget one. The roof tiles were uneven and shoddy, and the walls were covered in home-made patches. Everyone looked at it uncertainly.

"Can this thing even handle the wind?" Neji commented gruffly. "It looks like it'll break from the slightest breeze."

"Can't stand living outside of your mansion, eh, pretty boy?" Shikamaru mocked smugly, receiving one of Neji's famous death stares.

"Now, now. We've gotta run on a tight budget with Konoha as it is now," Shizune explained as Jiraiya walked in to sort out their rooms. "It can't be that bad..."

A moment later, Jiraiya walked back outside, wearing a stupid grin on his face. His eyes scanned Shizune pervertedly, causing her to flinch and shield herself with her hands, feeling that Jiraiya could see through her clothes.

"Guess what..." he began, his smirk widening. "The rooms that we rented – it was actually just one really big room." Shizune's and the girls' eyes widened.

"That's right, ladies," Jiraiya said, licking his lips. "You're all spending the night with me and the boys. Hehehe..."

They stood in their room cautiously, the boys standing at one edge and the girls on the other. Except for Jiraiya, who was happily waltzing about like an idiot.

"J-Jiraiya-sama, please change this!" Shizune pleaded. "Maybe we can swap this room for two smaller ones!"

"'Fraid not," he said with a giggle. "That would cost more. And we wouldn't want to overstep our budget, would we?"

Shizune replied with a pleading look, then sighed and gave up. "F-Fine... But boys stay on that side, and girls on this side!" She then pointed along the ground, dividing the room in half. Jiraiya grinned cheekily.

"Aw... Come now, Shizune-saaaan... I'm sure it'll be more fun if we take away your little line..."

"And I'm sure it'll be less painful if you stay on your side." She raised her fist to emphasise her point. Unfortunately Jiraiya wasn't convinced.

He began treading towards the line cheekily, swaying his hips like a supermodel walking down the lane. His feet came nearer and nearer to the line, and just as it was about to cross...

BANG!

Jiraiya's cheeky face met Shizune's pissed-off fist, sending him flying back to the edge of the room, crashing into the other boys like a bowling ball.

"So, anyone else want to cross the line?" Shizune asked menacingly, looking at the rest of the boys, who were now sprawled all over the floor. They all looked up at her fearfully, and shook her heads vigorously. "...Good."

Outside the hotel, the moon was shining in through the windows and cracks.

The day breezed by quickly, and Naruto had spent his time reading over the script. He had originally planned to meet up with Inari as soon as he could, but the moment he started reading the script, he found that he couldn't stop. Old memories that he didn't know he had seemed to spark up. He walked aimlessly down the hotel's stuffy, scrappy corridors, his eyes glued to the script.

"We won't let you destroy this town..." he mumbled as his eyes scanned the lines. In all his concentration, he didn't see that a girl was stepping into the hallway in front of him. He suddenly crashed into her, and the two fell in a heap on the ground, Naruto falling on top of her.

"H-Huh? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention!" Naruto said, as he shook his head lightly. He suddenly noticed two soft, well-shaped lumps lying underneath his hands. He looked down to find them on top of a certain pink-haired girl's chest. He jumped up quickly, apologizing madly while shielding his head – a habit he inherited from Jiraiya.

"Na...Ru...To..." Sakura said menacingly, staring daggers into Naruto.

"R-Really, it wasn't on purpose! I was just too absorbed in the script!" he said pleadingly, his eyes shut tight. After realizing that Sakura hadn't hit him yet, he slowly and carefully moved his hands aside. "...Aren't you going to hit me?"

He looked at Sakura and saw that her face was somewhat surprised. "You were actually reading the script? Amazing..." she said with a mocking tone. Naruto puffed madly.

"What's so amazing about it?" he grumbled, then suddenly remembered something. "Oh yeah, I wanted to talk to you about the script."

"Eh, really? What is it? Something you don't understand?"

"Not exactly, it's more... Uh..." Naruto scratched his head in thought. "Well, are you sure that everything happened this way?" he asked, pointing at his script. Sakura shrugged.

"We can't be sure, but this is what I worked out from what I heard... Why? You've heard otherwise?"

'Well, not heard,' Naruto thought to himself. "Uh, actually, I just think some things were different. Like, the way this part shows the Kyuubi attacking the village first – didn't some ninjas go into its home and attack it first?"

Sakura stared at him in awe. "Naruto... You studied history?"

Naruto laughed out nervously. "Um... Yeah, I guess so... Oh, and uh, this part, where they sealed the Kyuubi, they didn't seal it to a rock, they sealed it to a baby."

"A baby?" Sakura said with a confused look. "But I asked Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama, and they both told that the Kyuubi was sealed into a rock."

Naruto didn't understand it, but Jiraiya and Tsunade were trying to hide the truth in order to protect Naruto's feelings. However, Naruto didn't want it to be fake, in fact, he felt that it insulted the Fourth and himself.

"I uh... Studied all about this, so how about I tell you what I know?" Naruto offered, shocking Sakura even more.

'Not just studying, but he wants to actively contribute?' she thought to herself in confusion.

"...Are you really Naruto?" she asked with a glare, looking closely at Naruto.

"Of course it's me! What kind of question is that?" he said with feigned dejection. "So you don't want to hear me out?"

"Ah! I do, I do! Come on, let's find somewhere to talk."

The two walked outside of the hotel into a nearby park. They claimed the empty swings and Naruto began his retelling of the night as he remembered it. Not that Naruto could actively remember, technically he wasn't there for all of it. But somehow, Naruto was positive:

What he remembered was definitely what happened.

END CHAPTER 14

A/N: Well, I have no idea when the next chapter will come out... That sucks. I'll try to get through my work ASAP. Anyway, this chapter had no scenes of Boxer-sama sniff. I miss the underwear-clad superhero. But don't worry, the next chapter or so should have him, especially when he gets around to selling himself for a date! Who will he end up with? Who knows?

Oh, and if anyone's curious, the main reason I stopped writing this so often was to finish writing a short story assignment for my English class (Extension 2 English, for people who use the HSC system in Australia). I might post it up on later if I need some opinions... Anyway, here's to hoping I manage to do another chapter soon!

Remember: THIS STORY WILL NEVER BE COMPLETELY DEAD! LONG LIVE BOXERS!