Hey all - ok, i wasnt quite as fast at updating... ok nowhere near lol but i did eventually and its a nice biggish chapter so wooo

also please ignore any mistakes (grammatical and spelling) - i dont think i left any but its very late and im heaps tired but i really wanted to do this tonight cos i find i do more homework when ive just updated so what was my point? (hehe told u i was tired )

so many people! the list gets longer and i couldnt be happier :

yukibozu, torakama, Merridaine, starlit.kiss7, you.broke.a.promise, Gothic Saku-chan, cutegerbilofdeath, amy14, PiratexNinja, archerelf, angstar54, Aiyo rei, Kotone111 and most of all dailyangel :) - thankyou so so much, it means so much that u read my story and review (and are still reading it too:) - it really makes my day especially when times are bad, u motivate me to write more and it means a lot, so thankyou :) - ok, on with the story...

Masked Happiness

Chapter 5: Secrets Discovered

When Sakura got back to where she had left Naruto and Sasuke sparring earlier, she was shocked to find Naruto on the ground and clear evidence of a battle, both on him and the trees surrounding them which had taken a worse battering than he had. Rushing over to him Sakura saw that he had quite a large bruise on the side of his forehead which, she reasoned, probably explained the dazed, spacey look on his face. She quickly looked over him and finding no life-threatening damage she sat him up, looked into his eyes to get his attention and said clearly,

'Naruto, where is Sasuke?' He looked at her strangely, clearly seeing more than one of her, he spoke to the empty space slightly to the left of her.

'He went after them.' He said in a completely expressionless voice as his eyes darted everywhere.

'Of course he did,' Sakura muttered, frustrated.

Knowing she needed to stay with Naruto and wouldn't be able to catch up to Sasuke anyway, she took off her backpack and pushed Naruto back until he was lying down and using her pack as a (much less comfortable) cushion. She then sat on the ground next to him and, seeing as how he had already fallen asleep, albeit restlessly, began to examine the damage to her arm. A fair bit of the blood covered her skin and she noticed the grains of sand still stuck annoyingly in the cuts causing more irritation. She tried uselessly to use the sleeve from the other arm to mop up some of the blood but it just made a red, sticky mess so she gave up, deciding that juts rolling her sleeves down and covering it completely would work just as well. Not long afterwards Sasuke returned looking slightly worse for wear and more than a little annoyed.

'They got away' he said shortly. He glanced at Naruto and Sakura, noticing this, asked,

'What happened?!' Sasuke continued to stare at Naruto's bruise as he explained.

'Two strangers came out of nowhere and attacked. One got Naruto in the head with some strange jutsu, I didn't see much of it,' he said, ignoring the persistent but impossible mental image of Naruto being hit with a fan. The idea was laughable. He continued,

'After a while they ran and I chased them but… I lost them' he growled. After a minute he looked at Sakura who was watching Naruto. Taking in her bedraggled appearance and patches of blood, sand and dirt on her clothing, concern crossed his face before he covered it with an emotionless expression and asked,

'What happened to you?'

Not sure of how much to tell him, she simply said,

'I was attacked out of nowhere too, same story as yours really. Strange jutsu, mysterious stranger and he ran too.' Sasuke was about to question her further, knowing she was hiding something but at that moment Naruto began to wake up.

Sakura walked behind Sasuke as he half-carried Naruto back to the school to be checked by the nurse there. Once in her office, the nurse led Naruto to a bed as she quickly checked him over for any other injuries and sponged the wound on his head whilst rubbing in lotions to help with the pain and lessen healing time. The nurse looked up at Sasuke and Sakura and asked,

'Do either of you need me to check you out?'

Sasuke shook his head and when the nurse looked at Sakura she did too, earning confused looks from both at the blood all over her. Again Naruto's indistinct murmuring took the attention away from Sakura (for which she was very grateful) as the nurse went back to finding lotions for his forehead. Sasuke however continued to look out of the corner of his eye at Sakura as he puzzled over what could be wrong with her.

After a few minutes the nurse said,

'He'll take awhile to heal, but I think he's alright to go home, although one of you will need to help him.' She added as she looked up. Sasuke, mind still annoyingly stuck on Sakura stepped forward saying,

'I'll do it, it's on my way anyway.'

'I might just head home too then' said Sakura, thankful to be able to get home and have a much needed shower. The nurse looked hesitant as she reluctantly let the blood-stained kunoichi leave.

Sakura walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her, and made her way down the hall slowly, mind set on the mysterious enemy she had encountered earlier in the forest. Just as she had walked past a room with a closed door, she heard the door open and her name before turning around in surprise.

'Sakura?' said Kakashi uncertainly.

'Oh, hi sensei, what are you doing here so late?'

'Uh… just catching up on paperwork.' He replied as a certain little orange book was tucked discreetly into a back pocket. Kakashi took in her disheveled, bloodied appearance fully for the first time and the corner of his eye creased unnoticeably as he thought, 'What on earth? What happened?!' Instead he said reassuringly,

'Sakura, would you mind if we stepped in here?' He said stepping out of the doorway and indicating the room he had just been in, 'and had a chat? Heh, seems like ages since we caught up' he finished cheerfully. Sakura slightly wary and expecting more homework slowly stepped into the room with Kakashi following. They both sat down either side of his desk as he looked at her again and she sat wondering what was going to happen and what he thought of 'catching up' as.

'I've noticed that, just lately…you seem, I don't know, different. Is everything ok?' He said after a moment's hesitation, not quite sure how to approach the subject. 'Great' she thought, now they're all worried about me' as she noticed the concern in Kakashi's eyes and mentally rolled her own at her carelessness. 'I can't let people know about this, it's simply not an option' she decided, mask instantly in place as it had been so many times before.

'Heh, nah I'm fine, just tired cos of all the homework heh' she said smiling, 'Well I might as well take this opportunity to get out of homework if I can hehe'

Kakashi wasn't buying it though. Even without his sharingan he could see straight through her mask and knew something was wrong. Looking at her for another minute and noticing how anxious she seemed to be getting each second, he finally sighed and said with a slight tone of defeat,

'Fine, you can go, I just wanted to make sure you were ok, I know how you feel when it comes to Sasuke and Naruto.' Sakura raised her eyebrows questioningly as he sighed again, 'Sakura, I'm your trainer and I'm not blind,' 'far from it' 'I'm well aware of all three of your training methods and of the way you see yourself.' Sakura had to try hard to keep from laughing at this, but it was out of bitterness, 'you have no idea' she thought as she assumed her politely curious mask, looking as though she didn't know what he was talking about. For the third time in so many minutes Kakashi sighed at her reaction as she inwardly sniggered 'he's going to pass out if he keeps exhaling that fast'.

Swiftly losing patience with this conversation and wanting to get home, she said sweetly and with all the innocence she could muster,

'So if that's all can I go now?'

Kakashi's eyes continued to bore into her and she was beginning to get really irritated.

'I also know a little of your home-life' he said as though he hadn't noticed her growing irritation but still watching her reaction carefully. Her face remained relatively impassive when he said this, 'he wouldn't know much surely', until he spoke again that is.

'Have you heard anything from your father?'

Instantly before she could stop it her face fell.

'I really do need to get going' she said shortly as she stood, instantly caging in all emotions, good and bad like an internal self-defense mechanism. Realising he's pushed her too far and not wanting to scare her off, Kakashi quickly got to his feet, side-stepping the desk and grabbed her arm just as she was trying to make a hasty retreat. As his strong fingers closed around her arm in an attempt to keep her from leaving she winced, the small amount of pressure sending enormous amounts of pain through the already sensitive skin where so many of her cuts had been re-opened only a few hours earlier. Feeling her instantly tense under his hand and seeing the pain on her face, Kakashi let go startled, wondering how he had hurt her.

Both Sakura and Kakashi stood silently, neither one sure of what to do or say.

'A-are you ok?' Kakashi eventually asked, still concerned and bewildered. Sakura went to say she was fine as usual but she doubted very much that he would believe that. She stood there for a moment still unsure, before Kakashi regained his composure (although still looking incredibly concerned) and guided her back to her seat, Sakura putting up no resistance. Kakashi then brought his chair around the desk and sat down directly in front of her. He then waited patiently as she thought of what to say, him giving her as much time as she needed.

'I…' Sakura began but stopped, still at a complete loss as to what to say. 'How do I explain this to him when I can't even explain it to myself?'

'I um…' Sakura tried again, before again trailing off. For Sakura this was like one of the many internal struggles she had with herself daily. 'How much do I say… what do I say… should I say anything…can I trust him at all…' as she felt an enormous cloud of doubt fill her mind, her eyes flicked up to the still silent Kakashi, noticing him watching her intently as though noting her every movement, she felt an instant of panic at being so carefully scrutinized before looking into his eyes and seeing the kindness there. 'Maybe…I can trust him…I'm safe here with Kakashi…its ok… I can let someone in… it's ok, it's ok…' she thought over and over, reassuring herself. Finally decided, Sakura took a deep breathe and a moment to collect her still very jumbled thoughts before beginning with a new strength in her voice,

'I've been…' she began just as the door burst open.

'Ramen time now, I'm hungry and it's your round Kakashi!' Naruto half-yelled with a big grin on his face before seeing Kakashi's face, Sakura, and the way they were seated. 'Sorry did I interrupt?' Naruto asked blankly looking quite confused. Kakashi sat glaring at Naruto for a moment before inwardly sighing and softening his features, it wasn't Naruto's fault after all, he always did that and Kakashi blamed himself, and he should've locked the door. He looked back down to Sakura whose face had become completely emotionless, making Kakashi instantly cringe. She'd never open up to him now.

Just before Naruto had burst into the room, Sakura really had been about to tell Kakashi, but as soon as that door opened… she couldn't have if she'd wanted to, she just lost what she was about to say completely. Instantly, out of reflex she had put up every single mental barrier, hidden every single emotion, so that her face was now more mask-like than ever. Her eyes didn't even look alive, like she had somehow even managed to hide that spark of life that everyone has. She became a living statue, staring directly at the wall across the room. She faintly heard Naruto's voice apologizing for the interruption but all she could think of was her own shouting thoughts in her head.

'What was I really going to say anyway? I've been…what? I've been cutting? I've been inflicting bodily harm upon myself? I've been an idiot? How stupid of me… so much for I can handle it… anyway its for the best, I mean, I don't want a repeat of mum do I?'.

Convincing herself that everything was fine and to the shock of Naruto and increased concern of Kakashi, Sakura smiling stood up and bowed quickly to Kakashi, avoiding his eye.

'Thank you sensei, how kind of you to take us out for dinner' she said, before turning with her big fake grin to Naruto as she grabbed his arm, dragging him out of the doorway and down the hall, laughing heartily to try to lighten his mood and reassure him that everything, as always, was fine.

ok, firstly about this chapter, for those of you who arent happy with it i just want to say please hang in there, its turning into a really (really...lol) long story and i dont want to rush anything that happens so please be patient because i know if u stick around at least for the next chapter at least some of you might be a bit happier with it, (i know im being horrible to sakura arent i lol) - but all suggestions have been taken on board, it will come together a bit soon and hopefully ill update again this week with any luck so you can see what i mean (for those who are happy with it, (and have said so )thankyou so much, ur reviews make me write much faster and give me a lot more confidence so thankyou very very much )

big big big favour, either next time i update (hopefully) or on my profile (im not sure which yet but ill make sure i mention it when i do ) i will posting a survey related to anime and manga (ok, im doing year 12 at the moment... um final year of school for those not in australia and im doing visual art studies... everyone who has done it will know how hard and increasingly annoying it is - and i am doing my big essay (yes the 30 or some other ridiculously large number worth of my final grade for the year) on anime and manga and am doing surveys as primary research - i desperately need as many people as possible to do this survey (it really wont be long at all, its just for reference points in the essay and will probably take less than 5 minutes of your time and you dont need to know anything at all about it or you could be an anime/manga professor...i told u i was tired hehe - everyone helps) - i still have to finalise it and everything but please please please when i post this survey, please be one of the kindhearted, people who i will be forever indebted too () and do the survey for me, please!? (oh, and i will post the next chapter quicker to get the survey out and if i get lots of people do it i can write faster too...um... i can give u cookies?!

anyway thanks for reading my ramblings and requests, i have but one more, please review!!! - let me know what u think its always welcome and again, thankyou so much for reading