ok, as always thankyou to the fabulous reviewers who are the only reason i kept writing this lately, the list is beginning to get so long that its hard to keep up lol, and i need to upload this as quickly as possible so you all know who you are (i hope :D) - and i'll make sure to thank everyone next chapter which will be uploaded a lot quicker than this one was

secondly, i im so sorry for such a late update, i think its the longest ive ever gone between updates, not to mention how dismally short this chapter is too... ok theres not much difference but you deserve more for sticking with the story so im going to really update in a few days.

also, im in the habit of dedicating chapters now :) - so i gotta say that this one is for daily and her group 7 again just cos i really wouldnt have stuck with this at all if it werent for you and it gives me so much motivation to think that people like my writing so thankyou :)

oh and also, this chapter was written when i had no access to ramen for quite awhile :(... all hail food that swims in unnaturally bright orange:) - ok, read on :D

Masked Happiness

Chapter 9: Everyday Disappearances

Slowly, Sakura pulled back the blanket that she had pulled up to her chest, lifting it away from her barely clothed body and shivering slightly as cool air made contact with bare skin. Deep in her thoughts, Sakura stared blankly at the door that her friends had just left through as though seeing through it. Indeed, Naruto had broken the door so she actually was seeing through it to the beautiful clear blue sky that the morning had provided.

She couldn't believe she had told Kakashi those things…everything. At the time it had seemed like the right thing to do and even now a part of her was glad that she had, but she felt numb and distant, like she was shocked by her own decision to open up to him. She sat for another moment in disbelief at her own actions as well as his, before standing abruptly, her covers falling away completely and several birds outside her window fluttering away in fear as she exclaimed,

'I can't believe Naruto and Sasuke were just in my bedroom!'

Cringing that Sasuke had seen her lying, so helpless in bed and knowing that he would now think she was all the weaker for it, she swore to beat the crap out of Naruto for barging into her bedroom and breaking down her door. After watching the birds that she had scared away from her window for a moment and wishing dearly she was one of them she sighed and disappeared into her bathroom, the click of the lock sending a lonely echo resounding around the otherwise empty house.

As she came into view, Naruto set down his second bowl of ramen and, smiling, let out a yell,

'Sakura, you made it!'

His grin disappeared and he leapt to his feet the moment he saw her glare and in seconds Kakashi and Sasuke, who had been sitting beside Naruto and eating their own ramen, had a show to accompany their meal.

After a while Sakura got sick of chasing Naruto. She had landed a punch or two and had extracted a fervent string of promises from Naruto that her door would soon be fixed and that he would never see the inside of her room again after which she flopped down on her own seat, looking exhausted.

Kakashi smiled at her, almost imperceptibly, before he dug back into his ramen and his nose disappeared behind his most loved of books. Sasuke, still wondering what he was missing with all of these mysterious little looks and private conversations, looked at Kakashi and seeing him deeply immersed in his own, perverted little world, he turned to Sakura to catch the last fleeting moments of the smile she had given back to Kakashi before her face fell somewhat.

She didn't look too miserable, he decided, she just didn't look all that happy. As he thought about it, (his face showing nothing of his curiosity of course) he realised that she had often been, well… not herself lately.

The thing was though, he couldn't actually pinpoint the time when he first noticed this.

Sakura's spiral into what he could only describe as a complete change in character, had been such a slow transformation. Unnoticeable to everyone to begin with, she had slowly changed from the obsessive, bubbly, happy girl that he had been teammates with, to this unrecognisably distant, paranoid… almost cold person who he was starting to feel like he didn't know at all. It's almost like… like she's turning into me... he thought to himself worriedly while keeping his face inscrutable… it's not right, this just isn't her, she's not that kind of person… I wonder if she would be acting like this if I wasn't so cold towards her… maybe if I was a bit nicer to her… but I couldn't do that… I mean they know I'm their friend but I can't get too close… although Naruto knows he's my best friend no matter how I treat him… so maybe I'm to hard on Sakura…

Interrupting Sasuke's thoughts and inner arguments as he accidentally bumped his shoulder on the way past, Naruto practically fell into his own seat, breathing hard after finally realising Sakura wasn't chasing him anymore and it was safe to return to his ramen.

As Sakura ate her ramen slowly not noticing that she was being watched, her thoughts drifted to breakfast. She had dwelt on what had happened that morning and relived it over and over in her mind, questioning her own sensibility at what she had admitted, both to herself and Kakashi, but she hadn't thought of the other part of what had happened that morning until now.

As she slipped back into the old routine of lifting some noodles with her chopsticks before setting them back down into the bright orange liquid swamping the bottom of her bowl, she tried desperately to remember…

how much did I eat this morning?!

After Team 7 had finished (or pretended to have finished) their meals, the three students said goodbye to Kakashi as they made their way to Konoha high school. As today was a Wednesday, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had regular classes just like they did on Mondays. Through the rest of the week, the teams trained themselves physically, but twice a week they trained their minds instead and these were Sakura's favourite times of the week because for once she wasn't the weak one.

Naruto however was the weak one and grumbled the whole way up the street as they neared the big front doors to the towering school building. Walking inside, Sakura and Sasuke immediately turned in different directions up the hall, both lost in their own thoughts and not sparing a moment for the other whilst Naruto followed behind Sasuke, head down and grumbling softly like a morose, blonde-haired little puppy.

As Sasuke got to the end of the hall he looked back with a small groan of frustration as though blaming Sakura for not reminding him that he was supposed to be being nicer to her. He could only just see her little pink head through the throng of people as it bobbed in and out of view before disappearing in the mass of rushing students entirely. It took him another moment to realise that he hadn't heard her yells of, 'Oh, goodbye Sasuke!… see you in class…'

Thinking back he found that he couldn't actually remember the last time he had heard that and, though he didn't like to admit it (even to himself) he felt the absence of her words more than he let on. I wonder if she's… over me?

Sakura got to the end of the hall before glancing back quickly and then ducking into the girl's bathroom. It was deserted so she didn't need to hide in a cubicle as she pulled her sleeve up and examined her arm. She had done it many times before, occasionally even cutting here at school when she felt she couldn't wait long enough to get home.

This time though she wasn't going to split the skin on her arm, no matter how tempting it was. She was examining her arm because the pain that she had experienced in her cuts in the last few days was nothing compared to that which she felt now.

Looking closely at where she thought she could feel the worst of the pain, she saw that in one recently cleaned and beginning to heal wound, there were tiny grains of what looked like glass. Baffled as to why there was glass in her cuts, she tenderly pressed her fingers to the wound and couldn't hold in the gasp of pain as she felt like her arm was about to explode for a few seconds before it dulled and began to throb painfully.

Knowing that she needed to get the glass out (and not all that sorry at having an excuse), she steeled herself and dug her fingernails carefully into her cut as she tried to cause as little damage as possible while she brushed the glass out. Her eyes watering, she finally managed to get the clump that seemed to have been causing the most pain and she felt the relief in her arm as though she had pulled out splinter.

Taking a moment to get over the pain and brush the tears out of her eyes, she turned her attention to the grains of glass still stuck to the blood on her fingers. As she examined it more closely however, she found that each tiny grain was roughly the same tiny size and resembled something else a lot more closely than glass. Brushing it off (both the odd feeling and the bloody grains stuck to her finger), she washed her arm quickly and pulled her sleeves back down as she hurried out the door, desperately late.

again, im so sorry for the shorter chapter and if it was worse than usual but i have a feeling you'll like the next one so please stick with it :) -- also ive been sick lately...and getting worse :( - so even though im going to really try to update faster i cant make any promises and the chapters might be a bit sporadic so sorry!

please leave a review before you go too:)

and thanx as always 4 reading :)