Choices Made, Mask Broken

p.3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or it's characters; so stay the fuck off my ass you god damn lawyers.

"humman talk"

'human thinking'

"demon talking/ jutsu"

'demon thinking'

As Naruto, Sarutobi, and Kakashi arrived at the hospital, Naruto used a henge to transform into a regular looking boy with brown hair and brown eyes, no whisker marks, and he was a little shorter. Sarutobi and Kakashi looked at him with a confused expression on their faces until Naruto explained. "I'm now welcome in a lot of places in Konoha, that includes the hospital." The two older shinobi have a sorrowful but knowing expression.When the three of them walked in they all noticed that the hospital seemed to be having a fairly slow day. This point was made by the receptionist sleeping at the desk and the doctor that was taking a nap on one of the sofa's in the reception room.

"Well, this palce is awfully...calm." commented Naruto.

Kakashi just nodded in agreement before taking out his favorite orange book.

Sarutobi, being the wise old man that he was, just grunted before walking up to the napping receptionist and clearing his throat to get her attention. Said receptionist, who was previously having a dream about something not inportant, slowly opened her eyes, only to come face-to-face with the wrinkly one himself.

"Oh, good...afternoon Hokage-sama. What do you need today?" Asked the lady with a sweet but serious tone.

"I was curious about the status of Kushina Uzumaki and if anyone can see her today." replied the ageing Hokage.

The nurse checked her clipboard before answering the old man. "Well she's still in a coma but it dosn't look too good, as to weather you can see her or not, well it should be fine. She's in room 304."

With that the Hokage nodded and made a hand gesture for the two remaining people to follow him. Three minuets of walking found Naruto staring at the door to room 304, and he was nervous. Well, in all fairness, it was the first time he would ever see his mother, even if she was in a coma. Still, that didn't make it any easier on poor Naruto, who was so nervous that he almost dropped his henge. Something that didn't go unnoticed by the two older men he was with.

"Naruto, are you ok? We can always come back later if you'r not feeling up to this?" asked Kakashi who supprisingly wasn't reading his smut. Of coarse he would never read it in front of Kushina, especially not after the last time he did. Kushina damn nearly beat him into an early grave for that. Afterwords, Kakashi would make it a habit to never reveal his smut in front of her again.

"Yea Kakashi-sensei. I want...no, I NEED to do this." And with that Naruto pushed open the door to Kushina's room and what he saw inside nearly broke his heart.

Inside the hospital room, lay Kushina Uzumaki, the mother that Naruto never knew he had. Her ankle length orange-red hair lay off the side of the bed. she was dressed in a hospital gown, laying completely still with all sorts of monitors and an I.V. hooked up to her. But the sad part was that she looked ghostly pale with small arms, legs and body because of all the atrophy her muscles must have gone through over the years. Overall she looked like a very frail person that was hanging on to life by the skin of their teeth. Naruto's henge shattered in an instant.

Naruto slowly and shakily walked to the side of her bad and in a quiet voice that almost broke the Hokage's heart to hear, Naruto uttered the words. "h-hello, kaa-san." And with that, tears that Naruto had been holding back for years. Tears that he didn't think he had any more, started to stream down Naruto's face. With a shaky hand gently cupped his mothers' right cheek.

"Kaa-san, their are so many things I wish I could tell you. Well, first of all, my name's Naruto Uzumaki and if you havn't guessed, I'm your son. I wish otou-san could be here to explain things better to you than me, but I guess with you being in a coma and all, it would all be kinda pointless. Oh how I wish you could hear me kaa-san." Thruoghout his small speech Naruto kept a quiet, almost whisper-like voice.

It was also during Naruto's little speech that Kakashi glanced over to the monitiors that displayed Kushina's vitals, and what he saw shocked him so much that he had to use his sharingan to make sure he wasn't seeing things. With his miraculous discovery made, Kakashi quickly lowered himself to the hokage's level and quickly whispered into his ear, "Hokage-sama, I think you should check Kushina's vital monitors."

Following Kakashi's curious suggestion, the withering hokage looked at the monitors and what he saw nearly gave him a heart attack. The monitors were showing that Kushina's vitals, that were near the dead zone earlier that day, were returning to safe levels at an almost inhuman pace. At first, the hokage thought that the monitors must be malfunctioning, but his assessment was quickly squashed when he heard a very soft, very female moan coming from the medical bed.

"ugh, who, who's there...Minato...Is that you?"

Kakashi and Sarutobi's neck's could be heard popping as they spun their heads around to look at Kushina. Said woman hadn't really moved but she did shift from under the sheets. Naruto had to restrain himself from hugging the woman as tight as he could, given that her medical condition was still weak, he could very well hurt her if he did. So instead, he simply squeezed her hand.

"N-No...I'm not Minato...but it is good to finally meet you...Kaa-san." Naruto felt like the tears would never stop flowing from his eyes.

"N-Naruto-kun? Is that really you? W-what happened and where am I, and where's Minato-kun?"

Sarutobi and Kakashi had a sad look on their faces. They knew that breaking the news to Kushina would be difficult and she was nowhere strong enough at the moment to take the news that her husband had been dead for twelve years, let alone all of the other sad and depressing news they would have to give her. Sarutobi, given his ancient wisdom decided to talk with Kushina.

"Kushina-chan, now is not the time. You have been in a coma for twelve years and you need your rest. Tomorrow we will explain everything, but for now try and get some sleep. I will inform the doctors that you have woken up but for now try and rest."

Kushina gave a quick and silent now before closing her eyes and fell asleep. Though technically she had been asleep for twelve years that didn't mean that she would be full of energy when she woke up. That coupled with the fact that she had nearly no muscles left meant that even after a small ammount of exertion, she was tired. Naruto, who had wanted to get to know his mother better, simply stroked her hair before giving a small, sad smile before he noticed that Sarutobi and Kakashi had signaled him to follow them out of the room.

Once out of Kushina's room Naruto had a few questions to ask, but with an intelegence that almost appear that he was reading Naruto's mind, Sarutobi spoke.

"Listen Naruto, your mother is weak and need to rest. After a while she will be strong enough to understand what happened to your father and what has happened to you, but try and not talk about your past specifically for the time being. Kami know's that Kushina-chan would never be able to take the news in her weakend state. I'll tell her tomorrow what happened to Minato-kun twelve years ago but for now you should go home while I have some of the doctors check-up on her. And don't worry, I'll stay here to make sure that everything goes alright."

Naruto was relieved to hear that everything would be fine. So Naruto was about to head back to his appartment when he was stopped by the Hokage.

"Wait, Naruto, I want to give you something." Sarutobi calmly dug into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. "I think your father would want you to be living in your family's home instead of that small appartment. Not to mention what Kushina-chan would do to me if she ever found out that you were living alone in a small appartment. Kakashi, do you think you can show Naruto to the Namikaze estate? Their are more things that we need to talk about but I have to get back to my office to finish my paperwork for now."

Sarutobi was given a simple nod before he handed over the keys to Naruto and the duo disappeared in either a puff of smoke or a swirl of burning hellfire.

-Namikaze estate: 2:03 PM-

Kakashi had already shown Naruto to and around the house. Well, I shouldn't say house since it was more like a mansion. Not the typical type of Japanese mansion like the Hyuuga estates mind you, but a more Western style estates with a three story main building with the recreation room, kitchen, and main office inside. The building's west and right wings were the sleeping rooms for both family members and guests. In the back was the clan library and dojo and the backyard was divided into a zen yard and a personal training ground. Naruto had already picked out his bedroom which was the second biggest room. The room itself had a large bed, some thick curtains to block out the light in the morning, a bookshelf, a few weapon racks, and a huge as hell bathroom that had a walk-in shower with glass doors, (will become important later) a wall sized mirror, granite counter tops and a beautiful designer sink.

The library was filled with books and scrolls on everything from chakra theory to jutsu history. In the main office Naruto had found his fathers journal and read the last few pages of it in hopes of finding anything useful about the shikifujin seal and had supprisingly found a ton of information on it. However most of it was just untested theory so he would have to do more research on that subject later. The recreation room had a some couches, some loveseats, chairs, recliners, some pool tables, a pair of poker tables, (will use that later) and a Big Screen TV (add sound of angles singing) connected to a VCR, and a huge shelf full of movies. The dojo was the basic type of training room with workout machines, weapon shelves, trainng ring, and clothes with gravity seals on them. The zen garden was just basically that, a garden. The only thing he noted was that the grass needed to be cut and some weeds needed to be pulled, but that could be taken care of later with some shadow clones. The training area outside needed a lot of work. The training posts were half eaten by termites and half destroyed from years of vigorous training. The grass was probably up to Naruto's stomach, and the pond in the back of the training ground was half covered with alge. Overall it would need a hell of a lot of work.

Naruto only had one problem with all of this... It was just too damn much. Even if his mother was going to be living with him their was simply too much damn space. The place looked like it was built for a major clan not for a single family. Sighing, Naruto got out of the chair he had been relaxing in and decided he needed to do some shopping, first for some clothes, then for some gardening equipment, and finally for some food.(hey twelve year old food is not good food.) Naruto walked down the empty hallways to the main office of the compound and, biting his thumb, smeared some blood on the seal on the safe, opening it up and allowing him to grab some money. After closing and resealing the safe, Naruto quickly and quietly walked out the front door, locking it of coarse, and down the walkway to the front gate and out into the rich district of where his home was located.

No sooner had he walked out the door had Naruto accidently bumped into someone. This particular someone was wearing a pink chinese dress, dark blue shinobi pants, and had her hair up into two buns. (if you dont' know who this is than you need to kill yourself.)

"Sorry miss, I didn't see you there." said Naruto slowly getting up.

"It's alright, I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking" The girl said not paying attention to who she was talking too.

"Here let me hel-... No way! Is that you Ten-chan?!"

Tenten was frozen in place for a second. Only one person had ever called her 'Ten-chan' in her entire life. But the last time she saw him was almost four years ago right after he had started the academy. When Tenten opened her eyes to look at the person she bumped into she was greeted with the sight of flat, spiky blond hair, and deep cerulean eyes. Their was no doubt at who she was staring at.

"Naru-kun is that you?! Damn, look at how you. You look like you practically live for nothing but training. So what are you doing here in this part of the village?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck for a second. "Well you see, I actually live here. The place behind me is my new home."

Tenten was shocked. Naruto was an orphan and was supposed to be broke all the time, but by the looks of it he was easily loaded. It just didn't add up.

"So Ten-chan, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just on my way to see if one of my teammates wanted to do some sparing with me. I just tried Neji but he said he was too busy with clan activities today to spar so I was on my way to see if Lee wanted to."

Naruto stroke his chin for a second. 'Lee...Lee...Kuso where have I heard that name before...It sounds so familiar..." Just then it him him.

"Oh Lee, you mean that guy that wore the plain white gi with black shinobi pants and hade hure eyebrows?"

Tenten smiled, then she looked exausted for some reason. "Yeah that's Lee, well used to be him."

"What happened to Lee?" Naruto was curious, if only because Tenten seemed depressed for some reason.

"What happened to Lee? Gai-sensei's what happened to Lee. Now he's the same hard worker, but he has a bowl but, orange leg warmers with Kami knows how much weight put under them, and wears a green, full body, spandex suit."

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, right eye twitching with all it's might. His head turned slowly to face her as the bones in his neck sounded like they were breaking.

"Your kidding me right? Please Kami tell me your joking!"

Tenten gave an exasperated sigh. "I really wish I was. I've tried to get him to stop wearing the spandex suit if nothing else but nothing I've tried has worked."

Naruto looked deep in thought for a few minuets. Finally after much thought Naruto finally came to a decision.

"Ten-chan, I'm gonna help you with this. No person should look like you just said, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do this on my own, so to get and accurate assessment, I'm gonna have to see the target first hand."

Tenten smiled at Naruto and happily hugged him. What she didn't know was that when she hugged him she accidentially gave him a feel of her 'pillows'. Something that Naruto couldn't help but blush at. Naruto may never admit it but Tenten was actually his first crush, not Sakura. When Tenten let go of Naruto she grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him to where she knew Lee would be.

-training ground ten: 2:23 PM-

Naruto just couldn't believe his eyes. He thought he had seen the epitome of horror when he first set eyes on what Lee had become, but to his dismay, it only got worse when Maito Gai decided to make a dynamic entry. Naruto didn't have to stay long to know that he was not capable of changing Lee into something presentable, at least, not alone anyways. Sure he could simply put Lee in a more fashionable pair of clothes but that alone would not work. No, the true problem lay in the depths of lee's personality and his mind. For this endeavor, Naruto would need some help. He wasn't really good with fashion, though you would never be able to tell with his choice of cloths, so with fasion and a person's mind being the main problems, Naruto could only think of one person that would be able to help him with this. But that would wait until he was done shopping.

-Shopping district 5:37 PM-

After getting all the necessary supplies, groceries, and clothes he needed, and sending everything home via Kagebunshin, all Naruto needed now was some gardening supplies and to enlist some help. Entering a small flower store, Naruto was greeted by the sight of a man in his early to mid thirties with light blond hair and a gruff exterior. Anyone could easily tell that this man was definitely a shinobi that commanded respect for his abilities. The fact that said man was currently manning a cash register at a frilly flower shop almost didn't register with Naruto...almost.

"Welcome to Yamanaka flowers, how may I help you...Well if it isn't Naruto Uzumaki, how ya' been?" Inoichi greeted with a warm smile.

"Pretty good Inoichi-san, I'm gonna be needing a lot of supplies for a huge project I got." Said Naruto grinning and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well look around and pick what you like Naruto, were having a sale today."

Naruto casually walked around picking up about five hedge trimmers, two lawn mowers, a pond skimmer, and some potted plants. all in all it came to about 307,000 ryo, which Naruto happily paid. After making a few shadow clones, which carried the lawn equipment away, Naruto once again glanced at Inoichi, knowing he was about to tread into dangerous waters if he wasn't careful.

"Hey, Inoichi-san, would you by chance know where Ino-chan is?" Naruto asked slowly and calmly as to not disturb the creature known as a overprotective father, but no matter what you say you will always disturb it.

"And why exactly would you need to see my daughter, Uzumaki-san?" raising an eyebrow and giving Naruto a real close look.

"Well, one of my friends' teammates needs a serious fashion makeover and I said I would help. But, this teammate happens to be Maito Gai's student and mini-me"

Inoichi shuddered. The though of Maito Gai woiuld make anybody cringe in terror of the horrible jumpsuit he wore. (I actually hate Gai and Lee's spandex suits more than Naruto's orange monstrosity) Hell even the hokage can only take soo much of Gai and lee before it simply becomes too much and he sends them on an extended mission just to get them out of the village.

"But I think that Lee-san's problem lays in the confinds of his mind. That's why I need Ino's help. If anybody could get me into Lee's head to fix what's broken, it would definately be her."

Inoichi thought about it for a minute and realized that he had to agree with Naruto. Ino talked about fasoin almost as much as she talked about Sasuke.

'Now if only she would stop talking about Uchiha-san constantly than everything would be great. Honestly, what do today's girls see in him.?'

After determining whether or not Naruto was lieing, and finding no fault to his words Inoichi said.

"She's upstairs Naruto. Oh, and if it works, do you think we might be able to fix Gai?"

Naruto's face deadpanned "Inoichi-san, I'm a miracle worker and a shinobi, but even I can't do something that only Kami can do." And with that Naruto walked upstairs to the bedrooms above the flower shop. However Ino was nowhere to be found so Naruto did what any normal person does when they can't find someone.

"INO-CHAN!! HEY INO-CHAN WHERE ARE YOU!!"

He yelled at the top of his lungs.

"NARUTO?! IS THAT YOU?! I'M IN THE SHOWER WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Yelled Ino sounding kinda agitated.

"I need your help! One of my friends' teammates needs a serious fasion makeover and a mental inspection, but I can't think of anyone more qualified with fasion than you, so I was hoping you would help me fix this person up!"

"Why should I help! I mean honestly, what do I get in return?!"

Naruto was starting to get a headache from all the yelling so he rubbed the bridge of his nose to help him think and to help fend off the ensuing headache.

"Think of it this way Ino-chan, you'll be doing Konoha a major favor"

"C'mon his clothes can't be that bad now can they?!"

"Here, let me help you visualize it Ino-chan. He has a bowl haircut, the THICKEST eyebrows you have ever seen, he wears orange leg warmers over a Full. Green. Spandex. Body. Suit." Naruto added putting emphasis on the last five words.

Their was a pause on the other side of the door before the water slowly turned off. The next thing that happend, was so fast that Naruto barely had time to register it.

A naked Ino Yamanaka burst out of the bathroom practically ripping the door off of it's hinges, grabbing Naruto by the shoulders, shaking him violently screaming."TAKE ME TO HIM NOW!! TAKE ME NOW NARUTO!!" I suppose it's really bad luck that Inoichi had decided to check up on how Naruto and his daughter were doing, only to come around the corner hearing "TAKE ME NOW NARUTO" poor Inoichi suffered four simultaneous heart attacks.

Naruto just stared at Ino, bug-eyed, with a small bit of blood trickling down his nose, before he promptly fainted, leaving a flushed Ino.

-Yamanaka residence 7:36 PM-

Naruto was a little groggy when he woke up. He didn't really remember anything before he fainted but he could of sworn he was talking to someone about something, then he noticed it. The room he was in was completely different from his appartment. The walls were clean with no holes or insects crawling on them, the walls were painted sky blue. The floor was a nice, soft, carpet devoid of stains. The dresser and closet were practically busting out with clothes, and the bed he was on was soft with a thick sheet and a blond girl on...

hold the phone...

"GHAAAA! I-Ino, what am I doing here and why was I in y-your b-be-?" Naruto just couldn't finish that sentence because he took a look at himself.

He was devoid of a shirt or his crimson jacket, luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) he still had his pants on. Naruto looked at Ino with a piercing gaze, like he was trying to dig into her very soul, something that almost went unnoticed by Ino as she was too captivated by his muscles.

"Ino-chan, why did you remove by jacket and shirt?" Asked Naruto in a calm and cool voice: So cool that it almost brought the temperature in the room down.

"When you fainted after looking at me...naked, your sholders popped out of their sockets so I had to push them back in." Ino answered calmly, silently adoring the sight of Naruto's muscles. It was a little known fact that when they were younger, Ino had a little crush on Naruto after she became friends with sakura, but was afraid of not being accepted so she pretended to like Sasuke, but were getting off topic.

"And the reason you removed my clothes is...?"

"I couldn't see where your joints were with your shirt on so I had to remove it." Ino lied. Unfortunately for her Naruto caught the lie but decided not to pressure the issue, after all, he could always find out the information later.

"I see, well thank you for that and I am sorry if I stared at you before I fainted, you just surprised me is all. I wouldn't have looked if I knew."

"Are you saying I'm unattractive?!" Ino asked, slightly hurt at the insinuation.

"No, no, your not ugly Ino-chan, you very beautiful it's just that I know you don't like me very much so I know you didn't want me to stare is all."

Ino was slightly taken back at being called beautiful. Sure she had heard it from other guys in her age group but they always said those things to get what all guys want in the end. But she knew that someone like Naruto wouldn't say someone was beautiful unless he truly meant it. It was for that reason that her face suddenly and "inexplicably" turned pink, if only for a second.

"Arigato Naruto-kun, I appreciate it, and I don't hate you if that's what you think, it's just that I...well...I'm afraid of not fitting in ok!" answered Ino, feeling slightly downtrotten at the end.

"Your scared of being alone and unaccepted...It's understandable, after all I've had to live like that every day of my life since the day I was born, and I do everything in my power to be accepted. Though, deep down, I just know I never will." Said Naruto sounding depressed (or emo).

Ino looked at his downtrodden face with tears in her eyes and for once, she felt like a bitch. She had been one of the people to verbally abuse him in the past, for the very same thing she was afraid of no less. That's when she launched herself at the dark-blond and buried her head into his chest sobbing for forgiveness.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I sould have been kinder to you, I'm so sorry!"

Naruto firmly wrapped his arms around her waist and back as they lay on the ground, cooing to her to calm her down.

"Shh, shh, It's alright Ino-chan, I don't blame you for what you said to me. It's alright."

After about a minute Ino finally calmed down enough to remove her head from Naruto chest, only to stare deeply into his eyes. She was mesmerized by the cerulean orbs that seemed to be filled with sadness, hurt, pain, caring, forgiveness and even love. Ino didn't know how long she had been staring into his eyes, or how she had moved her head so close to his but that didn't seem to matter as her lips met his in a comforting embrace that seemed to make time itself stop. The feeling of his lips on hers sent shivers up and down Inos' spine as she deepened the kiss, and he had no intentions of stopping either. It didn't matter in Inos' mind at that moment if everyone would make her an outcast, It felt so good and so right to be with him. Alas, soon the couple would have to part for one of the most basic of necessities, air.

The parting couple stared lovingly into each others eyes before a coughing sound startled the both of them forcing the two to separate, much to their displeasure. The cough belonged to none other than Ino's mother, Hachino Yamanaka. The older woman and soft brown hair, with Ino's turquoise eyes. she was about 5'9" in height and wore a light green shirt and tan dress with a pink apron on over it. And though she was a civilian, she had a good grasp on shinobi matters.

"So what were you two doing Ino?" the woman asked sweetly. A little too sweetly.

"N-Nothing mom! W-we were just...just, discussing about helping out a friend tomorrow, that's it!" Ino quickly said, not even sounding remotely believable.

"Uh, huh. Back when I and your father were younger, we would usually call "discussing" sucking each others face off." Said Hachino, smiling a toothy, grin.

Ino and Naruto both at least had the dignity to look away from the woman and blush. That's when Ino's mother moved closer to Naruto as to inspect him like he was a peice of art or something. Naruto was starting to sweat as he was being scrutinized. For some reason, he felt like he was on exhibit or something.

"hmm. Well. I approve, I just want you to know Mr. Uzumaki, that if you hurt my daughter, that Inoichi-kun isn't the only person you will need to worry about."

Naruto sighed in relief. For a second he thought she was one of the people that blindly hated him and was about to order him out of her house.

"Oh and by the way Naruto-kun, I don't mind if you don't wear a shirt, but try and keep your pants on while me and Inoichi-kun are home. Okay?" she said with a smile before winking and walking away.

Ino yelled a loud "MOM!!" before the older woman scurried away, leaving an extremely flush-faced Ino and a silently shocked Naruto.

After a few minuets of uncomfortable silence Naruto decided to talk.

"So Ino-chan, do you have any ideas about what to put someone like Lee in. I mean, it's not like someone like him would be willing to do anything for fasion unless it had function."

Ino, who was glad to have the awkward silence broken, smiled before diving under her bed and bringing out some fasion magazines. Unbenonced to her, she also grabbed some other types of magazines.

"Alright Naruto-kun start going through some of these and help me pick out this Lee guy's wardrobe, from what you said, it's not gonna be easy."

Naruto was digging through the pile of magazines before a thought came to him.

"Wait a second, did she just call me Naruto-KUN? Wow, I guess she really does like me, but I cant just forget about Hinata! Ugh, why me?!"

Naruto absentmindedly opened a random magazine and skimming through the first article before something caught his attention.

"Hey Ino-chan?"

"Yeah Naruto-kun?"

"What exactly is a rimjob?"

"What!?"

Ino quickly ran to see that Naruto was holding one of her more "Personal" magazines, which she quickly took and put behind her back.

"N-nevermind Naruto-kun, l-lets just get back to looking at clothes right?! Right!"

Naruto was hesitant for a second before picking up a magazine that's cover was completely black. Opening to a random page, only to see the page fold out into a three section folded page. Naruto abruptly closed the magazine and looked at Ino that was sweating profusely.

"Ino-chan" Naruto stated calmly. "You have to be one of the biggest perverts I have ever met."

"I-Its not my fault I'm curious! Besides I'm not the only kunoichi that's a pervert. I bet you don't even know that Hinata uses her byakugan to look under your clothes!"

Naruto just stared at Ino with shock written all over his face, that's when Naruto replied to the extent of his intelegence.

"She Whats?"

Ino just nodded knowing it would take time before Naruto could believe her. So, taking pity on Naruto, she helped him up onto his feet and after grabbing his clothes, Ino ushered him out of her home before Naruto gave her a quick kiss good night and walking home to try and process this new information. It would be a long night for Naruto Uzumaki.

-End of chapter 3-

So what did you think? were you expecting what happened with Ino? well either way I hope you enjoyed it and I'll get back to you with a new chapter soon. Ja ne.