Author: Lilas

Title: Patch of Darkness

Disclaimer: Not mine!!

Author's note: This is my little gift to the world on this last day at my internship. I am indeed a happy, happy camper. This idea popped into my head as I was staring at my favorite Naruto pic EVER (volume 11, the pic of grown up Naruto) and it was colored by Bianka-chan on her internet site (which I can't seem to be able to POST!!! Well, if you go on my LJ, which is in my author's page and click on the fic link, you can get to it. SORRY!!!).

ENJOY!

He remembered his friends' reactions the first day he came out to see them after he'd passed his Jounin exam. They had looked at him as if he were a stranger, trying to find in him someone that hadn't grown, someone that hadn't changed in the past years of his life. He didn't understand how they could have been so naïve. He didn't know why they couldn't see that the person who he became was just an evolution from the person that he had been.

He guessed the biggest shock to them was his hairstyle. He wasn't stupid. He knew that as a ninja, discretion and the ability to sneak around your enemies unnoticed was of the utmost importance. It was a lesson he had learned the hard way, and which he had retained.

It'd been years since he'd dropped his neon orange outfit, settling for a black shirt and a pair of dark blue pants. The change had unsettled his friends, but it was accepeted. Deep down, he thought they'd all been waiting for him to catch up to the fact that bright colored clothes in a mission, any mission, was a bad, bad idea. And he had caught on – eventually. The hair dilemma, however, had never been breached.

There were plenty of shinobis with bright hair color that didn't bother to cover it up, that left the shiny strands out in the open for anyone to see. Maybe because hair wasn't as visible as clothing? Or maybe because it was too much of a hassle to cover up? He guessed it didn't really matter why it was they left it as it was, but that the only thing that did matter, was that they did.

He hadn't meant to change his style, it just sort of happened. Like him growing up, maybe the change was just another step towards a further maturity, a further growth in both body and spirit. Or it could just be that he wanted to look different. He was a Jounin now, responsible for a team as well as under a command, under the Hokage's direct command. He wasn't a child anymore, he wasn't a brat anymore. He didn't go running around and causing havoc at every opportunity – well, maybe he did, but not as often.

So how could he show this change in personality, this change in maturity? He'd already dropped the clothes, so the switch from dark blue and black to the Jounin uniform which was all black wasn't striking; it wasn't noticeable enough. He'd only thought of how when he was picking his headband.

He'd been waiting in line, staring at his reflection, astonished by how much like his father he looked with his blond hair standing out amidst his dark appearance. It was too bright. 'Shining like the sun' as Sasuke had often said during their nightly encounters. He liked that comment, but the older man had had a point. It was too obvious, even at night it gave him away, as had been proven by the various hide-and-seek games his friends and he still played at.

So he had made his decision. When it had been his turn to pick which kind of forehead protector he wanted, Kakashi had handed him his usual choice, his mouth smiling behind its mask. But one look at his face, his blue eyes, and he nodded, putting the forehead protector down and reaching further along the table for another kind, one that people rarely picked. Why? He guessed it was because they thought it was too uncomfortable, too hot, too annoying to tie back. But he had loved it instantly. It did what he wanted it to do.

It covered his hair.

Sasuke had been the first one to ask him why that one. Why he had chosen the bandana kind and not any other kind that covered the head. He'd shrugged then, patting the fabric down, feeling it on his hair.

'Because it suits me,' he'd said. 'Because it makes me look less like my father and more like me,' he'd continued, brows frowning as he thought about it. 'Why? You don't like it ?'

Sasuke had smiled then and sneaked his fingers under the fabric, gently holding his head among golden strands. 'No,' he replied, 'I like it. It's very… you.'

And that had been the last of their discussion. He'd had the bandana since then, and of his friends, he was the only one who could stand wearing it. And Sasuke was the only one who'd understood why he'd chosen it. And Kakashi was the only one who'd understood why he'd needed it.

And perhaps they were the only ones who still saw the grown up troublemaker behind the steeled blue eyes and the golden strands that were hidden by a patch of darkness.