How to Break a Mask

Author: Kinomi Akai

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, Orochimaru would die, Kabuto would turn into a pokemon, Lee and Guy would trim their eyebrows and donate them to Gaara, Itachi would slap Sasuke for leaving Konoha, confiscate ALL of his clothing, and send him back where he would get together with Naruto - And everyone would live happily ever after :P

Summary: An incident at the festival on Oct. 10th reveals that there is a lot that everyone doesn't know about Naruto. Smart!Naruto, Sasunaru/Narusasu, Rated M to be safe

Pairings: Sasunaru/Narusasu, mentions of KakaIru, as of now.

Warnings: Shonen-ai, yaoi, boy x boy, whatever to want to call it. Sakura "bashing" in earlier chapters.

Author's Note: Yay for my first Naruto fic! I feel like writing XD Oh, and in this fic, Sasuke never left Konoha.

"Blah" – talking

'blah' – thinking

'blah' – Kyuubi talking

Here goes nothing!

It goes without saying that many things were concealed in a ninja's hidden village. Every village had their own secrets, and each ninja held their own within them. Konohagakure was no exception to this rule; if anything, they held more secrets than most. Many of these secrets centered on a particular ninja - being raised within them, it was no surprise that Uzumaki Naruto had a few secrets of his own.

It had been a rough life for Naruto. No memories or pictures of any family, no idication as to why the villagers seemed to hate him on sight, Naruto did the only thing he could to survive: he put up a mask. An idiot that never stopped smiling, no matter what happened - perhaps if he glued on this fake smile everyday, one day it could be real.

But each day passed, and still, no human knew the real him.

'Oi kit, time to get up,'

Naruto felt his eyelids slowly open. They felt particularly heavy this morning, but with a yawn, he dragged himself out of his warm bed and towards the bathroom, but on his way there, he caught sight of his calendar. He froze.

Today was October 10th.

His birthday. Oh no.

'Kit, at this rate you'll be later than usual.'

'...do you think I should really go to training today?'

'Probably. It wouldn't be good if your teammates started asking questions. Just be sure to avoid the villagers extra carefully today.'

When Naruto was very young, Naruto spoke to a voice in his head. He became friends with this voice; they were his friend. This voice helped him through his childhood, helped him to hide his true feelings from the world and never let anyone know what he was truly thinking. Maybe he was crazy, but as long as no one else knew about the voice, it was all okay, right?

It didn't take Naruto long to piece the puzzle together when he found out the horribly evil Kyuubi no Kitsune was sealed inside of him. He was betrayed, and terrified. This being, who had easily massacred thousands, had been pretending to be his friend, and he had called it his best friend. He became scared of this voice, but he couldn't escape it. He couldn't shut it off or stop listening, and so he was forced to listen to Kyuubi's side of the story. They were the same, he had realized: both hated, neither ever given a chance for redemption. Konoha had kidnapped Kyuubi's mate: her lover, and when she came looking in the village, they killed him right in front of her. A show of power, they said, to make sure the demons stayed far away. Of course, it had the opposite effect, and Kyuubi had flown into a blind rage, killing everything in sight.

'We were just planning to have kits,' she had told him, after she had shown him the memories. He had never heard her sound so small.

From that day on, they were best friends again. And Naruto became very careful not to take anything anyone said at face value. It was a skill that came particularly handy in annoying Uchiha Sasuke - but that would come later.

Kyuubi took it upon herself to make sure Naruto was a ninja of many skills. She trained him rather hard, but sharing a mind let Naruto know that any anger he felt from her stemmed from the fear of losing someone close again. Naruto's chakra control was still abysmal, since it was in constant fluctuation from the mixing and separation of Naruto and Kyuubi's chakra, but he did what he could. Naruto became powerful and talented, and extremely careful about letting it show.

With a sigh, Naruto stepped out of his apartment, now fully clothed and ready to go.

As soon as he walked out, it was as if the air thickened. Eyes snapped to him, and each pair felt like a lit candle being held to his skin. The whispers started and he quickened his pace.

"That's him…"

"How dare he show his face, the very..."

"How we can let this murderer walk free, I will never-"

"Shhh! We can't talk about that in public!"

Naruto continued on, as if he couldn't hear anyone, and closed off as much of his enhanced senses as he could. With his mask firmly in place, Naruto made his way to the day's training.

When Naruto reached the bridge where him and his teammates met every morning, he quickly grinned and started waving his hand madly.

"Good morning Sakura-chan!"

"Shut up Naruto! You're so annoying!"

'She's just as loud and annoying as I am...'

'That hair burns my eyes.'

Naruto inwardly snickered. Outwardly, he put on a pout and protested very loudly, "but Sakura-chaaaan!"

"Be quiet dobe." Sasuke said, or sighed, rather. Unfortunately, this statement made Sakura realize she was neglecting her duty as crazed fangirl and immediately resume her position of clinging on Sasuke's arm.

'Ugh, I don't know how you put up with this.'

'I don't know either.'

"That's it, Sasuke-teme! I challenge you! I'll beat you to a bloody pulp, you bastard!"

"Hn."

About two hours passed by of pretty much just Naruto yelling, a few hits from Sakura and Sasuke ignoring everything around him, before finally Kakashi showed up.

"Yo!"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Came the yell from Naruto and Sakura.

"Maaa, sorry I had to take care of a little dolphin that I found." (1)

'Dolphin, huh?'

"LIAR!" Yelled Sakura.

"Eheheh…well anyways, I figured that today we should take a break from all the missions and training. Let's go the the festival!" Kakashi's eye crinkled at the sides, the only indication that he was smiling under his mask.

'Shit! Kyuubi, what do I say? I can't go to the festival!'

'Calm down kit! Just say you're not feeling well or that you think the festival's stupid or something.'

"But Kakashi-sensei! That festival's a waste of time! We should be training when we get a day off!" Naruto complained.

'Please buy it, please buy it…'

"Now, now, Naruto, you shouldn't push yourself too hard. You guys need a break. And no, I'm not letting you guys get out of this one!"

'Damn!'

'Perhaps you can last this one time, kit. It's only for a few hours.'

'But what if the villagers say something?'

'The old hag will be there. I doubt they'll say anything within a normal human's hearing range; you should be fine as long as you don't get separated.'

'I hope you're right kyu-chan.'

"Naruto! We're gonna leave you behind if you don't hurry," came Kakashi's voice.

"Ah! Wait!" Naruto sped off after them, praying that nothing would go wrong…

Well, you can't blame him for hoping.

(1) Cookies for anyone who looked underneath the underneath and found out the actual meaning of this!

Author's Note: How was that for my first time? Reviewers shall get cookies! And will be loved dearly!

Criticism is also welcome, as long as how say how I can get better. Flamers will be laughed at~

Yep, I'm in a good mood right now! R&R please!

Edit: (Feb/18/2016) Working on editing through the story to match my current writing style so that I can finally finish this up. Thank you all so much for bearing with me all of these years!