How To Break a Mask (Sasunaru)

The Restaurant

How to Break a Mask

Author: Kinomi Akai

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, any filler episodes would be directed by the best of the SasukexNaruto authors & the best of the fanfic plotlines.

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.

"Blah" – talking

'blah' – thinking

'blah' – Kyuubi talking

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Last time:

'Do you think the rest of the team will notice?'

'You can make sure they don't. Pretend to eat the spoiled food or something like that. I'm sure they have to bring out something for you...'

And so Naruto whined loudly about how long the food was taking, getting a bump on the head from Sakura, who told him to shut up.

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Chapter 2: The Restaurant

"Why is the food taking so long?" Naruto whined.

"Naruto, you've said that at least twenty times," Kakashi pointed out.

"But it's been such a long time! We should have just gotten ramen!" Sakura was getting dangerously close to losing her temper with Naruto, again, when the food finally came.

"Sorry to keep you waiting! Here's your food." The same waitress calmly handed out food to Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi. Naruto was handed an empty plate. The rest of team seven didn't notice, as they thanked the female, but Naruto was becoming exceedingly nervous.

'Kyu-chan,' He thought at the fox, his panic making him use the nickname,'I'm not used to dealing with situations like this! How am I supposed to act without dropping my act?'

'Think fast kit! They're talking to you!'

Naruto snapped back into reality with a "Huh?"

"Jeez, Naruto, you should actually listen once in a while. I asked you why you don't have any food on your plate!" Sakura scolded Naruto before turning back to continue staring at Sasuke.

"Oh, um, I finished my food." The blonde grinned, and patted his belly, silently praying they would again be dense enough to fall for it.

"You know it's not healthy to eat that fast! Right, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn."

'They actually fell for it!' Naruto thought, holding back a cringe at Sakura's elated giggle.

Naruto, in relief at Sakura's comment, didn't notice Kakashi exchange a glance with Sasuke. He quickly exclaimed he needed to pee, and jogged to the bathroom, ignoring Sakura's disgusted look.

'I don't think your teacher did.'

'What?'

'Nevermind. You're normally better than this, kit.'

He mentally snorted. 'Well excuse me for being a little on edge. I'll come up with something better next time.'

Kyuubi didn't reply, and Naruto returned from the washroom.

While the rest of the team was eating, Naruto's eyes were darting from side to side, mentally gathering all the threats in the area. He knew that today wouldn't pass without an incident, Hokage or no Hokage there; even she couldn't control the villagers fully. And that was clearly shown by the glares he was receiving around the restaurant. An elderly couple walked into the place, took one look at him, and promptly walked right back out. He could hear snippets of every conversation around him and somehow, Naruto knew it wasn't simply his paranoia telling him they were whispering about him.

"Making me lose my appetite...disgusting creature." A low, distinctly female voice muttered somewhere on his left.

"How dare he show his face!" A harsh, angry whisper came. "Especially today!"

"It sickens me how he has our Hokage wrapped around his revolting, little finger. She does anything the brat asks for!" A lady whispered in her friend's ear, who replied in kind;

"It's probably some demon technique...who knows what he's been doing behind our backs, the monster—"

Naruto had heard enough. He quickly pulled up his mask again and focused on trying to get himself out of here as soon as possible.

"Come on! You guys eat so slowly! I hate sitting around like this!" A boisterous, loud voice came from the blonde.

Fortunately, Kakashi came back from wherever he had gone off to at that very moment, looking pleased with himself. "You two, are you nearly finished?" He continued, facing Naruto's teammates.

Sakura looked as if she was going to say something, before closing her mouth and looking at Sasuke. When the black-haired male grunted in affirmative, she was quick to agree. Kakashi then beckoned them to follow him.

"But Kakashi-sensei, don't we have to pay?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi just smiled. "Don't worry about it," He said mysteriously.

"Hm."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means my respect for your teacher just grew slightly."

"What, that he paid for us? He's done that before."

"I'm fairly sure he just stood up for you, kit."

"Hah, now you're just seeing what you want to see, Kyuubi."

They exited the restaurant and looked at the booths that were nearly finished being set up. As they walked by, looking for something to do, the citizens of Konoha were fuming. The demon-boy hadn't shown his face on this day since when he was five, and they had taught him a lesson, a very significant lesson, and it seemed he hadn't learned. They looked to one another, silently communicating, thinking the same haunting thought: how shall we discipline him this time?

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