How To Break a Mask (Sasunaru)

The Kitchen

How to Break a Mask

Author: Kinomi Akai

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, the characters would make love, not war.

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.

Warnings: Shonen-ai, yaoi, boy x boy, whatever to want to call it.

Author's Note:

"Blah" – talking

'blah' – thinking

'blah' – Kyuubi talking

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Last time:

Silence struck the room like thunder. Sasuke stumbled back with a bitter expression.

"Maybe it's you who needs to accept their perceptions have been wrong. Maybe I lie sometimes too. Maybe I've spent the last fucking month trying to get justice for you!"

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Chapter 11: The Kitchen

Naruto stared at him, but his eyes had changed. "I knew it was you!"

The Uchiha stared at him. "Did you?"

"Yeah..." He breathed. He continued on quietly, but Sasuke heard his words anyways: "You're the only one who'd care enough..."

"Tch, idiot."

"What?"

"The only one who'd care enough, dobe?" Sasuke smirked at the blonde. "Even you aren't that clueless."

Naruto stared at him without a response, so Sasuke continued.

"Do you want to know how many people volunteered to help you?" Grey eyes had darkened into black with an intensity that rendered Naruto unable to look away. He realized Sasuke was waiting for an answer, and shook his head mutely.

"Everyone!" Sasuke let his hands fly through the air in frustration that the blonde idiot couldn't see what was right in front of him, and Naruto took a moment to appreciate the usual stoic boy's loss of composure. "Sakura, Lee, Neji, Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru, hell, even Gaara showed up at one point! Hinata got her father involved, Kakashi was there...do you get the point, usuratonkachi? People care about you! You are important! And not because of your status, not because you have Kyuubi inside of you, but because you're Uzumaki Naruto. You're Konoha's number one most surprising ninja, and you are going to be Hokage someday." Grey eyes bore holes into blue ones as Sasuke's pale mouth spit every syllable. "Dattebayo."

Naruto let in a breath that sounded suspiciously like a gasp. Unconsciously, he felt his eyes stinging, but his conscious mind was completely unaware of the budding tears.

"Sasuke," the hitch in his voice was impossible to miss, and Sasuke's eyes widened at it.

"Dobe," he cuffed the back of the blonde's head in an almost affectionate way. "It's dinner time. Come on."

Naruto, for once, silently followed his friend.

"I'm not serving ramen," Sasuke stated.

Naruto let a slight smile spread across his face at Sasuke's attempts to put some normality back into the situation. He suppressed his initial, trained reaction to groan loudly, since he didn't need to make excuses for his appetite around Sasuke anymore. And he had a feeling that the Uchiha would not take kindly to being lied to about this, especially if he found out the truth through someone other than Naruto himself.