The Real Me

21

"Hello there My precious genins. It's good to see you again!" Kakashi eye smiled and held up a hand. He and the other senseis had returned from their... business and they had resumed training.

"Hey where's Naruto?" He asked. Sasuke shrugged.
Sakura pouted and replied,"Haven't seen him all week."
Kakashi looked surprised, and was about to say something when someone landed behind Sasuke and Sakura.
"Hey how're you-ttebayo!"

Naruto.
He looked...off. His hair was disheveled, and messier. It seemed, less dense like someone had taken the life out of them. And his jacket was open, it was usually zipped up. His clothes were dirtier than usual and his eyes seemed dull with some black circles

"Where were you dobe?" Sasuke was the first one to react.

Naruto awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and said, "Just...doing stuff, wandering."

"Wandering," Sakura scoffed. "Probably causing trouble in some other village or something."

Sasuke noticed Naruto's expression harden and saw him scowl, but only for a fraction of a second, after which he smiled brightly at Sakura and told her to relax.

This surprised Sasuke, who had never seen Naruto display any emotion like anger, much less scowl so professionally. He basically thought that Naruto was  one of those kind of people who just didn't know how to hate..

"Well... Let me just tell you that our mission went smoothly and we don't have any particular mission today, so how about sparring?" Kakashi suggested.

The genins shrugged and started walking to their training ground. Kakashi cast a glance at Naruto who was walking beside him, sort of nonchalantly, but with his years of expertise, he knew that Naruto was either tense, angry or frustrated. It wasn't obvious, and the fact that Naruto could unconsciously mask his emotions so well surprised Kakashi.
But of course, he didn't ask. Because he didn't think it was any of his business or that Naruto would tell him.

Maybe he should have.

Upon reaching the training grounds, Kakashi first had Sakura and Sasuke fight and then the winner would fight with Naruto. It was just basic taijustu not much. The spar between Sakura and Sasuke was over before it even began.

Kakashi had snapped his fingers and in a second Sasuke was behind Sakura with his Kunai to her neck. The three boys sighed and wonderful whether Sakura could ever become a proper kunoichi.

"Well, Naruto." Kakashi called Naruto who groaned amd complained about how he never got any rest.

"Take it easy Sasuke." He smirked. Sasuke gripped the Kunai tighter, with no intention of sparing this knucklehead.

Kakashi snapped his finger- and began reading his Bright Orange Book Of Not Suitable For Children Content.

Sasuke and Naruto charged at each other (Sasuke and Naruto style) and clashed with their Kunai. Naruto held his footing and tried to kick Sasuke leg from beneath him but he back flipped away. Sasuke charged again and aimed for his stomach, which he rather cautiously and alarmingly dodged. His eyes were wide as if he'd just escaped some sort of apocalypse and this made Sasuke smirk.

"Scared?" He taunted. "Scared my ass." Naruto regained his composure and ran at him again. They kept this up for quite a while and then finally when Sasuke Managed to grab and twist Naruto arm behind him, and lock his leg(so that he couldn't kick  him) was the match over.

Kakashi called it a day and disappeared, while Sakura dawned over how strong and amazing Sasuke was. Meanwhile, near a tree Naruto rubbed his wrist gently trying to hold all the pain in. After all he couldn't cry in front of them.

"Probably causing trouble in some other village or something."

He scoffed. As if. That stupid girl. She had no idea what he was going through. What he regularly went through.
He didn't want to stay out here any longer, and decided to head back home. After all he had to clean up whatever mess the villagers must have created.
Those damn villagers. They never leave an opportunity.

He walked past Sasuke and hoped that Sasuke would ignore him like he usually did, but unfortunately, Sasuke was playing Detective right now.

"Hey, what exactly were you doing? Why didn't you come for training?" He asked.
Naruto tched. He hated all this... interrogation. As if he was some sort of criminal. At this moment, he felt like a very Sassy Naruto.

"I hate training,"he said and turned around "Especially when you only want to train by yourself."

"I don't train by myself."

"Oh really?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
Naruto narrowed his eyes back.
Sakura went ahead and slapped him. Naruto. Not Sasuke.

Naruto's eyes were wide with surprise and...anger.
"How dare you glare at Sasuke! You don't compare to him in any way! Stop acting like you could actually ever reach his level you loser!!" She screeched.

Naruto rubbed his Cheek,  he looked like he was about to shout at Sakura, and he even glared at her for a few seconds after which his glare dropped.
Instead he just looked tired , like he had heard this millions of time.

"Sorry. You're right. My fault. Shouldn't have glared him." He apologized to Sakura who was a tad bit surprised as well, and then he turned and faced Sasuke and bowed to him and said rather formally,
"Sorry for glaring at you."

Sasuke blinked. How does one respond to this situation? Naruto turned and walked away.

Later that night, all Sasuke could think about was how Naruto's personality seemed to fluctuate with every moment. As if he was constantly arguing with himself, about how to present himself. Sasuke thought he knew the dobe. But it seems there's more to him.
________
Naruto lay in bed listening to the crickets chirping. He couldn't sleep. At all. And his injuries wouldn't let him train. He wondered how everyone could be so oblivious to someone's suffering. How people just walked by someone who was clearly having problems. How people choose to ignore all these silent cries for help.

These people, they create monsters. So monsters they will face.
______
A/N
I like this chapter. What about you? Is it better? Than all Those other chappies?

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Yours Truly,
23

P.s Do people actually even read author's notes? I mean, anyone with honest opinions?