Summary: Naruto is a high school student, with a dark past. To his classmates he's Naruto Uzumaki, the hyperactive knucklehead, the class clown, the school punching bag. That's what Naruto wants them to believe. His homelife isn't any better then his school life, with his drunk of a father. Throughout his entire life, he has never been able to completely trust anyone. Will his thoughts change when a caring teacher, and a close bond with the new girl at school begin to peel the mask of the "Naruto Uzumaki" that is known by the school?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Naruto awoke with the repetitive beeping of his alarm clock. He rested an arm on his forehead, thinking of what he had to look foreward to today. To his displeasure, his mind came up blank. He sighed, but inhaled sharply as pain reverberated throughout his body. That's right. He came home yesterday. Naruto forced himself up, ignoring the searing pain ripping through his body.
He delicately lifted his blood-stained shirt to check his wounds. Nothing too horrific. At worst his ribs were cracked and slightly bruised. This was nothing compared to what happened when he was drunk AND angry.

Naruto chuckled inwardly at the morbidity of his relief. Most kids his age weren't subjected to the psycological and physical abuse that he endured nearly every night. Most kids his age were worried about zits, exams, and dates. Those were on the bottom of his list of worries. After all, its as he had said;
"You are not like most kids. You are an evil murderous child!"
Naruto knew that those words were untrue. He knew that they were said just for the sick pleasure of having inflicted mental abuse along with the physical abuse. And yet, even with this knowledge, something deep down inside of him agreed with what that man would repeat on a mundane level.

Deep down he knew that on that day, where the sun seemed less bright, the birds flew less freely, and how his innocence and happiness was utterly obliterated like the remains of a sand castle during a tsunami, he was the cause of what had happened. He shook himeslf of his thoughts.
"Thinking like this is gonna give me heart problems at an early age!" Naruto playfully muttered to himself.

He limped his way to that bathroom. He had nearly forgotten the emminant pain in his leg. His slight limp was his fault. When he reached the bathroom he took a hot shower, dryed off, bandaged his sore torso, and got dressed.
He was bracing himself for the hardest part of his routine; getting downstairs without causing a commotion. Which was considerably hard because of his injuries. He just had to tough it out, and be quiet enough so that he wouldn't wake him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There, that is the first part! Tell me how you like it, and weather or not I should bother to continue.

I like it!
Lots of details and imagery..
I think it's a great start for a new story.

Poor Naruto...

I hope you update soon. ^______^

Thank You. Tell me if you like this.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Now for the hard part of his routine; remaining quiet on hardwood flooring.
He cracked his door open wide enough for him to slick through. He inhaled and held his breath, as if the action would somehow make him lighter. Naruto took three steps foreward from his door, one step to his left, and several more foreward until he reached the staircase.

He looked at the bottom of the stairs, listening intently for the rummaging of bottles, and the opening and closing of the refridgerator. When no such noise came he quietly decended onto the first step, leaning heavily on the handrailing.
He caustionsly lifted his foot and stretched it to the right side of the stairs, three steps down. He gently pushed off from the railing and gracefully lowered himself to the other side of the staircase. After skipping those three steps, the rest of the way was a breeze. These last steps didn't make any loud creaking noises when stepped on lightly.

When Naruto made his way down he laughed inwardly at himself. How pathetic was he? To have strategically memorized which steps creaked when a certain ammount of pressure was placed upon it. He exhaled his breath and made his way to the kitchen. Sure enough there he was, lying plastered on the kitchen table. A beer bottle still in the hand that's arm was draped over the edge of the table. Small ammounts of beer were spilling from the rim of the bottle with every rise and fall of the man's chest.

Naruto ground his teeth together at the very sight of the man. His hair was short and silver, reaching just above his shoulders. If one hadn't known the man like Naruto knew him, you would think very highly of him. Just as the villagers did. "Mizuki the intrepid" was what they called him. Naruto had yet to see the man live up to his reputation in the household. The only thing that the man managed to keep up to were his rumored abilities to fight. Naruto had learned first hand how well the man could fight.

You would think someone having such a 'fantastic' father figure in your life would be treated at school as if he were King Midas himself, but truth be told, Naruto wasn't treated much more differently then he was at home. The funny thing is that Naruto had built up such a tolerability to physical abuse that it would make the most tight-lipped Prisoner Of War ask for tips. Thus, when 'beat up' at school, it would have little to no effect at all on him. Yet he had to act like it did.

He had to remain in obscurity. For him to be himself would mean straight A's in all of his classes, and he would have to beat up any schoolyard cliche of a bully when confronted by one. For reasons unknown to him, Naruto had never once decided to come out from behind his mask. Maybe it was due to fear of accomplishment and positive feedback. After all, he had never once basked in the glow of self-accomplishment and praise that seemed to motivate the schools top students.

Everyone only say him as he wished to be seen. A hyperactive knucklehead with absolutely no hangups or problems whatsoever. Yes. He was Naruto Uzumaki! The class clown, the school punchingbag, the next to be voted "Least likely to succeed." And as far as Naruto cared.....he didn't. So it was rather easy to keep the facade that he had created all of these years.

Change. Now THAT was something that Naruto couldn't, and wouldn't, even consider. Such a drastic change in his personality would cause pandemonium and wide-spread panic. People would look to the sky just to make sure that the sun hadn't exploded, causing an apocolyptic end for their village.

He thought about that last time that he had answered a teachers question correctly in his history class three years ago. Everyone had looked at him as if he had just announced to the class that the world was made out of cotton balls and glitter.
Naturally he made a note to never cause another culture shock like that again.

If anyone wants me to continue on with this, then just say.....well type the words!^-^

WHOO. I like it.

:3

I agree with Loli there.
Eh, but yeah...makes mine pale in comparison.

FLAWLESS VICTORY! ^__^

This is the first time that I have seen this story of yours since you have posted it.

And I can honestly tell you that the above statement is true.

This Naruto fanfiction of yours is Flawless! :victory: :excited: :kittylove: :cheer:

Please continue when you may, my friend, and please..

Do not worry soo much about replies and reviews.

They will come in time. ok ? ^^

You have a loyal reader in me, Jostanos (author of A "Fullmetal Pokemon"?! and Inuyasha and the Frozen Ryu Youkai. here on IJ ^^)

Thank you you guys! ^-^ Here is the next part!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




He glared at Mizuki. This was the man that was ultimately respondsible for his hardship. Staring at the man made dark thoughts birr through his head. Of course it had occured to him to take the man's life one of the many times that he lay drunk after having given him a beating. Heck, the world would be better without the man. Unfortunately for him, to the village saw him as an 'upstanding citizen', and his dissapearance was sure not to got unnoticed.

He had planned out the man's death to the very last detail, and yet he was unable to execute such an elaborate plan. He liked to believe that the reason he hadn't gone through with it was because he had come to his senses. I mean c'mon, killing him would be irrational, and cruel. Not only that, but killing Mizuki would bring him down to said person's level of sadism. Truth be told though, deep down Naruto knew that it was because he lacked the courage to go through with it.

Naruto loosely ran a hand through his hair when his thoughts were interupted by the rumblings of his stomach. Oh yeah. Last night, he didn't even have the opportunity to even eat. Today wouldn't be much different. No big problem, he was used to going hungry for a number of days at a time. You would be amazed at how simple it is to ignore hunger pangs Especially when you mind is plauged with the unbearable sensation of pain running through your body, begging for release, via your throat. As if screaming would suffice as an inoculant.

He shook his head and silently backed out of the kitchen, making it a point not to stir the sleeping man. He walked into the livingroom and snatched his bookbag from the coat rack above. Why he always put it on that flimsy coat rack was beyond him. I mean, one of these days it was really going to bite him in the a-
Sure enough as he grabbed one of the straps of his bookbag to leave, the other strap seemed to be feeling lonely as it fastened itself around the hook. Effectively taking the whole rack with Naruto's pull.

The whole scene had seemed to go in slow motion from Naruto's prospective, and yet he watched as the whole thing unraveled right in front of him. His jaw was agape as the rack hit the floor, making an impossibly loud noise as if it were connected to an AMP, with surround sound. These sort of things only seemed to happen in Naruto's presence. Naturally, his luck could only go south as the stiring and clanging of beer bottles could be heard in the kitchen.

"Kyuubi!" He heard Mizuki slur as the table creaked in protest of his sudden movements.
"Where the hell are you, you bastard?!" He began shouting as the sound of glass shattering on the tile flooring could be heard, indicating his approach to the livingroom. This was all that was needed for Naruto to snap out of his current state of shock. He swiftly scooped up his annoyingly clingy bookbag from the rack it still embraced and made a break for the door. Somewhere in that short ammount of time, Mizuki must have entered. As Naruto was closing the door of the house, he was beamed in the back of the head with one of the many beer bottles lying around effectively catching him off guard.

He slammed the door shut with such force that he could hear the pictures on the wall hit the floor. He began to lightly run away, rubbing the back of his head. He looked at his hand, there was blood. Crap. The jerk must have used a semi broken bottle, because he pulled out a little shard of glass. He could still hear the angry yells of Mizuki that no one else seemed to hear. He jumped off the curb, and ran to school. The quicker that he was, the sooner he could patch himself up, leaving the school none the wiser to the torment he had endured earlier. They'll probobly chalk it up to the bullies. Oh well. He ran farther down the street making sure not to look back. From personal experiance, he learned that it always seemed to slow him down.

Wow! Thanx! And I wrote this on a whim.

YAAY.

Another awesome update.
O.o Did I miss something, I must have misread...

Did I miss the man in the other update? o.o

update. O_O I'm under control of this story!

That was as far as I had written on paper, so now I shall continue on! :boxing:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Naruto ran into the school grounds breathing heavily. He cast a glance toward the gigantic clock on the front of the school building and recognized that he had at least 15 minutes before the five minute bell would ring. He remembered when the school had first installed that oversized clock. He found it a non to discreet way of telling the students to "High tail it to class." the principal would say. After installation, the number of tardiness had decreased quite a lot, and it did help out quite a bit for Naruto.

"I've got plenty of time." Naruto muttered to himself. He would be able to make it to the nurse's office, and there he could bandage himself up rather quickly.
"Plenty of time for what?" Came an all too familiar voice from behind. Naruto closed his eyes in annoyance.
"I so don't have time for this." He thought to himself as he turned around to face Kiba. He plastered on a fake worried exression.
"Oh, heh. Hey there Kiba. What a pleasure running into you." His voice was dripping with sarcasm as he gave a weary smile.

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking! 'Oh no! Its Kiba! Maybe he won't do anything to me this time!'" Kiba laughed after his Naruto impersonation. Naruto on the other hand wasn't quite so amused.
"Since when was my voice so high pitched?" Naruto thought to himself. Why people always thought that when impersonating someone, they sould move their voice up an octave regardless of the person they are mockings' gender was beyond him. But hey, Kiba isn't that sharpest spoon in the shed.

Put quite simply, Kiba could be defined as many things. He was strong, a jock, rude, crude, lude, mean, unsympathetic, umempathetic, -well you get the point. Yet on the list of words that best define Kiba, smart would be better known as an antonym. Truth be told, the kid was a complete moron. You know those jock cliches that they put in comedy teen movies. Well compared to Kiba, those guys are like Albert Einstein. Naruto remembered this one time, as a joke, on of the students asked Kiba;
"Hey, what color is a red firetruck?" To which Kiba, dutifully retorted,
"Blue, just like the grass." The whole class laughed about it, but everyone knew that he was serious.

"Well you don't have to worry. 'Cause I wasn't plannin' on doin' nothin'....." Kiba's voice trailed off as he begun to walk away. Before Naruto had time to react, let alone put up his guard, Kiba had whipped around and close lined Naruto, effectively knocking his off of his feet. When he hit the ground his breath was sucked from him as if Naruto had to pay a fee to the Earth for hitting it so hard. It wasn't so much the sudden blow, but more so the fact that he had hit his already damaged head on the ground fairly hard amist all of Kiba's laughter, and on coming spectators.

Naruto couldn't help but let out a hiss of pain, something he rarely ever did. He heaved himself to his feet, and rubbed the back of his head. He removed his hand and winced as he realized that the blood had probobly stained his hair, because students were gawking behind him. Naruto realized a little too late that you shouldn't stand up to quickly after multiple injuries to the head. He never even noticed that he was swaying back and forth. All he recognized were the distorted voices and images of the people watching him.

His eyes begun to flutter as he made an attempt to walk to the Nurse's office. He made his way through the crowd somehow. He was near the doors when he stumbled, unable to catch himself, he begun to fall foreward expecting the all to familiar contact of the concrete. Least to say he was shocked when he wound up in the embrace of someone with an annoyingly fuzzy jacket. She was just as shocked as he was when he looked up at her face.
"Heh," Naruto chuckled, "I thought that it was supposed to be the man that helps the damselle in distress, not the other way around." He playfully muttered to his savior. He got one last glance at her as he saw he shocked expression get covered by a blush, and a light tug at the corners of her mouth formed a smile. Then he saw darkness.

Great job.

Thank you.

write more soon i'm hooked

Except for a couple minor spelling errors..

Flawless victory. ^^

Please continue when you may.

I agree with Jostanos-san, other than that...another awesome update!
:3

Pretty damn good.

I think that I should tell everyone that I have re-written most of the story and I have posted it up on Fanfiction.net, so if you want to read it, I'll give you the link to it.

Here is the link: (Just so you know, it WILL open another window)
Behind This Mask