It was a sunny day in Kohana or the leaf village as some people know it. The day had a few colds rolling in the sky making weird shapes. Under them the village was busy as always. Kids were running around, Adults were shopping and chatting. Through this crowd a blond young man was running past the crowd and hopping roof tops when the ground became too slow for him.
"Crap," said to himself, "grandma's going to kill me for being late." After deciding this was true he started to run faster. He got to his destination he let out a sigh of relief. "Made it in time," he congratulated himself as he walked up the stairs to the Hokage's office. As he walked in he found that team 7 ,minus Kakashi, were there all ready. He took his spot next to Sasuke.
"Hello Them."
"Hun, Dope," Sasuke responded.
At that moment Kakashi walked through the door. Everyone was supersized that he was here before the 3 hour late mark. Kakashi felt all the eyes on him and responded with "What, she said it was important." Everyone hearing this looked at the Hokage. Taking that as a start talking look she cleared her through and started.
"I bet you are all wondering how this mission is important?" After getting four nods as a confirm she continued, "Well recently we had a group out on a mission find a hidden fortress with this everywhere." As she finished she handed the picture to Kakashi who showed it to his students.
After seeing the sign Naruto paled. Everyone saw this and Kakashi asked about it.
"Naruto, do you know what this means."
Naruto responded with a whisper of "I've got to go," and with that he was gone.
"What was that about?" asked a puzzled Sakura who had never seen her friend a like that.
"Don't know," answered a just as puzzled Sasuke.
"Well by the look on his face it wasn't something good, or something he needed to remember," observed the Hokage.
"I agree, we will ask him later about it, but for know let him sort his thoughts out," agreed Kakashi.
Getting OK's from his students they all left the Hokage office except the Hokage herself. While this was all going on Naruto was in his apartment sorting through his thoughts and trying to figure out whether or not he should tell all of them the truth. He decided it was his secret and he was going to try to keep it that way. After all he had been lying about pretty much everything the knew about him. He didn't smile for real a lot, he hatted bright colors, he liked being alone, he was very smart, and he had good memory. Sure his will to never give up, energy, kindness, and short temper was real, but that was all everything else was a lie, everything else was his mask. As he finished this thought he heard the a knock on the door. He got up and opened it forgetting to put his mask on again. When he opened the door he found Sakura there waiting for him to answer. Her face somewhat made him feel like this was not a good time to fake a smile.
"Oh,hay Sakura, need something," he said with little emotion in his voice.
"No, I was just wondering if you were Ok," she responded half telling the truth. Hearing this Naruto put on his fake mask and smiled a big grin.
"I'm fine," He lied, "Don't worry."
"OK, I was just wondering, good night." After she finish telling him that she turned and walked back down the stairs. After she was around the corner he let out his breath and let his smile waver then drop. "If you could only see through this mask of mine," thought Naruto as he turned and went back into his apartment to hopefully get some sleep, "like that's going to happen." He was right of coarse he couldn't sleep without memories of those days when he was a child.
-----------------------------------------------------Flashback--------------------------------------------------------------
A frantic younger Naruto was chained up to the wall with thick chakra chains. He had no shirt on and was too skinny. You could see his ribs so perfectly that you had to wonder how they didn't rip his skin. He was also quit small even for a three year old. He currently had a look of pure fear on his face. Behind him a very muscular man with his face in the shadows. He had a whip in one hand and was slowly making his way to young Naruto, who was currently struggling against his restraints. He prepared for what was going to happen.
He tensed when whip was soon brought down on his back with a loud "Crack"! Naruto's face showed pain, but he wouldn't let this man make him scream or cry.
"Tough little guy, aren't you?" Snarled the man once again razing the whip, "Well I'll just have to fix that." He once again brought the whip down on Naruto. Still Naruto refused to scream or cry. no way would he give this man the pleasant thought that he could make him feel pain. That was one of the first things he learned while being in this hell hole. Do not show weakness. The more you show the more it will hurt.
This was a good rule to go by and anytime he saw a new person in the hell hole he would go and talk to them. He would always be kind and would listen to anything you wanted to tell him. He had heard many stories and some of them made him wonder. What was this freedom like? He did not know, for he was born on this retched place. He never knew his parents and anyone he ask would tell him that they didn't know ether. Anyway, because of how kind and silent he was he got the nickname the Silent Listener. If you were to be dragged into this place and asked if someone would listen ether he would hear you and come over to hear what you had to say or some one would tell you to find the Silent Listener. Most people were supersized to find a child as young as him in this place, but that was nothing compared to when they found out he had never been out side this place and he was born here. Most would tell him that they were sorry, but he would tell then it was OK then he would be dragged off to the torture room for some studied reason, he soon learned not to ask questions. This did not mean he didn't fight back, after all there was no way he was going to be seen as weak.
Anyway, that leads us to why this is happening. After about five hours of none stop torture he was let free. In that whole time he didn't scream or cry out. The guards were starting to call him the unbreakable child. He liked that nickname and planed to keep it that way. After the long hours he would be thrown back into his 10 feet by 10 feet cage. He felt like a wild animal being put into a cage, while waiting to be eaten. Sometimes people would leave and never come back. Too many had committed suicide, for the only ways of getting out of this place was to die or escape. The second had never been done.
Sometimes they would let you feel like you escaped, but then just as you were about to get to the boats they would jump out and catch you. They they were the most ruthless of all of the guards. They didn't care if you died or not, they wouldn't stop torturing you till you ether died or passed out. Naruto had had around three torture session with one of them. Those had been the only times he had ever passed out. Still five hours of torture with them was quite a lot to take. Defiantly when you were only five and a grown man would past out in two hours, but Naruto had been torture as long as he can remember.
At five years old he had rarely smiled even then it was fake, that had been beaten out of him, but he never gave up hope that he would some day escape this hell hole. He would take in every weak point he could find until he could make his escape. He was still young so no one expected him to be looking for weak spots, that was their biggest mistake.
Then the next day came around, this was the worst torture he could remember. That day he had set a new record for the most wounds sustained in torture to live. These didn't count the small cuts that littered his body, oh,no this was only counting the burns, broken bones, gashes, deep whip marks, ex. Only the serious ones were counted. From that day on things got a little easier to withstand, but they got longer and harder. After that day he hid all the pain he went through from everyone. He always had on a fake smile, always, even now.
--------------------------------------------------Flashback Ends---------------------------------------------------------
Naruto woke up with a start and realized that he still had never smiled for real, it was all fake. A made up happiness he wished he had. A mask so no one would worry.
Naruto got up and walked out of his room and to the bathroom. He stopped in front of the mirror and took off his shirt. underneath was scares, many many scares. More that an average ANBU would have. He had only been a ninja for four years, yet most of his scares came before he even knew what a ninja was. He sighed a sad sigh and sat down on the ground in the middle of the bathroom.
"You OK kit?" asked a dark, but soothing voice.
"Ya, I'm fine Kurama." No one knew that Naruto and the fox were already friends, they kept that to themselves, "don't worry and go back to bed."
"OK, If you need anything I'm always here." with that said Kurama went back to sleep.
Naruto slowly got up and stood with his back facing the mirror. He walked out of the room to try to get some sleep. As he walked away you could see the tattoo all over his back. It was the reminder that they would always be looking for him.