Naruto ONESHOTS

To see you SMILE

If he shows happiness, he hides pain. If he shows pain, he hides happiness. And if he grins, he is deceiving you. These are thing Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi were told, but casually cast it away as it was irrelevant...at the time. But when that information becomes relevant, will it be too late?

If he shows happiness, then he hides pain

Those are bits and pieces Sasuke picked up from the street. But meerly cast them aside as street talk.

If he shows pain, he hides happiness

That is something Sakura's father told her. But she was too young to understand at the time so she forgot.

If he grins he is deceiving you

That is something Kakashi was told long ago. He wasn't sure by whom, but he cast that bit of advice aside, for it was never important.

When team 7 formed none of these thoughts were in their heads. Sasuke showed pain, Naruto showed happiness and Sakura always took Sasuke's side because he obviously needed more attention then Naruto. He was sad, she needed to comfort him. And Kakashi paid more attention to Sasuke because well... he needed to know that someone cared.

They forgot all about what they were told. They cast aside that VERY helpful information.

The more Sakura paid attention to Sasuke, the more she pushed away Naruto. The more Kakashi focused on Sasuke, the more he neglected Naruto. And the more Sasuke was paid attention to, the more he forgot about Naruto.

This made Naruto's life hell.

When Sakura pushed him away, he talked a little cheerier. He was silently building his wall between her and his secrets.

When Kakashi neglected him, he would laugh louder. Secretly edging away so he could just be alone and cry.

And when Sasuke forgot about him, Naruto would only smile wider. He would privitly break down inside.

He was covertly screaming, begging and crying for help. But no matter how much he cried in his mind, or when he was alone-isolated- no one would come.

Why?

Because he was a monster. A demon worthy of no one's attention or love. An inhuman thing that was utterly worthless in the eyes of mankind.

None of his teammates had a clue he felt this way, until he showed up for training a month or two after the chunin exam.

It was then that they were reminded of the helpful quotes givin to them.

:3

Naruto was looking in the mirror. His shirt was off and his baby blue eyes looked at a 13 year-old boy littered with scars and bruises. It hurt to move. The villigers had not let up on the beatings last night.

He sighed. He knew the Kyuubi would heal his wounds, but gauging the severity of the damage done to his small malnourished body, that would take a few days.

He sighed again. And looked at the time. 5:57am. He didn't need to meet his team until 7:30. Kakashi would be late, he knew.

Naruto looked at his bloody bruised body. He could hide it with his jacket, it was too big for him anyway. He put on a black shirt. He threw over his jacket, and felt his body ache. His jacket sleeves covered his hand and went a little over, hanging off of his hands, effectivly covering the wounds until he got bandages. But his face had cut and bruises and his eyes had bags. The cuts he wasn't so worried about, they were small- if you counted a deep gash in your right cheek small. He looked in the mirror one last time and flashed a smile. The bags under his eyes from no sleep were mostly hidden, but his smile was too pained. He tried again. Better. Even though it would have some imperfections for his team, he was sure they wouldn't notice. This was when he was most grateful to Sasuke for being a broody emo attention hog. Even though he didn't try.