A/N: This just popped into my head and I had to let it out. This will, hopefully, be the first of many drabbles and one-shots.

Masks

She was very emotional, always had been. And at first he had thought it was just who she was. Quick to anger and her tears came up twice as fast. He had thought less of her as a fighter then and focused most of his time on her team mates because they could succeed to a higher level. But, he had thought her more of a human being.

They wore masks.

Sasuke wore one of emotional difference. To edge away from everyone; to help not get distracted from the goal he had set so many years ago. Forcing himself to become unattached in the process.

Naruto wore his with a smile. Forcing his sadness, his loneliness, and his need for love away because he had also gave himself a task and the Hokage needed to be the best shinobi in every single way.

He wore a mask both literally and physically. Hiding his features that painfully reminded him of his decesed father, to hide his age; to somehow make the feelings fade. His laziness, the lack of caring from anything to time to his own standing in battle made things seem less real and he embraced that.

But, he had found out later that she had so many masks and wore them all so discreetly that he had not noticed.

She forced her emotions out, feeling that if she didn't care enough, if she didn't feel enough she would forget herself. She needed to show everyone everything. To feel so raw and so utterly alive that it almost hurt so that when she was alone would have no more tears left to cry.

She would, in the passing years, show that she could block away the emotions and become the fighter he had never seen.

Sakura was in no means the strongest, he mused, but at least one of them had learned how to truly live.