Chapter 3: The King

"So, how's your semester so far? Classes going well?"

"Fine," answered Sasuke tersely. "Everything is going fine like always. You should know that, since you make me report to you every week."

Kakashi didn't even look up from his book as he replied, annoying Sasuke more. "I only know what you tell me. You could be lying to me."

"Why would I do that? I know you keep in contact with all my teachers. You probably have a better idea of my grades than I do. If I lied, you'd find out immediately and I'd gain nothing from it."

Sasuke could almost hear the man's smirk. "Always the practical one I see. And lying isn't really your style, is it? But I could see you leaving something out for your own purposes. So, and think hard before you answer, is there anything I should know that you haven't told me?"

In reality, the last month had been one of the most tiring he'd had in a while, and all because he'd lost his cool and blown up at Sakura. If there was one thing Sasuke prided himself on it was always staying calm. As long as you were calmer than everyone else, you were in control, and the person in control always came out on top.

That was one of the reasons he found Naruto so frustrating to deal with. The prankster had a way of naturally pulling others into his flow, which for Sasuke meant making him lose his temper and bicker like two little kids. Kakashi was almost as bad. He seemed to know everything Sasuke was thinking and just what strings he needed to pull to get him to do what he wanted. The fact that the counselor was doing what he thought was best for Sasuke only made it worse. He'd always been able to rely on himself and he didn't need help from someone who was always reading trashy romance novels instead of doing his job.

Sasuke had known Sakura for years. They'd gone to the same schools, though they'd never been particularly close. He had always known what to say or do when around her, how to stay in control. The fact that she had an obvious crush on him, which tended to reduce her common sense only made things easier. Since his outburst though, he had found that much harder to do.

All that night he'd tried to calm down and failed. While he knew Sakura hadn't meant what she'd said, the stress of working with Naruto wore even him down; he couldn't help but take it as a personal insult, since it described him just as well as Naruto. Not many people still remembered, if they had bothered to know in the first place, but seven years ago he'd lost his parents to a robbery gone wrong. There wasn't a day he didn't think about it and he'd sworn to himself that he'd never be that helpless again.

He had been about to decide to just ignore Sakura when he remembered her face. Sasuke didn't know why, but it made a part of him twinge with guilt. It's not like I did anything wrong, he thought to himself. She needed to be told off for acting so pompous, so why can't I get Sakura out of my head? In the end, he decided to act like nothing had happened, since it would just get in the way of them finishing the project.

Sakura however, didn't come to school the next day, or the day after that. When he'd asked her friend what was going on, since her absence was making it hard for them to get started on their work, Ino had told him Sakura was sick with the flu that was going around, but should be back by Monday. Sasuke doubted that was the real reason, but Ino seemed to believe it so maybe he was just being paranoid.

When she finally returned on Monday, Sakura acted as if nothing was wrong. Only the way in which she ignored both Sasuke and Naruto showed that something was amiss.

Being ignored suited Sasuke fine, he didn't like dealing with small problems if he didn't need to, but Naruto was different. He didn't like being ignored, and when something concerned Sakura he was considerably less dense than usual. Sasuke suspected she was ignoring Naruto because any conversation they had would lead to talking about the papers she had been so adamant about working on before. Naruto seemed to be thinking the same thing and later that week he cornered Sasuke at lunch.

"What did you do to Sakura you bastard? Why is she ignoring both of us?" demanded Naruto. "If you hurt her, I swear to god I'll-."

"You'll what," Sasuke said cutting him off, "punch me? You couldn't hit me if you tried."

Naruto for his part look like he was about to try when Sasuke continued, "But no, I don't know what's wrong with her. If she's ignoring you maybe you just drove her crazy with all your pestering. Just leave her alone for now. Sakura is a big girl. If she wanted to talk to you about her problems, she wouldn't be ignoring you."

With that he walked away, leaving a frustrated Naruto behind. Between his honors classes and after school courses at the local community college he didn't have time to worry about high school drama, even one he had started.

But as the weeks went on, things didn't get better. Sakura still refused to talk to either of them and was trying her best to avoid them. Every time she saw him or Naruto she looked like she was about to burst into tears, but he wasn't sure if it was just his guilty conscience since no one else seemed to notice.

Naruto's reaction was somehow even more concerning. He seemed to have believed Sasuke's excuse and had stopped with the pranks completely. For the first time in years a person could walk around the school without worrying about something falling, stinking, staining or exploding. This weirdly enough put the entire school on edge, adding to the pressure Sasuke felt building up around him. He knew it was only a matter of time until something snapped, though he had no idea what that would happen when it did.

Pulling himself back to the present he replied "I'm having some problems yeah, but it's a personal. It won't affect my grades so you don't need to worry about it, got it?"

Kakashi held Sasuke's stare for a minute before reading his book again. "Very well. Do what you want, but remember this: If you don't tell me what's going on, I can't bail you out of any mess you get yourself into. It's all on you."

"That's the way it's always been," he replied, and left the office.

"Sasuke!" He turned around at the sound of his name to see Naruto waiting outside. "We need to talk. "

"Can this wait? I need to get to the community college before my class starts," Sasuke replied, barely paying the blonde any attention.

As he tried to walk past, Naruto grabbed his arm and turned him around. He was about to snap at the dunce to let him go when he saw Naruto's face. There was no goofy smile on the prankster's face. It was instead more suited to a life-and-death battle. And maybe to him that's what this is.

"Now, Sasuke."

"Fine, let me go and then talk."

Naruto released him, but his face stayed serious. "You need to apologize to Sakura."

Sasuke opened his mouth to protest that he had nothing to apologize for but a glare from the newly serious Naruto caused him to choke on the words.

"Look, I don't know what happened between you two but I'm not as dumb as everyone seems to think. Sakura's been a mess since the night we worked on the papers and she was fine when you two left. It's annoying as hell, but you're the only one who could do anything to affect her so much. And you're the only one who can make things right again. You may not like it, but we're a group. That means we need to work together. Sakura's a good person, and she doesn't deserve to fail. So even if I need to beg, please make up with her."

He was surprised at Naruto's words. Sasuke was used to the idiot blustering, bragging or exploding angrily at him, so to hear him pleading, practically begging for Sasuke to do something, stopped him in his tracks. It was almost enough to get him to do what Naruto wanted. Almost.

"Sakura's a good person? What do you know about her?" Sasuke sneered at him. "Would you still say that if I told you that Sakura thinks you're selfish and immature? That we fought because I defended you?"

The look of surprise on Naruto's face was priceless. "What did you just say?" asked Naruto shakily.

Sasuke knew he should stop, that ruining Naruto's opinion of Sakura would only hurt the blonde, and make working as a group impossible, but he couldn't. Some part of him wanted to punish both of them. He's so infatuated with her that he's blind to any faults, including that she doesn't even care about him. It's damn near hero worship. I'd actually be helping him by relieving him of that belief now. He knew better than anyone that more often than not the ones you thought were heroes would betray you in the end.

"After we left your house, Sakura started going on about how selfish and immature you are. She said it was because you were an orphan so I told her off for being a self-centered little bit-."

Naruto had been listening to Sasuke with his head down and shoulders slumped. Suddenly, Naruto's shoulders tensed and before Sasuke knew what hit him he found himself sitting on the ground clutching his face. He hadn't even noticed Naruto moving until his fist hit him. The blonde stood over him, a weird expression on his face. As he started to speak, Sasuke realized what it was: pity.

"So Sakura thinks I'm selfish because I have no parents? Maybe she's right. All my life I've been ignored. My god-father was always away. No one ever paid any attention to me, so I started to act out, anything to get people to acknowledge me. Even now my goal is to become successful and famous so that everyone will notice me."

"Sakura though is different. We've never been friends, but I can tell she gets on my case because she actually wants to help me. When she nags me I don't feel so…..alone. Now I think I know why she wasn't talking to me. She must have felt bad about what she said to you. I don't really understand it, but I do know she doesn't want to hurt me or you further. That's enough for me to forgive her. You don't need to do the same Sasuke, but just admit it's not her you're mad at, and not me you were defending."

Sasuke was so dumbfounded he just sat there as Naruto left him. He had always thought of the blonde as a childish prankster who had few friends and fewer brain cells. It seemed now that below that the sunny exterior was a depth that no one even suspected. Would anyone even believe him if he told them what had happened?

Getting up, Sasuke realized how childish he'd been acting the last month. I knew she didn't mean any harm, but instead I've caused nothing except trouble for her and Naruto. It's as if I was trying to prove Sakura right. He'd let his anger get the better of him, but Naruto r somehow knocked some sense back into him.

Looking down at his watch he saw it was almost time for his class. I can still fix this mess if I work quickly. Jumping into his car, he drove in the opposite direction of the college. He'd never missed class before, but he had no choice if he wanted to get to the store before they ran out of stock.

The next day Sasuke arrived at school early. Ignoring the groups of girls that kept coming up to him, he went looking for Sakura. He found her looking into her locker. Besides a look of puzzlement on her face.

"Sakura!" he called out, causing her to turn around surprised. Sasuke expected her to bolt like usual, but she just stood there as he walked over.

"Sasuke," she said softly, her voice full of emotions he couldn't even begin to recognize.

"Sakura, we need to talk before class. Can you come with me?"

Once again he expected her to leave him standing there, and once again she surprised him.

"Lead the way," she said simply.

That was easier said than done, but they finally managed to lose the girls trying to physically get between them. They ended up under the wall Naruto had painted more than a month ago. No mark of his prank remained, except for a sign on the wall warning the students that defacing school property was punishable by suspension, expulsion, and/or a fine.

Sasuke was still trying to figure out what to say when Sakura beat him to it. "Sasuke, I'm so sorry," said Sakura, the words flooding out. "I shouldn't have said what I did, I wasn't thinking about what I was coming out of my mouth. I was just-"

"Sakura," he interrupted her before she could go on. "About the other day, just forget what I said. Maybe I overreacted," he said scratching his head and looking off in the other direction. "Let's just put this behind us, ok? I mean, if we don't work together, who's going to stop Naruto from failing the project?"

Suddenly Sakura was hugging him. "I forgive you," she whispered. Before he could respond, she had let go and looked down, blushing. "Sorry about that. I guess I need to learn to control myself when the stress disappears."

"Hmph, just don't make a habit of it," he grunted. "Actually, I have one more thing for you, since we're now working together."

Reaching into his bag, Sasuke pulled out a small wrapped box of chocolates. Handing it over to Sakura he continued, "Happy Valentine's Day, Sakura."

As Sakura just stood there in shocked silence, he wondered if he had overdone it after all. I really hope she doesn't think I'm declaring my love or something. He was bracing himself for another assault so Sakura laughing hysterically caught him completely off guard.

"What's so funny?"

Suppressing a giggle Sakura replied, "Oh, I just realized that-," before she finished his partner gasped, as if something had occurred to her in mid thought. "You haven't been to your locker yet, have you?"

"No, I came to see you first." He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"Oh no reason," she said mischievously, reminding him of a certain blond haired prankster.

Reaching into her own bag, Sakura pulled out another box. "Hope you like chocolate," she said giving him her present.

"So does this mean we're dating now?" she teased him.

He felt his face heat up in embarrassment. "Don't get the wrong idea," he said quickly. "This is just a way of saying sorry, nothing more. I just didn't feel like waiting any longer to get this over with."

Sakura just smiled as he attempted to cover-up his embarrassment. As they parted ways, she turned to him one last time.

"For what it's worth, I'm glad you're in my group too, Sasuke," she said.

It wasn't until he got to his locker and looked inside that he understood what Sakura had been talking about. Inside, someone had managed to crack his lock and had left behind a box wrapped in the most outrageous style he had seen, as if the person had tried to make it look as feminine as possible. Inside was, predictably, a box of chocolates. Sasuke looked at the card and burst out laughing, causing people to turn and stare. It was addressed to him and the sender had signed it From Sakura, though the handwriting was nothing like hers.

He suspected the reason Sakura had been willing to talk to him was because she had found a similar present in her locker, though hopefully much more masculine, and had realize what had happened when he gave her his present.

Smirking at the irony, Sasuke put both boxes in his locker and shut the door. After school, he would have to thank a certain blonde haired individual for such a romantic Valentine's Day's present.

AN: To everyone that has been reading so far, thank you and I hope you've been enjoying "One, Two Three". We're at the end of the first arc of the story. The story is set up in three chapter "arcs", one for each of the three main characters.

I've always been a big fan of modern AUs, but I noticed that many of those AUs changed the characters' interactions, backstories (Naruto's parents living being a big one), or personalities. So, I wanted to see if it was possible to write one that kept those things the same while just changing the setting and plot. So Naruto is still an orphan and distrusted by society (this will be explained later, since it's the aspect I wanted to keep the most and am the most proud of keeping) and Sasuke still lost his parents at a young age.

So once again, thank you to everyone who is reading, and especially reviewing, and I hope you stick with me and enjoy what's to come in later chapters.