disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto.

a/n: If Sasuke comes out a little harsh and cold, I'm just trying to make him IC. If he comes out OOC, then that means I failed. Sorry, Sasuke fans!

Chapter 1: Patience

"Sasuke, it's your win already," said Sakura, tugging on his arm. "Back up. Come on."

Sasuke forced himself to his feet and staggered back, wiping the blood trailing from his mouth. Sakura leaned him on Naruto, who supported him wordlessly.

"Are you kidding?" interrupted Tenten angrily, locking eyes with Sakura. "Uchiha didn't win. Neji did."

Sakura scowled and opened her mouth to retort, but before she could let loose with her infamous temper and sharp tongue, Sasuke caught her eyes and nailed her with a look that clearly read: 'Speak and I will kill you.'

Sakura looked like she wanted to punch him in the face, but she acknowledged his unspoken threat and said nothing as Sasuke pushed away from Naruto to speak. "Next time, Hyuga."

Neji got to his feet, touching his bruising eye almost gingerly. White-violet eyes met onyx ones as he focused on Sasuke, his voice rough from a hit to the throat. "Anytime, Uchiha."

"Sasuke, let me take care of your arm," demanded Sakura as the trio made their way back out of neutral territory and back to their side of town.

"It's fine, Sakura," snapped Sasuke, jerking his hand back from hers before she could examine it. "I don't care if it's fractured."

Sakura got in front of him, setting her hands on her hips as Sasuke repressed the urge to roll his eyes at her infuriating insistence. "So? I care if it's fractured, okay?" she bit out furiously.

"Why're you so angry, Sakura?" asked Naruto cautiously. He knew better than to openly provoke Sakura when it was obvious that she was seriously pissed. "It was just a fight."

"One that he could have lost," answered Sakura, keeping her eyes on Sasuke's. She watched him stiffen at her words, obviously displeased that she thought he could have lost to Hyuga Neji.

"I wouldn't have lost," spat Sasuke, his eyes hardening.

"Tell me that when you manage to have a fight that doesn't end in a draw," muttered Sakura. "Everyone knows that you two have been head-to-head for forever."

Sasuke's fingers on his good hand were under her chin and tilting it up to look at him in an instant, his infamously fast reflexes quicker than Sakura could track with her eyes. "I wouldn't have lost," repeated Sasuke, his cool mask slipping off as his eyes blazed angrily.

Only Sakura could make him lose his control like that.

And Naruto too, but only in the heat of an argument. To Sasuke, it seemed like Sakura just got under his skin with whatever she said. He was beginning to question his own judgment in recklessly saying 'yes' to allow her to join the Wolves this morning—and wondered if it was too late to take it back. All day he had had to put up with her, and he was dangerously close to snapping.

Sakura's rebellious emerald eyes studied him, completely unafraid. "If it had gone on any longer, you would have passed out from exhaustion," she said.

Sasuke let her go, his hand dropping a moment later than was necessary. His jaw was set as he ordered, "Go home, Sakura. You're not coming to our side tonight." He began to turn away, Naruto looking at him strangely but saying nothing.

Sakura's jaw dropped. "Like hell I am!"

Sasuke rounded on her, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Don't argue with me, Sakura!"

She fell silent, just looking at him wordlessly. "Want to tell me why I can't come tonight?" she asked eventually, when he didn't speak again.

"No. Do not make me repeat myself."

Naruto was watching Sasuke, looking concerned. "Teme..."

Sasuke ignored him. "Go home, Sakura."

And then he was gone.

"THAT STUPID JERK!" shrieked Sakura, pummeling Naruto because he was the only one near enough to take her anger out on.

"Ouch—Ouch, Sakura—Sakura, take it easy, I—OW—!"

When she was finished, Naruto looked almost as bad as Sasuke had after his brawl with Neji.

"Temperamental much?" complained Naruto, rubbing at the bump on his head and fingering the bruises on his arms and face.

Now that Sakura had cooled down a bit, she realized that they were still in neutral territory, and that was not good. Neutral territory meant that good ANBU police were in control there, and good ANBU in control of a certain part of town meant that sooner or later she and Naruto were going to get caught for being out after Konoha's curfew. The fact that they were both wearing the symbol of one of the gangs that had taken over Konoha would certainly not endear them to the police who would, doubtless, turn them in.

"Naruto, we're—"

"—still in neutral territory. I know," he finished for her, turning away and motioning for her to follow him with a grin. "Come on. The teme would kill me if anything happened to you, so I'll take you to your place before heading over to Sasuke's district."

As they slipped down alleys, avoiding possible police cars on patrol, Sakura spoke. "Why was Sasuke being such a prick today? You heard him say this morning that I could come over and meet everyone tonight, didn't you?"

Naruto was uncharacteristically silent as he jumped over a trashcan blocking their way, almost as if he were trying to choose his words before responding to her question.

Sakura knew that that notion was stupid. Naruto said what he wanted to. He didn't have a filter like most people.

Sometimes, it made her wonder how Naruto and Sasuke could be such close friends. If Naruto had no filter at all, then Sasuke had a filter that worked too well. It had crossed Sakura's mind more than once about how a relationship between best friends like that—one who talked too much and one who talked too little—could possibly work. But somehow, Naruto and Sasuke managed to make it look effortless.

"If I was just looking at the surface, I'd think it was because you pissed him off," said Naruto finally, vaulting over a high fence and sliding out his pocketknife to cut an opening for her to slip through.

"On the surface?" asked Sakura, pushing through the rip he'd made and snagging her jacket on the frayed metal ends. "What do you mean?"

Naruto stopped in the middle of the alley, tilting his head. "You're new, so I guess you haven't noticed, but the teme's kind of..."

Sakura wrinkled her nose, suddenly understanding what he meant. "Kind of like a dark pool? Like you can't really tell what's happening underneath?"

Naruto turned and grinned at her cheekily. "That was almost poetic, Sakura-chan."

She glared. "If you call me Sakura-chan, I'll kick you in the balls."

Naruto grimaced, obviously imagining that she'd most likely make good on her threat, and started walking again.

"So are you telling me that you can tell what's beneath the surface of the great mystery that is Uchiha Sasuke?" called out Sakura, loud enough for Naruto to hear but soft enough not to wake the people living nearby.

Naruto laughed, loud and long. "I wouldn't say it like that, but I'm probably better at reading him than most people." He folded his hands behind his head lazily. "And you know what? I think the teme cares about you."

"Should I be happy or sad that Uchiha Sasuke cares about me?" asked Sakura dryly.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't really know. I've just never seen him put up with as much crap as you gave him today in his entire life."

"So I did piss him off."

"HELL, YES! You even made him consider taking back his decision about you!"

Sakura looked baffled. "I did?"

"Yeah! And the teme never doubts anything concerning the gang unless he was actually thinking about it! Wondering if he could kick you off the Wolves means that he'd been considering it for a long, long time—"

Sakura didn't know what to say. "What?" she managed eventually. "He wanted to kick me off? Even though I joined this morning?"

Naruto suddenly froze, sensing her mood. "Hey, Sakura, I didn't mean it like that—"

"Then what did you mean?" she asked coolly, reining in her temper.

"Well... The teme always puts the gang first. Even before everything else." Naruto glanced at Sakura to make sure she was listening before continuing, "The moment you asked to be part of the Wolves this morning was the moment you became important to him. Even more important than family."

"Uchiha Sasuke doesn't have a family," said Sakura automatically, still processing Naruto's words.

Naruto's expression flickered strangely before returning to its usual cocky grin. "I wouldn't say that." He exited the alley before turning to look at her. "I think—"

Police sirens started blaring.

And four arms grabbed Naruto and pulled him to the ground before she could react.

"He's wearing the Uchiha symbol!" called a uniformed officer, pinning a struggling Naruto down onto the hood of his patrol car.

Sakura started forward, almost not thinking about the consequences if she was caught too, but Naruto lifted his head and ordered, "NO! Go back! Go home!"

Of course, the officer heard him. "He's got a companion!" shouted the officer to his three comrades. "In the alley!"

Sakura backed away, focused entirely on Naruto and his command. Her mind wasn't processing things the way it normally would because she was still standing there, frozen.

The medically-trained part of Sakura's mind told her that she was going through a mild state of shock.

"Go!" shouted Naruto, practically screaming at her. He didn't dare call her name and risk having it added to the ANBU database by an officer—even he wasn't that stupid.

"You! Put your hands in the air!" ordered a female ANBU, catching sight of Sakura and starting toward her at a swift run.

Sakura found that her body had unfrozen, and she mentally kicked herself for not sprinting forward to help Naruto.

Naruto stilled when he saw the sudden determination in her eyes. He knew that she was about to try something incredibly, unbelievably, dangerously stupid. Something that the teme would be sure to murder him for later. He began warningly, "No—No, don't do it—don't even think about it—"

When Sakura lunged forward to tackle the ANBU officer, Naruto slammed his forehead against the hood of the car in despair. The teme was going to murder and castrate him.

Sakura completely wasn't expecting the officer she'd brought down to suddenly roll over, obviously dead with three senbon sticking out of her neck.

After that, several things happened in quick succession.

Two men in dark cloaks with a red design dropped down from the surrounding rooftops, their bodies a blur as they silently proceeded to kill the rest of the ANBU. The ANBU collapsed one-by-one, their expressions shocked and without time to react in any other form. Sakura almost screamed, before suddenly seeing that Naruto alone had been spared. He had dropped to his knees, staring up at one of the newcomers with a strange expression on his face. It was almost... like recognition and determination mixed into one.

Sakura started forward, only to be blocked by the other man, who sidled in front of her almost lazily. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, pretty girl," drawled the man. The dim light from the streetlamps were reflecting off the man's ice-blue skin, drawing attention to gleaming white shark teeth instead of human ones.

"Kisame, behave," input the other man, who had knocked Naruto out and tossed him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. His long black hair glinted in the light, and his midnight eyes looked disturbingly familiar to Sakura, who shuddered. "We need her healthy enough to run."

The blue-skinned man (Kisame, Sakura reminded herself) grinned and leaned forward, ever so slightly. "Guess I shouldn't get too carried away, then."

Sakura didn't like the sound of that. But Naruto was unconscious and she didn't know what to do. She was new to gang life, dammit!

"You. Girl," called the man with Naruto over his shoulder to Sakura. "Run back to your foolish, foolish leader and tell him what we have done. Now."

When she didn't move, Kisame grabbed the front of her shirt and brought her dangerously close to his face. "Didn't you hear that, girlie? Run back to your Wolf alpha* with your tail between your legs and tell him that we have his beta*. You hear that?" He shook her once, roughly. "Now go, and tell your alpha that we'll be in touch."

He shoved her back into the alley, but when Sakura managed to catch her balance and turn, they were gone. And so was Naruto.

Sakura had never run so fast in her life.

She pounded on the door to the Wolf hideout, her breath coming in short gasps. It had taken her forever to cross into Wolf territory, and even more time to find the hideout that only its eight members knew. Fortunately, Sasuke had given her a rough sketch of where it was earlier this morning, so it only took Sakura fifteen minutes or more to find it.

A voice came through the door, rough and demanding. "All right, what is it, Naruto? Did you forget your keys again or somethin'? It's freakin' one if the morning—"

"Kiba!" gasped Sakura in relief. She knew Kiba only vaguely from school, but at least she knew his name and his voice. She hadn't known that he was a Wolf member though. "Kiba, let me in! I have to talk to Sasuke!"

The door creaked open, the sleep-mussed brown hair of Inuzuka Kiba peeking through the crack. "Hey, you're not Naruto. And how do you know my name"—he caught sight of her then, and his eyes widened—"babe," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"I go to school with you," answered Sakura, speaking as fast as she could. "Please let me in!"

"All right, but don't make too much noise," said Kiba, stepping back and letting her pass. "A lot of us are sleeping."

Sakura stepped inside, momentarily startled by the cleanliness and coziness of the place. It didn't seem to compute with what she had been sure was Sasuke's idea of a hideout. This, what she was seeing, was more like a home than anything else.

It was a two-story building; comfortable-looking couches, a blazing fireplace, and a much-loved carpet decorated what was obviously the living room. A door branched off to the dining room, unlit but clearly well-used. From what Sakura could see of the kitchen, a large, blond boy with spiky hair was standing in front of the refrigerator door almost indecisively.

"What's your name, babe?" asked Kiba, watching her almost lazily through dark eyes.

"Sakura. Haruno Sakura," she answered.

"All right. Don't move from this spot, Sakura," said Kiba as he grabbed her arm, his hand brushing hers and surreptitiously trailing up her side as he led her to a place by the wall. A dog appeared by Kiba's feet, and he dropped his wandering hand to glance at the canine before saying, "Watch her while I get Sasuke, Akamaru." That said, he turned away and bounded up the stairs.

The dog (Akamaru) brushed against Sakura's legs in a friendly way, asking to be petted. Sakura obliged before looking around the room again. A magenta-haired girl and a boy who looked almost like Sasuke were watching her from their seats on the couch, obviously roused from their sleep by the noise Kiba had made in opening the door.

The girl leaned over and stage-whispered in the boy's ear, her hair brushing against his shoulder. Sakura could hear her clearly, so she had no doubt that the girl was only whispering for the benefit of herself and no one else. "Oh, my gods. Look at her, Sai-kun. Isn't she just disgusting, with her hair all messy and her clothes all rumpled like that?"

"I think she is actually quite beautiful," answered Sai in an even tone.

The girl scoffed. "She looks like she ran a marathon or something."

Sakura spoke up, unable to keep silent. "For your information, I did run at least three miles without stopping."

The girl squeaked, scandalized at having been spoken to by Sakura, while the boy, Sai, only gave her a look that was vaguely impressed. But Sakura couldn't be sure, because the expression on the boy's face was almost blank and unreadable. Very, very similar to Sasuke's mask.

The blond boy that Sakura had seen in the kitchen suddenly crossed the room, a glass of water and a handful of birdseed in his hands. He gave her a small smile before stepping lightly up the stairs.

And then Sakura felt Sasuke's eyes on her.

"Hey, Sasuke. Wake up," said Kiba, waving a hand in his sleeping leader's face. "Come on, there's someone here to see you. Wake up, man."

Sasuke's hand snapped out, slapping Kiba's hand away with harsh force. "What do you want?" he growled in irritation, sitting up and running a hand over his face.

"Some hot chick named Haruno Sakura just asked to come in. She's waitin' for you downstairs," said Kiba.

Sasuke surged out of bed wearing only his boxers. "Sakura is what?"

Kiba blinked, disappointed. If Sasuke reacted to a girl's name like that, then that girl was definitely off-limits. "She's downstairs. Says she needs to talk to you about somethin'."

Sasuke pulled on his clothes furiously; he was not used to being disobeyed, especially by a girl of all things. This settled it. He was kicking her out.

He stormed down the stairs and brushed past Juugo, the larger blond boy immediately swerving to the side in an attempt to avoid the angry Wolf alpha.

Juugo shot a confused glance at Kiba, who simply shrugged as he followed Sasuke down the stairs. He wanted to see how this would play out, this brewing fight between Haruno Sakura and the Wolf leader.

"I told you not to come," said Sasuke, his voice cold. "Did you not hear me?"

"I did, but—," began Sakura before Sasuke cut her off. Again.

"You didn't listen to me."

"Would you quit stating the obvious? All right, so I didn't listen to you! So what?" she snapped back, losing her patience. Those two guys could be doing anything to Naruto right now, and his bullheaded best friend wouldn't stop to listen to the one person who could give him information.

Her retort had been the wrong thing to say.

Sasuke's eyes blazed, his vision bleeding red as his Sharingan activated. It was his family secret, the one that only he and one other carried now. It only came out when he wanted it to, or when he lost control.

Like now.

"I have no use for a girl who can't listen to orders," said Sasuke, his tomoe spinning wildly. "If you disobey me, you could get one of us killed."

Sakura nearly shoved him in the chest, her temper getting the better of her. All right, so his creepy red eyes scared her a little bit, but so what? It wasn't going to intimidate her. "You JERK! I'm trying to tell you something—"

Everyone in the room watching the fight stiffened, their eyes immediately going to Sasuke. No one had ever called him a 'jerk' and lived. Yet.

Sasuke's reaction was disappointing. It was almost like he hadn't heard her. "Get out."

Sakura froze. "What?"

"You heard me. Get out and don't come back."

The magenta-haired girl snickered as Sakura's eyes widened. "Sasuke—"

"Sakura! What are you doing here?" came a voice, exuberant and light.

Sakura turned with obvious relief. "Ino," she managed to say. The shock from the ANBU murders and Naruto's kidnapping were starting to catch up with her.

Ino flounced up to her, her blonde hair shining in the light. "Hey, best friend. You don't look too good," she observed. "You okay, Forehead? What's going on? Why is Sasuke standing in front of you like he's got a stick shoved up his butt?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, his Sharingan fading back into black as he regained control of himself. Yamanaka Ino knew Haruno Sakura?

Kiba's jaw dropped open, although he supposed that he should be grateful. Two hot girls as best friends? Nice. And they both went to Konoha High. Score.

Sakura closed her eyes and counted to ten, trying to calm down. "I need to tell Sasuke something about Naruto. But he's too hung up on obedience issues to listen to me."

Ino turned to Sasuke, her smile taunting. "Well, that certainly sounds like Sasuke."

"Leave, Ino. Go to sleep," Sasuke commanded, wanting her out of the way so that he could end his argument with Sakura as quickly as possible. If he let Ino stay, he knew that, doubtless, Ino would help and defend her friend to her dying breath.

It was one of the reasons he'd let her join the Wolves, but it was also one of the reasons that made her unbelievably annoying. Her sense of loyalty was very, very strong.

If he let her stay, it would end up as more trouble than it was worth, and then he'd end up telling them to 'do whatever you like.' He shot a glance at Kiba, who grinned back.

"Nope, not until you listen to Forehead," spouted Ino, just like Sasuke had expected her to.

Kiba reached forward and snagged her arm, tossing her over his shoulder before she could say anything else. He winced when Ino started pounding him with her fists, but all he said was "Come on, Princess. Bed time."

Sakura only blinked as she watched her best friend being carted off upstairs and, doubtless, deposited in her room by none other than Inuzuka Kiba. They obviously had chemistry, if Ino hadn't managed to break free yet. Maybe... she hadn't wanted to?

When Kiba came downstairs a few minutes later tossing a key up and down in his hand, Sakura knew that Ino had been locked in. An effective strategy in getting Ino out of the way, and Sakura was slightly impressed that Sasuke and Kiba had managed to pull it off. It was so practiced that it seemed like it happened often. Sakura supposed that it probably did.

Suddenly she was reminded of the reason that she was here. She had to tell them about Naruto, dammit!

"Sasuke, I have to tell you—"

"Why are you still here?" he demanded, his eyes midnight-ice. "I told you to get out."

Sakura snapped. "I HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT NARUTO, SO STOP INTERRUPTING ME, YOU STUPID PRICK!"

Instantly Sasuke's body stilled, deceivingly relaxed but still threatening, the way it did before he exploded into action. "What about the dobe?"

Sakura spilled her entire story, and when she'd finished, everyone still downstairs was looking at her with different expressions on their face.

Sasuke's had shut off completely, his eyes an almost, almost dead-black.

Kiba looked openly outraged that one of their own had been kidnapped.

The magenta-haired girl was blinking owlishly, looking like she was still processing the information.

Sai was still, the planes of his body tense.

Kiba was the first to speak, his voice dangerously low with restrained fury. "I bet you anything that it was those stupid Hawks who took him."

Sasuke said nothing, but his eyes caught Sakura's. He was just looking at her, and suddenly Sakura realized that he wasn't really seeing her.

"I'm sorry," she said finally. Sasuke's eyes flickered, and he looked away, almost as if she had returned him to himself.

"Yeah, you should be sorry! If that blond idiot hadn't walked you home, he wouldn't have gotten caught!" screeched the magenta-haired girl, pointing at Sakura accusingly.

"He offered to!" shouted Sakura back. "And those two men wouldn't let me interfere—"

"Oh, yeah?" said the girl, standing up and advancing on Sakura. "Now we have to go looking for him and—"

"Karin, be quiet," interrupted Sasuke, the first words he'd spoken since hearing Sakura's story.

"Oh. Okay, Sasuke-kun!" cooed the magenta-haired girl (Karin, said Sakura to herself). "No need to tell me twice." She shot a pointed look over at Sakura, who scowled.

All right. Since Karin seemed to dislike her already, Sakura was ready. It was on.

Sasuke raised his head, his plan of action complete. "Kiba." All of his orders were conveyed by that one-word.

"On it," said Kiba, before sprinting out the door with Akamaru at his heels.

"Where's he going?" asked Sakura, curious in spite of herself.

"Kiba and Akamaru are our best trackers," answered Sasuke, turning away into the dining room and flicking on the lights. "They'll find the dobe."

Sakura followed him into the room, trailed by the others Wolf members. "But those two men said they'd be in touch—"

"Not good enough," interrupted Ino from behind Sakura, obviously having broken out of her room. "Sasuke's worried about Naruto, and he won't settle for anything less than solid intel from someone he trusts." Sasuke shot a glare at Ino, who shrugged. "And you might want to fix the lock on my bedroom door, Mr. Alpha. I kind of broke it," she said simply. "Juugo was listening from the top of the stairs, and he came to tell me what happened, so I really had no choice."

"You are extremely irritating," said Sasuke.

"Thank you!" answered Ino brightly. She turned to Sakura and pulled her over to the blond boy behind her. "Hey, this is Juugo, Forehead. Say 'nice to meet you.'"

"Nice to meet you," said Sakura, grinning at Juugo, who gave her a smile back. "I'm Haruno Sakura."

"Your name means 'cherry blossom?'" asked Sai from beside Karin.

"Yeah." Sakura tilted her head at Sai with a smile. "I heard you're named Sai."

Sai nods at her, his eyes depthless. "I am."

"And I'm Karin," interjected the girl, flinging her hair over her shoulder imperiously. She leaned forward, deliberately intruding on Sakura's personal space. "So what're you still doing here, Haruno? Didn't Sasuke-kun tell you to get out?"

Sakura glanced at Sasuke. She had no idea how to answer Karin, and she didn't want to further jeopardize her chances of joining the Wolves by saying something that Sasuke would rebuke her for later.

Sasuke didn't even look up, deep in thought, but it was obvious that he'd been listening from his answer. "Haruno Sakura is the new omega* of the Wolves," he said.

Sakura was extremely offended. "Omega?" Wasn't 'omega' the term for the weakest link in a wolf pack?

Karin smirked at her coolly. "You're the new omega. Congratulations."

"Back off, Karin," growled Ino, almost shoving the other girl back. "Just because you're not the omega anymore doesn't mean you can pick on her."

This was news to Sakura. "Karin was omega before me? And what does being the omega entail, anyway?"

"Being the omega makes you everyone's lackey," said Karin, almost bitterly triumphant. "Until the alpha decides to make it someone else."

Sakura opened her mouth to shout obscenities at Sasuke for literally making her the Wolves' servant, but before she could get any words out, Kiba and Akamaru burst back in through the door.

"The Hawks have him, all right," said Kiba, breathing hard from his run as everyone turned to look at him, Sasuke putting down his pencil to hear what he had to say. "Akamaru tracked his scent through neutral territory and found the dead ANBU Sakura was talking about. And from there, we tracked Naruto to the Hawk side." He glanced at Sasuke, who was unreadable. "We didn't go over the border, but from what we can sense, Naruto is deep inside Hawk territory. Real deep."

*alpha: a term used to describe the dominant male in a wolf pack

*beta: a term used to describe the second-in-command in a wolf pack

*omega: a term used to describe the weakest member (male or female) in a wolf pack

a/n: This hit me as I was reading a fanfic about Naruto characters and West Side Story. It was a really good fanfic XD. I don't own EITHER of them, so yeah... If you want the story, it's on my 'fave stories' list by Goldberry.