Not BETA'd. Sorry for any mistakes. Thank you for reading my story this far!

Chapter Three - Masquerade.

Silence filled the car as the married couple sat in the awkward, tense atmosphere. Sakura noticed that her husband's hands were gripped unnecessarily tight on the steering wheel; timidly, she shot a glance at her husband who had the same hard expression on his face as he usually did, and then Sakura focused her stare on the expensive silver which circled her ring finger.

Although their relationship stated that they were husband and wife, why did Sakura still seem so unwanted?

Sasuke and Sakura had known each other since they were seven, well, Sakura knew Sasuke. The cool boy had transferred into her Shōgakkō (1) when the pink haired girl was seven years old. Instantly, the pink-haired girl fell for the new male due to his good looks, along with the rest of the female population. Even Sakura admitted her feelings for the raven haired boy were a little extreme, because of rivalry, Sakura and all of her friends had many arguments which would result in all them usually crying to a nearby teacher.

Even though all of the females seemed head over heels in love with the stoic boy, and the male population shunned him due to jealously, the raven haired boy didn't seem to care in the slightest. Sakura would always watch Sasuke looking out of the window, and she always wondered what he was thinking about? Sasuke seemed to be a person of very few words, so it was very hard to figure the boy out. Sadly for Sakura, Sasuke didn't even know of Sakura's existence, which always bugged her. It wasn't like Sasuke would care anyway, why would she be different to any of the other girls when all the female population did the same thing as her: squeal over Sasuke?

It wasn't until Sakura followed Sasuke into Middle School that she confessed her feelings she had for the raven-haired boy.

Sakura was lucky that she somehow transferred into the same Middle School as Sasuke, despite Sakura's beyond average test results and brains it was still a struggle to be admitted into the prestigious Otogakure Private Academy which was located on the other side of town; Sakura doubted that she would have even been accepted if it wasn't for her family name Haruno. At first, Sakura's parents had been against the idea of Sakura transferring to the school that was infamous for its strict policies; however, Sakura somehow convinced them to let her join the school through constant begging and pleading. Honestly, Sakura hadn't planned on confessing her feelings to Sasuke at that time, but she did anyway; to which she was brutally rejected.

Sakura remembered when she was being taunted by her fellow classmates as they made constant snide remarks about her 'overly-massive' forehead, which was a trait of her body that she was very self conscious about.

The pink haired girl sighed as she watched the beautiful Japanese scenery pass before her dull green eyes as she leaned her arm on the car side. As Sakura watched the scenery quickly pass by through the car window, she recalled the memory of why she had confessed to Sasuke in the first place, and how she was rejected in cold blood.

"Ew it's gross! You look like a mutant, Haruno!" A girl sneered in a bitter voice.

"How is it even that big? You must use forehead steroids or something!" Another girl jeered.

"Sakura's from mars!" The final girl laughed.

Sakura could feel the tears forming in her sea-foam green eyes, and although she didn't want to cry, Sakura knew that soon the tears were going to be streaming down her pale face. As Sakura hid her eyes from the people who surrounded her desk like vultures, she heard a familiar voice speak.

"How stupid. What's the point in pointing out the traits in somebody else? It's quite obvious the reason that you're doing that is because you are insecure about your own self, therefore you three are taking it out on other people. Che, pathetic."

The three girls turned around in shock as they came face to face with the schools heartthrob, Uchiha Sasuke. As usual, the raven looked cool and collected with his hands tucked into his pockets and a disappearing bruise was located on his left cheek. The purple colour seemed so vivid due to the Uchiha's pale, porcelain skin; the rumours going around were that Sasuke had gotten into a fight with some jealous boys from a rival school, however this fact was never proven right or wrong.

"Sasuke-kun! It was just a joke! Right, Haruno?" The first girl laughed nervously as she glanced towards Sakura.

"Liars are the worst." Sasuke snapped, "Go away."

Without saying another word, the three girls scuttled away from Sakura's desk. The pink haired girl looked up at the Uchiha with shock covering her face. Did Sasuke just stick up for her?

"T-thank you…" Sakura whispered with a smile on her face.

"Next time, stick up for yourself, or you'll be called weak." Sasuke said, "Weak people are just a burden."

Sakura watched Sasuke walk away from her desk with shock still covering her face.

It was from that day on, Sakura realized just how much in love she was with Uchiha Sasuke.

It was then, that Sakura decided to confess her love to the young boy at lunch time when nobody was around. No one bothered the Uchiha at lunch since he usually ate on the roof, away from everyone. Although Sasuke gave off a 'do-not-approach-me-unless-you-have-a-death-wish' vibe on a usual basis, everyone, including the Uchiha Sasuke fanclub, realized that they should not approach the young Uchiha at lunch. Sakura didn't particularly didn't want to disturb Sasuke either and annoy him, however this was going to be the only time she actually got to confess her feelings in private, without witnesses. Deep down, Sakura knew that she would be rejected.

The door to the roof opened and Sakura peered around the corner. She found Sasuke sitting on the side of the roof munching on onigiri (2) which looked delicious; the Uchiha's had the highest quality in everything it seemed, including food.

Cautiously, Sakura approached the annoyed-looking Sasuke who still didn't bother to look up at the approaching figure, the only movement Sakura noticed was a twitch of Sasuke's left eye. Only when Sakura's shadow could be noticed hovering over Sasuke, was when the stubborn boy decided to look up at the nervous girl. A few moments of silence passed as the two made awkward eye contact with each other, Sakura had a glint of admiration in her eyes as she stared into Sasuke's uninterested black ones.

Sasuke was so beautiful.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, in an annoyed tone.

"W-well…Sasuke-kun," Sakura started as she fiddled with her skirt a bit and looked down at her toes. How embarressing! Sakura couldn't even make eye contact to the boy she was confessing to! Sasuke must think she was stupid already. "I w-wanted to t-tell you something."

"Which is?" Sasuke drawled out in a monotone, clearly uninterested by the stuttering, blushing mess in front of him.

"I LIKE YOU, SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura forced out as she bowed and clenched her eyes shut, slightly shaking.

Sasuke stared at Sakura with an unreadable expression. Sakura noticed that Sasuke's facial expression hadn't changed at all from when he first glanced at her. Hours seemed to pass before the girl heard a sigh release itself from Sasuke's mouth, which somehow gave Sakura the courage to look at the boy in front of her again.

"You disturbed my lunch for a stupid reason like your feelings towards me?" Sasuke mocked in a cold tone.

"But I really, really like you, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried.

"What do you like about me then?" Sasuke suddenly asked.

Sakura stared at Sasuke for a moment in shock. Was this maybe her ticket to get a chance to go out with Sasuke? Sakura straightened herself up and thought for a moment. What did she like about Sasuke?

"Well, for one you're really cool and smart! Plus you're really nice to look at! And I really appreciated the way you stuck up for me earlier. That was really nice of you." Sakura exclaimed as her eyes lit up in hope of being accepted by her long time crush, "Ever since you transferred into my Elementary School, I've only had eyes for you, Sasuke-kun. So please, accept my feelings."

Again, Sakura was greeted by a tense silence.

"Tsk, go away." Sasuke finally said.

Sakura looked at Sasuke in utter bewilderment. Did she say something wrong?

"B-but Sasuke-kun…" Sakura whimpered.

"Go away." Sasuke snapped as he added an intimidating glare to his appearance, "You're annoying."

Sakura felt the tears welling up in her eyes which again, which had no trace of hope inside them anymore. Was she just rejected by the person who mattered most to her? Why did Sakura feel the need to cry at a time like this? Especially in front of Sasuke! She didn't want to seem weak in front of the dark haired boy, but she was. Sasuke was Sakura's weakness. Even Sakura knew that.

Sakura bowed her head. Although the probability Sasuke knew Sakura was about to burst into tears was quite high, she still didn't want Sasuke seeing it with his own eyes. Slowly, without uttering another word, Sakura took two steps backwards before she did a complete 180 turn and ran down the stairs and down the hallway until she burst into the girls toilets and barricaded herself in a cubicle. Pathetic sobs emerged from her mouth as tears poured out her eyes. Sakura had gone so far to join this school just to observe Sasuke and hopefully get closer to him, however now Sakura knew that she had just pushed the boy away even further.

Why did Sasuke seem so annoyed when Sakura named the list of reasons why she liked him? Wasn't he the one who asked her?

Sakura snapped out of the memory as the car came to a sharp halt. Quickly, Sakura perked her head up and realised Sasuke had stopped at a red light, impatiently, he tapped on the steering wheel. It was quite obvious that he was trying to avoid any conversation with Sakura; however Sakura needed to know why Sasuke hadn't kept his word and didn't wait for her outside the car park.

"Why didn't you wait outside, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked meekly.

"It was cold." Sasuke replied.

Sakura bit her lip. Sasuke was obviously hinting that he didn't want to go to this meal, since he already knew that she knew he was on the rooftop.

"I thought I told you that I booked a reservation for two at that new restaurant for the two of us. It was hard to get it since it was opening weekend and the reservations had already been booked. If we're late, we'll probably miss our table…" Sakura explained as she looked down in her lap.

"We'll be on time." Sasuke said, "I doubt a new restaurant would reject an Uchiha, our views on things are very influential to the public."

Sakura knew Sasuke wasn't trying to reassure her, he was just trying to get her to shut up.

"Why are you always so distant from me?" Sakura whispered.

Sasuke glanced at his wife but then put his eyes back on the road as the traffic light flashed to green, allowing the cars to pass. Silently, Sasuke continued driving down the road as fast as he was allowed to; Sakura also stayed in the same position, slightly shaking.

This isn't the happy marriage Sakura had wished for when her father and Sasuke's father made the deal.

It was all like Sasuke promised it to be.

Lonely, forced and miserable.

"Why is this marriage so miserable Sasuke? Why can't we do something young couples are actually meant to do?"

Again, the only reply Sakura received was from the silence.

"Answer me!" Sakura cried as she raised her voice and clutched on to her husband's blazer, "…Please Sasuke, if things continue like this, I think that I'll go crazy…"

"…Sakura," Sasuke sighed "You see, a marriage is between two people who love each other. As you know, I am not in love with you, nor do I harbour any romantic feelings for you. I told you when your father and my father made the deal that this marriage would not be fun for either one of us."

Sakura wasn't even startled by such a cold reply anymore. She was used to it. The two young adults sat silently in their respected seats, and both of them didn't dare to utter another word.

"I'm home!" Naruto called as he entered through his apartment door.

"Welcome back, Naruto!" Iruka called from the kitchen.

Naruto grinned as he walked through the hall and into the kitchen where he was met with the sight of Iruka sitting at the table. From what Naruto was looking at, it seemed that Iruka was marking some projects he received today.

"You already got homework to mark already? Must suck." Naruto said as he sympathised with his guardian; marking thirty pieces of homework was probably the equivalent of two pages of math homework, "It's what you teachers get for assigning us homework, y'know."

Iruka flashed Naruto a annoyed look before he put his head back down and continued with the marking. Naruto threw his bag on the floor and sighed, he couldn't be bothered to do any homework in the meantime. He was so tired.

"Have you got any homework to do?" Iruka asked as he didn't dare look up from his marking.

"No." Naruto lied.

Iruka looked up at Naruto with a raised brow, for some reason Iruka had this amazing talent: he could tell if Naruto was lying or not—it kind of sucked, but it did help Naruto in the long run, most of the time.

"Naruto, I know for a fact that almost every teacher has assigned homework to their classes."

"How?"

"You do realise what my occupation is, don't you?"

"Staring at Kakashi-Sensei I guess since you seem to do it so well." Naruto joked, "Who I introduced you to, as a matter of fact."

Iruka did have tanned skin, more tanned that Naruto's in fact, however it was easy to see the red that exploded on Iruka's cheeks. Naruto always thought how cute it was when Iruka got all flushed—definitely bottoming type in his and Kakashi's relationship if they had one.

Naruto just threw up in his mouth a little bit.

Note to self: never think of your guardian and teacher like that again—no matter what.

"N-Naruto! Don't say such untrue things!" Iruka stammered as he rose up from the table he was currently occupying.

Before things got a little ugly, Naruto flashed Iruka a smile, clutched his school bag in his hands and quickly ran off to his room where he was safe from his guardian. Although Iruka was a sweet person, when he was mad, he was very mad. Naruto sighed as he slumped himself against the wall, the only thing Naruto had to do was homework, which disgusted him. It is a fact that you can't spell homework without 'ew', so why was Naruto forced to do such tedious things in his own precious time? It wasn't like the teachers enjoyed marking the work either, marking the homework was probably harder than actually doing it; but, both things are pretty terrible.

It also crossed Naruto's mind that he had a tutoring session tomorrow with Uchiha-Sensei, which he wasn't looking forward to at all. Although Naruto did ask for his tutoring sessions, it wasn't as if he actually wanted to go to them. The blonde knew that his attention span was very short; usually, Naruto would lose interest in a lesson and spend the rest of the period talking to Kiba since they were in all the same lessons, however the teachers seemed very wary of sitting the duo near each other since Kiba and Naruto's antics had probably circled around the teaching staff by now. Sadly, it was very noticeable that Naruto and Kiba usually sat on opposite sides of the classroom in every lesson; Naruto couldn't help it if the teachers couldn't handle their amazingly-thought out pranks or constant talking! However, Naruto refused to get distracted in this tutoring session since it was just going to be him and Uchiha-Sensei one-on-one. Naruto shuddered at the thought, if it was just the two of them, Naruto had no doubt in his mind that if Naruto pushed his teacher far enough, nobody would hear Naruto's screams as Uchiha-Sensei brutally murdered him.

Uchiha-Sensei wasn't that cruel, right?

"Guess I better do some homework while I'm at it…" Naruto mumbled to himself with a slight pout—Naruto knew that he usually didn't do homework (which lead to many lunchtime detentions), so why he was doing it now proved how driven he was to actually get good grades this year, and Uchiha-Sensei was going to help him whether he liked Naruto or not.

One memory plagued Naruto's mind, why did Uchiha-Sensei get so upset about the cigarette? It wasn't like he would actually get fired; it was no secret that the teachers had to sneak behind the back of the school at Lunch and held a Smoking Club. The toxins released from the amount of smoking the teachers did had to raise pollution levels by fifty percent, and Naruto was pretty sure that the principle knew this fact as well. The blonde doubted that to famous Uchiha would get fired for such a dumb reason.

"That guy...he's so complicated..." Naruto mumbled to himself as he fiddled with a lock of his golden hair. Trying to figure his teacher out hurt his brain, more than Math ever did. He seemed so mysterious and closed off from everyone, but the question is: why?

As Naruto let his thoughts run through his head about his mysterious teacher, his eyes suddenly widened and he jumped out of his chair with red cheeks.

"It's not like I care about that bastard or something!" Naruto shouted, but he didn't know who he was actually trying to convince. "No! It's just he seems so grumpy all the time, and his attitude pisses me off! That's the only reason!"

Slowly, Naruto released his Math homework from his bag and laid it out on his desk with the same stubborn look on his face. Naruto didn't know who he was trying to convince with his loud outburst, but he wasn't reassuring himself one bit. It wasn't like he was interested in his teacher at all, although Naruto did find his teacher attractive, his personality totally sucked balls! Plus, Uchiha-Sensei wasn't Naruto's type at all; how could you have a happy relationship with such a straight-laced guy? Naruto almost pitied Sakura.

"Stupid bastard, why is he even in my head?" Naruto mumbled to himself as he furiously rubbed his head, trying to erase his Sensei from his mind. All efforts seemed to be in vain though.

"Naruto, why are you talking to yourself?" A concerned Iruka called through his door.

"No reason." Naruto reassured his worried guardian.

After a moment, Naruto heard footsteps approaching back to the kitchen, signalling to Naruto that Iruka had backed away from outside of his room.

Great, now Iruka thought Naruto was crazy.

Heavily, Naruto sighed. He needed to focus on his homework instead of that bastard he called a teacher. Maybe Naruto would learn more about him in the studying sessions; the blonde was still skeptical why Sasuke accepted to tutor the blonde. What if this was all part of some cruel bet? Naruto could imagine all of the teachers he had wronged in the past corner him in the classroom when they were halfway through his tutoring session - especially Ebisu-Sensei.

The prank he and Kiba played on the perverted teacher two years ago was very extreme, but it was hilarious nonetheless.

Without worrying himself anymore, Naruto tried to focus on his homework and was soon plunged into a world of equations - fun.

"Sasuke-kun, are you coming to bed?"

"No." Sasuke replied as he was preparing his final powerpoint for tomorrow.

"Another powerpoint? I thought you finished the last one?" Sakura asked.

"I did, but I'm helping a student in a tutoring session tomorrow after school. He seems to mainly be struggling with algebra the most; however from what I've seen in his previous books he doesn't seem to know much about the subject at all." Sasuke explained.

"I see, so you'll be late coming home tomorrow?" Sakura asked.

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll see you in bed soon. I really enjoyed that restaurant."

"Hn."

Sasuke heard Sakura approaching the staircase and slowly heard her footprints disappear; he sighed as he took off his glasses. Sasuke was shattered. Who knew teaching would be so much effort? His father truly knew what he was doing when he assigned Sasuke to this job to test his abilities of how he could instruct a seminar of Fugaku's workers. The raven haired man remembered his stern fathers words exactly.

"Sasuke, I know that you want to work at the Uchiha Corp located in Japan and follow in Itachi's footsteps. However, before you do this, I want to put you to a test which I also burdened Itachi with. For a year, I want you to work at a school and apply as a teacher. If you can lead a classroom full of teenagers without one complaint from parents or a fellow co-worker, I shall let you work at my factory, however if I hear one complaint, I shall deny your plea. Even though you are my son, I cannot hire you for the sake of family bonds, if I did that, do you think the Uchiha Corporation would be so successful?"

Sasuke cringed as he then remembered how he acted with the cigarette incident. Now that Sasuke thought back to it, the blonde was most likely trying to wind the teacher up, meaning he wouldn't have told. If Sasuke got fired from the school, even for a stupid reason such as smoking on school property, Sasuke knew his father would deny Sasuke working at his business. Sasuke would rather die than not work in the company; all the extra schoolwork he did, and he even forced himself to go to Otogakure High School just so he could follow in his older brothers footsteps. If Sasuke was denied the right of working there, his older brother, Itachi Uchiha, would never let him live it down.

That was why he freaked out so much.

Sasuke had always envied Itachi. All the time, Sasuke was compared to Itachi, and it was never a 'well done, Sasuke', but it was a 'try better next time so you can be like Itachi.', ever since birth, Sasuke had always been compared to his older brother. Currently, Itachi was working overseas at another one of his father's companies in England since, of course, Itachi spoke fluent English. It wasn't like Sasuke hated his brother. He just hated being compared to him. What angered Sasuke the most was that instead of Itachi, Sasuke had to sell his hand in marriage to Sakura instead of the oldest brother since Sakura 'requested' it. Sakura probably jumped at the chance to capture Sasuke in her clutches, and Sasuke hated that.

He remembered when Sakura confessed to him. All the reasons why Sakura apparently loved him were only superficial, it wasn't things such as 'I like your personality' or 'you seem like a nice person', it was just about his looks and brains. Therefore, Sasuke just grouped her in with the rest of the fangirls. Sasuke despised his fangirls. All they did was squeal his name repeatedly as if they were broken toys.

At first, Sasuke refused to marry Sakura which he received a hard slap for. His father shouted at him, demanding why Sasuke denied his own father's wishes, and that he would never get a chance to work in the Uchiha Company if the Haruno Medical Corporation and the Uchiha Financial Corporation didn't merge due to Sasuke's stubbornness. Fugaku continued to rant that if the sole Haruno child didn't marry one of his sons, there would be no merger, and those were Kizashi Haruno's terms. Begrudgingly, Sasuke accepted Sakura's hand in marriage, but he did warn her that it would be a very lonely road up ahead. Now, Sasuke was never free to find somebody that he could actually connect to or find interest in. It wasn't as if Sasuke had anyone in mind currently, Hell, Sasuke hated almost everybody nowadays. Especially that blond kid, how dare he blackmail a teacher! If Sasuke didn't make such a big fuss about it, maybe the Uzumaki kid wouldn't have said anything in the first place. But, Sasuke knew that his father would be impressed if he turned a struggling student such as Naruto into a confident mathematician, hence why he offered to tutor the blond Dobe two days instead of one.

Sasuke admitted that he wasn't looking forward to tutoring the boy tomorrow. Ever since he found out Uzumaki liked both male and females, he seemed a bit wary of the boy. Sasuke didn't have anything against homosexuals, actually Sasuke had doubted his own sexuality many times since he realised that he was never interested in any women, but then again, it wasn't like Sasuke had ever taken an interest in a male either. Sasuke hoped that he wasn't a homosexual, despite he knew that his brother and mother wouldn't really care, Sasuke knew that his father would probably disown him since he had heard his father rant about how disgusting he found homosexuals and that 'they weren't natural' many times, and then he would probably accuse Sasuke of 'being a disgrace to the Uchiha name'. However he hoped that the blonde wouldn't take advantage of the studying session by staring at Sasuke, it wouldn't have been the first time somebody had ulterior motives of asking Sasuke for a favour—not that Sasuke gave favours out regularly, or ever at all. Actually, this was one of the few favours Sasuke had commited in his life.

The blond Dobe better be grateful.

Honestly, Sasuke was surprised when his student requested Sasuke to tutor him and that 'he wanted to make something of himself', usually if somebody asked the young Uchiha a favour, it was related to money; Sasuke didn't think the blond would be very different from the others, but he was proven wrong. (3)

Luckily for Sasuke, he had neither been attracted to a female or male in his life, nor did he ever hope to be. Sasuke found love a tedious, unnecessary emotion that just got in the way of one's way of thinking and clouded over a person's original judgment. Call Sasuke cynical, but he thought loving another individual was pointless.

Undoubtedly, Sasuke's student did have the potential to go places, but Uzumaki needed to open his eyes instead of talking and getting distracted easily. It was no secret that the blonde was smart in some areas, but just made stupid mistakes and decisions.

Before Sasuke could get distracted again by his thoughts, he put his glasses back onto his face and continued with the PowerPoint Presentation. He knew just sitting around, thinking about his troubles weren't going to finish the PowerPoint, and Sasuke only needed to do a couple pages of how to solve simple algebra equations, Sasuke thought that it was best to start out simple and then escalate to more advanced sums.

After Sasuke had finished this, maybe he could sleep in one of the guest bedrooms again? He seemed more relaxed sleeping on his own.

And that was it! Okay, there wasn't SasuNaru in this chapter; however there will be some in the next. I promise! Well, if this goes to plan.

I know I referenced Naruto to 'blond' or 'the blond' which pisses a lot of people off, and I do it a lot. However, since Sasuke doesn't really know Naruto's name, he just thinks of Naruto as 'that blond kid' in his head. So, I have an excuse for this chapter. I'll try to stop naming people by their own hair colours, though. Sorry!

1. I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HOMOSEXUALS. I am so sorry if I offended anybody while writing that, I just wanted the reader to understand Sasuke's fear if he was a homosexual. I, myself, am a bisexual, so I'm so sorry if I offended you! I would never mean to purposely offend anybody reading this. Again, I apologise if I did.