author notes: Happy New Year everyone!
Apologises for the late update, life got in the way again like it always does.
Um, for those who aren't aware –I've posted the new edited version of Sasori's date on 20PD:NV. I'm in the midst of writing the Shikamaru chapter, which is proving to be quiet challenging. But I shall prevail…eventually.
Anyway, without further ado, Tobi/Madara won the vote!
Enjoy!
Lessons with Delinquents
Chapter 2
Date: Monday 10:23am
Tutoring: Uchiha Tobi
Subject: English
Sakura stared in bewilderment at the smug male sitting across from her.
How was it possible for this person to be so terrible at writing poetry, when he practically proclaimed his 'undying and fiery love for her' and all the other guff that he somehow manages to spout from nowhere?
"Umm, Tobi." She deliberated her next words carefully, as she glanced nervously towards the smiling black haired male, his trademark orange mask laid on the desk. "Has it ever occurred to you that writing about your love for rainbows and talking unicorns has nothing to do with the assisted topic?"
"B-But Tobi was just expressing his love and affection for Sakura-chan!" The male in question babbled, giving the rosette the puppy dog face, to which she in turn shot him an unimpressed, deadpan look.
"As much as I obviously appreciate your compliments Tobi," She said dryly, suppressing the urge to slap her forehead when Tobi grinned in satisfaction, either feigning ignorance or just ignoring her sarcasm.
"It won't help you pass English, Tobi." She looked him dead in the eye, his previously ecstatic expression instantly melted into disappointment and unconcealed misery. He resembled a kicked puppy, much to Sakura's amusement.
"I thought you were supposed to be a nice tutor, Sakura-chan!" The dark haired male whined childishly with a 'cross' look on his face, his arms flailing around him comically. "I'm not here for pleasantries, Tobi." The rosette droned for the umpteenth time that morning, and inwardly took a deep breath when the male in question began to whine about how tedious English was.
In fact, Sakura wasn't even there of her own will. She was practically being forced into this, having been trapped in a room filled with the hungry vultures –Sorry, her bad– Uchiha's; she had managed to assert herself by politely threatening to throw them all out, if they didn't leave willingly. (Albeit, she inwardly felt embarrassed at being the centre of attention –she could never understand how Ino could effortlessly dealt with it.)
Then again, she never did understand Ino entirely to begin with.
"You smell nice, Sakura-chan!" The girl in question's head snapped upwards with lightening speed, as she noticed the proximity between herself and the grinning black haired male. Sakura's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, as she slowly inched away from the unpredictable male, carefully watching him as if he were a famished lion, ready to pounce at any given moment.
"Tobi, I'm warning you now," She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, schooling her features into a stern look. "If you even think about trying to feel me up, I won't hesitate to knock you unconscious, do you understand me?"
"But Tobi just wanted to sit next to Sakura-chan," He whimpered, his obsidian orbs widened, creating a façade that shown a distinct similarity to that of the animated film Bambi. Inwardly, she face palmed at the dramatics of it all.
"We've already discussed this Tobi," She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, before glancing towards the disheartened boy. "I'm here to help you figure out what's going wrong with your subjects, and I can't help you if we don't get any work done, okay?" Slowly, after what it seemed like an eternity waiting, Tobi nodded somewhat reluctantly, as he complied with her requests.
Sakura let out a relived sigh, as she concentrated some of her attention onto arranging the small pile of paperwork. For the time being, she pushed the worry of the Tobi-Madara situation to the back of her mind, with the reassuring thought that the male in question seemed to have calmed down considerably.
Then, it began suspiciously quiet after a moment or two. Every movement that the rosette did seemed deafening in the hushed room, only the sound of the breathing could be heard from the other occupier of the room.
It was only when she took a discrete glance from the corner of her eye that she realized Tobi was busying himself by drawing hearts all over his English book, with a his distinctive handwriting, which read 'Tobi + Sakura chan 4ever' in the middle with a abnormally sized heart enclosed around it.
"What are you doing Tobi?" The male in question quickly snapped his book shut, as if Sakura was completely unaware of what he had written. She suppressed the urge to smile at his child-like antics, as he scratched his head sheepishly, light pink dusting his cheeks in his embarrassment.
"Let's get to work, shall we?" Sakura allowed a smile, as she handed him a worksheet of English grammar. He groaned audibly with disappointment, but nevertheless abided to her request.
'Maybe today wasn't going to be bad after all.' The pinkette mused to herself thoughtfully, with a fleeting glance towards the older male.
2:30pm
Despite her initial preconceptions earlier on that day, Tobi had –miraculously- acted like a civilized person during the tutoring period. Sure, they didn't exactly get everything on the agenda finished, but the dark haired male was making good process.
For the time being, it seemed that she didn't have to use her pepper spray which she had learnt from experience to keep on her person at all times.
But she wasn't about to let her guard now just yet, especially not around sinister people like Madara around. Sakura shivered involuntary at the mention of his name, ever since her first ever encounter with the happy-go-lucky Tobi's alter ego Madara,
The therapist session with the male was very…enlightening to say the least. 'Don't judge a book by its cover' certainly applied in this situation, as Sakura reminisced in the feeling of guilt from making assumptions about the mirthful Tobi, while clutching her books tightly, her face clouded with regret as she roamed the quiet deserted hallways.
Then, the thought of Madara entered into her mind, and her blood quickly became cold. She licked her lips nervously; her jade eyes were downcast at the slightly chipped, aged flooring.
It was unnerving how much knowledge he knew about her, despite their limited amount of encounters. However, she didn't think that he wasn't capable of gaining information about various people, due to the possibility that he was supposedly some sort of 'mafia boss'.
Sakura scoffed at the mere idea, as she reached her locker. From what Sasuke had told her in the past, Tobi/Madara/whoever the hell he was, the leader crap that he rambled on turned out to be accurate.
Then again, Sasuke did also say that Madara was bat-shit crazy.
The pinkette sighed tiredly, as she retrieved several books before continuing on her short journey. But from her own knowledge and experience, the majority of the Uchiha family (at least the members that she knew…personally) were missing some of their sanity.
But heck, she knew that they weren't missing any brain cells –which were usually possessed by their hormonal urges (especially by Madara, Itachi and Sasuke.) Sakura wasn't stupid, even during her most awful days she was able to tell when someone was pretending that they were 'bad' in a subject. However, surely Tsunade was aware of her current predicament –one of which the blonde had practically forced her into doing.
Every single test or examination the Uchiha's were put through, it was near impossible that any one of them would ever fail. In actual fact, they all frequently passed any tests with flying colours, and were consistently earned the top grades in their individual classes (apart from Sasuke, where Sakura usually did better.)
Anyway, back to the point at hand, the pinkette's interest was drawn to the sole question that had been circling around in her mind all day: why did the Uchiha's need tutoring when they naturally excelled in all of the subjects they all took?
When she attempted to settle her inner turmoil by taking a quick visit to Tsunade's office, the blonde had simply tapped her nose with a sly grin that caused the pinkette's anger to flare up with frustration. As always, her teacher was as useless as ever.
As Sakura turned the corner, her mind lingering elsewhere, she had just barely registered the fact that she was pushed into the cramped, darkened janitor's room. But before she could even voice out her distress, a warm, callused hand covered her mouth.
"Ssh, it's only me Sakura-chan." The girl in question's eyes widened at the familiar, silky tone that had haunted her mind. She suppressed the urge to shiver in fear as he stroked her cheek, as if that simple motion would calm her anxiety.
In spite of being surrounded by pure darkness, she shot the long haired male a death glare, though she was pretty sure she was glaring at his nose due to their major difference in height.
So instead, she settled on sinking her teeth in his hand, hard.
She smirked in satisfaction when he yelped in evident pain; however much to her disappointment, he didn't remove his hand in the process. Instead, he decided to lightly flick her forehead in retaliation.
"Ow—what the hell was that for?" Sakura's voice was muffled, as she continued to glare at the –probably smirking- Uchiha.
Bastard.
"You bit my hand when I was trying to talk to you," Was Madara's 'logical' response, as he attempted to send her a pointed look after removing his hand. "And before you interrupt, even if I hadn't covered your mouth, wouldn't you have screamed anyway?"
"Of course you idiot! Who else would hang around in the janitor's closet?" She all but hissed at him, anger laced in her words as she massaged her forehead.
"I'm sure you can think of a lot of reasons why students usually stay in the janitor's closet for a long period of time." For a second, she thought she saw a mischievous glint in his crimson eyes, and inwardly gulped in fear.
"W-Wait a minute here, I'm sure as hell not making out with you of all people!" She distanced herself as far as she could from the suggestive male, her eyes flickering towards the door apprehensively.
She distinctively heard an exasperated sigh being released from the other occupier of the confined room and felt her eye twitch in irritation at the gall of the male.
"I didn't imply anything about making out Sakura," He started off, a slight creak resounded, indicating that he was leaning against the wall. "I assure you that my intentions are honourable, and I only wish to speak to you," He paused in thought for a moment, as if briefly inspecting the room before adding. "Privately."
'Honourable intentions my foot,' Sakura folded her arms over her chest, as she subtly inched closer to the door. "And pray tell, did you just decide on a whim that you were going to practically shove me into this room?"
"You could say that, yes." He nodded in affirmation, "I've noticed that you've been acting differently around Tobi recently," The pinkette paled considerably at this, as the dark haired male slowly approached her, closing the small gap between them.
"And I just wanted to know what was wrong." He glanced down at her, almost caringly enough for Sakura to notice.
"N-nothing's wrong," She insisted, her tone sounding high-pitched while trying to keep eye contact. It proved to be quite difficult, his mysterious crimson orbs were practically smouldering her enough to the point where her face resembled a dark cherry.
"For someone who supposedly has an exceptionally high IQ, you're not a very convincing liar." He chuckled near her ear, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end.
"Says the hypocrite who tries to disguise himself as a teenage boy." She shot him a pointed look in response. He held his hands up, as if surrendering, an exasperated innocent look played on his facial expression.
"Never said I wasn't one," Madara waved it off nonchalantly. "But you never answered my question, Sakura." Again with the smouldering look, she inwardly sighed.
"I'm not sure how to act around you Madara," She pondered for a moment, as she mulled over her following words. "One moment, you're pretending to be Tobi, and then you suddenly turn into Madara…" She trailed off, feeling uncomfortable under the intensity of his stare.
"Why did you take an interest in me completely out of the blue?" Sakura blurted out, her eyes were downcast as she fingered the hem of her shirt nervously.
"I mean, it's not as if I'm particularly interesting, if anything most people think of me as a bookworm…" After taking a moment or two to deliberate her words, she continued. "And you're kind of bat-shit crazy with your bipolar behaviour." It was only after those words were uttered that Sakura inwardly slapped her forehead by her plain ignorance.
She had just brusquely insulted the male, who probably had enough power and influence to crush her—both mentally and physically. The pinkette quietly gulped at that, she should really think first before speaking sometimes. Sakura braved a look at the male in question, as if expecting him to explode with anger.
Instead much to her confusion, he smiled at her –she wasn't sure if it was the dim lighting of the room or simply just an illusion, as she stared at him in unconcealed suspicion.
"You're one of the most honest people I have ever come across," The long haired male tenderly plucked a strand of her hair, toying with it around his fingers. Sakura wasn't even aware that she was holding her breath in anticipation.
"When I first encountered you…as Tobi," He spoke somewhat bitterly. "You didn't exactly make it a secret that you were suspicious of my actions, you made that very clear from the start." The rosette's cheeks were lightly dusted with pink, embarrassment etched on her face.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't make it your sworn goal to constantly molest me every opportunity you get, I wouldn't have presumed that you were an old, stinking pervert!" The rosette was practically on breaking point. Her mental stability was bordering on bat-shit crazy.
"Now, now Sakura." He leaned closer, enough for her to feel his warm breath hover over her ear. She instantly bristled at the nerve of this man, it was bad enough that the closet was already limited to space –he had to invade her own personal bubble –just so that he could attempt to 'woo' her.
Men, she inwardly scowled, were all stupid chauvinistic bastards.
"There's no need to get angry, though I have to say that you look absolutely adorable when you get all riled up. It makes me want to eat you all up," He purred huskily into her ear, she shivered in disgust when he lowered his mouth towards her neck, where he planted light butterfly kisses, towards the dreaded path that was her lips.
And Madara was the King of them.
"Madara, get your filthy hands off me!" She all but shrieked in his ear, throwing the male off her person with blatant revulsion. "And to think I thought you were going to start acting like a civilised person," She moved towards the door with haste, her hand reaching out towards the doorknob with anticipation running through her veins.
She was nearly out, just only a few seconds more and—
It was locked.
She was locked in the janitor's closet with the school's secret pervert.
"Why the fuck is the door locked you asshole!" She rounded on to the smirking male, who practically dangled the key right in front of her eyes. The sly bastard. He folded his arms over his chest, schooling his features into an innocent façade.
"I assumed that for the sake of your precious reputation, you wouldn't want someone to just walk in on us. You know as well as I do how rumours can spread like wildfire at this school." As much as she hated to agree with him, he was ultimately right.
"Well, thanks for clearing that up." She cleared her throat, and then proceeded to hold her hand out expectantly towards the male, who for a few seconds simply stared at it in bewilderment.
"The key, you pervert." Immediately Madara's face was clouded with amusement, and for a moment Sakura inwardly grimaced –as proven in the past, egging him on didn't exactly help the situation, it just fuelled his evident pleasure of exploiting the said situation.
"Why should I give you the key, my beloved Sakura-chan?" He taunted her with glee; the pinkette gritted her teeth in annoyance. "It almost makes me think that you don't enjoy my company," At this he pouted, as he gestured for her to come closer, as if she was going to comfort him.
Not in this lifetime, buddy. She shot him a deadpan look in response.
"Oh I don't know Madara," The pinkette feigned an innocent tone, as she let out a sigh. "Maybe if you weren't such a douchebag, I wouldn't have such low standards of you." The male in question frowned at this for a few seconds, before the insufferable smirk made its way onto his face.
"Then I would assume that a few more hours of bonding time wouldn't hurt us, Sa-ku-ra." Then, in a matter of seconds, the rosette wasn't able to process fully the fact that he practically pounced on her. Her neck was attacked with his hot, fiery kisses; he towered over her petite frame as he trapped her against the wall, thus preventing any attempt of escape.
She was assaulted by the strong, distinctive scent of his cologne, but restrained herself from cranking her neck away, consequently allowing Madara 'more space' to kiss her with. Sakura gritted her teeth in frustration –how could she even let the situation come to this?
She had to restore damage control, and fast.
So, without much thinking involved, she acted accordingly by kneeing the unsuspecting male in the crotch hard. Sakura smirked with triumph as he crumbled to the ground, groaning in pain as he writhed in agony.
In her unconcealed joy of being freed and comforted by the fact that his lips were no longer on her skin –causing unwanted tingles and goose bumps to erupt over her body –she blamed the female hormones. She unlocked the door –after carefully plucking it out of Madara's grasp, she had to be cautious in case he were to snatch her back.
He was reduced to a pathetic, feeble weakling because of her doing. Almost instantly, she felt the relief melt away, only for guilt and shame to wash over her. Sakura bit her lip; she glanced over her shoulder to see the male struggling to stand up and inwardly winced.
'You're far too lenient on him –he deserved it!' The little voice at the back of her mind hissed. The rosette easily ignored it, as she pushed the door open wider –just in case he were to try any funny business, she could still try to make her escape.
She extended her hand towards the male, who paused for a moment in his pain to stare at it in suspicion and suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. If anyone should be suspicious –it should be her, considering that she was nearly raped a few minutes ago!
"Don't give me that look Madara," Sakura schooled her features into a stern look. "Either you accept that you were in the wrong, or I leave you here. It's your decision." She gave him her ultimate, as she raised an pink eyebrow. He appeared to be conflicted for a moment, emotions roamed freely on his face for all to see.
"Okay, you're right." He shrugged, his crimson eyes boring into her, a strange vulnerable look habiting there. "I shouldn't have thrown myself onto you…but as you can tell I simply have no control of my actions when you look so…" He trailed off, his facial expression momentarily clouded, his eyes were glazed over.
"Adorable?" She supplied dryly, shooting a sceptical look in his general direction.
He smiled at her, leaning forward to brush a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "No, no my dear Sakura-chan. Adorable doesn't quiet cut it, it's not enough to describe you." He shook his head, placing his finger on his chin thoughtfully. Sakura raised an eyebrow in mild interest.
"You're simply irresistible." He breathed, his half lidded eyes staring down at her with such intensity that it nearly caused the pinkette to gasp in surprise. Madara hovered just over her ear, his warm breath causing a tingling sensation to ripple through her skin.
"Take care of yourself Sakura-chan," The long haired male moved swiftly, as he planted an affectionate kiss on her forehead, before disappearing into the hallway, a slight spring in his step.
'Geez, he's full of surprises today' Once of her stupor, she shook her head as a small chuckle emitted from her person. She walked out of the small room, only to realise that the other students were starting to pour out of their individual classrooms quickly.
It was only after she noticed on more than one occasion, when multiply girls giggled, and gestured in her direction, that her clothes were ruffled, her hair tousled and the lipstick on her lips smudged. All of which could only suggest one logical explanation.
Inwardly, she inwardly cursed the –probably smug, Uchiha as she made a beeline for the girls' toilet.
Chauvinistic bastard indeed.
author notes: Again, apologises for the really late update. I hope that this makes up for my absence!
I know that some of you were sceptical of the whole Tobi/Madara situation. But I wanted to write them as the same person, but obviously as co-existing personalities. It gives a kind of edge to the character, I think anyway.
And since he turned out to be the most popular, in terms of voting, I decided to write about both!
Now, I'm considering turning this into a multiply-chapter fic, depending on if you guys want me to write about each Uchiha male being paired up with Sakura.
And to ask a question that was raised in one of the reviews: Yes, you can consider this fiction as a sequel to 'TST'. Except of course, it's only Uchiha males, because they all don't get enough love as they deserve.
Finally, please vote for who you want to see in the next chapter!
Itachi
Sasuke
Izuna
Obito
Shisui
Again, I cannot even begin to thank each and every one of you readers who have supported me throughout my time at fanfiction! You guys are the best, seriously.
Saku-chan
