CHAPTER 2

She'll lie and steal and cheat,
And beg you from her knees
Make you think she means it this time
She'll tear a hole in you,
the one you can't repair
But I still love her,
I don't really care - The Lumineers

xxxxx

Haruno Sakura was not having a pleasant day. She was rudely awoken this morning to the shrill screech of the fire alarm in her dorm going off; it was beyond her as to why anybody thought having a fire drill 6am in the morning was an excellent idea.

After her early start, things seemed to go quickly downhill from thereon.

Starting with:

Her printer crapping out on her while she tried to print out a reading response that was due today.

Because of her printer crapping out she was now forced to go to the school library incredibly early in the morning and wait at the doors until 8 for them to open.

This whole fiasco caused her to miss out on her morning caffeine which left her crabby and exhausted.

The library's printer was out of paper which was really more of an inconsequential thing but god dammit she wanted her coffee.

Her foul mood carried on to her scheduled class for the day; Drawing in Room 520 with Jiraiya. Despite her crankiness she felt some relief wash over her as she entered the studio with tool box and portfolio in hand, she was comfortable here (except for Jiraiya's occasional perverted leers) as long as she had a pencil and a piece of paper in front of her she could work to her little heart's content and nobody would dare bother her.

And with that thought in mind Sakura plopped herself down in front of a drawing board and went about setting up her work space. Today they would be drawing from a live nude model, something Sakura preferred over regular class assignments not just because it kept Jiraiya distracted from hitting on his students (at least when they had female models) but also because she enjoyed drawing from a live reference rather than a photographic one.

She patiently waited in her seat as she watched her other classmates trickle in, she could easily spot the ones that lived in the dorms by their tired and haggard appearance.

'Stupid fire alarm.'

"Hurry hurry and get yourselves set up, we don't want to waste any of the time I err-we have with the model today." Jiraiya called out as he strode into the studio, Sakura refrained from rolling her eyes at his choice of words.

'Pervert.'

Shortly after the model appeared and Sakura quickly assessed her work subject, it was a young female with long brunette hair, brown eyes, and a very voluptuous form. Sakura started collecting her drawing utensils until she was armed with what she needed and then popped her earbuds in and turned her music player on.

Three hours passed away in a blur of charcoal smudges, eraser shavings, and sheets of newsprint recycled paper before Sakura was finally allowed a short break in which she treated herself to a well-deserved cup of joe. She slowly returned to the studio, lingering here and there in the hallway to look at other students' work posted on the walls. She glanced curiously as she returned to her work space and spotted the dean chatting with Jiraiya.

The dean was a handsome young man, not that she would admit it to anyone aloud. His sunshine blonde hair and azure blue eyes vividly reminded her of her friend Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura couldn't help but let her thoughts drift back to her first day at the university.

"Neh Sakura look at how many people are here! Do you think they're all first years?" Naruto questioned excitedly as he wandered around the main hall with his two best friends in tow. An irritable black haired man sighed as he felt Naruto's hand clamp onto his arm and drag the pinkette and him to another booth. "Don't be such a downer Sasuke it's orientation it's suppose to be exciting and fun and stuff!"

"Yeah Sasuke, cheer up a little. This is a first time experience for the all of us." Sakura commented as she tried to wriggle herself out of Naruto's grasp. She didn't appreciate being dragged from one place to another.

Sasuke grumbled something intelligible in response. He was all for them spending time together and was happy that they had gotten accepted into KUA but he wasn't much of a socializer and he was starting to get irritable mingling with so many people. All he wanted to do was go back to his dorm, take a shower, and relax for the rest of the day.

Sakura managed to free herself from Naruto's clutches and spotted a tall blonde man in a suit shaking hands with some students. She immediately recognized him as the dean of the school from his picture on the school's website and decided to introduce herself, after all it was always good to make important connections early on in her career.

She slipped past the crowds of people and patiently waited her turn to speak to him. When it was finally her turn she greeted him with a confident smile on her face and shook his hand firmly.

"Hello Mr. Namikaze I'd like to introduce myself, I'm Haruno Sakura and I'll be beginning my studies at your school this year."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Sakura, please call me by my first name Minato." The dean replied with a grin, he always liked meeting new promising students. "Mr. Namikaze sounds much too professional, I want my students to view me as a friend or a confidant you know? I started this school because I wanted to give young artists a chance to blossom and prosper in an environment where creativity and ingenuity is encouraged."

"Well then I suppose I'm in the right place." Sakura laughed as she anxiously fiddled with the book-sized portfolio in her hand.

Minato chuckled along with her, his eyes flickering to her fidgeting hand.

"So Sakura what would you like to accomplish here?"

"Ah well I'm hoping to major in drawing, from there on I'm not quite sure." She remarked, biting her lip, something that was a nervous tick of hers.

Minato smiled encouragingly back and shook his head.

"Don't worry about Sakura, you still have 4 years to make that decision. Now correct me if I'm wrong but is that book you're holding with you your portfolio?"

"A-ah yes it is. I-sorry if this seems a little presumptuous but I'd really appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know what you think." Sakura stuttered, she knew she was nervous because the Minato Namikaze would be looking at her work and the very idea made her whole body loose and shaky.

"No no I would love to see it. It's a wonderful opportunity for me to see the kind of potential I have attending my school and I always love to give fellow artists some constructive criticism." He took the portfolio out of Sakura's outstretched hand and started flipping through the work inside. A serene smile grew on his face as his eyes scanned over the work. "My this is really detailed work here Sakura, I have to say you really are a talented drawer. You're enrolled for Realism Drawing 110 yes?"

Sakura could only nod in reply at the shock of getting praise from such a well-known and talented artist. She shifted uncomfortably as he started reaching the end of the book where she had some of her amateur photography. Most of the time she relied on a camera to document something she'd like to draw later but last Christmas Sasuke had gifted her an old polaroid camera for her to play around and use.

She knew she wasn't as knowledgable as Sasuke when it came to the technicalities behind photography but he had shown her some basics and she was quite proud, albeit a little nervous, of the few photos she placed in the back of her portfolio.

Minato paused at the last few pages and his eyebrows furrowed a little as he examined the photos more thoroughly. Sakura waited silently as he finished looking through the rest of her work before taking her portfolio back from him and waiting expectantly for his thoughts.

"Your photography is interesting although a little underdeveloped. From what I saw of your photo-realism drawings I would assume you usually relied on a camera for documenting things but what I saw near the end of your portfolio definitely held some interesting concepts. It had a sort of character to them hmm.. They made me feel like I was seeing your friends and family from your point of view. I'd very much enjoy it if you took that idea further sometime in your exploratory year, if you have room in your schedule of course."

"Thank you Minato, I'm still very new to the workings of photography but I'm glad that my concept was clear and relatable. It actually made me a little nervous for you to see them." She laughed, charmed that Minato praised her work. She chatted with him for a little while more, talking about the classes she was looking forward too, and the ones she wasn't so much, as well as her friends Naruto and Sasuke and what they were here to major in before finally bidding him goodbye and rejoining her two boys before they started fighting with each other.

Minato watched her leave, pleased to have had a lovely conversation with such a bright, promising student, before being pulled into another with someone else.

From across the room Minato caught her gaze and smiled, Sakura couldn't help returning the smile back as she settled herself back into her work space.

The model walked back in as Sakura cracked her back, they were now moving on to one hour poses which meant she now had time to add more detail and value to her sketches.

Two poses later she was halfway through sketching her third one when she felt someone jostle her from behind. She stared, dismayed, as her drawing now had a line right through the chest of the woman, looking completely out of place and ruining her hard work. Her lips turned down into a grim line before she glared angrily at the perpetrator.

She found herself faced with an attractive man whom looked to be in his early 20s, he had messy pale white hair sticking up in a way that looked like he had just rolled out of bed and two dark grey eyes. The bottom half of his face was obscured with a large chunky scarf but Sakura could spot a straight nose and two full lips underneath, and a hint of stubble. She would've blushed had she not been so upset at the moment.

"Do you have any idea what you just did? Are you going to fix it or what?" She seethed as he looked at her blankly, was he even listening to her?

"Huh?"

Sakura tried to control herself from strangling him, and took a deep breath to reign in her temper. She then pointed at her drawing board to show him his handiwork.

"Aah my apologies, I didn't mean to ruin your lovely drawing." He whispered smoothly, she stopped herself from snorting at him. Flattery was going to get him nowhere, she had three drawings to hand in at the end of class and there was no way she was going to have enough time to start a new one. She eyed the line distastefully, how was she going to fix this mistake? She handed him her piece of charcoal because for all intensive purposes he was going to at least attempt to fix it.

She watched him as he visibly hesitated before reluctantly grabbing the charcoal out of her hand. He paused as he surveyed the drawing closer before smudging some lines and sketching in some value.

Sakura found herself taking in the scent of his cologne as he invaded her personal space, hovering just slightly above her shoulder with his arm nearly touching hers. She could pick out a subtle musk with spicy notes mixed with the slight aroma of turpentine and cigarette smoke that seemed to emanate from his clothes.

Looking at his hands working, she could pick out paint of varying colors staining them and realized this man was most likely a painting major. She wondered out of curiosity what kind of paintings he did and briefly why he was hanging around the drawing studios to begin with when the painting studios resided a floor above.

The feeling of someone brushing her arm made her look up from her thoughts and at her drawing. For the most part the line had been subtly blended in and would be barely noticeable unless someone pointed it out and was passable in her eyes. Sakura gave him a brief nod of acceptance as she took the charcoal from his hand and returned to her drawing, keeping an eye on him as he tiptoed around the rest of the class before stopping in front of the dean.

She could tell by the smile on Minato's face and Jiraiya's friendly greeting that they were all very familiar with each other.

'Is he one of the profs for painting...? He can't be he's much too young. Gosh Sakura stop it, focus on your work. It's unlike you to be so nosy.'

Sakura berated herself as she tried to ignore Jiraiya's voice, refusing to eavesdrop. She glanced around the classroom and noticed a few of her classmates had stopped working to stare at the silver-haired man.

'Look at them they're just as bad as Ino-pig. Just finish this drawing, you only have forty-five minutes left of class time.'

Shaking her head, she bit her lip and tried to focus on her work. Frustratingly she felt her eyes drifting towards the man more so than her paper and she couldn't help a defeated sigh escape her lips.

But just as Sakura was preparing herself to discreetly sneak a glance at the man, the dean stood up and gathered his things and headed for the door with said man trailing behind him. She couldn't help following him with her eyes as he walked out the door and disappointingly out of her life.

"Alright everybody today was a great class, I saw some really good, well-proportioned figure drawings and I think everybody is improving. I'll send you all an e-mail later tonight reviewing our next assignment and I hope you all have a good weekend." Jiraiya shouted while students started trailing out of the door.

Sakura felt herself oddly lagging behind as she packed her things at a turtle's pace. She was desperately curious to interrogate Jiraiya on some juicy information on the mystery man, for example his name, but she felt it would make her look nosy in front of her professor. She was so caught up with her internal dialogue that she nearly missed Jiraiya talking to her.

"Sakura I noticed you had a little spat earlier with Kakashi. What was that all about if you don't mind me asking?"

'Kakashi... where have I heard that name before?'

"Oh umm, he bumped into me and ruined my drawing but he managed to cover up his mistake so I let him off the hook. I'm guessing you've taught him in the past?" Sakura questioned as she gingerly rolled her big sketch pad up into a tube.

A small grin grew on Jiraiya's face and for a moment he looked as if he were reliving a memory. "Ah yes I did. I taught him in first year and again for figure drawing 210, he had such an excellent way of drawing the female form... Makes me wish he had pursued a career in drawing instead."

Sakura didn't miss the drool leaking out of her professor's mouth. She stifled the temptation to roll her eyes and was about to ask another question when Jiraiya's phone buzzed loudly in his pocket. Without delay, the professor dug his phone out and quickly read the message before saying a prompt but polite goodbye to Sakura.

With a sigh, Sakura stored her questions for Jiraiya somewhere in her mind, she'd interrogate him further the next time she had an opportunity. Turning around and picking up her things she set off towards the ceramics department in hopes of finding her favorite blonde.

"Sakura-chan! How was your drawing class?" Naruto asked with a bright smile, Sakura couldn't help but give a heartfelt smile in return. The blonde was seated at a pottery wheel and was working on what seemed to be a bowl of sorts.

Sakura walked over to stand behind him and peer over his shoulder as his clay-covered hands dexterously worked the material into a large bowl. "It was okay, a little strange though. This guy bumped into me and ruined my drawing and then tried flirting with me to get out of it. Are you making another ramen bowl?"

Naruto let his foot up off the pedal that was spinning the wheel and craned his head back. "I sure am! My professor thinks it's awesome that I'm making these custom ramen bowls and he wants to see more. What did you do to the guy? Do you want me and Sasuke to go kick his butt?"

Sakura shook her head, "No no it's okay, I made him fix it and you can barely see the mistake that he caused. I don't think he's a first year since I haven't seen him around the school before."

"What was he doing in a first year drawing class then?" Naruto asked as he carefully slid the bowl onto a wood panel and over to his workspace. Sakura followed him, being careful to mind the other students and not to upset any of their work.

"You remember how I mentioned the dean always comes to my drawing class every Thursday to draw with us? I think he was there for Minato because they left together shortly after he talked to him." Sakura speculated.

Naruto was always her partner in crime when it came to solving problems or things that were troubling her. He was always easier to talk too than Sasuke and she felt more comfortable coming to him about these things.

She brushed off a seat close to Naruto before sitting down and watched as he put slip onto some handles he made. His face twisted up into concentration as he attached the handles to his bowl, being careful to be exact and delicate with his application for fear of squishing the whole thing.

"Why are you attaching handles?" Sakura interrupted, curiosity piqued.

"So when I make ramen I have an easier time tilting the bowl so I can slurp up the rest of the broth!" Naruto breathed as he set the other handle as perfectly as the last. "Did you get a name from your obnoxious bumper?"

"Yes actually, but only a first name. Jiraiya said his name was Kakashi."

Naruto nodded his head and pretended to write notes down as if he were a sleuth collecting important facts, Sakura couldn't help but laugh at his impersonation. "I'll google him tonight Sakura-chan."

"Naruto! Stop using google as your source for creeping people." Sakura shouted as she gave her friend a shove, almost pushing Naruto into the bowl he was working on.

"Ahh Sakura-chan! Watch the work, watch the work!" He repeated in panic, the last thing he wanted to do was start all over again.

Sakura blushed, realizing her mistake. "Sorry, I was just complaining about somebody ruining my work and I almost did the same to you. Sheesh I'm a mess today."

"A beautiful hot mess." Naruto added with a wink, Sakura rolled her eyes but a silly smile on her face told otherwise.

"You know I can carry my own things Naruto." Sakura mumbled as she picked at the dried clay on her sweater.

The two had spent the rest of the evening talking and hanging out and now they were walking back to the dorms. Naruto always the gentleman, offered (took without her permission) to carry her things for her.

"It's fine, Sakura-chan, they aren't that heavy anyway and I don't mind."

Sakura huffed as she realized she wasn't going to get her things back until they were at her dorm. She followed Naruto as they turned another corner and climbed up a set of stairs. "Where are we going Naruto?"

"We're just taking a shortcut through the painting studios, trust me it's quicker this way than the way you take."

Sakura bit back a comment about men and directions as she walked down the hallway, after all he was carrying her things. She took a gander at her surroundings and observed in quiet awe at all the breath-taking paintings on the walls. As they made their way further down the hallway, Sakura spied a mop of snow-white hair out of the corner of her eye.

"What the-Naruto quick, hide." She whispered in alarm as she quickly pulled him out of view. Naruto looked at her questioningly until she silently pointed at the owner of the white mop of hair, whom was currently standing with his back to them in one of the studios.

"Sakura-chan, is that him?"

She nodded as she bit her lip nervously. 'What am I afraid of? He's just a guy.'

"Do you want to turn around and go the other way?" Naruto asked quietly. He had learned his lesson by now not to question Sakura's actions, if she didn't want that guy to see her then he wouldn't argue.

She shook her head and straightened her posture. "No you're carrying all my things and I'm just being ridiculous. Let's go Naruto."

Despite her confident stance, Sakura walked a little faster then necessary as Naruto kept pace with her. She mentally berated herself for acting silly, so what if he saw her? Unfortunately right after she completed her train of thought he turned around and their eyes met briefly.

'Shit shit shit!'

Thankfully the exit was near and they disappeared before Kakashi had the chance to say anything.

Cold air met Sakura's face and she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She could feel her heart racing in her chest and turned to Naruto who had a silly smirk plastered on his face, immediately they burst out laughing.

"We're a bunch of idiots Naruto, let's go home." Sakura giggled. They spent the rest of the walk home impersonating famous spy characters and laughing at each other.