The Anatomy of Love
Written By: Banana007
Chapter 2: Welcome to Human Anatomy
She was late on the first day of school!
All of that time spent tossing and turning in bed last night out of anxiety for her first day of school and Sakura had awoken a whole two hours early, only to end up running late because her pig of a roommate had spent an eternity curling her hair in the single bathroom they shared! And now they were both running across campus with only a minute to spare for their first class of the day.
Damn, her armpits were already beginning to sweat from running under the early morning sun. Gah, she should've double-swiped after all.
Juggling her textbook in one hand and a mini brush in the other, Sakura glared at her best friend. "Did you really have to hog the bathroom just to curl your hair?!"
"It's not my fault the rod took forever to heat up," Ino retorted, her long blonde curls bouncing with every step. "Or that I have a lot of hair."
And that's why I like to keep mine short, Sakura grumbled to herself.
Upon reaching the crossroads between the Humanities building and the Science building, the two girls branched off from each other. Waving her hand, Ino shouted that they were to meet in the afternoon at the school cafeteria after their classes, but Sakura was already darting into the Science building. Ugh, why did her class have to be all the way up on the fifth floor?
She punched the elevator button, glad that nobody else was around in need of it. No way was she climbing up four flights of stairs just to arrive to class all sweaty and huffing in front of everyone. Raking the mini brush through her hair quickly, Sakura waited for the elevator.
She tapped her foot impatiently while wondering what her Anatomy professor was like. According to the ratings online, Hatake easily had a red hot chili pepper praising his attractive looks. Many of the comments on the website had raved about the appeal of his enigmatic but handsome appearance with some of the more blatant comments made towards his sexy body. His physical appeal was popular to the point that one comment had mentioned that the girls called him 'Hotake' behind his back.
However, there had been just as many comments criticizing his apathetic approach to helping his students with some claiming that he was only in the profession for the money rather than a sincere desire to educate the future generation. Apparently, he was a severely strict professor who, more likely than not, failed his students rather than helped them succeed. And for that, his difficulty hit the max score of 5 with red, unhappy faces flooding the page.
Finally, the elevator doors opened with a 'ding', prompting her to step inside and press for the fifth floor.
She wished she had taken a look at the ratings before registering for his course, but it wasn't like she had much of a choice to begin with. By the time it had been her turn to register for classes, the two other Anatomy professors already had a waiting list in the works. Professor Hatake was the only professor who hadn't reached maxed capacity. In fact, he still had plenty of spots left available, but she was starting to figure out that that wasn't exactly good news.
The doors began to roll close.
"Hold the door!" A voice shouted from across.
Glancing up to where someone had rushed through the building's entrance, Sakura froze at the sight of the sushi tie she had once intended to gift to her father. Jade eyes ran up a broad chest, skimming over a familiar black mask that covered the lower half of the man's face. Peeking above the edge of his mask was a spot of his cheek mottled red and purple—a bruise he'd sustained recently. And that mop of silver hair that flounced around as the man dashed through the hallway to catch the elevator… Sakura could still remember how soft those silver strands had felt against her face that night.
Ka… kashi?
She gaped at him and his dark gaze finally met hers. His eyes widened in recognition just before the doors closed between them to effectively cut off their shocked stare.
The textbook in Sakura's arm tumbled to the floor, shaking her out of her shock. She bent down to pick up her stuff, but the memory of Kakashi's masked face still left her chest squeezing in anxiety or excitement—it was hard to tell. When they met Saturday night, it had been too dark to see his entire profile save for key features like his hair and mask. But those eyes… it was hard to forget those obsidian eyes that seemed to swallow her in.
But what's he doing here? Is he one of the senior students? In the second she saw him, Sakura had noticed the book bag slung across his shoulder. So that had to mean he was a student, right? Oh god, and she'd let the elevator door close on him when they were both already late as they were.
She decided she would just have to try and avoid running into him on campus from now on, especially considering he seemed very eager to get away from her last night. Well, it should at least be easy for him to avoid her if he wanted to, considering the large student population.
He's wearing the sushi tie I gave him though.
At that thought, a smile tugged at her lips as she finally arrived at the fifth floor. The hallways were already empty and the voices of other teachers beginning their class echoed through as Sakura rushed to her classroom. Sucking in a deep breath, she took the moment to adjust the skirt of her olive dress before yanking the door open.
Over a dozen pairs of eyes turned to her as she slipped into the classroom, but the absence of their professor had Sakura breathing a sigh of relief. Okay, so Professor Hatake was also running late. Phew! That was good; she didn't need to give him any bad impressions on the first day of school, especially when she heard he was a strict enough teacher as it was. Apparently, he didn't tolerate even a minute of tardiness, unlike most other teachers.
Scanning the classroom for a seat, she decided to go for the first row despite the ball of anxiety tumbling in her stomach at the moment. She found that it was easier to learn from the very front where she could see and hear everything perfectly. At the back, she tended to be more distracted with her phone and she didn't want to risk that for a class like Human Anatomy, and she certainly didn't want to risk that under a strict instructor like Hatake.
Her palms were sweaty when Sakura sat down front and center, but it wasn't the fact that she was the only one who dared to sit in the first row that had her nervous. It was the fact that she didn't really belong here in this class. After all, who else took Human Anatomy for their first semester but without a major to claim? She was no pre-nursing student as most of the students here likely were, and she wasn't even trying for pre-med. So with no major to claim, she felt like an imposter among all these students who already knew what they wanted to be in the future. Yet, here she was on a Monday morning ready to learn about the human body for the very first day of college.
As she was starting to regret her spontaneous choice to register for this class, the door finally swung open, prompting Sakura to sit up straighter in her chair and, for the second time this morning, her jaw dropped.
No. Way.
There he was again, one hand yanking at the knot of her father's—no, his—sushi tie to loosen it and the other hand tugging at the strap of his book bag to set it on the teacher's desk—his desk. It was almost jarring not seeing him in his black hoodie with the black gloves, dressed like a thug rather than the professor in front of her now.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late."
There was that rich, deep voice coming out from that mask again, smooth as silk. He sounded a bit winded, no doubt from having to rush up the stairs all the way to the fifth floor because of her.
Shit.
"There was..." By some higher power, his dark grey eyes gravitated towards Sakura, finding her in the sea of students, and she gulped as a hot flash of panic throbbed in her chest. Kakashi paused slightly at the sight of her once more, but if he was surprised to find her in his class in this large five-story building, he made no sign of it. Instead, he cleared his throat. "There was a, uh... problem with the elevator. Had to use the stairs."
Kill me now.
She was already regretting taking the front and center seat.
It took all of Sakura's willpower to not just sink all the way down her seat and pool onto the floor in a puddle of despair and embarrassment. Of all the three instructors who taught Human Anatomy, and he was her professor? It was bad enough she mistook him for a thug that Saturday night and tried to punch him, and then proceeded to hitch a piggyback ride from him before trying to steal a kiss, only to end up puking all over his good clothes. But now she had also snubbed him at the elevator just a few minutes ago! So much for giving her professor a good first impression…
And she had mistaken him as a senior student earlier! Well, in her defense, she had already spotted some middle-aged and elderly students in this classroom upon walking in, so age hardly mattered when it came to getting a degree. It still didn't stop her from feeling like an idiot though...
Sakura watched Kakashi—no, Professor Hatake—power up the screen and open the syllabus that'd been emailed to everyone about three weeks ago. His full name had probably been in his email itself but that wasn't what she had been looking at when she opened it at that time while she'd been planning out and trying on outfits to wear for the semester.
The pen in her hands bounced anxiously against her notebook as he adjusted the screen for them. "Welcome to Biology 71, otherwise known as Human Anatomy. My name is Kakashi Hatake and this is my morning section for Anatomy lecture. So if you somehow got the wrong course or section then now is the time for you to check and go if you need to."
There was a small cough somewhere in the back, but everybody remained seated.
"Most of you are taking this class as a core requirement for your pre-nursing or pre-med studies." He leaned over the desk, placing both hands atop of it as he surveyed the people before him. Sakura couldn't help but gulp again when his eyes flitted to her and lingered there a hot second longer than the others. "I'm going to be very honest with you all right now: at least 80% of the students in this class will fail."
Her brows shot up at those words and a hushed wave of voices passed through the classroom as every student eyed each other in a panic. Was he joking? The apathetic look in his eye told her it wasn't a joke.
"If those words scare you—good. If you're already starting to doubt your ability to pass then you should probably drop this course. It is not my intention or desire to fail you, but what I am saying is the truth and you'll soon understand what I mean… if you stay long enough, that is."
She was still digesting the word 'fail' when his eyes suddenly crinkled with a cheeriness that was much too jarring from the serious look he had just given them.
"But enough of that." Sitting back in his chair, Kakashi pulled out a sheet of paper from his bag. Sakura recognized the form and reached into her backpack to pull out the same paper she had bothered to print out. "I'm going to go over the syllabus quickly before I do roll call and then we'll jump right into the lecture."
"We're jumping into the lecture on day one already?" A girl hissed from somewhere behind.
"But Professor Hatake," one student spoke up, "most of us don't even have our textbooks yet."
"Yeah, mine won't be arriving until next week!"
A few more students joined in to create a chorus of protest with even the elderly students quietly nodding until the sharp glint in Kakashi's eye silenced them all. Slowly, he walked over to the front row. Sakura forgot how to swallow her saliva when a pair of men's black dress shoes stepped into the edge of her peripheral vision and stopped right at her desk. His hands reached out to grab the textbook off Sakura's desk and she held her breath when Kakashi raised it up before the whole class.
"The name of the book and its ISBN were included in the syllabus emailed to you all three weeks prior, but it seems only one of you bothered to look through the syllabus beforehand instead of the last minute. So the rest of you will just have to catch up on the reading."
There was a collective groan in response to that and Sakura swore she could feel several glares burning into the back of her head. When the book had yet to return to its place on her desk, she dared a peek up at Kakashi. Dark eyes were already staring down at her and she instantly threw her gaze back down, trying desperately to ignore the heat creeping up her neck and blooming furiously across her cheeks now.
She wasn't even sure if she was embarrassed or terrified. Probably both.
The book was finally placed back down and Sakura slumped over in relief when he returned to his desk, but the blush on her cheeks stubbornly remained.
"There will be a pop quiz every morning going over what we learned from the last class. To get an A in my class, you have to get a 90%—not an 89 or an 89.90—I need a 90. No, I don't round up. And if you want to get an A-plus, forget all about having a social life," he said, giving them all an appraising look. Whatever he saw, he didn't seem impressed at all. "My office hours are…"
As Kakashi droned on, Sakura stared at the syllabus in her hands but the words seemed to blur before her eyes as the panic in her chest continued to swell.
He hates me! He hates me! He's totally going to fail me as payback for all the wrong I did him! Oh, I really do have the worst of luck when it comes to men!
"Now, I will be late every once in a while, but that doesn't give you the excuse to follow suit. If fifteen minutes pass and you decide to leave, I'll still be starting class, with or without you. For a core class like Human Anatomy, missing a day's worth of lecture is already missing half a chapter's worth of content, so I'd be careful if I were you."
"With a teacher as hot as him, I'd never miss a day," the girl behind Sakura purred to her classmate. "No wonder they call him Professor Hotake."
"Dude, his voice is so sexy. I can listen and watch him talk about my body all day. And have you seen the way his muscles strain against his dress shirt?" The other girl whispered beneath Kakashi's voice and Sakura tried her best to filter her and the friend out. "Those buttons are begging to fly off!"
Memories of Saturday night and her free ride on Kakashi's back had the blush returning with an intense ferocity now as Sakura couldn't help but overhear the girls whispering all about his broad shoulders—those same broad shoulders she had the chance to grip for five solid minutes. And his mask… yeah, that mask may hide half his face but it was nowhere near enough to hide the strong outline of his jaw—that same jaw shifting up and down as he spoke.
Wow, no wonder everyone on the website was raving about his red hot chili pepper… Wait, what am I doing?! I'm here to learn, not ogle my professor! Sakura tried to blink away any more thoughts about Kakashi's attractive looks and turned to frowning at the syllabus instead.
Hmm… But he looks adorable in my sushi tie—ugh, stop it, Sakura!
"There will be four exams total with the final exam being cumulative—and no, I don't curve grades." Several hands that'd been sticking up in the air immediately fell down, followed by a couple of grumbles. With a sigh, Kakashi added, "However, I do review days and will provide study guides but, regardless of what is on the study guide, anything from the textbook is still fair game, including the diagrams. So make sure you don't just follow my powerpoint notes but that you actually read the textbook itself. And since you have access to the powerpoints, please don't ask me to slow down. I only have so much time to teach you over twenty-four chapters worth of content."
"Over what now?!" The same girl behind her wheezed out.
Having peeked through the textbook the moment she'd received it, Sakura knew there were specifically almost thirty chapters to go through. But it wasn't the book contents that had her afraid for this class. Nope, her fear came in the form of a handsome, six-feet tall professor whom she'd punched, rode on, and vomited all over just one night ago.
Just looking at him elicited a mix of emotions within Sakura, and somehow it reminded her of Christian Bale from American Psycho; a sexy guy who could break her neck if he wanted to. Except Kakashi wouldn't be killing her, per se—no, he'd be killing her grade.
Goodbye, A-plus, it was not nice never knowing you...
The rest of the syllabus discussion turned towards academic honesty and the policy towards cheating, but all Sakura could think of was the sushi tie hanging from his neck. She was still surprised he'd really chosen to wear it and on the first day of school. Why wear something that would remind him of that awful night a crazy drunk girl had done all that to him? Did he not have any other ties besides the one she'd vomited on? Embarrassment heated her cheeks once more at the thought that Kakashi himself might be ashamed of having to wear something as silly as a sushi tie on the first day of school, especially when it didn't seem to fit his strict character. Still, another part of her was also glad to see him wear something that was personally important to her.
Roll call felt like forever as she waited for him to get to her name, student by student. She braced herself when he reached the H's but still jolted when Kakashi's rich voice called out, 'Sakura Haruno' and he said it exactly the same way he had said it that night.
"Here!" Her voice sounded like a squeak in her ears, her heart hammering away.
His steady gaze landed on her for too long a moment before proceeding to the next student, but it took forever for Sakura's heartbeat to return to normal.
Thank goodness she'd bothered with the deodorant this morning despite her rush, because she was sweating buckets at this point. And it was barely—she glimpsed the clock hanging behind him—twenty minutes into class. Which meant there was still over an hour left to go...
Lecture began right after attendance and the classroom was suddenly filled with the 'click clack' noises of fingers tapping rapidly against keyboards. She glanced over her shoulder and realized that practically every student but herself had pulled out a laptop and was currently taking notes by typing at the speed of light. Of course she had to be the only one taking notes the old-fashioned way.
When Sakura accidentally met Kakashi's gaze once more as he was introducing the organ systems, she caught the amused glint in his eye and sunk a few more inches down her chair.
Could she attract any more attention to herself?
At least he didn't click through the slides as fast as she thought he would. In fact, despite her taking notes at a slower rate than her classmates with their laptops, she couldn't help but notice that he only moved onto the next slide when she set her pen down. Or maybe it was just her imagination.
It seemed like an eternity had passed by the time the lecture ended. Skedaddling out of the classroom, Sakura inhaled deeply the fresh air to clear herself of all the humiliation that'd been twisting and knotting low in her belly. Luckily, some students had lagged behind to ask Kakashi for an add code, giving her the perfect opportunity to slip past him without having to feel the heaviness of his stare on her.
She rounded the science building to head for the back where she had spotted a small pavilion while touring the campus on her own the day she moved into her apartment with Ino. Hopefully, no one was there now. She doubted there was since it was behind the building and at the edge of the campus.
The pavilion's single white bench and the wooden lattices framing it afforded Sakura a decent amount of shade and some privacy from the bustling traffic of students that constantly filled the main courtyard between the classroom buildings. But it was the faint yet refreshing scent of lilac and jasmine that made this spot here enjoyable to stay at. It soothed the nerves that had been eating at her since this morning.
Tipping her face back, Sakura allowed the warmth of the morning sun filtering through the small holes of the lattice to wash away the rest of her dread as she mulled over what to do. The absence of Kakashi's deep voice only gave the chance for her head to flood with more thoughts of him. It would honestly be a ridiculous decision to just drop his class simply because of the brief but poor history between each other. It was hard enough to get a spot for Human Anatomy and it would be a waste to quit now when others had been so eager to get in.
Sakura sighed to herself.
No, she was resigned to her fate.
But it couldn't be that bad, right? All she had to do was put up with him for a semester—just about four months. And it wasn't like he was all that bad to begin with. It was Sakura who had given him that bruise; had puked all over his good clothes; and had made him take the stairs instead of helping him at the elevator. Kakashi—no, Professor Hatake—had been nothing but a gentleman towards her.
If anything, I should've stayed after class to apologize for leaving him hanging outside the elevator.
Shaking her head in disappointment of herself, Sakura glanced at the silver watch hanging off her left wrist. Okay, she still had lab class with him in about half an hour. If she stayed after class this time then surely she would have the chance to apologize to him then.
Without warning, the scent of pine trees and aftershave began to mingle with the lilac and jasmine.
"Well now, it seems my favorite bench has already been taken."
She squeezed her eyes shut—fate really had its ways of messing with her—and then opened them. Slowly, Sakura twisted around.
Kakashi was slightly bent over her, his dark eyes lowered to peer down at her face but his brows were raised slightly out of either that same amusement from earlier or maybe surprise that he'd run into her again.
"Oh, P-Professor Hatake!" Sakura jumped up from the bench, already reaching to grab her backpack. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize…"
He immediately raised his hands and it threw her into the memory of the other night when he did the same move to show that he meant her no harm. "I was joking. It's a public bench, so no worries. Please, you can stay seated, Miss Haruno," he insisted, gesturing to the stone white bench that separated them. "I promise I don't bite."
Chewing her lip, she soon relented and returned to her side of the bench, making sure to leave a substantial amount of space for him to sit down. Maybe too much space… half of her ass was hanging off the bench now. If he noticed as he sat down beside her, he made no comment. With her lap empty of any material and her mind now horribly blank, Sakura tried to distract herself from the awkward atmosphere by fiddling with the hem of her olive dress.
But like last time, it was Kakashi who dared to speak first. "So, how was your class this morning?"
Was this a test? Would she be pushing it if she said it went great? Or would he feel insulted if she called it okay? But instead of answering that question, Sakura was dying to ask him if he knew all along since Saturday night that she would be his student for the semester. His reaction that night all made sense now; he had to have known, she was sure of it. And now he was acting so aloof about it like he wasn't affected by this revelation at all.
"Um, it was fine," she remembered to answer, opting for a neutral response. Her slim fingers twisted and tugged at her skirt. "Nothing much happened since it's just the first day."
He leaned slightly—god, she could feel the heat of him prickling across the length of her bare arm despite over a foot of space between them. "Were you nervous? You know, since it's your first year and all?"
"Actually, yeah…" Was it that obvious she was just a first-year? Maybe he'd guessed that from her telling him that she just moved in over the weekend, although she also knew she looked younger than her actual age, what with the remnants of baby fat still clinging to her cheeks.
"Well..." Kakashi traced a hand over the edge of his jaw. "I hope your instructor wasn't too intimidating."
Hearing that comment made Sakura think he really was trying to pretend as if Saturday night had never happened. For some reason, that thought left her stomach heavy with disappointment. But when her jade orbs slid to the corner of her eye, Sakura met his gaze once more as she caught him peeking at her too, and she realized that he wasn't pretending they'd never met before. No, in fact, it was the complete opposite. This was his way of teasing her about that night.
Whatever nervousness that might've remained immediately dissipated within her.
A small smile started to pull at her mouth and she held Kakashi's stare while pressing her lips together to suppress that smile. "He was a little bit intimidating at first. Still, it seems he was nervous too, but I guess that's because it's his first year teaching—or so I hear."
According to the rating website, Professor Hatake had only begun teaching during the summer that just passed, making this fall his first official semester. Yet, for an instructor as new as him, he'd managed to quickly develop quite a reputation for himself…
"I hope you don't feel too stressed out about him," Kakashi hummed, scrubbing a hand across his jaw. Impressively enough, his mask didn't shift under the movement at all. This time, he turned his head to look at her fully and she normally would've shrunk under his intense gaze were it not for the way his eyes crinkled with a playfulness that had been completely absent back in the classroom. "Or did he leave you feeling a little nauseous this morning?"
Oh, he definitely remembered Saturday night.
Sakura's eyes flicked up and down from the sushi tie she'd given him and then to the teasing crinkle of his eyes. If she could die of mortification, she would have been dead the moment he'd stepped into that classroom.
Swallowing hard, she then leaned in just a few inches over the foot of space between them to whisper, "You won't tell anyone, will you? About my illegal drinking?"
It wasn't like she had any parents around to go batshit insane over her underage drinking, but if somebody from the school faculty was informed—somebody like the Dean, for instance… it could go on her record. She had already heard tales of campus police catching drunk, underage students returning to their dorms late in the night and she had no desire to become a part of those tales.
"I won't," Kakashi replied quietly, his voice deepening even more with the low volume. She blinked at him and he shrugged. "I was once your age too—probably a little more reckless even, so I understand."
Sakura couldn't help but let out an audible sigh of relief at that. The sweaty hands fiddling with the skirt of her dress slowed down to a stop before she smoothed out the little wrinkles made. "So then how old are you now?" she dared to ask, curious now that she had a better look at the exposed half of his face.
This close to him and under broad daylight, she noticed that his eyes weren't so dark as they seemed from afar. Nor were they the black color she had mistaken them for on that night. No, they were more of a smoky, gunmetal grey when exposed to sunlight. And though his eyes, framed by thick, silver lashes, were easily expressive, they lacked any actual wrinkles, giving him a youthful appearance. She guessed he was in his mid-twenties.
"I'm thirty-one today."
It took great effort on Sakura's part to keep her brows from shooting up. Thirty-one?! He certainly looked younger than his actual age, even if she could only judge half of his face.
Wait a minute…
She blinked at him. "It's your birthday today?"
"Ah, yeah…" He rubbed the back of his neck, keeping his eyes forward now as if he was the shy one instead of her.
Sakura smiled at him even though he wasn't looking at her anymore. "Well then, happy birthday, Professor Kaka—ah, I mean, Professor Hatake."
He released a sheepish laugh but finally fixed his attention back on her. "Thank you, Miss Haruno."
'Miss Haruno'; not 'Sakura' like he'd called her that night. That weird disappointment from earlier settled its way back into her stomach again. She was confused if their relationship had taken a step back in progress or a step forward. Wait, relationship? No, they didn't have any sort of relationship despite that night because, from now on, Kakashi was nothing more than her teacher and she his student. Yes, that's the relationship that they shared now. Any memory of that night they met needed to be erased from her mind pronto.
"Will you be celebrating with family and friends after classes?"
Kakashi nodded slowly. "My friends are planning to drag me to the bar later. I'm not sure what the rest of their plans are, but I can guess it won't be anything good."
She smiled wider at him. "Then I suppose it's a good thing I won't be seeing you until Wednesday once today's lab class is over."
"Oh?" He chuckled and it left her belly feeling warm with the pleasure of having made someone like him laugh. "You're already getting tired of seeing my face, Miss Haruno? I'm hurt."
"Not your whole face; just the upper half."
"Hm, touché."
"But I'll admit, I was shocked to see your face again when you entered the classroom." Shaking her head, Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "Did you know I would be one of your students for this semester? When you were at my apartment that night?" she added in a hushed voice.
Sweeping his eyes across their surroundings to make sure they were still alone, Kakashi then gave her a half-shrug. "I… suspected there was a chance when I saw your Anatomy textbook. But then you gave your instructor's last name—my last name—and I… I didn't know how to react," he added, scratching his cheek over the mask. He seemed embarrassed when he said, "I do apologize for abruptly leaving the way I did though…"
"Oh… Well, I just thought you had found a dead body I didn't know about or something." Her smile started to feel strained as the awkwardness of that night and the way he'd practically tried to escape her apartment like she was a serial killer resurfaced. But she wanted a little insight on what might've been running through his head during that moment. She deserved that much, right?
Sakura held her breath as she caught the wrinkle between Kakashi's brows that hadn't been there before.
"It'd be inappropriate for an instructor to be caught in his student's apartment," he replied slowly, quietly, looking everywhere but at her.
She nodded in agreement, having suspected the same thing as well once he'd revealed himself as her professor. Feeling the awkwardness of this topic start to kill what lightheartedness had developed between them, she decided to switch the conversation to something else. "So you really won't tell anyone? About my drinking? It-It was just that one night, I swear."
Kakashi shook his head. "Your secret is safe with me, Miss Haruno."
Though they were no longer strangers, she still didn't know him that well. Even so, Sakura could tell he was being sincere.
"Okay then… Thank you, Professor Hatake." Tucking back a loose piece of hair, she flashed him another smile. "You know, you're not really what I expected."
"And what did you expect?" he asked, tipping a brow at her.
Oof, she should've known he would throw that comment right back.
"Ah, um, you sort of have a reputation among the school." Sakura didn't bother to explain where, specifically, she'd heard about his reputation. He didn't need to go surfing through the web only to find his former students either sexualizing him or criticizing his strict nature. Still, with his expectant gaze on her, she squirmed for a bit before giving a sigh of defeat. "If you really wanna know… Freshmen have been warned not to take your class because they say you're a cutthroat teacher who has an apathetic approach to teaching and that you don't like stupid questions."
She paused to gauge his reaction, unsure if he was ready to hear some of the harsher comments from his ratings. The gunmetal grey of his eyes remained aloof but steady on her.
Sucking in a breath, she continued. "You have no sympathy for your students, their grades, their circumstances or whatsoever. You don't give extra credit, no retakes, and you test the most minute details from the book. The pre-nursing students are especially vocal of the idea that you've specifically designed your class to get them to drop from the program."
Deciding that was more than enough, Sakura shut her mouth and waited for his reaction. The website had shown dozens of scathing reviews from just that summer he'd taught, but she thought that he didn't need to know all the details.
There was only a second of contemplative silence before Kakashi spoke up. "So I should like stupid questions?"
The retort caught Sakura off guard and she blinked at him. Of all that she said and he'd focused solely on that? Or was it another trick question of his? "Um…"
Chuckling, Kakashi shook his head. "No wonder you found me intimidating. Yes, I suppose I am a tough instructor, but it's nothing personal and I have no ill intentions. I'm here to do my job, that's all. Some students just like to make it harder for me."
"Oh… I'm sorry..?" Sakura wasn't sure what to say to that. He hadn't denied nor admitted to any of the claims she had listed out for him. But, if she had to be honest with herself, she didn't really care about any of those critiques now that she was speaking to him like this. All of that hearsay couldn't compare to actually getting to know him personally and, from what she could tell so far, Kakashi Hatake was a pretty chill guy. It was only when his gaze stayed a bit too long on her did she feel unsettled around him… but not necessarily in a bad way.
"And you?" There it was again. Those gunmetal grey eyes darkening into an ashy smoke. "Do you plan to make things hard for me, Miss Haruno?"
Something about that question had Sakura's stomach clenching hot with excitement and her thighs subconsciously squeezing together beneath her skirt. Pink bloomed warm across her cheeks, deepening with color the longer she held his gaze. She licked her lips and sucked in a shaky breath, urging herself to not back down from this silent challenge that she felt he was putting up—intentionally or not. "No, Professor Hatake," she answered quietly, almost in a whisper.
She could see his lips quirk up beneath the mask. His eyes flitted across her face for a few seconds and she wondered what sort of thoughts were running through his mind as he, too, was now afforded the chance to get a proper look at her under broad daylight.
"I know you won't," Kakashi murmured. "Because you're a good student, aren't you, Miss Haruno?"
Minus that little drunken mishap, yeah.
Swallowing hard, Sakura couldn't help but wonder for the briefest of moments what it would be like to hear him say 'good girl' in that rich voice of his. Ugh, the words of those girls behind her in class really seem to have gotten to her. Either that, or it was those reviews raving about his red hot chili pepper—never mind that that was starting to sound like a sexual innuendo itself.
But his gaze remained dark and focused on her and…
She nodded, thighs straining together. "Yes, Professor Hatake."
She was pretty sure she'd accidentally called him 'Hotake' instead but, whispering it had covered up that mistake. There was a strange, thrilling sensation building between her thighs that was kind of hard to ignore the longer she held his gaze. Geez, was she really feeling horny just by him looking at her? Well, under broad daylight, there was no denying the sex appeal of his body beneath that shirt and tie, and even just the upper half of his face was ruggedly handsome. Still, he was her professor for goodness sake! And not to mention that he was fourteen years older than her—almost twice her age! Maybe she was feeling horny because her period was arriving soon or something. Then again, she was pretty certain that the other girls in class were feeling the same way towards him, including the ones who probably already had boyfriends.
A strange silence was starting to span between them but, because of whatever unspoken challenge they've gotten themselves into, neither of them dared to break away from the other's stare. At this point, she wasn't even sure if he was intentionally trying to have a staring contest with her or what. Either way, no way was she backing down.
Having had no parents around to reprimand her, Sakura had grown up to be quite a stubborn girl. She didn't know how she'd survived butting heads with Ino all this time, and maybe that's why they clicked so well together, but her stubborn nature refused to let Sakura back down now even in the—very handsome, she had to admit since she was this close to him—face of authority. There was something about Kakashi that both daunted her as well as drew her in. It was almost like staring straight into the barrel of a gun; intimidating, but also somehow exhilarating.
Finally, he looked away, turning his attention to the orange book he'd been holding in his hand the entire time as if he'd originally planned to sit down and read it here. It obviously wasn't the textbook or lab manual meant for his classes, but it also didn't look thick enough to be a textbook for school at all. She waited for him to open it but his thumbs merely flipped through the pages absentmindedly.
"I'm, um, sorry about this morning, by the way," she said after racking her brain for something to fill the pregnant pause in the conversation.
"By this morning, you mean with the elevator?"
She tried not to wince as the memory was still fresh. "I didn't mean to leave you out like that. I just… I was shocked to see you again. Here of all places."
"It's all right, I don't blame you." He ran a hand through the thick mop of silver hair that stuck out haphazardly from his head and yet she thought the style suited him. "I can't say I was as shocked as you were though."
"Right, because you already had your suspicions when you were in my apartment." A gentle breeze tousled her hair loose again and Sakura reached a hand up to tuck it back, smiling slightly. "Although it really had nothing to do with suspecting I'm a serial killer, right?"
In hindsight, it was pretty funny remembering how a tall, kung-fu fighting guy like him had been so desperate to get away from a small, unassuming girl like her.
"No, although it was pretty hard to ignore the ghost in your bathroom mirror." Kakashi paused to give her a solemn look, but then broke out into a chuckle when her jaw slowly dropped. He shook his head, shoulders still quaking with amusement. "I'm kidding, Miss Haruno. Your apartment isn't haunted, so no worries. I was just in a hurry to leave because, as I said, it'd be very inappropriate for me to be in my underage student's apartment late at night."
"So during the day is okay then?" His eyes widened onto hers and this time it was Sakura's turn to laugh. The sun was warm on her face when she threw back her head to let out a bout of giggles. "I'm joking, Professor Hatake! Sorry, but I had to spend the rest of the weekend wondering what I did to scare you off like that. I didn't know if it was the vomit or the punch—" Sakura gasped, twisting around on her side of the bench to face him fully. "Your cheek! I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had actually hit you that badly!"
She leaned just a little closer to get a better look at that bruise she'd glimpsed in class today and he turned his cheek for her. A mix of red and purple still peeked over the edge of his mask and Sakura wondered just how large the bruise truly was. Guilt twisted her lips at the sight of the mottled skin and she tightened her hands into fists to keep from checking the full extent of the injury she had given him.
Kakashi must've noticed the trepidation in her expression because his eyes crinkled once more in appeasement. "I've had worse, Miss Haruno. Your fist barely grazed me so it's not that bad, but I can imagine you have a mean right hook."
He's had worse? What does that mean? Then again, she'd seen the way he handled those punks with such ease that it was easier to imagine him in a dojo rather than in a classroom. But what kind of professor got into fistfights often enough to be able to brush off a group attack like that and act like it was nothing?
"How is your knee, by the way?" he nodded to the purple splotch of skin below the hem of her skirt.
Feeling a bit self-conscious of her bare legs so close to his and remembering how his hands had felt beneath her thighs, Sakura shifted her feet slightly. "It's okay. Still kinda sore, but I've been icing it."
He nodded in satisfaction before turning his focus forward to their view of the rolling hill before them that led to the lush park woods lining the back of the campus. His hands remained on the orange book, flipping through the pages without a glance as if he wanted to read it but not with her around.
But Sakura wasn't so eager to leave anymore as she no longer found herself afraid of him like this morning. Rather than that, it was curiosity that left her butt sticking to the bench despite the silence that had befallen them. There were plenty of questions still poised on the tip of her tongue.
Why do you wear a mask? Why does my Anatomy professor look like he belongs in a dojo instead? Why do you even know how to put someone in a chokehold? Do you like the sushi tie I gave you? Do your clothes still smell of my puke—no, scratch that one… What's that book you're holding?
The questions seemed endless with none of them having anything to do with his class.
She'd already been curious about Kakashi ever since he appeared from the shadows of that night to save her, but the more she got to know him, the more she wanted to know. It was like she was falling down a rabbit hole, guided by his enigmatic character. A part of Sakura worried that if she didn't continue this pursuit for more, then he would just disappear like smoke dissipating into thin air. But at the same time, maybe she was toeing a line she wasn't supposed to cross as his student?
The abrupt 'beeep' of his watch prevented Sakura from having to decide and she watched Kakashi jerk his wrist up to check the time.
He stood up, stuffing the orange book into the back pocket of his trousers before she could even steal a glance at the cover of it. "Well, I should go and prepare the materials for lab. I'll see you in a few minutes then, Miss Haruno?"
That's right; lab class was about three hours. Normally, three whole hours spent in a classroom sounded boring enough for any average student. And yet, knowing she'd be spending the next three hours under his tutelage left Sakura somewhat eager.
She nodded up at him. "I'll see you, Professor Hatake."
Professor Hatake. That was an additional three syllables more than just 'Kakashi' and Sakura was loath to admit she preferred saying his first name instead.
Kakashi skirted around her to leave but stopped at the edge of the pavilion. Peering at Sakura over his shoulder, he raised the tail of his tie to pull her attention to the assorted rolls of sushi coloring the otherwise grey plaid. Rather than see the smirk under his mask, she could practically hear it as he said, "Thanks again for the sushi tie, by the way."
And then he was walking away, leaving her to stare after his retreating back as the flush in her cheeks returned once more.
He likes my sushi tie...
A full minute passed and then, slowly, almost dazedly, a small grin broke out across Sakura's face and remained there all the way until she remembered to school her features upon entering lab class fifteen minutes later.
But even as Kakashi started lecturing about the various planes and anatomical positions of the human body, all Sakura could think of was how well he pulled off that sushi tie and his 'thank you' from earlier. It took the entire three hours of class for her to stop feeling so flustered over it.
But then class ended and Sakura smiled at him just briefly enough to say, "Bye, Professor Hatake."
And he looked up from the sea of students that separated them to meet her shy gaze, and the crinkle of his eyes was the only indication of the smile hidden beneath his mask as he responded with, "See you around, Miss Haruno."
Oh, if only she knew just how much they'd be seeing each other from then on.
A/N: "At least 80% of you will fail this class" is a direct quote from my own Anatomy professor way back in my first year of college, and it still haunts me to this day because I was one of the many students who did fail his class. The best students in that class only achieved a B grade. To this day, many pre-nursing/pre-med students still hate that professor with a passion (I recently checked RateMyProfessor). I had to retake Anatomy with another professor (who also worked as a neurosurgeon - so anatomy wasn't even her specialty) but she was a way better instructor and I managed to pass her. That said, some "classroom" elements here are based on my own personal experience of taking Human Anatomy (minus the whole student-teacher relationship obviously), so I would say you'll get a pretty authentic experience in this story of what that course is like as I'll be copy-pasting some of my old Anatomy notes for some scenes.
