Hello, everyone! I come bearing an update!

So, I know it's been a while. As well as all my other stories, it should be noted that this story is NOT discontinued, and will not be. :)

That said, I have to put a great deal of emphasis on this chapter.

PLEASE READ:

This is the most important grammar chapter in this entire story, in my opinion. It has to do with periods in dialogue. I know that for me, a great deal of fanfictions are ruined for me because people mess this up. It ruins the flow of the story and can make things confusing. So if there is only one single thing you take away from the grammar section of this fic, PLEASE LET IT BE THIS.

By the way, I would like to mention to those of you who correct my grammar in this story - I really appreciate it. I am human, just like everyone else, and I definitely do make mistakes. I appreciate the feedback, because although I am writing a story about grammar (among other things), I am by no means perfect and completely willing to learn more. I'm not trying to be on a high horse or anything - this is my attempt to help others write better, and hopefully along the way I can learn something too. :)

The Most Important Thing a Writer Will Ever Learn (In OHL's Opinion)

Sakura sat in class the next day, tense and alert. They were waiting for Madara-sensei's arrival, and while this was normally cause for tension and alertness anyway, Sakura had much different reasons for it.

Yesterday's afterschool 'extra credit', as well as this morning's, had been the definition of normalcy—as much as anything was considered normal when it came to Bastard-sensei. It was the fact that it was normal that bothered her.

She had learned more vocabulary, mostly, and had been given assignments to do on top of her regular homework. While she didn't have any kind of way to measure whether or not her English had improved, and it was probably too soon to get a proper gauge, anyway, she was starting to think that bastardly or not, Madara was actually a pretty good teacher. His assignments were comprehensive and thorough, and she found herself occasionally assigning English nouns to objects in her vicinity. It seemed like good progress—Sakura knew she was naturally intelligent, and it made her wonder if perhaps her other English teachers had just been a tad bit incompetent if she was picking this up so easily from Madara-sensei.

It was bothersome because there had been absolutely no indication that anything had happened or changed. There was no conversation about what had happened the other day at their lunch session; Madara hadn't asked if she had reported him, although he probably would by now if she had, nor had he given any sign that he had done anything inappropriate. He hadn't made any advances, but he also hadn't done anything to keep his distance. It was a conundrum for her.

After storming away from his office at yesterday's lunch period, Sakura had given what had happened a lot of thought. There was definitely a part of her that said she should tell—there had to be some way to report it without condemning herself, right? And she would absolutely be lying if she hadn't considered her options extensively. But then there was the part of her that had liked it, and no, she hadn't just liked it; she had never had such an explosive orgasm before and it was thrilling.

She had 'taken care of herself' in the past—who didn't? She was a healthy, hot-blooded female, and subject to desires just as any other human being was. The only reason she hadn't been able to identify what she was feeling the day before was because she had never expected to feel such a thing for Madara. She had known she found him attractive, but usually when she 'took care of herself', it was never with an actual person in mind. It had taken her completely off-guard.

Although she had never actually done anything physical with someone before Madara, she didn't imagine anybody could compare to the skill with which he had used his hand, his tongue, his teeth; even his words had been skillfully used, just like a weapon. And what a pleasurable weapon they had been.

So in the end, after considering all her options, Sakura had decided to be irresponsible and not say anything. It wasn't for Madara's sake, not at all. It was because she was okay with it happening again, and was, in fact, somewhat looking forward to it.

Not that she would let him know that, ever, because she had her dignity, and it was pretty clear that he wasn't too worried about blurred consent. A part of her couldn't help but find that slightly arousing in and of itself—he was willing to break rules to have her. On the other side of the coin, it was damn frightening that if she truly didn't want it, he might still go for it anyway. She tried to put that out of her mind, because she had decided that she did want it, so what did it matter in any case?

…It did matter, but she wasn't going to think about that.

Just thinking about it was making her a bit flustered, so she immediately pulled out her physics textbook and started reviewing a particularly challenging theorem to distract herself. Not long after, the classroom door opened and Madara-sensei walked in.

She could help but look up at him as soon as he was in view. He looked immaculate, as always, wearing a tailored navy suit and slacks. His hair looked slightly more wild than usual, as though he had a case of bedhead. Sakura wasn't sure how to react to the fact that Madara might sleep just like everyone else.

All thoughts of an extracurricular nature disappeared when he set down his briefcase and powered up the projector.

"Today, class, we will be learning something somewhat out of your range of expertise. However, I deem it important for a good working knowledge of the comma, which I see you all inexplicably continue to struggle with." His tone was scathing, but he didn't seem to care about his shamefaced students.

Sakura couldn't take her eyes off him.

She realized that there was probably no way she would ever be emotionally attracted to him. However, she didn't think he was emotionally attracted to her, either—after all, they barely knew each other, but he had still done that to her. And it wasn't like they were ever going to be in an actual relationship, and she still wasn't absolutely positive that what had happened was going to happen again. She had never thought herself to be someone who would be willing to have a purely physical relationship with someone, but if there was ever someone she could have no-strings-attached relations with—she was staunch in that she would never allow it to escalate to sex—it would be the man standing in front of her.

Who was staring at her.

Expectantly.

God damnit.

She chanced a glance at the projector for clues. It had a sentence that read: '"There is nothing wrong with the sentence." He said.' Beneath that, it said: 'True or False?'

Using some reverse psychology, she said, "False?"

It wasn't meant to come out as a question, but that wasn't what Sakura was concerned about. Madara was gazing at her contemplatively, with a deep look in his eyes that seemed to make promises. What those promises were, she wasn't sure, but her lower abdomen clenched and she hoped that she would be finding out soon.

"…Correct," Madara said slowly, giving her a knowing look.

Sakura flushed and averted her eyes, determined to pay attention this time around and not let her mind wander.

"As you can see, the person in this example has used a period instead of a comma in the dialogue tag. However, it should be noted that when choosing between a comma and a period to end dialogue, you should always use a comma if there is a dialogue tag afterward. For example…"

He switched screens to another slide. It read:

'Incorrect: "There is nothing wrong with this sentence." He said.'

'Incorrect: "There is nothing wrong with this sentence." he said.'

'Correct: "There is nothing wrong with this sentence," he said.'

"As you can see, it is a rather simple concept. However, it is a common mistake that even many English writers make, and I am here to teach you proper English. It is my goal for you to speak and write English better than your average American." He muttered something under his breath that sounded to be something along the lines of, "Not that that would be very hard…"

If it was meant to be funny, no one caught the joke.

Madara continued to beat more comma-related rules into their minds. However, Sakura recognized the next lesson as something she had learned in an English class earlier in her upper high school career. She tried to focus, she really did, but she couldn't seem to avert her eyes from her sensei's long fingers.

She sighed, ignoring Sasuke's suspicious stare. Lunchtime couldn't come soon enough.

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Cheers,

Of Healing Love