No one knew where the whisper started. At first, no one knew if it was true.

Who?! Where? Not THE Uchiha-senpai?

By the time someone confirmed the rumour in a post to the forums, it was already too late. They could only curse that they didn't have faith in the beginning.

Uchiha-senpai is auditing an open class!

Ahhh that pink-haired girl sitting beside Uchiha-senpai is so lucky!

ε=ε=ε==(っ≧ω≦)っ(っ≧ω≦)っ(っ≧ω≦)っ

Pens, check. Notebook, check. Notes from last week and this week's reading? Check.

Attractive young professor? Sakura looked up at the lectern, then looked around the sparsely populated, compact lecture hall. Not yet. Then again, it was still a solid 20 minutes before class.

She wasn't just taking the class because Professor Uchiha was the teacher. It was a really interesting class, even if it was a bit niche. They'd followed the development of codes and code-breaking over time, and worked through the proofs and algorithms as they understood the historical context it was developed under. Sakura enjoyed the new take on the material, and it filled the arts requirement in her graduation requirements quite nicely. The handsome professor was only a nice perk.

She started to flip through last week's notes since she didn't know anyone else in this small class. She hadn't actually written down the mathematical process for the RSA algorithm and had instead marked it as a "come back to it later" section. Professor Uchiha had only briefly mentioned the algorithm last class, with in-depth analysis to follow this class.

Annoyed at herself, Sakura pulled up the algorithm on her phone and started reading it, but she pretty quickly got confused by the modularity notation, so she had to keep going back to her notes from the first class to figure out how the four steps tied together.

She was so engrossed, she didn't look up when someone on her left asked in a low tone, "Is anyone sitting here?"

"Nope, go ahead!" Sakura replied absent-mindedly. still struggling with understanding the proofs involving modular equivalence. It was a different way of thinking about proofs, especially to someone who was used to normal mathematical equivalence. The person who asked the question seemed to hesitate for a moment before they sat down, but Sakura didn't look up even once. Even the rising whispers and rustling in the class didn't distract her from her train of thought.

Darn it, what was that remainder theorem called again? The reason coprimality is so important... Sakura frowned when she reached the decryption step. She wanted to flip back in her notes to find the part where Professor Uchiha had laid the groundwork for this algorithm but found that someone had put an elbow on her notebook.

That's so rude, she scowled. The lecture hall was a bit small, but there were so few students, so it usually wasn't an issue. Even if the hall was full, a bit of elbow overlap was understandable, but this girl had managed to put her elbow right in the middle of Sakura's small writing space so she could stare at something or someone. Sakura tugged hard at the pages a couple of times, hoping the other person would get the message and move. Unfortunately, chin in hand, the red-haired girl sitting on Sakura's right was entirely engrossed with whatever she was looking at.

The red-haired girl didn't even notice as her elbow slid off the desk until it was too late. She slid right across the table, knocked off her own square glasses, and fell into Sakura, who toppled over like a domino.

Right into the person who'd asked if the seat beside her was free.

Shannaro! What the hell is wrong with this girl?! Sakura was caught by surprise as she thumped her head against a hard male chest. Urgh, this is so embarrassing!

"Are you okay?" That low voice asked. Someone helped her right herself as the red-haired girl scrambled out of Sakura's lap to retrieve her glasses, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Yes, thank you-," Rubbing her head, Sakura turned her head to properly thank the person who'd helped her up and then froze when she saw who it was. Her eyes went wide as she saw a very familiar handsome face.

Oh wow, Uchiha-senpai is pretty.

From this close, Sakura could see the tiny crease between his brows and was enveloped by the clean, masculine scent of soap. She knew the finely sculpted features - she saw them often in her dreams. Usually, at this point in her dream, she'd lean forward and steal a kiss from those thin, slightly chapped lips.

But then Sakura realized this was not a dream

And that she was staring like a lovesick tween.

At the real Uchiha-senpai.

...

...

...

Oh.

Oh no.

No way

Someone just kill me now!!!!! SHANNARO!

Of all the people I had to embarrass myself in front of, why did it have to be Uchiha-senpai?!

Anything else she might've thought was swallowed in humiliation. A flush crept up from her collar, so she just nodded in thanks to Uchiha-senpai then pretended to be engrossed in her notes. For some reason, though, she could still feel his eyes on her.

Of course he's looking at the weirdo who crashed into him and then avoided him as awkwardly as humanly possible! Shannaro! Sakura couldn't help it. She slowly brought the book to stand straight on the desk and buried her now-cherry red face behind it like an ostrich.

Sakura didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But since she was still in class, the only thing she could do was calm her racing heart and make herself look presentable before class started.

There she was sitting RIGHT beside her idol. She could've taken the 10 minutes before class to introduce herself and talk to him like a normal human being. She could've made a good connection! They could have been friends! Colleagues, at least!

Instead, she fell into his lap and stared at him in a daze, like a tweenie over her favourite teen idol.

Just as brainless as that girl he'd ignored on the street.

Sakura really wanted to hide under her desk for the rest of the class.

(╥ω╥)

Itachi was more than a little confused when he found a crowd in front of the door for his History of Encryption class, but they all scrambled out of his way when they saw him coming, so he didn't think much of it. When he went in, though, he almost stopped in shock.

His class was... full?

On the first day of this obscure little elective course, the small auditorium had been half-full at best. As the semester had just passed the mid-term mark and the course drop deadline, and since this class wasn't the filler class some students expected, barely a third of the seats were filled on a good day. Seeing every seat filled and a couple of people sitting in the aisles was... novel.

Then he glanced where most people were gawking, staring, or pretending not to look, at an aisle seat in the left section, three rows from the front. And smirked.

So that's what Sasuke meant by 'see you tomorrow'.

Chuckling to himself, Itachi finally reached the podium and set up his PowerPoint for today's lecture. He took his sweet time setting up, and as he did, he observed the situation in his abnormally well-attended class.

His baby brother always drew a crowd, even if he pretended to be aloof from the world. Watching this phenomenon always amused Itachi - something about the emotionally constipated expression appealed to girls. It made Itachi wonder about the tastes of youths these days. He'd never had this problem as an undergraduate. Then again, he'd been 12.

I wonder why Sasuke's here... Since class was about to start though, Itachi filed the question for later.

"Alright everyone, settle down and we'll get started," Itachi called, making the whispering and rustling subside. He clasped his hands together with a bit of an evil smile, "Today's lecture is a continuation of where we left off last class, so before we get started, I'm going to ask one of you a few questions to recap the reading I assigned after last class."

At his words, a nervous titter ran through the room, and most students started ducking their heads to avoid his eyes. Itachi's smile widened, "How about...," his eyes fell on his little brother, but instead of meeting Sasuke's eyes, he saw that Sasuke had glanced at the person beside him. That person was possibly the only one in the lecture hall not looking at his little brother, covertly or overtly, because they were hiding behind an open notebook propped up on their desk. How interesting...

"This classmate, hiding behind the notebook beside the young man in the navy sweater. The third row," Itachi called upon them. A muffled giggle rippled through the lecture hall, along with a collective sigh of relief.

He nearly laughed out loud when he watched the girl with pink hair emerge from behind her notebook and nearly jump out of her seat when she realized that the professor was calling on her. Judging by her red face and stiff posture, Itachi almost felt bad for springing this on her.

Almost.

"In the past few months, certain companies have declared that they've achieved quantum supremacy. How does that affect the topic from last week's class?" Itachi asked.

It really wasn't a fair question, since quantum computing had only been a tiny blurb in the assigned reading. Itachi expected consternation, confusion, or even maybe panic before he put the student out of their misery, but the student he'd called on just took a second to consider her response before she started to answer.

"Last class we discussed the RSA Algorithm, which is still a widely used encryption technique. The RSA algorithm uses sufficiently large coprime numbers to secure the data, which makes it easy to decode a message if you have the private key, but practically impossible to brute force the data if you don't have the key," The student his brother had been looking at spoke clearly but confidently. Tch, my bad luck that Haruno-san was the student hiding behind the book. If anyone could answer this question, it would be her. Still, Itachi was impressed by her calmness, and judging by the way Sasuke turned to watch her with a raised eyebrow, his little brother was too.

She continued, "Quantum supremacy indicates that a quantum computer has solved a problem in real-time that would have taken a normal supercomputer an impractical amount of time, so if it's truly achieved, modern encryption would become useless. All of our most sensitive data could be laid bare to bad actors, like passwords or bank data."

Itachi smiled broadly, "So are you getting ready to take your money out of the bank and stuff it under your mattress now?"

"I'd only need a pillow for my wealth, professor," She joked back with a smile, "But in all seriousness, expert opinion is still that the engineering challenges involved in quantum computing are insurmountable. Some experts claim that the problem in question would only take two and a half days to solve using a supercomputer."

"So do you think researchers are wasting their time?" Itachi raised an eyebrow. He ignored the sharp glance his brother sent him. A bit protective, is he? He knows this is a trick question because quantum computer proof encryption is my field of research.

"No, of course not," Haruno in the hot seat responded before his brother could try and shield her. She looked at him straight in the eye with a bit of a knowing smile, "Knowledge is always worth pursuing, even if it isn't immediately useful. For example, the theory behind colour TV existed years before the technology did. It's better to be prepared than to regret later, especially when it comes to encryption."

Itachi smiled again and applauded the student briefly, "Excellent answers, Ms. Haruno, thank you. As expected of one of our department's scholarship students. You can sit down now."

Itachi turned to begin his lecture proper when he paused and teased the rest of the class, "Your classmates are very lucky you were here to answer the questions. I hope you don't regret chasing beauty to come today because today we continue with an example of how the RSA algorithm is applied..."

___〆(・∀・)(￣∀￣) (－ω－) zzZ

"That's it for today, everyone, thanks for showing up," Professor Uchiha wrapped up his lecture with a breezy smile, "It was nice to see so many new faces in the audience today. I hope to see many of you next week as well - I just can't guarantee the same lovely view."

A ripple of laughter ran through the full lecture hall as people started to put things away. Sakura didn't laugh, though. Still dazed, she thought, but Professor Uchiha's only in his late 20s to early 30s and still pretty hot! What does he mean, can't guarantee the same view? Shannaro!

Then her brain processed the first part of his statement. Sakura froze. And looked down at her notes for the class.

They were totally empty.

SHANNARO!

Sakura had been so focused on trying to ignore Uchiha-senpai and not act like a total nincompoop in front of him that she hadn't written a word down all class. Now I'm going to have to go through the lecture slides and go to the professor's office hours. I hope Professor Uchiha doesn't realize why... Annoyed at herself, Sakura started shoving her stuff into her bag before she could embarrass herself any more.

She got up to leave but realized... There was no way to get out. The red-haired girl who'd dumped her onto Uchiha-senpai's lap had packed up but was just openly staring at him. In fact, now that Sakura was looking around, she felt a bit like a fish in a bowl, because she could swear nearly every person in the room was whispering about, staring at, or sneakily trying to take pictures of the campus heartthrob sitting on her other side.

Well, the red-haired girl's not moving any time soon. Sakura gathered up her bag and her courage and turned towards Uchiha-senpai.

No response. He was still leisurely browsing through the textbook in his hand.

C'mon, move your attractive ass so I can get out of here! Sakura tried to tell him telepathically. She tried clearing her throat to get his attention. I really hope I don't actually have to say anything to him. I'm practically going to have to do surgery to get my foot out of my mouth as it is.

"You want to leave?" That low, husky voice asked mildly.

Sakura nodded emphatically.

Since she was looking down, she didn't see the look on his face, but she did see his jeans-clad legs slowly turn to the other side and get out of the seat. Shannaro! What a relief. Now all I have to do is not trip over his feet. He was wearing rather spotless white sneakers today.

Just as she was about to finally make her escape, though. Sakura realized something. I can't just run away from him. He'll think you're totally demented, Sakura scolded herself. For the life of her, she couldn't force herself to turn back to look at him, but she at least mustered up a short sentence.

"Thank you."

And then she escaped.

ε=ε=ε=┌( >_<)┘

[Party] SharpandPointy: Man, I can't believe I didn't get to keep Jidanda
[Party] SharpandPointy: I can't even acquire it anywhere else
[Party] SharpandPointy: Boooooo what a tease
[Party] Spinfan96: Tease?
[Party] SharpandPointy: Like a...
[Party] Spinfan96: ?
[Party] SharpandPointy: ... you know what nevermind
[Party] SharpandPointy: So what did you think of OldRamenMan
[Party] Spinfan96: ...
[Party] Spinfan96: Annoying
[Party] Spinfan96: But he understands the game very well.
[Party] Spinfan96: Although I prefer doing missions with Chun_Lee
[Party] Spinfan96: or even just the two of us once we no longer need a mentor

Tenten paused, not sure how to answer that. Do people flirt in online games? She quickly dismissed the thought - she'd never even met Spinfan anyways. I'm probably being too sensitive.

[Party] SharpandPointy: I like playing with you guys too!
[Party] SharpandPointy: Same time next week?
[Party] SharpandPointy: This time works better for me
[Party] SharpandPointy: and CL should be free next week too
[Party] Spinfan96: Yes
[Party] Spinfan96: This time is more convenient for me as well
[Party] SharpandPointy: Okeydokey! See you then!

Just as she signed off, Sakura burst through the door of the dorm like a ton of bricks. Tenten nearly jumped out of her seat. Hinata wasn't much better off - she nearly dumped her steaming hot milk tea all over herself.

"You will never guess who just sat next to me in class," Sakura announced before either of them could ask her what hellhound was chasing her.

"A god? A devil? Uchiha-senpai?" Tenten asked sarcastically.

Sakura frantically nodded her head at Tenten, still a bit out of breath, "Yes!"

"I-It's not nice to call people devils, Sakura-chan," Hinata admonished.

"No! Well, maybe all three," Sakura paused, but then shook her head before she could confuse them even more, "Uchiha-senpai! I sat next to Uchiha-senpai in class!"

"Wait seriously?" Tenten goggled, "You didn't fall asleep in class, did you?"

"No! I was in Professor Uchiha's elective class! I would never fall asleep in his class!" Sakura protested.

"That's 'cause you're too busy drooling over the professor," Tenten muttered, "Did you take any pictures? Pics or it didn't happen!"

"I haven't replaced my phone yet, remember?" Sakura scowled at her, "But it happened! I totally embarrassed myself in front of him, and now need to find a hole to bury myself in for the rest of the semester."

"I-I'm sure it wasn't that bad," Hinata soothed her.

Tenten had gone straight to the forums and easily found the post right at the top of the page. She started laughing as she scrolled through it, "Oh, it's something. Oh my god, Saku-chan, I can't believe you fell right into Uchiha-senpai's lap!"

"It's on the forums?!" Sakura rushed over, Hinata was right behind her, and the three of them crowded around Tenten's laptop. As Tenten scrolled through the many different pictures of Uchiha-senpai looking indifferent, they also caught glimpses of Sakura studiously looking at her notes in the background. Then they got to more pictures of what Tenten was forever going to call "Sakura's big swan dive" and her bright red face afterwards.

Sakura gave them the rundown of exactly what happened, making Tenten laugh even harder. Hinata couldn't stifle her amusement, either, especially when Sakura told them about how she'd run away at the end of the class.

"You guys suck," Sakura sulked at them, but Tenten could tell from how her shoulders loosened that she was starting to see the humour in how absurd the whole encounter was.

"Sorry, sorry, Saku-chan," Tenten grinned, still laughing, "Look on the bright side, at least Uchiha-senpai must