Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

He’s late, as he always is, but she planned for that. “Hokage-sama,” he greets her.

She rolls her eyes. “Good of you to show, Kakashi.” She turns towards one of her ANBU and says, “Fetch Sakura. Don’t let her leave the hospital until she wraps up, though, because she won’t be back for a while.”

Kakashi tilts his head, curious. The ANBU just nods and takes off. Tsunade watches him go and then turns toward Kakashi, her mouth downturned. “Alright, brat. Here’s the deal. The village is broken all to hell, and we need money to help fund this war. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be asking this.” His eyebrow goes up. “This…” she sighs and pulls the scroll from her drawer, setting it on the table. It takes him less than a second to process the dark purple ribbon wrapped around it, and even from here she feels his displeasure. “It’ll be her first.”

“Why her?” The other words go unspoken, too: why me? Why now? Nobody’s allowed to take on a seduction mission alone these days, but why choose him as her partner?

Tsunade sighs and leans forward, pinching the bridge of her nose. “The details are in the scroll, but what it boils down to is that there’s a predator in a small town down south. Several of the local families have joined together and pooled their money to hire us because their daughters have gone missing.” She lifts her eyes to his. “Their young, innocent daughters.” A beat passes, and then another, and he remains silent. 

“Of all the kunoichi we have right now, Sakura’s the best suited for this. The Yamanaka girl’s done seduction missions before, but she’d never attract someone looking for innocence. The people older… ” She just shakes her head and leans forward, eyes intent on the man before her. “You’re the only person Sakura trusts enough that could do this mission with her. Ideally, we’d send one of her teammates, or a year-mate, but…”

“Sasuke’s gone, she doesn’t trust Sai, and Naruto isn’t a stealthy ninja,” Kakashi murmurs. His shoulders slump. “Fine.”

“Besides that, Naruto’s with the toads. He’s safe enough there, but both you and Sakura are… well, it would be best if you were both out of sight for a little while.” She drops her hand and looks at him, straightening up again. “This mission will also be a test. She applied for ANBU earlier this year. Should this mission go well, she’ll still have to pass the written test and the training, but discretion is vital in ANBU.”

Evidently, his shock shows in his eye, because she raises an eyebrow. “She… ANBU?”

Tsunade nods. “I know you didn’t pay much attention to her while Naruto was gone, but she was chuunin before he returned, and she made jounin after that…incident… with Sasori. Kurenai’s trained her in genjutsu, and she’s been working on her kenjutsu as well.” She narrows her eyes. “The only reason you haven’t seen the full range of her abilities is because you’ve been up against monsters and Uchiha, who excel in illusions and swordplay. She hasn’t been your baby genin in seven years.” 

Sakura bursts in just then. “You summoned me, shishou?” And then she sees the scroll on the desk. She pauses for a heartbeat, her eyes going wide, and then her expression evens out. If he squints, he can see why Tsunade thinks she’s perfect for this mission. The farther a henge strays from someone’s real form, the harder it is to maintain. Though Sakura’s clearly a woman, she’s still short and lithe — both things people attribute to innocence. 

Of course, then Tsunade opens her mouth again and he can’t help wincing at what she says. Oh.

- - -

Purple ribbon. A seduction mission. “I did,” Tsunade says simply, turning her gaze to Sakura. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly certain you haven’t had any sexual activity. That means you’re allowed to turn this mission down due to lack of personal experience, but you’re the perfect kunoichi for it.” She pauses and looks at Sakura long and hard. 

“I accept, Hokage-sama,” Sakura says after a deep breath. “What… what are my objectives?”

Tsunade rolls the scroll towards her. “There’s more details inside, but I’ll give you the run-down. You’ll be going to Sugawara, a town in southern Fire Country. Several young women have gone missing in the last year. All have been described as pretty and innocent, and all of them have disappeared after having a relationship with one of the local lord’s brothers. From the intelligence given in the scroll, they seem to disappear after spending the night with this man once or twice. You will be infiltrating the village under whatever cover you can concoct and fooling this man into picking you for his next target.” Tsunade’s mouth firms. “The chances of the other girls still being alive are low. The only information we have about how he could be abducting them comes from one of the girl’s mothers. She invited the man over for dinner and fell asleep after eating dessert. When she woke up, the girl was gone.”

Sakura frowns. “A drug, then, or a poison? It could be a jutsu of some sort, but that’s unlikely.” Her frown fades. “That’s part of why I’m perfect, isn’t it? If I’m drugged, I can burn the drugs out of my blood.”

Her teacher nods and nudges the scroll closer. “As you’ve no doubt figured out by now, Kakashi will be your partner. Naruto’s — well, Naruto, even if he wasn’t away with the toads.” Then Tsunade sighs and looks every inch of her age. “To tell the truth, I need both of you here while we prepare for this thing. But I also need you safely away from Konoha. You —“ she points at Sakura, “— are the heir to all my techniques and knowledge, even more than Shizune. You —“ and the finger swings to Kakashi. “—are the next Hokage, should I fall.” Sakura almost chokes on the information. “With everything in the state it’s in, it would be shockingly easy for someone to infiltrate Konoha and take either or both of you out.”

At that, they both start to protest, but she lifts a hand. “I don’t doubt your ability as shinobi, but I need to have you safe, and I need this mission done. Prepare as quickly as you can, and don’t let anyone see you leaving Konoha. Sakura, Kakashi’s familiar with these missions. Don’t hesitate to lean on his experience. Dismissed.” She nods, and they both leave.

Once they step outside the office door, Kakashi looks at her through the corner of his eye. “Are you sure you’re ready for this, Sakura-chan?”

She firms her shoulders and offers him a bright smile. “I’m a jounin, and a kunoichi of Konoha! I’ll kick this mission’s ass!”

His eye creases. “Good. You’re in charge of designing our cover. Let’s go!”

“I — wait, what?” He springs away, and she gives chase. “Kakashi!”

- - -

An hour later, she finally catches him and drags him into one of Konoha’s civilian shops. One with lots of colorful clothing. He casts a baleful eye at her and sighs. “What’s our cover?”

As they browse, she whispers to him. “You’ll be my big brother. We can say you were a career genin who got caught in the big attack, and you just got out of the hospital. The rest of our family died, so we want to get away from Konoha.” She smirks a little. “That way, we can wrap your head in bandages, and eventually go to an eyepatch, and it won’t be suspicious.” 

She buys a half-dozen outfits for herself, all of them plain but colorful, and wheedles him into a few shirts. Thankfully, he already has a dresser full of civilian clothes he can raid… ones much less bright. Then it’s into another store to find a civilian traveling pack — something else he already has. He’s immensely relieved when they stop at one of his favorite stores for weapons. She startles him, though, when she buys a huge pack of senbon. He didn’t know she was familiar with them. And at the next store, she buys seals for muffling sound. “…what?” she asks when he eyes her up and down. “We might need them for wherever we live.”

“You think there’ll be ninja listening to us?” She shrugs. He sighs and just follows her. “Names?” he asks when they land on her apartment balcony a little while later. 

“Sato Ichigo and Daisuke!” she chirps. “I’ve already got my henge planned, too!” She glances around, concentrates, and a puff of smoke obscures her for an instant. When it clears, her hair’s bright, eye-catching Kazekage red, and just past her shoulders. She’s an inch or so shorter, and though she’s kept her bright green eyes, the shape and shade are just different enough to be uncanny. There’s also dozens of freckles scattered across her face and down her neck. “What do you think?”

He offers her a creased eye and a nod. “They won’t stand a chance, Ichigo-chan.” He taps his chin, thinking for a second, and then nods again.

“Do you need to think about how Daisuke looks?” she asks, a curious little smile playing around her lips — which are shaped just differently enough to be distracting.

“No,” he answers, and disappears. He hears her swearing from three buildings over, though.

- - -

Sakura shifts her pack on her shoulders uneasily and grumbles to herself. “Don’t know why I bother showing up on time for all of these. He’ll never be on time. Late, lazy old —“

“Aa, Ichi-chan, are you ready to go?” an almost familiar voice calls out. She blinks and turns back toward the village. There’s a boy — dark-haired, though the sun makes it reddish — walking towards her, bandages wrapped around the top and side of his head. “You could have met me at the hospital, you know.”

Her jaw almost drops as she realizes it’s Kakashi. The hair’s still messy and wild, but he looks enough like her henge to startle her, his body long and stringy enough to be distinct from his usual self. “Please, the exercise is good for you, Dai-kun,” she fires back. “Let’s go!”

On the way to Sugawara, they discuss the details they didn't discuss out loud in the village. Ichigo didn’t have enough chakra to get into the academy, and Daisuke took the chuunin exam three times before giving up. She muses out loud about what kind of poison or drug could be used to knock someone out without issue. He has a few surprisingly good suggestions about what they could be, and about what kind of techniques she can expect from their target. 

The village is two day’s run through the trees. Once they get close, though, they drop out of the trees and start walking on the road, bickering with each other. When they approach the town gates near sunset, one of the guards asks, “Your purpose here?”

“Finding a new home!” Daisuke says, offering the guard a huge grin. 

The guard blinks and raises his eyes from his logbook. “A new home?”

“Yes!” Ichigo answers, her smile soft. “I — nee-san got hurt when Konoha got attacked, and… everyone else…” she wells up a little before sniffling and blinking it away. “So we just want a place we can be safe and happy!”

The guard stares for a long minute, shrugs, and writes it down. “If you need a place to stay, take a left when you hit the market square and go until you find Press Street. Takada’s is cheap, the food is hot, and the rooms are clean.”

“Thank you, guard-san!” Ichigo chirps, dragging her brother in by the arm.

- - -

Kakashi lets her do as much of the work as he can get away with. When they get to Takada’s, the old proprietor eyes them and huffs in disapproval, likely because she thinks they’re unmarried. “Hello, Takada-dono!” Ichigo almost sings, dipping into a low bow. “It’s my pleasure to meet you! Guard-san at the front gate said you had lovely rooms and good food. My brother and I are very tired, so please allow us to rest on your hospitality!”

At this unrestrained show of exuberance, the old woman’s face cracks a little. “There’s no need for all that fuss,” she rumbles, tapping her pipe on the counter. “Room with two beds is two fifty for the night. Meals are thirty ryo per person, and if you’re not down here in time for them, that’s your own fault. Rooms are paid up front, meals are paid at the end of each day.”

Daisuke steps forward and digs in his pack for a minute before holding out a thousand ryo. “We don’t know how long we’ll need your room for, Takada-san. Will this do for now?”

She snatches the money from him and counts it, eyes gleaming. ”It’ll do. Now what are you two striplings doing out, running around? Haven’t you heard the hidden villages are about to start up some kind of war nonsense?” 

Daisuke looks down, kicking at the mats on the floor. Ichigo sighs quietly. “Yes, Takada-dono,” she whispers. “We — we were living in Konoha when it was attacked. Our parents…” she trails off.

He glances to the side to find tears welling up in her eyes. Oh, she’s good. “I, uh, I was a shinobi,” Daisuke says, looking up. “I wasn’t strong enough. That’s why —“ and he gestures to his face. “So we’re looking for a new home now.”

Takada’s face flutters through a series of emotions. Before settling firmly on a welcoming grin, her lips a little parted. “Well, then, Sugawara will be good for you! Lord Yokoyama’s a firm hand, but he’s fair, and there’s plenty of work to go around.”

Ten minutes later, she disappears into the kitchen and comes back with hot bowls of miso soup. “It’s not supper, mind you, that’ll be later. But if you’ve walked all the way from Konoha, you need something in your stomach.” Ichigo beams at her, and Daisuke hides a smile. Takada’s firmly under her spell. She points them to a nearby bathhouse, and when they return, the small common room is redolent with the scent of curry.

On day one, she walks around the market, introducing herself to everyone. He just writes up a poster — with his left hand, not his right — and hangs it on the message board. Experienced genin of Konoha, looking for work! Strong and able to fight off many men and beasts! Ask for Sato Daisuke at Takada’s.

On day two, he gets his first job: painting a house. He sighs, but takes it. That evening, when he drags himself into the inn covered in gray-green paint and sunburn, Ichigo laughs at him. “Like you got a job already, layabout?” he demands, standing over her and glowering. No real siblings are always kind to each other. 

Ichigo leans forward, props her chin in her hand, and grins. “Actually, I did, nee-san. The flower shop just fired someone. I start tomorrow.”

Twenty minutes later, Takada comes out with supper. Strangely, she sits down beside them. “If you two are looking for something more than a room, a friend of a friend might have a place,” she says. “Twelve hundred ryo a month, but you have your own bathroom.”

Daisuke’s the one smiling now. “Ah, point us to the place, Takada-san!” he begs. “Washing on my own —!”

Takada cackles at him and slides a paper across the table. They go the next morning and check it out. There’s three empty units in the building, and one of them is a corner apartment on the top floor. It’s only two rooms, along with the bathroom, but that’s all they need for their cover. Takada points them to a used goods shop, where they find a cheap kotatsu, lots of curtains, and a half dozen screens to divide their rooms. At the last minute, Ichigo picks up a bedside table. He forgets it’s there the next morning, rolls over, and whacks his head on it. He’s grateful they already installed the muffling seals because his swearing wakes her up.

Two days after they move in, he goes hunting for their target: Yokoyama Hikari. He’s a handsome enough man, with a dazzling smile and dark hair. But he raises Kakashi’s hackles. He tracks the man for three days, and Sakura connives a plan to run into him. Hikari walks through the market every other day at half-past noon, and stops at his favorite restaurant for lunch. Kakashi orders flowers, to be delivered to Takada at 12:30. Ichigo gets sent out to deliver them at 12:25, and promptly runs face first into the man.

“How dare you!” he blusters, looking at his soaked kimono. “Do you know who —“And then he looks at her. Kakashi, lurking nearby, sees the gleam in the man’s eye when he sees her. It’s a pretty, almost artistic, picture: a young red-head, sprawled among pink roses, white poppies, and green foliage, her cheeks flushed with shock and shame. “Who… I… am?” Hikari finishes, a smile curling his lips. 

“I — I’m so sorry —“ Ichigo stutters after a second, pushing herself back onto her knees. “Please forgive me, honorable sir! I didn’t mean to —“

“Aaah, it’s only water,” Hikari says, his expression suddenly far more jovial. “Are you okay?” he asks, bending and offering her his hand. 

“I — yes, I’m fine, but —“ Ichigo says, her blush only deepening as she takes his hand. 

“Then all is well,” he says. “I haven’t seen you here before, have I?”

“O-oh, no,” she whispers. “My brother and I just moved here, and — oh no! The flowers!” She whirls around, clapping her hand to her mouth. “The flower shop is going to be so angry with me! I haven’t even been there two weeks!”

Hikari touches her arm gently. “Now, now, is this Ishii Flowers you mean?” he says, eyes smiling. “Let me go with you. They won’t punish you if I tell them I ran into you.” 

“Oh, but then they’ll charge you!” she says, turning to look back at Hikari. 

His smile grows. “No, they won’t. I’m Yokoyama Hikari, and my brother —“

“Yokoyama-dono!” she cries, her eyes going round in perfectly faked shock. “Oh, no!”

Gradually, Hikari calms her down. Ichigo isn’t punished for the flowers, but Hikari’s attention seems firmly caught by the tiny redhead. The next day, an order comes into the flower shop for Ichigo. Plum blossoms for your tender care in the marketplace, is what the note says. The next day, it’s Sakura blossoms, for your sweet smile in the past.

Kakashi wrinkles his nose at that one. But it means their plan is working.

- - - 

If she didn’t know, she might be fooled. The notes are sweet, and he’s a handsome man. A few days after she ran into him, Hikari brings her lunch. It’s ramen (ugh) and dango. She offers him a huge, tremulous smile, and says, “T-thank you, Hikari-dono. Y-you’re too kind to a silly girl who s-spilled flowers on you.”

He laughs and leans on the counter. “How could I be anything other than kind to such a lovely smile?” She blushes bright red and looks down, fidgeting with her fingers. “Now, my darling Ichigo, are you busy tomorrow night?”

Her heart stops. He’s asking me out. But it’s what the mission is for. So she looks up at him, confused. “I — my brother was talking about a movie, maybe?”

Hikari’s grin widens. “Would you do me the honor of accompanying me to dinner, then, Ichigo-chan?”

She claps her hands to her cheeks and gasps. “I — but I’m only —“

He reaches out and touches her face, dragging his thumb down and across her lips before pulling away. It takes all her strength not to shudder. “You’re only a beautiful spirit, Ichigo-chan,” he says. “Love knows no rank.”

“I — I —“ she stutters, blushing brighter. “I would be honored, Yokoyama-dono.”

“Ah, call me Hikari,” he says. He chats a little longer and leaves. Part of Sakura’s elated that it’s going this well. The rest of her can still feel his thumb on her lips. It sends chills down her spine… and not the good kind.

- - - 

He hears the door open and shut, and knows it’s Sakura. “Aa, is that you, Ichi-chan?” he calls out, not turning away from the burner. And, oddly, she doesn’t answer. He frowns, dials the burner down, and turns around. She’s standing just inside their apartment door, hand tight on the doorknob, with a look he can’t quite interpret. He clears his throat and she snaps out of it, offering him a sheepish smile and speaking.

“Yes, nee-san,” she chirps. “Guess what happened today?” Despite her cheery voice, her face is too pale for it to be something really good. 

“You… found a new dress shop?” he guesses.

“No,” she snaps, though her mouth does turn up a little at the corner. “Yokoyama-dono asked me if I would have dinner with him tomorrow night!”

Oh. His shoulders sag a little. “Remember your old, blind brother when you’re a princess, Ichi-chan?” he teases, turning back to the food. Sakura’s laughter tinkles through the air as she goes toward their bedroom to change. When she comes out, she sets the table, like has become their routine. But when he turns to set their plates down, there’s a bottle of sake in the middle of the table. He blinks at it, but shrugs and sets their plates down.

And then, Sakura proceeds to follow every other bite with a shot of sake. They’re sitting catty-corner to each other, so when she goes for her sixth shot, it’s easy to grab her wrist. “Eh?” she says, looking at him in confusion.

“Something’s bothering you,” he says, voice barely above a whisper. The chances of other ninja being near are low, but it’s still possible. “Is it… ah, is it the possibility of…”

She sighs, and he notices her shoulders — already high with tension — go a little higher. “It… no,” she whispers back. Then she scoots a little closer, so they’re as close to each other as the kotatsu legs will let them be. “It’s not… I’m a kunoichi. They teach us from day one at the academy that our body’s a weapon, that sex is a weapon. We go on seduction missions. We know what happens if we get captured.” She exhales and looks down, pulling her hand from his so that she can set them in her lap and fidget. “That part isn’t what bothers me. It’s that…” He watches her flex her hands. “I always thought that my first kiss, at least, would be mine. I hoped it would be Sasuke, of course, when I was younger. But it never happened. Naruto and Lee are the only people who ask me out.”

“Nobody else?” he questions, startled by that. She’s a pretty girl. She always has been.

She shakes her head sadly. “Nobody wants to risk going through shishou’s wrath if they don’t treat me well.” He notices her hands curling in towards each other. “I’m regretting not accepting Naruto’s offer for a date now,” she admits, her voice so tiny and low it’s hard for even him to hear. “At least then it’d be someone I trusted.”

- - -

She stares at her hands waiting for Kakashi to say something, to tell her she’s being foolish or to suck it up, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t even move for a few seconds. Then she shakes her head and blinks away the idea of tears before she lifts her face. “Ignore me —“

Suddenly, there’s fingers on her chin, her cheek, holding her still, and a heartbeat later, there’s lips on hers. Her eyes fly open, startled, but Kakashi’s eye is closed. She blinks, and the shock passes. She lets her eyes slide closed and sinks into the kiss, leaning further towards him. It’s not sensual, just soft and kind, and the way his lips are a little chapped makes it feel real. He pulls away a second later and she opens her eyes to see his henge smiling at her softly. Of course she blurts out something stupid. “I — you — lips,” she squeaks in a whisper. 

He huffs a laugh and his smile grows a little wider. “Yes,” he drawls. “I have them.”

Her brain’s still a little scrambled because she never even parsed this as an idea. “Kakashi lips. Lips of Kakashi,” she mumbles to herself, sinking back onto her knees and staring into her plate. 

His hand covers hers again where it’s resting on the table. “Something is better than nothing, neh?” he asks at a normal volume, and she reads the underneath. I hope I’m someone you trust. I hope this is better than letting him take it.

She wrinkles her nose at him but turns her hand over and squeezes his. It’s not until she finishes her food that she realizes, Shit. He’s kissed me and I still haven’t seen him without his mask on.

- - -

He watches the date the next night. Hikari treats her well enough, but something about the man continues to make his skin crawl. Given that he’s behind the abductions, that’s hardly surprising, but… the gleam in his eyes when ‘Ichigo’ isn’t looking makes Kakashi want to charge in.

He doesn’t. He sticks to rooftops and shadows, and when Ichigo leads him to the doorway of their apartment building, he pays more attention than he has the rest of the night. “This is where my brother and I live,” Ichigo chirps. “Thank you for dinner, Hikari-dono! It was wonderful spending time with you!”

Hikari smiles, and it looks honest. “Your company was the finest pleasure I’ve ever had, Ichigo-chan,” he says, reaching out to touch your face. “Please tell me if I’m being too forward, but — may I have a good night kiss?”

The way she dimples and blushes when she says yes almost makes Kakashi laugh out loud. It’s been a long time since Sakura was the kind of girl who’d react that way to just anyone. 

By the time she unlocks their door and steps inside, he’s lounging on the futon as Daisuke. “How was your night, nii-chan?” he asks. Did he fall for it?

“It was wonderful!” she gushes. He did. As she walks through the main room, she pauses by the futon and leans over to breathe in his ear, “You give better kisses than he does, though.”

He almost drops Icha Icha at that.

- - -

Sakura can’t stop thinking about the kiss the next few days — and not Hikari’s, either. She’s able to play it off like it was him, of course, but… it was a nice kiss. The kind of kiss that would have made her ask for a second date if it’d happened at the end of a date, instead of as a last resort on a mission. 

Hikari asks her out again. The day of the date, she spends all day debating about whether she wants to let sleeping ninken lie. Neither of them have mentioned it. As it stands right now, it was a one-off favor. But damn it, it takes all of her acting ability not to shudder at Hikari’s touch. If there’s such an easy solution, such an easy way to keep her from losing it, shouldn’t she take it?

So she schemes a little. When she comes home from the flower shop, she sequesters herself in the bedroom to change. This time, it’s just a simple sundress, not much fancier than the one she wore last time, but she pins her hair up and uses a few decorative hairpins. She also dips into her tiny stock of makeup and uses just enough rouge to make her look flushed and excited. Once she’s finally ready, she stands just inside the sliding door to their bedroom and calls out, “Hey, nee-san, come tell me if I look okay!”

“Mmm, an ugly sister like you? No way!” he calls back, laughter in his voice. But a minute later, he slides the door open and steps inside. Here, in the bedroom, there are only the frosted windows at the top of the walls — no possibility of spies — so she steps close to him and lifts her face up. He inhales hard. “Sakura?” he breathes, and she’s so close to him that his breath brushes her face.

“Please,” she mouths back, letting her eyes go big and round. He hesitates, so she says again in the faintest whisper, “Please?” He shudders and drags a hand over his face before he sighs.

“Sakura, are you sure?” he says, voice soft. “I’m… as badly as I neglected you, I was still your teacher once.”

“Once,” she agrees, her eyes still big. “But now you’re my friend, and you’re here, and…” she trails off. “I trust you.”

Silence, for a long, long minute, and then he cradles her face in his hands. “Are you sure?” he says, so close his words ghost across her lips. She answers by closing the gap. This time, it’s different. The first was like a whisper of home. This one… he kisses her like she’s ancient china, valuable and impossibly fragile. His lips are smoother this time, and that makes her smile a little. When she finally, regretfully, breaks free because she needs to breathe, his eye’s dark in a way that makes her heart skip a beat. 

That night, when Hikari kisses her goodbye, it’s not his lips she feels against hers.

- - -

When she goes on the third date, she lures him into the bedroom again on the pretense of helping her tie her obi. Of course, it’s already perfectly tied. When she steps close and lifts her face up again, he groans and tries to step away, only for her to grab his hand. “It helps me,” she whispers, her green eyes pleading. “Please.”

And, fuck it all, he’s weak. He’s spent the last four days in a half-daze, trying to decide whether he’s damned or not, wondering how hard she’s going to punch him when she snaps out of it. Kakashi’s not a weak man, but he is a lonely one. And… he has to admit his anger was easier to control last time, knowing that every time Hikari’s kissed her, he’s kissed her first. Laid claim, a tiny, traitorous part of his mind insists. He tells it to shut up, even as he drops his hand to the middle of her back and pulls her close enough to kiss. This time, she’s more confident, pressing back and exploring, tapping her tongue against the seam of his lips. He barely refrains from sinking his hand into her elaborate updo. When Kakashi releases her, a faint flush is visible even through the rice powder on her face.

That night, he ends up feeling insufferably smug when Hikari’s kiss doesn’t leave her nearly as flustered.

- - -

On the seventh date, Hikari’s kiss is more adventurous than Kakashi’s pre-date kiss had been. When his tongue worms into her mouth, she squeaks and pulls away, her shock entirely real this time. “I — I’m sorry, I didn’t know —“

Hikari smiles at her, but she can see something predatory in his eyes. “It’s okay. I know you’re innocent, my little Ichi-chan.” He kisses her again and this time, she’s prepared for the slimy wriggle of his tongue. Once he bids her goodbye, she barely waits till he’s out of sight before darting up the stairs and into their apartment. She doesn’t even greet Kakashi where he’s lounging on the kotatsu cushions, instead zipping past him and into the bathroom.

“Everything okay?” she hears him ask, footsteps approaching. She can’t answer, too busy frantically brushing her teeth to try and get that awful fucking feeling out of her mouth. She spits and rinses, but it’s still there, so she starts scrubbing again. This time, she holds the mouthwash in her mouth so long and gargles it so hard that the burn almost makes her cry. When she finally spits, it feels better, but she still… she shudders, thinking about it. A hand touches her shoulder gently, and Kakashi whispers, “Sakura?” into her ear. 

“He —“ She shudders again. “He used tongue this time, and… I can still feel…” She looks up into the mirror and sees the concern in his one eye. The hint of anger in the creases around it are what makes her turn. Like this, he’s almost got her pinned up against the sink, and it makes something flutter low in her belly… something other than disgust. She doesn’t feel guilty at all about reaching up and dragging him down into a kiss. She half-expects to run mouth first into cotton mask, but instead, warm lips crash against hers. He stiffens, and his hands go to her hips. She ignores that for a second to run her tongue against the seam of his lips, but they stay firmly closed. She breaks away with a sigh.

“What are you doing?” he hisses, but she doesn’t miss how his eye drops to her lips, or how he swallows when she licks them.

“I can still feel his tongue inside my mouth, I can still taste him,” she whispers. “I don’t — please don’t make me go to bed with him on —“

That must have been the right thing to say because his lips are on hers again, one hand sliding up to the small of her back and the other curling around the nape of her neck. This time, he runs his tongue against her lips. When she doesn’t open her mouth immediately, he nips at her lip and drags a muffled moan from her. At that, his fingers slide up into her hair, and finally, finally, she can taste something other than Hikari. It’s the same action, the same muscle the other man used, but fuck it feels so different. Kakashi tastes like the broiled saury she knows he had for supper. The way he darts into her mouth, teases her, and makes her chase him is just… she doesn’t have words for it.

This time, it’s considerably longer before she breaks away to breathe. “Better?” he whispers against her forehead, the sound closer to a pant than anything else.

“So much,” she says, drooping against his chest. “So much.”

- - -

It’s set in stone. Kakashi’s fucking doomed, surely sentenced to hell for all eternity because he’s kissing his ex-student and enjoying it. He’d given her her pre-date kiss before her next date, but she’d stepped into the apartment shuddering after the date was over. “I hate the way he kisses,” she whispers after she spends ten minutes brushing her teeth. After that, he kisses her before her dates. When she comes home from them, he helps her forget Hikari’s touch.

On their thirteenth date, instead of walking her home, Hikari takes her to the park. Kakashi follows. He has to watch that disgusting excuse for a man gnaw on Sakura’s neck like a bone while she simpers and gasps. Once, she finds him in the trees and catches his eye, and he winces because he can see how much she hates it. 

Again, she zips past him once she gets home. This time she’s in the shower almost immediately, so he fixes a cup of tea and takes it into their bedroom, where he sets it on the bedside table and waits. When she comes out, her hair already half-dry, she’s running healing chakra over her shoulder. He watches the bruise marks fade away before he hands her the tea. She drinks it all, sighs, and hands the cup back. 

This time, he doesn’t wait for her to make a move. He sets the cup aside and drags her down onto his futon, kissing her like he can really make her forget Hikari. It doesn’t take long for him to move on to her neck, marring the newly healed skin with his bite marks, his hickeys. 

It throws him a little off guard when she lifts his hand from her waist and drops it onto her breast because he hadn’t seen that. He breaks away, breathing hard, and demands, “He groped you?”

She winces, but nods before she speaks. “He… he was glad I wore a wrap dress tonight. Easy access, he said.” Kakashi can’t help hissing at that because that means Hikari had his hand up Sakura’s shirt and he didn’t notice. He kisses her again, gently tugging at the tie to her robe, and slips his hand inside. 

Her breath hitches a second before his does. He hadn’t thought it through, but she’d come straight out of the bathroom — that’s why his hand’s gently curled around a bare breast. “Did he —“ he breathes against her lips.

“No, I — I had wraps on,” she stutters. Because he’s the biggest pervert in all of existence, that makes him smile a little. It means even if Hikari groped her, Kakashi is still the first person to touch her skin-to-skin like this. He drags his fingers across her bare skin slowly, feeling goosebumps trail his touch, and his smile grows as he flattens his palm against her breast, gently rolling it beneath his hand. Her stifled gasp goes straight to his cock, as does the way her nipple perks up and pokes at his hand. When he tweaks her nipple between two fingers, she jerks against him and whimpers into his mouth.

That night, after she finally nods off in her bed, he slips into the bathroom and touches himself, his body tense as he accepts that he’s an awful fucking person — he’s already looking forward to her next date with Hikari just because it means she’ll come home asking for his hands on her skin. 

- - -

Sakura’s entire body hums while she waits on Hikari for their next date, but it’s not because of him. Today, Kakashi followed her into the bedroom when she went in to change into her date outfit. She hadn’t even realized until she’d turned around, her dirty shirt in hand, to find him standing behind her. He sat down on her vanity stool, dragged her onto his lap, and proceeded to kiss her senseless. Not a little of her excitement comes from feeling the evidence that Kakashi, too, likes this.

Hikari thinks it’s all for him when he takes her to the lakeside and slides a hand between her legs. She sees a flicker of suspicion in his eyes, just a flicker, so she plays it to the hilt. When he moves her panties aside and touches her, she squirms and pushes him away. “I — I think something’s wrong with me, Hikari-kun,” she whimpers, her face flushed. “I — I’ve been — it’s been very hard for me to concentrate today, and my… down there…” she hides her face in her hands and rolls her eyes.

It works. “Oh, my darling,” he coos at her. “It just means your body likes me.”

She can’t help disagreeing, loudly, inside her head. No, it means my body likes Kakashi! That night, when she comes home, Kakashi’s already waiting for her in the bedroom, his eye dark with fury as he drags her down to straddle his lap. If she hadn’t taken her panties off in the main room, she doesn’t think she’d have gotten them off.

“Did he hurt you?” he whispers in her ear between kisses as he kneads one breast in his hand.

“N-no,” she whispers back. “B-but he…” And at this, she actually blushes and leans forward so that her mouth’s against his ear, because this is the filthiest thing she’s ever thought about saying. She’s read her share of illicit romance novels, with filthy dialogue, but saying it… “He thought he was the reason I was soaking wet all evening,” she whispers. Kakashi outright groans at that and drops his hands to her hips, pushing her down to straddle him, where she can feel something pressing against her.

“And was he?” he breathes back, holding her perfectly still.

She hesitates again, just a little. He pauses and raises an eyebrow at her, ready to stop, but she shakes her head at him and exhales, the flush slowly creeping to her neck. “I…” she swallows and finally manages to whisper, “I was thinking about your cock.”

At that, she feels his erection jump beneath her and he groans again, his head lolling back. “You’re going to be the death of me,” he mutters. Then his hand slides down her leg and back up, beneath her dress. He kisses her and then — his fingers touch her — she feels his entire body jolt. “Fuck,” he moans into her mouth. And even just this, his fingers exploring her thighs and the junction between them, feels so much better than Hikari.

- - -

He almost loses control when he finds she doesn’t have panties on. And she wasn’t lying about being soaking, either. Her thighs are slick with want, her pubic hair almost sodden, her pussy spread open… 

“He didn’t… he just touched outside,” she whispers. “I think he didn’t want to go too far yet.” He kisses her again, nibbling on her lip, and lets his hands roam. It doesn’t take long before she’s breathless, and then he slides one finger inside her. The way she gasps and moans, clenching around his finger, is almost enough to undo him. 

“Good?” he breathes, leaning back to catch her eyes. She’s flushed, green eyes dark and wide, her dress pushed down just far enough for her breasts to peek out — it’s erotic enough already. Then she bites her lip and nods slowly. He starts to finger-fuck her then, slowly at first, but the pleasure flickering across her face makes him impatient, and he adds a second finger. Her mouth gapes open, and her whimper… fuck, her whimper. With two fingers inside of her, slowly pumping, he’s in a good position to find her clit — and he does. He taps it, and her entire body jerks like a live wire.

“Kakashi,” she whisper-moans, her eyes half-lidded. He shushes her and strokes it again — she almost cries out, but bites her lip again. Another pass — and another — and she jerks, almost wailing, but he catches her cry with his lips and drinks it down as she comes apart on his fingers. They settle, panting, against each other for a moment. Then he crooks his fingers, just to see if he can hit a certain spot inside her, and does. Her full-body shudder makes him smile. But then she opens her eyes and scowls at him, reaching down for his drawstrings. He catches her hand with a warning look. “Please?” she says, offering him the big eyes again.

He sighs, but undoes the drawstrings on his pants and lets her slide them down a little. The room’s just barely lit enough for them to see each other, so she can’t see his cock well. It’s probably for the best, because just her fingers trailing over him is almost too much. He lets her explore for a minute and then he frees his fingers, licking them clean. She squeaks and he offers her a sly grin. Then he pushes her off him, to the side, and she slides off of him looking pouty. He breathes a laugh and murmurs, “Lay down.” She obliges, and then he settles over her, carefully arranging his body. He knows he’s found the right position when her breath hitches again. “Good?” he says into her ear. 

She just hums in response. A few seconds later, as he rocks his hips into hers, the hum turns into a whine as she grabs at his arms. It’s not the first time he’s had a liaison with a partner, but it’s the first time frotting has ever felt like such sweet hell. She’s so slick that it takes his breath, and her gasps in his ear… 

When she shudders and he feels her gushing against his cock, it sends him over the edge. When his vision clears, she’s looking insufferable and entirely too pleased about the cum splattered across her stomach and pubic hair… and a little on her dress, too. He tweaks her nose for it, but she swats his hand away with a laugh.

- - -

Two days later, Hikari sends her flowers with a note. 5 days from now, meet me at Synosu. I’ve got a special evening planned for us. Bring an overnight bag.

She shows Kakashi the note and his teeth click together in… anger? She’s not sure what to label the emotion. “This is it,” is all he says. “After this…” she nods.

“He could strike at any time,” she says quietly.  That night, she has trouble sleeping — not for her own sake, but because she’s terrified of what might have happened to the other girls. Four hours into the night, she sighs and sits up to look over at her partner. He’s immobile in bed, as always, but she’s sure he woke up as soon as she moved. So she takes her blanket and shuffles over to his futon. 

“Aa, Ichi-chan?” he mumbles, opening his eye and looking up at her from where his face is buried in the pillow.

“I can’t sleep,” she says. He just scoots over. The futon’s barely big enough for both of them, but his arm across her waist proves surprisingly comforting. It doesn’t take her long to drift off to sleep after that. If her co-workers attribute her good mood to Hikari, that’s all the better.

At bedtime, she walks into the bathroom to change and walks out to find their futons have been dragged together. The next morning, she wakes up to find his hand beneath her shirt and his erection searing hot against her back. She knows, knows, it’s a morning reaction — but she doesn’t care. So she rocks her hips back against him. No response, so she does it again, and again. Her first indication he’s awake is when he pinches her nipple hard. “You fucking minx,” he growls into her ear. It sends chills down her spine and pools in her belly. Then she hears him sniff and he growls again. She smirks a little and rolls her hips back again. “You’re trying to kill me,” he mutters, hand sliding down her body and into her pants.

That’s the first time they touch each other entirely unprompted by Hikari’s lewdness. She wakes up to gentle touches roaming her body the day after that, and she comes so hard she has to bite down on his shoulder to keep from screaming. 

She returns the favor the next morning, when she wakes up to find her face buried in his chest and his legs tangled with hers, erection nestled against her stomach. After a few seconds of staring, she tugs the ties loose on his pants and drags them down as carefully as she can. It’s the first time she’s gotten to really see his cock. Penises all look strange as a rule, but his is relatively nice. Almost cute, even, with the way that his cherry red head peeks from his foreskin. She exhales and tries to remember all the things she’s read in romance novels, but her brain goes blank. Instead, she just goes with instinct, licking her hand and gently wrapping it around his cock. 

A sharp inhale above her head tells her Kakashi’s awake. She looks up, blushing, to find him watching her. “I wondered if you were that tired,” she whispers.

“Rarely, if ever, am I tired enough to sleep through someone poking around my crotch,” he says dryly. She snorts and giggles, but just looks back down. He’s wonderfully patient, letting her explore and play with his cock. She finds out there’s a ridge just above his base that makes him groan, and that he responds best to firm touches. Sakura’s still not bored when he reaches down to grab her hand, his breathing hard. “You only have an hour before you need to be at work,” he says, his voice tight. “Should probably get ready.”

She looks up and pouts at him. “But I wanted to make you come,” she complains quietly. 

He smirks a little. “Kick off your shorts, then,” he almost growls. She obeys. They’re barely down her legs when his hand slides between her legs. She can’t help the moan that trebles from her at his touch, but it’s gone too soon for her to really enjoy. Then she realizes what he was doing as he runs his fingers over his cock, leaving trails of her wetness behind. “Don’t go too fast, and keep your speed consistent,” he says, scooting just a little closer. 

It sounds easier than it is, especially when his hand snakes back between her legs. But they’re both worked up, and it doesn’t take long before she shudders against his hand. He follows her a minute later, his spend spraying onto her stomach where her shirt’s hiked up. “Minx,” he accuses her again as he catches his breath. She just smiles and squirms away.

At dawn on the fifth day, ‘date day’, she wakes up to find Kakashi gone from their room. He comes out of the bathroom a minute later and grins at her, the smile a little too tight to be real. “Ne, Ichi-chan, today’s your big sleepover!” he says. “I thought you might like a special breakfast to make sure you come back to your big brother.” As he speaks, he kneels at the end of the futon and touches her ankles, eyebrows high. Do you want this?

“Idiot brother, I’ll always come back!” she says with a laugh. “But make sure you remember my favorite!” I want this. 

His eye goes dark with something she now knows as arousal and he stretches out between her legs, running one hand up under the edge of her shorts. She doesn’t need any prompting to kick it — or the shirt — into a corner. And Kakashi then proceeds to tease her mercilessly, touches dancing around her pussy, just missing her clit, until she’s so worked up she could scream. Then he smiles at her, dark and devilish, before lowering his mouth to her. She bucks up at the first touch of his tongue, making him wrap one arm around her leg and splay a hand across her hip to keep her level. “Shhh,” he whispers, and then he goes back down. Sakura writhes and bucks and wishes she could scream — when she finally comes, she bites her hand so hard it bruises almost immediately.

It helps that night.

- - -

They’re inside, for once, and that means Kakashi can’t follow them indoors. Instead, he finds their room (just below the penthouse) and perches on top of the balcony, listening for any signs of distress. He hears Sakura’s fake giggling, pictures her blushing, and then the bed squeaks. He tenses. The next twenty minutes are… the longest twenty minutes of his life. He listens as she pretends to enjoy Hikari’s attentions, as she pretends to wail his name in ecstasy, as Hikari grunts her name. 

He doesn’t realize his fingernails are dug into his palms until he smells blood. Then he ends up gnawing on them, waiting for it to be over. It eventually ends, and he hears Sakura go to the bathroom. (“It’s good hygiene, people with vaginas should always go to the bathroom after they orgasm!”) She returns and the lights go out. It doesn’t take long before he hears Hikari snoring.

Sakura’s chakra never flickers into the subtle waves that indicate sleep. He stays there the whole night, until the sun begins rising and he has to leave. He’s never been more glad that he works his own schedule, even here. It means he’s in the main room, dozing on the kotatsu, when she comes home. She smiles at him, and even through the henge, he can tell she’s exhausted. He follows her into the bathroom, where she drops the henge for the first time in three and a half months. He’s seen her look better rested after working a double at the hospital — her expression’s perfectly empty. 

After a minute of deliberation, he goes back out to the main room and draws the curtains. The shower turns on while he’s doing it. He brings fresh clothes into the bathroom and leaves them on the sink before he steps into the shower and helps her wash. He stops her from scrubbing until her skin’s red and doesn’t let her stay in until she boils. None of it is sexual, and he’s not inclined to make it that way. Seduction missions have never sat well with him, because in the most technical sense, it’s not rape. To him it doesn’t feel like a justification for the missions, but it’s not his job to say what’s wrong and right. In their futon, she curls up against him. 

She doesn’t cry. Her eyes don’t even look like they want to be red. But she melts into him like he’s the last thing on earth that could save her.

- - -

To be honest, it’d been exactly what Sakura expected. It just… hadn’t hit her until she was on her way home. It doesn’t make her feel dirty, or ‘whoreish’, or anything like she’s heard from other kunoichi. It feels like her body’s really a tool for the first time. Kakashi knows what she needs as soon as she steps into their apartment, and it’s comforting. She doesn’t know what she would have done without him and — well, all his help. Later, when she wakes up with her head pillowed on his arm, she considers his face for a long minute. She really assumed he’d been wearing the mask under his henge, all the way up until she’d pulled him in for that spontaneous kiss and found lips instead of cloth. She half-wonders now if this is his real face, or if he’s henged into something just slightly different…

“Something on m’ face?” Kakashi mumbles, half opening his eye.

“Just my curiosity,” Sakura answers, offering him a half smile. He hums a questioning little hum and she elaborates. “Is this your you face, or did you change things?” As an answer, he sighs and flops onto his back, jarring her a little, before raising his hand and releasing the henge. It fades, and her jaw drops as she claps a hand over her eyes. “I didn’t mean you had to show me!” she squeaks.

He chuckles. “It’s okay,” he says, his fingers prying hers away from her face. “After all of this… well, I think you’ve earned it.” Reassured, she lets him pull her hand away and then sits up a little to get a good look at his face. Daisuke’s features are rougher, thicker, than Kakashi’s real features, the nose a little wider and less aristocratic, the mouth short and rough compared to Kakashi’s ridiculously plush, wide lips.

“Pretty boy,” she mutters, a little angry that he’s thirty-three and his skin’s better than hers and Ino’s. “…why didn’t you just use your real face for this mission?” she asks, reaching out and touching the birthmark on his chin. 

He smiles at her and she gets her answer. Daisuke’s lopsided smile was handsome enough. On his real face, it’s fucking sizzling hot. “I wasn’t supposed to be the one getting attention this time around,” he says gently. 

“Yeah, uh. Yeah,” she says stupidly, her brain a little addled by just his smile. “…that’s not fair. He arches an eyebrow at her. “You’re stupid smart, and you have a sharingan, and you’re prettier than at least half of the kunoichi I’ve met.”

“Aa, well, I haven’t heard many complaints,” he teases, gently tugging at her closer and pulling her into a kiss. It’s soft, and wholesome, and it feels so good after Hikari’s slobbering. She doesn’t realize she’s crying until he makes a noise of alarm and pulls away. “Are you okay?” he asks, gently swiping the tears off her cheeks. 

“I — yes,” she says, startled to realize it’s true. “I just…” she sighs and sinks down against him. “Whatever Hikari’s taking those girls for, it’s just a means to an end. It feels so different when… when you kiss me, because it feels like you care about me.”

His other arm folds around her and he drags her a little closer. “That’s because I do,” he mumbles into her hair. 

- - -

Doomed, doomed, doomed. They’ve shared a bed for the last three nights since she got back from Hikari’s and nothing sexual has happened. Not a single thing. That’s what tells him he’s really in over his head. Sex is sex. That’s how it is for shinobi. It’s when sex gets turned into feelings that things go south. That being said — before this, he’s never been on a purple mission with someone he’s so fiercely protective of. Friends, yes, even a few almost-enemies, but… his team’s closer to his heart than any of the others. Thinking about that slime makes Kakashi want to stab the man to death with dull kunai.

When Hikari invites them to his house, on the outskirts of his father’s land, he sneaks kunai into his socks with the express purpose of cutting off anything that touches Sakura again. They both dress formally, her in a navy blue yukata that makes her look like a princess, and him in a simple black one. It fits for the characters they’ve played this whole time.

Hikari lets them in and pours them tea. If Kakashi didn’t know better, he’d be fooled by the man. He’s perfectly genial, kind almost to a fault. But his eyes gleam in triumph every time he looks at Sakura. He’s so busy glowering at the man suspiciously — also in character — that he almost jumps when he feels Sakura’s foot tapping a code on his foot. Tea drugged. Mine low dose. Yours high. Pass out when I say. 

He lets his words grow looser and looser, slurs a few of them, and sees the victory on Hikari’s face. When Sakura taps his foot again, he slumps forward and lets the cup fall from his fingers, clattering to the ground. “Nee-san!” he hears her cry, and jump to her feet. “Oh… oh… Hikari-kun, I don’t…” And she thumps to the ground near him. Hikari’s low chortle makes it hard to stay still, but he’s not a hack. It’s a long, long ten minutes before Hikari leaves with Sakura’s body in his arms. 

As soon as his footsteps fade, Kakashi’s sitting up and summoning Pakkun. “Boss!” the dog barks. 

“Follow Sakura’s scent. Don’t be seen, don’t lose them,” he says tersely. Pakkun nods, and makes to leave. Then he sniffs. 

“Hey, Boss, you know you —“ he glares at the pug. Pakkun takes the hint and goes. It doesn’t take long for Kakashi to find incriminating evidence. Names of possible future targets, a diary detailing Hikari’s kidnappings so far, and… he almost sets some of it on fire. Nine sets of panties, a few torn, and one of them he recognizes as the pair Sakura wore for her… overnight. “And I thought I couldn’t hate you more,” he seethes, sealing the evidence into an empty scroll.

It doesn’t take him long to catch up to Pakkun. “Get what you need, Boss?”

“Mmh,” he answers, too angry to say much more.

“Good. Then you won’t mind if I ask why you smell like Floral Green.” Kakashi sighs.

“I… it’s complicated, okay? Just… just leave it there for now. Please.” And for once, the ornery dog listens. The sun finishes setting, and the moon rises, and they’re still running. “How far did he take her?” he mutters. “And how good are his legs?”

“Oh, right. He took a horse.” Kakashi glares at the dog again.

“Could’ve mentioned that earlier.”

Finally, the trail ends after two hours of running. A small compound peers out of the forest, surprisingly well camouflaged. “Sakura-chan’s scent leads toward the back, but…” Pakkun hesitates. “There’s a bunch of scents in there, boss, and some of it smells like they’re whelping.”

His skin crawls. “Are… how many scents?”

Pakkun sniffs two or three times. “Eh, about eight. Three whelping.” His eyes narrow. “This guy some kind of sicko?”

“You could say that,” Kakashi mumbles. “See if you can get eyes on any of those other scents. I’m going to find Sakura.” 

He knows the feel of her chakra by heart. It’s not hard to find her in the small compound. It is hard to contain his rage when he finds her strapped to a metal table, scrolls with fuinjutsu scattered around the room. Hikari’s nowhere in sight, so Kakashi takes the chance to slip into the room. After a second, Sakura’s eyes pop open and she sighs. “Thank God you’re here,” she mumbles. “Kakashi, all those other girls, they’re still alive. He’s done something to them, sealed away their personality or something, because they’re all…” she gags. “You… you have to see them.”

“Where is he now?” he asks, pulling out a kunai to pry open the shackles. He doesn’t get there before she charges her arms with chakra and breaks free.

“I think he went to get my… he called it jewelry, but something tells me it’s not as innocuous as an engagement ring,” she mutters, bending down to snap the shackles on her legs apart. “Listen, I’ve got a plan. Up till now, we both assumed the girls were dead. Ichigo and Daisuke can’t be seen rescuing people. I’ll put a henged clone in the corner, act like we followed him here, and we can take the girls to the hospital as ourselves. Gives Ichigo and Daisuke a reason to leave, too.”

He nods. A few signs later, an Ichigo cowers in the corner. She strips with brutal efficiency, pulling her shinobi clothes and tools from the sealed scrolls he hands her. “I’ll go find Pakkun and the girls,” he says. “Are you okay with…?”

Her grin scares him. “Better than I’ve ever been,” she snarls.

- - -

When Hikari comes back, he finds Ichigo cowering in the corner and the shackles busted open. “How did you…?” he starts, clearly confused.

“She didn’t,” Sakura says, melting out of the shadows. “I did.”

Hikari takes one look at her and bursts into laughter. “You?” 

“Me,” she agrees, taking a step forward. “You may have heard of me. My name is Haruno. Haruno Sakura.” 

He blinks and frowns. “That… that does sound…”

“Or perhaps you’ve heard of Tsunade-shishou?” That makes him pale. 

“You’re — you’re her apprentice! That monster girl!” And now she’s the one laughing. 

“I don’t think I’m the monster here.” Subduing him isn’t even a struggle. She also doesn’t feel bad about cutting off his hands, since she heals the stubs until skin grows over them, or about chemically castrating him. He won’t even know until he wakes up, unable to get an erection any longer.

Kakashi blinks when he meets her at the entrance to the compound. He’s found a wagon somewhere and tied it to the horse Hikari rode in on. “What?” she asks defensively. “He deserved it.”

“He did,” Kakashi says, helping the women up into the wagon. They’re all gaunt, dead-eyed, and all of them have shackles with fuinjutsu around their wrists. One of the girls is clearly almost nine months pregnant, and Sakura almost hits Hikari again. Once all of them are loaded up, Pakkun waves goodbye, and she gets ready to haul herself into the back of the wagon. He stops her with a hand on her wrist, pulling her towards him and tugging his mask down to kiss her. In the moonlight, it’s almost romantic. “I didn’t expect you to chop them off without permission,” he whispers when he breaks away.

She flushes and makes a note for future reference. He likes it when people ask forgiveness instead of permission.

- - -

It’s close to dawn when they ride into town, Sakura up front with her henged clone wrapped in a blanket next to her. Kakashi’s sitting in the back, working on the seals on the women’s cuffs. Given the way the seals are inscribed, he’s fairly certain the women have been aware this entire time, so he hasn’t fully broken any of them. Instead, he’s bringing them right to the edge of unsealing and then moving on.

Even this early, the streets are surprisingly busy. More than a few people pause in their morning routines to watch the wagon rattle through the town streets. Thankfully, the town’s big enough that the hospital’s always open, even if it’s not well-staffed right now. They roll to a stop and Kakashi takes great pleasure in setting a lightning cage over Hikari’s unconscious form so that they can transport the women inside.

As he gathers the most pregnant woman into his arms and dismounts from the cart, Sakura leaps from the driver’s seat and storm into the hospital. “You!” he hears her shout, and he almost laughs because she’s surely going to traumatize someone in short order. “Call whoever the hell is on call and get them in here, stat. There’s eight women coming in, three of them pregnant, all of them suffering the effects of long-term imprisonment.” Kakashi shoulders through the doors just then and hands the women over to Sakura’s waiting hands, her hands gentle even as she shouts at the receptionist, “What are you waiting for? Get moving!”

Thankfully, the visible sparks of a lightning cage keep people away from the wagon outside while he and Sakura bring the women into the hospital. Once they’re all inside, he finishes breaking the seals. All of the women burst into tears when the cuffs fall off, confirming his suspicions. Rage, already simmering beneath his skin through the night, bubbles up hotter with each person he frees. When the last seal breaks, he’s almost vibrating with anger. 

“I think it’s time to take out the trash,” he murmurs to Sakura, eyes dark. Her own eyes, always so bright, darken with their own displeasure. 

“We’ll have to take him to the lord,” she snarls as they move out of the hospital, steps synchronized. The wagon’s empty now save for Hikari. A few minutes ago, he sent out a shadow clone ‘Daisuke’ to pick up Akane and take her home, so there’s nothing to worry about save the criminal himself. “Wish I could just... feed him to Anko, or something,” she mutters as he dispels the cage.

“Aa, not a bad idea,” he muses, picking him up and tossing him to Sakura. She catches him with ease and they take to the rooftops. Judging by the sun, it’s somewhere around nine, which means — “Isn’t today the monthly grievances day?” he asks, stopping on the building next to the main manor. There’s crowds around the front of the building. 

Sakura’s grin is fierce. “Want to pull a Naruto?” she answers.

“…charge in headfirst and yell about the power of love?” he wonders. 

She shoots him a look. “No. Run in headfirst and shame them into doing something about this sick shithead. Can’t let it go unpunished if half the town knows before noon.”

He offers her a smile. “I like the way you think, Sakura-chan.”

They shunshin right into Lord Yokoyama’s mansion, in front of his council… and in front of him, with Sakura holding Hikari by the nape of his neck like a bad cat. It startles the entire room, starting murmuring and noise, until Lord Yokoyama yells, “QUIET!” Then he turns to them, eyes on his trussed up brother, and demands, “What is the meaning of this?”

“Aa, just returning some litter we found on the road of life,” Kakashi says, crinkling his eye in a faux smile. “You see, Sakura-chan and I were on our way back from a mission. We saw Sugawara, and Sakura-chan wanted to stop to see her friend Ichigo-chan. They were in the same class, you see.”

“Imagine my surprise when I find this… thing… with my friend on the back of his horse, unconscious, riding into the woods,” Sakura snarls. He feels a spark of chakra from her, and then Hikari stirs from the genjutsu she put him under. 

“W-wha…” he slurs, still dangling from Sakura’s hand.

Kakashi steps forward, all his jovial attitude gone, letting tendrils of his killing intent curl out. “Did you know your brother was kidnapping women, Yokoyama-dono? Ichigo-chan would’ve been the ninth. The other eight are…” he shakes his head.

“The others are in the hospital, and they’re going to be there a long time,” Sakura snaps. “I guess your ‘brother’ wanted a harem.”

Yokoyama stands, scowl burning into them. “What proof do you have? Who are you, to come bearing these accusations? My family is an honorable one, and we always have been.”

He almost hears Sakura’s temper snapping, and he does hear the way her grip tightens on Hikari’s neck. He speaks, hoping to distract her a little. “Aa, you might have heard of me once or twice.” He flicks up his hitai-ate and looks straight at the lord, letting his eye spin lazily. It only takes a second for Yokoyama to pale, clearly putting the pieces together. 

“H-Hatake Kakashi?” he stutters. “The copy-nin?”

“That’s him,” Sakura says as he slides his hitai-ate back down.  “And you might have heard of my teacher, Tsunade-shishou.” She offers a tiny smile, complete with eye crinkle, and it’s so saccharine he almost laughs. 

Yokoyama pales a little further and glances from each of them to his brother. “Your claims, you — you have evidence of them?”

“You bashtard,” Hikari slurs, and Kakashi blinks before cutting his eyes toward the man where he still dangles from Sakura’s hand. “Knew you was lookin’ for a way to get ridda me.”

“Hikari?” Yokoyama says, the shock and dismay on his face turning into confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“I shoulda been lord… an’ everyone knows it…” he murmurs, head lolling to one side, but his words growing a little clearer. “She shoulda been my wife… but you touched her an’ you stole her… can’t trust women. Not unless they’re pure. So I made sure they were pure… and I took ‘em… s’what I deserve.”

At that, Sakura drops the man and kicks him towards his brother. When he comes to a stop at his brother’s feet, he’s on his front — meaning everyone in the court can see that there are no hands on the arms tied behind his back. “We leave your brother in your care, Yokoyama-dono,” she spits. Her hands are fisted so tightly he can hear the leather of her gloves creaking. “I don’t know what the hell he planned on doing with them, but there’s eight women in the hospital who your brother raped for months on end. Three of them are pregnant. I can’t tell you how to handle this, but I can tell you it’s going to take Tsunade about twenty seconds to tell the daimyo about this.” She pauses. “And, by the way? We’re taking the Satos with us. They left because Daisuke lost an eye, but somehow I think they’d rather be back in Konoha right now.

With that, they shunshin out and spring across the rooftops to their apartment, where a weeping clone lets them in the front door. As soon as the door closes behind them and the clones disappear, Sakura slumps, the weight of the mission rolling off her shoulders. “Fuck,” she mutters.

“Yeah.” Both of them are too tired, physically and emotionally, to do anything other than rinse off. There’s no blood on their hands, but they both might have preferred it if there was. He pulls her into his arms when they lay down, glad that everything had gone so well. He even says as much. “I’m glad he didn’t get those cuffs on you,” he murmurs into her ear. She hums, already half-asleep.

He watches her sleep and wonders.

- - -

When she wakes up at midnight, she’s hungry. Kakashi’s limbs are tangled in hers like ramen noodles, but she manages to disengage and sneak into the kitchen. Unsurprisingly, he follows her after a minute and finds her rummaging in the fridge. “Your leftover tempura’s in the back,” he mumbles. When she retrieves the container, he steals a piece before she even manages to get it in the microwave. He tries for a second, but she slaps his hand away and shoves it in. When she turns around, he’s crunching down the tempura and he has —

“Is that the sushi I brought home last week?” she exclaims. He nods. “There’s no way those haven’t gone bad!” He blinks, looks at the sushi in his chopsticks, and promptly eats it. “Hatake Kakashi! You’re worse than Naruto! And — hey! You don’t even like tempura!”

“‘m fine,” he says around a mouthful of rice and fish. “Microwave.” He points over her shoulder with his chopsticks and she turns around just as the microwave beeps. It doesn’t take her long to finish it off. In that time, he’s finished the — spoiled — sushi and is halfway through a second onigiri.

“How are you not fat?” she grumbles, poking his belly as she steals the last onigiri from the fridge. 

“Hey, you got to ride to that hell-place last night,” he says, pointing his chopsticks at her again. “I ran the entire way there, and I’m the one who found the horse and wagon.”

She just sticks her tongue out at him and shoves the onigiri in her mouth so that she can use her hands to hop onto the counter and reach into the cabinet for a cup. She’s done it a hundred times since they came here. This, though, is the first time Kakashi’s been standing in front of her when she’s done it. When she turns her head back towards him after grabbing her cup, she realizes it puts her at eye level with him. “…hey,” she says quietly, holding the cup out to him.

“Hey,” he answers. Somehow, he manages to pour her a glass of water without looking away or spilling any of it. He hands it back, and she finds her throat suddenly dry. She finally breaks eye contact when she takes a drink, and she chugs half the glass, trying to quell her thirst. Once she’s swallowed all she can, she lowers the glass with a gasp. But Kakashi’s moved. He’s pressed up against her legs, one hand on either side of her hips.

The burn in his eye takes her off guard, so she just holds up the glass and squeaks, “Thirsty?”

“Very,” he answers, prying her fingers off the glass and setting it down behind her. Then he leans in and kisses her.

Since she spent the night with Hikari, her body hasn’t wanted anything at all. Suddenly, all of the lust she felt for Kakashi before that night comes roaring back, licking up her legs and igniting her. And it’s him, it’s the real him, not Daisuke’s coarser features but his — so she sinks her hands into his hair, wraps her legs around his waist, and pulls him closer.

That’s all the encouragement he needs, evidently, because a second later they’re both in the bedroom. “Two person?” she asks, breaking away.

“Very chakra-intensive,” he says, flushing a little. “Listen, Sakura, are you —“

She kisses him again, harder and more savage. This time, when they stop to breathe, she growls, “Shut up and fuck me.”

- - -

Her words go straight through him like lightning. He doesn’t waste any more time, but buckles to his knees and lets her slide off his lap so that she’s sprawled on the futon. Her pink hair splays out around her head as he flips the lamp on the bedside table on. Then he hovers over her and kisses her again, sinking down against her body. Their disparate heights mean he’s able to settle perfectly between her legs and still kiss her, that when he slides his hand down one of her legs and yanks it back up to hang over his hip, his erection grinds into her and makes her shudder. 

The next time they break for air, he tugs his shirt off and hurls it into the corner. She immediately takes vicious advantage by tweaking both of his nipples — not something his partners generally do. His cock jumps and he muffles a groan in her neck. “Off,” he whispers, tugging at her shirt. She obeys, arching up and wiggling out of the thin shirt. Her head and arms are still trapped in the sleeves when he leans down and sucks one of her nipples into his mouth, making her jolt and squeak. “Turnabout is fair play,” he whispers, letting his other hand drop to her unoccupied breast and massage it. The shirt comes off. She drops it to the side and he glances up to catch her eyes before he drags his teeth over her nipple. 

Sakura gasps and her body arches, almost unbidden, pressing closer to him. “Fuck.” Her whimper accompanies her body’s shudder, and his body’s trying its best to betray him. He tweaks her other nipple at the same time he bites down. Her needy whine sinks into his bones and makes him so hard it’s starting to hurt. After he toys with her for a moment, he switches to her other nipple, gently nipping at it and then soothing it with his tongue.

He pulls himself back up and before he blinks, she wriggles free of her pants, her hips bumping into his as she does it. Her arousal smells like musk and sin, and it’s delicious. He kisses her again, letting his hand wander down her body — she’s not quite as wet as she had been the night of her last date with Hikari, but that had been built up by her wanting all day long. His fingers slide between her lips and she hisses, but the hiss turns into a low moan when a finger slides inside her. “Did he touch you like this?” he whispers, his eyes intent on her. 

“He tried,” she whispers back, canting her hips up towards him again. His finger slides deeper inside her and he bites back a groan — but it sneaks out a second later when she tries to fuck herself on his finger. “The only way I got wet at all was thinking about you.”

He bites her neck and slides another finger inside her, listening to the way she keens and almost dying at the way she rolls her hips against his hand. Kakashi doesn’t do anything for a long minute other than gently finger-fuck her. “Good,” he mumbles, and then he moves like lightning. Before she realizes he’s moved, he’s between her legs. “What about this?” he mutters, dropping his face and dragging the flat of his tongue across her clit. She almost cries out, but bites her hand in time to muffle the cry.

“N-no,” she whimpers. He smirks against her skin and curls his fingers up inside her, searching for her sweet spot again. It’s easier to find in short women, so — “Nnnnguh!” Her hips buck up into his face and his smirk grows. He lets her breathe for a second before he begins alternating between gentle, slow strokes inside her, rubbing against that sweet spot, and softly licking around her clit. It doesn’t take long before she sinks her fingers into his hair and tugs his head closer. This close, her musk is overwhelming, layered with the scent of her sweat, but it’s nothing compared to her taste. He’s tasted women who were oddly sweet before, but Sakura’s flavor reminds him of something he can’t quite define. She’s somewhere between salty and tangy, just interesting enough to make him want more. Her breathless keen catches his attention then — it sounds like she’s trying to form words and failing. He smiles against her again and presses a third finger inside her, just as he sucks. “Aah, fffuck, Kakashiiiii!”

Hearing his name on her lips makes him even harder, but he doesn’t move. When she catches her breath, he goes back down. This time, he’s not gentle, slamming his fingers inside her like he wants to slam into her, lapping her up like she’s water in the desert. Her second orgasm’s more violent than the first. He’s pretty sure she manages to yank some of his hair from his head. “Good?” he asks, raising his head once her body stops shaking.

- - -

“So good,” she whispers back, trying to catch her breath. Kakashi slowly slides his fingers from her, catching her eyes as he licks them clean. It makes her groan and drop her head back onto the pillow because that’s really a lot hotter than it should be. “I hate you,” she mumbles. 

He chuckles and she hears him moving around, the heat of his torso leaving her legs. A minute later, he returns. His knees bump against her thighs and something pops, like a bottle opening. Confused, she pushes herself up onto her elbows to investigate — her neck’s too weak to lift on its own. And, damn it, this just keeps getting hotter. He’s sweaty, his cock hard enough that it’s nearly bumping his belly, and he’s… dripping something onto it? The bottle’s grey and vaguely familiar, but... “What is that?” she asks, not quite sure.

He raises an eyebrow at her. “Really, Sakura?” he says, evidently deciding he has enough of whatever it is because he caps the bottle and sets it down. “I — nnngh —“ He shudders as he touches himself, spreading the substance liberally. “You’ve never seen a bottle of lube?”

She blinks. “I — oh.” She tries to contain the flush that’s trying to spread down her neck, but judging by his sly smirk, it’s not quite successful. “I’ve never seen it outside of a sterile environment before,” she explains, biting her lip. “And that bottle is the exact same color as your shampoo.”

“About six shades darker, actually,” he corrects her. “Had to hide it somehow.”

She wrinkles her nose at him, but her brain short-circuits when he takes his hand off his cock and rubs the heel of his palm against her. It’s distractingly slick and slippery against her skin, but there’s still friction, and she wants. Kakashi withdraws his hand a minute later and she whines at the loss until he picks a foil packet up from somewhere in the snarl of blankets. He’s already ripped it open when she realizes what it is and blurts, “Wait!”

Every inch of him stops. It looks almost comical because one hand’s pressing the condom to the tip of his cock and his other’s extended, ready to roll it down. “What?” he says, both eyes suddenly open and wide, something close to panic on his face.

She can’t help snorting. If nothing else, that takes the panic out of his face. Then she realizes what she’s about to say and flushes a little. “I… would you be okay with not using…” She wrinkles her nose and whispers, “Condoms?”

His eyes seem like they double in size for a second. “W-what?” he stutters, clearly startled. “Sakura, you — I — what?” He takes a deep breath and lets his hands drop to his sides. “Why would you… I know you know how important safety is.”

She sighs and bites her lip. “I do,” she murmurs. “I…” She exhales and lets her head drop back so she doesn’t have to look at him. “Promise not to laugh?” He hums in response. “I don’t want this to be anything like sleeping with Hikari, and he used a condom.” There’s silence for a few seconds and she manages to muster the courage to lift her head again. He’s just staring at her, conflict clear on his face. “If you’re worried about STDs, I know you’re clean because I’m the one who did your labs last time you came back from a mission,” she points out. “And I…” She flushes again. “Yeah. ”

After a few more seconds that feel like hours, his shoulders drop a little and he sighs. “If you’re sure, Sakura,” he mumbles, leaning back and dropping the opened condom somewhere on the floor behind him. He pauses when he reaches to move the bottle of lube and squints at her. “This isn’t part of a nefarious plan to secretly have my child and revive my clan, is it? Because I’ve had that happen a couple times.”

That isn’t what she expected him to say and she almost cackles. “Seriously?” she says, smile curling her lips. He nods. “No, I have no nefarious designs on your semen, and even if I did, it’d be useless. Tsunade made sure I knew to keep up with the shot.” She realizes what a strange sentence that is right after she says it. As she giggles again, he moves, supporting himself with one hand by her head and hovering over her. He leans in and kisses her, soft and slow. She drapes her arms around his neck and drags him closer. She can’t quite sink into the kiss, though. Something’s nagging her. She breaks away to ask, “Why… why use the lube, though? Am I not —“

His scowl cuts her off. “Sakura, this is the second time you’ve had sex. I don’t want to hurt you,” he says, the words gentle and sharp at the same time. 

She blinks and tilts her head. “Is that normal? None of my romance novels… and Hikari just—“

He kisses her again, this time hard enough to leave her gasping for breath when he pulls away. “Hikari can rot in hell,” he mutters, resting his forehead against hers. “I heard it all, Sakura. As if he wasn’t bad enough already, he was inconsiderate and couldn’t even tell you were faking it.”

She inhales. “You could? From where, outside?” He smirks at her. “…you’re weird.”

Kakashi laughs, but his face turns serious a second later. “Sakura… are you sure about this?” he mumbles, body still hovering over hers. There’s a tiny puddle of lube just below her belly button from where his cock’s dripping above her. She can see the muscles in his arms cording, the strain in his face, she knows he wants her — but he’s still asking again. “If you want me to stop —“

“Kakashi,” she interrupts him, stroking his cheek for a second before dropping her hand to his shoulder. “I wouldn’t have let us get this far if I didn’t want it.”  She inhales and glances away before looking up, directly into his eye. He cracks his Sharingan eyelid just a little, enough for her to see the slow red swirl. “I… I don’t want to feel his hands on me every time I think about sex. If you’re okay with this, so am I.”

He sighs and relaxes a little, moving so that he’s leaning on his forearm instead of just his hand. “Okay,” he murmurs, gently stroking her side with his free hand. That hand slides down, down, down the side of her body and leaves her skin right around the juncture of her hips. A second later, his cock presses into her — slow, slow, so incredibly slow she wants to scream, but she’s not sure she could handle any faster. His girth makes her burn, the same way tight muscles do when they’re stretched, and it feels so damn good. She loses track of what her hands are doing and only realizes she’s got a vice grip on his shoulder when she almost infuses her hands with chakra. Instead of crushing his bones, she opts for digging her nails into the skin of his shoulder. “Fuck,” he hisses into her ear when he finally stops, his hips flush with hers. “Good?” he pants a few seconds later as he moves his free arm to the other side of her head.

“S-s-so good,” she gasps, unable to keep her completely open because she’s overwhelmed with sensation. “Better… so much b-better…” she trails off, unable to find many words right now. When she’d let Hikari touch her, she spent most of the time reminiscing about Kakashi’s hands, about medical texts, literally anything other than him. Right now, the only thing she can focus on is Kakashi, above her, inside her.

“I should fucking hope so,” he mutters. And then he begins to move. At first, he keeps it slow and sensual, letting her adjust to him. The delicious burn eases and turns into heat that makes her squirm and groan. When she begins to squirm, he picks one of her legs up and hooks it over his hip before he speeds up. The different angle hits her differently, more in some places and less in others, and she can’t help the obscene moan that bubbles out of her. He kisses her and swallows the next moan, the kiss half-mimicking the way he’s fucking her into oblivion. When the kiss ends, he rests his forehead against hers again. She can feel the sweat beading there as he murmurs, “You feel so good, Sakura.”

Her breath hitches and she shudders a little. His hand leaves the back of her thigh and returns to its place by her head — but the movement gives her an idea. The next time he pulls back, she swings her other leg over his hip, locks them together behind his back and yanks, impaling herself on his cock. His breath gusts out in a strangled gasp, hers in a whimper. “Yes,” she breathes, eyes rolling back in her head.

“Sakura —“ he hisses, head falling into the curve of her neck. “Damn it, I’m trying to —“

She interrupts him again by swiveling her hips up into him. When she drops them back down, it hits something delicious inside her and she moans. “More,” she gasps against his ear. “More, please, please, Kakashi, I need —“

And he gives. What was soft and sensual turns fevered and frantic as he slams into her, making her yelp and groan with every stroke. Like this, at this angle, every time he rocks into her something rubs past her clit with just enough friction to wind her up. It winds and winds and winds until she bursts. She only realizes she’s coming as it happens, only enough time to sink her teeth into Kakashi’s shoulder. Her vision shudders and swirls and she screams against his skin.

- - - 

His brain short-circuits when Sakura bites down on his shoulder and wails, her pussy gushing and spasming around his cock. He slows almost to a stop, thoughts swimming, because she couldn’t have — “Did you just come? Again?” he demands in disbelief, picking his head up from her neck to look at her. 

“Mmmh,” she answers, her green eyes foggy with pleasure. “You… feel so good…”

He doesn’t bother muffling his groan this time. “Fuck,” is all he manages to say, harder than ever as he starts moving again. Not a minute later, she orgasms again, whimpering and clutching at his shoulders. That one almost undoes him. He slows a little, just to warn her. “‘m close,” he whispers against her lips. “Sorry if I get any on you when I pull out.”

He feels her smirk against his mouth. “Don’t bother pulling out,” she whispers back. He jerks away for a second, startled, to find her gazing up at him with something predatory in her eyes. “It’s okay, Kakashi,” she croons, lifting her hips and rutting up against him again. “Come inside me.”

He groans and shuts his eyes. “Don’t — it’ll be a mess —“ Watching her say that…

Fire trails down his back and his eyes snap open to find her smirking at him, her nails digging into his skin as she whispers, “Come inside me? Pretty, pretty please?”

“Fuck,” he swears, his hips stuttering and his thrusts becoming less measured, more uneven. He turns his head, takes a deep breath, tries to regain control of himself. “Sakura, I don’t —“

Soft fingers touch his face and drag his eyes back to hers, her grin wicked enough to make him shiver. “I want your cum inside me, Kakashi.” The words trip off her tongue, fall out her lips in slow motion, and it’s too much.

His head spins and he feels his hips snap forward, once, twice, out of pure instinct before sensation overwhelms him. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, Sakura!” He muffles his near-howl by seizing her lips as he comes and oh god she’s coming again, convulsing around his cock and wringing him dry.

When he can see straight again, his arms are barely holding him up. He almost collapses on her but manages to roll away and flop onto his back again. When he slides free of her body, the sound’s almost hopelessly erotic, no matter that he just came hard enough to scramble his brain. Neither of them say a word for a little while. They simply lay next to each other, panting. He finally gets enough breath to say, “Better?” like he doesn’t know the answer.

“Like you don’t know the answer to that, you ass,” Sakura echoes his thoughts, weakly slapping his arm. 

They lay in silence for a minute more before he rolls his head to the side and speaks. “Where the hell did that come from?” She turns toward him, eyebrow raised, and he elaborates. “The… what you said before I…”

She smirks again. “I may not read Icha Icha, but there are other books in the world, you know?” She pauses and adds, “That kind of thing was featured in a lot of them. I didn’t know if it was something people really did, or liked… and I sure wasn’t about to try it with…yeah, no.”

“Don’t recommend doing that with people you don’t trust, but yes, it does happen, and yes, it is hot,” he says. While he wasn’t consciously recording, or using the Sharingan at all, part of him does wonder if he’ll be able to pull up that mental image later…

“Gods above, it’s a good thing that happened after Hikari and not before, or I would’ve given up the whole game,” Sakura says. “If I thought sex was like that every time, I’d have been gagging for it.” A second later, she rolls all the way onto her side and pops up above him. “Which reminds me. When, uh —“ she blushes and it’s really far too cute. “When you were inside me, and I, uh…yeah… again, why were you so shocked?”

Another blink, this one slower. “Because something like ninety-five percent of women can’t orgasm from vaginal penetration,” he says, lifting his eyebrows at her. “I thought you would’ve known that.”

Her flush spreads. “Yeah, well, I can’t say I spent too much time looking into sexual health and statistics after shishou made me draw all the different ways STDs could manifest.” That makes him blanch. Sex ed, for him, had involved pictures of STDs. Those were bad enough. Making her draw it out? 

“That’s just cruel.”

“That’s shishou,” she replies, voice light. Then she sits up and sighs. “Okay. Pee time.” He snorts. “What? You know —“

He drapes an arm over his eyes and waves her off towards the bathroom. By the time she comes back, he’s half asleep, but he still tracks her around the room as she straightens the covers, moves the lube, and turns the light off. When she crawls under the covers, he reaches for her to find she’s still naked. He hesitates — but she’s already curling towards him, so he wraps himself around her and dozes off.

- - -

In the morning, she wakes up first. Nothing hurts, but when she moves, there’s a faint soreness between her legs. It lingers just enough to remind her of everything that transpired last night. She can’t help biting her lip as some of it flickers through her thoughts, but she shakes her head and scolds herself before fleeing into the shower. When she emerges, hair damp, Kakashi’s sliding an omelet onto the table for her. Something queer and sweet thumps in her chest when he looks up and smiles at her fondly, his mask still off. “So what’s the plan now, captain?” he asks as they sit down, chopsticks in hand.

She jams a huge chunk of breakfast into her mouth and chews for a minute before answering. “We both make shadow clones of our real selves and henge them into Ichigo and Daisuke, just like yesterday. We use today to get rid of all the furniture in the apartment, give away the food, and stuff like that. Plenty of people will see the clones and us, and we can tell people exactly what happened and why the Satos are leaving…just in case our show at court yesterday didn’t start making the rounds yet.”

Kakashi doesn’t say anything for a minute while she digs in. After the silence begins to linger, she looks up. He’s leaning on his hand, chopsticks dangling, staring at her with a tiny smile at the corners of his mouth. “What?” she asks, defensive. “It’s a good plan!”

“It is,” he agrees, the smile spreading. “I’m impressed.” He leans closer. “We can also blame any strange noises on those shinobi who stayed last night after rescuing Ichigo. Shinobi are very promiscuous, you know.” For that, she swats him gently.

“Dumbass,” she grumbles fondly. But it doesn’t take long to finish breakfast and wash up the dishes. The two shadow clones make everything far easier than moving in. The kotatsu goes to the couple across the hall for a song — Sakura’s the one who hauls it into their apartment like it weighs nothing. The food she has Kakashi and Daisuke take to Takada. Ichigo stays in the apartment almost all day long, only coming out when people ask where she is. It’s not even halfway through the afternoon when the apartment’s bare.

She looks behind her with some small sadness as she closes the door and locks it, the others already in the hall. Despite Hikari’s foulness, this tiny apartment held more happiness for her than she’s had in years. “Ready to go?” she asks the clones, who nod solemnly. Sakura drops her arm around Ichigo’s shoulders as they walk down the stairwells. On the way, they run into more than a few tenants. And in the lobby, there’s a solid dozen people gathered to wish them goodbye.

“Can’t blame you for not bein’ able to stay, girlie,” Takada says, stepping forward and gently patting Ichigo’s shoulder. “That boy never was right. It’s a shame, it is, and I’m sorry you had to go through it.” 

“I— it’s —“ Ichigo sniffles. “A— at least Sakura-dono and Kakashi-dono saved me.”

“Damn right we did!” Sakura says, slamming her fist into her hand. “That shitbag won’t be hurting anyone else!”

Takada snorts and offers Ichigo a hug. A few others follow her lead, but not many. “Go on with you,” the building manager says with a soft smile. “And, by the way, shinobi-sans?” They perk up and turn towards her. “Next time you stay in someone else’s apartment, do try to have sex a little quieter, won’t you?”

At that, they both flush and almost push the clones out the door.

- - -

He’s almost sad when the village fades from sight. They walk a little while longer, long enough to get out of following range, and then they dismiss their clones before taking to the trees. They’re a third of the way back to Konoha before they stop for the night. Once they build a fire and eat, he looks over the fire at her. “This was for the mission,” he says, voice firm. He’s had to practice the firmness ever since they left town.

She finishes the last bite on her kebab and tosses the skewer into the fire before answering. “I know, Kakashi.” She looks over the fire and catches his gaze. “I… I’d like to say you’re one of my friends. You haven’t been my sensei in a long time, but I learn something from you every time we go on a mission.” She flushes and bites her lip, clearly a little unsure. “It’s, uh, usually not quite this kind of learning, but I do.” Sakura pauses and takes a deep breath. “Ino’s told me stories about people who stop being friends after they sleep together. I don’t want that to be us, okay?”

His jaw drops behind his mask. Evidently, the long silence makes her worry, because she starts fidgeting after a minute. “That’s…” he starts, and then pauses to find better words. After a second, he sighs and drops his mask so that she can see his expression. “I don’t know how you always surprise me, Sakura, but you do. I’ve had jounin with twenty years of experience who didn’t handle coming off a seduction mission this well.” He winces and touches his side, where Anko once went after him with a kunai because he told her he wasn’t interested in continuing their dalliance once they got back to Konoha.

Her smile’s slow, and beautiful, and damn it, it makes his heart lighter. “They sound like they need to get a grip, then,” she laughs. Seeing her open and laughing again, like she so rarely has been the last two years… it’s good. And it curls deep down inside him, touching spots he didn’t know existed. 

“But, that being said —“ he starts. She cocks her head. “The mission isn’t over yet.” He stands up and raises an eyebrow at her before glancing over at the bedrolls. “Are you…?” he trails off.

She’s on her feet kicking dirt over the fire in an instant. “Oh hell yes.”

- - -

Sunlight sparkles through the trees. Sakura tries to focus as she pants, but she can’t. Her body’s still shaking. “Is morning sex always that exciting?” she wheezes.

“It’s either amazing or mediocre. No in between.” The answer takes a minute, and when it comes, his voice isn’t much stronger than hers. It makes her proud that she, inexperienced as she is, affects him so strongly.

But thinking of her inexperience leads her thoughts right back to the mission they just finished, and… “Ne, Kakashi?” He hums in response. “I…” She rolls over onto her front, propping herself on her forearms, so that she can see his face before she asks, “What made you kiss me?”

Something almost like fear flicks across his face before his features settle into the familiar, sarcastic set she knows so well. “Most people enjoy it as part of sex, Sakura-chan,” he says.

She’s not letting him deflect that easily. “Not now, you ass,” she grumbles, slapping his bare chest. “I meant…” she exhales and drops her head. “The very first kiss. When Yokoyama-teme asked me out.”

The fear-thing returns, there for an instant longer, before he sighs. “Sakura…” he says quietly. “There are things you probably don’t want to know about Konoha. This is one of them.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Worse than ROOT?”

He grimaces. “Not… exactly.” She stares at him, waiting. After a few seconds, she notices the tension around his mouth, at the corner of his eye, but she has to know. She has to. Eventually, he huffs and drops his head to the ground. “The Fourth… changed a lot of things when he came into office,” he says, voice level enough for her to know he’s struggling. “But that didn’t…” his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, clearly uncomfortable. After a second, he drops his arm across his face, hiding his eyes in the crook of his elbow. “The Fourth put age limits on purple missions. Before that, the only rule was that you couldn’t be a civilian.” Another swallow, this one harder, and the muscles in his neck strain along with it. “My first kiss wasn’t — it wasn’t with someone I trusted, or someone I even knew well,” he whispers, voice cracking a little. “You… I couldn’t let someone take that from you.”

She sits up, slowly, thinking about this information. Kakashi’s never been forth-coming about his past, his personal life, but some of it’s public record. She knows he was promoted to chuunin when he was 6. That means… “Kakashi,” she says, surprised when her voice doesn’t shake. “When was your first purple mission?”

He sighs. “Should’ve known you wouldn’t let it go,” he grumbles. She doesn’t say anything. She just waits him out. “It started a month before I turned twelve.” 

He says it quietly, little more than a breath of air, but it couldn’t have hit her harder if he’d shouted it. “Oh,” she says, hand flying to her mouth and tears welling. “Oh, Kakashi.” The implications of that hit her all at once, and she can’t help the ragged gasp of anger and sadness.

His nose twitches. Evidently he smelled her tears, because he lifts his arm and peeks out at her. A second later, he sighs again and sits up, reaching out to touch her cheek. “I didn’t sleep with anyone. Not that time,” he tells her. “It was… there was a man who liked pretty little boys. I was the bait. My partner was the trap.”

“That’s still awful,” she chokes out. “You had to — I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

He offers her a little eye crinkle, but it’s so fake she could’ve called it out from across Konoha. “It’s in the past now, Sakura-chan. Between the Fourth and the Fifth, those things don’t happen like they used to,” he says. “Now, shouldn’t we be going?”

She packs up and they leave. Her mind keeps turning that over and over, like there’s something she can do about it. There’s not. She knows there’s not.

- - -

Tsunade’s more than a little relieved when she feels the familiar chakra approaching her office. For all her surety, she did worry about her student. And, well, with the way things are going… she likely would’ve had to pull them from their mission if they’d taken much longer. A little over four months for a long-term seduction mission isn’t a bad time, but they’re going to have to move to the front soon.

“Report,” she orders when they come in, not even letting them come to a stop.

“Target located, intel confirmed, and target subsequently neutralized,” Sakura says with a little smile. “Mission successfully completed.”

“Good,” Tsunade barks. “Go rest and write me a good report. I want it on my desk first thing and I want you at the hospital as soon as you turn it in. We’ve got a lot of work today.” Sakura moves, but Kakashi stays still. After the door closes behind her apprentice, she looks at the other ninja. “How did she do?”

“She did well,” he answers, voice strangely quiet. “Her cover story was thorough and could’ve covered a multitude of sins if necessary. The target was quickly enamored of her, and her acting was…” His eye flickers away for a second. “Almost unbelievably good.”

“Mmm,” Tsunade hums, glancing up at her rafters. Good. No gossips on my guard today. “And did the target take her virginity, or did you?”

That rattles the man. He physically starts, glancing into the rafters like she had, and then looks at her, eye wide. “I — you —“ he stutters. Then he takes a deep breath, exhales, and looks her in the eye. “Her target was the first person to touch her, yes.”

Tsunade doesn’t hide her smirk at how he’s mincing words. The first, but not the last. Cheeky. “Relax, brat,” she says, reaching for her sake. “I knew the chances of you two falling into bed together were high. That’s part of why I sent you.”

He chokes, and above her Tsunade hears a faint snort. “You… planned this?” he says, looking like he’s just been told he’s really Minato. “I — why? Why would you send me out with my old student, knowing —“

She gulps a drink and sets the bottle down before she answers. “Do you think I’ve never done a seduction mission, Hatake?” He obviously hadn’t expected that question. “Well, I did. After I went on mine, I came back and studied the others. People who went on purple missions alone… they struggled after. I wheedled the old man into sending two-man teams on purples. Tried to talk him into the age limit, too, but…” She shrugs. “Anyway, things were better for some people, but not for others. I studied the successful teams and came to a conclusion.” 

Her eyes flick up and pin him down. “Especially when people go out the first time, they need someone they trust with them, someone who can help them redirect the negative energy that almost inevitably comes with having to seduce someone you loathe. And yes, that generally does mean sex between mission partners.” She leans back and sighs. “Of course, there are always exceptions. I knew a jounin who simply didn’t care who he slept with, what their morals were, he just wanted to do it. There was a girl who never, ever showed interest in anyone she wasn’t sent to seduce. Not her partner, not bystanders… nobody. But exceptions are rare. Since I became Hokage, I think all seven teams I’ve sent on seductions has ended up in bed with each other.”

Hatake looks like he’s been slapped. “But me?” he demands, almost staggering. “I’m — I’m almost twice her age, and —“

“Who the hell else?” she snorts, reaching for her sake again. ”She sure as shit wouldn’t have let Sai touch her. The Hyuuga boy she hasn’t had a conversation with since her promotion? The Aburame? Rock Lee?” Even Kakashi pales at that idea. “It’s a shit hand, I know. But you were the best in a sea of bad options because you have both the experience and the inclination to help her.” She sips at her bottle again. “That being said, you know about the mandatory separation period. Did you tell her?”

“Ah, no,” he mumbles, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. “I… rather thought you’d murder me and it wouldn’t be an issue.”

That makes her laugh harder than she expected. “As it happens, I doubt it’ll be an issue,” she says. “Rest up and pack well. You’re the leader of the Third Division — Gai’s been leading it in your absence.” His eye twitches at that. “There’s not much green spandex. Yet. I want you on your way as soon as humanly possible. I’ll tell Sakura about the separation myself. Dismissed.”

He hovers for a minute. “Get out!” He flees when she hurls a sake cup at him, and she watches him go. “Gods, what I wouldn’t do for this situation to be better,” she mumbles, rubbing her temples.

- - -

Sakura falls into bed and sleeps. The apartment in Sugawara was nice, but it wasn’t home. Yet, once she gets past the drop-dead exhaustion that comes from sprinting through the woods at top speed, it’s hard to stay asleep. Every time she rolls over, she expects to find a warm body next to hers. There’s no soft breath against her neck, no comforting arm draped across her. She ends up awake far earlier than her usual, staring at the ceiling and trying to decipher everything. Do I miss the person or the presence?

It means she has plenty of time to write her report. More than a few lines end up scratched out because they just… sound too suggestive when she reads them over, even if they sounded perfectly innocent the first time. Kakashi informed me, based on his past experience… gets changed to Based on his past seduction missions, Hatake assessed the target and informed me… along with a dozen other tiny changes. When she finishes the report, it’s almost one in the morning, and she falls back into bed for a short, fitful doze. Ino wakes her up at four, clattering in from T&I like the apartment’s empty. 

“Hey! Pig! Keep it down!” Sakura whisper-shouts, sticking her head out her bedroom door. Ino’s head pops up over the refrigerator door and she blinks. 

“Eh? You’re back?” she mumbles around the carrot sticks in her mouth before she crunches down and swallows them with disgusting speed. “Where the hell have you been, Forehead? One night you’re here, the next night you’re gone, and all I could get out of the Hokage was ‘that’s classified’. Four months! FOUR!”

Sakura sighs and rolls her eyes before she ducks back into her room to grab her robe. She comes back out and flops into a chair at the table, closing her eyes. “Shishou sent me on a long-term purple mission.”

Ino’s squawk, muffled by a mouthful of food, makes her snort. ”You had a what?”

Sakura opens one eye and stares at her roommate. “There was a shitty guy being shitty. I seduced him and cut his hands off. The end.”

Ino swallows her mouthful of food and slaps the table, eyes wide. “Forehead! I thought you were still a virgin!”

She sighs and closes her eye again. “I was.”

“…oh.” Suddenly, Ino’s voice is far quieter, almost repentant. “I’m sorry, Sakura. That’s… that sucks.” Then a curious note creeps into her voice as she asks, “Wait, who was your partner?”

Sakura blanches. She hadn’t thought this through. Ino’s been on seduction missions before, and every single time, she’s given Sakura details about how she got down and dirty with her partner. If she tells her it was Kakashi — “Doesn’t matter,” Sakura mutters out the side of her mouth.

“Yes it does, Forehead!” The force is back in Ino’s voice now. “Listen, this is like, the worst kept secret in Konoha. Everyone sleeps with their mission partners on purple missions. Everyone.” Sakura’s eyes pop open at that. 

“Wait, really?” she asks, looking over at the other woman. “It’s that common?”

Ino scoffs. “Uh, yeah. It’s a hell of a lot easier to stomach touching some creep when you know you can scrub it off and get some elsewhere.” She leans forward, eyes gleaming. “Spill. Who was your partner?”

Sakura sighs and looks away. “I… I’d really rather not say who, Ino.” The wounded sound from across the table makes her cringe, so she offers up as reconciliation, “They, uh, they were really good at sex, though. Really good.”

Ino gasps. “Details, Forehead! Details!” Sakura flushes and glances up at the clock to find it’s almost 4:30, which means…

“I have to go, Pig, shishou wanted me at the hospital first thing!” she blurts, rocketing out of her chair and into the bathroom. 

“Don’t think you’re getting away without giving me details!” Ino yells after her over the slam of the door. By the time Sakura creeps out of the shower, though, the apartment’s dark and she can hear Ino’s snores. It’s a relief to soar across the familiar rooftops and drop into the hospital, where it doesn’t take long before she’s up to her elbows in papers and people. Her twelve hour shift passes quickly — quickly enough that she doesn’t even notice it’s time to go until she exits one of the checkup rooms to find Tsunade leaning against the wall outside. 

“Shishou?” she asks, surprised. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” the Hokage says, pushing off the wall. “Can’t I take a walk with my student?”

She blinks, and blinks again. “Uh, no,” she says, eyeing her teacher strangely. “You’ve never taken a walk with me. Ever.”

Tsunade claps her on the shoulder. “Well, I think it’s time we do!” Ten minutes later, they’re sitting on top of Hokage Mountain… and Tsunade pulls a bottle of sake from somewhere Sakura doesn’t want to know about. “Drink?”

“…no thanks, shishou,” Sakura mumbles, more than a little confused.

“Suit yourself.” Tsunade takes a long swig and sets the bottle down, staring into the sunset. “I read your report. You did good work, Sakura. You always do.” She turns towards her then and Sakura sees the thin line of her mouth. “But reports are sanitary. How are you, Sakura? I know this couldn’t have been easy for you.”

Sakura sighs. “Is that what all this is about?” Tsunade nods, reaching for the bottle of sake again. “I’m fine.” Tsunade frowns and opens her mouth, but Sakura keeps talking. “And I mean that. I’m not… I’m not having any flashbacks, or nightmares about sex, or anything like that. The most horrific thing on that mission was rescuing all of those poor women. That part I might have nightmares about, but the rest was…” She pauses. “You’re right, it wasn’t easy. But I did it, and I’m okay. Kakashi took care of me.”

And her teacher snorts. “Yeah, I bet he did,” she mumbles before taking another long drink. Something about the way she says it makes Sakura blanch. “Just so you know, neither of you are in trouble,” Tsunade says when she sets down the bottle. “I highly doubt you went into this mission thinking ‘I’m going to fuck my team captain, who used to be my teacher!’” Sakura inhales hard. “No, he didn’t tell me. I knew it was likely when I assigned you two to this mission.”

At that, the world swims a little, like her air’s been cut off. “…huh?” she manages.

Tsunade sighs. “How well would you have handled the mission if you’d been alone?” She bites her lip. “That’s what I thought. And if I’d sent Sai instead?” The very idea of explaining her emotional upset to Sai makes her shake her head, let alone touching him. “Ino?” And that idea makes her blush.

“I, uh, I don’t think…” Tsunade raises an eyebrow. “Well, I would’ve been fine with… y’know… with a girl, but I don’t think Ino would have been.” Both of Tsunade’s eyebrows go up at that.

“Well. That’s good to know for the future,” she mumbles. Then she shakes her head and focuses on Sakura again. “Do you see my point now? I loathe purple missions altogether, but I’ll be damned if I let my people suffer needlessly. If Minato hadn’t passed that age rule, I would have.” 

“Yes,” Sakura admits, dropping her head onto her knees. “It’s still weird.”

“Mmm, these things usually are,” Tsunade admits. “There is something Kakashi didn’t tell you, though.” She lifts her head, curious. “After long-term seduction missions like this one, we have a mandatory separation period for the partners. You understand trauma psychology well enough to know why.”

She thinks about it for a second and nods. “I guess that’s why I haven’t seen Kakashi today.”

“Well, that and the part where he’s on the way to the front.” Tsunade offers her the bottle and Sakura blinks as she processes. “He’s in charge of the Third Division. You’ll be third division as well once things get rolling, but this way he gets a handle on his forces and you both have some distance from each other.” She shakes the bottle and Sakura finally takes it from her hand, though she only has a sip before handing it back. “Besides, the ANBU director still needs to interview you.”

“Interview?!” Sakura blurts, shocked. “I thought — I applied almost a year ago!”

Tsunade guffaws. “Did you think they moved quickly? This mission was a test to see if you could handle covert ops as well as the loud ones, and you passed with flying colors. All that’s left is the interview and the training.”

“…no psych screen?”

“Pfft. Being batshit is practically a requirement for ANBU.”

- - -

Being in the thick of things again feels better than he thought it would. Gai’s done a good job of whipping the Third Division into some semblance of a cohesive unit, so he rewards the man by sending him off to switch out for Naruto’s current guard team.

He’s more than a little dismayed when Gai comes back almost broken. But… his injuries mean Sakura’s sent out a week in advance of her scheduled arrival date. Nobody notices the extra warmth in his greeting, and nobody comments on how she’s dropped the ‘sensei’ from his name. After they defeat Zabuza and Haku, Tsunade orders her to relocate to Logistics. He doesn’t think anything of it when the order comes through. That night, he’s half-asleep when something rustles at his tent flaps. Immediately, he’s wide awake, hand on a kunai. A second later, a dark head pokes through the flaps and a very familiar voice whispers, “Kakashi?”

He blinks and lets go of the kunai as he sits up. “Sa—mmph!” Before he can finish saying her name, she’s straddling him, her hand over his mouth.

“Shhh!” she whispers into his ear. “Don’t say my name out loud, you asshole!”

“Mphh?” he mumbles against her hand.

She sighs and lets her hand drop. “I…” A pause, and then she takes a deep breath. “I’m leaving in the morning, and Kakashi, I’m fucking terrified. We’re fighting dead people. I don’t know what the hell is going to happen.” Her fingers skirt the edge of his mask, and something coils in his stomach as her purpose becomes clearer. “I want to stop thinking. Just for a little bit.”

He sighs. “Sa—“ Her hiss stops him. “Ichigo, this is exactly why there’s a mandatory separation period after purple missions. It’s a bad idea to —“

“I know it’s a bad idea,” she says. “But I… there’s nobody else here I trust enough. I don’t think we’re star-crossed lovers, and I’m not going to chase you constantly. I just want a break. Don’t you?”

He hesitates. “We’re in the middle of a war zone…” This time, her snort interrupts him.

“Pfft. Do you know how many bedrolls I saw zipped together on my way here? And those were in communal tents.” Before he can say anything else, she yanks his mask down and trails her fingers over his cheek.

“People will know…” he says weakly, struggling to find a reason not to — because he wants to. Gods above, he wants. Just thinking about the way she tastes has his head swimming.

She flicks him on the forehead. “Nope. Henged on my way here and suppressed my chakra signature. As far as anyone else knows, I’m Nakamura Akane.” She runs her thumb over his lips and he barely suppresses a groan. “If you really don’t want me, I’ll go,” she whispers. “But…”

“This is such a bad idea,” he mumbles as he pulls her face down to his. She tastes like blood and sweat now, her lips chapped from dehydration, but it doesn’t matter.

“The worst,” she mumbles back when they come up for air. They’re even quieter this time than they were in the apartment, biting back moans and gasps, muffling everything they can against each other’s skin. Though all the division leaders have private tents, they’re not meant for tall people. He’s smacked his head on the tent pole more than once in the morning. That’s how she ends up on top, her nipples brushing his chest as she undulates against him. “God, you feel so good inside me,” she moans as their rhythms begin to match each other.

He doesn’t say anything for a little while, too focused on helping her rock back and forth, matching the tempo he’s set. When she shudders and whimpers around him, he pulls her closer and murmurs, “Did you miss coming on my cock?”

Her gasp isn’t muffled, and he knows he’s not imagining the gush of wetness that follows his words. “Yes,” she breathes, her pace stuttering. “Fuck, yes.”

At that, he drags her into another kiss and snaps his hips up harder, faster, trying to make her lose control. It almost works on him before it works on her, and that won’t do. After he catches his breath, he slides his hand from her hip to her center and he cheats, flicking her clit hard. Her head drops back and she moans long and deep, the sound almost bubbling out of her mouth. As she catches her breath, he wraps one arm around her waist and rolls them over as best he can in the confines of the tent. “Mpph?” she murmurs, looking up at him with hazy eyes.

“Roll onto your front,” he whispers, sliding out of her and leaning back a little. He half-expects to end up ducking when she moves her legs, but it’s not necessary — she lifts her leg over his head like she’s a ballerina. It takes a little more rearranging, but he’s quickly between her legs and leaning over her as he slides home. “Good?” he whispers into her ear. She nods and he sneaks one hand under her, gently pressing down just above her clit. He knows it’s the right spot when she shudders against him, just hard enough for him to feel it, and almost smiles as he begins to move. 

- - -

It’s not long before they’re both wound up nearly to the edge, their movements hurried and hungry. She’s rolling her hips back into him, her ass bumping against his stomach every time she moves, and fuck, it just keeps feeling better. She can’t moan or scream like she had in the forest, so she narrates it in a low murmur instead. “Yes, yes, right there, gggod yes, fuck me harder, I need it, I need your cock —“

Every time she says something particularly filthy, she feels him shudder against her back. More than once he bites into her shoulder to muffle a groan. As he lifts his head from his newest mark, his lips brush her ear and he hesitates for a second. Then he mutters, voice barely above a growl, “I love how sloppy your pussy gets when I fuck you.” She inhales hard, almost choking on her next words, heat spiraling through her body and settling where they’re joined. A chuckle follows the wave of heat and Kakashi whispers, “Just like that,” punctuating the words with a hard thrust. “Do you know how fucking hot it is when people love sex? When they just let themselves enjoy it and forget everything except the way I’m touching them?”

“I — I do now,” she gasps, feeling her body pulling tight, close to the edge again. She hadn’t thought he could get any nearer, but he does, hips almost flush with her ass as he buries his nose in her hair. Then he moves the hand he’d been teasing her clit with to the far side of her hips and yanks them up into his, making her arch her back and — “O-oohhhhh!” Like this, he hits whatever spot it was he found inside her that first time, the one that makes her head spin.

“Listen, Sakura,” he breathes into her hair, so quiet even she can barely hear it. “Can you hear that?” She tries to calm her breathing, tries to listen, but all she can hear, all she can focus on, is the squelch of him fucking her.

“H-hear what?” she mumbles.

She feels his smile against the side of her head before he speaks, punctuating his words with deep, hard thrusts. “How much — your pussy — loves — being wrapped around — my cock,” he says, almost panting. 

“Y-yes,” she mutters, and if the noise was erotic before, it’s scalding hot now. Then he shifts, just a little, before thrusting again and it’s just the right spot. Everything coalesces, gathers into a tiny pinpoint of a bubble inside her… and she bursts. Halfway through her orgasm, his hand clamps over her mouth and she realizes she’d forgotten to be quiet. But whatever she wailed finishes him because he shudders and jerks and spills inside her. It only makes her come harder, whining and wailing against his hand. This time, he has no choice but to collapse on her, but his weight on her back is almost comforting. 

“Fuck,” he mumbles after a minute of silence. Then again, with more feeling, “Fuck.”

She snorts and licks his hand to make him move it. He hisses and yanks it away, leaving her free to talk. “Yes, that’s what just happened,” she drawls, wiggling her hips back against him again. He sighs and pushes himself up off her. When his heat recedes, she pulls her legs up to her chest and pulls herself into a sitting position before she turns around to start looking for her clothes. Kakashi just… watches her as she picks her things up and slithers back into them. But she does hear his breath catch when she finds her panties and pulls them up over her legs, without even bothering to wipe herself clean. “Thank you,” she says when she’s ready to go, reaching out and touching his face. “I promise this isn’t going to be a regular thing if we survive this, okay? I just wanted to stop thinking for a little while.”

He sighs deeply. “It better not,” is all he says. She rolls her eyes and goes to move past him, towards the flap of the tent, but he catches her wrist. “Hey. Do me a favor, okay?” She quirks her eyebrow. “Be careful out there. I’ve got enough dead friends on my conscience.” 

She blinks hard and then she smiles at him. “I will,” she promises. “And I’ll save the others, too. Even that asshole.” As she reapplies her henge and leaves the tent, she can feel him watching her go. His gaze lingers with her all the way to the shower stalls, where she slips inside and drops her henge. She’s not the only doing it, either — she bumps into a very familiar Nara on her way out. They just glances at each other, nod, and go their separate ways. 

- - -

By the time Kakashi wakes up, the people transferring divisions are already gone. Still, there’s a strange attitude in the camp as he goes to find breakfast. More than a few men slap him on the back in passing. Both men and women flush when they catch his eye. He frowns, confused, but carries on. He’s halfway through his reconstituted egg omelet when he finds out why. “MY RIVAL!”

He shovels the rest of his omelet into his mouth and turns around. “Gai.”

The man’s shuffling toward him, his grin suspiciously large for someone in such bad shape. “YOU HAVE OUTDONE ME ONCE MORE, IN A FIELD OF CHALLENGE I THOUGHT FALLEN BY THE WAYSIDE!” Kakashi blinks.

“I… have?” he says, thinking back over the past few days. He hasn’t done much of, well, anything that could be considered a challenge.

Gai stops in front of him, eyes brimming with joyful tears. “Yes, my rival! Your youthfulness has outshone my own in this moment, but I will not let it remain so! I, too, shall seduce a woman, and love her so passionately that she cries my name to the skies!”

Kakashi’s eye almost pops out of his head. “W-what? What woman? There’s no woman!” he says, internally panicking more than a little.

“Do not spare my emotions, oh cruel rival! Not one, but many, heard the woman crying your name in her spectacular ecstasy last night!” Gai says, the tears beginning to drip. “Your sexual technique is surely masterful, but I, the Green Beast of Konoha, shall prove my technique superior!”

He slumps forward and buries his face in his hands. “I told her it was a bad idea,” he mumbles. “I told her. ‘It’ll be fine, Kakashi, we can be quiet, Kakashi’. Shit.”

Just then, the Yamanaka boy ambles up. “Heard you had a good time last night, captain. Think she’d be down to come to my tent?”

For that, he flicks his headband up so the Sharingan’s visible, and then catches Yamanaka’s gaze. “Go. To. Hell.” Then he flickers away, because this is just too damn much.

- - -

There’s no mirrors in camp, and Sakura hadn’t thought about looking at herself when she got dressed this morning. It’s also warm enough out that she chose a different shirt than normal. An hour into the trip, springing through the trees, Leth Marai drops back to run beside her. She and Marai have a… tumultuous relationship, at best. “So, even Haruno feels the stress, huh?” Marai says, looking straight ahead.

“Of course I do!” Sakura snaps. “This war’s already horrific, and it’s only going to get worse.”

Marai snorts. “Not what I was talking about, Haruno. You’re kind of a weirdo.” Sakura starts to say something, but Marai keeps going. “S’probably why the Hokage chose you as her apprentice. Normally, you just double down on whatever work you’re doing when you get stressed. You study harder, you heal more people, whatever.” Marai turns her head then and offers Sakura a sly smile. “The rest of us have other ways of coping. Judging by that bite mark on your neck, you ‘coped’ real good last night.”

Sakura almost freezes, only habit keeping her moving, as she claps a hand to her neck. “He left marks?” she hisses. “That — that dick!”

At that, Marai bursts out laughing. “Good to see you’re human, Haruno!”

The first chance she gets, she pulls out a tiny hand mirror and heals her neck. That night, when she’s safely ensconced in the Support Division, she takes her shirt off and counts the marks. There’s at least a half dozen bite marks, some of them deeper than others and some of them overlapping. She runs her fingers over them slowly... but she doesn’t heal them.

It’s the last moment of peace she has for far longer than she’d like. There are clones trying to kill her, zombies escaping with sensitive information, and things only grow stranger from there.