Swapped

The Side Effects & the Upsets

Kakashi hadn't intended for his disdain for Kankuro to get so out of hand or obvious, but he was struggling to keep a lid on it. He thought ignoring him would solve the problem, but it turned out that the young man was practically impossible to disregard. He was always around, and when he was around, he liked to talk, and touch, and look, and Kakashi had had enough.

After sitting in his room for a few hours alone, he had begun to feel like a petulant child. Sakura could spend her time with whomever she chose. More often than not, she chose to spend her time with Kakashi, so he wasn't sure why he was so concerned and affected by this. In fact, her gallivanting around Suna with Kankuro likely had a lot to do with his abrupt departure. At the time, it had felt like the right thing to do. Now, he kind of just wished she'd seek him out.

He wondered what the two of them even had in common. Aside from saving his life, what was it that kept Kankuro so enraptured in her? With a sigh, he realized that was an easy question to answer. It wasn't hard to like someone as brilliant and full of life as Sakura. Kakashi didn't know enough about Kankuro to speak to what Sakura could see in him, and he didn't care to know. Whatever their commonalities were, it was enough to keep her busy for hours.

Sakura came to Suna more regularly than most, save Shikamaru. She was here once or twice a year on average, and those visits usually lasted a couple of weeks at minimum. He imaged she spent a lot of time with Kankuro during those stints. Two weeks could feel like a long time, Kakashi thought. These last five days, for instance, had lasted a lifetime. His mind had flashed back the images of them writhing against each other in bed, but he shook himself out of the memory. The last thing he needed to consider was Sakura releasing her tension with Kankuro.

Besides, she had said they hadn't been together. Still…

Kakashi thought back to their arrival in Suna, when Sakura had abandoned Kakashi with Kankuro, the latter not yet informed of the body-swap. He had said some puzzling things to Kakashi once they were alone, things that had been grating on him ever since. Not only was he overly familiar, with his arm around what he thought was Sakura's waist, and leaning down to whisper in his ear flirtatiously about how much he had missed Sakura, and how he hoped they would be able to spend some time alone together.

That's when Kakashi had broken the unfortunate news. Kankuro had been thoroughly revolted and hadn't touched him again. Small miracles, Kakashi had thought at the time. Now, all he could think was that Kankuro was finally getting that alone time with Sakura that he'd been after.

Utterly annoyed with himself, Kakashi had picked Icha Icha back up and read until the words blurred together and he slipped out of consciousness.

He'd woken back up to the smell of spices and sweet flowers. Sakura and food, his mind supplied before he even opened his eye. Then they'd gone up onto that roof, and he had forgotten all notions of jealousy and bitterness. It was like the rest of the world didn't exist outside of the two of them when they were together. If someone had asked him about Kankuro in that moment, he would have said he'd never heard of such a person.

As most of their conversations seemed to go as of late, they had begun teasing and flirting. Kissing her hadn't been in his plans for the evening, but he definitely wouldn't complain about it. It felt too good, truly kissing her, sober and with his own lips. But as good at it had felt, he couldn't resist riling her up.

Kakashi snickered to himself as he made himself comfortable back in his room. She would undoubtedly be livid for having been left on that rooftop, lips puckered in the air. He'd had a most disarming thought about being inside her, and it had shocked him enough that he nearly left before kissing her at all, but he was too far gone by that point. Leaning so close to her was stronger than any drink he'd ever had.

He had almost changed his mind about leaving at all, because kissing her had been so exquisite, but he reasoned that leaving was the best course of action. They had clearly gotten far too comfortable traipsing over the unspoken line between friends and something else entirely. He wasn't sure what would happen if they kept going with that flagrant disregard. He also wasn't sure if he could put a stop to it at this point.

It helped that her anger was enrapturing. Her flushed cheeks, and fast-beating heart; she was all passion and excitement. He was probably a touch masochistic.

He had expected her to come barreling into his room in a flurry of rage. In his mind, it was a clear succession of events; she would burst in, magnificently pissed off, hurling insults and punches at him until they inevitably fell onto the bed and into a compromising position, and then he would take all her passion and excitement and put it to good use.

He pulled himself from that train of thought and frowned up at the ceiling. Perhaps he had been reading too much Icha Icha.

But Sakura did not barge in, as he'd anticipated. He wondered if he'd pushed her too far, but as short-tempered as she was, he knew she wouldn't be truly upset over it. Maybe this was her payback. If so, he had to admit, it was pretty effective. He was suitably frustrated and flustered, as he imaged she was at being abandoned on a roof. He supposed he deserved it.

Giving up on his Icha Icha-induced fantasy, Kakashi resigned himself to bed. They would be heading back to Konoha in the morning, and the world's worst vacation would come to an end. As he fell into the lull of sleep he briefly wondered if this new territory he and Sakura had wandered into would come to an end along with it.

Kakashi woke with a start. His room was dark and he was alone, but he could hear Sakura in the washroom. She wasn't being particularly loud or disruptive, so he wasn't entirely sure what had jarred him from sleep. Now that he was awake, though, he listened as she ran the water and readied herself for bed. He wondered if she would come to his room to share his bed again, but he didn't have to entertain that thought for long. He could hear the door to her room open and close and then nothing else.

He couldn't hear her through the doors and bathroom, but when he cracked open his second eye he could see her chakra moving about the room. He could even smell the lotion she must have been lathering herself up in. He guessed the mystery of her deliciously soft skin was solved. He sighed softly to himself as he watched her chakra walk to one end of the room and then back to climb into her bed. It felt a little voyeuristic, so he closed his eyes and tried to ignore the warm sugary scent of her lotion that lingered in his nose.

He waited for sleep to come as easily as it had earlier that night, but it refused. Frustration was sweeping away his desire to rest. He wondered if it would be incorrigible of him to go to Sakura's bed as she had done to him the previous night. If she wanted you near, she would have come, he chided himself. Leaving her on that rooftop had been a grave miscalculation, he realized with a deep sigh.

He was pulled from his lamenting by another sigh. He frowned. Was he imagining things now?

An image flashed in his mind, too quick for him to make any sense of it; all he could make out were various shades of pink. He felt a stirring low in his abdomen and huffed in resignation. He couldn't be surprised that he was getting turned on; honestly, the surprise was that it had taken until now to happen. He wasn't sure what brought it on, but he could remember the scent of Sakura's room with a little too much clarity, and that seemed to be goading his arousal. He remembered it so vividly he swore he could actually smell her.

His eyes snapped open. He could smell her. That's impossible, he thought. All this time he'd been in his room and it hadn't reached him. Unless…his thought broke off as another image flashed in his mind.

This time, he recognized what he was seeing, even if it had been fleeting. He'd spent enough time admiring Sakura's breasts to know them on sight. They had been thrust upward into someone's hands, those pert pink nipples being pinched just hard enough to illicit a sharp gasp from Sakura. He really believed he could actually hear the gasp, followed by a sweet little moan.

He was sitting up now, cradling his head in his hands. What was going on here? He wondered briefly if it was a lucid dream, but he was definitely awake. A moment passed in which he couldn't hear or see anything out of the ordinary. He could still smell her, though. She could be dreaming, he reasoned. If she was currently aroused, then that would explain why he could smell her now. He opened his Sharingan again to see if he was right.

His mouth dried when he saw that she was very much awake. She was sitting up against the headboard, one hand on her breast and the other buried between her legs. If he wasn't fully hard before, he definitely was now. He found himself wishing his Sharingan was a Byakugan so he could really see her and not just her chakra flow. That thought made him feel a little perverted, but then he "heard" Sakura moan his name and he didn't really care about that anymore.

"Mmmmm…oh, yes, Kakashi…" He heard it loud and clear as the image of him sucking gently at her neck while slipping a finger deep inside her entered his mind. He wasn't hallucinating, he realized; these were Sakura's thoughts he was hearing and seeing. She was in the room next door, touching herself, thinking about him, and he was agonizingly aware of it. He reached down to adjust himself in his boxer briefs, hoping to ease some of his discomfort. It seemed he could not be calmed, he realized forlornly. It felt wrong to continue enjoying Sakura's fantasies, let alone get off on it.

But then she was touching herself with more fervour, thinking how wet she was, and thinking about Kakashi enjoying how wet she was, and he knew it was a lost cause. He vaguely wondered what it would be like to taste her, and suddenly Sakura's fantasy shifted so that his head was between her thighs while she buried her hands in his hair. He groaned quietly as he reached to "adjust" himself again when it hit him.

She could hear his thoughts, as well. Obviously, in the throes of passion she wasn't aware that she was experiencing his thoughts, but it couldn't have been a coincidence that he had thought about putting his mouth on her and suddenly she was picturing the very same. He pulled his hand away again. If he could get her to stop…

He felt stupid, lying in bed with a raging hard-on, furiously thinking Sakura, Sakura, Sakura, please stop, I can hear and see everything, you're driving me mad, please stop immediately, Sakura, I can read your mind, please stop…

Her imagination conjured up a scene that had him blushing. Apparently Sakura had a thing for begging. Before he could be tempted again, he jumped off the bed and decided to change tactics. He headed into their shared bathroom and turned the light on. If he couldn't catch her attention with his thoughts, maybe the light would do it. He waited a minute or two, trying his best to disregard Sakura's thoughts, but it became clear that wasn't working either. She probably had her eyes closed, he reasoned.

He steeled himself before he stepped closer to her door to knock gently. He had just lifted his fist when he heard her, really heard her, and not just her thoughts. He could hear her shallow panting and stifled moans. If he listened close enough, he could even hear the sound of her fingers slipping between her slick folds. He was going to die in this bathroom, he was sure of it. His tombstone would read 'Hatake Kakashi – Copy Ninja – Insatiable Pervert'.

It seemed while he was in the midst of a crisis, Sakura had found her stride. Her fantasies up until then had been disjointed, constantly shifting images, but now she had hooked onto something to her liking, and was exploring it in earnest. He wondered what was worse; quietly enduring her visions, or barging in and interrupting her? If he went in now, he wasn't sure he'd be leaving. It remained to be seen if she would invite him to join, or simply disembowel him.

She appeared to be quite fond of him in her lust-fueled reverie, but Kakashi knew better than to assume anything where Sakura was concerned. He told himself again, that if she had wanted him, she knew where to find him. It wasn't as if they hadn't already blurred the lines of their relationship. With a weary sigh, Kakashi gently knocked on her bathroom door. All he got in response was bitten-off whine. He was too tired, and his dick was too hard for him to be dealing with this.

"Sakura?" He called as loudly as he dared. He knocked once more and listened carefully.

"Fuck me, Kakashi." She had just barely whispered it to herself, still blissfully unaware of her audience. Fuck this, he thought. He had no control over her thoughts, and if she was enjoying herself (and he was absolutely certain that she was), then what business did he have putting an end to it? He turned to leave he washroom, scooping the small bottle of complimentary lotion on his way out. He slumped back into his bed and submitted himself fully to Sakura's thoughts.

Her fantasy washed over him full-force as he closed his eyes and took hold of himself. Sakura was crouched above him, riding him hard. She was crying out wantonly, unabashedly, and so filthily Kakashi hardly knew what to do with himself. He was stroking himself in tandem with the brusque pace she'd set. Her perky breasts were bouncing so delightfully, he wanted nothing more than to put his mouth on them.

That fleeting thought began to influence Sakura's, and he saw the version of him in her imagination sit up to do just that. She was now straddling his hips, rocking herself hard and fast against him as he licked and bit at one of her pretty pink nipples. She was close; she said as much in the fantasy, crying out obscenities he never would have imagined coming out of her mouth.

He was a little embarrassed that he wasn't so far off either. He just needed a little more, and he would be right at the end with her. He pumped himself harder as Sakura's thoughts grew muddled with her approach to orgasm. He filled in the blanks with his own desires. He imagined himself gripping her hips and thrusting up into her hard and fast, pushing her over the edge forcefully and unrelentingly.

"Ooh, Kakashi!" He wasn't sure if her cry had been a part of the fantasy, or if she had actually let it slip out as she played with herself, but he didn't care. He was deep inside her as she finished, but he wasn't there yet. The fantasy had already started fading, and in the opposite room he could see her begin to pull her hands away from herself. Don't stop, Sakura, he thought, keep going, just a little longer.

With his prompting, she was back at it, tapping her fingers against her oversensitive core. She was too overwhelmed to maintain a clear train of thought, so he let his own thoughts take over. She was on her back with her ankles hooked over his shoulders as he bore into her, hard and deep. He couldn't tell the difference between her moans in his mind and the ones coming from her room anymore. He knew she was going to come again, and soon. In his mind, he drilled into her harder, faster, deeper, while he pumped himself with the same vigor.

He really couldn't tell where his thoughts ended and Sakura's began anymore, but it didn't matter because with a few more twists, he was at his peak, groaning into a pillow. It hit him especially hard as their shared fantasy came to a close with Kakashi buried deep inside Sakura, spilling into her.

With his mind cleared from the cloud of lust, he mused about how very unlike himself it was to finish inside his partner, even in a fantasy. He lay there for a moment, feeling less ashamed than he thought he had the right to be. Mostly he just felt sleepy. He could hear Sakura milling around in the bathroom, cleaning herself up. He patiently waited his turn, carefully keeping his mind blank lest she catch on. He was intensely grateful she didn't have his sense of smell; he'd have been exposed for sure.

He waited awhile after Sakura had cleared the washroom, making sure she was asleep before he got up. He wasn't surprised to find that her scent had lingered, but he was surprised by the painful twitch in his pants. Sakura was right; his dick really was always hard.

The next morning, Sakura had burst into Kakashi's room, expecting him to be lazing around in a conscious effort to make them late. She had been shocked to see that his room was clear of Kakashi as well as his belongings. It seemed he had developed a taste for ditching her, she thought with a pout.

When she stepped back into her room to collect her things, there was a piping hot coffee waiting for her on the nightstand. She didn't try to stop the smile that broke out across her face. Who knew Hatake Kakashi was such a softie?

I did, she thought to herself. She had known for some time how sweet and thoughtful he could be when no one was looking. She liked that she was one of the few people who got to experience that side of him.

Bag packed and coffee in hand, Sakura headed to the gates to meet Shikamaru and Temari. Kakashi was clearly lurking in the shadows, doing god-knew-what. Sometimes she thought he became the shadows themselves. Maybe he could give Shikamaru a run for his money. In a not at all shocking turn of events, Kakashi was not at the gates waiting for her. Shikamaru and Temari walked up not three minutes after Sakura had arrived, also not entirely shocked that Kakashi was gearing up to be late.

Sakura had apologized to Temari on behalf of her partner, but Temari didn't seem to care very much. Apparently Shikamaru had given her ample warning of Konoha's pride and joy, the legendary Copy-nin, and his inability to keep track of time. She wondered what his excuse today would be; she had grown to love them, in all their whimsy. Her favourite so far was that he'd gotten trapped under the crushing weight of the world's expectations.

"We probably should have told him we were leaving at dawn." Shikamaru said with a wearisome sigh after thirty minutes had gone by and Kakashi still had not arrived.

"Yeah, maybe then we could have expected him to be only an hour late." Sakura joked. "You guys don't have to wait, really. I'm used to this." Sakura said with an embarrassed smile. Temari and Shikamaru exchanged a thoughtful look. "Honestly, he shows up late all the time but we somehow always manage to stay on schedule." She assured them with a grin.

After another thirty minutes went by without Kakashi's appearance, Shikamaru and Temari took her up on her offer. Temari told her the general area where they would make camp for the night, in case she and Kakashi did end up catching up to them, and Sakura thanked her. Hopefully Kakashi wouldn't be much longer. She did not look forward to running through the desert with the sun at its peak.

She had spotted a coffee shop just down the road from the main gates and thought she might as well enjoy one last drink before heading home. She had ambled slowly there and back, but still, Kakashi was nowhere in sight. She really should have seen this coming.

"All by your lonesome?" She looked up from her coffee to see Kankuro approaching her with a grin and a wave. "Shikamaru and Temari said you were heading out but I see you're too busy taking an extended coffee break." He teased lightly.

"Yes, it seems my partner had more important things to take care of this morning." She said with a roll of her eyes, but kept her smile in place. "At least I don't have to wait alone now." She said with a grin. He returned it easily.

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm on guard duty. I've got to head back to my post." He said. She pouted dramatically at that. "You could join me, if you'd like." He proposed, leaning against the wall beside her and peering down at her. She was going to tell him thanks but no thanks; they had a flirty repartee, but she didn't want to encourage him beyond that. She had just opened her mouth to speak when she was interrupted.

"Yo." Kakashi had materialized in the small space between Kankuro and Sakura, effectively wedging them apart.

"Look what the cat dragged in." Sakura said with a smirk. Kakashi gave her his standard eye-crinkle before leaning down to pick up her pack in a gesture that very clearly said "stop talking to this puppet man and let's the hell out of here".

"…Right." Kankuro said with a little frown from behind Kakashi. "I'll see you around, Sakura." He said as he tried to sidestep Kakashi. Sakura raised a questioning eyebrow as Kakashi accidentally-totally-on-purpose blocked Kankuro from getting around him. Kakashi ignored it and shook her pack in front of her insistently. Sakura just rolled her eyes and pushed him aside so she could say goodbye to Kankuro. She grinned at him and allowed him to scoop her into a hug before she thanked him for everything and bid him farewell.

When she turned away from Kankuro, Kakashi was already walking away. "So let's hear it; what's today's excuse?" Sakura asked when she caught up with him with a small smile as they set off into the desert.

"Got lost trying to escape some thoughts." He said blandly before picking up his pace and leaving her in the literal dust. She stared after him in bewilderment before kicking her ass in gear and following his stride.

Gods, she was exhausted. They had been running full-speed through the desert for hours without so much as a water break, and for some reason Kakashi was adamant about travelling as fast as possible. She wondered if he'd caught a case of Gai fever, and she had intended to ask him what the hell his problem was, but every time she'd get close enough to speak to him he'd dart away again. The whole time he kept at least ten metres' distance between them.

By the time they hit hour six, Sakura had had enough. She stopped where she stood and waited for him to realize she was no longer on his tail. She plopped down in the sand and pulled her water from her pack. He stood a ways away, waiting for her to get up and follow him. She didn't. Eventually, he trotted back to her, when it was clear she was perfectly happy where she was and had no intention of moving.

Cautiously, he took a seat beside her in the sand and pulled down his mask to have a drink of water alongside her. She eyed him warily as she drank, wondering if he was going to tell her what was wrong or if she'd have to beat it out of him. She could and would, if that was what it came to. As more time passed between them in silence, she started wondering which part of him she should hit to make him sing like a canary without doing too much damage.

"I can read your mind." He said with a slightly frightened look at her as she cracked her knuckles.

"I beg your pardon?" She asked. He sighed and rubbed his hands roughly over his face.

"I can read your mind. I hear your thoughts, and see things that you imagine." He elaborated. She stared at him in confusion before barking out a laugh.

"Yeah, sure." She said through her laughter. "So what am I thinking right now?" She asked in disbelief with a smirk. He met her eyes with a pained expression and pink cheeks.

"That I'm full of shit, all I do is lie, which is a shame, because you can think of much better things to do with my mouth." He said with a strained voice. "And that my mouth is just as pretty as m—"

"Okay I believe you!" She shouted quickly before he could finish. She was so embarrassed she just wanted to bury her head in the sand and become one with the desert. "When…when did this start?" She asked squeakily and refusing to make eye contact with him.

"Last night. After you got back to your room and..." He gazed at her pointedly, unwilling to finish his sentence. She lifted her gaze to his face, looking for signs of dishonesty and finding none. Her cheeks were burning as she remembered going back to her room and indulging some very explicit fantasies. Kakashi groaned and his cheeks reddened. "Could you not?" He asked desperately.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." She grumbled into her hands as she hid her face as white-hot shame coursed through her. "I'm so embarrassed, oh my god." She cried into herself. Timidly, he patted her shoulder, probably trying to comfort her, but mostly just amplifying how awkward it all was. How much had he heard or seen? How had he known what she was doing?

She tensed when foreign images entered her mind; the shape of someone's chakra through a wall, leaning back with their knees up and spread apart, their hand between their legs…

"Oh my god…" She mumbled to herself in horror again. "I'm so sorry, Kakashi, that must have been so uncomfortable for you." She said fretfully, finally lifting her head to look him in the eye. His ears were pink but he didn't avoid her gaze.

"Yeah, super uncomfortable." He mumbled with an awkward clear of his throat. She brow furrowed in suspicion. Then, another unfamiliar memory crossed her mind fleetingly; the image of Kakashi stroking himself while he listened to the noises coming from the neighbouring room. It had been just a flash of a memory, but she had seen enough to understand.

"Oh my god." She whispered in both horror and accusation. He looked completely mortified.

"You weren't supposed to see that." He said with a resigned sigh. "You can read my mind too, in case you hadn't figured that out." She would have walloped him if her hands weren't too preoccupied with tearing all the hair out of her head. She really wasn't angry with him, not that she had any right to be, it's not like he was doing anything that she hadn't started. Knowing that he had gotten off on it actually ebbed away at her humiliation a bit.

"So is this why you've been AWOL all morning?" She asked once she had the courage to lift her head again.

"I spent all night in your head; I just couldn't do it anymore." He admitted with a blush and a crooked smile. "You've got quite the imagination, Sakura-chan." His comment was tinged with a hint of self-deprecation.

"Thanks." She said sarcastically. He seemed to be able to read her thoughts with ease, but all she was getting were mixed up images and words. She wondered why she couldn't read him with as much clarity. His ears were red.

"Probably just haven't really tuned into them yet. Your thoughts were a little foggy for me at first." He admitted.

"Oh, so you consciously tuned into them, did you? Lecherous perv." She grumbled with a pout. He was bright red with shame. Sakura thought it was kind of cute, but with that thought Kakashi flung himself back onto the sand with an unhappy moan. "Why didn't you just…interrupt me or something!? Surely, that would have been less humiliating than this." She said waving her hands haphazardly at everything and nothing. He grimaced and another image of her chakra-outline flashed in his mind; legs spread and hand rubbing eagerly between them. She snapped her mouth shut and felt her face burn. "Would you stop thinking about that?" She cried.

"Sorry, sorry…" He grumbled. "I did try to let you know I was…aware," he began, still laying flat in the sand, staring at the bright sky. "It felt wrong to walk in unexpected." She didn't need to be able to read his mind to hear the unasked question; what would have happened if he had walked in? She wouldn't have kicked him out, that much she knew. With a deep flush, she realized that now he knew it too.

"This is way worse than the body-swap." Sakura said after they stared at each other for a moment, pink-faced and wide-eyed. Kakashi sighed deeply and silently agreed.

A/N: Happy New Year! May your 2021 be blessed with good smut