Swapped

The Games & the Bets

Sakura had missed running through the forest. It was much more enjoyable travelling under a canopy of leaves and a pleasant breeze than the harsh, unforgiving sands of Wind. They were also running adjacent to a lake, which meant she'd get to take a dip and rinse off the day's sweat when they stopped for the night. She felt excitement thrum through her at the thought of reaching Konoha soon. She had done plenty of away missions, many which lasted far longer than this had, but none had been so exhausting.

She had done an excellent job of not thinking about that morning's exciting wake-up call from Kakashi's subconscious. Instead, she had chosen to fixate on his adorable blushing and fluttering nerves, which proved to be endlessly entertaining for her. It didn't take much effort on her part and it yielded fascinating results.

She never expected that Kakashi, reading-porn-in-public Kakashi, would be so demure.

She stifled a laugh when he nearly tumbled down from the trees when she'd had that thought. I'm not demure, I'm an elite assassin, he'd thought in rebuttal. What's your preferred method? Kill them with cuteness? She thought delightfully.

"Ow!" She yelped when she felt something pinch her backside.

"Everything okay, Sakura-chan?" Kakashi asked innocently. Shikamaru and Temari had turned their heads to her in interest. She had been quite loud, and while they weren't exactly on a dangerous mission, a key component of being a successful ninja was being quiet. She tittered nervously but they soon lost interest and continued on their run. Kakashi sniggered lowly beside her.

"What are you so happy about, Chuckles?" She gritted out quietly. He pulled her harm, halting them briefly on a thick branch as he leaned down to her ear, mask pooled around his neck.

"You have a stick in your ass." He whispered before reaching around her back and sliding his hand over her bottom. Her jaw dropped.

"Oh, you have some nerve!" She said in shock. She could not believe him. He was smirking at her resting his hand unabashedly on her ass. "You think you can just insult me and feel me up, and that's totally fine?" She whispered fiercely, not wanting to catch Temari and Shikamaru's attention.

"I think," he said lowly, pulling her in tighter to him with that horribly smug smirk that made her stomach flip-flop, "that you have a stick in your ass." He finished plainly with a light squeeze. She was gearing up to shove him off the branch when she felt a little prick, and then his offending hand was in front of her, dangling a senbon between his fingers.

"Oh." She said blankly. He stepped away from her fully, taking away the warmth of his body that she hadn't realized she was enjoying until it was gone. He quirked an eyebrow up at her disappointment and carefully stepped back against her, still smirking. "You're a smug bastard." She whispered, completely devoid of malice. He tilted his head down to hers, watching her carefully and letting his warm breath ghost over her parted lips.

"Mm, so I've been told." He mumbled lowly. She'd barely blinked and he was away from her again, standing three branches ahead and calling out, "let's go, Sakura-chan! Don't want to keep anyone waiting!" She sighed and pouted to herself as she trailed behind him.

He really was such a tease.

They descended into a game of chicken after that. The amount of indecent thoughts and images passing between them had become ridiculous, and Sakura wasn't sure which one of them was to blame anymore. She would say Kakashi had started it, with that grope-and-non-kiss on the tree branch, but then she had been on a mission to see him blush all morning long. So she supposed they were even in that respect.

Then she thought it must have been Kakashi's fault after that racy dream he'd had. When she recalled the dream, she'd brought a blush out of both of them, as well as some other thoughts that spiralled out of control. His argument was that she had goaded on the dream with her teasing the night before. She grudgingly conceded when he conjured up her image of his mouth around her nipple. She wasn't happy to forfeit, but that particular fantasy had been such a favourite of hers that she didn't mind too much.

He had argued that she was clearly at fault, that it was her night of indulgence in Suna that had kicked it all off. She had taken particular offense at that, because she had been minding her own business; he was the one who turned it into some shared sex fantasy. Yet again, they were both sent into a flurry of blushing and nervous glances.

After all was said and done, they ended up back at square one; no one knew whose fault it was, and neither of them was willing to relent. Sakura supposed it didn't really matter if one of them was at fault or not; both of them seemed perfectly happy continuing as they were. Well, she didn't know if happy was the right word to use. She was enjoying how red Kakashi's ears got, but it came at a significant self-sacrifice of intense frustration.

She wasn't sure she'd ever been so turned on and annoyed before in her life, much less experiencing both concurrently. But she was learning that Kakashi quite liked her frustrated and annoyed—and not just sexually. Sometimes he just pissed her off the regular way and that seemed to please him just as well.

I think your body has a hard time distinguishing between angry and turned on, he'd thought after he reminded her of how he'd nibbled on her lip before leaving her on the rooftop. She rolled her eyes. She had no trouble distinguishing the difference; he just had a hard time going through life without getting on her nerves. On the contrary, he thought as he grinned at her, I work hard to get on your nerves. If that was the case, then he was an overachiever by every definition.

I think you spend too much time thinking about my body, she suggested. He laughed breathily beside her, quiet enough that Shikamaru and Temari remained unaware of the bizarre battle occurring between Sakura and Kakashi. He dragged his gaze from her legs up her body until he met her eyes, unashamed.

"I've got a lot to think about." He said quiet and low. She had to suppress the shudder that threatened to roll through her. He took her distraction as an opportunity to fill her mind with images of his hands and mouth on her body. She tried not to dwell on them and let him get the upper hand, but the thought of him kissing his way up her thighs was too alluring. He had his eyes forward, looking completely unbothered; she tried to follow suit, but then he was thinking about licking her inner thigh and sinking his teeth into her skin, and she was losing her footing and plummeting out of a fifty-foot-tall tree to her death.

"AAAHHHHHH!" She screamed in a show of her composure and level-headedness. She stopped abruptly, dangling upside-down by her ankle. She knew Kakashi had caught her, because he was currently admiring the shape of her ass in her black shorts now that her skirt was flipped over.

"Eh, it's about time we took a break anyway." She heard Shikamaru say as she swayed lightly.

"Sounds good!" She called up, shooting out a thumbs-up blindly. Kakashi was snickering, clearly under the impression that he had won that round. With the blood rushing to her head, she'd have to agree.

"You hurt yourself." Kakashi said as he sat beside her with his nose buried in Icha Icha. She thought she had hidden it well, but she supposed he wouldn't be Kakashi if he didn't notice even the smallest details.

"Yeah," she admitted with a sigh, "it's not bad. Just a light sprain." She said as she tended to her ankle more openly. "It'll be a little stiff once I'm done with it, but I'll survive." She assured him with a bright smile. He hummed thoughtfully as he stared blankly at the pages in front of his face, thinking that her sprain was his fault. She rolled her eyes. She didn't need to read his mind to know that self-blame would be his immediately reaction.

"I'm sorry." He said, despite hearing her thoughts on how it was most definitely not his fault.

"It's not your fault." She reiterated aloud unnecessarily. He still didn't believe her. "C'mon," she said as she pulled her boot off to get to her ankle with more ease, "tell me about what kind of debauchery you're reading about now." She teased as she worked on healing the sprain in her ankle.

"Do you always have your head in the gutter, Sakura-chan?" He joked, leaning closer to her. She considered her sex drive average, most of the time. This mission, however, had awakened something feral in her. She wasn't sure what to do with herself when she was buzzing with so much sexual frustration, but she had a pretty good idea what she'd like to do about. Kakashi's ears were red but he wasn't ducking away in shame.

She wasn't sure if he was coming around or if he was just numbed to it now, but if he kept looking at her like that, she wasn't sure she could be held accountable for her actions. His absence of thought at that told her he was clamping down on something. He was steadfast as ever, the same reliable Kakashi she'd known since she was twelve. And yet, he was so much more. She wanted him to share his whole self with her and she didn't just mean the physical. The pink tint that sat high on his cheeks told her that her message had gotten across.

Instead of obliging her, he finally turned his attentions to Icha Icha Innocence. She rolled her eyes at the blatant attempt to change the subject, but he continued to ignore her. He began reading a particularly explicit passage—they were all explicit, as far as Sakura knew—and she wondered how this was any better than sharing his own thoughts in place of Jiraiya's prose.

He had a smug look in his eye when he began replacing the woman described in the pages with a slighter, shorter, pinker woman. She could feel that her cheeks were warming, but she was feeling much more intrigued with the goings on; especially now that the main character looked suspiciously like Kakashi. It was all very dramatic, and if she was being honest, she quite liked that. She had had vanilla, average sex before and while it was nice, these passages seemed much more fun. Kakashi duly kept his thoughts on the pages in front of him.

"That's ridiculous. No one does that." She said as he came to an absurd scene. He remained quiet at her comment, and when she fixed him with a penetrative stare he met her eyes with a raised brow. "…Right?" She asked, less sure of herself.

"It's not impossible." He muttered vaguely, keeping his thoughts cautiously guarded. She continued to scrutinize him. She leaned into his shoulder to peek at the page for herself. It was describing a position she had never seen or heard of before; the woman was in what Sakura could only describe as a wheelbarrow position. She was in a handstand her legs pinned to either side of his waist. He was stood up, holding her hips for support as he thrust down into her. Sakura was skeptical to say the least.

"You've done this?" She asked dubiously. An image flashed in his mind that proved he had, in fact, done this before, despite how quickly he tried to squash it down. Sakura felt all the air escape her lungs. She couldn't help but wonder what that would be like, how it would feel to be fucked in that position. Kakashi coughed abruptly and awkwardly. She bit back a smile; she had him on the ropes.

She let her mind wander into the scenario, not that it took much effort on her part. She was naturally curious about Kakashi's experience with this position and even more curious about she and Kakashi in any position at all. She thought about his rough hands on her hips as he held her tight, the leg she might reach onto his shoulder—maybe both legs?

That wouldn't work, she realized. Maybe if she were facing the opposite direction? That could work, she thought; she could definitely have both ankles hooked onto his shoulders as she bent backwards while he thrust into her. She was too short to reach the floor that way, but with the aid of a bed…

Kakashi choked when he inhaled a little too sharply at that thought. It wasn't a sprained ankle, but she'd take it the wins wherever they came.

"This is a dangerous game." Kakashi warned as he snapped his little book shut and pocketed it.

Kakashi knew Sakura was pushing herself to compensate for the embarrassment of falling out of a tree, despite all her efforts to hide it, and all her insistence that he was an idiot, utterly wrong, and had some nerve to think he knew more about her physical condition than she did. Thankfully, Shikamaru had also noted her injury and had set their pace accordingly. Kakashi was happy to let him take the lead here, because Sakura certainly would have had something to say if he had slowed down their pace for her sake.

Sakura was displeased with Shikamaru's decision as well, but she found Kakashi far more offensive than just about anyone as a general rule. That's because you are more offensive than just about everyone, she thought grudgingly. He wouldn't argue with that; he had spent a good deal of his time actively trying to piss her off. It just worked out that she found it infuriating that he would purposely try to infuriate her; he always did believe in the "work smarter, not harder" philosophy. His efforts were always rewarded in two-fold with her.

"Do you want to spar?" Sakura asked once they'd made camp. She had mainly been asking Kakashi, because they often sparred together, but she addressed the group as a whole. Temari considered with a grin, which Shikamaru seemed to find the proposal deeply trying.

"We just spent all day running, and you want to spar?" He asked in disbelief. He was already lying back on the grass, and didn't seem to have the motivation to move any time soon. Kakashi was of the mind to agree with him, but Sakura was pouting at him in disappointment already. She was cute, but his resolve wasn't that weak. Her pout deepened.

"Come on, lazy bones," Temari taunted, "you haven't had a good workout in days." She said, leaning over to stare down at him in the grass. Kakashi couldn't help but think she had worked him pretty hard just last night. Sakura covered her laugh with an unconvincing cough. Shikamaru was reluctantly rising from the grass, and Kakashi could feel that he had lost this battle. Sakura and Temari were grinning at each other victoriously.

Oh well, he thought, at least we can make quick work of them. Sakura's happy grin turned wicked.

"How about a battle of the sexes?" She proposed, with a wink just for his benefit.

"Tsk, troublesome woman." Shikamaru grumbled with a languid roll of his neck. Sakura was up to something; she was far too self-satisfied to not be, but she was being very careful with her thoughts, and he couldn't figure out yet what her goal was just yet. It seemed odd that she wouldn't want to team up together; they fought exceptionally well together. She was his go-to for duo missions for that reason. When they trained in pairs, he and Sakura never lost. When they sparred with each other, Sakura hardly ever beat him. Was this a vanity project?

She wouldn't put her ego on the line in front of Shikamaru and Temari, though. That wasn't Sakura's style. He was never one to say no to a spar between the two of them. They would undoubtedly have the advantage against Shikamaru and Temari, who never really fought beside each other; they also had the added benefit of being able to read each other's minds.

He smirked to himself. Sakura had gravely misjudged. He and Shikamaru were arguably the best tactical minds in Konoha. Together, he sincerely doubted Temari and Sakura would be able to keep up. They were talented and bright kunoichi, but they were not of the same calibre.

Don't underestimate me, Kakashi, she warned. Sakura hated an arrogant opponent. If he was smart, he wouldn't provoke her, and Kakashi was smart. She'd come a long way from being the ill-tempered girl who gave into her emotions on the battlefield. She seemed appeased by that acknowledgement. This was one of the few scenarios in which Kakashi would not strive to anger her. She had all her strength back, and she hadn't been able to use it in awhile. She was itching for it.

"Losing team cooks and cleans." Temari suggested with a grin at Shikamaru, who looked like he would rather kill himself than continue with this. Shikamaru's despair aside, they agreed to the terms and they were off.

Shikamaru was confident that he and Kakashi would be the victors here. Individually, they had defeated their opponents on multiple occasions, and together they had gone toe-to-toe with the Akatsuki. Kakashi didn't bother reminding him that Sakura had also fought against a member of the Akatsuki and come out victorious. He was also pretty certain of an imminent win, even if Sakura could read his mind. She wouldn't be happy about having to do the dishes; she really hated that.

They figured their opponents would be waiting for them to make the first move. That was generally Kakashi's tactic in any fight, and Sakura knew that well. She would avoid attacking pre-emptively to suss them out. It was a good tactic, he thought, but not necessary against an opponent you knew well. He was pretty sure he knew Sakura better than he knew anyone else in the world.

Shikamaru suggested they would likely try to take Kakashi out first in a tag-team assault. Temari was very familiar with his jutsu and knew his pitfalls well, but Kakashi's wealth of jutsu would be problematic. They decided to set a trap but attacking first. Kakashi would send in a clone and Shikamaru would wait nearby for Sakura to strike. With her incapacitated, Temari would attack the clone and the real Kakashi would attack Temari. Neither of the kunoichi were sensory types, so he figured it was as good a plan as any.

It was a shame it went to hell in a hand basket before he'd even sprouted out his shadow clone.

Temari was coming at them from above, shooting off expanses of wind with her fan to cast a wide net over both Kakashi and Shikamaru. Kakashi considered going underground to shield himself from the net, but that left Shikamaru vulnerable. He also had a feeling Sakura would be anticipating that. Instead, he sent a surge of fire up at Temari. Her jutsu failed as the winds were swallowed up in flame. He saw her make an escape atop her fan, but he had bigger concerns.

Bigger concerns being Sakura. He couldn't hear, smell or feel her anywhere. She had gotten to be quite good at masking her scent and chakra signature around him, but never well enough to be completely undetectable. He felt like she was everywhere and nowhere, all at once. There was also the absence of her thoughts. He sincerely doubted she would be waiting and watching from afar, with her skill set completely rooted in close-combat.

When he felt her chakra presence, it was nearly too late. He felt her a split-second before the ground beneath his feet crumbled away. He somersaulted away, darting around the clearing and up into the trees to observe them. He had assumed Sakura had been after him, but her target had been Shikamaru. He frowned. Why would she target Shikamaru first? His jutsu could easily manipulate her in and-to-hand combat.

But then, there was something strange about this Sakura. He pulled his forehead protector up and analyzed her under the Sharingan. It wasn't Sakura. It was Temari under a henge. Shikamaru seemed to realize it as well; he was probably familiar with her fighting style enough to know it wasn't truly Sakura. He had realized it too late though, because she blasted him with a wind jutsu that sent him flying across the clearing. Kakashi didn't really have time to think about it, though, because Sakura—the real Sakura—was standing directly below him, checking the area for his signature.

She had a taunting thought about how predictable he'd gotten in his old age when she jumped into a powered kick to smack the ground beneath her. Except the ground didn't crumble beneath her; she had aimed her kick to the knotted roots at her feet. Instead, he felt the large tree he was situated in begin to rumble beneath him. A second Sakura—a shadow clone—had simultaneously hit the tree with a chakra-fueled punch. He supposed that explained the feeling that she was everywhere and nowhere at once.

With a deafening crack, the tree split and splintered down the middle, all the way to the topmost branch, and suddenly he was tumbling down in a cascade of debris. She was waiting smugly for him at the ground, with her hands on her hips and a grin brighter than the sun. She was so cute he almost felt bad that he was going to kick her ass.

He used a wind jutsu to slow down his landing, and then somersaulted out of range of those destructive fists. Across the clearing he could see Shikamaru's plan was going well, and that he would soon have Temari incapacitated. Sakura frowned at that and glanced over to her sparring partner. Damn it, he thought as she darted away from him, toward Shikamaru and Temari.

He conjured a large wall of flames, separating her from the duelling pair. With an enraged snarl, she kicked powerfully against the ground to launch herself up and over the flames. Always with the flashy jutsu, she thought with a touch of annoyance. He wouldn't bother with flashy jutsu if she hadn't just tried to bury him in a one-hundred-year-old tree. She landed on a tree behind Temari and Shikamaru, staring down at them as she stood sideways against the trunk. She didn't have an opportunity to step in on their fight with Kakashi bearing down on her, though.

They were fighting hard, twisting around branches to evade each other and get new vantage points. They were equally matched, him with speed and her with strength. Neither one of them had managed to land a blow yet. He was having very little luck getting hints out of her mind, but she seemed to be having no issues at all pulling information out of his.

A shout from below them halted their fighting for a moment. Temari had been captured in Shikamaru's shadow possession. Kakashi smirked beneath his mask. Sakura smirked right back before digging her heel into their branch and allowing herself to fall out of his reach. She caught herself on a lower branch and began running full-speed toward Temari and Shikamaru.

Kakashi caught up with her easily enough, but she had anticipated that. Of course she had, he thought bitterly. She chuckled a little at that, but he still wasn't able to get anything out of her. Could she really keep her mind that clear in a fight? It seemed very unlike Sakura to be so serene and clear-headed.

"You don't have to be a jackass." She said unhappily at his unintentional dig. "Sore loser." She grumbled.

"From where I'm standing, it looks like we're pulling ahead." He pointed out, glancing down to Shikamaru and Temari below them. Sakura's brows furrowed in concentration, but her thoughts were completely unreachable. With a smirk, she waved her hand with five chakra-spikes protruding from her fingers before vaulting over his head. For a shocking moment, he thought she meant to rain them down on him, but instead, she sent them to the ground, imbedding them in Shikamaru's shadow.

As the spikes splintered apart, his jutsu failed and Temari was free. Kakashi didn't have time to worry about Shikamaru's fate, because Sakura was about to get away. He was hot on her tail, chasing her through the treetops. He was getting a little tired of playing cat and mouse, and decided he'd had enough.

One well-placed wind-cutter jutsu later and he and Sakura were headed straight for the ground. He softened their landing, but Sakura managed to roll out of his reach, crouched low in the dirt and eyeing him warily.

"Why don't we make things a little more interesting?" She proposed, a mischievous smile playing at her lips.

"Why can't I hear your thoughts?" He asked, ignoring her. His life had gotten plenty interesting in the last few days, he wasn't sure he needed anymore.

"Temari and I are going to beat you." She stated matter-of-factly. He raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "But we can raise the stakes, just you and I." She proposed again.

"What are you suggesting?" He asked, finally curious enough to bite. She was too enticing for her own good.

"A secret." She said far too sweetly for someone poised to kill. Secrets seemed to be her currency of choice these days.

"Deal." Before he could even finish saying it, he was on her. He knocked the kunai out of her hand and pinned her down. "That was easy." He said grinning down at her. He had both of her wrists trapped beneath one hand above her head and her legs pinned to the grass under his shins as he knelt above her. "Why can't I read your mind?" He asked again.

You can, she thought with a wicked smile. And didn't I tell you not to underestimate me? Her thoughts disappeared as quickly as she did beneath him. He spun and caught the fist barreling down at him from over his shoulder. She had some power behind that fist, though, and catching it in his hand wasn't enough to deter that. He held onto her and he tumbled across the dirt, the two of them rolling together in a tangle of limbs.

They wrestled together in the dirt, each of them scrambling to get the upper hand. Kakashi thought that as fun as this was (it wasn't), he could think of a few ways this situation could be improved. Starting with the amount of clothing between them.

"Stop thinking about sex when I'm kicking your ass." She said fiercely. He wasn't sure if the pink in her cheeks was from rage or arousal, but it was charming all the same.

"You're not going to win, Sakura." He said as he twisted and dragged her beneath him. In his scenario, everyone would win, but she wouldn't hear of it. He had her flat on her back, completely immobile beneath him, and this time he was certain it wasn't a shadow clone.

"You're an arrogant son of a bitch." She grumbled unhappily. He grinned down at her.

"It's not for nothing." He said pointedly at having bested her. He felt a tickle on the underside of his wrist and saw the flare of chakra around her finger too late. Pleasure raked through him, unrelenting and overwhelming. She was easily able to overpower him in his current state, and she flipped him onto his back before straddling his stomach and pinning his arms down with her knees. He wasn't sure if it was a mercy or a punishment that she'd decided not to sit herself a little further down on his body.

"You were saying?" She said with a smirk as she ran a finger up along his jaw to the top of his mask before pulling it down slowly. She was enjoying the sight of him in the midst of an orgasm. With the way her were legs spread, he could tell she was enjoying more than just the sight of it, thanks to their mental link. Her arrogant smile sweetened a little when she leaned down to brush her lips softly against his.

She never made it as far as his lips, though. She halted above him, gaze locked on his mismatched eyes and expression slowly contorting into one of immense pleasure. She fell against him as her body trembled, burying her face in his neck. Her orgasm was just beginning when his finished and it was all too easy to break her hold on him and roll them over.

He lay completely on top of her, her legs spread and locked beneath his, and gazed down at her. Her eyes were closed tightly, and her jaw was clenched as she tried to bite back her groans. When she felt the cold steel of his kunai against her throat she gasped. Judging by the twitch of her thighs beneath him, he could only assume it was a gasp of pleasure. She stared up at him with half-lidded, lusty eyes.

Her mind was muddled in her fit of pleasure, and it was only egging on his own frustration. He sighed in surrender before bringing his lips down onto hers in a slow, tantalizing kiss. Her mouth was parted from gasps and panting, and he brushed his tongue along her soft lips before sliding it inside her mouth to mingle with her own. She shivered beneath him and whined into his mouth as the final waves of orgasm rolled over her. She whimpered softly when he broke their kiss to smirk down at her.

"You owe me a secret." He whispered before pressing his lips to hers once more in a teasing, chaste kiss. He climbed up off her and pulled his mask back up over his face while she lay in the grass, breathing heavily and staring up at the leaves above her.

"I had you, you know." She said once her breathing had slowed. He chuckled and offered her a hand.

"You did." He admitted. "But you got distracted." He said as he yanked her up to her feet. Can't blame a girl, she thought as she pictured his face beneath the mask. They stood in their little battleground, aroused and covered in dirt and leaves. Kakashi wondered how long this could go on. Eventually, something had to give. Kakashi wondered what would go first; their self-control, or their sanity? Sakura sighed and smiled up at him.

"C'mon. Let's go save Shikamaru." She led the way back, waving over her shoulder for him to follow. He trailed behind her, taking a moment to tuck himself in a way that would hide the otherwise noticeable bulge in his pants. He watched as her neck flushed from behind and smiled to himself. He wasn't sure how she'd managed to keep her cards so close to her chest during the fight, but her thoughts were coming to him loud and clear now.

If she continued like this, no amount of tucking in the world would be able to help him.

When they reached the clearing where they'd left Temari and Shikamaru, Sakura looked over her shoulder at him pointedly. Sure enough, Shikamaru was sat in the dirt, wrapped in a net of wind, looking utterly defeated. Sakura whooped in delight and the two kunoichi congratulated each other. Kakashi thought Sakura's gloating would be much more effective had she not had seven leaves stuck to her butt. He'd counted.

Temari released her jutsu and Shikamaru flopped back onto the grass. Kakashi approached him as he lit his cigarette and stared up at the pink sky.

"I'll start the fire and you catch dinner?" He suggested. Shikamaru heaved a long, wearied sigh.

"Man, I hate doing the dishes."

A/N: These two put Naruto's sexy no jutsu to absolute shame

my wrist is still healing but slowly doing better! also wrote a good chunk of this while i was drunk on NYE cheers