It's Fire Friday, bitchezzzz
Sorry for the delay today, this bitch is BUSY. Btw did you guys see how I answered many comments last chapter? Ha! Take that depression. *insert a "could a depressed bitch w anxiety do this" meme*
More Yuuka being Yuuka and they reach the Fire Capitol :P
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They arrived in Katori around sunset. It was a small village that Sakura had never been to but it looked like it didn't have a very active night scene which immediately made her love it. When they checked in to a fancy ryokan, hope flared wildly in her chest. Maybe they would finally have a quiet night. They were close to their sixties, surely women their age that had spent the last three days up all night and napping the morning away would reach a breaking point at one point. Surely.
They were led by a polite if nervous nakai towards the daimyo suite, the young woman wringing her hands all the way there. It was a huge room much like the one Sakura had stayed in with the Tachibana brothers back in her first mission as a chunin, but this one was even larger and even fancier. The two older women insisted on Kakashi and Sakura joining them for lunch in the common room and they easily accepted, getting used to their particular quirks and general disregard for proper etiquette.
The food was delicious and it almost sent Sakura into a food coma. After it was over, she settled with Kakashi into a routine for the two of them where one of them would stay with the women as they enjoyed the market of the tiny village during daytime while the other would do a perimeter check and check in with Hideki and Nohime's guards. Then when night fell, the other would take that role while the women settled in the ryokan to play games with the guests and have dinner.
When dinner was finished, Sakura and Kakashi started escorting the two women back towards their room but they stopped before turning the corner into the hallway that would lead them to the daimyo suite.
"We have a private party to attend tonight, the two of you can have the night off," Yuuka said, dismissing them with a wave of her hand.
Sakura chuckled a little, placed her hands on her hips beneath her haori and raised an eyebrow at her rebellious great aunt.
"You know we can't do that, Yuuka-sama," Sakura said. Nohime looked nervous and Sakura could only imagine where they were going that they didn't want any others to see. "As captain, it will be my ass on the line if anything happens to the two of you."
"Sakura," Yuuka said, huffing a breath that made her bright red hair flutter around her green eyes. "This is an extremely private party with guards and the like. Only someone with an invitation gets in and I doubt anyone would choose that way to kill us."
Sakura rolled her eyes and stared seriously at her great aunt, telling her with her expression that she wasn't budging on this. No matter how tired she really was, Sakura would never jeopardise a mission because of it.
"Are the guards high level shinobi?" she asked.
"No," Yuuka answered, her face already contorting into a pout now that she could see Sakura wouldn't back down easily. It looked positively hilarious on her matured face.
"Then they won't know we're there." Sakura raised her chin slightly, daring them to contradict her. Yuuka stared her down with narrowed eyes for a few seconds before nodding and pursing her lips.
"Fine, do what you like." She waved her hand and turned on her heels gracefully before starting down the hallway, Nohime just a step behind.
"Yuuka…" The daimyo's wife whispered uncertainly but Sakura's trained ears picked it up easily as she followed behind them. Sakura turned her head slightly so she could see that Kakashi seemed to also be paying attention to what the two women were discussing.
"Don't worry, Kicho-chan," Yuuka said with a pat on the other woman's shoulder. "We can trust the two of them."
Sakura exchanged a look with Kakashi at that. What were they hiding? Well, it really didn't matter in the long run. Sakura used her usual almost chakra-less genjutsu to make herself become invisible and placed her hand on Kakashi's wrist.
"Do you want me to take care of it?" she asked him quietly. Kakashi's eye roved over her but didn't fixate on anything and Sakura knew he was contemplating the fact that he couldn't see her. Since her genjutsu would take a lot less chakra, she figured she'd offer. Knowing their clients, they would be there for at least a few hours. Kakashi nodded and Sakura sent a coat of chakra to activate the genjutsu over him.
She masked her chakra and Kakashi followed suit. When Yuuka turned back towards them, she gasped making Nohime do so as well, her eyes wide.
"Sakura…?" Yuuka asked hesitantly and Sakura chuckled. Her great aunt immediately glared around the hallway and scoffed. "Of course. Ninjas." She rolled her eyes but turned around to continue walking down the hall. "I just wanted to give you another chance to back off. This might be too much for you."
Sakura raised an eyebrow even though no one would be able to see it. She kept her hand on Kakashi's wrist, not wanting to accidentally bump into him while they were trying to be discrete. After a few seconds, he drew his hand up, Sakura's following along with his and she could hear the sound of the metal plate on his hitai-ate. He was going to use his Sharingan to keep track of her.
It was a good idea for now that they were en route but as soon as they settled somewhere, she would have to insist he drop the hitai-ate back down. It would be no use to have a chakra depleted Kakashi right now, especially since the prospect of sleep was something Sakura was beginning to accept would only happen when they went back home.
"We're professionals," Sakura assured her great aunt. "You won't even know we're there."
Yuuka laughed as if it had been a joke and Nohime seemed to flush but they could see the end of the hall now and didn't retort. It was easy to slip by the armed duo guarding the double doors as they checked Yuuko and Nohime's invitations and then the four of them were inside.
It was a spacious room, much like the one the other guests had convened for games earlier and Sakura quickly took to the rafters. There were about five guests inside already and they were all dressed in fine silk and expensive jewellery much like Yuuka and Nohime. They chatted and drank while an ensemble of musicians played slow traditional songs in one corner.
Sakura sat herself down facing one side and Kakashi squeezed a code into her forearm as he settled facing the other side. Safe. Well, she agreed. This seemed to be merely a dinner party between very important rich people. She watched carefully as an hour passed and eleven more people arrived but found no traces of hidden weapons, guards, or shinobi. They were indeed safe.
It was another half an hour later that the music changed. The lights, which had already been dim, darkened even further as the songs turned slower, headier. It was only when she watched as the two men that had been talking to Yuuka and Nohime started kissing each other and fell back on the cushions that Sakura realised what was happening.
The room that had at first seemed too relaxed for a dinner party with many lounges, cushions, and an excessive amount of mirrors and hidden nooks suddenly made sense. It was meant to be a comfortable space because this was a sex club. Sakura's great aunt had taken the daimyo's wife to a sex party. And, well, now the two women were kissing. Many other things became clear to Sakura then.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," she muttered. This far up and speaking lowly they wouldn't be overheard, especially with the music still playing and the beginnings of enthusiastic noises from the participants.
Kakashi chuckled lowly and Sakura felt his arm brush her shoulder.
"First time in an orgy, Sakura-chan?" he teased her and Sakura smirked even as her cheeks warmed.
"Is it yours?" Sakura countered, because despite that one threesome she had with two Takigakure nin she met on a joint mission about a year ago, she hadn't been in an orgy before.
"No," Kakashi said simply, somehow managing to surprise her and confirm her expectations at the same time. "This is a fairly common occurrence among nobility. Although I've never heard of it happening in this particular village, it does fit the pattern."
"You think this would be a hot spot for a hit?" she asked, bringing their attention back to the fact that they were on a mission but keeping relaxed since they hadn't felt any presence of another shinobi. With the way Sakura was coating the place with a slight sheen of chakra, it would be impossible for anyone to get in without her knowing.
"Not for an assassination. If there's enough incidents like that people will stop coming to events like these," Kakashi answered, his voice low and rumbly but it felt loud somehow in her ear. Sakura fought the urge to press closer to him until she could feel all of him on her arm. "This is the best spot for an infiltration mission, however. Establish rapport here, befriend the target, secure a meeting in another location, and then go for the kill."
Sakura watched the scene below her for a few seconds, trying to keep her eyes off their clients and focusing on checking for threats and cataloguing the people inside the place. After a quiet pause, she figured it wouldn't hurt to continue the conversation.
"Was that how you came upon your orgy?" Sakura asked, amusement coating her tone. Despite the fact that Kakashi was a notorious pervert around the village for reading Icha Icha in public, Sakura now knew the truth that he wasn't just constantly reading porn while going grocery shopping, and although she knew he was an extremely capable shinobi, he fidgeted beside her.
"Yes," he whispered after a few seconds. Kakashi cleared his throat slightly and continued in a more confident voice, "There was this couple, close friends of a minor lord that were suspected of stealing from him. My job was to get close to them, infiltrate their homes and gather proof of the betrayal. There were a few others but only one I had to kill later."
Sakura hummed thoughtfully, thousands of scenarios running through her mind. How old was he when he had his first honeypot mission? She imagined an eighteen year old Kakashi, unfairly pretty and with muscles any man would die for, seducing an attractive couple into having him for the night. And the fact that he had said it was an orgy and not a threesome indicated that more than the couple had been involved. Sakura wondered if there had been another man involved or if the fourth person was another woman. She wondered if Kakashi had enjoyed it, and then Sakura had to shut down that train of thought when a shiver threatened to break through.
"I've only ever been with two women before," Sakura admitted, feeling like she kind of owed a private fact about herself since he was being so uncharacteristically forthcoming, and also because she didn't want to end the conversation. She added as an afterthought, "I prefer men, though."
Kakashi chuckled again at her candid tone and this time when he pressed his arm against hers, neither of them backed away.
"Me too," he said at last.
"Prefer men?" Sakura turned her head so fast she heard her neck crack but Kakashi only chuckled again, this time bumping against her.
"Been with only a few men and prefer the opposite sex," he clarified.
"Prefer women," Sakura confirmed unnecessarily, her cheeks warming further. Sakura had lost all of her self consciousness when it came to sex after that first week with Shinsei, but something about talking about this with Kakashi and the images it put into her head was enough to make her flustered.
"Yes, Sakura-chan," Kakashi teased again and Sakura fought the urge to punch him. Why did he have to be so fucking irritating when all she could think of was of those few men he was referring to?
The sounds from the room beneath them were getting louder, some of the people reaching their climaxes while others still talked and drank and fucked. Despite herself, Sakura was feeling the beginnings of arousal stir low in her belly. She was on a mission and she was focused on any possible threats, sure, but the sights and sounds from beneath them and Kakashi being so easygoing and teasing were a dangerous combination.
It was a few minutes later that she noticed an inconsistency in the room. For a second, she held her breath as the chakra net she had cast around the room detected the subtle churn of a chakra disturbance. In the next second she relaxed because it was coming from Kakashi.
"What are you doing with your chakra?" she asked, tilting her head towards him even though she wouldn't be able to see him. She felt the chakra he had been moving stop abruptly before continuing.
"I'm circling it," he offered, not exactly answering her question.
Sakura focused on what he was doing for a second, realising then that he had been circling the chakra into a specific point. His pelvis. Was he—
"No way, you can do that…?" Sakura said, not sure she was asking him or not. Kakashi didn't answer her, only hummed noncommittally and continued on his merry way circling his chakra to prevent a boner.
She had learned how to manipulate chakra to stimulate nerve endings to give her partners better orgasms with little to no effort, but she had never thought that the opposite could be done. Of course, if someone would have figured it out it would be Kakashi.
Sakura immediately tried it on herself, not necessarily circling the chakra like he did but moving the chakra deep inside her to regulate the blood flow and inhibit the glands from working and producing fluids. It was a neater job than his, one no one would be able to tell but she still snorted.
"You know, I've always wondered how it was that you walked around the village reading porn without getting a hard on," Sakura commented drily and Kakashi huffed an amused breath but didn't answer her. "I guess I have my answer now."
"I thought we established I wasn't always reading Icha Icha," he said after a while, speaking slightly louder when a particularly wanton moan sounded from beneath them.
"Not always but some of the time, right?" Sakura asked and giggled lowly to herself when he hummed. Sakura sighed and briefly passed her eyes over where Yuuka and Nohime were sharing a man, she rolled them upwards. "My great aunt is fucking the daimyo's wife."
Kakashi hummed.
"My great aunt, who killed her husband, is the daimyo's wife's lover."
Kakashi hummed again.
"I thought you didn't like that word?" he asked, clearly amused at the personal crisis she was going through.
"I don't. It's creepy," she said immediately. She felt his shoulder vibrate with laughter but didn't hear any sound so she knew he was trying to suppress it. The bastard.
A few more minutes passed as Sakura kept cooling herself down and paying attention to the fact that Kakashi was actively trying to distract himself from getting aroused by the sex party beneath them. She wondered for a minute what had happened for the woman that had cried out from behind her to be so enthusiastic in her sounds and then realised that Kakashi could see it.
His chakra worked harder, making Sakura smirk and really really wish she could turn around to watch the scene that had made him react like that. From the continuous sounds from the woman and the fact that they definitely didn't seem to be faked, she guessed something pretty intense was going on. Was he into kinky shit? Most shinobi were in one way or another, it wasn't a far fetched thought. Kakashi looked to be someone who was always in control in the bedroom and didn't relegate power easily.
Her eyes passed a mirror on her side that caught another mirror that caught the aforementioned woman. She was lithe and young, probably in her early twenties, her hair a golden mess down her shoulders. There was a man before her, kneeling at her feet with his head buried between her thighs.
The position of the man was completely submissive but looking closer, Sakura could see that it was quite the opposite. He was holding almost all of her weight up, his hands on her hips as he prevented her from shying away. The woman's cries rose in pitch and intensity and Sakura feared she would just keel over before the man rose to his feet.
In the next second, he had turned her around and pushed her onto the table she had been leaning against. Sakura had only caught a glance at the gleam of a buttplug before he slapped a heavy hand on her ass and entered her from behind in one smooth move.
Yeah, definitely nothing submissive about him.
Sakura sighed heavily, trying to focus on something else other than the fact that her mind was changing the woman's hair to her natural pink and the man's salt and pepper one to Kakashi's silver. Her eyes caught Yuuka briefly before she diverted them and snorted.
"I guess there's a positive side to having gone through menopause," she said jokingly and was glad that Kakashi seemed equally eager to distract himself.
"Oh?"
"Yep, no condoms but still no babies," she said, shrugging slightly against his shoulder. She felt the slight tremor that went through him then but tried to pay it no mind.
"You don't need to worry about getting pregnant either, right?" he asked, his voice carefully controlled. "The village provides contraceptives for the kunoichi."
"Yeah," Sakura said, her voice getting more distracted as she felt him press closer to her. It was just a millimetre closer, it could have been him merely adjusting himself on the rafters but Sakura knew Kakashi and she knew that everything about him was deliberate. Sakura let him press closer and crossed the arm further away from him over her stomach so her hand dangled over her hip between their bodies. She tried to continue their conversation. "It's a hassle, though, and no method is a hundred per cent effective. We can choose between the shots or the seal but those have to be applied again every three months. Not that I do those."
"You don't?" Kakashi asked, his voice surprised but still managing to sound nonchalant to the sounds of pleasure beneath them. Sakura knew better. He had kept his chakra circling nonstop.
"Hmm." Sakura finally took his wrist between her fingers, feeling and thoroughly enjoying the way he tensed. "I can control my cycles with iryo-ninjutsu and prevent any sperm from surviving."
Sakura applied her chakra to his system, reapplying the thin layer of genjutsu now that over two hours had passed. Kakashi tensed even further but when he noticed what she was doing, he relaxed.
"Handy," he muttered and she didn't know if he was talking about her genjutsu or her contraceptive skills. It didn't matter either way, Sakura was far too preoccupied with something else.
She finished up with her genjutsu and dove further inside his system, his chakra naturally welcoming hers and feeling familiar beneath her hold. Kakashi's chakra was just like him, white electric heat, overwhelming waves of it lying dormant but never too out of reach from a full attack. She could feel the drain of the Sharingan immediately but kept her chakra away from the upper half of his body.
Sakura felt him relax against her, the usual mixing of their chakras as comforting for him as it was for her. She waited until his posture relaxed further against her before moving to what had been her original plan. It was easy to let her chakra move towards his pelvis, regulating the blood flow there but much better than he'd been able to even without direct touch.
"Aah," Kakashi said after she took over to cool him down. "I see you've caught on to some rather unorthodox use of chakra."
Sakura chuckled but didn't say much else. They were toeing the edge of that invisible line between them for a while now and she didn't want to tip them either way for the moment. She was quite content in testing their limits for now, especially since they weren't in the safety of their village. She wanted to let things take their flow for the time being at least.
"I didn't think you'd be able to do that with just a touch to my wrist," he said when she didn't reply, sounding impressed. "And you have most of your chakra masked. It's impressive."
Sakura felt her chest warm at his praise. She couldn't help the grin that took over her face as she bumped his shoulder with hers.
"Impressive, huh?" she teased and he snorted.
"Don't let it get to your head, hime."
Sakura felt a shiver go down her spine at that but she forced herself not to pay it any mind. They were in a delicate situation and she didn't want to distract them further. Instead, Sakura changed the subject and kept a steady stream of conversation between them with safe topics. They stayed up there in the rafters until the sun came up, Sakura renewing Kakashi's genjutsu every couple of hours and the both of them trying to keep the conversation going and not pay any more attention than necessary to the party below them.
When they followed their clients to their suite for breakfast, Sakura was tired but her body had been trained to withstand all of the stress of not sleeping and she knew she and Kakashi would endure.
The two of them had sat across their clients and kept a straight face while Sakura ate primly and Kakashi gobbled insane amounts at a time when no one was looking. It was only after most of the rich breakfast spread was gone that Nohime broke the silence.
"I believe some explanation may be necessary," she said, her sweet polite voice just barely strained. She exchanged a look with Yuuka before focusing back on Sakura and Kakashi. "I have never cheated on my husband."
Sakura fought the urge to raise an eyebrow at the woman and merely turned an attentive and nonjudgmental expression towards her. She wasn't here to judge and Sakura had seen pictures of the daimyo before, she knew if she had been in her position and forced into marriage by her parents, she would probably have done something similar.
"What Kicho means is that the two of them have an arrangement," Yuuka stepped in, probably sensing that the other woman wasn't completely comfortable going forward. "They have had the arrangement since their first month of marriage, and this is a trip the both of us take with his knowledge."
Kakashi hummed from beside her and Sakura smiled her polite diplomatic smile.
"It's really none of our business, Nohime-sama," Sakura said gently, trying to put the matter to rest. Instead of it comforting the woman, it did the opposite. Nohime pursed her lips slightly, her beautifully mature features contorting unhappily as her eyes shined.
"You're Yuuka's niece, of course your opinion matters, Sakura-hime," Nohime said and Sakura was surprised to hear the deference the woman used when speaking to her, and the fact that she seemed to genuinely care about her great aunt. The type of devotion in her voice came from years of companionship and great love. Sakura wondered if this 'arrangement' had been going since the first month of the daimyo's marriage, and if so, how long have the two women been together like this.
"The Daimyo is a gay man, Sakura." Sakura's expression blanked as Kakashi coughed delicately behind a closed fist most likely having been mid bite. "He keeps his lover in the royal court and Kicho is free to do as she pleases. They sired a few heirs to take care of business but their marriage is strictly political."
Sakura immediately sent her chakra in a small pulse to check for listening ears. This was absolutely not something that should be discussed in a random ryokan like this, especially since Sakura had discovered the practical aspects of a place like this. If what Kakashi had said was correct, then these kinds of places that catered to certain activities were sure to have a few eager ears listening in to things they shouldn't.
"We appreciate your candour, Nohime-sama, Haruno-sama," Kakashi said, ever polite and sounding not at all like himself, "but it's wise to keep these matters discussed in places better protected than this."
"Call me Yuuka, Kakashi-kun," Yuuka said. "You're fucking my niece. I don't think we should be so distant with each other, do you?"
The silence in the room was immediate. Sakura was horrified to see that Yuuka used her most teasing tone, the one she had been using all throughout the trip to flirt with people in the casinos. Granted, this one was more playfully flirtatious, but it still was weird seeing that look being directed at Kakashi, especially with the blank wall that was his expression.
"Yuuka-sama," Sakura warned, her eyes flashing. "We're not fucking."
Yuuka rolled her eyes, apparently immune to the tension around the table.
"Kids these days." She waved her hand. "In my time, one didn't stay the night with another if it wasn't because of that."
"Romantic," Sakura snorted, slightly amused despite her galloping heartbeat.
"Oh, is this what this is about?" Yuuka challenged, placing her elbows on the table rudely but still managing to look prim while doing it. "Are you two romancing each other then?"
Sakura gave a long suffering sigh, already imagining how far Kakashi would pull back after this. They were getting there, damn it, pushing him to admit anything would only do more harm. She rolled her eyes to the ceiling as if begging some kind of deity for patience for the hard work cut out for her.
"We're partners," Kakashi said. His voice was firm, leaving no room for arguments and it shocked Sakura to her core.
Because, yes, they were partners in the sense that they were in this mission together and that even before then they had worked together and trained alongside the other. Except, inexplicably, Kakashi's words held more meaning than that.
When she turned her head toward him to shoot him a surprised look, he was already looking at her and that alone confirmed his words had a deeper meaning. Sakura felt her chest fill with warmth and affection towards this wonderful man. She couldn't help the tiny smile that pulled at the corner of her lips.
"We're partners." She nodded. "We're pack."
This was the first time either of them had acknowledged the fact that indeed they were a part of each other's packs and that meant so much, Sakura could hardly put it into words. Kakashi's eye crinkled at the corner with a hidden smile and Sakura could tell this one was genuine.
She turned back to their clients, almost missing the fond look they were exchanging.
"Finish your breakfast, we're already behind schedule," she said more strictly, already rising to her feet to get ready for their departure.
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They hit the road before nine but had some trouble getting out of the village since many other caravans were heading out as well. Kaede was with them that morning and Sakura kept her chakra checking up on the guards the whole time.
They stopped at a small village for Yuuka to check the market but since there were no Haruno shops there, they moved on shortly after eating lunch. At night, they stopped at Kawagawe, a city much like Hasaki with taller buildings than there were in Konoha and a bustling nightlife. Even the way the locals talked sounded faster than what Sakura was used to.
Sakura let Kaede go back to the Oyamatsumi Mountain and called on Yukari to keep watch while the four of them settled into another daimyo suite and spent another night at the casino on the first floor of the hotel.
Sakura and Kakashi retired to their shared room around four in the morning and barely bothered to remove their outer layer of clothes before falling into bed. Sakura fell asleep tangled around Kakashi and woke up with her nose buried in his neck, his scent overwhelmingly good.
It stayed with her even as she showered for the day, even as they spent another mind numbing morning stuck inside the caravan with Yuuka and Nohime napping in the bedroom. It felt like he was everywhere but instead of freaking her out like it had the week before, Sakura felt looser and more comfortable with him.
She sat with her legs on his lap as she sprawled back on the cushions and closed her eyes. Focusing on expanding her chakra net to keep track of everything going on outside kept her from falling asleep and she managed to rest her eyes.
She was deep into her meditation, focused entirely on chakra flow and the feeling of Hotaka—called that early morning—moving ahead of the caravan. When she felt a hand on her ankle, she had to fight hard to keep from doing a full body flinch. Her next breath stuttered in her lungs and she tensed briefly but then Kakashi slid his hand a bit further up and, with two fingers on either side of her achilles tendon, he started massaging her. Sakura instinctively relaxed into his hold.
A small sigh left her as he pressed gently on the muscle of her calf. He was working her with just one hand and Sakura got curious enough to open one eye to check what he was doing with the other. Icha Icha Violence. Or at least a book with the same red sleeve.
Sakura snorted and Kakashi paused briefly in his ministrations before he turned the page and picked it up again.
"Have a nice nap?" he asked lazily.
"I wasn't taking a nap, idiot," she mumbled tiredly and without heat. "I'm meditating, keeping a look outside."
"Hmm." Kakashi stopped his hand and turned his head slowly to look at her, his temple resting on the cushion behind him. "That's impressive."
Sakura remembered him saying the same thing the day before and a sudden strike of heat shot through her. She opened both eyes now to look at him fully but kept to the pile of goo she had been reduced to, both her gaze and voice as lazy as his.
"It's just chakra control," she said, giving him a tiny smile.
Kakashi's gaze turned sharper, almost admonishing.
"It's perfect chakra control, Sakura," he said, his voice making her thighs twitch unconsciously. "I don't think any ninja can do what you can with your chakra. I have no doubt that you're the best kunoichi in Konoha."
Sakura's chest warmed again from his praise and she wiggled her toes to draw attention away from her burning cheeks. Feeling nice and lazy and undeniably good, Sakura moved her chakra to mingle with his through his hand on her leg.
Kakashi exhaled harshly, his fingers tightening on her calf in surprise before he continued his impromptu massage session. It wasn't long before they stopped for lunch at a roadside café but during the twenty minutes it took, Kakashi and Sakura stayed silent, enjoying the feeling of her chakra mingling with his, drawing it out to connect with the net she had spread out around them to keep watch.
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Kakashi wondered to himself how exactly he got there. He had been feeling strangely unworried about his current predicament and that in itself was what was worrying him. Sakura had buried herself under his skin in a way that he could never have predicted, in a way that took his breath away if he thought about it too hard.
So his response had been not to think about it at all.
After the mission it had taken him a while to come to terms with what had happened and that the reason he couldn't have a good night's sleep—especially his sudden aversion to his bed which seemed impossibly large for a slightly bigger than average single—was because she wasn't there with him.
Some people forgot what Kakashi was at his core. He was a wolf pup, raised by a wolf man and his wolves, and that connection ran deeper than having a better sense of smell than the Inuzuka's. The Hatake wolfiness made itself known in how they related to others, either keeping to themselves completely or forming deep meaningful bonds with their comrades.
Kakashi had considered few people to actually be his pack, his family. In a sense, the whole village fell under the category of home, community, but those who were his actual pack had been few and far between.
The first time he had opened himself up for that after his dad had been Minato-sensei and later on Team Minato. Losing them had not killed him by a mere technicality. Kakashi had lived his life after their loss looking for an honourable death in the field, moving through life like a ghost.
The kinship he had found in Genma, Gai, and Tenzo had made his late teens more bearable, the role Usui had taken in his life ultimately what had saved him from himself. He had been slightly better by the time the Sandaime had taken him out of the forces despite what Gai and his jounin friends had thought at the time.
Team 7 had snuck under his defences like no other. The need to protect them ran deep inside Kakashi's veins and made his Will of Fire burn brighter than it had in almost a decade. Kakashi had slowly found a reason not only to fight but to survive, to come back home to people who needed him.
After the boys left, a part of Kakashi left with them. It was like some of his fire had been smothered and the days started blurring together once again. He was taking mission after mission and in his head, Sakura had been safe in her role as a medic.
He couldn't have anticipated how she would change his entire fucking life. She made the fire inside him burn like an inferno, making him fight like never before not only to defeat his enemies or even to survive but to get to her, hold her in his arms and feel her scent once again.
The night she had come for him just a couple of days before they left on this new mission had felt inevitable.
He should have guessed that's where they were going but somehow it still managed to surprise him. Contrary to what Sakura believed, he wouldn't have tried to avoid her again, at least not for the month he had been accused of. It was pointless to do so when she lived inside his chest, buried deep beneath his ribcage.
He had needed some time to himself the day after but if they hadn't been sent on this mission, he had no qualms in admitting he would have found her before the week was over.
This mission, having her so close to him while being herself and not a made up character for an infiltration was like nothing else. Kakashi tried not to think about where this was heading because the thought of having someone like her would certainly drive him headfirst into a panic attack but he found that ignoring his wandering thoughts did wonders for his state of mind.
He closed the door on any thoughts that went further than what to do during the mission, tried to keep his mind in the present and saved his freaking out for later.
Sakura was lying with her eyes closed, her position inverted from before they had stopped for lunch with her head resting on his lap, her legs stretched so the tip of her toes touched the intricate drawing on the shoji doors. She had her eyes closed again like she had done during their last few trips in the caravan.
Her breathing when she was meditating was more controlled than what it usually was when she was truly asleep but it was close enough that Kakashi had wondered if she had actually decided to take a nap. He should have known better than to underestimate her.
Sakura managed to impress him further at every turn and Kakashi couldn't lie and say that he wasn't completely entranced by her. Kakashi had been utterly overwhelmed by just how strong she was and how much she affected him but this mission had slowed down his frenzied state of mind some.
It was as if being on a mission, albeit an easy one, had set the faulty wires in his brain that tended to hyper fixate on the smallest of details and lose hours upon hours thinking about the past. When he was on a mission, Kakashi was nothing if not focused and efficient. This one had put him in that mindset but it was so laughably easy that he could turn that focus elsewhere.
And with it, Kakashi felt that the right way to go about this… whatever it was between them, was to simply not do anything at all.
He hadn't been lying earlier in the day when he said that Sakura was his partner and it had felt good to hear her confirm that, yes, they were pack and they were family and, most of all, they were partners.
Kakashi let one hand fall to her head, his fingers tangling with the pink locks easily, the silky strands sliding softly against his gloves. He wished for a fleeting second that they could have been back in Konoha's warm weather so he could have taken off that barrier between them and could feel the softness of her tresses against his fingertips.
Kakashi was keeping half his attention on the words in the book in front of his face and the other on Sakura when a sound brought him to attention.
Sakura's eyes opened immediately and locked with his and there it was again, a soft drawn out moan. Kakashi was stuck between feeling impressed by the two women's sex-drive and annoyed they couldn't have been satisfied with the orgy from the day before. Sakura apparently had decided to go with annoyed.
She groaned softly, screwing her eyes shut and turning on her side so she could bury her face on his shirt.
"Don't they know the walls are literally paper thin?" she groaned into him and Kakashi breathed a chuckle.
He turned one page of his book but it was mostly for show because he hadn't read a single word of that chapter. Sakura was right. The doors weren't even the fusuma type from the ryokan, they were those flimsy shoji ones that barely held back any noise.
"I believe they just figured we've seen everything already," Kakashi said, tightening his hold slightly on her hair though he didn't know if it was to comfort her or to keep her in place. "No use in hiding, is there?"
Sakura scoffed but Kakashi was immensely pleased to see she was making no move to get up. Another moan reached their trained ears, this one a bit louder than the last one and Sakura pulled back to glare at the ceiling.
"Propriety? Common sense?" Sakura asked, seeming irritated by the sound of her voice but then she rolled her eyes and Kakashi saw she was smothering a smile. She turned to catch his eye. "Wanna stay upstairs?"
He didn't. Kakashi had quite enjoyed having her on his lap, warm and pliant, her pretty hair sprawled all over his legs. He didn't even bother saying no, though, because Sakura had already seemed to decide that's what they were going to do and Kakashi didn't have enough of a reason to stay there once she had climbed through the window.
They sat back to back on top of the caravan, their legs crossed as Kakashi read and Sakura smoked. She offered to share with him and he was tempted to accept the offer but he didn't want the guards accompanying the caravan in the trees to see his face so he kept his focus split between Icha Icha and the sun setting.
He mourned the loss of her weight on his lap and the cosy atmosphere inside the caravan. This far up north the weather was as cold as winter in Konoha, and Kakashi and Sakura were both circling their chakra to keep themselves warm while wearing their normal clothes. Kakashi was wearing a variation of the clothes he had worn for the beginning of the mission, only this time with a red scarf while Sakura had changed her shorts to black shinobi pants, a tight long sleeved shirt and her usual red haori.
Kakashi consoled himself with the fact that he could at least feel her warm weight against his back.
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The sun was just barely hanging on in the sky when they entered Sakurama. It was a quaint village, one that Sakura had explained the Haruno's had a house in and it was immediately comforting to wander through the streets.
Unlike other villages, this one didn't have the same sense of urgency to sell or the fast paced way of life. They arrived at what appeared to be the beginnings of a night festival and while the streets were filled with people, they all walked slowly, appreciating the cold night air.
The caravan stopped at another Haruno house and the two women who had napped and fucked the day away immediately set out to enjoy the festival. Kakashi wouldn't say he was feeling jealous of the two of them but he couldn't deny that it had been at least four months for him and things were getting difficult.
Normally, he wouldn't be reading Icha Icha out in the open, especially Violence that he hadn't read enough to know it by heart. Kakashi mostly read Icha Icha on his bed or sprawled on his couch and other more informative books during his walks around the village or during missions. But.
No matter how much his restraint was ironclad, Kakashi was in the end simply a man who had spent the better part of two months sleeping next to the most amazing woman. One who wasn't only sexually attractive but that he discovered stimulated him in all other ways. He needed the outlet Icha Icha provided, especially as she plastered herself to his arm while they walked two steps after Yuuka and Nohime.
"Can you even read with this light?" Sakura asked, tilting her head back to catch his eyes, but Kakashi kept his firmly on the pages in front of him.
The sounds of a happy village drifted in the space between them with a particularly cold breeze that made Sakura squeeze herself tighter against him and Kakashi cursed the natural geology of the place that made it this cold in autumn.
"Perfectly," he replied drily, earning himself the most endearing snort and an eye roll.
He thought his response would let her know he wasn't particularly feeling prone to conversation but Sakura didn't seem to mind it. She pressed even closer and this time Kakashi had to physically keep himself from breathing in the scent of her hair as some of it caught on the fabric of his mask.
"What are you reading?" she asked, not quite managing to catch a glimpse. When instead of letting it go she pressed even closer, Kakashi started circling his chakra to keep himself calm. The way she was pressed against him made it almost impossible for him not to feel every single part of her against his arm and chest. As in, her chest, feeling soft and pliant and through her somewhat thin layers he could tell that her nipples had stiffened from the cold.
The sudden image of her naked and moaning on top of him crossed his mind. Kakashi had kept his eyes closed during that time but his mind was a twisted thing and had carefully stored away the feel of her, her smell, the feel of her sliding against his skin to be recycled later in dreams and times where he had felt desperate enough to try and get himself off. Kakashi circled the chakra faster to keep himself cool and collected and slowly lowered Icha Icha so Sakura could stop trying to climb him to see it.
"Oh, you're actually reading Icha Icha," she said, sounding surprised. She breathed a laugh that Kakashi felt in his bones and he turned just slightly so he could see the amused expression she was aiming up at him. "And you're circling your chakra. Sneaky."
Kakashi turned back to his book and tried to remind himself that he was a goddamn veteran shinobi, a master at disguise and subterfuge and he would not blush from her teasing.
"Ninja," he said drily. Sakura snorted and squeezed a bit closer to avoid coming into contact with other people.
"You do know you really shouldn't be reading porn during a mission, right?" Sakura said, sounding like she was about to break out the Shinobi Guide Book.
"Really?" he said nonchalantly and Sakura just answered with a tiny slap with the back of her hand to his chest that stung. "This isn't porn, Sakura-chan."
Kakashi felt it was time for a little payback for all that she was having him go through. He spoke in a mix of his commanding officer voice and the teasing chan he would use whenever making fun of her. He was rewarded by the slightest of blushes on her cheeks but Sakura just scoffed and powered through it.
"It's porn, Kakashi," she said, shooting him a deadpan look that inexplicably made him feel hotter still.
He closed the book and showed her the front page where a few reviews were written.
"It says right here it's a romance novel," he argued and didn't really fight when she tried to snatch it out of his hands.
Sakura opened the book to a random page in the middle and he saw her focusing on the number of the pages until she reached one towards the beginning. She flipped through the book like she knew exactly what page she was looking for and that alone piqued his interest. Until he actually saw the page she had stopped at.
"Junko's heavy breasts heaved as she tested the restraints tying her to the bedpost. She was a truly amazing kunoichi and could most certainly break free of any bonds, but this one aspect of her made it all the more delicious that she would let herself be bound and welcome his co—"
Kakashi spluttered before she could finish, remembering vividly what scene she had been describing. He took the book from her, enhancing his speed with chakra so that she wouldn't be able to snatch it back and put it away in his back pouch so that neither of them could reach it.
Sakura's laughter sounded louder than the sounds of the festival that were getting louder as the night went on and people got looser either from the booze or the atmosphere. Kakashi knew from the burning on his face and ears that his blush was peeking over his mask but listening to the sweet sound of her laugh sounding so carefree took the sting out of the embarrassment he felt.
Sakura: 1, Kakashi: 0, but that was okay.
They walked for an hour more, staying alert of their surroundings and their clients but letting themselves relax. They ate when Yuuka and Nohime did and it was barely midnight when the women decided to make their way back to the house.
Kakashi was feeling surprised and strangely hopeful that the two had decided to come back home to catch up on some sleep during the night or maybe even enjoy their alone time when they could actually be alone and not separated from their guards by rice paper. It wasn't like he hadn't suffered through sleep deprivation before during a mission. In fact, he was quite used to it, either because he had to run for days to reach somewhere safe enough, he had to stay up to watch over some mark, or even the few times he had actually been captured and had suffered through torture.
This mission kept him alert because he didn't know how not to be alert while outside the village—sometimes even inside the village despite his best efforts—but at the same time it completely lacked any type of release to this huge amount of energy they were piling up.
During those missions, action was never too far ahead and the adrenaline kept him awake more than anything else. Now, though, Kakashi was truly exhausted. Entering the house that night made his shoulders slouch further down than it usually did, his eye droop lower, and his hand press on Sakura's shoulder uninhibitedly as they were led towards the sitting room and he tried to keep himself from yawning.
Yuuka and Nohime had forced them to join them for a nightcap and there was no way Sakura and Kakashi could refuse given all the fuss they'd raised about keeping the women within eyesight for the whole mission.
Of course, nightcap turned out to be a complete and utter lie and they had finished one bottle of whisky easily. Sakura seemed to have anticipated it in some way and Kakashi noticed that she was drinking faster than everyone else, filling her cup more than theirs. The women were impressed by her tolerance but Kakahi knew she was using her chakra to process the alcohol in her system.
When barely an hour later Sakura had used the fact that they had already finished a bottle as an excuse to retire earlier, Kakashi felt a sudden wave of gratitude for her. She had truly taken one for the team there.
Yuuka and Nohime had retired to their room in a fit of giggles and Kakashi was left to follow Sakura through the dark hallway towards the two rooms they had been given by the woman who lived there with her two sons and cared for the Haruno stall in the market.
Kakashi had drunk at least two cups of whisky that night and while he wasn't exactly a lightweight, it was still making itself known in the way his stomach felt warm and he had the slightest of tingles on the tip of his nose. It was nothing that he couldn't burn away with chakra in case of an attack but Kakashi knew none would come.
When Sakura opened the door to her room, Kakashi didn't even stop to think about it before stepping up behind her. His room was merely a door down from hers but he had no intention of falling asleep alone without her cold toes pressing against his shin. Sakura, probably sensing him behind her or not even having wondered if he wouldn't follow her to her room, walked through the door and left it open for him.
Kakashi didn't waste another second. Without even turning on the light, the two of them divested themselves of their outer layers and fell on the soft bed. It was smaller than the ones they had grown used to during the mission but it didn't matter because as soon as they were both under the covers, they slid towards each other until they met in the middle.
Kakashi slid a hand beneath Sakura's neck and slung his other arm over her shoulders, hugging her to his chest but also staying on his side. Sakura's legs tangled with his, her cold toes indeed warming themselves against his shins and her warm breath on his neck.
Kakashi's last thought before sleep took over him was that he wished he hadn't been wearing his mask, both because he wanted to be able to feel her lips against his skin and also because he wanted to bury his nose in her hair and drown in her scent.
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Another day, another mind numbing ride. Kakashi was so relieved when they finally arrived at Hinote no Shuto that if he hadn't had so much practice hiding his emotions, he would have thrown his hands in the air and thanked fuck the mission was over. As it was, he merely turned another page and left Sakura to handle the final details of getting the client's signatures on their mission scroll.
Of course, Kakashi was never one to boast having good luck in his life and despite the fact that it was barely sundown, Yuuka insisted on them staying for the night.
Kakashi tried not to show his discontent and he could see Sakura wouldn't be able to get them out of this one no matter how good with words and manipulating a conversation she was. Nohime left to say hello to her husband while Yuuka ordered servants left and right and Kakashi leaned against the nearest wall and read.
No, he wasn't brooding, no matter what Sakura had teased him with when she briefly stopped beside him before following Yuuka inside. But he couldn't deny that he would have done pretty much anything to leave with Sakura right then. Going the speed they made in ANBU, they would have already been two villages over and made camp with the supplies they'd had sealed in emergency scrolls. They'd be in Konoha before noon and that's counting if they stopped a few hours for the night.
As it was, Kakashi was stuck following their clients' needs and it was consolidated when it was announced that the daimyo himself had called them for dinner.
Kakashi wasn't stupid. He knew that he could never refuse the invitation and that it was very much in his best interests if he kept in the daimyo's favour. The mess with Danzo certainly wouldn't be fought only with a public trial. The man was so dangerous because his connections ran deep not only in the shadows, and the slight advantage they held over him was that the daimyo was sentimental and had actively chosen other people to rule over him.
Tsunade hadn't cultivated her connection with the daimyo as she probably should have. Hashirama himself had been friends with the current daimyo's father and it would have been good if she hadn't disappeared and cut all ties with Konoha but maybe Sakura's connections, or Yuuka's as it were, would play to their advantage. They had to make nice.
Kakashi had stayed outside near the stables just long enough to finish a chapter but ignoring the gawking looks of the servants around him and the annoying presence of some of the guards got tiring and he figured it would be best if he retired to their room for the night. Everyone around him looked like they were either expecting him to perform a miracle like a god or bracing for him to attack.
He followed Sakura's scent until he found her in a spacious room with Yuuka.
The older woman was ordering around two teenage girls as they took Sakura's measurements and flitted around the room. When her eyes met Kakashi's she immediately came forward to grab his arm. Kakashi fought the urge to scowl.
"Come on now, boy, we don't have much time," she snapped. The resemblance to Sakura then was so strong he almost did a double take. Kakashi figured he could let her order him around a bit.
Sakura herself was looking more annoyed by the minute but he could tell by the way she had stayed quiet so far that she had probably figured this would be in their best interest as well. Kakashi knew that she was probably one of the smartest people in the village and he had no doubts that she was already calculating a few steps ahead.
Kakashi kept careful track of the girls' hands around his body, keeping himself tense and completely in check so he didn't react too harshly to their touch. It wasn't exactly wise to touch shinobi like they were but if he kept his attention on what they were doing, he could somewhat control the urge to snap their necks when they accidentally pricked him with pins.
It was only when he was no longer beneath their hands that he allowed himself to relax and come back to what was happening beyond the two girls. Sakura and Yuuka seemed to have been talking as the older woman helped her put on a different set of clothes.
Kakashi almost did another double take when he noticed what she was wearing. Sakura was dressed in her usual red haori but beneath it, the quality of the clothes couldn't be mistaken for anything other than something the elite would wear. She was wearing a short kimono and surprisingly enough hakama pants. Everything was black with mesh showing from underneath and a deep rich scarlet obi enveloping her waist. Despite the fact that her getup could be mistaken for what someone from royalty would wear, Kakashi could see that the material was close to the one ANBU used, durable and stretchy and that the mesh was infused with the same kevlar like material from his own undershirt.
With her weapons visible like they were, Sakura couldn't be mistaken for anything other than a kunoichi, but she still looked like the heir of the Haruno clan more than ever before. Standing with red painted lips and her lilac seal on her forehead, Kakashi felt the true weight of who Sakura had become.
She was an important member of a prestigious civilian clan, the heir to the Senju clan and one of the best kunoichi Konoha had to offer. The Godaime Hokage's apprentice, someone who was worth an army in the field. A dangerous woman.
Kakashi had probably been staring at her for way too long before Yuuka appeared in front of him, her red head not even reaching his chest. She had her hands on her hips as she stared up at him.
"Take everything off, boy, even the mask," she ordered.
"No," Kakashi said immediately, his eye closing in a fake smile, his tone carefree.
Sakura sighed and moved closer, grabbing a bundle of clothes from one of the teenage girls and handing it to him.
"Keep the mask, but please put this on," she said, standing closer to him than he wanted and not close enough at the same time.
Sakura was significantly taller than Yuuka, coming up to his shoulder and she looked like she fit beneath his chin perfectly. Kakashi watched as the last rays of the setting sun played with the colour of her jade eyes and found himself lost in it for the slightest of moments before forcing himself to smile again.
"Hai, taichou~" he said cheerily, putting some distance between them and retreating behind the screen. Sakura's face had been set and it confirmed what Kakashi already suspected. She had a plan and it probably involved them playing nice. He would wear the clothes they gave him and rub elbows with the daimyo. For Konoha and also for Sakura.
He stripped and put on the crisp black kimono and dark grey hakama. There were the same mesh underpieces as Sakura had on and he appreciated that they didn't try to make him anything other than the elite shinobi he was. When he unfolded the haori, his whole body froze.
The symbol for the Hatake clan was stark white against the deep green of the haori and Kakashi thought he'd forgotten how to breathe.
When his father killed himself, he had been stripped of his honour and the right to be buried in the village cemetery along with the other shinobi, but the Hatake clan was still technically alive. Kakashi used to have all of his clothes as a child bearing the Hatake symbol, but after his father's death he kept to the shinobi uniform or something resembling it. And now Sakura's plan involved him being Hatake Sakumo's son once again.
Kakashi put on the haori mechanically, adjusting all of his weapons carefully as his body kept moving simply because he was following Sakura's orders.
If he was being honest with himself, he had never quite forgiven his father. In the years after Obito died, he had learned to be proud of the actions his father took to protect his teammates and understand where he had been coming from. Today, Kakashi was sure he would have made the same choice if it came between finishing a mission or saving his friends.
What he couldn't forgive was his father leaving him alone.
Kakashi had never truly realised that the reason he was so against being related to anything Hatake was because of that but now he could see it for what it was. It still hurt him that he hadn't been enough to keep his father going even if he objectively knew that his situation was fucked up. The hurt was mellowed when he tried to think of how much his father had suffered from losing his mother but he couldn't completely forget about it.
There were few things in this world, however, that would get Kakashi to do something he didn't want to. The first one was his duty to the village, the people living there, his teammates. The second was Sakura. He didn't quite know which of these things came over the other but he did know that he would do anything to follow through with Sakura's plan, especially since he knew everything she did was in order to make the village a better place.
So Kakashi shrugged on the haori, dropped his hitai-ate on the pile of clothes before him and stepped from behind the screen. He focused on Sakura and on trying to teach himself how to breathe again.
"I had that made for you during our first day when I realised who you were," Yuuka said, breaking him away from his careful breathing exercises. "I owe my life to your father and it's wrong that Konoha was stupid enough not to see him for who he was."
Kakashi's breath stuck on his throat and he reluctantly let his eyes drop from Sakura's to stare at the tiny woman in front of him. Her own jade eyes were shining fiercely and Kakashi was struck once again by how similar she was to Sakura. It was enough that Kakashi didn't flinch when she grabbed his arms with more force than he expected from someone like her, and shook him a little.
"You need to know that in the civilian world, your father is still a hero. The Hatake clan are still respected, especially by the daimyo." She tightened her hands around him and brought him slightly down to her level so she could have more ease in meeting his eyes. She hissed, "Use it."
Kakashi had still yet to take another breath and it was starting to feel uncomfortable but her words struck him deep. Yuuka stepped away and told them they had to go and it was only when the other two girls followed behind her that Kakashi could go back to breathing. His vision was slightly blurred and his heart was beating too fast but he made his feet move all the same.
He stepped outside to follow Yuuka with Sakura by his side and tried to calm himself down. Sakura didn't say anything as she pressed slightly closer, her slight fingers finding his wrist.
The feeling of her chakra mixing with his was heady and the effect it had on him was instantaneous. She calmed him down and kept him calm while they made their way down the hall and when they were about to reach the dining room, he moved so he could take her hand in his.
They didn't look at the other but when Kakashi squeezed her hand she squeezed back before they let go and when they entered the dining room, Kakashi had his emotions under control once again.
The dinner with the daimyo was nothing like he imagined it would be. Instead of the whole court being present, it was just the five of them plus the daimyo's advisor, who turned out to be the daimyo's lover. The daimyo himself was a flamboyant man, who resembled both a grandfather and a theatre actor at the same time and he treated Kakashi and Sakura like they were his own children.
Sakura played the room like he had never seen her do before. He had heard rumours around Konoha that Sakura was one of the few people who could keep all of the nobles in the Hokage Office in place and he knew that she was one of the best undercover operatives he had ever seen but still. Still.
Sakura was showing a part of herself he had never seen before. He briefly imagined that this was who she would have been if she had never become a kunoichi. A clan heir sitting next to the most powerful man in the country and in line to marry one of his sons. But then she shifted and the light caught the sheen of metal from the many weapons she had strapped to herself and Kakashi snapped back from the surprisingly depressive thought.
After dinner, a servant led them to their room for the night and Kakashi was only slightly surprised to see that it only had one futon in it.
Sakura mumbled something under her breath that sounded a lot like "Meddling old woman," but Kakashi paid it no mind and closed himself inside the en suite bathroom, not really caring to give it to Sakura first.
It was, much like everything inside the palace, jarringly traditional compared to the modern hotels they had been staying in. Kakashi couldn't say he was too sad about it since he had grown up in a pretty traditional house and found comfort in cleaning himself with bucketfuls of warm water and then getting into an ofuro, especially since this room was more luxurious than anything they had experienced so far.
Kakashi stripped off his clothes slowly, taking the time to fold them carefully before placing them on the counter. He wasn't sure he would have another opportunity to wear them again but he knew that it had been an actually pretty thoughtful gift and he appreciated the mesh under pieces at least.
The water ran hot as he poured some of it over his head, using the wooden bucket next to the tap. Kakashi took his time lathering himself up as the room filled with steam and the warmth of it relaxed his muscles.
While he wasn't safe inside Konoha, he knew he was probably the safest he'd be while not within the four walls of his bedroom back home. Kaede was still keeping watch outside despite the fact that their mission was over and Kakashi couldn't help but relax from that fact alone.
With every swipe of the washcloth and bucketful of hot water poured over his head, Kakashi's muscles relaxed further and he finally allowed himself to feel how tired this mission had made him. The emotional rollercoaster that had been their night was enough to make him wish for nothing else but to fall into bed. That and the fact that he had stolen the first shower from Sakura, made him skip the ofuro.
Kakashi brushed his teeth, wrapped a towel around his waist and left the bathroom with another smaller one drying his hair.
"All yours," he said, only realising the double meaning to his words when he saw how Sakura's gaze didn't leave his chest and the way her breath caught.
She had divested herself of her outer layers and her weapons, and was only wearing her pants and wrappings. It took longer than Kakashi wanted to admit for him to be able to turn his back on her to go get his bag.
She had her own in her hands as she moved past him to enter the bathroom.
"Took you long enough, asshole," she muttered before the door closed behind her.
Kakashi huffed a laugh as he dropped his towel and put his clothes on, just his ANBU pants and undershirt.
The futon wasn't as comfortable as the beds they had slept in so far during this mission but it was comforting somehow that it wasn't. The too soft mattresses weren't something he was used to and the fact that the futon only slightly softened the firmness of the tatami floor made him relax even further.
Kakashi grabbed Icha Icha before climbing under the covers. Usually he wouldn't bother with them before going to sleep but his shirt didn't have any sleeves and this was too far north and too into autumn to be completely comfortable, even for him. So Kakashi brought the white comforter up to his chin and placed one hand between his head and the pillow as the other held Violence open.
With the gentle sounds of water moving from the bathroom and the crickets outside, Kakashi could focus again on the words he'd been reading and it turned out to be a mistake. Despite the much needed outlet, he was going to sleep next to Sakura after reading about Junko and her sexual exploits. That coupled with the dim lighting and the sounds of Sakura in the bath just on the other side of a fusuma door made Kakashi have to resort to circling his chakra to keep himself calm.
He released an annoyed sigh and moved a few pages further to a scene where Junko had to fight her way out of a ninja compound with only one kunai while protecting two civilians. It helped some, not having to read a sex scene, but it didn't take long for Kakashi to replace her with Sakura in his mind and that kind of defeated the purpose. There were few things hotter than seeing Sakura in fight mode.
Kakashi closed Icha Icha with another annoyed sigh. He put it next to his pack beside the futon and relaxed back into the bed, the tension almost immediately leaving his body despite how annoyed he was that he couldn't fucking keep it together. It had been a tiring week and he didn't want to think about what that said about his age that he couldn't keep up for a single week of doing nothing.
He was finding it harder and harder to keep his eye open and his mind alert but Sakura didn't take long to leave the bathroom. She was already wearing the inner layers of the clothes she'd be wearing the next morning, leggings and her tight lycra long sleeved shirt and she looked cosy with her pink hair fluffy from being run over with a towel.
Sakura looked at him when she turned the bathroom light off and stared.
Kakashi could see she was tired, her shoulders were slightly slumped like she had been holding herself too straight for a while and now the ofuro had taken away all of her muscle strength. Her jade eyes were piercing his but her lids were falling lower than usual, like she was almost asleep already. The steam coming out of the bathroom from behind her warmed his face as she stepped closer.
With it, another smell reached Kakashi.
It was her, of course, her scent overwhelming every other as usual. It was her but it was spicier, sweeter, warmer. It took his sleep-addled mind too long to realise that he was smelling her arousal and by then Sakura had already turned off all the lights and the covers were being pulled back for her.
It should probably surprise him or make him uncomfortable but neither happened. Kakashi had already been circling his chakra and when he felt Sakura brush his shoulders with hers beneath the covers, he didn't think before reaching for her.
She was warm and pliant in his arms and undeniably wet but Kakashi had no intentions of pursuing anything that night, if at all. For now, he was content in holding her in his arms, letting her scent envelop him as his mind finally shut down after a long week of alertness.
Her toes were slightly warmer than usual from her bath but they were still comparatively cold as she pressed them to his shins when their legs entwined. Kakashi fell asleep that night a few seconds after Sakura's breath slowed, his nose buried in her hair, feeling her heartbeat through his chest and surrounded by everything that was her.
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Wooooo I have A LOT to say! First, this is probably smth I already mentioned before (and if I haven't it's an overlook on my part and I apologise) but I amnotjapanese nor do I come from a japanese family. I try to do my research and while some of the things I put in this story comes from experiences I had while traveling there or from friends that are japanese, most of it comes from google. Please don't take everything I say here as the absolute truth, actually don't do that withanypiece of media, even mainstream ones. I feel like I have to take the time to say this (again? lol I've had many AN's so far I don't actually remember everything I say) esp bc of the situation we're seeing in the US rn. I've always encouraged discussions and the such but I'm here asking specifically for my japanese, issei or nisei readers to reach out if you feel like I've written something that's just plainwrongand/or disrespectful.
That being said! My creative process is a fucking MESS and I love explaining my chaotic thought process so here we go. Nohime is actually a historical figure in Japan! You can find her Wikipedia page here (lol this link only works in AO3). She served as inspiration for my character but they're not the same so... creative license at work lol. Since I didn't know why wiki puts her name as nohime and not no-hime (as in lady no), nohime is now her name lol and since I also didn't know why she was also called kicho, kicho is now Yuuka's nickname for her! Lol I'm a mess but yeah! I actually really like exploring this side of the Naruto world. The daimyo was inspired by the character we see in the anime which felt like a caricature of a very... flighty man, imo. In here he has some more depth and even though we didn't actually see much of him bc Kakashi as a narrator was having Feelings and Thoughts, I wanted to lay a better foundation for his character. Canonically he cared greatly for family, it seems, and the concept of Will of Fire in the sense that he cared about who was taught by whom, hence his like for Kakashi. Also, if I remember correctly, he spoke highly of the White Fang so I hc that Sakumo (and the Hatakes in general I guess) were still held in a high regard by the civilians in a way. I could be wrong about it being canon but I don't care, it's canon in my fic now. xD
This chapter we can see how things are progressing between them and I hope it was satisfying to see! I wanted to show that despite Kakashi's personality being overall dominating, and the fact that he likes to take charge and be in control, he would still bend to Sakura's wishes. I was chatting w the peeps in the fandom about Kakashi being a Dom but liking to sub for people he really really cared about and trusted and I wanted to show a little bit of that and how it translates outside of the bedroom. Also, yeah they're getting closer xD
As always thanks A for beta'ing this piece and Fox for helping me out SO MUCH! Also, the idea for Kakashi to keep from having a boner with his great chakra control while reading porn is entirely Fox's and I've been waiting for the opportunity to use it FOR SO LONG ever since we chatted about it like months ago. Thankie, bby 3
On a more depressing note I feel like I should warn you guys that I might not be able to keep my weekly updates for long. While I took that 1 1/2 months long break to write ahead, I thought this semester would be easy or at least okay but I was so so wrong lmao. I currently have written up to chapter 46 (I actually wrote more but I changed my mind and will only be using some scenes in later chapters so it's basically useless) and while technically that gives me almost a month of not having to write anything and still keep up w my schedule, I'm not mentally in a place where I can keep my productivity level up even to properly edit the chapter I post. Life SUCKS. I hope you don't feel like I'm not excited about this fic, or that I will abandon it or anything like that, it's just that I feel like a need a bit of time to be able to go back to the place I was before... does that make sense? I'll keep trying my very very best to post every week but if I for some reason don't... just know that I'll probably do it the following Fire Friday and don't be afraid! I was very sad when I realised I didn't know if I would still be able to give you guys this sense of constancy, especially since posting every week is something that I really enjoy doing but I feel like I should warn you guys instead of just disappearing one day bc it became too much. I'll try to keep you guys updated over on Tumblr (I'm justjstuff there as well)!
Love you all 3