A/N: Evening (or if you're in Australia- a very early morning) my lovelies! This was a bit of entertainment for me to write- enjoying exploring the layers of Nina; the ones that keep her real. Along, with her bonds with the many characters in the Narutoverse. ~PLEASE let me know what you think ~Thank you for the reads & reviews! Keep them coming please & thank you! Enjoy & happy reading x

~Chapter 47: Good Morning Jealousy~

The streets of Konoha were deserted, shops locked up tight and the stalls that lined the footpaths had canvas tarpaulins protecting the goods which were concealed underneath and ready for selling. In a few hours the village would be brimming with shinobi and common citizens from all across the Great Nations in light of the first day of the Chunin Exams. All the while, Tsunade's mind was focussed on two of the Leaf's shinobi. "About tonight Jiraiya, how can you be sure they'll talk?"

Jiraiya stretched his arms up and crossed them over behind his head as they walked. "I made an exchange with one of them."

"Let me guess, one of your smut books?" God forbid their enemies ever learn that Konoha's elite were so easily bought.

"Hah! No. This time, it's a story of his very own. It concerns a stray piece of ladies lace underwear and a certain-"

"Fool."

"Hey. Whatever works, right?"

That was all well and good, but a deal required an offering from both parties. "What was your end of the bargain?"

"Uh, the real reason you had to cut their little honeymoon short."

"Jiraiya! That's not intel you're at liberty to share."

"And I won't, if it can be helped."

There was something to be said about how straightforward the deal had been settled with Kakashi. Any information pertaining to the unusual chakra appeared to mean a great deal to the copy-nin. If his other inference regarding the bonds Hatake shared with Nina Sarutobi was correct, then the two were definitely related. But how?

The question had thudded around his head, trying to make the connections between it all. In the middle of the night, everything suddenly made sense. After Sasuke, he'd questioned Anko, but failed to track down Kabuto, whom was still missing in action on leave approved by the Elders. In the dead of night, flopping his forearm across his eyes, Jiraiya damned himself for being so daft and ignoring what was all too obvious. Nina. She had ties with…Orochimaru.

As he laid next to a snoring Tsunade, he knew that the next morning marked the first day of the Chunin Exams and anything was possible. Orochimaru was back under his radar. This could be bad. It was still too early to jump at a worst case scenario, or any for the fact, and so, he held off divulging any of this to Tsunade. Thankfully, she seemed preoccupied with Nina's and Kakashi's relationship status.

"Trust me."

Disgruntled she folded her arms across her front and sharply turned her nose to the air. "Tch."

Under his smiley façade, Jiraiya was much less confident. Tonight posed a degree of difficulty. Somehow, he needed to retrieve the information Kakashi and Nina held on the mystery chakra without disclosing classified information. And that was if neither of them had managed to put any of the events of late together by now. Given his sharp intellect and the fact that Kakashi had been in close quarters with both Nina and Sasuke, well it wasn't out of the realms of possibility.

He looked down at Tsunade who was chewing on her thumbnail viciously. The easiest part of the whole night would be getting them to come clean about their relationship and the hardest was going to be navigating his sunflower's nasty little habit of unpredictability. He'd be relying on Hatake and sake, at any rate.

His own spitfire had simmered, enfolding herself into him as they walked onwards in the direction of the Hokage Tower.

"Is it too early to start drinking?"

"Just a little. Plenty of time for that tonight, I promise."

"Better be."

"When have I ever let you down?"

She grumbled, what he was convinced sounded like never. Although, that wasn't true, it hadn't stopped the Toad Sage from setting out to accomplish just that.

Fine wisps from along the back of her hairline, tickled the inside of his exposed nose, bringing him out of the peaceful sleep-state and waking in the exact position he'd fallen asleep in. Rather than withdrawing he cosied further into her, trailing a peppering of gentle kisses from her nape down to the rounding curve of her left shoulder. Nina hummed to life, her body stretching within the confines of his firm embrace.

Shit. She needed sleep.

The kunoichi had been noticeably drained before their empathetically fervid and sensual copulation, which had played out on the floor of her living room, not but a few hours ago. He wondered what the time was. Cracking one eye open, Nina's bedroom was a greyish hue and the furniture pieces were darkened shadows; dawn hadn't broken yet.

Holding her hands and crossing them over her chest, so that their bodies locked tight with each other, Kakashi ghosted his lips across her silken skin. "It's not quite 6am, go back to sleep."

Nina groaned, pushing out of his hold and rolled over and back around to face him. Their legs fought for a comfortable spot, layering and hooking into the natural bends and angles of their knees and ankles. When Nina stopped squirming, he corrected their cover provided by the bed sheets, untangled her hair from where it had gotten caught in and around their limbs- particularly between his fingers, and finally rest his chin atop of her head. Nina's words were hardly audible as she muffled into his chest. "How can you tell?"

Stubborn woman. He was pretty beat himself. They both needed sleep. "If I tell you will you go back to sleep?"

She let out a snuffled laugh, and as she did her breath beat against her fingers which were tucked into Kakashi's chest. Nina needed to see the time herself; habit most likely, that and he was forever notably late.

Their bodies intermingled again, unsettling them both until he was on his back, and she quickly rose, using his chest as a base in stabilising herself on straightened arms to eye the clock on the bedside table. The clock read 5:47am. She looked back to find Kakashi eyeballing her with his own eye opened and the sharingan closed. Determining she was more awake than tired, Nina attempted to break away to clean the shambles that her living room would be in.

With eyes now closed, Kakashi queried her departure. "And where do you think you're going?"

"I'm just going to clean up."

In one fluid motion, Kakashi grabbed both of her wrists and forcing them outwards it caused her to clumsily collapse on top of him.

Oomph.

"Kakashi."

"Nina."

Meeting enough resistance from him that she couldn't muster the want to fight it, Nina snuggled in and softly laid her left cheek to the bare expanse of his chest. "You're impossible."

The connotation between a black kettle and pot instantly came to his mind. She was fidgety and far from drifting off. One hand was tracing circles over his right shoulder and her other was holding his left hand. Kakashi figured it was an opportunity to broach their earlier escapades. It was a conversational topic that was unfamiliar to him because well… sex was just sex. A means to a need, and pillow talk and aftercare were as meaningless as the company he'd bedded. "Last night-"

"I'm fine. I told you that I-"

She was fit, strong and flexible, but he wasn't referring to her body. Together they'd broken through a significant portion of bottled emotional and mental trauma from Nina's past. "But you did."

She'd cried in his arms; overcome with the inordinate liberation. "I felt safe." Everything about Kakashi brought everything about her into a state of whole calmness. Even so, her elaboration came out in a giddied-affected mumble. "You make me feel safe."

Kakashi gathered Nina into himself as tightly as possible, tilted her head from her chin and tenderly kissed her forehead. Steadily combing finger strokes through her hair, combined with gentle back and forth brushes of his thumb on her cheek, he mulled over her hatred for expectations in relation to what they had shared. "It doesn't have to be like that every time either."

"Like what?"

"That…" Whilst thinking about the right description, he stared at the ceiling; the first rays of daylight were extending across the white spackled paintwork. "That intense."

It was that.

Without the security he'd provided, Nina doubted she would have been able to push through the barriers like they had. A chaotic scramble of her fears and insecurities were wildly and heatedly fucked out of her by him. However, Kakashi hadn't done anything she didn't want nor permitted. There was no dissidence, but instead an empathetic and coequal desire, which registered on another level when compared to their other sexual exchanges. All excepting one.

After his confessional exposition of the cost of broken promises, Kakashi had taken her demandingly and impatiently. In a sexual tirade, her own closeted emotions associated with the blundered vow to her brother, unified them in a veridical act of making love.

Hindsight allowed her to clearly see how the two, then and last night, were akin.

"I think we both know we need it, Kakashi. We're shinobi, you know? Death is the only thing certain in our lives. Because of that… because of the lives we lead, sometimes we need more."

Nina splayed her fingers, pushing down lightly onto Kakashi's lungs as he gave out a shuddered breath.

Precisely. "An all-out frantic mania to let go of the pain and to connect, to feel… anything?"

Despite fucking a woman, shinobi or civilian, senseless and with that longing, he had repeatedly came out the other side just as beggared as he'd been in the first place.

"Yes." Her fingertips swept lazily over his torso.

What attracted Kakashi to Nina, and at the same time scared him, was her unlikeness to other women. Whereby, and without the need to engage in sex, she helped make him feel understood, safe and …happy. For him- a shinobi, feeling any of that, was the most terrifying fucking thing in the universe. Emotions made you susceptible; weak. A constant and important someone in a shinobi's life presented a potential target. Meaning Nina could be taken away from him.

"That, and also, to see what stays." Nina's fingers glided back up his sternum and hooked into his fingers.

Up until Nina, post-coital nothing had stayed, not even him. He would escape at the first window of opportunity to reclaim a sanctum within his personal bubble. "And?"

"And you're still here." Her body shook, as a yawn took hold of her.

A last glance at the clock read 6:37am. Kakashi weaved his right hand through Nina's hair, down her back, and clamped onto her right hip, and huddled between her supple breasts, his other hand remained holding hers.

They were both so far in bed with Konoha there'd been no room for anyone or anything else. Quite simply, he needed to care and Nina needed to be cared for. In a complete reversal of their daily personages, and only in each other, they attained that balance… that peace.

In-awed with the morning sun blaring through the pellucid windows, Nina squinted her eyes and soaked in the invigorating glow through her nakedness. The auroral light evoked the return of Maya's voice to her ears.

Back to Kashi?

Yes, she was back in Konoha with Kakashi. He was currently soundly sleeping in her bed down the hallway from the living room where she was. As quietly manageable, Nina restored order to the space by mopping up spilt water, discarding the smashed pieces of ceramic and glass belonging to the vases knocked over by Bull, and collecting their clothing which had been strewn around. Folding the pieces belonging to him, Nina towered them in a neat pile, topped with his hitai-ate. Today, the metal insignia and band of material were a hitai-ate. An article of an ensemble which signified their role as a ninja and allegiance to Konoha. Perhaps another day it could be used again for a more explicit means.

She insufflated deep into her lungs, the early morning crisp air which was laced with blossomy scents from rumpling through the petals and leaves of the horde of flowers. There was no longer a need for games with pretentious covers. In their new togetherness, they would seek to handle a means to encompass their humanness and lives as a shinobi.

"Kakashi…"

When he opened his eye, he was nose to nose with Nina. Her bright eyes darted from side to side as if she were reading him like a book. Her breathy whispering fell against his lips before imparting a touching kiss that he dragged out into an impassioned waggling of their tongues whilst flipping her over and onto her back.

Nina erupted into cackles, slurred with partial outcries of his name in poor avocation for him to stop. He'd been meticulously committing each of her ticklish spots he found to memory. Pausing for her to catch her breath, "Hn?"

"You owe me a pair of underwear. That's the second pair you've shredded."

True. "Actually, I have a pair in my pants pocket to return to you."

"What?"

Her baffled expression had him considering just how lascivious his divulgence may have been perceived. "You left them at my place. It's why I came over last night."

Narrowing her eyes, Nina poked the end of his nose using her right index finger. "I don't believe you, Hatake. You're lying."

"No, I'm not." Wrapping his hand around her finger, 'Honest."

"Your excuse is as poor as the condition of what's left of the underwear I was wearing last night."

If only she knew. Pulling back from Nina and shuffling off the side of the bed, he noticed his clothes to his right; neatly arranged on the corner of the bed. After slipping on his pants, Kakashi tugged down on his shirt, and disappeared into the bathroom. "Don't worry Sarutobi, I won't tell anyone your secret."

"What secret?"

Flushing the toilet and before turning on the faucet, he opened the doorway enough that she would be able hear him more clearly. "That you're a pervert."

"Says the man that was walking the streets of Konoha with a pair of ladies underwear stashed in his pocket."

He fished out the lace undergarment from his pocket and tossed them at Nina, who funnily failed to catch them and had to retrieve them from the floor. "Wouldn't have to worry about that if you stopped wearing them."

8:05am. Nina didn't seem to notice the time had been ticking away and considering her back was to both him and the clock, he thought it best to inform her of something more serious.

"Nina."

"What?"

"You're late." Arms crossed, he indicated for her to look at the clock he was pointing to; all with a crinkled-eyed smile.

"Kakashi! Why didn't…?"

It'd been a good thing he'd assisted by giving her a head start with the return of her underwear. She dashed to her wardrobe and clothed herself.

"Lunch?"

"Uh, yeah." She yanked her flak jacket from within the wardrobe with such force that the hanger disintegrated. "Bye." Nina smacked her lips to his cheek and leapt from the window.

Bye.

Kakashi adjusted his mask to its usual place, binned the broken hanger and stood mindlessly in Nina's living room. What now? Shower, check the mission board, at least make an appearance to see how Sasuke and Naruto are getting on with the Chunin Exams, lunch with Nina, and tonight he'd sort out this business concerning the mysterious chakra.

"Wasn't this supposed to be taken care of before today?"

"Does it really matter? Just do your job and I'll be on my way."

"Suits me just fine."

"I am curious though, first you refuse Raido and then Hatake. Turning into quite the little heartbreaker aren't you?"

Silence.

"Personally, I don't see the appeal, Sarutobi."

"Likewise, Mitarashi."

Raido and Anko were a perfect match- depraved souls with no class. As for Kakashi and whatever history him and Anko shared, well yes, Nina felt jealous. Stupidly jealous. But that was perfectly natural, right?

Slowly checking off Anko's clearance checklist, her stupid jealousy opened the door to stupid questions. Had Anko been one of the casual flings Kakashi had gone back to more than once, twice… or…? He'd mentioned Ayame was someone he could do that with. So, what was it that Anko and Ayame had in common that Kakashi liked so much? Did that put her in the same category as Anko? Ugh. She fucking hoped not.

Nina Sarutobi had worked her way into the Bingo Books in her early teens. With a profile summary that claimed she was not only worth a decent amount of Ryo, but would put up a fight that would have you second guessing if the money was worth the cost of a brush with death at her hands. Her appearance didn't match; almost too neat for holding that sort of notoriety in their world. "Whoever wrote the Bingo book got it so fucking wrong with you, didn't they? All smoke and mirrors, perhaps?"

"You don't know me. And you won't ever fucking know me, Anko. Keep pretending like you do, you're likely to suffer the same fate as you're little fuck toy did."

"Oh please, you're as fragile as they come." She knew enough. They were the same age and attended the Academy together, before Nina had undeniably been given a leg up to an early graduation by her father, the Third Hokage. Unquestionably, Nina could inflict pain and her medical ninjutsu was commendable enough that Lord Orochimaru had pursued her first. Even after Nina returned to the village, making his first objective unsuccessful, he'd continued to ceaselessly sing praises about her. Along with his disappointment and annoyance for the inconvenient necessity of extra effort involved in formulating a secondary plan.

Anko despised Nina all the more; seemingly always coming in second best. First in the Academy and then with her own master. But she would have her day.

Infliction was a far cry from being able to handle pain; pain like she'd endured after being branded by Lord Orochimaru and where dying seemed like a better option than living. But she'd survived. Proof that she held a mettle that Nina didn't. Sarutobi was too tasteful, proper, and a goody-two-shoes. "I don't see a curse mark on you, which just proves you couldn't hack Orochimaru and you came running back to Daddy at the drop of a hat, Sarutobi."

"The Third saved your attention-starved arse, not mine."

Probably a result of his warped sense of responsibility because Anko was the student of his prized rogue student.

Fragile? Who the fuck did she think she was talking to?

"Having a curse mark isn't a trophy, but if you are happy to show off your weak will, then be my fucking guest."

Nina wasn't mincing her words. Anko Mitarashi may have been the sole survivor of ten test subjects branded with the cursed seal of heaven by Orochimaru, but it'd failed and he'd wiped part of her memory. Anko lacked the will to use it and it had receded. The Third had convinced the Elders that she posed no danger to the village. When Orochimaru attacked the village during the Chunin exams, in his pursuit of Sasuke Uchiha, Anko had lost control of the seal and some of her memory returned. It was sealed by the Third and her memories remained intact. All this wasn't common knowledge. Nina knew because of her role as a medic-nin with the details being outlined in Anko's medical personnel file.

"Hatake is wasting his time with you. If, and that's a pretty big fucking 'if', he actually fucks you, and in the way he likes it, he'd fuck that nasty attitude right out of you."

"You don't fucking change do you? Still running your mouth and happily skulking around in the shadows, picking up the scraps behind me."

They were friends once. Growing up, she had helped a struggling Mitarashi through the theory components at the Academy. Things kind of went sour for their friendship when Nina graduated ahead of her. Anko had more than likely assumed her accelerated graduation was some kind of hand out from her father. Pfft. Wasn't that a fucking joke? And in fairness, she wasn't the only one who believed it hadn't been on her own merit.

Nina had heard that Anko eventually came into her own, earning an interest in her skill set by none other than Orochimaru, who took her on as one of his disciples. Life went on its merry way there for a while, until Orochimaru broke away from the village, luring her ignorant younger-self down a path she very nearly didn't return from.

Not knowing her reasons, Nina presumed Anko had been simply driven by the blind admiration for her master and offered herself to be one of his test subjects.

Sadly, instead of being brought together by their experiences with Orochimaru, they drifted further apart. Friends to rivals. Nina fully immersed herself into her duties as a shinobi and Anko was doing whatever she was doing.

These days, she chose to ignore Anko's tawdry behaviour involving self-proclamations of her most recent bed company. Incidents like Raido certainly gave the impression Anko had purposely scrounged around behind her and picked up the discarded pieces of failed dates or courtships. And it wasn't just Nina, there was the rumour mill too. Anko had gained a reputation for bedding anything that had a dick, taken or otherwise.

Although, Nina wasn't one to involve herself in petty disputes, there was substantial justification for her bristled hackles on this occasion- Kakashi.

"Best you get used to that low-life philanderer Raido, Anko, because I'm not going to be leaving you any scraps this time."

"You keep telling yourself that Sarutobi. But, I'm not lying when I say after Hatake's done you once he'll come back to someone who actually can handle him." Leaning her weight on her palms behind her, Anko lazed back inspecting the ceiling. "Me." Casting her eyes on the brunette, Nina had distanced herself and dropped her hands to her sides in balled fists. Bingo. "He'll come knocking on my door and I'll happily welcome him with open…"

"Get out."

Nina didn't know who she despised more- Anko and her sordidness, or the growing emergence of her not-so-little green-eyed monster that she didn't quite know how to handle.

"And my clearance?" Childishly she swung her legs as she sat on the edge of the treatment bed, taking great pleasure in securing a bite from Nina, whose eyes grew wide before racing down to a vacant spot on the floor. Wanting to see just how far she could push her before Nina snapped, she added another snipe. "Better still, I should just ask Hatake for one. With all our history, I'd bet he would be able to do it with his eyes closed."

Dragging her eyes from the floor she drilled them into Anko, with as much fury as she could muster. "Get. The. Fuck. Out."

"Heh. You're kind of cute like this, you know?" Slipping off the bed, she had a go at stroking Nina's cheek with the back side of her knuckles, which of course, the kunoichi objected to instantaneously.

Cute? Nina was feeling anything but fucking cute. Anyone with half a brain wouldn't be stupid enough to antagonise her so brazenly, but clearly Anko couldn't give two fucks. "Here." She shoved her file into her chest, removing the care factor for if she inflicted pain upon her patient in any way. "Take it and get the fuck out of my treatment room. I won't ask with words again."

"I've never seen you jealous before." Anko stood in the partially open doorway with her back to the clinic's hallway and hands on her hips, in a smug satisfaction for roiling the medic-nin. "With all those pent up Daddy issues, I suggest you try calling Hatake Daddy; he certainly appreciated it when I did." The Third's daughter didn't turn around, regardless she was thoroughly revelling in this little altercation. "And who knows, you might even stand a chance at making all his fucking effort worth it, Sarutobi. At least for one night."

Her left foot scuffed out on an angle and stopped. Thinking better of a physical clash with Anko, guessing that the Elders wouldn't permit a test of her short leash's tensility, Nina held her ground and tongue.

Hmpf; close enough. "Anyway, I've got better things to do." She about faced, holding up the file over her right shoulder, "Thanks for this," leaving the treatment room as requested.

"Well, it all makes sense now."

The laid-back tone coming from behind her appertained to Shikaku. If it had been the Fifth standing in his place, Nina would have regrouped at a faster pace, rather than continuing to brood at ground level like she was. "What does?"

"Anko strutting around like the cat that got the cream, and you're sitting on the floor of an empty treatment room."

The jealousy-laden monster toyed with her imagination, vivifying Nina's sinister wishes for her rival to fucking choke on the cream. "Think you could convince Lady Tsunade to pit me against Anko in the next master class?"

"Not likely. Besides that, you know well and good that it wouldn't be a fair match."

Dammit. She accept the helping hand to stand and raised an eyebrow, "Favouring your student is frowned on, you know?"

"Former. And it isn't favouritism when it is a fact. Although, I will say your win would depend on keeping that temper of yours harnessed."

Yeah, yeah. She gave him a half-hearted smile and scoff. His remark was relating the same temper that Anko had successfully discommoded to such an extent that Nina was still dealing with the mind fuckery from the altercation.

"She has always gotten under your skin, or you've allowed her to. Not sure of specifics, nor is it any of my business. A missing signature on her medical clearance is though."

And here she thought she'd kept their one-sided rivalry under wraps. Gah! This was ridiculous. Adding insult to misery, she'd missed a basic practice of signing off on an official piece of paper. "Sorry."

"Eh, it's a quick fix."

Highly uncommon for Nina to forget such an important detail, as was her emotional transparency.

"Again, apologies."

"Thanks." He double checked for her signature and tucked the file under his left arm.

"Is that all?"

"No, I have a message from Hatake regarding lunch plans."

"Man of many hats, Shikaku. Now you're a messenger boy?"

"Something like that." And this was the other peculiarity, Kakashi requesting him to pass on information of an assumed personal matter.

"Let me guess- he's busy?"

"He is now. We were all just waiting on Anko's clearance."

"I see."

So could Shikaku. It was as plain as day. What had occurred between Anko and Nina this morning, wasn't their normal squabble. Nina had risen to it, which had begged the question why?

This was a case of a rose firmly set between two thorns- Kakashi Hatake being the rose. There'd been plenty of conjecture floating around the village concerning Nina and Kakashi and without out-an-out asking the kunoichi, there was definitely more than platonic camaraderie between them.

"Nina," he stuck his head out of the room's doorway and surveyed the hallway, deciding to still close the door for good measure. "Word of caution."

Her brown eyes flicked up to his and turned her body, appearing to grant him her full attention.

"As Konoha's Jonin Commander, I shouldn't be telling you this. However, as your former sensei and fellow shinobi I need to. If you can't get those emotions under control, it's not going to bode well for when you and Hatake go before the Village Elders; which also includes myself and the Fifth Hokage."

He watched her eyes drop to the floor and her fingers drummed on the underside of the treatment bed she was leaning against.

"You're both accomplished shinobi. If your hope is to maintain what you already have, then you can't been seen or known to be getting into a flap over something as frivolous as…"

"Anko. I know I'm just… tired, I guess."

He reached out and stiffly curled one hand around her shoulder. "Then get some sleep, Nina."

"I'm trying. It's a lot easier said than done."

Dropping his hand, he looked her over, "Alright, lecture over. I'll see about getting you a day off, a proper day off."

The door squeaked along its metal tracks as he slid it open, Nina stepped away from the bed and followed him out.

"Thanks Shikaku-sensei."

"Hmpf." He peeled away to the right, and she to the left. The rest was up to her and Hatake.

Fuck. Anko may as well be awarded bonus points at this rate. Get it together, Nina.

"Room four Ma'am."

"Uh, thanks Ayame."

Nina was spiralling further down the mind trap of jealousy brought on from Anko's antagonistic bullshit and because she'd just been informed by Shikaku that Anko and Kakashi would be working together which cancelled lunch plans. She had no fucking idea for how long, or what they would be doing. Meanwhile, she was stuck in the clinic tending to… she opened the patient file. Joy. Yet another fucking gardening mishap for Miss Chuchi.

"If you can't get those emotions under control…"

Shit. Right. Unable to duck away to recompose herself, Nina had to settle with telling herself that she was a shinobi. It may be relatively new to her, but she'd already determined out of all the emotions, jealousy was one she didn't wear well. Upon coming to the door of the fourth treatment room, she tried to cram what she could of the swirling jealousy into the smallest imaginary jar possible. Reminding herself that trusting Kakashi was what she needed to focus on, otherwise Anko would win. And well, Nina's sentiments regarding that happening were cut and dry- when hell froze over.

"Miss Chuchi…"