Jakuten: Weak point
canon-divergent; beginning of Shippuden
Part of the reason why Kakashi Hatake was able to get by with only one eye was his nose.
Kakashi's nose told him everything, even through the mask. How long ago someone had waited for him, what Naruto had eaten for breakfast (ramen, always ramen), how many people were waiting in ambush. It would even tell him when his adorable students were planning a prank, from the smell of nervous excitement not even Sasuke could hide.
It was an artifact of having signed the dog summoning contract, which had elevated his senses to (and past) the level of even the best Inuzuka.
There'd been many times he'd cursed this ability, which would pierce through even the thickest mask to let him know precisely who had farted and what they'd eaten, or precisely what the grinning Genma had been up to in the breakroom.
He'd never thought it'd be a problem in his ninja work though. And yet, here he was.
Bringing up the rear of the newly reunited Team Kakashi, he tried his best not to breathe.
Years ago, he'd caught the beginning of Sakura's cycle weeks before the young teen would bleed for the first time, wordlessly leading the bewildered new woman to Kurenai, who'd understood immediately and arranged for Sakura to get the shot that all active kunoichi took.
That had gotten rid of the smell of her ovulation, replacing the light, sweet scent with the curiously sterile one that set kunoichi apart from civilian women.
Had.
He hadn't seen Sakura in years, and somewhere in that time, she must have stopped taking that shot, because the scent was back.
Kakashi Hatake did not seek out lovers, had never even dreamed of starting a relationship, but he was a man still and had sought the company of women on occasion. Only ever civilian women, for security purposes, and as that was the only contact he ever had with civilian women, the scent currently taking over his world was intimately tied to those specific, brief moments he would snatch between the breakneck pace of his missions.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable scent...the only issue was the fact that it was coming from Sakura.
It brought forth a heady mix of emotions.
Annoyance, for one. Even if Sakura had not been active duty the last two years because of training, the shot was still a basic protocol. One, admittedly, he could have just corrected before they left for the mission to Suna, but he'd expected Team Kakashi's first mission as a newly reunited team to be more along the lines of dog walking.
Bewilderment, for another. Sakura was nothing if not thorough, and besides, he had no doubt Tsunade had fussed over her prep for this mission like a mother hen, judging by the way the Hokage's eyes had stayed glued to her apprentice during the entire second bell test.
And, though he hated to admit it, a heavy dose of arousal with a side of resentment, as the conscious effort of very decidedly not thinking about the smell was detracting from the enjoyment he'd have otherwise felt at being reunited with his one-time students.
"Hmm?" He'd missed whatever was yelled by the worked-up orange blur far out in front of the team, the words snatched away by the wind before his uncharacteristically preoccupied brain could process it. Naruto flipped backwards to neatly pick up his tree-running back up next to Kakashi.
"I said it feels almost like old times!"
"Naruto, how many times have we told you not to break formation?!" The exasperation in her barked statement was betrayed by the sparkle in Sakura's eyes that made it clear that she felt the same.
Kakashi crinkled his eye in a smile rather than lie and agree with the orange genin. Not only did old times have a Sasuke sullenly covering the left flank, old times also had a Kakashi who didn't struggle to not think about Sakura's flanks.
Naruto grinned back up at the taller ninja, completely unaware of the jounin's predicament, and sped back up.
"Gaara's going to owe us big time!"
Gaara did, indeed, end up owing them big time.
All of Suna did, and the village showed it generously.
The returning Konoha ninja were hailed as heroes, celebrated as they walked the streets after their exhausting mission.
The green flak jacket would likely be a lady puller in this region for some time, Kakashi observed as Gai was swarmed by a crowd of admiring Suna locals.
Though he stood aloof from the celebrations, he too was approached by a pair of flirtatious young women.
"Hello, Shinobi-san.." The shorter of the two batted her long brown lashes at him. "Thank you so much for saving our Kazekage.."
"Looks like you're not enjoying the celebration we've prepared for you..." the other pressed her generous bosom against his arm. "Perhaps we could change that?"
Her white blond hair shone almost pink in the red lights of the street.
He let them lead him into an inn, one of the peculiar multilevel buildings that Suna was famous for. He found himself in a generously sized suite, with wide windows still showing the festivities below.
The brunette closed the door, and the click of the lock sounded clearly throughout the room. Expectantly.
He smiled loosely at the two women now slinking towards him, eyes fixed on him like lionesses on their prey.
"You two are going to need blindfolds."
As usual, Sensei was nowhere to be found once the fun actually started.
"You'd think he'd want to at least check things out with us, it's the first time we've gotten a breather since I came back!" Naruto complained, eyes scanning the streets for the Suna equivalent of Ichiraku.
Tenten twirled a skewer deftly between her fingers, the only remnant of the dango she'd bought two streets back.
"Well, that's just Kakashi-sensei, right? Gai-sensei's always trying to get him to let loose and I've never seen him succeed. I figured he was just a giant stick in the mud."
"Hey, that's not true! Kaka-sensei's so much fun! You wouldn't know!"
The Konoha group continued sauntering through the impromptu street festival being thrown in their honor.
Sakura brought up the rear, smiling brightly as Tenten lightly teased Naruto up ahead.
Come to think of it, Sensei had left them early the night Naruto had gotten back to read Icha Icha Tactics. They really should drag him out from whatever hole he'd hidden himself in to enjoy the festivities. The man must have read Icha Icha four times over by now.
"Hey, I'll go see if I can find Sensei, be right back! Find a place to eat while I'm gone."
"You got it, Sakura!" Naruto cheered. "We're going to find the best ramen place here!"
Sakura leapt up to the rooftops, leaving the ebullient blond behind with the rest of the Konoha crew.
Now just to find Sensei. He couldn't have made it far.
She extended her senses as she moved smoothly from roof to roof, feeling out for the chakra that was still all too familiar to her, even after all these years.
There.
She zeroed in on a building, and started to creep towards it. Knowing Kakashi-sensei, he'd slip away the moment right before she got there, foiling her attempts to get him to join them.
When she finally got close enough to the building to see through the window, she came to a screeching halt.
Sensei was...occupied.
She would have turned tail and fled immediately had it not been for the moan.
And the fisting of the blindfolded woman's hands in the sheets as Sensei visibly took another deep breath from where he was between the woman's legs, his face buried intimately in the woman's most private place.
The majority of his face was covered by the woman's bronzed thigh, but his scarred eye was visible from her vantage point, staring up at the gasping woman through silver bangs flopping free.
The look in those eyes made something deep in Sakura's core curl with a dull heat.
She stood there mesmerized for a moment.
Then a whine made her notice the other woman in the bed, also blindfolded. This woman had Sensei's hitaiate over her eyes, the Konoha emblem shining over a devilishly delighted grin as she reached for Kakashi-sensei.
The mental overload had her almost tumbling from the rooftops, but she managed to gather herself to slink away.
Sensei will not be joining us this evening.
Sensei met the group bright and early the next day, no indications of the scandalous shenanigans the night before apparent in the loose lines of his frame.
Sakura fought the urge to question him, knowing that if she just kept her mouth shut, she would be able to bury the memory of what she witnessed forever.
And all was almost like normal, until the gates of Konoha came into view through the trees.
Kakashi-sensei broke formation to pick his stride back up next to her.
"Make sure to take your shot once we get back." Sensei said curtly.
"?"
"Your shot. The Kunoichi shot."
She cocked a head.
"Sensei, you know who you're talking to, right? I'm a medic nin. I'll never have to worry about that kind of thing."
"Ah."
"..."
They moved in silence for a while. Sakura's eyes narrowed.
"How did you even know I hadn't had the shot?"
Sensei coughed. Was he embarrassed?
"Kakashi-sensei..." she said in a warning tone.
"I can smell it."
Sakura almost missed a step.
"What?"
"I can smell it." He repeated with a grim look on what could be seen of his masked face. He followed up. "And enemy scent trackers will be able to too." With a kick, he pulled ahead, streaking through the gate with the impunity only the most famous of Konoha jounins were granted.
Sakura stayed back for a moment, mortified.
—the image of Sensei with his face buried between a woman's legs flashed by—
After checking in with the gate chuunin, Sakura covered the rest of the distance to her safe, Sensei-less room at a dead sprint, ignoring Naruto's invitation for an after mission party.
A/N: Started rewatching Shippuden during quarantine, and dude, the tree running scenes are just gently jiggling pics of ass on a blurred tree background. I swear I'm not a perv, this is just a fanciful extension of the facts we're presented in the series.
I'm a bit of a perv.
I put this separately from Autumn Leaves since I may start envisioning a plot and continue it, but either way, hope you enjoyed!