Author: Amaya
Editor: Aiko
Characters/Pairings: [Shisui x Sakura]
Categories: Romance, Drama, Action, Adventure
Rating: Mature

Warnings: Strong Language, Depictions of Violence, and Mature/Sexual Situations such as breath play, body worship, power kinks, and others.

Full Summary: As the most elite of the elite shinobi to ever grace the village, Anbu operatives were easily some of the most frightening and striking characters one could come across. The way they protected the village while cloaked in shadows, appearing like some God-appointed deities when they were needed most and forgoing honor in exchange for anonymity—was as seductive as one could get. But to Sakura, the real allure lied in the deceptive red smiles painted on their masks, and in figuring out who was behind them. ["Don't start things you can't finish, Haruno."]

Kamen

Chapter || Six

The heat bore down in sticky, claustrophobic waves on all sides of her, the air almost crackling with electricity. The silence that befell them was almost awkward, so tense it was painful, but was saved only by the wildlife that began to hum around them.

Sakura watched as Okami-taichou folded his cloak once over his arm then set it on the ground beside his tanto before returning to his position. He slowly tilted his head to the side, stretching his neck to work it's muscles and crack his bones, then rolled his shoulders before lifting his fists into a defensive position. Suddenly, his feline-like smirk was more like a snarl and the silvery moonlight made the eyes of his mask appear to glow with mirth. He gestured to the open space between them. "Shall we?"

Sakura cocked her head to the right, making no attempt to mirror his stance. "You...want to spar...?"

His shoulders jumped into a shrug. Casual. Indifferent. Practiced. "Unless you have something more important to do," He replied, then added as an afterthought, "Or if you're unable to."

She didn't miss the taunt woven into his tone. In fact, the reserved, controlled voice employed by the members of corps seemed to have melted away from him completely, replaced by a undeniably playful one that made something dark coil within her belly. The grin painted across his mask seemed to shift again, widening into something a little more dangerous, the eyes a little more slanted.

Sakura clicked her tongue, orphaning the apprehension that nipped along her spine and accepting a glimmer of flattery that dotted her flesh. Her analytical mind whirred as she considered her options; she was still recovering from one of her team's infamous battle royales after all, so she wasn't too sure if accepting his challenge was worth it. There wouldn't be much of a fight, even if she were fully rested—because he was a fucking captain.

When she voiced her thoughts, the Anbu shrugged again. "Humor me."

It was a request with just a drop of command, and some hideous part of her felt exhilarated about it. Still, Sakura hesitated in mirroring his form. "I can only wonder why you'd want to spar with me."

"I've always been one to appreciate the abilities of others."

For him to "appreciate her abilities" he had to have been watching her, and she didn't just mean tonight. The thought of him watching her made all the skin from her ears to her shoulders burn as she flustered, although she wasn't quite as disturbed as she should've been. In a way, drawing the attention of ninja as elite as Anbu was both terrifying and gratifying, so she would be lying if she said she wasn't flattered by the attention, if not partially suspicious. The process in which one was gifted the title of Anbu was a secretive one, with most rumors saying that shinobi were selected through a long observation period before being approached by an operative. But surely that wasn't what was happening.

After a stint of deliberation, Sakura bent her knees, widening her stance but raising her fists just below her waist, indicating that she was open to the idea but wasn't quite ready to begin. A sound akin to a chuckle reached out to her while the masked shinobi's hand disappeared into his weapon's pouch. He removed one kunai, it's black steel glinting mockingly in the dim lighting. Sakura watched with nearly childlike fascination as he turned the kunai in his hand, dipping his wrist towards him, and then revealing two more between his fingers. A taunt.

"I would've never thought I'd catch the eye of Anbu," She admitted, watching as he deftly twirled his hand once, fingers folding into his palm in succession; two kunai disappeared in a blink, leaving just the one that was now gripped tightly in his hand, point down.

"Just this Anbu."

There was an inflection in his voice, a less than innocent allusion, deliberate and writhing with mischief. Sakura drew her gaze away while simultaneously shoving aside the implication of Okami's admission (as well as the exhilarating jolt in her chest) with a frown. Perhaps it was the stint of confidence she's had all week, or maybe it was the remaining glow from her heart-stopping brawl with her team, or maybe just insomnia playing tricks, but something within her blossomed with excitement at the thought of capturing Okami's attention.

But she liked it.

Kamen

In the back of his mind, Shisui berated himself for approaching her. He hadn't meant to. He wasn't supposed to. He had just intended to watch.

He wasn't supposed to be here.

But then again, there were a lot of things he wasn't supposed to do.

He had been on his way to meet with his squad for a shift at border patrol when he happened to notice the ruckus of her team. Initially, he planned to move on without so much as a glance but found his feet carrying him without his permission, stopping only once he was securely hidden in the shadows of a sycamore. He could spare twenty minutes, after all.

When Shisui settled into his hiding place, his one-eyed relative had just materialized in the heart of the battle, plucking a free-falling Haruno from the air and teleporting her to safety. He had known that Obito was a close acquaintance of his senpai considering they had been teammates back in the day, but had had no idea the older Uchiha spent his down time with the unusually large Jonin team. And as he watched all seven teammates—he had never seen such a large squad before—with mild fascination as they duked it out almost like enemies.

But that had been hours ago.

When his twenty minutes were up, Haruno and Yamato-taichou were in the heat of their fight, his cousins had ended their battle with Uzumaki, who moved on to engage the artist, and turned on one another, while his senpai was taking a breather. He went on to meet his team for their rounds around the village perimeter, and when the late-afternoon sun disappeared beneath the treeline and the moon stole the spotlight, he made his way back the way he came to find them still fighting.

And of course, the one thing his eyes searched for was Jonin Haruno.

Her chest was heaving, exposed as she had stripped herself of her top sometime since he'd seen her last. Those petal pink locks of hers were tousled and clung to her neck and cheeks with sweat, while mud and dirt and blood were splattered against her abdomen. But more importantly, her eyes had taken on that intoxicated glint that he found so undeniably attractive.

It really shouldn't have been so fucking hot.

He shouldn't have returned to hiding amongst the trees. He shouldn't have watched her uproot trees and shatter boulders.

He shouldn't have touched himself.

But he did.

Because watching her dance in between strikes, executing flips like a performer at a sideshow, tearing the world apart, let loose a dangerous warmth to spread within him and ignited something dark and primal. Even earlier, when it was just the two of them in her office, when she was flirting with him with those doe-like eyes and that air of conditioned innocence, blushing and adverting his eyes, he couldn't withhold his grin because he could feel his affect on her. But now that her shift was over, there was none of that. Now, there was a little rebel in her, a little too much fuel and a little bit of gorgeous chaos all wrapped up in a little gentleness.

Haruno Sakura played sweet and innocent really well. But he liked the forest fire that she was, more.

So when he watched her pluck shuriken from the air and throw them back, his palm glided over the front of his trousers. When she took the artist to the ground and straddled his waist, fist cocked back to deliver another blow, Shisui felt his arousal bounce against his navel. And when Haruno slammed her tiny, unforgiving fist into the ground, against a tree, a boulder, Shisui's breath hitched and his cock twitched beneath his sheathing fingers until his feet finally dangled off the edge of his orgasm.

He meant to leave after that. He intended on heading home or maybe to the bar. He wasn't supposed to approach her.

But again, there were many, many things he wasn't supposed to do.

Kamen

Shisui waited patiently, observing the expressions she made as she stared back at him, her analytical mind whirring as she seemed to be considering her options. His blood hummed in his veins in tune to the nervous pulsing of her chakra. She was overthinking things. He considered dropping his stance and collecting his belongings as his excitement began to dither, but thought better of it.

Finally, tentatively, Sakura raised her fists the remaining bit of the way up, nodding once to wordlessly convey her readiness.

As soon as she did, Shisui was in front of her. He swiped at her with his kunai, spinning on his heel when she leant away from it; on the return, he directed his blade into an upward strike aimed towards her temple, which she raised a hand to bat away. He released his kunai, deftly catching it in his left hand where he thrusted it into her waist. Sakura smacked his forearm away, ducking as he swung that same arm towards her neck and immediately stepping back to evade his right hand haymaker. Sakura aimed to deck his jaw, clicking her tongue in annoyance when he easily pushed it aside with the back of his hand, and then did the same with her next punch; it left her body open, and Shisui capitalized on that, crouching a little lower and driving his blade hand towards her gut. When she stepped just out of reach, Shisui turned his wrist so the point of his kunai faced her again, and aimed at her temple once again. Her fingers enclosed around his forearm, preventing his attack from landing, but Shisui merely dropped the knife again and caught it in his right hand. The moment she released his arm in preparation of blocking his next attack, Shisui flicked his wrist and the kunai changed hands once again, allowing him to slash at her sideways.

Sakura cursed inwardly as she barely managed to avoid the attack with a kick push to his stomach; she had never seen someone juggle a kunai so skillfully in the midst of battle before! And he was so fast, so fluid, controlling his blade as if it were an extension of his arm. Amazing.

She executed a backhand spring to put distance between them, her foot somehow able to clip his hand when he swiped his knife at her, but his grip on the weapon held tight. And it was only then, when she landed on her feet, that she noticed the inimitable caress of chakra weaving in and out of the fissures of her spine. She willed her chakra to warp, breaking free of the genjutsu just in time to evade the plunging of his kunai at her neck.

Feigning a forward kick with her right leg, Sakura forced Shisui to take a step back with a hand instinctively twitching to block. She faked a strike with her right hand next, quickly thrusting her left fist out at his diaphragm. He blocked her hit, again stepping backwards to avoid the combination of uppercuts and jabs that she threw at him, aiming his own slow jab at her face just for her to lean to the left to steer clear of it. He ducked a high, sweeping kick which was followed up by a wide, sideways haymaker. His hand shot up, the guard on his forearm taking the brunt of the hit, then rotated his wrist so his fingers could wrap around hers and tug it out of the way.

Her left hand darted forward but Shisui caught that as well, orphaning his kunai but leaving her open for a strong push kick that made her double over. Swiftly, Shisui followed his attack up with his left fist. Sakura caught it with her much smaller hand, shoving it to her right where she deftly flung him behind her. He flipped in the air, pitching a volley of kunai as he did and then landed on his feet a few meters away. He watched with caliginous orbs alight with excitement as she performed a few artful backhand springs back to avoid the glinting twists of metal, landing with the grace of a cat a ways away.

He tsk'ed. He wanted more than this.

Shisui's stomach lifted somewhat as he flickered across the field to close the distance between them. He moved so quickly, already on the offense, that he nearly missed the raw shock that overtook Sakura's expression when he appeared in front of her. The Uchiha made to kick her feet out from under her, but Sakura casually lifted her forward foot above his kick, planting it back down immediately while simultaneously throwing her left knuckles forward. He lazily batted her fist to the side, stepping to the right as her right elbow swung at him; he caught it, using her momentum to whirl her around and trap her back against his chest, his ankle hooking over hers for added measure. She tensed against him for just a second, then relaxed her body so she slumped from his grip, dropping down into an impressive front split. Leaning back so she could access the backs of his legs, she aimed a punch at the back of his knee, but he flickered out of existence, appearing behind her.

He's so fast...!

The medic rolled her body awkwardly when he made to kick her while she was down, skillfully maneuvering to her feet with a kick-up, hardly having time to avoid the flurry of jabs the Anbu officer directed at her. Inwardly, Sakura thanked Tsunade for drilling an emphasis in evasion into her, because he was fast. She studied his pattern as she wove between his movements, throwing in her own combinations once she had gotten a better feel for the flow of her challenger's fighting style. He was very balanced, very confident but precise in how far he let his limbs travel before reigning them back in, and he had the advantage of having seen her fight before. He wouldn't give her room to breathe now.

Shisui fired a hook kick that she ducked under. He moved with the momentum of his kick, twisting on his heel to get around her whilst sneakily removing a kunai from Sakura's pouch. He swung it at her, watching as she jerked back, twirled it in his hand so he could swing it right back up, then twirled it a second time while in the up position so he could stab her with it. She swatted at his hands with her own, then slammed her head forward so it clashed against the forehead of his mask. The move stunned him long enough for her to rush him. She planted her hands on his shoulders so she could climb him like a God damn tree until she now hooked both of her knees over his shoulders. She tightened her thighs around his head, throwing her weight backwards until he fell forward, then tucking her body as he was thrown beneath her, rolling with him until she was now sitting above him.

She straddled his chest, his shoulders firmly planted to the soft soil by her knees and his head nestled between her thighs, a fist hovering just above his mask in preparation for another strike while her other pressed against his mask. Beneath her, Shisui remained still, drinking in every detail of her form as she bestrode him. Her chest rose and fell heavily, sweat making her wild hair cling to her neck, her cheeks were flushed and lips parted as she caught her breath. The fist lingering just above his face remained there for a moment, silently insisting that he concede.

He fought off a groan—a growl—as their position registered in his mind.

When she had been pressed against him earlier in their spar, Shisui nearly shivered and had to fight off the desire to run his hands down the front of her body and force her against him. That brief contact had spilled oil onto the flames of his arousal, and now, that fire had spread into his chest and neck. He peered up at her, his heavy breath pooling mockingly into his mask, then a smirk stretched across his features. That look that he had seen on her face only twice before, the one that he had only managed a sparse glance at, stared straight back at him, made all her own with intoxication from battle.

Shisui shifted beneath her as he felt a familiar ache in his loins. His hands moved on their own accord, his gloved fingers caressing her calves, then the backs of her thighs. Above him, Sakura stiffened, a jolted breath escaping her lips, but she did not move away. His hands inched their way up her back, as high up as they could in his position. He traced the curvature of her waist with his left hand while the right lazily trailed up her spine.

"Careful Haruno," He warned. His voice was husky with heat, seething with restriction, coaxing a quiver in her shoulders against her will. "Don't get too comfortable."

She didn't realize her lids had fluttered shut until his words—more breath than sound—brushed against the back of her neck—or perhaps, those were lips. No, she realized, chakra. Another genjutsu. Again, she willed her chakra to dispel the illusion that lapped at her spine, breaking it just as a boot collided with her stomach and sent her tumbling back a few feet. Doubled over with her hands nursing her midsection, Sakura wheezed for breath, leaving her unable to dodge the deck Shisui delivered to her face.

"You broke out of that faster than I expected," Shisui admitted, the notes of his voice brimming with praise. "I didn't even get the chance to implant the illusion yet."

Rising to her feet, Sakura spat blood from her mouth. "Three of my teammates try to utilize illusions against me all the time," She chuckled, lifting a hand to her lips. Her thumb brushed aside the blood that colored her lips, drawing his focus to them, then she fell back into a defensive stance. The shift in her attitude made Shisui's smirk spread into a grin, while the pressure under his navel compounded further until liquid fire tricked through his veins. "It'll take more than a weak genjutsu like that to beat me."

With that, Sakura bolted across the clearing, vaulting over the outcropping earth that remained from her previous battle. She attacked him with the remnants of her energy and all of her frustration, which only mounted as he easily dodged everything she threw at him. Every jab and every punch she made, he reflected and countered with his own, as if he could read her movements before she even decided what she wanted to do and it pissed her off.

Shisui allowed the rosette to push him back, knowing full well that he would be backed against the outcropping rubble from her previous spar. His back pressed against a gnarled slab of earth for the briefest of moments before he ducked, narrowly avoiding her deceptively dainty fist as it slammed into the mixture of rock and dirt behind him; it exploded upon impact, showering him with debris despite the fair amount of distance he had put between them. She came at him again, chakra blooming against her knuckles and splintering the ground with each missed strike, until it began to burn her from exhaustion.

She was nearing her limit.

She executed a roundhouse, pivoting on her down foot when he leant out of range, so she could perform a reverse kick. Noticing, Shisui pressed his body as close to hers as possible, rendering the attack useless, then hooked his arm under the bend of her knee, trapping it against his side. He planted a foot behind her ankle then used his shoulder to knock her off balance, but held her leg tight against him so her shoulders were kept planted against the ground.

"I've never seen someone fight the way you do," Shisui admitted breathlessly.

Below him, Sakura smirked but did not respond otherwise. She curled her arm around Shisui's left ankle and dug her trapped foot into his waist, anchoring her in place as she swung her free leg across his chest, allowing her awkwardly roll out of his embrace. On her knees, she swept his feet out from under him, sending him crashing down. She climbed over him the moment his back hit the ground, digging her knees into his sides and batting his hands side before pinning them down over his head. She pried his fingers apart from the kunai in his right hand, wrestling it out of his grip with little struggle, then tossed it aside. When he bucked his hips under her, Sakura dropped all her weight back down against him, keeping him down with her chakra until he could do little more than squirm and even that was difficult.

"Captain."

Behind the mask, Shisui found his lower lip between his teeth, coal eyes narrowing slightly at the breathless way her tongue curled around his rank. He wondered if she realized how husky it came out. At first he thought not, but knowing what he knew about her now, he was certain she did.

Shisui bit back the innuendo perched on the tip of his tongue. Like this, with her pressed against him so snugly, he could feel her—all of her—with all of him. His first instinct was to grip her at the waist, to grind his hips against hers and fuck her so hard into the ground that she screamed his rank but he clamped down on the urge. So he waited, watching with eyes illuminated with unfiltered want as she eased up onto her hackles over him.

He wanted to see what she would do now—if she really was just playing sweet, or if she was all sugar.

She was fighting to catch her breath, running one of her hands through her sweat-drenched hair while the other was planted atop his chest, but she kept her eyes tethered to him. Her perusal of him was too intense for pure guard's sake.

Once he had regained his own breath, Shisui grunted. "Jonin Haruno."

He was completely aware of the dark inflection in his voice. She was too, judging by the way the line between her brows eased.

His grin stretched when he felt her shift above him, against him. He lifted a hand, slowly, carefully coaxing it past her flushed cheek and threading it into her hair, sinking his teeth into his lower lip when she boldly maintained eye contact with him. He fisted her petal pink locks tightly, tugging sharply at them, ripping a muffled grunt from her mouth; when she closed her eyes, Shisui maneuvered so he reversed their positions, trapping her beneath him. Her hands reacted immediately, shooting up to strike him, but Shisui pinned those on either side of her head before she got very far.

Greedily, because he knew he couldn't touch, Shisui committed every bit of her that he could to his memory. His gaze traveled from the forest fire in her eyes, down to the thin cut on her cheek, further down past her undulating pulse. He took in the fresh scar that marred her shoulder—the one that he imagined grasping when he finally fucked her—then followed the quick rise and fall of her breasts. His irises flickered back up to her face to find that she hadn't broken her gaze away. She was watching him just as ardently as he, her.

He released her wrists slowly, waiting to see if she would lash out given the chance. She didn't.

Sakura raised onto her elbows which shook from her fatigue, looking at him with such potent intent that Shisui had to bite back a growl. He straightened over her, dragging his gloved fingers against the incurve of her waist as he did, until he came across another scar staining her abdomen. It was a shade lighter than the rest of her skin, slightly raised, the length of a sword. Her lashes lowered when his thumb ran along its length. She shivered, her breath caught in her throat, transitioning into a sigh. In response, a low, guttural chuckle rumbled in Shisui's chest at her reactions, and then he moved away from her completely. He threw one last glance back at the pink haired Jonin as she rose to her feet, still regarding him with those salacious battle-drunk eyes.

He chuckled again. Just as he thought: she's all sugar.

"Don't start things you can't finish, Haruno."

Author's Note

As promised, here's the other half of the long awaited, tension-filled meeting between Shisui and Sakura! I'm sorry for being so late to post it and for it being shorter than I intended! My computer crashed when I was at the end of the chapter, and EVERYTHING I typed out was deleted! I was so upset! Thankfully, a little more than half of the chapter was auto-saved before the crash, so I didn't have to freak out too much. But still. Meh. I cried a little.

But it's fine. I liked the way this turned out, although it feels like it's empty and missing something, since all the initial details I wrote are gone and forgotten. I tried to recall everything I typed as best as I could, though, so it's fine. Anyway, I posted this for you guys because you all were so sweet and really made my day! And it's Sakura's birthday, so I have to post something!

Anyway, as always, I thank you all for the love and kindness you send my way. You're all so sweet.

Stay safe out there everyone!