Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations. ~ Jane Austen

At the age of nineteen, Kakashi was the youngest ANBU shinobi captain in the history of Konoha. By the age of twelve, he had already killed scores of men and had been a key instrument in several victories during the Shinobi War. His abilities were already whispered to be legendary, and his name had been in the infamous BINGO Book since he was thirteen years old. He had long accepted that his chances of retiring as an emotionally and mentally stable productive citizen were slim to none, and his chances of having any sort of family were smaller than even that.

Yet, Kakashi was still a teenager, and he was a little nervous about his date.

Could he really even call this a date? He had no flowers, no intentions of being sweet or even really gentlemanly, no idea who his date really even was. All he knew was that he was sitting in a tiny little tea shop, in a cozy booth, waiting for a married woman of yet-undetermined age, social status, and danger level to show up and maybe have fun with him.

So maybe it was sort of a blind date?

Kaeda sat across from him, biting her lip and scrubbing mindlessly at a perfectly clean spot on the table. The waitress had kept him supplied with tea for nearly thirty minutes now; as a consequence, Kakashi's tongue was raw from being repeatedly burned by cup after cup of scalding tea.

The poor waitress had been apologizing to him for nearly as long as she'd been torturing his tongue. "I should have told you, but I wasn't even supposed to know."

"You don't have to keep apologizing, Kaeda-san."

Kaeda shook her head; the woman was lost in her own thoughts and hadn't heard a word he'd said for the past ten minutes. "I'm going to give her a what-for for dragging you into this mess. This whole village is a wreck. This whole situation is just terrible."

"Kaeda!"

She blinked. "Yes, dear?"

Kakashi folded his arms over his chest. "The entire village knows she's the bride now. She'll be on lockdown, or at least unable to leave her compound."

"No, she'll show up. She liked you." Kaeda began to absently wipe the several empty tea cups on the table with her cloth. "Besides, she's not on lockdown, he is. They won't even be allowed within walking distance of each other until they leave Saturday for the honeymoon."

How did the waitress know all this? Was she really that close to Obata? Did she have that many connections? Kakashi decided not to ask; too many cans of worms to open on that one.

Kakashi was beginning to think he had gotten himself into the very mess that he had warned his team not to get themselves into. Wasn't he supposed to be smarter than this? He had more willpower than several men smushed into one, and yet he had been enticed by a woman whom he didn't even know. He had been successful in controlling his hormones for nineteen years, so what was different now?

Vacation. It had to be vacation. Nasty, terrible ideas happened when he was on vacation. He should really get up and leave, just head back to the shinobi compound and forget about Obata and her red hair and tan skin and soft lips and that kiss and that sharp jolt in his groin when she slid her finger across his bottom lip through his mask and -

He had the most ridiculous boner and he couldn't even adjust it. And there was this tiny, hot bud in his chest that felt suspiciously like affection, but he couldn't make it go away just like he couldn't get rid of this giant aching boner, fucking hell.

Kakashi desperately wished she would hurry up and get here so he could ask her questions and maybe, possibly, kiss her again.

He had to distract himself somehow, so he sipped his tea under the cover of his hand. Once he had safely jerked his mask back up, be returned his attention to Kaeda. "Why aren't they allowed to see each other yet?"

Kaeda peered out the store window. "As many political marriages as you've seen, I'm sure you can guess."

A political marriage between shinobi always carried the danger of assassination shortly thereafter. Kakashi himself had been an assassin on occasion, though in this case, there was a strong possibility that they were keeping Obata away from her new groom out of fear she might do the deed. "I'm sure that not everyone considers this to be a tactful marriage."

"The level of secrecy surrounding this mess… there's a reason her identity was kept ambiguous," Kaeda replied. "Too many power players looking for a move to make. There were several threats to simply kidnap all three sisters, but that would have been too much trouble. Abduction is messy; too high of a chance for too many losses, particularly with these three."

Kakashi nodded. He had seen this in Konoha before, but not to this extent. Kohona was relatively calm in the realm of power players, though there was an ambitious set that he was determined to have nothing to do with.

Kaeda continued. "Though at this point, they may be more concerned about what Obata will do to him. She was… Disapproving would be a polite term. I don't believe she would harm him, though; she knows what that would mean for her. There are safer ways to show dissent."

"Like meeting me?"

Kaeda sighed. "She shouldn't have brought you into this. She liked you too much."

He shrugged. "I can't yet say whether that's good or bad."

"Perhaps it's both."

Two heads snapped around to find Obata lounging lazily in the booth behind them. She grinned. "Don't stop on my account."

Kaeda tossed the towel at her. "It's not polite to sneak up on people, Obata-san."

Obata winked at Kakashi, and caught the towel with relative ease. "It's not polite to gossip, either."

Kakashi smirked appreciatively. She had not confirmed it, and likely never would, but she must have been an excellent hunter nin. Few people were stealthy enough to sneak up on him, and fewer still possessed the skill to startle him. The few that could were likely either dead or far more experienced than he was, and a large majority of those people fell into the category of hunter nin.

Kaeda stood up. "I suppose now that you're here, my business is required elsewhere."

Obata shrugged. "Don't leave because of me. This is your restaurant."

The waitress shook her head. "I can't do anything to help your situation, so at least let me ease it a bit. I'm closing shop for the day. Do as you please, just be wary of your surroundings. And don't make a mess."

Kaeda began closing the windows and locking the doors. She slapped a paper sign on the front entrance that denoted the inconvenience. Obata busied herself with cleaning off the tables; she swept through the room quickly, tossing dishes into a bucket while she danced around the waitress. Kakashi merely sat there and observed; he still carried the overwhelming suspicion that Kaeda wasn't quite the waitress that she seemed.

She nodded to Obata before she left. "Your room is exactly the way you left it the last time you were here."

"Of course it is," Obata replied simply, and waved her friend off. Kaede left without another word.

Kakashi leaned back in his booth. "I don't suppose this is the right time to ask you about the married life?"

She slid into the booth next to him, and he found himself being straddled by the redhead. "I think that's only fair, now that you know what you've been dragged into."

Kakashi gripped her thighs gently, his clothed mouth barely an inch from hers. "Perhaps later…"

She reached up and cupped his chin in her hands. Her thumb ran over his bottom lip, and she smirked when he shivered. So she had noticed his reaction last time; he would never in his life complain about showing that particular weakness. "Later is good. Questions can come later. Now…"

He slid his mouth along the inside of her palm. "Now we move somewhere less cramped."

"And here I was, planning on defiling this booth…"

"There's an idea," he replied, sliding his hands along her thighs. "But what I had planned requires more space."

"As you wish." She slid out of his lap and beckoned him to follow her.

The room upstairs was sparse, but functional. There was a mattress in the middle of the floor, piled high with blankets and pillows. The chair in the corner was weighted down with a neat stack of folded clothes. Books and scrolls and carelessly discarded weapons littered the floor.

Kakashi paused at the threshold of the room. "I do have a small request…"

Obata turned to him and extracted a length of black cloth from her back pocket. Kakashi allowed her to hand him the cloth. "Trust is something hard-won, isn't it?"

"How did you know?"

She shrugged, and wound her hair up into a tight bun so that he could tie the cloth over her eyes. "Masks are worn for a reason, but they do tend to get in the way in situations like this. Why over-complicate things? Besides, I rather enjoy the thrill."

He tied the cloth gently, but tightly around her head. "Tell me if you're uncomfortable."

"You've done this before. I trust you."

"But do you know that for sure?"

He had, on occasion, done this before, but rarely. There were few shinobi partners (or civilian partners for that matter) who were comfortable enough in his presence to be willingly blindfolded, but he refused to let anyone see his face. Things were safer that way.

She reached up blindly and fumbled for his chin. She picked at the cloth covering his face and tugged it down. "It's in the way you tied the blindfold. Not too tight, but it'll stay. Shinobi don't usually care if blindfolds are uncomfortable. They always tie them too tight."

"And how would you know that? I thought you were a civilian," he teased, brushing her lips with his thumb.

She smirked. "That's right. I am, aren't I?"

Kakashi pulled his shirt up and over his head, tossing it over in the corner. His shoes and pants followed, ending up somewhere on the other side of the room. She allowed him to tug her top and underclothes off carefully so that the blindfold wouldn't budge.

It was almost romantic, if either participant had been inclined to call it such. Alone, secluded in a cozy little room with a bedroll and the sugary scent of morning tea and pastries still clinging to the fabric in the room. The skin to skin contact encapsulated the entire event; warm, firm touches punctuated by long kisses and a playful pinch here and there. Kakashi felt goosebumps under his fingers; the lack of sight had made her ultimately more sensitive for him so that she gasped and giggled when he slid his hands under her underwear and pinched the soft flesh there.

She slid her hands down his body, the tips of her fingers sliding along his skin and bumping against hard ridges of muscle carved from years of physical exertion. She found the hem of his underwear and wiggled them down over his hips, dropping them to the floor. His cock jutted upward, full and flushed pink against the cool air.

Kakashi grasped her thighs and picked her up, carrying her over to the bedroll. He settled himself over her and kissed her hard, busying himself with her mouth against his. Her legs wrapped tight around him, one leg encircling his waist while the other pressed just under his ass, drawing him flush against her.

He trailed his lips along her cheek, stopping at her ear. She whined at the loss of contact with his mouth. He whispered as if someone would hear, "Do you still trust me?"

Her nod, followed by the subsequent whimper, was what he needed. He dropped down between her thighs and pulled away the fabric that covered her, kissing her slit while she whined high and loud. Her fingers threaded through his hair, pulling him back up to her level.

Kakashi lined himself up with her slick entrance and slowly pushed inside. He propped himself up on one elbow while his free other hand stroked the connected juncture where he ended and she began. His thumb teased her, gliding along her inner thigh and entrance, occasionally stroking the tiniest bit of his exposed shaft. He didn't begin to move until he could see that she was sweating, and that if he didn't, it was likely she would bite clean through her own lip.

After what seemed like the longest moment of his life, he moved. He pulled back until just the tip of his shaft still teased her and snapped his hips forward, driving back in. She whined, spouting words that she must have just made up on the spot, because they consisted of syllables and half-formed curses.

He kissed her, silencing her curses, and was rewarded with a sharp bite to his lip that made him thrust that must harder.

Kakashi pressed his lips to her ear and growled. "Do that again and I'll tie you up next time."

She panted, arching up into him as he rubbed against a particularly sensitive spot. Her nails dug into his back, adding new pink scars to old dull ridges. "Don't tempt me or I might bite your whole lip off."

Kakashi shifted his hips, gaining a new angle that drastically strained his control. Her words in his ear, urging him on, praising him - he didn't even know he had a kink for that - and begging him had coalesced into a thundering pulse, a beating sensation that pulsed in time with his thrusts. The edges of his vision blackened, and he held on just long enough to hear her half-moan his name and bite her lip before he let that blissful, curling sensation in his balls blossom into hypersensitive relief.

He slid himself out and cleaned them both up quickly, efficiently, before sliding his mask over his face. The rest of his clothes were left discarded here and there; he just needed his face covered before he removed her blindfold. He tugged the cloth away from her face gently, careful not to snag her hair.

"Don't go to sleep," Kakashi warned, groping over his head for a blanket that had been lying in a wrinkled heap for who knows how long. "I have questions and they'll be looking for you soon."

Obata stretched, arching into his side in such a way that all of her exposed bits and pieces pressed against him in a maddeningly enticing way. "And here I was, looking forward to a little afterglow. Or another round."

He smirked, pinching her bottom so that she squealed. "Later. I'd like some answers."

"Promises, promises." She winked, gathering a bedsheet around her to stave off the chill in the room. "I'll tell you as much as I can, but you have to ask the right questions."

That honestly wasn't something Kakashi had to be told, although he got the feeling that her answers might not really apply to the questions he asked. "Why me?"

"The better question would be, why not you?" Obata replied, resting her cheek on her closed fist.
"I left my family's compound that morning engaged to someone I'd rather have been given the order to assassinate. You looked like a lot better choice than imprisonment for treason."

Not a real answer. "You had an entire village of people who would have been willing to do this with you. It's excellent blackmail."

She shrugged. "My original plan was different. I saw you in the cafe and lept at the opportunity. I only had to hope that you liked me as much as I predicted I would like you."

"So you needed someone who wouldn't blackmail you; the threat had to be large enough to keep both of us quiet."

Obata smirked, leaning over to press a kiss to his exposed shoulder. "You don't seem to mind."

He rolled his eyes, quietly pleased. "Not as much as I tried to force myself to."

"Next question."

Kakashi hummed. "Why did you marry the daimyo's son?"

"Ah, the million dollar question," she replied, busying herself with the soft silver hairs at the base of his skull. Her nails scratched lightly over his scalp; had he been a weak man, he would have fallen asleep or arched his back like an overgrown cat. He was not in danger of dozing off, not in the slightest. "On paper, I was the safe choice."

"The quiet middle child of the powerful family who has no shinobi training?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I sense a prior involvement?"

Several, actually. Kakashi neither confirmed nor denied. "Intuition, not that it would have been necessary if he'd seen your picture. I would have picked you, too."

"Scandalous," she said, trailing her fingers down his neck. Few people had done such a thing without a funeral service soon afterward. "I'm all yours."

Kakashi slid his arm around her and pulled her into his side. "I doubt you could really be anyone's."

She shrugged again. "We're two of a kind then, aren't we, Kakashi? Next question."

"What's with the power grab? The war is over."

"You and I would be leading very different lifestyles if wars ever ended," Obata replied, laying her head on his shoulder. "Every village in the vicinity is making power grabs, not to mention all the separate clans asking how high to jump. What's one little girl in exchange for money and manpower?"

"I like you better."

"You'd be the only one, then. Next question."

"What do you want from this?"

She shifted, pushing herself up so that she was lying mostly on top of him. "I like this. You, and questions, and possible blackmail."

"What about your husband?"

"I don't like him. Let's go back to the part about you tying me up, hmm?"

Kakashi was more than happy to oblige.

A/N: More to come, darlings. This is going to be a long fic.