Ch. 3

July. August. September. Summer.

The summers in Konoha were notoriously hot, only surpassed by the even more oppressing heat of a mild Sunagakure winter. Even well into the evening hours, the Konoha Sun clung to its foothold in the sky, extending business hours well past their usual closing times. Sakura's apartment was still violently hot and bright when she got home from her shift at the hospital that day. Her shoes and work bag were carelessly discarded by the door to be dealt with later when she actually had the energy to do so. For now, she had barely two hours before she would need to rally for Ino's birthday. She was dreading every second of it. Her body begged desperately for a nap, so rather than shower she collapsed face first into her squishy sofa, not even having energy to spare to turn on her overhead fan.

Her apartment was too warm, and too quiet. Her left cheek tingled from the blade of sunlight that split through her balcony curtains. Even her houseplant seemed to droop and shy away from the heat. A bead of sweat ran down the back of her ear, but she couldn't be bothered to wipe it away. Twenty minutes passed in this undisturbed silence. She could have greedily slept through 100 more.

But she didn't have time to fully fall asleep. She had to work on her Jutsu.

Across the living room sat Sakura's work desk, piled high with seemingly unrelated scrolls and textbooks borrowed from Tsunade's medical library. The desk was still messy from her last work session over the weekend, before Kakashi had returned in critical condition and consumed the bulk of her free time. Her sink was piled with gratuitous dirty coffee mugs and she was embarrassingly behind on doing laundry. Even still, her Genjutsu work took precedence over household chores. Summoning a truly honorable about of self discipline, Sakura peeled herself out of her sofa cocoon and made her way over to her desk chair, lazily falling into it.

She opened the notebook to her last practice session and scanned over the nonsensical brainstorming web spanning both open pages. Several words were underlined or footnoted with tangential ideas. Circled were words like 'Prefrontal cortex', 'Lucid dreaming' and 'Sympathetic resonance'.

Okay. It was time to get to work.

Sakura pulled her legs up so they were tucked criss-cross on the seat, then cracked her neck left to right with a satisfying pop. She set her spine into a neutral, upright posture and rested her palms on the tops of her knees. Mentally, she ran through her meditation drills. She took a slow breath in, letting her eyes close, then relaxed her minds eye and allowed her thoughts to drift.

The first time Sakura successfully cast a Genjutsu on herself, she had chalked it up to a fluke, expecting it would never happen again. And yet, a few months later it happened again. Both times caught her completely by surprise. But it wasn't until her third experience that she'd begun to truly do research into self-induced Genjutsu, to figure out exactly what was happening in her brain on an academic level.

Even if it wasn't explicitly stated, everyone knew you couldn't cast a genjutsu on yourself, the same way it's nearly impossible to tickle yourself with your own fingers. The human brain is too attuned to monitoring your movements that it overrides any tickling sensation one might experience. The same rules roughly applied to Genjutsu: The very act of casting one negated the mental conditions necessary to believably buy into the illusion one was trying to cast.

This had lead Sakura to searching out research papers on a similar topic, one where you could hypothetically be simultaneously asleep and awake.

Lucid dreaming.

Studies showed that, in deep REM sleep, people with the ability to dream were able to activate only the prefrontal cortex, allowing them to control and manipulate their dreams as if they were awake. This allowed Sakura to make a connection she'd previously failed to noticed, which was that all of her successful attempts at self-cast Genjutsu manifested when she was in an exhausted or meditative state.

If Genjutsu was considered a subcategory of Ninjutsu (Genjutsu Chakra manipulation only affecting the cranial area) than logic dictated that what she was attempting to recreate was an even more localized, isolated chakra manipulation. She needed to develop a Jutsu that only stimulated the prefrontal cortex.

It was incredibly delicate, difficult work that required an unmatched ability to multi-task, as well as the ability to manipulate chakra in isolated parts of the body.

Well, nothing requires one to multitask quite like being a surgeon, and her battle with Sasori that year had proved her ability to manipulate chakra from any point in her body without using her hands to direct it. Most Ninja manipulated chakra through hand seals, and eventually through other distal body parts (like the souls of ones feet for the water walking drills.) Manipulating the chakra only in ones prefrontal cortex was taking this same isolation theory and putting it on steroids.

Sakura took another soothing breath, and began moving through her sensory drills, one at a time.

Genjutsu could be considered foreign, or artificial stimulation that caused it's receiver to experience it just like organic stimulation. By practicing these drills in a meditative state, Sakura could now reliably reproduce various sensations and experiences, but only one sense at a time.

Smell and olfactory responses always came the easiest for some reason. Manipulating her chakra with a gentle touch, the lightning smell of O Zone and storm clouds zipped up her nose, flooding her mind and drowning out the smells of her apartment.

Olfactory drill: Check.

Next came Auditory. The smell of rain quickly dissipated and was replaced by the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. With a little bit of finessing, she was able to layer multiple sounds, the thunder being followed by the smack of raindrops beating against her window. The difficulty of this drill was keeping one sound from drowning out the other while maintaining her awareness of the real noises drifting in from the world outside.

Auditory drill: Check.

Ok, time for a trickier one. Tactile sensations could be easy or difficult to reproduce depending on the stimulation. Pain was usually easier to recall than pleasure, but if she leaned too much into it, then the tiny pinprick sensation in her shoulder (She was very familiar with the sensation of getting shots at this point) would magnify into an agonizing kunai cut and jolt her out of her meditation.

This time, she decided to try a mix of relief and discomfort. The frosty bite of a snowy breeze brushed across her skin, and Sakura felt the hair on her arms stand up strait in response to the Genjutsu's stimulation.

This was what ultimately drove her to do this work. The implications of being able to stimulate various sensations in ones own body at will were...limitless. The ability to mentally counteract adverse conditions in the field with nothing but a self administered Genjutsu? Drugless anesthesia to self-numb a wound during a life or death battle? This could be life saving... but for now her theories were just that- Theories.

Her Jutsu, despite all her recent progress, was currently far from battle ready. What good could it do when she had to remain fairly still just to sustain it. Another icy wave of air passed over her neck, and Sakura sighed in contentment, thinking of possible non-battle applications.

Ahhh. Powerless air conditioning.

Sakura let go of the cold flush and moved on to her Visual drills. This one for her was often location dependent. For example, if she tried to convince her brain that there was a living Elephant squatting in her living room, the Jutsu would inevitably fail. The more believable the vision she was trying to conjure, the more likely she could manifest it. In short, Familiarity with her visuals was critical factor to consider.

Opening her eyes, Sakura looked down at her desk, studying the details of her open notebook. With a simple thought push, an identical journal appeared beside it, replicated down to the finest detail. Looking across the living room, she pushed on the thought again. The same journal appeared open faced, this time on her dining room table.

Sakura would, over the next hour, run through several multi-sensory drills. These involved layering different kinds of sensations to generate more complex experiences. She would start with a base stimuli that acted as the keystone, then build her jutsu around that detail. She was attempting to layer a fourth sensation onto her current illusion when her vision began to swim. In her chest, her heart raced from the chakra toll the Jutsu was putting on her nervous system.

For the last week, motivated by Konoha's unrelenting heat, she'd been attempting to recreate a snowstorm in her apartment, layering the smell, sound, chill and sight of a blizzard she had experienced last year in the land of Snow.

Her lips started turning blue from how cold her room felt, but despite the effectiveness of her third sense-layer, she still couldn't make the visual layer hold. Her brow began to sweat from her straining efforts, and when her vision swam a second time she lost control of the illusion. Reality pitched back into place like a gut-punch, and she tried her best not to throw up. The jarring change in sensations left her dizzy and even more exhausted than before. For a brief moment, her ears echoed with the ringing of tinnitus. Gradually, the world began to right itself again, and her nausea eased.

Sakura slid herself off her chair and laid on the floor, a precautionary measure incase she suddenly passed out. She rolled onto her back to catch her breath. Once again, her living room was hot and stifling. She had failed. Again.

"Damnit."

She was still struggling to reach full immersion, even after all her training.

Across the room, an unseen wall clock ticked away at the unseen time. She laid there for what felt like forever, running through scenarios in her head. What was she doing wrong? She must be missing something. Why was it she could barely sustain a level 4 Yume-Genjutsu? (Yume being her nod to the idea of the lucid dream) Theoretically, she should easily be able to recreate past experiences since she'd have first hand knowledge of them...

A small voice whispered in the back of her mind. 'Dreams are an art, not science.'

Opening her eyes, Sakura looked up at her ceiling fan, wishing it would move. The shadows of her apartment were beginning to grow long. The sun was finally making its desent. She was running out of time before she'd have to leave, and she couldn't stomach the idea of another day passing without making any progress in her work. This was too important.

Conflict wrestled with desire in her heart. She knew there was one other thing she could try, but she'd promised last time she wasn't going to do it again...

How long had it been since she'd last summoned him? Dreamed him into reality in this very room? Three weeks? Four maybe?

A wanting ache in her low belly curled, making itself known. Sakura took a breath, pushing her desire away. While it didnt make any sense, she'd never had trouble bringing his visage to life. Never had trouble imagining him in stunning, vivid detail. Once, she had wondered if her other illusions failed because she merely wanted them to be true. But when it came to her sensei... well, the image of Kakashi sweeping her up into his lap… That was something she needed.

'No.' She reminded herself again. She'd promised. Promised she wasn't going to do that to herself anymore. It was one thing when the first few times she'd merely fantasized about athletic, gratuitous sex and prolonged bodily explorations. What could she say, she had a healthy relationship with her sexuality, and it was a Thousand times safer than casual sex with strangers.

But then… once she'd had her fill of fantasizing… she'd made the mistake of allowing herself to dream. Without meaning to, she would spend hours in bed slowly kissing him, her arms wrapped around his torso as she soothed herself to sleep with his imaginary body heat.

She hadn't known what she'd been doing until it was too late. When she could no longer distinguish her indulgent feelings from the real Kakashi she trained with. That's when she'd decided there had to be a line. Up till now she'd kept her word and hadn't summoned him since. But… That was also when she'd stopped making progress in her Jutsu, and now it even felt like her abilities were backsliding.

In the heat of the room, her wall clock ticked on and on.

But debating her choices wasn't going to expend them. She could either summon him, or not.

'Okay.' She though, 'Nothing unnecessary. Just conjure the contrarian you bickered with today. Just cranky Kakashi, none of your hero-worship. You can do this. Just keep it clinical, and you'll be fine.'

Then, slowly in her mind, she counted to ten.

And just like that, as if the air around her had suddenly come alive, she instantly felt his presence in the room. Still, she made no move to stand up, just remained on the floor. She both felt and heard his footsteps walking over to her, kneeling beside her a hairs breath from her body. Her eyes flicked up to his, and he smiled down at her through the mask.

Love bloomed violently in her chest. Later, it would leave an aching bruise.

"Long time no see." He said simply, reaching out a bare hand to brush the backs of his knuckles across her cheek.

Auditory…Visual…Tactile.

Lite work.

Chakra hummed across her skin, and her cheeks burned hot with a blush. As if he was reading her mind, (and in a way, he was) Yume-Kakashi scooped her up and gently pulled her into his lap. She tried not to enjoy it as much as she wanted to...

She knew logically that his body wasn't really there, that physically nothing was actually touching her… and yet her nerves responded to his touch by drowning her brain in dopamine. One of his hands cradled the back of her neck while the other drew lazy circles on the bare skin of her thighs.

'Good job Sakura. You're already fucking this up.'

Yume-Kakashi frowned at her, hearing her thoughts again. "It's not my fault I'm good at my job." He said with a smirk, and Sakura smothered the urge to kiss him.

"You're right," Sakura said defeatedly. "It's mine."

"I can be more of an ass if you'd like. That's what we're going for, right? Maximum authenticity?"

"Right now, I'm too hot and tired to care." She looked down at her hands, fidgeting with the hem of her T-shirt. "I wanted to prove to myself I could do this without you, but I can't even reproduce a simple snow storm on my own."

Yume-Kakashi frowned, considering. "Why don't we try something a little less exciting then."

"Less exciting than the weather?" She deadpanned.

"I think I have just the thing." He said, and adjusted her in his lap so her back was pressed against his chest. "Close your eyes." He instructed gently.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because you like surprises, and I like what you like." Was his response. "Plus, visual stimuli can be very taxing. Let's try building the other senses first and adding that one last."

Sakura did as she was told, and closed her eyes. Immediately, the feel of him sharpened into focus. Now she was hyper-aware of the texture of his shirt, and the hardness of his body propping her up. A rustling noise caught her attention, and she recognized it as the opening of a thin cardboard box. And yet, for the life of her, despite this all being a dream of her own making, she couldn't guess what he was doing around her.

"Okay, keep your eyes closed, but find my hands in front of you."

Sakura turned her palms out and followed the lines of his arms down to her lap where the prickly edges of a box sat in his hands. His voice was low and husky in her ear, and a small part of her recognized it was the same voice the real Kakashi had used on her earlier that day. Sakura explored the shape and size of the box with her fingers while keeping her eyes closed.

"Now, envision this box in your minds eye. What color is it, what size? Memorize it by touch before we move on to the next step."

"This feels familiar…" She said. It felt like it was constructed out of folded cardboard, paper light and no bigger than his palm. The sound of something nestled in paper shifted inside it.

"Lightly shake the box so you can hear it while bringing it up to your nose. See what you can smell inside."

At his prompting, a new sense-wave washed over her. Not caring that she probably looked ridiculous, she pressed her nose deeply inside the box and inhaled its rich, sweet scent. Her face split into a wide, giddy smile.

"Know what it is yet?"

"Wagashi. The red bean ones dad use to buy for mom on their anniversary." The ones in the Haruno red paper box he said reminded him of his home town.

"Imagine every detail of the box you're holding in your hand. Pick up the treat and try to remember what they taste like before you take a bite."

Blindly, Sakura reaching down into the box and lifted it out, just as Yume-Kakashi started trailing lazy kisses down her neck. The room around her was warm and quiet. His hands pulled her body down into his hips. His mouth did things to her neck that mask covered mouths shouldn't be able to do. The candies' paper liner rustled in the box when he lightly jostled her in his hunt for more skin to kiss. She remembered the taste of the food from her childhood, and when she finally took her bite, the sugar was ecstasy on her tongue.

She whimpered out loud, both from the taste of the candy and his lips on her jaw. He turned his nose into her hair. "When you're ready," He said, stilling so as not to distract her more than necessary, "Slowly open your eyes."

Sakura wavered, keeping her eyes closed. Her bliss was a bubble, and she didn't want it to pop.

"You can do this…" He encouraged.

And maybe it wasn't about whether she or not she could… but whether or not she should. This Yume-jutsu could be her gift to the world... but what was it silently costing her?

Silently, she said a prayer, and slowly fluttered open her eyes. Something in her mind clicked into place, and every sensation around her began to sing.

The cherry red paper box in her hand was exactly how she'd remembered it, right down to how the flimsy cardboard buckled at the corners. The Wagashi between her fingers was half eaten, her fingertips dusted with the barest trace of rice flour and powdered sugar. The man enveloping her in his embrace felt real and alive, and when she looked him in the eyes he stared down at her like nothing in the world could ever make him love her less or more than he did right now in this moment.

The red box tumbled from her hands. Their mouths were everywhere. His fingers exploring the long miles her body while hers took in the softness of his hair. He smelled like her herbal shampoo, and he tasted her mouth in long sweeping kisses, pressing her back down into the floorboards where his bodyweight kept her from escaping him.

She counted the stars that sprang into her vision when he slipped the pads of his fingers into her panties to find her wet and waiting for his touch. Her hips bucked savagely against his palm as he coaxed her into a blissful cry. He swallowed his own name when she cried out for him, moaning her desires against his mouth and tasting his tongue against her own.

"Promise me, Sakura…" he said against her lips, the fireworks of his voice working her body into a climax that arched her back clear off the floor.

Everything was fire. And then everything went still.

One by one, the sensations began to dissipate around her, her head swimming between the orgasm and the high and the coming back down to reality. She kept her eyes shut tight against the sunset orange lights flooding her living room. The taste of sugar now was nothing but a memory. The phantom feel of one last, lingering kiss pressed against her temple, followed by six words that vanished with the dream…

"Promise you won't forget about me."

-Authors Note-

Thank you friends for continuing on with me. If you like my work, kindly consider leaving a review. It helps others find the story, and fuels the longs nights I stay up trying to get this story out as fast as I can. Hopefully, if I can stay motivated, I'll have the whole story finished within the next few weeks. We are on target for at least 40,000 words.

xoxo