Daisies and Gardenias

by HiddenFlowerDesi

[ A/B/O ] Kakashi's heats often made him make bad decisions and when he receives help during one by an unexpected party, he finds himself having to deal with the consequences of sad bad decisions... Though the consequences aren't quite as bad as he thought they'd be. POST MANGA! CONTAINS END SPOILERS! [Omega Kakashi, Alpha Guy/Gai, Alpha Obito, Beta Iruka]

AN: Okay, so this fic is actually part of an entire series I have and am making called "Like a Bouquet" that includes smaller fics with more to come, but this is the only one from it that I will be posting here and so I HIGHLY suggest you go to my Ao3 to read this and the others if this is your ball game, because I will not be revising this version at all if I find errors or want to add anything to it because of how annoying it is to update things on here in comparison and how FFnet butchers my poor formatting.

My Ao3 is the same handle I use here: HiddenFlowerDesi

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy this fic, because it has consumed the past three weeks of my life making and somehow turned into a whole ass novella when it was only supposed to be a 3k fic, haha.

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"Daisies can symbolize purity, innocence, new beginnings, joy and cheerfulness.

In the Victorian Era, daisies symbolised innocence, loyalty and an ability to keep things secret."

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"Gardenias can symbolize purity and gentleness.

However, this symbolism often depends on the color of the gardenia.

For example, the white gardenia best fits this meaning.

Another symbol of the gardenia is secret love between two people and also joy."

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Fuck, fuck, fuckidy, fuckfuckfuck!

How had he fucked up this badly? He was thirty-one years old and had known what his secondary sex entailed long before he'd ever experienced his first heat, so why the fuck didn't he think to bring suppressants in case one of his very irregular heats decided to come out of nowhere like this one had so that he wasn't left stranded in the middle of the woods with no choice other than to listen to what his heat addled brain wanted and shove his hand down his pants instead of getting back to Konoha where he was urgently needed?

Oh, wait, that's right. The village was still a total mess after the Pain fiasco and his dorm building had been one of many crushed, leaving his suppressants buried somewhere in the rubble with no way to get more because the only pharmaceuticals the village was focused on resupplying at the moment were ones with a far higher priority than heat suppressants! He could single handedly slaughter what was left of the Akatsuki for this, he really could, and he fully planned on doing exactly that once this stupid heat of his was over.

He gasped as his temperature suddenly spiked and slick began to soak into his boxers, making the fabric feel far more uncomfortable than he liked. Normally he wasn't even that horny during his heats due to how badly his reproductive system had been affected by him popping suppressants like candy for over a decade, but this time around he seemed to be intent on breaking some sort of record regarding how many brain cells he could yeet into the fog filling his brain and the time in which he could yank the entirety his clothes off, double masks included.

May the gods help whatever unfortunate soul that happened upon him sitting bare assed on his bag as he shamelessly palmed his cock, because he was sure that he'd probably jump them regardless of their first and secondary sexes if they got close enough.

Maa… this isn't fair… This could at least have happened while I had Guy around to help me out.

The two had an agreement of sorts, spanning back to when Kakashi had first been discharged from ANBU and he'd stopped taking his suppressants unless he was actively on a mission and felt a heat coming, and said agreement had consisted of Kakashi agreeing that if he was in heat and ever found himself in need of assistance that he'd go to Guy first and foremost instead of jumping random alphas outside of bars like he'd been doing and risking them taking advantage of his heat induced stupidity and getting him pregnant or giving him an STD. Kakashi had reluctantly agreed to it, not entirely sure how he'd felt about riding his childhood friend like a pony for what could possibly be several days straight on the rare occasion he even got his heat, let alone the ones strong enough to warrant a partner, but he quickly found himself grateful for the offer after he'd had the misfortune of his fucked up cycle making him go into an intense heat three times in a single month at one point, leaving him desperate for the relief the alpha's knot would give him.

Guy had taken his self assigned job surprisingly seriously and if Kakashi hadn't been slowly losing his mind at the time from his body screaming at him to spread his legs and be bred, he would have laughed at the image of Guy clumsily crashing into his dorm room with a giant paper bag full of lube, condoms, and toys less than an hour after Kakashi had breathlessly called him on his cell, literally begging to be rutted into like a cheap whore.

Unfortunately for him now, however, Guy wasn't there. In fact, he was nowhere near Kakashi's current location, which was seemingly in the middle of nowhere with no one to keep him company sans his own shadow and the thick looming trees.

"This. Is. Bullshit!" He angrily panted as he jammed his fingers deep into his snatch and frantically pawed around to find the right spot so that he could-

A loud moan tore from his throat, his head falling back as his right hand found his g-spot and his left clumsily pumped his cock, using his own slick as lubricant. After several minutes of this he came and following the high of his orgasm he found his body heating up even further, which was the opposite of what he needed it to do right now.

Kakashi swore creatively as he stumbled up and off his bag so that he could tear it open and dump its contents onto the ground alongside the clothes he'd already discarded nearby so that he could use his clothes and sleeping gear -and even the bag itself- to make a nest, because it seemed like he was going be there a while and if that turned out be the case, then he needed to make it while he still has some brain function left to do so, else he'd end up rolling around on the ground like he'd done the last time something like this had unexpectedly happened and he refused to be seen for getting poison ivy all over his you know where a second time.

Stupid fucking body. Stupid fucking secondary sexes. Stupid fucking Guy for not being here with me while I'm in heat, Kakashi irrationally thought as he spread and tucked things around him until he was content enough to flop on his back and resume his previous activity of pleasuring himself, which, annoyingly enough, didn't help at all due to the strength of his heat and instead left him squirming pathetically after every orgasm, desiring something more.

He most definitely needed to start packing dildos in his pack. He didn't care how mortifying it would be if his pups dug through it on a mission and found them, because this right here, this using his hands shit, it wasn't working and he found himself desperately longing for the thick, ribbed dildo Guy had gotten him a while back for when he wasn't there to help him.

He whined into the air, his back arching as tried to stimulate the muscles near his entrance, thinking that perhaps if he could just stimulate the nerves there like a knot did, then maybe, just maybe, he could get his heat to chill out enough to get home… And dig through the rubble around what used to be his dorm and see if the aforementioned dildo popped up.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"

Kakashi froze, trying to locate the source of voice and see if it was an enemy or someone he could use, and frowned when he found no one. He squinted, panting heavy as he released himself and rolled onto his stomach to better look around. He started when a foot clad in a black sandal landed right next to his face, tracing it upwards to find a man who both looked and smelt oddly familiar staring down at him.

The man fingered his belt buckle as he continued to stare down at Kakashi with an unreadable expression, and for a moment Kakashi considered biting his ankle for stepping into his nest without asking, but before he could execute his intentions the man suddenly smiled and stepped out of reach. "My apologies. I didn't mean to get so close to you or step into your nest, Omega-san. I assure you that I mean no harm and simply wanted to inquire whether or not you'd like some… help."

Kakashi continued to squint up at the man, something in the back of his mind screaming 'familiar, familiar!' but he couldn't quite place his scent and his scarred face looked foreign to him at the moment, so he shoved it down and told it shut the fuck up. After doing so, he took a moment to briefly scan the man over with his normal eye, and upon finding no hitai-ate or weapons or anything really that would lead Kakashi to believe that this man was a threat to him, he allowed himself to relax. Well, relax as much as one could relax while their skin was on fire and their insides were cramping and using relief as a way to blackmail them into getting laid regardless of whether they actually wanted to or not.

"You an alpha?" Kakashi asked, the question coming out in a whine. He was asking more out of courtesy than actual curiosity, as the man smelt heavily of cedarwood over an open fire, a very alpha smell that complimented his own citrusy one nicely.

"I am," the man supplied, and Kakashi once again felt little alarms blinging in the back of his mind at the sound of his voice, but he once again told them to shut up. If the guy tried anything funny Kakashi was more than capable of dealing with it, even like this. No. Especially like this.

Omega's were often looked at as less than even in modern society, but despite that even the strongest of alphas knew better than to piss one off while they were in heat. Heats made them vulnerable, yes, but it also made them feral in a way they weren't normally, which had resulted in many alphas getting maimed by omegas over the years who just weren't having it. The man before him was also undoubtedly aware of such going off of how he'd responded to how Kakashi had previously stared him down for standing in his nest uninvited. Alphas could be stupid when smelling an omega in heat, but they were rarely stupid enough to do anything to earn them ill favour by one, especially one they intended to rut into.

The man smiled at him once more, the intense scarring on the right side of his face crinkling awkwardly as he did so. "Does this mean you accept my offer to help?"

Kakashi allowed the reasonable part of his brain that wasn't fueled by pure horny all of three seconds to contemplate if this was a good idea before the part that was fueled by it made him position himself so that his entrance was facing the alpha before the reasonable part could even finish its assessment. "I have things to do, so I'd appreciate it."

Something unreadable flashed in the alpha's open eye as he quickly unbuckled his pants and stripped the dark layers off himself, revealing a patchwork of skin that was tan in some places and almost snow white in others. It was odd, to say the least, but Kakashi didn't need to approve of the man's body to fuck him, so he just shrugged it off. Within moments the alpha had lined up with his hole and dove in all the way to the hilt, eliciting a moan from Kakashi as the motion made his entire body rock forward and his face smush into bedding before he pulled back to do it again and again, quickly getting into a rhythm as he gripped Kakashi's hips for leverage.

"A beautiful moan from a beautiful omega," the alpha grunted from behind, increasing his pace and making Kakashi's eyes roll back into his head as he was pulled apart from the inside and the helpful alpha's cock stroked against all the right places. "Lemme hear it some more. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes," Kakashi moaned, his fingers curling into the bedding as the alpha continued to fuck him into it.

Soon he was seeing stars as he came delightfully hard, harder than he had pleasuring himself before the man had shown up, and the fog in his brain once again thickened, indicating that he needed more to be free of it. He considered himself lucky to have been stumbled upon by the alpha. He didn't know if he would have been able to get the job done in a reasonable timeframe if he'd continued to run solo with it.

"Beautiful," the alpha repeated over and over again, pressing his face into Kakashi's back as he trailed kisses up it and continued to pound into him until he suddenly withdrew entirely, earning a desperate whine from the omega. The alpha chuckled before pulling at Kakashi to indicate that he wanted him on his back and Kakashi readily obliged, throwing his head back when his legs were hefted over the man's shoulders and his hole was plunged back into. "Such a good omega, taking my cock like this. Do you want my knot, Omega? "

Kakashi almost forgot how words worked thanks to how deeply the alpha's cock thrusted into him in the new position, but he eventually managed to nod dumbly in return, earning him another chuckle.

"You have to tell me that you want it if you want me to give it to you."

"P-please," Kakashi breathed, gripping the alpha's biceps and scratching red lines into his skin with his nails. "Please, knot me."

He needed it. He needed it, needed it, needed it! He needed to be fucked, to be knotted, to be bred. He needed it so badly that every cell in his body threatened to set fire to itself and screamed for it like a child throwing a tantrum, and if he didn't get it then he was going to throw a tantrum.

"Please," Kakashi repeated on a loop, his vision filling with stars again as the alpha somehow managed to sink even deeper into him as he bumped their foreheads together and kissed Kakashi's begging lips. Slowly, the kisses began to trail slowly down his chin to his neck, and after spending a maddening amount of time over his scent gland he eventually reached Kakashi's collarbone, which he promptly bit, resulting in Kakashi bucking his hips into him and begging even more fervently than before.

"Such a good omega," the alpha whined into his chest. Kakashi immediately mirrored the sound and the alpha kissed his breast in return. "Love the way you keen and beg me- beg me to knot you and fill you full of pups."

Kakashi couldn't take it, the praise on top of the light touches and the thick cock rearranging his insides through the fog in his mind, and he was cumming again, making a mess all over their stomachs and apparently nearly sending the alpha over the edge as well, his thrusts starting to become far more panicked and desperate. His hips began to stutter awkwardly as they snapped forward, in and out, and his breath hitched against Kakashi's skin.

"Tell me you want it," the alpha demanded, groaning when Kakashi's hands moved from his arms to bury pale fingers into dark locks. "Tell me, Omega. Tell me."

"I want it," Kakashi breathed. "Knot me, Alpha. Please."

With one final snap of hips the alpha buried himself deep in Kakashi and his knot quickly swelled to lock them together as he came, the sensation dragging Kakashi into one final orgasm with him.

They both breathed heavily in the aftermath, bodies limp and minds dazed. Kakashi stared hazily up at the sky, which was a lot darker than he recalled, and the alpha softly rubbed at Kakashi's sides while his face remained firmly planted in the omega's chest, whispering praises into his skin as they waited for his knot to deflate so that they could do it again.

---

October 200X

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"Kakashi, my dear rival!" Guy screams joyously and Kakashi, for a moment, wonders where the man got all that damn energy from as he'd heard that he'd had been limp and in immense pain when their party had arrived, evidently having done something stupid to injure himself before they got there.

"Yo," Kakashi replied, throwing a hand up as he meandered over to his rival. They hadn't seen each other properly in a near obscene amount of time thanks to all the back to back shit going on and though Kakashi would never admit it out loud, he'd greatly missed Guy. "Heard you got beat up on the way here."

Guy looked utterly appalled at the comment and Kakashi couldn't help but laugh at his expression. "I did not. I was the one doing the beating up, thank you very much!"

"Too many gates?" Kakashi asked with a playful tilt of the head, chuckling once more at how Guy's face reddened.

"Too many gates," Guy mirrored before letting the embarrassment fall off his face like water off a duck's back so that he could hug Kakashi and rub his scent all over him like he always did when they met up before going on missions or coming back from them, and Kakashi stared at Guy oddly as the man froze in the middle of rubbing his cheek against Kakashi's mask.

"What's wrong?"

"You smell weird, dear rival. Have you been hanging out with someone new, or…?" The question trailed off as Guy himself didn't seem to fully understand what he was trying to ask.

Kakashi pulled away from him and sniffed at himself experimentally. Nothing about his scent seemed different to him, but on the other hand he was mostly oblivious to his own scent as most were and probably wouldn't be able to smell anything being off even if there was something off about it. "I personally don't smell anything, but perhaps you're smelling where someone rubbed against me or something? There has been a lot of unfamiliar people milling about and I'm sure I've brushed shoulders with more than a few of them the past couple of days."

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, if you asked him, and the only one that even remotely made sense beside it just being in Guy's head, which he was most definitely not going to voice out loud, not wanting to deal with the tantrum it would likely result in from the childish alpha.

Guy pursed his lips, not looking fully sold on the suggestion, and Kakashi couldn't help but roll his eyes. "What's it matter if my scent is a bit off, Guy? I'm sure a lot of peoples' scents are doing funky things due to everything that's happened and what's going to happen."

"True." Guy finally looked a bit less anxious and smiled softly at Kakashi before resuming their scenting ritual.

---

November 200X

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Kakashi sat in the chair near Guy's bed as he read through Tactics for the millionth time and sighed at how quiet it was. Guy, while alive, had been experiencing ungodly amounts of skin sensitivity after Naruto had saved him from himself and he required daily healing treatments to resolve the issue with with his skin alone and that wasn't even delving into the rehab he was having to do for the damage to his limbs nor the fact that he'd been told that the lower half of his right leg would never recover and that he'd be wheelchair bound for the rest of his life. It was cruel. Guy was too energetic a person to not be allowed to run around and then be forced into retirement for having helped save the world.

Kakashi slowly glanced up and sighed again as he found that Guy was once again doing that thing he'd recently taken to doing where he'd spontaneously start staring Kakashi down like he didn't know who the fuck he was and Kakashi could feel himself starting to bristle in annoyance from it. Instead of addressing it, however, he tried to change the subject as he slid Tactics into his back pocket. "Tsunade-sama said that you can finally go home in a few days."

"She did, yes," Guy replied, but he still didn't drop that infernal look.

"You want me to go home with you while you get adjusted, or-"

"You still smell weird and it's only getting weirder," Guy muttered quickly, cutting him off as he continued to stare at him with squinted eyes. With a roll of his own, Kakashi stood from the chair and walked towards the head of the bed.

"If I let you smell me will you chill out?"

Guy nodded and once he was in reach, the alpha wasted no time taking Kakashi's wrists in his hands and inhaling deeply as he tried to examine his scent and figure out what about it was throwing him off. "I've been wanting to do this for a while, but it was kinda hard to do while I was like that."

Guy was referring to not only the painful levels of skin sensitivity he'd been experiencing, but how in the early days of his hospitalization inhaling too deeply had constantly overwhelmed his senses. The poor man had even resorted to 'the Kakashi Method,' as Naruto had jokingly dubbed it, and had taken to wearing a medical mask for nearly a week to protect himself from passing out from scent overstimulation.

Kakashi rolled his eyes at Guy again, but allowed him to continue the examination of his scent, which Guy kept insisting upon not smelling right under his breath. He continued to allow Guy to do what he wanted, not really seeing the sense in fighting him on it even when the alpha gently pulled at his arms and guided him onto his lap so that Kakashi was straddling him.

"I still say you're imagining it," Kakashi drawled, trying not to put too much pressure on Guy's thighs. Just because Guy was mostly healed didn't change the fact that some sensitivity was still there and that Kakashi was still worried about potentially hurting him.

"And I say I'm not," came Guy's argument.

Bull headed alpha.

After smelling his arms, neck, and torso for a bit Guy shocked Kakashi by tugging his shirt up and hunching over so that he could press his nose directly against Kakashi's abdomen. The alpha inhaled deeply just as he had everywhere else, his breath warm on Kakashi's skin with each subsequent exhale, and the omega felt a blush start to creep up his neck at how nice it felt alongside how dirty it would look to anyone who walked in on them. He silently prayed that Guy's mini me wouldn't choose now to pop up for one of his daily sensei visits.

"Uh… Guy? Whatcha doing?" Kakashi asked, trying to keep his voice sounding aloof, but instead having it come out more wobbly than a baby deer walking for the first time. He cringed.

Sensing, or perhaps smelling Kakashi's discomfort seeing as how his nose was still flush against his skin, Guy finally pulled back, letting Kakashi's shirt fall back into place as he placed his hands lightly on Kakashi's hips to keep him rooted on his lap. "When was your last heat, dear rival? I don't remember you having one any time recently, but we also weren't spending much time together for a while there, so I can't exactly go by my own memory with that."

Kakashi blinked, surprised by the question. Guy didn't normally ask about his heat cycles, fully aware that they were so out of whack that Kakashi himself had issues remembering the details, thus he usually didn't inquire further than a 'do you wish for me to assist you, beloved rival?' on the rare occasion that he did.

Kakashi hmm'd as he thought about it, less out of not remembering and more out of a desire to stall. He didn't exactly want to tell Guy whom he'd ridden his heat out with if he were to ask despite knowing that Guy would never judge him for it… and to be honest, it was more about the realization of his partner's identity being a bit traumatic for him than it was out of fear of judgment, but he refused to think about that right now and instead directed his attention back to his growing curiosity as to where the other man was going with this. "A few months back. Why?"

"So before the war?"

"Quite a bit before, actually. Before by, uh… three months?" He could hear the question in his own voice.

Guy's eyebrows knitted together at that, concern and confusion thick on his face. "You run it solo, or did you find a partner for it? I don't actually care if you had one or not, by the way, I'm just… trying to figure something out."

Kakashi held back a huff of annoyance, because of course Guy had to ask him to go into details just as he'd feared he would. "Tried to run it solo for a bit, but then a partner found me and offered to help, so I let them help."

Guy's thumb started to rub slow circles over the cloth covering Kakashi's lower abdomen, delving so deep in thought that Kakashi half expected smoke to start churning out his ears.

"You use condoms?"

What does that- Oh… OH! That's where Guy was going with this.

"I…"

Had he? He usually did, because he didn't want pups, not ones that came from himself, at least, but supplies had been low on pretty much everything at the time and he hadn't been expecting his heat to even come when it did and-

"I don't know?" Kakashi croaked, his voice pitching oddly and his scent going a bit haywire at what Guy seemed to be implying, and gods did what he was implying line up with a few claims people had been making about him as of late. Kakashi additionally found himself thinking back on some of the things he himself had noticed and brushed off as nothing, like how his he couldn't seem to shake the small bit of stomach growth he'd started to develop -he'd presumed it to be the result of stress and not having had any time for training, just fighting for his life and then resting from his injuries-, how his back and hips keep aching regardless of how much he does or doesn't rest, and his sudden aversion to soba noodles amongst many other things.

Panic started to well up in him, thick and hot like something molten, and he was vaguely aware of the fact that he was gripping Guy's hospital gown with enough force to rip it if he were to actually pull, and that, in turn, started to make Guy panic.

"Woah, Kakashi! Calm down a bit. I'm not saying that you're anything, just that… I don't know!"

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

Guy continued to rub soft circles into Kakashi's skin through his clothes and envelope him in his scent in an attempt to calm him, but the effects were minimal. His breaths were growing quicker and more shallow and he was sure his souring scent was piercing through Guy's own with ease.

Yeah, he was most definitely having some kind of panic attack.

"Kakashi? Kakashi, I need you to calm down and listen to me. You're okay. I promise that you're okay," Guy whispered softly, removing a hand from him to click one of the buttons on the bed railing and quickly returning it to resume his rubbing. "We'll have Tsunade-sama give you a quick look over and if you're not…" Guy paused, and whether it was because he himself was uncomfortable using the word pregnant or thought it would freak Kakashi out further, he didn't know, just that they both tensed as it almost left his lips. "If you're not, you're not, and if you are, then we'll deal with it."

We'll deal with it?

A young iryō-nin quickly entered and froze, no doubt taking in the compromising position they were in, but Guy gave her no time to make commentary on it as he immediately asked her to get Tsunade, stressing that this was very important and that they needed her specifically. Once she had left images of Obito's face staring down at him when he'd finally revealed himself properly suddenly came to mind and Kakashi found himself very nearly collapsing over Guy's body despite his best efforts not to as the alpha moved to support him by gripping him by the arms.

This was not happening, Kakashi quickly decided as the man known as "Madara" removed his mask to reveal a painfully familiar face, one that was recently familiar for Kakashi, in fact. This was clearly the work of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, the dream-like paradise "Madara" kept talking about having trapped him in some sort of nightmare instead. Even worse was that he knew that face more than he'd previously thought and it confirmed the suspicions that had been steadily growing over the course of the battle pertaining to the man's true identity.

"Obito… Is that you?" If the man heard him, he didn't know, as his voice had barely been a hoarse whisper, the sound stolen from his lungs in a double-hit combo of shock and exhaustion.

Next him, with Kakashi's arm slung over his shoulder, Guy looked almost as shocked. "Is that really Obito? I thought he died."

I did, too…

And yet there he was, right in from of them and staring them down with evil in his eyes and looking nothing and everything like the boy Kakashi had loved and grieved over, nothing and everything like the charming alpha who'd whispered sweet nothings to him and had fucked Kakashi through his heat several months prior in the middle of the woods. His heat that apparently had his brain so fucked that he'd lost the ability to recognize faces, recognize scents.

Had Obito known that it was him at the time? …Of course he did, but then why do all that just to…?

The world was spinning from more than just chakra exhaustion and blood loss now and Kakashi was sure that he'd hit the ground if Guy's let go of him. The alpha glanced between him and Obito, his own oaken and sweetgrassy scent enveloping Kakashi in an attempt to calm him down before he could start to hyperventilate.

"There's no mistake," Kakashi breathed, letting the panic attack pull him in as the man who was undoubtedly Obito continued to stare down at them with a dark expression. "That's-"

"It was Obito," Kakashi found himself babbling, his voice barely above a whisper and tears pricking at his eyes. "I didn't know that it was Obito at the time, but it was Obito."

That seemed to shock Guy, especially given that Obito has ruthlessly attacked them on more than one occasion before coming to his senses by the end, something that Guy himself was privy to having happened, but was unfortunately knocked out of the fray before witnessing himself. His expression seemed to bounce wildly between anger and shock before it shifted to worry.

"He didn't force anything on you, did he?"

Kakashi hastily shook his head, remembering the soft touches and praises that had been thrown his way during the entirety of it. Not only had he asked to fuck him, he'd asked permission continue each and every time. "No, he was actually…"

He acted like a mate would have.

The door to Guy's room slid open and they both started when Tsunade stepped in, more focused on the chart in her hand than anything else as she slid the door closed behind her.

"What's wrong-" she started before freezing, her hand lingering on the door handle as the beginnings of a blush began to heat her cheeks. "Okay, you two, this is not the place for that."

"I put him here to smell him," Guy hastily explained, as if that made Kakashi being on his lap suddenly make sense.

"Yeah, I figured that," Tsunade fired back before finally noticing how freaked Kakashi looked. "Let me guess, I'm here for you, not Guy?"

They both nodded and she sighed, walking over to the sink and discarding her charts next to it before washing her hands and pulling on a pair of exam gloves, as was standard procedure for entering patient rooms.

"Okay. What's wrong?" She repeated as she walked over to the bed, this time directing the question at Kakashi.

"I…" He trailed off, his face flushing under his mask. He didn't want to have this conversation right now, he really didn't.

Guy, thankfully, picked up on his hesitation and came to his immediate rescue. "He may have gotten… he had a heat four-"

"It might have been five," Kakashi cut in, his voice strained and barely a whisper.

"He had a heat four or five months ago with an… was he an alpha?" Guy looked to Kakashi for confirmation, clearly unsure of what Obito's presentation had been. He was just as bad with scents as he was with faces, only able to correctly identify those of people he knew well and almost entirely unable to differentiate presentations by smell alone outside being exposed to the undeniable scent of an omega in heat. Kakashi quickly nodded, not really feeling like talking anymore on the matter than he already had.

Not that Obito's secondary sex mattered all that much, as his first gave him the ability to sire pups so long as the person on the receiving end had a uterus to receive him with, and Kakashi very much had one and had been on the receiving end many times before they'd gone their separate ways.

"Fucking hell, Kakashi," Tsunade swore, her hands lighting up with a diagnostic jutsu and lifting Kakashi's shirt to press her palm against his abdomen, slowly moving it around as she got a feel for what was going on in there. "Why didn't you get checked sooner?!"

"I don't know," he bit, not particularly enjoying how cold her hands were, even while encased in exam gloves and warm chakra. "That heat was pretty bad and it didn't even occur to me until just now that protection hadn't been used."

There was also the fact that he'd been told on several occasions by medical personnel that his overuse of suppressants had affected his fertility, but he didn't think Tsunade wanted to hear that and thus said nothing of it, not wanting to be scolded further.

Tsunade growled lightly at his response as she continued rubbing her hand against him and eventually her hand settled softly over his navel with a sigh.

"Well, I can confirm that there is a pup and as far as I can tell it's perfectly fine and developing as it should… I'll also say that the five month assumption seems a bit more accurate based off of its development, but gods you must carry further back than most, because if I didn't know the pup was this developed I'd assume you were much earlier on than you are." She removed her hand and took a long look at Kakashi before rubbing his upper arm comfortingly. "With this in mind I'll stay in office a bit longer so you don't have that stress on top of this one and can just worry about tending to yourself for the time being. I'm worried about how much stress you were under in the early months and… I'm honestly surprised you're still carrying after all that."

Kakashi felt a wave of relief hitting him at her declaration of delaying him officially taking her place as Hokage, but it was quickly stomped out by the knowledge of him having been extremely stressed and fighting while carrying a pup, Obito's pup. On one hand: Tsunade had said that the pup was fine, but on the other: what if it wasn't? What if it came out with something seriously wrong because he hadn't been eating like he should have and kept running his chakra dry and getting hit with concerning amounts of force before and during the war? What if it had problems all through life or had a short lived one because its remaining parent was so out of tune with his own body that he didn't realize there was another body growing inside of him?!

The scent of oak and sweetgrass enveloped him once more, urging him to calm down, but he once again couldn't. He could hear Tsunade muttering something, but he couldn't focus on her words enough to decipher them. Guy replied with something else he couldn't make out and after they back and forthed for a moment Kakashi felt Guy's warm hand slide under his shirt and press gently against his stomach, his fingers rubbing slow circles over his skin just as he'd done when he'd been contemplating the possibility of Kakashi's current condition.

"Just like that," Tsunade stated softly as Kakashi's hearing slowly began to work again. "Pregnant omegas usually calm down when their mates touch their bellies and I know you two aren't proper mates, but you're the closest thing he's got to one, so you'll have to do."

Guy, in turn, nodded, his expression serious.

"Kakashi, you there?" He nodded and she smiled tightly at him. "In that case please take note of what Guy is currently doing. For the rest of your pregnancy, if you're feeling overly stressed about anything whatsoever, please go to Guy or have Guy come to you. I don't care if you have to call me and have me drag him to you. The last thing you or that pup needs is any more stress. Do you understand me?"

He nodded again.

"Good. Now to the next thing. Is the sire someone you want to know about this, or do I need to shoo them off if I come across them?"

"He's… not here anymore," Kakashi responded carefully, internally begging for her not to press it further than that.

"Deceased?"

His eyes watered slightly and he wanted to punch his hormones and secondary sex in the face for it, because Kakashi Hatake doesn't cry. "Y-yeah."

Tsunade once again reached out to him, this time pulling him into a loose hug that he normally would have shrugged out of, but decided to allow just this once. "I understand that pain and I'm sorry that you've had to experience the loss of your pup's sire, Kakashi."

'Always make sure they're loved and have a reason to smile.' Obito had told him before returning to the Pure Land, and Kakashi now suspected that the man had known, had sniffed it out on him just like Guy had been doing over the past month.

Kakashi closed his eyes and leaned into the fellow omega's contact, imagining what Obito would say if he were there. He'd undoubtedly would have been an excited mess over having sired an offspring if the circumstances had been different, would probably even have cried like the crybaby he always was. He also suspected that him and Guy would probably have fought over touching his belly and he would've had to make them knock it off before it could turn into a real fight and that they would have eventually made it up to him by helping him nest and surrounding him in soft words and gentle touches. Eventually, the thoughts of what could've been passed and he opened his eyes as he leaned off of Tsunade, muttering a watery 'thank you.'

"I need to go now, but I'll call you later to set up some prenatal stuff and if you need anything before that don't hesitate to call me. Oh, and if anyone gets up your ass about any of this also call me. I'll happily beat some heads in," Tsunade told him with a soft red lipped smile. He watched her back as she discarded the exam gloves into the trash and left the room, her heels clicking loudly on the tile floor even after the door had been closed between them and her.

He turned his attention slowly back to Guy and felt his face flush in embarrassment. "I'm… sorry about all this."

"Don't be," Guy smiled, his eyes warm and loving as if it was his pup he was rubbing his hand over.

"Well I am. I should be the one tending to you, not the other way around. You're the one who's still injured." And always will be thanks to Madara.

Guy's lips pressed together into a thin line at that, clearly not liking his response, and eventually his lips parted, the skin briefly sticking together as they separated to give his own. "You're still injured too, dear rival, just… differently than I am."

In the head, he means…

Slowly, Kakashi crawled off of Guy, careful not to knee him in the chest as he swung his leg over and slid off the bed. "I think I'm going to go home for a bit. I'm… tired." It wasn't a lie, he really was tired. Had been a lot lately and he suspected that it was yet another symptom of his pregnancy that he'd blindly ignored.

Guy nodded in understanding and gave him a soft smile as he pointed at the nightstand smushed against the bed, the top of it cluttered with the many things Guy had had his friends and students bring him during his stay. "Lee found a charger for my cell yesterday, so it's working again. Please text me when you get there and take you a nice long nap. You look like you could use it."

He couldn't help the smile that graced his lips under the mask. "That sounds good, yeah."

The smile fell alway as soon as he found himself in the empty hall.

---

"Really didn't expect you to drag Guy-sensei into staying with you, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura muttered as she helped him tidy up the Hatake Residence. She'd stopped by to bring him a brown bag of unknown contents, courtesy of Tsunade, and he'd somehow managed to talk her into helping him counter the buildup of dust and clutter that he'd admittedly allowed to get out of hand. "I honestly would have thought it to be the other way around with Guy-sensei begging you to stay with him and you making us listen to you moan and groan about how needy he's being."

"Yeah, well," Kakashi started, trying to think of an excuse that didn't veer too far from the truth, the truth being that Guy had decided to temporarily move in so that he could help Kakashi stay chilled out and Kakashi wouldn't have to worry about Guy being by himself as he got used to moving around with his permanently busted leg. "Guy needs time to adjust to his more limited mobility and my house has less junk in it than his, so we decided that him coming to me was the better option."

And Guy had also been rather vocal about him notwanting Kakashi to make a mess of his things due to the fact that his nesting instincts were in overdrive and would apparently only get worse as his pregnancy progressed. Not that Guy had much Kakashi would even want to steal for a nest. Most of his blankets were thin and rough and smelt heavily of mothballs while most Kakashi's own were thick and soft with delightful patterns on them.

"Still kind of shocking, though," Sakura continued, pressing a finger daintily against her chin as she thought about it. It was such an omega thing to do and he would be eternally surprised at her presentation as a beta as almost everything about her screamed omega and sometimes even alpha. On the other hand, he supposed that he himself didn't act much like his secondary sex implied he should either, and quickly let the thought go.

Kakashi took the moment she was distracted in thought to snag the brown bag she'd placed on the table when she'd entered and carefully ripped it loose of the staples sealing it together. Inside sat two bottles -they appeared to be vitamins- and the typical paperwork medicines often came with. He made a mental note to read through them later as he tucked the bag under his arm and toted it into his bedroom to shove it into the nest of pillows and blankets that had completely enveloped his poor futon.

Sakura, curious, followed him and watched him tuck the bag under a cushion in amusement. "So do you shove all of your medications in there, or just the ones you don't want other people inquiring about?"

"I simply don't wish to lose it while cleaning," he lied, his tone light and easy as if he hadn't just been caught doing something extremely odd.

Sakura shrugged as he stood and slid past her to go back to scrubbing the sink as he had been doing before retrieving the bag. He trusted her to respect his privacy and not dig around his nest for the bag unlike Naruto, who he knew would just go for it he was there with them.

"It's still weird, though," she sighed, leaning against the door frame and fiddling with the rag in her hands.

"What is?"

"The fact that you have a house, like, an actual house. You never once mentioned it or brought us here until your dorm got destroyed."

"Then you'd be shocked to know that I also had an apartment before then as well."

"Wait, what?!" She yelled, clutching the rag to her chest in disbelief. "Why?!"

He shrugged as he rinsed cleaner down the drain, watching it bubble as it swirled downwards. "Just an extra place to store stuff that was closer to the Hokage Residence and somewhere to wash my clothes and bathe privately when I wanted to, I guess. It kinda got smashed, though, so back to walking an obscene distance home every single day it is."

"Lucky you had this place, then," She muttered, glancing up into the rafters. "And that it's so far out. Pretty much everyone who lived near the center of the village lost everything."

"When you look at it that way I guess I'm lucky to have to walk an hour to get groceries," he replied with a sigh. That was something that had grown old fast soon after he'd moved fully back into his childhood home and he knew it was going to become even more troublesome the larger his pup grew. He supposed he'd either have to suck it up or grit his teeth and ask for help if it became too much.

Speaking of which…

He looked at Sakura in contemplation, debating the pros and cons of telling her right now while she was there and it was actively on his mind, especially because she worked mostly as an iryō-nin these days and that posed the risk of her finding his file and accidentally seeing something she shouldn't. That still didn't change the fact that he still wasn't sure how he felt about the entire thing, however, and that made him reluctant to voice it to anyone at the moment, so instead, he decided that testing the waters of pregnancy talk via mentioning Kurenai, who was due any day now, to be the better course of action.

"So, Kurenai should be having her pup soon," he started, his voice awkward. Oh, she was going to catch on of her own accord if he kept talking like that.

Sakura immediately perked up at the conversation of Kurenai's pup and her eyes began to shine brilliantly as she trotted closer and leaned against the counter next to him, discarding her rag onto the clean surface. "She should, and if I'm at the hospital that day I've received permission from both Kurenai-sensei and Tsunade-sama to assist. I've always wanted to help deliver pups. It's just so nice, ya know? Watching lives enter the world?"

He couldn't help but chuckle and smile at her accidental usage of Naruto's trademark 'ya know,' probably not even realizing that she'd used it. "Yes, it is, I suppose."

"What about you, sensei?" She suddenly asked, catching him off guard and confusing him. "Do you plan on having pups?"

He proceeded to choke on his own spit, doubling over and coughing roughly into his mask and he tried to remember how to breathe. There was no way she already knew, right? There was no way. This was just an innocent little question stemming from the conversation of pups and the fact that her sensei was an omega and most omegas wanted pups. Yeah, that's all it was.

"You okay, sensei?" She asked, looking startled by his reaction and he squinted back at her with a sniff.

"I'm good, just accidentally inhaled some spit was all."

Like the smooth motherfucker I am, he thought sarcastically.

She moved to touch him and he felt himself begin to panic at that for some reason, as if contact would make her privy to the inner workings of his body, and he immediately found himself darting out of the kitchen and back into his bedroom to make adjustments to his nest, the stress he'd brought upon himself and his hormones both urging him to make the damn thing perfect.

"Sensei?" She called after him, hot on his heels and stopping just short of entering the nest. Over the years he'd made it perfectly clear to his pups that they didn't need his permission to enter his nests when he made them, but despite that they usually waited for him to give it unless they were stressed and needed to be surrounded by his scent to calm down or vice versa. The circumstance of them needing him was unfortunately becoming rarer and rarer as they aged and Kakashi found himself loathing the day they no longer needed his scent. They were growing up too fast, dammit! His pups were barely pups anymore and soon they'd probably start having pups of their own, and then what would he do?

He keened without entirely meaning to and felt his skin heat up over having forgotten that Sakura was right there watching him from where she sat at the edge of his nest, her intelligent eyes scanning his behavior suspiciously and realization starting to bloom on her face.

Oh, he was so found out now. He should have just told her while he had the chance, because now she was going to think that he was hiding it from her.

"Sakura, before you jump to any conclusions-"

"Oh my god, you're already having a pup, aren't you?!"

Welp. He'd tried.

"Don't tell Naruto," he muttered, his scent souring a tad as he quickly went back to his stress nesting and shoved the blanket he'd been wringing in his hands under his favorite pillow so that it had a nice slope to it when leaned against, perfect for reading.

"Kakashi-sensei -" she started, sounding a bit appalled that he wanted her to keep this a secret and he quickly rose a hand with his palm out to hush her.

"I'm not saying that I'm not going to tell him, just that I don't want him to know right this second," he hastily explained. He kicked at a different pillow with his foot, nudging it over bit by bit until he was satisfied with its placement. He briefly smiled under his mask before plopping down onto it and waving Sakura over, unable to resist the strong urge to show off his work by having her join him in it. Once she was sat across from him, and looking rather pleased to be there, he finally continued, "Naruto's still recovering from his injuries from the war and he just started his lessons with Iruka-sensei to climb the promotion tree, so I'd very much like to let things calm down a bit for him before I drop the pup bomb."

There was also the matter of him trying to figure out how to explain that the pup belonged to the man who tried to kill them and almost helped end the world thing, as he had no idea as to how anyone, sans Guy who already knew, was going to handle that information. He supposed that he could always lie and say that he didn't know the alpha who'd bred him, but he always was bad at lying and there was a strong probably that the kid would pop out either looking like an Uchiha, developing a Sharingan, or both, which would immediately out him as having fucked one of the remaining clan members before the war had ended, and he found that the prospect of people assuming him to have fornicated with Madara, Itachi, or even Sasuke, who he viewed as one of his pups and found the idea of doing that with to be disturbing, to be significantly more mortifying than the idea of just fessing up.

He tugged an unsatisfactory blanket free of the nest and began to worry it between his fingers as he continued to think about every possible thing that could go wrong with not telling the truth and then on the many cons that would potentially follow him informing the masses that, 'Hey! I got so fucked up by my last heat that I not only lost the ability to distinguish faces, scents, and chakra signatures, but let myself get rutted into by an Akatsuki member who just so happened to be my childhood friend that I thought was dead and most definitely should have recognized! Oh, and while I'm at it, he was responsible for a lot of the bad shit that happened over the past decade or so, so take that as you will!'

He could already die in embarrassment and he hadn't even said it yet.

"Kakashi-sensei, are you okay?" Sakura carefully asked as she leaned forward on her knees and carefully tugged the blanket from his hands before he could rub a hole into it with his fingers. "You've been bristling and smell really sour now."

Ah. Shit.

He quickly reeled in his scent and breathed slowly in an attempt to sweeten it back up to it's usual fresh citrus and muguet, using thoughts of his dumb alpha pseudo mate to lighten his mood… except he suddenly remembered that his dumb alpha pseudo mate had almost died and was left permanently crippled trying to protect him, resulting in his scent unfurling unchecked once more and with enough intensity to make even his own nose wrinkle at the smell of it.

Kakashi growled in frustration, snagging the blanket back and worrying at it some more, unsure of what else to do in this situation. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I'm just stressed about things and every time I try to figure them out I don't like what I come up with."

"Perhaps bouncing them off me would help?" She suggested with an innocent tilt of the head.

He did necessarily want to, but continuing as he was clearly wasn't going to help. Plus, he didn't need to stress the pup growing inside him out by letting himself stress out, so he reluctantly nodded.

"Hypothetically, what would you suggest I do if I told you that the pup's sire was someone seen as unsavory by those who know about their part in the war?" He asked, his tone slow and cautious. "Mind you that not everyone views them as such, but it could be tiresome if those who do found out. Hypothetically, of course."

She seemed to ponder that for a moment, the seal on her forehead wrinkling as her brows knotted together in thought. "Is it not possible to pretend that the pup was sired by someone else?"

"It is, but only if they don't come out with certain… traits that would clearly identify them as a member of their sire's clan. There's also the possibility of them developing additional traits later in life that could out them as such."

Sakura was a smart girl, even when she had first been handed off to him at the young age of twelve, and so Kakashi was confident that the young beta was making a list of possible sires in her head that fit the vague description he was giving her. If she came to the right conclusion he wouldn't deny it, not to her, but he was also still reluctant to straight up tell her just as he had been regarding his pregnancy, and so he kept his mouth closed.

Eventually, she opened her mouth to speak. "I'm assuming one of the aforementioned traits to be a Kekkei Genkai?"

He nodded, swallowing thickly.

"And I'm assuming that it's rare to the point of it being unbelievable for you to not know the sire's identity?"

He nodded again, watching the gears in her brain spin and turn until something finally seemed to click into place. He could see that she finally had the answer of who his pup's sire was. He could also see how that realization immediately filled her eyes with pity, the emotion slowly spilling out of them and into her scent. His nose twitched at how the faint scent of strawberries dried out into one more akin to that of stale raisins.

"He kept looking at you strangely towards the end," she muttered so softly that he was unsure if the statement was actually meant for him or if she'd accidentally voiced her thoughts aloud.

That he had.

At the time Kakashi had thought it was just Obito being Obito, but with the knowledge of his current condition and that it was already there during their showdown with Kaguya, he couldn't help but once again wonder if the man had known that Kakashi was carrying his offspring.

Fucking… If he did, then why didn't he say something?

Kakashi quickly shook his head at himself. The world had been on the verge of ending, so of course if Obito had known he wouldn't have been stupid enough to let his students and a very pissed off goddess who was trying to kill them know that Kakashi was pregnant. It would just have screamed, 'Hey, target the pregnant omega!' and his pups would have diverted more attention towards him than they should have, their pack instincts screaming that he needed protecting instead of focusing on subduing their enemy.

Flesh suddenly found its way through cloth and Kakashi glanced down with a groan to find that he'd done the exact thing Sakura had been trying to stop him from doing earlier. He sighed as he examined the small hole in the blanket and tossed it out of the nest so that he could mend it later.

"You know, you could always claim that anything pointing towards Obito was because you had his eye when the pup was conceived," Sakura suggested slowly, as if she needed to hear the suggestion out loud to get a better judgment on it herself. "I know that's not how it works, but for all we know there really could be a one in a million chance of offspring inheriting a stolen or transplanted Kekkei Genkai, and you're already one in a million central, so it's at least somewhat believable. Besides, there's a decent chance that the pup will only take after your clan, so there's no need to share its sire's identity with anyone you don't want to."

Kakashi smiled softly at her, his scent regaining some of its sweetness once more. "Maaaa, that's my girl. Smart as ever."

She blushed slightly and her own scent slowly returned to normal as well as she fidgeted at the praise he'd thrown her way. "It's not like I said anything you yourself wouldn't have eventually come up with."

His smile deepened and as did his scent. "No, it's true, Sakura. You're incredibly smart and I don't think I could have come up with anything reasonable on my own. My brain is a bit fried as of late and it seems that I've only been frying it worse the more I've fretted."

She nodded, looking very pleased with the continued praise and, after a while, bashfully glanced down at his belly. "So how long have you been… you know?"

He glanced down at himself as well, still not entirely believing that there was actually anything living inside of him. Kurenai had been huge at five months, meanwhile he was ridiculously small. "Tsunade-sama says five months, give or take, which I guess lines up with things a bit."

"Five-" Sakura looked as if he'd just told her the sky was green and grass was red. "How are you five months in?! You're tiny!"

He could feel his cheeks burning as he rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous and dumb sounding laugh falling from his lips as he tried to recall what Tsunade had told him. "Apparently it has something to do with my height and that I carry further back or something like that? I don't know, okay? I've… never looked into this kind of thing before now."

"Yes, but-" The startled horror turned into the worried kind. "You were fighting while carrying a pup... Wait, is that why you were so mean and kept trying to guard people?"

"I wasn't being meaner or guarding others any more than usual-"

"Yes you were," Sakura argued, eyes wide. "Is the pup okay after all that? Why didn't you say anything about it back then?"

Oh, she was most definitely going to yell at him for this next one. "I actually didn't know until, uh… yesterday?"

Oh, that was a look he'd only been on the receiving end of a few times during his time as her sensei and he could honestly say that it was even more terrifying now than it had ever been.

"How?!"

"Do you really want me to discuss my heats with you?" He hissed, face heating up further. He was sure he was beet red at this point.

"No!" She hissed back, looking equally mortified. "But I still want to know how! Don't pups move a lot?!"

He didn't know. From what he could tell his barely moved at all, perfectly content with only occasionally shifting in a way that he wasn't able to even pick up on as being more than just gas before he'd known the pup was there.

"Okay, you know what? Let's take it down a few notches," Sakura breathed and Kakashi finally allowed himself to do so as well, not having been aware of the fact that he'd been bristling until he'd stopped. "You have a pup, that pup is Obito's, that pup is healthy, and I'm assuming you're okay with the fact that there is a pup?"

"I… suppose so." At very least he wasn't unhappy with its existence, just frustrated by the events surrounding its existence.

"Okay, good. That's all that matters, that the pup is fine and that you're a happy dam." Something in Sakura finally seemed to shift into something that was a mix between excited pup and mature beta. "So anything additional you wanna share? Like whether you think it's a boy or a girl?"

"I don't think that I think anything," he muttered, leaning back onto his cushions with crossed arms. He'd barely had time to come to terms with the fact that there even was a pup, let alone start to properly prepare for or make assumptions about it.

"Aw, that's no fun, sensei," she pouted, leaning towards him with her hands against her knees and her legs under her. "You guessed the sex of Kurenai-sensei's baby."

"Ah, but that's different," he tried to argue, looking around at everything but Sakura. "It's different when it's your own."

Sakura didn't look happy with his statement in the slightest, but she thankfully dropped it with a huff before scooting over until her side was nearly flush against his own. She sniffed at him lightly and smiled.

"You know, now that I know it's kinda obvious. There's a warm smell under your usual one, like wood on a fire. It's nice."

So Guy really had been smelling a difference in him, a difference that was apparently just subtle enough to fly under the radar for practically everyone else. It was amazing, really, how well Guy knew him, being able to notice even the slightest of changes in his body as he did.

Kakashi lifted his arm and Sakura instantly snuggled under it like the good pup she was and he let the feel of her steadily breathing against his side lull him into a calm.

---

Kakashi stared up at Madara in horror, unable to focus on anything other than how his mind screamed, 'We're dead! We're fucking dead!' in an endless loop. This man was a monster and they couldn't even touch him, and Guy, his beloved Guy, was smiling back at them as he resigned himself to his fate, to his death.

This was a nightmare, it had to be, because why else would his sensei be there? Why else would Obito be there? Why else would Naruto be fucking dying and Guy be putting his head on the chopping block right in front of him with a smile?

Why else would everyone be rushing to leave him all alone?

Guy's body charged forward and away from them as he pressed his thumb into his heart, his entire body engulfing itself in demonic flames and raging chakra that would soon burn him alive from the inside out while Kakashi stood by and did nothing, only able to watch as one of the only good things he had left charged fearlessly towards his end.

Panic filled Kakashi's lungs as he shot up from a dead sleep, digging pale fingers through even paler hair as he tried to remember how breathing worked.

It was just a dream, just a dream…

But it wasn't. It had really happened and despite the fact that they'd survived, that Guy and Naruto had both survived, Kakashi constantly found himself waking up in a cold sweat expecting their survival to be the dream and for him to blink his eyes at any given moment to find Madara, Kaguya, or maybe even Obito as he was before he'd found himself again staring down at him in disgust before inflicting the final blow upon him so that he could join the rest of his pack in the Pure Land.

It was unreasonable, he knew it was, but…

He carefully glanced at Guy's sleeping form next to him, the alpha having turned himself entirely sideways and having kicked the majority of his bedding into a pile at the edge of Kakashi's nest, leaving a hole in it that exposed the tatami floor under where Guy's bedding was supposed to be.

He sighed as he reached out towards him, perhaps to caress his cheek or smooth his inky hair, but stopped a hair's breadth away from actually touching him, frozen like his memories and unable to will himself forward.

Slowly, his hand withdrew and he clutched it to his chest as he curled in on himself and tried to go back to sleep.

---

December 200X

---

The betrayal on Naruto's face made Kakashi feel bad for having waited so long to tell him and Sasuke the news, but at the same time he felt that it was necessary that Naruto be a bit more healed and had gotten into a rhythm with his studies before Kakashi threw what was most definitely going to be a major distraction into the mix.

"So there's actually a pup in there?" Naruto asked as he squinted at Kakashi's sweater-covered belly suspiciously. He moved his hand up, almost as if he wanted to poke at it, but he apparently thought better of it when Sakura threw him a look.

"There is, yes."

"And it's been there a while?"

"Mhmm."

"And you didn't tell me sooner because?"

"At first he didn't know and then he didn't want to distract you from your studies," Sakura helpfully supplied in his stead with her hands folded neatly behind her back.

Naruto looked even more betrayed now. "Wait, you already knew?!"

"I found out on my own, so get over it," Sakura quickly fired back, and Kakashi chuckled at the interaction.

He glanced at Sasuke who stood awkwardly to the side, pink tinging his cheeks as he stared at Kakashi as intently as Naruto had been doing. The poor pup seemed to be having a crisis at the idea of his sensei having fornicated with someone and Kakashi felt the urge to mess with him start to bubble up, especially because Sasuke was leaving later that day and he likely wouldn't get the chance to do so again any time in the near future, judging by Sasuke's plans.

"Maa, Sasuke, you're looking a little embarrassed over there," Kakashi chimed, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. "You did know that I'm an omega and that even male omegas can have pups, right?" Sasuke turned a deep maroon at that and immediately turned away from him, making laughter bubble out of Kakashi like boiling water, his entire frame shaking from it. "W-What's wrong, Sasuke. Did you really not?"

"I did, so just drop it!" Sasuke called back, his voice strangled and only earning him more laughter from Kakashi.

"Eh, leave him alone, sensei," Sakura chidded, though she looked mildly amused herself.

"He's probably thinking about how it got there, the pervert," Naruto muttered in a deadpan, earning him a smack on the back of the head from Sakura.

"I am not!" Sasuke growled, swinging around to face Naruto full on, his cloak twirling in the crisp air. "I'm just wondering who would… who would…"

Ah. He's curious about the sire.

Sakura looked up at him questioningly, undoubtedly curious as to whether or not he wanted to share that specific detail with the other two and he shrugged back at her, hands still in his pockets. He didn't see the harm in it. Both had been on goodish terms with Obito near the end and he knew that neither of them would share said info without his permission.

"Obito."

"Obi…" The name trailed off on Naruto's tongue, the pup clearly thinking that he must have misheard him, and Kakashi simply smiled as the gears in the blond's head turned and he fought to figure without directly asking when the two of them could have possibly gotten together. Naruto continued to visibly ponder the thought even as they walked Sasuke to the gates hours later and Kakashi continued to chuckle amusedly at him in return.

---

January 200X

---

"Guy, you know you don't have to stay here any more if you don't want to," Kakashi stated as scrubbed at the pot he'd cooked their dinner in. He'd let it sit out for too long and now there were bits of food fused to the fucking thing.

As much as he enjoyed Guy taking up residence with him, he was aware that he'd gotten used to his new disability enough to tend to himself now and that mixed with the fact that his own house was only a short distance away if they needed each other made Kakashi feel as if he should let Guy know that it was okay if he wanted to go back home and stay there if he so wished. After all, their current set-up was only meant to be a temporary one from the very start.

He could hear Guy grow still in the living room, likely trying to read into Kakashi's words before he gave a response. "Do you want me to? To go?"

Kakashi shook his head, giving up on the pot for now and he ran hot water in it so that it could soak. He turned his attention to their plates in its place. "I want you to do what you want to do. I don't want you doing anything solely because you feel obligated to."

"Do you seriously think I'm only here because I feel obligated to be?" Guy asked and Kakashi nearly dropped the soapy plate he was holding from how hurt Guy sounded.

"Guy, no, I…"

He adjusted his grip on the plate so that he was clutching tightly in his hands, so tightly that it was a wonder that it didn't crack under the pressure his fingers were exerting upon it. This wasn't how this conversation was supposed to go. It wasn't.

A stifled sob tore from his throat and Kakashi damn near threw the plate into the sink in frustration. Why was he crying?! He never cried, and yet here he was, once again behaving like a wounded animal because a stupid fucking conversation of all things took a turn he didn't like.

"Kakashi?"

"Mmm?"

"Are you okay?"

"I don't know," he muttered. His mask now had a coating of snot in it and that only made him feel worse.

"Is this about the conversation we're currently having or is it about something else?" Guy asked carefully, and Kakashi knew without looking the expression the alpha currently wore, as Guy only ever had one face he used when dealing with Kakashi while he was upset.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know why I started crying, I just… I don't know."

Guy shifted around a bit and eventually Kakashi heard the sound of his crutches moving across the floor as Guy made his way over to him. He stopped just behind Kakashi and, after leaning his crutches against the counter, placed a warm hand on his back and rubbed it soothingly as he wrapped his other arm around him to touch his belly and let his alpha scent surround them like a cloak.

"I'm not here because I feel forced or obligated to be, Kakashi. I'm here because you're my best friend and you're going through something tough and I want to continue to be there for you just as you've continued to be there for me. I like living with you and waking up to your scent every day and having stupid conversations with you as we fold laundry together. It's been… It's been really nice, so far."

Kakashi sniffed again and pulled his mask down so that he could wipe his nose on a paper towel. He folded it neatly in his hands and slowly turned to meet Guy's soft smile, which deepened as he lifted his hands to rub the wetness from under Kakashi's eyes away with coarse thumbs.

"There. That's much better... though I have to admit that your face is still rather pretty even when you cry."

Kakashi flushed and took a step back, appalled. He wasn't pretty, far from it, if you asked him. His skin was far too pale and he had a mole of all things under the left corner of his mouth. Guy was clearly trying to mess with him.

"Maa… You're mean, Guy, teasing me like that," Kakashi scolded with a shake of the head and furrowed brows.

Guy chuckled, the sound genuine as it rumbled from deep within his chest. "I'm not teasing you, my beloved rival, you truly are beautiful and ever since you've started carrying you skin has started to glow."

Kakashi retrieved the soapy dish rag from the sink just to throw it at Guy's stupid smiling face before running to their room to hide under seven layers of blankets.

---

Kakashi stared at Mirai as if she had suddenly become something strange and foreign as Kurenai handed her over to him without warning, barely making sure that he was supporting her head before moving away from him. The pup was roughly two months old at this point, but Kakashi was still immensely afraid of holding her despite Kurenai's constant insistence that he should do so every time they met up and he really wished that she would stop doing this to him.

"Kurenai, what are you-"

"You need practice," she cut in, wearing her 'I'm not taking no for an answer, so do as I say' look. He often imagined that Kurenai was the exact kind of person his elder sister would be if he had one. "You're going to have one yourself before too much longer and you don't need to be crash coursing how to tend to a newborn by using your own as a test dummy."

But it's okay to use yours?

"I won't be. Iruka-sensei has been dumping books on my doorstep every chance he gets," Kakashi whined, shifting the pup in his arms. She stirred softly and he stiffened, worried that she'd start to cry, but thankfully she only seemed to just be adjusting herself and he exhaled the breath he hadn't even known that he was holding.

"Mhmm, which is why when she was just breathing you held your breath. You'll go mad if you handle your own pup like that."

As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. Kakashi was nervous around young pups and he couldn't continue to do so when his own arrived, which unfortunately would be much sooner than he'd like. Tsunade had said it was likely to occur some time during March or April going off the loose estimation she had due to him not knowing exactly when his heat had occurred, meaning that there were only two or three months left before he found himself with a pup of his own whether he was ready for it or not.

Kakashi looked down into Mirai's round little face and felt himself unable to relax despite his every attempt to, just not being used to handling something so small that wasn't a dog. "My shoulders are cramping, Kurenai. Help."

"Oh, for the love of-"

She shifted over, but instead of taking the pup from him like he wanted, she grabbed ahold of his shoulders and adjusted him into a more relaxed position herself, breathing out a 'there' before sitting back down across from him on the soft tatami floor.

"Better?"

"Maybe?" He looked back down at Mirai and worried his lip between his teeth, the action hidden under his mask. "Is this really all they do? Sleep?"

"Usually, yes, but the exact moment you need to do something they wake right up and refuse to even think about closing their eyes," she replied, and for the first time he took in how tired she looked. Her hair was messier than usual, her clothes were rumpled, and there wasn't a drop of make-up on her face. All in all, she looked like she could use a long soak in the tub and a nap.

Kakashi found himself rapidly glancing between her and the pup before letting out a small sigh. "Why don't you leave her here with me and go home for a bit. I'll have Sakura come over to help in case I need it and you can catch up on some self care."

Kurenai's eyes lit up at that, though she quickly shoved it back down with a blush. "Oh, no, you don't have to do all that. I really just wanted to get you used to being around a pup is all."

"In that case feel free to use my bathroom and take a nap or something here," he tried again, really feeling like he should. Kurenai no longer had her mate and had been tending to her little one all on her own since she'd been born. It didn't seem right to not at least offer to help, his fear of messing up be damned. "Besides, you're the one who said I could use the practice."

"Ah, I did say that, didn't I?"

She rubbed the back of her head in thought for a moment or two, her cherry colored eyes glancing around his living room as she did. Eventually, her eyes settled back on him and she smiled softly. "If you need help don't hesitate to get me. I'm only allowing this because you really could use the practice and I really could use a nap." He nodded at her and reluctantly she stood to go to the bathroom and actually enjoy herself for a bit. He smiled sweetly at her back as it turned the corner, listening for the sound of the bathroom door closing before turning attention back to the pup in his arms.

This couldn't be thathard, right? Mirai was still sound asleep and the position Kurenai had moved him into was far more comfortable than the one he'd started in. He could do this. All he had to do was keep Mirai sound asleep and happy for a few hours and then he'd be done and Kurenai wouldn't bug him about needing to practice anymore and he'd actually have practice to boot.

Mirai cooed softly in her sleep and he stared down at the small pup before smiling softly at her, even going as far as to carefully raise his other hand to stroke her surprisingly soft cheek, watching as her lips curled into a soft baby smile at the contact.

Oh, his omega side couldn't handle that, and he felt it crying out in joy that he'd eventually have his own pup to cuddle like this and- He smacked that side down. Hard. With a stick. He had a job to do and he needed to focus to do it… But also her hair looked soft as well and he couldn't help but tenderly bursh his fingers against that, too!

He keened softly, shifting his weight a little as he did and thankfully didn't disturb the sleeping pup in the process. He couldn't handle this, he couldn't. The omega part of his brain kept screaming at him to touch the pup and caress her and scent her and he was sure it was going to make him wake her up if it didn't stop.

Would holding his own pup be like this? Would he experience the same desire to hold and protect it? Would it be more or less terrifying? Would it-

Cherry colored eyes were staring at him very intently from the doorway and he stiffened once more, his face heating up under his mask. "I-I, uh..."

"No, continue. You looked really happy," Kurenai told him, smiling softly. Her hair looked much better than it had before and she'd snagged one of his yukatas to lounge in, knowing full well that he didn't care as Kakashi himself was an avid clothes thief. In fact, the knitted blue and red sweater he was currently wearing over his masked undershirt was one he'd yoinked from Asuma back when he'd been alive.

"Did I?" he asked, blushing further.

She nodded happily at him. "You were looking at her like she was yours and kept chirping at her."

Chir -

"I was chirping?" He was appalled. He could count on his hands the amount of times he'd ever chirped, almost all of which had been accidental or while too drunk to reel himself in.

"Don't be embarrassed, we all do it," Kurenai smiled.

"Alphas and male betas don't," he argued, continuing to blush.

"And you're neither or those things, Kakashi," she admonished with a shake of the head, her hair slowly starting to take on its trademark unruly appearance as it dried. "If you were, then you wouldn't have a belly full of pup right now."

He supposed she was right, but that didn't stop the glare he threw her way.

"Anyways," she stated as she started towards his bedroom. "You seem to have this somewhat handled, so I'm going to take a nap like you suggested. Do you have a spare futon I could use?"

"Just use my nest. I don't care," Kakashi told her, turning his attention back towards Mirai. He'd found some things about it that he didn't like that morning and planned on remaking the entire thing from scratch… again, as he had at least once a week for the past several weeks. He was getting closer and closer to a result he liked, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was missing. "Oh, be careful of Guy's weights. He keeps them next the door and refuses to let me move them and won't do it himself, so they're just there."

"Aw, he won't let his pregnant omega strain himself?" Kurenai called out teasingly as he heard her flop onto his admittedly super soft nest. He had to restrain the urge to tell her that she could just sleep on the floor, as that would be mean and fueled entirely by his stupid hormones, not by how he actually felt.

Due to Kakashi's condition being commonly known in their friend group alongside the fact that Guy was staying with him -for the most part, at least, he sometimes holed up with Lee when Kakashi was being overly grumpy- most had taken to joking or legitimately assuming that Guy and him were mates, which they were not! Even though him and Guy had seen every inch of the other's body and fucked like rabbits when Kakashi needed it during his heats, that didn't change the fact that they were just friends… Friends who were heat buddies, currently living in the same house, and unofficially having a pup together.

Kakashi found himself blinking blankly at the wall.

Fuck, were they mates? Did Guy think they were? He sure as fuck acted as if they were sometimes.

No, no, calm down Hatake. You've haven't marked each other, so it doesn't count.

But plenty of people lived with people they considered mates without marking them, the practice not feeling as forced or needed as it used to, so what if him and Guy were mates and the only one who didn't know was Kakashi?!

And if the matter at hand somehow wasn't bad enough, his own pup decided that now needed to be one of the few times it needed to move and it kicked him right in the bladder.

He clenched, a cold sweat running down his back. "Kurenai?"

"Yes?"

"I need you to get your pup. Mine's actively trying to make me piss myself."

He wanted to cry at the laughter that immediately followed and at how Kurenai continued to chuckle as he quickly handed the pup over to her and darted out the door to use the infernal outside plumbing before he needed to take a bath himself and thoroughly wash his bottoms.

"What the hell was that for?" He asked with a soft sigh once the crisis had been averted, holding his small bump in offense. "That's wasn't okay, little one."

As if in response to his touch and the sound of his voice, the pup shifted again and he stared down in awe at how large of a movement it had been. Was it actually responding to him, or was it just a coincidence? He'd never really tried to talk to his belly before, so he wasn't sure.

He glanced around, his bare feet curling on the cold step stones as he made sure that Kurenai wasn't smugly watching him from a window or something before rubbing his belly again and speaking gently to the pup inside. "Are you actually listening to me or was that an accident?"

There was a much smaller shift, but it was a shift, and he found himself beaming down at himself, the omega part of his brain once again going into hyperdrive at this little discovery.

---

"Guy, give me your hand," Kakashi demanded as soon as Guy had gotten home and settled in his usual spot in the living room, his wheelchair stored in the genkan as the man was perfectly capable of hobbling around on one foot or with crutches while inside the house.

Guy looked confused, particularly by Kakashi's uncharacteristic level of excitement, and his eyes turned to saucers when he firmly placed the alphas hand on his belly and spoke about how Kurenai's visit had gone until the pup shifted and stretched as it seemingly always did when Kakashi had talked with a hand over it. Kakashi was now convinced that the pup knew his voice and was reacting to it specifically as the series of tests he'd done after Kurenai had gone home seemed to confirm that it didn't react to any other sounds but his voice. Not the television, not his phone, not the blender, just his voice.

"Oh wow," Guy muttered, staring at where his hand had been placed. "It been moving like that all day?"

Kakashi nodded fervently, feeling every bit the proud omega that he was. "It does it almost every time I talk while touching my belly."

"Oh, lemme see if it does it with my voice as well, my beautiful rival!" Guy loudly declared as he scooched closer and put both hands on Kakashi's belly. "Hello there, little one! It is I, Guy, your daddy's beloved rival and friend who is very excited to meet you when you arrive!" After a moment the pup shifted again and Guy very much looked as if he was going to cry, tears springing to his eyes as he sniffed, touched. "This is so amazing, Kakashi!"

Kakashi laughed, and stiffened when a purr spontaneously rolled through his throat. Oh, he hadn't meant to do that…

"Did you just…?"

Kakashi flushed crimson under his mask. "No."

"It's cute," Guy muttered, blinking up at Kakashi with a faint blush.

Kakashi's own blush deepened. He did not need Might Guy fluttering his long eyelashes and blushing at him right now, not while he was all happy and hormonal. It was going to make him do something stupid, like ask if he wanted to be mates for real.

"Kakashi?"

"Hmng?" Kakashi sounded like he was actively being strangled as he looked back at Guy, who was still looking at him as if he'd hung the stars in the sky.

"You okay?"

"Yep. Just dandy."

"You sure, because you seem a little-"

"I'm fine, Guy. It's just been a long day is all. What did you and Lee do today?" He found himself hastily asking, needing the subject to change. Thankfully, it seemed to work, because Guy's eyes lit up in a different way and he immediately delved into storytelling mode as he chatted about how him and Lee had done handstands for seven hours straight to build endurance in their arms, the pup continuing to shift and stretch in response to Guy's touch and booming voice.

Excessive as always, I see.

Kakashi made a mental note to make sure Guy didn't drag their pup in such lunacy when it's older and-

Kakashi froze.

Had he just thought of the pup as their pup, as if in his and Guy's?

No. He didn't…. He didn't. He'd clearly meant it as his and Obito's… right?

Kakashi found himself staring confusedly at Guy as he continued to ramble on about his day with vigor. He caressed his belly absently, his fingers occasionally brushing against Guy's, as he listened to his words without really registering them.

What was this pup doing to him?

---

Unfortunately, Kakashi's mate problems didn't seem to end with Guy, as he found himself wanting to mark and be marked by Iruka as well the more time he spent with the beta and he once again blamed the thing growing in his belly for it as it clearly wanted him to make a fool of himself by making him pine over his best friend and rival as well as the man who'd raised Naruto like he was his own, and he kept having to remind himself that he didn't really feel that way about either of the men, that it was just the hormones talking.

But what if it wasn't the hormones, at least not in the way that he thought it was. What if they were just making it more obvious to him how he felt and he'd just been too blind to see it without them?

No. Stop that. We're not doing that right now. We're not, especially not when one of the men in question is sitting directly in front of you!

Kakashi glanced up to see that Iruka was smiling softly at him as he sipped at his tea -he'd invited Kakashi over to his apartment saying that he had something that he wanted to show him- and Kakashi mirrored the action, letting his mask hang loosely from one ear as he did. He'd officially ditched the masked shirts a week ago in favor of a cloth one that hung from his ears via loops stitched into it as the masked undershirts were beginning to become more and more uncomfortable for him as his belly continued to grow. It was still on the smaller side, but there was now a bump visible through his clothes, especially when Kakashi unintentionally pressed the fabric against it with his hand as he often took to doing while thinking.

"So I was talking with Guy-san the other day and he kept talking about how the pup's moving a lot more now," Iruka commented offhandedly as he spun the cup around in his hands, peering into the beverage as if it was the one he was speaking to, not Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded, looping his mask back over his ears to hide the dumb smile working its way onto his lips. "It is, yeah. Do you want to…?"

Iruka's blushed slightly as Kakashi trailed off, getting the gist of what he was asking while something akin to surprise also wormed its way onto the teacher's face. "Are you sure? I know omegas are funny about who touches their bellies while they're carrying and I don't want to make you feel pressured into anything."

Kakashi chuckled at him as he got out of his chair and moved to sit in the one directly next to Iruka, closing the distance and holding out a single hand as he waited for the beta to present him with his own. Eventually, he did, and Kakashi smiled softly as he pressed the tanned hand against the front of his shirt and waited for the pup to move. When it finally did, Iruka's eyes lit up like fireworks, a wide smile gracing his face and gods did Kakashi want to see the smile more often.

"That's incredible, Kakashi-san," he babbled in awe. "You made that."

The soft chuckle from earlier turned into full on laughter at Iruka's amazement. "You make it sound as if I've made an intricate work of art or something"

"It might as well be a work of art," Iruka argued, though his hand remained softly pressed against Kakashi's belly. "Omegas are amazing, if you ask me, especially male ones such as yourself as you can both sire and carry pups and that's just so fucking-" Kakashi's breath caught in his throat, recognizing the beginning of the word leaving Iruka's lips and not believing that he was really using such a word to describe him of all people. "- beautiful!"

That was it, that was the final straw. Kakashi officially couldn't take any more bubbly alphas and handsome betas dancing around and throwing praise at him like this, and so he briefly gave in to the omega part of his brain and allowed it to let him sling his arms around Iruka and pull him into a hug so that he could rub his face all over his scent glands.

"Woah, are you okay?" Iruka asked, returning the hug, but sounding very confused by the uncharacteristic show of affection from the usually reserved individual that was currently clinging to him.

"Why are you so nice? It's not fair," Kakashi whined into Iruka's neck as he pressed his nose flush against it through his mask. He had to inhale deeply to smell it, but a scent was there, and it smelt like a mountain stream on a warm day. "You have no idea how hard you're making it for me to not drag you home and bury you in my nest."

He could smell Iruka's scent grow heavy with embarrassment before he even spoke, though whether it was from Kakashi's words or that fact that he was scenting him in a place normally reserved for mates was up for debate. "A-are you saying that you view me as part of your p-p-pack or…"

"I don't know…" And it was true. He didn't know what he meant nor what he currently wanted from the beta, just that he was slowly starting to want him to always be with him just as he did with Guy. On a much smaller scale, yes, but that didn't change the fact that the desire was still there.

Slowly, they pulled away from each other and Iruka's hands slid to hold his upper arms tenderly as his eyes searched Kakashi's own, trying to get a read on his seemingly sporadic behavior.

"I-," Kakashi muttered, now embarrassed by his previous statements now that his face was no longer buried in the man's neck. "My brain's all out of whack right now and it's making me say and do stupid shit. Please, just ignore me."

"I could never ignore you, Kakashi-san."

Iruka-sensei, I'm begging you!

"A-anyways," Kakashi started, pulling further away and standing as he held a hand against his belly. "You said over the phone that you wanted to show me something?"

A soft O formed on Iruka's lips as he suddenly remembered the reason why he'd called Kakashi over to begin with and he nearly tripped over his own chair as he jumped up to run deeper in the apartment. Kakashi idly followed after him and watched with intrigue as Iruka dragged a giant plastic bin from under his bed and tossed it onto his mattress with a dusty flop.

"This was mine as a pup, but I'm not using it and probably never will, so I figured that you might want it," Iruka explained as he removed the lid from the bin, and when Kakashi edged closer to peer inside he found himself face to face with a small wooden bassinet and a variety of small patterned blankets that had been shoved inside next to it.

He was touched, but despite that immediately found himself hurriedly waving his hands in front of him in mild alarm. "Iruka-sensei, this is too much, I couldn't possibly -"

"Kakashi-san, I'm unmated and a beta. Naruto is probably the closest thing to a pup I'm ever going to get, so I really don't need to keep this."

"In that case give it to him for his pups once he's old enough," Kakashi argued, truly feeling as if the gift was too sentimental for him to accept, which Iruka seemed to pick up on.

"Weren't you just talking about how you wanted to take me home with you and bury me in your nest?" Iruka asked, his tone half joking and half serious. Kakashi didn't budge and so the man sighed, pressing his face into his hands as he tried to come up with a different approach. "Ok, look, how about this? If you're so worried about it staying in my pack then look at it this way: Naruto is pretty much a shared adoptive pup between the two of us, which makes us part of the same pack, and so this is simply one pack member using something belonging to the another before handing it down to said adoptive pup later."

"So a loan?"

"If that's what you want, then sure," Iruka groaned, sounding rather done with him.

Kakashi thought about it for a moment, even allowing himself to reach in and drag a finger across the polished wood as he did. He would only be using it until Naruto had pups, so he supposed that it was fine.

"I'll take it for now, I suppose."

"Oh thank the gods," the beta breathed as he rubbed at his face. "I honestly wasn't expecting you to put up a fight over this of all things when I invited you over."

Kakashi moved to grab the bin, but Iruka quickly removed his hands from it, earning him a lazy glare from the omega.

"I highly doubt that this is too heavy for me to lift," Kakashi drawled as he continued to glare at Iruka. "I've carried people twice my size for miles."

One of the many things he wouldn't be missing once he gave birth was how no one let him do anything, not even simple things with minimal amounts of strain. Tsunade had apparently gotten on the lot of them about needing to keep an eye on him due to his 'stubborn nature,' and so every time he tried someone would shoo him off and do whatever he was trying to do for him. It was infuriating and he was growing increasingly sick of it.

"That may be, Kakashi-san, but you weren't pregnant back then and you are now, and while I don't disagree that you're strong enough to carry this all by yourself, that doesn't mean that you should," Iruka drawled back, indicating that he wasn't going to budge on his decision.

"I changed my mind. I don't want to take you home. You probably wouldn't even let me wash the dishes."

That seemed to amuse Iruka and he began to chuckle at him as he replaced the lid and hefted the bin into his own arms with a soft grunt. "You only have to deal with us nagging you for a bit longer. After your pup arrives I promise to let you pick up entire buildings if you wish."

That weirdly seemed to lift Kakashi's previous agitation a bit and he, too, chuckled. "I'll hold you to that, sensei."

"Good, now let's get this to your place before you change your mind."

---

February 200X

---

"Since when do you work the mission desk?" Genma asked, and Kakashi found himself hesitating at handing him his mission scroll and instead contemplating what the consequences would be if he just beamed him in the head with it. He was technically the Hokage after all, his and Tsunade's maternity leave agreement be damned, so what would anyone actually do about it if he decided to let the intrusive thought win?

"Since I found myself having nothing to do and needing to get away from needy pack members who keep treating me like a invalid," Kakashi replied as if he was commenting on the weather and hadn't just thrown a heavy amount of shade at Guy specifically.

As much as he loved the man, he was starting to get on his nerves as he'd apparently gone into fucking rut and his over-protectiveness had quickly delved into the extremes. He not only had suddenly taken to growling at people who'd gotten too close to Kakashi the past several days, but had refused to let Kakashi do anything himself, which was just ridiculous, because surely Guy could see that he wasn't going to hurt himself doing the laundry, right?

Nope! Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong!

That morning Guy had finally crossed the line of Kakashi's patience when after the omega had moved to pick up the basket of dry unfolded laundry off the ground so that he could take it inside and fold it, Guy had shot out of nowhere, leaving grooves in his garden from his wheelchair as he snatched, yes, snatched the basket out of Kakashi's hands. Kakashi had tried to remain calm, but doing so while there was another being living inside of him and making his hormones stay out of whack while it kicked and pushed and prodded at his insides had proved to be… difficult… and he hadn't hesitated as long as he would've liked to say he had before he promptly snatched it back and threw both it and its contents into the mud as he screamed for Guy to rewash, dry, and fold it all him damn self if he thought Kakashi was incapable of doing even that on his own.

It hadn't exactly been his proudest moment, but despite the embarrassment hailing from his reaction he still felt very angry from Guy's behavior, and thus had talked Tsunade into letting him run the mission desk for the day so that he could dedicate his energy towards something that didn't pose the risk of him straining things with the alpha even further.

"Trouble in paradise, huh?" Genma smirked, catching on to what Kakashi had been hinting at and clearly having no sense of self preservation.

"I could make you join Guy on my shit list, if you wish," Kakashi drawled, letting his sour scent curl around the beta threateningly.

Genma quickly threw his hands up in the air defensively, not having expected such a reaction from the usually chill omega. "Woah, okay! Didn't expect you to be this angry. You're normally the one person that can't be pissed off, so what gives, Kash?"

"Switch sexual organs with me and find out exactly what gives, Gen," Kakashi responded, mimicking Genma's tone and nickname usage. He wasn't in the mood to deal with his lax attitude today, it's very existence pissing him off as he himself couldn't seem to relax no matter what he did, and his continued exposure to it was making him jealous of days where he was the one tormenting the poor souls running the mission desk with a lazy grin plastered on his face.

Without commenting further he finally tossed the mission scroll to Genma, who shot him an odd look as he body flickered away, and turned his attention to the next unfortunate soul who had the misfortune of being in Kakashi's line, a genin who looked to be around Konohamaru's age who swallowed thickly as he stepped forward with the rest of his cell hiding behind him as their jōnin sensei watched from a distance. He suspected that this was probably their sensei trying to teach them how to retrieve mission objectives on their own and going by their current demeanor he's just pummeled every last bit of confidence they'd had going in thanks to his stunt with Genma.

Great. Now he felt bad.

Kakashi tried to force his murderous intent and scent back in as he smiled with his eyes at the group of young genin. "Ah, don't worry. Genma is the one of the only persons I do that do. He's a bit of an ass, you see."

It did nothing to ease the fear in the pups before him and he sighed before trying again, his tone much warmer as he made his scent sweeter than normal and let some of it drift towards them.

"Maa, I remember when my cute little genin were your size. How old are you three?"

Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick and the small omegas hiding behind the alpha boy slowly stepped from behind him as he informed him that they were all thirteen years old.

"Ah, that's such a troublesome age to be," he sing-songed, trying to draw them closer to the table with his friendlier attitude so that he could give them their mission details without having to toss them at them like he'd done with Genma. "My three caused a lot of trouble at the age, so I hope that you three can do better."

"Y-yes, sir, Rokudaime, s-s-sir" one of the omegas chimed, blushing deeply as he waved them forward with his hand.

"Maa, there's no need to be so formal," He chastised gently, not wanting to scare them back off as he didn't feel like having to get up and herd them back if they decided to duck away again or run off entirely. "Kakashi-san or Kakashi-sensei is just fine."

"Y-yes, Kakashi-sensei."

All three had once again stepped closer and he sighed in relief under his breath before giving them their mission details verbally and handing the scroll containing them in written form to the Alpha pup due to him being the closest.

"Make sure you give that to your sensei and listen to him, now."

"We will," they all three happily chimed before running excitedly over to their jōnin sensei who beamed down at them proudly, a stark contrast to the bored look he'd worn when his students had been cowering at the mission desk. It made Kakashi wonder if he'd ever looked like that while picking up missions with his own genin pups, bored disinterest that quickly shifted into a near parental smile as they ran over to him, excited about their next mission.

He smiled happily at their backs as they left and he met the next person with a more upbeat attitude.

---

"I'm sorry I snatched the laundry from you," Guy muttered around the dumpling he was chewing. They'd ordered take out due to neither of them having felt like cooking after Kakashi had come home and the room up until that point had been deathly quiet outside of Kakashi ordering their food over the phone nearly an hour prior. "I've been acting like an ass and treating you like you belong to me when you don't and I don't know why. I've never acted like that while in rut before and I just… I'm sorry, okay?"

Kakashi sighed, placing the white takeout container on the table and placing his chopsticks across the top so that he could address Guy fully. While he still felt awkward for what had happened, mostly on his part now that he'd cooled down, he'd had time to thoroughly think about it in-between handing out mission orders and he was sure that the conclusion he'd come to regarding the alpha's abnormal rut behavior was the only correct one.

"I don't think I'm the one you were being territorial and overbearing about," he started slowly, watching Guy to see if he caught on to where he was going with this.

"Huh? Who else could I possibly have been trying to…" He trailed off, little gears turning in his brain as he spliced Kakashi's words into a bigger picture than the one he'd been staring at himself all day. "You think I was acting like that because of the pup?"

"It's the only option that makes sense to me," Kakashi supplied. He rubbed his belly tenderly as he spoke, loving the way his little pup reacted to his touch when he gently pressed his fingers against where it liked to jam its feet against his belly. The closer he came to term the more the little one moved and it made the idea of there being something alive in him resonate harder than ever… and clearly it had unconsciously in Guy as well judging by his behavior the past few days.

"Ah, that still doesn't make it fine, though," Guy grumbled, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I really pissed you off and I know that that isn't easy to do. In fact, I don't think you've ever yelled at me like you did this morning, not even when I dropped your copy of Icha Icha Paradise in the pool that one time."

Kakashi chuckled lightly at the memory. He had been rather pissed about that, so much so that someone had actually flagged a passing jōnin down thinking that Kakashi was actually going to harm Guy (He'd never), but Guy had made it up to him by buying him a new copy the book and taking him out to eat at one of their favorite spots shortly after and he had quickly forgiven him for it.

"I'm sorry about it as well," Kakashi admitted with a blush. "How I acted this morning, I mean. I should have reacted better than I did and I should have stayed to talk about it instead of storming off and staying gone the entire day."

Guy hastily shook his head. "No, you actually have an excuse. Your chemical feely stuff is all outta whack and I know your back's been hurting you a lot more than usual lately and all that and-"

"Chemical feely stuff?" Kakashi asked with a grin.

"Uh, yeah. The stuff that makes you act differently when you hit puberty and get older and have pups, uh…"

Kakashi continued to grin at him. "The word you're looking for is hormones, Guy."

"Yeah, that stuff."

They sat silently for a moment, the silence comfortable now, and Kakashi slid flush against Guy before grabbing his takeout container once more, making sure he rubbed his shoulder all over Guy's in the process and insured that their scents were thick on each other.

"What are you doing?"

"Scenting you."

"I know that. I mean why right now?"

"Because I felt like it."

And without thinking, and for reasons Kakashi would later claim not to understand, he pressed his face into the scent gland located on Guy's neck and kissed it before turning back to his food like nothing happened, and Guy didn't address it either, he just smiled dumbly as he shoved dumplings into his mouth with newfound vigor.

---

"I'll do it when you do it," Kakashi mumbled as he redirected his attention back to his book. He was at the part in Violence where Katsu discovers that Choy has been cheating on her and he really wished that Sakura hadn't chosen now of all times to bug him about his lack of book based pup preparation.

"Sensei, I'm not the one having a pup soon," she told him with a sigh as she snuggled up next to him, placing a hand tenderly on his belly as she spoke as if to drive the point home. He glanced lazily over his book at her and she stared intently back at him in return. "I'm not kidding. The last thing you want is to not know how to breathe through the pain and have to figure it out after you've already gone into labour."

He rolled his eyes and closed the book, giving up on trying to read it with her there. He wasn't all that worried about what was to come, but Sakura had apparently put a lot of thought into how prepared she thought he was and had allowed it to worry her into a frenzy when she found that he'd barely touched the birthing books he'd been given.

"Sakura, I know how to breathe through pain. I've had my eye ripped out twice and have been literally tortured for information on more than one occasion," he curtly informed her as he relaxed into his nest. He was sure that it was finally right, now, much to Guy's joy. The poor man had been awoken far too many times as of late thanks to Kakashi shoving him out of the nest at obscene hours of the night because he needed to fix it and couldn't be convinced to wait until morning to do so no matter how hard the poor alpha had begged him to.

She shook her head. "That's different, sensei. Having pain inflicted in you from an outside force and having it coming from you are two different things. So many shinobi go into labour with that same exact logic and so many of them find themselves unable to deal with it. I would know. I saw an alpha kunoichi punch a hole in the wall last week when her labour pains got to be too much for her."

He still wasn't convinced. Breathing was breathing and the little bit he'd scanned of the birthing books pretty much described what he already knew. Besides, comparing him to a female alpha made no sense as they were built entirely different and their methods of self soothing weren't as good as the ones omegas such as himself practiced. Instead of responding with this, he continued to stare blankly at her and she groaned at him, the sound turning into a sharp keen that made him have to resist the urge to sigh at her for it as he knew that she meant well and wasn't trying to get on his nerves.

"You know Tsunade-sama will fuss at you if she finds out that you ignored the books," she tried again, shifting against him and tracing the patterns of his yukata into his belly as she spoke.

"She's probably going to fuss at me regardless," he retorted, relaxing under her touch.

"So you plan on driving her up the wall when you go into labour," she stated jokingly, smiling into his side when he lifted a hand to rub the top of her head lovingly.

"I'm not, I'm just saying that I somehow always find a way to piss her off when she's the one tending to me, even when I do exactly what she asks," he chuckled, his tone light.

They were quiet for a moment and Kakashi actually allowed himself to purr a bit as his cute little beta continued to trace his belly. He didn't care as much for appearances around his pups as he did others. He'd gotten over that real early on when he'd found himself unconsciously going into full omega mode around them due to their young ages, purring and scenting and tending to them as if they were his own. He'd been embarrassed by it at first, but Sasuke and Naruto had been so touch starved before entering his care that they'd happily accepted his unintended doting and Sakura… well, let's just say that Sakura was always up for physical affection, so the beta had also responded well to his omega tendencies.

"At least tell me that you have a plan for when it finally happens, like where you're going to have it and who you want to be with you," Sakura muttered sleepily. It was growing late and he was starting to suspect that she wouldn't be going home until Guy came back, as she, like everyone else around him, was growing wary of leaving him entirely by himself the closer they got to him being in the full term range. He didn't mind, though. He was always up for his cute little pups wanting to hang out with him.

"It'll probably derail if I rely too heavily on it, so I haven't gone much detail with it myself, but I do suppose that I do have a plan, yes," he informed her before telling her what he did have regarding it if for nothing else than to appease her, about how he was going to have his pup in his own nest and how he planned on having her and Naruto be exposed to it as soon as possible so that it would recognise them as it's family and would be soothed rather than frightened by their scents. He also found himself rambling on about how Guy wanted to be there, but how he wouldn't be miffed about it if the alpha changed his mind, seeing as how the role he would have if he was there would more closely align with that of a mate and he didn't want Guy to feel pressured into anything.

"I don't think it's possible to pressure Guy-sensei into doing anything he genuinely doesn't want to," Sakura chuckled lightly, earning her a chuckle from him as well.

"I suppose you're right. If anything, the issue with Guy is keeping him from doing something."

Sakura readily agreed, nodding her head against him as she began to hum softly to the pup in his belly as if it were truly her sibling. Kakashi absently fell in tune with her as he wondered what Guy would actually do when the time came.

---

March 200X

---

"You sure you wanna handle the Chūnin Exam evals?" Tsunade asked him with raised eyebrows. "Because I can always just watch a playback of it and handle it when I get back. I don't really like the idea of you climbing all those stairs while you're this close to being due."

Something had apparently come up and required a meeting with the Mizukage, who wasn't going to be attending the event either due to circumstances requiring her direct attention, and so Tsunade, who was still acting as the Hokage and overseeing the exam in Kakashi's stead up until this point wasn't going to be in Konoha the day the final round of matches occurred thanks to the aforementioned circumstances requiring her attention as well. Kakashi had quickly offered to take her place, as he'd always enjoyed watching the matches when they were held in Konohagakure and he was the Rokudaime, after all, but she'd been visibly displeased said offer and had been trying to talk him out of it for the past hour.

"Maa, it's not a big deal," he argued as he stirred some honey into his tea and took a sip. He normally didn't care for this kind of tea, let alone to have honey in it, but the pup had done something odd to his taste buds, it seemed, and he found himself unable to resist requesting it when Shizune had asked him if he wanted anything to drink while him and the Godiame chatted. "I've done worse than climb stairs these past months and have been fine."

"But you also weren't ready to pop at any given moment," she argued back, leaning forward with her elbows on the table as she rested her chin on top of her interlocked fingers. "Seriously, Kakashi. I don't like the idea of this. What if your water breaks or you start having contractions. Real contractions."

"Then I'll make some excuse and have Naruto escort me home."

Tsunade threw her hands up at that. "You know what? Fine. Do what you want, but just know that when you start calling me in a panic because you're stuck a few hundred feet in the air because you're in too much pain to get back down the stairs on your own, I'm not going to answer or come to your rescue."

He chuckled at her. "If that happened I'd just have Naruto carry me down."

"Okay, listen up, you brat -!"

Shizune coughed into her hand, redirecting their attention towards where she stood off to the side, the serving tray she'd brought their tea in on clutched loosely to her chest.

"If it eases your mind, Tsunade-sama," she started, eyeing them both carefully. "I can stay behind and keep an eye on him while you're gone to ensure that nothing goes awry, especially seeing as how Kakashi-sama could easily go into labour while you're gone even if he were to stay home during the event."

"Please drop the sama," Kakashi groaned, tugging his mask back into place to hide his discomfort. "You never used it before and I wish that you didn't use it now."

"With all due respect, you weren't the Rokudaime before, Kakashi-sama."

"Shizune…"

"Fine," Tsunade stated, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms across her chest. "I'll throw no more fuss about you overseeing the final round of the Chūnin Exam, but -" She smiled devilishly, making Kakashi swallow thickly. "You have to do it in your Hokage robes and chat up all the attending daimyō when they inevitably hunt you down to schmooze you. No civvies and no hiding."

That was reasonable, he supposed. "Deal."

They shook on it and Tsunade instructed Shizune to make sure things were set up for Kakashi to oversee the event in her stead.

---

"I can't wait to see Konahamaru's match," Naruto yelled, entirely giddy as they climbed the seemingly endless stairs, clad in his recently obtained chūnin flak. Kakashi had had Naruto take the written portion of the test around the same time it had been given to the genin who were now participating in the final round of the exam that afternoon. Kakashi knew that he was more than capable of behaving like a chūnin or higher during combat or on missions, and thus had only required him to take the written portion to be promoted to his shiny new rank... There was also the fact that pitting Naruto of all people against actual genins seemed like a cruel and unusual punishment for anyone he would have ended up facing off against.

"Maaa… You're awfully fond of him, huh?" Kakashi chuckled as he slowly followed Naruto up, his hips and lower back protesting his decision to climb all these damn stairs this late in his pregnancy.

Naruto smiled over his shoulder at him, looking very much like the proud older brother he knew Konohamaru saw him as. "Of course I am. He is my protégé, after all."

Poor Ebisu was probably never going to recover from the Sandaime's grandson ditching him, his actual sensei, in favour of their number one ADHD riddled ninja. The man took so much pride in having been hand picked to be the pup's instructor both before and after the academy and it seemed to never-endingly wound his pride that all Konohamaru wanted to talk about was Naruto-nii-chan this and Naruto-nii-chan that, and look what Naruto-nii-chan taught me how to do this time.

It was almost funny and most definitely karmic, Kakashi often thought, seeing as how Ebisu was originally one of many who thought that Naruto was a bad person and had nothing to offer nor teach and he ended up teaching them all more than a few things on top of literally saving their asses more times than Kakashi could count, resulting in even Ebisu himself singing praise for the blond every chance he got.

"You think he'll win his match? He's pitted against Hinata's younger sister first if I recall correctly," Kakashi noted, tapping his chin as he contemplated how said match would play out.

"He's got my own arsenal of attacks and thinks quick on his feet, so I'm sure he'll do fine," Naruto responded with so much umph that it made Kakashi feel even more tired from just listening to him. He also found fault in Naruto's logic, as the Hyūgas as a whole were forces to be reckoned with in close ranged combat and the usage of powerful jutsu would do Konohamaru no good if Hanabi managed to shut his chakra network down before he could actually use them.

With a sigh he realized that they'd finally reached the top and he could see the gaudy chairs set up for the Kazekage and himself the second his feet touched the floor of the balcony reserved solely for the attending Kages, which were limited to only him and Gaara this time around as the Land of Earth and Land of Lightning hadn't had any of their genin make it this far into the exam and Mei was dealing with her thing with the aid of Tsunade.

Thank the Gods, I was starting to worry that I wouldn't manage to get up here on my own...

He sat in the chair with a relieved sigh and began to rub at his poor hips through his robes, which were so thick and loose that you couldn't even see his bump through them unless he were to pull them tightly against himself, and he amused himself by thinking of it as his pup having gone incognito for the event.

Gaara glanced at him briefly before quickly doing a double take, clearly having missed the memo that Kakashi would be the one attending, not Tsunade, based off of his reaction.

"Kakashi Hatake?!"

Kakashi threw a single hand up in greeting. "Yo."

Kankurō and Temari peered around Gaara's chair at him as well, also looking shocked by his presence and he couldn't restrain the irritable sigh that left his lips.

"What?"

"Did you already have the pup?" Temari whispered, trotting closer, but not too close. She was attending to Gaara, after all, and one Hokage's guards approaching another Kage could easily be seen as them trying to instigate something. There was also the fact he was a carrying dam and getting close to one without having been directly invited over or it being initiated by said dam was never a good idea.

"Ah, no. Not yet," he amiably replied, tugging the robes close to him to show the small bump of his belly underneath before letting them fall loose once more so that his pup could re-enter stealth mode.

"Him and Granny had a fight over him coming due to it," Naruto supplied as he knelt next to Kakashi's chair, leaning himself comfortably against the armrest and Kakashi immediately cuffed him on the back of the head for the comment. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"For being stupid enough to spread gossip about me while I'm right beside you," Kakashi deadpanned before smiling back at the Sunagakure shinobi with his eyes. "Please feel free to ignore him. I brought him thinking it could do him some good to shadow me during things like this, but he clearly doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut on matters he has no business speaking of."

Kankurō snorted and Temari shook her head.

"Clearly," the blond omega muttered, returning to her brother's side and casting Shikamaru a look as he flickered into existence near the back wall of the balcony, arms folded lazily across his chest and looking very much as if he'd rather be sleeping than to be there.

"You're a bully," Naruto pouted, though when Kakashi raised his hand at him a second time he quickly scurried away, ducking behind the chair and out of Kakashi's sight.

"Where's Shizune?" Shikamaru asked as he glanced around for the black haired omega. "She was supposed to be here as well, wasn't she?"

Kakashi could hear an undertone of paranoia in the newly minted jōnin's voice and he was quick to wave it away by fanning his hand in Shikamaru's general direction. "She's tending to the horde of daimyō in the stands. They're all rather energetic this morning due to this being the first exam since the war and so she probably won't be able to get away from them for quite some time."

And he secretly hoped that she wouldn't, as she'd been hounding him pretty hard in Tsunade's stead since she'd left for Kirigakure several days prior, blowing every little thing he did out of proportion. The woman had even taken his coffee from him that morning and replaced it with a useless cup of decaf!

Eventually, after much small talk between him and Kazekage, the time came for the matches to occur and Kakashi watched them with mild intrigue. This year didn't seem to have anyone particularly special competing in the finals of the exam, but he couldn't help but notice that a few were shining in their matches. Unfortunately, this wasn't occurring in ways that made them good candidates for promotion, but rather in an entertainment kind of way, the jutsu the two Kiri genin going at it before them being a prime example. They were flashy and had a lot of power behind them, but in his opinion their executions of them were poor and would likely get them killed if used like that during a legitimate mission, especially if pitted against a more experienced opponent such as himself who'd be able to spot the many holes in their techniques with ease.

Alas, these pups weren't under his jurisdiction and that decision would be left for the Mizukage and the Mizukage alone once she watched the playbacks of the matches containing ninja from her own country and had to hear what her land's respective daimyō had to say about it. He hoped that she wouldn't miss the need for growth on the genins' part and promote them prematurely. The last thing Kakashi wanted to see was more youths losing their lives because of stupid adults like the ones who'd ran things when he was a pup, adults who'd prioritized military ranks and power over ensuring that their shinobi were actually ready for the risks and strains that graduation and promotions entailed.

Finally, it came time for Konohamaru and Hanabi's match and he and Naruto both leaned forward as Genma repeated the rules to them as he did before the start of every match. They both nodded and took their positions and he could practically hear how Naruto's hair bristled in excitement… Only for it to immediately fall away into confusion when Hanabi slammed her palm into the young beta's chest and sent him flying unceremoniously onto his back like a rag doll.

"I'm sorry, what?!" Naruto screamed in disbelief as he and Kakashi both stood to get a better look at the scene unfolding before them.

"Oh dear, it seems as if Konohamaru let himself get distracted by the girl's scent," Kakashi chuckled, watching how Konohamaru quickly covered his nose with flushed cheeks and babbled incoherently about something they were too far away to make out. Hanabi, in turn, stared at him like he was stupid, but didn't drop her guard.

"By the gods," Naruto groaned into his hands, slowly shaking his head. "What kind of beta lets an omega beat them up because they smell nice? Betas don't usually even react to scents…"

"Apparently that one does," Kankurō threw in with a laugh.

Hanabi was now slowly closing in on Konohamaru, who was waving his hands in front of him in a panic before shoving his arm in the air and screaming that he was done before she could properly pummel him.

"Konohamaru!" Naruto screamed, his voice so loud that it echoed loudly in the air and said pup's head whipped up to stare up at him with rounded eyes. "What the fuck?!"

"To be fair, it's good to acknowledge when you're in over your head," Temari muttered, cupping her cheek in her palm. "But on the other hand, letting yourself fall victim to another person's scent like that is just careless. In a real combat situation there are no refs to end the fight if you let your hormones get in the way like that."

"And this is why I always say that secondary sexes are troublesome," Shikamaru drawled with a shake of the head.

Kakashi, deciding that he'd seen enough, slowly slumped back into his chair, rubbing at his back with his knuckles. It was still aching and occasionally throbbing from the climb up and he wished that he'd thought to bring an extra cushion or something to soften the chair a bit more. Even a nice plush blanket would have sufficed.

"He's not normally like that, though," Naruto defended with a barely contained wail. He looked stressed from how the pup had handled his match and more than a little confused. "He took on one of the Pains and won, so I don't understand why he let himself get tripped up by this. Even I don't stumble over omega scents like that and I'm an alpha!"

"Maybe they're soul mates," Kakashi pondered, his tone dreamy yet teasing.

He'd heard of it happening before, people who were so enraptured by another person's scent that they just knew that they were meant for each other. It was a foolish notion, he had to admit, but it was still fun to think about.

"This isn't your stupid book, sensei," Naruto commented with a glare before squatting down next to the chair once more, looking every bit the part of a pouting pup and not the mature chūnin and alpha he was supposed to be.

Unfortunately, and much to his chagrin, the rest of the matches proceeded just as uneventfully as the ones before Konohamaru's had. Sure, there was one pup who set up a wild genjutsu that accidentally captured half the crowd in its wake and required the ANBU on duty to hastily deal with it before the genin got disqualified for endangering the crowd, but other than that the fights were all pretty textbook.

And boring.

Kakashi leaned back in his chair with a sigh, wishing that he was home so that he could finally curl up on something soft and thinking that perhaps he was just far too used to life or death scenarios and how flashy his own students were and was judging the genin before him a little unfairly as a result, and right as he thought that a pup hailing from Suna did something that made him and Gaara both shoot to their feet and their entourages take up defensive positions around them. The pup fucked up the angle in which they'd thrown a kunai with a paper tag attached and the thing went flying straight up into the air towards them after ricocheting violently off the wall.

This would have been a useful time to still be able to use the Kamui, Kakashi thought as a wall of sand encased the balcony and stands, cracking and sending sand pooling onto the floor as the paper bomb went off right in front of them.

Kakashi was currently so tense that it hurt and had to breathe out slowly to avoid wincing. If Gaara hadn't been there then he would've been in major trouble as he hadn't reacted fast enough to throw up a mud wall and neither Shikamaru nor Naruto had any abilities that would have helped either.

"Is everyone okay?" Gaara asked as sand slowly retreated back into the urn that sat against his own chair and the massive amounts he'd apparently jerked up from the arena fell loose onto pretty much everything else. Even from where they sat, almost entirely isolated from everyone else, he could hear the concerned and excited chatter beginning to roll through the spectators in the stands. Thankfully, no one who wasn't on the balcony seemed to be harmed either, going by the crowd's reaction and the lack of ANBU flickering up to inform them of any casualties, so Kakashi allowed himself to nod as Naruto let out a shaky laugh and gave a thumbs up in confirmation.

Down below Genma had stopped the fight and the pup responsible was getting fussed out by the usually calm man, his senbon glinting dangerously in the sunlight as he bit down onto it between words.

Behind him, Kakashi heard Shikamaru sigh. "And that's yet another instant disqualification. What's with all these pups and not being able to keep their attacks under control today? It's such a bother."

"A lot of them have never had the opportunity to use their skills in proper combat due to them being pulled from active duty during the worst parts of the past year," Kakashi told him before turning his attention back toward the Suna pup, who was now bowing apologetically in their direction as Genma continued to chew him out. "Hopefully they all learn from their mistakes here and improve upon them, else I worry about their teammates."

Gaara nodded in agreement, but said nothing.

"That was the last match, right?" Naruto asked as Genma declared that the Sunagakure genin's opponent, who hailed from Amegakure, was the winner by default, officially bringing the exam to an end and allowing the Kages and respective daimyō to formally decide whether or not any of the participants hailing from their own countries deserved promotion or not.

"Yup, meaning we can finally pack up so that we can head home tomorrow morning. Don't get me wrong, Konoha's nice an' all, but nothing beats sleeping in your own bed," Kankurō answered as he stretched his back out, making Kakashi wonder what was worse; the hard chairs or not being allowed to sit at all during the several hours the final rounds had spanned for. His own back ached horribly as he stood up, but he refrained from visibly reacting to it. He didn't need to be swarmed by worried shinobi who'd undoubtedly fetch Shizune to hound him some more.

"Were there any genin hailing from Sunagakure that you think should be promoted?" Kakashi casually inquired as they all made their way to the stairs.

He liked Gaara and enjoyed having conversations with the fellow omega when he got the chance ever since his personality had done a 180 from how it had been the first time he'd encountered him during his own genins' first go at the Chūnin Exam, the seething rage and bloodlust having shifted into a calm and slightly shy sweetness that Naruto and the Kazekage's siblings had carefully and painstakingly restored. Temari had once confided in them after they'd saved her brother from the Akatsuki that his personality had pretty much been the same as it was now as a small child, but their father had done various things during their childhood that had, to put it lightly, fucked Gaara up, and it often made Kakashi wonder how Naruto would have turned out if there hadn't been people to protect him from the Rasas of his own life. The thought of a mean and demented Naruto who reveled in harming others felt wrong and made him want to shudder.

Gaara tapped his chin lightly as he thought on it. He'd done this a few times already and thus had a bit more experience than Kakashi did regarding promoting genins via the exams and thus the older omega was planning on using Gaara's answer as a control, feeling as if his own guidelines for it may be a bit too strict.

"Unfortunately, no. Too many of the genin hailing from our village put on a disappointing display that's made it painfully obvious to me that they need far more training. I also plan on having some words with their jōnin senseis regarding their participation as I now feel that they rushed them into participating for the sake of restoring lost manpower opposed to actually believing that their cells were ready for advancement," Gaara informed him, and his answer made Kakashi feel less like he had a stick up his own ass over how'd he viewed the majority of the matches. "What about you, Kakashi?"

"I feel the same, if I'm being honest. I saw a few genin that I know well and am admittedly fond of in the finals, but they're not quite at the level they need to be for me to promote them in good conscience," Kakashi responded as he continued the practice of rubbing at his lower back as they descended down the stairs.

"I'm going to have a word with Konohamaru over his match," Naruto drawled from behind. Normally he'd be racing down the stairs, but he'd taken his instructions to stay nearby from Tsunade surprisingly seriously and was instead trailing slowly after Kakashi, who was quickly being left behind by the group of Suna shinobi and even Shikamaru, who he suspected was wanting to chat up Temari as soon as their two groups went their separate ways.

"You're being a bit harsh towards poor Konohamaru, don't you think?" The shadow user asked with a scoff. "Today's screw up was an outlier and I recall you doing far worse at his age."

"Yeah, and thankfully you got your act together, else we'd all be pretty screwed right now," Kankurō called back to them with a chuckle. Temari struck his shoulder, the sound of it echoing loudly in the stairwell, and he looked at her as if she'd shot him. "What was that for?"

"For being rude," she answered, stopping and putting her hands on her hips as she leaned towards him.

"How was I being rude?" He demanded, mirroring her pose.

Gaara paused his descent as well and turned back to watch them with a look that could only be described as amused disinterest.

"Because that's not how you talk to or about someone who has saved both your and your precious younger brother's lives," she fussed, this time raising a finger and wagging it in his face. He snarled slightly at her and for a moment Kakashi wondered if he planned on biting her for the gesture.

"It's fine. I'll be the first to admit I was a major fuck up once upon a time," Naruto threw in in an attempt to smooth things over as he stepped down to stand on the same stair as Kakashi, paling the very second Temari turned her attention onto him.

"Did I ask you?" She demanded, tapping her foot impatiently on the cold stone stair she was currently standing on.

"No?"

"Then kindly shut the fuck up."

Kakashi wanted to laugh at her hypocrisy, but thought better of it. He'd once witnessed her slap Shikamaru, who he was sure was in some sort of romantic relationship with the woman, so hard that his cheeks had swollen up like Choji's, and so he wasn't about to earn any ill favour from her on his part if he could help it. Speaking of Shikamaru, he was watching the exchange with an undeniable glint in his eye and a sly smile.

I'll never understand those enraptured by the furious.

"Scary," Naruto muttered under his breath as the woman demanded that Kankurō apologize, which he begrudgingly did with a shallow bow that she pressed him deeper into with the use of her fan.

As amusing as all this was, Kakashi really wished they'd start moving again, as he desperately needed to sit down soon and they still had a long ways down still, and so he impatiently began to wave his hand at them to get out of the way as he slowly descended towards them one step at a time. "Ah, as fun as this is, I have things to see and people to do."

Temari glanced at him, looking apologetic once she noticed how he was still rubbing at his poor lower back. "We shouldn't be holding you up like this. I'm sure all these stairs are hell on you right now."

He chuckled dismissively at her, though he continued to wave his free hand at them. "It's fine. I've been mostly at home as of late and appreciate the exercise."

He didn't. He currently just wanted to lay down on the floor or even have someone carry him down to the lobby, but that would be embarrassing and serve as a major blow to his pride, so he kept that thought to himself as they finally took the cue to continue downwards and get out of his damn way.

"I hope you've enjoyed your stay in Konoha," He told them in an attempt to re-engage in conversation so that it could act as a needed distraction. "Unfortunately this will probably be the last time you see me during your stay as Tsunade-sama will have likely returned by the time you leave."

Even if she didn't he wouldn't be the one sending them off as he'd make sure that task fell to Shizune. After today he was not going to be taking any more long walks to town, the gates, or anywhere else. He was going to go home, curl up in his nest, and re-read the entire Icha Icha series from start to finish after taking a nice long soak to ease the building ache of his back as he let Guy tend to him to his heart's content.

---

Kakashi stopped suddenly to lean against a wall and Naruto stared at him oddly as he did so. It had taken them nearly four hours to get out of the arena thanks to the bustling crowd and every daimyō and their dog wanting to chat with him, excited that the Rokudaime was the one attending the final rounds of the exam and wanting to chat him up despite his every attempt at deflecting and trying to politely sneak away in spite of his agreement not to with Tsunade. It had been an absolute nightmare and now…

He exhaled the breath he'd been holding as he slowly straightened back up, his hands still firmly on the wall.

Now his entire midsection had begun to periodically ache alongside his back and he was starting to suspect that the contractions he was currently feeling were no longer the faux kind he'd been experiencing on and off for the past month or so. No, these felt more real than those had and they had been getting progressively worse as the day had gone on.

He should have listened to Tsunade.

"Kakashi-sensei, are you alright?" Naruto asked as he ducked down to get a better look at Kakashi's face past the strips of cloth hanging from his hat. "You look like you're in pain. Do you need me to get Shizune?"

If he allowed him to do that he'd be lectured and he honestly didn't feel like dealing with that at the moment, sure he'd be unable to maintain the aloof calm he was commonly known for in the face of it. Besides, there was a chance that he wasn't in labour and that the pain would go away entirely after a nice hot bath.

"No, I'm fine. I've just been standing for too long and everything hurts as a result."

"Are you sure, because it would only take me a minute to-"

"Yes, I'm sure, Naruto," Kakashi cut in, trying to keep his voice level. "I just want to get home and take a bath, so please."

Naruto didn't look sure at all, but he nodded. "Okay, just… let me know if you change your mind."

---

Once he'd gotten home Kakashi had found that Guy was still gone, likely drinking with his former teammates just as he said he was going to do after the exam was over, and so Naruto refused to leave him the fuck alone and had planted his ass firmly right outside the bathroom door when Kakashi had gone in to soak.

"Stubborn, just like his parents," Kakashi muttered as he leaned against the side of the wooden tub. It wasn't very long, so he had to tuck his legs underneath himself to sit comfortably with his belly, but it was deep, so the water came up to the bottom of his chest even while kneeling and the hot water was doing wonders for his lower back and hips. His back unfortunately hadn't stopped aching entirely as he'd hoped it would, but it wasn't as bad as it had been at the arena, so Kakashi happily accepted it.

In the living room Kakashi heard his cellphone start to ring, the main theme from the Icha Icha Paradise film adaptation playing shittily from the small speakers and he watched as the shadowy outline of Naruto sitting outside of the glass sliding door separating the bathroom from the rest of house vanished to go answer it. Kakashi sighed when Naruto reappeared and slid the door open, phone in hand, mouthing 'It's Guy-sensei' as he handed it over to him.

"Hello?"

"Kakashi, I heard there was a bit of trouble towards the end of the, uh… the Chūnin Exam. Ar-ar-are you okay? " Guy slurred on his end. He was most definitely hammered and Kakashi tried not to sigh in jealousy. He was looking forward to when he could finally drink again. "I-I-I, um… I was in the potty when it happened and juss, uh... I juss found out about it and wanted to make sure yer all okie dokie."

Kakashi snorted briefly at Guy's choice of words before remembering that he should probably answer the man before he raced home to make sure he wasn't talking to Kakashi's ghost.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Gaara's sand wall absorbed the blast and no one got hurt from it," Kakashi reassured him. Naruto was staring at him expectantly, likely wanting him to tell Guy that he was possibly in labour, but Kakashi simply glared tiredly at him in return. Guy was currently drunk. What good would telling him even do? "You sound like you're having fun."

Giddy laughter blasted through the small speaker and Kakashi instinctively winced away from it. "I am. I, uh… I apparently won the bet me and Ebisu, and… um… um… Genma had going over what village would win, so I've got enough cash to buy… um… I could buy a toaster, Kakashi."

"An entire toaster, huh?" Kakashi chuckled, letting his tone shift to how one would talk to a small child. "I can't imagine having that kind of money."

"I know, right?! "

Naruto continued to stare at him in disapproval, so Kakashi tugged the small towel he'd tied around his face off with his free hand and threw it at him, enjoying the screech that emerged from the blond's lungs as he startled backwards and crashed down onto his ass. The look of disapproval turned into a look of confused disbelief as he stared at him through the open doorway and Kakashi playfully stuck his tongue out at him, earning even more screeching.

"Dere a bird there?"

"Mhmm. A big annoying yellow one that thinks I'm not capable of tending to myself."

"Awe! Pet it for me!"

"Sure thing, Guy."

There was a bunch of crashing on Guy's end then and Kakashi chuckled as Guy made a sudden indignant sound. "Ah, Genma, th-that's mine! I-I'mma go know, 'Kashi. Bye-bye!"

"Bye-bye."

Kakashi clicked the button to end the call and flipped the phone closed before tossing it over to a still frazzled Naruto, who bounced it between his hand and nub like a game of hot potato before finally getting a good grip on it.

"Kakashi-sensei, what the fuck?!" He demanded, gripping the phone like a life line as he yelled at him from the doorway. "You spent years tormenting us for trying to see your face and then you just show it to me like this?! And why didn't you tell Guy-sensei to come home when you might be in labour?!"

"Might be in labour? Do you really want to deal with a drunk Guy freaking out because you think I that I might be in labour?" Kakashi drawled, ignoring the rest of Naruto's questions sans the last one as he hunched down in the tub. "And I don't recall saying anything about me being in labour to begin with."

"No, but it's starting to look like you are! Kakashi-sensei, so please let me call Sakura or Shizune or both, because no one else is here and you're being stubborn and I don't know how to deliver pups, ya know?!"

"And you're not going to need to know how. I'm fine, Naruto. My back doesn't hurt nearly as much as did before, so it probably was just a false alarm."

"False alarm-" Naruto whined as he stood, still clutching the phone to his chest as he shifted anxiously from foot to foot. "So you admit that you've thought about the possibility of it yourself! Sensei, please!"

Kakashi started to hiss at Naruto, but stopped before it could fully leave his throat, remembering at the last second that he'd thrown his face covering at him and that he shouldn't bare his fangs at the desperate blond before grumbling out an annoyed 'do what you want' at him instead.

Naruto looked as if he was going to cry as he ran off to dial whomever it was that he was about to sic on him and Kakashi sighed as he pulled himself from the tub and began to dry off, tugging on some boxers a sky blue yukata when he was done and just forgoing the mask entirely as he didn't feel like putting the one he'd worn to the exam back on, as it smelt heavily of sweat, nor did he feel like trying to locate the spare that he'd shoved gods knew where.

He wandered into the living room with the intention to make some tea and perhaps read a bit, but after a moment of contemplation changed his mind regarding sitting at the low table in favour of making a bee line for his nest, settling on his left side and closing his eyes for a nap as he waited to Naruto to return from wherever he'd run off to to bust him so that he could undoubtedly bug him about his recent decisions some more. He didn't have to wait long as after only a few minutes of lying there he felt Naruto step softly into the nest and settle down behind him, hand awkwardly rubbing at Kakashi's lower back.

"I called Shizune a few times, but she didn't answer, so I called Sakura and she said that Shizune got stuck dealing with a few of the daimyō after we snuck out and that she'd tell her to come when she was done dealing with them," Naruto explained, and he could feel the blond shift onto his side as well, probably to get a better angle at his back. "She also said I should rub your back in the meantime, so I'm gonna do that, ya know?"

"Fine by me," Kakashi muttered tiredly. He wasn't about to pass up a free massage. Not now and not ever.

"So… You look nothing like I expected you to, but now that I've seen your face I think that you look exactly how you should," Naruto muttered, voice pitching almost as if it were a question, and Kakashi chuckled lightly, hearing embarrassment bled through into his pup's tone.

"Oh? And what did you think I looked like?"

"I dunno… Fish lips? Buck teeth? …A super tiny mouth?"

Kakashi snorted, because of course those were the kinds of things Naruto would assume. "Are you disappointed?"

"I… no. You… You're actually really handsome," Naruto mumbled.

"Now you sound like everyone else," Kakashi drawled as he buried his face into his blankets. He honestly didn't see why people always seemed to find him attractive, the traits he had often likened to those of people you saw in movies and magazines by his friends. It was something he himself personally didn't see and the declarations of beauty continued to make absolutely no sense to him, but with every reveal of his face it seemed that it was him who was in the unpopular opinion of him not being fair in face and body, so maybe there was a point to be made. Granted, he still didn't agree with said point, but decided that now probably wasn't the best time to fling himself down that specific rabbit hole and reluctantly let his displeasure regarding the praise go.

Naruto didn't say anything in response, but he continued to massage Kakashi's back, so he didn't comment on his uncharacteristic silence and instead allowed himself to doze on and off for the next hour or two until Shizune burst loudly into his house with enough force for him and Naruto to both jump and him to hear the front door rattling on the frame as she charged towards his room with Sakura hot on her heels.

"Kakashi-sama!"

"Shizune-san, Naruto said Kakashi-sensei was fine on the phone, so there's no need to get all worked up," Sakura called after her as the black haired woman leaned heavily against the frame of Kakashi's room to catch her breath. He and Naruto both stared dumbly up at her like a pair of startled birds.

"Hi to you too?" Kakashi asked before wincing at a particularly strong contraction in his back that quickly wrapped all the way around to include his belly. They'd been slowly returning while he'd been dozing and they were pretty much back to the same level they'd been at before the bath and then some.

"Was that a contraction? Are you having contractions?!" Shizune demanded as she quickly shuffled into the nest and pulled him up into a sitting position. "When did they start? Sakura said that Naruto said that you'd been uncomfortable for over hour before he called and then it took Sakura almost an hour herself to tell me, and that's not even including the time it took for me to get the things that I needed before running here, and-"

"She isn't like this when she delivers pups at the hospital, is she?" Naruto asked, looking alarmed by the omega's frantic demeanor.

"I'm not, but I also don't usually deliver the pups of stupid Hokages who live super far away from the closest source of medical attention on top of being too stubborn to listen to medical advice and who want to lie about being in labour to avoid being scolded for ignoring the aforementioned medical advice!" Shizune huffed, her demeanor slowly beginning to calm now that she had gotten everything out of her system and even more so once she'd taken a few minutes to breathe. "Okay. Let's try this again. How long has this been going on for, Kakashi-sama?"

"Can you please drop the sama? I don't like it," Kakashi mumbled with a pout.

"Ah… your face," Sakura whispered, finally seeming to notice that he wasn't wearing anything over it. He ignored her and instead tried to think of an answer to Shizune's question.

"I'm not entirely sure when they started, to be completely honest. My back started hurting before the final rounds of the Chūnin Exam started, but I'm not sure if it was just my normal back pain that switched over to this or if it was this from the start," he admitted as he pulled away from Shizune to lie back down on his side.

Sakura, in a world of her own, continued to whisper to herself as she smushed up against Naruto to resume rubbing Kakashi's back in his stead. "I swear I've seen his face somewhere before, but can't remember where."

Shizune looked appalled by his admission. "Kakashi-sama, that was at least seven hours ago!"

Sakura paused her massaging and he looked back at her to see a look of recognition bloom on her face just as he'd expected to when she finally got to see his for the first time while being himself. "You're freaking Sukea, which means that you were the one 'helping' us try to get your mask off and you were messing with us the entire time! Sensei, why are you so mean?!"

"I couldn't help it," he whined, allowing his head to flop pathetically back onto the pile of plush blankets he was currently using as a pillow. "You all were just so cute when you'd try to see my face and I wanted to play with you before you all got too old to care anymore."

"You're something else, you really are," Sakura sighed, and when he tensed under her hands as another contraction -there was no longer any denying that that's what they were- made his back and belly lock up for an uncomfortably long fifteen seconds, she resumed the act of trying to massage his pain away. "Also, I thought you said you said that Guy wanted to be here, so why isn't he?"

"He's having fun with his old teammates and I don't see the sense of stressing him out and ruining his buzz over something that's still got a long ways to go," He muttered, his lashes fluttering as he fought to keep his eyes open.

"Are you tired?" Shizune asked as she dug around in her bag for something he didn't care to try to identify. "Because if you are, you should rest while you can."

"So the pup is coming?" Naruto asked, going back to sounding alarmed.

"It seems that way, but I can't say for unsure until I check him, which I'm sure that both you and him would prefer that you left the room for, unless you want to see your sensei's genitals," Shizune supplied.

"What?! No!" Naruto squawked indignantly from behind Kakashi's head.

"In that case, you have until I get back from washing my hands and get my gloves on to clear out."

Naruto darted out of the room in record time at that, his feet pounding loudly on the floor as he ran off to hide while Shizune left the room to go wash her hands. When she returned she looked a bit shocked that Sakura was still kneeling behind him and rubbing his back and quickly turned her attention to Kakashi with raised eyebrows.

"I'm going to take it that you're fine with Sakura staying, then?"

"She's an iryō-nin just like you and this'll help build her experience, correct?" He asked, staring at her with a single half cracked eye. Shizune nodded, but Sakura looked down at him with an unsure expression.

"That doesn't mean that I have any right to be here if it makes you uncomfortable."

"I assure you that it doesn't," he informed her with a soft smile, "but if you are, then I wouldn't be offended if you waited outside with Naruto."

She shook her head, the unsurety falling off her face. "Not at all!"

"In that case, I need you to roll onto you back and spread 'em nice and wide so that I can check your cervix," Shizune told him, sliding the door closed and tugging her gloves on with practiced ease. "This is probably going to be uncomfortable, so bare with me."

He did as he was told and even though he'd said that he was fine with Sakura observing he was glad that Shizune didn't shove his yukata all the way up after she removed his underwear, leaving him some modestly as the more experienced of the two shoved her fingers into him and muttered to herself before removing them and motioning for him to rotate back onto his side again as she pulled his yukata back down to cover him, abandoning the underwear entirely.

"Well," she started as she pulled her gloves off and shoved them into a small plastic waste bag attached to her medical bag. "You've dilated to five centimeters, so you are in fact in labour, Kakashi-sama. Congratulations!"

Kakashi groaned in response as his back began to ache again, not exactly thrilled by this new information as it meant that things were only going to get worse from here on out. Shizune pulled the door back open and informed Naruto that the coast was clear and the young alpha quickly returned to the nest to nestle next to him and Sakura and assist with rubbing his back.

"Yay. Little sibling," Naruto awkwardly cheered, his voice low as he did so and Sakura snorted in response.

"I don't think he wants to hear that right now," she whispered, sounding amused.

"Well, too bad," he whispered back.

Kakashi once again found himself dozing between contractions, the sounds of his pup's scents and whispered voices lulling him to sleep until he eventually lost consciousness entirely.

---

"Fucking hell," Kakashi hissed under his breath as he shot awake thanks to an ungodly strong contraction that pounded mercilessly at his back and stomach and refused to let go of him for forty three full fucking seconds. "What the fuck?"

He blinked around with bleary eyes once it had passed, noticing that lights had been turned out and that he could hear the gentle snores of his pups beside him in his nest.

What time was it?

Slowly, he sat up, a blanket falling off him and pooling in his lap as he carefully moved to stand. He didn't like how much his back ached and wanted to take another bath on top of desperately needing to pee.

After Kakashi emptied his bladder in the once again cursed outside toilet, he really needed to get one installed inside for his own sanity's sake, another contraction took hold of him and if it weren't for the sturdy walls surrounding the toilet Kakashi would've fallen straight to his knees. He counted the seconds it took for it pass in his head and groaned once it was over.

Forty three seconds, just as the last had been.

"I need to get in the bath again."

As quickly as he could on unstable legs, Kakashi re-entered his home and quietly made for the bathroom, not waiting for the tub to fill before climbing into it. The last thing he wanted was to dilly dally and delay his access to the soothing warm water because he'd taken too long to get in the damn thing and another contraction rendered him unable to crawl in or worse: to be walked in on fully naked and curled in on himself in pain on the floor.

Apparently the sound of running water had woken Shizune up, if she was even asleep to begin with, because when he looked back towards the door it had been slid partially open and the woman was staring intently at him with a pen and notepad in her hands.

"Contractions woke you up, I take it"

He nodded, sighing as the water finally reached his lower back.

"How long did it last and how many have you had since waking up?"

"Both were forty three seconds long and I don't know the exact time between them, but-" He gritted his teeth as another one chose that exact moment to occur and stole away his ability to speak. They were far worse than they'd been before he'd dozed off. Shizune counted for him this time, stopping at forty five seconds when his breathing had returned to normal. "Like I was saying, I don't know how long between, but that one just now was the third one since I woke up and the one right before it wasn't too long ago. Happened when I was coming back in from the toilet right before getting in here."

"The… Kakashi-sama, please don't go off and do things by yourself right now," Shizune scolded, and while he wanted to whine about the suffix used, he couldn't find the energy to actually do it. "You could have easily fallen and hurt yourself."

"Yeah, I figured that out pretty fast," he muttered. The water was now over his belly and Shizune stepped closer to turn the water off in his stead.

"The water helping any?" She asked, tone softer than it had been a moment ago.

"A bit. Contractions still hurt like hell, but the achiness in-between isn't as bad while I'm in here."

"In that case it would probably do you some good to stay there until it's no longer comfortable for you and for you to keep replacing the water as it cools."

He nodded.

"At this point in time you still could go to the hospital if you wished, you know. Then we could get some medication to help you in the long run."

"Thanks, but no thanks," he muttered with a grimace. He hated hospitals and the thought of someone shoving a giant needle into his spine like her and Tsunade had originally suggested and described was a big no for him. He'd just tough it out.

Shizune simply shrugged at him. "Figured as much, but I also figured that I should ask while getting you there was still a possibility. Once you're fully dilated we won't be able to move you and you'll be a sitting duck regardless of whether you've changed your mind or not. Also, I wished you would have waited for me to check you again before you got in there. You slept for three hours and I'd like to make that sure you're progressing as you should be."

Kakashi groaned, letting his forehead bump against the rim of the tub at the mere thought of getting back out of the warm water when he'd just gotten in. "Can't it wait?"

Shizune shook her head as she pressed her forehead into the palm of her hand, clearly growing as fed up with him as he was with her at this point. "Kakashi-sama, it's very important that I know how far you've dilated so that I can perhaps help you speed up the process if it's going too slow or help you relax through it if that's what you'd prefer. It also wouldn't be very fun for any of us if it turns out that you've entered the next stage of labour without us knowing and have the pup spontaneously pop out, now would it?"

He hated it when people used reason against him like this, he truly did, especially right now when he just wanted to sink as far in the hot water as humanly possible and go back to sleep.

"If you'd like you can just squat where you are I can check you like that," Shizune finally offered, apparently accepting that she wasn't going to get him out without a fight and deciding that compromise was the way to go.

After thinking about it for a moment and deciding that it would be better to do it before another contraction could make the process even more miserable, he nodded and braced himself on the rim of the tub as he pulled himself from a kneeling to a squatting position to give the iryō-nin better access to the genital area associated with his secondary sex. Shizune quickly washed her hands in the sink and rolled her sleeves up so that they wouldn't get soaked as she dipped her arm into the water to once again check his cervix, which he grit his teeth through, because when your entire midsection felt as if it was trying to remove itself from the rest of you, the last thing anyone wanted was a pair of fingers jamming up into them and prodding around. Shizune hummed to herself, her eyebrows drawing together, and after an antagonizing long series of seconds she finally withdrew her hand to wash it again.

"Well?" Kakashi asked as he sunk back into the water and breathed through the start of his next contraction.

"You're not as dilated as I would have hoped seeing as how you were at five centimeters when I last checked you three hours ago and you're currently at six, but I suppose that can be attributed to you having been laying down," She responded, drying her hands on the the towel he kept draped beside the sink. "If you can, try to stay as upright as possible and maybe even rock on your hips a bit. It should speed things up a bit if we make gravity do half the work."

"Gravity? You mean the boiling ball in my pelvis?" He groaned, trying to be funny in spite of the fact that he honestly did feel more and more as if someone had replaced his tiny pup with the world's heaviest bowling ball the further his labour progressed.

Shizune smirked tiredly at him and he once again suspected that unlike the rest of them she hadn't slept, at least, not as much. The poor woman had probably just closed her eyes when he came crashing back in and woke her up and the thought of that made him feel guilty as she was in for the long haul just as much as he was.

"Shizune?"

"Hmm?"

"You should go to sleep."

She blinked at him, her expression a mixture of longing and embarrassment. "Ah. No. I'm fine. I really should stay with you while you're up and about."

"I don't need a sleepy iryō-nin delivering my pup," he drawled before smiling softly at her. "Look, If I need anything I promise to yell for someone to help me and I'll get one of the pups to wake you up if I need you or if anything changes."

She smiled tiredly in return. "You know they're not really pups anymore, right? They're all practically grown ups now."

"They'll always be my pups, even when they're old and wrinkly and their hair is the color of mine," he argued, letting his eyes fall closed as he leaned his head against his arm tiredly.

She chuckled softly in response as she turned back towards the door. "Fine. I'll take a nap, but you have to hold up your end of the deal, Kakashi-sama. This isn't a game."

"Drop the sama and I know," he grumbled, cracking a single eye open so that he could glare at her with it.

She nodded at him firmly as she stepped out, pausing only to tell him to eat something when he got out before she slid the glass door closed and retreated into the depths of the dark house.

Left to his own devices Kakashi thought on the advice Shizune had given him about rocking his hips and though he didn't particularly want to, he proceeded gently roll his hips as he soaked, accepting that another nap likely wasn't in his near future with his current level of discomfort and instead resigned himself to daydreaming about this an that. He had no idea how long he'd aimlessly daydreamed for by the time he grew bored of it, just that the water had grown cold enough to require refilling the tub enough times for the water's warmth to become fairly ineffective against the endless throbbing of his back.

Gods, did he wish that he'd thought to grab a book before getting in the tub, as he had nothing to do now but listen to the sink drip and be alone with his thoughts as he worked his hips and breathed through the pain, face falling into a grimace when he, at one point, felt something akin to a pop in his pelvis. It didn't hurt and didn't happen again, however, so he quickly forgot about it as he found himself contemplating waking someone up to bring Tactics to him, but upon remembering the earlier fretting, decided against it, especially as he doubted that whoever fetched his book for him likely wouldn't go back to sleep and would just pester him the entire time instead of allowing him read it in peace… Or as close to peace one could get while feeling like they were actively dying.

Too bad Iruka-sensei isn't here. He's probably the only one who'd stay quiet enough to let me enjoy myself while I'm still partially able to, Kakashi thought as he stared up at the ceiling through the puffs of steam. Upon realizing that he wished that the beta was there with him while he was naked in the bath, however, Kakashi found himself beginning to blush, the color spreading all the way down to his chest.

What was he doing, thinking about Iruka in this situation, and furthermore, why was he getting so flustered over it? It wasn't like he had any reason to. Sure, the beta was kind and soft and had pretty black eyes that complimented the dark shade of his hair well, and…

You're seriously going to let yourself get worked up over men while you're in labour?! What is wrong with you, Hatake?!

Kakashi pressed wet hands against the whole of his face as he tried to remember how to breathe through the pain and embarrassment that were fighting for dominance at the forefront of his mind.

What was wrong with him was that he clearly had a thing for people with dark eyes and hair, people who whose coloration ironically contrasted with his own nicely and the fact that he was just now noticing what was now an obvious pattern in his rare attraction towards others was a very welcome distraction from how one of those dark haired, dark eyed crushes had put a pup in him and how said pup was currently trying to force its way out of him as slowly and painfully as possible.

Yeah, he needed that damn book. The lack of it was driving his mind into maddening directions.

"Bath time is over," he grumbled, carefully pulling himself out of the tub and kneeling on the floor as he dried himself off, which turned out to be a good call on his part as another contraction soon sent him doubling over as the worst of it hit.

He panted, not really wanting to move, as he gripped the towel tightly in his hands and hurriedly discarded it in favour of his Yukata. What did it matter if he was still wet in places? It was miles better than struggling to dry off until someone walked in and did it for him, because he was clearly to the point of needing help with basic tasks now.

How embarrassing…

Slowly, he pulled his legs from under him and used the tub to pull himself up, breathing deeply to try and alleviate some of the pain running through him. His hand, unfortunately, slipped forward off the rim and dunked into the water, which he'd forgotten to let out, and he swore loudly as it soaked his sleeve up to the elbow. This wasn't going well, not in the slightest.

The sound of knuckles rapping against the glass sliding door separating the bathroom from the rest of the house got his attention and he glared at the blurry silhouette standing on the other side of it as he knelt back down on the floor, no longer trusting himself to stand nor walk.

"Kakashi-sensei, are you alright in there?" It was Naruto. Good. Maybe he could help him get back to his nest.

"I need you to walk me to my room," He called back, ignoring the question, as while he technically was alright, he very much didn't feel so.

The door slid open slowly, as if Naruto was worried as to what he'd find when it was opened all the way, and Kakashi couldn't help but sigh tiredly at him when his messy head finally poked itself in.

"Oh, good. You're dressed. I was worried you were going to be naked, ya know?" Naruto breathed.

"I mean, I technically am under this, so I'd appreciate it if you watched where you grab me while helping me up," Kakashi fired back as Naruto knelt down and wrapped an arm around Kakashi's waist to hoist him up and hold him steady as they walked, the older man draping his arm carefully around the chūnin's neck for additional support.

Halfway to the room Kakashi froze and he felt Naruto tense next to him as he unintentionally pressed himself against the pup and almost lost his footing thanks to the contraction that couldn't possibly wait until he was sitting down to tear through him, and of course it had to be the longest one yet, nearly a minute in length and almost too strong to breathe through without crushing poor Naruto in the process.

"You wanna sit down?" Naruto asked, voice small, and Kakashi quickly shook his head at him.

"Nest. I want to go to my nest before I have another one."

As they carefully made their way into his room Kakashi found that Sakura was now awake as well and had apparently taken the liberty of getting a bottle of water and some crackers for him while Naruto had taken up the task of checking up on him and bringing him back. As much as he appreciated his little beta's intentions, the thought of eating didn't exactly sit well with him and so he shook his head at her when she offered them and once again took to resting on his side. Yes, Shizune had told him that he needed to eat and that staying upright was the ideal thing to do, but he couldn't stand the idea of doing either of those things right now, not after having done the latter for gods knew how long in the bathroom. He just wanted to shove his face in his blankets and inhale the scent of Guy that clung to every inch of his nest like a security blanket, thoughts of his reading his book forgotten.

He began to purr softly without meaning to, the pain and the scent of his pseudo mate driving his instincts to take over and try to initiate some form of self soothing. He could hear Naruto make a confused noise behind him as Sakura shuffled closer to rub his back like she'd been doing before they'd all fallen asleep.

"I thought Kakashi-sensei hated purring… Also, I thought omegas only did that when they're happy, so why's he doing it now?"

"They also purr when they're in pain, you dimwit," Sakura huffed, and he could just imagine the look she was throwing at Naruto. "Most omegas and female betas do it when they're in labour and the pain starts getting to them."

"So he's in a lot of pain right now?"

"He's having a pup, Naruto, so what do you think?"

"What time is it?" Kakashi interrupted them, his voice strained and partially muffed by the blankets.

"It's a little after six in the morning. How long were you up for, sensei? Sakura asked him gently.

"Whatever time it was three hours after Shizune checked me the first time," He mumbled, not liking how Sakura hissed at his response.

"You've been up since midnight? Kakashi-sensei, you were supposed to be resting!"

"I was resting, but then I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, so I soaked for a while."

"Six hours is more than a while," Naruto muttered and Kakashi chose to ignore him, as a few hours most definitely qualified as a while in his book and the act of talking even between contractions was starting to grow increasingly difficult.

There was loud banging on the front door and Kakashi groaned at the sound of it as Shizune, who'd clearly been startled awake by the sound of it and whose clothes and hair were a rumpled mess, ran by his open door to go investigate. Who the fuck was there at six in the fucking morning and why did they have to chose today to torment him?

He heard the front door open and someone step in before the kitchen sink turned on, Shizune hastily whispering to whomever the other person was, and Kakashi found himself keening hopeful confusion. Was it Guy? Was Guy finally home?!

"Where is he?" The person asked over the sound of running water, and before Shizune could respond the source of the voice was charging through his house, coating it in the scent of rain and jasmine.

Tsunade-sama… Fuck… Of course they called her.

"I told you this was going to happen, you stubborn brat," she scolded, but despite her words her tone was soft as she carefully stepped into the nest to kneel in front of him, her hand glowing with green chakra as she pressed it against his belly to check on him and the pup.

"Actually, going by what he told us last night, I believe that Kakashi-sama may have possibly gone into labour before he even got to the arena," Shizune offered, though her statement seemingly went entirely ignored by the Godaime.

"Well, the pup is still fine and dandy, so where are we with contractions and dilation?" Tsunade asked, glancing between all of them for an answer.

"'Tractions are almost a minute long now," he mumbled before burying his face back into the blankets and resisted the urge to curl in on himself.

"Pain on a scale of one to ten during them?" She asked, rubbing his hip.

"Easy ten…"

"Shizune, dilation?"

"I haven't checked him since around midnight, so I'm unsure at the moment, but he was previously at six centimeters, Tsunade-sama," Shizune informed her with an apologetic bow.

Tsunade nodded and glanced around curiously, her curiosity quickly turning into confusion. "Where's Guy? I thought he'd be throwing fit right about now and spouting some bullshit about nothing being more youthful than the birth of youth itself and comforting Kakashi like he kept saying he was going to. Don't tell that me he cut shit and ran."

"He didn't, but he's, uh," Naruto started, nervously rubbing at the back of his head, his blue eyes wildly darting toward everything that wasn't the fuming omega. "We don't exactly know where he is and Kakashi-sensei wouldn't let us tell him about what's going on last night because he'd been drinking and figured that we should wait for Guy-sensei to sober up before calling him home."

"Oh, for the love of- In that case you two go try calling him while Shizune and I finish checking Lord Stubborn over here," Tsunade instructed, shooing them both away as she pulled a pair of medical gloves on and gently pushed as Kakashi's hips to try and get him to roll over onto his back and spread his legs for her as both of his pups ran out with their cellphones in hand. "I know everything hurts, but we gotta do this, Kakashi."

He peered down at her with a grimace as she did as Shizune had the past two times and slid her gloved fingers up into him, a look of concentration on her face as she examined his cervix with her fingertips. "Well, it seems like you're at nine now, which means you're almost where we need you to be and it also looks like your water broke on its own at some point, which is also good."

No sooner than Tsunade pulled her fingers out of him did Kakashi find himself quickly rolling back onto his side and drawing his knees as high as was comfortable, which wasn't very far at all, with a mewl-like whine.

"Woah, okay, easy there," Tsunade called out, carefully pulling his yukata back down and rubbing his hip once more as he continued to whine through the next contraction and fisted his bedding tightly in his hands. "Breathe, Kakashi. Don't let the pain get the the better of you now."

"Granny, Guy-sensei isn't answering his cell," Naruto half yelled as he ran in and leaned against the door frame, glancing worriedly over at Kakashi. "But I think I might know who all he was with and can call and see who has him."

"Do that," She instructed him with a nod. "And tell Sakura to wash her hands and get back in here in case we need her."

"Got it."

The two female omega began to rub at his hips and back as Naruto charged back out and all Kakashi could think about at the moment was how much he wanted Guy.

---

The morning after binge drinking was always the worst and Guy found himself nursing his head with a groan when Naruto of all people came crashing into Genma's apartment screaming Guy's name despite the fact that the sun was barely even up. What did Kakashi's most hyperactive pup want?

"Naruto, it's not even eight o' clock, yet," Guy groaned. Normally, he was a morning person, but that didn't apply when he was hungover and he slept on a lumpy couch that he didn't understand why Genma even had, as it was useless as functioning as one and had left his body sore in more places than one. A shirtless and drained looking Genma stared at them both tiredly as he nudged his front door closed with his foot.

"You deal with your bestie's weirdo pup, I'm going back to fuckin' bed... Oh, and make sure you lock the door on the way out," Genma drawled as he slinked back into his room. Guy suspected that he probably wouldn't re-emerge for at least five more hours and felt a brief pang of jealousy over him getting to go back to bed.

They'd called it quits sometime around two in the morning and Genma had dragged him to his apartment after their group had voted against him going home by himself, less so worried about him making it safely to Kakashi's house by himself and and more so about the possible trouble he'd land himself in on the way there and would somehow manage to drag them into. They were apparently still traumatized by the monkey fiasco, which wasn't fair, because that hadn't even been his fault.

"Guy-sensei, first off, why didn't you answer your cell, and second-" Naruto suddenly grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dragged him into a sitting position against his will. "Kakashi-sensei's having the pup!"

"Congratulations," Gemma tiredly cheered from his room, though it sounded less cheerful and more half dead.

Guy, however, did not feel the joy one should when receiving a congratulations. Instead, he felt the cold fear of all the possible things that could be going wrong without him while Kakashi laboured and if not for Naruto's firm grip on him he was sure he would have slid limply onto the floor like a glob of hot jelly.

"WHAT?!"

---

Kakashi could feel Tsunade staring down at him as he shook his head and pressed himself further into the blankets, but he didn't want to do this anymore, didn't want to do it to begin with, and now that he was fully dilated he was now expected to push the thing inside of him out while simultaneously breathing through the pain and trying not rip his own nest to shreds and it just… It sounded so unrealistic, like a line from a book that was only possible in the universe in which it was written and he couldn't believe that people willingly put themselves through this and that some did so more than once!

"Kakashi-sensei, you can do this," Sakura cooed from beside his head, and gods did he want to believe her, but at the moment he just couldn't, couldn't do anything more than pant through the pain and internally scream for his mate, not caring if Guy truly was or wasn't anymore. He wanted him, needed him, and he was nowhere to be seen.

"He's too tired for this," Tsunade sighed, rubbing his back in an attempt to soothe him. "It would have done him a lot good to have gone into labour during the night so that he could have slept through all the early stuff and be energized. It also would have done him a lot of good if you'd been able to get some food and drink into him."

Shizune shook her head and Kakashi gasped as the black haired omega suddenly hiked his leg over her shoulder to open his pelvis up despite his every desire for her not to. "We tried, but he was being stubborn and looked ill and the last thing any of us wanted to do was force him if it meant making him sick."

"Well, you still should have, because despite all his protesting for that pup stay where it's at forever, he doesn't even have the strength to argue on it let alone make this any easier on himself."

Another contraction came and Kakashi didn't know if it was instinct, the way Shizune was propping his pelvis open despite his every attempt to stay rooted on his side with his legs closed, or a combination of the two, but he couldn't stop himself from pushing as it rippled through him, nor could he stop himself from gripping Sakura's hand when she slipped hers into his and whispered praise that he couldn't hear over the sound of him straining between gritted teeth.

He fell near limp once it had passed, still in a copious amount of pain, but before he could enjoy the brief reprieve another contraction had started and Tsunade was urging him to push through it like he'd done with the last one as if he didn't already know to and he mewled weakly at her in response before verbally straining some more as he pushed, and pushed, and pushed with no signs of an end to it anywhere in sight, just endless, endless pain.

---

Guy felt his throat go dry and he heard Kakashi cry out from within the house, his scent stressed and hitting him like a brick to the face as soon as they ripped the front door open. In all his years of knowing Kakashi he'd never heard him make a sound like that and that made the worry in his heart grow and his alpha instincts scream at him to go help his mate, to soothe him, to make him feel better.

But what if he couldn't? What if he was hurt? What if he was dying? What if it was Guy's fault for not being there?!

Guy didn't even bother heft his wheelchair into the genkan before he leapt from it and left it for Naruto, who was frozen in place, to deal with as he quickly hobbled to the bedroom to find Kakashi on his side with his thigh propped up on Shizune's shoulder as she, Sakura, and Tsunade whispered praises to him as he gritted his teeth and whined through the pain that he was required the experience in order to bring life into the world.

"Kakashi!"

---

Tsunade's eyes shot up towards Guy the second he called out to his beloved rival and Kakashi watched as anger gleamed in her brown eyes before she demanded to know what kind of stupid fucking alpha goes out drinking when their mate or whatever the two of them were was due to give birth at any given moment. He wanted to tell her not to yell at Guy, that it was his fault that he hadn't known, but he couldn't manage more than a pathetic mewl at this point, his energy spent and all of his focus quickly being redirected back towards him breathing and pushing through the contractions.

"You know what? It doesn't matter," she snapped, disregarding her previous scolding and turning back towards Kakashi with worried eyes. "What matters now is that Kakashi could use the comfort of an adult alpha, especially with how tired he is and is going to continue to get. The more you can distract him from the pain, the more energy he can put towards bearing down and pushing this little one out."

"Here, Guy-sensei. You hold his hand in my place," Sakura offered, guiding Kakashi's pale hand into Guy's tan one as they switched places. "I'm going to give you guys some room and make sure Naruto isn't freaking out outside."

The smell of oak and sweetgrass filled Kakashi's senses as Guy shimmied closer to press a kiss, light as a feather, on the top of Kakashi's head, drawing a keen from the omega's lips as he desired more of Guy's tender touches, especially while he was in so. Much. Pain. Kakashi swore that the first thing he'd do when he died was find Obito in the afterlife and beat him upside the head for doing this to him.

"I'm never doing this again!" He hissed into his and Guy's interlocked hands before loudly pushing through a contraction.

"And there's the trademarked 'never again,' " Tsunade laughed.

Why was she laughing? He was serious. He'd rather suffer through the rest of his heats solo than ever risk having to do this again, because this… this made so much of this shit he had to physically endure as a shinobi seem like a joke and he'd happily take any of the torture sessions he'd fallen victim to while in ANBU over this endless assault on his body from the inside. The only thing that ever remotely came close to his current level of agony was that shit Itachi had pulled on him with his Mangekyō.

Guy's grip on his hand shifted so that Kakashi was able grab onto him with both hands and the labouring omega couldn't help the shaky and pitiful breaths that wracked his body as exhaustion slowly took more and more from him after every session of pushing. Guy began to rumble and croon at him in an attempt to soothe him through it and Shizune and Tsunade gazed at each other with growing concern as his state gradually worsened.

"Okay, this isn't working as much as it needs to be and we're only using up energy that Kakashi doesn't have by continuing like this, so we're going to change things up a bit," Tsunade eventually announced as she shoo'd at Shizune to drop his leg before the two of them began to pull him into a kneeling position, tucking the bottom of his yukata out of the way as Tsunade ordered Guy to kneel in front of Kakashi and keep him upright and as the two omegas guided Kakashi's arms around the alpha's neck.

"Will this really help?" Guy asked, his breath warm on Kakashi's skin.

"Yep, because we're going to be letting gravity do its job from here on out," Tsunade explained with a nod. "And Guy."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?"

"If you let him go, I'm going to give you a black eye." Kakashi could tell from the way she was staring at them that she meant it, but her stern look quickly turned into a soft worried smile when he failed at breathing through the pain of the latest contraction, instead gripping onto Guy for dear life as he pressed his face into his shoulder with a pained wail that he was no longer capable of withholding as he pushed. "And you just keep doing what you're doing Kakashi. I promise you that you're doing great."

"You really are, Kakashi-sama," Shizune immediately followed up, rubbing his lower back and helping Guy keep him from sinking down onto the floor by supporting him from behind.

He didn't feel like he was going great, not with how he was falling apart more and more with every passing second and with how his thighs shook despite the fact that he wasn't even the one holding the majority of his weight up, and not how-

Tears began to prick at his eyes as a sensation of fucking fire stole the show and made him unleash every swear in the book into Guy's shirt as he forgot how to breath or push or do anything in light of this new pain that made him genuinely wonder if he was being ripped in fucking half. There was no way that this was normal. There was no way! If it was, then he once again decided that every single person who willingly bore pups was fucking insane. Insane, insane, insane!

"I'm gonna kill him… I'm gonna bring him back just so that I can fucking kill him," Kakashi choked out, the threat morphing into a whine as another contraction hit him and made the burning sensation even worse, and despite the fact that Kakashi was sure that he'd just clawed the fuck out of the back of the poor alpha's neck, Guy nuzzled his head against his and whispered that he was doing good even though he was no longer doing anything that he was supposed to be doing.

"It's only going to get worse before it gets better, I'm afraid," Tsunade informed him, doing her best to keep her tone soothing as she stroked his upper back. "And so if you want the worst part to pass you by quicker, then you're going to need to push a bit harder than you have been."

Harder than he's been doing? No way. No way, no way, no way, no way, no way!

There's no way she was being serious right now. He couldn't, he-

"I can't…"

How Guy heard him with how quietly he'd muttered it, he didn't know, but he knew he did by how his body had immediately stiffened against his own and the way his scent curled even tighter around Kakashi to draw his mind towards him and only him.

"Yes you can," Guy whispered back, pressing another feather light kiss on Kakashi's head, then his temple, and then his cheek, something Guy had done before, but had never outside of Kakashi's heats. And he found that never wanted him to stop. "Kakashi, you're the strongest person I know. You've got this."

The next contraction hit and with with the tiny bit of love and encouragement Guy had supplied fueling him, Kakashi felt himself bearing down so hard that he was sure that he was going to split himself in half if the continued burning sensation was anything to go by, but Guy was cheering him on as the Mights always did, and so he pushed through it again and again and again, his voice tearing out of his chest louder and louder each and every time until-

A wail that wasn't his own tore through the air and he froze, Guy and Shizune finally letting him sink downwards onto his trembling thighs as he weakly looked behind him to see the wailing pup Tsunade was holding in her hands as she quickly toweled it off, Shizune promptly joining her to help tie off and cut the cord.

"It's a girl," Tsunade happily declared right as Shizune instructed Guy to let him lie down, and no sooner than Kakashi's side had touched the soft bedding was the loosely bundled pup being gently placed right next to him. He carefully extended his arm to pull her close and brush his fingers against her dark silver locks that shone almost black in places, against her pale skin that matched his own perfectly, against the tiny mole she had in the middle of her left check. He couldn't seem to get enough of her and a weak sob tore from his throat as he continued to gently touch her all over so that he could get to know the small life that had been growing inside of him all this time.

Do you see her, Obito?

"Beautiful little thing, isn't she?" Shizune whispered, letting out a small chuckle. "And I'd bet she felt a lot larger than that coming out." Kakashi laughed at that, the sound weak and wet and full of snot, but she was right, she had felt far larger coming out, a stark contrast to her actual size, which was surprisingly small.

"Look at what you made, Kakashi," Guy gleefully whispered as he shifted closer to look at the now sleeping pup, gently prodding her with one if his large fingers and about damn near bursting into tears himself when she twitched under his touch and gave him confirmation that she was in fact really there. "Look at what you made."

Shizune and Tsunade shuffled back downwards after that, to deal with the placenta when it was time to and to shove a pair of underwear with heavy padding in it up his thighs to keep him from bleeding all in his nest, which had remained surprisingly clean sans the few blankets that Tsunade and Shizune had removed with his permission and replaced with cleaner ones as he continued to stare at his pup, his daughter, like she was some mystical object that had just suddenly fallen out of the sky and into his arms.

"Okay," Tsunade started as Guy tucked a blanket he knew to be one of Kakashi's favorites around him and the pup. "Now that we have you all cleaned up and decent, do you want us to tell your students that they can go ahead and come in, or would you rather that we tell them to wait a bit."

Guy looked at Kakashi, entirely leaving it up to him, and Kakashi tiredly gave her the go ahead to bring the pups in, listening to the sound of his little one breathing as he waited for Naruto and Sakura to come to him.

"Oh wow, it's so tiny," Naruto whispered in awe before he and Sakura had even stepped fully into the room.

"Tsunade-sama said that it's a girl?" Sakura asked as they knelt next to the nest without entering it. They were likely trying to respect his boundaries as a new parent and even as drained as he was he could't not roll his eyes at them for it. They were always welcome in his nest and that included now more than ever.

"She is," he whispered back, lifting his arm momentarily away from her to motion them in, wanting his pup to learn their smells and draw comfort from them just as she would his own. Slowly, they obliged, settling less than a foot away from him now that they'd entered the nest. They were both staring at the pup with just as much wonder as he himself had and still was.

"You thought of a name, yet?" Tsunade called from the door, leaning heavily against it as she watched them with a smile.

Kakashi looked away from her to stare intently at his pup. He'd tried many times after discovering her existence to come up with a name, but none of the ones he'd thought of during his pregnancy seemed to fit the small creature cradled against him, and so he closed his eyes and thought of Obito, about the kind of name he might want for their pup, and found himself remembering his words right before he'd faded away for the final time.

"Always make sure they're loved and have a reason to smile."

Kakashi opened his eyes and smiled at how his pup's eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks as she dreamed.

"Her name is Koemi."