Chapter 28

The news just kept getting worse. First Lee had been poisoned, and now Hayate had been found dead. Kakashi grimaced, tried to meet Yugao's eyes who remained in the shadows of the room meeting room, but they were sharp and burned with murderous fury.

"This must be Orochimaru's doing," Anko growled.

"As likely as that may be, let's not jump to conclusions just yet," Kakashi said, grimacing. "Hayate was on the trail of a Sound village spy named Kabuto, so Orochimaru will have something to do with this, no doubt, but we don't know for sure-"

"I say we cancel the exams and deal with Orochimaru." Raido scowled. "Hayate has been murdered and one of the genin have been poisoned."

"Lee's in a coma..." Guy whispered.

The news hadn't been good. Kakashi had stayed by Guy's side the entire time as they waited for someone to come back and tell them how Lee was. Tenten had curled up against Guy's side, whimpering worriedly, while Neji leaned against the wall, face shut off from all emotion.

But Kakashi could smell the anger.

It was hours before a doctor stumbled back through, pale and tired, his hands shaking from over use of his chakra. Guy had looked hopeful, but then slumped at the doctor's tired look.

That was when the doctor told them that Lee was in a coma. Some kind of controlled coma they had put him in to keep him stable? Kakashi didn't really know, but the doctor said Lee would recover easier in this state. Guy had broken down sobbing, asking when Lee would wake up. The doctor said it was up to Lee's recovery. If he healed enough, they could wake him up, but until then Lee would only suffer in agony if left awake. Then he had said they had no idea how to cure the poison, and that it would take time to find a cure. Lee could be out for weeks, even months, and that was bad. Guy's sobs had grown louder and Tenten had burst into tears too. Neji asked if there was any leads on who did it, then stormed out when he had been told 'no'.

Kakashi reached back and patted Guy's knee, trying to reassure him. "He's a strong pup," Kakashi tried. "He'll be alright."

"Yeah... Just if I had been sooner..."

"See?" Raido insisted. "Our genin are under attack, and even worse, it's our Omegas. First Sasuke Uchiha with that curse mark, now Rock Lee. We need to end this-"

"No! I should think not," Lord Hokage snapped. "Orochimaru already revealed himself to Anko and sent a warning not to cancel the exams. Besides that point, there are many other villages here-"

"Lord Hokage, you can't possibly believe one of the other villages would aide Orochimaru with our treaties in place-" Raido protested.

Kakashi scoffed. He felt a little drowsy, but even then he could pick out how naïve that statement was. "We found out how well those treaties worked during the last war," Kakashi said spitefully. "It's barely been a over decade when Kumo, while signing a treaty with us, tried to kidnap Hinata Hyuga, remember? And they murdered several of our ANBUs to get to me not that long ago."

Raido winced, and again when the Hyuga's in the meeting all began growling.

"Thieves trying to steal my rival..." Guy said, but it wasn't with his usual enthusiasm.

"We have sent ANBU agents to each of the villages involved here to try gain more information," Koharu said. "We will not make the mistake of acting too hastily."

Kakashi smothered a yawn, frowning deeply. His eyes felt heavy...

"Besides." Lord Third smiled warmly. "I have complete trust in every one of you. When and if the time comes, we will gather the strength of the Hidden Leaf and fight if we must."

Kakashi barely managed to smother another yawn. He was starting to feel really drowsy again. Hopefully this meeting wouldn't last too long, he needed to get back to Sasuke and water his plants... Plants? When did he get plants? Did Sasuke have plants? Why wasn't Izumi watering them?

Kakashi blinked sleepily.

Why was he thinking about plants again?

Oh yeah. He need to water Mr. Ukki... Maybe after a nap?

Yeah, nap then Mr. Ukki and Sasuke's plants...

.::.

Obito snorted. How touching.

The Third Hokage really liked to press on those positive emotions, making himself seem like the caring old grandpa everyone should love. Pathetic. As if he had ever done anything that benefited the village as a whole, and not just for the elite of it.

When was the last time he and his squad had to fight in battle? When was the last time they had to sacrifice themselves for anything instead of their pawns? Asuma Sarutobi, and the Hokage's closest friends were kept out of the war most of the time because the Third refused to lose him and his friends. But everyone else and their children were fair game.

Lord Third really loved buttering those fools up. So many of the jonin looked delighted to be praised by their Lord Hokage. All nodding and smiling at each other like little kids in a classroom. Guy wasn't smiling, he looked depressed, and that was a startling look on him. Izumi didn't look impressed at all, in fact she even rolled her eyes. Meanwhile Kakashi had fallen asleep on Izumi's shoulder. Nobody dared wake him up. That was the most amusing part. Kakashi even muttered something about plants in his sleep.

What the hell was a Mr. Ukki? And why was Kakashi so bad at naming things? And people? Bloody hell.

.::.

Sakura frowned. "You want me to learn what my nature release is?"

"Yep." Izumi nodded. "Basically we have five types of nature release. There are some subcategories, but nothing we should need to think about right now unless you really take me by surprise. So for now there is Water Style, Wind Style, Lightning Style, Fire Style and Earth Style. You've seen Fire Style plenty of times before. Sasuke and I both use it. Lightning Style is commonly used by Kakashi, but he's a genius who can use multiple styles, so yeah."

"He's a genius?" Sakura startled.

Izumi snorted. "Yeah, Kakashi's famous across the villages. Not that it matters right now. Your chakra control is fantastic, so you should be able to apply a nature release into the shape of your chakra. In fact I'm confident you can do this."

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." Sakura blinked.

"Don't make me hurt you," Izumui warned.

Little shit.

"Anyway," Izumi continued. "Take this paper, put your chakra into it, and we'll find out what you are."

Sakura obeyed, and much to Izumi's shock the paper was soaked to the bone. She had actually expected Earth Style from the girl. Interesting, but annoying. Izumi couldn't teach shit about Water style.

"Water Style, huh?" Izumi mused. "Okay, this will be tricky."

"Why is that?" Sakura frowned.

"Because my Fire Style is weak to your Water Style. We need the walking library of jutsus."

"Walking library?"

Izumi grinned. "This is why you should be asking Kakashi for training constantly. He's a goldmine of jutsus."

Sakura looked at her with starry eyes. "He is? I need Kakashi sensei!"

"Yes, we do." Izumi nodded. "Even if it's to get you started off, because our natures are way too different."

.::.

Sakura grinned. This was a gold mine of opportunities. If Kakashi sensei knew so much he might be able to teach her some of the things Zabuza did, like with that mist. That would be amazing. Sakura could slip into the cover of the mist and take her enemies from behind. She could show Sasuke her new talents-

Her and Kakashi sensei could go over so many new ideas too! There would be so many things to try out with their chakra and he could give her so many pointers in progressing her control further, and a water element. There had to be plenty of things to do with water, right?

This was so exciting! Way too exciting. There was so much to learn and so much to do and she wanted to build up her taijutsu too.

"Hurry, Izumi!" Sakura yelled turning on her heel and sprinting off. "We've got so much to do!"

.::.

Weeks were passing by fast, and for Kakashi it was quiet for the most part. He'd swap shifts with Izumi to guard Sasuke's sleeping form, still out cold and resting, to train Sakura. Sakura who was absorbing information like a sponge. She was relentless now that she had gotten a hunger for new techniques.

It was kinda scary.

Sakura might actually drown Gaara if he didn't whack her with his sand first.

Obviously Kakashi couldn't really train with her in taijutsu anymore. No, he was tired too fast, and couldn't risk the baby by taking a wrong hit. So Izumi did that part, all Kakashi did was talk about theory and showed Sakura a quick example of his own water style jutus, because now his chakra drained faster than ever. That was apparently normal, and Kakashi dreaded it. By the end of his pregnancy he wouldn't be able to use his chakra for almost a month after the baby was born.

It wasn't fair.

Not fair at all.

At least he was starting to feel less sick and miserable though. Second trimester was going much better than the first so far. Still, he probably couldn't stomach Sakura's cooking for a long time. The girl was smart, but she couldn't cook to save herself.

The big problem now was that he needed Mr. Kidnapper. Kakashi craved sex. Sure, he had enjoyed romance books and their porn, but he never craved them. Now he did. Mr. Kidnapper appeared in his apartment more often than not, dishevelled and aroused, complaining that their bond was making him horny. The complaints were quick to stop when Kakashi kissed him.

They had so much sex now and it felt amazing.

But Pakkun was going to murder Mr. Kidnapper if it continued, and Tenzo might strangle Kakashi if he wasn't so busy preparing for the chunin exams security details.

.::.

Gaara felt horrible. His Alpha pup was screaming bloody murder. He didn't understand the voice, it was so strong, so loud, ever since he had met Rock Lee. But why? Why did he of all people have a mate? How could somebody love him unconditionally like that?

A mate was supposed to but how? Rock Lee shouldn't be able to.

Gaara knew one thing though. He couldn't attack him. He couldn't cause the Omega harm. He had thought about it during the exam and everything ached. He had never felt such pain, at least not in such a long time.

So when he felt like his heart was being stabbed and ripped out his chest, he had to investigate. He ditched Kankuro and tracked Lee down. That's what his Alpha pup side had said to do, so he obeyed. He didn't like what he found. Lee was in a coma. His Omega was in a coma. Somebody had poisoned his Omega and the medics didn't know how to cure it. His partner. His mate. The one person who might actually love him unconditionally. The one person Gaara shouldn't be able to scare away.

No. No. No. No.

His Alpha wailed. But Gaara hunted, and he hadn't needed to hunt for long. A Sound ninja came to him, boasted about taking out his mate, and that he would do the same to him. That he would prove his strength and worth.

The fool had come to Gaara on a full moon.

He had gleefully tore the man apart and listened to him scream. But not before getting the antidote for Lee. His mate needed cured.

It took a while for Lee to be alone. His team were constantly around him, his sensei, or a pregnant Omega with silver hair, although that man only popped in every so often, he usually lingered around Sasuke Uchiha instead.

The man had met his eyes a few times and smiled.

The Omega was a strange one.

Sometimes another Omega appeared too, the female Uchiha, with a pink haired girl. The pink haired girl Gaara was going to kill at the finals. He would enjoy her blood staining his hands. He would enjoy all their blood. But the jonin always met his eyes too, and she smirked. No smiles there. Only a smug little smirk. That jonin made him wary, especially when her eyes flashed red.

Finally Lee was left alone. Alone long enough for Gaara to tip the cure into his mouth and coax him into drinking it. He didn't realise the Uchiha female was the reason he managed to get inside. He hadn't realised Lee's sensei had been hoovering over Lee so protectively because Gaara was around. He only realised it when he left and saw her watching him with that smirk and those red eyes from the tree he had been perched in before.

Something inside him quivered and Gaara retreated. He didn't like that Sharingan.

.::.

Guy was crying, but this sounded more like from joy than from distress. Still the sound made Kakashi turn away from his duty to relieve Tenzo and go to Lee's room. A doctor was there, just exiting the room, so Kakashi asked what was going on.

Of course Guy shoved the doctor out of the way in his excitement to share the news. The poor soul. May he rest in peace after being frizzbeed into a wall.

"Kakashi, Lee is recovering!" Guy was about to grab him, but paused, then instead pulled him into a surprisingly gentle hug. "Sorry, must be gentle for the little one. Anyway!" He pulled back, beaming. "Whatever antidote that red headed boy gave Lee is working. Izumi was right. I'm glad I finally let him sneak in."

"It wasn't sneaking if everyone knew about it," Kakashi said blankly, but smiled. "I'm glad Lee is recovering though."

"Yes! It's such a relief. Although I still don't know how he got that antidote, or why Gaara decided to help Lee."

"Maybe because they are mates?" Kakashi reminded him.

Guy groaned. "He's such an unsuitable mate... So angry and bloodthirsty..."

"Maybe Lee could help him out with settling that?"

"That shouldn't be Lee's job." Guy scowled.

"No, but it should be Lee's choice, and Gaara's of course."

Guy whined. "I don't like it."

Kakashi groaned. "You're just as bad as Pakkun."

Guy perked up. "Oh yes, what about your student? Has he woken up yet?"

"Still sound asleep. The curse mark did a number on him and his Omega half, especially since neither of them are grown adults. It's going to take them a while to recover," Kakashi said, grimacing. "And with it being on his gland like that..."

Fucking Orochimaru. If he had gone and bonded himself to Sasuke he'd rip the bastard to shreds. Sannin or not. Or he could just get the baby daddy to do it. Bribery might work well, or just putting him on the couch for a week or two.

"Maybe a few more days?" Guy suggested hopefully.

"Or weeks." Kakashi frowned. "And the longer he's out the more I worry. About him and Izumi. If something happens to Sasuke..."

Guy nodded grimly. "She'll go after Orochimaru, regardless if she can face him or not."

"And I don't know if she can beat him." Kakashi grimaced. "No, I think she will fight him until one of them dies."

"Especially if..." Guy squirmed. "I don't know what happens to a pup when their gland has been marked like that."

He gagged at the idea. Orochimaru might have forced Sasuke to be mated to him. But Sasuke was just a pup.

"I don't know either," Kakashi admitted. "But his Omega is still a pup. He's not had his first heat yet."

"True, it might not even register because of that," Guy said hopefully.

He hoped that was correct, but Kakashi had no way of knowing. He didn't know anything about pups being bitten on their glands before. It just wasn't done.


So a lot of people might be surprised that I chose water for Sakura rather than the usual earth style that most people use. I want Sakura to be more like Katara from Avatar. I love Katara and I wish Sakura had been given more time to develop in Naruto and grow into someone as strong and amazing as Katara had been allowed to be. Also water jutsu and healing just sound like they go well together and I'd like to play around with that if I get the chance :)