1 2

.

.

.

She didn't respond right away. Instead, her ghostly eyes lost their focus behind the contradicting stark gaze of her lion mask and stared at his eyes unseeingly. What did he even expect?

But time wasn't really on their side at the moment. They didn't have another option.

It was hard, being the one to bring her the bad news about their reality. "Hyuuga, It's your choice. I'll do what you command."

She blinked forcefully multiple times. She still had what it took to be rational. "Anything… do anything to keep me alive."

Sasuke nodded. But it wasn't relief at all that he was feeling… just knowing at least they were walking on the same ground. "Good choice," he said as he removed his fingerless leather gloves, "This will be your only chance to command a captain."

With what little control he had, he lowered her waistline to settle it on her knees. Little by little her pale skin that looked too flawless and felt too smooth for an Anbu was exposed, glistening under the moonlight, tantalizing his laboriously achieved self-control.

Once her core bare to his eyes and nose, it was almost unbearable. Its scent burst the most intense.

He barely touched her and she was already dripping wet. It shouldn't be that hard if she was already in this state to begin with… He was most scared of himself actually, scared of losing his sanity when trying to make her sexually satisfied.

Sexually satisfied… would making her cum be enough?

His eyes widened at his last minute revelation.

It better be enough. He didn't have any kind of protection with him and having sex while in heat is a foolproof way to reproduce… they weren't ready for that. He wasn't ready for that.

He made sure to enter her gently, but any slower he might be the one getting insane.

She was so tight.

Sasuke licked his bottom lip. He only inserted a finger.

He entered the second finger. She moaned, her hands finding their way to grip his biceps and he almost lost his balance. Her scent whirled around him in powerful waves, making him dizzy, making it harder to breathe.

It felt so hot inside her. Just his fingers were not enough. It's not enough.

I want to penetrate…

feel…

savor… every depth of her body.

All for myself.

There was this strong urge to look for her neck. Sasuke ignored it by inserting a third finger.

All of her—stop! Stop it you damn Uchiha! Control yourself!

Her walls tightened around him and he was barely holding himself on the edge.

Hold yourself. I mustn't—

"Ahh!" his partner moaned in a long, loud whine. He could feel the intense flow of her essence from deep within trying to find its way outside.

In an instant, he could breathe normally again. Her scent had subsided and with it its effect as well.

Did it work? "Has it subsided?" he asked almost in a daze.

"It has," she replied quietly. He couldn't see her eyes since her head was turning to the side.

He removed his fingers from her. Eventhough her body didn't release pheromones any more, her essence was wafting but the same binding scent. It had coated his fingers quite thoroughly and he had this powerful desire to taste it.

In his hast he rose to his feet to save himself. His legs brought him to the riverbank in only two strides. Now crouching, he rubbed his hands violently with the help of the rippling stream in fear the scent would linger despite his best effort.

Yet it didn't fade so easily.

Whatever he was trying—diverting his thoughts from it or trying to overcome himself—was not working. So he stood again, still with his back facing her, then put on his pack, hands fumbling unnecessarily as if arranging the straps. "Go on your way once you're ready, I won't be too far."

Sasuke immediately leapt to a tree then sprung over multiple trees forward before settling to the one he deemed safe enough.

Once settled on a sturdy branch, with one knee raised to prop his arm, the longed relief finally washed down all over his body. It was his best decision throughout the mission so far; putting distance between them. He could finally breathe comfortably again and still be able to sense her and possible danger around them.

He was glad… to a surprisingly extreme degree. Glad, he didn't end up going all the way and in a way hurting her to some extent.

What exactly was this extreme relief he was feeling when not a minute ago he'd had an enormous desire to claim her?

What the hell has just happened?

Everything that had happened since meeting her had been everything but commonsensical. From finding out that his supposedly Beta-Anbu partner was in fact an Omega because of the heat she was experiencing, to the point of subconsciously believing that the same Omega was also his fated partner, everything about that night had thrown all logic he might have already had out the window.

He was even more convinced that he was the cause of her heat.

Sasuke closed his eyes as he took deep breaths and released them while taking his time.

It never occurred to him that he would meet his fated partner … and in a way that he knew right away just by looking at her. He couldn't explain it himself, he just … knew. It made actively opposing or as simple as paying no heed to it as unreliable options.

Apparently his partner took her time as well in what little privacy he had provided her. They should have reached Konoha's border by now had they not encountered any setback. As someone who had always valued time in anything, the thought alone should have infuriated him.

Yet it didn't. Since it also gave him the time needed to recover his wits.

He'd had suspicions, more like personal inclination or some sort, that her pheromones only affected him. He had to wash the notion down the drain though as some moments later, he had to take his time slaying enemies that came their—her way.

They appeared one after the other. All five were Alpha—filthy Alpha with bloodshot eyes and enhanced canines making appearance.

He wondered if he had looked like them at some point that night.

Strangely, the thought didn't bother him that much, but the fact all five Alpha had come in a rut invoked what he had been trying so hard to subdue; his own feral instinct.

With menacing grin and eyes glaring red at his preys, he made use of this much darker side of his he discovered only recently to make sure his message get across; they shouldn't have had the slightest nerve to trace for the pheromones' source, to even taste the barest whiff of her scent… to even be alive.

They shouldn't have.

All in all, Sasuke welcomed the distractions nonetheless.

Birthdays after the massacre had never been memorable to him, but that night was quite a memorable night.

Because when he was turning twenty five, he found Hyuuga Hinata.

Once she felt she was alone, Hyuuga Hinata took her time on the way to home.

He had said he'd report to Hokage himself. But not more than exactly ten minutes after, he found himself leaning on a tree, ten feet above ground, on the side of some road he had never gotten the odds to visit before, eyes blazing red from one hundred metres away with her as his subject of observation.

His brain was chiding him relentlessly, insulting himself as a stalker. But inside the deepest recess of his … heart, he knew this was what he should do.

He didn't know why. He just knew. He just wanted it. He had to make sure she got home safely. He had to witness it himself.

With all the uncanny happenings in this one calm night, he conceded it was right to cut some slack for himself at some point in life. This one night was exactly one example of that. The report could wait… he could be as close to going nuts if he didn't listen to what he believed was his true need.

The earth was still exuding its breezes in waves and she never bothered to do something with her hair despite the wild movement it had taken course due to the wind. He didn't mind either, he admitted he find the view quite endearing. Something caught her attention as she put a halt on her leisure walk. Her head then turned to the side slowly, Sasuke caught himself straightening his posture subconsciously, wondering, is she activating her Byakugan?

She didn't turn all the way to his direction though as she left the pavement road to the bushes instead. She crouched down, arms extended as if reaching for something behind the bushes.

He had no idea where her house was and when he decided to be here instead of reporting his mission right away as how he should have done it minutes ago, he hadn't calculated that it would be marred with distractions on her part. She was enough distraction for him, he didn't need more.

Moments later, she backpedalled as she rose to her feet with a kitten held safely within her embrace. From the distance he was in and with the help of his eyes prowess, he could only make out its fur to be completely black. Aside from it, the kitten looked completely fine.

It also hadn't occurred to him the possibility of how close her place was to the kitten's previous spot. It was. Actually, it had been exactly across from her building.

The long haired woman entered the humble three story building but left the main door open. Before he gathered all his thoughts about how absurd her actions had been, she reappeared still with the kitten and a small sized plastic container on one hand. She lowered herself into a crouch position on the small space filled with greenery planted on each sides of a short pathwalk in front of her apartment building. He put the kitten on the ground, head nodding and tilting to the sides as if she was talking to the cat and hands opening the lid of her cointainer.

Sasuke scoffed, but he was just deeply amused.

After a short time of watching the kitten gobble down its food, he deduced it was safe to leave now, so he did.

Like the rude Captain that he was known for, Sasuke entered the Hokage's office without bothering to knock. The Hokage was seated behind mahagony desk and instead on his shoulder his traditionally hand embroidered robe neatly dangled on his reclining chair. The silver haired man's face was covered behind a very familiar looking book, save for his half-lidded eyes who were all but completely focused to the book with way too bright orange cover.

He turned over a page, his fingers idle in their movement. "I didn't expect you to report at half past two in the morning, Sasuke." His dark eyes never leaving the paragraph he was reading as he continued, "you know, it's passed my working hour."

Sasuke ignored him as he pulled out a scroll from his pack. Even if he wasn't expecting him, Kakashi wasn't the type to work by the clock. He wasn't the type to go home either… for unknown reasons. Sasuke never made it a priority to find out.

"The targets have been delivered to Kirigakure," he revealed, an arm extending to put the scroll on Kakashi's desk. "By now they don't need any assistance in handling them."

Would the enemies in the middle of the trip home still present if there wasn't any heat?

Sasuke's hand hovered midair for a split second, but it was all Kakashi needed to detect his hesitation. Kakashi put down his book with its opened page flat to the desk, his eyes finally searching for his former pupil's. But Sasuke's eyes were looking at nothing but the scroll as if not sensing the curious stare from his former sensei now turned Hokage.

He sighed, inwardly of course, as he eventually parted with the attention seeker scroll. "We encountered five rogues along the way," he confided the truth at last.

"Five?" Kakashi said in response, the most expressive he had been throughout their exchange that night. He interlaced his fingers under the chin, humming softly. "I thought your plan would diminish the rate of sudden attacks."

Dark eyebrows arched subtly. Their eyes met at last. "Have other teams reached you?"

Kakashi's dark gray eyes narrowed, barely perceptible, but even Sasuke didn't need his Sharingan to notice. "They all got here by midnight at the latest. There wasn't any attack."

Sasuke nodded on impulse. "The plan succeeded then."

"Indeed," Kakashi too nodded before his head tilting to the side. "So something must have happened to you and your partner… a Hyuuga, I believe?"

There was no way out of this, Sasuke concluded. Kakashi wasn't one to beat around the bush and one thing he had learned religiously from his former sensei and had always been putting it to use was that social skill among many others.

Sasuke was also the type to face whatever it was thrown his way.

"Kakashi," he started, still maintaining eye contact. "What do you know about fated pair?"

Author's Note : sorry for the late update, I've been busy. *sigh* Let's just say I deliberately made time to update because today is my birthday xD. Send me loves and wishes, guys! But, foremost, what you think about this chapter.

Love,

- Crowds (21-04-22)