Whilst Gaara had requested for his return to the village be kept as low-key an announcement as possible - perhaps a few posters placed in strategic locations before he would quietly return to the public eye once more - his traitorous shinobi's had their own plans.

His head throbbed in time with an ache that matched that of the festive drum beats that carried from up the streets and into his office, and Gaara had immediately thrown up a wall of sand around the interior of the room, sealing himself in with his pack and Chiyo. Baki instinctively reached over to flip on the overhead light, and the glaring brightness invoked a surprising reaction from Gaara - his sand lashed out in a violent, whipping manner and smashed the light tube into a shower of shards.

In the silence that lingered uncomfortably, Gaara drew in several deep breaths before he muttered, "Sorry. It was too bright."

That excuse sounded weak even to his own ears, and he inwardly frowned at his lack of control.

Undaunted, Temari reached for the table lamp that sat on Gaara's desk and clicked it on. Gaara winced automatically at the warm light, but he did not react in the same agitated manner as he did to the glaring fluorescent overhead light.

Truthfully, it was his throat that was bothering him more. After his revival, Kankurou had slipped him a canteen of water, which he greedily drank in a matter of seconds. Kankurou's amusement as he handed him another canteen quickly turned into alarm when its contents vanished just as rapidly. But Gaara knew he could make himself sick if he drank too much, too soon, so he refused the third canteen with a shake of his head.

He was regretting that now.

With his supreme control over sand, Gaara was the envy of many whenever he willed sand away from his body as he travelled, which allowed him to remain mostly dust-free as he traversed his domain. However, even as he subtly kept the sand off himself on their way back, his throat continued to feel unreasonably heated and scratchy, as if he had walked headlong into a sandstorm without his defences, and it reminded him of the rare occasions when he had been taken ill with a cold.

Well, a sore throat would not be the worst thing in the world to suffer from, considering he recently recovered from the normally incurable disease called 'death'.

The redhead refused to succumb to the urge to rub at his throat, knowing that the ache was within and that no outside comfort would soothe it. Yet the thought of drinking more water seemed insufficient to him in spite of his thirst; instead, his tongue was begging for something sweet to coat it. Very strange.

"I've sent for our medic-nin to give you a full once-over, Kazekage. I'm a bit too old to be catching some of these new-fangled tricks that Akatsuki or the slug princess' apprentice may have used on you." Chiyo's tone was affected with false cheerfulness, and Gaara recognised it at once as the old woman's way of coming off as harmless. A perfect shield when she wanted to withhold information from him.

It was just too bad that he was as tenacious as a wolf on a fawn when he needed to be. Years of stubbornly clashing with his councilmen had taught him that the more agreeable the disposition of his council, the more they were trying to run counter to his goals. Small wonders that he did not just kill them all when he took on the title and installed a younger, more progressive council in their place.

Oh, right. He was trying his best to be cordial after all.

Heat pooling uncomfortably in his stomach, likely a lingering effect from whatever Sakura had done to him - his brain offered up helpfully - and he braced himself for a dozen different answers as he asked, "Why can I still control sand?"

Temari and Kankurou looked towards Chiyo in clear confusion. Their youngest brother was born with the ability to manipulate sand, thanks to the sealing of the Ichibi tanuki demon inside of him while he was still growing in their mother. That act had likely resulted in his premature birth, and the stress of carrying a Jinchuuriki no doubt contributed to their mother's death shortly after Gaara was born. That he could still manipulate sand so effortlessly despite Shukaku being gone seemed all but impossible to them both.

Chiyo's smile fell, and she defiantly glared at Gaara as she pointed a finger at him, "You were the only one of Rasa's children to possess Magnet Release. That made you the most compatible host for the sand-wielding Shukaku."

"Magnet… Release?" Gaara's brow bones drew together in mild confusion.

He knew from an early age that his grandfather and father both possessed the Magnet Release kekkei genkai, which was how they came to be able to control sand. Both men had gone a step further, mixing metal into their sand as they wielded them to change the property of their weapon. When Rasa had borne two children, both lacking in his famed kekkei genkai, the council grew tired of waiting and had ordered Shukaku to be sealed into his still unborn child so they could keep up the illusion of the Kazekage clan holding dominion over the desert.

Clearly, the act was not necessary, if he did possess his family's kekkei genkai. Which begged the question…

"Why?"

"The council voted to play it safe, and it was the right choice on our part. You would have died before you could be born, sickly as your Omega mother was. Instead, Shukaku kept you alive long enough for you to grow strong enough to survive outside of her womb."

Of course. The mysterious Omega mother of whom his father had all but blamed him for when she passed away birthing him. The Alpha Fourth Kazekage had been inconsolable for a full month after his mate's passing. When he finally returned from his self-imposed exile to spare his villagers the brunt of his rage, his demeanour - once carefully guarded - was now positively cold; Especially towards Gaara. From his earliest memories, Gaara was entrusted to the care of his maternal uncle, Yashamaru. Rasa stayed firmly in the sidelines, watching carefully for signs of his son's manifesting Jinchuuriki powers. He only began taking a greater interest in training his son personally after Yashamaru's failed assassination attempt on the boy, and had drilled into his youngest the expectations of him as the next clan Alpha.

When Temari's secondary gender manifested just weeks before they were headed out for the Chunin Examinations, Rasa's lips had thinned in displeasure, and he left the Kazekage building without a word after learning of his daughter's newfound designation. It was not impossible for two Alphas to manifest within the same sibling pack, and certain prestigious clans such as the Uchihas boasted of numerous Alpha siblings within the same family packs. But such occurrences were rarer in the more improvised village of Sunagakure, and within the Kazekage clan, it was unheard of for two Alphas to come from the same sibling pack.

"Don't disappoint me," he had said to Gaara just before they left with Baki for Konoha.

It would be a year later, after Gaara's body stubbornly refused to display either Alpha or Omega tendencies, that he finally understood what his father had been really implying.

Well, one last disappointment for his dead father, Gaara supposed; That his Beta, youngest son would end up inheriting the title of Kazekage and protecting the village instead of his Alpha sister. While the Suna council would have much preferred to have an Alpha for their Kazekage, they also wanted their Kazekage to be the strongest male in the clan.

And Sabaku no Gaara was the strongest shinobi of not just the Kazekage clan, but of the entirety of Sunagakure as well.

"So, this is why I can still control sand." Gaara stared at the sand grains that drifted lazily in the air in front of him, as they shifted and slid against each other in the form of the wall he had erected around the room. "The council must be pleased to know that I have not lost everything, then."

"You are still strong. Shukaku's influence on you only made you stronger, and your mental fortitude greater."

At Chiyo's words, the redhead let out a deprecative snort. That he had survived eighteen years of sleeplessness while a monster whispered murder and retribution in his ears was a miracle in itself (though Shukaku became a more agreeable roommate of sorts after his humiliating defeat by the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki). Only the Suna council would view anything less than a full psychotic breakdown as a victory to be celebrated.

He had strong suspicions that the victims he slaughtered under the sway of the tanuki demon did not share their sentiments.

"I should have died."

Kankurou shifted nervously on his feet, then approached the table to speak so that he would not have to raise his voice. "Don't talk like that. You don't know how many of our shinobi were cheering for you when you fought against Akatsuki, and how much they wanted you to win. If you had died out there…"

"Then Temari would have succeeded me," Gaara's gaze was cool as he levelled it with his brother's. "The council gets the Alpha Kazekage they always wanted, even if she isn't the sex they wanted. And with our Konoha allies backing Temari, she would have been secure in her title, even if our elders are so strongly against the idea of a female Kazekage."

It was true. Suna was the only village among the Five Great Shinobi Nations to place the title of Kage solely on male shinobi. Any female child of a Kage's was automatically out of running for the title, and usually served as a handmaiden to the Kazekage's wife, the Kazehime. Gaara himself failed to see the wisdom of excluding an entire sex from the seat of power in Suna, simply because of what they were born with between their legs. It was fortunate that Temari had manifested as an Alpha, and with her designation came a slew of opportunities that a normal kunoichi would never have been afforded. And if she had been an Omega like his mother…

She would have been regulated to breeding stock, that thought sat uncomfortably on Gaara's stomach. Probably traded off in marriage to a distinguished clan to secure power for Suna.

The youngest son of the Fourth Kazekage never got to know his mother, seeing how she had died minutes after his birth. As a child, he was not taught about the secondary gender dynamics until he was closer to eight, and by then the only familial link he had to his mother was gone - his uncle's blood mixed forever into his personal store of sand. Thus, Gaara only learnt much later about how his own mother had been bent to the council's will to fall pregnant successively, in hopes of her birthing a vessel for Shukaku. Had the tanuki demon not been stolen from him, his own children might have been relegated to the same fate, and that thought should not make his heart lighten, even as he bore the weight of losing such a crucial part of their military power on his shoulders.

Not that he gave any thoughts to furthering his family bloodline; He was too young, and the council was barely tolerating his rule as it was; There were some on the council that bore grudges against him for having taken a loved one or several from them.

Or maybe that was the case, and the council desired to sink their claws into his progeny instead, hoping to get into their ears while they were young enough to be shaped to their desires. Kankurou and Temari understood the responsibilities that came with the hat Gaara inherited, and the three of them stood firm to present a united front against the council's schemes.

On his seventeenth birthday, an unusual number of young, beautiful women were presented to him at the celebrations, prettily batting their eyelids at him as they flaunted their bosoms and trim waistlines through indecently low necklines and cuts of dresses. It was easy for him to recognise for them what they were - skilled seductresses, ordered to tempt him into taking one or perhaps even several of them to his bedchambers and perhaps secure a child before the night is over. That most of these women also happened to be Omega had made his stomach turn, once he realised how they were coerced simply because of their designation. Fortunately, Kankurou had been on hand to press candied ginger discreetly into his palm throughout the night. Temari did her part by using a regular-sized fan to push their oppressively sweet scents back, her own nose wrinkling in annoyance. As she was heterosexual, their female Omega scents did nothing for her. By the end of the night, it was Temari who had lost her temper ahead of Gaara from a headache brought on by their overwhelming scents, outright snarling at those harlots to stay away before she unleashed her Alpha pheromones into making them submit and run away.

It was obvious that even after all these years, there were councilmen and daimyo's who still held out hope for Gaara to present as an Alpha, and had hoped to secure his loyalty by having him tied to one of their family's Omega females. Watching his sister navigate the politics of being an Alpha - in which 'gifts' of delicate-looking Omega males were sometimes sent her way by the same councilmen (and sent back in the same general direction with an unholy gust of wind) - Gaara was only too glad that he was born a Beta.

Now, with Shukaku gone, perhaps he could finally be a normal Beta.

… Fine. A Beta Kazekage.

Damn that hat.

Protecting his village and his people was a great honour and responsibility; Enduring endless stacks of paperwork while his councilmen squabbled and bickered like school children amongst themselves while in front of him were the parts no one told him about. The Hokage sent a case of sweet sake when he wrote to her a simple one-sentence message shortly after his sixteenth birthday - "How do you deal with your council, esteemed Hokage?" Whether she had forgotten he was underage (and sent it as a belated birthday gift), or she just thought alcohol was the best way to make council meetings tolerable, Gaara had no clue to this day.

"The villagers do seem very excited to have their Kazekage back. Perhaps we should order tomorrow a day of festivities?" Baki suggested, and the sound of his genin teacher-turned-advisor's voice brought him back to the reality of his situation; Stuck in a dark room, surrounded by familiar faces, and a blasted headache right between his temples.

He gritted his teeth and leaned forward to rest his forehead against his laced fingers, the coolness from his own skin a temporary reprieve. "Do as you please," he bit out, and completely missed the looks of concern exchanged between his packmates.

A muted series of raps came from his office door, and it took Gaara a moment to recognise it for what it was - his sand had distorted the sound, and compounded with his headache, he was not as sharp as he should be.

To be fair, he was also dead several hours ago.

"That must be our medic-nin." Chiyo turned towards the direction of the door which was still hidden behind a veil of sand. Gaara dropped the sand that was blocking the door, and Baki moved to open it.

A timid, mousey-looking medic-nin immediately bowed deeply at the threshold of the entrance. She continued to stay bowed, and Gaara realised that she was waiting for his acknowledgement. "Step forward," he called out. She affected another quick bow before finally entering the room, and came to stand a respectful distance away from the front of his desk, her eyes carefully averted from his.

"K-kazekage-sama, I've been ordered to give you a thorough physical examination…?"

Why did it sound more like a question than an order?

Gaara's eyes flickered briefly towards Chiyo, conveying his displeasure with the sternness of his glare. If this was the calibre of their medic corps - shrinking, quiet and incompetent - it was no wonder his brother had to be saved by a Konoha-nin, and in turn, himself as well. This had been a glaring oversight on his part, and the redhead knew he could only blame himself; His focus had been more on rebuilding the village and establishing more profitable commerce, to enable his people to enjoy better lives. While he did have control over the shinobi academy and improved the quality of their teachers and studies, the medic corps had remained firmly out of his hands and in Chiyo's - the much-revered village elder whose specialty lay more in concocting poisons than healing.

Yes, there definitely was an oversight that he needed to correct sooner rather than later. Perhaps he could speak to the Hokage about hiring some of their medic-nin, seeing how instrumental Haruno Sakura had been…

Haruno Sakura.

Of course. The kunoichi that had saved their lives. That was her name. Naruto's girlfriend.

Or at least, that's what the blond claimed several times over the years, as he bashfully waxed lyrical about his pink-haired kunoichi teammate and how beautiful her smile was, and how the green of her eyes reminded him of springtime in Konohagakure, and…

"Kazekage-sama?"

Gaara blinked, carefully concealing his surprise as he realised he had been silent for too long and was now the subject of everyone's scrutiny.

Schooling his features into neutrality, he spoke to the frightened-looking medic-nin, "I don't actually require a check-up right now. I feel perfectly fine. If anything, we should be conferring with the Konoha medic-nin who saved me, should we not?"

Was that a hint of resentment in the girl's eyes as he brought up Sakura?

In any case, it was quickly concealed by her bowing deeply once more, still bent-over as she replied, "Of course, Kazekage-sama. As you have ordered, so it shall be. I will send for her at once instead."

Before the medic-nin could leave, Baki stepped forward. "Perhaps we should let our allies rest before we summon them to be interrogated, Kazekage-sama. I understand that they fought hard, and their medic-nin had spent hours working on you. She must be in need of rest as well."

It was a valid point, and Gaara nodded in agreement. Having heard the exchange, the medic-nin nodded once before closing the door behind her. The Kazekage then turned to his siblings and gave them some brief instructions, mostly pertaining to ensuring that their allies would be afforded a comfortable night's rest, and that any of their needs were to be met (within reason). Kankurou had shrugged, "You think this is the first time we have foreign-nin as honoured guests? Temari and I will get them squared away. You, little brother, need to go get some rest as well."

Temari glanced from one brother to the other, then approached Gaara's desk to lean towards his face. The Alpha part of her was still anxious over almost losing her brother, and a reassuring inhale of his scent would have normally calmed her.

Except that his scent was still oddly metallic and… had a hint of something woodsy to it now. She could not place what type of wood it was, not having been exposed to as many types of greenery as she would if she was born in a wetter climate. He used to smell like white sage and thyme, and the irritating sharpness of his scent made something inside of her want to bare both her teeth and throat at the same time.

"Do you want us to send anything up to your chambers before we leave?"

His answer came almost immediately. "Fruits."

Temari reared backwards in mild confusion. "Fruits," she muttered, eyes narrowing sceptically, "You never liked anything sweet, including fruits."

"I can't change my mind?" Gaara's sounded insulted at his sister's bafflement, but he collected himself and altered his tone to a softer one, "And I don't really care what type of fruits. I just want something wet to eat."

"It'll be taken care of, Kazekage-sama," Baki interjected to keep the peace, his Beta senses heightened by the waves of Alpha pheromones that Temari was releasing in her confusion. Between the three Betas and one Alpha in their pack, they have grown familiar with each other's personalities, and were quick to step up to play peacemaker with each other. Baki considered them all lucky that Temari's Alpha pheromones were more muted compared to a male Alpha's, as otherwise, her distress would not be doing Gaara's nerves any favour at this moment.

Once his pack and Chiyo had left, Gaara gave himself several minutes more in the dark, hoping that his headache would lessen. Instead, all he could focus on was the sheer emptiness inside of his skull, his companion since he was a baby completely gone. In a fit of agitation, he rose to his feet abruptly, pulling his sand walls away and throwing the grains back outside. His gourd had de-materialised and was scattered across the dunes where Akatsuki had slain him, and it made more sense for him to construct a new one than to waste time trying to recover those granules, even if he had spent years infusing his chakra and the blood of countless enemies in them.

A fresh start, he realised, as he lightly fisted the portion of his robe that rested over his heart. It was an opportunity afforded to so few, and yet even as he cradled the idea in his hands and mind, he felt woefully unprepared to deal with such a gift.

Maybe he was not meant to have peace. Maybe he was better off bearing the weight of his sins alongside his title, a reminder to Suna of what their thirst for power had brought upon them.

With that sobering thought, he made for his room, hoping that maybe the familiarity of his meditation chambers would help the throbbing in his head. Perhaps he needed to re-centre himself with meditation, and maybe even sleep at long last, to try and finally find peace in the quiet that he had always dreamt of.

Damn tanuki. You may have left, but your curse has not.

"Sakura?"

Kakashi had omitted using the 'chan' suffix when calling her, and combined with the seriousness of his tone, it all hinted to Sakura that she was about to be confronted with something she would not like.

While the Kazekage's family was conferring with him, the Konoha teams were taken to one of the wings of the Kazekage building, and they had made small talk among themselves in the cosy waiting room until Kankurou arrived half an hour later to take them to their accommodations for the night. He quickly nabbed both Naruto and Sakura by their arms and took them to the front of the group as they made their way to one of the nicest hotels in Suna. "They rolled out their red carpet for guests only last month!" Kankurou had proclaimed, "You guys will be in some of the fanciest and newest digs in Suna. Gaara had to argue with the council to get the funding for it, but it is going to earn its cost back before you know it. If the seasonal merchants and daimyo's are going to complain about a lack of resort-style hotels in our village, they'll finally get one that they'll be happy to pay for!"

"Whoa, Gaara is pretty shrewd, gettin' his council to go along with that. Baa-chan can't even get ours to give her a drinking allowance! She needs to come to ya guys for tips!"

Sakura reached around Kankurou's head to soundly smack Naruto in the back of his, and the blond yelped in surprise. When he turned to glare accusingly at her, Sakura shot him a scowl and said, "Don't talk about our Hokage like that, Naruto."

No one needed to know the true extent of Tsunade's drinking habits. Bad enough that Shizune and herself had to wake the Hokage more often than not as she dozed among empty bottles at her desk; Other villages did not need to know how deep Tsunade's weakness for drinking went.

Completely oblivious to Sakura's real reason for defending her Kage, Kankurou grinned, leaned in and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, "Hey, Gaara's a pretty competent Kage, you know. But between you and me, we know he can stand to learn a lesson or two from yours about relaxing. He is so uptight and guarded around everyone, that I feel he is missing out on his teenage years."

What a strange comment to hear from one shinobi about another, and Sakura's pinched expression told Kankurou just as much. They were, in effect, child soldiers; An idyllic childhood was wishful thinking at best. Sakura herself was learning to stitch together broken bones and ruptured organs since she became Tsunade's apprentice. Not immediately at the age of thirteen, but several months after her training, the practical lessons had begun, and with it came the increasingly frequent appearance of small, injured creatures placed in front of her to heal. Her lack of skill meant their blood on her hands and their deaths in her heart, and some days she went home with shoulders bent under the weight of her failures.

Gaara had to know what he was signing up for as he fought to prove himself the most worthy of the Kazekage title, right?

The walk to their accommodations was a relatively short one, and Naruto had filled up the trek with conversation, inquiring openly about Gaara's condition. Kankurou's replies had been cryptic at best, and Sakura could not blame him - they were walking past too many civilians, and none of them needed to know how close they came to needing to appoint a new Kage. It would stir up undue concern and worries among Gaara's people if they knew he had died earlier today.

As Kankurou left them at the lobby at the hotel, he turned to Sakura and said almost as an afterthought, "The Suna council would like to speak to you tomorrow morning around eight. We will send for you then." At the alarm she must have been showing at his words, the brunet quickly added, "You're not in trouble. They just want to know what you did for our Kage, and Gaara will be there to make sure they don't overstep any boundaries in their line of questioning." He finished his words with a grin that was disarmingly cheerful.

Somehow, the idea that Gaara would be there as well send a little spark of heat through her, reassurance wrapping around her like a cherished caress. He had always been polite to a fault in their interactions since the disastrous Chunin Examinations, likely due to her perceived closeness to Naruto whom he considered a dear friend. He never apologised for pinning her to a tree when he hunted down Sasuke, though, and Sakura never pursued one from him either; It was perhaps an embarrassment to him to have not only lost control, but lost his battle in the end. In any case, that was in the past, and she could not find it in herself to bear a grudge against him after Naruto explained to her in somewhat broad strokes about Gaara's less-than-ideal childhood and constant insomnia. It was a half a wonder that the Fifth Kazekage had not lost all grip on his sanity and instead became a beacon of guiding light for his village.

Naruto had forgiven the redhead and embraced him as a close friend and Jinchuuriki brother after the exams, and upon his return to Konoha, had complained loudly that Gaara had beaten him in their sworn oath to become Kage's together. As for Tsunade, she had the least problem in her dealings with Gaara compared to her other Kage's (even if she did make a few snide remarks about him being far too serious for his age). There was no doubt in her mind that she would have an ally in her dealings with a foreign council tomorrow.

And right now, with Kakashi staring at her like he was thinking of the best way to tell her that her beloved cat had died, that spark of heat had turned to ice in her veins, and she held her breath in silent prayer for him to say something that would not tear her world apart.

The silver-haired jonin closed the door to Sakura's suite behind him, and she noticed how he was at least able to walk around on his own two feet now after several hours of rest; Had they been back in Konoha, she would have whipped up a concoction to help him restore his chakra at a much faster rate, but she did not have a supply of the herbs with her, and she was not certain that she would be granted access to Suna's greenhouses to search for them either. Kakashi glanced around as if to check for the presence of others, his trademark lazy slouch all but gone as his gaze swept over his surroundings. When it was clear that Sakura was alone in her assigned room and had no visitors, he tapped his pointer finger to the side of his nose once.

Oh, stars.

She automatically slapped one hand over the back of her neck, feeling for the presence of her decoy Beta scent patch; It was still firmly in place, the dry desert air making it cling almost painfully to her skin. She had just applied a new one after she had finished healing Kankurou and was about to head out with her team to find Gaara, so it should still be good for another two weeks. None of the shinobi around her had noted the sweetness of her natural Omega scent, and no one seemed to have taken any particular notice of her foreignness either (both in her nationality and her secondary gender), if the way they all worked together to save Gaara was any indication.

So why was Kakashi implying to her that he could pick up her Omega scent under her obviously working scent patch?

Cutting right to the heart of the matter, Kakashi came to stand in front of her, his visible eye locking firmly with hers as he asked, "Sakura, when was your last heat?"

She shot up ramrod-straight in the armchair she had been lounging in, all but forgetting the words she had been searching for to explain how she had done the impossible and stole from the Kazekage from death's clutches. The blush blooming on her cheeks Kakashi knew was not the result of the setting sun's warmth, but he needed to address the fact that she was putting herself in danger of exposing her Omega status that she had fought so hard to conceal for over five years.

"I… last month? I know I spent five days - my usual stay in my heat room." Sakura continued to blush as she recalled how her previous heat had been a little more trying than her usual ones, the urge to touch herself much stronger than before as she finally crossed the threshold of puberty and into adulthood. She had only barely resisted the idea, knowing that the liberal flow of slick she was experiencing would only increase further, and her nest would be an utter mess to clean up afterwards; She had recently gotten it to be exactly how she liked it, the way certain pieces of clothes cradled her head and supported her limbs as she sunk heavily into her fabric heaven. She would loathe to have to discard any of the pieces if they were rendered unsalvageable.

Kakashi tilted his head the way a confused dog might have done, except that instead of appearing charmingly befuddled, he looked almost disbelieving of Sakura's answer. "Unless your cycle is off, which I would be able to tell as your pack Alpha, there is no reason for you to be having another heat so soon. You are in pre-heat right now, your pheromones tell me as much. Do you have more scent patches?"

Sakura nodded mutely, and immediately picked up her discarded medic pouch to openly root around within before she held up the two spares she always carried with her - one for an emergency, and the other in case the first one failed to work.

"Good. Use them both right now."

"Why?" She had asked, even as her fingers worked to tear the packaging off one.

"Suna is… backwards in their treatment of Omegas," Kakashi's nose wrinkled, as if he had physically smelled something distasteful. Sakura tore the first one into halves, then stuck them carefully in place over the scent glands on the inside of her wrist after pushing her gloves out of the way. She rarely bothered with covering those glands there, as a female's wrist scent glands were not as powerful as a male's, and she had worn her gloves all the time when on missions (removing them to properly place her hands on Gaara's chest aside, so that her chakra could flow unobstructed). The other one she was ready to place directly underneath the one already on her neck, but Kakashi plucked it from her hands and motioned for her to turn around. She complied obediently, tasting the gunpowder and mineral oil scent of his as he broadcasted his Alpha displeasure - directed not at her, but (hopefully) more at the situation she was in.

As she lifted the hair at the back of her head out of the way for him to easily see the nape of her neck, Sakura involuntarily shuddered as he leaned forward, pressed the tip of his nose against the currently-applied scent patch, and inhaled deeply. "This one is working, but somehow, your Omega pheromones are slipping out over it. You are definitely going into heat, for your scent to overpower a patch so easily."

It was not common, but it happened often enough that Omega shinobi always carried extra scent patches in case an unanticipated heat came upon them. Most scent patches were rudimentary in their design, often bearing scent oils smelling of the foliage of their native lands. Sakura, in an attempt to not only hide her Omega status, but also sought to project herself as a Beta, went to the extra measure of lacing Beta pheromones in these homemade scent patches. She had picked something woodsy, to hide the sweetness of her natural scent, and it had worked well for her all these years - none of her teammates ever thought to question her Beta status.

Except now her team leader and pack Alpha was doing exactly that. Her ears pricked up at the noise of the adhesive on the new patch being peeled off, and the cool, slippery brush of scent oils and chemicals as Kakashi stuck the extra patch directly under the previous one caused her shoulders to seize briefly before she forced herself into relaxing her stance. Removing the hand that she used to hold her hair out of the way, she turned around at her neck to look at her teacher, and was surprised by the kindly crinkling of his eye as he smiled down at her.

"Ah, it's probably nothing serious. You expended a lot of chakra healing the Kazekage, and your body probably got confused."

"Well, it should un-confuse itself, then. I need to get back to Konoha before my full heat hits me." She was surprised by the surety in her tone, as if she had resigned herself to the fact that she was indeed experiencing an earlier-than-usual heat; It was now a matter of being dismissed by the Kazekage to signal the completion of their mission before they could go home, and she suddenly found herself missing the sanctuary of her nest.

Noting the way her lips had thinned in finality, Kakashi sighed and reached over to tousle her hair, carefully brushing the side of her cheeks as he did so in order to press his wrist scent glands against her; The rush of recognition at her pack Alpha's domineering, reassuring presence had an instantaneous effect on her, and Sakura closed her eyes at the contact, barely resisting the urge to outright purr at his touch. The first time a mewl of contentment had escaped her lips from Kakashi's presence, they had both been so mortified that a game of hide-away ensured for almost a week, and it was called out and stopped by the Hokage who could not see what the fuss was all about - Sakura's tutelage under Kakashi was to resume, her Omega tendencies surfacing and resulting in awkward moments simply had to be ignored by both moving forward.

He continued to run his fingers against her scalp, scratching lightly in a way he knew would not mess up her hair too much that normally caused her to become upset ("I don't always have a comb with me, Kaka-sensei!"), and when he finally withdrew his touch, Sakura had to fight back the urge to chase after his retreating hand.

"Better?"

A small nod, and Kakashi smiled reassuringly at her. "You'll be fine tomorrow. Go get a good night's rest so you'll be ready for whatever the council throws at you. Keep your chin up, and never back down - just like you would in Konoha, got it?"

Sakura nodded again, and it was only later that night, when she was halfway falling asleep, that she suddenly realised that whilst Kakashi had warned her against the plottings of the Suna council, he had not conveyed that same sense of caution against the Kazekage. Naruto may have embraced Gaara as a dear friend, but Kakashi saw him only as a foreign politician and shinobi who had grown in power and strength. It was such a small, inconsequential matter that she could not find an explanation for the unreasonable racing of her heart at the realisation.

It's my pre-heat causing this, Sakura chided herself, Nothing else is wrong.

Except when things did go wrong, it went terribly, irrevocably wrong.