The summon came bright and early the next morning - a soft series of raps on the door to her suite; Sakura practically flew out of her bed before the third knock could register against the solid wooden door, blanket kicked off high into the air from the sudden noise. She had slept poorly the previous night, a combination of her impending heat making her body run hotter than it usually did, and a case of nerves that she still sometimes felt even after years of being thrusted headlong into life-or-death situations.
And nothing could have rankled her nerves more than trying to relax whilst knowing that she would be required to face a foreign village council and be thoroughly grilled the very next morning. The cold Suna night that greeted her as she pushed open a window in the early hours of the morning provided some comfort, but the strangeness of her surroundings sat ill with her. There were no familiar insect sounds nor cold dew clinging to the glass panes as she traced absentminded circles on it, her breath barely fogging up the surface. The frigid night air carried with it the voices of retiring merchants and night revellers, their voices bouncing and echoing up to her high dwellings, becoming one with the breeze. In the end, she resorted to pressing her forehead against the unopened half of the window, welcoming the brief respite that the night chill provided.
When she finally pulled back and exhaled heavily against the panes, she had blinked in confusion at what her finger had unwittingly written on the glass, a familiar kanji staring back at her against the misty condensation of her sighs.
Sakura blamed it on the intense healing session she had spent on the owner of said kanji, and she quietly touched her hand to her heart, her greatly-diminished chakra levels shifting in her like the slow ebbs of a dark ocean; while healing him, she had to pull back some of her chakra every now and again to monitor the progress of her patient, and Gaara had selfishly held onto every drop of chakra she had given him. The way his body absorbed everything she had to give scared her out of her wits, and she had likened the sensation to being perched precariously on a ledge staring into a void of endless darkness - looking in and seeing nothing. When his body finally relented to her pleas to return some of her chakra, it was to send a surge of his own chakra against hers, pushing and forcing and working itself into her body, practically violent in its demand to reach every part of her form and soul.
Powerful. Dangerous. Potent.
She should not have expected less from the chakra system of a Kage-level shinobi, even as its tendrils curled around her chakra pathways, running alongside of her own and moulding itself into hers and oh… Oh.
That must have been the reason why she was able to revive the dead Kazekage. His chakra had purposely fed itself into hers, telling her what its owner needed and re-shaping that which she was channelling into him so his body could receive her gift of life. Such a response wouldn't be unheard of - the saliva from a breastfeeding baby would send biofeedback to its mother, whose milk composition would then change to meet their child's immediate needs. A natural cycle from child to mother that made sense… in its own miraculous way.
This, though? It was outlandish.
It was unheard of.
It was… exhilarating.
So that was how she must have succeeded when death was all but certain, and she quickly filed that away for re-cataloguing in her brain; it would not do her any good to blurt this out in a mish-mash of jumbled thoughts in front of the Suna council, so she would need reword her thoughts into something more simplified for her non-medic audience. More straightforward.
The Kazekage's body responded to my chakra, and his own chakra told me how to heal him.
… Ok, that sounded ridiculous even to her own ears.
Shaking her head lightly to focus her attention on the reason for her stirring, Sakura reached for the doorknob. She barely took notice of the shinobi… no, kunoichi that was standing in front of her as she opened the door to greet her escort. Mercifully, she had gone to bed in a modest set of pyjamas, helpfully supplied by the hotel management (and no doubt due to the influence of the Kazekage's family, or more precisely, his older brother). When they had first arrived in Suna for their mission, they had been assigned to standard dormitory-like rooms befitting of their shinobi status, Clearly, their status had changed significantly after the successful rescue of the Kazekage.
"Haruno-sama." The greeting from the brown-haired kunoichi was polite, but otherwise devoid of any sense of friendliness, and Sakura could not suppress the odd feeling that she knew this young woman from somewhere. "The Suna council is requesting your presence in an hour's time. I have been asked to escort you to the Kazekage building where the meeting is to take place."
Maybe it was her impending heat, or maybe it was her shinobi senses, but something in Sakura told her to not make this kunoichi wait for her while she was getting ready. Her escort did seem somewhat fidgety in her movements, and the pull in her brows implied that she was not happy being tasked with essentially playing fetch for the Suna councilmen.
"I know how to get there…" Sakura paused, tilting her head as she peered at the kunoichi in a manner that she hoped came off as friendly even as she struggled to place a name to the face in front of her.
"Matsuri," her escort offered up her name, and ah, now her air of resentment made more sense.
The pink-haired kunoichi had all but chased all non-vital personnel out of the hospital ward while she was extracting the poison from Kankurou's body, the task requiring her utmost concentration; hearing the bemoaning of several kunoichi (which included the brunette kunoichi standing before her) as they lamented the loss of their Kazekage and blaming his brother for not doing enough to save him had rubbed her the wrong way, especially when Sakura was in the position to see how close Kankurou was to dying. He had continued to fight long after the poison had bleed into his organs, obviously considering the rescue of his brother a greater priority than himself - Sakura would not sit back and let others belittle his efforts so cheaply; she could not.
Sakura nodded, her expression turning neutral and professional as she acknowledged, "Matsuri. I will make my way there shortly. If anyone asked, I told you to let me go by myself. So if I do get lost along the way, I'll take full responsibility." She finished her words with what she hoped was a smile that was friendly, but not condescendingly so.
Realising that Sakura was being painfully polite to her, and not having a good reason to refute her, Matsuri simply bowed and left without another word. Sakura watched her disappear down a corner of the corridors, and waited two more breaths before she stepped backwards into her room and shut the door. Instinctively, she slid the security latch into place, even as a part of her snickered at the idea that something so rudimentary could stop any shinobi worth their salt from breaking into her room.
Her morning routine done and one quick change of clothes later, Sakura began making her way to her destination. Similar to the Hokage building, the Kazekage building cut an impressive figure against the rest of the village. Though it was the same shade as all the architecture of Sunagakure, its massive spherical shape made it stand out the same way the Hokage building's telegraphed its grandness with its scale and bright reds. As it was on a direct path from the hotel which they were staying at, it was simply a matter of placing one foot in front of the other to reach it.
As she made her way towards the building, she found herself finally embracing the opportunity to take in the sights of the village, noting how much brighter the sun was for the time of the day compared to Konoha; their mission had left her with little downtime. When she was not taking care of Kankurou, she was with Temari going over the region's maps as they tried to work out where Akatsuki might have taken their captive Kage. The Sabaku siblings had been as cordial to her as two ally shinobi could be, and she smiled at the memory of Kankurou offering to buy her a thank-you drink while she filled out his discharge paperwork ("You're old enough to drink, right, Sakura?" "No, I'm only eighteen." "Close enough.").
The bustle of activities from merchants and nearby residents told her that most of the villagers must have been awake for hours already, and it made sense; in the desert, one would be wise to avoid the heat of the midday sun, so businesses usually opened an hour before dawn, took a mid-day siesta of sorts, then reopened after sundown until the moon had climbed high into the sky before retiring for the night. A drastic change from what she was used to in Konohagakure, but adapting to the culture and practices of a different village was of utmost importance, according to Tsunade. After all, she was the Hokage's apprentice, and had to hold herself in a manner that was befitting a direct representative of Konoha and her Hokage at all times.
Well, so much for feeling calm about her impending meeting now.
The Kazekage building was upon her sooner than she anticipated. Sakura blamed her inattentiveness, and shook her head lightly to dislodge the last of the murkiness from her still sleep-deprived mind. The building was encircled by a massive wall, with at least a dozen different entrances leading to the inner sanctum. However, there was only one specific path that would take a visitor to the entrance of the Kazekage building itself, and if nothing else, the number of guards on that route clued her in to the correct path.
Still, not a major concern for her, as Temari had taken her in and out of the building multiple times in the past few days, the both of them poring over maps and some intelligence reports that Sakura assumed she had no business knowing the contents of.
"Shikamaru trusts you," was the blonde kunoichi's reply when a Suna ANBU arrived with a missive that she had immediately cracked open, and Sakura was starting to slink off into a corner when she was stopped by those three simple words. Feeling somewhat awkward due to her status as an outsider from Konoha, Sakura continued to stand where she was until Temari beckoned her over and surprised her further by thrusting the unfurled scroll at her, seeking a second opinion on the deployment direction of their scouts.
It became apparent that the Nara prodigy and the Kazekage's sister were closer than mere ambassador-escort to each other when Temari called for refreshment an hour later. Some green tea was served alongside a few small plates of what Sakura assumed was grilled meat, and when she reached for a skewer of it, Temari shook her head, "You won't like that one - it's spicy. Try the green stuff on the other plate instead."
Ambassadors don't bother learning about a foreign shinobi's food preferences, especially if said foreign shinobi had barely crossed path with her more than a handful of times in the past five years. That Shikamaru had discussed his friend's tastes in food with her could only mean two things - he had officially ran out of things to talk about to the Suna ambassador, or they were close enough to discuss the more mundane aspects of each other's life. Shikamaru was the unexpected friend that she had found after Sasuke's defection, and they often spent time playing shogi while chit-chatting over everything and anything under the sun - Ino's latest attempts at dieting, the Hokage's overhaul of the medic-nin program, the newest fawn born in his family's forest…
Everything and anything.
It would explain why Temari had been accepting of her from the moment her team had arrived at the gates of Sunagakure, though the level of trust definitely soared after Sakura finally declared Kankurou out of the woods and safe from the effects of Sasori's poison.
"Haruno-san?"
Sakura blinked owlishly at the sound of her name, looked to see that she was wandering down a deserted hallway, and finally turned around to regard the speaker.
Inattentiveness could get anyone killed, especially a shinobi. But to be fair, she had her pre-heat symptoms distracting her - a coil of dancing heat that seemed to link her heart to her womb, each beat echoing softly against the most feminine part of her.
Red hair, red kanji, and red robes.
The colour of life's blood that she had seen spilt from both herself and the young man in front of her not even a day ago.
Sabaku no Gaara. The Fifth Kazekage. Her supposed ally against the Suna council.
He was standing a dozen paces away, arms crossed behind his back. His chest was pushed forward by his posture, and part of her was vaguely aware that he was much broader of shoulder and at least half a head taller than her from when they had last met; even his hair seemed a little longer, but still wildly untamed in its windswept manner. Gaara had been shockingly diminutive in his stature when they were both thirteen, and he had been shorter than even her at that point. Clearly, biology had worked its magic on him even after a lifetime of insomnia and battling a headstrong Bijuu, and he had filled out in a way that only a man could.
"Kazekage-sama," she greeted, and immediately bowed low at recalling their respective stations. They had both been genin at one point, even competing against each other at the same Chunin Examinations. However, his achievements had clearly leapfrogged hers, setting him on the path to become the youngest Kage ever while she remained a chunin and a medic-nin-in-training.
"Stop." His command came out agitated, almost rudely curt, and Sakura could not help but jerk out of her bow to stare at him, one hand raised to her chest in surprise at his tone. The startled look in them gave Gaara pause, and he squared his shoulders briefly before relaxing his stance to speak in a more polite tone, "You have saved both the lives of my brother and I. The Kazekage's family is in your debt. You have no business bowing to me, or anyone else, in Sunagakure."
She could not help quirking an eyebrow at his explanation. "The standard protocols of greeting towards the council and Kage, especially when one is not a Suna-nin…"
"Protocol and decorum are not the same thing," he replied, and a hint of a smirk played on his lips so minutely that Sakura thought she had imagined it, "Besides, I am the Kazekage, and I am ordering you not to bow to anyone else for the rest of your stay here."
Oh. That definitely sent a quicksilver of heat down her spine - being commanded to disobey for a change. No matter how much she tried to stay in character as a Beta - learning the confident posturing of a Alpha to combat her nature urge to shrink back into herself, daring to challenge orders even when the Omega part of her sought to please at every turn - being told that she could act outside of the expectations for a kunoichi of her standing was something she was not expecting. Especially not from the Kazekage.
"As the Kazekage wishes, so it shall be." Sakura smiled, and she too, folded her arms behind her back to stop herself from instinctively bending forward in a display of making herself look smaller. In that moment, she became aware of a new scent in the air - something that reminded her of the forests in the Land of Fire, but still tinged at the edges with iron. It made her feel strangely at ease despite the severity of its notes, and she fought to remind herself that she was in the presence of the highest-ranking shinobi in a foreign nation. "But, if an international incident should arise from my perceived slighting of the Suna councilmen…"
"I'll just have them executed before they can send a message back to the Hokage," came Gaara's deadpanned reply. His completely placid expression lent credence to his words, and Sakura's eyebrows knitted in concern as she considered both his tone and expression.
"… Was that a joke, Kazekage-sama?"
"Of course it was. I would have to find new councilmen every other day if I eliminated them for the smallest offences." Gaara's frown mirrored hers, and his lips thinned as he realised that perhaps his sense of humour was not so readily shared by others.
Kankurou did say he needed to work on his comedic timing and delivery. As if he had the time for that.
Deciding not to comment further on Gaara's strange idea of what passed for humour, Sakura shifted to her left to press closer to the corridor - an invitation for the Kazekage to walk ahead of her. The redhead closed the distance between them, and Sakura could not help but tip her chin down somewhat as he drew closer; a strange compulsion to not stare too deeply into his eyes, or study the nuances of the mark on his forehead as he drew close enough for her to reach out and touch.
Yet that desire was sorely tested when Gaara came to a complete standstill when he was abreast of her, and he tilted his head in askance, "Shall we, Haruno-san?"
He wanted her to walk alongside him, and for some inexplicable reason, that made an ache manifest and tug inside her skull, and Sakura fought to conceal the momentary flare of sharpness with a quick nod of her head. Taking her nod as a signal, Gaara resumed his walk towards the council's meeting room. He kept his pace measured to avoid outstripping Sakura's, and Sakura in turn tried to take longer strides to match the speed at which his longer legs ate up the distance. It took them about half a minute to more or less synchronise their footsteps, and Sakura had no idea why she had heaved a sigh of relief when they finally fell into tandem.
Probably because I would look stupid if I tripped and fell in front of the Kazekage, she reasoned to herself.
Unfamiliar as she was with this particular part of the building (perhaps she should have taken up Matsuri on her offer to escort her, but she had seemed put-off by her task; the last thing Sakura wanted to be was a burden), she allowed Gaara to guide her down the series of winding corridors with his softly spoken instructions or hand gestures. Each sweep of his hand or turn of his head caused more of his woodsy scent to escape into the corridors, and in the silence that hung over them in-between the sparse words he spoke, Sakura finally felt comfortable enough to speak and practically blurted out, "Do you require a medical check-up? I'm worried if I've done enough, or if I've done too much, and what the effects of a missing Bijuu after a lifetime together may have on both your physical and mental health."
Gaara froze and came to a dead stop, and Sakura nearly tripped over in her haste to not end up walking ahead of him. When she finally looked up to meet the Kazekage's gaze - because of course she had somehow managed to avoid looking into his strangely intense jade-green irises this entire time - it was to see a fleeting expression of confusion that was soon overtaken by the slow, deliberate arching of his left brow bone.
No eyebrows. Right.
"Your sense of responsibility is very commendable, Haruno-san. I can assure you that you have done me a world of good already, and that I have been feeling fine." Gaara absentmindedly reached up to pat his sternum lightly, and his fingers automatically rubbed at the rolling waves of heat that had been stirring under his ribs since his return from the dead. It was just warmth, nothing worth troubling a medic over, and certainly not the medic-nin that gave him almost all of her chakra not even a day ago. "In any case, I understand that you have been summoned back to Konoha for urgent matters, so you shouldn't feel obligated to me."
"Huh?"
Sakura quickly schooled the bewilderment on her face to a more neutral expression, and it took her brain a moment to catch up before she could summon up the acting skills to exclaim with sudden clarity, "Oh! Yes, of course. The mission!"
Smooth, Sakura. I bet that convinced him, her brain cheerily chimed in.
If he sensed something was amiss, Gaara did not feel it was his place to call it out, even as he noted a sudden burst of sourness in her normally pleasing scent that often indicated a lie had been told. Sakura was a Konoha-nin who was not under his command, and he had no rights to ask for more details. Also, Temari would have been proud of him for remembering that in addition, Sakura was of the female persuasion, and women preferred to keep certain parts of themselves secret (his sister's relationship with the Nara clan heir was in itself an extremely poorly-kept secret, but Gaara nonchalantly pretended that it was never on his radar). So instead, he resumed his footsteps, adding, "Hatake-san explained that his team had been called back by the Hokage for a matter of import, and had requested that our council try to keep the meeting short. I have given him my word that I will keep their line of inquiry focused only on matters relating to your healing done to me, and you will be free to leave right after that."
Right, her heat. Kakashi as her pack Alpha was looking out for her. Under normal circumstances, an Alpha would have insisted that the Omega under his protection be taken away to safety at once, and in this case, would mean grabbing Sakura and thrusting her into the safety of her nest to spend her heat in. However, Konoha and her nest by extension were three days' journey away; two, if they pushed themselves hard. Her heats usually came two days after her pre-heat started, so she was already risking a full-blown heat away from her nest. Since Kakashi could not take her away without the Kazekage's official dismissal, requesting for immediate departure after an expedient meeting was the best he could do.
"Thank you," she whispered, genuinely grateful for this respite.
"Apple?"
At the very unexpected response to her words, Sakura could not help but stop abruptly in her steps. Gaara was half-turned towards her, his right arm held out and at the end of it - an apple; looking unblemished and crisp and completely mouth-watering in his palm.
Red hair, red kanji, red robes, and now, a red apple.
Perhaps finally finding Sakura's dumbfounded silence too much to bear, Gaara brought the apple back to himself. In slow motion, she watched as his lips parted, his teeth came into view, and oh, his canines were so long. Were Naruto's even this sharp? Was anyone's? Was this a physical manifestation of the Bijuu's lingering effects within a Jinchuuriki? And why was the Kazekage of Sunagakure offering her an apple, of all things?
The point of his canines sunk deliberately and carefully into the curve of the fruit, puncturing its skin and causing a small gush of juice to escape from where his teeth had found purchase. Her eyes were instinctively drawn to the contrasting white of his teeth as they sunk deeper and deeper into the fleshy fruit, vanishing as his mouth closed over them to form a seal around where he had pierced the apple. The momentary peek of his tongue as he lapped at the oozing juices sent a distinct thrill down her spine, and Sakura willed herself to stay motionless; as one would if they were being confronted by a dangerous beast.
Gaara was no beast, though, she told herself. He was a respected Kage by not only his people, but was held in high regard by her mentor as well. And Naruto loved and trusted Gaara like a brother, unlike… him.
His eyes still locked to hers, he pursed his lips around the fruit, then pulled back slowly to show off the chunk of apple that he was holding between his teeth. Heat danced and rippled in the pit of her stomach, treading dangerously close to her womb, and her heart drummed in rapid staccatos in her ears, in her chest, and in her mouth. Sakura's breath was trapped in her lungs, her eyes drawn to the glint of sharp, sharp fangs, and she only remembered the need to breathe when the apple rolled back onto his tongue and finally vanished behind the closing of his lips.
Crunch.
A series of chews, too loud in the deserted corridors (was it echoing?), and she watched the solid bob of his Adam's apple as he finally swallowed the fruit. Saliva had pooled in her own mouth in the meantime, and the heat between her ribs was starting to become uncomfortably humid with the moisture that her skin was shedding.
It is the Suna climate. I am unused to this heat.
Gaara held the apple out to her once more, the part which he had taken a bite out of now turned towards her. She blinked once, twice, to clear the dull fog that had settled over her senses. If nothing else, the cleanness of his bite indicated to the medic-nin in her that he took his dental health seriously.
"It's not poisoned, if that was your concern."
When his words finally registered for her, Sakura had to bite back a yelp of mortification. She did not mean to imply through her hesitation that she was suspicious of anything the Kazekage was offering her, but it must have came off that way to Gaara, anyway. Holding both hands up in a placating manner, she quickly explained, "Oh, you misunderstood me, Kazekage-sama! I didn't mean to imply that… I mean, what I meant was…"
Gaara allowed her to fumble and trip over her own tongue a few seconds longer before he pulled the proffered apple back, and Sakura once again realised that she had not been maintaining eye contact with him the entire time she was struggling for words. By the time she found the strength to force herself return his gaze, it was to be startled speechless by the smile that was tugging on the corner of his lips. In the reassuring gentleness of his expression, she fought back against the rush of blood to her cheeks, which was apparently impossible to control given the combination of Suna's mid-morning sun, her impending heat, and of course, her embarrassment.
"I'm just surprised, that's all." Sakura finally said in one long exhale.
The Kazekage gave a brief chuckle - something she had never heard from him, and the disobedient Omega inside of her raised its head to study its agreeableness to her senses - and offered his own explanation, "I wasn't certain if you have had breakfast, given the hour of the meeting. And if you were going to leave the moment it concluded, I wanted to make sure that you at least had something to eat."
Resigning herself to the fact that she had made enough of a fool of herself already, and stubbornly refusing to expose anymore weakness in front of another village's Kage, Sakura nodded; even if she wanted that apple - and by the stars, it looked so sweet and practically dripping with juices - Gaara had already taken a bite out of it.
Indirect kiss, her brain pointed out to her, and her teenage brain should not be so focused on that. But she was saving her first one for Sasuke, so…
"I've had breakfast." It was the truth, if one counted the protein bar and half a cup of cold tea she had downed that was leftover from last night.
His shoulders rose and fell in a shrug, and he brought the apple back to his mouth once more.
Crunch.
"Just around the corner," he indicated after he swallowed that second mouthful.
Around said corner, Sakura came face-to-face with the largest set of inside doors that she had ever seen, and she automatically tilted her head backwards to take in the entirety of its height.
A quiet snort from her companion, and when she looked at him, it was to see the knowing smile in his eyes. "'The bigger the door, the bigger the ego.' That's what you are thinking, right?"
Would it be considered insubordination if she voiced aloud such a thought about a council, even if those councilmen were not from her own village?
The hint of towering trees and foliage stirred against her senses once more, indicating to her that Gaara's mood remained a congenial one. With that reassurance, she allowed herself to answer him with a small smile of her own, "I hope that sentiment stays between us, Kazekage-sama."
"Naturally," he promised her.
The sudden creaking of the doors as they slowly swung open almost caused her to take a step backwards, and it was only the sight of Gaara staying in place that she managed to tamp down that desire. That was when she noticed that Gaara had lifted his other hand, and was directing twin streams of sand to push the enormous doors open.
Sakura had no idea how Gaara could continue to wield sand despite losing his Bijuu; intelligence reports that indicated that Shukaku was the only reason why the Fifth Kazekage had control over sand, and it made sense to everyone - why else risk turning a Kazekage's child into a Jinchuuriki, if not to ensure their nation's military might and the continuation of sand manipulation powers within the family? She had obviously not been privy to the meeting between the Kazekage's family and Chiyo, and somehow, she knew the answer to her curiosity must have laid there.
Hey, Kazekage-sama, can you tell me why you can still control sand? I know the loss of Shukaku must have been traumatic for you, and you are certainly still recovering from your untimely, if temporary death, but I just got to know how and why your powers still work.
Right. That would go over so well.
Telling herself that it would have to be a curiosity that would never be sated (the scientist in her crumpled in disappointment), Sakura squared her shoulders and turned to face the door.
And had to be immediately steadied by a warm, firm hand, pressed solidly into the small of her back as she automatically leaned backwards.
Alpha.
As the door parted, a gust of air had rushed towards them both, most likely due to whatever air cooling system the Kazekage building employed. It carried with it the scent of all twelve members of the council who were awaiting them - mostly Betas, from what Sakura could tell. But there was one much stronger scent of burning leather that had assaulted her senses, and its pungency and keenness told her that she was facing an Alpha amongst them. Under normal circumstances, Alpha pheromones had little to no effect on her, as used as she was to Kakashi's repeated exposure of her to battle ready-levels of his own.
It's my heat affecting me, she told herself, and she pumped a small dose of chakra into her legs to keep them from trembling under her, lest she gave herself away.
"Don't show fear," came Gaara's quiet whisper, and his hand curled and dug into her lower back muscles, curving around her to keep her upright. There was a slightly pinched look on his face, and perhaps he was displeased by the blatant Alpha scenting that his councilman was attempting. Alpha pheromones had little effect on Betas, but some of them liked to use it to remind those around them of their superiority, anyway. Though, Sakura was not certain it was wise for a councilman to challenge his own Beta Kage in such a manner; things were different in Suna, as Kakashi had reminded her.
She tried to turn her attention to the room that she would be entering. Everything about the council's meeting room was constructed in such a way to show off their power and dominance over Suna - the high-ceilings, the ridiculously large round table where they were seated around its perimeter, the enormous statues of the previous Kazekage's staring down at them…
She swallowed her nerves, and nodded minutely. Gaara felt more than he saw her nod, and his hand slipped away from her. The flow of cooler air took his place behind her, and in the loss of his touch she felt oddly light-headed, as if she was almost floating on her feet. Unaware of the inner turmoil in his companion, and completely misinterpreting the reason for her discomfort, he offered up a small smile.
"Their bark is worse than their bite." A sly peek of his teeth as he spoke, and she found her eyes drawn to the points of his canines once more. "And over the years, they have learnt that I am the one with the real bite. They can't do anything to you with me here."
The apple appeared in her line of vision once more, cradled in Gaara's palm. He angled it towards his mouth, jaw dropping, and -
Crunch.
It was a good thing that Gaara was no longer touching her, for he would have surely picked up on the tremor that raced through her at the sight of his teeth cutting into the fruit once again. If she was a betting woman, she would have wagered good money that the Kazekage's odd sense of humour lent to his teasing of her in his strangely predatory mannerism. But one look at his jade-green eyes, bright with sincerity and conviction, and she knew that he meant no malice in his words. Tsunade had in fact made the offhand remark once or twice that the young Kazekage favoured directness over the flowery speech patterns of her peers, though she was certain it would change if he hung around too much with his council.
"To the end of his boyhood, and the day he becomes a man," Tsunade had offered up a mock toast as she was perusing a scroll penned in a polite if no-nonsense manner by the then seventeen years old Kazekage. Sakura did a spit-take at the double entendre in her mentor's words, and the cheeky smirk that Tsunade threw her way told her that she knew exactly what she was implying.
Most of Kage's earned their titles in middle adulthood, and as a teenager, Sakura did not want to imagine any of them getting naked or engaged in adult activities. Tsunade's remark conjured up several unsavoury images in her mind, and she had to dig her fingernails into her palms for the rush of pain to push away those frankly disturbing images. And when her brain kindly reminded her that the Kazekage was the same age as her and it was not so bad to imagine him in a less-than-attired scenario (red hair, red kanji, red robes was all she remembered of him from his inauguration photos, and the few photos in the later years printed by the newspapers, so her mind had to supply a few very necessary, extra details), her face had burst into flames; Sakura fled right out of the Hokage's office and did not return until an hour later when her hormones were finally back under her control.
She did not need that particular memory surfacing right now. Not when said subject was practically pressed to her side, close as he was to her as he stood unwaveringly beside her. His eyes reflected back concern when she looked up at him once more, and of course - she wanted to slap herself - the Kazekage was waiting for her to cross the threshold and enter the council room before he did so himself.
He did promise to stand beside her. Perhaps he had meant it literally.
Still, the Alpha pheromones continued to assault her senses, and they were fraying her already thin nerves.
"Submit!" Kakashi had snarled at her in the second year of their bond, and Sakura fought so incredibly hard against the urge to lift her chin that her entire body ended up tipping over backwards and she landed flat on her back instead.
Winded and in shock, she panted hard as her teacher's visage swam into her somewhat hazy field of vision, and the displeasure conveyed by both his eyes and pheromones made her want to sink into the soft grass under her and vanish. Kakashi leaned slightly over her prone form, and he made a gesture at her feet. "You can't be focused on your throat only, Sakura. As you fight to keep from baring it, it leaves the rest of your body exposed and still at the mercy of my pheromones. Every muscle and every nerve in your body wants you to yield, so what do you think you need to do?"
The Copy Nin was never the type of teacher to spell things out explicitly. That he was being so generous in his hints to Sakura indicated to her that he was starting to get frustrated with her lack of progress in the past few months; everytime he barked at her to submit, it was not a matter of if she would do it, but when.
She clambered back onto her feet, the overbearing presence of his Alpha pheromones making her attempt at doing so look completely pathetic - like a kitten struggling to stand.
Kakashi glanced down at her legs once more.
Oh, she realised at last, it's about balance.
Violent, demanding Alpha pheromones, curling and rising around her like waves. Instead of fighting to stand against the current, she would be better served to read its ebb and flow, and let it wash over her senses as any other unremarkable scent would.
Mineral oil and earth, laced with the crackling of gunpowder and something volatile. An agitated Alpha never smelt pleasant, and when that aggression was being directed at her, the pungency of his scent made her stomach churn uncomfortably, knowing that she was the source of his frustrations.
Alpha.
Stars, how she had wanted to lift her chin, show off the vulnerable skin of her throat; Subject herself to his thorough scrutiny, all for a morsel of the comforting scent that was his approval.
The narrowing of Kakashi-sensei's visible eye told her that her instincts were practically being broadcasted to him, and the disapproval rolled off of his scent glands in spikes of something charged, a hair-trigger away from being ignited. What she would be setting off would no doubt be viewed as another day, another failure notched up against the Omega within her, and another night of fitful rest as her failure sat like lead on her chest.
Her pack Alpha advanced once more; one step, two strides. Aura and form both unyielding and overbearing.
"Submit," he growled once more behind his mask, underneath which she could make out the outlines of his bared canines.
It began with the gathering of her chakra in her core, a tide of warmth rushing over her insides and filling her with so much awareness of her beating heart and humming nerves. This she felt and saw in her mind as hundreds of tiny chakra strings, and she closed her eyes briefly to breathe in deep and quiet the baying Omega in her that did not understand why she was not flopped over and belly-up already.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Let go.
The dancing threads of chakra - once rubbing insistently under her skin - was finally allowed to spill out from her pores and glide smoothly over her form. Like a blanket made of silk and gossamer they wove and knitted themselves together, layering over her like a second skin; or an armour. Sealed themselves tight over her and closing her off from the rush of pheromones that Kakashi was all but trying to smother her with.
When she finally opened her eyes, chest gently deflating from a long, drawn out exhale, it was to see a vaguely bewildered but definitely impressed Kakashi scratching the back of his head. "I was hinting that you could anchor yourself to the ground with your chakra, like you did in the tree climbing exercise," there was mild amusement in his voice when he finally spoke, "But I suppose you have found something that you can do a lot better with."
Sakura could not help the grin breaking out on her face, finally tasting victory like the sweetest nectar on her tongue, and her chakra cloak unfurled enough for her to pick up the approval in her teacher's scent.
The approval vanished just as quickly as the smile on his face, and he drew back into a battle stance. His left hand rose up over his face, pushing his forehead protector out of the way of his glowing Sharingan, and he barked out once more:
"Again."
Kakashi had trained her for a day just like this, she realised. Pulling a chakra cloak to filter out annoying pheromones came easily to her now, but the level of concentration required to keep it from unravelling made it impractical to maintain for longer than an hour or so, especially if she were facing a battle scenario (not quite unlike her current predicament); hopefully Gaara would be able to prevent his council from keeping her beyond that.
She lifted her gaze to meet the jade-green ones next to her, and nodded once. Gaara tipped his head briefly in acknowledgement, and they both turned to face the waiting council at the same time.
It was time to enter the lion's den.