,Haruno Sakura was a Beta.
At least, that's what her personnel records in the Konoha shinobi registry indicated.
Her civilian registry was altered to reflect that designation when she was thirteen and had her first period. Since secondary genders became apparent at the onset of puberty, and she had already updated her shinobi registry to reflect that fact, the village civilian administrative department was quick to rubber-stamp the update to her file.
In itself, her secondary gender came as no surprise to anyone; the Harunos were a civilian bloodline that boasted no particularly spectacular offspring, most of whom developed into Betas. Since over ninety percent of the population were Betas, her own Beta parents had simply smiled (and quietly heaved twin sighs of relief) that their only child would not have to have her entire life upheaved by having to obey a new set of laws governing the Alphas and the Omegas of their society - a mixture of village-mandated scent suppressants to stop unruly pheromones from upsetting the community, and certain political ones that would train them for their role as either a serving Alpha or Omega member of the village.
What they did not know was how Sakura had curled up and wept for an hour in the bathroom that night, menstrual blood running down her thighs for the first time in her life, as she fought against the relentless heat scorching from inside of her - like fire in her veins, fire in her skull, fire in her womb; slick trickling thickly alongside the red liquid as she pleaded and begged for nature to take back its curse upon her.
She knew there was something wrong the moment the unbearable fever inside of her grew and burnt hotter and hotter, until all she could bear to do was to throw herself under a cold shower, followed by a freezing cold soak several hours later. Running a mild temperature while having her period would have been textbook; feeling like she was being placed inside a microwave oven and slow-roasted from the inside was not. And when realisation finally struck her, she had to fight to keep the contents of her stomach where they were.
To be an Omega in her profession was damnation upon damnation. She would never develop the same physical strength as a normal kunoichi would, no matter how hard she trained; Omega biology would keep her body softer and fleshier, to better facilitate her role as a natural child-bearer (as if her sex had not held her back enough when competing with her fellow male shinobi classmates).
It was the heats that would hold her back the most.
Indeed, there were jutsu's and medicines to suppress and even eliminate heats for Omegas, most of which became viable for the general population to use in the recent years. However, none of them were meant as long-term solutions. An Omega ideally had a heat every three months or so, and suppressing it for more than three cycles would affect their ability to conceive in the future. Not an issue for a kunoichi who was not planning to have children.
Except that she wanted to. With Uchiha Sasuke.
Well, that plan had went out the window when he ran off in search of unfathomable power, anyway.
Still, just in case.
And even if it was not to be with Sasuke, the pink-haired kunoichi had always dreamt of having her own family one day.
Also, sexism was still well in place when it came to the treatment of Omega shinobi. Aside from the risk of a spontaneous heat, she would never be assigned to an undercover mission, lest she gave herself away with the sweetness of her natural scent that would immediately alert any nearby Alphas (which made no sense considering they were issued scent suppressants, but old prejudices were hard to overcome). There were a disproportionately large number of Alpha shinobi, with biology reasoning that since nature blessed them with superior physical prowess, they would have naturally excelled as agents of violence. The odds of running into an Alpha and accidentally stirring their dominant nature, be it through the unwitting baring of an Omega's throat or an unmated Omega's natural inclination to back off from any Alpha… Yes, it would have been a disaster.
Dealt with this hand in life three days after Sasuke's defection, coupled with the terrible states that her selfish demands had landed her friends in - Naruto insisted it wasn't her fault, that he had a duty as a friend to stop Sasuke from joining up with Orochimaru, as did Lee and everyone else - Sakura held off going to the Hokage's building to register her secondary gender for a whole month after.
Her first heat that came alongside her first menses had been depressingly painful and had left her a needy, sobbing mess (congratulations on becoming a woman, her mother would have cheered if she had known), and she did not want to be blindsided by her future ones; she could only delay letting the village registrars know for so long, before her next heat came to her again (fortunately not alongside her menses, as that was a one-time deal) - she needed to be registered as an Omega to obtain the heat suppressants accessible to all Omegas.
That had been her plan after she lost nights of sleep over it. Sasuke's abrupt departure and her friends' horrible injuries had all but soured her to the prospects of training as a kunoichi. She could easily switch back to the civilian school system, graduate with a trade or into a field of knowledge, and live out her life as a regular member of their community.
… Fine, an Omega member of their community. But at least she would not stick out like a sore thumb by attempting to be one of the few Omega shinobi of the villages, which included Iruka-sensei, if the rumours were true. That man was almost motherly in his ways, and his gentleness towards the academy children led to him being ridiculed on a regular basis by both his students and their parents. And now that she thought about it, he always had a slightly floral scent around him that she used to attribute to him favouring quiet moments alone in the communal gardens…
Even if she respected the man, Sakura did not want that for herself. Bad enough she spent years putting up with having her physical appearance made fun of; She could at least hope to grow into her looks, but she could never hope to outgrow her biology.
Heart in her throat and eyes on the Hokage building, she walked towards it, her paperwork all filled out and ready to submit to the registrar's office. Which probably explained why she completely missed seeing the green haori-clad figure as she turned the corner, bumping headlong into said person and landing on her bottom right after.
The pair of annoyed-looking brown eyes that fell on her immediately triggered her newfound Omega reflexes, and she had winced automatically under its scrutiny.
A second later those brown eyes softened with recognition, and their owner called out, "Sakura? Team Seven's Sakura?"
Oh. It was Senju Tsunade - their newly-appointed Fifth Hokage. And the realisation of the title of the person whom she had ran into made Sakura's Omega reflexes twist her features into a look of fear. The Fifth Hokage did not give off the domineering pheromones that an Alpha naturally extruded, but she had held herself with a bearing that was regal enough to put her on even footing with one. At her inauguration, Sakura vaguely recalled a local newspaper casting doubts on the Hokage's abilities given her designation as a Beta.
The same newspaper issued an apology the next day, alongside a coupon for discounted sake at one the most expensive liquor shops in the village.
Realising that the girl she had collided with was in no condition to speak, Tsunade sighed softly and bent down to pick up the scroll that had fallen out of Sakura's hands. Sakura watched mutely as the Hokage unsealed her scroll and read its contents, knowing that it would be disrespectful to withhold information from the most powerful shinobi in their village. She was also the most powerful medic-nin of their generation, if her successful healing of Lee's injuries was any indication - that meant the ability to destroy just as well as she could mend.
It seemed like forever before the blonde woman finally lowered the scroll from her face to regard the girl that was now standing meekly in front of her, hands folded behind her back as she fought the urge to verbally ask for the return of the scroll.
"An Omega kunoichi, huh?" Tsunade gave her a soft smile that she was not expecting, and that caught Sakura's attention immediately, "I haven't seen one in a very long time. Most of them turn in their shinobi gear immediately after their first heat. I'm surprised that you are not doing the same."
But she was planning on doing just that, and Sakura wanted to argue so.
If only her tongue worked, though.
"I've been going over the files of the new genin's in Konoha this last week, trying to make sense of the madness that I got roped into thanks to your blond brat of a teammate. He's been really beating himself up over not bringing the Uchiha boy back. That must be why he went off two days ago with Jiraiya on a training mission to get stronger, so he can fulfil his promise to you."
It was impossible to stay silent now, not with all the new information being presented to her, and Sakura's voice came out confused, "Naruto has left the village? B-but he never said anything to me!"
"Jiraiya is my old teammate and a somewhat reliable trainer. I mean, he did train the Fourth Hokage. I guess something in Naruto must have reminded him of those days and he was itching to take a new student under his wing once more."
Sakura tried not to be too obvious in her perusal of their new Hokage - Tsunade spoke of her own teammate training the Fourth Hokage, which would make him at the absolute youngest a man in his late forties. However, the Hokage herself did not look a day past thirty. The scepticism on her face must have shown, because Tsunade suddenly smirked down at her and raised a finger to her lip, winking conspiratorially as she whispered, "The wonders of good genetics, and maybe a medical jutsu or two."
A light bulb went off in Sakura head, there and then. "Hokage-sama, I know this is out of the ordinary, and I know you are an extremely busy and important person with many duties in the vi-"
"Oh, just spit it out already and stop with the ass-kissing!" Tsunade laughed as she waved her hand flippantly.
Emerald-green eyes ablaze with sudden, fierce determination, Sakura leaned slightly forward and spoke in her clearest voice in over a month - "Please, I'd like you to train me as a medic-nin!"
"Why?"
It was a fair question, and Sakura tried to articulate her reasoning as best as she could. "With my current… designation, I know I will be limited in the type of missions I can be deployed on. But if I were to be trained as a medic-nin, I will still be able to go on team missions and assist my teammates out in the field. And with the knowledge I will acquire as a medic-nin, I can more effectively suppress my limitations to becoming a contributing member to the Konoha shinobi."
Tsunade levelled her with a cocked eyebrow, then crossed her arms over her chest as she boomed out, "Denied."
What?
"I…"
"You," agreed Tsunade, "Tell me about what you want for yourself, Haruno Sakura. While it is very commendable that you think of yourself a part of a team, you are of no use to anyone if you do not seek out your own strengths to build upon. I'm not going to train a cog to be a part of the machine. If I want a student, I want her to be a damn battering ram to take down the whole machine."
A strange analogy, to be certain, but it was clear what Tsunade was asking for.
It took Sakura several moments to gather her thoughts, the light tapping of Tsunade's foot visible in her downcast gaze as she fought to arrange words into sentences that would speak what her heart wanted.
Clenching her fists to her side, Sakura lifted her gaze to meet the Hokage's and inhaled deeply before speaking once more. "I don't want to be a burden to anyone else, anymore. I don't want to be a crybaby, sitting back and watching my teammates become stronger all the time and be left behind in their dust. I want to be able to fight alongside them, and I want to fight for them.
"I want to fight for myself, for Sasuke, for Team Seven, and for Konohagakure. Most of all, I want to break down the barriers that nature has placed on me and defy the physical limitations written into my genetics. I may be an Omega, but that doesn't mean I am an Omega kunoichi. I will be a kunoichi first and foremost, as I had sworn to be when I applied for the academy."
The blonde woman brought her fingers to her mouth and hummed aloud, tilting her head as she continued to stare unblinkingly at Sakura whose own green eyes were bright with fire.
"I hate to disappoint you-" Tsunade began, and Sakura could not help the very obvious sagging of her shoulders at the Hokage's words. Only for Tsunade to reach for her chin to tip her gaze upwards to meet her suddenly mischievous ones. "-You will never out-race your biology, Sakura, but you can mask it and work around it. After all, things are not always as they seem."
Two quick taps of her pointer finger at the purple seal in the middle of her forehead, and Sakura wanted to ask what powers Tsunade was speaking of. Instead of answering the obvious question that was going to come from Sakura, Tsunade continued, "I will train you, Haruno Sakura. All I can say is, if you ever think of quitting, just know this…"
At this point, the blonde left her words hanging as she strode to the side of the road towards a pair of tall pine trees flanking a dirt path. Sakura watched her every move from where she stood, breaths coming out shallowly and ears perked as she tried not to miss anything or any word that the Hokage might utter.
She definitely did not miss the Hokage holding up her right index finger before she brought it down lightly against the trunk of one tree that must have been half a metre across. Two heartbeats later, the tree started leaning away, and it was clear that whatever Tsunade had done with her finger had cleaved clean through the trunk, leaving the tree to topple over soundly as it exposed a perfectly straight cut right across its middle.
Sakura's open-mouthed gasp of astonishment was repeated when Tsunade turned her attention to an opposite tree that was even bigger and tapped the same finger against it, causing the tree to combust into a mess of flying splinters and leaves.
Hands on her hips, Tsunade laughed boisterously and shouted out, "I can teach you how to heal, as easily as I can teach you how to destroy, no matter your physical limitations. If you can hone chakra, and if you are willing to put in the hard work…"
"Yes!" Sakura nodded, "Yes, I promise I won't disappoint you, Hokage-sama!"
"Not you, too. Hokage-sama here, and Hokage-sama there. I swear, you all are deliberately making me feel old. If you want to be my apprentice, you will refer to me as your 'shishou' instead, got it?"
"Of course, Tsunade-shis -"
"Oh, kami! My evergreens! The ones my great-great-grandfather planted as seedlings!"
Tsunade's eyebrow twitched visibly at the obvious cry of distress that was coming from somewhere down the dirt path, and she hiked up her leggings before bolting towards the Hokage building. Sakura only just regained her wits in time to follow after the fleeing woman, both of them barely dodging the wrath of the distressed landowner whose property that the Hokage had unwittingly trespassed upon and destroyed.
After a successful getaway, the Hokage motioned for Sakura to hand the scroll over. That she obediently did, and seconds later, she watched in silent horror as the scroll burst into flames.
"The first step to overcoming your biology is to not broadcast it," Tsunade explained, "I will personally make sure that you are not hampered when your cycles hit, and that your medical needs are attended to. It is hard enough for you to summon the will to challenge what nature has given you - you don't need the judgements of those snotty bureaucrats labelling and placing unnecessary curbs on you. You will fill out a new form, registering yourself as a Beta instead."
That made sense, of course. Why let a faceless administrator of the village decide for her a future she deemed so bleak just hours ago? If any of the staff at the registrars thought it was odd that the Hokage herself was accompanying a mere genin while she filled out mundane paperwork, none of them made mention of it. Senju Tsunade was as new to them as they were to her, anyway.
Once that was done, the blonde turned one-eighty on her feet and walked right out of the building. She must have sent out a secret signal, because a moment later, a masked ANBU member landed in front of them, bowing.
"Bring me Hatake Kakashi."
The ANBU bowed low and vanished at once, and Sakura had to bite her tongue to stop the flood of questions threatening to spill out from her.
Both women continued in silence, Sakura barely taking notice of the balmy spring weather as they made their way on foot towards the edge of the village. She did, however, notice the greetings from several villagers and shinobi towards the Hokage, who smiled and waved back in acknowledgement; villagers young and old alike did not fail to treat her with respect, and even those who might have deemed her unworthy of her title due to either her fairer sex or secondary gender still made the effort to nod at her as they passed by.
This is Naruto's dream, she recalled to herself.
Sakura wondered briefly if her blond teammate would turn out to be a Beta like Tsunade, or an Alpha like most others who come to hold the title of Kage. A domineering personality was much more suited to one that would become the leader of one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, thus the assumption that a Kage was an Alpha by default. Tsunade was clearly defying those expectations, and it suddenly filled Sakura with hope that perhaps, she too, could come to defy those expectations of her designation.
They both ended up at one of the furthest training grounds in the village, and even from a distance, the orange cover of Kakashi's pornographic reading material was obvious to Sakura.
At least he made the effort to tuck the book away as Tsunade came up beside him.
"You summoned, Hokage-sama?" He straightened his posture, still very much in the infancy of learning the nuances of their new Kage's personality; it would be safest to be polite and respectful until they became more familiar with each other.
Wordlessly, Tsunade nudged Sakura in front of Kakashi.
His scent, which had never been particularly remarkable to Sakura before the presentation of her secondary gender, hit her like a ton of bricks - potent like the rich mineral oils used to sharpen their kunai's with, and the additional scent of freshly turned earth that reminded Sakura of more idyllic days spent at the florist shop with Ino as they repotted flowers. The pink-haired kunoichi felt a sharp tugging inside her skull, and heat flared briefly between her ribs before she instinctively bared the naked column of her throat at her genin teacher.
Small mercies that she did not finish her display with a whine of submission. That would have been too mortifying for words.
"Oh," said Kakashi mildly, one hand coming up to scratch the back of his head, "That's not good."
It took Kakashi several seconds to formulate his next question, which was more to fill the space than one of any actual askance. "When did you find out you were an Omega?"
"Three days after." Sakura surprised herself with how meek her voice came out. She had always been outspoken with her genin teacher, even outright scolding him for being chronically late to their missions. And now, all it took was a flip of nature's switch and she was the submissive Omega to his very obvious Alpha.
One had to be an Alpha to wrangle both the Uchiha survivor and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, she supposed.
Kakashi nodded, not requiring her to elaborate. It was common enough for traumatic events to cause one's secondary gender to manifest violently, and the dark circles around Sakura's eyes indicated that her first heat had been a trying one. Sasuke's abrupt departure and his ruthless send-off towards Sakura no doubt had a part to play in this.
"And you're still planning to stay in this profession?" The silver-haired jonin seemed to be trying to fill in the blanks in an attempt to work out where he fitted in this puzzle that he was obviously being thrusted into.
"Sakura is going to continue as a kunoichi, and we are not planning on disclosing her designation," Tsunade explained on her behalf, noticing the timidity of Sakura's demeanour was making it hard for the young woman to speak up in front of another Alpha.
"Of course. A prudent decision, Hokage-sama. But I must ask - what role am I being asked to play in all this? I am her genin teacher, but I am also an Alpha."
"I want you to bond with her."
"What?"
The mirroring looks of abject terror on both Sakura and Kakashi's faces was a sight almost funny enough to make Tsunade burst out laughing. Sakura was also starting to turn a very deep shade of pink, her mind no doubt taking her to some very inappropriate places regarding her Alpha, male teacher.
"Stop being influenced by Jiraiya for one minute, Hatake," the Hokage admonished (ignoring the side-eyed look Kakashi sent Sakura's way), "I meant, I want you to pack-bond with her. If she wants to excel in this field as a Beta, she cannot show weakness towards any Alpha tendencies. In-between her apprenticeship with me, I expect you to train her against the weapons of an Alpha, so she can learn to override her instincts to obey."
Kakashi boggled. "Are you telling me to teach an Omega to purposely defy an Alpha? Don't you think that's going to get her killed?"
Inexplicably, a wicked grin lit up on Tsunade's face, and she folded her arms across her chest confidently. "Only if she does not have the means to defend herself."
There and then, Kakashi knew that women troubles would be plaguing him for the next few years in the form of both his Kage and his own student. Heaving a sigh of defeat, he simply asked, "When do we start?"
"Sakura, I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning at nine. Wear something you don't care for, because medical ninjutsu can be pretty nasty business." Turning then to Kakashi, Tsunade replied, "I'll work out a training schedule with Sakura by the end of tomorrow, and you will fit your own schedule around it. We are going to do something extraordinary here, and I want her to have every chance of succeeding."
That would have been the moment, Sakura recalled years later, that she felt the first real flare of hope since becoming an Omega; that she would have an actual shot at living her life out as a full-time kunoichi and serving her village as she had always wanted (much to both her parents' chagrin).
"Yes, shishou." And to Kakashi, she lifted her solemn green gaze to meet his silver one, "Kakashi-sensei, I promise to do my best with whatever you throw at me."
"It's going to be my pheromones that I'll be throwing at you for now." Kakashi slumped against a nearby tree in resignation.
"Excuse me?!"
Ignoring the whistling blonde as she walked away, Kakashi explained, "You felt it just now, right? When you saw me and straight up showed me your throat?"
She could only nod mutely, cheeks pinking at her earlier reaction. She did not want to mention that she felt all but ready to roll over like a dog for him as well, in the typical display of an unmated Omega to a powerful Alpha presence.
"You already know from your studies that Alphas naturally give off pheromones, as do Omegas, even when they are not in a rut or heat." And the mention of a rut or the idea of copulation should not make her blush even more around her genin teacher. "That is how the pecking order is established, and how an Omega will be most easily swayed, so we're going to use exposure therapy to get you used to Alpha pheromones. Until the day you don't immediately bare your throat to me, we are not going to cover any further topics."
"So," Kakashi's one visible eye suddenly crinkled into a delighted smile, "You're going to be doing my laundry and housework for me until then."
Sakura suddenly felt like punching the tree behind Kakashi. Or perhaps Kakashi himself, his Alpha designation be damned.
On the other hand, Kakashi got to enjoy a housework-free life for the next four months, which he took pains to remind Sakura of even years later.
Once the shock of Kakashi's Alpha status' effect wore off for Sakura, the jonin made it a point to inform her that it was entirely her own fault that she instinctively submitted to him.
"I am more discreet than that, Sakura-chan. You know as well as I do that Alphas and Omegas are usually on scent suppressants to mask their scents to avoid drawing the wrong kind of attention, even in a place as welcoming of all secondary genders as Konoha. You probably submitted to me immediately because of the newness of your Omega status. It had nothing to do with my pheromones, which I must point out again, that I carefully mask."
It was true. The strong, pungent and sometimes outright unpleasant scent of an Alpha can set even the strongest nerves on the edge, including those of Betas. Ditto for the cloying sweetness of an Omega. One of the first requirements for a newly-presented Alpha or Omega was a prescription of scent suppressants, to help keep peace in the populace. Alphas were allowed to go off them once they learn to control the release rate of their pheromones (most Alpha civilians continued using them, since the training could be arduous), but since Omegas could not do that, they generally continued to use manufactured scent patches to mask themselves.
She had always known that her genin teacher was an Alpha since the day she was assigned to him, but even with that knowledge inside of her, she had still been unprepared for how the slightest hint of his pheromones made her blood run cold with in a volatile mix of fear and the desire to please.
Alpha shinobi like Kakashi learnt to suppress their scents through their mental will alone, unleashing it like a weapon in battle conditions. Taking a chemical concoction or using scent suppressing patches would have taken that from them, so Kakashi was able to deliberately release more of his pheromones whenever he needed to, which Sakura learnt when she walked into his very Alpha-scented home (he had no reason to suppress his scent in his own domain). Kakashi had caught her as she reared back at the stench, and his visible eye had lit up in good-natured humour as he said, "And that's why we start with the basics of getting you used to Alpha pheromones."
It would have been too much of a headache to explain to her parents why she was bringing her teacher's laundry home to do, and she had to clean his place for him, anyway. Fortunately, the Hokage had written her parents several days later, explaining that their daughter was now training as her apprentice. Tsunade had jokingly referred to herself as a "taskmaster" and told them in just as many words that Sakura's schedule would mean there would be long, uneven hours and even stretches of days when she might not be home.
A perfectly good excuse for when her heats came, which Tsunade insisted she go through naturally instead of suppressing or even eliminating them. Combined with the days leading up to each heat when she would be naturally anxious and more susceptible to Alpha pheromones, she would be out of commission for a full week every three months. Those days she spent holed up in a special, sealed-off room in the Hokage building, wallowing nervously in a nest of her pack Alpha's clothes that Kakashi had stoically resigned to losing. She did try taking her parents' clothes once to use as nesting material (finding comfort in her teacher's clothes was weird, pack Alpha or not), as biological family members' scents were reassuring to an Omega; it only worked once because her mother turned out to be extremely judicious about the family's laundry, and nearly tore the house apart trying to find her husband's shirt that Sakura had taken. After a brief skirmish in which her father was accused of having an affair and keeping a second family, his shirt reappeared under a couch cushion the next day. That was when Kakashi started losing more of his clothes to her nest instead.
"The more heats you suppress, the worse the next one will be when you finally allow your body to go through the process," Tsunade explained, "As an unmated, young Omega, your heats will be more of an annoyance than any real sexual desires. Going through them naturally helps your body get used to the spike in your pheromone levels, so when it is finally time to consummate a relationship, you won't be completely blindsided by your hormones."
The Hokage had laughed uproariously at Sakura's beet-red face. No one would ever want to be forced into the position of discussing their sexual urges with a maternal figure, and having to navigate it like it was a periodical annoyance to endure made Sakura ask, "Then why do some women choose to suppress it? If there are advantages to experiencing an unmated heat, why should they want to avoid it?"
"Sometimes, it makes more sense to only have one or two heats at most a year, instead of four, because of concerns with taking time off. But for you-" Tsunade tapped Sakura's nose in a no-nonsense manner. "-In your profession, you have a much higher risk of encountering an unmated Alpha who may take your unmated Omega status as an invitation for… activities. Regular heats will keep your pheromones at a more manageable level, and will make you less susceptible to Alpha pheromones in turn."
Combined with frequent exposure to an Alpha's pheromones in the form of Kakashi - who seemed to consider a challenge to throw out random high spikes of it at her, to see how she would react - it was all part of Tsunade's plan to ensure that her Omega apprentice would not be beckoned by the siren call of a compatible Alpha whilst under her tutelage. In that aspect, Kakashi's influence as her pack Alpha was crucial as well; bonded to Sakura as a paternal figure, his Alpha pheromones lingering on her had the effect of calming her as well as broadcasting to any interested males that she was under his protection, and therefore not available to their pursuit.
Everything was in place to present Haruno Sakura, registered chunin of Konohagakure, as a Beta kunoichi - she could heal and hurt as well as Tsunade, and could potentially outpace her mentor in the years to come; She had a pack Alpha who trained her against all the Alpha wiles and ways. Nothing could stop her from pursuing her shinobi career with the same dedication as any other Beta shinobi.
It was just too bad that Tsunade never expected Sakura to meet a compatible Alpha so readily, given how muted her Omega pheromones were under the decoy Beta ones she wore steadfastly over her scent glands while on missions. With that stacked on top of her scent suppressants, her biology would not call out to an Alpha's; should not call out to an Alpha's.
It most certainly was not in her wildest expectations that said compatible Alpha would turn out to be the most powerful shinobi in Sunagakure - the supposed Beta Kazekage, Sabaku no Gaara.