#Kakashi told her that she was young and there are things that she can do | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ikemenomegas · 1 year

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Kakashi, Young

Kakashi is quietly panicking on many levels, springing over rooftops, scanning them and the ground below.

Konoha was a big village.

Pakkun was a very, very, small dog.

He'd known that going into the exercise, but Pakkun insisted. An unwilling part of him grudgingly admitted that he was probably owed some of the stubbornness.

It was still a stupid decision to let a seven pound pug try and run on the rooftops.

"It's not like you could have known," Rin pointed out, as though she had read his mind.

She loved the puppies and while he had initially been resistant to it, he was glad to have her around now.

"Bisuke was about the same size when he started training with you, and Pakkun is already faster. I'm sure he's fine."

"If he was fine, he would have already found us," Kakashi replied.

Rin fell silent.

He felt a little bad, but Pakkun had never failed a tracking exercise before. The only thing he could figure was that adding a restriction to rooftop travel alone had resulted in some kind of incident.

"We should split up --"

"No," Rin interrupted. "What if he's still looking for us? Splitting the scents won't help."

She was right, and he sighed.

-- Across the village --

"Are you sure it's this way?"

You'd always suspected part of the reasons the village shinobi stayed on the roofs wasn't just to keep out of the way of civilians.

Confined to the ground yourself and with a little passenger in tow, it was very clear that the two of you were getting lost.

"I'm sure," growled the little pug. "Put me down. I'll find the boss on my own."

You looked skeptically at the bandage you'd wrapped around his back leg and then quickly away when he twisted his ears back.

You looked up into the sky, maybe this "boss" would find you two before you found them. In the mean time, the pug was cute. So cute. Too cute. Especially when he wrinkled his wrinkly little nose and growled at you like that.

"No way," you say, turning in the direction the little pug is still facing. "That leg needs to be treated. Are you sure you don't want me to take you too the hospital instead? Or maybe the Inuzuka compound?"

The puppy's little whine almost breaks your heart. You really wish that you could get up on the roofs too, but walking around with your crutches hoisted over your shoulder so you can carry him is really about all you can do right now.

"Left," he says sulkily, as you trail down yet another narrow street.

"At least put me over your shoulder," he grumbles finally, when your right leg shakes again, protesting the weight placed on it too early.

You pause, admittedly tired, but putting the dog on your shoulder seems a bit unstable.

You put him gently down on top of a barrel and shrug out of your jacket. It's a bit of maneuvering to make it into a serviceable sling but you do actually try to pay attention in the academy's survival classes so it doesn't take that long.

The dog seems much more comfortable in it while you click down the street at a slightly more even keel.

"By the way, what's your name?"

The dog is silent for so long you look down at him. He's swinging his head to-and-fro to catch whatever scent he has you tracking.

"What's yours?" he asks, gruff.

When you give it, he tells you to turn left again.

"I'm Pakkun," he says finally.

"It's nice to meet you, Pakkun."

He just humphs and tells you to turn right.

"Are you sure you're ok--"

The dog, Pakkun you remind yourself, glares at you.

"-kay with the sling?" you quickly tried to cover.

Pakkun grumbled and then told you to pause. "It's fine," he said. "You're in the academy, right? We need to go west."

You dared to stick a hand in the sling to pat Pakkun's back. "That's probably easier than trying to navigate the alleys. Just let me know if you loose the trail."

Pakkun tensed under your hand so you withdrew. Ninken weren't like normal dogs and this dog wasn't like a normal ninken.

"Maybe if we get to a more open area your boss will be able to see us better?"

"Just keep walking," he muttered so you did, making your slow way west. It took you a moment to figure out that the little thump at the edge of your ribs was probably what you'd feel getting hit by a little wagging tail.

Pakkun was right. It was easier to simply head in the right direction without having to decide which exact path was right.

It also so happened that you could head west and south a bit and end up passing the hospital, which is probably where you would look if you ever lost a teeny tiny ninken after he'd tumbled off a roof.

A cold nose touched the tip of your finger as you neared the end of a wood area.

"Wait."

The rest of Pakkun's adorable head followed, his soft puppy fur brushing your wrist.

Kidnapping, erm dognapping, wasn't exactly a crime in the ninja world as long as you didn't get caught and the dog was willing, right? If you told Pakkun how adorable he was maybe he'd let you dognap him just once a month... you and your teammate stole things from one another all the time. It was good training in tracking.

Light as air, a boy with grey hair and a mask landed in front of you, hands in his pockets.

Your eyes widened in surprise and you leaned back a bit on your crutches, stabilizing Pakkun with a hand on his very soft chest when he nearly leaned out of the sling.

The boy glanced at you with a dark, unreadable eyes before looking back down at the dog.

"Hey boss," the pug said, half sheepish, half grumble, but you could feel his curly little tail again.

A second later, a girl with short brown hair landed behind the boy.

"Pakkun!" she exclaimed, "what a relief."

He grunted. "This," he looked up at you, half lidded eyes still skeptical as he said your name, "found me."

This?

The girl came forward, which seemed weird since the dog clearly belonged with the boy, but she was also more patient as you rearranged the crutches and lifted the sling over your head.

"I found him limping, so I bound the leg, but I think he needs a healer."

Pakkun glared at you and you shrugged sheepishly. Just because ninja were trained to hide injuries in the field didn't mean you should hide them among allies.

"Pakkun! You should have gone directly here. What's with the trail we picked up behind the west side scrap iron shop?" The girl scolded, already unwrapping your jacket, her hands burning green.

You blinked in surprise, "You're a healer?"

"Mhm," she said, immediately distracted. You looked up at the boy to see him standing in a way that seemed a guarding position and then stepped back to look at the scene properly.

Both of them had their hitae-ate, so they'd probably seen battle already.

Pakkun had his leg extended as the girl moved her hand around it. Even though you wouldn't exactly be able to fight like you were used to with your leg the way it was, or really needed to in the village, you sharpened your awareness too, paying attention to what was going on around you instead of with her healing, even though you would have preferred to watch.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the boy glance at you and one shoulder sag back into a more relaxed position.

"Okay," the girl stood up, wiping sweat from her brow. She picked Pakkun up with one arm and offered him to the boy, who finally took back the dog with what seemed an intentional lack of expression, and then gave back your jacket.

"Thank you for finding him," she said. "We were getting really worried."

The boy turned his body away in a way you were sure was meant to convey that he was both done with this conversation and had not been worried, but his fingers were already buried in Pakkun's short fur, checking over the girl's work.

"Ka-"

A boy with orange goggles and spiky black hair all but fell from the tree behind you.

You tumbled back, wincing from the noise, although the girl seemed unperturbed.

"Where were you," she immediately changed tack to launch into the familiar chiding tones of someone who had said this exact same thing before. "We already found Pakkun."

The new boy rubbed the back of his head, "I think I followed that weird trail through the alleyways. You know they took three lefts?"

You barely covered a cough of laughter but the ninken's sharp ears, and apparently the grey haired kid's too, picked it up enough for Pakkun to send you another twist-eared look. The boy, you thought, might be similarly embarrassed, although he stood so stiffly he was doing a decent job of hiding it.

The dark haired boy and the girl were standing shoulder to shoulder, the way old friends often did. She glanced once at the other boy and then seemed to somehow resign herself.

"Anyways, thank you," she said with a kind smile. "See you around sometime."

And then they were turning away, bantering back and forth in a familiar rhythm as they took to the trees and were gone.

"I'm want to go through a few of the boxes today, is that okay?"

Kakashi clearly didn't want to leave your still-new home and you didn't want him to go, but he had some sort of clan meeting to go to. And Tsunade had been on your ass about making him.

Unfortunately, this was the kind of thing he couldn't be late for.

He sagged further into his flak jacket collar, which for someone so tall shouldn't make him appear cute but it did.

"It's fine," he murmured, looking around at the scattered boxes of stuff you'd dragged from his home when he'd made it clear that he wanted to start doing something about the mess of his clan's records. He really had let it pile up over the years. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

You grinned, showing just a little too much teeth, "I keep hoping to find some more pictures of you as a kid. I want to have evidence so you'll believe me when I say how adorable you are."

He looked down at the ground and sighed. "Well good luck. There weren't many of those to begin with."

Carefully, so he had time to pull away, you wrapped your arms around him. He didn't return the embrace but he did nuzzle against the scent gland under your jaw and seemed brighter when he straightened up.

"Well I'm off. Have... fun."

There was no intentionally audible sound of his stepping away so you figured he had probably used a shunshin. He had been understandably territorial after the move, taking circuitous routes to get here and back and concealing himself more than usual until the new space had finally started to smell of the two of you again.

You moved toward a promising looking box, Guruko padding through the maze behind you.

It wasn't Kakashi's fault really. A lot of the village's smaller clan records had been made into an absolute chaos when the Kyubi had attacked and fairly interval attempts on the village infrastructure hadn't really slowed down from there. The fact that Kakashi had mostly kept things from his old house packed away in boxes had likely been what kept it from being literally tangled into a hopeless mess.

The box you chose had worn edges, more than some of the others, and you sat down cross legged to slowly sort through the documents.

In a corner, about halfway down, was another smaller box. It was also half-squashed given that it wasn't all the way full, but all that padding had kept the treasure inside near pristine.

You purred to the empty room with delight when your mate's face, younger than even in his genin photo, appeared at the top of the stack.

There were a lot of shinobi in the village and there was a lot of your mate that you would never know because for a long time you hadn't known him. In that way you envied Asuma and Kurenai. Theirs was the kind of romance you'd dreamed of as a kid. They knew everything about one another because they'd lived so much of it.

Kakashi told you things, if you asked, but he was used to keeping his silence, pushing the past as far into the dark as possible, and you didn't often know what to ask about. He preferred to talk about you, but you adored him and wanted to reciprocate that interest.

It made you proud how far he'd come since you first started sharing glances across the room, back when you were the new person being pulled into the orbit of people Kakashi associated with over dango and stories of stupid choices made during promotion tests.

At least one of the photos was obviously an academy school photo, plane background and your mate in an incredibly nerdy little scarf.

A lot of the other photos were later, and equally cutely, of the pack as puppies.

Some of them had clearly been captured by an inexpert hand, the picture blurred with laughter as Kakashi tried not to trip on a very excited young Shiba, and a cute girl, Rin you knew, carefully wrapping Uhei's paw while Pakkun watched.

You frowned at the photo, something tickling the back of your memories.

A few more pictures gave you that same feeling, including a picture of Kakashi and Pakkun alone, looking comically similar with their half-lidded expressions and awkward postures, clearly being forced to try and pose.

You knew Pakkun now of course and it was obviously him, but something about that picture seemed awfully familiar.

Guruko wagged his tail when he asked you to find one of him and you couldn't refuse so together you dug through the box. There were even the dogs' first collars in a sturdier wooden box under a few old papers that looked like academy assignments.

You were still in it, Guruko rolling around and telling you stories about training as pups, when Kakashi came back home.

Kakashi smiled fondly when both you and Guruko immediately rolled upright and went to him.

"Look what I found," you tugged his sleeve in excitement and pulled him to the couch and coffee table where you had carefully place the pictures. "I'm so glad these survived. Look at how little the ninken were. Look at you," you pointed to another slightly shaky picture that showed Bull and Uhei "playing" a game of tug of war where Bull had to do very little to win while Kakashi was clearly laughing in the background.

You didn't miss the slightly sad scent that began to cling to your mate or the way his fingers shook when you handed him the photo.

You leaned shoulder to shoulder and went quiet while he sifted through the pictures. Stored in the box as they had been, they didn't look nearly as old as they clearly were.

"Obito took these," he finally said, softly.

You should have guessed you suppose. There were far fewer pictures with the dark haired boy in it, and of those most were selfie like and cut off part of the person he was with or his own brightly smiling face.

They were youthful photos of a much different time.

You pressed a kiss to the back of your mate's hand and tried to hold onto some of the weight that settled all too easily on his shoulders.

You pressed gently on the scent gland at his wrist when he'd hit the vague edge of the limit you'd sort of agreed on for guilty pining, in the event you found some new memory of his he'd never shared before. You let a whine build in your chest, just enough to let him know you were getting worried, and he slumped over on you, pressing you into the couch with his whole weight.

It was a funny little thing he did that you weren't sure if he had learned from Bull or Bull from him. Usually it meant he was redirecting his stress into literally using his body to protect yours.

For now, you allowed it. You didn't like the implication of value there, but you also knew it soothed your mate in an important way. And he did let you gently tug him so he was more just laying on top of you and he could feel the rumbling purr you were making.

You rubbed circles into his back while he opened his one sharingan and perused the photos again.

When he got to the one that had stopped you before, you finally spoke, keeping your words to a low murmur.

"There's something weirdly familiar about that one, like I've seen it before."

You allowed yourself a little snicker when Kakashi held it up and that expression, which he still made but in a slightly less petulant way that still mirrored Pakkun's more committed sulks, came back into full view.

Your mate's mask had slipped as he sometimes rubbed his face against the juncture of your neck and shoulder and you could feel the tired quirk of his smile against your skin, the way he huffed a faint laugh.

He even gifted you with a little purr when you tugged your fingers through his thick, soft hair.

"He does still make that face."

You snorted and felt like the sun had lit up your chest when Kakashi chuckled.

Kakashi would have happily fallen into a doze like this, but neither of you were in the particular habit of napping, unfortunately. There were dogs to feed and yourself to feed, clothing to unpack, bedding to air out.

He swiped the photos off the table and back into their box, to be stowed away for now, but a few days later he gifted you the one of him and Pakkun in a new protective frame.

The others ninken of course saw it and slowly, gently, demanded that Kakashi find some of them too, claiming that the captain couldn't be the only one with a photo around the house.

Pakkun gave you a weird look when he caught sight of your staring at the photo one day, grinning to yourself and pushing away again that feeling like you were missing some detail in looking at it.

It hit you a week or so later when you were alone again, trying not to fret about your mate being out on what should be a relatively safe information retrieval mission. Others were busy and he'd wanted to go out for a while, so he'd gone and left Pakkun with you.

This reassured you he didn't think the mission would be that tough, but it also had the downside of having the little pug's judgemental little face watching you find things to do to distract yourself after your own work was already done for the day.

"What?" you finally asked him, after trying and failing to read a book. "You've been staring at me for days. Is there something I should know?"

"Do you really not remember?" Pakkun asked, skeptical and gruff.

You frowned and looked where he did, at the shelf where the photo was leaning.

"I--"

"I never forget a scent," Pakkun said somewhat haughtily.

You had all but memorized the picture yourself by now. Pakkun's wrinkled baby face. "No way."

One of his adorable little eyebrows raised.

You looked back at the photo.

"It was his decision start courting you-"

You amusedly decided not to bring up the reality which was less like courting and more like the local tomcat adopting you via a series of birds brought to your door.

"-so we didn't say anything, but I told them all you remembered."

"I've met you before!"

Pakkun's adorable little tail was starting to wag.

"But I don't remember where."

He slumped into a sulk.

"Sorry," you said, patting his head in apology and going into the kitchen to get him some ham.

"Hmph." He followed you anyways, toenails clicking on the wooden floor.

"It was a long time ago though. Maybe it'll come back to me."

He leapt onto the counter and grumbled some kind of vague agreement, taking the meat delicately from your fingers.

You leaned against the counter while he ate, looking around the apartment. Kakashi's discomfort was shared. Your mate could be away for days or weeks at a time when things were busy or something bad came to the mission desk.

Having a space you owned, that wouldn't be subject to change every few years, somewhere for him to come back to, had seemed like the right call.

It was the right call, you reminded yourself firmly. Both of you needed some kind of stability, if only to help Kakashi start to unravel years and years of avoiding a majority of physical and emotional attachments.

But the time it was taking to really make the apartment feel like home could be frustrating. You missed having Kakashi's scent just being around as a consequence of his frequent presence.

"Don't worry too much," Pakkun said, gnawing on the little bone in the center of the ham. "The Boss will be back before you know it."

Boss. Hmm.

You shook your head, "I suppose finally putting together some of the cabinets will make it easier to put things away. Want to learn how to use a hammer?"

Pakkun licked his lips and looked up at you. His steps were so light you almost couldn't feel them when he sprang up to drape on your shoulder.

"You know dogs don't have thumbs right?"

"That hasn't stopped you before."

Pakkun just huffed ham-scented breath into your face as you went into the bedroom.

#prompt fill #kakshi hatake #kakashi's ninken #pakkun #a/b/o dynamics #omegaverse #alpha!reader #omega!kakashi #sorry this became about alpha's relationship with the dog instead of kakashi #i think it's cute though #one of my favorite trope is “they met as kids” but I think its even cuter when it doesn't factor into the dating aspect #makes it feel more they were meant to meet later so they have a near miss #this was a cute combo though. immediately thinking of young kakashi i couldn't help connecting his puppies #i don't know if its canon but i love the idea of him training every single one since they were small #and i went hmm what if alpha did meet kakashi's team just once #if they remember i'm not sure they tell kakashi #since it was like ships in the night rather than a true meeting #but they treasure the feeling of knowing they saw the people who cared for kakashi when he was younger #gn #reader insert #io.omegas

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slutforkakashi · 16 days

Text

Warnings: SMUT with slight plot, cumming untouched, story testing?, MDNI‼️

A/N: tbh I can't exactly give you a summary cause I don't even know what I made here but I hope you enjoy

Word count: 3.1K

Long ago lived a clan so powerful they could almost be considered demigods. Although wanting to do good, people saw them only as a danger to the balance of life itself.

One night, many years ago, began the rebellion and war against this mighty clan, a war that took years to end. Nations across the land came together to defeat this clan and succeeded. Every member of this mighty clan... gone... but one…

~Several Years Later~

The sound of wind filled the peaceful and serene streets of Konoha as the people of the Hidden Leaf went peacefully about their lives. No worries, no stress, no annoyance, no-...

"Ugh! Why is Kakashi sensei always late?" A young Naruto Uzumaki groaned at the absence of his sensei.

"He probably just saw a black cat and had to take the loooong way around," Sakura Haruno remarked sarcastically, annoyed too her sensei was late.

Sasuke Uchiha stood near his teammates, leaning against a tree, not saying a single word. Unfazed by his sensei's constant tardiness, he felt no need to speak.

Just then, Kakashi Hatake, their sensei, finally showed.

"Kakashi sensei, what took you so long?" Naruto asked.

"Today's training will have to be skipped. Some important business came up. The Fifth Hokage has called all chunin and jonin for an urgent matter. You can all go home" And with that, Kakashi left.

"Aw, man! This stinks! I was looking forward to training today.." Sakura said.

"Yeah right, Sakura. All you do is focus on Sasuke" Naruto exclaimed. A light blush appeared on Sakura's face as she turned to look at Sasuke, only to see that he had already gone.

Naruto rested his hands behind his head and began to walk off. "I'm gonna go get some ramen. I'm starving!"

~Meanwhile In the Fifth Hokage's Office~

"I have called you all here today because there is a possible emergency... There have been rumors going around that a ninja from a clan that was defeated long ago has come back. We don't know their intentions so everyone must be on their guards" The Fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade, informed the ninja in her office about the clan's only ninja that is alive.

The rumors were true, yes. The ninja from the clan long ago has come back, but not for the reasons people assume...

~Time Skip~

After dispersing all the capable ninjas throughout the village, Lady Tsunade got to thinking of a way to stop this ninja in case things were to go south.

No one knew what this ninja looked like. They only knew of the tales told by the few ninjas still alive today after fighting in the war with the powerful clan.

They say there was once a very powerful child within this clan that surpassed even the elder's powerful might. This child was the last of the clan to survive. People assume the child has come back after all these years to seek revenge on the nations who fought the clan.

There was one man who knew the truth about this clan, who knew that they never wanted war but peace among the people. He was the Third Hokage.

The Third Hokage not only knew of the child's existence but practically raised the child in secret. He knew that if anyone were to know of the child's location they would try to do to them what they did to the clan... or perhaps try and claim the child's power for their own selfish reasons.

The Third Hokage only wanted what was best for the child. As the child grew they understood why the Third Hokage hid them from the rest of the world. They agreed with him that it was best for everyone.

After hearing that the Third Hokage had passed, the ninja was devastated for he was the only person they had. He was the only person who truly understood...

The ninja from the powerful clan sat in the middle of a field with three logs, leaning against the one in the middle, deep in thought when suddenly their thoughts were interrupted by a frustrated Naruto groaning in annoyance.

"Why can't I get it?!"

Curious about what they heard, the ninja jumped toward the noise. They hid up in a tree, looking down at the boy with spiky yellow hair.

Naruto seemed to be trying to hit a target with a kunai but was unable to do it. Entertained, the ninja kept watching as Naruto failed countless times but kept trying.

Everything was calm until a kunai was thrown in the direction of the ninja, aimed straight for their back. The ninja quickly moved out of the way, sensing the kunai coming their way.

They looked around but saw no one, but sensed more than one person in the area. At first, it was just one but now there were two.

"You there, up in the trees... show yourself!" A man shouted up at the ninja, somehow knowing they were there.

The ninja closed their eyes and tried to locate where the two people went. Once they found them they grabbed the kunai that was thrown at them and threw it in their direction. The kunai landed right in front of them, startling them but not harming them.

The ninja had no intention of harming anyone, so they jumped out from the trees and landed on the ground almost perfectly.

The ninja wore a mesmerizing white and gold dress with little fabric. This was the style of her people who were pretty free spirited, and she wore it proud.

She stood there not saying a word. The two strangers came out of hiding and revealed themselves to the ninja. One was the spiky yellow-haired boy, the one practicing with the kunai. The other was a taller, white-haired, mask-wearing ninja. It was Naruto and Kakashi.

"Who are you?" Kakashi asked the strange yet beautiful woman, but she didn't speak.

Then, none other than Master Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, appeared out of nowhere behind the ninja, but she did not flinch, not one inch.

"Hey, you, the Fifth Hokage would like a word with you," said Master Jiraiya to the ninja. She turned to face Jiraiya, one of the three famous Sannin she had heard so much about.

The ninja didn't want any conflict, she didn't want to fight. She bowed her head to Jiraiya as a sign of respect and peace and Jiraiya picked up on this so began to lead the way.

"Oh, and Kakashi," Jiraiya stopped and turned to him "the Fifth Hokage wants you there as well."

And with that, the three of them proceeded to walk toward the Hokage building. Of course, Naruto wanted answers but before he could ask anything they all vanished.

~Time Skip~

Lady Tsunade filled them in on who the ninja was and how she found out about her. The Third Hokage had documents of the ninja explaining everything about her and her abilities, her Kekkei Genkai. The ninja stood respectfully in silence as Lady Tsunade explained everything she found about her.

Lady Tsunade assigned Kakashi, one of the strongest ninjas in The Leaf, to watch over the ninja. Tsunade might have found the documents of the Third Hokage about the ninja but she still didn't trust the ninja herself.

~Time Skip~

Kakashi and the ninja walk around The Leaf Village looking for a place to eat. Lady Tsunade guessed that the ninja was hungry so she ordered Kakashi to get them something to eat. They decided on Ichiraku Ramen.

They sit down and take their orders. The ninja still hasn't spoken a word, only pointing to what they wanted to eat.

"So, Akari, is it?" Kakashi asked the ninja, Akari. She shot him a glance with her shiny gold eyes peeking through strands of her raven hair.

Kakashi's POV

Her eyes were so bewitching, captivating, attracting, enticing, and almost tempting. Her gaze made me feel... things.

Before I could make any sense of what I felt, her gaze fell back to the table. There rested her elegant, delicate-looking hands. Those hands, who knows what things they committed. Perhaps I'm looking at this through the eyes of the frightened people.

They say those hands committed carnage and manslaughter... but this ninja seems far too relaxed to be some kind of killing machine. Although she did not speak, her poised complexion spoke deep.

A gust of wind flew past and I caught a whiff of her scent. She smelled like a cherry blossom tree. I don't know what came over me but I inhaled her scent once more and I got a hint of... lemon? Strange, but very alluring.

I don't know what's come over me but there is no doubt in my mind that it's connected to the mystery that is sitting beside me. The clans Kekkei Genkai, along with their abilities as a ninja, are unknown to me.

Who knows? Maybe it isn't their Kekkei Genkai that's doing this...

Narrator's POV

Naruto Uzumaki strolled along with Iruka sensei and came into Ichiraku’s. They took their seats, Naruto sitting to the right of Akari, Iruka sitting to the right of Naruto. He sees the mysterious ninja and remembers the brief encounter they had.

"Hey, it's you!" Naruto exclaimed, turning to face the ninja "Oh-.. Kakashi sensei?"

"Naruto, I trust that you completed your training today," Kakashi stated, almost as if he knew Naruto didn't complete his training.

Naruto put a hand behind his neck and laughed nervously "So, who is this anyway?"

"That's classified," Kakashi told Naruto.

"Aw! C'mon Kakashi sensei pleeeeeeaaaase??" he pleaded.

Akari's head turned slowly toward Naruto, her golden eyes peeking through her hair again. Once Naruto caught a glance at her beautiful eyes he calmed down. It was as if the ninja's eyes had comforted him into being more relaxed. And just like magic, Akari pulled a piece of paper out of thin air. She gave it to Naruto and he read it out loud.

"Akari?"

She looked at Naruto for a second longer before turning toward the table and seeing her bowl of ramen placed down. Next to hers was Kakashi Hatake's bowl... empty. Akari grabbed some chopsticks and ate her ramen peacefully and elegantly.

~Time Skip~

It was dusk now, Kakashi and Akari walking through the dimly lit streets, trying to reach their destination. While on their walk they strolled past a place of sweets.

Akari stopped in her tracks and stared into the sweets store, slowly walking in, Kakashi following after her. She peeped around and saw a sweet snack she craved.

Kakashi's POV

The sweets that she picked out... lemon mochi. That explains the unexpected smell of lemon earlier today. Of course, I paid for the sweets. We started to make our way to the place I rented. The reason I rented out a place was that I didn't want to take her to my home. It would be inappropriate and unprofessional.

As we walk there she slowly eats some of the lemon mochi balls she had gotten. In a way, it was kind of cute and... sweet.

We get to our place of stay for the night and Akari takes her time settling in. I watch her as she ruffles pillows and eats more of her lemon mochi.

Akari walks past me to the bathroom to shower and I get that fragrance of cherry blossom and lemon again. My body takes over me and my eyes close as I silently inhale, taking in the stimulating aroma. I turn toward her as she walks away and watch as she enters the bathroom. She looks at me with those mesmerizing golden eyes just before she closes the door. It was as if she knew why I was watching her every move.

What is going on with me? Why am I acting like this? It's as if she was charming me, attracting me towards her.

A few minutes go by and I took off a few layers of clothing, getting relaxed.

I made my way onto a very large and comfortable couch. I pull out my book and start reading, waiting for my turn to shower.

I hear the bathroom door open and I look up to see Akari walk out ever so elegantly.

I scan her body up and down beholding what she was wearing. The Fifth Hokage warned me that the style of her people was more on the... free spirited side... but I didn't think it would be like this.

I can't take my eyes off of her. I've never seen such beauty in a woman. Though most of my face is covered, I look up at her and see her face and it's as if she knows... as if she knew what I was thinking and... how my face looked?...

She slowly approaches me where I sit and moves onto my lap, straddling me. I did not resist. I couldn't. I don't know what has come over me but I just can't resist her... and I can't restrain myself.

My hands move and rest on her thighs, almost as if they had a mind of their own they start to move upward. My hands trace her body's silhouette, her skin, her body, so soft and supple.

I look up at her and she's looking down at me through the strands of hair on her face. I slowly raise one hand and move the strands of hair out of the way.

At last, I see her full complexion for the first time. She's... beautiful... she's stunning... she is extraordinary. And those honey golden eyes that lured me in...

I place my hands behind her neck and slowly pull her in, our faces only mere inches apart, the both of us not pulling back.

I take it as a sign and pull her face closer to mine. Our noses were touching and our lips were centimeters away from one another. She was looking directly into my eyes as I was looking into hers for any indications of discomfort but I saw none. She parted her lips slightly and I could feel her uneven breaths on my mask. I couldn't help but smirk at the feeling, noticing I was affecting her just as she affected me.

With one swift movement, I wrapped my hands around her waist and stood up making her wrap her legs around my hips and her arms around my neck. I moved my hands down her body till I got to her thighs, holding her up with a better grip.

I walked over to one of the beds and slowly climbed on, laying her outrageously gorgeous body down on the soft fabric of the bed sheets. I hovered over her warm body, looking at the mesh black fabric.

Akari's POV

Kakashi leaned over me, his arms beside my shoulders, his arm muscles apparent and mesmerizing.

I reach a hand up to his face, wanting to pull off his mask, but he grabs my wrist and pins it above my head grabbing my other hand and pinning it above my head. He held both my wrists with one hand, the other roaming my body. It feels as if this all came out of nowhere. Then I had an idea...

My Kekkei Genkai.

I mentally smirk at the thoughts running through my head.

Let me elaborate a little. My Kekkei Genkai is having all types of Kekkei Genkai. From Byakugan to Sharingan and my own unique Kekkei Genkai I developed by having all types of Kekkei Genkai.

My clans Kekkei Genkai is not having all types of Kekkei Genkai. My clan consisted of numerous people with different kinds of Kekkei Genkai but for some reason, I was born with the ability of all the Kekkei Genkai.

My unique ability is being able to control chakra, not just my own, and it doesn't just end there. I can form a... how can I put this... special kind of chakra. I can make people feel certain things and create other things out of thin air like magic.

I look up at Kakashi, my hair out of my face. My eyes start having a light glow. The expression on Kakashi's face changed slightly underneath his mask and soon after, out of his mouth comes out a sound of the heavens...

Kakashi shuts his eyes lightly as a deep, breathy moan escapes his lips. My eyes twinkle in excitement, knowing I caused it, knowing I could do more without a single touch.

"What are you doing to me?" he asks. I speak not a single word and just tilt my head to the side, still looking at this beautiful man straight on.

His hand starts to grip my wrists as I use a little more power, making him feel all kinds of things. He moans more and more as I keep going.

I see an opening... I take the opportunity and speak. My voice holds more power than anything else. I lift my head closer to his ear and I whisper...

Kakashi's POV

"Cum for me..." I hear Akari's quiet, raspy voice in my ear, and my body loses control. It's like my body is listening to her command. I feel a strong sensation rising in my body, coursing through my veins, and just as she says I feel something exhilarating, and my pants soak with the hot liquid I know all too well.

I lean my head back letting my body feel the euphoric sensation burning through it. My mask slowly slides down revealing my face in pure ecstasy, my mouth open, my eyes tightly shut. My body releases a moan I've never heard come from myself before and I feel Akari lightly shift under me.

As I come down from that invigorating high I look down to face Akari but she's nowhere to be seen. Suddenly everything goes dark and it feels as if I'm falling from the top of a cliff.

I awaken, shooting up from my bed breathing heavily, my heart beating rapidly. I look around my room and there is no one around. Then as I'm breathing I smell a familiar scent... cherry blossom and lemon.

She's back…

A/N2: okay so I had no idea what I was gonna do with this idea I had but I did something with it somehow. Think of it as a test run or something idk. I'm not taking this too seriously. It's really only to see what people think I guess. Although I could make this plot into a story of its own? That would be cool I think. What do you think? Pls let me know cause it is actually tempting to make it into a whole story

#kakashi hatake #kakashi sensei #kakashi smut #kakashi hatake smut #naruto smut #smut

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kankuroplease · 5 months

Note

Megumi hcs?

The is the most doted on by her sisters because she’s “all by herself”.

But she never asked for much outside of food, tools, and someone else to style her hair for her

She is the most low maintenance of her sister’s and the family wildcard

They have never been able to convince her to do anything she doesn’t want to, including wearing shoes

Ever since she was old enough to venture outside, she’s been doing her own thing

While she’s quite happy goofing off, she’s just as happy to flex her intellect when challenged

Shinobi life didn’t interest her much but like her sisters, she a trained and can defend herself if she needs to.

Passed the chunin exam and immediately quit because she doesn’t like being told what to do, reporting, staying up late/getting up early, etc.

She has earth, water, yin chakra natures. Relaying more heavily on her earth release techniques as her father was her teacher

She picked up carpentry as a hobby when she was a teen out of necessity and boredom

Making it her whole personality for at least two summers while apprenticing with a friend of the family the only reason she stopped running around barefoot everywhere

She very curious by nature and loves hearing about people’s stories. It’s fascinating to see what makes people tick

Has a pet flying squirrel she loves so much. He’s often resting in her full bag or up in the roof of the family home

Has a good luck ritual of running her fingers across the engraved Senju crest on her aunt Miu’s armor before leaving for the day

HARASSES Kakashi whenever she sees him. Mostly because he’s the only cousin in town for a while and if she doesn’t do it who will? Okay, Gai will and she joins in from time to time

Has used him as an excuse to get out of having to dress up at events. “If Kashi doesn’t have to go, why to I have to?” “Because he has work? BOOOO”

She has successfully swindled him to get dressed up and dance with her and sisters as kids before with the promise of a ninja comic as payment

Questions Tsunade about everything. Like.. you didn’t get with Jiraiya once? Why do you still look so young? Where do you buy your bras? So is she’s like you daughter or..? Who’s your LEAST favorite guard? How does it feel to be Hokage?

Loves traveling for work and learning new skills for her trade

Crashes at her aunts house to spend time with Sho, partying with Tora, and blowing stuff up with Akiko

Teases Sho because she thinks it’s cute how freaks out over being told she has hickey

Anything dressy she owns was picked out buy either Michiko or Manami

She pretty much lives in Michiyo’s hand me downs because she didn’t take them when she moved out and they have similar fashion taste

The type of person to offer you a hug if you look down or a snack from her pack (if the squirrel friend hasn’t already chewed it)

Daredevil. In a game of truth or dare, she’s taking dare

Can sleep sitting up

Likes cooking with Mommy Erika because she lets her sample whatever she wants and they joke around all the time

Goes fishing with her dad on the weekends for father-daughter time. It used to be all his kids, but she’s the only one that still does it

Occasionally helps her mom and Manami with the textile shop but usually gets sent home for arguing with customers

Has a ton of friends because of her outgoing personality

#ask #kpz naruto founder au #OC: megumi senju #kpz distance between ⛩️#knfau ℹ️

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forthereaderinserts · 1 year

Text

The Yokai Ninja

Chapter 2

[Masterlist]

[prev] [next]

~|~

The mood was palpable as the young teens trailed after the jonin in front of them. When the group reached the roof, the gray haired boy spoke again, “So, why don’t we start off by introducing ourselves.”

Sakura was quick to pipe up again. “Introduce ourselves? Well, what should we say?”

He rolled his visible eye, “Start with your name, and if that’s not too hard, we can move on to what you do and don’t like, any dreams for the future, your hobbies. Stuff like that.” That seemed easy enough, it was an activity that they usually made little kids do at the beginning of the school year, but did he have to be so rude about it?

“Why don’t you go first,” How was Naruto confused by this? It’s so simple. “Ya’ know, tell us about yourself so we know what to do.”

He sighed like it was some great task to interact with them, "My name is Kakashi Hatake. You don't need to know about what I like, and I don’t want you to know about my hobbies. As for my dreams for the future, I don’t really have any.” Seriously? That was so useless… And what was with the attitude?

It seemed like Sakura shared their sentiment, whispering to the group, “What a waste of time, all he told us was his name.”

Kakashi interrupted the gossip by having Naruto go first, now that he’d answered the boy's question. “Right! I’m Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant cup ramen, and I really like the ramen at Ichiraku’s, but I hate the 3 minutes it takes to cook it! My hobbies are trying a buncha different kinds of ramen and comparing them all! And for my big dream for the future, I’m going to be the best Hokage this village has ever seen! That way people will have to start respecting me and treat me like I’m somebody; somebody important.”

Y/N paused at that last part. They expected him to go on and on about pranks and ramen, but maybe there was something else to this boy. It was Sakura’s turn next. “I’m Sakura Haruno, what I like– I mean, the person I like is… Uh, my hobby is, heh. My dream for the future…?”

She let out a shrill squeal as Kakashi-sensei tiredly urged her to continue and finish her dislikes. She barks out Naruto’s name, causing him to groan like he’d been hit. If this is what being a ninja was like, Y/N regretted every decision that led to this path.

If Sakura’s introduction was exactly how they expected it to go, no doubt Sasuke would be a brooding mess of angst and darkness. “My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don’t particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream because I’m going to make it a reality. I’m going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone.”

That went as well as it could’ve, Y/N supposed. It certainly made everyone uncomfortable, but they felt like the only one who caught Sasuke promising to ‘restore’ his clan. Weird, though they should probably be the one to break the silence. It was their turn after all.

“My name is Y/N Seireiko. I don’t have many hobbies outside of chores, but I like reading and listening to music, I guess. I don’t like getting involved with drama, even if it makes for the best entertainment, and I don’t like watching people get taken advantage of. My dream for the future… I guess it’s just to make a difference to at least one person; prove to myself that I’m worth more than my fears tell me.”

Kakashi stared at Y/N for a second before moving on, “Great, you’re all interesting and unique individuals. We’ll have our first mission tomorrow.” Already?

“Already? Yes!” Naruto cheered, what’s with everyone being mind-readers today. “What kind of mission are we going on sensei?”

“Something special for the five of us, a survival exercise.”

“Survival exercise?!” “I thought we were supposed to get a real mission, we’ve done this at the academy before!” Y/N let Naruto and Sakura complain, they didn’t feel ready to take on a full-scale mission with these guys yet.

“Good thing this isn’t going to be like what you did at the academy.” Why was he laughing like that? What was going to happen during this exercise?

“Hey, that’s a normal question! Why are you laughing?” Y/N really needed to start speaking out loud, this was getting ridiculous.

Kakashi chuckled again, though it sounded more like a sneer, and directed his attention to Sakura. “If I tell you, you aren’t going to like it. Out of the 28 students who graduated, only ten will move on. The rest get sent back to the academy. In other words, this test is make-it-or-break-it; pass or fail.”

“That’s not fair! We worked hard to get here, what was all that even for then?!” Naruto’s shouting startled Y/N. They were so busy gawking at their sensei in disbelief, they had completely forgotten where they were. They had had strict teachers before, but this was insane.

Kakashi didn’t even seem fazed by the boy's anger, nor the growing unease of his new students. “That was just the first selection process to see who might become genin, in the end I get to decide who actually passes. Moving on, I expect you all at the training grounds at 5 AM, bring your ninja gear.”

The group took the lull in conversation to sink in the information they just received. If they didn't pass this next test, they would be sent right back to the academy. Given how authoritarian Kakashi-sensei was during their first meeting, Y/N had no doubt that if he felt like it, he would expel one of them for not meeting his standards. Looking at their classmates, they all seemed to be in deep thought, most likely coming to the same conclusion Y/N did. They managed to drag their eyes over to Kakashi, who, until now, was casually watching his students reel in horror.

As if he had a sixth sense, his eyes darted to meet Y/N’s. His hardened, steel-gray eye locked onto theirs, turning lighter with mirth as he noticed the slight shake in their form. The sick bastard was enjoying this, torturing kids barely younger than himself. Then, like nothing even happened, he stood up and spun around. Turning his head to look over his shoulder, he called out one final warning before leaving, “You all can go now, but here’s a little tip, don’t eat breakfast tomorrow. You might end up puking it out.”

#naruto imagines #naruto x reader #naruto harem #harem x reader #naruto uzumaki x reader #sasuke x reader #sakura x reader #kakashi x reader #kakashi hatake x reader #The Yokai Ninja #mod kini

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painttoolyamanaka · 1 year

Note

consider: shino sai friendship. the autism bros.. their parallel play would be incredible

YOU ARE SOSO RIGHT ANON and even though I made a post about them already, I’m willing to say it SO MANY TIMES, they’d be incredible friends to each other.

And NOW, I have an excuse to expand on my Shino-Sai friendship ideas, thank you anon 🫶

shino 🤝 sai

younger brothers with tragically young deceased brothers who they miss a lot

I like to think their relationship really progressed after the war, when Shino learned about Torune and ROOT. He could vaguely remember the masked men taking Torune away in his place but Shibi refused to talk much about it because of the grief of losing a child. There was only one ROOT member that might have anything to tell him about his brother before he died and it was Sai.

Sai didn’t know much, but he attempted to tell Shino everything he did know. At first, it was just the basic shinobi report/rundown. Then, he talked about Torune and Fuu and their relationship from what he saw. Sai didn't know much because Danzō made sure to keep the ROOT soldiers apart but he went on a mission or two with Torune and he seemed to genuinely be a good guy, even if he was a bit withdrawn. Sai apologized for not knowing much but Shino cried and told him it was enough. Just knowing his brother wasn't completely broken-in and emotionless, that even if it was terrible, Torune still had the ability to love made him break down. Sai tried his best to comfort him through it.

And that's when they became friends. I think after that, they hung out a LOT. Sai would randomly show up in Shino's house (you know how people headcanon that Kakashi just shows up through the window. well, I think all ANBU do that and Kakashi is the only one polite enough to slam open your window as a warning. Sai and Yamato are just 🧍‍♂️ in your living room).

I think Shino never really got many guests, especially since the Aburames are like the reserved bug family, so he's absolutely delighted to have another friend over that's not his team. He can show Sai his clan's huge bug collection and Sai will not bat an eye at a giant spider in the living room. He'll probably say hello to it.

Shino, pointing at a giant spider in the corner: This is Fluffy she's very sweet but people are scared of her a lot so just don't scream and you'll be fine. Sai, internally: How does one befriend big spider? Hmm...

I also think that after the war, Sai moved from the apartment Danzō gave him and into a small house or something, as a fresh start now that ROOT was disbanded. I know in my heart that Shino is the friend you would call on to help you move.

They try their best to make everything match but then Sai’s house ends up monochrome and Ino has to step in 😭

I think a big part of their relationship is just them understanding each other. Autism parallel play is real!!

Shino can tell on some level that Sai is like him. They’re strangely similar actually, I think they resemble each other more than Sai ever resembled Sasuke, especially later in life.

Shino, standing nearby Sai, waiting for him to start a conversation:

Sai, knowing Shino is right there and waiting for him to start a conversation:

Shino: You’re just like me :)

Sometimes they’ll just talk about every niche topic under the sun, and sometimes they just accompany each other. Shino will be walking around and then see Sai following him, and then ask Sai if he wants to help him do whatever mundane thing he’s doing. And Sai will do the same for Shino.

Imagine like two baby ducks following each other around all day, that’s them.

I also think in Boruto, Shino asks Sai to teach art lessons often. Sometimes his students need a break, and other times he just wants Sai to teach for a bit, because he can see how much Sai enjoys sharing his craft.

Shino: And now a special guest for class…

Inojin and Sumire, internally: please don’t let it be dad please don’t let it be dad please

Shino: Sai!

Sai: Hello! :D

Inojin and Sumire:

(The class loves him but he is still a Dad. Very embarrassing at times, and his Dad jokes are either out of pocket or horribly cheesy)

so, YEAH, anon is very right, those two are best friends and I think they’re really close after the war! It took me sometime to make this so have a little doodle of these two trying to pick a carpet! 💖

#sai naruto #the shino and sai friendship that canon was too cowardly to give us #shino aburame #anon!!#my [insert synonym for art here]

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depressedhatakekakashi · 2 years

Note

For the team minato stuff... maybe giving the kids The Talk? These kids were only in the academy for 1-3 years.

Like, minato is supposed to meet up with his team, but the accidentally see him and kushina in a... compromised position.

Awkwardness ensues, especially since its incredibly like that jiraiya gave him the talk.

This can’t be happening.

He refused to believe this was a conversation they were being forced to sit through, all because of Obito.

“I told you to wait at the training field with us,” he hissed, rolling his eyes when Obito glared at him. “If you hadn’t interrupted them we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“It’s not my fault,” Obito defended himself. “They should have a sign up when they’re doing stuff like that.”

“Obito, Kakashi!” The two of them snapped to attention, neither of them meeting Minato-Sensei’s eyes. “Pay attention. This is a serious conversation.”

There was nothing serious about it. Not to Kakashi. He would rather be anywhere else. Even a challenge with Gai sounded better than sitting through this.

“Sensei, don’t you think we’re a little… young?” Rin interjected, for once on the same page as Kakashi and Obito with her feelings about the topic at hand. “I mean, it’s nice to have but… if I want to know I can ask my parents.”

“I can just go without knowing,” Kakashi grumbled. When was he ever going to use this information anyways? His only concern was being a good shinobi. Making a name for himself. None of this would help him achieve that goal. “Shouldn’t Obito be the one being punished right now anyways?”

“Hey!”

“You all need to hear this,” Minato-Sensei insisted, refusing to budge on the matter. “Now, where were we?”

Not one of them dared to speak. Silently they all hoped he would forget what he was talking about and move on.

Maybe, if they were really lucky, he’d get distracted.

“Oh, right,” their hopes were dashed in an instant. “P-penetration.”

Not one of the four shinobi there heard that word being spoken out loud and made it out alive. Obito’s soul crumbled at the mere mention of the topic. Kakashi’s brain checked out half way through when his Sensei got a little too descriptive, Minato-Sensei looked like he wanted to die on the spot the entire time he spoke, and Rin-

Poor Rin.

She looked like she had just been through Torture and interrogation. There were no words to describe how terribly she was handling this conversation.

“I’m kicking your ass after this,” Kakashi grumbled, still glaring at Obito. “And you’re never going to Sensei’s alone again.”

“Right,” Crossing his arms over his chest, Obito puffed out his cheeks in defiance. “Like you can tell me what to do, Bakashi “

“Uh, Obito?” Rin spoke up, a soft but broken smile on her face when the boys turned to her. “He is the Chunin of the group.”

“Alright,” Minato Sensei clapped his hands, pulling their attention back to him. “Time for a quiz.”

Kakashi could feel himself melting into the ground.

“A- a quiz?” Obito stammered. “Sensei!”

“It’s important to know you three retained the information I gave you,” he stood firm even as his face turned a deep red. “Anyways um… Let’s see. Kakashi, what is the most important thing to have during intercourse?”

“Murder.”

“I don’t think-“

“I’m going to murder you.” he stared at Obito, already reaching for his Kunai.

Throwing his hands up in front of himself, Obito screeched as Kakashi lunged forward, only saved by their Sensei bolting between the two of them and grabbing Kakashi around the waist.

The nine year old was now dangling in the air kicking his feet out desperately, trying with all his might to get out of his Sensei’s hold so he could get at Obito.

It was a hopeless cause, but he didn’t care.

It was Obito’s fault they were here and he was going to make sure he paid for his mistakes.

#team Minato #Hatake Kakashi #Uchiha Obito #Namikaze Minato #nohara rin #Kakashi is not ok

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kashi-prompts · 1 year

Text

Flowers for a Shinobi

Chapter 15: Lotus Art: Iyasu Healing Flower, Part II

Word Count: 5,123 (I'm sorry again)

Pairing: Kakashi x OFC

Previous Chapter ❀ Archive of Our Own Link ❀

❀❀❀

Ayame sat up rigidly, her body stiff from sitting in the particularly lumpy seat provided by the Kazekage's headquarters. She picked at her finger, peeling back the tender skin around her nail bed. Blood seeped from the exposed area, stinging slightly as she hastily wiped it with her skirt. Beside her, she could feel Kakashi's eyes glance down at her from his book, watching her. She folded her hands on her lap, her fingers gripping her knuckles.

What news would the Kazekage have to offer them? Did the number of infected shinobi increase? What if more men had passed away since they left Konoha?

She had tried to keep her cool after her frenzied episode the previous night. Kakashi had been right; she needed to get a grip. Yet she couldn't shake the feeling of inadequacy, regardless of how honest his tone had been.

She sighed heavily, her knee bouncing as she looked around Sunagekure Headquarters' waiting room. Behind her, a squall of wind blew across the window, specks of sand dancing across its sill and sliding down the nape of her shirt. She itched her back irritably, brushing the dust that stuck to her slick skin.

Ayame had never been to the Sand village, nor had she ever met someone from there either. However, the more she observed the office inhabitants, the more she wondered if the grim demeanor painted over their features was their default state or if they all knew what was going on. She bit her lip, taking in a deep breath.

"Lord Kazekage will see you now," a petite young woman called to them, gesturing the group to follow her. Sakura and Yamato stood quickly, trailing behind the girl with somber expressions. Beside her, Ayame heard Kakashi snapping his book shut, sighing as he lifted himself from his chair.

Standing up, Ayame flattened her clammy palms against the fabric of her skirt. Her throat felt like sandpaper, barely allowing her to swallow her worry. She stepped forward, watching her teammates disappear behind a large oak door.

"Ayame. Wait," she heard beside her, his voice sober and low. She looked over at Kakashi, his gaze fixed ahead at the Kazekage's office.

"Remember what I told you last night," he reminded her quietly. He hesitated, looking over at her, "do you remember the first thing I taught you?"

She blinked, uncertain why he would ask her that at a time like this. She searched his face, wondering if this were a test. His features gave away no indication of such.

"Chakra focus?" she replied uncertainly, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Meditation," he replied with a pointed finger, "focus on the basics, and the rest will come easily. Be smart and be careful."

Ayame nodded, looking away as she processed his words, thinking of how he had paused at the last piece of advice. Be careful.

"Let's go. Lord Gaara is waiting for us," he touched her back, guiding her towards the office doors. An electric shock fired up her spine, causing her to jerk forward if only to get away from his touch. He pulled his hand away, her cheeks flushing as she strutted into the office before him.

"Kakashi, thank you for joining us," a heavy voice greeted. Flustered, Ayame's eyes traveled over her comrades before settling on a young man not much older than Sakura's, sitting behind the round Kazekage's desk. Surely he was not the Kazekage, she thought. But his robes and serious disposition seemed to tell her otherwise.

"I am relieved to see you all," the red-haired man continued, looking up from his desk. Beside him, a stack of folders Ayame had seen an office official carrying earlier sat open, its content spread about the Kage's desk.

"How can we help, Lord Gaara?" Sakura asked earnestly.

The man's light eyes skimmed over the group before settling on an unfamiliar face, his head turning slightly as he assessed her.

"Are you Ayame Hana?" He asked his tone even. Ayame's back straightened as she bowed politely to her superior.

"Yes, Lord Kazekage," she replied, sweat dripping down her spine. It was undoubtedly warm in the desert.

"Good," He nodded, "Lord Hokage informed me you would be joining. You're the one we are relying so heavily upon. I hope you are up for the challenge. Please know how grateful we are to have you."

Ayame's jaw tightened, nodding with apprehension, "Of course, Lord Kage."

"Has the number changed?" Kakashi interrupted, directing the Kazekage's unusual eyes to the Jonin.

"Surprisingly, no," Gaara replied with a exhale, "Truly, we have never experienced something quite as debilitating as this epidemic. I've never seen men so sick, laying in hospital beds unconscious and sweating - as though they are fighting demons in their sleep. They're alive one moment and dead the next. If not for Tsunade telling us beforehand what the Leaf had experienced in the spring, it would have been too late by the time we discovered what this was. This can't continue."

"By the sound of it, it seems like the symptoms of this poison could be mutating to become stronger," Yamato commented, glancing over at Sakura for confirmation. "I was one of the first to be infected in the Leaf. Although unconscious, I was told I was sick for well over a few days, right, Sakura?"

Sakura nodded, "Kakashi-sensei and Ayame-chan were gone for two days procuring the scroll. You had been ill for two days before that."

Gaara nodded, assessing the paperwork on his desk, "these are all the shinobi that are infected. Shinobi as young as academy age sick, their chakra levels dangerously low."

Gaara hesitantly fingered the paperwork, opening a folder to reveal a stack of photos. Slowly, he distributed them in a neat row at the edge of his desk, displaying them to the group. Ayame leaned forward, taking in the content, a lump in her throat forming.

The Kazekage was right. The photos were just a few examples of those lying in hospital beds beyond the Kage's quarters in the Sand's hospital. When she had seen those in her family ill, it had been a slow, painful process. At least a week. Those shown in the Kage's photos looked like skeletons, their features sunken in after only a few days.

"And how long have they been ill?" Yamato asked, his tone clearly disturbed by the photos.

"No more than 4 days," Gaara gathered the photos in his hands, sliding them back into the folder.

Ayame closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to settle her nerves. Suddenly, it was as though she were reliving the feeling of her own body declining at the hand of this infection. Those photos triggered something in her mind she had repressed. She squeezed her hands at her waist.

She thought of her parents. Of her aunts and uncles, distant relatives and cousins, all dying. This unknown "illness," they had thought, sweeping through the compound like a plague. She had no idea they would all succumb within a week. The images of their lifeless gazes forever burned into her memory.

Had she known what had caused that "illness," she would have acted quicker. She would have saved them sooner. She didn't know what chakra was at the time - nor did anyone else in her clan. They just knew what they were capable of. That somehow, if they wove their hands together in a particular motion, flowers would rise from the ground. Why had she been the only one to survive? Why couldn't she have saved them?

She drew another shaky breath, a slight frown forming on her lips. She couldn't let this happen again. Even if it meant sacrificing herself, she wouldn't be the last standing again. Kakashi had told her this job wouldn't be easy. In fact, he had told her well, and often it was a difficult job. But within this career she had found herself in, she found meaning. This was her chance to do something, even if it terrified her.

"Lord Gaara," she addressed suddenly, "Is there a place I can go to begin making these flowers right away?"

She realized she had interrupted something, having been lost so deeply in thought she didn't even hear the group talking. Gaara's eyes swiveled back to her, surprised yet pleased at her eagerness.

"Yes," he said, "The Suna Greenhouse has been prepared for you. It may not be a lot of room, but it will do for now."

"Thank you," she bowed again, wanting to get this over with before her sudden resolve and confidence wore off, "how long do I have to make the entire batch?"

"Maybe two days, at the very most. Please start as soon as you can. Suki will take you," Gaara gestured to the girl behind them, the petite young woman who had ushered them in.

"Thank you," she replied, turning towards the exit. She caught a black eye glancing over at her subtly, his eyebrow raised at her sudden boldness. She could see the shadow of a smile behind his mask as he looked at her, his exposed eye bright with admiration. Quickly, she looked away.

"Sakura, Suki will also guide you to the Suna Hospital so you can begin assisting," she heard Gaara say.

"Understood," Sakura nodded, turning to follow Ayame as she headed for the door. She heard the shuffling of three pairs of feet behind her.

"Kakashi, Yamato, please stay," Gaara had halted them, "I would like to discuss some things further with you."

❀❀❀

Meditation. The guided art of mindfulness and focusing.

The small clock on the wall moved its hands punctually, its rhythmic sounds waltzing in sync with the beat of her heart in her ears. The cadence of the clock kept her breathing in check, her mind focusing on the sudden sense of the chakra movement throughout her body. She could feel how it moved through her bloodstream, pivoting at every junction of veins. The consciousness of meditation silenced the tension in her bones.

When Ayame opened her eyes again, the clock read a different hour. Had she been so deeply concentrated she hadn't realized that much time had passed? Scurrying to her feet, she went over to her backpack, propped against the greenhouse's glass walls, and dug her hand deep into its contents. Finally, she pulled out a handful of the syringes Sakura had made for her in Konoha.

Taking a deep breath, she laid the syringes out on a wooden workbench, pushing bits of dirt aside before aligning the vials neatly. The bench reminded her briefly of the flower arranging stand she worked on daily at the Yamanaka Flower Shop. She bit her lip, thinking of her old life - wondering if she would ever see Konoha again.

She took a deep breath, unfolding the note Sakura had given her the night before they left. She recognized the instructions in neat, feminine handwriting as the pinkette's penmanship.

One injection to the upper thigh at a 90-degree angle.

Rest between sessions.

Ayame nodded to herself, picking up the needle and assessing the clear liquid that moved about within it. Turning, she looked out into the Sunagekure greenhouse, its modest size a curious predicament for the kunoichi. Above her, the dry heat of the Sand bore down on her through the glass walls, causing a stream of sweat to constantly drip down the center of her spine.

She walked over to the raised bed and knelt before them, scroll and syringe in hand. Slowly, she unrolled the paper, letting it unfurl itself on the concrete floor as she stretched her wrists.

"Alright," she took a deep breath, uncapping the syringe and grabbing a section of her upper thigh between her fingers. She stared at it for a moment, exhaling a shaky breath. Without another thought, she sunk the needle into her skin with a hiss from behind her teeth.

The adrenaline rush soaked her body, drenching her in a cold sweat as she wove her hands together in a series of familiar signs, pressing her palm to the scroll quickly. Her bones rattled, the energy leaving her body to mold itself into several bushels of the Iyasu healing flower sprouting from the raised beds.

She lurched forward, catching her breath as she looked up to see the three rows of raised beds filled with the flower. There had to be at least 1,000 rooted in the dense soil. She let out a sigh of relief, her hands flexing as the feeling came back to them. How would she continue if she couldn't even find the strength to stand up and gather these?

"Hello?" a cautious voice came from behind her. Ayame looked over her shoulder, her lips parted as she tried to quench the thirst for air in her lungs. A few young girls, all at least in their late teens, stood behind her. They were all dressed similarly, their outfits clearly those of gardeners.

"Hello," Ayame offered back modestly, wondering if she had begun using their work area without them being notified, "Lord Gaara has-"

"We know," another girl stepped forward, "we're here to help. Can we pick the flowers for you and send them to the lab?"

Ayame sat back on her ankles, closing her eyes. She had to keep going if she needed to do this 34 more times. She took a deep breath and another, concentrating back the peaceful solitude of her meditative state.

Finally, she nodded to them, "thank you," she said, "That would be wonderful."

❀❀❀

29 Hours Later

Kakashi slid his hands into his pockets, his thoughts a somber medley of tension and unease. He scratched the back of his head, the rounded toe of his boot kicking a rock as he made his way to the greenhouse.

He had left the Kazekage's office earlier that morning, his mind a whirlwind of methodological planning and collusion. Who could be behind this? Where were they hiding? How were they getting away with this so easily?

Gaara seemingly had no leads, similar to the Hokage's resolution. Word from Tsunade had stated that she was shifting squads closer to the wind, having ruled out most of the Fire for potential hideaways. Forces left unharmed in the Sand and Leaf were on high alert for a possible threat; communications were redistributed to the other shinobi villages, warning them of the danger.

How long would this go on for, Kakashi thought? With no significant evidence pointing to where this operation originated, the shinobi villages were left defenseless to this poison.

And more importantly, how much longer could they rely on Ayame? She was the only person responsible for shouldering all this weight. He rolled his neck uncomfortably as he grew closer to the greenhouse.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura greeted him as he reached the entrance, her voice worn. "I thought you were on a mission with Yamato for Lord Gaara?"

Kakashi shook his head, peering into the slightly tinted glass to spot Ayame. He felt his body relax, if only for that moment. He had been thinking of her last night, wondering how she was doing but willing himself to let her do her job in peace. His eye took her in, her back turned to them as her hunched-over shoulders rose and fell strenuously. The corner of his lip turned downward.

"Gaara feels it's too dangerous," he replied solemnly. "He would like to get this all under control before the Sand becomes defenseless. All missions have been gridlocked."

Beyond the glass, Kakashi tilted his head to watch a few young girls gathering the flowers Ayame had produced. They picked them hastily as Ayame rested on the concrete floor, the back of her uniform drenched in sweat.

"How are the antidotes coming along?" Kakashi asked, glancing over at the girl. Sakura nodded to him, looking down at the clipboard she had clung to her chest.

"We've made a little over two thousand so far," she replied, "the nurses have begun administering them to each patient. They will have to be monitored for any additional symptoms or reactions. It could take up to a month for them to recover, if not more."

Kakashi nodded, his uncovered eye tracing Ayame's movements through the glass. She reached over, her hand quivering as she grabbed and uncapped another syringe before sinking it into her thigh. Even from this distance, he could see blood trickling from her bruised, exposed leg. He frowned.

Sakura took in a jittery breath, turning to face her former sensei. "Unfortunately," she glanced back into the greenhouse, "we think the projection Lord Gaara told Ayame-chan is incorrect. It seems we are running out of time."

Kakashi's eye glanced down at his student, his eyebrow perched, "what do you mean? Have more died?"

Sakura nodded quietly, "ninety-eight. Most of them children."

Kakashi sighed heavily, picking at the fabric pills inside his trousers. His lips pursed behind his mask, watching his student weave her hands together, sluggishly forming signs before thumping her palm to the scroll.

"And how is she doing?" the Jonin asked, his eyes traveling up the rows of raised soil beds as a familiar flower sprouted up from the dirt. His eyebrows lifted at the feat, watching her hunch over again, her body shaking.

"Okay, I suppose," Sakura replied quietly, "we've hooked her up to a chakra monitoring machine. To be honest, I'm not sure how she's handling it. Her determination is extraordinary. But I don't think her body can handle much more."

Kakashi shook his head slightly, watching Ayame's bent-over, weakened body try to sit up. He could feel his muscles tense, watching her attempt to regain control as she spread an unsteady hand across the scroll to smooth it. Her palm slipped on the soiled concrete floor, her arm sliding forward and crumpling part of the scroll.

"How many syringes has she used?" he asked, glancing over at Sakura apprehensively.

"Most of them," She replied dismally, "she has been getting two uses out of each."

"Are there any more?"

"No," Sakura exhaled, looking up at her sensei, "research shows the body can't handle more than twenty of these shots in a short period. She has barely rested, let alone slept overnight. She's been here since yesterday. If we were to give her more, I don't think her body could handle it. I'm surprised she is handling this."

"Do you think she should continue?"

Sakura looked at him, her expression bleak, "I'm worried about her. You should go talk to her."

Kakashi pressed his lips together, turning back to look through the glass window. Above him, the morning Sunagekure sun beat down on his back, causing the hair at the nape of his neck to stick to his skin. He acknowledged his student's words, hearing her say goodbye before leaving to return to the hospital.

He carefully slid open the greenhouse door, feeling the humidity immediately hitting his body. He closed the door quietly, Ayame's body not moving as her back rose and fell with each breath.

"Ayame," he called to her, kneeling down beside her. He placed a hand on her soaked back, her face buried in her arms as she knelt against the floor. She didn't acknowledge him, her mouth open as she tried to catch her breath.

"Ayame," he pressed again, reaching down to move her braid from obstructing her face. Her skin was slick with sweat, her complexion ashen.

"I thought you were supposed to be on a mission?" she finally responded feebly, pushing herself up from the ground. She stared at the concrete, sweat dripping down her delicate nose. Her elbows shook.

"Postponed," he said, searching her profile. She tried to swallow, coughing slightly before closing her eyes. "You need to rest."

He could hear the faint beeping of the chakra-level machine attached to her waistband. Small round pads hastily glued to her chest, their wires slithering beneath her clothes to the device.

She shook her head, "I don't have time to rest. You know that."

"Then you have to take a break at least," he said firmly, gently pulling her to a sitting position, "that's an order."

Ayame looked over at him, her eyes bleary and worn. Worry consumed him suddenly, an unsettling feeling as he studied her tired gaze. He had never seen her so exhausted. Even on days when he had worn her down to nothing, training her until the late hours of the night when the moon hung high under the blanket of stars - it was nothing compared to the weakness he saw in her bones now.

He lifted his hand from her shoulder, his fingers hovering over her temple for a moment, poised to brush back a disobedient strand of hair. A fierce sense of protection over her washed over him. And yet - he slowly lowered his hand back to her shoulder, remembering what he had promised himself.

"You've done great," he said instead, his voice quiet as the young girls returned to pick more of the flowers.

She shook her head and looked away, tears brimming at the corners of her eyes, "I'm so tired."

"I know," he sympathized, "That is why you need to rest."

"How many have I made?" she turned, asking one of the girls close by as they gathered up her work.

"Around twenty thousand, Miss," one of the ladies replied with a weak smile.

She scoffed to herself, closing her eyes as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Her hand shook with exhaustion.

"It's okay," he assured her, his ears filled with the slow, unsteady beeps of the monitor. He knew enough about her chakra levels and having had lost enough chakra in his life to see that she was dangerously low. He looked down at the small pile of discarded syringes beside her. The ones on top held trace amounts of blood within their barrels from improperly administering them.

"I only have one more syringe left," she managed, tracing his gaze to the floor.

"I know," he said again, his hand leaving her shoulder. "Let me see your chakra monitor."

She reached behind her, fumbling to unhook the machine from her waistband. Unable to watch her struggle more, he slipped it off himself. Staring blankly at the monitor, he felt an the same uneasy feeling rise up in his throat. It was just as he suspected. Her levels were too low. If she continued, he was sure she wouldn't make it.

The sound of her hand slapping against the ground broke him away from the monitor. Looking over, he saw her sliding the last syringe across the floor. Quickly, he grabbed her wrist.

"Ayame," he told her sternly, his voice more strained than he intended, "you can't. You have to rest. Let me get you something to eat."

Her fingers quivered against the ground, the back of her hand slick with sweat and dirt. When he realized she wouldn't let go, he slid his palm down her fingers, easily prying it from her grip. As he pushed the syringe away, he felt her middle finger hook his thumb. Carefully, she pulled it back to her, a soft tangle of fingers gripping the fabric of his glove like a child.

His chest twitched uneasily. The warmth from her fingers against his skin was an uncomfortable yet soothing feeling in the humidity of the greenhouse. He paused, his hand paralyzed against hers. A moment later, he felt her fingers squeeze his. Without even thinking further, he wrapped his palm around her knuckles. Her gaze remained settled on the floor, her nose flaring in unison with her staggered breathing.

Watching her here, seeing her endure such a stressful mission on her shoulders, was something he never anticipated he'd see happen so quickly. If not for the strife of her past life, he suspected she would have climbed the ranks of a shinobi just as soon as he had. Admiration, or maybe it was something else, swelled within his chest. He swallowed quietly.

She opened her eyes and looked up, two tired green irises staring back at him. Her eyebrows unfurrowed, her gaze a haze of delirious gratitude. His stomach twisted instantly, and he slid his hand away, feeling the heat rise up his neck.

"Let me get you something to eat," he told her, standing to his feet. She watched him, nodding her head as he turned towards the door.

"I heard you talking to Sakura," he heard her say. He turned back to face her uncertainly. Finally, he nodded, unsure of what to say.

"How many people have died overnight?" She asked quietly.

"Ayame, I-"

"How many?"

Kakashi sighed, looking away with his hand on the doorknob. He fiddled with it for a moment, her gaze fixed on him.

"How many, Kakashi?"

"Ninety-eight," he finally responded, looking back at her. He watched her nod, understanding as she looked away. He stood there for a moment, wondering if there was more she had to say. When she didn't say another word, he swung open the door, letting in the fresh, dry air of the desert.

"I'll be back," he told her, "just rest until I return, please."

Closing the door behind him, he sighed heavily, running his hand through his hair. He had seen that many shinobi die in an hour during war times. But children? What disturbed him most was how that number would continue to climb. They had the antidote ready for a little over a quarter of the infected population. But she could not continue to make them at a rate fast enough to save them. Yamato had been correct in his theory that the shinobi were losing chakra more quickly than he had when he contracted the poison into his system. He chewed on the inside of his lip.

Quickly, his legs strode down the main drag of Sunagekure, his eyes searching for a street cart or shop to promptly purchase a hot meal. Finally, he settled on a fish shop and ordered a bowl of salmon and rice, her favorite.

"I can't believe you're favorite meal is broiled saury. It's so scaly and smelly," she had teased him one afternoon, poking his arm with the butt of her chopstick. He shook his head at her, smirking beneath his mask as he glanced over at her. He remembered it was a day she had worn her hair differently, pined to the side of her head in a neat swirl of two braids, exposing her delicate neck. She had freckles there too.

"At least I don't eat tempura," he replied, his mouth filled with food as he glanced over at her, "That stuff is terrible for you."

"Hmph!" She had popped another piece of salmon tempura in her mouth, hiding an amused grin, "it's salmon! It has protein!"

They had had fun that summer, he thought, a reminiscent smile twitching his lips. The more he looked back on those memories, the fonder his heart felt toward them. Or maybe it was the aftereffects of their kiss on those same training grounds that recreated his memories in a different light.

He shook his head, heading back toward the greenhouse again with a food box for her. He couldn't bare the way he felt around her. It was the same reason he had wanted nothing to do with her after their first mission, yet they kept coming back to each other through external means, like two magnets bound for each other. He simply couldn't curb his thoughts around her, no matter how often he tried to deter his mind.

Holding her meal in his hands, he reached for the doorknob of the greenhouse, peering in through the class. His uncovered eye widened, watching her through the glass as her thumb slid the plunger of the syringe down, pushing the contents into her muscle. His spine froze, alarm seizing him as he swung the door open.

"Ayame! Don't-"

Dropping the meal, he lunged forward, reaching out to stop her as she smashed her hand onto the scroll. Suddenly, the ground shook beneath his feet, and he took a step back, his eye wide. A primal sound came from her, pushing as much energy and chakra into the scroll as she could. The raised beds filled with flowers, overflow bending out of its confines and onto the ground. The concrete split beneath them, spreading the floor apart as more flowers sprung forth. His mouth fell open in disbelief, kneeling on the ground with his eyes fixed on her back.

Above them, the glass ceiling began to crack. One minor fracture quickly spreading into a web as the ground continued to rattle. The glass shattered, falling over them like a violent summer storm. Looking back at her, he leaped forward again, knowing the outcome of the structure's integrity. Her body went limp as soon as he reached her in a vain attempt to shield her. He quickly caught her in his arms as she fell forward.

The remains settled and the ground stilled. Dust clouds hovered around them as he tried to clear his throat. The humidity that consumed the greenhouse mingled with the dry air of the desert.

"Ayame," he breathed, flipping her on his knees. He searched her face, no longer hearing the steady beep of the chakra machine. His hand hovered above her, his eye wild as his mind went blank. Her lips were parted slightly, eyes closed as though she were sleeping. He pushed her hair from her face, red strands stuck in a mixture of blood from the glass and sweat.

His usual calm demeanor stood no chance as he frantically tapped the side of her face. His hand slid down her neck, his fingers searching for a pulse under her skin.

"Ayame," he called again, the strain in his voice something he had never heard in himself, "shit. Shit!"

The dust began to settle around them. Looking up, he saw rows and rows of flowers surrounding the greenhouse grounds, extending beyond the concrete and into the desert soil. It was well beyond what she had ever made. Well beyond anything he could have mustered, given the energy she had expended already. Looking down, he pulled her limp body closer as she began to slip, blood soaking his glove from a deep cut on her shoulder.

His hand shook as he tapped her face again, calling her name, his efforts futile. Why did she do that? Why didn't she listen to him? The potential of losing her tightened his chest, his body shaking suddenly.

Please, no, he thought. Please. Not like this. Not again.

"What happened here?"

Kakashi turned quickly, the girls who had previously been collecting the flowers standing in the greenhouse ruins. Their expressions were dumbfounded, staring at the thousands of flowers that stretched beyond the exterior of the greenhouse.

"Go get Sakura!" He ordered them, "now!"

❀❀❀

A/N: I'm not totally content with this, but i'm tired of looking at it. I hope it is okay. I promise de fluff(tm) is coming. I have it all laid out in my head lol

#kakashi x ofc #kakashi x original character #kakashi fanfiction #kakashi imagine #hatake kakashi #kakashi #tina writes stuff #kakashi x oc #naruto shippuden #kakashi hatake #kakashi hatake x original character #kakashi x reader #naruto

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konohamaru-sensei · 9 months

Text

requested by @qettleqorn

prompt: "I try always to be too much for you."

____________

Keigo hits the window open with his front leg and jumps into the office of his agency. All the windows at the top of the building are revolving so that he can get in and out whenever he wants to. The designer had nodded when he had mentioned it “Like messenger pigeons”, well, sort of like that, yes.

Flying back up to Tokyo and down to Fukuoka in one day is taxing, but there is nothing else he can do if he wants to keep his periodic checks into the Liberation Front going without raising too much suspicion back home where he usually works.

He is met with an unusual sight. There is Nakagawa Toshi, the assistant Endevour left behind, officially to do some paperwork, but more likely to have an eye on Keigo’s doings, sitting on one of the couches with the laptop on her lap. She has headphones in and from the light flickering in her eyes he can judge that she is watching a video.

Not touching the ground with his feet Keigo flies over, wing strokes so soft that it almost does not move the air at all. Birds of prey are silent hunters, they say, and since he can control each feather precisely, he also has no issue being as silent as his real life name givers.

Toshi is watching a replay of the latest UA sports festival, he realizes as he gets closer. He knows the recording well, since he too skimmed it closely as soon as the festival was over. Hawks liked to be informed about every hero coming and going. It had been drilled into him to know everything at all times and such was the way he operated.

On screen Todoroki Shoto’s left arm burns in the hellflame his father had given him, the arm he had stubbornly refused to use for the rest of the tournament. Keigo looks at Toshi, the way her eyes look in worry at the boy, her teeth slightly biting her lips, as if this is live coverage and not something that happened months ago.

Still, it’s the first time he sees her face in an actual expression, her fond feelings clearly displayed in her facial features. Keigo has tried to crack her a little, make her laugh or angry or say anything of substance, but was only met with indifference and the neutral, overtly friendly way she also talked to her boss. It had frustrated him more than he wanted to admit.

“Didn’t know you were into little boys,” Hawks jokes finally, his nose right next to her ear.

In her panic, he finally gets a genuine reaction out of her. He face grows pale in an instant, hands smashing the laptop closed as if she was caught watching porn, with one stop she is up, her hands dangerously in position to have him smash his face into the ground again, but stopping themselves just in time to catch herself.

“Haven’t I told you that it is not very nice to stalk people, Hawks-sama,” she says with her fake niceness, trying to hold the neutral face expression though her chest is still heaving with the shock.

He shrugs. “Might have possibly mentioned it before.” Then he lets some of his feathers fly around his head and zip back into his wings. Feathers just made for the best dramatic entrances. “So, what is your interest in young Shouto?”

She offers him another reaction to his question, the neutral face slipping a little as he mentions Shouto. “I just hadn’t seen this fight yet and since Todoroki-kun and his friend Midoriya-kun will be interning at our agency I felt like it was the responsible thing to look at their abilities to get the team matchups just right.” Her voice is steady and it is a good explanation. Still, Hawks knows. Lies.

All his senses go off. Why is she lying to him about this? Better to figure that out now to avoid potentially having a spy in his or Endevours ranks. Hawks smiles back as fake as she is looking at him now. “How did you even come to work for Endevour-san, doesn’t he have many sidekicks that do his work for him?”

Toshi straightens herself out. “Endevour-sama and my mother were always good friends and…”

“Intimate friends?” he asks a little provocatively. “I mean, your hair is red.” Though he can see that it is not the right shade of red.

Ah, so this is how it looks when Nakagawa Toshi is angry, he thinks as he sees the fire in her eyes burning. And yet she holds her calm expression. “No,” she says, voice neutral, “just friends.”

“So you’ve known the family for a while,” Hawks concludes. “And Shouto is your little favourite.”

Her fingers turn dangerously and Hawks can’t say he is into cleaning up her blood and his from the floor. Something like that is only sexy in other situations. He therefore starts walking over to the door leading to the hallway.

“I don’t think I have to answer these questions for our cooperation to continue, Hawks-sama,” Toshi says with cold anger, watching him walk away. “You are asking too much.”

Keigo throws one last look over his shoulder and shows the woman his tongue. “I hope we can continue this cooperation successfully.” He winks. “Just know that I will always give my best to be too much for you.”

The eyeroll on the other side of the room tells him that his double meaning was delivered perfectly. Keigo feels good about himself as he leaves his office. At least he knows now that Nakagawa can be a normal human woman and, which was maybe even more interesting, that she could have such a soft facial expression if someone was important to her.

#toshi nakagawa #what? you say this hero academy is for me?#fic tag

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mixelation · 8 months

Text

reborn au notes to self on minato's thought process for team 4

so, i'm thinking that minato has been working on the chunin exam mission for like. years. he doesn't super care about the show of unity a joint chunin exam would signal, but his public image is very "nice young guy with progressive ideas" so it seems in character. ibiki is the biggest asset he never got out of iwa in post-war negotiations, both in terms of value and because he's like. a whole ass human. he even offered to let iwa send a team to konoha's exams but they didn't bite.

so when iwa relents and says he can send a team to their exams, minato is pretty sure this is the one chance they're going to get for access to iwa for a very long time. itachi is technically a genin and also within the age range iwa gave him (they gave an age-cap SPECIFICALLY to reduce the chance of minato sending highly experienced genin who could cause shit) (hilarious), so itachi is picked first.

the problem is..... itachi's, like.......... personality??? no one likes working with him. within anbu the biggest appeal of having him as your captain is his insane mission completion ratio, but he's known to push people and then be mean about it and then also, he's 13 so you just end up humiliated. he makes insane calls and is then bad at receiving feedback about it because, very unfortunately, he's almost always right.

minato doesn't care about the suffering itachi will inflict on a jounin senei. but he does care about not royally fucking over the other two genin, so he needs genin that can handle itachi's personality and a jounin with a strong enough personality to not let him get under their skin/walk all over them (because itachi is significantly better than 99% of jounin and knows it), because the jounin still needs to be able competently teach the other two students. oh, also it needs to be someone who can work a multi-person transportation seal, because even itachi is like "yeah i could MAYBE solo this mission by just walking in and out with Ibiki under a genjutsu, but also there's so many variables that the chances of getting caught are higher than i'd like." minato is confident there's enough time itachi could be taught to help with the seal, but it's pretty complex and it needs to working exactly right the first time, so the other person needs to be someone who already knows it or has a solid background in fuinjutsu.....

.....and that basically leaves ONLY KUSHINA* even though he doesn't want to send her (one part she's his beloved wife and one part she's the JINCHURIKI) and he's not sure iwa would even let her in

*there's probably a handful of others, like kakashi, but we'll say they're either doing important other things or he doesn't think they can do the part where they have to competently teach two genin AND coral itachi (kakashi could probably coral itachi but maybe not then ALSO deal with teaching random other children). kushina could coral a rampaging tailed beast AND she's been pestering him for a team

on the flip side, kushina has a hiraishin seal incorporated into her bijuu seal, which is designed to be hidden so it'll pass any tests iwa does to prevent them from brining in a hiraishin (because this is every village's biggest fear and why minato is never getting invited to anyone's chunin exams). if shit REALLY goes down she can just summon him

i think the most elegant approach is planting a hiraishin seal and then minato doing the extraction himself, but that's not the best move for PLOT so i think i'll have him decide that this is also too risky... like the team getting caught risks war, but minato getting caught in iwa or even anyone just getting caught with/making a hiraishin seal basically guarantees war*

*no one told tori this

anyway his initial plan is kushina + itachi + two random genin who don't even get told there's an underlying mission and that itachi is ex-anbu. and then tori and deidara fall into his lap, and itachi himself is like "what about them"

I'm not sure how much time they get together as a team before the chunin exam. originally i was thinking six months to a year but now i'm leaning towards more like three. i like cutting the time down because i think completing this mission sort.... solidifies tori and deidara as konoha, both in their eyes and everyone else's.

this also means minato doesn't quite comprehend how insane both of them are until AFTER he's mentally sorted them into "konoha's precious genin." would he have recruited them if he'd KNOWN deidara might blow up a city block out of boredom or tori would would churn out forbidden jutsu at a rate that could rival tobirama? no he fucking wouldn't have. but now he's stuck with them. his wife keeps having them over for dinner. "i think you're favoring your wife's team by all this one-on-one attention you give them, and it's not fair to--" YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

#reborn au

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neraawritesxx · 2 years

Text

the paths we walk (and the journeys we travel)

pairing: kakashi x sakura genre: romance, drama, adventure word count: 7,390 rating: mature chapter: 1/?

↬ note: so this is going to be my crack at a multichapter, octopath traveler au with our favorite pairing. let me know what you guys think! part 2

Sakura is in her twelfth summer when Tsunade comes to call.

It is also during that same summer that her gift makes itself known. It’s an accident, really, or rather the circumstances in which her gift comes about are an accident. The local kids were picking on the baker’s son to the point of injury, and Sakura could not sit idly by while they made someone bleed. After a swift kick to the shin and some name-calling, Sakura has taken care of the bullies.

However, the boy is still bleeding from the knee and crying at such a volume that it makes her head pound. She tries to settle him down, but that seems to make matters worse. He screeches when she gets too close to the wound, and she gets frustrated with his antics. She grabs him around the ankle to get herself a better view, but the pitch of his cries pierce through her, and her vision starts to swim. Sakura bites her lip to ground herself, but she abruptly becomes extremely cold, almost sickly so, and there is a thrill down her spine before something within her clicks. There is this sudden tug deep in her gut, and unexpectedly, her hands start glowing green.

Then the wound is gone.

She swears the baker’s boy to secrecy – though she knows he will do no such thing – and runs home to tell her mother about it. She tries to replicate what has happened, but she fails, and her parents laugh off her notion as childish antics and wild storytelling. She is sure that her parents will think twice about what she told them when the renowned clergywoman darkens their doorstep less than a week later.

She knows of Tsunade, of course; a former palace physician and scholar turned religious sect leader who heals ailing travelers and congregants with a mysterious power. She’s tucked herself and some of her more loyal followers away in a Citadel high within the mountains that overlook their valley. She has heard whispers that it’s a fortress, lined with guards and magicians, that anyone brave enough to try and penetrate its walls fails before they have even fully tried.

Her followers rarely travel down to their village outside of garnering some supplies, and it’s even rarer that Tsunade makes the trip herself. Still, Sakura assumes that this visit is because she is in much more trouble than she initially thought.

Tsunade’s older than she anticipated, though younger than her grandparents. With blonde hair ceding to gray and crow’s feet near her eyes, Sakura knows she has been around long enough to see actual conflict. To have seen men and women fight and bicker, to bleed and die — something Sakura has only heard about in fairytales.

Tsunade has a reputation throughout their village as prickly and snappish, as likely to scold as she is to aid when people come to her door. Her mother has often told her that most would rather risk traveling to other villages rather than deal with her bad moods.

She expects this visit to be about the baker’s boy, to be all fanfare, paperwork, and questions about how someone of Sakura’s lineage can utilize the gift of healing when there hasn’t been a recorded healer in their family for centuries.

When Sakura answers the door, however, all Tsunade does is stare.

Her gaze sweeps over Sakura with an intensity that makes the young girl want to slouch, to fold in on herself. She doesn’t, though. She pulls back her shoulders, drawing up to her full – albeit, unimpressive – height, and with a shuddering breath, she looks the older woman in the eyes and asks, “May I help you?”

Tsunade doesn’t immediately reply, but there’s something that enters her gaze, admiration – maybe – and what seems like amusement. She sidesteps the younger woman and enters her home.

“Come, girl,” Tsunade calls back, moving further into the foyer. “I want to see what those hands of yours can do.”

-o-

The Citadel, despite the rumors, is run more like a school than anything else. Its stone walls and vaulted ceilings offer enough room for the practice of religion and the healing arts.

She meets many people within the first month, but the one who stands out the most is Ino Yamanaka.

She’s a girl no older than Sakura, with a cheery disposition and bright eyes. She is one of the select few chosen to study under Tsunade with a knack for herbal medicines. Sakura hopes they will get along, as their mentor has been talking about pairing the two of them up for most of their training, but things don’t go as planned.

Ino pokes fun at her forehead within the first five minutes, and Sakura calls her a pig in retaliation, and Sakura is sure that they will never, ever become friends.

After a few more rounds of name-calling and an intervention to separate them by the other students, Tsunade announces that they are to be roommates.

-o-

Sometimes Sakura is bitter. Especially at the beginning of her training, Sakura is bitter all the time. She is bitter in the way that green tea is bitter, in the way that makes you want to swipe your tongue across the front of your teeth and pucker your lips. Her training is a slow process. Sakura feels that she is out of her depth, swallowed whole by her naivety, and she has thought about giving up at least half a dozen before the first week is through.

It’s grueling work, and no matter how hard she tries, she can’t seem to call upon her gift whenever she wants. It remains dormant most days, and Tsunade has her going through books and pamphlets and practicing incisions and forms that make her hands cramp and her eyes sting from focusing too long.

She breaks under her bitterness one day.

She tosses down the scalpel she was using to practice, and it clatters against the stone floor, ringing resoundingly in the otherwise empty room.

“Why did you bring me here?” She growls.

Tsunade seems unperturbed by her outburst, instead focusing on the letter in her hand. She doesn’t offer any answer, and Sakura is not sure that anything the older woman would have said would have been sufficient anyway. So, she screams. She screams, and she yells, voices her frustration with hollers and howls, and all of her bitterness boils to the surface, snapping with the tension of a coiled snake. She protests about why she was brought here, cries that she wants to go home, and says that she is a failure of a healer because she cannot even call upon the gift that she is blessed with.

When finished, she pouts, swipes her tongue across the front of her teeth, and stews in her sullenness.

There’s a pregnant pause, and Tsunade finally lifts her eyes from the piece of paper in front of her. She has formed a habit of not answering Sakura’s most important questions; in this instance, she appears to be doing the same. Instead, Tsunade slides another tome in Sakura’s direction, then looks back down at the paperwork in her grasp.

“Are you done?” She inquires, tone calm. Sakura isn’t sure she can see it, as the older woman is not paying any attention to her, but she nods morosely anyway. “Good. Now get to reading. When I worry about why your power has not presented itself, then you can,” Tsunade says.

It’s not a reply filled with comfort or warmth, nor is it an explanation for any of her questions, but Sakura takes Tsunade’s words at face value – for what they are. She opens the book and starts reading.

She doesn’t feel so bitter after that.

-o-

She can call upon her gift three weeks later.

-o-

Sakura is thirteen years old when she heals her first patient.

A glut of people crowds the door to the infirmary, enough so that she has to push her way past what feels like half the castle to get in. She’s not sure what could draw such an audience; most people here are squeamish, hardly able to handle what maladies they suffer, never mind something genuinely awful. They try to part before her, but it’s like trying to squeeze a coin through a cog – a slow business, and everyone’s going to get a little bent. She finally pops out from the crowd, slipping like soap in a bath, and –

It’s not her master she sees first, nor even their patient, but the slender back of Shizune, the head guard and Tsunade’s assistant.

“Tsunade,” she breathes, stumbling as the people behind her collide into her back. “What –?”

“Hold still!” Tsunade shouts, now visible as she comes around the table, still obscuring the patient’s face. “Shizune, administer the sedative to get her to stop this flailing about!”

Shizune has been in the field almost as long as Tsunade, she is lean and well-muscled, but she struggles with the patient for a while before administering the injection into the patient’s arm. With a sigh – Sakura can’t tell whose – the patient goes limp on the table. Shizune and Tsunade step back from the counter, and finally, Sakura gets a clear view of the person causing so much trouble. It’s a girl who can’t be much other than Sakura herself, with long brown hair and fair skin. For a moment, Sakura is drawn by the beauty of her. It’s only when Sakura can drag her eyes away that she notices this girl is dressed in rags. Rags covered in blood.

Sakura knows everyone in the Citadel and knows every one of her old village neighbors’ faces by heart, but this girl is not one of them. How did she end up here?

Her master’s sleeves are rolled back, arms painted from fingertip to elbow in painfully bright crimson, and she snaps, “Sakura, get over here and help me.”

Sakura’s not sure where she finds the momentum to approach the table, but she does, taking in the appearance of their patient. She’s more blood than a girl at the moment, the wound on her stomach spreading in a sluggish blossom, lacerations decorating her legs and arms like she got tangled in a thorn bush on the way here.

“What happened?” she asks, picking up a soaked cloth and blotting away at some of the wounds.

“She must have fallen down the stairs,” Tsunade drawls, sending her a cutting look. “How in the hell would I know?”

Sakura bites her tongue to stop herself from retorting, mild irritation crossing her features. Tsunade smirks at her then, seeing her rising anger. She and Sakura continue their cleansing of the injuries, assessing the full damage.

“What do you see,” Tsunade asks, voice drawing Sakura’s attention.

“Multiple small contusions and scrapes on the outer extremities, nothing that isn’t superficial, though. One large gash, clean-cut on the stomach. It doesn’t appear infected, needs a bit more disinfecting, but it’s deep enough that if it’s not closed soon, she could bleed out,” Sakura rattles off automatically.

“Good,” Tsunade hums, taking a step back from the table, cloth in hand, now cleaning her fingers. “Get to it,” is all she offers before she collapses into a chair a few feet away.

Sakura has no time to stop and think about the gut-wrenching fear that she feels at initially being told that she has to do this on her own. Instead, she tucks her hair behind her ears, hands glowing green, and moves closer to the counter.

It takes Sakura four hours and intervention from Tsunade about three-fourths of the way through when her power begins to wane, but they complete the task.

Later, Sakura finds out that the girl’s name is TenTen, and she had been traveling to the Citadel from her village, which had been raided by one of the warring tribes. Her parents were killed, and she had heard about the congregation from another villager before the attack. On her way up the mountain, she was confronted, by whom or what, she does not disclose, but they don’t push her for the information. It’s enough that she is alive and has made it to her destination.

They meet later that week when TenTen is no longer bed-ridden, and instantly, they get along.

She is proficient in martial arts and fits in well with the guards. She and Ino become thick as thieves in their friendly torment of Sakura throughout her day-to-day routine. She swears that the two of them make it their mission to ensure she is distracted from her studies every chance they get.

Tsunade later announces that TenTen will become Sakura’s personal attendant.

-o-

The door slams behind Sakura, who pushes herself up against it, pressing her back into the unfinished wood. Ino looks up from her position on the windowsill, her book long forgotten.

“Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” She ventures, eyes raking up and down Sakura’s form, taking in her messy hair and wild eyes. “And why are you out of breath?”

“Hide me before Tsunade finds me,” Sakura pleads, vaulting herself off the door and venturing further into the room. She glances around, left then right, and after a moment’s hesitance, she crosses the dorm and attempts to tuck herself between the bookshelves.

Ino snorts, “What did you do? Skip out on your studies?”

Sakura, who cannot seem to wedge herself between the wood enough, abandons her would-be hiding spot. “Worse,” she cries, crossing the room and opening the closet door. “I broke the pitcher that holds Tsunade’s stash of plum wine.”

Ino perks up at the news, her book sliding out of her limp grasp and into her lap. She scrambles from her perch and rushes across the room, grabbing Sakura by the forearm and launching her towards the washroom at the opposite end of the dormitory.

“Hide amongst the dirty linens, Forehead. She’ll never find you in there.”

Tsunade appears five minutes later, and with one look in Ino’s direction, the blonde folds like a house of cards. Sakura is found hidden in the laundry basket with a sheepish smile on her face. They are both scolded until their ears are ringing and are forced to do extra chores for the next two months.

They giggle and jest over the look on Tsunade’s face when she found Sakura, head partially covered by a soiled washcloth, and they find solidarity in the late nights of cleaning the kitchens after dinner.

Their bond becomes a little stronger after that.

-o-

They are fifteen when Hinata joins them. There is a traveling merchant who frequents the castle often, bringing news and wares from other villages and towns. His special this week happens to be news of the war breaking out between the clans; the Uchiha and Uzumaki have officially called off their truce and are at odds. That particularly doesn’t tickle Tsunade’s fancy. The tribes do not travel this far west nor up the mountainside; they choose to remain in the eastern province among their own. War is something that they do not have to worry about in the Citadel.

What does catch her attention, however, is a singular item that the merchant happened to bring with him on this visit, and that item just so happened to be a young woman.

Sakura doesn’t think she has seen Tsunade so mad before, but a deal is struck, and currency is exchanged. Tsunade offers the girl her freedom almost immediately after she kicks the merchant off the grounds with the promise to never return.

To everyone’s surprise, the girl refuses to leave. “A deal is a deal, and I will pay off my debt,” Hinata says, and Sakura finds herself with another attendant.

By the time they are eighteen, Hinata has paid off her debt twice over, but she chooses to stay anyway. She doesn’t talk much about her time before coming to the Citadel, but she is a quick study and despite not being blessed with their gift, she fits in well with most of the students and Tsunade agrees to teach her the basics of healing.

One night when the four of them are tucked into one of the corners of the library, Sakura nose deep in a book. Ino – in Ino fashion – asks why she chose to stay.

“I found a family,” Hinata states softly. “I found a home. There is nothing for me back where I came from, not anymore, at least. I lost a lot, but I found something better.”

They don’t push her to share her story; they know she will eventually confide in them one day. So, Ino casually throws her arm around TenTen’s shoulder, jostling the other woman, and chuckles, smug and flippantly.

“That’s right,” the blonde teases. “You’re stuck with us.”

TenTen rolls her eyes, Sakura groans, and Hinata giggles at her antics.

-o-

“Why a praise flame?” Hinata asks one day when they are in the study. “Why not a figurehead or a god?”

TenTen hums in agreement. “I’ve been meaning to ask that myself. Why do we pray to the sacred flame here? What makes it so sacred in the first place?”

Sakura looks up from the scroll she and Shizune are reading over. “Have neither of you heard the tale of the original gods? It’s a story my mother used to tell me when I was a kid.”

Hinata and TenTen share a look, then both shrug. Sakura sometimes forgets that they didn’t grow up in this part of the country and study in the Citadel as she has. She forgets that this way of life is new and foreign to them.

“We praise the flame because it keeps The God of Chaos at bay,” Shizune states. She pushes the paperwork away from herself and reclines in her chair. “I can tell you the story if you would like.”

Both girls nod their heads and tuck themselves into chairs on the opposite side of the table; rapt attention focused on the older woman.

“In the beginning, there were thirteen gods. They shaped the world, built the mountains, filled the seas, and gave life to the forests. Then, they created man, and man would soon become masters of the world created. Each of the gods had a role to play with man, to direct us and lead us to formulate our way of life. We thrived under the gods, built our homes and families, and created villages. When we were sustainable, the gods decided to allow us to live amongst ourselves, without their influence.”

Shizune pauses for a breath, then adds, “But one became greedy. Ekborah, The God of Chaos. He did not want to part with his creations. He wanted to rule over us, to make us worship him and keep us like pets. The other twelve deities were forced into a desperate struggle with Ekborah, and only with their combined magic were they able to create a sacred flame. The twelve gods cast the astral fire upon Ekborah and sapped his strength, sealing him away in the underworld.”

“We praise the flame because, without it, The God of Chaos would gain his power back,” Sakura finishes, pushing back from the table and taking the scroll she was reading earlier. She folds it up neatly, once, then twice, and crosses the room to the nearest bookshelf and tucks it between a few others.

“How have I not heard this before,” TenTen ponders.

“You’re not from this province originally,” Shizune offers. “It makes sense that you would not be up to date on our customs. It’s why we’re so careful and protect ourselves here. Some other provinces, mainly the eastern province where the tribes are, do not follow our customs. Some even wish to covet the power of the gods for themselves.”

“Is this why Tsunade chimes in the new year with that ritual?” Hinata inquires. “The one where she lights the fires of the alter at the mountain’s base? To protect us?”

“The very same,” Shizune answers with a small laugh. “And soon, that privilege will pass down to Sakura.”

“How cool,” Hinata praises, admiration within her gaze.

Sakura smiles tightly from her perch next to the bookshelf. She knows well enough that she would be the heir to the Citadel and the next in line to bear the privilege of praying to the flame’s grace.

So why is there such unease settling within her gut?

-o-

As the years go on, Sakura grows restless.

The war between the clans encompasses most of the other territories, and no one becomes safe at that time.

The villages to the west and north fall victim to poverty and famine, and many survivors who do not fall prey to the conflict in the east come to the Citadel for sanctuary. Their home is big enough to house those in need, and her home village to the south almost doubles in size with the overflow, but the days are so similar that they start to blur together.

She feels it is only a matter of time before war stands on their doorstep, and though they have guards that protect their way of life, they would be severely under-equipped if things were to escalate to that point.

Tsunade brushes off her concerns about something happening, not because she does not want to listen to Sakura, but because she has faith in their stronghold and its location.

“It would be suicide for someone to try and take this place down,” Tsunade declares. “The walls cannot be breached, and we have enough food stores for two full winters. We will be fine.”

The assurance falls flat and stale, and Sakura demands that Ino and Tenten train her as if she were one of the new recruits, which they do happily. Anything to poke fun at her, especially about her sloppy form.

Eventually, she gets the basics down and celebrates when she flips Ino onto her ass one afternoon during lessons. They both dub her safe enough to carry a small dagger, but they share Tsunade’s sentiment and do not understand why she is pushing herself so hard.

“I just feel it,” Sakura explains. “I can’t explain it, but something just doesn’t feel right about everything that is going on around us.”

“So what? You’re a psychic now?” Ino asks. “The whole healing thing wasn’t enough?”

“Oh, shut up, Pig,” Sakura growls as TenTen laughs.

“Everything will be fine, Sakura,” the brunette assures calmly. “You’re worrying over nothing.”

Sakura bites her lip. “I hope so,” she murmurs.

-o-

Sakura’s twenty-two when Tsunade announces that before the year’s end, she will be stepping down as leader of their congregation.

To no one’s surprise, she names Sakura her successor. Additionally, to no one’s surprise, Sakura names Ino her second in command.

“You were the likely choice,” is all Tsunade bids with a shrug. “It’s about time I took a step back and let you shine.”

And just like the flame they pray to, Sakura burns.

-o-

The midday sun dips low on the horizon, giving way to dusk, when Sakura hears a knock at her door that she chooses to ignore. The room is bathed in soft golds and oranges, and Sakura is nestled at her desk sifting through feathers and pieces of stone, multiple books scattered across its surface. She finds a feather that she likes, one that’s long and sturdy enough for her task, and she grabs her sheering scissors and starts to split it down the hollow shaft.

“May the sacred Flame light your path,” a voice calls from the entryway.

Sakura turns to find Ino standing in the doorframe, bracing her hip against the wall. She’s smiling, and that smile turns impish when she discovers that she has Sakura’s attention.

“And may it continue to cast its warmth upon you,” Sakura states as a greeting. She turns her attention back to her workstation, then adds, “You know I hate when you use the formalities on me.”

“And that is the sole reason I keep using them,” the blonde supplies, pushing off the doorframe and making her way into the room.

She takes in the surface of Sakura’s desk, noting the sharpened stone, various lengths of twine, and half-nettled arrow shafts.

“You’re not supposed to be making weapons, you know,” Ino chides, clicking her tongue. “If your mentor caught you, you would be in serious trouble.”

At the mention of Tsunade, Sakura’s eyes roll skyward. “We’re at war, Ino. It never hurt anyone to be prepared.”

“No, we’re not at war; the country around us is,” Ino corrects. “We just happen to be geographically located in the middle of it. The Citadel does not partake in the affairs of the tribes; you know that.”

Ino circles around the desk, plucking a polished piece of stone off the tabletop. She flips it within her grasp, tossing it up in the air and catching it, before adding, “Besides, when have you ever even handled a bow?”

Sakura grumbles under her breath but chooses not to respond. She instead finishes her task of splitting the feather and then turns her attention to the composite of stones next to her elbow. She pushes a few aside, looking for a specific size and weight. When she finds one that fits her needs, Sakura takes it and wedges it in the notches she has carved into the shaft wood in front of her. When it’s settled appropriately, she grabs a piece of twine and winds it around the neck of the arrow, fitting the stone into place.

Ino snorts at her lack of response. “What would the congregation think if they found out our high priestess spends her free time in her room making arrows? Of her partaking in violence?” She accentuates her dramatics with a hand on her chest, and the other pressed to her forehead. “Our chosen one is wasting away instead of reading up on her studies.”

Sakura drops the unfinished arrow onto the table and stands, flicking Ino on the nose as she passes on her way across the room. The blonde lets out an indignant yelp but knocks off her teasing as Sakura dips behind her changing partition.

“For someone trained in martial arts and swordsmanship, you sure seem to be against the use of your skills,” Sakura states, shucking off her shirt and reaching for a ceremonial blouse that was discarded on her vanity chair. It’s soft green silk with intricate yellow floral embroidery, one of Sakura’s favorites as it contrasts with the color of her hair.

“No,” Ino interjects from behind the screen. Sakura can hear her pat the weapon at her side, the metal jangling as it’s disturbed. “I’m against you fighting or even thinking about fighting. You have TenTen and me for a reason.”

“Oh yes, my two attendants. The ones who act like gossiping nursemaids than actual guards,” Sakura chides, snapping the last of the buttons on her chemise closed. She steps out from behind the partition, her eyes scanning the room.

Ino clears her throat, holding up two green silk sashes of the same design, the articles that Sakura was looking for. She steps towards her guard, who assists Sakura with wrapping one of the pieces of fabric around her waist and the other around her right bicep, tying both off with a neat bow.

“Your hands are made for healing, Sakura,” Ino states softly, placing a hand on Sakura’s shoulder when she’s finished. “Don’t be so quick to sully them with blood.”

Sakura opens her mouth to respond, but there’s another knock at her door, and then Hinata fills the entryway.

“May the Sacred Flame light your path,” Hinata greets.

Sakura and Ino parrot the appropriate response before Hinata adds, “The congregation has gathered. They are waiting for you to start the evening prayer, Sakura.”

“We’ll be right there,” Ino replies before reaching toward Sakura’s desk and pulling her discarded headpiece out of the clutter. She hands it to Sakura, adding, “Come, let’s hurry before Tsunade starts to worry.”

Sakura takes the headpiece from her, arranging the black lace entwined with pearls and emeralds into her hair before stating, “We’re not done with this conversation.”

Ino smirks, “Wouldn’t count on it, priestess.”

-o-

The evening prayer ends as it always does: with Sakura healing one of the congregates.

Her thumb brushes softly over the forehead of the older gentleman, healing the gash nestled there. The wrinkled skin smooths underneath her touch, and there’s a hush through the crowd, then a sudden wave of enthusiasm crashes forward from the people gathered about. Hushed whispers fill the hall’s silence, they bounce off the stone walls, and she can pick out certain words like ‘miracle’ and ‘holy power.’

She supposes that it must look like that to people who don’t understand her gifts, who don’t understand the training that one must go through to be proficient in the healing arts. To these people, she is someone holy, unsullied, a person who is capable of healing the most gruesome of wounds with the faintest of touches. But Sakura knows the truth. It was an accident. Sakura never expected that she would turn out like this, next in line to run the Citadel, to be in charge of their keep and the village below. Just the thought sours her mood and twists her gut.

The man is thanking her, and Sakura smiles, but it’s vacant, hollow, because this is something that she has done over one hundred times, and despite wanting to help others – it is her sole duty, after all – she yearns for something more. Something that is not so menial as healing bumps and scrapes; she longs for adventure, a true adrenaline rush, to be pushed to her limit. When Tsunade finished her training, there was no more growth, nothing more to be gained. It left Sakura restless, unsettled – like there was an itch beneath her skin that could not be scratched.

The older gentleman breaks from her and starts to mill about with the other congregates in the room, some talking with the other sisters and others talking amongst themselves. Green eyes scan the room, taking in the crowd. Ino and Tenten stand off to the side, surveying the room as well, ever diligent during the nightly rituals. They seem relaxed, smiling amongst themselves. Everything is as it should be, then.

Something in the back of the room catches her attention, and it’s then that she notices a figure tucked away in the last pew. A dark cloak shrouds their form, but she can tell they are tall, at least two meters and well-built based on their shoulders’ berth. She assumes they are male, but it wouldn’t be uncommon for a female of a warrior profession to come to one of these processions. People gather from far and wide to witness Sakura’s gift and to ask for assistance. Tsunade tries to keep her as sheltered as possible, as the only other person in the Citadel prone to healing, but it doesn’t deter people from trying.

Sakura can’t make out any distinguishing features, the torch’s flames don’t reach that far back in the room, but she catches a flash of red. Twin crimson eyes stare at her in awe from underneath the hood, and just as Sakura is about to take a step off the dais to approach this person, Tsunade comes into view.

“Are you ready for tomorrow’s ceremony?” Tsunade asks softly, diverting Sakura’s attention for a split second.

When she turns back, glancing at the edge of the room, the cloaked figure is gone. She has no time to ponder about this individual before her teacher’s demanding and slightly irritated voice calls out to her.

“Sakura,” she repeats.

“Yes. I hear you,” Sakura sighs, turning back to Tsunade. “If by ready you mean am I ready to walk down the mountain in extremely formal and constricting clothing to recite a prayer, then yes I am.”

Tsunade scowls, though she doesn’t rise to the younger woman’s taunt. She takes a moment to assess Sakura, her fatigue, the sag in her shoulders, and the deep cut of lines underneath her eyes. Tsunade’s glower lessens, if only a fraction, and she releases a deep breath from her nostrils.

“You know how important this is to us, right?” Tsunade asks, but it’s clear she already knows the answer. Sakura would never defy her mentor, not on this. “This ceremony rings in the new year for the entire village. It boosts morale, brings people together.”

“I know, master,” Sakura drones, fixing her posture to stand upright under the scrutiny.

Sakura understands that these responsibilities fall on her. She is the high priestess, next in line to run the Citadel and keep their patrons safe and secure in their faith. However, knowing her responsibilities doesn’t mean that Sakura does not yearn for something more.

-o-

“She’s worried about you, you know,” TenTen says.

They’ve stolen away to the kitchen for a snack after everyone has settled down for the evening. Sakura is munching on an apple, slices of assorted bread, and cheeses on a plate in front of her. She’s tucked herself into a chair, one knee drawn up to her chest, elbow resting on her folded leg. She doesn’t respond to her bodyguard’s claim, unsure of what she is talking about, but TenTen has her attention now, and Sakura turns to her with a brow raised.

“You’ve been distracted lately,” the brunette continues, taking a piece of cheese from the tray between them. “You’re going through the motions, Sakura. You’re there, but your heart isn’t in it anymore.”

Sakura grunts noncommittally, taking another bite of her apple. The room is silent for a moment, allowing her time to finish chewing. When she’s done, she says, “Do you ever think about what we do? About how there is more to life than just this Citadel and the congregation? There’s a whole world beyond these walls. None of us have experienced it because we rarely get to leave. When was the last time someone left the Citadel? And not just to visit the village, but truly left? Before I was born?”

TenTen whistles a low note, “Ino said that you were losing it lately, but I didn’t think you were this far gone.”

Sakura snorts and takes another bite of her apple. “Forget I even said anything.”

TenTen takes another piece of cheese, then scoots her chair closer to that of her friends. She reaches across the table and rests her hand on Sakura’s elbow.

“I know you feel bottled up here,” she starts calmly. “Hell, this has been our home for the better part of a decade, and we all rarely get to travel outside the walls. I know it can feel smothering, but you must understand that people covet the power you and Tsunade hold. You can’t just run around the countryside as you wish, especially with the unrest between the tribes. I’m thankful we’re high up in the mountains and away from the conflict. We’re hidden away, but we’re safe. You’re safe.”

“Do you really think someone would try and come for me? For Tsunade?” Sakura queries.

“With the way this place is built and the number of guards we have? No, I don’t think so. They would be stupid to try,” TenTen responds. “Also, Tsunade is a force to be reckoned with on a good day. I couldn’t imagine someone trying to kidnap her. She would chew their ears off within the first five minutes.”

The thought draws a snicker out of Sakura.

They settle into a companionable silence for a bit, nothing but the sound of them chewing filling the kitchen’s silence. Eventually, Sakura polishes off the plate, snagging her brunette counterpart's last piece of cheese.

“I’ll try and do better,” Sakura says eventually, tone eerily calm.

Something flashes across TenTen’s face, something that Sakura can’t quite decipher, but before she can scrutinize it any further, TenTen’s traditional warm smile encompasses her features.

“That’s all we can ask for,” her companion murmurs and Sakura gets a distinct impression that TenTen doesn’t believe her.

-o-

War comes to their doorstep the following day.

Envoys arrive from the Uzumaki and the Uchiha clans, both of whom demand an audience with Tsunade.

Her mentor does not allow her to sit in on the meeting, much to Sakura’s chagrin. It doesn’t stop her from snooping outside Tsunade’s office, ear pressed against the door in an attempt to hear something, anything about why it is that they are here.

She can’t make out much, but from what she can tell from the stints of conversation that do filter through, it appears that each of the clans is asking for assistance on their side of the war. Healers are hard to come by, and Tsunade has trained about twenty-five, all of varying strengths and skill sets, yet they remain in the Citadel. Sakura can’t hear the full arguments on both sides, about why Tsunade should offer her support to one clan over the other, but she can pinpoint the exact moment when Tsunade turns both of them down.

Voices are raised, and Sakura is pretty sure she can hear a curse or two; then, footsteps are storming towards the door, and she barely has time to scramble around the nearest corner to hide.

“You will regret this,” a voice seethes.

“Is that a threat, Uchiha?”

Sakura pokes her head out to see that her mentor is nose to nose with a raven-haired male. He looks to be Sakura’s age, maybe a tad older, with an unruly set of curls. His face seems delicate, almost feminine in its features, but the anger in his eyes diminishes any gentleness about him.

To Tsunade’s credit, she doesn’t even flinch at the scathing sneer the boy throws her way. He offers her no reply, just another sneer before he turns on his heels and stomps down the hallway.

“Maa, always so quick to temper those Uchihas,” jests the third voice.

It’s the Uzumaki representative, though from the angle she’s positioned, Sakura cannot get a good view of him. Tsunade stands mainly in the way. The only thing Sakura can make out is a spiky head of gray hair.

“Do you have something you want to say also? Or are you just going to stand there all day taking up space?”

“I just wanted to see how things played out, that’s all,” the envoy replies. He doesn’t sound anywhere as near as perturbed as the Uchiha. Almost like he knew what Tsunade’s answer would be before the meeting even started.

He turns from Tsunade then, placing his hands in his pockets, and meanders down the same hallway that the Uchiha had, but at a much slower pace.

“I’ll provide Naruto-sama with your reply,” the envoy calls back, one hand lifting to salute his departure.

There’s a pregnant pause, and for a moment, Sakura believes Tsunade to be perturbed, but the emotion is gone from her face as quickly as it came. Abruptly, the older woman turns towards Sakura’s hiding spot.

“Are you done snooping, girl?” The blonde asks, brow arched.

Caught in the act, Sakura willingly comes out from around the corner and approaches her mentor. They stare at each other for a long moment, neither saying a word about what transpired, but Sakura’s curiosity gets the better of her, and she is the first to open her mouth. Tsunade cuts her off quickly, however. Hand raised in a silent cutting motion.

“We can discuss this later,” Tsunade assures. “I know you’ll have many questions, but we must first focus on the new year ceremony. We can worry about everything else till after it’s complete. Now, off with you. You have to get ready.”

All Sakura can do is nod and obey.

-o-

The ceremony itself is simple.

Sakura and a few of the fellow congregates must take the ceremonial lantern to the mountain’s base. There she will light a fire at the original altar of the Citadel and say a prayer for the following year. It is an honor to partake in the ritual, as all high priestesses do, but to Sakura, it no longer holds the shiny, new intrigue it once did. She wanted to pass this year’s duty back to Tsunade, as she was perfectly capable of doing so. Still, Tsunade insisted that it was the duty of the priestess in charge to complete this task, and whether Sakura liked it or not, it was her responsibility to complete it.

As she meets her gaze in the mirror, Sakura’s eyes are steady and determined. Around her, her bedroom is in utter chaos. Chambermaids are rushing and bustling about, attempting to get everything set up in time. One is applying rose-colored blush on her cheeks, and another is dabbing lavender paint in the shape of a diamond on her forehead. A third is braiding her hair, pulling her bangs back into a clip, nestling her pink tresses into a loose bun at the base of her neck.

She feels the corset’s steady pressure and weight of her hefty skirts, and the green and off-white patterns on the fabric match the tapestries hanging in her room. Her skin feels tight under the layer of chalky make-up, but despite this, not a muscle on her face moves to make her discomfort known.

When she’s ready, she stands steady on her feet. Tsunade, who has been sitting in the corner quietly, rises as well and excuses the maids. Her oval-shaped, worried eyes meet Sakura’s and then slide down to appraise her. The gaze is like a physical touch, and Sakura has to stop herself from cringing underneath the scrutiny.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Her teacher asks.

No, she wants to say. No, she is not up for this. She wants to postpone this entire thing and discuss what happened earlier. To discuss the thinly veiled threat that the Uchiha made earlier this afternoon. What was to become of them? Was war on the horizon? After all this time, would their peace finally be broken?

She doesn’t voice any of these concerns, however.

And despite the discontent that has settled deep in her stomach, Sakura nods her head.

-o-

She should have known something was wrong when they reached the entrance to the cave.

It was too quiet.

There was a moment of calm before the ceremony was complete, a moment where she felt like she could breathe for the first time in the week leading up to the proceedings. Next, bodies are flooding the entryway. There is fire and ash and screaming, so much screaming. The stone of the path is bathed in so much blood, and Sakura does not realize that she is in danger until something collides heavily with her back, and she tumbles to the floor, her world temporarily going black.

As she becomes aware of her surroundings, Sakura returns to herself harshly, jerking, stomach clenching. Her vision swims, and once the pain in her head has been reduced to a minimal, dull ache, she realizes she is lying in Ino’s lap. She cannot mistake the familiar purple robes that her attendant wears.

She jolts up, which makes everything flare into agony again, and she can’t stifle the groan as she flops back on Ino’s legs. She cannot help but dry heave as her senses return, the acrid smell of burning flesh infiltrating her nostrils, hanging in the air like smog. She fights to sit up again but realizes her hands are tied behind her back, and a miserable shiver crawls down her spine. Ino must still be passed out because she is shockingly still.

With as much effort as she can muster, Sakura lifts her head and turns it towards her attendant’s face. She finds it slack with unconsciousness. She lets her head fall back unceremoniously onto Ino’s thigh when the strain becomes too much.

Something moves near them; there’s a shift in the shadows, then a scuffle and a pair of boots come into Sakura’s line of sight.

Sakura glances upwards and comes face to face with a shockingly familiar pair of wonder-filled red eyes.

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