Chapter 4
His plan to run away with Iruka and change their names had failed.
Tsunade had sent Shizune after them after their long mission had ended and the two were taking their sweet time returning, and everyone knew not to mess with Shizune carrying out her lady’s orders. Bad things happened if someone did.
After a particularly colorful tongue lashing, and Iruka sobbing in the middle of Kakashi’s apartment because “his little Naruto was growing up way too soon”, Kakashi had decided to acknowledge that he was indeed a sensei and would actually need to train with his students.
That led him to his current predicament.
Team seven had terrible group coordination skills. Naruto and Sasuke worked somewhat flawlessly together, even if the two disagreed on basically everything, but they did not leave space for Sakura to blend in seamlessly with their strategies. It didn’t help that Sakura didn’t have much of a mind for battle strategy, and often got herself confused, leaving her open for attacks.
He probably should go easy on her, but what kind of sensei would he be if he didn’t absolutely obliterate his student’s wills to continue? A terrible one, obviously.
The jonin watched as his stubbornly loud pupil collapsed in the dirt, gasping for breath. Sasuke didn’t look too far behind Naruto, and Sakura had tapped out around thirty minutes ago.
“Kakashi sensei,” his little nuisance gasped for breath, “please let us at least drink some water before continuing.”.
Hmm, yes that would be the humane thing to do.
“Alright, tell you what, since you three have been working so hard today, I’ll let you go home early, how does that sound?”
That got Naruto’s attention. Too bad Kakashi prided himself on being a heartless bastard and wasn’t going to let them off so easily without them doing something for him in return.
He cleared his throat, and Sakura groaned from where she was sprawled on her stomach, probably having seen where this was going. He had to give her credit, even though she may be an exceptionally average kunoichi at the current point in training, she was at least good at perception, something Naruto lacked heavily.
“But,” he emphasized, leaning closer to the trio of genin to strike uncertain fear into their little hearts. Well, most of their little hearts, because he still hadn’t figured out how to crack Sasuke.
“But what, just get on with it Kakashi.” Sasuke rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in what the jonin could only describe as one of Sasuke’s better attempts at polite behavior. He may not have been as feral as Naruto, but the Uchiha was certainly wild and socially inept in his own.. calm and calculated way.
“First, you all have to give each other a hug.”
Sasuke visibly bristled, like a small, ruthless kitten whose claws and fangs were equally sharp and deadly. Meanwhile, Sakura hopped up, seemingly uninjured and shoved Naruto out of the way so that she could get to Sasuke first. Kakashi winced when the blonde crash landed in one of the small craters they had created earlier, during one of their newer, more advanced drills.
Kakashi allowed himself to grin evilly at his group of genin. While miniscule in practice, in theory he’d just won a small revenge plot against the three idiots for the dramatics they’d managed to unwittingly put the man through for the last five months.
“No.” Sasuke deadpanned, halting Sakura in her tracks immediately. Hm, at least her reflexes had improved.
“Yes!” Naruto whined, pleading with his disturbingly puppy-like blue eyes at Sasuke.
The Uchiha was having none of it, and even went as far as to threatening his teammate with a kunai knife. The jonin would be lying if he said he didn’t feel an ounce of pride for Sasuke’s reaction. Honestly, the pair were just like him and- No. It was not the time for that.
“Tsk, Tsk, Sasuke, are you saying you’d rather hinder your team and its bond for your own selfish needs? That’s not very becoming of an Uchiha clan heir.”
It was exactly like something an Uchiha clan heir would do, but Sasuke didn’t need to know that. Hell, he probably didn’t even remember that.
Sasuke’s eye twitched at his sensei’s words, and the other two genin began to sneak forward, ready to cage the unwilling brat between them. To say Sasuke looked displeased would be an understatement. In the back of Kakashi’s mind, he recognized that having two alphas caging him in, however familiar they may be, may not be high on Sasuke’s ‘tolerable social interactions list’.
Sigh, damn his morals and soft spot for brats.
Kakashi cleared his throat, “Relax, I was only teasing you three.” He waved them off and went back to his book that had been casually displayed in his hand, as usual.
The genin began to pack up and stretch their sore muscles so that they wouldn’t cramp on their way back to the village. Kakashi didn’t plan on heading back with them, he had personal business to attend to, so he decided to wait there patiently and eavesdrop.
Sakura was giggling and throwing on the charm for Sasuke, who either was ignoring it or genuinely didn’t realize she was flirting with him. If his confusing relationship with Naruto was anything to go off of, it was probably the latter. Naruto, predictably, was in his own world. The boy was searching for his missing shoe and babbling about something Kakashi couldn’t even begin to care about.
Kids these days and their newfangled ramen flavors.
“So, Sasuke” Sakura’s peppy voice drifted through the air.
Sasuke didn’t respond, but he did pause for a moment, which was as good as a chatty reply in Sasuke language.
“I was wondering.. Since, you know, Hinata mentioned how helpful you were for her training..” The alpha continued rambling charismatically, not sensing the tightness in Sasuke’s body language at the mention of Hinata.
When Kakashi had first caught wind of him and the Hyuuga girl training together, it had been from a rather shocked and hopeful Kurenai. He hadn’t believed it at first. Who would have? But sure enough, his solemn student had agreed to mentor the shy little pup, and not only that, but she’d apparently shown great progress.
So much progress that her father actually began to have hope for her potential again, Kurenai had told him drunkenly one night when the senseis had decided to have a get together. Asuma had lit a cigarette immediately, a visual representation of how stressed Korene sounded. Apparently, Hinata had improved so much that Hiashi had decided to forbid Hinata from training with Sasuke, and to start her training with Neji, the clan’s pride and joy.
Gai had had a long conversation with Neji about it, but that hadn’t been good enough for Sasuke, if the bruises on Neji were anything to go off of.
For once, Kakashi had actually been a little impressed when Gai had dished on all of the drama that had happened when he’d been on the run with Iruka from Naruto and Sasuke’s antics.
“What about it?” Sasuke grit out.
Sakura at least looked a little disheartened at his response, but that girl was persistent. She wouldn’t let obvious social cues discourage her.
“Well.. would you mind training with me?” She batted her eyelashes, but it did nothing to break Sasuke’s cold, deadpan stare.
“I, uh, I just really wanna work on getting stronger for- the team! Yeah, the team.” she quickly added, obviously trying to get away with it.
Naruto walked back to the group, this time with both shoes, and let out an excited squawk. “That’s a great idea, Sakura! I can show you some cool stuff too, if you want!”
Poor, dear Naruto, unknowingly offering to third wheel on his teammate’s attempted date with his boyfriend. Did it make Kakashi a bad person if he wanted to run away instead of nip the glaringly obvious issue that was about to arise in the bud? Who knows. Probably not.
“Uh, actually, Naruto, I was wondering if it could just be me and Sasuke? I just don't want you two getting carried away with your rivalry or anything!”
Oh yes, Kakashi was intrigued. He hadn’t known Sakura would have such an affinity for espionage. Though, then again, it probably wouldn't take much to manipulate Naruto.
Sasuke seemed convinced, or well, his version of convinced, which was just a bored look on his face, and an eerily still breathing pattern. Naruto, however, was not as agreeable.
“Aw, c'mon Sakura! Sasuke and I may be the bestest rivals ever, but even I wouldn’t let that get in the way of training!”
“Says the guy who escalates the training levels every time to prove to Sasuke that you’re a better ninja than him- which you’re not!” she fired back.
“Fine.” Sasuke finally spoke, causing Sakura to latch onto him with devilish excitement.
The blonde alpha growled. “Fine then! I’m- I'm gonna train with someone too!” he shouted indignantly.
“Oh, who?” Sasuke asked, intrigued and oblivious. Sakura didn’t pay them any attention, as she was too busy sticking her tongue out at Naruto as if she’d just won some secret competition against him. Kakashi had to admit that she kind of had.
“Uh.. Shino!”
Kakashi cringed...of all the plausible options.
“Hn.” Sasuke muttered as he wrenched himself away from Sakura.
He’d seen war before. He’d seen death, and destruction, and misery. Kakashi knew when a fight was coming, and he knew when it would bite him in the ass.
This was one of those times.
Kakashi, being the smartest and most intelligent person he knew, made a choice. A choice that later, he may regret, but in the moment, he knew it was the safest option he had to take.
Kakashi ran.
~~~
“So let me get this straight,” Choji paused to take a sip of his drink before continuing, “Ino thought Naruto was in love with you, he proposed to Sasuke, they accidentally scent bonded- something nearly impossible to do, they kissed, and Sakura is still trying to make Sasuke fall in love with her?”
Shikamaru groaned. He wasn’t being paid enough to be dealing with this childish drama- he wasn’t being paid at all but still. How hard was it to simply not cause problems for team seven? Apparently, very.
“Yes, Choj, girls are crazy, but that Sakura sure seems to take the cake.”
The Akimichi’s eyes lit up, and Shikamaru rolled his eyes fondly at his friend’s delight at the introduction of the sugary treat to their conversation. Leave it to Choji to completely ignore real world issues at the slightest mention of food. Not that the alpha could blame his teammate, after all, Choji needed lots of carbs to sustain his clan’s taxing jutsus, and what better hobby to have than one that didn’t put other people out. Over Ino’s penchant for gossiping, Shikamaru would take Choji’s food obsession any day.
“But what are we gonna do? Aren’t Sasuke and Naruto like- a thing now?”
As if his headache couldn’t get any worse, suddenly the light stabbing pain in his temple increased tenfold at the mention of the cursed couple.
“Yep, The village idiot and the village pride. Who would’ve thought.” Certainly not anyone with common sense, that’s for sure. Although, Shikamaru had learned to expect there to be little to no logic when it came to situations involving Naruto. He just hadn’t expected Sasuke Uchiha of all people to be the one to add to the insanity.
“Not Sakura” Choji chuckled darkly, causing his lazy friend to throw his head back in a shocked chuckle. That was why he loved hanging out with the guy. He had a great sense of humor, and nine times out of ten, he was able to counsel him on things that the Nara was uncertain about.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do. On one hand, I could sit back and let whatever happens happen,” Shikamaru gestured with his left hand as he leaned back in his seat, staring glumly at the ceiling above them before continuing, “Or I could step in, call Sakura on her manipulation, and bring it to the others’ attention.”
Sensing more to the alpha’s musing, Choji leaned closer over the table separating the two, intrigued to hear more. “But?” the omega pushed.
“But,” Shikamaru sighed as he emphasized the word, “that could seriously mess with their team’s dynamics, and I don’t know about you, but after seeing Sasuke go all crazy demon on those sound ninja guys from the chunin exams, I don’t wanna see what he looks like when he finds out about what Sakura’s been up to.”
Choji took a minute to finish slurping up his noodles before responding, and Shikamaru took the pause in conversation to look around the restaurant. It was early afternoon, around the time a lot of villagers came to the shopping district to get whatever they needed for home, and so the place was slowly but surely filling up with other customers. Some were old, some as young as being single digits in age, but a majority of them were around their age.
Some he recognized as old classmates that hadn’t made it to the genin stage or had given up in the first round of the chunin exams, others he could only really guess at vaguely. Idly, Shikamaru wondered if they knew how lucky they were to not be in his shoes and dealing with team seven’s complete and utter lack of self-preservation.
Probably not.
The bastards.
“True, but isn’t Naruto one of your best friends?”
Shikamaru groaned, “Isn’t Sasuke one of your omega squad weirdos?” he countered. Choji shrugged, and the alpha wanted the ground to swallow him up.
“If it were me in your shoes, I know what I’d do.” the omega said honestly. His cheeks with the clan paint on them that usually were jovially pokable were stern and serious under the lighting of the establishment they were in.
Those two were their friends, no matter how much he denied it. He didn’t want to see their weirdly cursed shred of happiness get disrupted by an alpha girl who couldn’t take no for an answer.
Shikamaru knew what he had to do.
~~~
She shut the door considerately behind her as she walked in the hospital room. Subtly, she took in the unique fragrance of the alpha’s iron scent. Normally, Rock Lee had told her, people associated his scent with that or blood, because of the tangy metal undertones, but Sakura had never even had the comparison crossed her mind. To her, she thought he smelled strong and intriguing.
“Sakura! It is pleasant to see you again!” Rock Lee chirped from where he was chained to his bed. Lady Tsunade herself had been the one to cuff him to the bed after she’d caught him training after the surgery. Sakura was relieved that he hadn’t managed to injure himself and that miraculously, he was healing well, even after the eccentric alpha had been caught red handed in the middle of achieving his goal of five hundred pushups, using only one hand and one foot for balance.
She could only imagine the bad mood Lady Tsunade would have been in if that were the case.
“How are you feeling, Lee?” She asked dutifully as she replaced the flowers on his bedside table with a new bunch of daffodils and poesies, just as she did every three days. The Yamanaka clan sure was making a fortune off of her flower purchases.
“I am doing much better today, Sakura! Thank you for your youthful concern!” he flashed her a blindingly white smile and saluted her. The pink haired alpha chuckled to herself and finished adjusting the vase, sitting down beside his bed after she was done.
“Did you hear about that fight between Neji and Sasuke?” She inquired, although deep inside she was curious. Ino hadn’t had much to dish on, and truth be told, life was a bit boring without the excitement of a mission, since Kakashi had demanded they train three weeks before taking more out of village missions. Secretly, Sakura hoped Rock Lee had more information.
“Ah, yes. Tenten mentioned it a few days ago. Neji..” he broke off, trying to think of what he wanted to say next.
Sakura placed her hand on his, a small affection she could show her friend without potentially messing with his bandages in the process.
“Neji is from a very traditional clan. Even more so than our own upbringings as children of clanless families within the village. It is.. hard for him to not fall back into what he has been taught when he feels threatened. Sasuke symbolizes everything Neji is not, and yet, they are very similar.”
Hm, Sakura could understand that. With all the run ins she’d had with Neji while visiting Rock Lee, she figured she knew him well enough to be able to compare his and Sasuke’s personalities a bit. Both were proud, and both reserved, despite being such village heart throbs and prodigies on top of that. But that was where the similarities ended in her opinion.
Sasuke was gentle and sweet, like every omega should be, even though he put on a front. Neji was an alpha, and he needed no fronts. She could see how they would butt heads.
“Yeah, I understand. Maybe what I don’t get is why they apparently fought over Hinata of all people.” Sakura pushed a few wayward locks of hair away from her eyes and ignored the thoughtful look her fellow genin shot her.
“Hinata is not favored by her father, even though she is currently the heir to the Hyuuga clan. Neji, though from the branch family, is the perfect candidate to inherit leadership of the clan, and most Hyuuga know it. He is bitter about not being allowed to be recognized as the clan heir, and to placate him, Hiashi Hyuuga gave him the role of training Hinata after she showed improvement with her training with Sasuke.”
Rock Lee took a breath and shifted slightly. Sakura jumped up to help him adjust the pillow he was using to support his back. She knew the alpha felt a bit embarrassed about needing help to do such basic things, so she never asked if he needed help, she just did it. Sakura couldn’t wait for her friend to be fully healed. She knew he was growing more restless and agitated with himself the longer he was confined to his bed.
“Hinata, Tenten tells me, asked Sasuke personally to train her. You know him much better than I do, but I think they formed a friendship over it, and Sasuke was upset at the termination of their one-on-one practices. So, Neji probably said something to provoke Sasuke, and Sasuke probably took the bait, and that’s why I think they fought.” the older alpha added after he was comfortably reclined against his pillows once more.
She hummed in thought and shoved down that bitter voice in her head that sang in irritation at everyone knowing what was going on with Sasuke instead of her. She was his teammate, and friend, and his future packmate, and hopefully mate. How could she be so out of the loop like that?
It was all that stupid Naruto’s fault.
“Sakura, maybe you should be spending some time with your teammates instead of forcing yourself to keep me company all of the time.” he suggested sweetly. His large eyes held that supportive determination look that reminded her of the way he’d looked at her during the chunin exams. For some reason, she couldn’t meet his gaze, suddenly guilt ebbed away at her conscience, but she didn’t know why.
What did she have to be guilty for? She was repaying her debt; she was helping him get better and keeping him company as he healed. That should’ve been enough.
Sakura pushed those thoughts away and sighed before summoning enough energy to cheerfully smile at the older alpha, “It isn’t a chore to keep you company! But I do see what you mean, I’ve already asked to do some training later, okay?” She conveniently left out the part where Naruto and Kakashi sensei weren’t invited, but Rock Lee didn’t need to know about her plans.
Rock Lee clapped giddily, and if she weren’t such a dignified, rational person, she would’ve sworn she saw stars in his eyes. “Oh yes! Training is an excellent bonding tool between friends! I remember when Tenten and Gai sensei were-” he launched himself into another story where he defeated the odds and challenged his sensei to do an insane number of jumping jacks, but Sakura only watched him talk.
She couldn’t wait for her plans to set in motion.
~~~
“So you ran?!” Iruka’s incredulous voice pierced the air as Anko laughed beside them.
They’d been called to the Hokage’s office to discuss what had happened during the chunin exams and were waiting patiently outside of Tsunade’s office. Presumably, Tsunade was nursing a hangover, and could not be bothered to see them at their scheduled meeting time.
Kakashi could respect that.
“Like my ass was on fire, yes.” The jonin said plainly as he turned the page of his Icha Icha book with careful admiration. He’d read the book countless times, and so he feared that the edges would fray if he weren’t so delicate with it.
Iruka slapped the book out of Kakashi’s hands.
“So you were presented with an opportunity to teach your students how to deal with conflict on the team.. and you..did nothing!?” The omega emphasized his words with strategically placed smacks on Kakashi’s shoulder.
Anko snickered at the shocked passerby who were all carefully ignoring Iruka’s outburst.
“Give the man a break, Iruka! Kakashi wouldn’t know how to take care of kids if they punched him in the face and called him mommy.” Anko laughed heartily. Her signature evil grin flashed wickedly at the grey haired man, and not for the first time, Kakashi lost all hope of getting out of one of Iruka’s lectures. There was no way in hell that Anko would let him sneak away now, not when it had just gotten entertaining for her.
“You could have easily nipped the issue in the bud right there, Kakashi! Do you know how insane Sasuke’s fanclub is?! Sakura was voted their president six years in a row! You can’t just let them sort it out among themselves!” The instructor whined. He clutched his shirt over where his heart was, and mumbled out emotionally, “My poor little Naruto..”.
Kakashi rolled his visible eye, “They’re old enough to fix their problems among themselves, Iruka. You baby them too much.”
“I do not-”
“When I was their age, I’d already become head of my clan, become an anbu black ops operative, and killed hundreds of enemies. They are more than capable of figuring out their love lives on their own.” Kakashi groaned.
Honestly, it wasn’t like he was avoiding the three rugrats. He was just.. teaching them a lesson on independence and self awareness. Yes, that was clearly what he was doing.
“Actually, I gotta agree with Mr. Grumpy pants over here, Iruka.” Anko snickered again. The purple haired omega stretched, uncaring of the way her sheer shirt became uncovered as she did so, causing a nameless worker’s nose to bleed as he hurried past the trio. Most likely, he headed to the bathroom to stop the bleeding with toilet paper.
Anko loved messing with the underlings.
“But look how sad he is! Don’t you think he would be a much more healed person if he, I don’t know, had had someone to love him and help him fix his problems when he was a genin?!”
Anko and Kakashi both shrugged, “No.” they said in unison.
Iruka looked about five seconds away from ripping out his hair, and the room grew palpable with the mildly stressed scent of bitter bread, unlike the usual scent that clung to his omega colleague, freshly baked bread.
Thankfully, the door to Tsunade’s office swung open and saved them another argument as Shizune popped her head out from behind the worn slab of wood, and gestured for them to come in. Kakashi politely ignored the way Anko’s mischievous eyes clung to Shizune in favor of picking up his beloved Icha Icha book from where Iruka had slapped it to the ground.
“Why hello again, Zu-Zu.” Anko purred as she invaded Tsunade’s poor assistant’s space to tuck a stray tuft of brown hair behind the woman’s ear. The omegan woman squeaked and shyly backed away, “H-hello, again, Anko. Lady Tsunade is waiting for you.”
Kakashi shared a look with Iruka. Neither of them knew how to address Anko’s smitten behavior- if they even needed to at all. Judging from the look on Shizune’s face, however, Kakashi wondered if the same could be said for her as well.
Once everyone was inside the office, Iruka bowed customarily in Tsunade’s direction.
Anko and Kakashi did not.
“Cut it out Iruka, you’re making me feel old, acting like I’m some old hokage or something..” The omegan sanin grumbled from where she was sloppily lazing in her desk chair. Shizune rushed past the three ninja to pull a file from one of the many stacks of papers that were scattered throughout the room and plopped it down in front of her sensei.
Kakashi didn’t care enough to lean forward and read the file name, but Anko certainly felt the need to. Iruka let out a hiss beside him in mild horror as Anko skipped behind the seated hokage to peer over the blonde woman’s shoulder.
“Anko!” Iruka cried, but Tsunade silenced him with a halfhearted wave of her hand. She allowed the mildly insane jonin to snatch the file from her own two hands and root around in it.
Everyone politely ignored Anko’s zealous muttering in favor of behaving like the adults they all were. Well, pretended to be, in Kakashi’s case.
“Right, so, as I’m sure you’re all aware of at this point, Orochimaru’s involvement in the chunin exams has had irreparable consequences for the village.” Tsunade’s voice was stern, all business.
“Right.” Kakashi answered.
“But, what we are here to discuss today, is what Orochimaru was after.” The blonde omega finished. She clasped her hands together, and let her hazel eyes bore into Kakashi’s one visible eye.
Iruka and Shizune stiffened beside him.
“ ..Sasuke.” The Hatake filled in.
She sighed and pulled the notes from Anko’s claw-like fingers. “Yes. Sasuke.” she muttered thoughtfully, impartially.
It had been a week since he, Jiraiya, and Tsunade had discussed what to do with Naruto and Sasuke, but Kakashi felt that annoying feeling of concern for the brats pop up in his chest again. Where Orochimaru was concerned, Sasuke was concerned, and where Sasuke was concerned, Naruto was concerned.
He wished he had let Zabuza kill him. At least then this web of problems would be on someone else’s shoulders and not his.
“Anko, I’ve decided that you will be periodically checking in on that brat, making sure the protective seals on his curse mark aren’t failing.” she spoke efficiently, leaving no room for argument. Anko jumped into the ‘attention’ position, and saluted the hokage from behind, “Eye eye, Captain Hokage.” she grinned evilly, smirking in Shizune’s direction as she did so.
Kakashi did not envy Sasuke. There was no telling the hell she was about to put the kid through, and he could only imagine the cat fights that would spring up because of it.
“Now, Iruka.”
Iruka perked up at his name being mentioned, “Yes, Lady Tsunade?”
“I would like a full report of your current list of training regimens for the students at the academy. This year’s chunin exams have shown us that we’ve grown lax with protocols and produced some of the weakest genin clan heirs of the newest generation. That Inuzuka kid is more bark than bite, that Hinata girl jumps at her own shadow, and don’t even get me started on Asuma’s team’s incompetence. The academy needs to step up its game, especially with the village’s weakened state, and Orochimaru waiting for another opening.”
Iruka bowed once more, even though he looked about ten seconds away from arguing with the sanin, “Yes, lady hokage.” he bit out evenly.
“Classes will be starting soon, you are dismissed, Iruka. Please have the information I’ve requested sent to me within the next two days.”
Once the instructor was gone, Tsunade let out a sigh, and pulled out a bottle of sake. She drank it in its entirety as easily and smoothly as she breathed.
“Alright,” she dropped all prior pretenses, and gestured for him and Anko to take a seat in front of her desk.
“What I am about to say to you does not leave this room.”
The remaining ninja nodded silently, too used to receiving confidential information for her words to have any real weight to them at this point.
Tsunade leaned forward, allowing Shizune to bring her another file. She opened it with the tiredness of a seventy-year-old woman and took a deep breath before turning the file towards the two ninja sitting adjacent to her.
“Orochimaru may have had his arms sealed by Hiruzen, but that doesn’t mean he is without his minions to use at his disposal.”
On the pages were accounts of recent sightings of sound ninja in the area, each sighting closer and closer to the village. Kakashi was able to pick out a few that he could roughly recall from the vague descriptions, but he figured if anyone, Anko would be the one to have a better go at figuring out who these sound ninja were if they were all taking a shot in the dark.
“You’re saying that they’re going to come back for Sasuke.” Kakashi guessed. Unease welled up in his gut, but he pushed it down. He wasn’t a sensei at that moment, he was a soldier. Sasuke’s name should mean nothing more than drying ink on a piece of paper if his Hokage wished it so.
She sighed again and looked at him head on. “I’m saying,” she paused, “that I have no idea what he’s up to.”
Anko looked up from the documents, face serious and determined.
The hokage continued, “I would like the two of you to help me figure it out.”