Ignited Citrus

Passing through the gates of Konoha was all a blur. Those really old people that always frown when they see him, the council elders, were waiting impatiently for Tsunade to walk with them but she insisted on talking to Jiraiya for a bit longer. Meanwhile, Shizune tried to keep hold of the wriggling, excited pig, but she managed to freed herself from the confines of the brunette’s grasp and terrorize the old lady elder.

Jiraiya sensei failed to hide his laughter. “Lady Tsunade, is that Sake I smell on your breath?” the other elder asked, to which the omega sanin lied through her teeth and said no, it was just a really unfortunate brand of toothpaste she’d used while on the road.

His mission had been completed and he had no reason to remain with the crabby adults, so he hightailed it to the hospital to go see Sasuke. He got a sense of deja vu from the Zabuza incident as he scurried along the village roads towards the hospital but he pushed the darker thoughts that came from those memories out of his head. That mission was nothing but fleeting ghosts and a lonely bridge now.

He jumped across rooftops with ease and Naruto couldn’t remember the last time he and Sasuke had chased each other across these very roofs. When the omega was well again, they would have to rectify it.

It had been what? Two days? Why did it feel like the alpha hadn’t seen his teammate in a year? Sure, the scent bond’s constant sting was probably a factor, but that only counted for physical loneliness. Why did he feel so heavy?

The fangirls weren’t storming the hospital this time, and Naruto suspects it has more to do with everyone helping rebuild the village after the third hokage’s fight with that bastard Orochimaru than the girls finally deciding to respect Sasuke’s right to privacy regardless of his status.

It was a bit ironic that his best friend was never truly alone but wished to be, but Naruto was always alone but wanted to be the center of anyone’s attention. Kakashi was probably right, they were two different sides of the same coin.

The hospital has its usual hustle and bustle, nurses are filling out charts, the person on desk duty is in a heated discussion with an old woman about whoever the patient in room twenty seven is and why the medic nins can’t operate until their chakra reserves fill back up. Chakra exhaustion seemed to be a common occurrence at the hospital, which made sense.

The blonde narrowly dodges someone carrying a big brown box labeled ‘gauze’. He doesn’t quite know where he’s going but his nose leads him to the third floor, ninth room on the left. It’s the same room Sasuke had spent his first heat in and Naruto’s body warms at the memory of the quiet breaths Sasuke let out as he slept with his face buried in the blonde’s scent glands.

Pft, dumb scent bond making his body feel weird.

He paused as his hand grasped the door knob. Would he still be unresponsive? Has anyone even told Sakura or Kakashi sensei? Has Sasuke suffered in here for days, alone with no one to fluff his pillow or talk his ear off even though he probably couldn’t hear it?

Bracing himself, he let the door swing open and immediately, a wall of the omega’s burning, ashy, wounded scent attacked him. Lightning stung the air, and instead of last time, when
Sasuke had attacked him in his daze, the room remained stagnant. His teammate, his friend, his Sasuke was lying still in a neat hospital bed. Upon further inspection, and a sneeze at the small vase of flowers that Ino had more than likely sent, he took in just how terrible the omega looked.

He was in short sleeves, the usual hospital attire, and Haku’s needle marks were prominent against the ghostly white complexion of his teammate’s skin. His inky hair, that looked so fine and pristine, was dull and limp against the small pillow. Sasuke’s arm was in a cast, and it looked like Choji and Kiba had been here at some point because they’d written their names on it.

If-when Sasuke woke up, he was not going to like that one bit.

There were a couple chairs surrounding the bed, so at least the blonde knew someone had come to check on Sasuke while he was gone. He scooted the nearest one closer to the bed and sat down, but it didn’t feel right. So, instead, and hoping Sasuke wouldn’t ever find out about it, he climbed onto the bed with the injured omega and proceeded to hold him.

The Uchiha was cold to the touch and up close, Naruto could hear the short, stumbling breaths coming from his fine, perfect nose. It felt wrong. Sasuke was always here. First, the Zabuza mission, then because of the curse mark from Orochimaru, and now because of his own brother.

All three instances had been because he was protecting the blonde too, and he felt nothing but shame pool in his gut. How could he be worthy of Sasuke if all he did was cause the grump to get hurt?

The alpha let his hand find Sasuke’s uninjured one and he held it with a tight, loving grip. He smiled a bit, when his thumb grazed over the calluses on the underside of the pale fingers. Naruto couldn’t really explain why he’d smiled, because callused hands were more than common amongst shinobi, but there was something about Sasuke’s that made his heart clench.

Was he having a heart attack?

The Uzumaki paused, to see if the pain would go away, and it did, so he deemed it just a weird body thing. He’d been experiencing a lot of those around Sasuke lately.

Did Sasuke ever get moments like that? If he did, he never let on. Sasuke was hard to read like that, although since their first real mission, the blonde felt that he was getting better at understanding the Uchiha. Like how his nose scrunched slightly when he was around people he didn’t like or that Sasuke hated group hugs but was never the last one to pull away.

It should be him lying in that bed, injured and unconscious.

How will he ever be hokage if he can’t even keep his teammate safe? And that’s only protecting one person, not an entire village.

The light that peaked through the reinforced window- ah, so that’s why Sasuke was in this room again, they’d sealed the only possible exit a shinobi would use.- was growing dimmer by the second. Logically, he knew he should go home, or at the very least track Tsunade and Jiraiya sensei down to discuss healing Sasuke but his body was molded around the omega’s in a way that felt grounding, leaving him rooted to his spot that even if he wanted to leave, he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to.

The lightning scent smelled less despaired the longer the blonde glued himself to the comatose boy. Was that a good thing? It had to be, because after pausing to listen to his own body, he found that the scent bond was thrumming with warmth, not the usual sting.

He felt whole when the bond got that way. It wasn’t often, because he and Sasuke fought a lot and were separated often, but when it felt that way, for a few fleeting moments, Naruto felt seeds of regret in the back of his mind. In those few seconds, he didn’t want to get rid of the bond, he just wanted Sasuke.

When he’d mentioned it to Shikamaru, and bragged about how that proved that Sasuke was definitely meant to be his teammate, not Kiba or Hinata’s, the sulky genius had laughed at him and called him an idiot, but Naruto never felt like an idiot. Not when he was with Sasuke.

“Hey, Sasuke?” he knew the boy wouldn’t respond, but he needed to get the words out, otherwise he’d swallow them and choke. “I’m-I’m real sorry that I keep getting you hurt like this. It feels like every time I try to prove myself, it ends up blowing up in my face and you’re the one that has to clean up my messes. But- But when you wake up, I promise, I’ll be stronger, okay?”

The alpha’s thumb dragged itself against the pale boy’s knuckles, and every bump reminded him of another reason to do better for his friend. For some reason, he recalled the day they’d been put into teams back at the academy. Someone had bumped into him from behind and he’d fallen face first into Sasuke’s.

Even though he’d been disgusted at the time, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from liking how soft the other boy’s lips were. They weren’t overly firm or soft, which was almost the perfect metaphor to describe Sasuke with.

Now, those same lips were cracked and dry.

Naruto turned to the bedside table to grab the glass of water the hospital staff customarily left for their patients, but there wasn’t one. Was he a choking risk?

He couldn’t communicate with the omega, he couldn’t help with his injuries, and now he couldn’t even give him something to drink. The only thing he could do was simply be there, and that was basically nothing.

“Instead of you always protecting me, I’ll be the one protecting you from now on, believe it!” he muttered to the unresponsive Uchiha.

Naruto continued to lay there, pumping out his scent by the bucket load in hopes that it would somehow bring his friend some comfort and caressing his good hand tenderly. He didn’t like how the bed felt. It was stiff and orderly, but not in the way that the nests Sasuke built were organized, this was just sheets on a bed, folded tightly at the edges with little leeway.

He got the idea right as his eyes caught sight of the unsightly curse mark just under the mating gland on Sasuke’s neck.

He was going to build Sasuke a nest. Nests were comforting for omegas, right? After the last few weeks he’d had, Naruto was pretty sure Sasuke could use all the comforting things he could get, even if he wasn’t aware enough to appreciate them.

It was a bit awkward, seeing as Sasuke was currently laying on the things he’d have to use to make the nest, so it took longer than expected. First he removed the pillows, careful to ease Sasuke’s neck down gently so that it didn’t hurt him, and then began to strip the sheets one by one.

It was a process and Naruto was glad that Sasuke wasn’t aware enough to laugh at him for getting tangled in the bedding more than a few times. Arranging the nest was difficult, mainly because he had never made one before, but he’d seen how Sasuke’s nests looked a few times now, so all he would have to do is design it the same way that the omega would.

That was easier said than done.

He twisted one blanket and molded the pillows into the base, but it just didn’t feel like the ones the Uchiha made. The ones Sasuke made, even though Naruto had only ever been in two of them before, were precise but warm and firm but comfortable. How on earth could he possibly replicate that?

Naruto probably spent the better part of an hour constantly arranging and rearranging the nest before he deemed it sufficient.

Sure, one side was really droopy, and there were a few gaps here and there, and now that he thought about it, it was probably a bit too small, but it was the thought that counted, right?

The blonde scratched the back of his neck in contemplation.

Looks like nest building was another thing Naruto could add to the growing list of things Sasuke was better at than him. Though, this one didn’t feel like a slight on the alpha’s part.

It had been a long day for the Uzumaki. Shizune had woken them up early demanding that they hurry and get to the village before nightfall, which Naruto suspected was because she missed indoor plumbing, and Tsunade had demanded that they stop at every town on the way to try her luck at gambling.

If it hadn’t been for Jiraiya getting them kicked out of most of the places because well-, he’s pervy sage for a reason, Naruto suspected they would have taken a day longer to arrive. When he wasn’t chasing down Master Jiraiya, he was hiding from the old hag because she kept borrowing money from his froggy wallet when she thought he wasn’t looking. Even Shizune had run off at some point, although that was mainly because she had misplaced the pig.

Pft, and everyone said he was a loose cannon on missions. At least he usually got places on time. (Although that was mainly because he was more scared of Sakura than anything else.)

He was pulled from his musings when he noticed the omega shaking and immediately jumped as close as the edge of the bed would allow, and he leaned down for further inspection. One hand shot out to caress a cold, nearly translucently white cheek, to comfort his friend and the other went to inspect the rest of his body. Obviously, Sasuke’s arm was still broken, but as he paid closer attention, he noticed bandages on his neck that had been covered by the collar of his shirt before now.

Curiously, because he didn’t remember Sasuke getting injured there, he peeled the bandages back. Wave upon wave of distressed omega poured was unleashed from the barrier of the wound dressings and he gagged. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to help and protect but what he saw wasn’t something that Naruto could help with.

Sasuke’s scent gland had been scratched.

That was probably why he was so cold to the touch, now that Naruto thought about it. The one thing that had been drilled into their heads as much as basic training had been was that under no circumstances should you let your opponent near your scent gland.

If injured, he remembered Iruka’s firm voice announcing, you could lose your scent, or go into shock as your body went into overdrive trying to heal it. Common symptoms were overheating, being temporarily unable to produce body heat, and with larger injuries to the scent gland, a prolonged comatose state.

Seeing as the genjutsu already had Sasuke in a comatose state, the only real give away was the drastically low body temperature.

Naruto hated being cold. He couldn’t imagine how painful being ice cold was, so he did the only sensible thing to do- climb into the questionably built nest and wrap his body around Sasuke’s to warm him up.

Of course, he was careful of the omega’s broken arm.

His arms rubbed up and down Sasuke’s back to try and create friction to warm him up and in the meantime, the blonde began to think.

Tsunade wouldn't be free until morning. Then, he would hound her and annoy her until she dropped everything to come heal Sasuke.

For now, he would sit tight, and hold the omega close.

~~~
Kakashi liked to think he was a patient man. He had an amazing track record of going on long term undercover missions that required the utmost tolerance. He’d carried them out swiftly, and unrelentingly.

But there was something about seeing a sobbing Sakura at his doorstep nearly an hour until the sun went down that made him want to flee the country and start a new life in the sand village.

It was hot there, and the culture was much less.. chatty than Konoha’s. All he would have to do is live quietly and far away from his genin squad.

He really should have taken the chance to move to a new apartment building when they were all busy with the chunin exams. It would have been the perfect timing.

“Did you know?” she forces out amid the raw cries that wrenched themselves from her throat. Her voice was coarse, as though she’d been a crying mess and Kakashi could only assume that his observation was correct.

“Know what, Sakura?” he sighed as he opened the door wider and stepped aside to allow her entry. She’s angry, he can tell by the way the veins stick out in her forehead and the set stare of her leaf green eyes.

“Did you know about Naruto and Sasuke’s scent bond?!” she yelled and Kakashi’s blood ran cold. It was the early morning, so half of the building’s occupants would be asleep still, but for those that were up, they surely would have heard her voice carry down the corridor.

The tear tracks on her cheeks are war trenches, clearly, she’d been having trouble with this information but the jonin is quick to respond with his own anger.

He yanked her in and slammed the door shut, and if he weren’t so utterly done with these childish love triangles, he would feel bad about the death grip he has on her arm.

“Are you stupid?” he spits with venom he’s only ever used with Obi- no. It wasn’t the time for that. “Scent bonds are illegal and you’ve just alerted the entire building with your childish yelling!” He scolded as he rubbed a hand over his face in frustration.

“So you did know.” she accused lowly, ignoring his words.

That’s what she got from that? That he knew about an important and potentially dangerous situation two of his students were in?

He’s glad two thirds of his face are always covered because the look on his face was probably incredibly irritated.

“Yes, Sakura, I knew.”

It was as if he’d hit her. Her face twisted into a childish anguish and the cinnamon scent she let off felt betrayed once it wafted into his nostrils underneath his mask. She collapsed on his floor, and if he weren’t partially hurting for his student, he would be annoyed at having his genin blocking the doorway.

Kakashi hated feeling trapped with no exits.

“You-You” she heaved wetly, sharply inhaling in between her words only to sob them out afterwards, “You three always leave me out! I’m part of this team t-too and-and-” she cut herself off with another sob as Kakashi crouched down to where she sat on his floor, “I had a right to know!” she wailed out.

The jonin winced, and not for the first time cursed his elite sense of hearing. “Sakura, it is true, you had a right to know, but Sasuke and Naruto also had a right to privacy. It is a delicate situation and requires the utmost secrecy. Think of it as a mission, would you be upset at them for keeping important intel from you if the situation required it?”

The unfortunate thing about Sakura was that she wasn’t like Sasuke or Naruto. Kakashi couldn’t sway her emotions with comparisons to ninja life or missions, and he instantly regretted being a jonin instructor. Iruka and Gai were much better at the whole ‘connecting emotionally to all of your students’ thing than he was.

“We’re supposed to be a team! If-if it was as important as you say, then why would Shikamaru know before I did?! I was just sitting there, feeling like an idiot because all the other teams actually are part of their teams! I’m-I’m just here for when one of you is bored, aren’t I?” she cried, furiously wiping at her eyes to no avail, the tears just kept flowing.

“Sakura, I-” Before he could finish, she was bolting out of the door, sobbing all the while.

He didn’t know if he should go after her or let her have her space, so he did the next best thing, he summoned a ninken to tail her discreetly.

After Bull had scurried off, Kakashi sighed, he had a certain Nara to go interrogate.

Wait-how did Sakura even know where he lived?

~~~
“Why am I not surprised?”

Naruto whipped his head around to face the door, face red in embarrassment at being caught taking care of his rival.

His sensei was standing at the entrance with his hands cooly in his pockets, but his one visible eye looked like the jonin was troubled by something. The dim light coming from the window made the shadows of the man’s face look stern, and it reminded the blonde of those weird dreams he used to have of people in masks outside of his apartment watching him from when he’d been a little kid.

“Uh- Kakashi sensei- I-I can explain!” he whisper shouted as he left from the bed where he’s been trying to keep Sasuke warm.

The jonin huffed out an amused breath of air and took a seat on one of the chairs that was farther from the hospital bed. “If I remember correctly, that’s what you also said when I walked in on you two a few months ago as well.”

Yeah, okay. That was fair, but still. With a pervy mind like the one Kakashi sensei had, there was no telling what the jonin had assumed Naruto had been up to.

“His scent gland is scratched and he’s not retaining body heat so.. I thought I’d give him some of mine..?”

He hated that it came out as more of a question than a confident statement, and judging by the look on his sensei’s face, the grey haired man was unimpressed with his reasoning. The burning of his ears, which no doubt were visibly red to Kakashi, forced him to break eye contact with the man and look at any and everything but the serious looking man.

“Naruto, why is Sasuke covered in a pile of bedding?” His instructor asked again after a few moments of awkward silence had passed at a snail’s speed in the stuffy hospital room.

The blonde craned his neck behind him to admire his craftsmanship once more. “I built him a nest, see how great it is?” he couldn’t help the excitement from spilling into his response, and the large smile that broke out onto his face actually hurt just a little.

His sensei looked unimpressed, however. Sure, the nest was a bit lopsided, and there were a few unexplainable lumps here and there, but Sasuke looked cozy and hopefully the extra layers were helping to keep him warm.

“That is the worst nest I have ever seen in my life!” Kakashi laughed, finally losing some of the edge that had been in his tone since he’d stepped foot into the room.

“Whaddaya mean ‘worst nest’!?! This is the most awesomest nest that’s ever been made, BELIEVE IT!!”

Kakashi sat back in his chair and crossed his arms as he said, “I dunno, it looks like laundry day gone wrong if you ask me.”

It was as if steam were shooting from Naruto’s ears, “Oh yeah?! Well what do you know about making a nest, huh?”

“More than you do, apparently.”

The urge to kick his sensei out of Sasuke’s hospital room was growing with each second the jonin spent criticizing his nest. Naruto stomped his foot, like he’d seen Konohamaru do hundreds of times to get his way and pouted threateningly at the man.

“What’re you even here for?” his voice sounded more bratty than it did menacing, and if he weren’t trying to be tough to the grey haired man, he would have face palmed immediately after letting the words fall out of his mouth.

It was Kakashi’s turn to glower, although his was actually a little scary. “Oh nothing, I just figured you would want to know that the cat’s out of the bag. Sakura knows about the bond, from what I gather, so do the rest of your little genin friends.”

Oh man. Sakura was gonna be so mad.

Everyone with eyes, ears, and noses could tell she had her eye on Sasuke. Hearing that Naruto had beat her at her own game, accidentally, could only mean one thing. He could kiss his dreams of being hokage goodbye, Sakura was gonna kill him.

“Kakashi sensei, how did she find out?!” his voice cracked mid sentence due to shock.

Kakashi sighed and adjusted his sitting position, “Why don’t you take a seat, Naruto. It’ll be a long story.”

Oh no.

Long stories involving team seven always ended in disaster.
~~~
Shikamaru hated waiting outside of the hokage towers for his dad. Like clockwork, whenever his old man had business to attend to, he’d take Shikamaru along so that he could catch up with his son and ask about his training.

At least, that’s what they told his mom when she asked what they were up to.

Shikaku often used the walks to talk about Ino and Choji and make sure they were well. His dad and Ino and Choji’s dads were all alphas, and while the Nara and Yamanaka clans were fairly open minded when it came to status, the Akimichis were less predictable with their views.

The genin could tell his dad was worried about Choji. He was an omega and only child of their clan head. Personally, Shikamaru didn’t think the guy had much to worry about, but hey, if his dad wanted to check up on his friend without his outspoken mother chiming in, who was Shikamaru to complain?

The clouds were entertaining at least, although he could do without having to crane his neck to stare up at them. His dad had been in there for an hour now, and Shikamaru was debating on whether or not he should just leave.

“Hey! Shikamaru!” came a frustratingly familiar shout from the bottom of the stairs.

Naruto sounded angry, but Shikamaru didn’t really care. The idiot was always angry about something.

“What a drag..” he groaned and went to go get it over with.

Looks like someone had blabbed about him telling their friends about his and Sasuke’s secret. Though he couldn’t prove anything, he was willing to bet it had something to do with Sakura.

The blonde alpha was red faced with his teeth bared in a snarl as Shikamaru took his time descending the stairs. What was the rush? It’s not like getting there faster would make the blonde less likely to yell at him.

“What do you want?” the genius sighed out, making sure to kick a rock with his foot to show Naruto that his alpha postering wouldn’t work on him.

“What gave you the right to tell everyone about me and Sasuke?! We trusted you!” The Nara heir rolled his eyes but made sure to take note of the various passersby who were no doubt overhearing their conversation.

“Would you be quiet! I’m not the only one that can hear you, ya know.”

Naruto tried to glance around slyly in an obvious attempt to make sure that what Shikamaru had said was true without giving the other alpha the satisfaction of being right. Classic Naruto.

The idiot saw Genma and Raidou milling about and several others walking casually, but eying Naruto warily and straightened up in embarrassment.

Shikamaru wondered why he even stuck around to hear the rest of what the blonde alpha had to say, and chalked it up to not wanting to go back to waiting for his dad in complete boredom. Besides, the sooner he got this over with, the less of a drag it was going to be for him later.

After waving awkwardly at Genma, Naruto turned back to the brunette and leaned in close, brought a hand to block other people from physically seeing him talk, and stage whispered- only slightly quieter than before- “ Sakura told Kakashi sensei that you told everyone about me and Sasuke’s- you know what!” he gestured animatedly to his neck, where his scent gland was located, and not for the first time in five minutes, Shikamaru came to the conclusion that Naruto was a dumbass.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and dragged the Uzumaki around the corner to a more secluded, empty road with Naruto kicking and screaming all the while. How the blonde was a ninja, with his abysmal sense of stealth, he would never know.

“Now would you shut up and let me talk?” Naruto glared at him with all the animosity of a demon, and even let out a warning growl at him, but Shikamaru couldn’t bring himself to care.

He took the blonde’s angered silence as a go ahead to explain himself. “It’s not even my fault, Kiba is the one with the loud mouth and no impulse control.”

“So it’s Kiba I need to have a talk with!”

Shikamaru remembered the beating the Uzumaki gave Kiba over just hanging out with the gloomy omega, he did not want to see what the fool would do to Kiba when he actually had a reason to be mad.

The genius pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, “No, moron. You don’t need to ‘have a talk’ with anyone because none of this would have happened if you,” Shikamaru jabbed a finger at the blonde’s chest, “hadn’t screwed up in the first place.”

“Shikamaru,” he growled out in response, “that’s not the point. The point is, you and Kiba,” Naruto spit the Inuzuka’s name out of his mouth like it was poison on his tongue, “are the reason why six more people know about our situation at all. I don’t even care about people knowing that about me, I’m upset because people are gonna talk, and they’ll be talking about Sasuke!”

“Yeah, that may be the case, but you weren’t there and I had to make a quick decision. At the end of the day, Sasuke is just an omega in a hospital bed who got himself beat up to the point where he can’t even mask his scent anymore. That’s not my problem”

“SHUT UP! Sasuke isn’t just some omega! He’s the best ninja this village has and you’re lucky to even know someone like him!”

Shikamaru sighed, this was getting them both nowhere. He turned to leave and let the idiot stew and seethe until he was actually ready to talk about things, but before he could walk away, Naruto tackled him to the ground.

“Hey- Naruto, cut it out!” Shikamaru dodged the first few punches, and unfortunately, the blonde alpha was sitting on top of his arms so he couldn’t really move them to do his shadow possession technique.

Shikamaru was not in the mood for another one of Naruto’s childish fights.

The genius lifted up his legs, bent his knees, and brought them to the blonde’s neck. He caught Naruto by surprise, and slammed the other alpha down to the ground with all the strength he had in his legs.

With his hands free, he then performed his shadow possession technique, trapping Naruto before he could stand up and pounce on him again.

“Look, I know that you and Sasuke have this weird relationship where you beat up other people to show that you don’t hate each other, but pretty soon, all you’re gonna have left is each other if this shit continues.”

He paused to gather his thoughts before continuing, “Me telling the others was the best solution, and you weren’t there for me to ask permission. It was either that, or a bunch of catty nurses getting in on it and telling the whole damn village.”

Once Naruto’s head seemed to clear a little, Shikamaru released the jutsu. As the blonde stood there, fists shaking but not moving forward, the genius looked at him, really looked at him. His whisker marks were thicker than normal, and his teeth, which had been barred in anger, were sharper too.

Hmm, well, that proved his nine tails theory.

He put his hands in his pockets and sighed again, “This has been quite the drag. A word of advice? Talk to Sakura and get your shit together.”

And like that, he walked away from his idiot friend and rounded the corner, taking his time in climbing the stairs to the hokage tower.

He had a lot to think about.
~~~
“Are you alright, Sakura-chan?” Hinata asked once she noticed the pink haired girl crying on the training field. She was supposed to be meeting up with Shino and Kiba to train, but the omega had a feeling that she would be putting that on hold for a few minutes.

Sakura sniffled and rubbed her eyes, “No, I’m fine, Hinata.”

Clearly the alpha was very upset, but was it Hinata’s place to call her on it? She and Sakura weren’t close, in fact, the Hyuuga couldn’t remember a time when they had had a conversation between them without the others present.

Quietly, while releasing calming pheromones into the air to hopefully get her friend to stop crying, the omega sat down next to her, ignoring the itch of the grass on her legs.

“Is it about Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun?” she tried again, this time reaching out to put a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder to comfort her. She wasn’t going to lie, their revelation at the hospital had hurt her too, but ultimately, Shino had helped her realize that just because she had feelings for Naruto did not mean he had to have feelings for her.

Hinata wondered if anyone had had that conversation with Sakura yet.

“No- yes, I don’t know!” The alpha threw her hands up in the air in frustration and the bitter scent of cinnamon filled the quiet girl’s nostrils. “W-What are you thinking?” The omega pushed down the rising feeling of unease as she continued to be in the company of a frustrated alpha in hopes of helping her fellow genin feel better.

“It’s just- What does Sasuke even see in Naruto?! He’s a loud mouth and has no boundaries or respect for social norms! He doesn’t even have parents to teach him that omegas are supposed to be cared for, not challenged to a fight every ten seconds!”

Almost as soon as the words had left the alpha’s mouth, she realized the implications of what she’d said. Green eyes widened as she scrambled to apologize, “Wait, Hinata I didn’t mean it like that-”

But the damage had already been done.

Contrary to popular assumptions, Hinata did not get upset easily. Sure, she fainted when extremely embarrassed, and was shy in most social situations, but she was not one to back down when she knew someone she cared about had been wronged. It’s part of the reason why she got along with Kiba and Shino so well, they both came from clans based on deep loyalty and fierce protectiveness.

She inhaled and calmly interrupted Sakura’s apologies, “Sasuke deserves someone who will respect him as the person he is, as the ninja he is. Naruto may not have been taught very much about social standards, but that’s a good thing, because if he had been, he may have turned out as mean and self centered as the comments you just made.” She was proud of herself for not stuttering once, but the red, hurt look on Sakura’s face made her feel guilty.

Hinata was glad they were sitting down, otherwise Sakura would be able to see her body shaking with nerves. It wasn’t every day the Hyuuga girl was able to muster up the courage to scold an alpha. If Neji or anyone from her clan found out about this, they would have her head.

The alpha burst out into tears after Hinata’s words had taken a moment to sink in. “I know, I’m sorry, I’m just going through a lot right now and I’m feeling a lot of ugly things. I didn’t mean it.”

Hinata decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, but still wanted to get her point across. “Sakura, I-I understand where you’re coming from, because I have feelings for Naruto too, but our feelings are exactly that. Ours. It’s harder for you because you’re on the same team with them, but didn’t Shikamaru say that it was an accidental bond?” She waited for Sakura to nod before continuing, “So who knows what they’re actually feeling right now. Have you talked to Naruto about it? Shino mentioned that he’s back in the village.”

Sakura shook her head no, she hadn’t.

“Then-then maybe you may want to talk to him? I’m sure the situation seems worse than it is.” she tried to smile encouragingly, but she feared it looked more like a grimace than anything else.
“Yeah, you’re right Hinata.” the other girl mumbled bitterly, although the wobble of her lip was still obvious.

“Hey Hinata! Over here!” The pair snapped their heads in the direction of Kiba’s voice. He and Shino were standing a few yards away with Akamaru happily prancing around beside them.

The omega stood and waved at the pink haired alpha politely, “G-goodbye, I hope you feel better soon!” she said, allowing her voice’s usual shyness to slip in again as she turned to leave.

Hinata wasn’t sure that Sakura had even really listened to her, but it wasn’t her place to meddle in another team’s affairs, even if they were her friends.

“Hey, Hinata, is Sakura okay? Her scent is all over you.” Kiba grimaced in distaste as she walked up to her teammates, the alpha girl’s cinnamon scent was probably bitter and spicy to his above average sense of smell.

“I-I think she will be.” she stuttered, face going red after realizing that Kiba was upset with her having someone else’s scent on her.

“Well, let’s begin. Why? Because training is important to shinobi life.” Shino’s calm, gravelly voice startled her from her moment of embarrassment, and she nodded firmly in determination.

Hopefully Sasuke would be impressed with her progress whenever he was discharged from the hospital, and they could resume their one on one training.
~~~
“Hey, kid. Kakashi told me you’ve been camped out in here?” the white haired sanin noted as he sank down into the wooden chair beside the blonde. Naruto had been moping by Sasuke’s bedside ever since his fight with Shikamaru.

He felt guilty and ashamed, and he didn’t know why he got so angry so quickly, but that's neither here nor there. He’d hurt one of the few people that didn’t treat him like some annoying, wild thing, and in doing so, had proved that he was just some wild orphan that no one wanted to be around.

“Yeah” he responded glumly. His face was still pointed to the floor, so he didn’t get to see his sensei’s reaction to his less than enthusiastic reply. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t think Jiraiya had ever seen him in one of his solemn moods. Not that it really mattered much or anything…

“I also heard from Shikaku Nara that you and Shikamaru got into a little bit of a skirmish this morning outside the hokage tower, is that right?”

Naruto nodded wordlessly and refused to look up and see the disappointment painted on his teacher’s face. He didn’t like it when he disappointed people, but from years of playing around the village, he could tell that he disappointed a lot of people anyways.

The Sanin sighed, and out of his peripheral vision, he could tell that the old man had crossed his arms. “Mind telling me what it was about?”

He felt embarrassed as memories from that morning swam around in his mind. Would Jiraiya sensei lecture him, like Iruka sensei? Or laugh at him and punish him with chores and training like Kakashi sensei?

Instead of responding, he shrugged and fumbled with his hands. It was a habit he’d accidentally picked up from that Hinata girl that he just couldn’t seem to shake. When he’d complained about it to Sakura, she’d just giggled and said something weird about ‘hopefully picking up some other things from Hinata’ whatever that meant.

“You know, when I was a genin, I got into a lot of fights too. Tsunade was usually the reason, but sometimes I just got so mad that I wanted to lash out and that usually resulted in many long winded lectures and punishments from Lord Third, who was our sensei at the time.” The man paused and Naruto could feel his gaze on him.

“Do you ever feel like that sometimes?” Jiraiya asked after Naruto remained quiet.

“You-you get angry too?” He asked, finally looking up and seeing his teacher’s wise expression.

Jiraiya nodded with a small, reminiscent smile. “All the time. It’s harder when you’re younger and a newly presented alpha, but you eventually learn to control it-” His face turned serious all of a sudden and he fully turned to face the blonde as he added “and you will learn to control it. I expect nothing less from one of my students.”

Naruto nodded in understanding, and sighed, “That thing inside me- the nine tails? It gets angry too a lot and I think it slips out sometimes when I’m really mad.”

The sanin nodded, said he expected as much, and turned his attention to the injured, comatose boy. “I know you were thinking about Sasuke and wanting to keep others from knowing about the bond because ultimately it will be harder for him to be taken seriously as a leaf shinobi, but fighting his battles for him will not help that either. You need to learn how to step back and think instead of just attacking whatever upsets you, especially when you’re trying to beat up one of your friends.”

He felt shame welling up inside his stomach again but he pushed it down in favor of asking a question that had been on his mind for a few days now, “Hey, Pervy Sage?” His voice was scratchy with uncertain curiosity but he continued nonetheless once the man’s eyes were on him, “Why don’t you have a scent?”

Though the older alpha has no scent to factor into it, the air stiffens around them anyway. The toad sage closed his eyes harshly, as if he were thinking of something bitter, and shrugged.

“I guess I’d better tell you, since you’re in the same predicament I was in.”

Had Jiraiya sensei accidentally scent bonded one of his teammates? Did- it- it couldn’t be Orochimaru, right? Tsunade had talked like she’d never been scent bonded before so, it had to be the creepy snake guy, didn’t it?

The thought made a shiver of disgust run down his spine.

“Whaddaya mean?”

“Well,” his teacher paused, “during the second shinobi war, my team- me, Tsunade, and Orochimaru- had discovered three orphans of war while on a mission. I stayed back to take care of them for a while, to train them to defend themselves, but I met someone. She was a ninja who’d gotten separated from her team and was injured and needing care. I took her in, even though she was from Suna and I was from Konoha.” She was beautiful and had the most startling laugh that you couldn’t help but laugh along with her.”

The old man broke off, thinking of a life that was a lifetime ago, before continuing, “She was beautiful and had the most startling laugh that you couldn’t help but laugh along with her. We grew close, and we fell in love. It was just the two of us and my students, hiding away in our little corner of the world, untouched by the war.”

His face grew dark, and his voice had an edge to it, but Naruto continued to listen patiently, “Back then, it wasn’t illegal to be scent bonded, and while we wanted to wait to get mated until after the war was over, we scent bonded as a promise to one another that the next step would be mating.” He chuckled sadly, “We were young and in love, so naturally we were fools, and didn’t notice the Suna ninja watching us.”

Naruto was on the edge of his seat in anticipation, “What happened next, sensei?”

“I left with my three students to go train them for the day, and I felt this alarming, ice-cold sting on my neck that spread to the rest of my body, and I knew she was in trouble. We hurried back to the makeshift home, and she was dead, killed by her own teammates for fraternizing with the enemy.”

Naruto let out a shocked whimper, and accidentally released a cloud of wilting oranges into the air. His poor sensei..

“I killed them and buried her and within two weeks, I was back at Konoha, scentless and devastated. Lord third outlawed scent bonds as a result, as he saw how it affected me and decided they were a cruel gift to bestow upon another person.”

He let out a final sigh and Naruto felt fear dancing in his mind. If something were to happen to him, Sasuke would lose his scent. If something happened to Sasuke, he would lose his scent.

A person’s scent is said to be a window of their soul. Losing that? Well, Naruto didn’t even want to think about what losing a scent would feel like.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot kid, you do that already!” Jiraiya sensei laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

“What.. What did you smell like? Before…”

“Tsunade used to say I smelled like the ocean, but I thought it was more like driftwood.”

Before he could respond, the door knob turned and the door swung open to reveal Tsunade with Shizune in tow.

“Sorry, I was checking up on Gai’s student.” The blonde omega apologized as she rushed to the Uchiha’s hospital bed.

Naruto sat up straight in concern, his hands stiffly sat on his knees as he watched Tsunade poke and prod his teammate.

“His arm is healing nicely.” she commented before moving to place her hand in his forehead.

“Grandma Tsunade, you’ll be able to heal him, right?” Naruto asked worriedly, jumping up to stand beside her as he did so.

“I’ll try my best, brat, now move, you’re in my way.”

The blonde alpha side stepped about two feet and decided that was enough room. He couldn’t move too far away because he had to make sure she didn’t hurt him or anything. It was probably overkill but he didn’t care. Sasuke didn’t have a family to worry over him like this, so he would fill their role as best he could.

A soft, green glow emitted from her hand and it cast odd shadows on Sasuke’s pale skin. The glow made him look ghostly when the contrast of his black hair added to the mix. Naruto thought his teammate would make a great ghost. He was usually quiet, and the Uzumaki never heard him coming, but his eyes were entrancing and Naruto often found himself getting lost in them.

He’d asked Kakashi sensei if him finding Sasuke’s eyes so alluring was because of his clan’s kekkei genkai, but all the grey haired man had done was laugh at him.

He laughed at Naruto a lot when the blonde asked him questions about Sasuke.

A wince followed by a groan brought the alpha’s attention to the head of the bed, where Tsunade was moving her arm back as Sasuke opened his eyes.

He’d missed his eyes.

He’d missed the hundreds of shades of black they became based on the omega’s mood. He’d missed how they were always narrowed into some form of glare- usually Sasuke’s tired glare which was kinda more dark grey than black, but sometimes, when the timing was right and Naruto was lucky enough, he would catch his happy glare. His happy glare was perfect and his irises had the perfect balance of black and blue-black, unlike his warm glare.

His warm glare had too much black.

“Sasuke!”

The alpha broke out of his trance and leapt on the bed to encase the Uchiha in a full body hug. He was so wrapped up in his own relief at seeing Sasuke finally awake that he didn’t notice the room fill with the scent of a panicked and angry distressed omega. A strong hand yanked him off of Sasuke and he went crashing to the ground.

“Ah, that hurt you old hag!”

Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration as Naruto rubbed his shoulder. “I think you crushed my arm!” he exclaimed, only to be met with Tsunade’s disapproving glare.

“Would you knock it off? You’re upsetting Sasuke!” she scolded as Sasuke sat up slowly.

That’s when Naruto noticed the anguished smell wafting off of his friend in droves. Why did he smell like that? He was better now- well except for his arm- why wasn’t Sasuke happy?

“I think this is my cue to leave.” Jiraiya’s voice startled the blonde. He’d honestly forgotten his sensei was even in the room, his mind had tunnel visioned and all he saw was Sasuke from the moment Tsunade had entered the room.

Judging from the sharp turn of Sasuke’s head to the direction of where the sanin’s deep voice had come from, and the reddening of his irises, Sasuke had been startled too.
“Shizune?” Tsunade turned to face her mousy assistant, “will you go find Kakashi and tell him Sasuke is awake? I’ll need to speak with him.”

Shizune nodded her head diligently and rushed out of the door that Jiraiya kindly held open for her.

After the two were gone, Tsunade sighed and forced Naruto to sit down on the chair beside her. Sasuke had yet to say anything, in fact, he was eerily quiet and his sharingan was still activated. He hadn’t even acknowledged the others in the room, he just kept staring down at his hands lying limply on the sheets.

“Sasuke, you’ll be feeling some confusion and dizziness for a little while, but it should clear up within an hour or so. Nod if you understand what I’m telling you.” Tsunade’s tone was all business and had the gentle firmness of an established doctor.

Which of course, she was, but it was hard to picture her as anything other than some old lady that had a serious gambling problem that nagged him all the time.

Sasuke nodded slowly, like his neck muscles were stiff from a lack of use.

Tsunade hummed to herself and pulled out a chart from who knows where and began to scribble something down, but Naruto paid her little attention. His focus was on Sasuke.

The average person wouldn’t be able to see the slight shake of the Uchiha’s body, but it was glaringly obvious to a trained shinobi. The miniscule tremors didn’t seem to be from the cold, as Naruto had made sure that the nurses were aware of Sasuke’s body not being able to retain heat the day before, so they’d probably handled it.

Was Sasuke.. scared?

He was safe! Why would he feel any shred of fear at all?!

Before Naruto could ask his rival about what was bothering him, Tsunade spoke again, “It says here on your chart that your scent gland was scratched and needed some serious medical attention. Do you mind if I take a look?”

Sasuke ignored her in favor of continuing to stare emptily at his hands. The sanin didn’t appear to be phased by his lack of response, so she eased forward carefully so that she wouldn’t appear threatening in any way, and gently peeled back the bandages on his neck.

Naruto tried to jump up and look over her shoulder, but the blonde woman pushed him back with her foot. “Does it look any better?” he asked after taking a moment to sulk and stick his tongue out at her from behind her back. “It could be a lot worse. It could be infected, or the scratch could have been much deeper.” Her hand began to glow green again as she placed a gentle hand over the wound, “You got lucky, Sasuke, this injury could have been much more serious.”

When she stood back up and began writing on the chart again, Naruto decided it was time to get Sasuke to talk. “Hey, Sasuke, hellooOOo,-” he began to wave his hand in front of the Uchiha, “Talk to ussss” he whined.

Sasuke’s eyes shot up to look directly into Naruto’s own, and for the first time, the blonde alpha understood why Kiba was so scared of the omega. The look on his face was almost sinister and the hateful red of his sharingan didn’t help either.

“Leave. Me. Alone.” The omega’s voice was dry and rough from misuse, but the complete hatred in his tone got his point across very well. Not suspecting such a harsh response from his friend, Naruto jumped back, just in time for Tsunade to whack him over the head with her clipboard.

“Naruto you idiot! Leave him alone, he’s just coming out of a four day long genjutsu!” she snapped at him, causing the alpha to feel ashamed of his actions.

Before he could apologize for his negligence, Kakashi strolled into the room with the calmness of a corpse. “Kakashi, you’ve grown up.” Tsunade gasped fondly. “Mah, wouldn’t you know that that’s what they call the opposite of dying?” he responded dryly, stepping out of range of her angered arm.

Sheesh, Sakura and Tsunade sure did beat people up a lot. Naruto winced at the memory of frequent bruises he’d received from the pink haired girl. At least her slaps didn’t quite sting like Tsunade’s..

“Sasuke, glad to see you awake.” Sasuke’s unresponsive body language didn’t seem to deter the jonin from bending over and looking over the injured omega for any other signs of harm. Sasuke didn’t look like he was offended by the action, and it confused Naruto even more.

Why was Kakashi sensei allowed to be close to Sasuke, but he wasn’t?! Was-was the omega mad at him for not protecting him from Itachi?

All Naruto could do was stare, wide eyed and open mouthed, as their instructor summoned Pakkun. “What’re you-” Tsunade cut herself off, too stunned to speak at what they were witnessing. Pakkun had jumped on the bed, crawled into Sasuke’s lap, and nuzzled his face into Sasuke’s uninjured palm until the Uchiha began to pet him! Even his sharingan deactivated!

The blonde woman turned to the jonin, confused, “How did you-”

He shrugged, “Meh, just a hunch.” The only evidence they had of the man’s amusement was the fact that his visible eye was curved upwards.

“Why.. why is there a heap of blankets on top of me?” croaked out the Uchiha as Pakkun licked his pale cheek. “That is a good question, I was wondering that myself.” the blonde omega stated, turning to Naruto for an explanation after seeing Kakashi shrug and point at Naruto.

That bastard. How dare Kakashi sensei rat him out like that!

All eyes were suddenly on him and he could feel Sasuke’s dull gaze scrutinizing him for every second Naruto awkwardly spluttered out an excuse. “H-He looked.. cold?” He stuttered, cringing as he heard the words leave his mouth.

Pakkun rolled his eyes as their sensei laughed at him, but Sasuke remained quiet.

Tsunade took the chance to clap her hands together, “Alright, now that everyone is present, we can finally discuss the elephant in the room. Your scent bond.”

Even Sasuke seemed to pay closer attention to the woman as she continued speaking, “Naruto and Jiraiya already informed me on how it happened, but do either of you know why it happened?”

The blonde alpha cocked his head to the side, “There’s a difference?” Even Sasuke seemed to be bewildered, though she wouldn’t be able to tell. The sanin sighed and placed her clipboard down on the bedside table, next to the vase of flowers Ino had supplied hours earlier, “I guess your generation would barely know what a scent bond is since they were outlawed thirty years ago, let alone the circumstances involved.” she pushed her bangs out of her face and crossed her arms, “Scent bonds can only be established if there is an emotional bond. You guys know how people create mating bonds? That’s the physical bond. Ideally, a mated pair establishes a scent bond first, so that their hearts are in tune, before they mate and make their bodies align with one another.”

“Ew gross! Why’re you telling us about all that mating junk!” Naruto exclaimed, covering his ears and humming to drown out whatever she was about to say.

Kakashi sighed and shrugged at the sanin, leaving her to deal with the blonde’s antics as Sasuke calmly ignored everyone- except for Pakkun that is.

“Naruto! Sit down and shut up! I’m explaining this because hopefully, it will prevent you from being an idiot in the future!” Tsunade looked like she was regretting making Shizune leave. The mousy girl usually calmed her down, or at the very least, apologized for the sanin’s actions when the blonde woman wouldn’t.

He sat down immediately and even folded his hands together neatly on his lap. The old hag was scary, after all.

“Now, as I was saying, because the both of you are young, we don’t need to rush into severing the bond. Neither of you have matured yet, so we have plenty of time to think of options and alternative solutions. I will admit, I am hesitant to try surgically severing the bond. It’s a very experimental procedure and there have only been three instances of it even being performed at all, the success rate is dubious.”

It was Sasuke who spoke up next, “So you’re saying you won’t sever our bond?” The room was suddenly devoid of Sasuke’s lightning scent, alerting everyone in the room to the omega’s.. harsh attitude on the medic’s stance. His eyes flashed dangerously and even Naruto didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that look, even during one of their fights.

“I’m saying that nothing needs to be done immediately. It is a dangerous surgery with usually fatal results. The both of you are young, an unnecessary operation doesn’t need to be the reason you stay young forever.”

Naruto was stunned.
He hadn’t even considered not doing anything about their scent bond. From the very first day, when Kakashi sensei had explained their predicament to them, they’d both wanted to get rid of it. Now old lady Tsunade was saying that one of them could die in the process and he couldn’t think of his life without Sasuke.

He couldn’t not grow up to be hokage either.

“What- what are our other options?” he voiced uncertainty, ignoring the look Sasuke shot him as he did so.

“Well, that’s where things get tough. Most of our knowledge on scent bonds was destroyed when the library collapsed during the nine tails attack. I would have to call in a few favors from my friends in other villages and we would have to do our own trial and error to see what could work long term and what wouldn’t. It’s uncertain, but not out of the realm of possibility that we would be able to find a less drastic approach.”

“And if we don’t end up finding anything better?” Sasuke’s voice growled out lowly.

Tsunade looked unsure, and before she could answer, their sensei cut in, “Alright, I think we can save the rest of this discussion for another time. Lady Tsunade, didn’t you want to go examine the Akimichi patient three doors down?”

It was an easy out, and the newly appointed hokage took it.

“Boys, I want you to see me in a week for any updates” she said over her shoulder as she left the room.

“Naruto, why don’t you and I let Sasuke rest?” Kakashi suggested, leaning away from Sasuke’s hospital bed to head for the door.

“Uh, yeah, just- just gimme a sec, okay?”

Once they were alone, Naruto released soothing pheromones into the air to hopefully relax his friend, and it seemed to work partially, because Sasuke started to pet Pakkun, who had decided to fall asleep in the Uchiha’s lap earlier.

“Sasuke?..” he trailed off, not knowing what to say but wanting to say something. Anything.

Sasuke was focused on the cast on his arm, where Kiba and Choji’s names were scrawled in large, blocky lettering. His eyebrows were furrowed, and from the angle his head was tilted and his black, silky bangs partially blocking the Uchiha’s face, Naruto couldn’t figure out what the omega was feeling.

“What?” came Sasuke’s dry voice a beat later than he normally would have responded. Naruto looked away hesitantly, knowing Sasuke was probably feeling a little embarrassed at his rival seeing him in his weakened state. Naruto didn’t know if he’d feel the same way if he were the one lying in that hospital bed instead, but he understood. How could he not? They had an unbreakable bond- in more ways than one.

“Are you okay?”

That was a dumb thing to ask. Of course he wasn’t okay! Sasuke was injured and looked like a zombie! The alpha had to restrain himself from face palming at his own stupidity.

“I’m fine.”

Of course Sasuke would say that. Even if his hair were on fire and his leg was stuck in cement, he would be too proud to ever admit when he wasn’t fine. He was stubborn and aloof, and everything in between. It frustrated the blonde to no end, but a small seed of warmth was planted in his stomach every time the omega conveyed his penchant for obstinance.

After a few moments had passed of him staring at Sasuke, the omega’s scent grew sharp, burning Naruto’s nose with the bitter scent of ashy clouds, “Naruto, get out.”

Unlike before, where Sasuke’s voice held an undertone of something, it was completely devoid of anything then.

Naruto cast a long look at his teammate before walking to the door, not wanting to argue to stay and upset the Uchiha further. As he opened the door, he turned back once more to address the raven haired boy.

“Sasuke? I’m glad you’re okay.”

And then he was gone.
~~~
“Tsunade!” Jiraiya half yelled as he sped up to match her pace.

The elders had finally dispersed after giving them both the run down of the village’s current affairs and Tsunade had jumped at the chance to go explore Konoha’s nightlife. She’d run off while Jiraiya had been stuck talking to one of the old sacks of bones.

Her body tensed in what years of experience as teammates told him was irritation and she turned around swiftly on her heels. “What Jiraiya?! Can’t you see I'm not in the mood for whatever this,” she paused to gesture between them jerkily, “is?”

Kakashi had been the one to inform him about Tsunade’s hesitant stance on the subject of severing Naruto and Sasuke’s bond, after having met up with him earlier to discuss the Akatsuki’s motives. The Akatsuki were just another reason to sever it on the ever growing list of reasons, but Jiraiya didn’t know how much Tsunade even knew about their threat level to begin with.

He bit back a growl as he came to stand before her, crossing his arms in distaste as he did so. “Well you’d better get in the mood because you and I are going to discuss Naruto and Sasuke’s predicament right here, right now.”

Thankfully, there was no one around to witness their argument. There were only two buildings open late at night: the hokage tower and a bar run by an old classmate of theirs about six streets over.

It was just them, the lone street lamp, and the quiet songs of the crickets.

“We’ve already discussed it! I won’t do it and you can’t bully me into performing the surgery like you did last time! I’m not sending either of them to their deaths!”

The last word she’d shouted echoed between the buildings nearby, sending quiet parroted versions of the heavy word to slap at their ear drums repeatedly, without fail.

Memories flashed in his mind. A bitter cry and the non existent scent of a dear one in agony surged to the front of his brain and the alpha had to grit his teeth to keep from growling at the painful memory.

“You think I don’t blame myself for what happened that night?” he spat and for once he really hoped that it was as venomous as one of Orochimaru’s prized snakes.

They’d gone their separate ways that evening, the shock and pain had been too much to bear. Twenty years had gone by, and as it had become increasingly obvious to Jiraiya, time did not heal all wounds.

The omega woman looked away with a weighty expression and all of the fight seemed to evaporate from her body.

“It wasn’t your fault…” she whispered wetly, “You couldn’t have known that Orochimaru was going to-”

She cut herself off and clenched her eyes closed, allowing tid bits of her lemony scent to burn the air with acidity.

“Look, Tsunade, we have a chance to save two kids from a life of never ending pain. I don’t have a scent anymore because I was scent bonded and she was killed. You would be in the same boat as me right now, if not for your boyfriend dying before you could complete the process.”

The toad sage ignored the muffled whimper his old teammate let out, and continued, “You’re the only one left alive that even knows how to perform the procedure.”

The look she gave him was sardonic. “For good reason! Look at what the surgery caused! Orochimaru is a monster now!”

The surgery had nothing to do with what the missing nin had become. It was Jiraiya’s fault and his alone.

They’d been on a mission, shortly after Tsunade’s little brother had died, and it was just the two of them while she stayed back to grieve.

It was a stealth mission that they’d had to blow because Orochimaru had gone into an unexpected heat. They’d had to split up so that Jiraiya could lead their pursuers away and Orochimaru could get to their rendezvous point as quickly as possible.

Only, when Jiraiya had finally found his teammate, Orochimaru had been scent bonded and mated. He would never fully remember what happened next, but he attacked and incapacitated Orochimaru’s attacker and dragged them both back to the village as quickly as possible.

It was late and Tsunade’s apartment had been the only place he could think of to go.

Because of Jiraiya’s mate dying, the blonde woman had been inspired to create a new medical technique to separate scent bonds so that the unforgivable pain Jiraiya had gone through would never have to happen to anyone again. She’d traveled to other villages to learn from their own expert healers, in exchange for aiding their own wounded ninja, to try and find the best possible methods for doing so.

It had been extremely experimental, with only a handful of cases ever working out well enough in the end, and Tsunade had wanted to change that.

Orochimaru had been her first patient to undergo the surgery and he’d died on the table.

Jiraiya had run to the hokage tower to alert their sensei of the terrible news and Tsunade had been in complete shock. Losing her brother, her boyfriend, and then her teammate so close together had sent her over the edge.

Kabuto had been watching them through the window. When Tsunade went to rid her hands of the blood and grab some sake to ease her sorrows, he snuck in and took the snake sanin’s body.

From there, it was only speculation, but they had gathered extensive intel that Kabuto had taken Orochimaru’s corpse and injected it with some sort of concoction and restarted his heart. From there, in his mentor’s weakened state, he helped him perform the forbidden body replacement technique.

Orochimaru lived, but soon after discovered that he was no longer an omega. He wasn’t an alpha either, he was.. nothing.

No scent, no caste, and after the pair fled the village, he had no one.

It wasn’t until later, with the help from a misguided and abused Anko that they discovered the labs and scrolls of stolen jutsu. Orochimaru had been a monster long before his physical form transformed into one.

“Tsunade, please, they’re young. They haven’t even matured yet and Naruto comes from the Uzumaki clan, their life forces are relentless. The odds may not have been in our favor last time, but don’t we owe it to Sasuke and Naruto to at least try?”

“No, Jiraiya..” she shook her head and refused to meet his gaze, “I can’t.”

She paused to wipe the tears that had begun to form in her eyes, after having probably been remembering the same series of unfortunate events as Jiraiya had been. Her eyes, while red and watery, were steel when she looked him dead in the face, unwavering and firm as she did so.

“I won’t.”

The new hokage turned on her heels and walked away.

Jiraiya didn’t follow her. He stood there, rooted to his place in the middle of the dark, empty street, and watched her go, not for the first time in his life, and most likely not the last.