Chapter Text
Sakura should have known today was going to go to shit the moment she opened her suppressant pack and noticed she was running dangerously low. A bad portent, if there ever was one.
Not to mention, she'd been feeling off these last two days — unusually hot, clothes constricting and itchy — but she didn't have a fever, she'd checked. There was also a strange pressure in her lower belly, almost like cramps but less painful and more as if she was bearing down.
She counts. Two. Just enough to get her back home from this mission she was currently on with her five teammates.
The ten day mission had been successful, as was natural for them working as a compatible group. They had the highest mission success percentage than any other group in Konoha.
An all alpha group, minus herself of course.
Usually, she had back up suppressants about twelve days before she was actually going to run out, but this mission had come up so quickly and right before she'd left for it, she'd had a code blue at the hospital; elbow deep in someone’s ruptured lower intestine, the thought of a refill was completely wiped from her mind.
For a moment, she thought that she must be mistaken and rummaged around her pack as discreetly as possible with her teammates at her back, getting ready to camp for the night: In all her years taking suppressants, she'd never failed to have at least a few as back up. She resisted the urge to shriek and dump all her contents out because that would surely clue in the five men behind her that there was something wrong.
A problem that they did not need to be privy to because it was personal…
…and also a problem they didn't actually know she'd ever had to contend with seeing as she'd kept the fact that she's an omega a secret from them for years.
The day she'd designated had been one of the worst days of her life to date. Sitting in the hospital on her first round of heat suppressants, she'd known at the age of twelve that her budding career as a kunoichi had just taken a huge nosedive. Omegas were not shinobi, shinobi were not omegas unless you came from a formidable clan, like Ino.
Not to mention omegas were now becoming a rarity, with about a handful being born in each generation and alphas outnumbering them ten-to-one, at least in Konoha. They were usually considered a liability on teams, a distraction. Among the things that could go wrong, unintentional bonding during a spontaneous heat could cause a heap of problems, as well as the actual heats themselves. Biases abounded around omegas in the workforce, let alone the shinobi force, and having to take a few days off every three to six months for heats did not win omegas any favors. That and omegas were usually considered docile, nonviolent beings that wanted to stay home and cook. Nothing that described a borderline feral Sakura on most days. Actually, the only one that description came close to was Hinata and that was only sometimes. Ino surely did not fit the submissive mold either. They were the only other two omegas Sakura knew personally, but they weren't very cookie cutter, to say the least.
She knew from that moment on, that she would be forever labeled and judged on her designation. Would never be able to surpass the image and stereotype, no matter what she accomplished, if that was anything at all anymore.
So on that day in the hospital, Sakura made a life-altering decision and said nothing, pretending as if this hadn't happened to her with a distaste bordering on hate for her designation. Her medical records were confidential, nothing anyone else could get their hands on, not even her parents although she'd probably tell them just because they deserved to know. So she shut her mouth, closed her mind off to her omega status and asked for suppressants, which were standard issue until she turned sixteen when her omega hormones would stabilize enough for her to have regular heats. At that time, suppressants were expected to only be taken when she didn't want to go into heat.
But at sixteen, she'd already been Tsunade's apprentice, so with her new status as a medic nin, she'd kept prescribing herself continuous suppressants, so she wouldn't go into heat and her omega – her scent, her hormones – would stay locked up tight.
Sakura had told Tsuande because she would have found out eventually, what with her medical record showing uninterrupted suppressant prescriptions, and she was honestly tired of keeping the secret. Tsunade, a strong alpha in her own right, had ripped her a new one for not telling her sooner and then proceeded to bombard her on the reasons why taking uninterrupted suppressants was a terrible idea, physically and mentally: her body would eventually build up a tolerance and then all hell would break loose. Literally. She said her omega nature would regenerate with a vengeance and that her subsequent heat and emotions would be intense, to say the least.
But Sakura hadn't cared and explained it all to Tsunade, what her designation would mean if it became public. Tsunade had softened, explicitly told her she was still stupid, but that she understood. And Sakura kept taking the suppressants, shoving the nagging and terrifying thought that they could one day stop working to the back of her mind. Cross that bridge when she got to it and all that.
The day Naruto and Sasuke had been designated as alphas, Sakura had tried not to let it bother her in a way she didn't want to explore. She knew what it meant in some far off corner of her mind, knew the implications.
The day she'd found out that her teammates — Kakashi, Yamato, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai — were a pack, connected through primal and esoteric bonds, she shut down and concentrated on her career and research.
She was not what they needed (or what they wanted, she was sure); the omega the powerful alphas needed was a beautiful, prim, and docile thing that waited on the five shinobi everyday with dinner on the table and a lamblike smile. Someone that calmed them as omegas were supposed to do for alphas and not someone who got into a (justified!) short-tempered induced street fight at least once a month.
Docile and meek, Sakura was not. She was angry most days, an unpolished disaster every other day and generally a hot mess, what with all her obligations. She also was not ready, if she ever would be, for everyone to know she was an omega and bonding into a pack would certainly make her designation loud and clear.
So she withdrew from that possibility. Watched them live their lives, interact with other women, omega and beta alike, knowing that one day they'd leave her behind.
It was okay though, she told herself most days. She had her research, her work as the accomplished shinobi she'd been allowed to become because she'd kept a big part of herself hidden.
And it was enough.
Maybe she'd tell them one day. When they were settled with their omega and had several children running around and the ache in her chest wasn't as cataclysmic.
Her plans, though, had a way of spitting in her face and kicking her in the kidney.
…
Kakashi eyes her worryingly the last night they're making camp in a leafy green copse of trees before their return to Konoha. “Are you all right, Sakura?” he makes sure to keep his question quiet, not alerting the other men.
Did she misstep? Make a mistake? Sakura thought she'd been keeping it successfully under wraps, the heat of her skin and the dizziness, but Kakashi always noticed everything.
What the hell was wrong with her?
She smiles reassuredly at him. “I'm fine, just ready to go home.”
Kakashi furrows his brow at her, expression saying he doesn't really believe her, but he doesn't question her again.
…
It happens two hours before they reach Konoha. Just two measly hours before she would have been alone at home without witnesses.
The intense feeling within her surges, heat rolling through her body and she stumbles on the familiar dirt path leading home.
They're all moving at a leisurely pace, having no rush to return because they'd finished the mission early. Naruto and Sai are even teasing Sasuke behind her – Naruto in his usual loud and obnoxious way and Sai in a more subtle but brutal manner.
They don't notice at first that Kakashi has caught her elbow to stop her falling, Yamato hovering on her other side. “I knew there was something wrong. What is it? Are you sick –?”
But Kakashi doesn't get to finish his sentence, cutting himself off with a sharp inhale: with the small touch of his skin on her bare forearm, all hell breaks loose.
A sudden rush and outpouring of her scent leaves her skin, saturating the air around them.
…
The ambrosial smell hits each one of the men in the team individually like one of Rock Lee's devastating punches.
The scent is sweet, fresh in a manner that has no right belonging to a human, let alone their pink-haired teammate. All-consuming and right and theirs.
They inhale the perfume that is Haruno Sakura and their world immutably shifts.
…
A heat spike. One she didn't recognize in the initial stages because she'd only felt it once before at the cusp of puberty before smothering it with suppressants.
Once she realizes what is happening, her head snaps up in terror.
Kakashi, her former sensei and current team captain, inhales sharply and grips her arm in a bruising grip, nostrils flared, eyes darkening with primal intent.
And she's absolutely fucked.
Sakura tries to tug her arm away and the next second she realizes with dawning horror that they are downwind and everything has gone completely silent – no more teasing Naruto and Sai.
She swivels her head around to find four other men with similar expressions, nostrils wide and hungry expressions aimed laser-focused on her.
To make matters infinitely worse, her own body reacts accordingly. She doesn't entirely understand why her scent only increases in volume and wetness gushes between her legs – like she'd just gotten the most intense period of her life – in response to their reactions. She does understand, though, that the five men are the absolute most radiant and magnificent thing she has ever smelled. Whiffs of earthy wood, campfire smoke, sunshine and honey, cool mint, and pencil shavings reach her and saturate her senses in a vertiginous swirl. She blanches at the intensity of her reaction.
Sakura drags herself out of her stupor with a harsh exclamation in her own head and an almighty effort.
Kakashi's still gripping her arm and she yanks it away with a bit of chakra enhanced strength, but he only grabs her again.
Panic is written all over her face when she meets Kakashi's eyes and maybe it's this that has him closing his charcoal eye with a herculean force and turning his head so he can breathe away from her.
“Tenzou!” He barks while at the same time reaching into a pocket on his vest and pulling out a small blue capsule, he breaks it under his fingers and smears the oily substance on the cloth of his mask where his nose is.
A scent neutralizer she realizes. Something you would find standard issue in any shinobi pack in case of emergencies. Descenters only helped so much, though, and they wore off fast.
Yamato and Kakashi have an established comradery born of years of friendship, so it only takes the commanding intonation of his name for Yamato to understand and spring into action.
Yamato wrenches himself away from Sakura, crushing his own capsule under his nose and traps an advancing Sasuke, Sai, and Naruto in a mokuton cage. They snarl, and toss themselves against their wooden jail, lost in the all-consuming call and urge to pursue an omega on the verge of heat.
Kakashi and Yamato, being older, probably have more self-control than her younger teammates, but she knows that control is only hanging on by a flimsy thread by the way Kakashi tries to limit his breathing and Yamato steps quickly away from her.
He turns towards her again once he has built up more composure. His gaze and grip soften when he meets her frightened one.
“Come on, Sakura. Let's get you out of here.” He grabs her around the waist and shunshin's them away from her growling teammates and their wolf-like gaze aimed straight at her.
…
Sakura is sitting in the dirt against a giant tree, arms around her knees and head buried in her lap.
Kakashi has taken them about a mile down from where the incident occurred and where her teammates are currently losing their minds.
For the last several minutes, Kakashi has been trying to get her to lift her face, but she won't do it. He's about ten meters away, super far for a normal comrade to be, let alone try to hold a conversation with, and she knows it's because he still can't trust himself around her.
Sakura tries not to feel shame, she really does, because it's not fair. This is her biology, something she cannot control, but the rabid eyes of her team flick into her mind like she was watching an old talkie. And she's ashamed.
She should have known something like this would happen – it was only a matter of time. An inevitability that she'd ignored, hoping it wouldn't happen to her even though Tsunade had warned her.
Her suppressants were not working anymore.
And she knows what this means now. What she has to do.
She's blessedly cool now, the unusual feeling having subsided, but she still buries herself away.
“Sakura, please?” Kakashi asks again, an edge of panic in his voice. “Will you just look at me?” His voice is closer now, probably having surmised that her heat spike had abated.
Sakura only tightens her grip around her knees. She digs her fingers into the meat of her calves, probably bruising herself, when about forty minutes later she hears four pairs of feet rushing towards them.
“Sakura!” She hears Naruto's frantic voice first, but still she doesn't look up. “Are you okay?”
There's a hesitant touch on her shoulder and she flinches away. She's not sure who it was, her senses having dulled again now that her suppressants had decided to do their job.
“No,” Kakashi commands. “No touching.”
The four retreat a few steps back and Sakura decides enough is enough. She needs to stop acting like this and nut up.
She takes a deep breath, thankfully only smelling the clean scent of her laundry detergent and not her own fluctuating scent, and lifts her head.
“I'm sorry,” they all say at the same time.
Sakura wrinkles her nose in confusion. “Wait, what are you sorry for?”
“For reacting the way we did,” Sai answers, black eyes searching her face in confusion as well. “What are you sorry for?”
Sakura blinks. “Making you all react that way?” The statement comes out sounding like a question.
“That's dumb,” Sasuke says tactlessly. “You can't control that.”
Sakura glares at him, her despondency slowly being replaced by anger. She pops up out of her crouched position, not liking them towering over her even though they're more than a few feet away. “Well, neither could you.”
“We're sorry for scaring you,” Yamato adds before she and Sasuke can get into a full-blown argument.
“You didn't, not really,” Sakura responds, because they hadn't. Her fear had been entirely coming from the repercussions of the incident. First and during, that they would unintentionally bond with her and ruin their own lives because their biologies were screaming at the alpha in them to bond the unclaimed omega, and second because she knew what followed this revelation. It was scary.
She doesn't tell them this though and instead chooses to deflect. “I would have been able to get out of the situation if it came to it.” She's not entirely sure about this: each one of her teammates was a force to be reckoned with and nothing short of drugging or poisoning them would have stopped their advance. That or breaking their legs so they couldn't pursue, and that would have made her feel bad later.
She sees their doubt at her confident statement and also about her not being scared. Well, they could believe whatever they wanted. She wasn't scared for the reason they thought.
“Why did you never tell us you were an omega?” Kakashi changes the subject abruptly, staring hard at her.
Wasn't it obvious?! “If I would not have kept this a secret, I probably would never have even been on a team with you all. I wouldn't be here, period! You know how omegas are treated! I chose my career over this for a good reason.” She sees the realization dawn on them before they can mask it. They all know she's right, they're just being stubborn.
“You don't know that for sure,” Sasuke objects.
Sakura gives him a withering stare. “How many shinobi omegas do you know? Besides the ones that have clans to protect them?” She abruptly sighs and rubs her hands down her face, already tired with the conversation about stratification in designations – a divide she’d had to surmount and come to terms with since she was twelve. “It doesn't matter. Not anymore anyway.”
“What do you mean?” Asks Yamato, furrowing his brows at her in puzzlement.
Sakura offers an ‘isn't it clear?’ look. “I'm going to ask Tsunade-sama to take me off the team. Officially.”
If she thought pandemonium abounded before, it was nothing compared to the reactions her teammates gave her to this news.
“What?!” Naruto shrieks in disbelief.
“That's taking things a little too far don't you think?” Kakashi tries to reason.
“You will not,” Sasuke all but commands.
“Not reasonable, Sakura,” Sai adds, shaking his head.
“What are you thinking, Sakura?” Yamato shakes his head too, looking disappointed.
“Whoa, whoa!” Sakura exclaims, holding up her hands. “Why are you all reacting this way? It's obvious that I can't possibly be on a team and go on missions with five unbonded alphas while my suppressants aren't working! You all must see that it's extremely dangerous on all fronts. I'm going to have to stick to hospital work for the foreseeable future.” She tries not to let her heartbreak and anguish show on her face while she says this. No more Naruto and Sasuke bickering with Sai subtly egging them on. No more steady Kakashi and Yamato always having an answer to everything. All they have gone through together, even an entire war, and this is how it ends?
They stop badgering her and look at each other with expressions she can't exactly read. Something like calculating energy and hope mixed together.
“What?” Sakura asks, looking between them. She feels like prey again under those guileful looks.
Naruto brushes it off with a soft smile. “Nothing. We don't want to hear anymore about you quitting the team, okay?”
“But –” Sakura tries to protest. They don't understand! Why prolong the inevitable? It was better to pull away now.
Naruto doesn't let her. “No. We'll figure something else out.”
“Yes, Tsunade-sama must have a solution for us,” Sai adds. “She is the leading researcher on alpha and omega physiology, after all. She'll know what to do.”
Yamato nods along with them. “Listen to them, Sakura, they're right. Something will come up.”
Sasuke just glares at her, at the audacity of her attempt to accomplish something he sees as reprehensible in his eyes. Even though they'd never said it, she knew they were all like family, and it's confirmed with the stubborn look in Sasuke's eyes.
Kakashi offers one of his patented eye-crinkles. “Don't worry, Sakura. This will work out. Let's head home before it gets dark.”
Sakura looks around at the men and offers a watery smile at their attempt to reassure her. “Okay.”
…
An hour and a half later, she's standing in Tsunade's office.
When they arrived at the gates earlier, her teammates had tried to assuage her fears with more platitudes.
Kakashi had told them all to go home and write their mission reports to hand into Tsunade the next morning together – said they'd speak to her about Sakura's situation then and Sakura had nodded along obediently.
She doesn't know if they'd noticed the alpha who took a closer sniff at her when she'd walked by, or how another alpha's nostrils had flared when she'd brushed by him. Or the few other alphas who'd had the same reaction to her changing scent. It wasn't long now before it was out that Haruno Sakura was an omega and she wasn't going to wait for things to get worse.
So here she is, in front of Tsunade with a heavy but determined choice made.
“Tsunade-sama, I want you officially to take me off Team 7 and missions for the foreseeable future.” They didn't always take missions together, as teams didn’t necessarily have to, but if a registered team had one inactive member, then the whole team could be considered for disbandment. She wouldn't do that to them – better to take care of this now and remove herself from the team.
She's sure Tsunade already knew where this was going as soon as Sakura had walked into the office and Tsunade had taken a sniff. She needs to say it anyway to her stern-faced mentor. An ‘I told you so’ is probably coming too.
“Dammit!” Sakura curses, throwing her hands up in frustration as five very familiar chakra points pop into existence in the office with her.
“Oh no you don't,” Kakashi chides with a wagging finger.
“Come on, Sakura,” Yamato follows, arms crossing in disappointment. “Give us a little credit.”
Sasuke smirks. “You never give up that easily.”
Sai only shakes his head at her.
“Really, Sakura?” Naruto sighs, running a hand through his hair as if she was the biggest issue in his life.
She turns back to Tsunade, choice even more reinforced. Tsunade's still watching them with glittering eyes, hands tucked beneath her chin.
“Take me off the team, Tsunade-sama,” she repeats with more steel in her voice.
“We do not consent to that,” Kakashi answers bluntly.
“It’s my decision!” She can’t quite keep the tone of desperation from her voice.
Tsunade finally speaks, moving her hands to splay flat across her desk. “Actually, there needs to be a formal letter submitted by the team member in question and their respective Team Lead for that to happen.”
The five men look triumphant for a second before Tsunade leans back and crosses her arms.
“Unless,” she continues, “there’s extenuating circumstances that need to be reviewed.”
Sakura perks up at that. “There are! I’m sure you could tell the moment I walked in here, but my suppressants aren’t working anymore, Tsunade-sama, like you said would happen. I can’t go on missions and therefore I cannot be listed as active on a team. It’s too risky for everyone involved.” This she aims at her five stubborn teammates. Or soon-to-be ex-teammates, she thinks, heart wheezing in her chest at the thought.
Tsuande nods patiently. “That is true.”
Sakura sighs in relief. “So you’ll sign the paperwork?”
“No,” Sasuke says to her, obstinate and stepping deliberately closer. Sakura ignores him, eyes trained on Tsunade because if she looks at them for too long she’ll chicken out.
Then Naruto looks at Tsunade and pokes the bear. “We will make your life very difficult, more than we have in the past, if you do this.”
Tsuande spears Naruto with a petrifying glare and the temperature in the room goes down a few degrees. “I am not one to be threatened, Uzumaki Naruto. Watch your words.”
Sakura gets her hopes up.
Naruto glances at Sakura and squares his shoulders. “I meant what I said.” Sai stands in solidarity next to him, looking the most stubborn she’d ever seen him.
“Sakura, please, can’t we talk about this?” Yamato asks, looking a little desperate himself.
Sakura shakes her head brusquely once, still keeping her eyes on Tsunade. “I have made my decision.”
And because she won’t look anywhere else but her mentor, she sees the moment Tsunade has had enough of this.
“Get out,” Tsunade barks, standing to her full height and placing her hands on her hips. “I do not have time for you all to be arguing about personal matters in my office.”
Sakura blanches. “But, shishou –”
“No!” Tsuande snaps. “I will not hear any more of it. Get out.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” she cries, finally turning to look at her teammates with all the despair bare on her face. Why did they want to prolong this? String her along while she watched them make their lives with someone else? She didn’t understand! She wanted out now that her secret could not be that anymore. Before it hurts more!
They don’t respond and only look back at her with unyielding determination, if a bit of guilt.
“I don’t want to see or hear from any of you until you make a unanimous decision about this matter.” Tsunade stares them all down. “Are we clear?”
“Affrimative,” Kakashi confirms quickly.
He’s suddenly in front of Sakura.
She doesn’t even get a word of surprise out before he tosses her over his shoulder and shunshins out of the Hokage’s office.
…
Sakura punches his back when they land in her apartment with the rest of her teammates. In response, he thumps her down on her ass on her familiarly lumpy couch.
Sakura glares at a spot of white wall that does not have those assholes in her line of sight, crosses her arms and legs tightly, and closes her mouth in one thin line of rage. She will stay like this forever, live like this.
Screw them.
“We need to talk about this, Sakura,” Kakashi finally says.
She keeps her mouth shut and pretends they’re not there. Silent treatments were their own special brand of torture, and she was going to torture the hell out of them. They’d asked for it.
“Don’t be like this, Sakura,” Naruto pleads.
Silence.
“You’re being childish,” Sasuke says.
And more silence.
Sai moves around so he’ll be right in front of her line of sight. She just shifts her gaze to another untainted spot. He waves a hand in front of her face. She doesn’t even blink.
There’s more movement from her left but she pays it no mind…until Kakashi lightly zaps her thigh with lightning.
“Fuck off!” Sakura shouts with a yelp, jolting in place. Her arms and legs uncross from their stiff position and she rubs the offended spot gingerly. Nothing more than a tingle now, but they’ve accomplished what they wanted to. If Tsuande is like poking a bear, then Sakura is like poking a giant bear straight out of hibernation from the Forest of Death, what with her omega resurging.
She bolts off the couch. “What is wrong with you all?” she practically snarls at them. “Just because you can say reassuring words and hope that everything is going to be okay, it doesn't mean that it will be! Face the facts that are staring at you all in the face, dammit! My suppressants are not working anymore. I do not have control of what is happening to me right now and it is only going to get worse. Do you really want a repeat of a few hours ago? You all need to stay as far away from me as possible, at least until I can get this under control.”
They’ve all just stood there patiently during her tirade, letting her get it all out.
Then Naruto approaches her slowly. He looks her dead in the eyes, takes her hand with such gentleness but also with an energy saying he has something very important to say. He inhales and says, “No.”
Sakura is not above manipulating them with tears and the wave of emotion cresting now, the tightness in her throat, are being prepped for just that –
Oh no, wait, those are real.
Sakura bursts into tears.
She hasn’t cried in a while, maybe years, but her stupid omega and her worst nightmare practically coming true has her a tad strained, to say the least. So she cries a messy cry.
Naruto grips her hand tighter. “Is it okay if I hug you?”
Sakura sniffs pitifully and nods. They aren’t the most touchy-feely group because with alphas, touch can mean many things, but her and her teammates are close and the occasional hug or caress is not unusual. Sometimes they even leave clothes in her apartment because they’re over so much.
He still smells like sunshine and honey, but less pronounced, and it’s nice. He’s warm and solid, reliable Naruto.
“I hate this.” She cries harder into his shoulder when she feels the others move closer and offer comforting touches on her arms, back, head. “You know this is my worst nightmare coming true, right? I never wanted anyone to find out and now look at what's happened. When we walked in through the gates, there were already alphas sniffing at me. Do you know how annoying that’s going to be once my suppressants entirely wear off?”
The air is charged again and she pulls back to see barely concealed looks of murderous intent.
“We’ll keep them off you, Sakura,” Kakashi says as if he’s swearing an unbreakable oath.
“Just point us at them,” Yamato adds, eyes narrowing dangerously.
“Do you remember what they looked like?” Sasuke questions, plotting.
Sai whisks out his notepad and a pen. “Describe them.”
This has her tears drying up like nothing else could. She rolls her eyes and huffs out a watery laugh. “You guys are ridiculous, you know that? I can look after myself. I just needed it out there that this is very inconvenient.” She wipes her eyes and nose on her sleeve, then winces. This was probably why they didn’t want her, she was a mess. “Ugh, I never thought I’d envy Ino, but being bonded does offer her a level of freedom that I’ll have to fight to get alone.”
“You’re not alone,” Naruto reassures. “You have us.”
Sakura rolls her eyes again. “That’s sweet but you know what I mean.”
“Does Ino know?” Yamato asks, curious.
Sakura nods and snorts. “Ino’s always had a knack for pulling out my secrets and this was no different.” She remembered the day with irritation and fondness because Ino had berated her like Tsunade had when Sakura had told her about the uninterrupted suppressants.
“Who else? Knows, that is,” Kakashi asks.
“Just my parents and Tsunade obviously. Just four people in total.” She frowns again. “For now, until it gets out.”
“You worry too much, Sakura.” Naruto offers her a big gooey smile. “Everything’s going to work out. You’ll see. No more trying to quit the team, okay? We won’t go on any more missions either until you can.”
“It’s not like you all are leaving me any other choice,” Sakura grumbles. “And that’s dumb, go on missions if you have to. I'll just be rotting in the hospital.” Suddenly she beams. “Actually, it’s not all bad, I’ll get more time for my research projects!” Why hadn’t she thought of her beautiful, wonderful research and her lab? There was the silver lining she could cling to for dear life!
The others chuckle at the look on her face.
Kakashi offers her another crinkle smile. “We’ll keep close.”
…
And boy, do they mean it.
Over the next week, she sees them everyday for hours at a time. Sometimes it’s not all of them at once, just a couple, but they’re consistent. Before, they’d go at least a few days without seeing each other, having their own things to do, but it seemed as if they’d cleared their schedule just for her. Which they kind of said they would, but still.
She even thought she’d sensed Sasuke’s chakra outside her window one night but when she’d gone to investigate, there had been nothing and no one.
Sakura lets them hang around, knowing that they’re worried about her state and also the ever increasing scrutiny from other alphas.
They’ve also been unusually demonstrative.
Sakura just figures it’s something that has to do with being an omega and some kind of dynamic between them and alphas. She wouldn’t know. When she'd been designated as an omega, she’d obstinately refused to do research on her own designation, in complete denial, she knows now. Sometimes, she caught herself looking too long at the soft materials they sold at omega nest stores before wrenching herself away in disgust. She did not need a nest, did not want a nest. The bottom line, though, was that she didn’t know much (besides what was common knowledge) about what was happening and going to happen to her.
So when Sai had one day pushed his face into the crook of her neck, inhaled and rubbed his nose in real good, she hadn’t thought much of it.
Sakura blinks. “Okay.” He smells nice, like sage, pencil shavings, and those expensive acrylics he likes to paint with, so she keeps her neck angled while Sai drags his nose along the curve of her neck. He stops eventually and doesn't offer an explanation and Sakura just shrugs and goes about her day.
The next day, Naruto had done the same. Then Sasuke. Yamato. Even Kakashi had removed his mask to do it, which was a bit astonishing in and of itself: Kakashi hardly removed his mask. She was glad, though, that that hadn’t been the first time she’d seen his face or else it would have been entirely anticlimactic, which just wouldn’t do.
One day she worried if alpha-omega etiquette stated that she should be doing it back, but brushed it off almost immediately. She didn't want to be weird and commit some social faux-paus. Her omega wasn't even of any use in this situation either as she wasn't yet receiving any urges to reciprocate.
They’d been over so much that she’d started finding their clothes neatly folded into spaces in her apartment. And one day, she couldn’t find even one clean shirt in her closet, but there had been one of Yamato’s so she’d just slipped it on for lack of anything else to wear. She’d found Sasuke’s jacket another day before heading out, hanging on the couch, and had donned that one because she was too lazy to go grab hers. Nowadays, she was wearing their clothes more than hers, hers seemingly disappearing as soon as one of her teammates’ appeared. It didn't bother her and on the contrary, their combined smells was very soothing to her ever manifesting omega.
They were also always bringing her food! That part she loved the most. Her fridge was always stocked with some kind of her favorite foods and she was feeling pretty special.
Then at least once a day, she’d come crashing down, remembering that this was temporary. That they’d leave her because her situation was not one that had an easy solution, not one that was sustainable in its current capacity. They couldn’t be anywhere near her when her suppressants wore off entirely and she truly went into heat. She’d have to be locked up in a heat-and-rut house or just tough it out by herself even if that would prolong her heat. Ino said that would be very painful, but Sakura had a high pain tolerance, so she didn’t think too much on it.
Her life was a mess, but at least she had chocolate lava cake in her fridge.
…
“I almost had to mind body switch an old lady for those ham canapes, I hope you know,” Ino says with an exhausted puff of air. She plops herself down next to Sakura in a cloud of summer flower scent, blue sun dress floating ethereally around her. “They were the last ones and she had her eyes and sprint trained straight on them.“ She smirks. “A little water jutsu stopped that.”
“Ino!” Sakura chastises, a bit horrified by the lengths her best friend would go through to get what she wanted. She shouldn’t have been surprised with her tenacity though. Ino was persistent until she got what she wanted, no matter how small or big the desire. A few years ago, when she’d bonded with Chouji and surprisingly Genma, two alphas, she’d also included Shikamaru, a beta, into her group. Entirely without his knowledge.
When he’d found out her intentions, he’d fought her tooth and nail on it, but eventually Ino had persevered, stating that she knew Shikamaru belonged in her pack and he was just being stubborn. Sakura wasn’t completely sure of the reservations Shikamaru had had, the reasons behind his hesitancy, but she’d bet it had something to do with not being enough for Ino as a beta. Which was ridiculous, really. Many packs had betas mixed in with omegas and alphas – often, they helped stabilize a pack. She wasn't one to judge what was ridiculous or not though, considering her own situation.
Whatever the reason, Shikamaru had eventually relented (Ino had worn him down) and now they were a happily bonded pack of four. Sakura had helped deliver their first child, Akio, a year ago. They were currently celebrating his first birthday at Ino’s pack house with many of their friends, as well as people she didn’t recognize. Her teammates had surprised her and all shown up at her house so they could attend together and here she was, sitting on a couch with a morally deficient Ino. Each of the five men had been taking turns bringing her food – they’d just randomly appear while she chatted with her friends, suddenly with a tasty morsel, so often that she didn’t even have time to wonder when the next one would come.
They were being so considerate and sweet that she was starting to feel terrible about freaking out on them a week ago.
“Oh, calm down,” Ino says, entirely unbothered about elderly abuse. “I made sure she fell into the stacked marshmallows. She was fine.”
Despite herself, Sakura’s lip trembles in laughter.
“So,” Ino starts with a sly tone, “how’s everything been going?”
Sakura had had a selfcare day with Ino a few days ago where she’d told her absolutely everything that had happened with her teammates, including the odd quirks that they had been displaying as of late. Ino was a great ear to unload to when the time came for it.
Sakura shrugs as Yamato shows up with a decadent looking chocolate mousse in his hand. He hands it to her with a soft smile and disappears into the crowd again. The people part enough for her to trace his destination, that being Kakashi and Sasuke standing together not really that far away from herself, talking to Shikamaru.
Earlier, Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke had been approached by a bodacious omega and Sakura’s heart had plummeted to somewhere near her knees at the sight. The omega was luscious, polished with hair and nails professionally done, and all-in-all the complete opposite of Sakura. Her throat had seized as she wondered if this was it – if this was finally the time where they paid attention and picked an omega for their pack.
Their seemingly unending bachelorhood was seen as odd in many eyes; all her teammates were heralded as accomplished, respectable, and handsome men, men that should have been settled with an omega already. Sakura agreed they were commendable, but was secretly in no rush to see them settled as that meant they wouldn’t have time for her anymore.
She knew she was selfish as she couldn't offer what an omega who hadn’t been on suppressants for half her life and whose time wasn’t eaten up by shinobi and medic duties alike could, so as she watched that beautiful woman walk up to her teammates, she tried to let the feeling go and wished her luck.
All of her wool-gathering had been in vain though because as soon as that woman had made initial contact with Kakashi, he’d gently brushed her off and stepped away with a raised hand between them. A clear no if there ever was one.
And yeah, okay, maybe she was full of shit because despite her earlier resolve, Sakura had felt elated and a bit as if she’d had a few glasses of wine, lightheaded and floaty.
Ino had smirked at her from across the room at Sakura’s expression and she realized she needed to work on her poker face.
Then, not two minutes later, Sai had shown up with a ham canape and now Yamato.
Sakura beams down at her pastry and digs in. “It’s been okay. As okay as it can be with my omega clawing her way back up.” She’d been balls-to-the-wall lowkey going insane for the last week, emotions fluctuating and hormones deciding to throat punch her when she least expected it. “My teammates have been making everything a little easier, though. They’ve been really supportive.”
“About time,” Ino huffs, blue eyes rolling in exasperation. “I was starting to think they’d never make a move. Honestly, I had a bet going with Genma about how long it would take.” Ino smirks. “I won. Thanks for that, Forehead. Or maybe I should thank your repressed omega.”
Sakura, a bit spacey because the dessert was so good, takes a minute to process Ino’s words. Her brow furrows. “What do you mean?”
“I told Genma that they would do it before the year was out. He still thought you were a beta, you see, so he thought that they would be more careful about it, so as not to scare you. But even with me knowing you were an omega, I knew they'd take you off the market – you have too many other men circling around you for them to be okay with waiting any longer.”
Sakura completely passes over the ‘other men circling’ because that was just nonsense – she’d never noticed anything like that happening and she was the observant type – to land on ‘take you off the market’ comment.
“Ino, what the hell are you talking about?” Sakura asks with rising disbelief, dessert now completely forgotten. The spoon sits partway in her mouth.
Ino looks at her like she’s being intentionally obtuse, but the longer she stares at Sakura’s stymied expression the faster Ino’s transforms to one of perplexity.
“Oh shit, Sakura,” Ino breathes out in pure astonishment, blue eyes widening with realization. “You really don't know?”
“Know what?” Sakura almost snaps – she hates beating around the bush.
“This whole time, Sakura? I just thought you wanted your privacy, that’s why you never talked about them much even to me!”
“Ino!”
“Sakura,” she takes her hand gently in hers, as if she's going to deliver life-altering news – actually it reminds Sakura of her own actions when she has to deliver hard news to patients, “they’re claiming you.”
Sakura blinks and her mind blanks out. “No, that’s not possible.”
“The things you've told me? The scenting, giving you their clothes so you smell like them which warns others off, giving you food constantly? That’s all part of it — part appeasing your omega and part courting you. Even what happened with that omega earlier. Kakashi didn’t want her touching him so he wouldn’t smell like her. Hell, she shouldn’t have even approached them in the first place – your scent is all over them. It’s obvious that they’re not really available even if they’re not bonded yet.”
Sakura’s mind is still somewhere in another universe when she turns slowly around. She feels out of body, as if she’s a mere feather in the wind and the stupid spoon is still dangling from her mouth. Slack-jawed, she realizes that she’s on some level of shock when she locates Kakashi, Yamato, and Sasuke through the crowd and stares at them in mind-numbing disbelief.
They’d been listening, she knows this because the moment she makes eye contact with them, they look guilty as hell.
She snaps her gaze away and turns back to Ino, still in a daze.
“Are you okay?” Ino asks, searching her face worryingly.
She finally lets the spoon drop as she stands stiffly. “I have to go, Ino. It was a fun party, thanks for the invite. I’ll see you later, okay?”
Without waiting for an answer, Sakura floats off in the direction of the front doors, a buzzing starting in her mind.
…
Ino blazes a path through her own house until she catches their scent: the cowards had disappeared before Sakura had even said goodbye. She follows the trail that leads out into the gazebo in her backyard, where those five bozos stand gathered in the fading twilight.
They’re furiously talking to each other, completely absorbed in their conversation, that they don’t notice Ino marching up to them as in the first wave of a siege.
“Hey!” Ino barks. They start and turn around to face her. “What is wrong with you assholes, huh? Did you not make your intentions clear with Sakura? Why in the fuck did my best friend look like I’d just given her the biggest shock of her life when I told her you all were claiming her?”
They do look extremely guilty, but that’s not good enough, no, they’ll have to suffer in some other, coldly-calculated way, she decides.
“We didn’t want to scare her away!” Naruto justifies with a gulp.
“We thought that if we were more subtle about the integration of our intentions, then she wouldn’t be as alarmed,” Sai adds.
Ino offers them a magnanimous eye roll. She plants her hands on her hips. “Give Sakura some credit, yeah? She’s not flighty or delicate.”
“Wait,” Kakashi interrupts, looking around Ino then back to the house. “Where is Sakura, Ino?”
“She said she was leaving and she looked like someone just waterboarded her.” They’re still there, standing like the idiots they are. “Well? Go!”
They take off and Ino resists the urge to follow, wishing she could be the fly on that wall. Juicy gossip was harder to come by these days, what with her domestic bliss and baby consuming most of her free time.
She could probably get the rundown from Sai later – he was a terrible gossip.