moor

Summary: 
The Wild. Long ago, the power that ruled the earth and everything on it created order and meaning, cycles to preserve balance and harmony. The checks and balances put in place ensured that power would never be used beyond equivalent advantage. Over time, the Wild produced Sources, entities through which the Wild could be channelled in times of need. During a battle to defend their Kingdom, the leader of the Uchiha summoned the Wild. In doing so, another channelled and became bound by the Wild to balance his power. This is their story. 

Content Warning: A/B/O

Part One - The Senju and the Uchiha

Part Two - The Battle [first battle] | Part Three - The Battle [continued]

Part Four - The Secret [first secret] | Part Five - The Secret [continued] | Part Six - The Secret [continued] | Part Seven - The Secret [continued]

Part Eight - The Underground | Part Nine - The Underground [continued] | Part Ten - The Underground [continued] | Part Eleven - The Underground [continued] | Part Twelve - The Underground [continued]

• Gorgeous fanart by tumblr users sarcastic-mommy and sayurinomoe!

“How can we trust her?” scoffed one man, an older gentleman. His arm was wrapped with bandages and supported by a sling. 

“Because she is the best,” said Itachi simply. 

When the man continued to resist, Sasuke interrupted. 

“She was Senju Tsunade’s personal apprentice for years. She also fought in the Battle.”

At Itachi’s look, Sasuke said no more, but their mutual vouching of her skills was sufficient to calm the man’s anxieties enough for Sakura to treat him.

As she prepared the poultice for his arm, she felt eyes on her and looked up to find Itachi watching her. She lifted her brows in question, but he turned away.

Choosing not to pursue it, for the time being, Sakura focused on her patient again.

And so her days went. It was unusual for Sakura to work without having Yu beside her, but, at the same time, she was able to focus on her patients without interruption, too. She missed him terribly, especially at the beginning. When her day at the clinic was complete, she would rush home, sometimes running, to find Kakashi and Naruto waiting for her with Yu in the front room, which they had converted into a playroom for Yu. There Yu would greet her every afternoon, full of baby giggles and smiles that he only smiled for Sakura. Sasuke and Itachi followed her as she launched herself through the door, pausing only when they found her cuddling Yu, peppering his face with kisses.

Sakura could not begin to thank Kakashi and Naruto enough for joining her in her new position.

“You didn’t have to. I know your skills are more suited to bodyguarding than babysitting,” she said to Kakashi one evening as Yu nursed after supper. 

The first time she’d let Kakashi bathe Yu had been a huge leap of faith for Sakura, but they had managed it. Now, Kakashi helped nearly every night. Yu even looked around for Kakashi when he wasn’t immediately there. (When Kakashi realized this, he was remarkably on time every night thereafter.)

The day had wound down. Sakura and Kakashi had bathed Yu together, splashing happily and laughing as he blew bubbles, trying to catch the ones in his bath basin. When Sakura left to lay out Yu’s pyjamas and empty his crib of toys, Kakashi brought Yu over, wrapped in his hooded towel. With Yu then changed, Sakura sat in the rocking chair and Kakashi helped her arrange her pillows before she settled Yu down for his last meal of the day. It relaxed Sakura, talking with Kakashi as she fed Yu.

“This is the better end of the deal,” said Kakashi with a gentle, masked smile as Yu fed. “You would never have left Yu with a new caretaker.”

He had a point. Sakura huffed a small laugh. He knew her too well.

“True,” she agreed, looking down at Yu’s cute, round face, where his dark, shiny eyes were slowly beginning to close. She stroked his cheek with her finger, careful not to distract him from eating. “You’ve made everything easier, though. Thank you, Kakashi. I couldn’t have done this without you. You helped me realize that I’m strong enough to do this.”

It was normally the kind of phrase that would have Kakashi adding an annoying joke like he was just happy to ogle her boobs in payment, or that taking Yu out helped him find dates, but this time, he didn’t chuckle or make a wisecrack.

Looking up from Yu to Kakashi to read his silence, Sakura’s breath caught in her throat. 

Kakashi was different.

The usual teasing Kakashi was gone. In its place was Kakashi the man, looking at her with respect and admiration, patience and longing, passion and hunger. He looked at her the way a man looked at his wife, and Sakura felt something inside her clench tightly in recognition of what that look meant coming from him. 

After nearly two years without a heat, Sakura found herself facing the stirrings of one as she and Kakashi silently held each other’s gaze.

It was foreign. It was distressing. It was temptation as warmth trickled through Sakura, arousing her senses and spreading awareness through her as the breadth of Kakashi’s shoulders, the trim of his hips, and the comfort of his safety drew her breath out of her in a quiet, muffled sigh.

Kakashi’s eyes darkened at the sound.

Sakura’s heart beat faster in her chest, nervous and excited that her body was sexually reawakening. 

“Kakashi?” whispered Sakura shakily, her voice barely there.

His chest lifting and falling visibly, Kakashi remained otherwise still.

“Has Yu finished?” he asked, his voice huskier than she remembered it ever being in the past. Her stomach fluttered at the sound.

In her arms, Yu lay cradled fast asleep, his little mouth open, his dark eyes closed.

Which was fortunate, as Sakura’s nipples hardened the longer Kakashi stared at her, one of them now fully exposed.

“Yes,” she said.

“Put him to bed,” said Kakashi in a low voice.

Eager to please him, Sakura did as he asked, tucking Yu in and placing his favourite blanket, the worn one with the animals around the edge, beside him. As she moved, her cheeks warmed. She could smell her arousal. Her mouth watered as she recognized that, for the first time, she could easily pick up the trail of Kakashi’s pheromones, too, and they enticed her.

As she straightened from leaning over the crib, Sakura bumped into a warm, firm body behind her. She hadn’t even heard Kakashi move, but there he was, the hard planes of his athletic body pressing into her. She leaned back against him, her head resting on his shoulder, her neck exposed to him, her breathing coming faster.

When his hands grasped her hips, Sakura’s eyes fell closed. He confidently pulled her back against him, and instinctively she ground into his groin, reaching up and behind her to tangle her hands in his thick hair, tugging his head down to her throat. 

She needed him there. She needed his arms around her. She needed his lips on her throat, marking her. She needed his touch, stroking her. She needed—

“Kakashi,” she moaned softly, sultry. “I need—” Inside, she needed him inside her.

“Shhh,” murmured Kakashi, rubbing his cheek against hers. He rocked against her, rubbing his scent all over her and she basked in it. 

“Come,” he said roughly, leading her away from the crib and toward her room.

Then she was bent over the bed, her clothes on the floor, her rear up and grinding into him again as he positioned himself over her, pressing her chest into the covers.

Holding her shoulder, he lined himself up, and Sakura swallowed, whining, unable to believe that it was happening. After so long, it was so sudden, it was so smooth, it was so quick—

Then Kakashi began shaking her shoulder, surprising Sakura.

“Sakura,” he said.

“Kakashi,” moaned Sakura.

“Sakura?”

“Kakashi,” she begged, squirming.

He shook her again, slightly harder, and Sakura felt confused. Something was definitely wrong. 

“Sakura,” said Kakashi firmly. “Wake up.”

Sakura’s eyes flew open.

“Sakura?” asked Kakashi, his hand still on her shoulder. It was dark in her room and he leaned over her, shirtless, masked, but missing his headband, both his eyes visible. The injured one was closed. “Are you all right?”

Her face flushing from embarrassment, Sakura looked around, slipping out of Kakashi’s grip as she sat up.

“Yes,” she mumbled. Oh no, how much had he heard? “What happened? We were in Yu’s room…”

“You drifted off while we were talking tonight. I put you to bed early, a few hours ago. Itachi came to get me because you sounded upset and didn’t answer the door. He was concerned and he didn’t think you would react well to him entering your room,” said Kakashi, amused.

“He thought right,” mumbled Sakura, rubbing at her face. “I was having a dream. It was very… realistic.”

Kakashi chuckled again, though a bit awkwardly.

“Don’t worry about it. You had a long day,” he said, patting her shoulder again. “Dreams are how we get our stress out.”

The arousal still coursing through her, Sakura swallowed. Stress wasn’t the word. But the dream was definitely a clue that her body was changing again and her heats were likely going to recommence soon if her wantonly throwing herself at her bodyguard-slash-babysitter was any hint.

“Remind me to go to the lab tomorrow and make up some herbs,” said Sakura, avoiding Kakashi’s gaze. As in her dream, she could smell his pheromones, but he was hardly projecting them on her. It smelled like he’d been relaxing and asleep, too. Very relaxed. Sakura’s nose twitched, her cheeks pinking, as she caught something else on his scent, too, and understood how he had achieved his relaxation. 

She didn’t mean to read so much into his scent. She didn’t mean to invade his privacy. But her senses were heightened from her dream and her arousal had only amplified the ones that sought out evidence of his virility.

Yes, Sakura needed her herbs, immediately. The dream wasn’t a warning of what was to come. It was an alarm about what already was happening. She had been hoping to escape the clutches of her mating instincts until Yu was at least a year old, but it was not to be. She suspected it was because of her youth and good health, but were there other factors? Being around other alphas all day? Her lack of sexual congress for nearly two years, and all the usual heat cycles?  The strength, potency and vigour of her mate?

—Claws distending her nipples. A tail coiling around her waist, holding her in place with her knees spread wide while she pushed herself up with her hands, sweat pouring down her back and chest. His chest rumbling against her back, their naked skin slick against each other. Teeth, sharp and precise, penetrating the sensitive skin of her shoulder and neck as he sank inside her, deeper and deeper, over and over again, as she panted, begging him for his knot to fill her—

“Sakura?”

Her eyes wide, Sakura stared at Kakashi.

What was that?

That… had that been a dream?

The pulsing at the top of her legs said no.

No. The way her core clenched at the physical details, the flashback could only have been a memory.

“Sakura?” asked Kakashi, reaching for her, and cupping her face to look at him. “Are you alright?”

He knelt on the side of her bed, leaning over her.

His scent was concerned, suspicious, intrigued… protective and possessive. Sakura drank it in, trying to separate herself from the sudden reappearance of the memory… and her sexual appetite.

Had she really… 

With a demon…

Did that mean...

“I’m okay,” lied Sakura. Her head spun. “It’s okay. Just the weird dream coming back.”

“Do you want me to stay?” asked Kakashi, peering deep into her eyes.

Yes.

“No,” assured Sakura, recognizing just how bad an idea it would be. She wasn’t used to enduring her heats without suppressors. She had no intention of giving Yu a younger sibling at that time, either, in spite of what her instincts demanded of her. It would make things too complicated with Kakashi. It would make her too vulnerable. Who knew what it would do to her bond.

She ignored the longing that blanketed her decision.

Still cradling Sakura’s face, Kakashi held her gaze.  He stroked her cheek, his expression patient and worried.

“I’ll sleep in Yu’s room,” he said finally. “If you need me…”

The invitation conveyed by his tone had Sakura’s core clenching all over again. She was grateful for her heavy covers at that moment, which thankfully concealed her scent from him.

“I know where to find you,” she said, giving him a reassuring smile. 

His face shadowed, Kakashi nodded once. His thumb traced her jaw softly before he leaned back and stood again. 

“Call me. It doesn’t matter when,” said Kakashi.

Sakura smiled.
“Go sleep,” she said. “And remind me tomorrow, lab.”

“Ah.”

With a final nod, Kakashi disappeared through the connecting door to join Yu in the nursery.

Alone at last, Sakura let her head fall back on her pillows, exhaling her panic and stress.

—the tip of his tail slid down between her thighs, massaging its way to press its nubbled edge against her—

Her eyes clenched, her fingers rubbing furiously, Sakura came silently only seconds later, her body trembling with the force of her orgasm.

As she panted through the aftershocks, she let herself drift off to sleep again. 

Her other hand drifted down from the mark on her throat to cup her breast in comfort.

***

The muffled growl escaped Madara’s lips in spite of his clenched teeth, his profuse release spilling out of him into the bathwater.

Alone in the steamy bathroom, Madara’s chest rose and fell harshly with his racing heart.

Sakura had called for him.

For the first time, she had called for him. 

Over the last several days, Madara’s restlessness had built to an unignorable level. With his herbs supply exhausted—he was going through it faster and faster each time—he had taken to sparring that evening until Izuna and several of his top soldiers had begged for a break. Unable to focus, Madara sent them away. Then he alternated between running and kata practice, continuing until the weakness in his body forced him to stop in the wee hours of the morning.

Hoping the bath would at least loosen his muscles, he had soaked for nearly an hour when she had yanked him mercilessly into her arousal spike.

She may not have spoken his name—had he ever told her?—but she had summoned him into her, her body searching for his as she reached her peak.

His memory cast him back to their night together, the night he could never forget, and it was like he was suddenly there all over again. His fingers could still feel her skin. His lips could still taste her kiss. His nose could still smell her slick release. 

In the warm comfort of the water with his eyes closed and his hand around his still pumping erection, Madara could still see her wanton face and feel her core squeezing him, greedily milking him of his seed. Seizing on the clarity of the memory, he pumped harder, unwilling to let her go. He was oversensitized almost to the point of pain, and still, he clung to her, desperate for her touch, for her to want him as much as he missed and wanted her.

“Sakura,” he hissed, coming again, calling her name as he hadn’t been able to during their coupling when they mated so passionately he still bore the scars from it across his back and shoulders. “Ngh…”

But nothing lasted long enough for him, no daydream, memory or mating bond summon. The shared, feverish arousal dissipated as the bathwater cooled, and Madara opened his eyes, the warmth of Sakura’s skin fading from his fingers with the last streams of his release.

He was still at the castle, alone, and she was not there.

But for the first time, she had felt arousal, had indulged in it, had instinctively called to him through their bond to share it together.

With a reluctant sigh, Madara heaved himself out of the bath, rinsed himself off with fresh water, and wrapped a towel around his waist. He sent a message that he was not to be awoken the next morning short of an emergency, and following a quick towel off, he fell into bed, exhausted.

That night, he dreamed of her.

When Izuna went to check on Madara the next afternoon, he dared not interrupt the gentle smile his brother wore in his sleep.