Chapter 1 - Sakura

Author's note: This story was written at the request of and according to guidelines set by Ryu0112. I am still open to taking story requests, so if you would like me to write something, leave a comment on my profile or email me at xitajunk@gmail.com

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“Sakura?”

The pink-haired shinobi snapped back to attention, and stared across the table at her friend. Ino was looking at her with evident concern, and Sakura hurriedly shook her head. “I was just...thinking, is all, I…” she sighed, “I’m sorry, Ino, what were we talking about.”

Ino huffed, and shook her head slightly. “The Hokage situation. Remember? Trying to guess who could be Tsunade’s successor?”

“Right!” Sakura said, nodding her head, “Right, I was just...”

“Thinking,” Ino echoed. “Thinking about Naruto and Sasuke?”

“No!” Sakura said, far too quickly and firmly to sound convincing.

“Come on, Sakura,” Ino said, “every time we spend time together, we talk about random crap if I suggest we get a drink, but if you suggest it, it means you need to talk about Naruto and Sasuke.” Sakura thought about voicing a denial, but decided against it. Her friend knew her far too well, in this respect at least.

“I’m sorry,” Sakura said, genuinely, “I guess…I just get depressed around this time of the year. Tomorrow’s the day they left.”

“Is it really?” Ino asked, mostly to herself. “How many years does that make it?” she thought aloud, and silently counted up the years on her fingers.

“ ‘I’ll definitely bring him back,’ he said. So much for that,” Sakura grumbled, and sipped her drink. “I guess he didn’t put a time limit on it, but I’m not holding my breath anymore.”

“Not like the ones who did had anything better to say,” Ino remarked, “Remember what Shikamaru said?” She lowered her voice to match her teammates tone as best she could, and grumbled out, “ ‘The good news is, Sasuke didn’t join Orochimaru. The bad news is, he’s struck off on his own, and Naruto’s decided to join him.’ If they hadn’t already nearly died and for no reason, I would’ve killed him for being so stupidly blunt.”

“And neither one of them even gave me a proper goodbye!” Sakura said, propping her head up on her elbow. “Like I didn’t even deserve that courtesy, much less to go with them or something!”

“Hey now,” Ino said, suddenly stern, “don’t you talk like that. It doesn’t take anything special to run away from home and abandon your friends and responsibilities. It takes a lot to stay put and help out your home when it’s going through tough times. I don’t care why Sasuke and Naruto left, it wasn’t the right thing for them to leave all of us behind the way that they did. Even if it was for some noble cause, or to seek out justice, or so they could find somewhere that would let them get married…”

“Ino!”

“I’m just kidding!” Ino waved her arms negatively to disperse Sakura’s angry reaction, but the grin on her face clearly indicated that she didn’t regret bringing it up. “Come on, I’m just trying to cheer you up! You’re not yourself when you’re all mopey and needy, it makes you do crazy things.”

“Don’t remind me,” Sakura requested, taking a swig of her drink. “The last time I went on a tirade about the two of them, I ended up making Hinata cry.”

“Yeah,” Ino said, nodding as she recollected the incident, “she really had it bad for Naruto. Worse than the two of us had it for Sasuke, I bet.”

“Definitely worse than I had it for Sasuke,” Sakura said, her miserable tone starting to fade into a playful one, “I don’t know about you.”

“Maybe,” Ino said, “but at least I got it out of my system pretty soon after he left, instead of bottling up all my frustration just to let it out once a year. I mean, I’m not the one who dragged a near-stranger back to her room by his crotch…”

“Please stop bringing that up…” Sakura begged, burying her face in her hands. “Especially not in public…”“Oh like anybody who might overhear me doesn’t already know about it,” Ino said with a smirk.

---

 Ashamed though she might have been by certain memories that got brought up during the conversation, Sakura did feel better after talking with Ino. At least, she felt good enough that when Ino said that she needed to get home, Sakura left as well, rather than remaining behind and trying to drown her sorrows. The truth was that she really didn’t need the support anymore, at least most of the time, but every year when this date rolled around, she couldn’t help but to dwell on the times that had been, and how they had passed on forever. It drove her crazy every single time, and she found herself acting irrationally for the sake of trying to distract herself from her sorrow.

Left to her own devices, she wandered down to the Ichiraku Ramen Shop. Because she was hungry, she told herself, and not because of the times Naruto had dragged them all down there when there was occasion to celebrate. Yeah, right. Because she came here all the time by herself… Nonetheless, Sakura entered the shop, intending to get a single bowl, treat it as comfort food, and then go home so that she could go to bed and wake up with the dreaded date behind her. The only problem was, nobody seemed to be around to give her her bowl – the counter was bizarrely vacant, neither the owner Teuchi nor his daughter Ayame present to tend it. Sakura thought that this was very strange – it was uncharacteristic for either of the shop’s operators to leave the counter while it was open. It was even stranger, now that she noticed it, for them to leave ingredients out and uncovered and one of the stoves still on.

Sakura was about ready to shout out to one of the shop owners to announce her presence, but a strange noise met her ears before she could do so. It was a soft, feminine voice, crying out quietly every few seconds from somewhere towards the back of the shop. Ayame, Sakura guessed. The sound made Sakura perk her ears, and as she did so, she began to realize it was not the only noise resounding from the back room. She could also hear the shuffling of boxes, and…no, it couldn’t be…Ayame wouldn’t during open hours… Curiosity getting the better of her, Sakura raised her guard, calling on her ninja training to move stealthily forward. She crept over the bar without a sound, and shuffled towards the only door in sight, which was open just a crack. Sakura sneakily placed her eye to the crack, and the sight that lay before her made her nearly gasp as her suspicion was confirmed.

Ayame was there, and as Sakura’s ears had detected, she was not alone. Ayame was bent over against a shelf full of supplies which, frequently rocked back and forth in time with Ayame’s movements as she was fucked from behind by a man whom Sakura didn’t recognize. Ayame was barely half-undressed, her pants merely lowered down around her ankles, along with the man’s, which let Sakura know that they had snuck off in a rush to perform the act.

Having taken the time to confirm what was going on, Sakura concluded that the best thing for her to do was to quietly leave before either of the two noticed her presence. It wasn’t right to spy on them, and the best way to avoid landing all three of them in an embarrassing situation was to just leave and pretend it had never happened. Now that she was here, though, Sakura found that she really didn’t want to leave, or even to take her eyes off of what lay in front of her. Instead she stared with rapt attention at the pair as they mated, the man repeatedly rutting into Ayame from behind. The more she observed, naturally, the more details Sakura noticed. She could now tell that the man was a ninja, though with his long black hair obscuring the emblem on his headband, she couldn’t tell where he was from. The gear he wore – or half-wore – was fairly generic, with no nation’s trademark style or symbols apparent in its design. More than the man, however, Sakura was fixated on Ayame, who looked like a completely different person than the one Sakura had grown familiar with over the years. Her face was contorted in pleasure, and now Sakura knew why she had heard her crying out in the first place – though she tried to hold back her voice, she was simply too overwhelmed by pleasure to do so.

The perverse joy on Ayame’s face held Sakura’s attention for she didn’t know how long, until finally Ayame’s eyes bulged and she bit her lip, then her whole body seized up in a tremendous orgasm, which she announced to the world with an almost sick-sounding groan. Her head slumped, and the last thing Sakura saw before she finally dashed away from the door and out of the shop as quickly and quietly as she could was a smile of absolute contentment on Ayame’s face. After that, Sakura returned home and went straight to her bedroom without pause, before slumping onto her bed to try to contemplate what she had just witnessed.Having seen what she had, Sakura felt shocked, confused, a little repulsed…and she also felt, above all else, an overwhelming need. It had been a long time since Sakura had felt envious of Ayame – while trudging through her awkward pre-teen development, she had been immensely jealous of Ayame’s effortless prettiness – and now she felt it more strongly than ever. From the moment she had set sights on the lewd scene, Sakura had felt an inexplicable desire to inject herself into it, to replace Ayame as the man’s partner and have him do unto her all the filthy things she had and had not witnessed him do to the shop owner’s daughter. The final visual she had been treated to, though, the one that still burned freshly in her mind, of Ayame’s blissfully content expression, had clinched it. She wanted to be treated to that same feeling that Ayame had experienced, regardless of what she had to do to earn it.

---

 Nearly twenty-four hours later, Sakura was growing incredibly frustrated. She had made up her mind to track down and couple with the stranger – the fact that it had to be him, specifically, did strike her as odd, but still she strove on – but she had met with no success after spending the whole day searching the village. Her first stop had of course been the Ichiraku, but it wasn’t as if she could simply ask Ayame, “Hey, where can I find that guy who fucked your brains out? I want some of that!” She had spent some time trying to indirectly pry Ayame for information by vaguely asking about new customers, but Ayame had clearly been trying to avoid bringing Sakura’s target up. In fact, her inquisition only left Sakura with more questions, because in speaking with Ayame, she noticed that something was slightly…off about her. It wasn’t something Sakura could put her finger on, but the woman looked a bit different, and besides that, she had taken to wearing a heavier set of clothing than normal.

With her only lead a dead end, Sakura had scoured the streets for her mystery man and come up empty-handed. As the sun began to set, she was ready to finally give up for the day when, by some cosmic coincidence, there he finally was. She spotted him from a distance at first, and after a brief internal celebration, Sakura began to doubt that she had actually recognized him. Long black hair wasn’t exactly a unique physical trait in Konoha. She tailed after him for a bit, trying to confirm it was him, and wished she had spent a bit more time the day before memorizing his facial features. Eventually, Sakura decided to take a dive, and took a calming breath. “Excuse me!” she shouted out to him, and chased after him as he paused to look around. When he spotted Sakura, confirming that she had in fact called out to him, he stopped, and waited for her to catch up. It was then that Sakura knew that she had found the right man. It wasn’t even getting a clear view of his face that assured her she hadn’t made a mistake; merely getting closer to him, she could simply feel it was him by the familiar, unmistakable presence about him, which she hadn’t realized until now was what had compelled her to dwell in the ramen shop to spy on him.

Well, she had found him. And she had his attention. It was only now that Sakura realized she had no idea how she was going to convince him to sleep with her. Loath as she was to admit it, she wasn’t every man’s top choice for most desired sexual partner, even in her own age group. There was no guarantee the man would find her attractive. Now that she looked at him, she saw that he wasn’t too far from her own age – he was likely closer to Ayame in years than to her, but the difference wasn’t too significant that she couldn’t imagine him seeming out of place on a list of her past lovers. She’d mostly been with younger, but she had been with older… In any case, the matter at hand was how to add him to that not-very-extensive list. Unfortunately, called to action without time for preparation, Sakura panicked. “Hey there, uh…” Sakura said, starting unsteadily, “you…come here often?” Sakura shook her head and attempted to recover from the cliché line, “I mean! …You’re not from around here, right? What brings you to Konoha?”

“You’re right, I’m not,” the man said, confirming Sakura’s first question with a nod. “I’m really just kind of passing through, you know? Staying here for a little while to catch my breath.”

“Catch your breath, huh? While you’re at it, can you give me mine back, too?” Sakura laughed awkwardly, while the man stared at her, absolutely confused. “Because…you took my…anyway!” What was wrong with her? She felt like she was a pre-teen trying to talk to her crush. Sakura desperately tried to recover, and took to fiddling with a strand of her hair while she spoke, curling it around one finger. “I…I hope you enjoy your stay here! My name’s Sakura.”
“I’m Tatsu,” the man said, returning Sakura’s introduction.

Sakura smiled as she heard Tatsu’s name. An idea occurred to her as she repeated the word, “Tatsu…” Determined not to rush into another blunder, she drew upon every ounce of charm she could muster, and shot Tatsu her best set of bedroom eyes. “So where are you going…Tatsu?” she asked, her voice becoming a sensual whisper when she spoke his name.

Tatsu looked around nervously, refusing to meet Sakura’s eyes for a few seconds. “I was…just going back to my apartment,” he claimed, “that’s all.”

“I’d love to see it,” Sakura said, stepping closer to Tatsu, and made a show of glancing down his body briefly before looking him in the eyes again, “…your apartment.”

“…” Tatsu was quiet for a few seconds, clearly unsure of exactly how to respond. Sakura began to grow antsy as his silence continued. It was all she could do to hold her suggestive expression and stance. Finally, Tatsu said, “I don’t know if-”

“Look,” Sakura cut him off, her patience completely depleted. She grabbed Tatsu by his collar as her expression hardened. “I saw you, alright? I saw you having sex with Ayame. I want you to have sex with me. Got it?”

All at once, a relieved expression came over Tatsu’s face. “I was hoping you would say that, but you can never tel-” Sakura didn’t need to hear him finish the sentence, he had said all the information she needed to go into action. She yanked him down into a hard, desperate kiss, and moaned happily when to her great pleasure Tatsu’s mouth opened to allow her tongue to enter it. The taste of his mouth somehow exhilarated her, and already she felt that her day-long journey to find the man had been completely and utterly worth it. She jumped up into Tatsu, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist as he awkwardly tried to catch her. He stumbled around for a bit which Sakura ignored, too caught up in their heated embrace as she exploited her new position over him to shove her tongue deeper into his mouth. Tatsu eventually had to slump his back against a building for support, allowing him to engage in the kiss more properly. In addition, he readjusted his grip on Sakura so that his hands gripped her ass, and Sakura expressed her approval of the gesture by beginning to rock her hips, grinding her crotch up against Tatsu’s. She felt thrill shiver through her body as she felt him beginning to harden beneath her, but in the midst of her exhilaration, a nagging thought dwelled in her mind, and eventually prompted her to break off the kiss.

When their mouths came apart, both gasped for air. Sakura caught her breath first, and promptly cursed. “Shit…if I found you in the shop, we’re definitely going to be seen out here!”“My apartment’s just up the road, we can-GAH!” Again, Sakura had all the information she needed. She dropped down off of Tatsu and grabbed him by the wrist once her feet hit the ground. Judging the appropriate direction by where Tatsu had been headed before she stopped him, Sakura concentrated chakra into her feet and launched the two of them forward, accelerating towards Tatsu’s apartment.

 ---

Sakura had her hands up Tatsu’s shirt the entire time he struggled to retrieve his key and unlock the door to his room, and by the time it was finally open, she had gotten it almost all the way off of him. The key clattered to the floor once they were inside, and by the time Tatsu had managed to actually close the door and lock it, he was bare-chested. Wordlessly, he led Sakura to the bedroom, and while there wasn’t much distance to travel, Sakura managed to strip off her boots, vest, and shirt along the way. She dove into the bed as soon as it was in view while Tatsu struggled out of his boots and pants. Sakura disposed of her skirt without ceremony, but she made sure that Tatsu had his eyes on her before she removed her underwear. As efficiently as possible, Sakura tugged down the straps of her bra and then unclasped it, baring her slight bosom, and then lifted both her bare legs straight up into the air. She hooked her thumbs into her panties and pulled them up her legs, and watched in satisfaction as Tatsu’s eyes followed the garment all the way up, until finally they remained hooked around one of her ankles. Sakura kicked the underwear away and let her legs down, spreading them apart as she did so, and then lowered a hand to her crotch, slowly teasing her clitoris in anticipation.

In contrast to Sakura’s short display, Tatsu’s disrobing was swift and over very quickly. Once his boots were off, he dropped his pants, and that was that. Even despite the lack of pomp and circumstance to the revelation, Sakura was left quite impressed. Sakura’s mouth fell open slightly, and she stopped touching herself. Tatsu was…bigger than she had been expecting. She wondered how she had overlooked that detail while watching him the day before – you would think it would be one of the first details she took notice of. No wonder Ayame had looked so happy…if you were a girl with the mindset of ‘the bigger, the better,’ then Tatsu was about the best you could hope for without getting into the realm of the grotesque. In fact, Sakura was not normally one to share that mindset, and ordinarily, the sight might have given her second thoughts. In this case, however, she quickly got over her surprise, and if anything felt even more eager to get down to business.

“Well?” Sakura said, the first word either of them had spoken since they had gotten inside. “What are you waiting for?” She spread her legs invitingly, and Tatsu stepped forward, lining his sizable package up with its intended destination. Sakura’s eyes shimmered as she stared down at him, then widened as he flexed his hips. Finally, as Tatsu began to push into her, Sakura’s eyes immediately lost sight of it, her head jerking back against the mattress as the sensation sent her body into twitches.

“Oh fffffffffFUCK!” Sakura exclaimed. It shouldn’t feel this good. Something was up. It definitely shouldn’t feel this good. But it did. It felt good going all the way in, it felt good going deeper than anything had gone inside her before. That wasn’t right. There’s should’ve been some discomfort, at least at first, but there wasn’t, no pain or feeling of strangeness or anything but wonderful pleasure until Tatsu was sheathed completely inside of her. Sakura began to pant excitedly, every single negative thought that had been weighing on her mind the day before blasted to nothing by the absurd amount of pleasure that he was bringing her. It was so satisfying having him inside her that when Tatsu drew back to begin thrusting, Sakura moaned in complaint, and pre-empted him, jerking her hips up to his so as not to let him get away. He drew back further though, and Sakura immediately took to complaining. “Please!” she whined, “Put it back inside me, please!”

“Easy,” Tatsu said, his voice throatier now. Though not as transparent about it as Sakura, he was clearly enjoying himself immensely as well. “I just gotta…” Instead of finishing his sentence, he began to move, and Sakura’s complaints disappeared, replaced by wordless cries of approval. It was as if Tatsu penetrating Sakura had made her forget about every other aspect of sexual intercourse there was to be experienced and he had to remind her of every single one, starting with thrusting into her at a pace that started off slowly and very gradually built up speed. Too gradually.

“Faster,” Sakura demanded breathlessly after a few minutes of slow build, “Harder. Fuck me harder!” To urge him on more, Sakura drew her arms around Tatsu’s back and pulled him closer to her, and similarly wound her legs around his hips. Soon, Tatsu followed her wish, and the mattress began to squeak beneath them, its cheap springs repeatedly compressing under the force of his thrusts. “Oh yes,” Sakura gasped out, “yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes-” The repeated manta came to an abrupt end when the movement of Tatsu’s hips seized up, and he erupted inside of Sakura as the two of them groaned.

A few seconds later, when her head had cleared a bit, Sakura whimpered. It wasn’t that Tatsu had finished before her, but he had finished too quickly. Thinking quickly, she turned her head, and whispered in Tatsu’s ear, “I want to taste it.” She pressed a hand against his chest, and Tatsu pulled back, his penis sliding out of her. Sakura awkwardly shifted, rolling over and turning around while Tatsu got on the bed, on his knees, as Sakura prepared to get him ready for more. “Oh wow…” she breathed out as Tatsu’s still-erect penis whipped in front of her. All of her medical training cried out in bewilderment, but her burning lust drowned it out. Who cared why he was still hard after ejaculating? She parted her lips and took his head into her mouth, and made a muffled sound of approval as she experienced a blend of their combined tastes. After suckling the tip a few times, Sakura let Tatsu’s penis pop of her mouth, and she smiled up at him. “So good…” she murmured heatedly, and took him in again, grasping a hand around his shaft so that she wasn’t tempted to gag herself on the tool. She’d intended the oral sex to be for Tatsu’s benefit, but to her amazement, she found herself actually enjoying the act as well as she bobbed her head up and down on his phallus.

For his part, Tatsu didn’t sit idly as Sakura gave him a blowjob. He leaned over her body, getting a view of her from the back for the first time, and he ran a hand down her back, rubbing down her spine until he reached her ass. He slapped her lightly, as a test, and Sakura momentarily paused her fellating in order to let out a moan of approval. Tatsu put his free hand on the back of Sakura’s head, and used it to direct her as he shifted, lowering himself off of his knees into a sitting position while holding Sakura over his dick. In following him down, Sakura was forced to stick her ass further up in the air, and Tatsu used the opening to swat her right ass cheek, harder than before, and Sakura moaned happily again before he released her head and she resumed sucking him. Tatsu’s hand joined the other near Sakura’s nether regions, and while he continued to occasionally spank Sakura, he used the opposite hand to finger her. Under this attention, as well as the bizarrely pleasurable effect having Tatsu in her mouth had on her, Sakura felt herself ascend to heaven several times in quick succession, before at last she slid Tatsu out of her mouth, and without even stopping to catch her breath gasped out, “Finish inside me…”

Sakura crawled atop Tatsu, never allowing the base of his penis to fall out of the grasp of at least one of her hands as she did so. Tatsu returned the favor by helping to spread Sakura open as she lowered herself onto him, which she did without hesitation, before she let out a perverted, gleeful laugh. “I love your cock,” Sakura gushed, as she ground into him. At first she simply savored the sensation of him being inside her again, and twisted her hips about so that she could feel his dick touching against as much of her as it could reach.This time it was Tatsu’s turn to urge Sakura into action, placing his hands on her hips and bucking up into her slightly to send her the message. Sakura immediately got the hint, and more than complying with Tatsu’s wishes, she immediately began bouncing up and down on his cock with abandon. “God you’re so big,” Sakura complimented, her voice almost drowned out by the sound of their flesh colliding as she slapped her hips down into Tatsu’s pelvis, which pounded up into her in return. “I want…” Sakura choked out between sobs of pleasure, “this…every day…just fuck me all the time…” She clenched her muscles, and began bouncing herself harder on Tatsu, who gasped in surprise as he struggled to keep up with the deceptively powerful girl. “Give it to me…” Sakura begged, “pour it inside me, please! I want it! I want your cum! I want it inside my-” Tatsu grabbed the back of Sakura’s head and pulled her forward, kissing her again for the first time since they had gotten to the bed. In the midst of the kiss, as their tongues briefly wrestled, Sakura got her wish, Tatsu climaxing inside her again. The ejaculation triggered one last, mighty orgasm for Sakura, who screamed in happiness as she tore her mouth away from Tatsu’s. Her body trembled with pleasure, then al at once fell slack on top of Tatsu’s with him still inside of her. As she drifted off to sleep, Sakura had an absolutely content smile on her face.

---

 Though she had fallen asleep before Tatsu, Sakura was also the first to awaken the next day. She lifted herself up off of him, and stretched her arms out as she let out a yawn. She smiled brightly as she swung herself off of Tatsu and stood up next to the bed. She felt like she’d just had the best night’s sleep of her life. As Tatsu remained on the bed, Sakura quietly walked around the room, and gathered up her scattered clothing. She pulled on her panties, which for some reason she struggled to lift over her hips. Sakura frowned, wondering if she was gaining weight, before heading to the bathroom with her clothing bundled in her arms. She started the bath and then went to the sink, setting her clothes down next to it. She splashed a bit of water from the sink in her face, and rubbed at her eyes as well, before sighing happily. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, glad that things had gone as well as they had without her embarrassing herself. She fiddled with her hair for a few seconds, trying to get it not to look so disheveled, before she caught sight of her neck, and her good mood vanished instantly.

Not even bothering to stop the running water or pull on any of her clothes, Sakura stomped back into the bedroom and clamped her hand around Tatsu’s neck. The wandering ninja gasped and struggled briefly, but Sakura held his head down as she leaned down over him, glowering in his face. “What is this?” she demanded, pointing to the left side of her neck, where there was a red symbol, seemingly branded into her flesh, of a circle surrounding a hammer.“I…” Tatsu gasped out, looking fearfully up at Sakura, “I can explain…”

---

 A few minutes later, they were both dressed more decently, and Sakura was sitting impatiently in a wooden chair up against the wall. She was in no mood to hear Tatsu’s explanation while sitting on the bed that they had had sex on the night before. Tatsu paced in front of her for a minute to try to find the best way to explain the situation to her. He had done so multiple times in the past with other women, but none who had demanded it quite so forcefully as her. “I have a Bloodline Limit,” Tatsu began, “it’s called Kakusei no Chikara. Basically, if someone takes a part of my body into themselves – if we share blood, for example – then both that person and myself temporarily gain strength from it.”

Sakura frowned, narrowing her eyes at Tatsu. That helped explain why she had been in a good mood to start the day. “Your whole clan has this ability?” she asked.

“As far as I know, I’m the only one who has this ability,” Tatsu said, “Or if there are others, they keep to themselves and remain hidden, probably out of fear of being exploited as a source of power.”

“So because we had sex,” Sakura said, gesturing to the mark on her neck, “this showed up?”

“Yes,” Tatsu nodded, “it’s a side effect of Kakusei no Chikara – you’ll share my mark, until the strength you gained from me fades.” He closed his eyes briefly in concentration, and an identical mark to Sakura’s appeared on his chest. “I’m sorry this took you by surprise. I didn’t have much time to explain it before.”

Sakura blushed. Tatsu had a point – it wasn’t as if he had lured her into this situation to begin with, she had solicited him. She had panicked upon seeing the mark, suspecting foul play, but if that had been the case, it didn’t make sense for him to have done it and then allowed Sakura to discover it before he could awaken and leave.

“Okay,” she said, more calmly, “I believe you. So this isn’t something you chose to do. Is there anything else I should know?”

“One other thing,” Tatsu said, “whenever someone takes in a part of my body, there’s a side-effect, depending on how it occurs. For example, with the sharing blood example – both of our hearts and immune systems would temporarily become stronger as well.”

“So because we had sex,” Sakura said, getting the idea, “our sex traits will get increased? Is that why your penis is so big?”

“I don't think so, actually,” Tatsu said, and the ease with which he answered seemed to indicate he had been asked that particular question just about every time he had given this explanation. “I mean, maybe slightly? I don't think so. Even when I lost my virginity, the girl said I was pretty...well, you get the idea. But it has increased my sex drive, so I get horny a lot.”

Sakura contemplated this information. That explained why he'd so readily agreed to have sex with her, which was a minor blow to her self-esteem, but she wasn't too concerned with that at the moment. “So does this mean I’m going to be really horny for a while, too?”

“It won’t be too big a difference for you,” Tatsu clarified, “not unless we were to do it many more times, in which case your body would also start to noticeably change. Bigger hips and bust, basically.”

“Why do you ever even leave home?” Sakura asked, surprisingly seriously. “You're attractive, you're great in bed...You could satisfy any woman with this power! What’s the point of traveling?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have a home to stay in,” Tatsu admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve been wandering for a long time now, pretty much ever since my ability awakened. The thing is, because my power is so noticeable, people always know when I’ve slept with someone for a while, and I’ve pissed a few people off that way. I’m always moving around because I’ve gotten into trouble sleeping with the wrong woman too many times. And it’s not like I can try not having sex at this point anymore, my drive is so high by now that it actually starts to hurt before too long.”

“So you stop having sex with one girl before her body noticeably changes,” Sakura concluded, before gesturing to her neck, “what about the mark?”

“Oh!” Tatsu realized, and his hands went to a pouch that was attached to his belt. He opened it up and fished something out before tossing it to Sakura, who caught it and held it up to her eyes. It was, unmistakably, a leather collar. She lowered the collar and quirked an eyebrow at Tatsu, who shrugged. “I have a fetish. Besides, it works – you can explain away a collar as a fashion experiment, not so much a bright red seal on your skin.”

“I bet it gives you some sick pleasure to see girls wearing these,” Sakura said teasingly, gesturing at Tatsu with the collar, “you probably think to yourself, ‘Yeah, that’s my bitch!’ ” Tatsu shrugged again.

“Hey, is it a crime to have a sexual fantasy?” Tatsu asked defensively.

“I guess not,” Sakura said, “it just seems to me that if you’re such a sex maniac and you’ve got this dirty fantasy of yours, you really must be frustrating yourself by wandering around from place to place without ever forming any permanent relationships.”

“I told you,” Tatsu said, “I’d get in trouble if I did that.”

“Yeah but what if you didn’t?” Sakura asked, standing up and stepping towards Tatsu. “You’ve got the power to please almost any woman you want. Don’t you realize what you could do with that?” She grinned mischievously, a bizarre and incredible idea starting to form in her head. “You got me to drop everything for a full day just to get a chance at a one-night stand, and you didn’t even know I existed! With your appetite and your skills, you could satisfy any woman and leave her constantly begging for more – Hell, probably any number of women. Don’t you realize what you could do with that? There are a lot of powerful women in the world, Tatsu, especially right here in Konoha. The Hokage is a woman.” She placed her hand on Tatsu’s chest, and leaned in close to him, her voice almost a whisper. “Imagine having every woman in the village obey you. Our top ninja would gain strength from your ability, but they wouldn’t be exploiting you, you would be in power! A mutually beneficial arrangement…”

“…It could never happen,” Tatsu said after a bit of hesitation. His eyes were glazed over in lust after Sakura’s description, but he held himself back from getting hopeful. “There’s no way I could pull off something that big. A harem of ninja?” He grinned at the thought, but shook his head. “I’m bound to get in trouble. And seducing the Hokage?”

“You could start off small,” Sakura suggested, “I mean…I’m with you, aren’t I? That’s a start. I’ve got some friends in the shinobi forces, I know at least one that would jump at the chance to be with you. And the more influence you gain, the easier it’ll be to reach the people in power.” She backed away from him slightly, and smiled as she held the collar up. She pulled it around her neck, and clasped it at the front. “Come on…why don’t you give it a try?”

Instead of answering verbally, Tatsu grabbed Sakura by the hips and threw her back onto the bed, causing her to squeal happily. “Alright,” Tatsu said, starting to undress Sakura again, “we’ll do it. But first, you’re going to take responsibility for turning me on so much talking about your idea.”
Sakura smiled. “With pleasure…”

---

“So you don’t want to talk about Sasuke and Naruto?” Ino asked, looking bewildered.

“Nope!” Sakura shook her head, “I’m fine with that again. In fact, I feel better than I have in a long time!”

“Yeah, I kind of noticed,” Ino said. “Alright, so, if you don’t want to talk about that, what do you want to talk about? …And what’s with the collar?” Sakura smirked, and ran her fingers along the leather clasped about her neck.

“I’m glad you asked.”