The day Sakura turns nine starts out seeming like a really good day. Well, technically it isn't her actual birthday, but it is the last day before spring break, and since her birthday always falls during spring break, her parents let her celebrate it early, knowing that to Sakura, school is basically her entire life.

She wakes up and there is a new outfit on top of her dresser, and when she gets to the table, there is a cup of her favourite flavour of yogurt, and toast with marmalade on the side, and a big glass of orange juice—everything sweet, which is just the way she likes it, instead of okayu and leftovers or an egg like normal days.

"Happy birthday sweetie," says Papa, drinking his tea, and "Happy birthday Sakura dear, now don't spill any of that marmalade on your new dress, and are you sure there isn't anyone you want to invite to your birthday dinner besides Ino-chan?" says Mama.

"Just Ino-chan," Sakura says happily. So she doesn't have that many friends—she has one really good friend, and that's way better than it used to be. "Besides, that means leftover cake!"

And Papa ruffles her hair, and Sakura gathers all her school supplies together, and then her eyes get really wide when she sees that her lunch is in a brand new bento box! Not that there was anything wrong with the old bento box, but it was a bit babyish. The new box is bigger, and while it's still cute, it's… maybe just a little bit cool. It's dark blue, with shiny silver stars and a moon with a little rabbit making mochi on it.

"Here," says Papa, slipping some money into her hand as she's about to leave. "Buy some dango at Amaguriama on the way home."

"Thank you Papa!" she says, darting out before she can hear her mother's protest about having dango and cake on the same day.

Nothing that important happens during class that morning—the last day of the school year is not generally a day when kids pay attention—but all the children cheer when Iruka-sensei announces that the weather is nice enough to eat lunch outside.

Ino and Sakura sit on the grass, and Sakura shows Ino-chan her new bento box and Ino-chan makes all the right noises and exclamations about how great it is. Chouji leans over and mentions that it looks like it can hold more food than her old one, maybe more than Sakura-chan can eat? She is laughing and pulling the tray away from the round Akimichi boy when it happens.

Inuzuka Kiba makes a really strange sound.

It is kind of like a whine, but when humans whine, it's because they're upset or want to be annoying. This isn't upset at all… and it isn't entirely human. It's… kind of canine. A kind of pleading, yearning, happy sound… not really an unpleasant sound, but it isn't a sound anybody had ever heard him make before.

It cuts through all the chatter of the academy yard, everyone falling silent and turning to look at him, and he is looking at Hyuuga Hinata.

Then it all gets very confusing very fast.

Kiba gets up and starts to go towards Hinata, but suddenly that Naruto kid that mama and papa had warned Sakura to stay away from is in between them, and Naruto and Kiba are fighting. And then more boys, including older boys are there and the teachers seem to be trying to break it up and there is a lot of screaming, including from Iruka-sensei, who is holding Hinata in his arms for some reason and yelling at Suzume-sensei to stop just standing there and use the emergency heat suppressant, whatever that meant.

And there is a scent. Such a beautiful sudden fragrance in the air, as if they had all suddenly been transported to a garden in full bloom, if that garden was also hosting an outdoor barbecue. Kind of a weird way to put it, and it didn't do it full justice, but that was the way that Sakura would think about it later. It was delicate and sweet, and mouth-watering and succulent, all at once.

When Suzume-sensei snaps out of it and pulls out a syringe and injects Hinata with it, the smell more or less vanishes, and then Iruka-sensei is off, still carrying Hinata, and gone.

Sakura turns back to the fighting, and while it is still going on, it isn't anything like as fierce as it had been. Some of the oldest boys stop fighting completely and look embarrassed, while the younger ones seem to be more driven on by a need to get that last blow back, more like an ordinary schoolyard fight, not the battle royale it had been before. The teachers are easily able to separate and subdue it now.

The schoolyard starts buzzing with excited chatter of what has just taken place.

Sakura and Ino look at each other.

"Sakura-chan," Ino says hesitantly, and softly enough that only Sakura can hear, "do you feel as weird as I do about… about all of that?"

"Yeah," says Sakura, very quietly. Shannaro! screams Inner Sakura. Weird?! More like totally and completely crazy! What happened to Hinata-san? Why were the boys acting like… like she was a bone and they were a bunch of dogs!

They both eat their bentos in silence.

—

Kakashi turns a page of Icha Icha Violence balanced on his knees.

Tadao struggled against the ropes on his wrists and ankles for hours, but froze when he heard a low, feminine chuckle. Suddenly, the blindfold and gag were cut away, a cold kunai leaving a faint red line down his handsome face. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he realized he was looking at a very shapely woman, all in orange, her entire face covered in a black mask.

"My client offered me a lot of money for that forbidden jutsu, Tadao-sama," the mysterious woman said in a lewd voice. "But maybe you can beat his offer? I'm willing to take another kind of payment instead…"

He is lounging on the windowsill of the Jounin Standby Station, present but aloof from his comrades, many of whom are buzzing like old women about the poor nine-year-old girl who went into heat at the academy that morning.

"The Hyuuga heir, an omega," Kotetsu is saying excitedly, shaking his head. "Man, I'd give a week's pay to see the look on old Hyuuga-sama's face right now. From what I've heard, he's probably going to have a heart attack and die just so he can roll in his grave."

Asuma, who has been silent up until now, flicks some ash off his cigarette and says casually, "What's disappointing about being an omega?" Kakashi doesn't need to take his eye off his book to know that the lightness of his tone is deceptive.

Kotetsu knows it too and back-pedals immediately. "I'm not saying I think so, but you know how the Hyuugas are."

Asuma grunts and takes another drag on his cigarette.

Tadao was about to protest hotly that he belonged only to Junko when he froze at the sensation on his neck. His captor had allowed her sleeve to slip up and as the wrist made contact with the mark on his neck he felt the familiar burning comfort of his bond.

"Is there a reason why you're still here, Kotetsu-san?" says Yamanaka Inoichi. "I told you I don't have a reply for the message."

The chuunin flushes, but bows slightly and leaves.

"Isn't nine very young to begin having a heat though?" says an Akimichi whose name Kakashi can't remember.

Anko stretches. "Am I the only person who thinks it's strange that we're all chatting about the reproductive organs of a child? And you freaks call Kakashi a pervert. Hey, Kakashi, any nine year olds in Icha Icha?"

The masked woman raised a finger to where her mouth should be. "Nobody has to know," said the unfamiliar voice wickedly. Had she killed and replaced the kidnapper? Were they being watched? It shouldn't, but the thought of an enemy watching as Junko had her way with him had him hard as diamonds. He offered up some token struggling as she reached for his belt.

Kakashi turns the page. "No."

"There you go," says the snake kunoichi with relish. "Literally too perverted for Jiraiya-sama. Congratulations Konoha! Now we know why he left!"

The copy nin giggles, but his fellow jounin probably assume he's reacting to the illustration on the page he just turned.

The door opens. "Hatake-san, Hokage-sama wants to see you," says the messenger, and unlike Kotetsu, he doesn't stick around.

Kakashi sticks the light novel in his pocket and wanders out, but rather than go into the tower, he strolls very slowly over to the academy grounds.

This evening, the parents of every boy at the academy will be eagerly asking their sons if they reacted to the scent of the heat. Alphas are estimated to make up ten percent of the population and omegas about five percent, but more than half of current Konoha jounins are alphas, whereas there are currently no known omega jounins in Konoha at all. You could call it prejudice; you could say it's because parents of female omegas pull their daughters out of the academy or force them to quit genin when they have their first heat; you could point out that male omegas frequently hide their status, so it's possible that there are more high ranking omegas than are known.

All of that is true, Kakashi thinks, but despite Asuma's heated challenge to the idea that an omega daughter is a disappointment, Kotetsu was right that Hyuuga-sama absolutely would consider it that way. All traditional shinobi felt that way. Not like civilian parents, who generally see an omega daughter as having a good chance of marrying "up", as the saying went. The common opinion is that the greatest ninjas are usually alphas, and that omegas are inherently too weak to last as shinobi—too vulnerable, too emotional, too biddable.

With his keen sense of smell, Kakashi can just barely scent the traces of the girl's heat. It is faint enough that it doesn't arouse him, at least no more than he was already aroused from the smut he was reading a moment ago.

A large class is visible through the window, and of course most of them are looking at him, rather than paying attention to their poor instructor. Iruka shoots him a pleading look, and Kakashi responds with an apologetic eye crinkle and hand wave, but he doesn't increase his speed as he slowly shuffles along. Most of the students are quickly scolded back into facing front regardless. Minato-sensei's son is one of the few who keep staring at him, and Kakashi feels a familiar lump of guilt forming in the pit of his stomach. It makes him passive-aggressively want to take even longer to go see Hokage-sama.

He body flickers to the Memorial Stone in a swirl of leaves.