As expected, Yamato-sensei truly was a decent fellow, even if his eyes were rather unsettling. Kakashi-sensei, by contrast, would never have dreamt of footing the bill for his students at a high-class hot spring inn— much less indulging them with separate rooms for boys and girls.
"Hyuuu~!" Sakura squealed as she lowered herself into the water. "I feel alive~."
The hot spring's soothing waters were nothing short of divine on her aching shoulders, easing her weary muscles and overworked tendons in a way chakra could never quite hope to mimic. Honestly, could she even call herself a true daughter of the Land of Fire if she didn't relish a proper soak in boiling hot water?
"Your skin is so smooth and pretty!" one woman gasped. She shuffled closer through the water and sat next to Sakura. "What sort of lotion do you use?"
One of the blessings of her Manyū blood was that Sakura's skin stayed impeccably smooth; free of pores, blackheads, stretch marks and any of those unsightly blemishes. And, as a Medic‑ninja, she could heal her wounds before they could scar, which was a particularly convenient ability for a girl to have, since a kunoichi's work was rather dangerous.
"Your breasts are so big and pretty," another woman marvelled. "But you're so young! What's your secret!?"
Soon enough, Sakura found herself in paradise. She was having her breasts fondled by buxom women, and she was surrounded by naked, curvy young women, each clamouring for beauty tips... It was a far cry from her first visit to the women's baths in this world, where her search for breast chakra had landed her among a gaggle of shrivelled old prunes.
"I would kill for a pair as nice as these," said a flat girl, biting her lip enviously and palming her own meagre bust.
"It's not all fun and games," said Sakura with false modesty. "If they could just be a few cup sizes smaller, that'd be perfect…"
Meanwhile, the boys on the other side were having a little skinship of their own.
"Will you give it a rest, Naruto?" Sasuke's irritated voice rose up from the other side. "Stop staring at me, you're giving me the creeps!"
"Heh, heh," Naruto sniggered. "Looks like it's my win."
The women on Sakura's side of the baths let out a chorus of giggles.
If Sakura remembered correctly, Naruto would soon hatch the brilliant idea of trying to sneak a peek at her— only to be firmly discouraged by Yamato, who would remind him of the unfortunate incident in which Tsunade had fashioned an entire set of xylophones from Jiraiya's ribs.
"So, which one of them's your boyfriend?" asked a stylish, office-lady type with a knowing wink. "Whichever he is, he's a lucky man."
"Neither!" said Sakura, flustered. "We're just teammates."
The woman laughed creepily.
"I see," she said, a hint of disbelief in her voice. "Well, if you say so."
…
Half an hour later, Sakura's head was beginning to spin. The heat from the hot springs was starting to wear on her, so she decided it was high time to climb out and treat herself to a nice, cool bottle of cow's milk.
"Noo, don't leave us just yet," a woman in her early twenties cooed pitifully.
Another woman grabbed Sakura's hand, stopping her from standing.
"I'm going to faint if I stay any longer," Sakura protested, pulling her hand away.
Her eyes were beginning to swim.
"Stay with us, Sakura," a group of lesbians chanted in unison. "We love you…"
Sakura let out a low moan, massaging her temples as a headache began to creep in. She'd clearly stayed in the bath far too long and was growing dehydrated. But as she made to leave the water, a group of women crowded around her, blocking the way out.
"How'd you know my name?" Sakura groaned. "I never… I never—"
Breasts, breasts everywhere! Boobs as far as the eye could see! She was surrounded by bouncing, glistening mountains capped with pretty nipples! She was bathing in breast milk, hahaha!
A flash of lucidity suddenly sparked through Sakura's mind.
"Genjutsu!" Sakura gasped, clasping her hands together into the tiger sign. "Release!"
Sakura screwed her eyes shut and disturbed her chakra, before cracking open an eyelid.
Nothing had changed.
If the illusion remained unbroken, then perhaps this was all real— and it was the women around her who had been caught in a Genjutsu, not her. With three-tomoe Sharingan, there weren't many Genjutsu practitioners who could affect her mind without her knowledge…
"Come on, you know you want this," a woman breathed sultrily in Sakura's ear, snaking a hand down to her petals downstairs. "You can feel the heat inside your belly too, can't you…?"
"Release!" Sakura shouted again, forming a one-handed tiger seal while resting her other hand on the curvy woman's shoulder.
"Stick out your little finger," the woman said breathily. "I like two in the pink and one in the stink."
Sakura quickly retracted her hand and took a step back, only to bump into a wall of breasts behind her. She glanced behind her, as the women she had collided with squealed in pleasure. Deciding she'd had enough, Sakura gathered chakra beneath her feet and leapt gracefully out of the water, landing on the edge of the baths.
"Yamato-sensei!" Sakura called out loudly. "Naruto? Sasuke-kun?"
No response ever came.
This was all well and good, but this was starting to creep her out. Feeling decidedly unsettled, Sakura darted into the empty changing room and quickly slipped into her clothes. She hurried to the men's changing room, only to find it completely deserted. Moving on, she checked the men's side of the baths before leaping back over to the women's, only to find it now utterly empty.
"Where did everyone go? Bingo?" Sakura muttered to herself. "They couldn't possibly have vanished into thin air, could they? Just what is going on, here…?"
Sakura's heart hammered in her chest.
If this really was a Genjutsu, she couldn't break it. She'd never come across anything quite so bizarre before, so she had no idea what to do next— her training had never prepared her for this sort of horror story!
Sakura jumped over the fence and started running down the road.
If this was a full-dive Genjutsu like Tsukuyomi, she could run forever in the illusion without moving a single centimetre in reality. But if this Genjutsu only affected her senses, it would break once she put enough distance between herself and the caster. What did she have to lose by trying?
SNAP.
"Eep!" Sakura squealed, cradling her heavy hangers in her arms as she ran.
The safety pin holding her sarashi had snapped!
Sakura kept sprinting and flickering. She could still mould chakra without trouble— or at least, she thought she could. If disturbing her chakra couldn't break this illusion, then either she'd lost complete control over her body's chakra, or her opponent's Genjutsu skills far surpassed her own. Neither prospect boded well.
As she ran, Sakura began to notice something strange. Her braless chest was bouncing and jostling more than usual— and was it just her imagination, or were her breasts getting heavier…?
"My boobs are growing!" Sakura shrieked, abruptly coming to a halt.
Her chest surged outwards in rapid, pulsing bursts, undulating and swelling until her top was left in tatters. Sakura arched her back, struggling to brace the impossible weight with her Chakra Enhanced Strength— but once each had grown larger than her entire body, her spine buckled. She collapsed forwards, sliding helplessly between the towering mounds of flesh, utterly trapped.
She couldn't move even an iota, pinned in place by the sheer weight of the boulders attached to her chest. That settled it— she was definitely caught in a Genjutsu. And not just any old illusion, but an abnormally powerful one. One that felt impossibly real…
"Kurama clan…?" Sakura's voice echoed from the chasm of her cleavage. "Don't tell me Yakumo found out…!?"