Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template

"Good luck, Mistress," said Mini-Katsuyu, dipping her tiny head into a polite bow before disappearing into a puff of smoke. "Please don't hesitate to call upon me again when you need me."

After giving Sasuke and Yamato a day to regain some of their strength, Sakura had Katsuyu cancel the Reverse-Summoning, sending them back to the ruins of the bathhouse in the Land of Grass. There was no sign of Orochimaru upon their arrival— only an irate proprietor demanding to know who was going to pay for the damage to his property.

"Well, that could certainly have gone better," said Sakura brightly, strolling over to the boys. A short distance away behind her, a flustered Yamato was doing his best to talk things over with the bathhouse owner. "But the important thing is, we're all right. Isn't that right, Naruto?"

"Yeah, that's right!" said Naruto, instantly regaining his sunny disposition. "We didn't lose, we were just taking a break! The winner's not decided yet, you know."

In the background, the furious proprietor jabbed an accusing finger at Sakura behind her back. She wasn't listening to what he was saying, but she was fairly certain she'd just caught the words "soap" and "land."

"Mhh," Sakura nodded in agreement, folding her arms under her chest. "That was just a tactical retreat. We'll get that snaky bastard yet."

As a reminder, the goal of the mission had never been to assassinate Orochimaru— only to capture the triple agent the Akatsuki had planted at his side, the spy Kabuto. Not that Sakura was supposed to know that yet. Still, now that they'd gone and alerted Orochimaru, the mission was almost certainly off— so she could proudly add another S-rank failure to her resumé and head home for a long, hot bath to loosen her stiff shoulders.

"How can the two of you be so carefree?" said Sasuke sharply, finally raising his voice and joining the conversation. "Whichever way you look at it, we failed."

There were no words to express Sasuke's frustration. Two years earlier, he had seriously considered defecting from Konohagakure to join Orochimaru and his merry band of misfits for the sake of strengthening himself— and to this day, he wasn't sure he'd made the right choice by staying.

Yes, he begrudgingly enjoyed the company of his teammates, and he could imagine a future with Sakura by his side as his wife— but what of his vow of revenge? Two years ago, he had surpassed both Sakura and Naruto for a brief moment when he had unlocked his third tomoe, only for Sakura to swiftly outpace him once more.

And now, once again, that dunce Naruto was catching up to him— only this time, there would be no fourth tomoe to allow him to regain his lead. There was still the Mangekyō, of course, which Itachi had twice urged him to awaken by murdering his closest friend. But Sasuke stubbornly refused to let that murderer decide what he should or shouldn't do.

"Oh, lighten up, Sasuke," said Sakura casually. "We're still growing stronger day by day, so I'm sure we'll get him sooner or later and save Neji. Not that he deserves it, mind you— he punched me in the boob. See, the skin right here's all splotchy already."

"HE WHAT!?" roared Naruto.

Sakura tugged down the zip of her dress, exposing acres of creamy flesh, and tapped the tender spot on her chest for emphasis.

Sasuke ground his teeth in frustration.

There it was again— that absolute lack of urgency on Sakura's part. She always seemed to be getting stronger, effortlessly mastering many S-rank techniques that could count as trump cards for the vast majority of shinobi. True, she had the Sharingan's copy ability just like him, but truly mastering such skills demanded practice and effort…

Furthermore, Orochimaru's words had deeply unsettled him. He had rattled off the names of several clans, yet for some reason, it was Sakura who seemed most disturbed by it…

"Are you all right, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, concern flickering in her eyes. "You look a little out of sorts."

Sasuke grunted in acknowledgement.

No, the idea that Sakura had somehow implanted Sharingan was preposterous. Kakashi was the living proof that those without Uchiha blood were incapable of turning off the clan's eyes. Besides, the signs had been there from the very start— her sheer talent in Fire Style and her exceptional skill with Genjutsu had always been remarkable from the day they first formed their team, making it plain that she possessed Uchiha blood.

And perhaps most of all… Sasuke couldn't bear to believe that Sakura wasn't Uchiha. For if she wasn't, would that not mean he was utterly alone in this cruel world, once again?

"Good," said Sakura in relief. "Oh, and here comes Yamato-sensei now…"

Sakura knew that sooner or later Sasuke would uncover the truth— and the longer she delayed confessing her ability to steal Kekkei Genkai, the worse the consequences would be. The Uchiha clan's emotions burned hotter than most, and once Sasuke realised his affections had been misplaced, the Curse of Hatred would seize his very soul, twisting his fierce passion into undying hatred.

But for now… Sakura was content with how things stood between Naruto, Sasuke, and herself in Team 7, and she didn't want to risk upsetting that delicate balance. She resolved to wait for a better moment to tell him… sometime soon, or perhaps sometime soonish.

Like tomorrow.

Or the day after that.

Next week sounded good.

Or how about two more years?

"So, what're we doing, Yamato-sensei?" asked Naruto, turning to his team leader as he walked up to them. "Are we still going after Orochimaru, you know?"

Although Team 7 hadn't lost as badly as they had in the original timeline, having managed to decapitate Orochimaru one eighth of the way and soundly defeat his three disciples, they were still far from ready to face a full-powered Orochimaru in earnest. Even if Naruto entered Demon Fox Mode, the odds of them emerging unscathed, let alone winning, seemed faint at best.

"Until we can figure out how the details of our mission were leaked, it's far too risky to give chase," said Yamato. "We're likely to walk straight into another ambush, so we're not doing that... And besides, how many times are you going to make me say it? The objective was to capture the Akatsuki spy, not Orochimaru!"

In truth, their encounter had been nothing more than ill luck. Orochimaru needed to feed his young disciple Tsubaki a tremendous amount of breast chakra if she was to rival Sakura in even one domain of the ninja arts, and it just so happened you could find lots of naked women at the baths.

Yamato sighed.

"At any rate, we're now in an ideal position to eliminate at least one of his bases, and it would be a shame to return empty-handed," he went on. "Sasuke, if I'm remembering rightly, didn't you say you had a summoned ninja cat skilled in tracking?"

"All right!" Naruto cheered. "We're finally bringing the fight to that creep Orochimaru!"

Yamato's eyes turned scary.

"How many times are you going to make me say it?" he said dangerously, his almond-shaped eyes seemingly staring straight into Naruto's soul. "We. Are. Not. Fighting. O-ro-chi-ma-ru!