“So right now all my instinct are screaming at me that the god of all alpha males is right here, and I can feel that you’re interested in me, and I need to get these clothes out of the way and seduce you and do whatever it takes to get you inside me and get your babies right fucking now.” I stopped, and took a ragged breath.
“I’ve never heard it put quite like that,” he chuckled.
“Well, like I said, being a chakra sensor means I’m affected more than most kunoichi would be,” I admitted. “But considering that I’ve got jounin-level chakra and massive mental defenses, and I still have to struggle for control sometimes, I bet you have half the chuunin girls in town following you around like lost puppies.”
“Yeah, pretty much,” he admitted. “Do you want me to stop it?”
“Oh, hell no!” I exclaimed. “I love the fact that you can make me feel like this. That you don’t even need to use a technique. All you have to do is stop hiding what you are, and every kunoichi in sight is going to be jealous of me. But I need to know what we are to each other, Naruto. Am I your teammate, or your toy, or… or something more?”
“Did you want to be a toy?” He teased. I swatted his chest, and he kissed me.
Good gods above, there was no resisting that. My head spun as he plundered my lips, and I clung to him desperately. By the time he came up for air I could barely remember why I’d been trying to control myself.
He looked down into my eyes, and cupped my cheek in one calloused palm. “Sakura,” he said seriously, “When this thing with the loop is over I’m going to marry you.”
My heart clenched, and I wondered dazedly if I’d really just had an orgasm.
“Yes!” I gasped. “But, what about Hinata?”
“I’ll marry her too,” he replied with a cocky grin. “Nobles get to do that, you know. I’ll let the two of you work out who gets to be first wife.”
Fuck caution. I abandoned my last vestige of restraint, and tackled him to the ground with a sudden burst of strength.
“We’ll hold you to that,” I purred, pinning his arms while I ground myself against him. “Hinata, get your tight ass over here! We’ve got a future husband to claim!”
We caught up on each other’s progress as we trailed along after Sasuke in the Forest of Death. Hinata was transformed into a female version of Naruto, allowing her to pass as one of the squad of mixed-gender clones that surrounded our party to prevent ambushes. Well, actually we were all pretending to be clones at the moment. The Sasuke we were with might only be a genin, but he wasn’t so oblivious that he’d miss our conversation if we were within earshot.
“So you can derail the invasion and pass the exam whenever you want?” Naruto shook his head. “Why didn’t I ever think of that? I’ve actually stopped the invasion before, but if I show off that much it just makes everyone all paranoid about me. But if I did it that way maybe I could find a pattern where the old men go along with promoting me.”
“You probably shouldn’t do it just yet,” I pointed out. “I’m still pretty sure the loops are centered on you, so if you do it that might end them. Which would be nice, except that we need to resolve things with Hinata and come up with a plan to deal with Pein first.”
He frowned. “That sucks. Are you sure there’s no way for me to get away with it? Maybe getting killed by this six-bodies guy would reset me anyway.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s a minor kami who promised to show me what’s causing the loops once I got free of the demon, but I haven’t been able to figure out a way to contact her. Any ideas?”
Naruto chuckled. “Are you sure you’re not a kami yourself, Sakura? You seem to have a lot of contacts in the spirit world for one of us mere mortals.”
“Oh, yeah, like you’re just an ordinary ninja,” I retorted. “You’ve already got more chakra than the one-tail, and you get stronger every time I see you.”
“Um, Sakura?” Hinata interrupted. “Father has a device that can contact kami. He keeps it in the secure wing, but I’m sure we can find a way to sneak in.”
I thought about it. “Yes, I think we could. That place is shielded against the Byakugan, but that cuts both ways.”
“Actually, I can see through the security wards,” Hinata said with a hint of pride. “They’re only as strong as the seal master who makes them, and I’ve had the strongest Byakugan in the clan for several years.”
“That’s my girl,” Naruto congratulated her. “Alright, I’ll give you two a few loops to figure that out and see what this kami can tell you, and then we’ll talk strategy. So, who wants to fight the pedo-snake today?”
“I still couldn’t beat him the last time we fought,” I admitted. “But I’ve gotten much stronger since then. I usually just let the fight play out normally, but I think I could beat him if I had to. How about you?”
“He runs if I go dragon,” Naruto grumbled. “I’ve never caught him. Then he brings in an S-rank crystal user and bunch of guys with that cursed seal for the invasion.”
“May I try something?” Hinata asked. “I’ve fought him a few times during the invasion, and always lost badly. But this body you made for me is just unbelievably strong. I’ve struggled against the limitations of a weak child’s body for most of my life, and somehow managed to fight jounin on an even basis now and then. But now all those old limits are gone. I’d very much like to test myself against our strongest opponent, and see how far I’ve come.”
Naruto and me exchanged a glance. “Sure,” he said. “This could be interesting.”
“Let me take a blood sample now, and I can just rez you after the fight,” I agreed. “He’ll assume you were a plant, so he’ll just finish biting Sasuke and leave in a hurry.”
It was trivial for Hinata to henge into me and replace the clone that was traveling at Sasuke’s side. Twenty minutes later the Snake Sannin made his usual appearance, and Sasuke was paralyzed with fear by his aura just like always. Naruto crossed his arms and looked bored.
Hinata sized up the situation with a suitable appearance of terrified innocence, and I was struck by how vulnerable she looked wearing my old face. Was I really that much of a babe in the woods the first time through?
Visibly gathering her resolve, she pulled the scroll Sasuke thought he’d been carrying out of her pack and stepped towards Orochimaru. “Here,” she said timidly. “Take our scroll. We can’t possibly beat you, but you’ve nothing to gain by killing us.”
Orochimaru was amused enough to let her walk right up and hand him the scroll, which he promptly incinerated with a fire jutsu. “Ku ku ku ku,” he laughed. “Silly girl, I’m not here for your—”
She slammed a chakra spike through his heart with a sudden burst of speed that I couldn’t have matched even at full boost. I had an instant to wonder why I hadn’t heard the crack of a sonic boom as the body began to topple, but of course our opponent wasn’t the sort to die that easily. The mouth distended and an uninjured Orochimaru began to climb out…
Hinata’s hand flashed out and blew the top of his head off with another chakra spike, so quickly that even with my senses fully boosted I could barely follow the motion. “You are within the range of my divination,” she said coldly, as she reverted to her real form and peppered both bodies with a lightning series of jyuuken strikes.